Bits Bucket And Craigslist Finds For February 10, 2007
Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Carry on living dangerously / the economist on the carry trade
the triumph of hope over experience… the us budget forecast
warning. make sure you have no coffee in your mouth
http://immobilienblasen.blogspot.com/
Yegads — Hillary has discovered the thin edge of a wedge…
————————————————————————————–
‘If the capitalists look like pigs there is always someone wanting to take the hogs to the slaughterhouse. And Hillary has stepped up to volunteer for the job.
How many votes do you think she can get tapping into Americans’ anger about gas prices? For all of my friends around here who are always screaming, “Hey, it’s the free market!” I must say if it’s President Hillary it might not be such a free market anymore. And do you really want to be the reason she got the votes to do it?’
http://wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs/winter/?p=398
We do not have a choice in that, however she will not only get my vote she will also get some of my money!
The second President Clinton will get possibly over 60% of the vote. There will be at least 50% of “Republican” women who will not miss their chance on a women president.
You must be a conservative republican with $$$…
–
“There will be at least 50% of “Republican” women who will not miss their chance on a women president.”
I guess you must not know very many conservative Right Wing women. Although, I did meet one CA conservative woman who voted for Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein just because they were women. Now, that was a successful con game by these two politicians to exploit.
Jas
Many voters will go for Obama just because he is black, and for Hillary just because she is a woman. And neither spurious reason will generate a sufficient critical mass of voters to defeat the next leading Republican candidate. If I were a conservative Republican with $$$, I would evenly divide my Democratic campaign contributions between Obama and Hillary, cook the popcorn, sit back and enjoy watching the Democrats self destruct once again.
Yeah, the Republicans are so popular now; can you say “I supported Bush/Cheney”? Or “where is Bin Laden?”
You are sadly mistaken, she has the highest negatives of any “front runner” in history. However I will contribute money as I want her to get the nomination as she will be wiped off the map in the general election.
–
Q: What is the success rate for a Senator to become the President?
You’re a smart guy StuccoMan, watch this clip and don’t end up like the smart couple. Democracy may have a chance.
That’s awesome. Thanks!
I wonder which of those families is a more likely candidate for a future “Trading Spouses” episode?
That’s was pretty funny.
Oil is about as expensive as bottled water.
Oil companies are such gougers that the price of oil was 50-75 cents a GALLON for 25 years. Everything else doubled or tripled but oil stayed at about that price. Now it’s $1.50 a gallon.
Corn prices have gone from $2 a bushel to $4 a bushel b/c of ethanol demand. Why aren’t farmers being lambasted as “gougers”?
Why aren’t the environmentalists trying to destroy the idea of corn ethanol? All my farmer friends are going to be planting from fence to fence this year. For ethanol production they do not use any pesticides, but they do use herbicides; and for land under CRP - to go back to planting makes economic sense. Hunting next year is going to really suck. All the ground cover will be plowed under. Corn squeezings should be drunk.
Hoz,
At least your farmer friends won’t be using any fossil-fuel-powered farm implements to sow and harvest the corn, or fertilizers that include petroleum distillates as ingredients, or fossil-fuel-powered transportation systems to move the corn to the ethanol production facility, or any fossil fuel inputs to run the ethanol production process, right?
As a matter of religious faith, I simply cannot believe that fuel which nature intended to run human bodies (aka corn) is an environmentally friendly substitute for oil.
Wonder how much diesel fuel they’ll use to product a gallon of ethanol?
Wonder how much diesel fuel they’ll use to product a gallon of ethanol?
None if they switched to biodiesel.
206 FDIC-insured banks with $29.2 billion in assets failed in 1989, the most in history.
Now federal regulators are worried that they have seen this combination before — so many loans, along with gradually loosened underwriting standards like shorter credit analyses, higher loan-to-value ratios, and risk of concentration in one property type or geographic area. To head off past mistakes, they issued new guidelines in late 2006, putting community banks on notice that future loans will be more closely scrutinized.
Too little, too late, don’t you think?
I’ve been amazed by all the economic workings of the past few years in the markets, most particularly housing. All the interested parties, the FED, WallStreet, Brokerages, businesses, bankers and candle-stick makers were enthralled by all the “money creation” of the past 5 years.
For the first time in my recollection, houses were treated like chattels up for pawn. “Let’s see….I’m a little short on cash. I’ll just take out a loan from the local pawnbroker (read mortgage bkr), against the value of my house.”
Everyone in the game has a vested interest in maintaining high valuations for their properties, no matter how ridiculously high re-valuations have gone. They think this unearned income is wealth creation, rather than debt. No one wants the prices to decline. Every talking head in govt. talks about saving housing or supporting housing. Why??
Wealth is simply an ABUNDANCE of things. When there is an abundance, prices are cheap, making the product available to everyone. With housing, No more wealth has been created, just monetization of “equity” of inflated valuations. High prices are a sign of poverty. They mean that people can no longer afford them, just as in 3rd world countries. Holders of assets enjoy inflated prices, as it makes them feel they are rich, when in fact, they are poor. Housing is an EXPENSE, not an asset.
I want my house to be cheap, as the associated expenses that go with owning it deplete my ability to maintain the property and pay taxes and insurance. I don’t want a $5 Million house, I want a $50k house that has the same utility as the $5M house. Then I am rich. The house is not bleeding my resources. I can afford the taxes and insurance. I can replace it easily. I am happy.
Yet, stupid cheerleaders want to constantly drive the prices higher, to withdraw unearned income from the “asset appreciation”. Having piled on additional debt, everyone in the flipper game, along with the support industries and HELOC’d FB’s want to continue this ponzi scheme. They have us believing we are Rich, when, in fact, we are Poor. My costs have risen, but my utility is unchanged. I have no more now than i did.
In fact, I am all the poorer, unless I liquidate, only to find that my money will buy no more than I had, anyway.
Screw the flippers~! They have squandered our wealth and made us all debtors.
Eloquent, Diogenes!
More Please! You are on a roll.
Great post , cheap real estate for everyone !
Nice synopsis Diogenes! ….
For the first time in my recollection, houses were treated like chattels up for pawn. “Let’s see….I’m a little short on cash. I’ll just take out a loan from the local pawnbroker…”
If you look closely at the class of citizens who were persuaded in recent years to become newly-minted homeowners (no less through high-level policy initiatives and the market forces they unleashed), this makes perfect sense.
Thank you for your thoughts, they are absolutely brilliant!
That about says it all! Pretty much encompasses every feeling I have about this ponzi scheme and why I want this market to crash!
Excellent post.
Great point! This reminds me of the way they talk about a “bull” market in bonds, when what they mean is that the return (esp. risk premium) is extremely low. Good for traders, bad for buyers/owners. Ha!
that’s tittlywinks compared to what’s at risk now
89 was NE and cummulative oil patch
mid atlantic tanking was 1990………
“To head off past mistakes, they issued new guidelines in late 2006, putting community banks on notice that future loans will be more closely scrutinized.”
Now that the water has started to boil and the frog failed to jump out, they turned off the burner in order to let the water gradually cool back down to room temperature.
GS,
They knew what they were doing all along. The FED is having it both ways. The guidelines gives them cover.
What’s more, the unfolding credit crunch is going to F the FBs some more. If the FB holds on, he’s F’d with higher resets because he cannot refinance; if he walks, his credit is screwed and his future borrowing costs increases. What a mess.
“… the unfolding credit crunch is going to F the FBs some more.”
It’s awfully hard to squeeze payments out of a boiled frog (see comment above…).
and: how can the credit of this kind of borrowers get screwed? And even then, it still looks like nobody is interested in credit history when you apply for a home loan. No, I’m still not sure that the FB’s are the ones that will be left holding the bag
Here’s a video of Jimmy Cramer on the so-called housing bubble!
http://louminatti.blogspot.com/2007/02/jim-cramer-on-so-called-housing-bubble.html
Booyah!
I dumped my RM subscription which I’ve held for 10 years because I can no longer stomach even looking at that clown.
Judging by NEW’s performance this week, I guess we know how the subprimes held their stock up so long, they simply refused to acknowledge that there is a cost to returned loans.
And I’ll bet $1K that things are worse at CFC (Countrywide) than they’re intimating…
Let me be the first to predict the 2012 FASB initiative to eliminate accounting loopholes that make it easy for corporate descendants of Enron to hide debt bodies off the books.
The accounting treatment of negative amortization and pay option loans which are ON the books also needs a FASB revision.
Yes revise FAS 91 to account for negative amortization as loan orignation fees.
“…which are ON the books…”
The best place to hide a debt body is in plain view.
Good point David.
I shorted NEW @ $38, it has been sweet. I am going short FED too.
The whole mortgage industry during last 5 years have been infested by fraud, greed and ignorance.
Cramer has been worried about his home losing value for at least the last 2 years. I guess he knows he paid too much, but it’s Cramer he’s never made a bad investment right????? (insert one of his obnoxious sound effects here)
Here is an article from Forbes, more spin and cheerleading for the home builders. There’s quite a bit of spin in this one, I got a bit nauseous reading it.
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0226/110.html
“Well, there won’t be any housing disaster. We won’t have a landing at all, soft or hard. Right now the U.S. and global economies are both accelerating.”
Hip hip hooray! I’ll go buy two homes right now!
“Did you know that housing sales are up in the last few months, not down, and that inventories are lower than six months ago?”
Where are housing sales up? MARS? How can anyone not know that the problem is AFFORDABILITY! And now with Wells Fargo telling buyers they will need an additional 5% down, and other lenders raising requirements homes will be unreachable to hundreds of thousands of more people. He must have bought those stocks at a higher price.
Fischer is nothing more than a self promoter. Unless someone can prove me wrong, this guys track record is as about as good as Lereah’s in calling turns in the market.
It amazes me that they keep printing market calls from guys that have spotty records.
Let me know when Buffet or Templeton say it is a time to buy real estate.
fantastic!
here is another classic/low-point from cramer
http://www.itulip.com/awards.htm
A modern day run on the banks?
The news that will be filtered out to the booboisse, that a number of larger banks have lost a tremendous amount of mollah and more is expected, could trigger a run on the banks, from the privacy of your computer terminal.
Ever try and get cash out of a bank lately?
They don’t keep much around.
It’s only begining to get serious.
just check what happened in Argentina a few years back; when the brown stuff hits the fan in the US or Europe, the situation will be far more serious. No chance to get any money from the banks, that’s for sure (except if you are part of the ruling elite, of course).
“No chance to get any money from the banks,…”
I am missing the point of this thread entirely. Didn’t you guys hear the govt has a giant printing press and helicopters?
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2002/20021121/default.htm
I am missing the point of this thread entirely. Didn’t you guys hear the govt has a giant printing press and helicopters?
Yeah, but aren’t most of the helicopters tied up in Iraq?
They are, but this is not a problem, as the Fed can use the printing press technology to mint as many new helicopters as are needed…
sure, but I don’t think that works for Argentina-style inflation with a prolonged ‘bank holiday’. Maybe you can get your money back (after is has been appropriately devalued), but most of the middle class will be wiped out long before then - certainly those with mortgages if it works like in Argentina.
P.S.: experience in my country shows that the banks have cash available for about 2 days; after that time all the cash machines run out of paper and commerce comes to a full stop (credit cards are not very popular over here). In case of a real bank run that would certainly happen within a few hours.
How can you have a run on a virtual (electronic) currency? The green stuff that comes out of your ATM machine is just paper, not cargo. Paper is relatively cheap to print compared to gold coins. So I am missing your point entirely…
Banks keep a tiny percentage of their capital in do re mi and if just a teensy weensy panic happens, it could avalanche out of control, call it a “Lack of faith basis” move.
The internet has been great, but welcome to the darkside of it.
When word gets out that virtually the entire 1st World’s economies were run on the basis of nothing, (Jerry Seinfeld has nothing on this “nothing”) the past 6 years, people will retreat and pull in their horns.
I just sold a car for $9,000. I went to the bank with the buyer who was pulling out cash. The teller had to ask his boss if they had enough money. The buyer had a funny look on his face. While we were waiting I explained fractional reserve banking to them. The teller seemed enlightened.
I have also had the experience of withdrawing large sums of cash from a small branch of a reputable bank in the US only to find out they didn’t have enough cash on hand. A real WTF moment let me tell you.
We are at the point when one more tiny straw on the back of the camel is entirely too much…
Of course, my fellow citizens have not saved, like no other generation, so maybe it’s a fait acompli, seeing as they have no jack in the bank, anyway.
“The teller seemed enlightened.”
Welcome to the world of mindless drones who know nothing and are not well-read, but just listed to their superiors and do whatever they are told. These employee-drones also know nothing about the banks/companies they work for, they just get paid to be clerks.
Once I was depositing an IRS refund check and the teller wanted to put a 30 day hold on it, by the way I had no bounced checks or anything like that. She was just clueless. I told her “if that check is no good, then we are all in a world of trouble”. She just looked at me…
They hold checks long after they need to in order to profit off the float. It’s a giant scam and I hate them all. I’m trying to fire my retail bank and go entirely with ING. Trouble is, I’m finding that I’m needing services they don’t offer yet (bank wires, forex). However, I’ve heard you can get those things with brokerage accounts… hahahah.
I dont know what cash on hand your banks have but in canada my branch of bns tells me I can take a bank cheque , as they require 3 to 4 days notice for cash , and I only wanted $4000.
I’ll never forget the guy on this site telling us about the “new paradigm” regarding ARMs and other new loan “programs” (about 2 months ago - cannot remember details). How it was up to us naysayers to “get with it” put aside our living in the past. Funny how he and others like him are a lot quieter these days.
I hear that burger flippers dont have access to the internet while at work. They probably were able to post more at their previous mortgage broker jobs when they did have access.
He was probably some 25 year-old who was making some pretty good money at his first job of boiler room selling subprimes to people who didn’t understand the loan docs and were too stupid to seek out assistance. Meanwhile, he was also telling his parents how they should quit their jobs and make some “real money” like him and get with the program.
Reminds me of the ‘Wall Street” movie where the young stockbroker tells his father “you never had enough guts to make your play in the world and now you are just jealous of me and my success..” Then the father tells the son that Gordon Gekko “is just using you kid” We all know had that movie ended…
LMAO
sorry, had = how
sign of the times: the Dutch newspapers report that prices for tulip bulbs are rising strongly, and land used for culturing tulip bulbs has increased rapidly in the last two years because of fat profits in the tulip trade. The Netherlands had a devastating tulip bulb bubble in 1635 (one of the first big manias, shortly after the invention of the stock exchange in Amsterdam) and an echo tulip bubble (speculating in tulip bulb funds) at the end of the last century.
If farmers plant enough tulip bulbs, maybe they can keep the housing market elevated another few years too because of shortage of land … I guess our new government will invent a new subsidy specially for innovative tulip bulb companies
nhz:
I know the Dutch are just as gullible as anybody else, but it seems your people have a special gift for bubbles…
25 years ago, older Dutch Coins (pre Juliana) were sold to farmers as an “investment” and they bought extreme quantities of relatively common coins in average condition, for about 5 to 10 times what they are worth now.
I’ve bought and sold coins for almost 35 years now, and i’ve never seen a market like the one in The Netherlands, from around 1978 to 1982.
Completely insane.
yes, the Dutch seem to have speculation and ‘get rich quick’ in their genes.
Those who purchased Dutch silver guilders and daalders (those are from about 30 years ago I think?) for the original value of 1 or 2.50 Hfl. made a good investment. The government has been trying to get all of them exchanged for worthless euro crap, but people who still have them are significantly ahead in the game. Probably the same goes for the original copper coins.
Implications of a Bushstacked Fed?
http://www.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2007/2/9/101648.cfm?MN=1&promo_code=2D33-1&s=al
Sorry, I hit the “s” key when I was aiming for “w”
“Implications of a Bushstacked Fed?”
War with Canada.
would bush exchange our dollar at par , or just do a helicopter drop as in Iraq. just wondering which side I should be on!!.
I bought a Townhome in S. Cali in dec 1989 and it went down 33% bottoming in 1994-5 then Slooooowly climbed until about the time the internet bubble busted. Then it doubled from what I paid and then went up some more. Zillow has it 20K down from what I sold for in June 2006. I think it peaked in Aug 2005 at maybe 15K higher making for a 35K drop so far. That makes less than 10% down so far.
We have a ways to go yet.
I agree. It is going to take a while for the market to flush out all the FBs and Specuvestors. They did not all buy at the same time AND some have the ability to hold on longer than others. Meanwhile, prices will drift lower and lower then lower some more.
Although the REIC wants to manufacture an urgency to buy, there really is no good reason to rush the buying process at this juncture. Time is on the buyers side.
From another thread….
The local market is in a normal downward side of the latest upward cycle, said Skip Lusk, executive director of the Nevada County Board of Realtors.”
If everything is so normal, why do all the shills need to keep explaining and commenting on it?
“There ain’t no stinkin’ bubble…”
Acrid, flesh-burnt smell, with a dose of sulpher-kind of smell. Is that closer?
Ken Harney began to wake up and smell the coffee, but then he pushed the “snooze” button:
“The jury is still out on how well highly leveraged recent buyers from 2003-2006 will handle a period of slow growth in their home values. Can they hang on until appreciation returns and raises their equity holdings? The mortgage and real estate industries — to say nothing of the Wall Street bond investors who’ve financed trillions of dollars’ worth of these loans — are banking on it.”
“Can they hang on until appreciation returns and raises their equity holdings?”
The real question: Will the government tax other people to help out FBs whose collective mass is “too big to fail?” (And are there enough “other people” to tax?)
P.S. I know taxes are ba-ad, but there are many ways to skin a political cat…
“The real question: Will the government tax other people to help out FBs whose collective mass is “too big to fail?” (And are there enough “other people” to tax?)”
The middleclass family is now backed against the economic turn buckle with their negative savings rate, and the punches haven’t stopped. There isn’t much left to tax away, IMHO.
Millions more taxpayers will become familiar with the acronym “AMT” sorry to say…
Lol, now I’m glad I make less than median income. Btw, you losers with 401K’s are going to be taxed like nuts when it’s time for you to withdraw. I have Roths.
If it gets really bad, maybe I can go back to Socialistchusetts; the tax system and health insurance system is very favorable to the working poor, and I can legally marry my gf.
“Lol, now I’m glad I make less than median income. Btw, you losers with 401K’s are going to be taxed like nuts when it’s time for you to withdraw. I have Roths. ”
Why not max both? Does that make me a looser?
Roths are great–but the limits are too low to make for a real savings plan. But if you are below the median–it is a very good program since you do not have current tax problems. For those of us facing the AMT, maxing our 401K contibutions may be the only way to stay off that tax.
My tax guy visited today. In his “day job” he is paid to keep tabs on US Federal government taxation laws, bills, and predilections. He said he thinks there’s a pretty good chance the AMT will be repealed this year. Time will tell.
Thats what I was afraid of!
This week the NY Times did its best to support the NY real estate market. One story was about the high rents in London. Some lady is paying over 6K USD for a one bedroom apartment. Every week the paper’s web site has a slide slow on what’s for sale. This week there are two slide shows. I thought oh two shows cause of spring selling season. Second show was property outside of NY. Like a 2 bedroom rambler in Kansas City for almost a million. A condo in Baltimore for 1.2 million. Yep no national bubble. Yep with a Kansas City rambler for a million and a Baltimore condo for 1.2 million and 6K a month in rent in London, RE in NYC is pratically free! What a deal! Think I’ll buy, buy, buy.
Well, I just found this on CL… It’s a funny post if you ask me, i really just don’t understand the… “i no longer thing it was a good idea… but i’m not going to sell it for a loss”… stubborn little kid who bought some real estate…
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rfs/275820089.html
Wait until this idiot gets past denial to anger…..
“Please note for all of you waiting in the sidelines browsing, IF THE MARKET GOES DOWN THEN I WILL NOT SELL MY HOME. THE OPPORTUNITY IS NOW.”
Yeah, and if you don’t buy my condo, you’ll be out-of-luck forever.Plus, I’ll hold my breath until I turn blue.
“It is available for $289 OR BEST OFFER”.
Hey, that sounds good to me. In fact, I won’t even bother to offer less; I’ll just go with his suggested price. Finally some sanity in the marketplace.
I sent email to that FB on craigslist, and although many will find my response offensive despite self-censoring, I feel compelled to share it publically to show the world the extent of the anger that is simmering within the legion of “bitter renters” (i.e. we who are certainly bitter, but NOT for the reasons commonly espoused):
——
TO: hous-275820089@craigslist.org
SUBJ: Re: $289000 Desperate for QUICK SALE …
[introduction removed since it repeats listing #275820089]
Well, you’re not being honest at all. You’re just another flipper [CENSORED] who is finally going to pay for his extreme greed and desire to be “[CENSORED] rich”. You signed for $289K of debt for a $150K condo. What a cretinous moron you are.
I hope you enormously enjoy your ruined credit, OR your night after night of eating ramen noodles after making each of your huge monthly mortgage payments.
Please die in a fire … seriously, probably one of the fires that will be set in your complex by another “[CENSORED] buyer” like yourself.
/signed/
reader of thehousingbubbleblog.com
——
Why were you so nice?
The new Gold Rush: Flippers buying homes at courthouse foreclosure auctions… (On p. B1 of today’s WSJ print edition)
————————————————————————————————
Profiting on Foreclosures
By Jeff D. Opdyke
Word Count: 1,183
The bidding on home number 546527 — a moss-colored brick house in Baton Rouge, La. — began at $103,333.33. Less than a minute later, Ray Williams owned a home he had never set foot in. His winning bid was $130,000. The appraised value: $155,000.
After looking it over, Mr. Williams figured he would spend $20,000 repairing rotted wood and other defects. Then he will put it up for sale — at $205,000.
Seven months ago, Mr. Williams joined a legion of investors who buy and sell foreclosure properties. So far, he has bought seven.
“If I’m not confident I’ll make …
For some time now, I’ve been completely amazed at how so many people could get caught up in the mess of toxic loans, multiple huge mortgages, misuse of easy money, etc., that prevails in today’s housing market.
Then last night I watched an amateur video of a large tornado that was slowly moving across a highway somewhere in the rural Midwest. Shortly, a pair of headlights appeared out of the massive wall of swirling dirt and debris. Then another, and another, and another vehicle drove through. The last one out had a pair of red lights on its roof.
This act of collective narcosis reminded me that there are people who are so incredibly stupid and oblivious to reality that they could actually put their lives in danger merely because they lacked the sense to put on the brakes when they see danger ahead.
Similarly, I was also reminded that there are an incredible number of people who are so infected with this mentally dysfunctional lack of common sense towards money that to them driving through this current housing Financial Tornado is as ordinary and rational as shopping at Walmart.
There can be little doubt about it: some people in this world deserve little sympathy for the havoc they willingly bring into their lives.
It’s another example of the human “Lemming effect” — following the crowd right over the cliff. Now you take Granite counter tops. Home buyers gotta have em’. For now. But soon Mother home buyer is going to see those and say: “eeeew that is SO two thousand!” Folks you predicted the housing bubble and all that follows. Now it’s time to predict what is going to happen to all that passe granite?
–
You must never under-estimate the power of the American Propaganda Machine, the true ruler of the American People.
Just remember that at one point Hitler had 90% approval rating among Germans, who are (and were back then) far more intelligent than Americans.
The counter force to the Propaganda Machine is miniscule and wouldn’t work on 80%+ of the population. There is a famous quote about why one can never successfully warn a population engaged in get-rich-quick scheme.
Jas
You are so right. The Germans are so intelligent, I think that’s why they were called the master race! How did that work out for them?
–
The point is that intelligence is no protection against a powerful propaganda that exploits human emotions. Propagandists know which buttons to push when, or under what conditions.
The current American Propaganda Machine makes Nazis look amateurish in the propaganda department. Propaganda always works until people suffer miserably. Americans will suffer worse at the hands of their Propaganda Machine operators than did Germans.
The key is: Power of Propaganda. The Housing Bubble is the latest proof of that power. Please keep the context in mind.
Jas
I have a lady in my office who just finished purchasing a new condo in Temp, AZ. I gave her a little info, but because of the propaganda machine, she told me she was buying no matter what, since she “loved the place and I want it”. Because of the media and its brainwashing of the populace, I have tended to just watch people screw themselves financially as opposed to trying to predict the sky falling and be ridiculed as well as shunned. That tv thing is very powerful…
Same here. Some people I warned are now seriously stuck and bleeding–having warned makes any feeling I express suspect. I just stay quiet unless directly asked.
Are you a Narcissistic Closet Nazi?
This is pretty funny. We’ve seen this sort of thing already though
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/02/mortgage_tart_w.html
Holding Stinky Bubbble Contracts.
Hosed Savers Banking Conglomerate (HSBC)
Now that is funny
MP3 audio that includes an interview
with Bill Fleckenstein on real estate:
http://www.fundadvice.com/sound-investing/
Fleck is on from about 08:40 to 19:00 on the MP3 file. Thanks!
CNN ‘Open House’ just had Jesse Jackson on calling for a federal bailout for FB’s.
They then had an economist on preaching that the tightening credit standards would push the soft housing market into 2008.
I see a collision coming between the market realities and the guberment’s inclination to throw our good tax money after bad.
“CNN ‘Open House’ just had Jesse Jackson on calling for a federal bailout for FB’s.”
Aha! Okay the Demotheftic party will then take over this issue and push for a taxpayer bailout of FBs. JJ sent aloft a trial balloon. This will work because most people in houses are FBs. My idea of the “Peter Principle” is the Dumbos rob Peter to pay Paul. Y’all should be glad you voted in the Demotheftic congress just because you hated the man in the white house.
Of course this whole mess happened under the Republican’s watch, but blame who you like. JJ doesn’t speak for the Dems and holds no elected office.
Shakedown artist-in-chief.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/41979/How-to-Sell-Your
The above is uber-realtor Barbara Corcoran’s blog, where she posts such gems of wisdom as “How to Sell Your House in a Weekend”, to the adulation of NAR minions. Note their breathless, fawning platitudes, sullied by the forays of at least two Ben’s Army raiders who popped over to butcher some of their sacred cows.
To prime the pump, please note the last comment, by some NAR asshat who claims that after 300 days on the market he RAISES the price $5K on the premise that the sheeple, in their stupidity, will think the house is actually UNDERPRICED and will stampede in to pay the higher price. Um, yeah…wonder how’s working out for him these days.