Walking Away Relieved When Deals Were Rejected
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports from Pennsylvania. “This is supposed to be a buyer’s market. But tougher lending rules, job insecurity, and fears that the house purchased today might be worth less tomorrow are taking the flexibility out of the decision to buy. The result, in many cases, is a dance of delay, a standoff between prospective buyers and sellers. Shoppers look and look, but don’t close a deal. Sellers sit and wait, confident that someone will pay their price - eventually.”
“Derek Dobin of Wynnewood says he’s serious about buying. He’s searched for two years for a larger house that’s also in his price range for his growing family. ‘We have watched the homes that go up for sale in our neighborhood very closely,’ Dobin said. ‘We have put in bids on a few homes, only to walk away relieved when the deals were rejected.’”
“Why relieved? Because, he said, had any of those offers been accepted, it would have been a financial challenge. ‘We bid on a nice, almost-new home out in the Great Valley area, 15 percent below asking, which was stretching us toward our upper limits,’ said Dobin. A bank was involved with the owners, who had relocated.”
“The owners, he said, were insulted by the offer and ’said they would rather hold the home for two years than sell to us.’”
“Even the ‘three-bedroom starter home’ he now owns was a financial stretch, Dobin acknowledged. ‘We refinanced and took out a home-equity line of credit several years ago to help make ends meet when we had our first child,’ he said. ‘We never thought we’d still be in our current home, as we are expecting our third child.’”
“Chris Ryan, a real estate agent for 35 years, is a first-time seller. He’s downsizing and has had the Chestnut Hill house he’s owned for 28 years on the market for almost 30 days. But most buyers, Ryan said - including coveted first-timers who don’t have to sell a house to buy one - strike him as less than serious about the single he’s listed at $575,000.”
“‘I’ve either been getting the ones who have been looking for one or two years, or those who are getting married in a year and want to move in a year and a half from now,’ he said, adding that he’d rather take the house off the market than lower the price. ‘They’re just wasting our time,’ said Ryan. ‘They’re waiting for prices and interest rates to drop before they act.’”
“T.J. and Susan Gobreski jumped into the fray earlier this year - with both feet, though not intentionally. In March, when they test-marketed their Queen Village house for sale on Craigslist at $379,000, they did not intend to buy before they sold. Yet here they are with their three children, living in East Mount Airy since June after stumbling upon ‘what we always said we’d buy if we found one’ - a house with an outdoor fireplace, purchased for $417,500 with a seller assist.”
“The Gobreskis still have not sold the Queen Village house, which they’ve owned since 1996 and spent much money to make structurally sound. But they’ve had lots of lookers, on a street where there have been two $500,000-plus sales in the last month. ‘It is a great time to buy,’ said Susan Gobreski, who added that she and her husband are managing to balance the two mortgages. ‘There just aren’t a lot of buyers out there.’”
“Gobreski said the Queen Village house is worth what she is asking based on comparable recent sales. She believes the economy will recover, and isn’t going to lower the price. ‘The fundamentals are sound, and homes will retain their value,’ she said. ‘Why should I lower the price $10,000 when I can keep it and rent it and make that much and more in a year?’”
The Press of Atlantic City from New Jersey. “Home prices in Atlantic County continued to fall in the third quarter and are now down 8.9 percent over the past 12 months, the National Association of Realtors said. Home sales in New Jersey fell 12.2 percent from the year-ago period. Thirty-five percent to 40 percent of transactions in the third quarter were distressed sales.”
“Louis Viruet Sr. was among the buyers in the quarter, paying $85,000 for a fixer-upper in Vineland. He said Tuesday that he thinks prices need to fall further. ‘Right now, people still want too much. Even the banks, they don’t just want it to go. They want every penny.’”
“Bob Marquis wonders how much he’ll have to drop the price on his four-bedroom Linwood house to sell it, or even get people to look at it. He started at $429,000 seven months ago and already has reduced the price in steps to $365,000. Now, he said, he’s thinking of going down to $355,000.”
“Marquis said he can’t understand the lack of interest in the newly redone home with finished basement, two-car garage, new kitchen, hardwood floors and oversized lot. ‘I thought being in Linwood meant something,’ he said. ‘I’ve slashed it to nothing and I still can’t get a bite.’”
“Part of the problem, he said, is that new houses in nearby Egg Harbor Township have been priced down below $300,000. ‘The builders are hurting and they’re dropping their prices, and that’s not helping either,’ he said.”
“Casinos have set another record. Unfortunately, the type of records they have been racking up lately are going in the wrong direction. Atlantic City’s gaming industry posted a nearly 23 percent decline in gross operating profits in the pivotal third quarter. It was the biggest decline ever for the third quarter. ‘We don’t see the situation improving in drastic form in the upcoming year,’ said Harvey Perkins, a senior vice president with a Linwood-based casino consulting firm. ‘It’s not doom and gloom. It’s reality.’”
“‘I think it’s the same lack of confidence we are seeing in the retail business and the housing business. The gaming business is not immune to it,’ explained Mark Juliano, CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.”
The Star Ledger from New Jersey. “First, the bad news. The New Jersey housing market still looks pretty grim, according to quarterly housing data released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors. And the worse news? As employers continue to aggressively cut jobs in the face of the nation’s economic crisis, there are jarring signs things may get even worse in a few months.”
“In New Jersey, home prices fell in every metropolitan area tracked by the Realtors group except the Trenton-Ewing market, where the median price rose 4.2 percent, to $342,500, thanks to the increase in expensive homes being built in that county.”
“Across Wall Street, the job losses have been particularly bleak. In early September, Moody’s Economy.com predicted 45,000 to 65,000 financial workers in the New York area would lose their jobs by the middle of 2010. ‘It causes potential homebuyers to lose confidence,’ said Jeffrey Otteau, president of Otteau Valuation Group.”
“Hudson County, which Otteau describes as ‘the sixth borough of New York City” is already feeling the pinch. ‘We have seen significant weakening in Hudson County over the past two months, directly related to all the trouble in financial markets,’ Otteau said.”
“Foreclosure filings on 8,473 properties across the state were filed in October, with Essex, Bergen and Salem counties driving the activity, according to RealtyTrac. James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Policy and Planning, said it’s too early to tell whether the federal government’s steps will have more of an effect on stemming the foreclosure problem.”
“‘I’ve not seen anything but broad, general proposals,’ Hughes said. ‘I’m not sure at this stage how effective the programs are going to be.’”
“‘The deteriorating housing system is really worrisome,’ Hughes said, adding that it was exactly such a force that helped create a 38-month-long recession in the 1980s.”
The Warren Reporter from New Jersey. “Township officials authorized Township Attorney Michael Lavery to work on extending a re-development agreement between the township and owners of Oxford Textile LLC, a 285-acre site located on Foundry Street slated for future development. The Guarriellos, owners of Oxford Textile…said they are seeking an extension on their agreement because of a lagging housing market and slow approvals with New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.”
“‘The housing market has dried up,’ Nick Guarriello said later. ‘With the housing market dried up, nobody is knocking down our door.’”
The News Journal from Delaware. “The model home sits empty, the street leading to it barren and blocked off, the development’s for-sale banners tattered and fallen to the ground. Just a few minutes from Del. 1 and the beaches, on Cave Neck Road near Milton, sit 89 mostly empty acres once destined to be a bustling community.”
“The land is now the latest apparent casualty of the building bust, an economic slowdown that has rippled through southern Delaware’s economy, leaving more than 700 properties in foreclosure already this year.”
“Ohio-based AmTrust bank sought foreclosure on the developer’s $13.5 million debt and the property went up for auction Tuesday. Bidding started at $1 million, but there were no takers, as in many foreclosure cases. The property now automatically reverts to the bank. ‘It’s the largest one that I can recall,’ said Lynn Kleb, who handles foreclosures for the county sheriff’s office.”
“Vincent Overlook was approved by county officials in 2004. It was pitched as a 250-home community with tennis, swimming and recreation areas, a pedestrian/bike path and community parks. A grand opening was held in October 2007, but only a few homes and the clubhouse were built. Court records show a host of liens filed against Maryland-based Vincent Property LLC from fencing, flooring, drywall and electrical contractors.”
“The development isn’t the first housing project to falter in what was once a red-hot market. In February, developers halted the proposed 1,630-home Isaacs Glen community near Milton before breaking ground, meaning land will likely remain agricultural. More recently, several smaller developments in Sussex have gone to sheriff’s sale, Kleb said. ‘We’ve had a few, but nothing of this size,’ she said.”
“Single-family homes still make up the vast majority of foreclosure cases in Sussex County — ‘unfortunately,’ Kleb said.”
“Prominent resort-area developer Chris Schell, president of Schell Brothers, said he wasn’t familiar with the Vincent Overlook project, but expected more such foreclosures to happen. ‘I’m sure that’s going to be something that we see happening in this market more than once,’ he said.”
From WBAL TV in Maryland. “Members of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors met Thursday to discuss the outlook for the Baltimore area market. Real estate agent Vito Simone said while houses are selling, albeit slowly, the foreclosure rate is higher than they’d like to see. Rising variable mortgages coupled with layoffs and the struggling economy are making it hard for some homeowners to make their house payment each month.”
“Homeowner David Tracey said he’s getting less work as a landscaper. ‘My cash flow’s down, so it makes it more difficult,’ he said.”
The Frederick News-Post in Maryland. “Anirban Basu, CEO of the Sage Policy Group, told a full house at Frederick Community College that ‘it will get worse before it gets better.’”
“Basu blamed ‘the regulators and the regulated’ for the housing crisis. ‘Capitalism fell apart. (It) used to be that borrowers and lenders knew each other. Lenders were concerned about the payback and so were the borrowers.’”
“That broke down, he said. Documentation for loans was not required and banks lent money to people thinking that even if they failed to pay the loan, the lender would get the property. With massive foreclosures and a move to a buyer’s market, lenders are left holding the bag.”
“Basu interjected humor into his presentation, at times lessening the gloomy outlook he forecast. He said his annual talk to Maryland homebuilders usually only took a few minutes ‘because they were busy. This year, I talked for about 45 minutes to an hour. They really didn’t have anywhere else to be.’”
“Chris Ryan, a real estate agent for 35 years, is a first-time seller. He’s downsizing and has had the Chestnut Hill house he’s owned for 28 years on the market for almost 30 days. But most buyers, Ryan said - including coveted first-timers who don’t have to sell a house to buy one - strike him as less than serious about the single he’s listed at $575,000.”
List it at $250K and they’ll get serious.
these idiots can’t let go of the 2005 highs.
Same concept. Different seller.
“Marquis said he can’t understand the lack of interest in the newly redone home with finished basement, two-car garage, new kitchen, hardwood floors and oversized lot. ‘I thought being in Linwood meant something,’ he said. ‘I’ve slashed it to nothing and I still can’t get a bite.’”
He’s got it at $355,000. That’s 7 times average American family income, and it’s “nothing”.
I just goes to show how far out of whack credit creation from the FED has led to outrageous concepts of money.
Wow Marquis, With those incredible upgrades, I would take it off the market until next spring and then list it at 1.4M.
Im sure there will be another bus full of Boomers that will start a bidding war then.
Being in Linwood means something? Oh, brother. Where to begin…
My father used to work in Marcus Hook back in the 1960s and 1970s, and let me tell you, that area was nothing special. He used to take me down to his lab on weekends, and he’d comment on how clear the skies were compared to the weekdays.
During the week, the air pollution was so bad that it burned the finish right off his car.
A few years ago, Dad was kind enough to take me down to Marcus Hook so I could photograph the deindustrialization of the area. (Urban decay is one of my favorite photo topics.) Among other things, the place where Dad worked has become a vacant lot.
The housing bubble continues to go unreported in Philly, thanks in large part to Robert Toll co-owning our two biggest newspapers. The only thing he prints are occasional AP stories, NAR releases, and of course the routine, FULL PAGE foreclosure faq’s from the Sherriff’s Department.
The piece Ben quoted from was written by Alan J. Heavens, an artless shill who writes a bubble-denying fluff column named “On the House” for the Sunday Inquirer.
If Leslie Appleton-Young and Lawrence Yun had a baby, Alan would be instantly raptured from Toll’s lap to a hospital room getting slapped by Leslie’s ob/gyn.
Here is Chris Ryan’s website bio and listings. He’s listed his own house first, of course. Can someone familiar with the neighborhood comment? Someone should tell him that most first-time buyers are young and have entry-level salaries and student and car loans and credit card debt and are last people able to come up with $115,000 for a down payment, unless they have ill-informed relatives willing to transfer wealth to condescending real estate agents.
http://tinyurl.com/6obzr5
Not to mention it’s attached (a twin), probably needs lots of updating (kitchen looks pretty old), and is in Chestnut Hill, which becomes really iffy, really fast during economic downturns, since it’s so obviously rich and yet conveniently located (for robbers) right next to Germantown and Mount Airy.
We used to joke in Roxboro that we could always just barricade the three bridges and be separate from the rest of the city - whereas Chestnut Hill, tony as it is, is amazingly easy to get to from desperate slums.
Talk me down folks..
Going to auction in southern Indiana shortly and want to bid on 1870s home. Appraised at 108k. small lot, small town. I knew the owner and his mother who predeceased him in her 100s.Gorgeous older home.
But what the heck would a CA girl do in a small southern Indiana town? Over 2600′ home. Talk me down. fantasyland. Stay put and be a renter???
Just bid on a trinket or just watch?
I only ask because I checked out the tonyurl at the nice old homes.
IF ya’ll were to buy, would you buy old established home, or brandspanking new?
New has its advantages but no charm. And yet, charm costs downtheline..waterheaters,lack of energy efficiency etc.
Well, I moved from California to Northern Indiana. Bought an old brick house (lots to fix) on 2 acres for 123K. Mature landscaping, can walk to the golf course and apple orchard. Taxes are $600, insurance about the same. Car insurance is less than half what I paid in CA.
including coveted first-timers who don’t have to sell a house to buy one,
I’m not feeling too terribly coveted. In fact, I’m feeling as if they are playing me for a fool. Evidently they never heard of the 10-year sales history on Zillow?
Sellers sit and wait, confident that someone will pay their price - eventually.
Sit and run out the clock until the mortgage resets, you mean? I buy them Liarah’s book to read while they wait.
I have absolutely no problems with this guy. Seriously, he lived in the same home for 28 years. How many of us can say that? He’s perfectly entitled to be as unrealistic as he wants to be!
I also have no issues with this individual being exempt from cap. gains. This is (1) case where you can honestly assert that much of his “appreciation” is simply the result of inflation.
These are the types of o-w-n-e-r-s that were intended to benefit from the change in the tax code. Probably waited… a little long but I wish him well.
I disagree strongly.
Greed and fear blind you to reality.
This is a case of take the money and run, and instead he will ride the pony down all the way into the abyss.
Well I ‘did’ acknowledge that I didn’t exactly admire his sense of ‘timing’ but there can and usually are other life issues lurking in the background. Getting a long-gone ex off the deed, I-don’t-know.
Did I say I was buyin’ the fooking thing? At his FULL wishing price!? When you’ve lived in a home for nigh on 3 decades, I think you’ve earned the right to sell ( or not ) when you’re good and ready. It’s paid off. If he wants to invite Snoop Dog over for the party of a lifetime..? That’s HIS business.
And I say, fook him raw in the rear till he bleeds.
It’s just saying the same thing with an ever so slight difference in emphasis.
My my my faster…skaird of you…running off to the other room to protect myself and others with my handy broom/dustpan.
Is that your version of ’sweettalk’?
Well, I wasn’t advocating doing anything.
We’re about to watch someone eviscerate themselves with a sharp but rusty scimitar.
You might as well dress up, knock back a few martinis and enjoy the show.
Oh. My. GOSH!
Do you realize we was both discussing scimitars at the exact same time?! That’s awesome! My post over in the end thread hasn’t even shown up yet!
Serious! This is Jungian in the extreme! There cannot be enought exclamation points in the world!
Watch!!!!!!!! *Like this!
Naah, nothing so fancy. It’s much more mundane.
I bet you had an overactive imagination as a child. Same here.
The real question is did you draught your friends, and grandparents (= friends) into acting out your elaborate fantasies?
Greed again! He owns the property outright and has for many, many years. Its virtually all profit and still he holds out for more. I hope his area totally tanks - especially his house!
Guys, we can’t have it both ways. On one hand we vilify flippers, FB’s, specuvestors and infestors and on the other we’re slamming long time residents.
And on both hands, they’re asking the same ridickalus (sic) prices for the homes they’re trying to sell.
So long-timers deserve the same scorn, if not more, since they can lower whereas the flippers can’t, than the flipper.
We take no prisoners.
Do what you will with that.
I didn’t even read the full article but this could be a case where he ‘is’ looking to take the money and run. With his IRA taking a beating, is it any surprise the guy might be trying to compensate for that w/ his ridiculous wishing price?
It’s not as if “the fundamentals were sound” but undoubtedly the fear and frustration people feel about their underwater real estate infestments is ( to a degree ) being expressed -through- the stock market. As in they’d much rather be selling their house ( if anyone qualified for the loan? ) Btw very few realtors even -have- an IRA.
If he’s serious, he will keep lowering the price till he sells but most likely he will always be behind the curve.
There is a phrase for these people - greedy m*rons without a clue.
They may be “owners” but there’s nothing that states that “owners” can’t be complete and utter mouth-breathing f*ckwads.
“The development isn’t the first housing project to falter in what was once a red-hot market. In February, developers halted the proposed 1,630-home Isaacs Glen community near Milton before breaking ground, meaning land will likely remain agricultural.
Some land somewhere will remain agricultural? Add yourself a forest or two, and I loudly and rejoicily bellow: ‘Wheeeeee! Hooray!!! It’s a winner!’
Say everyone, today I am going to be ‘Miss Oly Subdued McPants’. Yesterday’s sad events vis a vis the DJIA and someone I know personally have taken a bit of the wind out of the sails on my good ship ‘The Snarky Schaenfreude Schooner’.
Unless I run into her and she bossily says she can’t read a single word of my handwriting OR says she secretly loves the Olympia Master Builders OR in some other way waxes offensive unto me. Then I’m going to say ‘Oh, yeah? Well, you’re poor now, so screw you. Have a potato for the future’.
Then I’m going to hand her a potato.*
*I don’t have one on me, though. This smacks of poor preparation on my part.
No potato chips in the vending machine? Try the gas station food mart.
But potato chips aren’t as healthy. But they are so delicious…gosh, now I’m conflicted.
Don’t complain. Here, have a potato!
(Hands her a potato.)
“Well, you’re poor now, so screw you. Have a potato for the future’.”
How about you go to Plan B? Keep that potato for yourself. Bake it and then eat it with some butter and sour cream. Walk into work the next day, with the memory of that potato still fresh in your mind, and hit the woman with a brick. I think that’s a better plan.
NYCityboy! What I like about you is you have good ideas! That, and your generosity of spirit.
PS. How’s your cats? All better or still walking funny? Hahahaha!
I don’t know. I woke up this morning and found out that those little beasts had filed a restraining order against me. It was a rough night last night. We’ll just see how they like living on The Upper East Side.
‘…found out that those little beasts had filed a restraining order against me.’
Just ignore it. That’s how cats flirt.
Pobrecito!
Hey, I know, have some Jack Daniels and some delicious Twizzlers, that’ll fix you right up. Hahahahahaha!
I love this word so much, pobrecito, that I have been using it in my daily conversations.
Laid off from Shitti? Pobrecito!
Laid off from JPM? Pobrecito!
Can’t pay the mortgage? Pobrecito!
Wife dumped ’cause you’re poor? Pobrecito!
401k took a cr@pper? Pobrecito!
This is like the abracadabra of happiness.
heh it is a great word indeed, I took to saying pobrecita to my wife a few years go, when something happens.
Stub her toe, pobrecita.
Dropped her ice cream, pobrecita.
“Gobreski said the Queen Village house is worth what she is asking based on comparable recent sales. She believes the economy will recover, and isn’t going to lower the price. ‘The fundamentals are sound, and homes will retain their value,’ she said. ‘Why should I lower the price $10,000 when I can keep it and rent it and make that much and more in a year?’”
Thank you Gobreski. I needed a good laugh this morning.
I didn’t read that far. I was laughing too hard I read that they bought a whole house based only on the outdoor fireplace. They are clearly HGTV zombies. mmnhmh…outdoor…fireplace. Buy… buy. ooh…look…outdoor…room. Must…entertain…
They didn’t buy a house. They bought a “lifestyle”. Houses are for suckers.
I thought that was funny, too. Especially because my wife bought one of those stupid chimineas (outdoor stand-alone fireplaces) last year, and we used it twice. Fireplaces are still better at projecting heat upwards through the chimney than radiating heat any distance away from it. When it’s cold and you must entertain, entertain inside, where the heater is, duh.
“She believes the economy will recover, and isn’t going to lower the price.”
Yes, a lot of people believe the economy will recover - but that’s only part of the story. The big question is when they believe it will recover - and they always leave that little detail out.
I’ll say it again - it is not the depths of this event that will exact the greatest toll - it will be the duration.
Right this minute, countless silent prayers and inumerable hopes are calling for an instant 2009 recovery to 2005 boomtimes.
+1
“Why should I lower the price $10,000 when I can keep it and rent it and make that much and more in a year?”
I interpreted her question as meaning that she intended to get the $10,000 by renting out the house she had listed for $379K. Yup, that 2.7% gross return sure does justify sticking to your high price. Taxes, insurance, and maintenance should completely eat it up. Another point she’s missing is that a $10,000 reduction in the price wouldn’t come close to making it attractive.
Oh! But it’s DIFFERENT here! I thought it was different here? Philly never appreciated like it should have? blah blahdy blah . . .
We are just behind but the crash is coming. And the LAST place I’d want to be when things get rough is “Queen Village.” You may as well carry a sign around saying “please rob me!”
“Every market is different. Talk to a Realtor(TM) today. It’s a great time to buy.” Invest in your family to “build long-term wealth.”
“Marquis said he can’t understand the lack of interest in the newly redone home with finished basement, two-car garage, new kitchen, hardwood floors and oversized lot. ‘I thought being in Linwood meant something,’ he said. ‘I’ve slashed it to nothing and I still can’t get a bite.’”
The poor, poor man. I understand his confusion and spiritual pain at being balked in his entirely reasonable plans. Why, I recently crowned myself ‘Queen of Super-Cuteness and Also Reigning Empress of All the Little Bunnies’ and I even have a scepter that used to be a yardstick, and that SURELY means something, right? I mean, gosh! Duh! Yes, I told everybody and yet, oddly, I cannot seem to convince them to genuflect when I walk grandly by.*
*Lisa P. will do it, but she does it in a mocking disrespectful fashion, and only to tease me in my aspirations. I’m glad you all don’t know her–she’s pretty annoying.
(Say, are any of you named ‘Lisa’?)
A new listing just popped up in Fort Collins. The house is priced at way over comps, but it has granite everywhere (even in the living room), and all this funky looking exotic hardwood flooring. (Plus the photos on the web listing are pathetic.)
People put all this money into making their own version of the Tajmahal and then wonder why some farm raised engineer doesn’t want to spend an extra $40,000 on their version of needless waste.
That’s one I won’t even visit.
I’ve got money and I’m willing to catch a falling knife, but I want some serious value for my money. If I’m going to take a 10 to 20% hit in equity over the next few years I want the seller to come off peak prices by a similar amount. So many of these people bought for close to $200k and now want way over $300k - sorry folks no deal.
But Suzanne said “granite-wood floors-stainless-recessed lights-red and yellow paint-blah blah blah” or it wouldn’t sell!!1!1!
Beauty is just about the most subjective concept there is. I’ve been a constant critic of modern residential architecture, but even more offensive has been the idea that $20,000 in remodeling translates to $100,000 in added value.
‘Beauty is just about the most subjective concept there is.’
So, are you saying I cannot be annointed ‘Queen of Super-Cuteness?’
Jerk!
I don’t even want to pay the $20k. I’m happy with formica and I’d really rather pick my own colors. I’m a klutz and have kids, I don’t want granite counters or tile floors.
Vinyl floors are better with kids and dogs too.
A remodel is about like a new car, it’s worth at least 20% less than it cost the minute it’s done.
I’m looking at rentals in San Jose right now and tiling the floors of the virtually the entire house is the thing! I’m assuming they want to just hose us down when we move out..LOL
I don’t have a scepter that used to be a yardstick, but I have a really, really old piece of stick candy wrapped in cellophane (orange and white stripes) that has a finger puppet of Beaker the muppet on the end. Can I use that? Or I have a pencil that has a purple flocked eggplant with eyes at the end and the pencil says “egg head” in foil letters - is that like a scepter?
What do we do with our scepters? I could use some cheering up.
‘- is that like a scepter?’
Are you kidding?! Gosh, yes, polly! That’s like the Scepter of all Scepters! Man, I am totally disatisfied with my stupid yardstick now. All it has is a splotch of green paint, Bic pen scribbles, and some teethmarks in the end. *casts it aside with regal disdain*
“What do we do with our scepters? I could use some cheering up.”
Why, we should bonk minions with them. That’s what you do with scepters. I know this from my vast readings of history.
I’m sorry you need cheering up. Why is that? Well, remember it’s the weekend! You can drink beer all day tomorrow! Plus, you got two (2) exceptionally good scepters. Good things, right?
I think someone at work is trying to get me in trouble. Or not really in trouble, but he wants me to stop doing my job on a new project the way I think I was told to do it and do it the way he thinks I should do it. But his way is the old way, and my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss said she wants it done a new way and he is stubbornly refusing to understand (the new way takes away some of the control/power he would have had the old way).
I think my boss will back me up, but it is annoying. And the conference call is on Tuesday, so I have five days to stress out over it. Also, I have made a few mistakes on this project (all very fixable) and this is coming up after all that was supposed to be over. I thought I had cleared everything up and now he wants to make things messy all over again. And right before Thanksgiving. When I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get to my airplane on time. Bleh.
I used to have another scepter substitute - it was a wizard head on a stick. The wizard had a big nose and a cool deep blue hat with glitter and he had a long thin clear plastic rod up the back of his head. I think I bought him at the gift shop of the American Craft Museum in New York. Anyway, I don’t know where he is anymore. I wonder if I gave him away. I miss him.
Guess what I am saying is that I feel like a minion today. Maybe even a peon. So bonking minions is not likely to cheer me up.
Also, I could use a nap. Stress gives me insomnia.
“is that a sceptor in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?”
well, obviously this isn’t the response for you olygal!!!
But it kinda goes along in the same vein of upright staffs.
“Casinos have set another record. Unfortunately, the type of records they have been racking up lately are going in the wrong direction. Atlantic City’s gaming industry posted a nearly 23 percent decline in gross operating profits in the pivotal third quarter. It was the biggest decline ever for the third quarter. ‘We don’t see the situation improving in drastic form in the upcoming year,’ said Harvey Perkins, a senior vice president with a Linwood-based casino consulting firm. ‘It’s not doom and gloom. It’s reality.’”
The NJ gaming bubble has burst because Pennsylvania now has slot machines at various outlets all along the NJ border, and more are coming. Atlantic City casinos will continue to lose business even after the economy “recovers” because the hard core slot machine players don’t care where they play.
My dad always equated my fascination for fireworks with wasting money in a casino. I figured a pack of black cats was way more bang for your buck, though now I’m smart enough not to waste money on either.
‘I figured a pack of black cats was way more bang for your buck, though now I’m smart enough not to waste money on either.’
What? No more Black Cats? THAT’S not ’smart’. That’s called ‘getting old’. Either that or you done blowed off all your fingers and now can’t rightly handle the delightful little things. Look, hire someone else to hold and set them off and that way you can still enjoy them, sitting there squealing with pleasure and beating your stumps together merrily.
Oh, speaking of stumps, that reminds me, I gotta get a ton of fireworks to bring home to my brothers at Christmas time. The Squaxin Indian rez just down the street sells great, glorious, and otherwise very illegal ‘Maim the Paleface’ explosives. Very reasonable prices. Alan and Little Dave adored, ADORED me for it last year.
Yes, I’m a good big sister.
One 4th of July my dad got two road flares out of the back of our car as a substitute for fireworks. He’d been laid off from aerospace. (Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo.)
I did the road flare thing, too, just this last 4th, 2007. I was going through the big Indian reservation fireworks from over to Hoodsport and from down the road, the ones that shoot right up past the trees and make a hugeous blast that looks so very pretty sparkling on the water of Totten Inlet. Let me point out, these are BIG trees out here where I live, 200+ feet easy, so you can imagine the magnitude. (I’m deaf now, btw.)
We were of course careful not to hit any trees, as careful as you can be when handling large ‘Goodbye-Whiteman-Fingers’ munitions, and while drunk and singing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and all that other patriotic stuff that was going on. I don’t want to hurt trees, nohow, although it would have been partly their fault, confess it, because they were leaning over the party in fascination, watching all us little pink meat things running around shouting and waving flags. I did tell them to get out of the way, but trees move slowly when they are fascinated. Those silly trees.
Where was I? Oh, yes, I realized I was running low, having stupidly only purchased a gross of them, so I interspersed some with 4 bright red emergency flares. Also I had never seen the emergency flares in action and wanted to. I had had these flares in my car trunk for years, too long, I guess because one didn’t even work, and the other 3 did not last very long at all on their little parachutes before winking out. They only lasted for about 30 seconds max, which is not long enough to get rescued. I thought that it was a good thing I tried them, and found them wanting, because it would sure suck to be driving White Pass headed for Utarr in a blizzard and get stuck and pull out a flare and…phoooof, poop….hello, cannibalism and/or hypothermia.
Oh. I notice you said, ‘boohooohooo.’ I’m sorry you had a stunted 4th that year. I think it was a good idea of your dad’s though. I also hope that all your 4ths since then have been glorious and bright and full of explosions.
Thanks, that’s nice of you. My dad worked and kept us little snotnoses in blissful childhood. He was a good guy.
Shooot, that’s nothing . . . we used to run around lighting imaginary black cats . . . “ssssssssssssssssssss BANG!”
Smoke bombs were a little more high tech, but not much.
Casinos were a great deal, despite the social problems, when only Vegas and then Vegas and AC had them. Now that they are ubitquitous, states are going to have to cut their share of the vig to compete.
Then only the social problems, not the tax revenues, will remain.
Thanks to the big PR campaign of the Cheerleaders from the Stock Market to the Real Estate and loan industry , the myth of a rebounding market
is dying hard with sellers . Sellers just don’t get that it was a false market ,a bubble, a mania ,a Ponzi-scheme ,a crime wave market .
I think its crazy that people find relief in the notion that a bottoming of a market mean that all of a sudden they get the 2005 peak price . It will take many years to get to those peak levels of 2005-2006, and some people
believe that it won’t go back in their life time .
I am amazed how experts can even call when we will go out of this recession . It’s funny how the Auto CEO’s were telling Congress in so many words that they could not say when they will become profitable
again ,because of the market .
Everybody wants a cheap bridge loan to the rebounding market ,including the
homeowners that are having problems making their nut . Some expert last night said it will be early 2010 for some kind of change in this downhill path ,yet they never say what factors will make that happen .
A stockbroker in essence said to me one time that the America people can’t take recessions or hard times for more than 4 years and they start
buying again regardless . Maybe the stockbrokers theory is true ,but
I don’t know how anyone can really say with confidence how long this
contraction will last .
“Everybody wants a cheap bridge loan to the rebounding market”
So true. *orangetabby made a great observation that the REIC would like nothing more than to re-start the Ponzi! WhatEVER the cost!
I’ll agree with your stockbroker in that, the American people ‘are’ impatient! We won’t stand for setbacks of that length. At least we haven’t in the past. Unfortunately when ( or if ) we pull out of this isn’t really in our control any more is it?
“In March, when they test-marketed their Queen Village house for sale on Craigslist at $379,000, they did not intend to buy before they sold. Yet here they are with their three children, living in East Mount Airy since June after stumbling upon ‘what we always said we’d buy if we found one’ - a house with an outdoor fireplace, purchased for $417,500 with a seller assist…The Gobreskis still have not sold the Queen Village house.”
I guess selling the first house, then buying a replacement house and installing their own outdoor fireplace was too difficult to pencil out? OMG. This has to be one for the record books…getting stuck with 2 mortgages in a crashing market over an outdoor fireplace.
Hey! HERE’S a Lisa! Are you a Lisa? You are!
Oh, but yeah about the deal-inducing outdoor fireplace. I have one of those fancy gizmos. Consumately easy to build, I recall. I tossed some busted up pallet bits down on the ground and then set them on fire.
Voila’.
I suppose I could have laboriously arranged some bricks around them, but that seemed too palatial like.
Unless there is a zoning restriction on outdoor firelplaces that allows existing units to be grandfathered in but no new units, why buy a new house and sell your old one (at 6% comission, plus all the closing costs) when $1200, a trip to home depot, three cases of beer, and a couple fall weekends working six hours each day with a couple of friends gets a nice stone outdoor fireplace?
They sell nice metal ones at Costco for $100. They are portable so you can take them with you if you move.
Or if you have to live out of your car and want to host a “Hobo Night” at the local rail yard.
“This has to be one for the record books…getting stuck with 2 mortgages in a crashing market over an outdoor fireplace.”
They are the same people that go to the dealer to have the lightbuld changed in their tail light. Pay $100 to have a $2 part changed.
and wiper blades.
Nah, Kragen’s does that for free
weren’t there alot of outdoor fireplaces in the hoovervilles?
Yup.
And police that chased the down and outs into the dark.
“Annie” found a nice pooch at a Hoovervile, though. ;>
Long Live Daddy Warbucks.
Perhaps the outdoor fireplace was adjacent to the gift-wrapping room….
Hahahaha! Ah, yes, I remember reading about those in the olden days, you know—before it allllll came crashing down…
No kidding, when seeing McMansions over the years they always made me wonder if people don’t buy houses with the mindset that every day can be Christmas.
Fireplaces, circular driveways, grand entrances - trying to make everyday life like a Currier and Ives holiday picture.
“Gobreski said the Queen Village house is worth what she is asking based on comparable recent sales. She believes the economy will recover, and isn’t going to lower the price. ‘The fundamentals are sound, and homes will retain their value,’ she said. ‘Why should I lower the price $10,000 when I can keep it and rent it and make that much and more in a year?’”
WHY??? Because you are WRONG on all counts.
The economy will “recover” long after you have been foreclosed upon and gone bankrupt.
The “fundamentals” are causing prices to crash through all previous lows in your precious neighborhood.
You can’t rent it. You can let some vagrants in, collect no rent, and incur further losses when they trash it. Pretend you rent it and they will pretend they pay rent.
You can’t “keep” it. Basic economics will FORCE you out at exactly the most inconvenient and expensive time, you dimwitted loser.
Send us a postcard when you find a job.
Oh, and good luck in life with that entitlement attitude.
It appears that, along with “Two-Tier” wage scales, we are developing two-tier housing markets.
-Tier one, generally populated by “Greatest Generation”, yuppies, and early Gen-X types, who (currently) have no pressure to sell (because of their job seniority), and will hold out for 2005 prices, either because they “don’t want to give the place away”, or are HELOCed and can’t sell. These areas will be characterized by extremely high asking prices, and extremely low sales.
-Tier two, populated by everybody that doesn’t own a house, who will have a buyer’s market in foreclosed and new build homes to choose from (if they even choose, or are able, to buy at all).
Advise to tier two: Don’t buy any houses right now. Too many apple carts are being upset, with more to come. A “desirable” place to live right now can easily go to hell in a hurry. Review the situation in about five years.
Advise to tier two: Don’t buy any houses right now. Too many apple carts are being upset, with more to come. A “desirable” place to live right now can easily go to hell in a hurry. Review the situation in about five years.
I know, how about you go to Hell in an upset and then re-righted desirable apple cart? It’d be faster than a handbasket. I never did understand that. Did the handbasket have wheels? A steering mechanism? A map to Hell? Or was it being carried thence, such as by the noted freakishly gigantic lumberjack Paul Bumyan*?
Have Paul Bumyan push the applecart to hell, instead, is what IIIII say.
*When I was a wee lass and learning to read, I liked myths and folktales. I prounced it as ‘Paul Bumyan’ instead of Paul Bunyan, and then when I got older I refused to change my pronunciation. I’ll say it how I want to, by cracky, even if Paul Bumyan hisself comes and tells me to stop it. I ain’t ascared of giant lumberjacks!
Oh, wait—yes I am.
I wanted to say, “Too much shit is hitting the fan”. But I was trying to tone it down for the kiddies and the terminally sensitive.
And sometimes I forget that I’m posting on a blog, instead of trying to convince my know-it-all daughters that they shouldn’t be doing anything stupid. What is obvious to the readers of this blog is not obvious to young adults, especially when the current groupthink is telling them the opposite.
I stand corrected, and will minimize the use of cliche’s in the future.
boring historical note:
“going to hell in a handbasket/handcart” actually refers to the Mormon resettlement post civil war. The church would pay them to get at as far as Fort Kearney in Nebraska, give them a hand cart (like street vendors use), point them up the Oregon trail (into the middle of the Souix nation), and tell them to hang a left when they got to Fort Bridger over the great divide. Lotsa graves on that part of the trail (you can still follow it; wagon wheels wore ruts in the stone that you can see from hundreds of yards away.)
ed in texas,
Not boring at all.
Signed,
The end of the Oregon Trail
Where is Greenspan? Haven’t heard or seen of him since testimony. Laying low?
Somebody probably used his head as jack-o-lantern on Halloween.
Man, THAT would just scare the crap out of the kiddies. You wouldn’t even need a candle. I can’t imagine any ornament more terrifying. Then you could keep it fresh in the fridge for next year. ‘Waste not, want not’.
Confession.
Found a nearly perfect home to spend the rest of my days just about a year ago. Over looking river, the whole deal. Had been on the market for about a year. They had started at 695K and were then at 549K. I offered 440K and they laughed at me.
6 months later they countered with 450K. I said no thanks I was figuring 420K now. They walked. Sold early this month 430K. Anything price depreciation from here and I would have been one of THEM. OUCH!
sellers in my town continue to chase market down. If I were their agent, I would really encourage these d-bags to get ahead of curve.
Price really doesn’t matter if you put down 50+% and intend to die there. But maybe the new owners will go BK and you can get it for 330K next year….
———————–
spend the rest of my days just about a year ago
But most buyers, Ryan said - including coveted first-timers who don’t have to sell a house to buy one - strike him as less than serious about the single he’s listed at $575,000.”
“‘I’ve either been getting the ones who have been looking for one or two years
Uh-oh, am I becoming recognizable?
I’m amazed how patient my realtor is, even suggesting if I ever want to, just submit any bid I want no matter how obscene.
Sadly, even dropping 200k off many houses near me does not bring them in line with proper pricing.
‘We refinanced and took out a home-equity line of credit several years ago to help make ends meet when we had our first child,’ he said. ‘We never thought we’d still be in our current home, as we are expecting our third child.’”
Why ? Did you think you automatically get issued a bigger house because you are too stupid to use birth control ?
2 things you shouldn’t have when you are tight on money are bigger houses and more kids.
They really need to stop effing around. In more ways than one.
“‘We have put in bids on a few homes, only to walk away relieved when the deals were rejected.’”
pre-meditated stupidity.
Last month one of my central N.J. neighbors sold his lagoon-front, 1300 sf ranch house for about 10% more than what I paid in 2006 for my similarly situated house. My wife wants to hang on to ours, but I’m thinking that I should try to get out while there is that very recent comparable sale on the books at which price the loss on my house would be minimal next to what it would be next year or even 5 years from now. If the market is nearly 50% off, why wouldn’t housing values follow comparably?
MIkey, you can at least try. If the offers don’t come in or escrows don’t close, you are still okay in the house your wife wants.
If all goes well, you will be able to rent the place or something better. Freeing yourselves up for mobility.
“Even the ‘three-bedroom starter home’ he now owns was a financial stretch, Dobin acknowledged. ‘We refinanced and took out a home-equity line of credit several years ago to help make ends meet when we had our first child,’ he said. ‘We never thought we’d still be in our current home, as we are expecting our third child.’”
Why in the world is it so hard to raise three kids in a three-bedroom home? Ever hear of bunk beds? Geez, you had to kill your equity to “make ends meet” when you had kid #1, and now, in the middle of an economic downturn, you think it’s a good idea to “stretch yourself” for a home you don’t need?
George Carlin (praise his memory) nailed it: “If you ever want to think about how many stupid people there are in this country, think of this: think about how stupid the average person is. Now realize that half of ‘em are dumber than that…”