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.