Buyers Were Investing At An Almost Irrational Pace
A report from the Courier Mail in Australia. “Approvals for foreign investment in Australia’s housing market have collapsed, amid waning investor appetite, higher charges and tighter lending standards. The Foreign Investment Review Board’s annual report reveals a 67 per cent fall in residential real estate approvals last financial year — down from 40,149 approvals to 13,198. The value of FIRB approvals also plunged, from $72.4 billion to $25.2 billion in fiscal 2017. Investment in new apartments from mainland Chinese investors dropped significantly in 2016-17. AllenWargent Property Buyers chief executive Pete Wargent said the figures would have some significant impacts on the new apartment sector, construction trends, and the broader economy — especially in Sydney.”
“Mr Wargent said he expected Sydney to experience the greatest number of failed apartment projects, with increasing signs of discounting on new apartments. ‘Perhaps this was an inevitable end-game for this cycle, where development has been too much skewed towards apartments for investors, and too little towards the types of medium-density dwellings that people want to reside in,’ he wrote.”
“But Chinese international real estate website Juwai.com chief executive Carrie Law played down the reported decline in Chinese demand. Ms Law said that in the second half of 2016, Chinese buyers were investing in Australian real estate at an almost irrational pace. ‘It was like money falling from heaven for vendors and developers,’ Ms Law said.”
From News.com.au in Australia. “Average wages grew at a faster rate than home prices for the first time in nearly six years over the past 12 months, new research shows. Other driving factors behind the improved affordability included low interest rates and falling property prices — particularly in the apartment market. The biggest improvements in housing affordability occurred in the Parramatta area, the northwest and Sutherland Shire. Median apartment prices in Parramatta enclaves Rydalmere, Telopea and Dundas were all above $700,000 at the start of 2017.”
“Since then, average prices in these areas have dropped significantly which, coupled with lower interest rates, made the suburbs affordable for middle-income buyers again. A similar trend occurred in Sutherland Shire suburb Jannali, where the median price of units dropped by 17 per cent to hit $615,000. Median unit price falls of up to 16 per cent in Pennant Hills, West Ryde and Asquith also meant these suburbs were affordable for average households again, after being inaccessible last year.”
“SQM Research director Louis Christopher said home buyers were getting better deals because more properties were available for sale. There was also less competition for properties from cashed-up investors, who until recently had accounted for nearly 60 per cent of Sydney property purchases. ‘Sellers have to be more realistic with their prices in this market,’ Mr Christopher said. ‘Buyers can negotiate more.’”
From Your Mortgage in Australia. “Land prices in Brisbane have fallen by roughly a quarter in just a year, the biggest decline seen in South East Queensland council regions. Citing a recent research from Oliver Hume, News.com.au reported that while Brisbane’s land price per square metre has fallen to $821, it is still the second most expensive of the six SEQ council regions.”
From the Rocky View Weekly in Canada. “I woke up earlier this week to a report on CBC describing how a landlord in Calgary had refused to renew the lease of a main-floor suite to a family with a toddler, due to complaints from the basement renter about the child’s crying. According to the minister of Service Alberta, ‘discrimination’ affects people in many areas, ‘and tenancy is no different.’ Last November, the provincial government introduced amendments to the Human Rights Act that essentially bans adult-only rental housing in Alberta, effective Jan. 1, 2018. Seniors-only buildings are still permitted, though – I guess discrimination against people is fine if they’re between the ages of 18 to 55?”
“‘It’s going to have a negative impact on tens of thousands of people who are looking for a lifestyle choice of peace and quiet,’ said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association, in an interview with the Calgary Herald. ‘A lot of people have had their rights taken away from them to accommodate the few.’”
“And that’s exactly what it feels like. There’s no shortage of housing in this area – according to the Calgary Herald, data released last summer showed ‘the city is dealing with a glut of housing that hasn’t been so big in three decades, perhaps longer.’ That census indicated there were 10,600 vacant apartments, along with 5,000 vacant single-family homes, at that time.”
From Better Dwelling on Canada. “A routine audit is leading a Canadian bank to repurchase their ‘ineligible’ mortgages. Montreal-based Laurentian Bank is agreeing to buy back over $125 million in mortgages. The agreement is the result of a routine audit from the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC). This comes while the bank is trying to improve borrowing standards, after a different third-party audit revealed similar issues.”
“Laurentian Bank announced an audit of mortgages sold to a TPP revealed ‘documentation issues and client misrepresentations’ in December. Most of it is due to failure to obtain or properly store documents on the borrower. The bank also found ‘client misrepresentation’ to a ‘lesser extent.’ The audit resulted in Laurentian announcing they would need to buy back a few … hundred million in mortgages. In December they had announced it would be up to $304 million. The company noted in their 2017 annual report that, ‘no employees were implicated in any misrepresentations and the documentation issues appear to have been unintentional.’ Not sure if screwing up $304 million in loan documentation by accident makes this better or worse.”
“Nope, that wasn’t all. Yesterday the bank announced a routine audit from another party found ’similar issues.’ CMHC, the government Crown corp in charge of mortgage liquidity, found mortgages that were ‘inadvertently portfolio insured.’ The problem is a significant number of people contributed to the Canadian real estate market, by slipping through the cracks. They drove prices higher, while many technically should not have been able to do so.”
“As mortgage lending standards improve, the market weeds these buyers out. When this segment is removed, dollar volume drops significantly. Banks have already been forced to remove people buying ‘too much home’ through B-20 Guidelines. Now they’re tackling those that may have needed to fudge documentation to get those loans. The buyer pool is shrinking, and with it goes liquidity at higher prices.”
From Toronto Life in Canada. “Peizheng Qiu thought he could make his fortune flipping houses in Toronto. Instead he ended up strangling his business partner in the basement of a Markham mansion. Xiao Xuan Long Yu, who went by the English name Bertram, was also seeking his fortune. A year younger than Qiu, Bertram was the son of a wealthy and prominent lawyer in Shenzhen. His parents had financed his immigration to Canada, putting him up in a luxury unit at the C Condos tower at Yonge and Finch. He liked to splurge on fancy cars: he drove a Ferrari 458, which sells for around $250,000, and previously owned a Maserati and BMW. Like Qiu, he was hoping to free himself from his parents’ support and make it on his own in Canada.”
“Qiu and Bertram believed that flipping houses would be a low-risk way to make serious money. More than six per cent of Toronto properties for sale in 2017 had been purchased less than 18 months earlier; that’s almost twice the percentage of properties that were bought by foreign investors. Flipping is particularly popular in the Chinese-Canadian community.”
“They were eager to make money as quickly as possible, and relied solely on mutual trust and friendship to make it happen. ‘The Chinese like to do things different,’ Qiu later told police. ‘Millions can be loaned or borrowed based on a slip of paper.’”
“By early 2014, Elson and Bertram were scouting Toronto’s real estate listings, and over the next few months, they went on an investing spree, impulsively buying several large homes in North York for a some $3 million. Cracks in the partnership began to show as soon as the properties were purchased. Qiu was still juggling his flooring business and the flipping enterprise, and he seemed overwhelmed. Progress on the houses was excruciatingly slow. By the beginning of 2015, he’d barely done any work on the Laureleaf property.”
“Qiu was desperate for money. In March 2015, he went behind his partners’ backs and sold the property at 262 Senlac for $666,000, almost $100,000 less than Elson and Bertram had originally paid for it. The tension was mounting between Qiu and his partners. In total, Qiu owed $1.6 million. Qiu missed his first payment to Bertram for the amount of $100,000. Desperation had set in. At around 8 a.m. on Sunday, March 20, he bought gloves, masks, coveralls, a DeWalt reciprocating saw and metal saw blades. He packed the items into his girlfriend’s BMW and drove to 2 Laureleaf.”
“About half an hour later, he called Bertram and asked him to come to the property for a meeting. He said he wanted to discuss borrowing money to pay for more renovations. As soon as Bertram arrived, the two started arguing about money. Qiu claims Bertram threatened to use his connections in China to hurt Qiu’s family back home, to kill them or have their limbs hacked off. In Qiu’s version of events, he was a victim forced to defend himself and his family against a rich bully.”
“Qiu snapped. He noticed a hammer, grabbed it and began swinging (he later claimed that he’d seen Bertram reach for the weapon first). He says he wrestled Bertram to the floor and whacked him on the back of his head when he tried to get up. Then he began strangling him. ‘I just wanted to shut him up and let him die,’ he later said. He kept his hands gripped tightly around Bertram’s neck for two minutes, Qiu said, until he stopped breathing. His former friend was dead.”
“At his sentencing hearing last October, Qiu presented his own statement in Mandarin, which was translated for the court. ‘The bad things have been tormenting my mind like a movie looping and repeating itself,’ he said. He listed off the things he’d lost: his job, his fiancée, his family, his dignity, and his opportunity to make a life in Canada. That one seemed to sting the most.”
‘he expected Sydney to experience the greatest number of failed apartment projects, with increasing signs of discounting on new apartments. ‘Perhaps this was an inevitable end-game for this cycle, where development has been too much skewed towards apartments for investors, and too little towards the types of medium-density dwellings that people want to reside in’
In other words, what are we going to do with all this unusable junk?
The hideous waste of natural resources is more appalling than any words can describe.
It’s probably been over two years since a study found 20% or more of Brisbane airboxes were empty. Ah, but that’s back when Australia was encouraging Chinese speculation at almost every level, including money laundering.
Let in more mozzies to bludgeon the locals so the (((leaders))) can then ban knives, and eventually paperclips.
Rolling over commonwealth countries is pretty easy - no pesky natural rights like free speech, right to assembly, 2nd amendment to get in the way.
But they’ll always have their fish and chips!
In other words, what are we going to do with all this unusable junk?
Keep lowering the price until someone buys or rents it?
The problem is familiar to bubble cities, but sort of unique to Australia. Most places have too many luxury airboxes. Melbourne and Brisbane have too many towers that just aren’t what people want. Too small, bland, crappy floor plans and way too much of the same things over and over. It was perfect for selling pre-construction to Chinese who didn’t care.
I don’t know how much of this same product was built in Sydney. The huge price declines there so far are in detached shacks.
No. It will have to be held off the market to avoid harming the interests of investors who bought at the top.
It will have to be held off the market to avoid harming the interests of investors who bought at the top.
Yes. IF those investors have the right friends. Or are the right friends.
Wellesley, MA Housing Prices Crater 9% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/wellesley-ma/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
‘I just wanted to shut him up and let him die,’ he later said’
I posted a brief report on this when it happened, but then it wasn’t apparent how the flipping was involved.
Also from that article:
‘At 6:15 p.m., Qiu drove Bertram’s white Ferrari to 42 Division, near Markham and Sheppard. He gave a lengthy statement to police, in which he confessed to his crime and tried to explain why he’d resorted to murder. According to Qiu, Bertram was the one who owed him money, not the other way around. He claimed that Bertram had a gambling addiction, and that he visited underground casinos and bet large sums of money on soccer games—an accusation Bertram’s friends and family vehemently denied. He also told police that he’d been regularly making $10,000 monthly mortgage payments on 2 Laureleaf Road. He insisted that he’d truly believed Bertram would hurt his family. “Rich guys in China can do whatever they want,” he told police.’
‘Qiu was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The story made major news back home in China. The headlines in Chinese newspapers were littered with exclamation marks and highlighted the gruesome nature of the crime. People were shocked to learn that a Chinese student from an affluent family could meet such a fate in Canada, a country that’s revered for its safety and prosperity.’
Underground casinos? Canada isn’t as squeaky clean as they make out to be. Of course, playing footsie with the money laundering has consequences doesn’t it?
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion
says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”
Replies the scorpion: “Its my nature…”
Somebody should have showed that fable to Obama and Holder before they decided to go easy on the financial services industry.
I don’t think they would have changed course “if they had only known”. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Canada was clean. Then in the 70s Trudeau decided to let in millions of 3rd world immigrants. Today…not so clean.
All the photos contain white folks, knot one image of the toilet cleaning staffers. My last visit, everything seemed alwful clean to me.
Oh, Canada!
http://www.fairmont.com/lake-louise/media/photos/
Yeah cuz lake louise is representative of Toronto and Vancouver, LOL. Its like saying I went to Yellowstone which was full of white people, therefore NY and LA is all white people as well.
“Canada was clean.”
Yer words, …
Underground casinos?
Canada has regular casinos, above ground.
“Since then, average prices in these areas have dropped significantly which, coupled with lower interest rates, made the suburbs affordable for middle-income buyers again.”
Hmmmm … if the dropping of these average prices of houses destroys the equity the was produced by the price run-up then it just may be so that even though the suburbs are more affordable people just may not be able to buy because their income, their jobs, were directly tied to the price run-up and the equity cash-outs and thus the spending associated with these equity cash-outs.
A borrowed money economy is, at root, is a false economy, one that sucks when the borrowing comes to a halt.
Another Tesla crash involving a Tesla. But, wait for it, this was a the result of an illegal street race between a BMW and a Camero in the Mercer Island area. Turns out that the Tesla did pretty well in what looks like a brutal accident.
Hey MGSpiffy, have were you racing your Camero again?
The comments about what the Tesla-obsessed newspaper headlines might be for this Tesla crash are pretty cheeky:
“In related news, NHTSA announces investigation of crash involving Autopilot equipped Tesla. NHTSA spokesperson states, “We are interested in finding out why the Model 3 was unable to avoid the speeding Camaro.” Adding, “Why do these cars appear to be involved in so many crashes? It just raises so many questions.”"
Another one:
“Debris falls off Tesla on i-90, hundreds of commuters late for work while authorities clean up the mess.”
My favorite:
“Autopilot enabled Tesla fails to avoid car coming from behind.”
https://electrek.co/2018/05/30/tesla-model-3-performed-miraculously-crash/
I’m no fan of tesla and thinks its a gargantuan fraud, but this falling out between musk and the media is quite . . . interesting. First there was this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/opinion/elon-musk-tesla.html
Funny, a couple years ago these same clowns thought he walked on water and couldnt shove enough taxpayer money at him.
Then I noticed this
http://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-goes-war-media-promotes-website-alleged-sex-cult-ties-946022
Wow, they are getting desperate. Did you fill your tank with fuel from a country that promotes terrorism? Betcha you did. And if you question the media, youre Trump/Stalin/Hitler/A bad hair day that lasts the rest of your life
And every day more reports of tesla crashes. Was there a bug in a recent software update, or were there always this many crashes but the media covered for their golden boy as long as he did (((their))) bidding?
Elon pissed ((someone)) off recently and he is paying the price.
It’s not a good idea to get into a fight with someone who can orbit space vehicles.
“Over the last 57 years of space exploration a lot of countries have had some involvement in space. This can range from the building of rockets, designing experiments to go on board and even providing and training the astronauts who go into space. Due to the tremendous cost of space travel, exploration outside our planet has become a truly international affair.
That being said only a limited selection of countries possess the ability to launch something into orbit around the Earth. To date there are 9 countries that have orbital launch capability. These are Russia, the United States, France, Japan, China, India, Israel, Iran and North Korea. These 9 countries have the ability to build and launch an orbit capable vehicle.” (https://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/how-many-countries-have-rockets-capable-of-reaching-space/)
9 countries, and one individual: Elon Musk.
OneAgainstMany, (have been away much of the day, just checked in for the first time today)
Heh. Wasn’t me. And I would never be caught dead in a Camero - grew up outside Detroit in the 70s - enough to cure me from driving something like that. I do drive some German Iron, but only of the Station Wagon variety
Teslas are all over the place here on Mercer Island, there’s a 3, S and X parked outside just a few houses away.
As I understand it, without the traditional front end space all taken up by a motor, Tesla has taken advantage of the configuration to make their body shells extra strong.
Now, to be honest, almost every car made in the last 20 years has seen some major improvements in safety due to regulation and CAD designs that move even more energy around the cockpit. Take a look at this video of a 1998 Toyota Corolla vs the 2015 model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xidhx_f-ouU
Racing on I-90 is an occasional problem - half the time I-90 across the lake is clogged up. But there really isn’t much of anywhere around here you can really open up a car for bit, so the idiots with too much testosterone try the freeways.
Glad it wasn’t you in the accident! I finally ditched my eBike (well, I still have it), since my wife got a zippy Chevy Spark and I inherited her Civic coupe. I was tempted to buy a model 3 since my dad has four reservations, but I wanted a lower priced one. I figure I’ll just let the model 3’s get out in the wild and maybe buy a used 3 or model S for half price in a few years. Everything I’ve read says that EVs can basically go forever and the only major maintenance would be replacing battery, but that might be at 300k miles or so.
Nothing wrong with having the Civic these days, they’re pretty nice equipped and very safe. We’ve got a CR-V to go with the station wagon, and love it - it’s been nothing but reliable.
I totally get the attraction to buying an electric car - it would totally fit our driving profile, but I’m only putting ~4500 miles a year on the wagon and it’s been paid off for a while now. At that rate, I’ll still have it in 2025
I do my damnedest to stay out of trouble on the roads around here. There’s an awful lot of people who drive dangerously out there, and between teenagers (the HS lets out 3pm and they race up and down Island Crest Way) and rich foreign 20-something kids (Think ‘Rich Chinese Kids of Vancouver’) who like to show off their exotic cars by revving the hell out of them on Island Crest Way, it’s annoying.
My cars have been steadily getting more pedestrian as time goes on and I don’t feel the need for speed so much. My last 3 have been the same ‘model’ but HP has gone 340 -> 292 -> 255. If I make the jump for electric I’ll probably look for a used basic to mid range model.
I started working on a custom e-Bike but abandoned the project when my job situation changed. Out in the garage I’ve got several hand built and tested battery packs. A friend of mine built a couple eBikes, including a 42-mph monster, and I was cloning one of his. By the time I get back around to it, I suspect it’ll be better to check out the new models for sale than to finish the project bike.
What you do not want the $86,000 plus car for the masses?
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4178616-tesla-model-3-production-prices-mass-market-appeal
Heh. Depreciation is your friend when it comes to cars.
I paid $22,000 for my current ride as a CPO from the dealer that originally sold it. Will probably keep it for more than 10 years total.
I’ve paid over $25K for a car exactly once in my life - $35K to be exact, and it qualified as a serious toy: 175 MPH, less than 1000 made worldwide, ~20 in North America. Took it out to the track several times, got featured in the car club’s magazine, then sold it 5 years later for the original purchase price.
I’ll be taking the same approach to car shopping when if/when I decide to go electric.
$35K to be exact, and it qualified as a serious toy: 175 MPH, less than 1000 made worldwide, ~20 in North America.
What car was that, Spiffy? I’m intrigued.
Key passage from Alpha link:
Last week, Tesla indicated that it will be producing the all-wheel drive and performance options for the Model 3 in July. The AWD option will cost an extra $5,000, so the lowest cost vehicle available with AWD will be $54,000.
The performance option will start at $78,000 and will cost $86,000 with the full self-driving option.
These options will increase the average selling price in Q3, but there is not enough demand to fill a full quarter of production. Tesla will continue to make the RWD drive option in Q3.
Wait, what happened to the blue wave? Keep suggesting you are going to impeach Trump, Democrats, it is looking more and more like the Republicans will gain in the Senate and lose ten or 15 house seats. Since most of them will be Rinos, it really does not matter.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot
Realtors are liars.
Holy Volcano Batman, what’s next, Federal Gubermint monie$ for crop in$urance?
The federal program is the only option for many homeowners in areas where such insurance is required. Many politicians and housing industry participants agree that it would be better to have more private-sector options, but true reform of the program has proved challenging.
The National Association of Realtors is again lobbying Congress for reauthorization before the July 31 expiration to avoid disrupting the housing market. The lobby group said each time the program lapses, it costs 40,000 property sales per month. What’s more, because each insurance policy is written for one year at a time, a lapse in a policy attached to a mortgage may constitute a default.
The final tally for hurricane season last year remains incomplete. The two largest storms, Harvey and Irma, are estimated to have cost between $40 billion-$59 billion and $29 billion-$46 billion, respectively, but there’s no accounting yet for the other storms, Dr. Tom Jeffery, senior hazard scientist at CoreLogic
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/hurricane-season-bears-down-with-7-million-homes-at-risk-and-a-flood-insurance-program-set-to-expire-2018-05-31
Anyone remember when “investing” was about acquiring income generating assets, as opposed to being a purely speculative activity that needs insane appreciation to work?
Yeah, isn’t the new economy great? Your money really can work for you.
Make dividends tax free, or at least taxed at a much lower rate than capital gains.
Isn’t it funny how “cash cows” are looked down upon, as if they were lepers, if they don’t show steady and strong income growth? Maybe it’s because it’s no longer good enough to be a multimillionaire, you need to be a billionaire to be somebody. Reminds me of a news item from some years ago, where some dude won a $100 million lotto jackpot. His first goal was to “invest” it and become a billionaire.
Things brings up a question I’d like to pose to the HBB:
What are the general categories to making money?
1) Rent. Meaning you have something you can let someone borrow, for money. House, money (via interest), lawn equipment, vehicles.
2) Sell physical goods.
3) Selling logical constructs/financial products (annuities, stocks, bonds, tranches of bonds, credit default swaps, etc)
4) Sell insurance.
5) Sell services.
6) Charity. Nonprofits for example, to streetcorner panhandling.
7) Speculation as the “house”.
9) Gambling as the “house”.
10) Gambling as the gambler.
11) Dividend-based investment.
12) Venture capital based investment.
13) Appreciation-of-asset based investment.
Other? Different categorization?
“What are the general categorie$ to making money?”
$elf.Promotion$ / Name Branding$
(x1example: $ocial.lite Karda$hian’$)
14) Entice Suzanne to bring an endless supply of marks to your bank.
How about just, you know, making money (e.g. printing it)?
@Neuromance
producing and selling your poor product is pretty profitable
Money laundering and theft are pretty profitable.
As is the establishment of confiscatory regulations.
If those endeavors weren’t profitable, they would rarely occur.
Would selling political influence count as “services”?
The thing about relying on appreciation — you have to have your finger on the “cash out” button in case things suddenly change and your “asset” looses much or all of its “value”. Get caught snoozing, and you lose it all.
Income generating assets on the other are (supposed to be) a steady long play, and can weather out non-fatal ups and downs.
Rancho Cordova, CA Housing Prices Crater 8% YOY As Housing Correction Slams Sacramento Area
https://www.zillow.com/rancho-cordova-ca/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
It’s interesting looking up the road at the nicer stuff in El Dorado Hills on that site. The listing price has gone parabolic, the sales price is grayed out, and the market temperature summary says “Cold”.
Well…. A wise man once said, I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where is the buyer at that price?
….. and so it is with all depreciating assets like houses.
Vermont will pay you $10,000 to move there and work remotely
Corinne Purtill … Quartz … May 31, 2018
Remote workers: the state of Vermont wants you.
Starting in 2019, Vermont will pay people who move there and work remotely for an out-of-state employer $10,000 over two years to cover relocation expenses, coworking memberships, computers, internet, and other work-related expenses. Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill into law on Wednesday (May 30).
(Maybee Home$teading ll is on the horizon! Yay!)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vermont-pay-10-000-move-110056645.html
What a joke.
Want to entice people and businesses to move to your state?
Slash taxes. Slash regulations. Rein in your public union goons. Right to work. Don’t tell stores that men can pee and shower in women’s bathrooms, don’t force a baker to bake a cake, throw illegals in jail, invest in your state’s OWN infrastructure, cheap and plentiful energy, etc.
++++
Vermont has budgeted grants for about 100 new remote workers in the first three years of the program and about 20 additional workers per year for every year after.
“Slash taxe$.” ?
That creates problem$ in places outside of Vermont where less white skinned American citizens need equal di$tribution rights extended to them in the event of a National/Territorial di$aster …
FEMA spent $75 million to dock a half-empty cruise ship off Puerto Rico for 4 months
That’s more than it spent on direct home rebuilding grants to citizens of the island in the same time frame.
The ugly optics of the Carnival boondoggle are exacerbated by news that FEMA used less than half of the onboard housing capacity it paid the company to secure. It is not the first time the agency has spent millions of dollars on half-empty cruise ships docked alongside still-devastated communities primarily home to people of color. After Hurricane Katrina, then-President George W. Bush’s FEMA head Michael Brown signed off on a $236 million contract with Carnival for a trio of ships that were never more than half full.
Alan Pyke … MAY 30, 2018 … ThinkProgress
After Katrina there ware NO local job marches, so they imported 15,000 south of the boarder types, even placed ads in NYC $12-15+ hour plus free fema housing to serve fast food and clean up the debris…
wait for it
you know it
MUST speak Spanish!!!
This is kind of funny. There is a Mormon billionaire (fortune made in synthetic diamond drill bits) from up north where I am from who has been buying up local Vermont land to build a a massive mega-Utopia. Bloomberg did an in-depth piece on it. The locals have been livid (rightly so) at his grandiose plans and have basically put the kibosh on the whole thing. But I find it ironic that something like that, which would have brought tons of economic development, was shot down when only a few years later the state is basically shelling out tax dollars for citizens. The state had a developer looking to bring millions of dollars and tons of new taxable dollars to the state. Guess it wasn’t the right time of money or people. They must want remote call center workers in their state who will fit right in at the local coffee shop.
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-newvistas-mormon-utopia/
I am from Vermont. Burlington is Berkeley east. Housing prices are incredible compared to what they were when I was growing up in the 70s. A $13,000 house then goes for about $230,000 now. The type of appreciation you expect on the coasts. Burlington is on Lake Champlain and it is nice, but I remember driving a car on it to ice fish during the winter, which should tell you something about the winters.
There is a Mormon billionaire (fortune made in synthetic diamond drill bits) from up north where I am from who has been buying up local Vermont land to build a a massive mega-Utopia. Bloomberg did an in-depth piece on it.
Wow, I’d never heard of that before. I admire people who put their money where their mouth is, but if life has taught me anything it’s to avoid Utopians. They don’t understand people. And because of that, people end up dead if they are allowed to do whatever they want.
Make 10k over two years so i can pay 10k a year in income tax? Where do I sign up?
And how much you want to bet that they don’t allow tiny houses? Not much property tax on those.
I would THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, offer decent tax breaks to businesses who put people to work 2nd 3rd shift weekends and holidays.
NO tax breaks for businesses that operate ONLY M-F 9-5 and contribute to the gridlock, call it prime time pricing.
You wouldn’t dare ask a Wedding DJ for a discount in June but January no problem
LOL Samantha Bee keep alienating voters by calling the president’s daughter a “feckless c*nt” on TeeVee and expects to win back the House in 2018 and the White House in 2020.
The Democrat Party supports:
MS-13
Antifa
Raising taxes
Repealing the 2nd Amendment
Eliminating national sovereignty and turning this country over to globalists
Is that all you got?
Oh, yeah $15/hour government jobs for millennials living in their mom’s basement.
Ben Jones, America isn’t a country, it’s a game…
“America isn’t a country, it’s a game…”
Do you pay taxe$?
“Give me control of a nation’s money
and I care not who makes the laws.”
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Ben Jones here are some smug, globalist pr*cks discussing America’s failed Neocon/Neoliberal foreign policy, David Ignatius from the Washington Post and known war criminal Madeliene Albright:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?446306-1/madeleine-albright-discusses-president-trumps-foreign-policy
And in case any HBB readers forgot, Madeliene Albright told Diane Sawyer on CBS that the deaths of 500,000+ Iraqi children was “worth it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4
‘Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory. “What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.’
‘He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind. “Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-trump%E2%80%99s-election-shook-obama-%E2%80%98what-if-we-were-wrong%E2%80%99/ar-AAy2e8N
‘had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind’
That’s a polite way of putting it.
‘Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory. “What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine.’
A limo that had to be flown in just to cart his ass around Lima. Boy, how many carbon credits did you use on that one Mr Good at Killing People? And he wonders “what if we were wrong?”
From the same article:
He called Mr. Trump a “cartoon” figure who cared more about his crowd sizes than any particular policy.
When Obama was running for President in 2008, DailyKos libs were crowing — daily — about the size of the crowds at Obama’s rallies; meanwhile Sister Sarah preached to a few dozen at Bass Pro Shops. As for the crowd at Trump’s Inauguration, it was the media who slogged that crowd size, not Trump.
“an empty cosmopolitan globalism”
Have you spent any time in Northeast Ohio in the past decade? I was there two weeks ago. And it’s the same rust and rot as it was when I left there almost a decade ago.
People there feel betrayed, as they should.
The day I graduated from Ohio State in 2001 the LTV steel mill in Cleveland shutting down was the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Globalists, do you have a f*cking clue, do you even get it? Why are you so hated? So unwanted? So unnecessary in a new economic system that is a work in progress, and from which you will be excluded.
This is, I fear, the last chance for America to re-assert economic nationalism. If we blow it this time, it may be decades, or a century, to make this right. Globalism has proved itself to be a total failure for United States citizens, emphasis on the word citizens. If we can’t get this right now, soon, this country is lost…
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/12/ltv-d27.html
US judge approves shutdown of LTV Steel7,500 jobs eliminated, retirees’ benefits cut
The 7,500 workers who just lost their jobs will lose health insurance coverage on March 1. The average cost of health insurance is over $8,000 a year for a family. However, due to the average age of laid-off and retired workers, in addition to a higher rate of preexisting conditions, most former LTV workers will end up paying much more.
Starting a trade war will fix the Red State economies. Lol!
My grandfather worked at the LTV mill in Gary.
Globalization allows for various forms of arbitrage where the U.S. will lose nearly every time. And I generally agree that cosmopolitan globalism, as a personal style, has a very limited political appeal. I’m reasonably well-traveled myself and don’t have any problem saying that.
Identity is everything these days on the left. Except for American identity, or other forms of national identity, which reflexively are denigrated as fascism no matter what form they take.
Starting a trade war will fix the Red State economies. Lol!
He did not start a trade war, he is addressing a trade war against us that started decades ago with the active assistance of the Bush family, the Clinton family and if the press had its way the Obama family. The Globalist crime families. While the globalists’ press is trying to make it sound like the end of the world the stock market is up almost 200 points to over 24, 600, unemployment is down to 3.8% and we are finally getting wage growth. At a time that the MSM said we would have a recession under Trump, we have stronger growth than under Obama despite the fact that normally a deep recession should lead to a sharp recovery. Obama’s policies murdered the recovery.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/may-boom-number-employed-americans-sets-9th-record-under-trump
More numbers and a question. If we are such a racist white privileged country, why is the Asian unemployment rate below the white rate?
She also told me that I needed to vote for “the first woman president,” or else my womanhood was in question.
Hey Donk.
As is mine.
“She also told me that I needed to vote for “the first woman president,” or else my womanhood was in question.”
I don’t blame you for being hacked off. That IS pretty offensive. Can’t think for yourself, eh?
You, too, are a deplorable. Wear it well, oxide.
I refused to submit to the Tyranny of the Pantsuit.
Perhaps the Tyranny of the empty Pantsuit?
empty Pantsuit
Not according to the rumors.
My wife likes to pretend we’re going to find money on the ground whenever we are out walking the dog. On tonight’s walk she said:
“Wouldn’t it be great if we found a million dollars?”
Sarcasm being the highest form of wit, I responded:
“Yeah, we could use it all for a down payment on a house.”
Get a billion dollar Zimbabwe note just for fun and leave it in the road…..😊
Bethesda, MD Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY As DC/NoVa Housing Market Stalls
https://www.movoto.com/bethesda-md/market-trends/
Missing Dog
Last seen after presumably scaling 4000ft sheer granite cliff.
Please post picture so we know he is OK.
Is your home paying for your vacations and other luxury consumption items?
The Financial Times
House & Home
‘It’s a cash machine. You are paid to go on holiday’
4 hours ago
…
So Brits are also doing cash out refis? I guess that would explain all the Audis, Benzes and Beamers I saw over there.
I’m surprised y’all aren’t talking about Soros pulling out of Hungary.
Given that Orban and Fidesz now have a super majority, it was expected.
It will be interesting to see how Brussels responds.
rampant.mortgage.fraud.
Here’s another repeat from the Great Recession: When housing needed a boost last time around in an attempt to sustain its ridiculous peak, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started dropping downpayment requirements to make for a little more ease of entry. That wasn’t enough, so they and the Federal Reserve also trimmed back income restrictions and softened other loan terms in order to try to avoid a housing collapse.
And here we are again today:
Freddie Mac Launches “3% Down” Mortgage With No Income Restrictions This time there are no geographic restrictions and NO income restrictions.
Can anyone say, “Hallelujah!” Just when you thought they would never roll out those zany loose credit standards that assured that the last housing collapse would also take out the banks, they do an even bigger job of it. That means it is almost certain banks will fail again this time due (again) to sloppy credit standards.
I mean why do you need income in order to service a loan? Right?
Yet, it gets better, these slack terms are aimed at first-time buyers, so that they can find a way to enter this market that they have been priced out of … just like first-timers were last time. Yeah, the loosest terms go specifically to those who have no track record of having ever made payments on a mortgage. But don’t worry, the banks will be safe because the loans are still secured by the value of the home as collateral in a market of rising prices. You do remember that from last time, right? Real estate prices never go down, right?
As an added safety margin, one of the buyers under this new program must participate in a “homeownership education” class! (That’s gotta warm your cockles.) I hope the class includes a course on “Why Income Matters” so that the penniless will be inspired to get a job in order to service their mortgage.
No wonder Fannie Mae reported that consumer confidence in housing has leaped back up to the highest level it has seen since … well … just before the last crash.
This was a good post.
Article above http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1527696732.php spot on! Thanks Freddie for accelerating the next bubble
I’m thinking Treasury yields will soon snap back to recent highs, thanks to inflation paranoia inspired by the jobs tweet. Try not to get economic whiplash!
Why do financial journalists continually fantasize about the central banking cartel taking away the punchbowl? Can’t they see the alcohol is here to stay?
Think the Italy panic was bad? Just wait until central banks turn off the spigot
By Sunny Oh
Published: June 1, 2018 3:47 a.m. ET
The recent market panic underscores the pain investors could face when central banks retreat
Everett Collection
A sign of things to come?
If investors thought the temporary shock waves created by Italy’s political turmoil earlier this week was bad, they should imagine what it would have felt like if global central banks weren’t still providing support via easy monetary policy.
Those are the concerns by some investors who say the strength of the flight-to-quality rally in Treasurys and the selloff in Italian government paper earlier this week underscored the potential for a more frenzied market when central bankers have made further headway in normalizing policies.
“All the Italian political headlines so far have occurred against a backdrop of incredibly easy monetary conditions, and should such events transpire in the future, their impact on markets will be even greater as the cushion against such shocks will be much thinner,” said Aaron Kohli, fixed-income strategist at BMO Capital Markets.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are still adding to their crisis-era portfolio of securities. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve, the central bank making the most progress among its peers toward normalizing monetary policy, remains a few hikes away from what’s widely viewed as the neutral interest rate, the threshold above which interest rates can start to crimp economic activity.
On Tuesday, the rout in Italian government paper saw the 2-year note yield (TMBMKIT-10Y, -3.31%) climb more than 150 basis points, to post its largest one-day jump in more than 25 years. Bond yields move in the opposite direction of debt prices. Meanwhile, investors rushed into U.S. government bonds, pushing the 10-year Treasury note yield (TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.87%) 15.9 basis points lower to post its biggest one-day drop since June 24, 2016, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
…
Yellenbux perpetually seek a toe tag home to die in, and cryptocurrency provides a perfect crypt.
Home
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CryptoWatch
A third of wealthy individuals are in or planning to enter the cryptocurrency market, firm says
By Aaron Hankin
Published: June 1, 2018 8:28 a.m. ET
Investors can’t ignore the crypto potential, says analyst
Getty Images
Digital currencies were largely unchanged Friday, continuing the directionless trend of the past 72 hours.
The world’s No. 1 digital currency, bitcoin (BTCUSD, -1.43%) continues to hover around the $7,500 level, last trading at $7,561.90, up 0.3% since Thursday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken crypto exchange.
The extent of the recent lull is evident in the overnight range, which, as of early New York trading was less than $200.
The calm is a welcome relief to those hoping for mainstream adoption of digital assets citing excess volatility as a basis for the lack of institutional money. However, that trend is starting to shift, according to one consulting firm.
DeVere Group, a financial consulting firm, recently said it added Bitcoin Cash and EOS to its platform because of growing demand from high net worth individuals.
“This mainstream expansion is clearly evidenced by the fact that more than a third [35%] of wealthy individuals around the world—who are already likely to be successful investors—are telling us that they already have exposure to crypto or that they will have by the end of this year,” wrote Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group.
“The survey’s findings demonstrate that high net worth individuals are increasingly unable to ignore the huge potential of cryptocurrencies.”
Altcoins, or coins other than bitcoin, are also off to a quiet start in New York. Ether (ETHUSD, -1.14%) was up 0.5% to $582.00, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, -1.65% was unchanged at $999.10, Litecoin (LTCUSD, -0.97%) added 0.4% at $119.76, and Ripple’s XRP coin (XRPUSD, -0.42%) is up 0.6% at 62 cents.
Bitcoin futures too are off to a muted start. The Cboe June contract (XBTM8, -1.72%) is unchanged at $7,555, while the CME June contract (BTCM8, -1.66%) is down 0.1% at $7,535.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-third-of-wealthy-individuals-are-in-or-plan-to-enter-the-cryptocurrency-market-firm-says-2018-06-01
BubblevilleCA, thanks for the Goldseek article. This fall? That would be too good to be true.
People that haven’t been heard from in a long time are popping up:
Mark Hanson has started posting again ( 5/31/18 Hanson: House Prices; BUBBLE 2.0, OR NOT, It’s time to Lever-Up the Sector…Again
by Mark / Thursday, 31 May 2018 ) plus a previous post.
Patrick.net has restarted the housing category on the blog.
This guy’s videos are interesting: Bull Boom Bear Bust
This is a comment on mhanson.com:
Itals mine.
Everyone except the hoi polloi (ahoy, polloi, I feel your pain) thinks it’s fabulously cheap here. If I hear that one more time…
I think it’s more likely that this isn’t going to end for years.