And If The Promotion Doesn’t Yield A Sale? What’s Next?
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Foreclosure filings in Gallatin County have tripled since 2006, when 37 homes were foreclosed upon. Counselor Tracy Menuez of the Human Resource Defense Council said she visited with more people facing foreclosure last week than she had during entire years prior, she said. ‘It’s been a lot,’ she said.”
“Ray Linsky is nearly three months behind on his mortgage. His lender is threatening to foreclose. Linsky works at Pierce Flooring & Design and his wife works at an accounting firm. Their employers are great, he said, but as the construction industry goes, so goes his commission-based salary. ‘It’s just that the economy has risen up and bitten us,’ Linsky said. ‘It just gets worse and worse.’”
“Last fall when the housing crisis hit George Waldrop’s title examination business, he called his older brother, a DNA researcher in Portland, Maine. ‘If things get worse, I could be in danger of losing my house,’ Waldrop said.’
“Not to worry, his brother assured him; Waldrop could always count on him for help. Last month, big brother lost his job. ‘He’s 60, he’s a genius, and he’s scared,’ Waldrop said.”
“There was plenty of outright fraud, Dianne Prince, a counselor at the Regional Fair Housing Center, has discovered. One client she worked with was taking home $500 every two weeks, but somehow qualified for a loan on a $244,000 condominium. When she brought in her loan documents, Prince saw her income had been greatly exaggerated.”
“‘They (the mortgage company) had her working for a trucking company making $5,200 a month, and they said she had $72,000 in the bank,’ Prince said.”
“Growing numbers of Oklahomans had their homes repossessed in 2008, when foreclosures grew by 50.1 percent over the previous year, according to a new survey. Margo Mitchell, executive director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Tulsa, said the past year shows that the state isn’t immune to the housing crash that plagues much of the nation. ‘We really have been isolated from the problem until the latter half of 2008,’ she said. ‘We’re now beginning to see the same things that occurred in other parts of the country, though not the same extent.’”
“Tom Inserra, president of Pinnacle Peak Appraisers in Arizona, knows how intense the pressure to inflate values can get. Three years ago, he found himself battling one of his largest clients. The bank’s senior vice president in charge of mortgage lending tried to get Inserra to ‘hit a number,’ industry parlance for inflating the appraisal. He wouldn’t do it.”
“‘The discussion got so heated,’ recalled Inserra, ‘that he threatened to do harm to my family if I didn’t co-operate. I really thought he might do it. I got a restraining order from a judge.’”
“In the end, the banker didn’t hurt his family, but he did punish Inserra by depriving him of the $200,000 in annual business he had been getting from the bank.”
“If you build it, they will come. If you want them to buy it, throw in a free US$200,000 Bentley. At least that’s what an Arizona homebuilder is hoping as it tries to unload a pair of multimillion-dollar custom homes that have been languishing on the market for about a year. Each home is selling for about US$1 million less than the original price, according to Five Star Development Group, based in Scottsdale.”
“And if the Bentley promotion doesn’t yield a sale? What’s next? A free ticket on a space tourism flight? A yacht? ‘We’re probably at the point where it’s unlikely that the offer is going to get sweetened any more,’ said Five Star spokesman Brendan Mann.”
“Wednesday lawmakers voted to take 190 million from a 300 million dollar affordable housing fund to balance the budget. Thursday the Homebuilders Vice President, Chuck Fowke, told the governor the cut was short sighted. ‘These moneys can be used to get people back into housing, that lost their housing in Foreclosure.’”
“Home construction was cut in half in 2008 and the need for new houses continues to shrink. Florida’s housing market is saturated… currently more than 300-thousand homes are empty.”
“A Lindon investment holding company that owns about 50 acres on the southwestern boundary of The Ranches residential development in Eagle Mountain is facing foreclosure after defaulting on its special improvement district assessment. David Shurtliff, a representative of KEB Enterprises, said he believes the assessment ‘isn’t reasonable because it now exceeds the perceived potential value of the property.’”
“‘The economic downturn has made the property less marketable,’ he said. ‘We’re capable of paying the assessment but the city has to make concessions. Because of the economic downturn, we may not be able to sell the property for an amount that would satisfy the value of our investment.’”
“The company bought the land in a deed in lieu of foreclosure about four years ago, he said. ‘The dilemma I’m facing is whether to hold a property when we’re not sure of the returns, or to let it go into default,’ Shurtliff said.”
“The Lofts has 27 residential units on the three upper floors, both one- and two-bedroom units. Each has a distinct floor plan. The condo units range in size from 916 square feet to 1,881 square feet. Prices for the units range from nearly $318,000 to $618,000. Developers struggled to find words to describe their project beyond being unique in the state.”
“‘It is hard to find anything, even in Seattle, that compares to this type of lifestyle,’ said Gary Bodenstab of Seattle, during a tour the developers provided the Yakima Herald-Republic. ‘This is really one of the coolest projects I have ever worked on,’ Bodenstab said, ‘to take a department store and convert it into condos.’”
“Those of us of a certain age may remember ‘Geraldine,’ the late comedian Flip Wilson’s alter ego, who loved to say, ‘The devil made me do it!’ when she did something wrong. I thought of her when I read about how Barratt American’s president, Michael Pattinson, explained why his Carlsbad-based homebuilding company went bankrupt last month. ‘What upsets me is that a company that I was loyal to was not loyal to me,’ Pattinson sniffed. ‘But we’re big boys. We know what goes on in this world, and what goes around comes around. I’ve got my boxing gloves on, and I’m up for the fight. I’ve lost Round One, but there’s 14 more rounds to go.’”
“All four of his North County projects now stand unfinished, blighting neighborhoods with half-built homes wrapped in plastic.”
‘Maybe it’s unfair to compare Pattinson to Geraldine. She admitted her mistakes. By accepting no blame for his firm’s meltdown, the self-pitying CEO sounds more like the rebellious, fictional 10-year-old Bart Simpson and his standard excuse, ‘I didn’t do it. You didn’t see me do it. Nobody can prove anything!’”
“The House of Representatives today will vote on a bill package by Congressman Joe Baca aimed at decreasing foreclosures by assisting families with their mortgage crises. Baca’s push this week to aid families in foreclosure comes in the wake of a recent report in the Wall Street Journal that criticized the Congressman for aggressively pursuing legislation that would facilitate the securing of loans for first-time home buyers.”
“Nearly 9,200 families in Baca’s district have lost their homes to foreclosure, according to the report. ‘Families in my district and across the nation are struggling,’ Baca said. ‘The San Bernardino and Riverside County areas currently have the fifth highest rate of foreclosure in the nation.’”
“The number of homes facing foreclosure in the St. Louis area was flat in the last three months of the year, compared with the previous quarter, RealtyTrac said. For all of 2008, nearly one in 50 homes was at some point of the foreclosure process at least once, a statistic up 40 percent from 2007.”
“Karen Wallensak, who heads the Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center, said she had seen activity pick up again in the new year. She said she was dubious that many banks’ mortgage restructuring plans would help much in the long run, unless they write down principal on the mortgages. Efforts in Congress, she said, have done little so far to make banks give borrowers a break.”
“‘Nothing that has been done at the federal level has made an iota of difference,’ she said. ‘Nothing.’”
“Economists for the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project gave a presentation yesterday on the national and state economies, and suffice to say, there was little good news. Kirk Lesh, a real estate economist for the Economic Forecast, said it’s likely fewer homes will be built throughout this entire year than were built in the first quarter of 2007.”
“‘It’s going to be an extremely rough market for at least the next 12 months,’ he said, adding that the pool of potential buyers has shrunk due to the requirement of more money down on loans and demands for higher credit scores.”
“But in the long run, Bill Watkins, executive director of the Economic Forecast Project said this might not be such a terrible thing. He said the national home ownership rate usually hovers around 64 percent. ‘When it gets above that we get problems,’ he said, noting that prior to the housing meltdown, it climbed to 69 percent.”
“While he acknowledged it isn’t a popular thing to say, he said, ‘There are some people that just shouldn’t own a home and when I was 20 I was one of those people.’”
How’s this for irony; as I type this I am in the driveway of a nice, very expensive foreclosure. Anyhoo, another great week. My thanks to those who support this blog. Please check back this weekend.
Make you GET a Bentley with it Ben !
Change 22 Lord…. Strike the @*# * Benz and insert a shiny Bentley …Pleaseee!
Mercedes Bentz by Janis Joplin
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Everbody…Sing it !
I’ll buy the Bentley for $200,000 if they throw in those homes for free - how’s that?
They quit making the really, cool Rolls and Bentley’s after the 1967 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Two-Door Sedan that Steve McQueen drove in the origional “Thomas Crown Affair”.
Those models had real quality and class…without flaunting it …too much
I’m calling the irony police. You’ll face a stiff fine for this!
You’re workin’ it too, aye bro?
Today we just had some dude panic-bail-out of his home by listing it at 99K. Home went in two hours. it would have sold at 325K - 350K at the top of the market.
What did Petty sing?…..”and we’re freeeee-eee, free falling….”
“‘It is hard to find anything, even in Seattle, that compares to this type of lifestyle,’ said Gary Bodenstab of Seattle, during a tour the developers provided the Yakima Herald-Republic. ‘This is really one of the coolest projects I have ever worked on,’ Bodenstab said, ‘to take a department store and convert it into condos.’”
Oh for God’s sake give it a rest they tried this crap three years ago here in little old South Carolina. It fell flat on it’s face, you are not ‘unique’/'cool’ RE-tard.
I often thought it would be cool to live in an old firehouse, but a converted dept. store ?
I knew a guy that did just that kept the fire pole and one engine in the front.
An old funky firehouse in downtown Boise is now “trendy” shops and cafes. I guess you could do worse with an old brick building.
“The House of Representatives today will vote on a bill package by Congressman Joe Baca aimed at decreasing foreclosures by assisting families with their mortgage crises. Baca’s push this week to aid families in foreclosure comes in the wake of a recent report in the Wall Street Journal that criticized the Congressman for aggressively pursuing legislation that would facilitate the securing of loans for first-time home buyers.”
Nix on aid from me. Can’t get to the gains on my savings bonds to give to the greedy FBs until I redeem those bonds. I’m doing all I can to avoid taxes. I have legally dropped 40% of my income from being taxable. I’m seriously and passionately waging a war against the spenders, especially the spenders of OPM.
“I’m doing all I can to avoid taxes. I have legally dropped 40% of my income from being taxable. I’m seriously and passionately waging a war
against the spenders, especially the spenders of OPM”.
Keep up the fight!
From a tax standpoint I have been a ‘tree top flier” all my working life.
Accountant every year makes us sign saying essentially that if we are flying too low, he won’t be there to pick up with the pieces with the IRS.
Heluva water landing in New York, by the way.
“The House of Representatives today will vote on a bill package by Congressman Joe Baca aimed at decreasing foreclosures by assisting families with their mortgage crises.
———————————————————————-
Hon. Congressman Joe Baca is most certainly an honorable man but honorable men learn a lesson when they are pissin against the wind.
Would that be duck?
quack..quack..quackquack.
I have legally dropped 40% of my income from being taxable.
—————————————————————————-
You should get a cayman island’s bank account. that’s what the hedge funds do. then you won’t have to worry about paying any taxes. sh$t…globalism and one world govt is in….may as well take advantage of it.
Can’t do the Caymans thing. Besides, the tax haven in the Caymans is no longer. They don’t honor their secrecy laws anymore.
I don’t and can’t move my wealth overseas. The best I can do is use the USA’s own tax avoidance schemes in the IRS web site. See, I have far less privacy than the average American.
As a single income family our tax contributions are pretty low too. In my income bracket, it’s way easier to live on less than it is to make more (not that I don’t seriously respect those living on under $40k). The lower you can keep your expenses the better, and living in a small cheap house is a big part of that plan.
Cheap housing = easier living. Let prices come down!
Absolutely correct. A penny saved is roughly equal to $1.50-$2.00 earned (marginally) before taxes, depending upon locale, even at very modest income levels. I should know.
If J6P ever figured this out the government money grabbers would be so screwed. And then they’d really penalize the rest of us. Mum’s the word.
O.k. somewhat unrelated, however….
I live in WOodland Hills, CA 91364. This morning walking down my street I see a house (south of Ventura blvd, near Topanga Canyon) that has been foreclosed (or about to) with the front door, garage door, windows missing…. Later this afternoon a guy (who was paid by the loser owner) is standing out front literally chipping out the remaining windows. I call the police who come only to tell me that there is nothing that can be done because the owner has no problem with the destruction. The residence is going back to the bank.
There is another foreclosed house in a nearby street that has also been destroyed. The police said that this is a common occurrence and many of these abandoned houses have squatters living in them. My problem is that this particular house was already a foreclosed house earlier last year. Someone bought it and has lost it…. already…. What are the banks doing? They are still not making decent careful loans, because if they were this sort of stuff would not be happening.
I say, “NO more bailout money for these greedy banks”.
FYI, I am renting and am sitting on the sidelines waiting to buy a decent priced house, however this type of action makes me really nervouse about buying any time soon. Prices are going to come down at least 30% from where they are presently!!!
So, I just checked and the house was bought bank by Citimortgage Inc 10/28/2008. The Occupant has been allowed to live RENT free in that house for god knows how many months. It’s truly pathetic. When I called Citibank I was met with apathy and oh well we’ll get the security company on that on Tuesday. Good luck with having much left to salvage.
And… these banks want more of our money???? Puhleeze!!!
hopefully, they were stripping the house of all the 1970’s interior and windows. they may be doing the new buyer a favor as the home will sell for a much lower price in that condition. the upside is the new owner gets the property at a much reduced price and has everything brand new when he fixes the house. i have thought that here in phoenix, would i rather buy a house for 100k with all the old interior or buy one stripped for 50k.
Counselor Tracy Menuez of the Human Resource Defense Council
wonder who’s paying for this ?
taxpayer’s maybe
“Human resources” sound like lumps of coal.
Efforts in Congress, she said, have done little so far to make banks give borrowers a break.”
“‘Nothing that has been done at the federal level has made an iota of difference,’ she said. ‘Nothing.’”
And it’s not going to you dolt, all D.Central Planning can do is screw it up and drag it out!
I honestly don’t remember the last time Congress gave me a break.
Oh, that’s right.
The AMT.
‘It’s just that the economy has risen up and bitten us,’ Linsky said. ‘It just gets worse and worse.’”
Hey Linsky no violins here, poor planning on your part, you wrongly counted on there being no gravity, surprise there is.
“Although Gallatin County has in the past been somewhat insulated from national financial woes, the same economic illness wracking the nation is now hitting Montana.”
As recently as the first week of December, friends at Montana State University assured me that Montana didn’t get into risky lending and the state wasn’t feeling the recession that was hitting every other place. Right.
By the end of December the state budget numbers were in, AND (drum roll please…) revenues down, budget shortfall, etc… Who could have possibly predicted this? I mean they almost had to shut down the entire town of Bozeman in the early 80’s collapse, but Bozeman is NEVER affected by national trends?
Bozeman’s economy has been slowing down fast, it has been slowing since last summer. Business on Main sreet have been dropping like flys. There has been empty office and retail space in buildings all over town. The classified section of the paper is full of legal notice of trustee’s sales but very few adds for jobs.
I don’t know what your friend’s were seeing going on in Bozeman.
Wall Street Rebounds After Banks Report Big Losses- AP
OT: I just love the lead lines in bizarro world LOL!
The PPT rides again!!!
“a DNA researcher lost his job. ‘He’s 60, he’s a genius, and he’s scared,’ Waldrop said.”
That’s a man worth rolling into a gubmint position, IMHO.
That’s a man worth rolling into a gubmint position, IMHO.
————————————————————————-
IMO, only if he meets the govt cultural diversity requirements.
The gubmint diversity plans call for hiring plenty of stupid and lazy people
It worked out that way for the Bush Administration.
Actually the civil service rules primarily benefit veterans. They are the only subgroup that gets extra points in getting on the “most qualified” list. And the vet that we hired recently and is on my project? Love him. Lucky to have him. Real team player and always does about three times as much as I ask him to do. I’ll probably be working for him when the next project comes around (which is fine by me).
Next.
As a retired vet I am glad to hear you say that. I work with several other vets and am lucky as well. A very hard working, reliable, and talented group of people.
From the original post:
“But in the long run, Bill Watkins, executive director of the Economic Forecast Project said this might not be such a terrible thing. He said the national home ownership rate usually hovers around 64 percent. ‘When it gets above that we get problems,’ he said, noting that prior to the housing meltdown, it climbed to 69 percent.”
“While he acknowledged it isn’t a popular thing to say, he said, ‘There are some people that just shouldn’t own a home and when I was 20 I was one of those people.’”
Oh, no, Mr. Bill! You’re speaking the truth there, boy. Watch that truth-stuff. It can really get you into trouble.
And, on a personal note, Slim lives near a university campus. In this area are more than a few kiddies whose parents bought them houses to live in while they go to school.
Unfortunately, I know firsthand of what Mr. Bill speaks when he says, “There are some people that just shouldn’t own a home and when I was 20 I was one of those people.” We’re talking unkempt properties, loud parties, comings and goings at all hours of the day and night, and unattended pets that wander the neighborhood.
We’re talking unkempt properties, loud parties, comings and goings at all hours of the day and night, and unattended pets that wander the neighborhood.
Peasant memories of Sam Hughes!
“And, on a personal note, Slim lives near a university campus. In this area are more than a few kiddies whose parents bought them houses to live in while they go to school”.
This is a bomb that is going to blow sky high in most college towns. Taking Mom,Dad and Granny down with it!
kekekeke, there have been some real laugh lines on gainesville craigslist lately … like “Daddy” trying to fill “dear daughter’s” unfinished superexpensive Paradigm lease (so he will pay you to take it)
these parents were way too involved in their “adult” children’s everything. You are right about mom, dad and granny. Yes, we often forget that Grandma often bankrolls the college stuff, especially if she has money and her daughter and son-in-law have had a habit of spending more than they ever make.
Pleasant. Oops.
I shouldn’t have bought a house until I was 40. I was too niave and trusting before then. Every single house I bought before I was 40 I fell for some kind of Realtor(tm) scam. If it wasn’t the “multiple offer”(tm) scam it was the “open space”(tm) or “new school” ™ scam. Then there’s the fresh on the market(tm) scam, or the “competitvely priced”(tm) scam.
Now, finally. I just flat out don’t believe anything a Realtor(tm) says. It’s been working out pretty well so far.
BTW, in my 20’s I left all my rentals in just as good a shape as I found them.
It’s been a long time since I was 20 yrs old but I have have a few bucks stashed away for when it IS MY time to buy a modest little shack.
I also have so much fun screwing with the ReatyWhores, that I believe that RE agents in 5-6 states would put a HIT CONTRACT out on me…IF they could still AFFORD IT
It is NOT true that all salesmen are lying sacks of poo. But that IS a very useful working assumption.
On the downside - noise at odd hours.
On the upside, young nice looking college girls.
I lived in an apartment complex not too far from ASU that had the above ingredients. The swimming pool was the most scenic part of the apartment complex.
Bill,
You’re sounding like a dirty, old man again!!!!
Sorry, but cute, young girls usually find it rather disgusting when old guys (guys over 30, if even that “old”) hang around staring at them. It’s just gross!
Although two friends from college married men in their upper 30s/low 40s right out of college. Neither marriage was particularly successful though.
Sorry, but cute, young girls usually find it rather disgusting when old guys (guys over 30, if even that “old”) hang around staring at them. It’s just gross!
That’s as may be, but in the college town where I currently rent, I’m just pleased that there’s a selection of decent bars, restaurants, and bookstores… The perennial march of the pretty coeds is just icing on the cake…
(Outside this town it’s basically strip malls and/or big box stores, gotta drive some miles for ‘culture’ otherwise, but it’s STILL better than getting stuck for NYC rents, taxes, prices, etc… That just constantly wears ya down :/)
One of the get-rich-for-dummies angles being pushed five or so years ago was to buy an apartment/house for your kid to live in insted of the dorms and “the price appreciation will pay for college!” or somesuch nonsense.
A lot fo parents are going to get burned, if they haven’t already.
I wonder how long these Real Estate Geniuses™ are going to rent their seedy college town condos at a loss, now that junior has graduated.
One more time for the Friday crowd
tampabay.com/news/business/banking/article967516.ece
Priceless, Muggy. Why is it that these stories ALWAYS seem to come out of Tampa?
Like I said, it’s NEVER boring in Florida. Especially Tampa.
“Karen Wallensak, who heads the Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center, said she had seen activity pick up again in the new year. She said she was dubious that many banks’ mortgage restructuring plans would help much in the long run, unless they write down principal on the mortgages. Efforts in Congress, she said, have done little so far to make banks give borrowers a break.”
Banks are supposed to write down principal, how about sellers cutting new buyers a bit of slack?
We looked at a house recently that was purchased for under $200k, but the seller is asking $340k for it. We offered $300k and they acted insulted. They stood to pocket over $100k, plus whatever they paid down on the mortgage and they’re insulted? Give me a break.
Be thankful they were insulted. You’ll find something cheaper while they ride that pig to the bottom.
Did they counter offer or just throw a snit ? I had a seller do this to me one time and they did me a big favor as the house dropped dramatically in value after I had bought another place.
She countered at $5k under full price, we gave her an entire week to think it over. We let the deal drop - turns out her agent had been misleading us as to her level of motivation.
“Wednesday lawmakers voted to take 190 million from a 300 million dollar affordable housing fund to balance the budget. Thursday the Homebuilders Vice President, Chuck Fowke, told the governor the cut was short sighted. ‘These moneys can be used to get people back into housing, that lost their housing in Foreclosure.’”
“Home construction was cut in half in 2008 and the need for new houses continues to shrink. Florida’s housing market is saturated… currently more than 300-thousand homes are empty.”
300 THOUSAND? Holy Cow!
On another note, do ya really think Fowke’s heart bleeds all that much for the foreclosure victims? Nah! He’s just pissed on account of they took some of the pie away from his homeys. LOL! He wants to give people a second chance at foreclosure.
They should have taken the entire fund to help balance the budget. Florida’s got plenty of affordable housing now, LMAO!
I was a bit bemused by that comment. So he wants them to be able to buy again, even though they got out of foreclosure recently? Or he wants to turn the property into city owned affordable rentals?
“And if the Bentley promotion doesn’t yield a sale? What’s next? A free ticket on a space tourism flight? A yacht? ‘We’re probably at the point where it’s unlikely that the offer is going to get sweetened any more,’ said Five Star spokesman Brendan Mann.”
Wow, a “free” Bentley, eh? Hey Brendan, here’s a suggestion:
LOWER THE F***ing PRICE!!
I love this empty, veiled threat from a developer (”unlikely that the offer is going to get sweetened any more”). This guy’s as delusional as an underwater FB. You won’t take our bait? Well, then I’m going to take my toys and go home! MOMMEEEE!!!
Maybe Brendan can try holding his breath or throwing a tantrum until his dream knife-catcher shows up.
Just wait another 6 months and buy them off the lenders REO list for half-price.
Scottsdale was Alt-A capital of Arizona and has a WORLD of hurt coming its way this year.
Higher-end houses in Fresno (yes HBBers, there are such places, so quit typing “oxymoron,” ) are still being held tightly by bank REO departments. But some of them are starting to move at much lower prices. It will further crush the comps.
Waterfront houses (we have some) are still in the stratosphere. We’ll see.
Saw a pelican yesterday, which i interpret as a good omen. This ain’t SLC.
Here, in the poor neighborhoods of greater Milwaukee, we attempt to trap fools with…drum roll… “Free 1999 Custom Harley Davidson Supercharged FatBoy….over $35k invested! check it out at this link”
http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/reo/994510127.html
Since the Fed lies, I take this as a sign that deflation is setting in.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/28695387
“The recent slide in consumer inflation reflects the collapse in energy prices and does not herald a slide into full-blown deflation, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday.”
I wish I saw deflation when I went food shopping, two bags of groceries are costing $70.
I’m still working on my Thanksgiving food sales. I stocked up on everything. Don’t tell the women folk but my name is mikey and I know how to shop and cook.
Two seperate turkeys( 24 and 20 pounders) for 32 cents a lb with each $25 dollar food purchase including the bird. One freebe 18 lb’er from a friend’s company who hates them. I was his family’s guest at Thanksgiving diner and we destroyed his other token 25 lb bird.
Everyone feels sorry for me being single, so I took home goodies and then cooked my 24 lb buzzard. I don’t mess around. I have stuffing, all kinds of pies and things crawling out of the freezer plus the all the canned and packaged turkey day stuff.
First bird is like Bush, history now, so Sunday I cook up and freeze my 20 lb victim and make soup out of his bones. I’ll be eating hot turkey sandwiches and soup into football Pre-Season..or next Thanksgiving
I worked on a turkey farm as a kid. I got attacked, clawed, pecked and vomited on in the hot sun for below minimum wage.
Revenge, is best served up HOT, with mashed patatoes and TURKEY gravy
Good grief man, how will you ever stay awake?
And Stuffing is Evil, at least according to Alton Brown
ps: there’s a sub shack in my town that will make basically Thanksgiving-in-a-sub all year round: turkey, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce..
DeNo’s, 2040 Washington, St, West Roxbury (Boston), MA. local deliveries: 469-DENO
Ask for “th’ Stuffa”.
True
A very worrisome development. LOL
“All around the water tank, waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talk
He said “If you got money, boy, I’ll see that you don’t walk
I haven’t got a nickel, not a penny can I show
“Get off, get off, you railroad bum” and slammed the boxcar door
He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me, the moon and the stars up above
Nobody seems to want me, or lend me a helping hand
I’m on my way from Frisco, going back to Dixieland
My pocket book is empty and my heart is full of pain
I’m a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train”
Jimmie Rodgers
“The Lofts has 27 residential units on the three upper floors, both one- and two-bedroom units. Each has a distinct floor plan. The condo units range in size from 916 square feet to 1,881 square feet. Prices for the units range from nearly $318,000 to $618,000. Developers struggled to find words to describe their project beyond being unique in the state.”
Delusional, absurd, unrealistic, overpriced, doomed, failure, laughable, pathetic- hmmmm, I’m not having any trouble at all finding words to describe this “unique project”.
I am absolutely shocked they even sold one unit. For posters not familiar with Yakima, WA, traditionally a well kept farmhouse on 5 acres is a tough, almost impossible sell at $300k. $318k for a 900 square foot condo downtown? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
They’re still trying the same thing in the Sugarhouse neighborhood area of Salt Lake ($300+/sq ft that is). Other projects lie vacant or never got past the ground clearing stage.
I plan on dropping in the next time I’m up there for business and see how things are going, considering all other finished projects start way lower and are dropping prices steadily.
It would be like having lofts in Evanston Wyoming! Ha!
All I remember about Yakima is desert on one side and farm land on the other side. Drove from Ft Lewis to Yakima many a time during my Army days.
OH, this is PRICELESS! Collyforkneeuh to suspend welfare checks and tax refunds. Can you say “riots”? There will be much sadness throughout the state, methinks. I would imagine Florida will be next, since we’re the wannabe state.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget17-2009jan17,0,4472460.story
WoW!
If the Northern states start cutting peoples welfare checks and benny’s with -30 wind chills, I’m buying an Uzzi and a BIGGER, meaner black lab.
Snoppy(aka Killer), remains unimpressed, fat and soundly sleeping on my foot
Hiya, mikey! I loves me a black lab, that foot of yours must be good and warm.
Probably the controller is just playing this to wake the pols up, I really can’t imagine they’d cut off welfare in CA, but you never know.
“…I really can’t imagine they’d cut off welfare in CA, but you never know.”
In the eighties when they tried this maneuver a judge ordered that welfare checks MUST be sent on-time! The CalTrans engineers were among those who received drafts.
I don’t get it. All these layoffs, business bankruptcies, etc. When’s the media bubble gonna end, eh? Seriously, where’s all the money coming from to fund the 24 hour news and punditry cycle, over the air and on cable? It’s unreal, you’d think at least a few of these channels would drop out and that at least one of these mediaheads would lose their gig. Who the heck is paying their salaries?
I mean, does this make sense to anyone? (Puts on tinfoil hat) d’ya think Uncle Sam has maybe been subsidizing some of these electronic media outlets, like the useless networks with their really lousy programming? I’ll betcha…it would make total sense to me.
Palmy,
I hate to say this but I think dear old Uncle Sam went A.W.O.L after President Eisenhower SCARED him with that 1961 beware of the Military-Industrial Complex Speech.
I think that we are and have been on our own since he bugged out
True, but I still don’t understand where all the money is coming from to pay all this personnel at the networks and cable stations. Really messes with my head, it’s not like there’s a ton of money floating around and, really, Hoda Kotpe?
Right-wing think tanks pay for almost every pundit you see on TV and on the op-ed pages. The actual reporters make jack - they’re cheap.
” If you can control the enemy’s communications, you can can control the flow of the battle and possibly and the War”
“Corporate MSM to American people..Testing..1..2..3 testing. How did YOU recieve OUR last communication ?..testing 1..2..3…”
Today Gannett will sell or close the Tucson Citizen. It starts small I guess.
The media bubble IS collapsing. It’s starting with print newspapers, but don’t forget each newspaper has an attached web presence. First the Chicago Tribune/LA Times group went bankrupt, then the NY Times started putting ads on the front page (a sign of despiration), then the Seattle PI announced they are closing on 10 March.
“A year earlier, in a column appearing in the North County Times, (”Housing Market Returning to Normal,” Aug. 7, 2006) Pattinson claimed forecasts of a declining housing market were unfounded. He scoffed at those who warned of a 60 percent probability that housing prices in San Diego would decline. “They didn’t say why or how much or when. Guess that wasn’t important,” he sneered. “As the market returns to normal,” Pattinson promised, “we in the homebuilding business are adapting, too. We are building more affordable homes for first-time buyers.”
He missed that call by over a million miles. BwaHaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAA!!!!
“The median price of a home in San Diego fell by 25 percent in the two years after Pattinson’s Pollyanna analysis of the housing market, according to HousingTracker.net.”
Try 40 percent plus, measured by Radar Logic on a price per square foot basis. Perhaps the 25 percent decline figure is based on the overall median sale price. As the ongoing crash plays out, the decline in overall median sale price will show up as less than the (implicitly quality-adjusted) price per square foot decline, as the average quality of homes selling steadily increases. The small pool of brave and qualified buyers can drive a hard bargain to pay bottom dollar for the best house they can afford.
“…St. Louis area was flat in the last three months of the year, compared with the previous quarter, RealtyTrac said. For all of 2008, nearly one in 50 homes was at some point of the foreclosure process at least once, a statistic up 40 percent from 2007.”
1 in 50 sounds more like a California foreclosure rate…I guess it ain’t so different there in flyover country?
Come to think of it, 1 in 50 is a lot lower than the 1 in 3 mentioned for San Bernardino and Riverside counties in one of yesterday’s posts…
1 in 3 was at risk, not already in foreclosures. I think that’s a huge difference.
Right — I missed that distinction. I am not sure of what percent of the 1 in 3 in San Bernardino-Riverside are likely to actually enter “some point in the foreclosure process at least once” over the next year…
I’d bet that “at some point in the foreclosure procee” means that a NOD has been sent. So 1 in 50 isn’t nearly as bad as parts of CA.
Good Luck Chuck Fowke
Put an offer in on a foreclosure today. Single family house that needs a new roof and probably about 5k worth of other work to be habitable. Loan company won’t loan on it unless the roof is certified. The foreclosure is now owned by a company called Assetlink which is a subsidiary of Service link wich is owned by Fidelity National Title Group. The asking price was 19 perent below the amount last owed on the house and I offered 5% below that with them paying for the roof repair and my closing costs. They budged very little and came down only about 1900 bucks with their counter offer. I countered that by lowering my offer by the cost of the new roof and paying my own costs. My counter offer was 9 percent below their initial asking price. I bet they don’t take it and the house sits on the market for another six months or a year before they do. By that time I will have moved on. Let me point out that I live is a market that is not considered declining but housing prices have dropped quite a bit here. I think the problem is that the companies these foreclosed homes have been turned over to no longer have skin in the game. They don’t have any motive to get these houses off the books. The original loan has already been written off and Assetlink and others are sitting on these properties while the market continues to decline. I don’t know what the solution is but my conclusion is that the bailout wasn’t it. The house would have been below the cost of a rental if they had taken my offer. At their price it would have been break even or a little above. In a declining market, I have to have a bettter deal than that or I won’t buy.
“Let me point out that I live is a market that is not considered declining but housing prices have dropped quite a bit here.”
WTF??? What is your definition of a market that is declining? Mine is that the housing prices have dropped quite a bit (and are still dropping)…
I am curious to what group you refer when you say ‘is not considered declining’? It wouldn’t per chance be your local NAR members, would it?
A declining market is those that the lenders have identified as such and want 25 percent or more down on a property in order to lend on it at all. You are right that all markets are declining but the lenders are treating California, Florida, Arizona and a few others differently than flyover country. If they called the whole of the US declining, the housing market would be even more chaotic than it already is.
I don’t listen to NAR. A realtor I know thinks we are at the bottom and, of course, I told her there are at least two more years to go. I am willing to take a slight hit by buying now for the right property for personal reasons but I will not put myself deeply underwater from the git go. My main point was that the way these foreclosure companies operate, with no vested interest in turing over the properties will only prolong the slide.
it sounds like you made them a pretty good offer considering the market will fall another year or two. but, if it is the right place i say go for it. I have seen a couple houses i would have bought here in phoenix for 40k and 55k, 1700 and 1500 sq/ft. older from 1970. needed roofs and carpet and could use updated interior. but, they sold very fast. so, i decided the deal will have to come to me…i won’t rush or force the issue. otherwise, like you…i’ll rent and keep all my cash!
Because an empty house with a roof that needs work will only become more valuable? Arguably the roof is the most important part of a house. Once you start getting rainwater into the structure, it isn’t long before you might as well just hire a bulldozer to plow the rotten carcass into the basement.
There are no leaks in the roof. We get very little rain or snow here. Roof cannot be certified unless it is replaced. Ergo no one can get a loan without replacing the roof. I had two options. I could buy with cash by taking it out of the equity of my current home which is 100% paid for and pay out of pocket for the roof repair ot I could get a new loan on this property after fixing the roof out of pocket. Square footage wise it is the best value of everything we have seen and we have seen a lot. I am not buying the house as an investment, so the house becoming more valuable is not necessarily at the front of my mind. I will be happy if it holds 80% of present value at the bottom of the market. if I get it for what I want to pay for it, it will be less than rent for any similar property and it will provide a permenant place for some family members to live. The fact that it could become a rental property at some time in the future and that once it is quickly paid for, in less than 8 years, would probably provide a better return than my 401K is a consideration down the road. The market is my area is very affected by the fact that there is a large military presence and most buyers and renters have access to VA funding on a purchase, or a large BAH to pay rent. The market won’t fall as far here in the lower end because of this, even though I suspect that I have lost at least 150K in equity on paper in my high end (paid for) house. Again, my point was that the companies that are handling foreclosures have no vested interest in unloading them. The loss has already been written off elsewhere and that this will prolong the slide.
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When foreclosures outnumber new homes
Posted by Scott Van Voorhis January 16, 2009 09:00 AM
Here’s another bad sign of the times.
The number of people losing their homes to foreclosure across the country is now outstripping the number of new homes being built.
More than 860,000 homes were foreclosed on last year, a new report by RealtyTrac finds. Overall, banks and other lenders sent out more than 3 million foreclosure notices last year, signaling the start of the foreclosure process.
That means more than 200,000 homes last year were seized by banks and other lenders than were built by developers.
All told, builders were on track, as of last November, to build just 640,000 new homes and condos in 2008. That’s the lowest amount in decades and it’s far below the watershed 1 million mark. In past downturns, when annual housing starts fell below a million, they quickly rebounded.
Not so this time around.
Some of this is common sense, though. With the market flooded with cheap, bank-owned properties, it is clearly depressing the demand for new homes and condos.
Still, that doesn’t make it any less sad.
The truth be told, the house prices in California are still too high.
Banks/govt can only do so much, house prices are totally unreasonable. Sellers are not willing to face the fact that their houses are not worth what they think it does. Sellers look to their houses as their pension, 401K ….but we have all lost almost half of that in this poor economy why not the house value. I think to get the housing market moving in SoCal, house prices need to drop at least another 25% … we have to go back to the pre-bubble prices.
i know 2 people who have rented out thier house and are not making payments. I as a taxpayer is going to pick up the tab. They think it is perfectly moral and a smart thing to do.
This is going to end bad!
The bank’s senior vice president in charge of mortgage lending tried to get Inserra to ‘hit a number,’ industry parlance for inflating the appraisal. He wouldn’t do it.”
“‘The discussion got so heated,’ recalled Inserra, ‘that he threatened to do harm to my family if I didn’t co-operate. I really thought he might do it. I got a restraining order from a judge.’”
“In the end, the banker didn’t hurt his family, but he did punish Inserra by depriving him of the $200,000 in annual business he had been getting from the bank.”
What a scumbag. And he’s probably still riding high and whining for a bailout. This jerk belongs in jail.