With apologies to Shakespeare. (the actual phrase from
Macbeth is “double, double..” etc.)
There’s a
lot of bubble talk these days, mostly in the direction of the stock market.
Instead of a brew of eyes of newt, frog toes and other unsavory ingredients, market
witchers (couldn’t resist) are running the numbers and letters for an
alphabet soup of stock forecasts.
Some say the sky could be falling. But other analysts believe there’s more on
the upside, even after the S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average
reached all-time highs earlier in November.
It’s been a remarkable runup by the two major
indexes and also many individual stocks since late 2008-early 2009 when equities
led the housing recession in a freefall.
Since March
of 2009 the S&P 500 has increased by nearly 165% and the DJIA by 137%. Over
the past year the indexes have risen nearly 28% and 23%, respectively.
Now that real estate--residential and investment--
is recovering around the country, there’s a logical question on the minds of
many, i. e.,“Will jittery investors move more assets out of stocks and into
real estate?”
A recent CNBC report supports the scenario of an exodus from stocks to real estate and other investments.
The report cites the Spectrum Group “Millionaire
Investor Confidence Index” which recovered slightly
in November after a precipitous decline in October.
According to CNBC’s report, millionaire households
had the largest increase in assets for a single November since 2007, as the
result of the continued climb of the stock market.
Millionaires planning to invest in stock mutual
funds declined by 5%, CNBC reported, but those considering real estate
or cash equivalents increased by 7%.
