Jeremy Warner, writing in the UK Telegraph, presents an interesting chart showing price-income ratios for various Chinese cities as well as a sample of other nations. Beijing and Shanghai look particularly scary. Income growth is really going to have to keep going up at a fast pace or this is likely to be a problem. Chinese authorities are aware of this but it is difficult to forecast what happens in a slowdown. Transaction volume is beginning to slow. By comparison, U.S housing, while it could still be overvalu... read more

Some short bullet points on recent news: - Slot machine revenues have increased for three months. Reported gaming revenue in May showed a year-over-year increase (although baccarat accounted for much of this). -CNN Money ranked Las Vegas as a top city to purchase rental properties. Noting our obvious bias, we do agree with their assessment based on the strong rates of return we have been observing in the market and by our own clients.            ... read more