Interest rates could drop even lower, Westwood Capital exec says

The Dow Jones residential REIT index has increased 34 percent over the past three months, and Sam Lieber, president of Alpine Mutual Funds, and Len Blum, managing partner at Westwood Capital, an investment banking and capital markets firm, sat down to talk with CNBC about what we can expect for the next three. For one thing, interest rates may go even lower before the residential housing market finally stabilizes, Lieber said. “If you don’t have the next new thing, the next internet, to propel the economy, we’re just going to have to wait for liquidity to stabilize the situation a little bit more,” he added. Blum said he doesn’t think the residential market has hit bottom yet in most cities, and that’s even more true on the commercial side. “The commercial market hasn’t seen the shoe drop and it will,” he said. “Banks are playing a game of extend and pretend.”