Freedomshift

The past 5 weeks have seen mortgage applications crumble a further 16% - their biggest such drop in 14 months as the index for home purchase applications hovers close to its lowest level since 1995 . Non-seasonally-adjusted, this is the worst start to a year in over a decade. Must be the weather? Read more: Here

Blackstone Group appears to be trying to oligopolize the business of renting single-family homes in the U.S.. As Bloomberg reports , after the housing crash left more than 7 million foreclosed homes in its wake, the investment firm has spent more than $7.8 billion purchasing about 41,000 single-family homes for rental conversion. The world's largest private equity firm has quickly become the largest landlord (of rental homes) in the U.S. and in October, Blackstone offered the first-ever "rental-home-backed" security on Wall Street. Read more: here