To Question Whether Prices Can Go Up Forever
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors says a rise in cost of 2 ½ to 5 percent would be comfortable for the market. From last year to now, the median home price is up four times that, rising 20 percent. Median home prices have hit the $400,000 mark in Reno for the first time ever. That’s up $70,000 from this time a year ago Which begs the question, are signs pointing to a housing bubble? These experts say it’s not a concern, as long as our job market stays strong. Some people are settling on location. ‘How far do I have to drive to get a house that I can afford, as an example, Fernley is still $100,000 less expensive for a home,’ said John Graham, former president with the Reno/Sparks Association of REALTORS.”
“A major Petaluma housing project is in limbo after a developer decided to sell the venture. It is the largest housing project in Petaluma currently under development. But construction of the first phase is on hold as builder Comstock Homes and its investment partner, Real Capital Solutions, are seeking to sell the project to ‘a national home builder,’ according to Troy Busse, director of purchasing for El Segundo-based Comstock Homes. ‘It’s not good news. The investment group decided to sell,’ he said. ‘They didn’t think it would bring in the returns they were hoping.’”
“A discussion originally scheduled for development standards turned into another debate about a controversial property when the Encinitas City Council voted April 18 in favor of removing the site from a housing proposal already sent to the Department of Housing and Community Development. Richard Boger, who is spearheading the neighborhood petition, said residents are concerned because of an oversaturation of affordable housing in the Quail Gardens Drive neighborhood. ‘We’re not trying to defeat the affordable housing,’ Boger said. ‘We’re just trying to have fairness. … It’s just way too much.’”
“‘Removing the property keeps the faith with the community character,’ said Council member Tony Kranz. ‘The idea that this property that we own has to be in the mix is just crazy.’”
“More than half of Dallas-area neighborhoods saw a decline in home purchases in early 2018 after years of rising sales. The largest decreases in sales came in high-priced neighborhoods in Colleyville (-30 percent), the Park Cities (-28 percent), Fairview (-26 percent) and Northeast Dallas including Lake Highlands (-20 percent). ‘We are definitely seeing a slowdown in appreciation at the higher end,’ said housing analyst Paige Shipp with Metrostudy Inc. “As mortgage rates are increasing they can’t buy quite as much home as they could before.’”
“In March there were about 1,400 more preowned houses on the market in North Texas than a year before. Some of the biggest year-over-year increases in the number of homes listed for sale in the first quarter were in Richardson (up 60 percent), McKinney (up 35 percent) and Wylie (up 28 percent). Jim Fite, president of Dallas’ Century 21 Judge Fite Co. Realtors, said competition from home investors is keeping the supply of affordable houses tight in many Dallas-area neighborhoods. ‘I get probably three to five calls or letters from investors every day,’ he said. ‘I think they are paying stupid prices that drives up the market.’”
“Developer CMC Group reports that 75% of Brickell Flatiron’s 549 units have been sold or are currently under hard contract. But for every story there is about a Brickell Flatiron there is also one about about a Boulevard 57—the canceled condo project in Miami’s MiMo/Upper East Side neighborhood that was eventually sold to 13th Floor Investments and Tricera Capital. This February the partners received permission from the city of Miami to develop a mixed-use, 448,000-square foot apartment building with retail.”
“‘There are buildings full of empty condos in Miami,’ Aaron Singer, CEO of Bulldog Adjusters, tells GlobeSt.com. ‘Contractors see the opportunity to build buildings, but the influx of new buildings is creating a surplus.’”
“The financial travails of the giant Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co., which is currently trying to unload its overseas holdings, are casting a spotlight on a vast portfolio of luxury homes owned by executives of HNA and a U.S. company run by the brother of its chairman. HNA has racked up significant debt from a long international acquisition spree. While the company has been moving to sell a large chunk of commercial assets, executives at HNA and the U.S. company are sitting on nearly $200 million in luxury homes throughout the New York metro area, according to a review of property records by The Wall Street Journal.”
“Now isn’t the best time to be listing luxury real estate in Manhattan, New York-based agents say. If Chen Guoqing, Pacific American or Mr. Tan were to list their residential units, particularly at One57, they might have to be willing to sell at a loss. Units at the building have been trading at a significant discount to their original sales prices in recent months, according to property records, due in part to a glut of luxury inventory on the market in Manhattan. ‘If they’re priced right they’ll go, but it’s always better if you’re the only person swimming in the pool,’ said Donna Olshan, a luxury Manhattan broker. ‘It’s certainly not a scenario for pushing the prices up.’”
“A homeowner in a housing complex in London with Grenfell-type cladding has been told the value of her £475,000 home has collapsed and is now just £50,000. Galliard Homes, the developer of the 11-block complex in New Capital Quay in south-east London, is facing a £30m-£40m bill to replace the cladding and is locked in a legal dispute over who should pay. The dispute, which could take years to resolve, has left Cecile Langevin, 32, and potentially thousands of others up and down the country, with an unsellable flat.”
“‘It is like someone has taken away our life choices, our freedom,’ she said. ‘And nobody is doing anything about it,’ she added, in tears.”
“Apartments prices in Sweden dropped by 7% in the January-March period compared to the same period of the previous year, according to data from the Association of Swedish Real Estate Agents. In March, Swedish home prices fell by 4.5% on an annual basis. The apartment prices fell by 8.% year-on year, while single-family home prices were down 1.8%. Property prices have risen much more than wages over the last couple of decades and Swedish households are among the most indebted in Europe.”
“Sweden’s financial regulator has introduced a number of measures in recent years to cool the lean housing market, including mortgage-backed rules for large borrowers.”
“Throughout 2017, many Dubai tenants had been looking for cheaper places, and several were getting them at a high discount. This is a fact that applies to Abu Dhabi as well. The reason is that ‘There’s a lot of empty properties, in the UAE capital,’ said John Stevens, Managing Director of Asteco’s Abu Dhabi first quarter Real Estate Report 2018.”
“Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard is now in a buyers’ market phase, according to Seeff’s agents in the area. The latest Propstats data shows that the sectional title sector of the market is down year-on-year by about 34% in value, and 41% in volume terms up to April. A quick glance at Private Property shows that there are well over 1,200 sectional title property listings on the Atlantic seaboard while only 88 sales were recorded on Propstats for this year to early April. According to luxury sectional title specialists at Seeff, stock has increased notably, but sellers are still not motivated enough to drop their prices sufficiently to encourage buyers to put pen to paper.”
“The massive supply of new apartments in and around Seoul is pulling down ‘jeonse’ prices, adding to the concerns of housing investors who use deposits from tenants as leverage. Market watchers warn such leveraged investments will inevitably lead to financial losses for owners. According to real estate agents in Songpa-gu in southern Seoul, jeonse prices of Jamsil LLLs and Jamsil Recenz, which are among the most popular apartment complexes in the district, are falling steeply.”
“‘If the housing prices begin to fall, investors who leveraged on jeonse will face losses. They may put their homes up for sale at cheaper prices, further pulling down housing prices,” said Lee Mi-yun, an analyst at Real Estate 114. ‘Investors should be cautious about leveraged investments since there are negative factors such as the increasing supply of new housing, stricter regulation on mortgages and a property tax hike, which may snowball their losses.’”
“According to the Korea Housing Institute, 24.4 percent of new apartments recently built around the country are vacant. Forty-two percent of the owners of these vacant apartments said they failed to find tenants, while 23.2 percent said they can’t move into new housing as their old homes are not selling.”
“The area of new homes sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, jumped 24.2 percent to about 84,000 square meters during the seven-day period ending on Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report. But the average price of the new homes fell 6.3 percent week on week to 47,255 yuan (US$7,512) per square meter.”
“Lakeville, a development of Shui On Land, released 118 apartments last week at an average price of between 120,000 yuan and 190,000 yuan per square meter, according to Centaline data. The price range is almost equivalent to that of an earlier batch released in November 2015. The total new supply released to the market surged 50.7 percent week on week to 98,000 square meters last week. For the second half of this month, at least 11 projects with around 4,900 units will be launched for sale citywide, a separate report by Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Co said. These units will lift April’s total new home supply to over 6,500 units — the highest since 2017.”
“The most expensive homes in the country are becoming harder to sell as deep-pocketed buyers shy away from buying blue-chip properties in Australia. Sydney’s high-end property market bore the worst of the damage, with the value of blue-chip properties falling an eye-raising 5.7 percent over the last 12 months. To give that context, if Sydney’s most expensive home – the $70 million Point Piper Elaine Estate once owned by the Fairfax family – were to drop 5.7 percent, it would record a fall of almost $4 million.”
“It’s been one year since the Ontario Fair Housing Plan changed the rules of the real estate game in the Toronto region, and it’s a dramatically different market 12 months later. Some 40 per cent fewer homes are changing hands year-over-year, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board. And the average Greater Toronto Area home price has slumped 15 per cent from frenzied peak of April 2017. While the year-over-year figure is alarming, the price correction was actually quite swift. Average prices plunged 20 per cent from April to August of last year, from roughly $920,791 to $732,292.”
“LOSERS: ‘The roughly 37 per cent of people who already own a single-family home are watching their equity vaporize. That loss is particularly insidious for fixed-income retirees who depend on their equity for survival,’ said Rob McLister, founder, RateSpy.com. ‘The nearly 1,000 people (and possibly more) who had to back out of their transactions last year because of the rapid 20 per cent decline in house prices in just four months. Many of these buyers who bought at the peak and backed out of their purchases are getting sued by sellers for the decline in the sale price of their home,’ said John Pasalis, president of Realosphy.”
“Was Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan a case of too much government meddling in the housing market? ‘Definitely not… Buyers and sellers overreacted to the provincial foreign buyer tax. The biggest effect the Fair Housing Plan had over the past year was psychological. It caused sellers and buyers to question whether prices can go up forever,’ said Pasalis.”
‘A major Petaluma housing project is in limbo after a developer decided to sell the venture… ‘They didn’t think it would bring in the returns they were hoping’
Oh dear…
I live in Petaluma and have been forced to move twice in the last two years due to the houses we were renting being sold. We have seen our rent go from 1600$ to 2800$ in that time(2 years!). I see this ending in tears maybe that homebuilder sees this also - landlords are making a killing in sonoma county right now - 2% vacancy- greedy bastards.
Tom
That’s unpossible! A psoter here says that you can rent for less than half the monthly cost of mortgage and taxes.
We could have bought - I just can’t rationalize 600 to 700,000 plus for a unremodeled 1949 blue collar house that was 300,000 at the height of the last bubble.
Tom
That’s exactly how millions of people are losing half a million or more at the stroke of a pen. They don’t reason very well.
599K for a shack in sketchy El Sobrante:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Richmond/3423-Grasswood-Dr-94803/home/1587268?utm_source=myredfin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=recommendations_update&riftinfo=ZXY9ZW1haWwmbD00MjI0MDAwJnA9bGlzdGluZ191cGRhdGVzX3JlY29tbWVuZGF0aW9ucyZ0cz0xNTI0MTQxNzExOTE4JmE9Y2xpY2smcz1yZWNvbW1lbmRhdGlvbnMmdD1pbWFnZSZlbWFpbF9pZD00MjI0MDAwXzE1MjQxNDE3MTFfNiZ1cGRhdGVfdHlwZT0xNCZsaWxyX3Njb3JlPTAuMjM5MSZsaXN0aW5nX2lkPTgxODA4NzQ4JnByb3BlcnR5X2lkPTE1ODcyNjgmcG9zaXRpb25fbnVtYmVyPTA=#overview
Yes, they should have bought during the last bubble bust. They could sell now and make half a million and rent for $2,800/month.
Even if rents go up to 5,600/Mon, it’s a lot of free rent!
That’s right.
Why buy it when you can rent it for half the monthly cost? Buy later after prices crater for 75% less.
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/ponte-vedra-beach-fl/home-values/
Littleton, CO Housing Prices Crater 17% YOY As Denver Housing Correction Accelerates
https://www.movoto.com/littleton-co/market-trends/
Realtor arrested for intoxication manslaughter:
http://smmercury.com/2014/09/30/prominent-hays-county-realtor-arrested-for-intoxicated-manslaughter/
If you see one of these monsters in your neighborhood, lock the doors and call the authorities immediately.
Trina Blansitt said: “Fill in his last and first name, then click on search button. Three prior DWIs, one assault causing bodily injury to a family member, then the one from last night. Glad I never knew him. .. doesn’t sound like a pillar of the community to me!”
He just might end-up sucking bananas for 12 to 18 months.
Papa 🐻 drop on the Dow today? At some price point, even Apple is crapple.
Most traditional stock market analysts seriously underestimate the effects of the Fed’s punchbowl removal operations on prices. It has been well over a decade since Alan Greenspan’s punchbowl removal attempt in 2006 precipitated the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The low risk premium conundrum which worried Greenspan has subsequently become a permanent feature of the financial climate, thanks to Quantitative Easing and ZIRP.
Watch out as even Fed doves fret about markets living in La-La Land
By Victor Reklaitis
Published: Apr 20, 2018 9:12 a.m. ET
Critical information for the U.S. trading day
…
The real problem facing the Fed is that the same folks who are fretting about high asset prices have also assumed a role as the de facto guarantors of high asset prices. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
“Which begs the question, are signs pointing to a housing bubble? These experts say it’s not a concern,…”
So long as this circular discussion continues to gyrate in the MSM, the Housing Bubble lives!
Would they quote used car salesmen as “experts” on the car market?
Realtor accused of sexually assaulting new employee:
http://www.kxan.com/news/crime/realtor-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-new-employee/1049606556
It probably depends on the strength of the used car salesmen lobby.
Realtor accused of chaining woman like a dog, killed at least 7, officials say:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/11/06/realtor-accused-of-chaining-woman-in-metal-container-was-a-potentially-explosive-teen-rapist/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e8af6c0302b
‘More than half of Dallas-area neighborhoods saw a decline in home purchases in early 2018 after years of rising sales. The largest decreases in sales came in high-priced neighborhoods’
Double dear!
There’s no relief on the lower end yet though.
‘Sales of the most expensive million-dollar-plus homes were down by 5 percent in the first three months of 2018.
Purchases of houses priced between $190,000 and $300,000 were up from 15 percent to 18 percent in the first quarter.’
Fite said competition from home investors is keeping the supply of affordable houses tight in many Dallas-area neighborhoods.
“I get probably three to five calls or letters from investors every day,” he said. “I think they are paying stupid prices that drives up the market.”
Someone mentioned the number of Air BNB homes recently so I went and looked in my area. Sure enough there are 5-6 homes listed, some of which were recently bought by the now AirBNB listing person. These homes sold for in the mid to high $200k’s and rent for like $80 / night for the whole house. That doesn’t seem profitable.
As we all know the builder boyz only want to build high end houses, because that’s were the big profits are. So we end up with a glut of McMansions and a dearth ofsmaller houses that the average could possibly afford.
What I’ve seen back home (not here in San Diego) is that older, smaller and cheaper houses are still rising price wise and sell quickly, while the new McMansions languish.
smart folks are catching on - but there are on a small %
i have a co-worker that lives near SMU (i forgot the name of the fancy neighborhood). They got an offer (from someone wanting to buy and rent out) that was so good that they could not say no.
He is now in process of moving into a rental - and banking the run-up equity.
“‘More than half of Dallas-area neighborhoods saw a decline in home purchases”
That’s right Uncle Ben…. Cratering demand… And prices? Well…..
Dallas, TX 75287 Housing Prices Crater 7% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/dallas-tx-75287/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
Public unions are the LARGEST campaign contributors of ALL TIME
Public unions give 99% to democrats
No city or town democrat could be elected without them
Property tax rates at 5% - and going up!
Hope and change…
+++++++
Harvey, IL pension crisis ‘canary in the coal mine’
American Thinker | April 20, 2018 | Rick Moran
Harvey. Illinois is in the midst of a financial crisis that represents the tip of the iceberg for literally hundreds of small towns in Illinois.
The city of 25,000 in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago is suffering from high unemployment (22%). An astonishing 32% of the population lives below the poverty level. This is a deadly mixture that has caused catastrophic shortfalls in revenue, leading to a crisis in funding pensions for the city’s retired workers.
Since state law prohibits municipal bankruptcy, Harvey has been forced into a situation Illinois has never seen. In February, the state began to garnish Harvey’s revenue to fund its pension liabilities. The city was forced to lay off 40 police and firemen - 25% of police employees and 40% of firefighters. This, in a city already known for high levels of crime.
The City of Harvey cannot afford to pay its bills and their employees so they were forced to cut 40 public employees from the police and fire departments. The city has an unemployment rate over 20%, effective property tax rates are over 5%, despite home values declining at an alarming 80% over the last 10 years.
Harvey families, homeowners, workers, and business owners have paid out nearly $25 million in pension benefits to 42 retired firefighters who have only contributed a collective $1.14 million to their retirement fund.
Who is standing up for the families in Harvey? Is it Democratic Mayor Kellogg who has been under investigation multiple times for insider deals and fraud? Democratic Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle who supported Democratic Cook County Property Assessor Joe Berrios who was exposed for his corruption in assessing property values to benefit the rich and punish the poor? The Democratic majority in Springfield that has been propping up Ponzi schemes for years unchallenged and being held to no standards?
Being that the homes there have already lost 80% of their value and it’s turning int a crime infested cesspool, why would anyone stay? If everyone leaves, how will they pay the pensions?
If I was a cop or firefighter there, I would take the lump sum now. Whatever they get will be more than they contributed. Of course the greedy ones will say stuff like “a promise is a promise”, but promises get broken, especially when there is no money to cover them.
If everyone leaves, how will they pay the pensions?
After all the residents abandon their property to the city, the politicians can auction it off to the highest bidder & turn over the proceeds to their pensioners. Of course, if a property owner is liable to pay the pensioners as a condition of ownership, that property would have a negative value. IANAL - I don’t know where else a lawsuit over un-met pension promises could go to get more money for those precious pensioners. Maybe the judge could order toll gates put up at the city limits & shake down highway travelers to pay for the pensions. Enslaving the current residents of Harvey is unconstitutional, AFAICT.
The way I see it, the pensions will get paid in the form of decreasing property values. The city will try to squeeze the local taxpayers to fund obligations and the corresponding value of the homes in that area will continue to decline to the point where they are very affordable, even when considering onerous taxes. Of course, the value of the pensions will have to be written down at some point. This is a tug-of-war that pits the value of the houses in the municipality with pension obligations that are clearly unsustainable.
the value of the pensions will have to be written down at some point.
That’s the rub. AFAICT the law dictates those pensions CANNOT be written down. The impossible (delivering on the insane pension promises) can’t happen. Legislators may actually have to stop collecting campaign contributions & — horror of horrors - pass legislation to remedy the problem. Either that or utter doom and disaster will ensue.
Agreed. We cannot assume that the right thing or the fair thing will be done. The only thing that will be done will be done will depend on politics and who can wield enough power to take the least amount of medicine. My money is on the homeowners’ taxes going up, pensioners will be paid.
I think that is the safest bet in the short term. However unless you build a wall around California to keep citizens in not to keep illegals out, tax payers will flee and eventually there will be no money to pay. See Puerto Rico as an example.
The legislature could declare a force majeure.
The legislature could declare a force majeure.
You dreamer, you! As if any of our current legislators are really interesting in doing their jobs.
public sector is growing at a sustainable rate.
Even in wealthy Seattle (esp King County), there are so many well paying jobs that don’t do anything. In Dec, we went to a friends’ condo warming party. There were several folks that were co-coordinators for organizations that provide govt subsidized low cost housing. The amount of fluff that they do in their ‘jobs’ was ridiculous. Co-coordinators on one side talking to coordinators on the other side - and all being funded by King Co or Seattle.
typo - unsustainable.
“Even in wealthy Seattle (esp King County), there are so many well paying jobs that don’t do anything. In Dec, we went to a friends’ condo warming party. There were several folks that were co-coordinators for organizations that provide govt subsidized low cost housing. The amount of fluff that they do in their ‘jobs’ was ridiculous. Co-coordinators on one side talking to coordinators on the other side - and all being funded by King Co or Seattle.”
Co-conspirators, I call them. Yes, I’ve seen this too. I’ve pointed out here the ridiculous number of organizations dedicated to government-subsidized affordable housing and what mafias they are (I’ve had some personal interactions as a neighbor of these types of properties).
They’re all pigs feeding at the public trough claiming to be for the good of the poor, when really it’s all about themselves. In addition to the gov’t monies, they all participate in fundraising organizations where they get to go to lots of fancy parties and hob-knob with the “elite”.
Meanwhile they are also all ardent “conservationists/environmentalists”, which is code for locking up ever-increasing amounts of land in private trusts and putting in place more and more regulations concerning… everything, thereby making housing in these locales ever more expensive.
“The amount of fluff that they do in their ‘jobs’ was ridiculous.”
That’s “real work” for snowflakes… nothing of intrinsic value.
All counties in the Puget Sound area are suffering from serious government bloat. And you can’t reach anybody on the phone anymore. It just goes to voicemail and they never call back. These people hardly do anything, and collect massive paychecks. Paper pushing is the job.
It just goes to voicemail and they never call back.
I have often wondered what would happen if you left a voice mail saying “I have a check for you. Call me back.”
IL state constitution protects gov workers pensions
everyone else suffers
call your rep
assemble on the green and fire a shot
fcta.org is our local
IL state constitution protects gov workers pensions
The US constitution prevents states from altering contracts. If I am not mistaken, state pension promises are contractual obligations. Courts and the federal government are not so bound. I would like to read a summary of the situation — insane promises to pay public pensions vs. canceling those insane promises to save the public interest.
States alter contracts all the time - don’t you remember bubble 1.0? Plenty of states changed the rules in order to delay/prevent foreclosures and let deadbeats stay in homes they couldnt afford.
IMO a contract is only as stable and valid as the laws underpinning it, and those laws can and will be changed in the blink of an eye to suit the powers that be.
States alter contracts all the time - don’t you remember bubble 1.0? Plenty of states changed the rules in order to delay/prevent foreclosures and let deadbeats stay in homes they couldnt afford.
The constitution says what it says. In 1933 private possession of gold was outlawed and the so-called “gold clauses” in existing contracts were invalidated. The US Supreme Court approved of this. The same court approved of the internment and impoverishment of American citizens of Japanese descent. The executive order authorizing this obviously unconstitutional act is still in force.
So maybe we don’t really have a constitution after all.
Then there is Kunstler’s take on our situation:
A constitution is not holy writ. It’s only as sound as the citizenry that backs it up. In a nation of crooks, a constitution is usually worthless.
Yes. Many countries have great constitutions but no one will enforce them. This country was doomed when the federal government’s role went from a role of building roads and bridges and providing for the common defense to providing individuals transfer payments. It is why democracies only last for centuries while tyrannies last for thousands of years. Allow poor people to vote themselves other people’s money and the economy collapses. That is why in the country with the world’s greatest oil reserves, the people are starving. Of course, the leaders they voted in to redistribute the wealth are doing well.
Harvey is not a NW Chicago suburb. It’s on the south/southeast side, not far from Gary.
It is fraud.
DJT would bump 20% in the polls if a few WF executives were doing the perp walk.
+++++++
Wells Fargo hit with $1 billion fine
Ethan Wolff-Mann - Yahoo Finance - April 20, 2018
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) announced a combined fine of $1 billion against Wells Fargo (WFC) on Friday.
The consent orders from the two agencies described how the bank unfairly disregarded its advertised process of locking-in interest rates for mortgages, as well as unfairly foisting insurance on customers taking out auto loans.
If a closing of a mortgage dragged on due to Wells Fargo and not the customer, the bank still charged customers to keep the rates locked — despite this being contrary to policy, the consent order notes.
In the case of the car loans, the bank forced unnecessary insurance on hundreds of thousands of borrowers who already had insurance taken out on their vehicles. When customers pointed this out, the bank often failed to fix the error and refund the payments.
You would think the Republicans would get a clue and go after high crimes and fraud on Wall Street.
Realtor cited for public indecency:
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/real-estate-commission-disciplines-hills-agents/article_44752544-43d2-55da-8619-0e69792b2a20.html
The banking clan is still way too powerful. Perhaps DJT knows that he might end up assassinated by a kook who in turn will get offed before he can speak.
Death to the corporate entity known as Wells-Fargo! Claw back all compensation paid out since WF started its crime spree, and turn it over to the victims of WF.
“LOSERS: ‘The roughly 37 per cent of people who already own a single-family home are watching their equity vaporize. That loss is particularly insidious for fixed-income retirees who depend on their equity for survival,’ said Rob McLister, founder, RateSpy.com. ‘The nearly 1,000 people (and possibly more) who had to back out of their transactions last year because of the rapid 20 per cent decline in house prices in just four months. Many of these buyers who bought at the peak and backed out of their purchases are getting sued by sellers for the decline in the sale price of their home,’ said John Pasalis, president of Realosphy.”
Behold the handwriting on the wall for American homeowners.
Everyone is a genius riding the bubble up.
Victims and crying and seniors very survival on the ropes the way down.
I thought about the ’sellers suing the buyers’ thing when I ran across this in the not-so-fine print of a fund I was researching:
“The performance data shown represent past performance, which is not a guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate, so that investors’ shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost.”
It’s on every damn page of every fund. You can’t stomp your feet and say “I want more! I’m gonna sue!” No one promised you higher returns, Mr. and Mrs. Seller.
California has “elder abuse” laws on their books.
Yes, but knowing California it probably made it mandatory at least if they were old white people.
“That loss is particularly insidious for fixed-income retirees who depend on their equity for survival…”
Such people are exactly like those who depend on their future winnings at the Casino for their very survival.
Shouldn’t seniors’ homes be paid off, to reduce their monthly expenses? The last thing they should be doing is taking out HELOCs. The probability of dying before running out of equity to borrow has to be rather low.
If you paid your mortgage off, it means you probably did not manage your funds efficiently over the years. It’s as if you had 500,000 dollar bills stuffed in your mattress.
David. Respectfully you are wrong. In Canada we cannot deduct mortgage interest for a prinicipal residence. If you make $100 and have to pay tax of $50 you only have $50 left to make your payment. Assume 3% interest. A 56% hit on every mortgage payment (yes, principal and interest).
Best to pay house off - fast. Then gamble on the stock market - or go to Vegas and have some fun - same thing.
The steady improvement in home sales will support price appreciation despite all the wild projections by academics, Wall Street analysts, and others in the media. I believe that in years to come, historians will see the beginning of the 21st century as the “golden age” of real estate.
Patrick,
The above post was a parody of something said during the height of the housing bubble. It was made tongue-and-cheek to point of the absurdity of such thinking. Google the name for some foolish quotes.
I’d love to have a mattress stuffed with $500K
In San Diego, short answer, yes. But at least where I am, parents are getting close to paying off the mortgage exactly when it ‘s time for Sally Snowflake to go off to private college. And guess where the home equity goes? Yup, to the “diversity officers” at Safe Space University.
Oh, that’s hilarious, I’m going to borrow that one!
Safe Space Univ.
If only they would have sent them to Trump University, they would have gotten a massive court settlement payout.
If they send the snowflake(s) to a pricey but cr@ppy private university, it’s their own fault. Junior can go to state and commute from home. In some locales that can cost as little $20K for 4 years.
I have one kid who wants to run track at the local community college, then transfer to a four-year college or university. Can’t argue with the desire to fully exploit the bloom of youth while keeping college attendance costs to a manageable level!
PS He got into Northern Arizona University, which seemed like an attractive option until we saw the $32K price tag for tuition and living on campus as an out-of-state student.
while keeping college attendance costs to a manageable level!
I did that & it really paid off for me in the long run. In the very short run, not so much. I could afford only one concert in my college career. Andres Segovia!
How can you both pay off your mortgage and live high on the hog through cash-out refinancing? Makes no sense…
“The Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors says a rise in cost of 2 ½ to 5 percent would be comfortable for the market. From last year to now, the median home price is up four times that, rising 20 percent. Median home prices have hit the $400,000 mark in Reno for the first time ever. That’s up $70,000 from this time a year ago Which begs the question, are signs pointing to a housing bubble? These experts say it’s not a concern, as long as our job market stays strong. Some people are settling on location. ‘How far do I have to drive to get a house that I can afford, as an example, Fernley is still $100,000 less expensive for a home,’ said John Graham, former president with the Reno/Sparks Association of REALTORS.”
WOW. Reno is the epicenter of the bubble. No place in the United States is so out of whack when compared to local incomes. This guy talks about a “strong job market.” Wonder why he doesn’t mention median income? Because, $15 per hour in Reno is a GOOD job. Does $15 per hour support $400,000 houses? Median HOUSEHOLD income is anywhere from $46k to $55K depending upon the source of the info, per capita income $26k to $32k. Lots of housekeepers, landscapers and service industry folks out there.
Fernley? LMFAO. Fernley is a place where you used to be able to buy a house for $30k, and you had trouble selling it if you wanted to move. Now Fernley’s $300k? This thing is off the rails MUCH worse than last time.
Yeah, when you see Fernley and bubble in the same article, check!
BAHAHAHAHA!
“These experts say it’s not a concern, as long as our job market stays strong.”
Drove through Vegas yesterday, on the way to San Diego. Haven’t been there for ten years. From what I could see from I-15, a lot of businesses have indeed moved there, probably from LA. The local PD have billboards announcing that they are hiring.
I have never been to Reno, so I have no idea what’s going on there. Are Bay Aryan businesses moving there?
“These experts say it’s not a concern, as long as our job market stays strong.”
The entire Reno community job market is increasing because Tesla is building a factory there? Doubt it.. but the hysteria around T moving in pumps the market. In addition to that, the bay area transplants being priced out of their area do the trek 4 hours east and buy in the lower tax state Nevada. For some reason this reminds of this exact thing happening not too long ago. Now a median home is $400k but look at how many ~$1MM+ houses are for sale (and recently sold) in Reno that were $600-800k 1-2 years ago.
But the qualifications to get a loan are more stringent, they said!
Only to get a low interest loan. If you are less than ideal, you can always get one, at a higher interest rate.
I know a woman who just bought a condo in Reno. If you look at the tax price history since it last sold in 2013, the price she paid was 94% higher than 4.5 years ago.
And in Utah:
St. George-area housing prices keep climbing, interest rates are expected to jump again, and first-time homebuyers Giovanni and Jennifer Trumbo are feeling the pressure to buy while they can still afford it.
https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2018/04/20/st-george-utah-home-prices-outpace-incomes/536711002/
‘Richard Boger, who is spearheading the neighborhood petition, said residents are concerned because of an oversaturation of affordable housing in the Quail Gardens Drive neighborhood. ‘We’re not trying to defeat the affordable housing,’ Boger said. ‘We’re just trying to have fairness. … It’s just way too much.’
Now Dick (can I call you Dick?) you are going to make Rental Watch have a meltdown.
‘Removing the property keeps the faith with the community character,’ said Council member Tony Kranz. ‘The idea that this property that we own has to be in the mix is just crazy.’
Out here in the fields some people might call you a greedy bashtard Tony.
bubble bubble toil and trouble a flip? must have spent a ton on getting air rights 1+1= 3
https://astoriapost.com/24-story-apartment-building-to-rise-on-29th-street
https://therealdeal.com/2018/01/02/developers-bringing-condos-to-queensboro-plaza-assemblage-site/
‘A homeowner in a housing complex in London with Grenfell-type cladding has been told the value of her £475,000 home has collapsed and is now just £50,000…The dispute, which could take years to resolve, has left Cecile Langevin, 32, and potentially thousands of others up and down the country, with an unsellable flat.’
‘It is like someone has taken away our life choices, our freedom,’ she said. ‘And nobody is doing anything about it,’ she added, in tears’
Pull yourself together Cecile, it was cheaper than renting!
+/- half a million.
Well, at least fake stucco improperly installed by illegals in the US just sits there and rots the wood and allows black mold to grow.
++++
Langevin is one of about 2,000 residents in NCQ in Greenwich, believed to be the largest private development found to have flammable cladding after the west London disaster that cost 71 lives.
“It is quite shocking that the residents are living in potential death traps while everybody else tries to deny liability for the cost of making them safe.
The cladding doesn’t catch fire on its own, and was a legal construction material that met code at the time. The probability of a Grenfield type of fire is nil. But instead of the flat owners taling care of it themselves (an recovering the lost equity) they want someone else to pay for it.
How hard can it to remove that cladding?
‘And nobody is doing anything about it,’ she added, in tears’
Typical mentality, they expect someone else to solve the problem.
Reality check here - read the story - it’s a housing complex.
They don’t let you replace it yourself, even if you want to.
I’m sure the homeowners association (or whatever they’re called in the UK) could do it, after collecting an assessment. And that’s where the rub is, the the flat owners don’t want to pay, they probably want .gov to take care of it.
Now, had this cladding been illegal or out of code when the place was built, I could see holding the builder accountable, that would be different.
‘Was Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan a case of too much government meddling in the housing market? ‘Definitely not… Buyers and sellers overreacted to the provincial foreign buyer tax. The biggest effect the Fair Housing Plan had over the past year was psychological. It caused sellers and buyers to question whether prices can go up forever’
It doesn’t take much does it? Instead of building canyons of shacks no one can afford, how about we just take away the government gravy?
‘competition from home investors is keeping the supply of affordable houses tight in many Dallas-area neighborhoods. ‘I get probably three to five calls or letters from investors every day,’ he said. ‘I think they are paying stupid prices that drives up the market.’
Why are we subsidizing this?
Why are we subsidizing this?
It’s a war on honest people. The debt donkeys outnumber us and their very survival depends on our defeat.
Women testify against Realtor accused of rape:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-darryl-patterson-trial-opening-20180305-story.html
Perfect realtor combo…
******
The gruesome revelations are a stark contrast to Kohlhepp’s professional image. On the surface, Kohlhepp was a polished Realtor who ran a successful South Carolina real estate firm upstate. In a company brochure, Kohlhepp portrayed himself as a tech-savvy professional committed to helping people buy and sell homes in Greenville and Spartanburg counties
The psychiatrist said there was “convincing evidence” that Kohlhepp had borderline personality disorder. “Throughout the interview, one got the feeling that if he were pushed to any limits, he was potentially explosive,” the psychiatrist wrote. The psychiatrist also warned that Kohlhepp’s “severe underlying emotional issues … could result in emotional deterioration in the future or continued aggressive behavior toward others in the future.”
The psychiatrist said there was “convincing evidence” that Kohlhepp had borderline personality disorder.
The shrink’s description makes Kohlhepp sound more like a sociopath.
More like malignant narcissist/pyschopath. There’s a lot of them around nowadays!
Here’s an interesting story on this topic, concerning physician / administrative sociopaths.
Wow, that was intense. And I thought our hospital politics were bad. The ER is a war zone at times. Not sure I want to go back there…
That guy shouldn’t have been among the general public.
That guy shouldn’t have been among the general public.
Him, and lakhs of others, each of their brains are squirming like a toad.
Why?
Debt donkeys vote.
And when you get 51% of the people recruited into the free sh!t army.
A certain political class wins.
Until they run out of other people’s money.
The UK is a great example of this. I never met so many entitled people who expect “someone else” to pay for everything. It never crosses their minds that those sky high taxes (like the 20% VAT) makes everything insanely expensive.
makes everything insanely expensive.
Greed & financial manias work that way also.
They are closely related. Both expect to get something for nothing.
“Was Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan a case of too much government meddling in the housing market? ‘Definitely not… Buyers and sellers overreacted to the provincial foreign buyer tax. The biggest effect the Fair Housing Plan had over the past year was psychological. It caused sellers and buyers to question whether prices can go up forever,’ said Pasalis.”
This is not the only major issue. Cities and especially suburbs are getting killer building fees, taxes and building fees.
My dad (>80) goes to a senior citizen rec center in a Toronto suburb. It is incredible how much they are spending on seniors for recreation (not health or transportation). The politicians are truly milking the tax payers — to get votes from the committed voters (i.e. seniors). My mom goes up/down the neighborhood to canvas for preferred politicians. It is worth more than all the campaign ads to some of the confused middle aged/middle class voters.
There are lots of selfish old people out there, and there will tens of millions more in the next decade or two.
Entitled seniors are going to milk it for all its worth. Think Boomers will willingly accept a significant cut in their lifestyle? Think again.
They will drink every last drop out of the punchbowl.
According to Greenspan entitlements will be scaled-back.
Sure they will - once the punchbowl is drained dry.
Those who imbibed heavily in the sweet nectar will have died by then. Nothing but burning pavement for those who get to inherit their remains.
There are selfish people of every age I believe. Seriously MacBeth, what would you expect a geezer like me to do to make a difference?
Of course there are. That said, when was the last time in US history that there was anything resembling the unbridled and unchecked greed of today?
What era even approaches the full-frontal assault on individual liberty that we are witnessing today?
No other era even comes close.
What can an old geezer do? Plenty. All the old geezers of today who give a sh*t ought to march on Washington.
For 100 years, old geezers have managed to get much of what they wanted. Politicians have cow-towed to them for decades now. How did that happen if geezers don’t have any pull?
Geezers don’t want what I am talking about badly enough. They’d rather let their progeny swallow all the bitter pills.
A march you say. I suppose I could get close on the Appalachian Trail. Then I’d have to take I-95. Hmmmm.
My kids have training in self reliance. They have optimism, means and determination. I might be better placed here for what is coming.
I disagree about history. Yes we have a mess, but it has been eclipsed totally many times in history. A reckoning is coming, but we have not lost our freedom.
A flippant, dismissive response from a Boomer.
What a surprise.
$400,000 mark in Reno for the first time ever
during the recession reno was competing w gary,in and camden, nj for most depressed
No, prices can’t go up forever. It’s mathematically impossible given how the real estate market is structured. You can only squeeze so much out of buyers before you:
A. Run out of buyers.
B. Buyers run out of the ability to pay.
Politics mean nothing in this issue. Anyone who takes a serious look at housing and paid attention in HS algebra would easily come to this conclusion. It’s the same thing with renting; rents can’t go up forever as well.
Politics mean nothing in this issue.
The role of politics in this issue is still significant - it distributes the pain and expense and aggravation to whatever bagholder can be found, unless/until the whole shebang collapses. Roman citizens abandoned their lifestyles and moved in with the barbarians when citizenship became too burdensome. Not all were able to escape in time.
It’s the same thing with renting; rents can’t go up forever as well.
This is axiomatic, but says little about the dislocations of capital, poverty, misery, and ruin that can result as we await the correction.
To modify Keynes, the real estate market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent.
I like how Piketty put it:
If the supply of any good is insufficient, and its price is too high, then demand for that good should increase, which should lead to a decline in its price.
In other words, if real estate and oil prices rise, then people should move to the country or take to traveling about by bicycle (or both).
Such adjustments might be unpleasant or complicated; they might also take decades, during which landlords and oil well owners might well accumulate claims on the rest of the population so extensive that they could easily come to own everything that can be owned, including rural real estate and bicycles, once and for all.
Ironically, one can remain solvent indefinitely quite easily. My grandmother’s mother gave her a gold coin when she left Scotland for the US. Not a big coin. She said “As long as you don’t spend this you will never be broke.” Grandmother gave it to me.
I still have the $5 piece from my Polish great grandmother for the same purpose.
My granddaddy gave me a piece when I turned 16. Its a beauty and I carry it frequently.
“As long as you don’t spend this you will never be broke.”
That’s an interesting method to provoke introspection.
The role of politics in this issue is still significant - it distributes the pain and expense and aggravation to whatever bagholder can be found, unless/until the whole shebang collapses.”
Tresho and everyone else here - how high will property taxes have to go before you walk away from your house, even if you’ve paid off the mortgage?
Interesting concept, no?
Just who is the bagholder, anyway?
Interesting concept, no?
Just who is the bagholder, anyway?
I have been wondering that for many years now. Unless the dollar completely collapses I could afford to walk away from the house I now occupy, if local conditions go really bad, and move far away to an ancestral homeland.
“…how high will property taxes have to go before you walk away from your house, even if you’ve paid off the mortgage?”
Perhaps a thorough review of Howard Jarvis, Paul Gann and Proposition 13 is in order?
“The Deplorables always got a laugh, over living-room chats in the Hamptons, at dinner parties under the stars on Martha’s Vineyard, over passed hors d’oeuvres in Beverly Hills, and during sunset cocktails in Silicon Valley”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hillary-clinton-they-were-never-going-to-let-me-be-president?ref=home
LOLZ
‘In the book, she writes that “Biden had confided (off the record) to the White House press corps that he wanted to run, but he added something like ‘You guys don’t understand these people. The Clintons will try to destroy me.’”
‘By the time of the conventions, though, as Trump was selected as the Republican nominee, the Clinton campaign was still trying to figure out how to improve her negative favorability ratings.’
“A week earlier, she’d cut off Joel and the pollster John Anzalone, as they walked her through the almost daily reminder that half the country disliked her,” Chozick writes. “You know, I am getting pretty tired of hearing about how nobody likes me,” she said.’
“‘Oh, what’s the point? They’re never going to like me,’ Hillary told this friend.”
“After the convention, donors asked Brooklyn what they planned to do to pull Hillary’s trust numbers out of the toilet. The answer was always the same: nothing. Podesta would explain ‘I remember no one trusted Bill Clinton and he won twice.’”
‘On the night of the election, Chozick describes a dejected Clinton when she was told by campaign staffers that it was over.’
“Of all the Brooklyn aides, Jen Palmieri had the most pleasant bedside manner,” Chozick writes. “That made her the designated deliverer of bad news to Hillary. But not this time. She told Robby there was no way she was going to tell Hillary she couldn’t win. That’s when Robby, drained and deflated, watching the results with his team in a room down the hall from Hillary’s suite, labored into the hallway of the Peninsula to break the news. Hillary didn’t seem all that surprised. ‘I knew it. I knew this would happen to me….’ Hillary said, now within a couple of inches of his face. ‘They were never going to let me be president.’”
‘They were never going to let me be president.’
Who is “they” and how did they get enough power to decide who gets to be president? Surely we’re not talking about the deplorables. There aren’t that many of them and they don’t have much power. So who ARE we talking about?
It couldn’t have been the deep state/shadow gov nor the banking clan, they both hate Trump.
“So who ARE we talking about?”
The voice that lives in Hillary’s head.
She was obviously talking about the male half of the U.S voter population.
I thought voting age women slightly outnumbered men? She must not have convinced every woman. So why blame the men? (He asked while laughing…)
Ben Jones, #TheNarrative is broken, but it is rarely revealed as to how and why it is broken…
Podesta would explain ‘I remember no one trusted Bill Clinton and he won twice.’”
A sizeable number of women in this country would’ve had sex with Bill Clinton. They were sexually attracted to him.
Few men and lesbians are attracted to Hillary Clinton Few people, if any, ever wanted to have sex with her. Not even Bill. Who’d want to bed a shrill, shrieking shrew?
Once upon a time I discovered I was very much attracted to a woman that I very much disliked. I felt both of these emotions at the same time. I have never recovered from the shock.
This is called a hate crush.
Go here …
https://topyaps.com/signs-of-a-hate-crush
Physical beauty is superficial and is not as important as a person’s emotional and intellectual qualities.
Physical beauty is superficial and is not as important as a person’s emotional and intellectual qualities.
Unfortunately I have found that emotional and intellectual qualities can turn out to be just as superficial as physical ones. On the other hand, some people’s true excellence sometimes appears during bad times.
A hip hop artist I admire amusingly said, “I’m tired of people assuming I’ve got a good personality because I’m ugly.”
‘…the Clinton campaign was still trying to figure out how to improve her negative favorability ratings.’
And I imagine they are still trying to work on that to this day!
“They were never going to let me be president”.
Could you imagine that whiny, victimized, entitled woman in the White House? Egad.
What Bitcoin Is Really Worth May No Longer Be Such a Mystery
It’s somewhere between $20 and $800,000, according to economic theory and a night of drinking.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-04-19/what-bitcoin-is-really-worth-may-no-longer-be-such-a-mystery
Bitcoin velocity …
http://charts.woobull.com/bitcoin-velocity/
I’m starting to wonder about whether prices can go up forever on certain things. To wit:
Bought a specialized stumpjumper mountain bike around 2000 for 1100, put 200 into tricking it out. At the time that bike was worth more than the blue book value of my truck - because priorities.
I just saw that the 2018 model lists for 10K (!). My current car is probably valued around 15K. I figure in a year or two the curves should intersect again such that if I were to buy the latest model - following a lobotomy - I would once again have a bike worth more than the vehicle I drive.
What self respecting dirtbag can afford this stuff? Plus I’m pretty sure these bikes arent made by hand by blind monks in some temple in nepal, they’re cranked out of some factory in china and marked up a gazillion percent.
Dont get me started on spearfishing gear or hydrofoils. Its like you have to be a partner for goldman sucks to afford any decent outdoor gear nowadays, in which case you are a pasty blob with no free time nor ability to do anything vaguely physical without having a massive coronary.
to afford any decent outdoor gear nowadays
I can still get decent hiking boots for $50 a pair, but they lose their soles after 500 miles.
Hiking boots are not what they once were, that’s for sure.
Maybe Apartment 101 has some knowledge we don’t have.
Check-out hang gliders with a carbon fiber frame.
in which case you are a pasty blob with no free time nor ability to do anything vaguely physical without having a massive coronary.
You just described most of the docs I work with.
Honest money cannot compete with dumb, cheap, easy credit.
What self respecting dirtbag can afford this stuff?”
I dunno. But I do know that those who want you to think they can afford it are the same people who sport skin-tight lemon / lime. fluorescent orange/blue/pink riding gear.
You know the type. Those that ride down the middle of the street during rush hour, or down the middle of expressway off-ramps.
I almost hit one of the latter, exiting the interstate at 45 mph. I had to drive off the ramp to avoid killing the prick.
Your anger - it’s amusing.
The get-ups some of these clowns wear! I do believe they fancy themselves to be the Green Hornet or Batman.
I had to slam on my breaks and veer into the weeds to avoid making the guy part of the pavement. Smoky skidmarks were left behind on the road.
It’s a good thing those were the only skidmarks. Had any been left inside my vehicle, things may have become a great deal more messy for Precious Biker Man.
“Dont get me started on spearfishing gear or hydrofoils.”
So tell me, what do you hear about spearfishing gear or hydrofoils?
Its not what I hear, its what I PAID, and it - along with the rent in many parts of this country/planet - is too damn high.
Freaking italian dive gear like masks and fins that cost the equivalent of the GDP of a small nation.
Foils - thats carbon fiber. I swear, carbon fiber is probably just some obscure latin phrase for “to rape ones finances in the pursuit of an adrenaline high”
And yeah, I dont even buy the “uniforms” donned by the devotees and weekend uber-warriors. Who designed them, aliens who have only observed humanity at certain “pride” parades?
Still have my Rockhopper, circa 1994. To play devil’s advocate, the alloy version of the Stumpjumper is $1850 and they come in a range from there up to $10K. But to your point, I was lamenting outdoor gear price inflation here many years ago when i noticed winter jackets going through the roof. You have to choose your hobbies wisely now or purchase everything in the off-season which is what I do now. Of course, by then most everything’s been picked over. My current ride is a full suspension that was a former year demo listed for $4500 that I got for just under $2K.
purchase everything in the off-season which is what I do now
I got my best winter parka ever at Wiggy’s in Grand Junction CO on an extremely hot summer day. They gave me a nice discount, and it was made to order!
The article mentioning the Grenfell Tower disaster led me to do some reading. And I came across this gem:
“…Due to the green agenda we’ve had a push to insulate buildings and the easiest and cheapest way to insulate was using these combustible materials…”
https://news.sky.com/story/long-read-grenfell-britains-fire-safety-crisis-11146108
It’s common knowledge that many synthetic materials release toxic substances during combustion.
It’s common knowledge that many synthetic materials release toxic substances during combustion.
That’s why funeral homes have to excise nuclear powered pacemakers before cremating some bodies.
Your post is just in time for Earth Day!!
Rather than resurrect the rather arcane practice of tossing people into a volcano, we can force a few hundred sacrifices into a high rise or two and burn them down to the ground as a means to appease today’s Gods of Earth.
Your timing certainly is uncanny, Anonymous. You have quite the knack. Rejoice!
Ardsley, NY Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY As Metro NY Housing Correction Expands To Suburbs
https://www.movoto.com/ardsley-ny/market-trends/
HA
. The average days on market (DOM) for homes in March 2018 was 42 days, a decrease of about 19 percent compared to the 52 DOM for homes in March 2017.
Price up
Inventory down
Omnibus passed
Swamp area saved
DebtDonkey
Oakton, VA Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY As Fairfax County Housing Correction Deepens
https://www.zillow.com/oakton-va/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
I guess FBs must enjoy living underwater forever, as otherwise they would just walk away.
And by the way, this NY Fed survey is totally biased, because the FBs who are still paying their underwater mortgages a decade after the financial meltdown are naturally not representative of those who decided to walk away, who are not included in the scope of the survey. Rather, the views expressed are representative of those who enjoy paying their mortgage, no matter how foolish a financial decision it is to continue doing so.
Home
Economy & Politics
Why do underwater homeowners keep paying the mortgage?
Published: Apr 21, 2018 8:19 a.m. ET
Isn’t it more strategic to walk away?
No survey respondents acknowledged the impact walking away would have on their communities, but that’s very likely.
By Andrea Riquier
Despite the enormous gains in the housing market, and the rapid surge in home prices in recent years, nearly 2 million people still owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
Throughout much of the housing downturn a decade ago, the plight of underwater borrowers sparked fierce debates. Many industry participants fretted about homeowners making “strategic defaults” — calculating that it would be smarter to cut their losses and walk away from the home, leaving an empty house and a broken promise to pay.
While there’s lots of evidence that most homeowners who defaulted did so because they had no other choice, the issue is still controversial.
Still, a survey published by the New York Fed this week sheds some light on how homeowners think about their mortgage payments when they’re underwater — or at least how they say they think about it.
The survey, the housing component of the massive Survey of Consumer Expectations, asked underwater owners: “Have you considered no longer making your monthly payments on loans against your home?” Nearly 87% said “no, absolutely not.” Another 6% said “yes, considered but did not stop.” No one admitted, “yes, actually did stop.”
…
Are you prepared for months and months of stock market uncertainty ahead leading up to the Congressional midterms, compounded by never-ending uncertainty about whether the Fed will follow-through on its announced rate hike plans? That’s a lot of political uncertainty for Mr Market to stomach!
Stock-market investors brace for months of political uncertainty as midterms approach
Published: Apr 21, 2018 8:14 a.m. ET
A divided government could mean less policy impact on stocks, but not less volatility
By Ryan Vlastelica
Markets reporter
Investors should brace for even more political uncertainty as the November midterm elections approach, say analysts at Goldman Sachs.
The last several months have already seen markets driven in both directions by trade and tax policy, geopolitical tensions, and developments surrounding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
While there are plenty of fundamental issues that stocks have also traded on—including corporate profits and economic data—politics could become a more potent factor as the elections approach.
Goldman Sachs analysts on Friday wrote that the November midterms represented “yet another source of policy risk and volatility” for stocks, saying they were “one reason to expect that current elevated levels of uncertainty will persist in coming months.”
Volatility was atypically low in 2017, but returned in dramatic fashion earlier this year. Currently, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX, +5.76%) is at 16.49. While this is below its long-term average near 20, it is up 50% so far this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, -0.82%) is down 1% year-to-date while the S&P 500 (SPX, -0.85%) is off 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP, -1.27%) remains up 3.8% for the year.
…
Dear Moneyist,
Before I married my wife two years ago, she had huge amounts of debt to her name, including large amounts of student loans. After we married, we diligently almost paid everything off, helped by my salary being three times that of my wife.
She recently asked for a divorce, saying she was taking the house and my retirement.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i-paid-off-my-wifes-student-loans-then-she-filed-for-divorce-after-two-years-of-marriage-2018-04-21?mod=MW_story_top_stories