Is the US Housing Market Making a Comeback?

04-12-2011 • Bill Bonner for The Daily Reckoning

Buenos Aires, Argentina – Buenos Aires is beautiful. We have been blessed with good weather. The city is booming, too. Strong agricultural prices have done what they always do in Argentina – they’ve set off a boom. “Property prices are up about 30% over the last 3 years,” says our BA-based colleague, Rob Marstrand. “But this is such a funny place. I love living here, because you see everything. If not in the present, certainly in the past…or the future. Booms, busts, corruption, inflation – everything. “Only about 6% of properties are sold with mortgages. So this is a real boom – where people are paying cash. But, where does this cash come from? Much of it comes from the bull market in farm products. Argentina is one of the world’s top producers of cereals, for example. But there is probably a lot of money coming from the government too. The inflation rate is about 25%.