Steve Christ - Angel Publishing

Iran Threatens to Send Oil to $200 a Barrel

Are you ready for oil to skyrocket to $200 a barrel?

Iran is.

And they're prepared to play their trump card to send it there.

Faced with a rash of mysterious explosions, military drones caught flying overhead, and renewed promises to end their nuclear ambitions, the Iranians are threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz — otherwise known as "the economic jugular vein of the world" — again.

As Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sarvari said yesterday, "Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz. If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure."

The announcement came just weeks after Iran's energy minister told Al Jazeera television that Tehran was prepared to use oil as a political tool in any "conflict over its nuclear program."

Given Iran's dominance over this bottleneck for oil exports from the Persian Gulf, this is a promise they can likely keep...

Today's price of $100 a barrel doesn't even come close to pricing in the geopolitical calamity closing the Persian Gulf would present.

Just 34 miles wide, thirteen tankers carrying 15.5 million barrels of crude oil pass through the Strait each day, making it one of the world's most important waterways.

In all, 33% of the oil shipped via tankers passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Strait is so vital to the world economy, its closure would be considered an act of war that only the U.S. Navy has the power to fix...

Not So Short, Not So Simple

But believe it or not, thanks to the cunning of Lt. General Paul Van Riper (USMC), this is an area where the vaunted U.S. Navy could prove most vulnerable.

You see, the General is something of a modern-day Billy Mitchell...

In one of the biggest war games ever conceived and played out in the Persian Gulf, General Van Riper sent 16 U.S. warships to the bottom of the Persian Gulf in 2002 as the leader of a "rogue Middle Eastern state."

His "Red Force" was well on its way to winning the whole shooting match when higher-ups suspended the game, put a stop to his tactics, and "re-floated" their ships — but not before the real damage had been done...

Exposing the fleet's weakness, Van Riper had secretly armed numerous civilian pleasure boats and deployed them near the U.S. 5th Fleet.

When faced with an ultimatum to surrender his Red Force, he achieved complete tactical surprise as they suddenly went on the offensive. On cue, his small force swarmed the fleet, making kamikaze attacks while other boats fired Silkworm cruise missiles from close range.

In the end, Von Riper's team had sunk a carrier, an Aegis Cruiser, six amphibious ships, and eight other vessels.

His massive first salvo of missiles was so effective, most of the fleet sunk to the bottom as thousands of American sailors suddenly became casualties. Had the encounter been real, it would have been the worst U.S. Naval defeat since Pearl Harbor.

In short, by employing the same type of asymmetrical warfare our adversaries are likely to use, General Van Riper poked a giant hole in the theory of U.S. Naval invulnerability.

~~wd_dividend~~

Missiles vs. Ships

Like Billy Mitchell before him, Van Riper proved that the fleet was vulnerable — particularly to anti-ship missiles.

It's no secret that Iran has armed themselves to the teeth with these types of weapons, which they have been mass producing since last February.

On top of that, the Iranians are known to have thousands of Russian and Chinese anti-ship missiles built specifically to defeat the U.S. Navy.

At speeds of Mach 3, the Navy would have less than 30 seconds to react to an attack. As Van Riper has shown, some of these missiles could get through and likely paralyze the Gulf in a stunning first strike.

The point is their missiles may be able to trump our ships — at least in the short term.

And because of this fact, Iran's threat to close the Gulf is very real... and serious enough that some experts believe the Persian Gulf could be shut down for months before the U.S. Navy could gain control.

As Crisis and Opportunity Editor Christian DeHaemer tell us, “That would double oil prices in a blink until the free flow of crude is finally restored.”

“Smart investors,” DeHaemer says, “are moving out of the Persian Gulf entirely.”

Out of Africa

That's a path the United States has been following for years now as it works to buy crude in friendlier places...

In fact, imports from the Persian Gulf are down by 23% since 2005. And only 16% of U.S. imports travel through the Strait of Hormuz today.

According to DeHaemer, the next big oil story is going to be Africa — not West Africa, but the East Coast, where investors are lining up to cash in on a discovery that rivals oil found in nearby Saudi Arabia.

As Christian explains, “Of the seven places on earth that have yet to be fully explored for oil, East African oil is the cheapest and easiest to pull out of the ground.”

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) recently announced its largest-ever discovery of hydrocarbons in this very region.

“In the world of fossil fuel exploration,” DeHaemer says, “sweetheart deals like this one come around maybe once in a career.”

~~vix_3~~

In the meantime, as Americans prepare for the holidays and await a visit from Saint Nick, the Iranians are preparing for a visit from Uncle Sam and the Israelis...

As Hossein Alaie, a shopkeeper in central Tehran, told Reuters last week: “It will be a terrible war. They will destroy everything. I am stockpiling goods and have told my relatives to do so.”

Needless to say, if push actually comes to shove, the price of oil is going to skyrocket.

Two-hundred dollars a barrel could actually be on the light side.

Your bargain-hunting analyst,

Steve Christ
Editor, Wealth Daily

The Most Powerful Investing Strategy of All Time

Every time I talk to my nephew Sam, I realize youth really is wasted on the young.

Fresh out of college, what my brother's son knows about the real world couldn't fill a thimble.

At age 22, he just doesn't know what he doesn't know yet. He's brash, idealistic, a bit hardheaded, and ends up making a lot of rookie mistakes — especially when it comes to the stock market.

Like most young bucks, he'd much rather chase the latest big momentum stock than actually work to build true wealth over time...

When I try to nudge him toward a portfolio of solid dividend payers, all he really wants to talk about are the “hot stocks,” or what I call "the flavors of the month."

Even after he got absolutely roasted as a Green Mountain Coffee (NASDAQ: GMCR) shareholder, I almost spit out my beer on turkey day when he told me that he was buying Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) next.

And since a 150 P/E ratio on Groupon's 2012 earnings couldn't stop the lad, I figured I probably couldn't, either.

I just hope that after awhile, some of these hard lessons will finally begin to take before it's too late...

The Time to Start is Now

Sam still has the most valuable asset of them all. It's called time, and it's every serious investor's best friend.

The problem is most of us don't have enough of it.

Sam doesn't realize it yet, but he has a solid 45 years ahead of him before he retires.

The best part is he wouldn't need to be star trader or market timer to get there. All Sam needs to do is use what Albert Einstein once called “the most powerful force on earth.”

It's the safe, sure road called "compounding" — and anybody who tries it can become a millionaire if they are smart enough to stick with it.

Thanks to the Rule of 72, this is one lottery ticket that simply can't miss.

The Rule of 72 says that in order to find the number of years it takes for you to double your investment at a given rate, just divide the yield into 72.

For example: If you are earning a 9% dividend on your investment, it only takes eight years to double your money and roughly 13 years to triple it.

This compounding effect arises when your dividend yield is added to the principal. From that moment on, the interest begins to earn interest on itself.

Over the long haul, that process can add up to a small fortune... even with very modest investments. All it takes is time.

But what young folks like Sam don't realize is time disappears much faster than you think.

~~wd_dividend~~

Chase Reality, Not Fantasy

Let's say Sam had invested $10,000 in Altria Group (NYSE: MO) instead of wasting his time chasing Green Mountain Coffee to the bottom...

That initial investment would buy him 357 shares of MO at today’s prices, each one earning a dividend yield of 5.8%.

Thirty-one years later, this same example would earn Sam a $1,020,997.07 payday — as long as he reinvested his dividends, added a mere $400 a month to his account, and the underlying stock appreciated just 4% per year.

At age 53, he'd be set.

What's more, if Sam stuck to this program for 14 more years, he'd hit the jackpot... collecting $206,000 a year in streaming income to go along with a $3,912,040.71 nest egg at age 67.

That's why compounding is often called "the royal road to riches."

Spread the Risk

Savvy investors also know how important it is to limit their risk.

Instead of putting all their eggs in one basket, they are smart enough to diversify their portfolios by investing in stocks that are not closely correlated.

For a guy like Sam, investing in four solid dividend payers from different sectors of the market would easily be enough to do the trick...

With that in mind, here are three more stocks he could buy on his way to financial freedom:

DuPont Co. (NYSE: DD): A diversified chemical giant, DuPont is a global enterprise with operations in 90 countries. The company has consistently been paying dividends since 1904 with a payout ratio of 46%. DD pays a 3.5 % yield with a forward P/E of just 11.03.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP): Going long oil and natural gas is an easy one. With a P/E of 9.34, COP is trading at just 1.47x book value. The fourth-largest integrated oil company in the world, COP pays a 3.6% dividend that's up 83% over the last five years.

Waste Management (NYSE: WM): The largest provider of residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal waste management services, WM operates in business that's never going away. With high barriers to entry, WM also has a virtual lock on the industry. The company currently pays a 4.4% dividend.

As a bonus pick, there's Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA).

If Sam had bought Boeing when I recommended it to Wealth Daily readers two months ago, he would already be up 15.5% and own one of the greatest companies in the world.

Instead, he's stuck waiting on Green Mountain Coffee to get back to $77.00 a share just to break even.

Judging by its earnings, Sam could be in for a long wait.

At 14X forward earnings of $2.62, GMCR is a $36.00 company at best — and that's being generous.

But Sam is prepared to wait it out...

Kids. They think they have all the time in the world.

Your bargain-hunting analyst,

Steve Christ
Editor, Wealth Daily

2012 Stock Market Forecast

I hate the freaking New York Yankees.

But if there's one Bronx Bomber you gotta love, it's Yogi Berra...

Yogi could do it all in his day. And he certainly had a way with words.

In fact, every year around this time, one of Yogi's funnier lines haunts me while I sleep:

"It's tough making predictions, especially about the future."

With that in mind, today I give you my 2012 Stock Market Forecast.

Of course, if your nights are filled with fears of the world's end in 2012 as predicted by the Mayans, you are likely to be disappointed.

The same goes for the fanatical believers in DOW 3,000. As the calendar turns another page, these doom-and-gloomers will learn that time marches on in 2012. So too will the markets.

Along the way, investors will make a round trip all way back to DOW 14,000, a level last seen in October 2007.

Five years later, what a long, strange trip it will have been. Even so, I believe we will get there in 2012.

It's the first time I have been this bullish since calling the 2009 stock market bottom. Here's why...

Eight Reasons to Be Bullish Next Year

1. Time heals all wounds.

The scars of the financial crisis may be deep, but the fact is four years later, the hallmarks that caused the crash are all in the rearview mirror.

It's not 2008 all over again, and the doom-and-gloomers will be on the wrong side of the trade again in 2012.

For the record, the S&P 500 earned $543.2 billion in 2009, $792.8 billion in 2010, and is expected to earn $910.3 billion in 2011. What's more, the S&P 500 is expected to earn $1.04 trillion in 2012.

The point is, while there have been declines and long periods of consolidation, history tells us they are only temporary given enough time. Believe it or not, the bull market will return.

Here's a bet on 2012 as the business cycle kicks back in.

~~wd_dividend~~

2. Corporate profits are at an all-time high.

You may not realize this, but after tax, corporate profits are higher now than they were at the peak in 2006. Take a look:

Now that 96.6% of the S&P 500 has reported Q3 earnings, we know profits are up 15.6% year over year. What's more, if you take out the financials, the growth is even better.

Without them, S&P earnings are up 18.7% year over year... That's bullish, not bearish.

3. The economy is expanding.

The long story short here is pretty simple: We are experiencing a moderate growth expansion — not some bearish apocalypse.

Notice I said expansion, not recovery. That's because real GDP has moved above its previous peak, going all the way back to Q4 2007:

As for the double-dip recession, it just isn't going to happen. Incoming data on consumption, business spending, and residential investment all point to GDP growth of near 3.3% in the fourth quarter.

So while Europe fiddles, Uncle Sam is, in fact, gaining strength...

4. Job growth will improve.

With the profits at an all-time high and the economy now expanding, job growth will eventually begin to follow suit.

(Keep in mind that job growth is always a lagging indicator. It's no different this time around.)

According to John Herrmann, senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets, there's plenty of reason to be optimistic on the job front. Herrmann says private sector payrolls will increase an average of 160,000 per month for the rest of this year — and by 200,000 per month in the first four months of 2012.

Absent the ongoing shrinkage of government jobs, that means 1,120,000 new private sector jobs will be created by May 1 if Herrmann is accurate in his predictions.

That will be a huge win for the markets going into the first half of 2012, even if Herrmann ultimately misses the high-water mark.

5. The housing market bottoms.

Six years after I made my call for housing to drop by 30%, it finally begins to happen. Down 35% nationwide, home prices reach bottom in 2012, spurred on by pent-up demand and the lowest interest rates of all time, thanks to the Fed pushing rates down on mortgage bonds.

The result is the one thing the market has found to be most elusive of all: the return of housing demand going into the spring buying season.

Admittedly, it won't be blockbuster... but it will be enough to change the housing conversation next year. And as this change begins to unfold, it is going to be a huge plus both psychologically and in terms of GDP growth.

Negative housing news may not move the market these days, but positive news undoubtedly will. Expect real estate to surprise to the upside in 2012.

6. Consumers make a comeback.

In a way, this one is already happening. As the chart below shows, total retail sales are now above 2008 levels. In fact, retail sales are now up 18.9% from the bottom — and 4.5% above the pre-recession peak:

As the virtuous circle of rising markets, the expanding economy, the housing bottom, and job creation begin to take hold, consumers will be even more willing to spend again on pent-up demands.

I expect retail sales to continue to improve as a result — especially in autos and durable goods as another business cycle begins anew.

After all, consumer balance sheets are getting better, not worse...

For all consumer loans, the third quarter delinquency dropped to 3.15%, the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2007 before the recession started.

Consumers get even stronger in 2012, leading them to open their wallets for the first time in years.

7. The monetary tank is full.

When things begin to turn around, there will be plenty of money behind them.

Thanks to the Fed, the banks are now loaded to the gills with loanable funds, which leads neatly to my next point…

Coming off the 2010 lows, money is moving again as banks approve more loans. The thing to keep in mind is that these investments act with a lag effect that doesn't kick in until later...

8. That makes stocks cheap.

As profit margins rise and corporate earnings hit new highs, the S&P 500 is currently undervalued.

As always, it starts with profits. They are what really make the market go round.

In that regard, on a bottom-up basis the S&P 500 earned $56.88 in 2009, $83.18 in 2010, and is expected to earn $95.46 in 2011. It's estimated the EPS of the S&P 500 will cross the $100 mark for the first time ever, reaching $104.95 in 2012...

On a P/E basis, that means at the 1,186 level, the S&P 500 is currently trading at 11.3X 2012 earnings. That's historically cheap. Even at just 13X 2012 earnings, the S&P is worth 1,365.

Better yet, at a P/E of just 14.2, the S&P 500 would hit 1,490 — or be within a whisper of the old high going back to 2007. (For the record, the average P/E ratio for the S&P since the 1870s has been about 15.)

Again, that makes stocks relatively cheap as we head into 2012... especially with 10-year note yields hovering in the 2.0% range.

Of course, the great unknown in all of this is Europe. And admittedly it's a big one — but here's a guess they eventually blink and backstop the whole continent with few trillion in 2012.

The bottom line: 2012 is going to be a great year for equities. Buy stocks today.

By the way, if you're interested in how accurate my crystal ball was last year, I predicted the S&P would remain range-bound in 2011, trading between 1,100 and 1,300...

For the record, the S&P traded in range between 1100 and 1360. Not bad.

Your bargain-hunting analyst,

Steve Christ 
Editor, Wealth Daily

Four Ways to Invest in Cyber Security

It's the electronic equivalent of the neutron bomb.

Delivered in a string of malicious code, it allows unseen enemies to take down critical points of the national infrastructure without spilling a single drop of blood.

But don't believe for a second that it's not just as dangerous...

Because while it doesn't involve nuclear weapons, cyber war’s ability to disrupt an enemy is just as devastating.

As a result of these growing dangers, the cyber battlefield has suddenly become a top priority for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The threats are now so pervasive, the Pentagon said last week it will respond with military strikes when necessary — and at times, even go on the offensive.

With more than 15,000 computer networks and 7 million computers being used in hundreds of bases around the world, cyberspace has suddenly become the military's Achilles' heel.

According to the Pentagon, unknown attackers try to breach its systems 6 million times a day.

“When warranted, we will respond to hostile attacks in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country,” the Pentagon said in a report mandated by Congress.

“We reserve the right to use all necessary means — diplomatic, informational, military and economic — to defend our nation, our allies, our partners and our interests.”

The dire warnings were a part of a 12-page document that revealed a new war-footing in cyberspace as the U.S. gets more serious about the threats hackers present in the modern world.

For the military, this shift represents the dawn of a whole new era. It's one in which potential targets could include defense networks, the energy sector, emergency preparedness systems, financial services, telecommunications, even the agricultural sector.

In short, every single facet of our daily lives.

~~cyber_security~~

Russian Hackers Attack Illinois

As a recent cyber attack in Illinois has shown, targets include even the water we drink.

According to an industry expert, foreign hackers caused a pump at an Illinois water plant to fail last week.

Experts said the cyber attack, if confirmed, would be the first known attack to have damaged one of the critical systems that supply Americans with water, electricity, and other essential services.

News of the incident became public after Joe Weiss, an industry security expert, obtained a report collected by an Illinois state intelligence center that monitors security threats.

The report, dated November 10th, describes how a series of minor glitches with a water pump gradually escalated to the point where the pump motor was being turned on and off frequently. Over time, it was enough to disable the pump completely.

“This is a big deal,” said Weiss. “It was tracked to Russia. It has been in the system for at least two to three months. It has caused damage. We don’t know how many other utilities are currently compromised.”

Just like the Stuxnet virus before it that destroyed parts of an Iranian nuclear plant, the Illinois attack focused on the electronic controls systems that are common in everything from water pumps to traffic lights, manufacturing lines, laboratory equipment, power plants, oil and gas pipelines, and nuclear power plants.

Though relatively minor, the water plant strike showed just how real the potential for a much bigger cyber attack is...

“It’s very vivid when something shakes apart and you see black smoke belching out and [the machine] doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. It’s very vivid when something breaks apart in a fireball,” said Mike Assante, president of the National Board of Information Security Examiners and an expert in power grid security.

As for whether or not there will be a major attack, Assante believes “it’s a matter of time.”

Needless to say, a cyber attack on something as critical as the U.S. power grid would be devastating.

"Are we in a cyber war now?" asks John Bumgarner, research director at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a Washington-based think tank. Bumgarner was once a cyber warrior with the United States Army.

"No, not yet. Are we being targeted and our nation's networks attacked and infiltrated by nations that may be our adversaries in the future? Yes."

Cyber-Defense Spending Ramps Up

To combat these threats, Defense officials are currently seeking more than $3.2 billion in cyber security funding in 2012 — nearly $1 billion more than the Department first reported in February.

What's more, according to a new industry forecast, cyber security spending is expected to accelerate during the next five years — even in the face of future budget cuts.

By 2016, industry analysts believe cyber security spending will grow by 306%, reaching as high as $13 billion.

Some industry analysts think these costs could eventually reach as high as $40 billion as the threat level escalates.

That, of course, is going to mean a steady stream of new business for companies with computer security expertise...

This list includes big names like Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), along with smaller names like Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE) and Check Point (NASDAQ: CHKP).

I believe numerous technology companies such as these will follow in the footsteps of the defense giants of old when it comes to protecting our shores...

~~wd_cyber_security2~~

In the meantime, let's all hope mutually assured destruction works just as good a second time around.

Your bargain-hunting analyst,

Steve Christ 
Editor, Wealth Daily

The Next Mega Trend in Housing

The housing market may still be down for the count, but if there's one pocket of absolute strength, it has to be apartment-based REITs.

In the wake of the housing bubble, the rate of homeownership has taken the biggest tumble in 70 years.

The end result has been a bona fide boom in rentals as millions of displaced homeowners scramble to pick up the pieces.

But according to Oliver Chang, a housing and securitized products analyst at Morgan Stanley, this trend toward rentals is just getting started...

In a recent report, Chang explains why those same displaced homeowners will eventually add $72.7 billion in rent payments to apartment-based REITs over the next five years as the home ownership rate drops all the way back to 60%.

A Trillion-Dollar Housing Boom

Chang's report is consistent with an earlier claim made by the head of Freddie Mac's multifamily division — the same folks who projected the apartment-based asset class will need nearly $1 trillion in new capital over the next decade to meet this rising demand.

That works out to be $100 billion every year earmarked for new rentals over the next 10 years.

According to Freddie Mac's David Brickman, those units will be sorely needed, since millions more families will be looking to rent as the foreclosure crisis reaches its ultimate end.

“For every 1% that the current homeownership level of 66% decreases,” Brickman says, “1 million individuals will become renters.”

Using Chang’s call for an eventual homeownership rate of 60%, that translates to at least 6 million new people who will be writing rent checks in the years to come.

Needless to say, that sets up perfectly for the nation’s landlords as the “ownership society” continues to wobble. In the last 12 months alone, rental household formations have grown by over 1 million — about 3x the historical average.

A Tsunami of Foreclosures

As you might have guessed, the primary driver in this forced migration is a tsunami of foreclosures.

The latest data reveals this wave is building again, now that banks have finally started to move forward from the robo-signing debacle...

According to RealtyTrac Inc., some 77,733 properties received an initial default notice last month — up 10% from September.

All told, notices of default, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions hit a seven-month high in October.

To make matters worse, the number of U.S. homeowners who are under water on their mortgages continues to grow, putting millions more borrowers on a slippery slope that could lead to even more defaults in the future.

CoreLogic reported last week some 22.5% of all U.S. homes were under water as of June 30th.

That means there are another 10.9 million properties out there teetering on the edge of the same abyss.

This situation has created a steady stream of new applicants for the nation's landlords as the housing bubble works in reverse.

In fact, apartment vacancy rates have been steadily declining since hitting their peak of 8% in 2009. Today, vacancy rates have dropped all the way back to 5.6%, the lowest level since 2006.

And that sudden decline has given landlords all the leeway they need to hike up the rent...

According to Reis, a commercial real estate outfit, effective rents have since increased in 75 of 82 markets, with rents climbing to an average of $991 a month from $967 a year earlier.

And apartment owners can expect a continued flux of tenants to create even higher returns.

Four Ways to Ride This Trend

So how can individual investors take advantage of this bullish trend?

The easiest way is through REITs that specialize in apartments — or with mutual funds that own mostly apartment REITs.

That said, here are four of apartment-based REITs that have been on the rise of late:

AvalonBay Communities Inc. (NYSE: AVB): Founded in 1978, AVB is the second largest publicly-traded U.S. apartment owner with over 45,000 apartments in 10 states. The company pays a 2.70% dividend.
BRE Properties (NYSE: BRE): San Francisco-based BRE owns 75 properties in the West comprising 21,318 units. The company pays a 3.00% dividend.
Home Properties Inc. (NYSE: HME): With properties in the Mid-Atlantic, HME has over 38,000 properties and pays a 4.20% dividend.
Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR): Equity Residential owns or has investments in more than 450 properties in 17 states and the District of Columbia. EQR pays a 2.30% dividend.

As you can see, all of these companies have consistently outperformed the S&P 500 over the course of the last two years...

The best part for investors is that they can win both ways in this sector: first with price appreciation; second with a nice dividend.

Dividend Stocks Outperform

That's a winning combination — especially in today's market.

As the Fed continues to keep rates at zero and works to pressure yields on U.S. Treasuries even lower, stocks with a steady history of dividend payments become increasingly attractive to yield-hungry buyers.

With yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note now hovering in the 2.0% range, dividend-paying stocks will continue to outperform in 2012 — just as they have throughout the entire downturn.

*Steve Christ is a Wealth Wire contributor and an editor at Wealth Daily.

The Next Mega-Trend in Housing

The housing market may still be down for the count, but if there's one pocket of absolute strength, it has to be apartment-based REITs.

In the wake of the housing bubble, the rate of homeownership has taken the biggest tumble in 70 years.

The end result has been a bona fide boom in rentals as millions of displaced homeowners scramble to pick up the pieces.

But according to Oliver Chang, a housing and securitized products analyst at Morgan Stanley, this trend toward rentals is just getting started...

A Trillion-Dollar Housing Boom

That works out to be $100 billion every year earmarked for new rentals over the next 10 years.

According to Freddie Mac's David Brickman, those units will be sorely needed, since millions more families will be looking to rent as the foreclosure crisis reaches its ultimate end.

“For every 1% that the current homeownership level of 66% decreases,” Brickman says, “1 million individuals will become renters.”

Using Chang’s call for an eventual homeownership rate of 60%, that translates to at least 6 million new people who will be writing rent checks in the years to come.

~~vix-box~~