Benefiting From Oversupply And Negotiability
A report from Mansion Global. “U.S. luxury markets have entered a ‘new normal’ of subdued price growth after eight years of frenzied appreciation post-recession, according to Coldwell Banker Global Luxury. The report underscores high-end price stabilization that Mansion Global has previously reported in markets including New York and Los Angeles. In cities such as Miami and Park City, Utah, wealthy buyers are benefiting from oversupply and negotiability. Despite strong activity in South Florida, well-heeled buyers are likely to have an edge in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida, as well as in Miami proper.”
“Park City is one of the nation’s top luxury buyer markets. And sun worshippers have the upper hand in the Santa Barbara, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona, markets, according to the report.”
From Realtor.com. “While the idea that “Your home is your castle” has been around, presumably, since medieval times, it took on a whole new meaning in the 1980s and ’90s, when ‘McMansions’ started sprouting across the United States like upscale real estate kudzu. More than 70% of the housing markets we looked at saw an uptick in the share of listed homes larger than 3,000 square feet since January 2016. There are more large homes being built now than there were at the height of the housing market, over a decade ago. But that doesn’t mean they’re easy to sell.”
“In Denver, 61% of homes listed on realtor.com are above the 3,000-square-foot mark. There are about 3,115 of these residences in the metro area listed on realtor.com. But that’s nothing compared to Provo, UT, where 71% of listed homes boast 3,000 square feet or more. The smaller city boasts about 971 of this size, up from 66% in 2016. Desire for conspicuous consumption has attracted McMansions to the Bridgeport, CT, metro. More than half of the homes in this metro, 53%, have more than 3,000 square feet of space. (There are more than 2,416 abodes of this size listed on realtor.com.)”
“But they come at a steep price. The median home listing here is $735,000. However, all that McMansion building has left a little bit of an oversupply, says Douglas Cutler, a modular home architect and owner of Douglas Cutler Architects in Fairfield County. ‘I had a client trying to sell a super[large] McMansion,’ he says. Part of the reason it made a tough sell is that a lot of high-paying finance jobs on Wall Street were lost during the recession and still haven’t come back. ‘He’s had to cut the price down a lot.’”
“About 34% of home listings, about 1,018 abodes, in the Seattle metro are for more than 3,000 square feet. But there are also a lot of those homes lagging on the market.”
From Summit Daily in Colorado. “It’s no secret Summit County is in the midst of a record-breaking building boom with the county recently announcing it issued more building permits last year than any other year prior to the recession. The permits cover everything from spec homes to the luxury housing market and commercial builds. Despite all of that, though, the average sale price of vacant land in Summit County was actually down 8 percent last year compared to 2016.”
“Many factors are pushing on the market, according to local experts, but one likely reason for the price drop of vacant land is the limited number of local contractors to build on it. ‘There is much greater demand than we have people to do the work,’ said Chris Renner, owner of Pinnacle Mountain Homes, a Breckenridge-based builder that accounts for roughly a third to a fourth of Summit County’s luxury home builds.”
The Los Angeles Times in California. “Despite the constant refrain from economists that an increase in supply is key to solving the region’s woes, anti-growth advocates have countered that the bulk of new projects charge rents that are unaffordable to the average Angeleno, and therefore can’t help end our problems. Nowhere has this debate played out more contentiously than downtown Los Angeles. Bolstering the anti-development argument, the real estate data firm CoStar revealed in September 2017 that the apartment vacancy rate downtown had reached 12.4%, three times higher than the citywide average.”
“Per CoStar, more than 1,600 apartments became available downtown in the first half of 2017, and approximately 7,000 additional units are scheduled for completion through late 2020. Nevertheless, the Downtown Center Business Improvement District estimates that the neighborhood’s population is just 67,000. As a result, the opening of a single 500-unit rental development is, by itself, capable of spiking the vacancy rate.”
The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “Along with pulling down the securities market, higher interest rates are likely to slow the rate of home price appreciation in markets across the U.S., said Daren Blomquist, economist with Attom Data Solutions. ‘Especially in light of what we’ve seen in the stock market in the last few days, I think there is going to be a lot more pressure on interest rates to go higher,’ said Blomquist, who was in North Texas this week for a mortgage industry conference. ‘What people have predicted in the last few years is actually going to happen.’”
“‘The housing market has become somewhat dependent on low interest rates,’ Blomquist said. ‘It’s going to be an adjustment for the industry to deal with even marginally higher interest rates. In markets that have gone hog wild in terms of home prices, they are going to be in for a rude awaking as interest rates rise.’”
“Dallas-Fort Worth is one of those ‘hog wild’ home price markets. Median North Texas housing costs have shot up by more than 40 percent in the last four years to an all-time high.”
From National Mortgage News. “Hurricanes continue to have a notable impact on mortgage delinquencies, clearly evident by CoreLogic’s Loan Performance Insight report. Serious delinquency rates were up sharply in both Texas and Florida in November, compared to a year ago according to CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. The serious delinquency rate in Texas grew to 2.5% from 1.9% from the previous year, and rose in Florida to 3.9% from 3.2%. The serious delinquency rate in the Houston metropolitan area more than doubled to 4.6%, and grew more than one-third in the Miami area to 5.1%.”
“In Florida, the share of mortgages that were 30 or more days delinquent grew to 9.9% from 6.3% year-over-year in November, and in Texas, they rose to 6.7% from 5.6%.”
‘the average sale price of vacant land in Summit County was actually down 8 percent last year compared to 2016…one likely reason for the price drop of vacant land is the limited number of local contractors to build on it. ‘There is much greater demand than we have people to do the work,’ said Chris Renner’
Look out, we have a rare Colorado lion on the prowl.
As far as skiing is concerned, Summit County is over. Too many people.
Breckenridge is nice in the summer.
They need to raise lift prices to cull the herd.
Too many people in Breckenridge in the summer, too!
Time to toll road ‘ol I-70. Eisenhower tunnel should fetch about $15 both ways. There are ways to keep the riff raff out.
Promises to cut the size and scope of government. Then does cut the size and scope of government…
+++++
Trump’s Terrible, Swift Sword
The American Spectator | 13 February 2018 | Hunt Lawrence and Daniel J. Flynn
President Trump unveiled a budget Monday that seeks $3 trillion in cuts over the next decade.
What a difference a week makes.
This week, he targets 12 departments for cuts.
The Departments of Agriculture (-16 percent), Commerce (-6 percent), Education (-10.5 percent), Energy (-3 percent), Health and Human Services (-21 percent), Housing and Urban Development (-18.3 percent), Interior (-16 percent), Justice (-1.2 percent), Labor (-21 percent), State (-26 percent), Transportation (-19 percent), and Treasury (-3 percent) all endure cuts. Defense (+13 percent), Homeland Security (+8 percent), and Veterans Affairs (+11.3 percent) receive increases under the plan.
On a related matter, interest rates creep upward. Ten-year U.S. treasury rates have already increased from 2.3 to 2.8 percent. If interest rates on the $20 trillion national debt increase one percent, this means an increase in costs of $200 billion to servicing that debt. The stock market appears spooked. Legislators might follow their lead in showing caution in expenditures that wildly outpace revenues.
Congressman Tom Udall (D-NM) described the president’s proposed cuts as “unconscionable.” The New York Times described the spending decreases as “nasty” in a headline. But even with the cuts, the budget projects deficits averaging more than $700 billion over the next decade.
But even with the cuts ??
HA !!
Republicans Have Forgotten They Hate Deficits
The New York Times
Three pillars of the economic platform of the last decade for the Republican Party were less government spending, lower deficits and policy certainty. Not any more…
https://apple.news/A8zaup2WZR8u9XkcojJ1c2A
Trump is not the republicans.
None of the “leaders” of the republicans wanted him. In fact, they worked tirelessly against him.
He is going to pull them kicking and screaming to enforce immigration laws, build a wall and no amnesty.
He is also going to pull them kicking and screaming to cutting the size and scope of government.
obama added more to the deficit than EVERY other administration combined and accounting for inflation.
That is how low the bar is now.
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child.
That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
- Barack Obama, Fargo, ND, July 3, 2008
Empty suit 2-fruit with the Obama blame game disease…
Let me just say, I think it’s wonderful that he’s letting me live inside his head rent free.
Let me just say, I think it’s wonderful that he’s letting me live inside his head rent free.
what’s with the extra finger in your portrait? and those ‘huge’ hands?
Now THAT’S a classic!
‘The rise and fall of Clintonism’
‘In the end, however, Perot turned out to be more right than wrong about NAFTA—and not only on economic but on political terms. While NAFTA’s overall effects weren’t that large, there were far bigger losses after Clinton signed another trade deal, this time with China, in 2000, and the wreckage left by the outsourcing and deindustrialization that followed would come back to haunt his wife in the 2016 election. The Democrats’ embrace of free-market policies, which reached its apex under Clinton, may have helped rejuvenate the party in the 1990s and early 2000s, but that embrace has now crippled it. Hillary Clinton’s shocking loss to Donald Trump—whose signature economic pledge was to reverse the “bad deals” of the past few decades—simply highlights a generation of Democratic Party politics that has now come crashing to an end.’
GATT: Purpose, History, Pros, Cons:
https://www.thebalance.com/gatt-purpose-history-pros-cons-3305578
Charlie Rose: Sir James Goldsmith Interview (concerning free-trade agreements and GATT 11/15/94)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmOkaKh3-s
Perot turned out to be more right than wrong about NAFTA ??
I voted for him….
Three words: Giant sucking sound.
The U.S. auto industry still enjoys several economic protections via tariff.
I said that same thing when GWB was president…with Democrats we get “tax and spend”…the only thing worse is “don’t tax and spend”, which is what we get with the GOP in charge.
We need to get our spending in check first.
However, if no one has the guts to tell folks that their 85 year old grandmother can’t have brain surgery on Medicare’s dime to remove the eventually life-ending tumor in her head, then we have no hope cutting government spending.
We need to get our spending in check first.
after all these years of overspending, why haven’t we crashed yet?
we’re trillions in debt. anyone but the government would have been out of business by now. yet we’re still here spending more.
people will say it’s because government can print money and use QE. but do you really think that explains it all? when you look at all the dollar creation, why isn’t it worth far less than it is?
and please don’t tell me ‘confidence’. confidence doesn’t determine the dollar’s value. confidence only makes it work.
after all these years of overspending, why haven’t we crashed yet?
Divine intervention?
If you were going to ask me, I would say because:
1. The US still is growing GDP and population;
2. The US is still a place where businesses are created generating wealth for it’s residents (and people want to come to the US to create those businesses);
3. The overall wealth of the citizens of the US (including property) is well in excess of the debt of their government (by a pretty large margin)–something on order of $80-$90 trillion;
AND (a pretty important “and”)
4. There are few other places in the world where those with the wealth would rather be.
1) GDP is an unreliable metric. There’s 100 million languishing unemployed poor people in the US that isn’t captured by GDP.
2) US Population growth is at record lows and falling.
3) Importing the poorest people on the planet simply makes our nation poorer.
4) Flimsy math based on phoney and fraudulent asset valuations is the quickest path to poverty.
after all these years of overspending, why haven’t we crashed yet?
I think Rental Watch hit the nail on the head with his points. As in debt as the US is, the US wealth is somewhere on the order of $95 trillion, so if the US debt is at $20 trillion, that puts the wealth to debt ratio at about 5:1.
As many economists point out, the national debt is different than household debt. US debt is basically redistribution in a way, especially when so much of the debt is held by the US population. This is very much the case with Japan where so much debt is held internally. The debt of one becomes the income of another. As long as the debt is serviceable, then the gig can go on for some time. If inflation ticks up, the value of the debt gets eroded stealthily.
If you were going to ask me, I would say because:
1. The US still is growing GDP and population;
2. The US is still a place where businesses are created generating wealth for it’s residents (and people want to come to the US to create those businesses);
3. The overall wealth of the citizens of the US (including property) is well in excess of the debt of their government (by a pretty large margin)–something on order of $80-$90 trillion;
AND (a pretty important “and”)
4. There are few other places in the world where those with the wealth would rather be.
how do any of those things add value to the dollar?
I’ll tell her.
Sounds like a good chance to practice brain surgery for someone. It could be a learning experience for students.
However, if no one has the guts to tell folks that their 85 year old grandmother can’t have brain surgery on Medicare’s dime to remove the eventually life-ending tumor in her head, then we have no hope cutting government spending.
But, but, death panels!
In all seriousness, this is absolutely true, although not in the sense that 85 year-old brain tumors are driving up the price. The Medicare/Medicaid system could learn from the UK’s QALY (quality-adjusted life years).
If there is one thing I’ve learned from my time in the medical field, it is that there is no self-rationing when it’s other people’s money. Everyone wants the best care that money can buy, especially when they aren’t paying the bill directly. Part of the reason the US system is so messed up is that the regulations are not strong enough to prevent costly interventions that don’t really do much for quality of life.
5% of patients account for 50% of healthcare costs:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/fixing-the-5-percent/532077/
5% of patients account for 50% of healthcare costs:
The bigger problem is that on average, even adjusting for inflation, folks obtain medical care through Medicare that costs approximately 4x what they paid into the system over their lifetimes. And that much of that spending happens at the end of life. In other words, many of the 5% that represent the 50% of healthcare costs changes every year, because that 5% contains many people who are at the end of life. The next year, there is a new batch of folks at the end of life to pick up the spending torch.
It’s not the 5% that is the problem, it’s the system that allows them to use such ridiculous medical resources at the end of their lives. The system is broken and needs serious reform.
And many say “Medicare for all” is the solution because it has the least overhead cost per dollar spent on “actual” care.
Anyone who says this needs to be slapped and sent to remedial math and logic classes (Bernie Sanders should be first in line…f’ing moron).
If you give any government employee the right to write unlimited checks for the highest cost patients on the planet (the American elderly), and of course they’ll spend more per cost of overhead.
However, if you make all the claims simple preventative care doctor visits (like my relatively young family), making insurance companies process one $125 claim at a time, and yes, they’ll spend a lot more on overhead relative to the dollars they spend on “actual care”.
And my example came to mind because a colleague’s brother is a neurosurgeon, and he commented to her about how one of the patients at the hospital at which he worked was a 85+ year old who had their brain surgery paid for by Medicare. Big check, written without objection…that should help the actual care/overhead calculation, right?
And many say “Medicare for all” is the solution because it has the least overhead cost per dollar spent on “actual” care.
Anyone who says this needs to be slapped and sent to remedial math and logic classes (Bernie Sanders should be first in line…f’ing moron).
probably not the only reason that Sanders gives
Slap yourself and get back to us when you’re 85.
Give us another socialist foot-stamping. C’mon…. you can do it.
It’s not the 5% that is the problem, it’s the system that allows them to use such ridiculous medical resources at the end of their lives. The system is broken and needs serious reform.
You are right that the system is broken and needs reform, but wrong in the sense that you are pinning the problem of high cost solely on end-of-life care. One anecdote about a 85 year-old getting brain unwarranted surgery is not representative at all of the situation:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638261/
This is a really important point because the 5% high-cost population is not simply a cycling 5% of health care patients at their end-of-life, they are chronically ill patients who have high medical utilization rates for a myriad of reasons, typically poor health associated with obesity:
http://www.silverbook.org/fact/percentage-of-medicare-dollars-spent-on-chronic-illness-1987-1997-and-2002/
As in policy and medicine, if you misdiagnose the problem, you will likely have the wrong treatment. The problem is not costly end-of-life care. The problem is overly generous benefits that are not rationed well either by the state or by the individual via cost sharing.
Incidentally, I completely agree with you that the benefits for medicare far exceed what is being paid out. That is indeed a problem, but one that can easily be fixed. However, there are quite a few things that make a difference when looking at lifetime benefits vs. lifetime taxes paid. At the risk of being wonkish, you need to look very closely on what assumptions are being used on growth of imputed medicare calculations (7% rate of return is not realistic). These think-tanks that are touting these doomsday stats regarding medicare have an ideological agenda and sometimes their models are dishonest.
But overall, I largely agree with you. Having said that, a major, if not THE major problem is the Bush administration’s decision to dramatically expand Medicare (part B and D) without a mechanism of funding it (other than debt). These became new entitlements and they are basically give-aways to the private insurance industry.
In any event, there are ways to deal with this. For instance, one could tax medicare benefits in excess of contributions or simply increase out-of-pocket contributions to limit utilization. Or increase premiums for Medicare part B or D.
You are correct that private insurers are more efficient when it comes to administrative costs. This is the gist of your argument:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/09/19/medicare-private-insurance-and-administrative-costs-a-democratic-talking-point/
However, it is not true that private healthcare is less costly overall than medicare/medicaid overall. The public programs have consistently controlled costs better than the private programs, despite having a population that is older and, by definition, more costly. The real travesty is Medicare Advantage, which enrolls seniors in private health plans. Medicare for all is a much better path forward, in terms of cost and quality. Sanders is right about that.
The fun one is Mnuchin’s idea to replace 1/2 of food stamps with a home-delivered “harvest box,” which is nothing like Blue Apron. The underlying concept, that is, buying in bulk instead of handing out federal dollars to line the pockets of 7-11 and Wal-Mart, has some merit.
But the execution is atrocious. The delivery is going to be a debacle. Recipients will surely be shamed when the neighbors see the box on the doorstep (and I can easily see those shame-boxes being stolen). And poor people need *good* food. I can imagine some idiots at the USDA choosing the non-perishable menu based on the Food Pyramid and then contracting it out to the lowest-cost company to fill the boxes with additives and crap. You’ll have even worse diabetes and obesity than before.
You should have some shame when collecting free government food.
I remember working as a cashier at a supermarket working with food stamp recipients.
They sh!t they tried to buy and did buy.
Then government changed to a “debit” card to remove the “shame”
No drug tests (like I have to do to WORK), able to buy soda and fast food with the new SNAP card.
Selling your SNAP dollars at 50% to buy drugs and cigarettes.
Bring back some shame.
Bring back some shame ??
My MIL had three children…Worked every day of her life other than when she could not anymore…Cannery’s, labeling shops etc…..She is now 94…
When I met my girlfriend (ultimately my wife) her mother in the past was collecting welfare although she was working full time…Story is, father hit the road without notice and nowhere to be found leaving the wife with a 13, 11 & 9 year old children behind…Nobody ever heard from him again…When the welfare ultimately stopped, the son had gotten killed in Vietnam (20 yr. old), Sister was out of the house and in Colorado…My girlfriend (wife) quit high school so she could go to work at the drive-in theater to help mom get by with the rent, food and other essentials..I stepped in and helped as much as I could…
By gods grace, things worked out well…It will be our 49th year together next week…
By the way 2-fruit…Did I mentioned to you how much of a fx3k head you are ??
Even the Koch’s (those evil bastards) note that MOST people don’t want to get a government handout…they want to work to support their family.
The challenge is balancing the bulk of folks that need the help in tough times (and often begrudgingly take it), with the relatively few lazy bastards (like a few relatives I know, who are in their 30’s and content to live at home with no job or prospects).
Personally, I would support continued (and varied) efforts to weed out the abusers of the system, and simple cash assistance instead of all these programs (Section 8, Food Stamps, etc.).
People are smart enough to know that if their pantry is full, they probably shouldn’t fill their shopping cart with food.
AND, if you are on government assistance, and you find a way to make money, your assistance should NOT be reduced $1 for every $1 you earn. A friend lost her job, and was trying to build her own business at a time when no one would hire her. It was demoralizing as hell for her to wake up every morning to hustle for new business (especially when the economy was crappy) when she knew that if she succeeded, she got to keep exactly $0 from that marginal client.
That’s plain bad policy.
“By the way 2-fruit…Did I mentioned to you how much of a fx3k head you are ??”
I don’t think these kinds of personal attacks have a place on this blog. This isn’t civil discourse, or even spirited debate, this is hateful rhetoric.
You have absolutely no class, scdave.
Scdave’s angry tone is merely an indication of how vehemently he is willing to defend his wife. I think it’s quite appropriate given that today is Valentine’s Day.
I think everyone wants to weed out the abusers. While it’s unlikely that there were that many Reagan-esque welfare queens with Cadillacs, we all know that there is a enough abuse and gaming of the system to spoil it for folks who are good but trapped in semi-poverty, like scdave’s mother -in-law.
This is why I actually like the new work requirements for Medicaid. Republican governors were unwilling to expand Medicaid because of the abusers, which denied everyone the needed coverage. But if the abusers are weeded out with work requirements, then red states feel more comfortable expanding Medicaid to those who really need. I don’t see a problem with this.
However, I’m very wary of “simple cash assistance.” That translates far too easily to a universal basic income. And I’m pretty sure that with a UBI, prices will rise to absorb the cash available, leaving everyone poor anyway. Not to mention the abuse, drug use, etc. That’s why I like the idea of giving out STUFF instead of money, or at least being pretty strict about what you can buy with assistance.
Hey Donk
However, I’m very wary of “simple cash assistance.” That translates far too easily to a universal basic income. And I’m pretty sure that with a UBI, prices will rise to absorb the cash available, leaving everyone poor anyway. Not to mention the abuse, drug use, etc. That’s why I like the idea of giving out STUFF instead of money, or at least being pretty strict about what you can buy with assistance.
I think the waste from giving away stuff (rather than cash) is far more than the abuses.
If people have flexibility for how they spend the money (on themselves), I trust them to make wiser decisions with the money than any central government could.
BTW, you’re fooling yourself if you think that a drug addict on food stamps isn’t finding a way to turn those food stamps into drugs.
It’s just that they are getting 75 cents on the dollar and someone else is pocketing the 25 cents. Sure, they’re breaking the law by doing so, but do you think a crack-head gives a sh*t about breaking the law?
And for every one of those folks, there are 50 who, for some months, would rather use resources for something other than food that has a greater value at that time for them/their family.
Some of that money could even help them get a job.
Money to finish training for an occupational license (a whole other discussion)–or money to PAY for the license.
Money for gas to allow them to get to an interview.
Money for a bus to get to a job interview.
Money for tools so they can work construction.
Sometimes the needs can be planned for…sometimes, the money is needed immediately.
You either trust that people can make wise decisions on their own, or you think everyone needs baby-sitting. I tend to believe that most people who are down on their luck and reliant on government would do a lot to get off the government teat…and cash assistance vs. “stuff” assistance would give them more tools.
There was a popular top 40 rap song by Bone Thugs N Harmony called 1st of da month (cash the checks and get high) which is totally about the day the welfare check comes out and converting it to drugs. I think it was late 90s or early 00s.
That’s why I like the idea of giving out STUFF instead of money, or at least being pretty strict about what you can buy with assistance.
I tend to agree with this line of thought. Given that a lot of chronic medical conditions are at the core highly related to poor diet, it seems that we could kill two birds with one stone by strictly ensuring that the free food that is handed out is nutritious.
I don’t know whether the Harvest Baskets are truly workable, but I think there are at least some ideas that are worth kicking around. I seem to recall some state pilot program doubling SNAP benefits if they were used at a farmer’s market to purchase produce.
One of the main concerns that I have with food stamps is that there is no restrictions on the quality of food that can be purchased. So much of what is bought is just sugar (high fructose corn syrup), salt, and fat with no nutritional value. Cookies, chips, breakfast cereal, candy, soda. This is not meant to point fingers at those on food stamps because this is American’s diet in general.
I loved my rotations at the local health clinic because I dealt with WIC. That is a good program because the food stuffs are high quality food essential to a baby/newborn’s development. Maybe starting to restrict food stamps to something like that would be a good first step (although I would limit juice- okay for pregnant women since folic acid is a requirement, but not great for nutrition long-term).
So you want to dispense with all specific assistance? As in, don’t give them SNAP, just give them money and let them decide whether to spend the money food or gas or a license or a college degree?
No thanks! Even educated rich kids pee away money if you give it to them with no strings. I don’t expect the poor to do much better. I’ll babysit with STUFF: and that stuff could be food, or a bus pass, or a license if you show them a diploma, or any number of things, *except* money.
I’ll babysit with STUFF: and that stuff could be food, or a bus pass, or a license if you show them a diploma, or any number of things, *except* money.
And the bureaucracy will cost us a multiple of the “stuff” and be very ineffective.
I can see it now, the department of free bus passes, and department of occupational licensing (one for each state, since each state’s licensing is different).
You equate poor with foolish–don’t give people enough credit.
The point you are missing is that folks on SNAP are turning their SNAP into $ already to spend on other things. It’s just inefficient and illegal…and they only get ~50 to 75 cents on the dollar.
I am sympathetic to both arguments here because I have read quite a bit on the effectiveness of direct cash assistance. Having said that, I still lean towards direct contribution of basic needs (food, clothing, shelter) that is very spartan.
I haven’t run across good data on what percentage of SNAP is abused in the way you are claiming Rental Watch. I think we have to be wary that we don’t extrapolate the exception and think it is the rule. The fraud and abuse get the attention, but the legitimate use of SNAP that works correctly doesn’t get any attention.
“instead of handing out federal dollars to line the pockets of 7-11 and Wal-Mart, has some merit.”
——————————
I read somewhere that 20-25 percent of all welfare money is spent at Wal-Mart. Unless they are the ones shipping the boxes I don’t think you’ll see this plan implemented anytime soon.
Give them a voucher they can redeem for a harvest box at selected retailers. If they want Pepsi, frozen pizza or Twinkies, they can pay for those with cash. The harvest box can contain rice, beans, powdered milk, canned veggies and meat, etc.
Of course, this will never happen.
The whole idea sounds like a hipster nature seed snack box advertised on a NPR podcast.. except it’s welfare food.
The labels need to be all white with black text. Macaroni and Cheese. Cheese Puffs. Etc. Government cheese.
I went back to get my cheese, but it wasn’t there . . .
That book perfectly summed up my career at various companies (most of which were bought out by global conglomerates) during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Give them a voucher they can redeem for a harvest box at selected retailers. If they want Pepsi, frozen pizza or Twinkies, they can pay for those with cash. The harvest box can contain rice, beans, powdered milk, canned veggies and meat, etc.
I think this is 100% the right line of thought. One thing to consider is cooking is really not easy, nor is initial set up for cooking (utensils, pans, pots, appliances, etc.) is not cheap. The working poor are limited on time, especially if they are working multiple jobs. This is why fast food and unhealthy food is often chosen. These days cooking is a luxury in every sense. The time, expertise, and know-how rarely comes together in a way that we would hope.
Therefore, I think that healthy frozen foods are probably the best thing because they only need freezer space and a microwave. I noticed that Walmart has a new steamed meal line (looks like they are going after Blue Apron and Hello Fresh). This is one that I purchased last week for $5.88:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Frozen-Steam-Meal-Southwestern-Style-Chicken-24-oz/251951924
(Grilled chicken breast, brown rice, red quinoa, sweet corn, red & green bell pepper, onion, black beans and a cilantro lime sauce.)
That feeds two. I think frozen, health meals (not of the variety that are typically in the frozen food section), are probably the way to solve the problem of getting nutritious food to the deserving.
+1. I think that this worship of “fresh produce” is a scam. We don’t need fresh produce. And few people are going to go through trouble of cleaning and chopping. Just fill the SNAP store or harvest box with frozen veg and pre-cooked frozen meat and some stevia drink mix and *boom*, suddenly every one is paleo. You wouldn’t have nearly the obesity.
One of the most sobering things is too look at the stats on the amount of food waste that occurs in the US at all levels. A lot of the fresh produce that is purchased by consumers just goes bad in the refrigerator. My nutrition professor at university went to great lengths to emphasize that frozen fruits and veggies are almost always the most nutrient dense these days because global supply chains translate in the produce being picked way too early and traveling far too many miles. Local-sourced is great, if you can get it, and you don’t waste it, and you have the time to prepare it.
A high-end grocery shop here has ready-made food that is all high quality. At the end of the day they are just dumping all this stuff into large trash bins. It’s immoral in my opinion. This is high quality stuff too, like roasted beets, fresh fruit, grilled asparagus, cedar planked salmon, grilled chicken breast, quinoa salad, etc.
I read somewhere that 20-25 percent of all welfare money is spent at Wal-Mart. Walmart is (IIRC) now the US’s largest grocery outlet by total sales. Nothing surprising, then.
Perhaps a bit of shaming is not a bad thing concerning government (i.e. taxpayer) handouts. Also you seem to be under some impression that EBTs are presently used for “good food”.
I myself am not against some shaming of food stamp recipients. But lawmakers have consistently cited shame as a reason to relax the program.
IMO the best way to distribute SNAP is to open some government-run grocery stores. Assign an amount of $$ which can only be spent at the store, no cards, pay with only a thumbprint or retinal scan. Then people can only buy what is stocked at the store, including perishables, or “good food,” or basic paper products. The stores don’t have to be that big — you could fit it in the size of a small Aldi’s. The biometrics prevent selling benefits for drugs. The gov won’t have to deliver (perhaps in rural areas).
But Sean is right — Walmart would never allow this model because it would totally steal their business. And have you been inside a dollar store lately? You can get a lot of household necessities there. Some even offer meat and frozen meals.
A better idea would be the ability to opt in to a food box vs. a debit card. Many elderly, disabled and rural folks may have a hard time getting good, healthy food. Not everyone can hop into a car and go to the local store in 5 minutes.
The DIY meal kit vendors are having a hard time getting the food to people non-perished. I can’t imagine the government could do better. If it’s all non-perishable, isn’t that the definition of bad for you food usually?
Instead of some massive overhaul, they need to take baby steps to fix it. First of all, allowing EBT cards at fast food restaurants is a joke. Who in the hell signed off on that crap? That should NOT be allowed. And, there should be protections so that you can’t sell your benefits for drugs. Maybe require a scanned ID to use the card or something. Make it difficult. Facial recognition? I don’t know.
I agree that there SHOULD be some shame involved. It’s a motivator to get off of the teat. That being said, our economic system is so broken right now with automation and job destruction that we’re creating a massive underclass of people who can barely survive.
I was still in the liberal/moderate camp when SNAP was being considered for restaurants. The liberal view was that many of the poor didn’t have time, or didn’t have a working kitchen, or didn’t have the motivation/mental health/knowledge to cook ingredients from scratch.
I kinda understand that. I try to cook my own stuff and it’s tiring and takes a lot of time and energy and dishes. But that doesn’t give the poor license to eat at McD’s every day, use up all their SNAP halfway through the month and then moan about “food insecurity.” I suppose one solution is to require stores to offer a microwave oven and a couple seats where the poor could eat prepared food. But stores don’t want a bunch of poor/homeless hanging around their salad bar, I don’t blame them.
The average SNAP benefit is like $250 / month for a household.
I agree that there SHOULD be some shame involved.
Be careful with this sentiment. We all know that there is some waste and some abuse. But let’s not forget that lots of SNAP recipients are children. These are good kids, who are poor and hungry through no fault of their own. I don’t think we want to go down the shaming road. It’s not a good look for our society:
What is “lunch shaming?” It happens when a child can’t pay a school lunch bill.
In Alabama, a child short on funds was stamped on the arm with “I Need Lunch Money.” In some schools, children are forced to clean cafeteria tables in front of their peers to pay the debt. Other schools require cafeteria workers to take a child’s hot food and throw it in the trash if he doesn’t have the money to pay for it.
In what its supporters say is the first such legislation in the country, New Mexico has outlawed shaming children whose parents are behind on school lunch payments.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/well/family/new-mexico-outlaws-school-lunch-shaming.html
Yep, that’s a terrible idea, the harvest box thing. The last thing the gov’t needs to be doing is getting into the grocery delivery business. There was that FEMA truck loaded with ice after Katrina. It went though like 6 different states over 2 weeks, and eventually they just had to discard it. Harvest box would be like that only exponentially more wasteful.
1 in 5 children in the US lives at the poverty level. Wanting to shame their parents who are trying to feed their kids is some cold heartless stuff.
All the gov needs to do is stipulate what goes into a harvest box and then let every retailer brand their own version of it. Walmart could have a shelf full of Harvest boxes with a big smiley face on them that says price rollback. No shame just a big smiley face! People could even go online and order one shipped to their door so that the big smiley face can be enjoyed by everyone who drives by as it sits by their door. Maybe even slap the stars and stripes on it to make it extra feel good and patriotic. Inside should just be bags of rice and beans with a little card explaining how privileged they are.
Put ‘em FedEx boxes.
Call it FoodEx.
If them boys outta Memphis wanna act like Amazon don’t exist then they might as well go after one more bigly government contract.
da bear
Don’t forget - the big banks are making out like bandits on the skim and fees as they have contracts for all of these state, local and federal benefit cards.
You are correct.
I heard an interesting thing from a liberal Baltimore talk show host, a dedicated Trump opponent. He’s a black guy, active in the civil rights movement, and from a famous family. He thought it was a good idea because it could actually improve the nutrition of kids, and it would guarantee food gets to them, rather than the SNAP cards being sold or sugary fatty foods with low nutrition content being purchased with the cards.
“Recipients will surely be shamed when the neighbors see the box on the doorstep (and I can easily see those shame-boxes being stolen).”
Shame boxes… love it!
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
–Alexis de Toqueville
The Fed has finally achieved its long sought objective of driving up inflation.
Economic Report
CPI surges 0.5% in January, triggers fresh worries about rising inflation
By Jeffry Bartash
Published: Feb 14, 2018
Rent, clothes, medical care, auto insurance more expensive
What did the fed do? Empty out Janets’ desk? Could be they just started counting different.
Nobody performs liars math like NAR and the fed.
Maybe all the head fakes on higher rates that didn’t happen are finally having an effect on inflation. If so, the Fed may find itself with the conundrum of choosing between increasing rates quickly or living with unacceptably high inflation for a while.
I highly doubt wages are going to triple or quadruple to meet grossly inflated and rigged prices.
If so, the Fed may find itself with the conundrum of choosing between increasing rates quickly or living with unacceptably high inflation for a while.
History shows that central banks will kick the can until price inflation becomes unbearable. At it’s current level most central banks will find it acceptable.
When inflation finally goes crazy (say 30-40%, or worse), wages will rise, but won’t come even close to matching inflation, and buying power erodes quickly. That’s when the SHTF. I’ve lived through that outside the US, and it wasn’t pretty.
Google Venezuela News
Any more details on where you lived and what happened when inflation ran away Colorado?
“When inflation finally goes crazy (say 30-40%, or worse)”
When? The inflation has been crazy, past tense.
Just from this weekend: “median house prices rose 464% in Tauranga in the 26 years from 1991 to 2017.” That’s just one town in New Zealand. In Australia housing prices are up +6,556% since the 1960s. For the US it’s +1,332% in that same time. In Compton we saw a house up +482% in the last 5 years.
This is for a basic necessity. There are articles all over the place about grocery store prices up high double digits in the last few years, new and used cars, college education, private school tuition, etc.
The hyperinflation already happened. The goal now is to stop the inevitable, already-started deflation back to prices that have a relationship to actual incomes.
It was in Mexico City. Inflation was around 40%
Beyond the obvious issue of eroding buying power:
No one held onto cash, as it lost value. If you had a windfall, you would buy something easy to resell, like rebar, copper pipe, sacks of granular polyethylene, etc. They would hold their value better than cash and where very liquid as they were easy to resell, especially since there were always shortages.
Google Venezuela News
Exactly, even though they are suffering from Wiemar like hyperinflation, they won’t take their medicine.
Mexico did take its medicine and it was painful, very painful. It took almost a decade for their nightmare to end and it cost the PRI its one party rule of Mexico.
A childhood acquaintance of mine lived in Argentina during one of the country’s periods of hyperinflation. His parents said that you would leave the house to buy a few items at the grocery store, but that by the time you got there, prices would bear no resemblance to what you thought they might be, and you wouldn’t have enough money.
When I visited in 2000, I saw a promotional sign outside a Buenos Aires bank offering an absurd rate of interest for a short-term CD. That’s when you know that nobody has any confidence in the currency whatsoever. And this was when the peso was pegged 1-to-1 with the U.S. dollar, and you could get dollars out of an ATM.
No one held onto cash, as it lost value.
I kind of wonder if one reason BitCoin might not go to zero is that people who live in places like Venezuela and Zimbabwe could use it as a currency alternative. I read in The Economist that Venezuelan inflation was something like 1400% last year.
one reason BitCoin might not….
If it’s difficult to buy staples, which you really need, would you plow your money into an imaginary placeholder? I’d rather have something tangible.
Largely I agree. You’d have to convert back to the local currency when you needed to buy. That may or may not be possible. But I could conceivably see these unstable nation-states as serving as a floor for cryptocurrencies whose national currency is even more volatile and uses value more quickly.
*loses value
there is no way that a second or third world can afford the electricity for daily bitcoin transactions. They are better off with barter, or trade in common goods like rebar or thread or pigs.
Housing my friends.
Portland, OR 97232 Housing Prices Crater 14% YOY On Plunging Housing Demand
https://www.zillow.com/portland-or-97232/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
‘Serious delinquency rates were up sharply in both Texas and Florida in November, compared to a year ago according to CoreLogic Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. The serious delinquency rate in Texas grew to 2.5% from 1.9% from the previous year, and rose in Florida to 3.9% from 3.2%. The serious delinquency rate in the Houston metropolitan area more than doubled to 4.6%, and grew more than one-third in the Miami area to 5.1%.’
‘In Florida, the share of mortgages that were 30 or more days delinquent grew to 9.9% from 6.3% year-over-year in November, and in Texas, they rose to 6.7% from 5.6%.’
Golly, Frank that must be one big hurricane to cause the entire state to stop sending in checks. Is it still spinning around in the panhandle or something? Oh, you know what? I remember that the delinquency rates shot up in Houston before the storm. Must have been a pro-active default thing.
It’s a hyperbolicane.
Realtors are liars.
10 year Treasuries at 2.88% - how long till 3%?
Mortgage rates to follow…
Rate hike coming boyz.
It’s a Valentine’s Day Massacre for HODLers of Uncle Sam’s debt:
Name Price Change Yield
U.S. 1 Month Treasury Bill -0.002 1.312%
U.S. 3 Month Treasury Bill 0.003 1.598%
U.S. 6 Month Treasury Bill 0.015 1.816%
U.S. 1 Year Treasury Bill 0.02 1.9705%
U.S. 2 Year Treasury Note -0.0938 2.1636%
U.S. 3 Year Treasury Note -0.1953 2.3748%
U.S. 5 Year Treasury Note -0.3516 2.6183%
U.S. 7 Year Treasury Note -0.4219 2.8084%
U.S. 30 Year Treasury Bond -0.6641 3.1472%
It’s a Valentine’s Day ??
I wonder what Trump is getting for Melania….
It’s also Ash Wednesday.
California is the most impoverished state in the country:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/14/california-housing-crisis-laws-homelessness
Importing more illegals and raising taxes can SOLVE this!
Emeryville, CA Housing Prices Crater 21% YOY As Housing Correction Roils Bay Area
https://www.movoto.com/emeryville-ca/market-trends/
Lead headline on the LA Times website right now:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-oc-court-20180214-story.html
LOL @California
NIMBY.
Wherever they go, there they are. 😁
As long as this ” there they are” place is somewhere where I am not I am fine with it.
Modern day Hoovervilles, full of unemployable people, and their numbers are only going to grow.
LOL indeed. Bet the judge doesnt want them in his ‘hood. I frankly dont have a problem with where they are, but people living in that area probably arent happy - I honestly dont know that area too well so I’m not sure how close to other residential areas they are.
Funny, no one in the comments blamed Reagan. I am disappoint Cali, you slackin’!
Ha! NYC is a sh!thole.
Socialists HATE private property.
++++++
Graffiti Artists Awarded $6.7 Million for Destroyed 5Pointz Murals
New York Times | February 12, 2018 | ALAN FEUER
Ruling that graffiti — a typically transient form of art — was of sufficient stature to be protected by the law, a federal judge in Brooklyn awarded a judgment of $6.7 million on Monday to 21 graffiti artists whose works were destroyed in 2013 at the 5Pointz complex in Long Island City, Queens.
In November, a landmark trial came to a close in Federal District Court in Brooklyn when a civil jury decided that Jerry Wolkoff, a real estate developer who owned 5Pointz, broke the law when he whitewashed dozens of swirling murals at the complex, obliterating what a lawyer for the artists had called “the world’s largest open-air aerosol museum.”
Though Mr. Wolkoff’s lawyers had argued that the buildings were his to treat as he pleased, the jury found he violated the Visual Artists Rights Act, or V.A.R.A., which has been used to protect public art of “recognized stature” created on someone’s else property.
From the start, the 5Pointz case had pitted two of New York City’s most prominent sectors against each other: the art world and the real estate business. Judge Block’s ruling — and the size of the judgment he awarded — was a decisive victory for the former, said Dean Nicyper, a partner who specializes in art law at the firm Withers Bergman.
Proof that we live in Bizarro World.
I can’t wait for someone to paint a “mural” on that judge’s house.
“…the Visual Artists Rights Act, or V.A.R.A., which has been used to protect public art of “recognized stature” created on someone’s else property.”
WTF? You can trespass on someone’s property, and vandalize a building there with graffiti, and you’re protected by law and the property owner isn’t?
This is what wikipedia has to say about this particular instance:
On February 12, 2018, a federal judge cited VARA in awarding $6.7 million to 21 graffiti artists at the 5 Pointz open-air graffiti museum whose works were destroyed by the developer who owned the property on which the graffiti had been painted. The building owner tore the building down to rebuild condos.
So apparently they didn’t sneak in and vandalize. But I would still think that the property owner’s rights should come first. You want to preserve your “art”, then you come and remove it (as in haul away the wall its painted on.
What I don’t get is the monetary award. There is no doubt that the graffiti has no marketable value. Could it have been sold for $6.7M? I don’t think it could have been given away.
So now some dindus are going to get 300K each. For what?
They won’t get even close to that much.
Their lawyers will get most of it.
Laywers have the system rigged - they win every time!
Even $10 each is too much.
Sounds like the property owner should have defended his property long ago before the squat artists were in complete control. If you fence in a field that belongs to someone else, the clock starts ticking.
Bansky ….Sotheby’s.
It also amazes me that people will pay good money for Banksy’s graffiti. Utterly ridiculous. A windfall I suppose for whoever was victimized by him. Have heard of whole walls being sold off for good money.
Is the VIX rigged?
Financial Times
Cboe’s Vix troubles could have wider impact
Vix futures contributed around about 40 per cent of Cboe’s recent earnings growth
Philip Stafford 2 hours ago
Infographic showing Share price of Cboe and trading volume/revenues of Vix futures
Exchange-traded products that allow investors to wager on the tranquility of Cboe’s Vix index, a measure of stock market volatility, have helped drive Cboe’s profits in recent years. The exchange-traded notes relied on Vix futures, which can only be traded at Cboe.
But analysts fear the slide in value of two big notes and funds this week will have a bigger impact. Goldman Sachs estimated Vix futures contributed about 40 per cent of Cboe’s earnings growth between 2015 and 2017, excluding its 2016 deal for Bats Global Markets.
Kenneth Worthington, an analyst at JPMorgan, said the liquidation of the exchange-traded notes was “potentially the tip of the iceberg” as trading activity in Vix futures fell away in coming months. If the market moves from its preferred strategy of shorting volatility to one where hedging its risk was dominant, investors might look to other futures contracts, such as CME’s E-mini, he said.
…
NYC is sh!thole.
Teacher’s unions and democrats could care less about educating children.
It is ALL about power and money.
$20,000 per pupil. And you wonder why you can’t afford the property taxes.
++++++
John Stossel: Saving kids from government schools (amazing results at NYC charter schools)
Fox News | 2 14 2018 | John Stossel
Kids attending New York City’s Success Academy charter schools do remarkably well.
“We are No. 1 in student achievement in the state,” says founder Eva Moskowitz, “outperforming all the wealthy suburbs.”
They do. Although they teach mostly poor kids, 95 percent pass the state math test, and 84 percent pass the English test. Pass rates at government run schools are 38 and 41 percent. How does Success Academy do it?
“China and India are not worrying about the length of the school day,” she replied. “We have to toughen up.”
From what I saw, “toughening up” doesn’t make kids hate school. Many told me they “look forward” to going to Success Academy in the morning. One called school “rockin’ awesome!”
“Kids like succeeding,” explains Moskowitz.
The education establishment hates Moskowitz.
When she tries to open new schools, activists protest. Mayor Bill de Blasio complained, “It’s time for Eva Moskowitz to stop having the run of the place!”
“Why do they hate you?” I asked.
“What we prove is that there’s nothing wrong with the children,” she replied. “There is something wrong with a system, a monopolistic system that is not allowing kids to succeed.”
Mayor de Blasio got his political start as a socialist, has praised Cuba and Venezuela, and isn’t fond of competition. To protect New York City’s taxi industry, he tried to block Uber and Lyft.
Charters like Success Academy do more with less. New York City’s regular public schools get $20,000 per pupil.
“I only get $14,500,” says Moskowitz.
A good article with a good video.
Here’s a link …
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/14/john-stossel-saving-kids-from-government-schools.html
How much you want to bet that there is some kind of entrance exam or interview to get into that charter school? Easy peasy to cherry-pick the best-behaved poor students and save them from the bad kids in the government schools. So go ahead, open a ton of charter schools so every kid can go, and there are no more government schools to pass the bad kids off on. You’ll end up with what we have now.
“Easy peasy to cherry-pick the best-behaved poor students and save them from the bad kids in the government schools.”
A thing of beauty.
Sour grapes — it’s obvious that the NYC public schools are a failure — they’re more expensive than most private non-charter schools in Sillycon Valley! Even the semi-stuck up schools like Stratford and Challenger are less than $20K/year
Why can’t the the government schools get kids to behave?
And shouldn’t we care much more about well behaved poor kids than about bad kids (of whatever income)?
The magnet school near us is supposedly based on a lottery drawing. I haven’t looked into it a great deal but I am sure there’s some way to work the system. Early enrollment, aka pre-school, is one avenue to get in.
Did you miss the part in the Stossel piece above that said
“Although they teach mostly poor kids, 95 percent pass the state math test, and 84 percent pass the English test. “
“I only get $14,500,” says Moskowitz.
Still way too expensive. And immoral, since people without children are forced to pay the same taxes as people with half a dozen kids all getting “free” educations.
Charter schools have mixed results. There are some success stories, and some really terrible ones. The data doesn’t show that charter schools are superior in any way. The video even admits this: “Of course not every charter school is good, some even turn out to be worse that the ones they replace.”
Also, there are many things that standardized tests can’t measure (doesn’t mean we should throw them out). Having said that, I like the idea of charter schools and innovation, but there are some real fly-by-night operations that are going in. There have been some terrible corruption where charter schools are getting approved and then are funneling a ton of public money to outside contractors for terrible “education software services” and basically draining the public education system building unnecessary buildings and all sorts of bloat under the guise of “free choice” and “innovation.” Charter schools have promise, but they are not a panacea.
In my neck of the woods Charter Schools are undercover Mormon Parochial schools, funded by taxpayer, of course.
Where is your neck of the woods, can I assume Colorado? I don’t know of many Mormon parochial schools. Charter schools are non-ideological. This is the #1 charter school in the state of Utah:
https://maeserprep.org/curriculum/
It is a classical education and focuses on liberal arts. They teach Latin too.
The private Mormon schools have more of a super zealous constitutional bent that mixes Americana with LDS doctrine, like this one:
https://www.american-heritage.org/Home/How
Additionally, students are taught to see the hand of God particularly in the establishment and preservation of America through stories that are shared from American history.
I have lived in Utah most of my life. I see a few Lutheran schools, quite a few Evangelical schools, and tons of Catholic schools, but by and large the LDS adherents have largely opted for public schools. The wealthy that can afford it go to private institutions.
Living in a car in San Francisco and having your “home” towed away:
https://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Homeless-man-files-civil-rights-suit-after-SF-12611550.php?t=bbd4408122
I can’t imagine living in a car, or out of a car - however you want to put it.
“I can’t imagine living in a car, or out of a car - however you want to put it.”
For a 1:54 video this seems like a pretty good checklist and plan for living in a car.
How to Live in Your Car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_ljERfubtQ
Full-Time Worker, Living in a Car
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q0emNEcAkU
Living In A Car - My Jeep Tour || Hobo Ahle
1,354 Comments
Sergey Kolmakov
1 year ago
it would be way more convenient if you can change Jeep to Honda Element.
Yevgeniy Ogor
1 year ago
or scion xb
London Rasimowicz
1 year ago
Sergey Kolmakov my friend and i lived in her honda element 1 weekend for senior year prom weekend down the shore. it was awesome and f—-g comfy. we didnt pay for 3-4 nights in a hotel room and it was awesome. 2 broke girls having a blast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0NKfDwJfsE
Living in a van down by the river just ain’t what it used to be.
Springfield, VA Housing Prices Crater 8% YOY As Inventory Balloons Across Northern Virginia
https://www.movoto.com/springfield-va/market-trends/
Ms. Resist
Fear, tweeting in S. Florida as fighter jets rumble overhead
Sarah Elsesser Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
11:25 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018 Local News
Military jets flew low above South Florida Wednesday morning, and while it was just a drill, many people were a bit concerned.
From Deerfield Beach to Jupiter, Twitter users posted about spotting F-15 jets, which were supposed to be flying 3,500 feet off the ground.
>> Military jets to fly as low as 3,500 feet over county today
Brett Clarkson
✔
@BrettClarkson_
Just saw two fighter jets heading north over Deerfield Beach toward Palm Beach County. Really loud and relatively low.
9:36 AM - Feb 14, 2018 · Deerfield Beach, FL
1
Fashion, history and art: Isabelle de Borchgrave’s paper masterpiecesADVERTISER CONTENT: Society Of The Four Arts Fashion, history and art: Isabelle de Borchgrave’s paper masterpieces
Frank Jacobs
@El_Boozler
Why are there fighter jets flying over Jupiter?
9:39 AM - Feb 14, 2018
Ms. Resist
@MsResistFL
Um, babe. Why are two military jets circling our neighborhood?
(Twitter comes through again. 👍🏻) https://twitter.com/jbisognano/status/963770829598285824 …
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Nothing, anywhere, pencils out. This “everything bubble” is cooked.
No kiddin’. So glad I’m NOT in the market for a house or car these days!
Big state liberals/progressives vs local NIMBY liberals/progressives
Now eat your peas…
******
‘Declaration of war’: liberals divided as California mulls housing push
The Guardian | February 14, 2018 | Erin McCormick
Proposal aimed at keeping up with population growth would limit cities’ power over housing, handing more control to state.
The mayor of Berkeley, California, has called it “a declaration of war”. A neighborhood group in Los Angeles said it would be akin to forcing Native Americans from their land.
Amid a desperate housing crisis, legislators in the Golden State have prompted an outcry with new proposals that threaten to take the rulebook that governs American city planning and throw it out the window.
Their proposition: reducing cities’ power to decide what gets built and putting more control into state hands.
Liberals have found themselves pitted against liberals, with urban environmentalists who want to build “smart cities” with dense housing around transit lines facing off against minority groups fighting to protect inner-city neighborhoods and suburbanites wanting to slow growth. It has divided renting millennials from their homeowning parents and created a passionate breed of housing activists calling themselves Yimbys.
“This will change the character of neighborhoods in the Bay Area and throughout the state.”
According to Jerry Brown they are ‘the other Mexico’ so shouldn’t they just let Mexico decide?
The mayor of Berkeley, California, has called it “a declaration of war”. A neighborhood group in Los Angeles said it would be akin to forcing Native Americans from their land.
Berkeley…pffft.
http://www.dailycal.org/2017/09/09/berkeley-city-council-to-pay-44k-in-housing-development-lawsuit/
And that’s over 3 homes that were consistent with zoning.
Berkeley simply wants to retain the power to keep property owners from building on their land.
Here’s another real winner from Berkley, CA zoning NIMBYism:
Save Kurt’s tomatoes:
One focal point was Kurt Caudle’s garden. Mr. Caudle is a brewpub manager who lives in a small house on the back side of Ms. Trew’s property (that lot has two homes, or one fewer than was proposed next door). Just outside his back door sits an oasis from the city: a quiet garden where he has a small Buddha statue and grows tomatoes, squash and greens in raised beds that he built.
In letters and at city meetings, Mr. Caudle complained that the homes would obstruct sunlight and imperil the garden “on which I and my neighbors depend for food.” Sophie Hahn, a member of the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board who now sits on the City Council, was sympathetic.
“When you completely shadow all of the open space,” Ms. Hahn said during a hearing, “you really impact the ability for anybody to possibly grow food in this community.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/business/economy/single-family-home.html
Oh the agony, not the heirloom tomatoes! Move heaven and earth to protect those precious little tomatoes. Whatever happens, we must protect those tomatoes!
This excessive regulations and the NIMBYism is insane. Not allowing building to proceed has created a nightmare. The heavy handed action by the state government seems like overreach, but it is probably warranted in my opinion. You can’t just stonewall and say “others be dammed.”
Really what needs to happen is the NIMBYs and the YIMBYs need to have their fates tied together. It should hurt the NIMBYs when local regs allow them to maintain the status quo just as much as it hurts those who get priced out and their rents jacked up due to under supply. Right now the NIMBYs actually benefit from digging their heels in. I think they should raise property taxes on NIMBYs to the degree that they are preventing reasonable development.
“In Denver, 61% of homes listed on realtor.com are above the 3,000-square-foot mark. There are about 3,115 of these residences in the metro area listed on realtor.com. But that’s nothing compared to Provo, UT, where 71% of listed homes boast 3,000 square feet or more. The smaller city boasts about 971 of this size, up from 66% in 2016.”
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Yeah, that’s a 5% increase, but did it occur to the writer that Mormon families often are very large? When I was in Utah a couple of years ago, I saw a number of big houses, but I also saw a number of families with four or five kids.
When I was in Montana with friends we passed houses that looked like that, and I remarked that they were “Mormon houses.” Sure enough, the temple was right down the highway.
Many religious people of all denominations are DebtDonkeys, Financial Fools and Subprime Sloths. Mr. Banker is an equal opportunity Donkey Herder.
Denver, CO 80211 Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/denver-co-80211/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
Mr. Banker does not herd, he attracts.
Mr. Banker allows ignorant pukes to learn of his Dotted Line Specials and thus he attracts the most ignorant of the ignorant pukes into his bank to sign up for some enduring, endearing, and prolonged debt slavery.
If any herding is performed it is performed by that sweety Suzanne.
Does she have her PhD yet?
Because she’s been researchin’ the holy heck out of things lately!
They also need a very large room to store enough food for all those kids to live through TEOTWAWKI.
Since I’m Mormon, I feel like I can speak with some authority here. The Mormon (LDS) birthrate has been trending down forever. It has basically followed the same US rate and is now at an all-time low. The US Mormon birthrate is at an all-time low:
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/10/12/utahs-fertility-rate-is-declining-is-that-a-problem/
Here’s an anecdote that is probably repeated over and over. My dad was one of ten. I am the oldest of 6. My wife and I have one; maybe we’ll have another, maybe not. So there you go: 10 -> 6 -> 1. Anyone who knows anything about demographics knows that this mirrors the US trend overall. The McMansions are still there because they belong to the boomers. But the newer generations have 1, 2, or 3 children typically.
My wife LDS siblings are trying to offset the trend. The champion is pregnant with #7…
Every once in a while you see these exceptions. They are usually in rural areas and are wealthier Mormons. The urologist that I am good friends with is my age and he just had his 7th child (twin girls). He is 40. They are very wealthy and capable of providing for all these children. His wife is a stay-at-home mother and homemaker. Their whole living situation is a throwback to a different era. They are definitely outliers though.
Thanks for that post. I did not know that. The article says that Mormons only are waiting slightly longer to get married, too. It’s having children that’s changing.
In Denver, 61% of homes listed on realtor.com are above the 3,000-square-foot mark.
Who is supposed to but all those McMansions? Delivery van drivers?
The Tax System, Explained in Beer!
https://youtu.be/BomQxCG5VG4
That is kind of a stupid video. Maybe it’s one that you show to your clients before they sign on the dotted line so they realize just how benevolent the rich?
Here’s a better view of who pays what and who gets what and includes all taxes:
https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/taxday2017.pdf
Hey Ben:
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/realestateeconomy/andy-yan-the-analyst-who-exposed-vancouvers-real-estate-disaster/
Whoh, you’re back!! Did you dabble in bitcoin?
Once. Took the money and ran.
and ….. are we ready for 2008 redux?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/congress-flirts-with-disaster-on-bank-leverage-ratios-1518479068
is the stock correction over already?
Kenmore, WA Housing Prices Crater 9% YOY As Seattle Area Housing Correction Expands
https://www.movoto.com/kenmore-wa/market-trends/
Samsung is eating their lunch
Bitcoin! Ignorant pukes have been conditioned to ALWAYS BUY THE DIPS!
“I used to be very nervous at the beginning,” said a man named Antoine. “But so far I’ve seen like six or seven crashes, and we always recover.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-13/its-millennial-gold-selloff-hasnt-shaken-true-believers-faith-bitcoin
Charlie Munger wants the government to clamp down on this Bitcoin nonsense. I think the government ought to stay out and allow market forces to run it’s course.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/15/bitcoin-is-noxious-poison-says-warren-buffett-investment-chief
Ignorant pukes have been conditioned to ALWAYS BUY THE DIPS!
Yup. Now even with houses. Everybody now thinks 2008 was the worst case scenario. Always HODL through the dip.
Teslas Are Finally Replacing Porsches on the Autobahn
Elisabeth Behrmann
Bloomberg
Powered by additional charging sites and improving products, Germany this year will become the world’s third-largest market for plug-in hybrids and electric cars, surpassing longtime European leader Norway, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The downfall of diesel following Volkswagen AG’s widespread cheating on emissions and a mounting public backlash against urban pollution are only adding momentum to the shift.
Sales of plug-in hybrid and electric cars are set to jump 64 percent this year to 82,000 vehicles, BNEF forecasts, making Germany the fastest-growing region among the top five markets. BNEF says that forecast may be conservative, and deliveries could easily double again this year.
Tesla Inc. is growing even more quickly in Germany than electric-car sales generally. Registrations gained 75 percent last year to 3,332 vehicles. That’s approaching the 3,900 sales of the Porsche Panamera four-door, a close competitor to Tesla’s Model S.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/teslas-are-finally-replacing-porsches-on-the-autobahn
I kind of like the idea that an American car company is actually giving the German auto industry a run for their money. Make American Great Again.
Ardsley, NY Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY As Housing Glut Expands Across Metro NY
https://www.movoto.com/ardsley-ny/market-trends/
Narrative incoming.
NPR is already pimping gun control hard. Expect additional narratives from Huffington Post, Salon, NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, New Yorker, the Atlantic, NBC, ABC, CBS.
Grabbers gonna grab.
UK Guardian is a few time zones ahead of USA and pimps the following narrative:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/15/dont-look-to-trump-for-leadership-after-the-florida-school-shooting
All Trump Derangement Syndrome aside, “shall not be infringed” is not negotiable.
An armed American citizenry is the only thing that can stop globalist tyranny.
Anybody brings up this “narrative”, be sure to ask them how many died in US car wrecks or of overdoses yesterday. Best I can tell from review the most stats, about 100 in car wrecks, about 180 from ODs. Just a one day death toll.
was this another attempt to suck shorts into the market and then get a rally out of it?
Short-covering has been the fuel for some time now.