Jason Hartman discusses the return of construction jobs, new home development, the Indianapolis rental housing market, Wall Street/hedge funds getting into the landlord business, how investment and vacation home sales surged last year (National Association of Realtors NAR survey and Lawrence Yun commentary), developers selling homes in La Costa, California and a Memphis, Tennessee market profile.

Is it a sign of a turnaround when the nations top homebuilders increase advertising and production? Keep an eye out for big names like - Pulte Homes (PHM), Centex (CTX), Kaufman and Broad (KB Homes) (KB), Ryland Group (RYL), Del Webb (DEL), Lennar (LEN), Richmond American Homes, Beazer Homes (BZH, BZU), Hovnanian (NasdaqGM HOVNP), Toll Brothers (NYSE - TOL), Shea Homes, D.R. Horton (DHI) and the others as the ramp up their marketing and production.  

When construction comes back, that is a very good sign that you, our client, is making excellent investment choices when buying below the cost of construction. Jason's key phrase/metric is "Regression to Replacement Cost(TM)" http://www.jasonhartman.com/2011-trend-predictions-in-real-estate/ and it will serve you well in these changing times.

Some market profile information from Wikipedia: Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers.

Memphis had a population of 662,897 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the 20th largest in the United States. The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, had a 2010 population of 1,316,100. This makes Memphis the second largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed only by metropolitan Nashville, which has overtaken Memphis in recent years.

Memphis is the youngest of Tennessee's major cities. A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian, and the Memphis region is known, particularly to media outlets, as the "Mid-South".

Jason Hartman interviews returning guest and founder and CEO, Harry Dent, Jr., of HS Dent, an economic think tank and research company, about the next coming crash. Mr. Dent accurately predicted the boom of the 1990s, which was contrary to what many other forecasters predicted. He explains why America is on a path to the next Great Depression through its mounting debt to boost the economy.

He talks about how the U.S. creates bubble after bubble in all areas, such as the housing bubble, the gold and silver bubble, the commodity bubble, etc. Trillions of dollars in stimulus money has poured forth from the government, along with the lowering of interest rates, thereby inciting inflation that will continue to grow with the current system of bailouts and lack of lending. He also discusses the peaks and deflation of spending with the switch between the Baby Boomer and current generations, and how this will affect America's economic future.

Mr. Dent also paints the dark picture of China’s future, where they are overbuilding just to keep their workers employed, which will become a worldwide crisis when their building bubble bursts. Jason and Mr. Dent talk about the condition of other countries and how everything interplays to lead to the next crash that Mr. Dent forecasts. He suggests some strategies for investors and what people might expect.

Using exciting new research developed from years of hands-on business experience, Harry S. Dent, Jr. offers a refreshingly positive and understandable view of the economic future. As a bestselling author on economics, Mr. Dent is the developer of The Dent Method - an economic forecasting approach based on changes in demographic trends.

In all of his past books since 1989, Dent saw an end to the Baby Boom spending cycle around the end of this decade. In his book, The Great Depression Ahead, (Free Press, 2009), Harry Dent outlined how this next great downturn is likely to unfold in three stages, with an interim boom stage between 2012 and 2017 before the long-term slowdown finally turns into the next global boom in the early 2020s. He continued to educate audiences about his predictions for the next and possibly last great bull market, from late 2005 into early to mid 2010.

Join Jason Hartman and Investor Watchdog, Jack Waymire, for a discussion concerning the ethics of the financial services industry. According to Jack, the frequent lack of integrity undermines the achievement of investors’ financial goals.

Companies do not do what is best for you. They are very good at hiding information that they do not want their investors to know. Investor Watchdog investigates these companies and products, acting as a go-between for investors and advisers, answering frequently asked questions, such as, “How do I know I’m getting the right financial advice?” Jack shares examples of deceptive practices by various companies and how the executives that run the companies, i.e. Goldman Sachs, are insulated from accountability simply by paying fines rather than serving jail time for unethical and illegal practices.  

Jason and Jack touch on the subject of the Madoff Ponzi Scheme, where Jack talks about some of the evidence that was found, as a glaring example of unethical sales pitches and conman tactics. Jack also informs listeners of what deceptive sales practices to watch out for when dealing with financial advisers.

Despite popular belief, China is no longer a cheap place to do business with labor costs and real estate costs soaring. Join Jason Hartman as he interviews Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China and Managing Director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai, about debunking common myths, such as China is stealing U.S. jobs.

Many companies have begun doing business in China, due to what Shaun refers to as “capitalism on steroids.” Labor costs have increased in China to the tune of around 20 percent, and the government is trying to increase wages yearly over the next five years. Another factor affecting manufacturing costs over time is that fewer of the younger generation wants to be employed in manufacturing jobs, wanting to realize their white class dreams. China is also pushing middle class development to offset the manufacturing issue.

Shaun Rein is the Managing Director of CMR, the world's leading strategic market intelligence firm. He is one of the world's recognized thought leaders on strategy consulting.

Join Jason Hartman and consulting economist, John Williams, for a discussion about how government statistics don’t paint the whole picture of economic conditions. Many years ago, John realized that GNP (now GDP) numbers were faulty, causing his clients’ sales forecasting models to no longer work.

This eventually led John into lengthy research of the history and nature of the government’s economic reporting. John explains how the numbers reported by the government hide important information; for example, true unemployment rates, which fail to include the unemployed no longer receiving unemployment benefits and those who are underemployed. Inflation statistics are misrepresented, which affects GDP.

Following changes in CPI methodology, the Consumer Price Index understates inflation significantly. John points out that cost of living increases were based on inflation data, but with the numbers so skewed, the increases are no longer representative of the actual costs. He provides a history of how these changes came about and how it has affected commerce, social security and payroll. John feels roughly seven percentage points should be added to real inflation rates in our current economy.

Join Jason Hartman and co-founder and director of Neuro Leadership Institute, Dr. David Rock, as they explore conceptual issues of the brain as it pertains to work, such as focus, managing distractions, why our brains feel taxed, and how to maximize mental resources.

Dr. Rock explains how being able to get a mental picture makes it easier to process and hold information, but when you can’t come up with a mental picture, you’re more likely to lose your train of thought or have more difficulty retaining connections, causing the brain more stress.  Dr. Rock also discusses optimal times for scheduling work, meetings, and undisturbed workspace.  He stresses that creative work needs a lot of space in the brain, as well as a lot of quiet. “Creative work first, urgent/important second, and everything else after,” says Dr. Rock.

Dr. Rock also shares the many types of quirks of the brain, such as a blue room with high ceilings increases creativity, or changing rooms actually makes it difficult to access memories formed in the previous room. His suggestion is that people need to create their own workspace.  Additionally, he talks about the unconscious and conscious brain and how breakthrough moments tend to happen when trying to solve a difficult problem.  The quiet brain is most important for solving problems. Dr. Rock delves into the five domains that the brain is always tracking. It is very important that we don’t get a “threat” response in any of these domains because they activate the brain’s pain network, leading to defensiveness.

Many demographic changes are taking place, with the Baby Boomers, a large generation, retiring, and Generation Y, a larger generation than the Baby Boomers, consuming at record levels.  Join Jason Hartman and demographer, Ken Gronbach, as they discuss this upcoming “storm.” 

Ken describes Generation Y as an exciting generation, where the United States is the only country with this large of a group at the present time, and that it is very important that businesses recognize and anticipate their markets as Generation Y grows up. Generation X is more of a mystery generation because of its smaller size, which makes it less of a valuable market.  Ken believes that the United States’ best days are ahead as people bail out of the European Union. He also believes that China’s economic future is bleak due to artificial tampering with the population, with demographic numbers showing China in trouble economically within ten years, struggling to feed themselves within 15 years.

Ken shows how the housing market is being held hostage by big bank foreclosures and why this log jam will soon correct and precipitate a restoration of the United States economy. Ken also talks about how manufacturing will return to the United States with a vengeance because the United States is the only industrialized nation with a huge young highly skilled workforce.

Join Jason Hartman as he opens with some thoughts on buying far below construction or replacement costs sharing an email from Allstate Insurance, then a discussion of an Orange County Register article citing Marcus & Millichap's 2012 National Apartment Report. You'll hear Michael LeBeouf, author of the NY Times best-selling book, "The Greatest Management Principle in the World", where he discusses human behavior and how "What Gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated." In the news: Underwater borrowers eligible for settlement write-downs.

A calculation by a Brookings Institution economist narrowed down a pool of underwater homeowners to 500,000 who could qualify for principal reduction from the $25 billion mortgage settlement. Using the parameters of the settlement, Ted Gayer found just 5% of the nation's 11.1 million underwater borrowers could get the principal reduced on their mortgage, first reported by The Washington Post.

About $10 billion of the settlement, in the form of credits, will go toward principal write-downs made by the five banks. Only homeowners delinquent on their mortgages are eligible. Gayer eliminated others according to underlying requirements, including Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans and homes not owner-occupied. It's a rough calculation, Gayer warned, and he made some assumptions in the process. He eliminated any loans not held on the banks' balance sheets, as well as any with a second loan. Mortgage bondholders may not take kindly to principal write-downs, he said.

Whether you’re trying to get a raise at your job, solve a relationship problem, or deal with a stubborn child, negotiating is a daily part of our lives, and every human interaction is affected by emotion and logic or rationalization. Jason Hartman interviews Stuart Diamond, the author of "Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World" on improving negotiating skills and interactions with others in order to “get more.” Stuart stresses the importance of making the human connection and finding the pictures in people’s heads, knowing them better in order to better meet their needs, which gives a person a more competitive edge and adds tremendous wealth to any deal.  

Emotions play a huge part in all interactions. “Emotions destroy negotiations because they distract people from their goals,” says Stuart. When people get emotional, they stop listening, and it becomes a priority to find out a person’s emotional temperature before proceeding on any deal. Stuart talks about key points in how people should treat one another, stating how people today have a lack of trust in one another and have a tendency to demonize one another rather than using simple solutions to solve conflicts. “Fighting is the last choice; not the first choice,” explains Stuart.

Stuart Diamond has taught and advised on negotiation and cultural diversity to corporate and government leaders in more than 40 countries, including in Eastern Europe, former Soviet Republics, China, Latin America, the Middle East, Canada, South Africa and the United States. He holds an M.B.A. with honors from Wharton Business School, ranked #1 globally by The Financial Times where he is currently a professor from practice. For more than 90% of the semesters over the past 15 years his negotiation course has been the most popular in the school based on the course auction, and he has won multiple teaching awards. He has taught negotiation at Harvard Law School, from which he holds a law degree and is a former Associate Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project. He has directed a negotiation consulting firm in Cambridge, MA.

Broadcasting from Washington DC, Jason Hartman interviews financial planner, Randy Luebke on an amazing client case study of how Jason and Randy helped a client turn one property into a sizable, diversified, high cash-flow income property portfolio that will create a lasting legacy for generations to come. You'll learn more about the 1031 tax-deferred exchange strategy and much more.

Prior to the case study, Jason addresses various current events including; the gold house price ratio, why you should not be investing in foreign markets like Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize, Panama, etc., median priced housing at the highest affordability since 1971, the year Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard completely creating fiat money devaluation and massive price inflation and several other issues.