Quantum Fund Cofounder Sees Massive Real Estate Bubble Bursting
Commodities
investment guru Jim Rogers stepped into the U.S. subprime fray on
Wednesday, predicting a real estate crash that would trigger
defaults and spread contagion to other markets.
The fund
manager, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor
George Soros in the 1970s and has focused on commodities since 1998,
said the (real estate) crisis would spread to emerging markets which
he claimed now face a prolonged bear run.
“Real estate
prices will go down 40% to 50% in bubble areas. There will be
massive defaults. This time it'll be worse, because we haven't had
this kind of speculative buying in U.S. history,” Rogers said.
“It is going to
be a huge mess,” declared Rogers, who has put his $15 million
mansion on Manhattan's Upper West Side on the market, and is
planning to move to Asia.