fud (edited for accuracy)

I can't make any sense of anything anymore. Everything that I read says something different. Over at Rob Chipman's, there are some claiming that prices are down 15%, while The Financial Post says "The result was Vancouver home prices actually fell 1% in July from a year earlier...with an average price of $575,256.".

So, varying numbers, depending on what one reads. The only number I pay attention to is an MLS search for houses between $300K-$400K in all of East Vancouver. There is still only one, which I reported last week - V726309 - $335K on a 55 x 37.22 lot. Rented out at $945/month, an investor only stands to subsidise the rent by $1505/month (with 5% down). Wow! What a deal. I don't really plan on spending that much money when I do buy a place, but $400K was my drop-out level on the way up, and I won't be grabbing at any knives on the way down. When I can buy a renovated Craftsman bungalow in the Commercial Dr. area for $300K, I will be thinking we are near bottom. Unless, of course, there is a cataclysmic meltdown of some type, and then, none of us will be thinking much of buying anything.

I have been thinking of physical gold and silver lately, and that is kind of weird, as I am pretty leery of commodities. Maybe I'm just fatigued by it all. Gold is down some 20% since Rubberbladder was pumping it a while ago, and the US$ is inexplicably up. I read an interesting article on the subject of the US$,

Economists who now see American troubles spreading around the world are predicting that foreign central banks will ignore the gathering inflation threat and follow the Fed down the rate cutting path. Similarly, they argue that since the downturn began here, the U.S. recovery will likely be underway while the rest of world is still decelerating. These assumptions have prompted a rally in the dollar, a sell-off in gold, commodities and foreign stocks, and have cast doubts on the ability of foreign economies to “decouple” from the United States. Investors should not take the bait.

Read the whole thing if you are interested. This article on gold was interesting, stating that the US Mint has suspended gold coin sales. From the article;

The suspension is overwhelming evidence that the futures contract price of gold on the commodities exchanges is substantially below the physical market price and that, indeed, the commodities exchanges are being used as GATA long has maintained -- as part of a massive scheme of manipulation of the precious metals, currency, and bond markets.

I just can't make any sense of all of this gobbledy-gook. It is just FUD, to me.