An emerging opportunity in U.S. housing

Deep breath. Ok, here goes: For the first time in a very long time U.S. housing might actually be a reasonable buy on a five-year view.

As a long-time housing bear and someone who believes there is still considerable pain to come in the U.S. economy and banking system that is quite a hard thing to say.

However historically cheap long-term fixed-rate financing (less than 5 percent on a 30-year mortgage) and the prospect of some nasty inflation a year or two out, both courtesy of current Federal Reserve and government policies, make owning a real asset that is debt financed a lot more attractive than would have been the case just three or six months ago. For full coverage of the U.S. housing market click here.

What I am not doing is calling the bottom of the housing market; there are still reasonable falls to come on top of the 20 percent or so declines we have already seen nationally.

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