Are We There Yet for Homebuilders - Part II?

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? My kids yell this in the car all the time. So are we there yet for Homebuilders? Is it time to buy? First here is the damage to some of the Homebuilder stocks since the peak, which for most of the stocks occurred in July 2005.



I am going to spend a majority of my time figuring out when to buy Homebuilders, but for now here's a quick list of what you shouldn't do.

Don't listen to anyone on the sell side. Most of them told us for years that it would be different this time. Remember that tripe? Access to capital, immigration, consolidation in the industry, better balance sheets, yada, yada, yada.

Second, don't rush out and buy because you see a "cult" investor on CNBC talking the sector up, or a rumor hits the wire that another cult investor is buying. In July, rumors hit the tape that Buffett was buying shares of Hovanian. Let's hope he didn't because the stock was at $16 then and its now at $11. Do your own work. Don't blindly follow someone else. You'll feel a lot better afterwards. This does not mean you or I will ever be as smart or as rich as Buffett, but there's nothing worse than losing money because you listened to some talking head on CNBC instead of doing your own research.

I used to be an equity analyst at a bank and my boss wanted to buy shares of Arrow Electronics (this was late 1998). I took a look at the stock and felt like the trough had not yet been reached, and I told him that. He looked back at me with a sneer and said "What do you know that Bill Miller doesn't know."

So I said to myself, "Well why don't you go out and hire Bill fucking Miller as your analyst then." Instead I just looked at him dumbfounded and swore that I would never pick stocks the way he did.

Third, do not use price to book yet as a buy signal. Book value is in flux and will continue to go down quarter after quarter. The safest thing to do is take the latest quarters book value and write off 30% and then slap a .75 multiple on it and then buy them there.

Last, think about avoiding individual stocks and buying the ETF or index that tracks Homebuilders. It is likely that a few of these homebuilders may get into enough distress that the equity becomes worthless. There is a SPDR that tracks the industry under the symbol XHB. It's not a perfect substitute since it has Home Depot and Lowe's in it but it may be a safer option to play the industry.