What Brought Us To This Dance
The Herald Tribune reports from Florida. “Phil Coon wanted the money. ‘The extra income. Pure and simple,’ said James E. Felman, Coon’s attorney, explaining the former Coast Bank executive’s motive for an illegal lending scheme that will send him to prison. ‘Simply stated, it was the most stupid thing he’s ever done in his life, a productive and admirable life,’ Felman said. Coon admitted in a plea agreement with federal prosectors last week that he conspired to commit wire fraud and money laundering.”
“In 2005 he made a $100,000 salary and $308,000 in commissions. Coon used the illegal proceeds to travel and buy real estate, jewelry, a piano, clothing and wine, the plea agreement states. He also contributed to a church and supported family members. Now, he will forfeit his Bradenton home, a second house, brokerage accounts, jewelry and other items to pay $1.5 million under the plea deal.”
“‘He will be penniless as a result of this,’ Felman said.”
The Palm Beach Post in Florida. “A West Palm Beach condo conversion is home to more foreclosures than any other condo project in South Florida. In one foreclosure, Selma Fuentes in 2006 paid $170,900 for a 731-square-foot unit at Ponte Verde and took a mortgage for the entire amount, property records show. Her lender filed foreclosure proceedings last month. The condo now is listed with an agent for $59,000.”
“‘Investors went out and bought tons of units thinking they were going to flip them and make money,’ said Debbie Smith, head of Home Run Real Estate in Greenacres.
“Fuentes hopes to do a short sale of her unit, said her agent, Eddy Vieira. He has slashed the price but has sparked no interest. ‘I’m not getting a single call,’ he said. ‘It’s unbelievable.’”
The Wall Street Journal on Florida. “Jorge Pérez is (the) CEO of Related Group, the biggest condo developer in south Florida, and perhaps the greatest optimist in brazenly overbuilt Miami. Having borrowed more than $1 billion to erect soaring towers in downtown Miami, he is scrambling to sell thousands of condos amid the deepest market swoon in decades.”
“Yet the 59-year-old entrepreneur — a fast talker whose marketing flair evokes comparisons to Donald Trump — also has emerged as one of the most aggressive buyers of condos on the cheap, starting with units in one of his own buildings.”
“Mr. Pérez has plenty more condos to market. Within blocks of each other on Miami’s prestigious Brickell Avenue, Related this year has opened two projects totaling some 1,600 condos. Its landmark three-tower, 1,800-unit complex, Icon Brickell, is soon to start taking residents. Mr. Pérez has other large projects in the works outside of Miami, and the rate at which buyers are walking away from deposits is higher than expected. ‘I may end up having to hold 1,000 units,’ he says.”
“Real-estate experts and rival developers are watching to see if Mr. Pérez will be savvy enough to emerge whole from a challenging predicament. ‘Miami is so flooded with product that even at 50 cents on the dollar, most of it doesn’t work as rental,’ says Lewis Goodkin. ‘If anybody can do it, Jorge can.’”
From Reuters on Florida. “Long before she filed for bankruptcy, Ann Neukomm was ‘under water.’ Like Neukomm, many people got into trouble by refinancing mortgages to pull out cash when rising property values made it seem like an almost risk-free deal. She ended up filing for bankruptcy in May after failing to keep up with mortgage payments on her home in Cape Coral, a once-booming town in southwest Florida.”
“‘It’s a dirty word,’ said Neukomm of her bankruptcy and personal feelings of failure. ‘Nobody wants to say it.’”
The Cape Coral Daily Breeze. “Cape Coral is…due to receive about $7.1 million in federal grant money to rehabilitate and redevelop foreclosed property. The median sales price for the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro area is $146,900, down 41 percent from the August 2007 median sales price of $250,800, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.”
“Councilmember Bill Deile …wants to guard against providing assistance to people who cannot afford to stay in the home. He pointed to federal government policies that made it easier for low-income families to get a home mortgage as a reason for the current housing crisis.”
“‘I don’t want to see us duplicate the same mistakes,’ Deile said.”
The News Press from Florida. “There are 2,644 residences seized by lenders and offered for resale on the Multiple Listing Service in Lee County, said Steve Koffman, an agent with Century 21 Sunbelt. Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate consultant who tracks the area’s home market, said sales of foreclosed houses are picking up all over the state. Often, he said, the houses have been stripped by vandals or by their former occupants.”
“At one, McCabe said, they’d ‘ripped the plants out of the ground’ and took them, along with items such as the bathroom vanity and light fixtures.”
The Naples News in Florida. “Economic forecasts are only necessary to make astrologists look good, a Florida economist told a room full of Naples business leaders Tuesday. Hank Fishkind then began interpreting constellations of economic charts, including rising unemployment claims, slowing population growth and a glut in real estate inventory.”
“Fishkind offered this prediction: 24 months of recession that he believes started at the end of 2007. Fishkind’s predictions haven’t always panned out. ‘I argue that housing has stopped going down. It is weak. It is painful, but it is not going to get any worse,’ Fishkind said in May 2007, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.”
Voice of America on Florida. “Tammy Graham sells houses in the city of Lakeland, Florida. The real estate agent says many people who bought homes in recent years here using sub-prime loans are now facing foreclosure. ‘I’ve had people ask me, you know, ‘I’m having problems feeding my children,’ Graham said. ‘Should I stop paying my mortgage?’ And that’s a sad state of affairs.’”
The Orlando Sentinel in Florida. “Fewer than half of Orlando’s hotel rooms were filled in September. Occupancy in the Orlando market was 45.9 percent last month, compared with 51.1 percent in September 2007, according to data released Tuesday.”
“Revenue per available room, a key industry measure, was down 11.9 percent from a year ago. ‘That was probably one of the worst Septembers we’ve ever had,’ said Mark McHugh, chairman of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. ‘As bad or worse than 9-11.’”
“Orlando was just one of several large hotel markets that recorded double-digit percentage declines in occupancy rates — Nashville, Tenn.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and the Tampa-St. Petersburg areas were among the others.”
“Orlando’s west Kissimmee submarket, just south of Walt Disney World, was hit the hardest: Its occupancy rate was slashed by nearly a third in September, from 44.5 percent of all rooms a year earlier to 30.9 percent. ‘The year started out very strong,’ noted Scott Smith, a lodging instructor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, but now ‘it’s really falling way behind.’”
From Tallahassee Democrat in Florida. “In a talk he gave at the College of Business at Florida State University this month, Bank of America Market President Mike Fields recounted the events that have rattled Wall Street and undermined credit markets. ‘I think this is a critical, critical issue and it’s something you all ought to watch carefully,’ Fields told the business students. ‘Today capital is absolute king.’”
“The aftermath of the financial crisis will be lenders getting back to basics. ‘You really don’t want to loan money to somebody who can’t pay it back,’ Fields said. ‘Now there’s a novel thought, but apparently we kind of got away from that.’”
The Bryan County News from Georgia. “In general, the economy is good in Bryan County. The place where we’re taking a beating in the last five to six months is the housing industry. Chong Calabro, restaurant owner, Richmond Hill Café: ‘Our business has dropped by almost 75 percent from what it was last year. It (steep decline) started in June. Richmond Hill is growing and we got a lot of business from construction workers and from real estate when people would stop in here to eat when looking at houses. Now I don’t even see one person like that.’”
“Wilson Pickett, builder, Coastal Living Homes: The economy might be in a recession, but the real estate market is in a depression. Some people lost 10-15 percent of their values which is alarming thing, especially when you expect property to appreciate. In the housing market, anything over $250,000 is sitting idle right now.’”
“Ricky Bodaford, independent realtor: ‘I’ve actually been laid off as sales manager with Prudential, which is directly attributed to the housing market slowdown. I’m still a broker, but I also work for the railroad now.’”
The Atlanta Journal Constitution from Georgia. “One-fourth of Georgia’s 355 banks have delinquent loans that comprise 4 percent or more of their entire portfolios, according to federal data analyzed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Some banking experts say a delinquency rate of even 2 percent suggests an institution faces serious financial challenges. In Georgia, 159 banks exceed that level. Twenty-five of them have seen seriously past-due loans rise into the double digits.”
“The statewide delinquency rate was six times higher this June than in June 2006, and now represents $6.6 billion in bad debt.”
“‘Literally, the bottom is falling out,’ said Byron Richardson, an Atlanta-based bank consultant. ‘The Atlanta economy was so driven by real estate for so many years. We’re seeing some very high rates of non-performing loans.’”
“For Chestatee State Bank in Dawsonville, the problems began long before anyone noticed. Dawsonville boomed in the 1990s. Retirees and wealthy Atlantans wanting second homes flocked to North Georgia’s mountains, and real estate developers were happy to accommodate them. A group of Dawsonville business people decided to join the boom and applied for a state charter to establish Chestatee. The new bank opened May 15, 1998.”
“A decade later, bank CEO Philip Hester said, Chestatee is a microcosm of the troubles facing Georgia banks. From the start, Chestatee had a singular focus: rather than writing subprime mortgages or other home loans, it would lend much larger chunks of money to developers, fueling the local housing market.”
“‘That’s what the business was,’ Hester said in an interview. ‘The primary business was real estate.’”
“By 2008, construction and development loans made up half of Chestatee’s $238 million portfolio, according to federal data. But around the middle of this decade, as subprime mortgages became available to riskier borrowers, ‘the market began to overheat,’ Hester said. Then, last year, ‘it kind of blew up on us all.’”
“The prices of oil, the Dow, and the election have taken most of our attention lately. And for good reason. But we almost seem to have forgotten what brought us to this dance.. The depressed housing market is still at the heart of this recession, as prices decline and inventories rise. Atlanta was spared the ridiculous price increases that afflicted California and Florida, but we managed to create a supply bubble.”
“‘A number of factors drove Atlanta’s housing supply run-up,’ Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis P. Lockhart told the Buckhead Rotary Club Monday.”
“Low-cost land, which lacks natural barriers, resulted in one of the nation’s strongest single-family housing markets. In 2005, a year before the bubble burst, Atlanta issued 61,000 permits to lead the nation, Lockhart said.”
“A hopeful sign: We’re now leading the nation in the decline in housing permits, down 81 percent since the peak at the end of 2005. That bad news is good news because we aren’t foolishly adding to the oversupply. Unfortunately, the supply is being fed by foreclosures.”
“‘Foreclosed properties coming on the market have aggravated the inventory situation,’ Lockhart said.”
“Georgia’s job losses in September were second-worst in the nation, behind only Michigan, the government reported Tuesday. Georgia companies dropped 22,300 jobs compared to August —- the sixth straight month of losses and the worst yet, said Michael Thurmond, state labor commissioner.”
“Since February, Georgia has lost 93,600 jobs, he said. ‘It is deteriorating —- that is what concerns us.’”
“At least 37,273 foreclosure sales occurred in Georgia in 2007 and the first half of this year; during that period, more than 350,000 Georgia homeowners fell at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments, according to HOPE NOW, an alliance of lenders and consumer groups.”
“Going once, going twice, sold! —- a four-bedroom, red brick home in Smyrna. ‘It was just so fast. I guess that wasn’t for me. There were seven or eight of us bidding for that,’ said Cher Algarin of Douglasville.”
“She and her husband Frank came to an auction of hundreds of foreclosed homes Sunday at the Cobb Galleria Centre hoping to score a deal.”
“The Algarins, for example, already have a home but were interested in moving up, if the price was right. They brought three of their four children to the auction and sat through nearly two hours of bidding before the house they wanted came up on the screen. Then it was over in a flash. The Smyrna home, valued at $264,900, sold for $205,000 —- well below the previous valuation but much higher than they wanted to pay.”
“‘That was fun, but my nerves are shattered,’ Cher Algarin said as she pushed the baby’s stroller toward the exit. The Algarins will keep looking for a foreclosed home. ‘Make me a deal I can’t refuse,’ she said.”
“Things worked out well Sunday for investor Nicole Brown of Dallas, Ga., who bid $70,000 on a house valued at $129,000 and won. She said this is her seventh home purchase but her first auction. The property she bought is only 20 minutes from her personal home, and she knows the area well. The real estate market eventually will rebound, and those who bought low will profit, Brown said. ‘Everybody needs someplace to live,’ she said.”
A tithe of crime never pays…
“In 2005 he made a $100,000 salary and $308,000 in commissions. Coon used the illegal proceeds to travel and buy real estate, jewelry, a piano, clothing and wine, the plea agreement states. He also contributed to a church and supported family members.
What I got a laugh from is that he was described as an “executive”. Since when do execs get commissions? The clown was an effing salesman.
Am I supposed to feel sorry for this bum? His greed helped drive this Bubble - a Bubble that has priced honest people out of housing for 5 to 10 years (depending upon the area) - greed that is now leading to our tax dollars being used for bailouts, and which will eventually lead to hyperinflation (or maybe deflation.)
Even members of the Mob went to church - again, I don’t feel any sympathy for this clown. I hope he rots in prison for a long time.
The real estate market eventually will rebound, and those who bought low will profit, Brown said. ‘Everybody needs someplace to live,’ she said.”
Did I not say this yesterday? Still too many thinking that this is a dip on the road, instead of the bottom of the mountain.
Too many of the sales now are still made to speculators, not home buyers.
And the glut has made it possible for everybody to have TWO places to live.
‘Everybody needs someplace to live,’
A place, true, a house no way. All the building codes and such now-days are so far beyond what people “need” it’s ridiculous.
But people forget that this bubble had several side bubbles as well.
You had the SFR bubble, too many homes were built.
Then the condo bubble, for those who could not afford a house.
And last, you had multi-family residence bubble, for those that were ‘priced out’ of the market.
Those investors who are buying to hold for the short term will be competing with too many other parties.
SMF,
Good point, in addition to the “mainstream” bubble, we had the “rolling” bubble ( when they “ran out of land” and built in places so remote the only way they were economically feasible was w/ $2 gas ) and just abot anything else that could be bought with MEW $’s.
They looked and spent just like real dollars.
Two other prime examples were Stugis ( where 40k motorbikes arrived on 15k trailers ) and the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction where you can trade your MEW $’s for equally inflated and unuseable cr@p. I can’t believe people haven’t figured out yet what made classic cars so interesting was the stories behind the people that owned and actually used them?
about?
StuRgis? ( my bad )
Don’t forget the ‘Luxury Golf Course’ living/resort bubble as well.
SMF,
LOL! Yeah, how could anyone forget about THAT! As some of us wondered aloud yesterday, with all this leisure going on.. ( who was going to be the last poor schmuck left to do all the work?! )
And it’s the “resort developments” where the incidence of fraud seems the highest. Or maybe it just looks that way b/c ALL of it was so discretionary? No clue.
This is a good thought string…. what other bubbles?
Apple computer
H2
Starbucks
“Organic” food
Flat screen TV
“Downtown” living
“Ugly House” companies
Nail Salons
Hotels
Storage Places
Any more?
On those golf communities, I wonder what they will say when the golf course goes kaput, and it is abandoned?
Oh, I know!!
Instead of ‘views to the # green’, it will be ‘greenbelt views’!
RE: Two other prime examples were Stugis ( where 40k motorbikes arrived on 15k trailers
Yeah, DinOR…For 18 years I along with 4 buds always stayed at the same motel for the Louden Motorcycle Classic.
I knew the days of REAL motorcycling were over when
the owner said to us when we pulled in the parkin’ lot-
“You guys have to keep your scoots all bunched right close together, ’cause I’ve got more pick-up trucks with trailer’s than I have guests riding in on their bikes.
The biggest clown who showed was a tech tycoon from NC. He arrived with 6 customs hauled in a mile long trailer by a $6-figure custom duellie along with a mechanic and bike polisher.
I met the “polisher” on the porch one mornin’ and ask-”WTF is with all the scoots?”…Smirking he says-”Oh, Mr. X gets bored easy. He needs to ride a new machine each day he plans to be here”.
His riding skills were so poor, the loser could barely get out of the parkin’ lot .
LMAO…The sooner this f8cked up society crashes and burns the better off we’ll all be.
Forgot about those casinos as well.
SMF…don`t be so negative. Golf courses make great MX tracks when they go of business. Dude you can sky off them bunkers…hit the green and rip it. Bent grass is the best. LOL. Bet the neighbors are going to hate it, cause they are loud, I have a gasgas 300, It makes some noise. Atleast the kids will dig it though.
Lane
Check out McCallister Ranch near Bakersfield. Another Lehman Bros disaster! hehehehehehe
“His riding skills were so poor”
hd74man, as I sit day after day looking out my office window I see HD riders “struggling with the basics”. I swear, the whole time I rode ( British bikes, w/ shift on the right ) I ALWAYS put down the ’same’ foot every time I had to come to a complete stop!
Isn’t that standard in riding any more. You could say I’m a “creature of habit” ( hell just read my posts ) but doesn’t that just make sense. So many of them look altogether too… “tentative”? ( Besides, I think Lane is on to something here? ) LOL!
McCallister Ranch is nothing compared to the Diablo Grande mess.
A minor subset of the “H-D in the trailer to Sturgis” deal…..makes the Harley guys look like Okies
Saw an SCCA National event for the “autocrossers” (the guys who race against the clock around a course marked with traffic cones…..you may have seen these guys locally).
I can’t tell you how many cars showed up being pulled by crew-cab duallies, with 40 foot Featherlite trailers, with a new or near new Corvette or Porsche in back, along with 2-3 sets of BBS wheels and special sets of autocross racing tires.
I was telling the 40-something divorced gal who worked with me at the time that “….there’s a guy with a $40K truck, towing a $30K trailer, with a $50K sports car, and about $5K worth of spare wheels and tires, towing 1000 miles, to race around plastic cones…..you need to hook up with one of those guys, because they obviously have more money than they can sensibly spend on their own!!”
I’ll have to disagree on the flat-screen TV with you. At under $1,200, you can have a crisp HD 50″ picture. What better opiate of the masses?
My perenially broke brother squandered his inheritance from our father on a brand new $22K HD Fatboy….
I guess his BMW bike from the late 1970’s wasn’t cachet enough for him.
He claimed that he bought a new Fatboy since they kept their value so well that it was an “investment”.
Health Care and Education continue to be mega bubbles. Then there’s grade inflation and paper certificate B.A. Union Cards.
I still love the condo Bubble - they were often UNaffordable AND were basically poorly built apartments in questionable areas. Nothing like paying more and getting less!
And let us not forget:
- The SUV Bubble built with Heloc money
- Boats, ATV’s, and other junk bought on Heloc money
- Commercial Real Estate Bubble: because every corner needs a Starbucks and a new mall with the same stores as the mall 1 mile away!
And so on…
One other thing I saw earlier in this post:
- The Down Town Living Bubble = So true!!
What is funnier is when a down-town is late to the party. There’s a lunch-time event at work in a week or so touting the “benefits of living in Baltimore City.” For those of you not familiar with Baltimore, think of it as an aspect of Hades on earth with higher crime. The only “benefit” I could see is if you received not only a very cheap house, but a discount on a high-quality firearm, a lifetime supply of ammo, and a flak vest as a house-warming gift for moving into “duh ‘hood!”
It’s not just real estate. Most of the “serious” opinion I have read in the mainstream media about the stock market is that this is a great buying opportunity.
Good to see the media questioning Fishkind, but it’s better to see Fishkind questioning himself. And Sean Snaith is on course to be born again as an economic bear, thus remaining quoteworthy for lazy newspaper reporters.
Cue the seal.
Everyone can have “two places to live” only if they can actually AFFORD THEM. Once that unique idea of actually paying for housing comes back, people will be lucky to own one house and the Trump-wanna-bes will be history.
What I fear is that housing stock will simply roll from one investor to another at forever-inflated prices in an effort to keep prices high and honest people out of housing.
‘I’ve had people ask me, you know, ‘I’m having problems feeding my children,’ Graham said. ‘Should I stop paying my mortgage?’ And that’s a sad state of affairs.’”
Well, yes. When you have people wondering which is more important: 1) Feeding their kids. 2) Paying their mortgage.
That IS a sad state of affairs.
I’m feeling rather speechless at the moment.
Just Stop Paying your Mortgage
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081010/news_lz1e10schiff.html
Sad but true, count me in as one of the suckers.
I swear peter S was telling me not to pay my rent.
Did you guys hear that? Don’t pay your rent!
That is so true. I now know 2 people that stopped paying the mortgage. One owns and lives in a 4 plex in Chicago bought at the height of the bubble. The other refi’d more money than he ever paid for the house or could have sold it for now. Both are worried, but realize after talking to me that they are living rent free and it will take at least a year until they get to you.
I told them they are doing better than me, I still have to pay rent every month.
Here in GA.. we are the fastest “gun” in the west..meaning you have months not years before the banks will through you out of your house..
I noticed that unlike Fl..no one hear is pushing the whole Loan Mod thing..by the time department in the mortgage company would get to the modification..the other department would have kicked you out!
Um, aren’t you in the east?
They slap injunctions on them so fast, it makes their heads spin!
..
I live here in Winter Haven, right next to Lakeland.
I have been here almost half of my life ( 22 years ) and have never seen anything like what went on in Polk County from 2003-2007
Winter Haven is a sleepy little out of the way cowtown with a service / agricultural - based economy. Median income is around 30K. I make about 45K and, remarkably, live well on that much money. ..I am frugal and appreciate the simple things in life. Heck, I sometimes buy my clothes where I buy my chainsaw oil.
But even with 25K in savings and a 720 FICO I can’t rationalize trying to get into a 250K 3bdr/2ba “stucco throw-up” just yet. Such a home, in a desirable neighborhood, should sell for around 120K. Right now 120K buys you a roach-infested frame home in the wrong part of town…….just five years ago, the same 120K would have bought a tidy, modest 3/2 in a quiet cul-de-sac with good neighbors.
The housing bubble ruined this town and Lakeland as well.
I have a personal friend who is a Realtor(tm) and also has a broker’s license. He’s a drinking buddy; and lately his drinking has become “heavy and often”. A couple of weeks ago I had to hide his car keys at a friends bar-b-que here on the lake…He’s made about $6000 so far this year, after making 200K per year over the last three years, “picking the low lying fruit” that was once the Florida Real Estate boom. Now he’s 42 years old, flat broke, just filed for divorce ( just caught his 24yr old trophy wife doin’ the pool boy…) and selling off his toys. ( Harley, 24′ boat just repossessed )
Everyone down here is hurting, and its really starting to show.
There was a lot of easy money that sloshed around and splattered all over alot of people. Most of ‘em got greedy and thought the party would last forever.
But now the keg is empty, the lights are blaring, and everybody is looking for a safe route to sneak back home.
People are leaving this area in droves. Declining school enrollment ( first time ever ) doesn’t tell the whole story. Here at work we have about 300-325 employees…..in the last year I have seen about 25-30 co-workers up and quit Florida and “go back to where they came from”. A few sold at the peak of the boom and went to Carolina / Tennessee / Georgia. Some went back to the Midwestern states. Most of ‘em didn’t want their kids in Florida schools, were tired of the racial tensions and crime, and wanted a peaceful place to grow their families. These people left perfectly good jobs and a few of them didn’t know what they were “going home” to…they just wanted out of Florida.
I thought I would add my antcedotal observations to the blog…
..
Les P,
Great ( if not scary ) observations. I think most of us realize things are more intense in FL but we’re seeing more and more that there really were… NO winners in the end.
Communities irreversibly damaged. People’s financial lives in an utter state of helplessness, totally beyond repair. A nation in near financial ruin. Hey, but, good news for “pool boys” statewide though huh? ( That was out of line man, sorry )
Excellent firsthand account. Many, many years ago I had a date with a woman from Winter Haven. I drove from Tampa using directions she had given me in true country style — focusing not on roads, but on the geography, including the water tower.
Is that really true about the pool boy?
“Declining school enrollment ( first time ever ) doesn’t tell the whole story. Here at work we have about 300-325 employees…”
Do you work in education?
I’ve seen a M A S S I V E move to FLVS from young teachers who can’t afford daycare and gas. It’s getting crazy in Pinellas, like really, really crazy; as-in-you-need-to-be a 30yr veteran whose house is paid off to get by.
Sorta, but not really.
I work as a Research Chemist at the UF Experiment Station in Lake Alfred, FL. I have been there for the last 15 years. I work with Post-Docs from UF, so I am “sorta” involved in Education….but about 90% of my assignment is research.
FWIW, they are laying off people here in the Polk County school system……
And the orange groves destroyed, that’s the saddest.
“he’s 42 years old, flat broke, just filed for divorce ( just caught his 24yr old trophy wife doin’ the pool boy…) .”
Gee, thanks for a good laugh today, I needed that!!
Pool boy… sounds like a great gig these days.
the 42 year old dude don’t know it yet but he’s soon gonna be a pool boy soon. the job don’t pay much but has great fringe bennies.
Not surprised..the pool boy in Florida today makes more money than the realtors/mortgage brokers combined!
Nearly every house in Florida has a pool and 99% of the owners are too lazy to take care of it themselves….
“he’s 42 years old, flat broke, just filed for divorce ( just caught his 24yr old trophy wife doin’ the pool boy…) ”
I guess it’s sort of like the glass half-full or half-empty analogy. In this case your buddy had a case of ‘deflation’ while the pool boy was experiencing ‘inflation’.
I would have to say Les Pen you are very right. I lived in Florida for 20 years, got my oldest to high school age and said “time to go.”
Moved to GA at the peak of the market..shocked by what the idiot paid for my house..Hubby and I use to joke we couldn’t afford to move out of the house and moved back in the next day…(by the way the guy who bought our house is underwater by about $400K!..house like our model on 2x the size lot as foreclosure just went under contract for LESS than what we paid for the house back in 03)
Florida just fell into the greed trap and the jonseses mentality…Funny many of those show offs now 1)are in foreclosure 2)have tax liens 3)are major time underwater and 4)getting a divorce
Last time I went back to visit, restaurants that had been there for years were gone, I use to run into people I knew everywhere now no one, all the luxury car vehicles are now gone from the main road, employment is up..we have friends who are asking us if we can hire them up here and the attitude is just well..gloomy!
I am happy we left! Not that things are perfect here..but I would say that we are holding up better…if you are not involved in housing..
I can see I wasted my youth by not working as a pool boy…
Let’s not forget that there are a dwindling number of places one can move to escape the increasing crime, losses of jobs, and destroyed communities. But that was the goal all along, of course…
“Feed the kids or feed the alligator?” I don’t understand how the answer to this question is not obvious. Or why anyone facing that decision would seek the advice of a realtor.
Feed the kids to the alligator, I say!
Here in the USVI (look it up), it’s free food stamps for everyone day. The regulars are getting double stamps, and the rest of us, well, they say we get an allotment. I hear the multiplier effect is next best to unemployment stimulus, but where did this come from? We got rum tariff forgiveness into the bailout bill, even without voting reps…
It would be kind of cool to get the new-fangled food stamp credit cards, but I really don’t want to stand in lines with machete-toting islanders for $50 of govt cheese.
When these people have important questions regarding their children’s health, they ask a real-estate agent? Was this interview conducted at a mental institution?
UH well that’s what a mobile home is for so you never have to ask that question again.
———————————-
‘I’m having problems feeding my children,’
‘I’m having problems feeding my children,’
———————————————————————
take em to nebraska.
I overheard a couple of college girls talking recently. One told the other that she was in a money bind, and that she didn’t know which to pay that month, her rent or her cell-phone bill.
Well this is a TOUGH question if ALL your income comes from being on line and having a cell phone to seal the deal. But i dont think that is the case….do you?
———————–
her rent or her cell-phone bill.
Well, duh.
You pay the mortgage, of course. The kids stop whining after while, what with them being weak with hunger. Then you have a nice quiet house with spotless granite countertops.
(So you all don’t think I’m completely sicko, we’d live in a tent first before actually letting our own kids go hungry…)
Teach your kids that sleeping in a tent is really camping out! Then they won’t be so tramitised when you’re foreclosed.
“Orlando was just one of several large hotel markets that recorded double-digit percentage declines in occupancy rates — Nashville, Tenn.; Virginia Beach, Va.; and the Tampa-St. Petersburg areas were among the others.”
and somehow the market is near bottom…. No layoffs ahead in Florida if Hotels are empty…
Got Popcorn?
Neil
This past week I caught parts of an HGTV “House Hunters” episode. It was about a couple with 3 small children relocating to Orlando, Florida and they were looking at $1+ million dollar homes.
They finally decided on a newly built 6,800 5 bedroom/6.5 bath house of 6,800 square feet, even though they had to spend 50-75K to screen in the pool because it had ‘the space they needed for their growing family.’ This space included having a ‘Michigan room.’
I checked the date on the end. It went by quickly but looked like it was filmed in 2008! I cannot conceive of 5 people needing 6,800 square feet, having to clean 7 toilets, cool those enormous rooms with high ceilings, and paying the taxes on that house.
this how people measure their self worth. I know people who base a persons success on the size of their shack. sad but true. I couldn’t afford the electric bill in a shack that size. We’ll probably read about those fols here in a year or so.
What on earth is a Michigan room? I grew up in Michigan in a 2400 square foot house (5 of us). We had it good because our basement had a concrete floor and room to stand up.
A “MI basement” had a dirt floor and less than a 6′ ceiling height. There’s lots of water in MI, so most basements were humid if not wet.
Both of the couple were graduates of some college in Michigan (Univ/State/Vocation) and wanted a room to display all of their college paraphernalia.
It was down the street from the in-laws, so I suspect they may have been footing the cost of the house in exchange for them moving from Michigan.
In addition to the cost of the house, the $75k to screen in a pool seemed outrageously expensive for a couple of rolls of screen, some wire and a few poles.
This bit reminds me of my childhood…a friend of mine down the street was the son of a University of Michigan alum. In this kid’s family room was, quite literally, a shrine to the University of Michigan…maintained by his father.
As a Florida resident, I don’t understand why anyone would move here for the weather (there’s no other reason), and then build a house so big they never need to go outside.
This past week I caught parts of an HGTV “House Hunters” episode. It was about a couple with 3 small children relocating to Orlando, Florida and they were looking at $1+ million dollar homes.
————————————————————————-
It has that many bathrooms because one has to be full of turds to pay that much for a house.
Actually I saw that episode and if I remember correctly it was filmed in 07..so they bought that house probably 06/07..which also means they are underwater..I read somewhere that in Florida if you bought between 06-07 that 68-73% of the people are underwater..
Taxes on that house would run about 20K…insurance around 10-15K..electricity around $800 a month..can only imagine HOA there..compared to what you get in GA with a basement..could have the same house for 300-350K(basement would give you 6,800 sq ft) taxes would be about $3K..and insurance about $400 dollars..
Good luck selling that McMansion in Florida.. and that was a job transfer!!
Oh, that’s typical these days.
One coworker lives in a 4,000+ square foot house with just 2 adults and 2 young children. Her utility bills are $400 a month, and I think that is BEFORE the utility bills went up 75% a year or two ago! Yeah, brilliant move!
But everyone needs an entertainment room, a living room, a party room, another entertainment room, a media room, etc. All in an unaffordable box that probably sits arms length away from the unaffordable box next door! Hahaha… the new American Dream!
I was in Orlando last week visiting Disney. All four parks were ghost towns compared to 4 years ago. Epcot had their wine/food thing going on and the last time I was there the crowds were pretty much SRO. The longest non-fastpass ride wait over the four days I was in the parks was about 1 hour because they shut down Test Track for a while due to rain.
Did you stay at a Disney resort?
If so, where?
Was it mostly Americans, or Foreigners?
Man, that humidity is a killer. Is that a micro climate in Orlando, or is that the whole state?
I go in October every couple of years or so. I have relatives in the area so I get free housing and tickets (they are Disney management) and I pay for everyone’s food/drinks. If I were going to stay at a resort it’s be the Wilderness Lodge. Great atmosphere and excellent food.
The people I met were, for the most part, British. There were a lot of nationalities present, though.
Orlando weather stretched pretty much up to Georgia. On the way home, I stopped in Savannah to see the Juliette Gordon Low house and temps were in the 50’s and falling to the mid 40’s overnight.
“I stopped in Savannah to see the Juliette Gordon Low house… ”
Ok, I confess, I was a Girl Scout. I didn’t recognized her name as the founder. I googled her.
That is the whole state pretty much! Heat is horrible..usual whe we go it is around middle of Jan..Place has been loaded with foreigners for about 1 year…
Mid-to-late September is traditionally a very quiet time at WDW for some reason. I suspect it’s because US kids are back in school and it’s a bit too early for Australian tourists.
Its also when they offer free meals if you stay at their hotels.
Virginia Beach huh? Didn’t see *THAT* fact on the front page of our local papers.
I’d love to see price per square foot numbers for my area, but the local Realtors association doesn’t publish it. Virginia Association of Realtors publishes other data but not sales PPSF. Grr.
Neil, a little OT, but I think it’s time to change your slogan to “Popcorn’s in the microwave” or something to that effect. We are past the pre-game prep, don’t you think?
“Coon’s wife, Melissa, was head of retail lending at Coast and processed the loans. She has not been charged in the case”
WTF not? You mean to tell me there wasn’t any pillow talk on this one? As they were taking trips, and buying everything from real estate to jewelry to a piano? And Big V, lay off on me on this one ( but does anyone actually PLAY a piano? ) IMHO they’re usually just another expensive “decoration”.
My sister has a grand-player-piano that gathers dust.
Hey DinOR
Your point about baby grands that don’t get played is well taken. But in our house, the piano is played and guitars less frequently, though there are a couple laying around.
On another subject:
“‘Investors went out and bought tons of units thinking they were going to flip them and make money,’ said Debbie Smith, head of Home Run Real Estate in Greenacres.
Never mind that the concern could be called Called Out on Strikes While Scanning the Heavens and Scratching My Backside Real Estate.
I was perusing a real estate glossary (just a glossary, not a full text) the other day and I see entries for Capital and Capital Gain.
Nothing for Capital Loss, as if it were unfathonable.
Hey - I play the piano. Well, actually, I’m learning. But then, I bought my piano on Craigslist for $50 from some guy who was getting foreclosed on and was moving out of the house.
Nobody plays brand new Steinway baby grands. Those are for decoration.
mattR,
I WISH! ( Can’t read a note? )
I just thought it was yet another example of “Things that would be Long Dead had it not been for the Housing Boom”
How many elegant listings have we all seen where the “spacious” living room is adorned with a baby grand? Hey, f@ck it, why not a harp? Oh and an angelic statue “playing” it?
I got a player conservatory grand for my b-day, and the lessons to boot. It’s good mind training, but we use the player for entertaining. You’re all spot on. It’s a status thing.
Harps are played in ICU to relax the patients, and to help them heal. Pretty cool to watch and listen to.
Get a $5 dog. It works better and helps the pet over population.
There was an article in the Boston Globe yesterday (10/21/08) about a local firm called “Deathwish Piano Movers” - they’re pretty widely known locally.
In the article the owner discusses having to use a crane to lift a $120,000 grand into a Beacon Hill ($$$$$$$$) condo. Upon getting it in, setting everything up, and turning it over to the owner of the condo the movers asked the condo owner to play them a tune.
His response: “Oh, I don’t play the piano, my interior decorator just said it would look nice in here…”
Yep. What a waste of perfectly good carbon and oxygen.
“What a waste of perfectly good carbon and oxygen”
What is “fart?”
I am chagrined to say that my sister did a similar thing (got a very expensive piano to grace the living room), but at least she did play for years when she was younger. But I’d bet you a sinking dollar that she plays this one about 2 hours a year.
I know several people who dropped big dollars on grand pianos, and they do just sit there, much like an expensively-redone kitchen for a household that has cereal for dinner, an unused gym membership purchased as a New Year’s resolution, or a trophy sailboat that languishes at the marina 360 days a year.
snake charmer,
Thanks for “fleshing out” the list. Believe it or not boat and RV sales did extremely well during the post tech wreck. I kept wondering, who the hell has any money left to throw at these luxury items? ( Little did I know it was all MEW $’s )
Sorry, what is MEW?
Mortgage equity Withdrawal. Or as it’s joked about on this board - mortgage equity liberation, as in - they didn’t blow the money, they liberated it.
MEW = Mortgage Equity Withdrawal
I lived on a sailboat for a year. People rarely ever take their boat out. They just sit there accumulating slip fees.
I loaded a grand piano onto my sailboat one time.
You must remember that a piano has to be tuned twice a year or else it will be damaged.
I know people that have had a piano that they never play for decades.
Those pianos are then garbage, and to get them back to playable condition would cost almost as much as a new piano.
SMF,
….Seriously? I never knew that. I guess I always assumed the reason guitars ( especially electric for rock and blues ) go out of tune so frequently is b/c they like to “bend” the strings. Something I believe piano players described as “playing the notes between the keys”.
I just never imagined a quality instrument could fall into such a state of disrepair? Christ, if you can’t play it ( at least learn how to tune it! ) I’m sure the shops tell tell these people. In one ear….
Yes, very serious.
Remember that in a piano, the entire piano is the instrument and has input in its sound.
In my piano, the seasons affect the sound and everything stretches and contracts.
Give it a few years of this, and the parts would be completely worthless.
Imagine if you buy a car for ’show’ and leave it in a corner for 10 years. Do you think it would run then?
SMF,
No, it makes perfect sense! It’s now got me thinking a lot of those “high end guitar” collections could be worth jookie too?
Some sit as long as 10 years ( only to hit the auction block again ) You go to put them back in service and it’s not as simple as that? Instruments need “love” ( not neglect )
While it won’t be damaged by inattention, a guitar is quite sensitive to changes in air pressure, temperature and humidity. I’ve taken a tuned-up guitar on an airplane and it was completely detuned when I took it out of the case upon landing.
For years the prices of vintage instruments took off like art. I am hoping to score a Gibson Les Paul out of this mess, but we’ll have to see.
In college I worked in the concert hall at my university. Our pianos were always tuned just a few hours before each concert. Even if that meant once a day…
“(but does anyone actually PLAY a piano? ) IMHO they’re usually just another expensive “decoration”.”
I have and play a piano. When I was shopping for my current one, I wondered, why did pianos become so expensive?
I know very few people who actually play (”chopsticks” don’t count, LOL). So who were the buyers of all those pianos at absolutely obscene prices? “Equity liberators”, buying a wonderful musical instrument as FURNITURE? How very sad.
We’re learning to play piano as a family.
We have a Yahama keyboard ($100) that will fit into any space we choose. We thinking of springing for a seat and stand which will run all of another $90. There’’s an old family piano “available” but there’s no flippin way we want to be dealing with one of those babies just for Vermontergal amateur hour.
If you play and love piano (as an adult), then I could see springing for the real deal. I agree that it’s totally sad that it appears many piano buyers are looking for furniture.
“Fishkind offered this prediction: 24 months of recession that he believes started at the end of 2007. Fishkind’s predictions haven’t always panned out. ‘I argue that housing has stopped going down. It is weak. It is painful, but it is not going to get any worse,’ Fishkind said in May 2007, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.”
Fishkinda outta water, when it comes to making accurate predictions…
Brown said. ‘Everybody needs someplace to live,’ she said.”
Yes, but not every “someplace to live” (house) needs a person. Some will be determined to be just “extra” houses.
“Cape Coral is…due to receive about $7.1 million in federal grant money to rehabilitate and redevelop foreclosed property.
What the hell for. Why would you redevelop forclosed property. There are so many vacant homes here the last thing they need to do is redevlop more. I say get a bobcat and a team of illegals and knock the damn houses down
Instead of buying foreclosed homes outright, Councilmember Jim Burch said he favors aiding potential home buyers with their down payments in order to help more people get into vacant homes.
Amazing a comment from this article. Maybe we should give them a downpayment like Burch suggests and also not make prove income. Oh wait,we did that already
Is it too late to give Florida back to the Seminoles? That sounds like the most rational course of action at this point.
But would they want it?
Maybe they’d take it, if we gave them 24 bucks of beads…….
Or was that California?
snapshot from Florida:
I have lived in Sarasota Fl and now live there part time (sold home made money bought in St. Louis will rent in Fl for the winter) any who…it really burned me up when they even suggested and than were bold enough to say that the real estate crisis was caused by minorities buying homes…Ya right in Sarasota…yes there have been mexicans buying a few homes here and there but the majority were of the following example..Nathaniel Place…I lived across a street from this Vision Home development scam http://www.visionhomesflorida.com/nathanielplace.htm (it is NOT sold out) They took a very large lot with a circa 1960’s ranch home on it (tore that down) and crammed 12 poorly built homes on it …I was there every scam of the way… when a few of the homes were built I played buyer and talked with the re agent… you want a pool extra..you want crown moulding ..extra..hell if I asked for another cable outlet it was probably extra…now here is the kicker check out what these saps paid for these homes… http://www.sarasotaproperty.net/scpa_parcel_detail.asp?year=&propid=0090-04-0048 I’m form Florida..and from Sarasota…I know what the land is really worth and the home value. Not long after people moved in I took a drive into the mess and saw a boy about 7 yo driving his little electric hummer around the street…sad very sad
Yeap,
megamike:
“it really burned me up when they even suggested and than were bold enough to say that the real estate crisis was caused by minorities buying homes…Ya right in Sarasota…yes there have been mexicans buying a few homes here and there but the majority were of the following example..Nathaniel Place…I lived across a street from this Vision Home development scam” http://www.visionhomesflorida.com/nathanielplace.htm
-
And similarly, in Lake County I saw builders complain about illegal immigrants destroying the country even as they hired them.
it wasn’t a blind spot, more like a blind chasm.
Here’s another snapshot from another world in Fl:
-
From my experience of a high-rise in Coral Gables that I saw this past Monday. I asked and found out the following:
1. Original builder died of a heart attack.
2. Next builder finished the condo high-rise
3. This builder then went bankrupt mid sales.
4. The bank, Lehman Brothers, took ownership.
5. Yes, Lehman Brothers went belly up.
-
Status as of today:
a) Broker who used to represent 2nd builder and then sold units for Lehman, does not know “who bank is now” thus no offer could be offered, believes will be sorted out.
b) Mgmt company is “very worried” about consequences of Lehman’s collapse.
c) building is running a deficit of 30K a month (under 120 units)
-
..
I have a Sarasota story to share.
One of my ex-colleagues ( a fellow Chemist ) worked for Tropicana back from 1999-2004. He went and bought a 3 bdr / 2-1/2 ba in 2000 for about $150,000. It was a nice newer home; and I visited him often.
Tropicana laid him off in 2004. Man, was he ever depressed. But there was a sliver lining in his cloud.
He had savings, and found another job paying half of what he made at Tropicana. At his new “temporary” job, selling appliances, he met a wonderful woman who he later married. She moved in and helped with the house payments.
In 2006, they sold the home that he had owned for seven years. It sold for $430,000. My buddy and his wife pocketed around $260,000……a windfall if you ask me.
He went out and bought a 34′ blue water sailboat ( his wife is an expert sailor ) banked about $125,000 in CD’s and headed “out there to parts unknown”.
Occasionally, he sends me postcards. He’s been all over the Bahamas and Western Carribean….last I heard from him he and his wife were sailing to Costa Rica for the winter.
They have become Boat Bums and love their carefree lifestyle. They cruise into a port somewhere and usually take up low-wage service-sector jobs ( bartender, waiter/waitress, etc….she also cuts hair ). They will stay at a particular place for 6-9 months and then move on.
What a lifestyle. Bohemian, free-spirited, happy and independent. They don’t want kids, as both are in their 40’s, and truly love each other and traveling together.
If you own your own boat, have the freedom to travel, are willing to do anything for work, and are willing to learn conversational Spanish, you can have a great life living in the Carribbean.
I envy my old friend. He won’t be affected very much by the Financial Meltdown, if at all. He tells me that there is NO WAY he would return to the Working World that he toiled in for twenty years after college…..
And just to think, he was able to serendipitously make a small fortune for himself after being laid-off and then selling his house in Sarasota at the peak.
He wants me to fly down to Cosat Rica and visit him and his wife this winter; and I am seriously thinking about it.
I am afraid that once I go there I won’t come back here to Florida.
..
Just as a follow on to that, when I first got out of the service in the late 80’s I met a guy that really looked down on his luck. We were both waiting for our cars at the shop.
He described basically the same story you had but he and his girlfriend decided they were missing out on their careers, making a home etc. He said that when he came back ( tough employment market the late 80’s were ) everyone laughed at his resume! Now they WERE back in the states and could only get low-pay service work and would never make enough to get another boat!
So it cuts both ways, however; either way, the guy said coming back was the biggest mistake he ever made! Never seen a guy before or SINCE say it with such conviction.
I got the cash just need the 40 make it 28-35 year old sailor gal.. If interested send picture of boat..
I’d like to do the same thing, only with a Gulfstream-IV. Small problem covering the operating expenses, though.
I ran into a women who had the same story in Port Aransas, Texas. The only difference was that they had their boat close to Houston when the hurricane (not sure which one) came by and it sunk.
Does his wife believe in polygamy???
Went to see a house today and Agent told me this is one of the best times in history to buy. I asked her if she would put that in writing and insure me in case values dropped more? She was all attitude for the duration.
these people are losers. they be up there with used car and furniture salesmen. Actually, they are worse as they earn a lot more for not doing a whole lot. Over paid unprofessionals!
Over paid unprofessionals!
—————————————————————————-
by chance, say, are you talking about our congressman and senators?
Ooooo, the NAR put. I like it. Thanks for the tip.
REAL Question:
In Texas, right now, it costs 100% more to own than rent. 100%.
PMI, maintenance, taxes, etc. on a $4000/mo. place, I can rent for
$1800. That’s reality.
Why would anyone buy when they can rent for 1/2?
Serious question.
Why would anyone buy when they can rent for 1/2?
Serious question.
For the appreciation…!
Status
Being able to paint your walls pink with blue stripes
Cause I am not throwing my money away on rent.
I might be priced out forever
The American Dream
There are no serious answers.
(cont.)
… build a dungeon….
“Tax Advantages”! ( Pffftt )
“Being able to paint your walls pink with blue stripes”
Ahh, the old ‘paint your walls’ fetish… no thanks. I’ll gladly pocket a few grand per month to look at neutral walls.
Worse part is that if you think a just a wee bit out of the box, you don’t need to stare at the neutral walls.
Most places, a security deposit is 1 or 2 months rent. Call it the cost of decorating, paint the walls pink with blue stripes and tell the landlord when you leave that the money is all theirs.
Still come out waay ahead of buying.
guys the answer is obvious ………
Suzanne researched it
Depends where you are at in Texas. A lot of places in N Texas the rent/buy is pretty much equivalent right now in quite a few towns.
Ann Neukomm was ‘under water.’ Like Neukomm, many people got into trouble by refinancing mortgages to pull out cash
————————————————————————-
“Neukomm” - you just can’t make up these names!
I wonder if her husband’s name is NUKE?
Looks like Neukomm got Nuked real good- Neutron-bomb style: The buildings are still standing but the people get vaporized.
They’re Finns.
“I wonder if her husband’s name is NUKE?”
I think you meant “Duke” as in Duke Nukem.
Glad I am not the only one who notices the odd names the Bubble has brought to light.
I still say “Snaith” sounds like a Harry Potter villian.
My wife and I decided to move back to our native Western New York within the next year or so, but now that the bust is on, we’re nervous about our employment status (not in FL, but if we moved back).
Any thoughts? Consensus here says, “keep the jobs.”
I don’t like the idea of raising a family here.
Had a friend in the same boat..was concerned that if he let employers know that he was looking for a job while still living in Fl they wouldn’t even consider him for the job…so he took his vacation of 2 weeks and came up here to visit..but before he came he lined up a bunch of interviews using our home address as his residence…well after two weeks of interviews and one fly up on air tran for a second..he got a job..kept his wife down in Fl until he felt comfortable and then moved her up after 6 months….it was a little crazy but he felt better knowing he had a job that was stable..she got one shortly after him and they have been up here for a year now..thanking us every time we see them!
You’re trapped in paradise, dude. Florida is the Venus Flytrap of the states. Honestly, it’s for people who have nowhere else to go - like me.
If I were you and were exasperated with Florida I would just leave. Life will go on.
Ann’s suggestion is good. Get 1 spouse to get a job in NY and move in pieces.
Life is too short to live in a place that you don’t want to be.
“The depressed housing market is still at the heart of this recession, as prices decline and inventories rise. Atlanta was spared the ridiculous price increases that afflicted California and Florida, but we managed to create a supply bubble”
Anyone that spouts this is a complete liar or has a memory problem. I came to Atlanta in 1994, and housing prices easily went up 75% between then and 2006. My mom bought a house in Lawrenceville (North of Atlanta) for $160,000, and was able to get a Heloc for $30,000, less than 4 years later. And that wasn’t even 90% lto value at the time…
manfromyard,
Anyone that identifies examples of the The Boom being more than just a “Post 9/11 Event” is a friend of mine!
Here in Oregon we were averaging 14-16% a year appreciation during the “non-bubble years” of 94 to 2000 as well. The whole reason for realtors to force the boom closest to the present is to hopefully mitigate the damage during the correction.
Every state seems to say that “we weren’t like California”, yet they don’t look to see how low their average state incomes were. DinOr, I think that type of tactic will backfire when the public sees that their houses will lose more than they gained during the “official” bubble period…
-Depreciation is more likely given history.
-Bankruptcy status?
-I can paint my walls if I like right now. Seriously.
-More like locked in forever.
-My dream is not to lose money.
I have an acquaintance that bought a condo in the summer of 2005 in Cape Coral. He has plenty of bucks, paid cash, and keeps one of his boats there.
We were discussing his equity loss on his condo, and he just doesn’t seem to care. He has no mortgage, so at least he won’t be upside down. He uses the place 3 or 4 weeks a year (his youngest is still in high school, so he can’t spend the winter). Told me his monthly assessment is about $750.
Heck, in central PA, for $1000 per month you can own a nice 3/2 in a good area in a pretty good school district. For $750, you can rent a townhouse in Hershey or Camp Hill.
Heck, in central PA, for $1000 per month you can own a nice 3/2 in a good area in a pretty good school district.
_________________________________
Please tell me you are not ByeFL in disguise. His ruminations on his incipient move to the bargain-basement shangri-la of Oil City, PA — did he ever go? — started out OK, but then became a running irritant.
LMAO! Thanks for reminding me of Bye FL. Hey, if you’re out there, tell us how Crapperopolis, PA is!!!
But what about Oil City??
If you MAKE $1,000 per month in Oil City, you probably live the good life overlooking Oil City Country Club.
The only concern I would have with owning a condo in Cape Coral is the assesments they can wack you with..I have heard horror stories of people getting hit with amounts such as 4K, 8K due to delinquencies and foreclosures in the property..I would stay away from owning condos right now unless near 100 percent occupied..
Ding! Ding! Ding!
This is what is going to absolutely CRUSH Commune-nindiums. And you thought AIG had bad financial models of risk and liability.
AIG told to halt payments to ex execs: Finally
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/081022/102208_aig_ceo_pay.html
Thanks man. That’s ’some’ good news? Good man that Cuomo.
People, you are off your game.
Just scrolled through this entire list of comments and not one person had anything to say about the real estate broker who’s been working on the railroad.
I mean, come one, he’s trying to been trying to sell real estate, all the live-long day. And lately, he’s been working on the railroad, just the pass the time away.
Dinah, blow your horn.
Dinah won’t you blow my horn.
“‘The year started out very strong,’ noted Scott Smith, a lodging instructor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, but now ‘it’s really falling way behind.’”
Does he know Sean Snaith?
“Does he know Sean Snaith?”
Probably…
They’re all captains of the S.S. Turdburglar.
The following are the bulk of the Tampa Bay jobs. With a medium home price still at $173,000, it does not look like too many of those who work in these jobs will be purchasing a home.
Tampa Bay area’s top 10 jobs
Occupation 2007 number Average pay/hour
1. Retail salespersons 43,130 $13.14
2. Customer service reps 36,370 $14.69
3. Cashiers 33,050 $8.65
4. Waiters and waitresses 30,990 $9.83
5. General office clerks 29,860 $12.19
6. Food prep, serving workers 27,040 $8.21
7. Laborers, freight/stock movers 23,770 $11.21
8. Stock clerks, order fillers 22,880 $10.23
9. Registered nurses 22,030 $29.39
10. Secretaries
(not legal/medical/exec) 21,320 $13.19
Total metro area jobs 1.27-million $18.61
Sources: Occupational Employment Statistics, Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. Includes Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties.)
Between August and September — one month’s time —the slumping Tampa Bay economy lost an astonishing 6,600 jobs, according to state data released last week. That’s 45 percent of all jobs lost statewide in that period. In the past year, the Tampa Bay area has lost 22,700, or 19 percent of the 119,700 jobs lost across the state.