investors

Why the housing market may not be a “real” comeback.

Posted on by spr1312chackney

Wow! So, the housing market appears to be back on track towards making a comeback from a historic downturn.  At the rise of the housing bubble the housing market saw homes selling at all time highs and construction of homes and subdivisions as well.  With the

The housing market crash was the worst America has seen in decades.

economic downturn Americans and countries around the world watch as the hope that the trend in a rise or increase in housing market sales and prices rise.  The hope is that this uprising trend is a sign of the end of the historically horrible economic time and a beginning of another housing “boom.”  Unfortunately this rise looks all too similar.  As we know history does repeat itself.

The problem with this theory is that the housing market seems to be led by investors.  Does this sound familiar? Yes, the same occupation of people that led the last housing bubble and eventually led us to this situation that we are in as we speak.  The investors bought up homes at low prices and rehabbed them and sold them at higher prices.  This “boom” caused thousands and even millions of people to ride the wave and in turn inflated prices unnaturally.  Many ethical questions come into play when remembering these choice tactics. Do you agree with any of the following causes or actions that contributed to the downturn in the housing market? The greed of builders and investors in a capitalist mind state, the greed of borrowers who borrowed funds that they knew they couldn’t afford, the greed of lenders giving funds that they knew would default on the loans.

In order to purchase homes consumers need a steady income.  You may have heard the craze about the home mortgage loans currently being at an all time low approximately 3-3.5% for a 30 year fixed loan, but the problem appears to be that many consumers don’t have the jobs or monthly income to obtain those low rates on the wanted loans.  As people buy more homes the demand will go up and the loan rates will rise as well, which will make it more difficult for people to afford to purchase homes.

The federal government budget cuts are personally affecting me, as well as thousands of other employees.  The government sequestration and military spending cuts takes finances out of many of those peoples and families household income.  Furlough days have been placed on many workers throughout the nation and I’m just not sure if taking income away from the consumer is the best way to urge the consumer to purchase more homes.  I would like to see the loans held at these low rates when the demand for homes eventually rise up again.

Sources Cited:

 

Christie, Les. “3 Reasons the Housing Market Recovery May Not Last.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/18/real_estate/housing-recovery/index.html?source=yahoo_hosted

Creating Quality Through Effective Leadership

Posted on by f1213lpalarz

Everyone says that leaders are imperative assets to organizations, but where is the proof? Right here, and it shows that leadership impacts the financials, the company’s operations, potential investors and much more.
From August 2011 to January 2012, Deloitte Australia ventured out to establish the correlation between a corporation’s performance and senior leadership.  Deloitte Australia completed 445 surveys and interviews on investment analysts in order to get to solve the puzzle. What they found is that investment analysts no longer only looking at the bottom line financials, but instead are “incorporating judgments about senior leadership into their equity valuations”. Incorporating their senior leadership judgments were found to account for up to 15 percent of a company’s value, which may make or break an investment deal.

A second criterion that investment analysts evaluate is the team effectiveness of senior leadership, which 50 percent of the analysts surveyed/interviewed reported to Deloitte that they evaluate team effectiveness as well. In addition to this, 80 percent of the participants said that team effectiveness among senior leadership  would lead to a premium evaluation, while an ineffective team structure would lower the equity valuation. It is interesting to see how investment analysts approach an investment and what qualities they are now looking for in their prospective investments. It’s clear that people are no longer interested in only how the company is currently operating, and instead want a sense of security that the company will not go bankrupt right after the investment. Effective leadership is shown to create that safeguard for investors and show a glimpse of future operations as well.

 

Deloitte Australia also found that the correlation between performance and leadership varies by industry. As shown in Figure 1, some industries such as consumer goods and financial services, place a larger emphasis on expected performance during their investment review process. This is because industries these industries are more standardized than the rest, meaning that they require less research and development. As a result of this, changes in leadership personnel and methods can be seen quite quickly, which allows analysts to judge the quality of the investment with the new adjustments. In contrast to this, an industry such as technology has a lag in the performance impact of leadership changes. This is because with the constant restructuring of the industry, the leader’s impact is not as easy to quantify.  

Figure 1. Source: “The Leadership Premium”, DTTL 2012

With the evolution of the marketplace and the ability to obtain more and more information, investment analysts are able to cover there bases and make the more informed decision possible. In their eyes, senior leadership is ensuring them that they are invested in a quality company that has a bright future. But what about the leaders themselves? Do you think that too much scrutiny is being placed on the leaders, or is it a part of their job to be analyzed as if they were the product for sale?  I understand that people want to make the most out of their investments and I kind of  feel like leaders, such as CEOs and COOs, should accept this evaluation as a part of their job description.  They did sign up to lead the company, so they should do whatever’s best for the company, right?

http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2012/09/05/the-financial-impact-of-executive-leadership/?KEYWORDS=quality