Bloomberg- Hedge fund manager Steve Moyer joined 4,000 realtors and bargain hunters at a five-hour Southern California housing auction in February. As the tuxedoed barker peddled foreclosed homes for hundreds of thousands of dollars below their previous sale prices, Moyer took notes — research that may help him make money from the biggest housing collapse in 26 years.
Moyer, who helps oversee $7 billion at Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, is part of the rush of more than 70 hedge funds — including those run by Blackstone Group LP and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — to snap up distressed mortgages and securities from banks battered by the subprime meltdown.
“The risk is getting in too soon, before all the losses are flushed out,” says Moyer of Santa Monica, California-based Tennenbaum, which is considering investments in securities linked to the housing market. “It’s really just hard to call the bottom.”
