alphadogg notes a story over at portfolio.com claiming, and presenting evidence, that Comcast paid people off the street to take up room at yesterday’s FCC hearing in Massachusetts. Comcast acknowledges that it paid people to hold places in line for its employees. But Save The World wide web claims that people were bussed in by Comcast and then took up almost all available seats in the meeting room 90 minutes before the meeting opened, blocking scores of interested people from attending. Such tactics are not unheard of in Washington DC, but how appropriate are they in a regional meeting on a college campus?

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dooling writes “Later this week, the completion of the maize genome draft sequence will be announced. Maize has a big genome (slightly smaller than human) that’s highly repetitive (about 80%). These facts made a whole-genome shotgun approach to sequencing infeasible. Therefore, a BAC-by-BAC approach was taken, similar to what was done for the Human Genome Project. Further work on the maize genome will focus on the parts of the genome that have genes, thereby avoiding the highly-repetitive regions of the genome (even though the maize genome is slightly smaller than human, it is thought to have about twice as many genes). You can read my take here.”

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An anonymous reader writes “Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept developed by Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge, has gone on display as part of the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. The concept demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform the gadget into radically different shapes. Nokia said that elements of Morph might be integrated into handheld devices within seven years, though initially only at the high end.”

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Khemist writes “Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Previously it was known that fish could tell massive shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they’ve a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby. This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability.”

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Filed under: Housing

Sam Zell is one of the best real estate investors around and therefore one of the few people whose prognostications for the housing market are actually worth listening to.

And that’s good news because, talking on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, Zell had this to say about the housing market: “I think starts have already pretty much bottomed out,” Zell said. “I think the housing market this spring will begin its recovery phase.”

If the recovery will indeed begin that swiftly — and the bottom has already been reached — than beaten-down REITs have to be considered for investment.

If you’re willing to invest based on the idea that Zell is apt to be right but aren’t comfortable picking REITs on your own, Vanguard’s REIT ETF (AMEX: VNQ) might be worth a look. After a big drop in 2007, the ETF yields around 5%.

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Filed under: Newsletters, Stocks to Purchase, Housing, Recession

“A decline in home ownership is good for companies who have apartments to rent,” notes The Dave Dyer Newsletter. To benefit from this trend, he looks at Avalon Bay (NYSE: AVB).” Here is his review.

“After a 10 year period of consistent increases from 1995 to 2005, the trend toward increasing home ownership has reversed and is now clearly in decline. The subprime problems and tighter credit policies will only serve to increase the decline.

“One of the easiest ways to invest in this trend is to purchase shares in a REIT that owns apartment properties. Avalon Bay (NYSE: AVB.) is a REIT that manages high quality apartment communities in the high barrier-to-entry markets like California, the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

“In some cases, they develop their own properties; in others, they purchase and remodel existing apartment complexes. They currently own 182 properties with about 52,000 apartments in total. AVB has 19 more properties under constructions and development rights for another 52.

“They are at the higher end of the rental market. In good times, they get more prosperous renters moving up, and in bad times, they get former homeowners moving down.

“With a market cap of $7.8 billion, AVB is one of the major players in the industry. Their revenue increased at a consistent 12% or 13% pace per quarter during the past year and they have increased profits in each of the past five years. They currently pay a 3.4% dividend.

“The stock has outperformed both the general market and the rest of the REITs over the past five years. AVB’s stock price increased about 300% in the four years through the end of 2006, but decline nearly 70% started in early 2007 with the first whiff of subprime problems, although these problems should increase rental demand.

“The decline seems to have reversed as AVB gained 20% in current weeks on strong volume. Part of the catalyst for this strength might be that a take-over offer for Post Properties — another apartment REIT — has reminded investors of the value in this sector.”

Everyday, Steven Halpern’s TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation’s leading financial newsletter advisors.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s Cos (LOW), Housing

After home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. (NYSE: LOW) posted a 33.4% decline in its fourth-quarter profit yesterday, it was its main competitor Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD)’s turn to step up to the plate and impress Wall Street. As Trey Thoelcke discussed, the world’s largest home improvement store chain managed to top estimates only once in the past six quarters, and current earnings numbers weren’t too encouraging either.

Home Depot reported that its quarterly profit slipped more than 27% to $671 million as the slumping U.S. housing market brought the first annual decline for the company’s sales. The retailer posted earnings of 40 cents a share, falling short of analyst estimates for a profit of 43 cents a share.

Looking at revenue, Home Depot saw an increase of 1.5% to $17.66 billion, up from $17.4 billion a year earlier, as the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer benefited from an extra week during the quarter. Excluding that, sales would have dropped 4.7%. Analysts forecast revenues of $18 billion for the quarter, according to Thomson Financial.

Continued consumer fears over the weak housing market and credit crisis put a curb on their spending on building and home goods supplies, resulting in an 8.3% decline in the company’s same-store sales. Average sales ticket also dropped by 2.3% to $54.96, compared with $56.27 a year ago.

Despite posting lower-than-expected earnings, Frank Blake, the company’s Chief Executive, said that Home Depot’s progress on its “key priorities” during the past year “set the foundation for the long term health.” Blake anticipates a “challenging” environment through 2008 whose pressure could bring a decline of 4% to 5% for total sales, and a loss between 19% and 24% for full year continuing operations earnings. Analysts had forecast a drop of 7% to $2.11 a share for full-year profit.

Effects of the weak housing and credit markets are becoming more an more visible in earnings coming from companies that are directly affected by consumers’ weak appetite for home supplies. Although Home Depot plans to cut costs by reducing the number of new stores, it isn’t too clear how the company will manage to improve customers’ experience and gain back the lost ground. The obstacles may be even more massive as worries over a possible recession seem to be far from over.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Bad news, Economic data, Housing, Recession

Home prices in the United Says fell 8.9% in 2007, the biggest decline in more than 20 years, the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index announced Tuesday.

Further, prices fell an alarming 5.4% in Q4 2007, the survey indicated. Prices fell in 2007 in 17 of 20 cities surveyed, officials stated.

Meanwhile, the 20-city index plunged 9.1% for 2007, and the 10-city index plummeted 9.8% for the year.

Somber data

Robert J. Shiller, Professor at Yale University and study co-author said:

We reached a somber year-end for the housing market in 2007. Home prices across the nation and in most metro areas are significantly lower than where they were a year ago. Wherever you look things look bleak, with 17 of the 20 metro areas reporting annual declines and the remaining three reporting flat or moderate growth rates. Looking closely at these negative returns, you will see that 14 of the metro areas are also reporting record lows and eight are in double digit decline. The monthly data paint a similar picture, with all metro areas now reporting at least four consecutive negative monthly returns.

Further, the depth of the 2007 housing price decline underscores the housing sector’s poor condition. During the 1990-91 housing recession, the annual rate bottomed at a 2.8% price decline.

Miami remains the weakest market, reporting a double-digit annual decline of 17.5%, followed by Las Vegas and Phoenix at 15.3% each. In December, San Francisco slipped into negative double-digit territory with an annual return of -10.8%. Charlotte, Portland and Seattle are the only three cities still experiencing positive annual growth rates; however, Seattle came in at only +0.5%, an almost flat growth rate.

Concerning prices in major U.S. cities in 2007, New York declined 5.6%, Los Angeles plunged 15.7, Chicago fell 4.5%, Washington fell 9.4%, and Denver fell 4.5%.

Housing slump: far from over

Economist Steve Affinito told BloggingStocks Tuesday the Case-Shiller report indicates the housing slump is far from over.

“We have a deepening housing slump, no question, and we’re not at the bottom yet. Prices fell 5.4% just in Q4 2007, which is troubling,” Affinito stated. “When you combine the Case data with inventory data showing a 10-month supply, it paints a picture of a stagnant home market, one where prices really have to fall further to attract buyers.”

Based on the above dat,a Affinito said he does not expect the housing market to show signs of recovery until Q4 2007, at the earliest.

“We can basically eliminate housing as a source of economic stimulation in 2007, obviously,” Affinito stated. “If we catch any breaks, we may start to see some sign of a housing bottom in Q4 2007, but that this juncture, even that looks doubtful.”

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Filed under: Bad news, Mutual funds, Economic data, Housing, Recession

January foreclosure filings jumped 57% over last year’s numbers and they were 8% higher than the December numbers, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning [subscription required]. There were 233,001 foreclosures filed in January, compared to 148,425 last January and 215,749 in December, the Journal reported based on RealtyTrac data.

Foreclosures are on an upward trend after a lull at the end of last year. This was expected as we’re starting to see the next wave of interest rate resets on ARMs. California had the highest number of foreclosures in the nation with 57,158 filings, which is 120% higher than a year earlier and 7% higher than December. Other says that topped the foreclosure list include Florida, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Massachusetts, Illinois and Colorado. The state with the highest foreclosure rate per household was Nevada.

Foreclosures are definitely taking their toll on the banking industry, as the FDIC gears up for possible bank failures. Don’t anticipate any good news from the banking industry for a long time to come.

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including “The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Avoid Foreclosure.”

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Filed under: Industry, Housing, Recession, MBIA Inc (MBI)

The good news is that MBIA (NYSE: MBI) saved its S&P “AAA” rating, meaning bonds it insures will not lose their value. A drop in the rating could have caused write-offs at banks that own paper covered by the bond insurer.

MBIA also announced yesterday that it will, sometime in the next five years, break its muni-bond insurance business from its structured finance operations, forming two companies. Structured finance bonds have lost much of their value because they include CDOs and mortgage securities.

The move may have helped save the company, but it comes with a large cost. MBIA is eliminating its dividend to save $174 million a year. For investors taking advantage of the company’s 10% yield, the news could hardly be worse.

MBIA may have bought itself some time, but it put the wood to shareholders to stay afloat.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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