Creating A New Definition Of Affordable
A report from AZ Big Media in Arizona. “Last year was good for Arizona’s residential real estate market with boosted home sales, prices, and agents making deals. One noticeable shift in 2017 was that Millennials are now reaching a point of financial well-being. According to Homeowners Financial Group, a local mortgage banker specializing in the residential market, this transition is made easier by recent changes to conventional loan limits, which are allowing more first-time homebuyers into the market. Joe Conner, branch manager and licensed mortgage professional for HFG says, ‘The loan limit has been raised from $424,100 to $453,100, meaning that home buyers can purchase a more expensive home at a higher price point and still qualify for a loan.’”
“Another subgroup showing signs of growth is in the older population that lost their homes during the financial crisis or sold out of necessity and began renting instead. ‘Recently, credit agencies have changed their policies, choosing not to report certain judgments and liens on credit,’ Conner says. ‘This can improve people’s credit scores, enabling buyers to get better interest rates and qualify when they may not have been eligible previously.’”
“For the first 10 months of 2017, 12 percent more construction permits were issued than in 2016, with a projected yearly total of 21,200. By 2018, that number is expected to be 23,500, and it could be 25,400 by 2019. Fulton Homes is outwardly optimistic for 2018, according to CEO Doug Fulton. ‘We see 2018 as a year we’ll be able to hang our hats on. All leading economic indicators look great and the trends in sales are surprisingly solid even in our typically slow months of November and December,’ says Fulton. ‘It’s time again to bet on housing.’”
The Sacramento Bee in California. “It’s tough to be a first-time homebuyer in the Sacramento region these days. One area that’s changed, however, is the availability — and acceptability — of low down payment mortgages for those who can’t pony up the traditional 20 percent or even 10 percent. The government-backed programs mainly are offered through private lenders. They include old standbys such as Federal Housing Administration mortgages that require 3. 5 percent down and newer zero-interest loans and grant programs that can greatly increase a buyer’s down payment – in one case tripling it for free.”
“National lender Guild Mortgage’s Monty Maxwell, one of the state agency’s ‘preferred loan officers,’ met Michelle Schroeder, an art teacher, at a high school in Natomas where they were both mentoring students. Maxwell and his team members helped Schroeder buy her first house. After examining Schroeder’s options, including a CalHFA program that assists teachers and school employees, they ended up going with one of Guild’s own down-payment assistance programs, the Guild 1% Down Loan. It gives buyers who qualify an extra 2 percent grant that doesn’t need to be repaid. That means for example, that a couple buying a $300,000 house who put $3,000 down would actually have $9,000, or 3 percent, to put down.”
“She offered the asking price of $325,000, which was near the top end of her budget. The seller accepted, and the deal closed in January. Schroeder said her 30-year mortgage rate is 4.25 percent. ‘The payment’s a little high … but it’s doable,’ Schroeder said. Like many people her age, she’s still paying down her student loans from college, which limits her housing budget.”
The Daily Free Press in Masschusetts. “First-time home buyers may face some financial relief thanks to a new program from MassHousing. The program will benefit these buyers by financing a down payment of 3 percent of the price they purchased the house for, or $12,000, whichever is less. Borrowers will later have to pay back the cost of the down payment with a low-cost secondary mortgage requiring no cash up front. Kevin Kielt, 34, of South Boston, said he would appreciate financial support to fund a down payment because he has struggled with finding an affordable home.”
“‘Speaking for myself, it’s been hard for my girlfriend and I to get the money to make a down payment on a house because we both have student loans to pay off still,’ Kielt said. ‘We’re both in fairly good positions … It’s just that we have a lot of other things to worry about and care about in terms of money.’”
From Colorado Hometown Weekly. “How expensive has housing gotten in Boulder County? So pricey that creating a new definition of affordable wasn’t enough to move the needle in an annual affordability study. The Longmont Housing Affordability Review has been produced since 2013 by Kyle Snyder, with First American Title, and Amy Aschenbrenner, CEO of the Longmont Association of Realtors. The 2017 report was the first in the study’s history in which the definition of affordable homes was revised upward, to $350,000 for single-family and $270,000 for a condo or townhome.”
“The change was necessary because of the dearth of houses selling under the old thresholds of $150,000 for a condo/townhome and $250,000 for a single-family, as Snyder noted in last year’s report. But even with the new goal posts in place, there was little affordability to be found in Boulder County’s housing market.”
“Even still, homes are more affordable than they have been since the dawning of the new millennium, argues Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial Corporation, whose voice is another addition to report. When accounting for rising incomes and historically low interest rates, Americans have more purchasing power than in the booms of 2000 and 2006, Fleming said. Real estate site Trulia also found that homes were more affordable to more Americans than any time in the past 40 years.”
“‘In 2016, the median household could afford a home 1.5 times more expensive than the median home price,’ the report read. ‘In 1980, the median household could only afford about 3/4 of the median home price.’”
“The report’s metrics will continue to evolve along with the market. Instead of a set figure for affordability, the annual review will calculate area median income and then reverse engineer what a buyer would likely be able to afford at current interest rates,assuming a 5 percent down payment. (So chosen because of Colorado Housing and Finance Authority’s down payment assistance program for lower-income buyers.) ‘The measuring stick will be slightly different every year but will still measure the same ability to buy in the market,’ Snyder said. ‘We’re really happy about that because we’ll never outgrow our measuring stick again.’”
“Still, he acknowledges that the change in parameters isn’t good news for everybody. Many residents haven’t experienced an increase in buying power: stagnating wages and rocketing prices put homes well beyond their reach, even at rock-bottom prices. To that group, the report’s changes may come as a bit of a shock. Last year’s study boldly claimed ‘there are no entry level housing options,’ while Snyder said this year he ‘really tried to make sure we didn’t have a tone’ and present the numbers as neutrally as possible.”
“This year’s report is ‘less dire because our perspective has changed. That’s the risk you take in changing the measuring stick.’”
From WBFO in New York. “So far this year, nearly 500 foreclosure applications have been filed in Erie County. That is why County Clerk Mickey Kearns has been pushing so hard for his program to tell people they do not have to move out and to help local governments deal with the notoriously complicated foreclosure process. An unclear number of people unnecessarily leave when the foreclosure starts, leaving the home empty and vulnerable. Kearns said there are foreclosures pending in Erie County for 12 years and some are never perfected, leaving ownership foggy and the building deteriorating into a zombie home.”
“He said the house needs to be handled quickly to preserve its value. ‘That’s the best time to come up with a strategy and a game plan to help those people, so we’re helping the homeowner to stay within the home, to come up with a strategy, whether it’s a short sale or selling the property or coming up with a game plan,’ Kearns said. ‘We’re helping the neighbors, since now their property values are not going into decline.’”
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/03/20/california-housing-5-plus-overvalued-or-minimal-risk-of-declines/
California housing: 5%-plus overvalued or minimal risk of declines?
“It’s premature to worry about a housing bubble,” Arch MI analysts stated in their report. “The typical warning signs – excessive debt levels, poor-quality loans, exponentially increasing home prices, rising vacancy rates and/or poor affordability compared to the past, and a high number of internet searches on house flipping – are not present.”
Literally every single warning sign is there. Every. Single. One.
“Every. Single. One.”
Plus one further glaringly obvious sign: DENIAL!
The biggest warning sign: I/Os and neg-ams, are not there. People are stretching to make monthly payments, but those payments aren’t going to reset after 3 years, like they did last time.
Donk,
During the last collapse 90+ of all defaulted mortgages we’re fully amortized mortgages where no one could keep up with the massive monthly debt obligation resulting in collapse.
This collapse is far more severe.
Some nice charts on what was going on with Subprime and Alt-A during the 2003-2008 bubble (PDF)
https://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2008/200859/200859pap.pdf
I didn’t realize that the subprime loans were all 7% interest. Yikes.
Precisely my point Donk.
The 7% rates kicked in after the neg-am teaser period, doubling the monthly payment and virtually guaranteeing default.
Bellevue, WA 98005 Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY As Crime Ravage Seattle Area
https://www.zillow.com/bellevue-wa-98005/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
You’re reaching a whole new low there HA. You should work for the National Enquirer.
And Bellevue is a world apart from Seattle, with the downtown owned mostly by Kemper Freeman and Chinese investors.
Hello my good friend.
Newcastle, WA Housing Prices Crater 26% YOY As Record High Seattle Area Housing Inventory Hits Market
https://www.movoto.com/newcastle-wa/market-trends/
Guild offered low down loans last cycle too.
Investing in government monopolies backed by a corrupt government…
+++++
Cabbie blamed Uber, Lyft for financial woes before hanging himself
NYPost | 3/22/18 | By Danielle Furfaro and Max Jaeger
A yellow-cab driver hanged himself because of financial ruin that he blamed on ride-hail apps such as Uber and Lyft — the fourth such suicide in the last four months, authorities said Wednesday.
Ochisor backed his home mortgage on his medallion, and planned to use the license to finance his retirement — but his dreams faded as the value of medallions plummeted from $1 million to around $180,000 over the last five years.
Ochisor got his medallion in 1989, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
“He was only making $200 a day working 10 to 12 hours,” he said, adding that’s barely enough to cover overhead. “He was devastated.”
Ochisor planned to finance his retirement by leasing the medallion out for $3,000 a month — a reasonable rate five years ago, but now he’d be lucky to get $1,400 a month, Nitescu said.
To make matters worse, the couple’s home was about to go into foreclosure and they would have been on the hook if Ochisor’s devalued medallion didn’t cover the debt, according to Lipsky.
Should have leased it out, while driving for uber!
Like that pedestrian in Arizona. She got disrupted, real good.
I read somewhere that traffic engineers are talking about making freeway lanes narrower, so they can squeeze and extra one in. The idea is that we’ll be hurtling down the interstate with probably no more than two feet between you and the cars to your left and right. This of course will mean no human drivers allowed.
This is going to be shoved down our throats.
via GIPHY
“This of course will mean no human drivers allowed.”
Is that you George?
Colorado -
Check out Atlanta’s road woes for an indication of what might happen.
A long-term friend of mine has said on more than one occasion that the lanes of Atlanta’s beltway are just 9 feet wide. The city shrank the width of the lanes from 11 feet to accommodate the 1996 Olympics.
I assume this is true.
Your friend is mistaken, all lanes of I-285 meet FHWA spec for freeway width of 12′
2 B is back - all good with Deferred Maintenance?
Deferred Maintenance is palmetto. Palmetto said so himself.
“Ochisor backed his home mortgage on his medallion, and planned to use the license to finance his retirement —”
WTF!?
And we are helping people stay in a house for 12 years without paying a mortgage.
The free sh*t army votes.
++++
Kearns said there are foreclosures pending in Erie County for 12 years and some are never perfected, leaving ownership foggy and the building deteriorating into a zombie home.”
“He said the house needs to be handled quickly to preserve its value. ‘That’s the best time to come up with a strategy and a game plan to help those people, so we’re helping the homeowner to stay within the home, to come up with a strategy, whether it’s a short sale or selling the property or coming up with a game plan,’ Kearns said. ‘We’re helping the neighbors, since now their property values are not going into decline.’”
Ya just gotta LOLZ at the stock market. What a complete friggin’ joke.
would it be like conspiracy theory talk to think the FED now wants stocks to crater so they can unload some of their bonds to flight to quality folks?
‘Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said some financial market asset prices are high.’
“In some areas, asset prices are elevated relative to their long run historical norms,” said Powell during a press conference. “You can think of some equity prices. You can think of some commercial real estate prices in certain markets. But we don’t see it in housing, which is key.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/powell-says-some-asset-prices-are-elevated-including-stocks.html?recirc=taboolainternal
“But we don’t see it in housing, which is key.”
Has this clown ever even checked on house prices? My gawd…
“My gawd…”
Everything is under control… now go back to work.
But we don’t see it in housing, which is key.”
LOL. Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
“The Guild 1% Down Loan: It gives buyers who qualify an extra 2 percent grant that doesn’t need to be repaid.
[A] couple buying a $300,000 house who put $3,000 down would actually have $9,000, or 3 percent, to put down.”
What is the MAXIMUM price of a house I am allowed to buy? What is the interest terms for the 1% loan?
Whose free money are they using?
********************************************************************************
Don’t know if the the farm team both getting a 2nd job$ off the farm will make a difference down.the.hard.rock.road ahead …
Farm debt subject to interest increa$es
+
Farm land avaible @ rock bottom price$
+
Farm $teel equipment looking cheaper going forward
+
Commodity price$ floating like tarty cranberries
+
Farm export$ ready to set historical records due to gubermint trade police$
(Where’s Willy these days, growing hemp?)
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-rancher-says-the-fed-should-take-it-easy-2018-03-21
Downtown Los Angeles, CA Housing Prices Crater 7% YOY On Deteriorating Quality Of Life Issues
https://www.zillow.com/downtown-los-angeles-ca/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
One noticeable shift in 2017 was that Millennials are now reaching a point of financial well-being.
Financial well-being = able to borrow alot more for a house they can’t afford, got it.
We’re changing the way we calculate affordability, so you never have to worry about THAT again.
“Recently, credit agencies have changed their policies, choosing not to report certain judgments and liens on credit,’ Conner says. ‘This can improve people’s credit scores, enabling buyers to get better interest rates and qualify when they may not have been eligible previously.”
Oh ok.
So instead of lowering the credit limit requirement, they just don’t report things that would drop it in the first place.
Same crappy borrower though…
Distinction without a difference?
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/vancouver-real-estate-is-so-crazy-construction-workers-have-to-live-under-skytrain-tracks/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=PSocial&utm_campaign=MAC+always+on&utm_term=news&utm_content=0
Vancouver real estate is wack, but this guy’s approach is pretty legit. If he is clearing $4k a month and basically living like a homeless guy, he could get some savings pretty quick.
Just an observation about South Asians. The mothers are all obsessed with living in clean, new homes. They hate any house or apartment that is dirty or old. Even a 25-year old house is far too old for an Indian living in North America. I find it a bit nuts because, I’ve seen photos of India and they’re surrounded by dirt there. Maybe the neurosis comes from that.
As a result of this new/clean obsession they eagerly buy homes in new subdivisions in Ontario, BC, New Jersey and elsewhere.
The mothers are also a major pain in the ass if you rent a room to one of their precious sons who is a university students. Even the ‘aunties’ will not tolerate typical student off-campus housing for the sons of their friends and family.
An article that may explain a bit …
http://learningindia.in/indias-by-class/
A snippet of an article that hasn’t posted yet …
“3.) New Indians – This is a phenomenon and a class that has emerged over the last 20-30 years. They work for multinationals or started their own companies in the tech boom of the 1990s. Their purchasing power has drastically increased compared to their families. They move around India where their work takes them, but also may have other aspirations of really making it big and working abroad. These people have family and cousins living and working in Europe, the Gulf, or the US, and can reasonably save up for a visit every few years. They can also potentially afford to send their children abroad for higher studies if they wish. This class of Indian is the face of the New India and the one that India wants the world to remember.
“Being a New Indian is much more a mindset and a modern phenomenon than an economic class. There are young graduates making Rs. 15,000 per month who would be in this category as well as dollar millionaires. Being a New Indian is about adopting a much more “international” lifestyle in terms of taste and preference. They maintain most of the core Indian values, but have shed at least a few things the Classic Indians hold onto, such as traditional dress, music taste, or spending habits.”
Good posy. Thanks.
The Indians I’m thinking of don’t all come from a jet set class. Factory workers who get their papers through the visa lottery or chain migration also share this obsession with new homes. They’ll share a new house with two other families when they arrive but once they move on up and buy their own houses they always buy new.
Can Bubble,
Remember that we have numerous California-based posters on this board.
The reasonable tendency is for them to think, therefore, that most Asians living in the USA are wealthy.
“Surrounded by dirt…”
I’m often surprised that many of the Latinos buy cases of bottled water at the grocery store. The BIG cases of 30-50 bottles. They don’t trust American tap water? The irony… it burns…
They must listen to Alex Jones.
New Fed will never get to four cuts on THEIR watch.
HISTORY.
BlueSkye, take notes.
Is their going to be a quiz later?
Bull markets run on FA. Bear markets run on TA. Charts are at the heart. Watching gives you the cadence. We’re back into volatility now.
I thought from yesterday’s comment you were curious about the paradigm.
Housing my friend…. Housing.
Sarasota, FL Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/sarasota-fl-34231/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
Curious sure. No dog in this though.
Wrong. The stock market has, at points, gone stratospheric for no fundamental reason, leaving cash in the dust. FOMO rules!
“The fed can buy a rally while shorty has to get it right.”
So AA borrowers MAY now be AAA. This flaws risk assessment models and algorithms. Not good.
We need a flight to quality!
Exactly what “quality” is there? Airboxes in Miami and LA? Crumbling semi-detached duplexes in Toronto? Warehouses of apples and garlic in China? Stocks? Bonds? Gold? Bitcoin? Ol’ Bill’s fine wine and car parts? Stockpile of Percoset? It looks to me like everything is going to sh!t.
I think that someone with, say $10-15 million could do well. Buy something decrepit in an Oil-City town. Look and act poor while fixing the place up as a clandestine fortress with a rec room that looks like the one in Tremors. But if you have, say, $250 million to preserve and grow, you’re stuck.
“Nevertheless, to repeat: The Fed’s massive balance sheet expansion under QE destroyed the historical federal funds market long ago. Under present circumstances, “rate” increases are simply an exercise in pleasuring US banks with another IOER windfall on their $2.1 trillion of excess reserves.
The Fed’s working theory, of course, is that if it tiptoes lithely around the Wall Street’s swaying tower of speculation, the gamblers will stay calm and keep buying the dips.
To wit, they have no clue about where they are going or what comes next. They have mutilated every law of sound money and have inflated the greatest bubble in human history. Now they are simply hanging on for dear life—-even as they chant a brave Keynesian tune about an alleged Goldilocks Economy.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/21-trillion-and-counting-fed-misdirection-and-powells-powder-puff-presser-part-4/
“Another subgroup showing signs of growth is in the older population that lost their homes during the financial crisis or sold out of necessity and began renting instead. ‘Recently, credit agencies have changed their policies, choosing not to report certain judgments and liens on credit,’ Conner says. ‘This can improve people’s credit scores, enabling buyers to get better interest rates and qualify when they may not have been eligible previously.’”
I know somebody who went BK somewhere around 2009, and she bought another house a few years ago. She said she had been worried about her credit score, but since she hadn’t borrowed anything since the BK, it was great and she had no problem getting a mortgage.
That’s curious. I was under the impression that you needed to be an active debt donkey to have a “great” credit score.
It was very eye-opening, especially since she had both a foreclosure AND a bankruptcy. I don’t think credit scores even matter anymore insofar as borrowing goes. It used to be you needed a good score just to get a loan, now it seems everyone qualifies, but it’s the rate that’s predicated on the score.
all u really need is a job and u can get a loan.
‘She offered the asking price of $325,000, which was near the top end of her budget. ‘The payment’s a little high … but it’s doable,’ Schroeder said.’
Michelle, met Jenny from Perth.
‘Last year, after staving off debtors and living on credit cards, she declared bankruptcy. ‘It still makes me emotional now to think at 53 years old and I don’t have a car and I don’t have a house. I have a lounge suite, two display cupboards, and a coffee table and that’s all I own now at 53,’ she said. ‘I’m mad with the banks that they just seem to lend to so many people, and allow so many houses to be built.’
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=10378
She makes about $71k total pay (not including benefits) according to Transparent CA. She just bought herself a boat anchor.
Can someone here on the HBB - splain this nutty job to me?
“Even still, homes are more affordable than they have been since the dawning of the new millennium, argues Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial Corporation, whose voice is another addition to report. When accounting for rising incomes and historically low interest rates, Americans have more purchasing power than in the booms of 2000 and 2006, Fleming said. Real estate site Trulia also found that homes were more affordable to more Americans than any time in the past 40 years.”
That’s your garden variety bullsheet from a guy whose financial well being depends upon people borrowing money.
The whole article is kinda loopy:
‘The measuring stick will be slightly different every year but will still measure the same ability to buy in the market,’ Snyder said. ‘We’re really happy about that because we’ll never outgrow our measuring stick again.’
‘Still, he acknowledges that the change in parameters isn’t good news for everybody. Many residents haven’t experienced an increase in buying power: stagnating wages and rocketing prices put homes well beyond their reach, even at rock-bottom prices.’
Huh?
‘To that group, the report’s changes may come as a bit of a shock. Last year’s study boldly claimed ‘there are no entry level housing options,’ while Snyder said this year he ‘really tried to make sure we didn’t have a tone’ and present the numbers as neutrally as possible.’
‘This year’s report is ‘less dire because our perspective has changed. That’s the risk you take in changing the measuring stick.’
trumps old tanning bed is for sale on ebay.
If you don’t like what the data tells you, change the parameters.
“It is hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair
“Can someone here on the HBB - splain this nutty job to me?”
Christopher Thornberg at Beacon Economics will parrot the same meme.
They know where their bread is buttered.
McMaster out, John Bolton in. Crap. John Bolton. Even the Donald-to-the-Death devotees on Reddit are bummed out.
They’ll be partying in the streets of Tel Aviv.
The rise of the swamp?
The Swamp Strikes Back
It’s a War cabinet. I don’t think hip roofs do well in nuclear attacks.
OK, I”ll bite. I know what a hip roof is, and I know what a nuclear attack is. But I don’t get the joke.
I didn’t know Colonel Sanders was still alive. I’ll be damned!
Cupertino, CA Housing Prices Crater 14% YOY As California Economy Weakens
https://www.movoto.com/cupertino-ca/market-trends/
Did GOOG and FB sell your personal data today?
Even HA is pimping your addy
Housing
Andover, MA Housing Prices Crater 13% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/andover-ma/market-trends/
You guys are gonna love this!
Guild Mortgage mentioned above is being Sued by the department of justice for mortgage fraud concerning FHA backed loans
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-alleging-guild-mortgage-improperly-originated-and-underwrote-fha
Guild participated in the FHA insurance program as a direct endorsement (DE) lender. As a DE lender, Guild had the authority to originate, underwrite and certify mortgages for FHA insurance.
The complaint alleges that, through Guild’s quality control reviews, significant defects were found in over 20 percent of the FHA loans reviewed between 2006 and 2011 and over half the loans had either significant or moderate defects.
Looks like more of the same stuff that led us to the last credit/housing bubble. Will we ever learn?
The problem is that none of the individuals that architect these schemes are ever held accountable. The “companies” - which are legal constructs - are fined just sufficiently so that they create a windfall tax revenue for the fining body, which benefits politicians; certainly those lower in the corporate hierarchy are harmed, by losing their jobs; but none of the architects are touched.
So, if one is suitably predisposed, this sort of thing is a lucrative endeavor.
The Economist ran a two-part series on housing in Japan last week that I found rather interesting. Basically Japan’s housing market is completely the opposite of the US when it comes to existing vs new home sales. In the US, 90% of home sales are for existing homes (eg non-new houses) and 10% are new. In Japan, it is completely the opposite; 90% of home sales are new and 10% are used.
Apparently in Japan no one wants to live in a used house. Part of this is cultural because there are stigmas about living in a house formerly occupied by someone associated with a suicide or a cult, for example. But another part of it is explained by the fact that Japanese just plan on about a 20-year life cycle for housing. Additionally, the Japanese, according to The Economist, tend to experience all of life’s main stages in one place, unlike an American which tends to view a progression as starting with the “starter home”, graduating to the “trade up”, and then finishing as an empty-nester in a forever home. In Japan, when the 20 years is up, the house is demolished and redone with the latest and greatest. There are about 10 million abandoned homes and that number is expected to rise to 20 million by 2033.
I view the Japanese penchant for disposable housing as hugely wasteful, and an enormous money sink, not not wholly misguided. Housing is largely affordable and it is not viewed and there is a lot less of a financial speculation vehicle. There is something for both sides to learn here. Americans should think of housing of more as consumption and less of an investment and Japanese should try to make their housing last a bit longer and not be too hasty to tear down a perfectly good dwelling.
Agreed. It even bothers me to see people ripping out perfectly good kitchen cabinets on HGTV just because they aren’t “updated” enough. There is way too much waste in our society.
Americans think of purchases as an investment because it gives them an excuse to indulge their egos.
To justify their egos.
To support their egos.
“All leading economic indicators look great, [...]“
Click!
Sister Jean sure opened a can of whoop@ss at the men’s basketball tournament.
What you don’t know about Loyola’s Sister Jean
Zac Davis
March 21, 2018
Sister Jean is a celebrity of the highest degree around campus. She attends everything: orientations, games, plays, rallies, vigils, meetings and Mass. She does all of this—well into her 90s—with the joy of the Gospel. And though a recent hospitalization has placed her in a wheelchair for now, she had been as ambulatory as the athletes she ministers to.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/03/21/what-you-dont-know-about-loyolas-sister-jean
how come trump is trying to get us to pay higher prices on chinese imports?
Money
Experts everywhere tell you to buy a home—here’s why they’re wrong
Emmie Martin
8:00 AM ET Mon, 5 Feb 2018
The factors you should consider before buying a new home
Chances are, you’ve gotten some version of the following advice at some point: “You should buy a house because it’s a good investment.”
Even if it seems like the next logical step in your financial plan or in your life, think twice before making the commitment. Owning a home isn’t always the sound investment it’s made out to be, maintains Eric Roberge, a CFP and founder of Beyond Your Hammock.
“A single family home is not an investment,” Roberge tells CNBC Make It. “It may gain money over time, but if you’re looking to invest, buying a single family home and then living in that home is not the place to do it.”
Before handing over a down payment, consider your priorities. Do you want a place to call your own that you can decorate and design as you wish? Are you planning to start a family and looking for a space you can grow into? Or are you mostly looking to boost your net worth?
There are plenty of excellent reasons to purchase a home, but if your priority is to grow your money, investing in the market is going to provide far more lucrative returns.
Returns on the residential housing market are “not making anybody rich,” Roberge says. “You’re barely keeping up with inflation, not to mention all of the costs that go along with owning a home.”
Indeed, a study from London Business School and Credit Suisse found that, after adjusting for inflation, housing offered returns around 1.3 percent per year from 1900 to 2011. By contrast, the average annualized total return for the S&P 500 index over the past 90 years is 9.8 percent.
…
Did you BTFD on the trade war scare?
Well worth the view before this interview with the High school activist COUGH! COUGH! paid actor and son of CNN exec and long time FBI agent is scrubbed completely.
HOGG WILD: STUDENT WARRIOR IN PROFANITY-LACED INTERVIEW…
http://www.drudgereport.com/
Didn’t even notice his very last statement until now but the “crisis actor” statement seems to have touched a nerve with our little New World Order SS Officer.
Does it seem like Cramer is trying to foment panic these days? Maybe he decided it was time to short the market.
Jim Cramer: The Nasdaq Freefall Has All the Signs of a Total, Endless Panic
By Jim Cramer | Mar 23, 2018 | 12:55 PM EDT
Stock quotes in this article: FB, mu, dbx
The lack of buyers in the Nasdaq would give anyone trepidation. The freefall has all the signs of a total, endless panic where sellers are willing to take any prices knowing that it will be down more on Monday.
What we are seeing now is a sense that there’s not going to be money made again in tech now that President Trump has decided to protect tech in his fight for intellectual property rights. It’s ironic but the Facebook (FB) privacy issue, the Micron’s (MU) flash issue and the president’s $60 billion in tariffs — so unorganized — are just crushing the NAZZ, It’s been a long time since I have seen such a rout.
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