Consider It A Consolation Prize In California
The North County Times reports from California. “There is no way to put a good spin on foreclosures, said Temecula City Councilwoman Maryann Edwards on Monday, but at least the city can keep track of abandoned homes. The Temecula City Council last week adopted an ordinance that aims to diminish the negative effects neighborhoods experience because of foreclosed properties.”
“‘I think no community is immune from economic distress, though some cities are overwhelmed by foreclosures,’ Edwards said. ‘It’s a fine line the city walks to protect safety and respect property rights —- even when we don’t know who the property owner is. Making the properties less attractive for squatters and vandals is something we can do.’”
The LA Times. “State law enforcement officials are investigating whether 70 retirees and other investors in Northern California were bilked when they put up $6.4 million for construction loans on Malibu land that may be undevelopable.”
“The investors have foreclosed on the land, which is worth just a fraction of its appraised value as prime home building property. But they’re still trying to figure out where their money went.”
“‘Nobody knows what happened to it,” according to Fred I. Mann, who said he invested more than $500,000 in the transaction and is facing a total loss.”
“‘We’re getting a zillion of these types of cases with investors who have bought fractional notes,’ said Kathryn Holguin, an investigator for the state attorney general’s office.”
“The Malibu loans were brokered through Charlene Goodrich, a Santa Rosa, Calif., loan broker who has been in business since 1981. Disclosure statements Goodrich filed with the Corporations Department show that her portfolio began to deteriorate rapidly in 2007. During that year, she initiated or completed foreclosures on 28 loans owing more than $14 million.”
“Another $5.8 million in loans was delinquent as of March 30 this year. That meant that 48% of her outstanding portfolio was delinquent, facing foreclosure or already foreclosed, according to the disclosure statement.”
“Tyna Degenhardt (appraised) a 3.86-acre tract on Decker Canyon Road — for $470,000 on Nov. 3, 2004, and for $775,000, or nearly 65% more, six months later, according to documents Goodrich provided to investors.”
“‘Properties were appreciating at a pretty high rate at the time,’ Degenhardt said in an interview.”
“Goodrich denies any wrongdoing in the Malibu case. She said in an interview that the problems in her portfolio stemmed mostly from the real estate slowdown. ‘I’ve taken a real beating the last couple of years,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t commit fraud.’”
The Bakersfield Californian. “A Bakersfield appraiser was disciplined by state regulators in March for prior work on a transaction involving the former Crisp & Cole Real Estate company, state documents and county property records show.”
“In a separate incident the appraiser’s father, who is also an appraiser, was included in an FBI and IRS raid of 13 sites around Bakersfield related to Crisp & Cole operations.”
“Christopher S. Newton’s appraisal report on 1914 Three Bridges Way contained ‘misleading statements’ and serious errors that led to an inflated valuation, the citation indicates.”
“The 1914 Three Bridges house was purchased by former Crisp & Cole staffer Zane Richards for $785,000 in March 2006, property records show, with 100 percent financing. The house was repossessed in October.”
“The bank sold it to new owners for $410,000 in March, or $375,000 less than Richards borrowed against it.”
“Newton on Monday said, ‘I wish you guys would get a new perspective.’”
The Fresno Bee. “State officials accuse the developers of the failed Running Horse project in southwest Fresno of defrauding investors of millions of dollars in an effort to raise money.”
“Tom O’Meara and Scott Webb allegedly sold the same lots to multiple buyers, told investors they were buying parcels inside the development when they actually were outside, and misled people into thinking their investments were secured by property in the ambitious project, officials with the state Department of Real Estate allege in their accusation.”
“‘Fifty-eight investors all believed in Fresno,’ said Joyce Scampa, a real estate broker in Monterey who said family and friends invested $7 million in the project.”
“Scampa thinks her money and those of her deceased mother’s trust were used to help O’Meara buy a $4.1 million house in Pebble Beach. The house was lost to foreclosure in June 2007.”
“Creditors filed lawsuits and mechanics liens, which were partially consolidated into one case, said Michael Wilhelm, a Fresno attorney representing creditors. The land, which represented the hopes and dreams of an ignored section of town, sits idle.”
“Fresno architect Gary Vigen hasn’t stopped trying to salvage a project. Wilhelm is skeptical, especially considering the current real estate and lending environment. ‘If it happens it will be one of the greatest miracles in the history of mankind.’”
The Modesto Bee. “Consider it a consolation prize: Plummeting home values have cost Northern San Joaquin Valley homeowners billions in home equity, but at least their property taxes are going down.”
“About 43,000 homeowners in Stanislaus County, 58,000 in San Joaquin County and 21,000 in Merced County will have their property assessments — thus, their taxes — lowered this year.”
“‘The average assessment value decrease was $122,000, which was a shock to us,’ Stanislaus County Assessor Doug Harms said.”
“The widespread decline in property assessments is unprecedented, causing total assessment rolls in the three counties to decline for the first time — or at least as far back as records go.”
“In Stanislaus, Harms said the county’s total assessment has fallen to $40 billion, which is $2.9 billion less than last year. That’s a 6.9 percent decrease.”
“The assessment decline is more dramatic in some cities than others. Assessments plunged 22.5 percent in Patterson and 19.8 percent in Newman but declined only 5.5 percent in Turlock and 6.7 percent in Oakdale. Modesto’s drop was 8.1 percent.”
“Harms said the West Side cities lost the most because a higher percentage of homes there were built during the region’s housing boom, which peaked in late 2005. Home sales prices have been falling since then.”
“The result will be lower property taxes, which will be due Dec. 10 and April 10. ‘I think they’d rather have their houses still be worth something than to have lower taxes,’ said Kent Christensen, Merced County’s assessor.”
The Recordnet. “Mortgage interest rates are on the rise…but that doesn’t appear to be suppressing buyer demand for homes in San Joaquin County as sliding prices on foreclosure homes give first-time buyers opportunities that had disappeared in the housing boom of the first half of this decade.”
“Cynthia Ruiz and her partner, Jesse Alonzo, have a purchase deal in escrow on a three-bedroom, two-bath Stockton home that they were able to buy for $220,000 - and the seller will cover all closing costs and the 3 percent down payment.”
“‘It feels like we just barely missed (the lower interest rate),’ she said. ‘But we bought the house we really loved, and it still feels like a really good price.’”
“Their broker, Lela Nelson , said that historically, mortgage interest rates are still great and that the housing market ‘is finally in that range again where it’s affordable.’ Some good foreclosure houses are on the market these days at less than $100,000, she said.”
“Greg Paquin, president of a real-estate information and consulting service in Folsom, said the rising interest rates aren’t having a big impact on the new-home market, because the market is so slow.”
“‘There just aren’t enough buyers in the market right now,’ he said.”
“Prices have come down enough during the slowdown that new homes have become affordable to a wider group of people, he said, so to builders, ‘it’s not a good feeling’ to see interest rates rise and bump out some potential buyers.”
The Manteca Bulletin. “The first official signal that housing market fortunes are shifting in Manteca and the rest of the Northern San Joaquin Valley came last week when appraisers dropped the ‘declining market’ stigma.”
“It essentially means the extra 5 percent down that has been added across the board to loan products could now disappear. However, there are a number of caveats that still make that less than likely to happen for now in a lot of cases.”
“‘You have to have good credit plus mortgage insurance companies still aren’t looking too favorably on California,’ said Deborah Romero of Ability Mortgage.”
“No one believes all prices have hit rock bottom, but a growing presence of serious buyers have created a bidding frenzy of sorts for homes that are being deliberately under priced by the banks that have foreclosed on them.”
“Connie Chicoine of Century 21 M&M Associates Real Estate noted the market has gotten into a position where it is almost the same to buy, as it is to rent. Among her clients that she has helped put into houses since the start of the year in Manteca are two single moms.”
“‘I’m working with two clients now who are each single guys trying to find them a home,’ she said.”
“Marge Imfeld of Ability Mortgage noted the housing ownership affordability index for wage earners in San Joaquin has dropped to a point where 40 percent of all households have an income strong enough to qualify to buy the median priced home in San Joaquin County. That is up significantly from two years ago when it had dropped to 15 percent.”
“During the height of the liar loan mess, more than 85 percent of all buyers were from west of the Altamont Pass. Six months ago, it was almost exclusively a market where Manteca and Northern San Joaquin Valley residents were buying homes and no one else.”
“But real estate agents are starting to see Bay Area buyers starting to return. One of Romero’s clients, for example, currently resides in Danville.”
“Chicone noted it is a rare opportunity for those who work and reside in Manteca now currently renting to buy. ‘I’m seeing a large number of young people in their 20s buying, she said. ‘You never saw that before in Manteca.’”
“Romero noted that the market is still extremely uneven with motivated banks - basically larger financial institutions with a lot of foreclosures on their hands - being extremely aggressive in pricing while those with a significantly smaller cut of the foreclosed housing stockpile aren’t overtly aggressive in pricing.”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel. “Citing the industry downturn, Stewart Title plans to consolidate offices in Monterey and San Benito counties in its Watsonville location by July 31. Offices in Carmel, Monterey, Salinas and Hollister will close.”
“Both Monterey and San Benito counties have been especially hard hit by the subprime mortgage crisis and credit crunch. Home sales are down 17 percent in Monterey and 19 percent in San Benito as of mid-June.”
“This year, the number of Monterey County homes sold in foreclosure — 1,454 — exceeds the number of other home sales, 1,286, according to the Santa Cruz Record. San Benito County has had 202 home sales and 291 homes sold in foreclosure.”
“Kirk Hamrick, Stewart Title Monterey division president, noted ‘industry professionals have predicted a longer real estate recovery than initially reported.’”
Bizarro Booby Prize?
“Consider it a consolation prize: Plummeting home values have cost Northern San Joaquin Valley homeowners billions in home equity, but at least their property taxes are going down.”
I’ve never understood states that don’t just compute property taxes as:
Mil Rate = (Total budget / Total Assessed Value of all properties).
That way your property taxes would not change if your property value inflated or deflated the same as the average property. No windfalls in boom years, and no shortfalls in bust years.
Yah, if Prop 13 in Cali had constrained the mill rate to grow at 2% per year max w/o a majority vote it would have been a home-run. Then everybody would get the locked in low property taxes, and you wouldn’t be screwing the younger generation.
But let’s face it, nobody wants to pay for something if they can make their kids pay for it.
No way, I’m sticking my wife’s parents with the tab.
Prop 13 might have made sense to help primary homeowners, but it was applied to ALL property including business. Huge office towers paying 1978 taxes - yeah that’s the ticket - that really works out.
lets see .. it passed in 1978.. lemme get my calculator out. Key in the average tax increases during the previous years.. years since then.. assume a steady rate of increase.. factor in the number of tax-n-spend politicos elected.. additional public programs.. spending.. projects..
yep.. just as i thought. Had Prop 13 not passed, the State government would own all of California by now.
Maybe it would be a good idea to append Prop 13 so that the state infrastructure can get funded and old people can still continue to live in their paid-off primary residences.
Yeah, but who needs roads, schools, bridges, sewers, cops, firedepartments, libraries, parks, beaches, street cleaners, evironmental conservation, etc…etc. that our state government provides. I’d rather have a few extra bucks, a truck to drive over the pot holes, a gun for protecting my property and drill a well in my back yard.
It would never be spent on infrastructure.. The govt has proven zero ability to budget itself.
Take the lottery for instance, revenues from which were supposed to fund schools and relieve the property tax burden. It passed by a wide majority.
How much of every lottery-dollar reaches the schools? About 3 cents. How much of that gets to the students? .. a small fraction of the 3 pennies. Where’s the rest of the money? In the general fund.
amend
What are the particulars with prop13? I remember when it was voted on, but I never understood it. Being from NY, it didn’t affect me.
The particulars were “Protect business and landlords from having to pay taxes under the guise of saving granny!”
California really WAS jacking people with property taxes, so to try and strangle them via the budget, they said you can’t increase taxes by more than 2% a year on property, not excluding 2nd homes, business, rental property/etc. But if you sell the house, the tax rate resets at the new property value. Note that you can die, give it to your kid, THEY can die and give it to THERE kid, and the tax rate remains protected.
What they SHOULD have done was put a 2% max increase on the state budget. Instead, we get massive sales tax AND massive deferred onto new buyers. And the government still spends money like a drunken sailor on shore leave.
Enough with the prop. 13 BS.
It put a limit on the government taxation.
FOR EVERYBODY! (Every home owner)
Are you for bigger government or smaller?
Mike
I’m for good government, elected and not bought.
Oh Mike.
Our government needs money to operate schools, maintain/build roads and public transportation, enforce the law, etc. No, I am not for “smaller government”, nor do I really know what that means. I am for making people pay for the society in which they live, rather than allowing a subset of people to skate, having benefitted from the system in their own youth, while today’s young people are deprived of a sound education, a safe environment, and a reliable infrastructure.
I’m sure most people do not want senior citizens to be forced out of their homes through insane property taxes. However, I am equally sure that most people do not want children to be deprived of an education through an underfunded school system.
FIRST thing to do:
close down 1/3 to 1/2 of the state colleges in America. We just dont need them anymore. Our country is so dumbed down why waste the money.
instead use the money for trades, we need great reasonable priced plumbers not masters of 15th century english art.
if somebody wants that, let them find their own way of paying for it…state colleges should be for practical job training skills.
If we make people pay for their own educations in full, then only the children of the rich will be able to get it. That will ruin our society, as great minds are more or less equally distributed among the classes, and we should not miss out on the opportunity to nurture any of them. How can the US be a world leader if we don’t have any world leaders among us?
I know, I know. Some of you are probably convinced that intelligence is genetic, and that all the intelligent people are already rich, but that is not true. That was the thinking back in the days of aristocracy, but observation has disproven it. People get rich in a lot of ways; stupid childred are borne to smart parents; smart children are borne to stupid parents; geniuses arise seemingly out of nowhere; and rich guys like to marry air heads.
In a nutshell, California needs to amend Proposition 13 so that we ALL can continue to have a high standard of living throughout generations, NOT just so that one generation can have an unheard of standard of living on the backs of everyone else.
I just love prop 13. It has had such … oh, I don’t know controversy maybe? Certainly many interesting discussions.
Of course I don’t live in Cal, never plan to, nothing to me what (if anthing) happens to it. So I’m 100% for it and 100% against it. Totally neutral so to speak.
BigV.. Young people.. first time owners.. who bought property in Calif 2002 might now be paying 3 or 4 times what they paid in property tax only a few years ago. This might drive them out of their homes.
It seems like you want to expose those people and all who follow them to a hellish situation which prop 13 eliminated.. why?
“Yeah, but who needs roads, schools, bridges, sewers, cops, firedepartments, libraries, parks, beaches, street cleaners, evironmental conservation, etc…etc. that our state government provides. I’d rather have a few extra bucks, a truck to drive over the pot holes, a gun for protecting my property and drill a well in my back yard.”
Bawawahahahahahahaa That is just flippin’ hilarious American Screamer. Here in lovely Enron by The Sea the cops are few and far between and some of our potholes are the size of the Grand Canyon. Our streets are rarely swept. Reports in the aftermath of the Cedar Fire showed that the SD Fire Department that they were short on staff, fire engines, personal safety equipment and training. Our libraries are underfunded and so are our schools. We are paying but we sure aren’t getting the services.
“…great minds are more or less equally distributed among the classes…”
Data please.
That may have been true in a socially-stratified, feudal society, where artificial barriers kept smart peasants from advancing and stupid toff nobles from declining (actually, even the Middle Ages saw a fair amount of social mobility; I’m reading Barbara Tuchman’s “The Distant Mirror” right now; good stuff!). But in a complex civilization with any kind of economic freedom and social mobility, intelligence ought to confer an economic advantage.
That’s not to say you need to be smart to be (temporarily) rich; in an economic bubble like the dearly departed one in housing, being stupid may even have been a temporary advantage. But mean-reversion tends to kick stupid-and-lucky’s butt in the long run, as we’re seeing.
I recognize it’s not polite to reference “The Bell Curve,” but it’s absolutely uncontroversial that smart people tend — on average — to have smart kids, and vice versa. Not saying that occasionally a couple of complete morons have a brilliant child, or vice versa, but it’s more the exception than the rule.
How realistic is it that virtually every aspect of a human being is influenced by heredity — height, vision, build, susceptibility to certain diseases — but not intelligence? Not to say that environment and education can’t nudge the genetic scale some distance in either direction (those factors are probably the reason for the Flynn effect, or the general increase in average IQ over the last few decades), but to deny that the genetic cards are at all stacked is as unscientific as Intelligent Design.
Government will never function properly again until public employee unions are either (a) banned, or at least (b) forbidden to contribute to political campaigns.
I vote for (a). A private-sector union has at least something of an incentive not to make unreasonable demands: It recognizes that if it imposes too excessive costs on a company, the company goes under, and *poof* go the union jobs (and dues). (Clearly, airline pilots’ unions haven’t quite figured this one out.) A smart parasite takes care not to kill its host.
Public-sector unions, on the other hand, have no such incentive. Their members work for a monopoly, so there’s no competition to put their employer out of business if the union imposes excessive costs on it. And it’s not as if they have to worry that if they increase costs so much, their employer will have to charge so much for its services that its customers will go elsewhere: The government’s the only game in town, and if the “customers” don’t want to pay the price demanded, they get tossed in jail. (Not quite true, of course; Californians can and do vote with their feet and head east.)
Effective government is critical to a well-functioning society. But the only way to have effective government — since it’s a monopoly, and therefore not kept in line by the discipline of competition — is to have a citizenry with the wisdom and the tools to keep it accountable. And I’m starting to doubt whether that’s even possible, once a society and its government reach a certain size. No matter how necessary and well-intentioned a government program may be, the infrastructure set up to execute its mission inevitably takes on a life of its own. Institutions have a built-in self-preservation instinct, and government agencies are no exception. Public employee unions just magnify this effect.
Prop 13 is not the problem it’s just a ready and easy excuse…the problem is people mismanaging and stealing the funds…like the current debacle in Korea town where they built that school on the site where Kennedy was killed…the could have built 10 smaller schools for what they spent there…never mind the cost of cleaning the soil and all the other nonsense and lawsuits that went along with it…that’s not Prop 13’s fault..
And if that’s the best formula for local governments, why not this for the federal government:
End ALL federal government taxes and simply bill the states according to: Federal Budget * [your state's percentage of total U.S. population].
States would be free to raise the revenues anyway they want, and citizens could vote with their feet, moving to the states whose policies most suited them. It would also end states trying to pad their population rolls to get more aid - it would go out in the same ratio it came in. Would make limiting the scope of the federal government a priority for all states equally. Would make states very hesitant to support illegal alien or deadbeat populations.
I guess then we wouldn’t be united states anymore. Just one giant state.
Honest Abe kind of put the kaibash on that idea c. 1865, no?
Not sure about the meaning of that. Also, Abe was dead for 70% of 1865.
If I understand you correctly, that is exactly the way it used to be prior to the 16th amendment. If you want a direct tax, it had to be apportioned according to your representation. If you get 20 percent of the reps in the house (where the apporpriations come), then you need to pay 20 percent of the fed. tax. Let the state determine how they come up with it, but the state owes according to their representation. That changed, and had a large influence on the actual system of governance.
It wasn’t Abe Lincoln. The 16th amendment was done the same year the Fed Reserve was created-1913. They go hand-in-hand. With a Fed Reserve to buy the debt and tax all citizens through inflation, you don’t really need an income tax-except for keeping up appearances. In that resprect, deficits don’t matter-as long as people believe it (including the rest of the world when Fed Notes are the reserve currency of the world).
Aladinsane,
Did I understand your reply yesterday re:gold to be that you take physical possession and stash it outside the country personally? Wow, that’s more work and more airline tickets than I’d like to spend.
If so, that also raises the question: don’t you have to disclose to customs the fact that you’re taking more the $10K out of the country, or does the fact that coins have ridiculously low denominations help with that? (e.g. a $50 American Eagle might only count as $50 “currency” value rather than it’s $900+ melt value.)
Just take less than $10k worth of $50 denominated 1 oz eagles/buffaloes (say, 173 coins) and you need not tell customs anything, as you are well within your rights as a citizen to do this, having broken no laws.
That’s part 1.
Whatever country you are flying to has laws as well, so choose your country wisely, as laws vary widely.
“so choose your country wisely”
Sounds like you’ve done some research in this area already; care to share and save me some legwork?
Rules are always changing, so you are on your own, figuring it out.
(this message will self-destruct in 5 seconds)
For the life of me, I will never understand why a US citizen would want to stash their gold in another country. It makes no sense.
Because we’ll always have access to cheap and easy flights, and no country would ever bar U.S. Citizens from entering it!
BanteringBear…
I feel fairly certain your family has never experienced the twinbill of fascism and communism, and complete loss of your family’s fortune, as a result.
I have.
But Alad, we don’t have that here. We are probably the least likely of all countries to ever have it. While I understand the reasoning you used to predict inflation and gold prices, I would like to know more about the reasoning that you’re using to predict an onslaught of fascism and communism in the United States.
Maybe you haven’t noticed that we have a evang-fascist on the premises @ 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?
And i’m guessing he might just emulate Mugabe, and not want to leave.
Will you give me Krugerrand if you turn out to be wrong?
Hasn’t the disrespect of the law they’ve displayed, enough for cause for concern?
Watch Darth cheney’s right-hand man try and bully congress, and not answer questions, because al qaeda might be listening…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2uvxsCU_M
Here’s Addington again, lying through his teeth…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i39hQYAWaOo&feature=related
I know, alad. The current administration is a real doozie. Luckily, there are a lot of powerful and influential people out there who have been working to oust this guy for quite some time, and they are on the verge of success. Do you think the Secret Service will continue to take orders from Georgie Porgey once someone else is elected? No way. It’s hard to make a power grab when there is no actual power vacuum. The man will leave, I’m sure of it.
alad”insane”,
Come on, you actually think that W is going to pull a Mugabe and not want to leave? IMO he can’t wait to get the hell out of there.
Lip
’ssshrubery is in so deep with misdeeds, that I doubt he can leave.
He’s also replaced tons of good people in most every higher office in the land, and replaced them with know-nothing christians as part of the larger power grab.
Here’s just one example:
“he next morning, I went to the Boston University School of Public Health to talk with Gerald T. Keusch, who is the associate dean for global health. From 1998 to the end of 2003, he served at the N.I.H. as the director of the Fogarty Center, which concentrates on international health. In the two years after he took the job, Keusch had seven openings on his advisory board and he nominated seven people to fill them. “In each case, they cleared N.I.H. in three weeks and went to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be formally appointed,” Keusch recalled. “Within another month, Donna Shalala had signed all seven letters. No questions. They were the people I wanted, and, as director, it was my responsibility to pick them.” When George Bush took office, the Fogarty board had four new openings. Normally, three appointments to the board of twelve went to public figures and the rest to experts in various fields of international public health. “I asked for Dikembe Mutombo”—the N.B.A. basketball star—”as my public figure,” Keusch said. “He has a foundation in Zaire and a real sense of the issues around H.I.V. I also wanted to appoint Torsten Wiesel”—a former president of Rockefeller University, who, in 1981, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine—”and Geeta Rao Gupta, who runs the International Center for Research on Women, and has worked extensively on issues involving abortion.” His other nominee was Jane Menken, a highly regarded demographer who is now at the University of Colorado. She specializes in fertility, and has often worked in Bangladesh, which until recently had one of the highest birth rates in the world. “For weeks, and then months, I heard nothing from the department about these appointments,” Keusch said. “I thought they would simply be routine. Finally, after eight months, I got a message saying they would accept Dikembe but were rejecting the three others. No explanation. No note. Nothing.” Keusch was incensed, and he insisted on meeting with the people at H.H.S. who handled the decisions.”
“I was told that Torsten was rejected because he has signed open letters that were critical of the President,” Keusch went on. “Geeta was rejected because her organization is not opposed to abortion—which, we should not forget, is legal in the United States. And Jane Menken sat on the board of the Alan Guttmacher Institute”—which has always emphasized family planning and endorses the use of condoms. “That is literally what was said to me. Then I received a bunch of C.V.s in the mail. One of them was from a professor emeritus of economics at an obscure college in California that I had never heard of. His entire publication record consisted of pieces in the Christian Science Monitor and a Catholic monthly that took politically charged positions. That was typical of the calibre: there was nothing scientific, nothing peer-reviewed.” Keusch spent the next three years at war with the H.H.S. He had to nominate twenty-six people to find seven whom the department would accept. “The Administration simply made it impossible for me to do the job I was hired for. In the end, I left and they won.”
http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/2006/2006_03_13_bush.html
“As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.”
Adolf Hitler
One of Cheney’s henchmen was in contact with me just today. He really wanted to know what I knew about certain other posters here who they felt were “somewhat suspicious”.
And to think that all of this allowance of criticism and outrage on the net for the past 7 years was all just one big setup. Had me fooled, man. I mean, I’m safe and all that, I know the secret handshake and all that other shit. I didn’t realize they were serious about the junta, though, I thought it was all talk.
If GWB is anywhere near a fascist, then you have to put FDR, Truman, and Wilson — at the very least — in the same category. Because all three of those guys did everything GWB is being pilloried as a potential dictator for doing, and more.
“know-nothing christians”
Boy, talk about know nothing. Once again we enjoy the left wing celebration of diversity.
“Know-nothing christians” are just a modern version of this…
“The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to US values and controlled by the Pope in Rome. Mainly active from 1854–56, it strove to curb immigration and naturalization, though its efforts met with little success.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
Bush is looking forward to leaving and does not understand the legal trouble he is in. He revealed this in a recent appearance where he sang a little song about going back to Texas. Insurance is always good to have in any case, of course.
I understand what you are saying Alad, but in Germany there were lots of obvious warning signs that don’t exist now. It does seem a bit premature…
I would think a depression scenario without the violent fascism where immediate access to money is required would be more likely at this point.
I picture alad as one of those guys with a 4′ long white beard living in a fortified bunker somewhere with his sacks of gold coins in a floor safe.
Not a bad life…I could imagine worse.
A friend and I (in high school) decided we were going to dig a military style bunker. So we went to the edge of my (mom’s) property and started digging a hole. The farmer in the next field (there was not a fence) said we were on his property, he was pissed.
Turned out it wasn’t his, but he had been cutting for hay that far over for years.
“I understand what you are saying Alad, but in Germany there were lots of obvious warning signs that don’t exist now. It does seem a bit premature…”
The building blocks for the more dangerous aspects of fascism are in place. Germany didn’t go from being a democracy to running extermination camps overnight.
In Germany, the building blocks were in place far ahead of the more destructive acts that followed.
In a depression scenario, it’s hard to know what might happen. In the 30’s, some countries went fascist, some communist. Fortunately, neither happened in the United States.
Look at how many rights people were willing to give up over one terrorist attack. Frighten people and put them under enough economic strain and there’s no telling what might happen. The German experience in the 30’s certainly seems possible here. Having an exit strategy seems prudent, though hopefully unnecessary.
Bleepin’ drama queens, that’s what we have here.
I don’t think people appreciate that entertaining paranoid delusions of the awfulness the other side is up to is *exactly* what destroys democracies. Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all; when you’re convinced that the other side is bent on installing a communist or a fascist dictatorship, you often justify yourself in taking repressive measures *yourself* in order to Preserve the Republic.
Joe McCarthy was a classic example of this — and, unlike now (where the “fascists” only exist in fevered Kossite imaginations), there actually *were* realio trulio Communists about. Already, I see plenty of examples of left-wingers wanting to criminalize politics — to throw people in jail for having the wrong opinion. (See Yoo, John.)
Now, you guys may be right, and I’m just too sheeplified/deluded/etc. to see the real danger lurking. On the other hand, consider you *might* be letting your anger get the better of you, that you’re turning into the left-wing version of a wild-eyed backwoods militia guy circa 1993, and that there’s at least a remote possibility that this might all get out of hand.
I’ve been to Germany perhaps a few dozen times over the last 25 years, and I could never understand how such a bright people fell under the spell of a madman.
I understand now, as we now have one of our own…
“Look at how many rights people were willing to give up over one terrorist attack.”
Frankly, the number of “rights” given up in order to facilitate counterterrorism efforts pales in comparison to the number of genuine rights that have been rolled roughshod over (by Democratic and Republican administrations alike) in the name of the war on drugs.
And the income tax. (Not referring to the inconvenience of actually paying it, but to the unprecedented intrusion into privacy that collecting it has come to entail.)
And zoning laws and other land-use restrictions. (Not saying they’re not often a good thing, but as a practical matter, they’ve had a far more restrictive effect on people’s everyday lives and choices than, say, the slight possibility that the government might listen in on a telephone call to me from Peshawar.)
And mandatory seat-belt laws. (I hate having to be nervous every time I pass a cop; I never know when my live-free-or-die three-year-old may have liberated himself from his carseat and is standing up to wave at the nice man in blue. You know how expensive those tickets are? Again, weigh the actual overall *feel* of government intrusiveness of that single well-meaning nanny-state law against the remote possibility that the government might subpoena my library records.)
LOL Waite tell the next one gets into office. It’s going to be one hell of a ride. Unfortunatley it’s not going to be a good one either. Hope you can speak spanish and don’t make over 100k a year.
“And I’m guessing he just might emulate Mugabe, and not want to leave.”
Because of that statement any credability you might have enjoyed is now gone.
Methinks that was just ‘laddie using dramatic hyperbole. Of course I think many of the posters here have serious CREDIBILITY issues with their spelling. Sheesh, it makes me think nobody here passed 4th grade.
After reading his posts over the last year, I now picture alad as a Gert Fröbe look-alike, always wearing 2 layers of costume so that the TSHTF he can strip off the outer layer & make his getaway to Shangri-La in a plane piloted by Honor Blackman and her all-girl crew, who are waiting at his beck & call this very hour on a secret airstrip. Of course, lad’s wife does not know about these arrangements.
“And I’m guessing he just might emulate Mugabe, and not want to leave.”
He’ll leave on time. He doesn’t seem that interested in the job now, as it is. If there are any Mugabe comparisons, it may have more to do with hyperinflation with not leaving office.
Please note that I do not consider hyperinflation of the type in Zimbabwe likely to occur in the United States. The effects of selective rising inflation could be quite severe, however.
One other consideration, there is already historical precedent in this country of the govt making ownership of gold (outside of small amounts for jewelry or collectibles) illegal and confiscating that gold.
Funny, I don’t see alad whining about the political party of that dude. Maybe he doesn’t mind fascism quite so much.
Ahem, no Blano, if we ever need to hear anyone on this blog whine, we know to come to you…..you whine more than Doug and Wendy from the old SNL skit….
He hasn’t whined about the political party of ANY dude, at least not in this thread.
Instead of trying to defend it, its time to separate the admin from the party it commandeered and corrupted.
‘It’s a fine line the city walks to protect safety and respect property rights —- even when we don’t know who the property owner is.’
What is to stop a city from passing a law that allows them to lay claim to abandoned property and sell it? It seems like cities could go a long way towards shoring up their budget gaps and attracting a strong entry-level workforce by taking this strategy.
They’d have a great program if they levied fines for abandoning a property/upkeep/etc, seized them in a reasonable manner, and sold them for the price of the fines with a 5 year owner occupancy clause where if they don’t live there for five years, the state seizes and sells it at market rate and keeps the cash. (Or if they DO occupy it and sell it, the state gets the money). Or better yet, if they find out it’s being rented, they re-seize it and deed it to the renter for the cost of the paperwork.
Of course, that’s a lot of work. Instead they should seize the abandoned properties and auction them off and pocket the proceeds and let the free market take care of ‘affordable housing’.
“…seize the abandoned properties and auction them off and pocket the proceeds and let the free market take care of ‘affordable housing’.”
That’s about what I had in mind. What’s stopping them?
5th Amendment.. 14th Amendment..
There’s also the Contracts Clause in the Constitution (Article I, section 10, clause 1) that sanctifies the contract between lender and FB, and the 5th Amendment (due process and eminent domain restrictions) that would make it more difficult to seize a derelict property and use it to raise money (i.e. they must pay just compensation for any property seized).
If it happens, it’s guaranteed to go to the Supremes, and IMO unfortunately would likely be struck down.
Amendment V
No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment XIV
Section 1. …nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;…
What person is denied his constitutional rights if nobody lays claim to derelict property?
Someone has to be compensated when the state takes their property. Someone has the right to due process.
Who is that person or persons? Of course, if that were known, the whole situation is moot. It’s a Catch 22.
It cannot be denied that someone (or some people) do own the property. It may be derelict but that’s not a crime that carries punishment of confiscation… at least not before the question is settled in court.
Any attempt to confiscate the property would end up in legal limbo, imo.
Of course, businesses get more protection than persons in the current day and age.
Seriously, if a bank/MBS poop/mortgage servicer isn’t maintaining a property, taking it away from them is in the public interest. I wouldn’t even care if they got the proceeds of the sale minus the transaction costs of the city forcing the sale. Just get rid of the empty properties.
I also wouldn’t care if the city bulldozed any building left to rot for too long and billed the owner. Don’t want to keep it up? Fine. We’ll speed the process along.
“It cannot be denied that someone (or some people) do own the property.”
Why not? The city could declare the property derelict, and provide legal recourse (due process of law) for any owner with a claim on the property to contest the declaration within a reasonable time frame that limits damage to non-derelict owners of surrounding properties. If nobody came forth to contest it, then who would be hurt by the confiscation?
Conversely, what gives the absent owner of abandoned property the right to impose social costs on area residents? Non-absent owners do not generally enjoy such rights. I cannot even leave my trash can along the side of the house in view of the street, much less allow drug producers, gang members, squatters and debaucherous revelers to commandeer our home for malevolent purposes.
Oops — I did not mean to suggest that we are the loanowners (but we have been loanowners in the past…).
PB .. lets revisit the comment that started the thread:
‘It’s a fine line the city walks to protect safety and respect property rights —- even when we don’t know who the property owner is.’
They were not talking out of their asses.
They have certainly been legally advised. Hell, most of the politicians are or were lawyers.
It really is a fine line. Screwing up could cost the city tons of money in lawsuits and politicians could lose their jobs..
Maybe a smart lawyer will convince some higher court that things have gotten so out of control the threat cannot be ignored… maybe not.
But either way, unless and until the question is settled, property will not be confiscated.
Yeah, remember that little Supreme Court decision all about eminent domain? Can’t cities use that?
Be sure to ask about your “due process” when they seize your house or yacht because there are illegal drugs in it.
That’s different. We are talking about property where no owner is present or even known to exist.
Here’s how California does it
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=4832471&page=1
RE: “In a separate incident the appraiser’s father, who is also an appraiser, was included in an FBI and IRS raid of 13 sites around Bakersfield related to Crisp & Cole operations.”
“Christopher S. Newton’s appraisal report on 1914 Three Bridges Way contained ‘misleading statements’ and serious errors that led to an inflated valuation, the citation indicates.”
“The 1914 Three Bridges house was purchased by former Crisp & Cole staffer Zane Richards for $785,000 in March 2006, property records show, with 100 percent financing. The house was repossessed in October.”
“The bank sold it to new owners for $410,000 in March, or $375,000 less than Richards borrowed against it.”
“Newton on Monday said, ‘I wish you guys would get a new perspective.’”
There’s the scenario for your classic racketeering team of number hitter’s.
And the foreclosure hit for $375k is only for 1 property, LMAO.
You can bet these chumps appraised thousands!
Chimps is a accurate description…just recently had a long conversation with someone about that…Houston there is a problem…the conversation left me speechless…there is absolutely no barrier to entry…
“Malibu, a way of life”
“State law enforcement officials are investigating whether 70 retirees and other investors in Northern California were bilked when they put up $6.4 million for construction loans on Malibu land that may be undevelopable.”
Brad Gluckman: “My name is B-rad. Not Robbie van Winkle. I like my lattes non-fat and don’t fo-get the sprinkle.”
“‘It feels like we just barely missed (the lower interest rate),’ she said. ‘But we bought the house we really loved, and it still feels like a really good price.’”
My wife used to freak out about rising interest rates. Now I have proof that prices can correct fast enough to make interest rates just a secondary concern (especially when you have a 50%+ downpayment).
Glad to hear it, climber. Now, back to me tearing apart everything that gets said by an FB, mortgage broker, RE agent, bank, etc …
How the hell can one “feel” like they just missed the lower interest rate? What exactly does that feel like? Does it feel like getting shampooed by Fez from That 70s Show? Like buying a brand new pair of shoes that you know are way better than anything your boss owns? Like adopting a teenage duck? WHAT, LADY, WHAT DOES IT EXACTLY “FEEL” LIKE?
I don’t know “feel” either.
Just know that it smells like Teen Spirit.
If you know what I mean.
And I think you do.
OK. More to the point; do you feel like we do?:
http://tinyurl.com/5taa75
“Goodrich denies any wrongdoing in the Malibu case. She said in an interview that the problems in her portfolio stemmed mostly from the real estate slowdown. ‘I’ve taken a real beating the last couple of years,’ she said
A Joshua Tree always finds its rightful owner.
Goodrich…where the rubber meets the road.
“Newton on Monday said, ‘I wish you guys would get a new perspective.’”
What other perspective is there? Picasso’s? Seurat’s? Byzantine? A great perspective from a 10X6 cell?
The perspective of a head recently removed from an asce.
Oh..! You mean the “perspective” of this all just being a big mistake and why don’t we just let you go!? Then again, WHY NOT! It worked real well in the movie Superbad where underage kids get caught with fake ID’s and wind up drinking with the COPS!
Perfect. Hoz? Maybe they can get him in the same cell with Crisp & Cole that way they could get a new “perspective” together?
Which is shocking, just shocking, considering that the initial reports were released by salespeople, I mean experts.
heh.. as if his customers will fall for the idea that the President of a title company can claim rightious innocence because he is certainly not an industry ‘expert’.
But I thought sales volume was up on more affordable homes…
The low end of the market is getting slaughtered in Monterey county, mostly in Salinas and Seaside. I’d guess it’s down about 30% from peak on similar houses. The increased inventory at the low end and market uncertainty is stopping sales at the mid range.
There are a bunch of McMansions in Seaside Highlands that were advertised at $1.1-$1.2 mil now on the market at $850K. Or you can rent ‘em for $2750/mo. Hmmm.
And several years back you’d have gotten one (Seaside Highlands) for 500K+. For $2750 I can rent in Carmel or Pacific Grove. Any houses in Salinas going for a reasonable valuation are soon to be a ghetto as more foreclosures occur.
Anyone in this area who jumps into buy before before the dust settles is an idiot. As for me, I’ll pay my $1500 monthly rent and contribute $35K to my savings while I enjoy the area.
Salinas has had terrible gang problems. Most of the recent construction is in areas that have already gone become horrid ghettos. All factors are in place for a really hard crash of the housing market there, and it is way overdue.
The housing stock in North Salinas actually looks pretty good. It’s the ongoing gang warfare that’s the problem. Salinas is also running well over 50 foreclosures/week with no sign of a slowdown.
Seaside has improved a lot in the last decade. Maybe that will revert to a crime-ridden slum as prices drop.
I suspect midrange gets whacked next, probably starting next spring. Marina and parts of Monterey will catch it, and those goofy bastards who were advertising ranchers at Toro Park for over a million.
“Christopher S. Newton’s appraisal report on 1914 Three Bridges Way contained ‘misleading statements’ and serious errors that led to an inflated valuation, the citation indicates.”
“Newton on Monday said, ‘I wish you guys would get a new perspective.’”
That new perspective will be coming right after you get a new job that hopefully doesn’t involve appraising.
It won’t take *that* large of a Joshua Tree to grant Newton a ‘changed perspective.’
Talk about someone earning it…
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Neil, how is the defense business these days? I was thinking of trying to find some work with Boeing, but on the commercial side, up in the greater LA area. Know of any leads in that area?
Thanks,
friar juan
I don’t get it. Is she saying that things must be getting better because the bank ends up with multiple offers after asking for seriously below market price? Or is she saying that things must be pretty bad because banks aren’t even trying to hold out for any kind of perceived value any more, and that as soon as the current round of “serious buyers” have all bought their houses and gone underwater, there will be no bidders left?
#2 m’lord.
Oh? Tell me, Marge, is that the “new” affordability, which assumes a neg-am pay-option loan? How many residents of San Joaquin County want or can get that type of mortgage any more?
Speaking of Patterson, there is a guy here at work that I actually feel sorry for. They own the mortgage on a rental in Smellpitas, which they bought in 2002. They live in a vintage 2005/6 mortgaged house in Patterson, where he also owns a kick-boxing establishment. The commute to San Jose is killing him. I said “Why don’t you get someone to rent your place in Patterson, then you can move back to Milpitas”. No one wants to rent a place in Patterson. Besides, he wants to stay there because of his business. Seems business is down lately though; not pulling in enough to justify quitting his job.
V: there are a million hard-luck stories, off-beat situations, and conundrums this bubble has caused…not to mention financial strains, marriage troubles, etc. I feel sorry for your friend too.
Real estate is like a ball and chain that will have some serious repercussions on many people over the next few years. I suspect a much more insular and underemployed population due to the lack of mobility.
After this mess and if I am correct, GDII, is over, people will never again look at debt and housing the same way. At least for 3 generations.
People will wake up to the fact that the 300K home you bought on a 30 year note means a cool mil plus spent for that baby. Okay, it may be better in the long run than renting.
HOWEVER…
Renting will allow you freedoms:
-moving
-job transfer
-seek a new job
-live in different places
-Forget paying the LL’s mortgage, how about not paying your banker to get his wife or GF implants and then going to Aruba on your dime.
-Actually not worry about when the 12K roof needs to be replaced. (As well as anything that homedebtorship brings)
You see, this housing crunch can be best summed up by a woman who said this to me about 6 years ago:
“Too many adolescents with mortgages.”
That summed it up. Even if they were older their mentality was that of a teenager. Hey, let’s buy a home. Rather than figure out the payments, these “kids” were already thinking about how to get the vacay home and/or the ‘vette and/or the Harley.
Not a thought put into what it means to be a homedebtor, er, I mean, home owner.
That is gonna change, soon!
I’m renting in MO and here’s another big benefit — when your place floods and all the rugs are ruined and have to be trashed and there is the potential for a serious mold problem — you can just move!
I haven’t moved yet because I want to see my garden thru the summer but I’ll be out of here in the fall.
The landlord was an idiot — he bought a set of duplexes that are on a hill where all the water from the other streets/houses turns the back yards into Niagara Falls. Now the city is forcing him to finally do something about this but I don’t actually see a solution given the topography and the incredible amounts of rainfall here in SW MO.
I’m thinking of moving back to CA I’ve had enough of this constant “weather”. Give me a serious earthquake every 50 years vs. continuous tornados, thunderstorms, floods, ice storms, lighting, cold, heat, humidity, you name the weather condition, MO has it.
Today I saw this little old white haired lady, with a walker, waiting for a bus. She had to be 90 and was frail. I bet those vans stopped picking the seniors up for their weekly doctor visits so they have to sit in the sun. Lot’s of panhandlers around here too.
This link is for salad.
:http://activerain.com/blogsview/518098/Encinitas-Real-Estate-The
did you offer her a ride?
I’ll bet I’ve been scammed 50 times by seniors in the checkout lines at the grocery store. They pull out their wallets and are always 25 bucks or so short. Then they tell the clerk to take the cat food off the tab at which point I pay their bill.
And when they get out to the parking lot, they probably laugh like hell.
You’ve got to stop shopping with your PETA shirt on
I would believe them too. Doggies/kitties gotta eat!
I had an older guy at 7-11 yesterday walk up to the register, interposing himself between me and the guy who was just finishing up paying, and proceeded to tell the clerk which lotto scratchers he wanted.
I protested to the clerk, who then ignored the guy and took care of me and the others who where waiting impatiently in line. The old guy looked at me like I was the devil. I guess most people don’t call him on his rude behavior.
Nice work, dude.
I’ve used the line “Excuse You!” on many an occasion.
I am typing at 3:17AM in the dark, so excuse my typos.
For one brief shining moment I was the hero of all those poor folks in line…
As my husband enlightened me years ago, just becaused you’re old, doesn’t mean your are nice (or honest, or a decent person). A-holes get old too. Not everyone deserves respect or help, just because they’re old. It’s a judgement call.
Another non-thinker who didn’t go through all of the what-ifs, if you ask me. And I can’t imagine where he would pull enough clientele to sustain his kick-boxing biz long term. From Turlock?
Works in San Jose (can’t quit his job); a rental in Milpitas (bought in 2002); lives in Patterson (when did he buy this?) where he runs a business (barely floating).
Here are a few questions:
1) Do you think he’s breaking even on the 2002 rental? or, maybe it’s a neg cash flow situation? I’m guessing the latter.
2) I wonder how he bank-rolled the business? HELOC?
3) I also wonder what he’s driving back and forth. Gas expenses?
Sounds like he’s sufficiently screwed himself. Sucks to be him right now.
BayQT~
fyi…I was responding to Big V’s post. It kinda lost it’s affect showing up waaayyy down here.
BayQT~
“‘Nobody knows what happened to it,” according to Fred I. Mann, who said he invested more than $500,000 in the transaction and is facing a total loss.”
Geez, what is it with Retirees who are well off by any definition trying to make one more big score ? My own Father is constantly sending me his latest hot stock tips and get rich schemes from the crackpot newsletters he subscribes to. An endless industy seems to exist to seperate old bored people from their money.
Ah, but some old people live on a (very high) fixed income, and there fixin’ to get more!
“‘Fifty-eight investors all believed in Fresno,’ said Joyce Scampa, a real estate broker in Monterey who said family and friends invested $7 million in the project.”
Word on the street is they were all able to return to their regular professions.
http://tinyurl.com/5mpalf
Isn’t amazing how these idiots always lose their trust monies almost the minute they get their hands on it. Sad really.
I find it hard to believe they actually found 58 people who believed in Fresno. Maybe they thought they were being sold “fresh snow”? I could certainly understand an investment in Sierra snow pack water rights.
Having watched first hand, the fresh immigrants buying 700k houses in Monterey, that the Pebble Beach crowd are now being vetted comes as no surprise. It will be interesting how many articles come to light in the future on the blue hair country clubbers losing their retirements.
Also OT: Fed’s 75Billion loan out @ 2.3%. I wish I could stand in that line for a couple O’ billion. I promise I will pay in full next month…No, really.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080701/fed_credit_crisis.html?.v=4
“Fresno architect Gary Vigen hasn’t stopped trying to salvage a project. Wilhelm is skeptical, especially considering the current real estate and lending environment. ‘If it happens it will be one of the greatest miracles in the history of mankind.’”
This is a pathetic commentary on what people think constitutes “one of the greatest miracles in the history of mankind.” Salvaging an idiotic housing development gone awry is sure up there with discovering penicillin and the wheel.
“Salvaging an idiotic housing development gone awry is sure up there with discovering penicillin and the wheel.”
Put in that group “miracle whip” too. It truly was the missing ingredient for a great BLT.
I found out my cost of living increase this year is 4%.
I couldn’t resist prodding my veep, I asked him if that included my gasoline surcharge or if it would be calculated separately.
Did you say it with a sheepish grin on your face to boot?
No, but I get along pretty well with the guy, and he pretty much lets me run my department independently. It’s a pretty cushy situation.
Is that a government job? At the very least it must be a job for a large corporation in an oligopoly, it seems to me. Pardon me, but I just don’t understand the concept of “cost of living” increases in competitive businesses. Why would you be paid based on what it costs you to live? It sounds kind of like the Marxian Labor Theory of Value. The marginal product of your output, or your department of company’s ouput, may or may not be related to the “cost of living”, but it seems to me that’s what wages should be based on. Or is management just lazy and unable to measure anything?
“Or is management just lazy and unable to measure anything?”
Ding ding ding, we have a winner! No truer words ever written.
All of the above. The company is a spin off from a large university so even these 20+ years later it really has the feel of government work. Additionally, the upper management for the most part got grandfathered into their gigs by being the original risk takers. They aren’t really looking to rock the boat.
Wrap that all up in a VERY closely held corporation with INSANE profit margin and everyone makes out pretty well. I know some find it hard to believe but there are some business owners who actually do share the wealth, especially with longtime dependable employees.
How does a 4% annual salary increase constitute “sharing the wealth”?
Call it “the going rate” then. With boomer retirements about to cause major demographic shifts we should expect to see major wage inflation even with reduced economic activity.
Assuming the boomers will retire at 65.
Seventy may soon become the new sixty-five.
What monies would they use to fund this, “retirement” of which you speak?
I seem to be seeing more and more oldsters in entry level jobs out there working to make up for the savings shortfall.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080701/starbucks_closings.html
Consumers finally realize they can make bad coffee at home for a fraction of the price.
I can guarantee that most of those underperforming stores have a larger than life lease on them that precludes making any substantial profit unless there is a steady stream of suckers coming throughout the day. They got caught up in a high stakes game of ever increasing commercial real estate.
Oh, come ON. Everyone knows that the purpose of Starbucks isn’t to sell coffee. It’s to provide a hangout of for all of those laptoppers writing the Great American Novel.
And do you know how such people are referred to in the coffehouse biz? They’re called “tablesuckers.”
They have those things on every block in downtown Denver. Now ppl might actually have to cross the street when they feel the urge to get an expensive cup of bad coffee.
“They have those things on every block in downtown Denver. Now ppl might actually have to cross the street when they feel the urge to get an expensive cup of bad coffee.”
If you closed every Starbucks that’s next to another Starbucks, you still probably wouldn’t get to 600. This hardly seems like much of a loss except for possibly the employees at the locations to be closed if they aren’t accommodated at nearby locations.
What about all the other useless stores next to Starbucks? They can’t be happy or Cushman and Wakefield. I was driving around last week on a heavy commercial street and every single block, in every single strip mall, our good friends Cushman and Wakefield were hawking their space for lease. I prefer my food to be in abundance, not necessarily commercial space, but to each his own.
I saw a Coldwell Banker office closed and available for lease.
The real estate agent for the lease: Cushman and Wakefield.
Seemed funny to me at the time….
I have been long SRS for a few months
“except for possibly the employees at the locations to be closed”
The report I read said up to 12,000 lay-offs. My quick, dirty, back of the napkin cypherin’ tells me that’s 20 employees per store on average. Something tells me SBUX needs to work on it’s labor cost model.
Maybe they only give each employee 5-10hrs./week?
There’s no way they have 20 heads at each location, especially the slow locations they want to close. Probably half the cuts are corporate.
Is that loud flushing sound I hear CRE? How many mini malls just lost their best tenant?
Yes, but starbuks has to pay off the lease to term. So the landlord is not going to work very hard to release for lower(more reasonable) terms.
Lard Asses
“Chicone noted it is a rare opportunity for those who work and reside in Manteca now currently renting to buy. ‘I’m seeing a large number of young people in their 20s buying, she said. ‘You never saw that before in Manteca.’”
Another new paradigm!!
” Making the properties less attractive for squatters and vandals is something we can do.’”
I say issue licenses to make paintball hunts on vandals and squatters legal. I can just see sitting in a blind just waiting for some punk tagger to come along. 2 shots right in the A$$ !
” I can just see sitting in a blind just waiting for some punk tagger to come along. 2 shots right in the A$$ !”
Better not….He just lost his Starbucks job,and has nothing to lose.