Comstock Holding Companies (CHCI) – The living dead

Comstock is a distressed homebuilder that defaulted on most of its debt in 2009.  It allowed many properties to enter foreclosure while it worked with its unsecured lenders to re-negotiate/amend its debt.  Currently, the company is still in a precarious position.  It is effectively borrowing money at 20% (from insiders and private investors) while it tries to convert its inventory of land into cash.

Over the past few years, it has been unprofitable and has seen its revenues decline.  Since 2006, every year has been GAAP unprofitable except for 2011 (where the company was profitable because it won a lawsuit).  Comstock trades at a price to book ratio of 8.74 (higher if you take out capitalized interest).

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US Homebuilders: Time to Short Them?

In the past 12 months, homebuilding stocks have jumped in anticipation of a rebound in housing prices.  So far, the rebound hasn’t even occurred yet!  Home prices have stayed roughly flat since 2009.

While I don’t think that I am any good at predicting future home prices, it seems to me that some homebuilders are overvalued.  There are some homebuilders trading well above their book value despite being unprofitable.

Altisource (ASPS) brief update

I’m excited about this company and this seems to be a stock that many people simply gloss over.  This is a fantastic business trading at a good price.  And it’s a financial company that you can actually understand.  They aren’t an investment bank with a book full of opaque derivatives.  They aren’t sitting on tail risk from bad insurance deals.  And they aren’t sitting on hidden losses from bad loans.  They do mortgage servicing and they’re really good at it.

Altisource (ASPS) – Part 4 – Reading the 10-K, etc.

This post gets into the financials and is my attempt at really analyzing this company.

Altisource (ASPS) – Part 3 – Industry overview and context

This part provides an overview of the mortgage servicing industry and why Altisource will be a winner in it.

I am not an expert on the mortgage servicing industry but here is what I understand of it.

Altisource (ASPS) – Part 2 – Insider behaviour

This post discusses:

• Home Loan Servicing Solution / HLSS (which I overlooked)
• William C Erbey – Chairman
• Robert D. Stiles – former CFO

Altisource (ASPS) – Part 1 – A spinoff / growth situation

A discussion of spinoffs and a shallow first pass at valuing Altisource.