The Reality Of A Level Of Sanity Returning
A report from Bizwest on Colorado. “To quote a recent Fortune.com article, it’s been a ‘remarkable’ run for the American economy. At 110 months of growth since the end of the last recession, we’re experiencing the second-longest economic expansion on record. And in Northern Colorado, like much of the country, we’ve watched home prices climb right along with it. Now there are signs that both the economy and home prices may soon moderate. We’re beginning to see a return to stabilization in the housing market. What’s that mean if you expect to be a seller or buyer in the coming months?”
“Above all, pricing takes center stage. Sellers who could optimistically set lofty list prices are beginning to temper their expectations, both locally and around the country. For instance, Zillow reported at least one price reduction on 14.2 percent of all its listings during June, up from 13.4 percent the year before. And Zillow’s chief economist thinks price cuts could be even more common.’
“In addition to more price reductions, we see fewer cases of sellers receiving multiple offers on their homes. Listings will spend more time on the market, and overall housing inventory — which has been scant in Northern Colorado — will begin to grow slowly.”
“As we see prices ease overall, here are some noteworthy statistics that reflect what’s happening in the communities that make up Northern Colorado’s regional housing market: Housing inventory for the region totaled 1,704, similar to the 1,705 homes listed in June but still a healthy increase (13.7 percent) over the 1,499 homes on the market in May.”
From Go Erie in Pennsylvania. “If you watch home prices in our area, you’ll find some of the price reductions are pretty dramatic. The reasons vary. Some homeowners don’t want to hang onto their homes and are willing to drop prices to move the house after a specific number of days. Others may have chosen a price point that’s a little too high or overcrowded with homes. And others want a closing before the weather gets cold.”
From Forbes on California. “Looks like there was a summer slowdown in Beverly Hills and neighboring real estate, both in pricing and sales volume. Summer in Beverly Hills was certainly hot this year with temperatures above average. Not so for real estate, especially in the $3 million-plus range. According to Selma Hepp, chief economist at San Francisco-based Pacific Union International, July numbers in that Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills golden triangle show a decline in the number of homes sold by 26%, year to date. As sales slipped, it’s no surprise prices were down 11%. ‘I think buyers are a bit more skittish compared with how well Beverly Hills and those areas did over the last few years,’ Hepp said.”
“Last year Beverly Hills did well with sales of higher priced homes above $5 million. Many of those properties went above asking price with multiple offers. ‘Now that pool of buyers has been reduced somewhat,’ Hepp observes. ‘Although, I do see more price reductions in Beverly Hills in that price range and up than other areas in Los Angeles, I see it as buyers and sellers rebalancing expectations to more realistic levels,’ Hepp adds.”
“In today’s beyond fast-paced market, when we see fewer sales, it’s the reality of a level of sanity returning, a good thing for buyers and sellers. ‘When you look at sales above $3 million and you see a slowing compared to last year, that change does eventually reflect on the median price,’ Hepp explained.”
“Another interesting stat from Hepp is inventory of homes priced above $3 million increased by 93, with most of that additional inventory in the West San Fernando Valley, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles. It’s also clear some sellers and their real estate agents are adjusting pricing strategies to reflect the current market. There were more price reductions compared with last July in areas with a larger share of homes priced between $2 million and $3 million. Look to Malibu, Hollywood Hills and Brentwood for those cuts.”
“Stephanie Anton, president of the Chicago-based Luxury Portfolio International, a network of independent luxury real estate brokerage firms has a global view on luxury markets. ‘Look at the data in many luxury markets and the price increases have been a little crazy. I think what we are seeing here is a summer slowdown and a slight correction.’”
Boulder? Erie?
Beverly Hills, Malibu, Hollywood Hills and Brentwood?
Wowza - Eeee-bola!!
The bubble even hit Erie, PA.
Believe it or not - Erie is not a bad place - especially for 3/4 seasons.
But you better like snow and you better like winter.
That being said - downhill skiing, cross country skiing, ice fishing, snowmobiling, ice carnivals, etc. can keep it fun.
But a housing bubble there…
++++
The reasons vary. Some homeowners don’t want to hang onto their homes and are willing to drop prices to move the house after a specific number of days. Others may have chosen a price point that’s a little too high or overcrowded with homes. And others want a closing before the weather gets cold.
Chandler, AZ Housing Prices Crater 15% YOY As Housing Correction Rocks Phoenix Area
https://www.zillow.com/ocotillo-chandler-az/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
Some macro observations about the everything bubble.
excerpt:
Things look just rotten a market bottoms. They appear splendid at tops. It’s worth adding a little color from the perspective of George Soros’ “reflexivity”. So long as bullish perceptions sustain inflated market prices and unmatched perceived wealth, along with “animal spirits” and strong economic activity more generally, resulting “fundamentals” will tend to confirm the optimistic viewpoint.
[...]
At this point, the bullish view that stocks must be bought and held for the long-term has surpassed rational. It’s Unassailable. Your price entry point matters little - the global backdrop even less. Politics little, geopolitics less. Holding cash is stupid, shorting much worse. Indeed, to not bet confidently on the U.S. for the long-term is an act of self-destructive irrationality. A risk-based approach, to be sure, would lead to irrational decisions. It’s been proven - repeatedly. Don’t sell.
[...]
There is today a perception of invincibility that goes significantly beyond 1999 and 2007. It has more in common with my reading of the history from the late-twenties Bubble period. “New Era.” “Permanent plateau of prosperity.” And at the end, “Everyone was prepared to hold their ground. But the ground gave way.” There were worries throughout the twenties period. By 1929, it was a case of acute worry fatigue. Inflation psychology dominated a deeply distorted marketplace. Stated more simply, there was too much money to be made. Greed dominated.
‘it’s the reality of a level of sanity returning’…‘Look at the data in many luxury markets and the price increases have been a little crazy’
More …
“I believe we’re nearing the end of an historic multi-decade Bubble. Risk is incredibly high, a view that has by now been thoroughly discredited. A key factor boosting risk is the overwhelming consensus view that risk is virtually nonexistent. In stark contrast, I believe this protracted period of serial boom and bust cycles has led to the accumulation of financial and economic distortions and deep structural impairment.”
(snip)
“Risk-takers have gravitated to the top - in the markets, in company management, in venture capital, at banks, and generally throughout the economy. Those attentive to risk have been pushed aside - investors, speculator, managers and entrepreneurs. Trillions have flowed into “passive” investment strategies, essentially a bet on an index over active risk management. Based on (recent) historical performance, taking a passive approach is perfectly rational. But one must ignore the reality that the Trillions that flowed into this strategy ensure latent risk of an abrupt shift in market perceptions.
“There is today a perception of invincibility that goes significantly beyond 1999 and 2007. It has more in common with my reading of the history from the late-twenties Bubble period. “New Era.” “Permanent plateau of prosperity.” And at the end, “Everyone was prepared to hold their ground. But the ground gave way.” There were worries throughout the twenties period. By 1929, it was a case of acute worry fatigue. Inflation psychology dominated a deeply distorted marketplace. Stated more simply, there was too much money to be made. Greed dominated.”
My impression is that policy in the 1930s was far more lassez faire than today. The difference now compared to the 1930s is that everyone expects the Fed to intervene with stimulus and bailouts the minute the market begins to tank.
The Fed never fully unwound stimulus after the 2007-2009 economic rescue. As a result of directly targeting housing prices as part of stimulus measures, we now have housing prices and rents even higher and less afford than at the onset of collapse in Housing Bubble 1.0. Removal of the punchbowl now runs the risk of triggering another housing panic like the one that struck in 2007, requiring a quick reversion to stimulus and bailouts. Keeping the punchbowl spiked indefinitely runs the risk of perpetually unaffordable housing prices and rents, with many American families living on the edge financially or getting driven into homelessness in case of a run of bad luck. All of this is playing out against the experience of record low interest rates and a cyclic low unemployment rate.
The Fed has created quite a conundrum for itself!
In order for sanity to return, there has to be a huge drop in prices. I thought the last bust would do that - it didn’t.
So if sanity is “prices stabilizing” at their current highs, then it is just more of the same. An entire generation of home buyers have been screwed.
Until there’s a massive recession which punishes all the malinvestment, from real estate to the stock market, and everything in between, there can be no return to sanity.
+1000. There will also be no return to sanity unless the rule of law and accountability is imposed on the financial sector and its enablers and accomplices who were supposed to be protecting the public interest.
This right here. The banks were allowed to keep inventory in the shadows while they rotted. Few real low balls were accepted, and eventually more fools were found. There were some amazing deals around 2012, but they were all cash and often required a fair amount or tons of work - in other words, lots of risk for all but the 1%.
I’m not sure if collusion to limit buyer access to available inventory during a bust is legal. It sounds like price fixing at a massive scale.
‘there has to be a huge drop in prices. I thought the last bust would do that - it didn’t’
S dash back 10 years:
September 4, 2008
The San Francisco Chronicle reports from California. “ACORN, an advocacy organization representing low-income communities, staged a rally at a Wachovia branch at Mission and First streets in San Francisco on Wednesday, with about 30 people calling on the bank to be more flexible in adjusting loan terms to prevent foreclosures. Wachovia is aggressively trying to get homes in or near foreclosure off its books, by quickly initiating the repossession process and aggressively selling them.”
“Susan Fallis, a communications professor at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, so far seems to fall into the ‘get the loans off the books’ camp of Wachovia customers. In 2004, she sold the Santa Cruz parking lot her father bought in the 1960s for his mobile home business. She reinvested the approximately $3 million into 20 single-family houses in and around Reno, with a 40 percent down payment on each one.”
“Because Reno rents dropped as her minimum payments climbed, she is now losing about $7,000 per month. She has asked Wachovia to temporarily lower the interest rate on her loans by less than two percentage points, without asking for any adjustment on the loan principal.”
“If Wachovia doesn’t allow any modifications, Fallis expects she will have no choice but to default in the next few months.”
“‘It’s absolutely insane,’ she said. ‘I’m about ready to become the Cindy Sheehan of real estate; this is just making me so angry.’”
The Oakdale Leader. “President Bush has just made it even more difficult for those people to own their first home by shutting down the Nehemiah program. Casey Knowles, a PMZ senior loan officer who’s been in the business for eight years, said even though the program is scheduled to end in October, most banks have already stopped offering the program.”
“‘It’s definitely going away quickly,’ Knowles said. ‘I don’t think it’s going to come back. I’d be happy if it came back but I doubt it. It’s definitely going to affect home prices.’”
“‘The program has done a lot of good for a lot of people. I love it. It helps me get a lot of people into houses but it’s pretty easy to walk away when you have no money put into it. If you put three percent into your house you’re more likely to make the mortgage payment,’ Knowles said.”
The Merced Sun Star. “County Bank laid off about 20 employees Tuesday — the first time in its 31-year history that the bank has been forced to cut back on staffing. Company spokesman Thomas Smith, noting the bank’s parent company’s $12 million loss last quarter, said the decision was due solely to the troubled Valley economy.”
“Though no more layoffs are in the works, Smith didn’t rule them out. ‘Are housing values going to decline further?’ he asked.”
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. “In an economy dominated by high fuel costs, rising food prices and mounting home foreclosures, many people are having a tough time making ends meet. This year, some are supplementing their income by working at the L.A. County Fair.”
“This year, Lisa Barnhouse is part of that work force. Barnhouse used to work in the customer service department at an Acura dealership, but her job was eliminated when the business was sold.”
“‘This money will be used to pay my bills,’ she said. ‘Jobs used to be a dime a dozen … but now I can’t find anything.’”
The County Sun. “Price wars are being waged in north Fontana’s upper middle-class neighborhoods as home builders drop prices, hoping to stave off multimilion-dollar losses. They’re competing against one another, but collectively, their products are going up against bank-owned properties, foreclosures and short sales on homes that were built just two or three years ago around the corner.”
“Maybe Centex is more stubborn than other Inland Empire home builders, and it might bode it well. That’s because its smallest Coyote Canyon floor plan, a 2,470- square-foot home, is going for about $430,000 - a price that other builders would’ve drastically slashed by now.”
“But homes being built by Riverside-based Van Daele Development Corp. down the street start are comparable in size and are in the high $300,000s.”
“Even short sales, which are sometimes super deals, are having a hard time living up to their potential. Real estate broker Jeff Hill has about 20 short sales that aren’t moving because banks and sellers are desperately trying to salvage any value they can.”
“One of them, a 2,572-square-foot home, lies a half-mile away from the Centex tract and is on the market for about $315,000.”
“‘They’ve postponed the sale four times,’ Hill said about the sellers. ‘We have an offer, and then they go out and do their own appraisal … and by the time they come back, the buyer finds something else. Meanwhile, the values decline even further.’”
“Sellers should be happy with buyers’ offers, Hill feels. ‘Everyone saves a lot more money that way, including the lender that’s foreclosing,’ he said. ‘Buyers walk away when sellers try to counter the offer.’”
The Press Enterprise. “Maurice E. McLeod, one of three Riverside County businessmen whom the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused of operating a massive real estate scam, accepted a court settlement that could require him to return ill-gotten gains.”
“McLeod, James B. Duncan and Hendrix Montecastro are accused of defrauding at least 95 investors in multiple states of more than $11 million and forcing many of them into foreclosure.”
“The defendants are accused of directing investors to purchase more than $118 million worth of homes, falsifying loan applications so families with middle-class incomes could qualify to buy multiple homes. According to the SEC lawsuit, the defendants would obtain inflated appraisals on the houses and take the excess mortgage proceeds as a fee.”
“The defendants temporarily made the monthly mortgage payments on the investment homes, allegedly in order to attract more investors. In the process, investors became dependent on the organization.”
“During summer 2006, Pacific Wealth began applying for credit cards in the names of individual investors who were directed to draw the maximum amount of cash on each card for additional investments, the SEC suit stated.”
“‘Investors who questioned the wisdom of this strategy were told by, among others, McLeod, that (Pacific Wealth Management) would stop making mortgage payments if they refused to cooperate,’ the lawsuit said.”
“When the defendants ultimately stopped making the mortgage payments on the investors’ homes amid a cooling real estate market, the properties fell into foreclosure.”
The Union Tribune. “At Magnolia at Bressi Ranch in Carlsbad, about half of the 25 homes have been built and sold for prices approaching $2.3 million. But a few months ago, builder Barratt American abruptly halted construction on six more, and a seventh stands completed and unsold. Work never started on five lots.”
“The reason: The locally based builder, like many home owners, lost its financing. ‘We’ve come to a screeching halt,’ said Barratt’s president, Mick Pattinson. ‘We’re looking for money to pay bills.’”
“Today, virtually no one is showing up at model-home complexes. More than 40 percent of buyers canceled their purchases in July, according to one market research firm. And builders and developers have cut their staffs by as much as 90 percent.”
“‘July was absolutely awful,’ said Steve Doyle, president of the San Diego division of Brookfield Homes. ‘It was the worst month I’ve ever seen.’”
“New-housing market analyst Sharon Hanley reported 193 sales at 1,090 projects in the county in July, off substantially from the July 2007 count of 639. Just three years ago, the all-time July peak sales total was 1,578. Early indications are that sales in August were up a bit but not much better.”
“Hanley’s other findings for July: a cancellation rate of 43.1 percent, up from 27.4 percent in July 2007; weekly traffic to sales offices down to an average 22 visitors per tract, a record low for July; and 84.6 weeks of unsold inventory, more than double the 35.3-week level a year earlier.”
“‘What’s hurting right now is builders can’t sell when there are foreclosures only 10 blocks away that are two or three years old,’ Hanley said.”
“Bill Davidson, an upscale builder and winner of many industry awards, said he understands the future will be different. ‘The world is not ever going to be like it was,’ he said. ‘We’re second-guessing, we’re scared.’”
The Malibu Times. “Only about 60 homes have sold in Malibu through the first two-thirds of the year. Steep price reductions are rampant, but the lower prices are still not sufficient to draw buyers.”
“Even during the worst of years of the last down market-from 1991 to 1996, about 150 homes sold per year. In the glory years, it was more than 300. Last year, when the slow down seemed in full swing, about 175 homes sold in Malibu. If records could be traced back to 1960, possibly this is the slowest year since then for number of units sold.”
“Because so few homes are selling, it is impossible to accurately gauge how far prices have dropped, or at what rate. Everyone has a guess. Fifteen percent? Twenty-five? Thirty percent down so far and heading to 50? Hardly any homes that last sold in 2006 or 2007 have resold this year, so that measure is incomplete.”
“About 220 homes are for sale now and only about 100 will sell during the whole year. Conclusion: Rapid price declines.”
From Bloomberg. “The US housing crisis arrived on July 14 at Stonebrook Court, the 26,000-square-foot Tudor-style home of California venture capitalist Kelly Porter. On that day, four months after putting the house on the market, he cut the price by $US7 million ($8.4 million).”
“It’s still for sale.”
“The mansion sits on 7.5 acres in Los Altos Hills. It boasts a wine cellar, Venetian- inspired ballroom, Italian statuary and swimming pool. At the reduced price of $US38 million, the property is a bargain, the owner says.”
“‘It’s worth every bit of $US45 million, and I reduced it reluctantly,’ said Porter in an interview. ‘We touched up every square inch.’”
“While Porter declined to say how much he spent on Stonebrook Court, real estate records show he paid $US5 million in 1999. He did say refurbishing the place cost ‘tens of millions’ of dollars.”
“‘The upper end is not immune to this decline,’ said Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the University of California’s Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics in Berkeley. A worsening economy means ‘these people will have less wealth and they will spend less.’”
“A 10,340-square-foot home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood is for sale at $US14.8 million, 17% below last year’s asking price. A home in Marin County’s Tiburon was acquired in August for $US900,000 less than the $US7 million list price in 2007.”
“‘You have smart buyers seeing a softer market, looking to negotiate a good price,’ said David Lichtman, chief credit officer of First Republic Bank, a San Francisco-based private bank and unit of Merrill Lynch & Co. ‘Nobody wants to overpay.’”
“High-end sellers must lower asking prices by 20% compared with a year ago, when initial listing prices didn’t reflect stricter credit conditions, said James Chalke, a broker in Beverly Hills.”
“‘What’s really happening is that sellers are taking value off their own markup,’ Chalke said. ‘A property is only worth what a buyer is prepared to pay for it.’”
“An 11-bedroom property in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles didn’t attract potential buyers until the asking price dropped by $US10 million, to $US35 million, Chalke said.”
“To be sure, the price cuts may often mean only smaller profits on property acquired years ago. Cinthia Haan bought the Pacific Heights home for about $3 million in 1992 and spent $3 million on renovations, she said. She stands to make an $8.8 million profit at the current asking price.”
“Haan spent three years redoing the six-bedroom house in Pacific Heights. ‘I’m ready to let go now,’ Haan said. ‘I’m ready to sell.’”
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=4910
“‘It’s absolutely insane,’ she said. ‘I’m about ready to become the Cindy Sheehan of real estate; this is just making me so angry.’”
So, Suzy Speculator, did stamping your little feet change the outcome for you? Or did you learn the hard way that banks aren’t philanthropic organizations with boundless compassion for FBs who get in over their heads?
“Haan spent three years redoing the six-bedroom house in Pacific Heights. ‘I’m ready to let go now,’ Haan said. ‘I’m ready to sell.’”
Sounds like somebody was a little too emotionally invested in their overpriced shack.
what a great friggin collection of stories. It is amazing to believe all this was 10 years ago.
What’s amazing to believe is that for the third time since 1990, the Fed’s Keynesian monetary policies have enabled unfettered greed and speculative excess run amok to blow huge new housing and tech bubbles, posing serious systemic risks to the U.S. and global financial systems.
“Price wars are being waged in north Fontana’s upper middle-class neighborhoods as home builders drop prices, hoping to stave off multimilion-dollar losses. They’re competing against one another, but collectively, their products are going up against bank-owned properties, foreclosures and short sales on homes that were built just two or three years ago around the corner.”
The Fontucky housing market hunger games during the last bust were quite intense.
Apparently the Fed’s post-2009 housing market reflation measures induced a case of collective amnesia about prices having ever dipped.
“‘The upper end is not immune to this decline,’ said Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the University of California’s Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics in Berkeley. A worsening economy means ‘these people will have less wealth and they will spend less.’”
It almost seems like Rosen did not anticipate bailouts to make real estate gamblers whole.
She reinvested the approximately $3 million into 20 single-family houses in and around Reno, with a 40 percent down payment on each one.
This reminds me of someone I knew when I was living/working in Solano County (just outside the SF Bay area) between 2002-2005.
She had won a bunch of money, $700K or so, at one of the Indian casinos in the region. She “invested” the money by buying some local shacks. Assuming, of course, that their values would keep skyrocketing.
I transferred away in Sept. 2005 and did not stay in touch. But I’ve always wondered how things turned out for her. Perhaps she was realistic enough to see the writing on the wall when things started to unravel, and then dumped the shacks before getting burned too badly. Perhaps she just got fooked.
There will be no return to “sanity”.
We passed that point a long time ago.
IMHO: Any drop in prices for any currently labeled “investment vehicles” like houses or stocks will be met will more illegality, manipulation and lawlessness from our “betters” to create another “recovery”.
And the populace will be happy to go along with the plan to keep their meager riches intact.
Didn’t anybody learn the lesson from the last crash?
I recall that in the last crash, house prices at least in some areas dropped 50% or so.
Rising interest rates + DJT new tax laws + the great QE unwind + Mel Watt last days = sanity returning
Some houses will be worth less than zero once future (and eva increasing taxes) are realistically factored in.
Get out and get out now.
And hopefully sell to a hipster or progressive/liberal who voted for this.
They should be the ones who live in it.
Q: What do you call a city/county/state that collect taxes but spends zero for services to the citizens that paid the taxes (ie - it all goes towards pensions of retired public union employees)?
A: What democrats voted for.
+++++++
Illinois Breaks Pension-Debt Record For US States
ZeroHedge - 09/01/2018 - 13:00
Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service released a report Aug. 27 comparing unfunded pension liabilities across all U.S. states. According to the report, Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities grew 25 percent in fiscal year 2017 to $250 billion.
Illinois’ inability to manage its pension system in a sustainable and affordable way is one of the main reasons both Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings put the Prairie State’s bond rating just one notch above “junk” status. The state’s credit rating has been downgraded 21 times since 2009, primarily due to runaway pension debt.
Crowding out effects can already be seen at the local level in Illinois. In Harvey, Illinois, pension obligations caused mass layoffs in the city’s police and fire departments.
The city of Peoria on Aug. 15 and 16 sent layoff notices to 27 municipal employees, according to the Journal Star, after unions rejected a cost-saving plan requesting four furlough days. According to Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich, 85 percent of the city’s property tax revenue currently goes to pensions, rather than services. Urich told the Journal Star that the round of layoffs was necessary to close a $1.5 million deficit in the city’s budget.
Peoria’s 2018 budget warns, “[T]he growth in pension obligations is crowding out the use of property taxes for operations.” According to projections included in the document, the city will no longer be able to use any property tax dollars for operations starting in 2019.
85% of the property tax for pensions.
So at this point they are counting on the state and fed transfers for supporting their customers.
Didnt Caterpillar move the HQ from Peoria to Indiana? They must have known something
So if Amazon HQ2 goes to Chicago, the company would no doubt get huge tax breaks. While the workers can look forward to massive property and income tax hikes.
“We’re beginning to see a return to stabilization in the housing market. What’s that mean if you expect to be a seller or buyer in the coming months?”
For sellers: Sell now, or get priced in forever.
For buyers: Try not to get stucco.
“Last year Beverly Hills did well with sales of higher priced homes above $5 million. Many of those properties went above asking price with multiple offers.”
This is the most outlandish lie I have ever heard, period. Bidding wars and multiple offers on $5 mil+ houses in Beverly Hills? What utter BS. Prices have been stagnant for 2 years, with the same houses on and off the market over and over again. If sales picked up, it was due to price reductions, not bidding wars.
As if there were so many buyers in the $5mil+ market that they have to fight over the huge and growing supply of luxury offerings. How stupid do they think we are??
I think that city government is like a kid with his mother’s credit card.They can buy things with it , but they don’t have to pay the bills the next group of mayors and council members will have to pay the bills and the present get the glory of improving the lives of the citizens and the city
“In 2004, she sold the Santa Cruz parking lot her father bought in the 1960s for his mobile home business. She reinvested the approximately $3 million into 20 single-family houses in and around Reno, with a 40 percent down payment on each one.”
Another one born on third base that thought she hit a triple, and was now a savvy real estate investor. $3 million making a safe 2-3% would have given her $60k -$90k year with principal intact. Greed kills.