It finally seemed a good time to get out of my mutual funds. The market has been creeping up slowly and broke 13,700 yesterday. Earlier that day I called up my guy at WAMU and told him to sell everything at the end of the day. I figured there would be turmoill today when the fed announced it's interest rate decision (it dissappointed by only dropping rates 25 points). I was also following the old adage of 'buy on the rumor, sell on the news'. 

As (bad) luck would have it, my guy screwed up and only sold 2 of my 3 funds. The market plunged and the value of the money in the remaining fund is down $12K. Time will tell if this really screwed me up, or if there is a short term recovery. Regardless, I'm very upset as I'm having to second guess things and keep focused on the market to find a good time to dump the final fund.

The article explained that home prices are now at 2005 levels and may dip in to 2004... but bottom fishers are coming back into the market so we must not be too far from the bottom.

Wrong! I expect prices to fall below 2002 levels at a minimum. The turmoil in the mortgage market has barely begun. 2008 will be a record year for foreclosures. 

It's been volitile. Should I stay or should I go? I expect more bad housing data and everytime some comes out, the market drops 200 points.

It's universally expected that the Fed will lower rates by at least 25 points by their next meeting (Sept 18th, I think). Bond funds (MFS specifically) have taken it on the chin during the recent credit crunch. I bought at 5.86 and it has been as low as 5.62. In the last week it BOUNCED back up to 5.74 and I expect that to continue as rates are lowered.

Summer was coming to a close and I was getting worried that I'd stay a landlord forever. A little luck and a great realtor took over and we closed August 31st. It was the longest 30 day escrow in history. 2 weeks into it, all the bad housing data flooded from Wall Street dropping the DOW from it's high of 14K down to 13K.

A lot of stuff has been going on with real estate. My parents just bought a new house and are about to list their old one. All the talk of huge capital gains has motivated me to find a buyer for my duplex.

I'll keep you posted.

Bubble's pop was akin to a slow leak - Home sales tumbled in 2006, but prices mostly dipped. Even so, don't expect a boom soon.

It's official! The bust is over!

Kenneth R. Harney is a moron.

I'm reading an article in the New Yorker.

Did you know?

• The ocean has absorbed about half of all the carbon dioxide man has spewed into the air since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
• The surface pH of the oceans has lowered by .1 - representing a 30% increase in the acidity of the ocean.
• The CO₂ combines with the ocean's H₂0 producing H₂C0₃ (carbonic acid - a weak acid found in most sodas)