Cover of Time Revisited

Back in 2010 we posited the "Cover of Time" theory, i.e., that when an issue or trend appears on the cover of Time Magazine, it is a contrarian indicator, and the trend is about to reverse. We were wondering at the time if housing prices, which had appeared on Time's cover, were going to reverse trend. They haven't done so yet; it takes a long time to change the course of a ship that size. But a recent report in The Economist asserts that housing prices in the US are now undervalued. (The Economist is not a contrarian indicator. They predicted the housing slump at least five years before it happened.) Also on that subject, anecdotal evidence suggests that real estate sales, at least on Cape Cod, are brisk right now. A lot of closings are happening. Properties are changing hands.