St. Joe Co. (

PThe latest figures show construction spending was down, but not out, in the month of November. Total spending declined 0.6% against market expectations for a decline of 1.4%. October's decline was also revised to just -0.4% from a previously reported drop of -1.2%.brbrThe residential market continues to be a lead anchor, with private residential spending down 4.2% -- the biggest decline since July's -6.2% reading. Private nonresidential spending, on the other hand, increased 0.7% after a 0.4% decline in October. Within the private nonresidential sector, spending on lodging was up 0.7%, spending on office property rose 0.9%, spending on transportation projects jumped 3.2% and spending on power facilities climbed 5.3%.brbrThe problem? This nonresidential strength simply isn't going to last. After all, as the A href=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/business/05real.html?hpNew York Times noted yesterday/A, vacancy rates are rising, rents are falling, and commercial real estate financing conditions are much tighter now than they've been in ...

St Joe Co. (JOE) is currently focusing on increasing liquidity through the sale of non-core assets, reducing headcounts, and reducing cap-ex expenditures in response to a rapidly deteriorating residential Florida real estate market. In addition, JOE has eliminated most of its long term debt and opened a new $100 million line of credit. There are no signs that the housing situation will get better in the next six months and we think the worst is yet to come. Near term, we would stay away from companies with exposure to the residential building business. While we think the company is a good long-term investment due to its extensive land holdings in one of the fastest growing states, we are maintaining our near-term Sell recommendation.The company is trading at 165x our 2009 EPS estimates. Read the full analyst report on JOE...

IEB reader Durgesh Prasad, sent in this idea, via email to some of the IEB contributors.

In today’s slow economy, where government is trying its best to keep the real estate market rolling and attracting investors to invest in real estate market in order to keep market live, I had an idea through which it can be achieved by government without loosing anything. Presently, the deciding period of differentiating a CAPITAL GAIN as Short term or Long term is 3 years period. If one sells his new house in less than 3 years and incurs profit, the gain is termed as Short term capital gain. And if he sells his new house after 3 years and incurs profit, the gain is termed as Long term capital gain. Now there is no way to avoid tax in short term capital gain, whereas there is way to save tax in long term capital

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The Bahrain real estate market is not in as bad shape as the UAE. Buyers do not want to commit right now and the market is in mild decline. That said, the majority of homes in the Kingdom have been bought by owner-occupiers and speculator activity has been restrained, although it does exist. One aspect that has helped the Bahrain market so far is he presence of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. Despite falling house prices, there is a shortage of housing and that makes the long term picture look brighter.br /br /In the north, various new developments are being constructed on reclaimed land. This does not help the increasing demand in low cost housing, so investors are keenly watching demand.

strong/stronga href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SVFAWkhXc8I/AAAAAAAAL3k/ueQYKIgYSc0/s1600-h/hrvynia.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283074594387227586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 159px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SVFAWkhXc8I/AAAAAAAAL3k/ueQYKIgYSc0/s320/hrvynia.png" border="0" //abr /br /blockquotep“In Ukraine, the evidence is still that policymakers do not quite understand the seriousness of the challenges they face,”. Timothy Ash, analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland. /pp“There is a burgeoning economic crisis in the European periphery,” Krugman said on the ABC network Dec. 14. “The money has dried up. That’s the new center, the center of this crisis has moved from the U.S. housing market to the European periphery.” /p/blockquoteMake no mistake about it. What is taking place right now in Ukraine is extraordinarily serious. The IMF have recently agreed a support loan to the country, but the politicians themselves still can't agree on whether or not they are actually going to abide by the conditions attached to it. Meantime, as we can all see on ...

Chart of the Day

For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today’s chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 38 years. Thanks, in part, to low long-term interest rates, the trend from 1991 to 2005 was impressive. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate, the rate at which housing prices increased – increased. That brings us to today’s chart which illustrates how housing prices have dropped well below their accelerated upward trend and 29% from the 2005 peak. It is worth noting that housing prices are currently decreasing at a rapid rate. In fact, the rate at which housing prices have been decreasing has been increasing.

International Living’s Ronan McMahon says real estate investors have another opportunity to tap into the booming Costa Rican property market at a basement price. The far South of the country contains some of the best scenery, but it has always been almost impossible to reach. A new international airport and better roads will soon change that. And government limits on new development will send existing property prices will soar.

This from Today’s Financial News:

Wish you had a time machine? I just might be able to help you out with that!

Back in the early 1980s, International Living recommended buying real estate in northern Costa Rica. Readers who took this advice reaped big rewards.

This part of Costa Rica became the No. 1 destination among foreign retirees and investors who wanted to buy land that would increase dramatically in value. These buyers made very wise decisions, as the prices for beachfront property along the

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In its latest effort to maintain an annual economic growth rate of 8%, China announced new plans to stimulate the country’s ailing real estate sector.

Beijing said the new stimulus package will benefit 7.5 million low-income urban families and 2.4 million households located in the more remote countryside.

China pumped $387.5 billion into real estate development over the first 11 months of the year, up 22.7% from the same period in 2007. However, residential sales fell 18.8% year-over-year, despite the investment.

Beijing is now trying to reignite the once red-hot real estate sector by implementing the following reforms:

Owners who have owned their home for two or more years can now sell it without paying business taxes. Owners previously had to wait five years before selling their home tax-free. Owners who have owned their home for less than two years will now only be required pay taxes on their profit, not the total sales price. ...

This post is a guest contribution by Bennet Sedacca*, President of Atlantic Advisors Asset Management.

The Blob is a morass of financial intervention that has eaten every bad financial deal too large to let die on its own. To understand the Blob, we must first understand how and why the Blob was formed in the first place.

The evolution of the Credit Crisis began in the mid 1990’s when the money supply began to grow at unprecedented rates. As the money supply grew dramatically, stock prices then began their ascent to the bubble highs of 2000.

Once the stock market bubble was popped in 2000 and stocks began to plummet, it seems that the Greenspan-led Federal

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