The Airbnb Gold Rush Appears To Be Ending
A weekend topic starting with Fast Company. “In competitive real estate markets like Seattle, prospective homeowners like Erik and Rafaela find saving for the recommended 20% down payment difficult. There are some established options, like Federal Housing Administration loans that push down payment requirements to as low as 3.5%. But the government-backed mortgages usually come a lot more strings. It was while researching FHA loans that Erik and Rafaela came across a creative new financing option. Loftium, a Seattle-based startup, will contribute to a buyer’s down payment in exchange for Airbnb income.”
“So far, they have no regrets about their unusual arrangement. ‘It pushed us to go for something that was maybe more expensive than if we didn’t have Loftium, because we did want that extra privacy,’ Erik says. ‘[It] was kind of a good thing, given the way the market is. It might seem expensive now, but it seems like everything is going up and up.’”
From Louisiana Weekly. “Just over a year and a half ago, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his City Council engaged in a legislative experiment: the wide-scale legalization of online Short Term Rentals of private residential properties. New Orleans became one of the first cities to both make online homeshare platforms widely legal – as well as to provide permits for property owners to engage in ‘whole house rentals’ in historic residential neighborhoods. Last Thursday, the New Orleans City Council sought to pare back those regulations.”
“Four years ago, as online Short Term Rentals began to expand into New Orleans, District ‘C’ Councilwoman Kristen G. Palmer admitted in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, ‘Airbnb didn’t seem like a big deal. We are all about the shared economy.’ However, in the intervening time, and particularly after the Landrieu’s widespread legalization of STRs, ‘I started to get really frustrated because we started feeling it within these core neighborhoods. You started hearing ancillary stories about what was going on, and I have family members who live in other parts of the city in historic cores. You started seeing property values going up, and then you started seeing property values and house sales in and around these areas going for prices that we’ve never seen before. And we are like, ‘Who the hell are buying these houses’, right? We don’t have that kind of income around here.’”
“A small group of high dollar investors from outside of New Orleans have created a commercial hotel market out of residential properties. For example, she observed, ‘The Sander company, which is based in San Francisco, has 124 listings,’ and thanks to shell companies also getting permits, Palmer added, ‘We think that they have that many, if not more, actual permits, but they [take advantage] of multiple listing data.’ ‘Airbnb pretends they are home-sharing service, that their users are homeowners who are making ends meet by renting out their homes,’ Jane Place Initiative program manager Breonne DeDecker said. ‘But our report exposes that lie. What is happening in New Orleans is not home-sharing, but the hotelization of residential housing.’”
From Bisnow on Massachusetts. “Bostonians who list their properties on Airbnb may be forbidden to continue doing so under a proposed city regulation on short-term rentals, and City Hall says Airbnb only has its cyberbullying to blame. ‘For me, they bullied themselves off the table for negotiation,’ Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards said. ‘In a total failure to read the room, they popped off and did that email about my colleague Michelle Wu. They have shown they will go down fighting with propaganda.’”
From the Los Angeles Times in California. “That classic Midcentury Modern home you’ve been eyeing on Airbnb might not be listed for much longer. On June 5, Palm Springs is scheduled to vote on Measure C, a ballot initiative that proposes to ban short-term renting of single-family homes. Of the city’s 21,246 single-family homes, 1,525 have permits to operate as short-term rentals. If the measure passes, about 75% of vacation rentals would be eliminated once the ban takes effect in two years.”
“Movie Colony East homeowner John Ferrante describes a cycle of noise that starts with early-morning screams from pool-loving kids and ends with late-night cocktail chatter, and worse, on patios. He said most of that is acceptable neighborhood ambiance, but explained that it’s unusually pervasive and amplified given that vacationers rent seven homes surrounding him. ‘All day long you deal with this,’ said Ferrante, 58, who has seen rentals on his U-shaped block double since he bought his home five years ago. Half the homes on that block are now rented to vacationers, according to city data.”
“Mike Paonessa and husband Mark Steffen illustrate the classic Palm Springs homeowner story. ‘I don’t think we would have even bought the house if we couldn’t rent it,’ said Paonessa, 55. ‘Having it sit empty 75% of the time would be uncomfortable.’”
The Denver Post in Colorado. “As Airbnb and other vacation home rentals continue to grow in Colorado and across the nation, Jefferson County is shaping up as the state’s next flashpoint for communities intent on getting ahead of an industry often perceived as flying under the radar. Golden this week passed a set of short-term rental rules that calls for licensing homeowners who rent out a room or house in the city for 30 days or less. One of the biggest and the most controversial among them is a stipulation that the property for rent must be the owner’s primary residence.”
“Tourist-heavy Golden, viewed by many as the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, began receiving inquiries — and some complaints — last year about neighbors renting out their homes on a short-term basis, said Amber Wesner, city planner for Golden. ‘There was concern that it might be getting out of control,’ she said.”
The Citizen Times in North Carolina. “In this top-destination tourist town, there’s a lot of money to be made renting a house or apartment to weekend visitors. Except it’s illegal in almost all cases. And doing it can mean big fines, according to stringent city rules passed three years ago in response to concerns over neighborhood disruption and exacerbation of Asheville’s housing shortage. Most of the time, property owners caught running a short-term vacation rental, known in common parlance as an ‘Airbnb,’ stop before the $500 a day fine is imposed, city officials say.”
“Reid Thompson isn’t one of those. As of May 10, Thompson had racked up $850,000 in fines. He ignored letters from the city, which he said disrupted his neighborhood and pushed him into the short-term rental business by allowing a grocery store to turn his street into a commercial truck corridor. ‘I guess my thinking is, ‘Yeah, that’s a huge risk. But I don’t think their fines are collectible because I think they are outrageous and capricious,’ he said. The city, meanwhile, is suing Thompson to collect the money and make him stop the rentals, which Asheville’s rules make illegal in nearly every part of the city.”
From the Calgary Herald in Canada. “There are 3,780 short-term rentals listed in Calgary as of April, according to new data compiled by the city. The vast majority, about 88 per cent, are listed on Airbnb. Complaints range from mild to disastrous, according to city councillors: confused visitors banging on suburban doors late at night searching for their rental, a guest parking their boat obtrusively in a cul-de-sac, condo dwellers irritated by noisy renters taking over the building’s pool; and, of course, Calgary’s now-infamous case of an Airbnb in Sage Hill that was declared a ‘biohazard’ after nearly being destroyed by weekend partiers.”
“Coun. Ward Sutherland urged city staff to begin looking at options to regulate such rentals in late 2017 after hearing about a dozen complaints in his northwest ward. ‘What we’re obviously concerned about is the safety of those buildings and the people using them,’ Sutherland said. ‘At least when you have a hotel or a bed and breakfast, there’s fire codes, there’s smoke detectors in every single room, the requirements are very strict. Right now, you go and use these other places and there’s zero rules for safety.’”
From the Agence France Presse on Spain. “Spain may be one of the world’s top tourist destinations, but many people in its biggest cities have grown exasperated with Airbnb-style rentals. And now, their city councils are taking action. Complaints have abounded in Spain that greedy landlords are throwing out long-term tenants in order to cash in on the tourist flow, and that the short-term leases are pushing up rent. ‘We are aware that this is a very restrictive condition and that is our intention,’ Jose Manuel Calvo, Madrid’s city councillor for sustainable urban development, told AFP.”
“He said certain Madrid neighborhoods have reached ‘the same saturation level’ as Barcelona, where a boom in holiday rentals has drained the city’s housing supply and pushed up rents, sparking a backlash against tourists that saw protesters take to the streets. There are now around 9,000 flats in Madrid that are rented out to tourists, six to seven times more than in 2013, Calvo said. Of these, about 2,000 operate without a license.”
“In some buildings, landlords have evicted all local residents in order to rent their flats to tourists for more money, Calvo explained. ‘The consequence is that these neighborhoods end up emptying out gradually and this must be prevented. There is still time,’ he said.”
From The Real Deal on Portugal. “Portugal’s reputation as a vacation spot and a deal for real estate investors has been steadily growing, but the dark side to its successful strategy is chaffing on locals. Evictions of long-time residents are on the rise as foreign buyers and tourists flood the country, according to the New York Times. The 2011 lift of a rent freeze liberalized the market and so, in combination with Portugal’s program to offer property investors who pour in €500,000 or more a residency visa, prices have risen by about 50 percent over three years.”
“As of 2011, before rental laws changed, of Lisbon’s nearly 323,000-unit housing stock, about 50,000 homes were vacant. Now, tourists outnumber residents by a ratio of eight to one, and about 30 hotels are supposed to come online in 2018. Last year, Portugal was listed as one of the top countries to buy real estate overseas.”
From Domain News in Australia. “The Airbnb gold rush appears to be ending, with fed-up landlords returning to the long term rental market after the short term becomes more trouble than it’s worth, agents say. Difficult and hands-on management, less-than-ideal profits, and a saturated market were turning investors from the one-time disrupter, which was no longer seen as easy money.”
“Talia Besser got her start in the real estate industry managing two Airbnbs for her father two years ago. It initially seemed like a fun venture, but the reality quickly became apparent. ‘I think the first two to three months I found it fun,’ she said. ‘Unless you’re going to do it full time and you have all the time in the world, it’s not worthwhile.’”
“The two units required near-daily attention, from booking cleaners to ensuring the keys were ready to be picked up. But for long stretches of time, the Balaclava short-term stays didn’t attract visitors. ‘There are those periods in winter where people weren’t coming to Melbourne, and we’d have them empty for weeks at a time,’ she said.”
“At the peak of the boom, the disrupter was a zeitgeist among buyers but many have now come back to the rental books. ‘A lot of the properties we were selling we had people buying them to turn them into Airbnbs,’ said Harcourts Melbourne City director Dionne Wilson. ‘We were losing a few [rental] managements to Airbnb but a lot have since come back to us.’”
‘The Airbnb gold rush appears to be ending, with fed-up landlords returning to the long term rental market after the short term becomes more trouble than it’s worth, agents say. Difficult and hands-on management, less-than-ideal profits, and a saturated market were turning investors from the one-time disrupter, which was no longer seen as easy money.’
This crap was just part of the bubble, just like the Craigslist FB of past years. I guess the fat envelopes of money from silicon valley snake oil salesmen has ended.
‘Four years ago, as online Short Term Rentals began to expand into New Orleans, District ‘C’ Councilwoman Kristen G. Palmer admitted in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, ‘Airbnb didn’t seem like a big deal. We are all about the shared economy.’
I think she was “all about the fat envelopes.”
Shared Economy = not paying hotel taxes and abiding by hotel health and safety regulations
Now why would a politician support that?
Ah yes - the fat envelope
“Ah yes - the fat envelope”
Money is the mother’s milk of politics.
It ain’t over as long as the fat envelope sings.
‘Hollywood’s historic Villa Carlotta returns to rental market as upscale, Airbnb-style lodging’
‘What about rent control?’
‘Villa Carlotta, an ornate 1920s apartment building in Hollywood’s Franklin Village, is returning to the rental market—and it might have found a loophole in rent control law to set higher rents. The formerly down-on-its-luck rental property will make its debut in the coming weeks not as a hotel, as was once planned, and not as traditional apartments, but as upscale Airbnb-type lodging.’
‘Once known for its low rents and a tight-knit community of artists and writers, the Villa Carlotta will now be an extended-stay property that caters to affluent visitors as well as longer-term residents.’
‘The remodeled property will continue to be subject to LA’s rent stabilization law, which is designed to protect households with lower incomes from steep rent hikes. But the law might not have much effect under Villa Carlotta’s new business model.’
‘When Villa Carlotta returns to the rental market, which it’s expected to do in the coming weeks, those 20 units will have to be rented at their 2014 rates, plus allowable increases. Those amounts will range from $859 to $1,461, city records obtained under a Public Records Act request show.’
‘But how long will they stay that way? The law doesn’t dictate how long a unit has to be rented out before it can reset to market rate.’
‘CGI, a real estate firm based in Woodland Hills, declined an interview request. But a spokesperson confirmed that “Villa Carlotta is now a fully furnished extended stay rental property to meet the demand in the market.”
‘Its website says it will provide “five-star service” with the “sophistication of a landmark boutique hotel” and the “modern conveniences of a well-appointed condominium,” “welcom[ing] stays of 30 days or more.”
‘Rates for a two-month stay will be $6,700 for a studio, $7,800 for a one bedroom, and $11,900 per month for a two bedroom, according to an inquiry from a prospective visitor.’
Silly liberals/progressives.
Instead of having an apartment full of units ready to be rented.
They will now have NONE - amplifying the “affordable” housing market problem.
Kinda like how Cuba and Venezuela have “free” health care.
Quick - pass some new taxes and regulations.
++++
‘The remodeled property will continue to be subject to LA’s rent stabilization law, which is designed to protect households with lower incomes from steep rent hikes. But the law might not have much effect under Villa Carlotta’s new business model.’
Ben - did you see this piece:
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-joshua-tree-rentals-20180604-story.html
—> Bryan Wynwood, a real estate broker in Joshua Tree who owns a vacation rental in town. “The days of homes here selling for $60,000 to $100,000 are over — never to return. Today, entry houses are $150,000 to $200,000. ” <—-
‘It pushed us to go for something that was maybe more expensive than if we didn’t have Loftium, because we did want that extra privacy,’ Erik says. ‘[It] was kind of a good thing, given the way the market is. It might seem expensive now, but it seems like everything is going up and up.’
‘I don’t think we would have even bought the house if we couldn’t rent it,’ said Paonessa, 55. ‘Having it sit empty 75% of the time would be uncomfortable.’
‘The 2011 lift of a rent freeze liberalized the market and so, in combination with Portugal’s program to offer property investors who pour in €500,000 or more a residency visa, prices have risen by about 50 percent over three years’
‘Difficult and hands-on management, less-than-ideal profits, and a saturated market were turning investors from the one-time disrupter, which was no longer seen as easy money’
Note on the last one that prices are falling like a rock in Melbourne.
Well, that is a technique…
+++++
Francisco Macias Nguema was the first leader of Equatorial Guinea after it obtained independence from Spain in 1968. On Christmas Eve 1975, he had 150 opponents killed in a soccer stadium by soldiers dressed as Santa Claus while playing the Mary Hopkin’s song “Those Were the Days”.
He was overthrown and executed in 1979.
Nguema used hallucinogenic drugs and was quite insane. He murdered the director of his Central Bank and buried the entire national treasury under his bed which was in a bamboo hut in the village of his birth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Mac%C3%ADas_Nguema
‘In 2009, 1,400 guests stayed in Airbnb for New Year’s Eve. On Sunday for 2017, more than 3 million guests did. That’s according to a recent tweet from co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky. The accommodations-rental platform founded by Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nate Blecharczyk has raised almost $4.5 billion from investors, according to Crunchbase, and is valued north of $30 billion. There are currently 4 million Airbnb rentals across the world in 65,000 cities and 191 countries.’
‘VCs throw money at Airbnb’
‘From the $20,000 seed funding Airbnb received from Y Combinator in January 2009, the accommodations booking company went on to raise a total of 10 rounds of funding. They have raised $4.4 billion in capital from highly esteemed venture houses including Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund.’
‘Airbnb says it is now more deliberate and measured in its growth.’
‘After all, there are some issues: It has to be careful in negotiations with local regulators to do things like collect and remit the appropriate taxes. Airbnb’s short-term rentals are also illegal in some places (though Airbnb has been fighting that in court). And hoteliers that are getting squeezed are not pleased to be losing business.’
‘Airbnb is set to book its first full year of profitability, putting it in a rare class among large venture-funded Silicon Valley companies. A source familiar with Airbnb’s financials said the company will end 2017 with bookings up approximately 50 percent from 2016. CNBC reported previously that revenue last quarter hit about $1 billion, up more than 50 percent from the same period last year.’
‘Making money — not losing it — puts Airbnb in stark contrast to other tech upstarts such as Uber, Lyft and Spotify. Uber’s losses widened last quarter to $1.46 billion, a jump of nearly 40 percent year over year, as the ride-hailing company faced increased competition from global rivals such as Didi, and as Lyft gains market share in the U.S.’
‘As Uber retreats from global markets such as China and Russia, Airbnb is scaling up its international presence. To woo Chinese users, it rebranded its Chinese operations with a Chinese name, Aibiying, and CEO Brian Chesky pledged to double investment.’
‘But the company is facing challenges in China too — fierce competition from local rivals, an abrupt executive departure and regulatory crackdowns. Chinese home-sharing platform Xiaozhu raised $120 million in a funding round led by Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital this year, while another, Tujia, tapped investors for $300 million, led by Chinese online travel giant Ctrip. In October, the head of Airbnb’s China business left just four months after taking the position.’
‘Beyond China, Airbnb faced other challenges in 2017. Growth of listings is slowing in some of Airbnb’s biggest cities, where it also faced stricter regulations.’
‘Investors have focused on the bright spots, putting another $1 billion into the start-up, bringing its valuation to $31 billion — more than the valuations of publicly traded hotel giants Hilton and Hyatt.’
If they are making money, why keep up the fund raising? And how much would they make if all the illegal units ceased? Like all these other money losing deals, it’s about fleecing the greater fool VC’s who hope to fleece stockholders in an IPO.
It is a hotel app with OUT paying the required hotel TAXES and abiding the hotel safety, health and fire REGULATIONS that all other hotels have to pay.
It is a scam. And that is how they make their cut.
I could be a billionaire tomorrow if I could sell cigarettes, booze or gasoline with paying taxes or abiding by Federal/State/Local health codes.
Hey, but I created an APP to community share these items!!!
Fleecing is so much more affordable at the Fed’s underwater lending rates!
There you go again Prof Bear, … throwing dart$, poping bubble$ er, balloon$
How do they NOT make money? They:
Don’t have to buy any property
Don’t pay any real estate taxes
Do not have to insure the properties
Do not have to maintain, upgrade or clean said properties.
All they have is a website, which might even be hosted on someone’s cloud, meaning no IT staff, no servers or storage to buy, upgrade, repair or backup. They should be making money hand over fist.
They lost gobs of money for years. Where did it go? How can uber lose billions, they have a similar set up? They share a whacked business model. There is no barrier to entry. Now uber is getting into the driver-less flying taxi business. A business that doesn’t exist.
I was loudly wondering the same thing.
$4.5 Billion in from investors, plus their slice of every rent collected over the last 10 years. How much does it costs for their servers, IT infrastructure? How many employees and buildings? They haven’t needed much advertising for years now.
Other online platforms that take a similar slice of all transactions (ebay, appStores, Steam, etc) are so massively profitable, that every big company has been looking for something similar they could get in on.
I can’t fathom how they could be operating at a loss… even considering their legal bills… unless some people have become very, very wealthy along the way.
They lost gobs of money for years. Where did it go?
That’s what I’d like to know. Hotel chains have to support the same IT infrastructure AND actually run hotels.
Uber in theory has been investing in R&D for driverless cars, but realistically, how much can that be?
It makes you think that money is being embezzled. Makes you wonder if these places will be the next WorldCom or Enron.
“There is no barrier to entry.”
Don’t you need to own a car and have a license to drive it?
Given that most adults already have both, it’s a pretty low barrier.
I think many can do better driving a shuttle van for a car dealership. They get at least minimum wage and the van is provided. Of course, there aren’t that many of those jobs available.
Nobody is putting a gun to Uber driver’s heads and forcing them to share rides. Also, the driving expenses should come off Schedule C, so maybe it does pencil out for some folks.
The globalists’ economy was the gun at their head. The major threat to the sharing economy’s jobs and companies are real jobs with real hours and real benefits. Thank you Trump for facilitating the creating of them. Maybe that is why silicon valley hates him so much, caps on cheap foreign, labor, check, improved job prospects, check, and a willingness to look into hidden subsidies such as cheap postal contracts to Amazon, check. No wonder why they want to bring Obama back. Obama even put the cost of health care on the government so they would not have to fund health insurance in their crummy jobs.
People arguing against Trump’s solar tariffs and claim look at all the installer jobs he is destroying, ignore the McDonald’s type wages in those jobs, if you do not manufacture the panels you do not have the decent paying jobs:
https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Solar_Energy_System_Installer/Hourly_Rate
Five months experience in the oil fields:
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/roughnecks-wanted-good-pay-hard-work-drug-tests-required/article_63081f01-754b-5ddc-b129-d272ba5dd5fb.html
FWIW, $25/hr to roughneck is not tall cotton.
Perhaps because they choose to pay high rent for their snazzy headquarters in downtown SF? That means some high salaries for all those employee commuters so they can afford their $2 million dollar single story ranch homes.
Sequoia Capital is here in my neck of the woods in Menlo Park , CA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_Capital
A bunch of arrogant pricks run the company, but their resume is impressive:
Sequoia Capital has invested in over 250 companies since 1972, including Apple, Google, Oracle, PayPal, Stripe, YouTube, Instagram, Yahoo! and WhatsApp.[21] The combined current public market value for these companies is over $1.4 trillion, equivalent to 22 percent of Nasdaq.[3] Its portfolio is mainly in financial services, healthcare, outsourcing, and technology.[19] As in 2017, they have exited in 68 IPOs and 203 acquisitions.[22]
They never tell you about their investments that go to zero, do they?
‘The number of short-term rental owners who have registered to vote in Palm Springs since the beginning of the year is a small percentage of the approximately 1,800 individuals who have vacation rental permits from the city. It’s unlikely 128 voters could swing the election.’
‘The vacation rental industry as a whole and individual rental owners would likely face significant financial losses if the measure passes. In the past, as the council struggled to find a legislative balance for the issue, some owners of short-term rentals said they would not be able to make their mortgage payments if they lost the income from renting out their homes.’
‘Ann Winthrop and her husband reside in Newport Beach but plan to live full time in Palm Springs after he retires. Winthrop registered to vote in Palm Springs earlier this year. “I have a really vested interest in Palm Springs’ future. I hope to be a resident there. I own property there,” she said. “Essentially I am a resident. I own property.”
$ounds like Ann & her husband have a $well gig, $tay in the $prings to watch Indian Well$ tennis & golf, whilst they rent$ out their Newport Beache$ $hack for monie$ … Then vice.a.ver$a, to dwell on the ocean boardwalk in the hot summer.
Don’t know how it might go iffin’ their loca$tions were say, Newberry $prings & $tanton, CA …
Train traveling has been enhanced bye Airbnb in my regard, but only marginally, small train depot towns often don’t have the be$test motel$ … (but folk$ have become greedy, $70 room attached to a $45 cleaning fee, good.gawd) … most often we find a great campground or decent RV tent
site, explore the local, then catch the next train outta Dodge …
Now the American $pirit of innovation$ has $prouted:
airbnb for RV & tent trailer$
airbnb for car camping$
Teepee$ … Treehouse$ … Yurt$ … $ailboats … Caboose’$ … Barn’$
What a country!
“Darling eye love you, but give me the Hyatt on 5th ave$!!!”
Ann’s swanky desert digs even has a name “Los Milagros”.
Realtors are liars.
Ah - the joys of home ownership.
After many years of of great neighbors, we had a single man in his late 50s buy the 4 bed/2.5 bath house next door.
Why? Who knows (except for the sweet equity being built up!). He is in middle management and is always traveling. He is never there. And property taxes on the house are not cheap! (about 10K per year).
And because he is never there - he does not take care of his yard, his roof (has a garden growing in his gutters), and leaves his trash bins out on the road for weeks until someone gets sick of them and puts them back.
Well, he just put the full trash bins out in the nearly the middle of the street four days before trash pick up. I moved them back to his driveway.
He moved them back to the street. I tried to talk with him to put the trash out on the day of pickup (or night before) but he basically told me to f_ck off and get off his property.
The police and zoning officer had a talk with him next.
There is a landscaping company there today and the trash is in his driveway.
So - why does a single man in his late 50s (and way out of shape) buy a 4 bed/2.5 bath on a good third acre house anyways? Especially when away for travel for weeks at a time. He should be in a condo in town close to the MILF/GILF bars. No raking leaves, no cutting grass, no getting on the roof, no garbage days pickups, etc. And no insane property taxes either.
Except for building that sweet equity. I can’t think of another reason
I have noticed this trend in other family neighborhoods too. Single older men buying family houses. And pretty much neglect it or do the bare minimum maintenance.
Just a FYI - my angry old man neighbor though he got a good price 2 years ago as they seller came down about 5% from an insane price.
He is going to get crushed.
Thoughts?
Two years ago mortgage rates were about as low as they ever got. Maybe the rental rates made that “sweet equity” look attractive.
Two years ago I sold a 2000 sqft 3BR/2.5BA two story house on a quarter acre and traded it for a smaller, single story 2BR/2BA where the HOA takes care of the lawn.
I got really tired of mowing the lawn every week in addition to the other stuff that comes with owning a house.
And yes, my total cost of housing is much less than what I could get if I chose to rent.
We were in the same position the previous times we bought, and fully intend to avoid buying again until the trough of the next bust, and then only if it makes sense for our personal circumstances. My best possible financial advice to young people is to ignore the experts, and by all means necessary time any housing purchases for when everyone else is undergoing job loss and foreclosure, using money you saved while your neighbors were living high on the hog during the boom years. You can make several years worth of extra salary by buying and HODLing owner occupied real estate this way, compared to following the bovine herds’ purchase timing.
You also pay $10K in property taxes? Holy cannoli! And to think I was upset that mine went up, for the first time in about 5 years, from $2000 to $2200.
If, say, the mortgage plus property tax is less than rent, why would he care what happens to the property? To please his neighbors?
Maybe he doesn’t care about re-sale value. Maybe he’s independently wealthy.
I’d like someone on HBB to answer this question: Why do two, married, kids-out-of-the house adults continue to buy 3,000 square foot properties?
Where’s the neighborly sense of responsibility in that behavior?
So the children and grandchildren will have a place to stay when they visit?
In the two years he has been there - he has had maybe three guests. All men his own age.
Glad you aren’t my neighbor.
Please get a life.
Let the grandkids sleep on the floor. My cousins and I did it all the time, yet still loved to sleepover and grandma and grandpa’s.
Three or four sleeping bags and three or four extra pillows is what is needed, not 1,500 extra square feet of living space.
It’s definitely that, Bubba. Empty nester mothers are famous for this. One financial analyst even tells retired couples to buy a very small cheaper house just to discourage the kids from moving back in. They save so much money on the mortgage that when they family visits, Pops can put them up at the Ritz.
Funny that people will say “oh no we can’t stay there, they have a small house.” They never seem to realize that “those b*st*rds, they bought a small house on purpose to keep us out!”
We’re going to follow that plan, if there’s ever another bust…
Maybe they have too much stuff they can’t bring themselves to get rid of? (I know one retired couple that’s been trying to downsize their possessions - they are on year 5 of that project now…)
Usually it’s one half of the couple, who while s/he understands that they have to get rid of a lot of cr@p if they are ever going to downsize, yet can’t bring themselves to let go of the cr@p. Either it has some sentimental value, they think of how much was paid for it, think that someday they’ll need it, or maybe it’s just a case of being a good old fashioned pack rat.
It’s tough but liberating.
I have a ‘cleaning out’ project going on right now and will probably take all summer. I really don’t 14 computer monitors in the house you know…
2banana,
Maybe I can offer a possible perspective, since I’m a man just over 50 who just bought a house (again). This may come off as something of a rant, so you have been warned.
I would suspect that most of those older single men got divorced in their late 30s or early 40s, or more colorfully put: ‘frivorced’ - where they did everything they thought they were supposed to do (get married, work hard at a career, have kids, etc) but their wives, once their lives got comfortable by being supported by hubby, decided they could do better, or have some fun on the side. And when push came to shove and hubby found out and put an end to it, they realized they could play dirty and took hubby to the cleaners in family court, while imagining how wonderful their single life would be. 10 years or so later, that man has finally dug himself out from the financial hole he was put in and buying a house is part of his strategy to possibly regain the ability to retire before age 90.
Ok, I know that above paragraph may sound like a cliche or something from a redpill site, but it not only happened to me, but for a particular segment of men, it happens amazingly often, as I’ve seen it play out again and again among co-workers I’ve had and other couple’s I’ve known.
The demographic I’ve seen it happen to repeatedly is mostly white, upper middle class men who work a “professional” job of some sort, and have been able to allow their wives (whom they married in their 20s) to stay home, or work part-time at most, to raise kids and look after the home, etc.
In those marriages gone bad, often the wives have gone through experiencing several of these things: They resented their husbands for not being around all the time to do things for them and amuse them (Because they are working hard to pay for everything). They got caught up on the ‘mommy track’ for a while with young kids, and the husband was shoved way down their importance list, and didn’t rise back up as they kids grew up. They compared themselves and their husbands to other couples who seemed more successful, richer, and/or have a seemingly more exciting life, and felt a sense of failure in how their lives didn’t turn out by comparison (social media is a killer). Because they don’t work, they don’t value what it takes to make the money they do have and resent their spouse for not making more. They think all the time hubby spends away from home working must be something wonderful and out of a sitcom and resent ‘his freedom’ compared to their role as SAHM. Then they got more free time on their hands as the kids got older. And they wondered about paths not taken. Add in social media, email and modern instant communications to the mix, and the temptation to stray, trade up, or whatever they think they are doing is easy and prevalent.
By mentioning a bit of what I went through to coworkers, I became the “goto guy” at a couple of my jobs, where more than once guys would come in to my office and ask “What does it mean when she says ‘I love you but I’m not ‘in love’ with you?”.
I wish I was kidding or exaggerating about the above, but I’m not. Now the percentage of guys this happens to isn’t very big out of all married couples, but the rate of occurrence seems concentrated in demographic I just described. Some of the guys I have known have stayed together and tried to work through it, but it’s about 85%+ fatal from what I’ve seen.
Anyway, why the long rant describing these guys? Because for the upper-middle class divorced guy, he just got shoved backwards economically 20 to 30 years with loss of assets, alimony, child support, etc. It usually takes a decade or more, and the kids growing up before they get back on track, which puts them in their 50s.
That ’sweet equity’ and riding the appreciation train, is one of the few ways they have to possibly be in the position to retire in the mid 60s as they see their peak earning years run out. They’re probably also planing to downsizing to a LCOL area with the sale of that house. Calculated risk, but what do they have loose given where they are coming from?
That may not at all be your neighbor, but it does describe a good slice of single divorced men in their 50s. They’re not at all where they originally expected to be in life, and don’t want work full-time until their dying day. It certainly described me for a while, except that I have a chance to reach house paid-for status in the next 5 years or so and I remarried to a much younger career woman.
Now please don’t take the above as saying all women are bad or any such sweeping generalization. I’m describing a small minority and I hope all of you guys (and gals) here have much better fortune in picking partners and making your way together than I did.
Then hire a landscaper and put the trash out on trash day…
Sheeeesh…
“… and I remarried to a much younger career woman.”
I was with you all the way until I reached this part, then you lost me.
Lol. Its sounds a lot worse and cheesier than it is doesn’t it? I shouldn’t have gone off on the rant. I am the king of cheese today!
But it true that my wife is 11 years younger than I am, and if I downshift into semi-retirement, she will still be working full-time and probably paying the vast majority of the bills. We’ve talked about it a few times, and it’s factored into our longer term financial planning and goals.
And honestly she’s the only reason I’m not a single 50 something. After I got divorced I had no luck meeting women my own age who had a career and comfortably self-supporting and weren’t wanting to stop working if they got (re) married. As I was way in the hole, that was a real obstacle to a long-term relationship.
Most of the men I’ve known that have never married, if they became homeowners they usually did it in their late 20s or 30s. When you get to be an old fart like me, you’re thinking ‘I don’t have all the time in the world’ so there’s usually more of shorter-term plan for something like that.
Ahh, so you got one of those women that “thought she could do better”, and then settled for about the same as she had
Heh. The first part is right, the second part is not (depending on the category I suppose). But she’ll never admit that she wound up worse off in any way. But god does she love to still name drop my current accomplishments and reminisce about the money we had all those years ago.
The game women play is Men …
“I paid off my wife’s student loans — then she filed for divorce after two years of marriage”
“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. My question is: Does the fact we paid off her debts she held before get spread evenly? Had I not paid all of her debts our net worth would be near the same with a better outcome for me.
“We’ve only been married a few years, and frankly I can’t help feeling taken advantage of. The only advice I can find discusses whose responsibility the student loans would be, but now it just seems that she got me to pay all of her debts, and got some new stuff, while I threw away years of my life.
“Please tell me there’s hope.”
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?&siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yaho
Oh, you’ll love this one then.
My younger brother god divorced because.. wait for it… she was cheating. They had one child that he got minimal custody of, and he has been fairly constrained by the child support (he has a steady, but not spectacular job in the education sector).
He remarried soon after to a pretty younger thing who didn’t remember to mention two little details to him. I’ll give you a hint first - she was working as a… Realtor(tm) at the time… and this was … oh .. ‘06 or ‘07
1 ) She wanted to have kids soon. She had a “whoops” soon after in ‘08 and it was time for her to be a stay at home mom.
2) She “Forgot” to file her Taxes for the three years (or was it more) before getting married. Boom times and too busy to get around to it and all that…
You can probably guess how that all turned out for him…
MGSpiffy, i think i saw that you are from Mercer Island in the Seattle area.
The # of middle management men from Microsoft, Boeing, formally WaMu, etc. that are in this position are amazing. For whatever reason, they agreed or were convinced that their wives should stay at home had a number of consequences.
Drop the kids off, go to yoga class, and then hang out with friends at Starbucks. Starbucks then turn into an upscale lunch spot. Their dopey, somewhat overweight husband was not enough.
I have 3 friends that went though this - with a very financial ruinous separation/divorce.
b,
You are correct, though I have only been living here for a few years. My (2nd) wife is also a tech professional with a full-time career.
We have a term we’ve come to use for the stereotypical ones: “Mercer Moms” - you see them out about for walks, running errands, at Starbucks, etc during the day.
The UMC / tech demographic lends itself to being able to afford the ’she doesn’t have to work’ scenario, which makes it easier to play around.
My hot button that got pushed is the current great inequality in the family courts and divorce process, and the whole ‘no fault’ divorce business. As you saw, it’s very often a financial nuke bomb event, to say nothing of the emotional and parental impact.
My particular divorce, caused by my ex-’s multiple infidelities, was a rather nasty one where she pulled out some dirty tricks (false accusations, extortion, theft of assets, etc) without even a slap on the wrist, and wound up getting virtually everything. So I’m not going to apologetic, especially when I see it first hand happening over and over to other people.
In my 20s, I joined a startup and there 6 of us devs who created the company’s flagship product. Of those 4 were married, 2 with kids already and 2 who had them later. 3 of the 4 including me, once they had kids had the exact scenario I described play out. Since then, I’ve seen it again and again - though I will acknowledge that I’m around a specific type of person (salaried software developers) mostly.
Yep, I’m a few years younger than you and have seen it take out 75%+ of my peers. Early in my career I observed some of the older guys (5-10 years) going through this and thought this isnt a coincidence - its a business model. Then I saw the wave hit most of my friends - kid pops out, boom - off to divorce to get half AND he can pick up the tab for the next 20 years or so (mommy gets covered as a part of this “child support”). I’ve seen a number of the women shine the kids too - put them in day care even though they dont work while they focus on “finding themselves”. Not sure how thats working out since backpage got shut down
So called career women work an average of 10 years or so, which nowadays probably doesnt even allow them to pay back the debt incurred for their (usually) worthless degrees. My friends who are still married are virtual slaves and if the wife works its for pissant wages but insists its REALLY hard watching over 2nd graders or some such.
When I was younger and told people I wasnt married they said I have to fix that. Now they tell me I’m smart/lucky. Only young guys I see getting married are strictly religious and/or have a lot of family money so even if the marriage crashes and burns they have a lot of resources to fall back on. The venn diagram of marriage is devolving in western civ to the rich, the poor (think drunk in vegas), and the stupid.
“… once they had kids had the exact scenario I described play out. Since then, I’ve seen it again and again …”
Once again the saying goes:
The game men play is Money; The game women play is Men.
I’ve seen a similar pattern where I used to work with the young ladies. I believe that this really has its roots in “the pill.” Add in progressive family law and social media, and the cuckolds are being minted like mosquitoes in the Spring. I have to wonder what the demographers would tell us after a couple of drinks?
I have to wonder what the demographers would tell us after a couple of drinks?
That 30% of married men are cucked by their wives and raise children they didn’t actually sire, but think they did?
“That 30% of married men are cucked by their wives and raise children they didn’t actually sire, but think they did?”
Gawd, that’s brutal. I was thinking further out… is family formation on its way out? When do we short Home Depot?
A number of good books were written following the introduction of “the pill.” Look at it this way:
the pill + progressive family law + social media = ???
Geez, possible script for a rever$e sitcom of Roseanne.
Amazing what rock salt does to solid steel auto bodies over a number of years.
Here are a couple items that eye have observed over 5 decades (time) that have similar effects on once solid human relationships.
1. con·tempt
kənˈtem(p)t/Submit … noun
the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.
“he/she showed their contempt for their job by doing it very badly”
synonyms: scorn, disdain, disrespect, scornfulness, contemptuousness, derision; disgust, loathing, hatred, abhorrence
“she regarded him with contempt” or “he regarded her with contempt”
2. Body health (maintenance.over.time)
This can become the Petri dish that incubates item #1.
(a tool to determine the cause of infectious disease/thoughts by letting the agent multiply in a predetermined medium/mind)
Naturally, there are many eroding aspects that can result in degradation between souls … The magic, (so.it.seems) is to find countervailing aspects to these types of detrimental items.
“you don’t need a weatherman to tell ya which way the wind is a blowin’ …”
Similar situation happened to two of my co-workers, so it’s pretty widespread. One chose to stay married, the other divorced and remarried.
Both sound like gluttons for punishment.
I’m in total agreement with your item #1.
Contempt or Respect - they are opposite directions on the compass which is guiding the direction you are going in.
““What does it mean when she says ‘I love you but I’m not ‘in love’ with you?””
She loves the money. She loves the security. She loves and respects his “manhood,” i.e. his willingness to work to provide for his family. But she’s not in love with his personality specifically. In many cases, she never really was. Sure, she had some young lust, but deep down she married for the security. Later on she “learned” to love him — that is, she *manufactured* some semblance of love for him, a combination of gratitude and Stockholm syndrome.
Generations ago, such marriages would have lasted longer, but with the court system the mother’s favor and her ability to work to support herself at least somewhat, women can afford to get divorced. And for younger women, not only can women afford to get divorced, they can afford to not marry at all. Largely because they can get on the education track very early in life. Should be interesting to see where this goes, if women marry only for love.
[that said, we might see a return to marrying for security, especially if there is another recession. There's a strange doublethink at work, where movies need to have "strong woman characters," but what sells at the stores? The pretty princess dresses.]
Hey Donk
Later on she “learned” to love him — that is, she *manufactured* some semblance of love for him, a combination of gratitude and Stockholm syndrome.
I think this goes a long way in explaining the quote that was going around about how money can’t buy you love but it can buy you something so close that you can’t tell the difference.
It’s not that this looks exactly like real love. But it looks exactly like what people have been conditioned to *think* real love looks like. Because this is as good as it’s gotten for many of them. Any difference is undetectable.
“I love you but I’m not ‘in love’ with you” has one meaning: “I’ve found someone else who gets me wet, unlike you.”
The best solution is to serve her with divorce papers and tell her you will fight to the end to keep your assets.
Any other approach means you are wearing a “kick me” sign.
My best wishes that everything will work out with your new wife….I could say a lot, but all I have time for now is to note that here in Silicon Valley I can’t name a single good marriage where the wife is 1st generation Chinese.
I can’t name a single good marriage where the wife is 1st generation Chinese.
As in 1G FOB or as in 1G ABC? Having seen it up close each has its issues but to me they seem like much different issues.
Foreign born, not just mainland, but also Taiwan; really, those who came here college age or later. I’m painting with too broad of a brush, because I’m pretty sure there are exceptions, but I don’t know them well enough to guess — and most couples are pretty good at hiding (e.g. in several cases, if I didn’t know the husband I wouldn’t know how bad things are).
I don’t know enough marriages involving ABC’s or foreign born who moved here early to guess, but at least those people typically understand American culture.
I suspect there’s substantial cultural differences between educated city woman (BS/MS/PhD) and “village girls”. Also, since my kids are still in school, I primarily know families with children, mostly with couples who married late (say at 30 or so), with educated wives (typically only child), and “high tech” hubbies. Most are still married, with the wives totally concentrated on the kids (”tiger moms”, or maybe more accurately, “big wives” like in old China, but who won’t let their husbands have “little wives” - but certainly have no interest themselves in being romantic or domestic).
I know too many >40 year old self-centered Chinese women who have totally inflated ideas of their worth and importance, who think they could do so much better maritally (just like the American women described in these comments), and their husbands are so lucky to have them (and their demands, criticisms, etc) — but I’m pretty sure if those couples split, the wives would be in for a rude awakening.
Finally, since you’re involved (at least peripherally) in Chinese business, I highly recommend looking at the ChinaLawBlog site.
ChinaLawBlog
Thanks, I’m checking that out now.
Ben,
You can go ahead and delete my longer reply on this thread if you like.
I think the assertion that divorced professional men in their 50s would be motivated to buy bigger houses than they need as part of an attempt to financially catch-up from being setback is valid and on topic, but my breakdown of the things that can lead to his being divorced was more a cathartic rant than it was staying on the topic of housing.
I liked the rant. Good insight.
But if I was in that “place” - I would be the “great neighbor” guy trying to set up roots and start a new life on the quick.
Why be a bitter old man stereotype?
Yeah - some chick that YOU asked to marry you screwed you over. Are you going to get back at her by not taking care of the house YOU just purchased and letting your trash blow around the neighborhood?
And yelling at your neighbor who tried to point it out to you in a nice way?
Now I am just calling the cops or the zoning officer for ANY infraction I see.
Hmmmm. Maybe there was a reason for the divorce.
Well, like you mentioned, he’s gone a lot. Sure, he could pay someone to keep his house up while he’s gone, but as we all know that cost$ money, and maybe he’s salting away as much as he can at this point.
Good points there. You would think with the money he has tied up in it, he would know to take care of the place even it meant paying someone.
And I don’t want to be the bitter old man or come off as one - the whole thing pushed my hot button and I’ll own up to that. The point I hoped would come through is that a divorce in middle age usually completely wrecks someone’s life plans.
One of the reasons we have 30 year mortgage (which working backwards from help set housing prices), and not longer is that it represents a large majority of what is expected to be a persons working and earning years. And culturally we have been sold the idea of a progression in life that leads up to a paid off home in time to retire. All those ideas and hopes go out the window if you have to make mortgage payments at age 86 in today’s pension-free world.
Yep, guy needs to learn “living well is the best revenge”. Being a bad neighbor doesnt exactly fall under the living well part.
I also think with so many people/women on anti depression meds and other big pharm cocktails nowadays these divorces/family implosions may be the manifestation of that. In the worst case men will kill/suicide on that junk, but maybe the analog in women is to destroy their family - the most self destructive thing they can do given their nature and abilities.
Make for an interesting study, which no doubt would get shut down and refused for publication.
My local community college has a course in “Women, wine and wonder”. Age of Kali.
Oh, hou$ing affordabilite$ & x2 $table income$ contributions is very much on topic! (imhto)
As opposed to hou$ing affordability when you are paying for 2 household$… (ouch)
1. obama’s Mel Watt is jealous he didn’t think about this first
2. How many nights of an AirBnB are they contractually required to complete a year? And at what room rate? For how many years or payback (plus what interest rate?). This is going to end in tears and people shouting they are victims.
+++++
It was while researching FHA loans that Erik and Rafaela came across a creative new financing option. Loftium, a Seattle-based startup, will contribute to a buyer’s down payment in exchange for Airbnb income.”
It is a hotel app with OUT paying the required hotel TAXES and abiding the hotel safety, health and fire REGULATIONS that all other hotels have to pay.
It is a scam. And that is how they make their cut.
I could be a billionaire tomorrow if I could sell cigarettes, booze or gasoline with paying taxes or abiding by Federal/State/Local health codes. Hey, but I created an APP to share these items!!!
+++++
‘Airbnb pretends they are home-sharing service, that their users are homeowners who are making ends meet by renting out their homes,’ Jane Place Initiative program manager Breonne DeDecker said. ‘But our report exposes that lie. What is happening in New Orleans is not home-sharing, but the hotelization of residential housing.’”
Craigslist didn’t have billions to hire lawyers and pay off politicians. So that fad went under pretty quickly. But it was a big deal for a while. I posted dozens of reports about it. In Sedona where I was living, all the same tired arguments were brought out: it helps them pay the mortgage, property rights (as if they have rights but their neighbors don’t), it boosts tourism, it’s the “new thing” and you can’t fight progress! People got pissed picking up beer cans every weekend and it was shut down.
You can’t stop short term rentals or ride sharing ,the web makes it so
Ben, it’s just another result of today’s get-rich-quick, who gives a crap about ethics society.
If my behavior makes me wealthy, no matter how suspect, bully for me. Yet if my neighbor’s behavior makes him or herself wealthy, no matter how suspect, they’re pieces of excrement.
Too many people want other people to toe the line as they themselves take advantage of the system.
I don’t see why Air BnB is any more problematic than screwing single people via the tax code.
I don’t think many people take time to assess how they themselves are screwing over other people through their actions or participation.
‘I don’t see why Air BnB is any more problematic than screwing single people via the tax code’
Looks like the people in Portugal, Spain, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, and many cities in the US think differently. Look at the French Quarter: it’s been hollowed out by rich people from California etc.
Ah - a Hillary and obama voter.
Rules doesn’t apply to me.
Like cleaning a server with a cloth!
++++
‘I guess my thinking is, ‘Yeah, that’s a huge risk. But I don’t think their fines are collectible because I think they are outrageous and capricious,’ he said.
Job Posting at the downside of a bubble.
Technical Writer
$60 - $66 an hour - Contract
We are looking for an experienced Technical Writer to work in the Downtown Toronto Financial District at one of Canada’s top 5 banks.
*SUMMARY: Candidate will be writing documents and preparing presentations for architects to show case solutions as part of home owner journey program.
MUST HAVE:
1.) Technical background – 4 years
2.) Experience in writing technical documentation – 8 years
3.) Experience in Jira and confluence – 3+ years
4.) MS office – visio diagrams – 5 years
5.) strong communication skills
6.) Experience as Technical writer – 5+ years
NICE TO HAVE
1.) Former TD experience*
Job Type: Contract
Salary: $60.00 to $66.00 /hour
I’ve seen SW engineer gigs that pay less than that.
The pay is quite good. This is what worries me:
*SUMMARY: Candidate will be writing documents and preparing presentations for architects to show case solutions as part of home owner journey program.
Ummm no…public pensions will be paid.
You voted for 60 years of absolute democrat and public union control…now eat your peas
*******
City Council can stop Philly’s sky-high property reassessments on June 5. But will it?
Philly.com - JUNE 1, 2018
“A nurse came to my office, a professional single woman, and she calculated the increase in her taxes under the new OPA rates would force her out. ‘I’m going to be out of my house. I can’t afford the taxes,’ is what she told me.” And she was one of many of Oh’s constituents in the same fix. “Not only that, but she just moved to Philadelphia. What about all the longtime residents, the seniors and those on fixed incomes?”
…resulted in the median market value of Philly’s single-family homes increasing from 2018 by 10.5 percent in one year — from $112,800 to $124,600 (half the homes sold for more, half for less). Out of 57 neighborhoods in Philadelphia, 48 saw increases in assessments, with the North Philadelphia/West neighborhood — containing Brewerytown and Strawberry Mansion — rising the most, increasing 47.1 percent between 2018 and 2019.
Getting taxed out a Philly is a tradition. Started w Wilson good
My county has a $15,000 shortfall per household,how about yours?
“Getting taxed out a Philly is a tradition.”
Ha! … Good one!
Any other location$ (Nationally) that fit?
“Well-Known Realtor In Fresno’s Tower District Faces Sexual Battery Charge”
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article202608214.html
Our good friends continue to exceed our expectations.
Drunk Realtor gropes and assaults women in gay bar, expectation met, and exceeded.
“DeBey grabbed her hair and yanked her back as he rubbed his groin on her.”
He was givin her the business!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu-1tqk_jek
Euless, TX Housing Prices Crater 22% YOY As Recession Accelerates
https://www.movoto.com/euless-tx/market-trends/
I see plenty of house pricing drops that you post but when I look at square footage it appears that the average house size year-over-year is often significantly smaller on average therefore reflecting year over year drop in price. Am I missing something?
“Am I missing something?”
Are you? Did the lot size double? Triple? Are the houses 3 years old instead of 30? What additional features is the buyer gaining at no additional cost?
Details my friend…. Details.
Why do Obama and the Democrat Party hate Americans getting jobs and working for a living? Democrats hate hate hate jobs. Because it derails their proposed Cloward-Piven solution.
Democrats only want a permanent underclass, on welfare, forever.
Run on this in 2018. Go ahead and run on hating America, and hating American workers, because this is the “message” that the 60+ million American voters that voted for Drumph voted for in 2016.
The Democrat Party is totally bankrupt on political ideology. They have nothing, besides MS-13 and pre-op trannies showing their c*cks to underage girls in women’s bathrooms.
All claims, no evidence. I don’t know why to believe what you say.
Free Tommy Robinson.
Va just signed up 400,000 welfare warriors via medicaid expansion
Five years ago, I remember seeing an Ipsos Mori poll of British residents who thought rising house prices were a bad thing. Five years later, for the first time, I’m seeing this attitude articulated in the MSM in the US, and Canada is actually taking steps to do something about it.
1) In Vancouver, a Housing Frenzy That Even Owners Want to End. One quote (a caption under an image actually): “A condo project called Vancouver House. Housing prices have soared even though the supply has grown faster in the past decade than the city’s population”.
2) Facebook says it needs to address high-priced housing ‘if we’re going to remain a company in Silicon Valley’. “”We are late and frankly we have been slow — we are actually a relatively newcomer as a young company at only 15,” Schrage said. “But I think it is fair to say we have really made an investment and we consider this an existential issue.”
Brussels Backs Down: Lega-M5S Government is Born in Italy!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9WFwcYrmE
“With the rise of Five Star and the League, nationalist populism has triumphed in Europe!!!”
10:53
“The nationalist-populists have won, and a new political order is rising.”
First, the Brexit, then the Hungarians give Brussels the finger and now so does Italy.
Brexit night was one of my favorites times here on the HBB.
You just got brexit times more. Italy is the third biggest economy in the EU.
There’s even a Brexit going on in this hemisphere: Brazil. Which is trying to Brexit itself:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-01/i-arrived-brazil-middle-zombie-apocalypse
Can’t form a government, and it’s so bad, even the military doesn’t want the gig.
The US has really wasted so much by neglecting South America and focusing on Europe and Asia and the Middle East. And that looks pretty stupid, right about now. We could have had an entire hemisphere of peace, prosperity and co-operation. Everything we needed, right in our own back yard. Heck, Brazil would probably be happy to become a US protectorate right about now, if only someone would bring order.
Looking forward to seeing more market panic next week. Seems to always crash when I take time off.
Casual observation:
Governance of the people, by the central bankers, for the other bankers may not stand up very well to so many national-level populist revolts.
Nonsense, the people will be manipulated in the same way they have always been manipulated.
Are you well-positioned for the upcoming crytocollapse?
If bitcoin is a bubble, the ‘panic’ stage is near: economist
Published: May 31, 2018 1:36 p.m. ET
The smart money will soon head for the exits, if the typical pattern emerges
Getty
By Aaron Hankin Reporter
It isn’t uncommon for crypto-skeptics to look a bitcoin chart and, without much analysis, label it the tulip bubble of the 21st century.
But economists note that bubbles are complex things, with a life cycle of their own.
According to the late Hyman Minsky, the U.S. economist whose theories on financial fragility came to the fore during the 2008 financial crisis when a surge in private debt accumulation led to the collapse in the housing market, an asset bubble has five stages; displacement, boom, euphoria, profit-taking, and panic.
Using this framework, Joost van der Burgt, a policy adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said that if bitcoin is indeed a bubble, it’s likely at the beginning of the profit-taking stage, which means panic might be around the corner.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/if-bitcoin-is-a-bubble-the-panic-stage-is-near-economist-2018-05-31
Luckily for crypto investors, they haven’t run out of greater fools yet. Luckily for me, I’m not among them.
Cryptocurrencies
Blockchain start-up raises more than $4bn
Auction shows strength of investor demand for cryptocurrencies
.
https://www.ft.com/
The coming crypocalypse will be epic.
… and amusing.
Kill Bill: Bang Bang My Baby Shot me Down - The Danish National Symphony Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdZkFXiiio8
Composed by Sonny Bono Vocals: Tuva Semmingsen
I think I just discovered them because of something you posted earlier. They’ve got quite a few movie and song adaptations worth a listen and on my playlists now.
I’m more in the mood for something a little punkish at the moment though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ba360Dz1sQ
Mission Impossible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccYZjRvJ0M
Mission Impossible (Main Theme) performed by Lalo Schifrin, James Morrison and Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
“Lalo Schifrin”
We heard an entire concert of his music a couple of years ago. He is quite a prolific composer, who wrote lots of other great music in addition to the immortal Mission Impossible theme.
Here’s some stretched peacock with a half-life Toyota Tundra.
Good luck getting rid of that albatross in a money tightening recession.
Used 2011 Toyota Tundra Limited, 116,279-miles, Only $27,300
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=478169067
Lousy photos too.