Bits Bucket For July 7, 2009
Post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here. Please visit the HBB Forum. And see the American Visionaries series from Schwarzfilm.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
November 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Obama Adviser Says U.S. Should Mull Second Stimulus…
July 7 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.
The current plan “will have a positive effect, but the real economy is a sicker patient,” Tyson said in a speech in Singapore today. The package will have a more pronounced impact in the third and fourth quarters, she added, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not the administration.
Tyson’s comments contrast with remarks made two days ago by Vice President Joe Biden and fellow Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee, who said it was premature to discuss crafting another stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take effect. The government is facing criticism that the first package was rolled out too slowly and failed to stop unemployment from soaring to the highest in almost 26 years.
Obama said last month that a second package isn’t needed yet, though he expects the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent this year. When Obama signed the first stimulus bill in February, his chief economic advisers forecast it would help hold the rate below 8 percent.
Unemployment increased to 9.5 percent in June, the highest since August 1983. The world’s largest economy has lost about 6.5 million jobs since December 2007.
Worse Than Forecast
“The economy is worse than we forecast on which the stimulus program was based,” Tyson, who is a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory board, told the Nomura Equity Forum. “We probably have already 2.5 million more job losses than anticipated.”
Looks like it won’t be long before the spending in the War On Savers exceeds the spending on World War II.
Well Like DUH…and how about targeting Americans? Like putting a cap on credit card interest rates, cutting fees…..lowering it to 0% for 5 years….so all goes toward principle reduction…
Or have CC companies forgive part of the debt just like short sales , and not be responsible for the taxes on “the gain”
Fair is Fair!
——————-
The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package
Why don’t they PAY OFF their credit cards and sacrifice?? We did it and are debt free! Ever hear of getting a second job or not buying that flat screen TV? Stop CONSUMING!!
+1
In my observation “improving” the debt servicing conditions (reducing interest etc.) only serves to encourage more debt, not help people pay it off.
Just look at the mortgage mess itself. When interest rates went through the floor in 2001-2004 - did it encourage people to pay off their mortgages?
packman,
++1,
For every responsible couple that said, “Wow, what a great window of opportunity to re-fi down to a 15 year FRM!” ( there were 10,000 that ATM’d it )
I’m probably being generous at that.
How can people find second jobs when many can’t even find a first job?
See: The Ant and the Grasshopper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
Perhaps companies are scared to hire because of the Obama “stimulus”.
Maybe all this unstoppable government spending is prompting millions of companies and individuals to pull back and not spend, thus slowing the economy yet sooner.
It has me - and I’m cheap to begin with.
“Sooner”? WTF. Oh, well.
“Maybe all this unstoppable government spending is prompting millions of companies and individuals to pull back and not spend…”
Guilty as charged. Nothing that’s being done inspires me to buy anything more than groceries right now.
“How can people find second jobs when many can’t even find a first job?”
Exactly. Apparently, the horrific job market still isn’t resonating with many. Only when they find themselves pounding the pavement to no avail, will they realize what’s happening in this country. There are not enough jobs. But, we continue to import millions of legal, and illegal, immigrants to compete with our unemployed citizens for work.
What he said…….
Talked to a former co-worker in Connecticut yesterday……same story as here in the middle of the country…..business down 40% across the board, nobody is hiring, all kinds of experienced people looking for work. Everyone is lamenting the loss of workforce mobility. Why relocate if nobody is hiring?
Article online today reports that the only “growth” in private sector jobs in past 2-3 years was in “education” and “health care”………in my mind, these are “government” jobs, because government does most of the spending for these services.
Education would be taking a major hit right now too if the stimulus plan didn’t include money to the states used as a stopgap in the education budget. I know our district was looking at a whole lot better budget after the fed money got a boost.
Because we live in an instant gratification society.
‘Cmon. If you don’t buy a flat-screen TV what are
the neighbors going to think? They are
probably gossiping behind your back
right now!
Because we live in an instant gratification society.
I’ve been lusting after a Bose Cinemate speaker system lately.
But one hand keeps smacking the other when it tries to pull out the $500 to pay for it.
32″ flat panel TVs are $400 now, piled up at Wal*Mart. It’s not like it’s a big purchase anymore. A hand full of groceries can run $100. TVs cost nothing.
32″ flat panel TVs are $400 now, piled up at Wal*Mart. It’s not like it’s a big purchase anymore.
And good luck finding a regular CRT tv any more.
The “big screen LCD/Plasma TV as wasteful spending” metaphor is getting a little weak/obsolete.
I paid $800 for a 46 inch LCD TV last November.
“The “big screen LCD/Plasma TV as wasteful spending” metaphor is getting a little weak/obsolete.”
“I paid $800 for a 46 inch LCD TV last November.”
That is pretty reasonable but it is still a decent chunk of change. If you are slapping that TV on a credit card then you shouldn’t buy it.
I think it would be pretty wasteful for me when I have a perfectly good TV in my living room. And when it breaks I still think I’d go with something a bit smaller and less expensive. My priorities aren’t impressing people.
I bought a flat screen TV so that I would never have to move the monstrosity that I had ever again. It seriously took 2 people to move it. The end of the CRT is liberating. We have an LCD that’s bigger than the old tube tv and I can pick it up and carry it across the room without looking for a weight belt, dolly, and gullible friend. Well worth the cost of updating.
I can pick it up and carry it across the room without looking for a weight belt, dolly, and gullible friend.
Friends help you move.
Good friends help you move bodies.
I just couldn’t get myself to go for the flat screen with the tech changing so quickly. I paid $25 for a 27 inch CRT (Sony, about 5 years old) off craig’s list.
I’ll look again when the whole getting TV off the internet thing is common place rather than something you have to figure out.
Lots of us without cable or satellite had to purchase a new TV because of the digital changeover. You can get CRT tv’s at pawn shops still but they wouldn’t work without a converter box.
ok I confess - we bought a flat screen at Costco ($399, the cheapest they had, because, uh, well, I’m a cheapskate).
we live in a small SFH in the city, alwasy tripping over each other or the dogs and cats or kids.
It was worth the extra square footage to hang the TV on the wall.
Just move your chairs closer to your 24 incher. Voila. It’s like getting a new TV for free!
You go EastBayRenter.
BTW, how the heck have you been?
I foresee another stimilus package eventually being passed which will surely lead to a W shaped recovery. Problem is once we reach the tail end of the W it’s straight down from there.
The question is - Where are the jobs going to come from?
“The question is - Where are the jobs going to come from?”
Old economy:
Americans built houses, bought goodies from China, sold mortgage debt for the goodies.
New economy:
Americans build roads, buy goodies from China, sell Treasuries for the goodies.
Infrastructure jobs simply put the illegal aliens back to work, enriching their crooked masters. When I hear “where are the jobs coming from?”, I’m thinking about sustainable jobs for legal citizens. On that front, there’s only bad news. Job destruction as far as the eye can see.
Every road repaving project I’ve seen lately looks like this:
- A couple of guys in the foreman’s pickup trucks
-2 to 4 guys operating the equipment
- A half dozen truck drivers hauling materials
-A dozen or so illegals with shovels.
With the new equipment they have now, you can put down a lot of concrete/asphalt without a huge number of people.
I don’t see any contractors sticking their necks out to buy new equipment to work “temporary stimulus” projects…
at best, it will keep existing workers on the payroll. At worst, it will drive up the cost of these projects, because a limited number of contractors will cherry-pick the projects.
X-GSfixer makes a good point about the illegals. In general, they’re working in the unskilled and low-skill areas of construction.
You’re not going to see many of them among the ranks of the master plumbers or electricians. Reason: They don’t have the education and English language skills.
The blood letting at HP is ramping up, especially in the printer division. Apparently HP has lost market share in printers. Of course, the logical way to recover it is to cut R&D spending, just to make sure the products become even less competitive (it worked for GM and Chrysler, right?).
“X-GSfixer makes a good point about the illegals. In general, they’re working in the unskilled and low-skill areas of construction.
You’re not going to see many of them among the ranks of the master plumbers or electricians. Reason: They don’t have the education and English language skills.”
Wrong. They work in all areas. They start out at the bottom, and like most tradesman, are learning on the job. But, they work for peanuts, and displace the higher paid skilled workforce as they move up the ranks working for less. You only need one bilingual on the job site to communicate with those who don’t speak a lick of English. I’ve got many friends who are contractors. I know exactly what’s going on, and they’re more than willing to talk about it. Why would they hire a journeyman framer at $28 per hour when they can get Pablo for $8? When everyone is using Pablo, you can’t even compete playing by the rules.
“….master plumbers or electricians…..”
We had commercial contractors come out to the shop, when they put in the camera, security and fire alarm systems. They let me know that a “commercial” electrical contractor is a cut or two above a “residential” contractor.
(Justifiably, IMO, when you compare their work to some of the residential installs I’ve seen).
And let’s not forget it is all Obama’s fault too, right?
Blah blah blah
Must… destroy… savers! And the dollar!
Debt Burden Quickens Power Shift as G-8 Loses Clout…
By James G. Neuger
July 7 (Bloomberg) — The world’s most affluent nations will take decades to work off the biggest buildup in debt since World War II. The political costs may be permanent, laid bare at this week’s Group of Eight summit of leading industrial powers.
Bank bailouts and recession-fighting measures will explode the debt of the advanced economies to at least 114 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, more than triple the 35 percent of the main emerging economies including China, the International Monetary Fund forecasts.
The run-up in debt has hastened a power shift that is sapping the industrial world’s authority to impose its economic doctrine, currency arrangements or greenhouse-gas reduction strategies. Even some G-8 officials acknowledge that the group has lost its grip amid the global recession they spawned.
The eight-nation forum that starts tomorrow in L’Aquila, Italy is “a lot less relevant given its makeup and given developments in the world,” French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said July 5. “Big players, like emerging economies, India, China or Mexico, are invited, but they’re given only a jump seat outside of the main summit.”
The industrial world is beset by the harshest economic conditions in a lifetime: a projected U.S. budget deficit of 13.6 percent of GDP in 2009, unmatched since World War II; an annualized 14.2 percent contraction in Japanese GDP in the first quarter, also the worst since the war; in the first three months of 2009, German exports had their steepest quarterly decline since 1970 when the data were first compiled.
Generation Greed partied; those under 45 face an Argentine future.
One way to get them back: don’t buy housing from those who came before for anything other than the lowest possible price.
Seems like all the generations were pretty greedy in this thing.
all the generations were pretty greedy ??
Agreed….I don’t see many Hummers and $60,000. wake board boats with the 50 and over group…
Yeah, but the Hummer/flat screen TV types are taking a hit, while the Social Security set isn’t.
I would not generally disagree (although the only income for my mother & mother-in-law is their social security check) but the discussion was what generation was “Greedy” during this period…I agreed with “First” that all generations participated in the greed…
We got a boomer FSBO couple up the road looking for an FB to fund their retirement. The house has been on the market the better part of four years; its about 40 years old with the decor to match.
“are taking a hit”
We had a couple visit up from LV over the 4th and boy are their finances a mess. They had a much older car than the near new Expedition they had when we last visited down there and the husband told me it’s their ‘only’ vehicle.
So now that mom has gone ‘back’ to work, he’s stuck at home in 115 degree heat. He told me on the side they’re thinking about just walking away from their gated community home in Anthem.
But it got me to thinking, after doing nothing but sacrificing and scrimping over the last decade or so ( while these people were taking trips to Ireland, Israel and China ) if maybe it’s not time for the wife and I to live a little? I’m 50 and she’s 46, we have very little debt and our kids are becoming more self-sufficient by the day. At what point IS it “o.k” for some of the more frugal among us to enjoy?
Yes, enjoy (in moderation). Continue your counter-cyclical behavior by starting to eat out more now and take a few trips.
Do it now, DinOR. How’s that for an answer?
Timid? Okay. Perhaps you can fake yourself out a bit. Plan a trip for 2010 and start putting away money for the trip starting next month. As you save for the trip, you’ll get a better idea of how much “living a little costs”.
Don’t use money you’ve already saved; doing so will not help you determine for yourself whether it is “okay”.
Ah yes, the blame and whiner cycle begins. Blame and whine about each other while the real thieves walk away. Divide and conquer. An old tactic, yet seems to work quite well.
“if maybe it’s not time for the wife and I to live a little? I’m 50 and she’s 46, we have very little debt and our kids are becoming more self-sufficient by the day. At what point IS it “o.k” for some of the more frugal among us to enjoy?”
When I look back, I can say without reservation I had much more peace of mind, relaxation and overall enjoyment renting a nice little cottage on the coast for 1k then I did continually travelling from locale to locale, continuously packing and unpacking on a trip that cost thousands more. Why spend a fortune to go back to work exausted? We went on a beautiful picnic last weekend by the river 20 miles from our home. Had more fun and therapeutic effect from that simple, wondeful day than running around Disneyland for three days with hordes of loud, pushy mouth breathers.
I’m finding more and more as I get older that we’ve been duping ourselves into thinking something won’t be as enjoyable because it doesn’t cost a fortune, and/or it isn’t in some far off locale. Complete crock of S**t. No amount of “fashionable consumption” is going to instill happiness. It comes from within, pure and simple.
DOC
“Ah yes, the blame and whiner cycle begins. Blame and whine about each other while the real thieves walk away. Divide and conquer. An old tactic, yet seems to work quite well.”
Good point. This has been the tactic for quite some time. Keep them scared, dumbed down, in-fighting and consuming–while we fleece them over and over.
“America used to be beautiful, now it’s just one big strip-mall.” George Carlin
DOC
Soon grasshopper(or should that be ant) it will be time to buy their fancy toys used at pennies on the dollar.
Who wants them, even for free?
No amount of “fashionable consumption” is going to instill happiness. It comes from within, pure and simple.
Very well said.
“Don’t use the money you’ve already saved”
Wow, good point, I feel better already! In ways that would have felt awfully counter productive. Like you’re giving up some hard earned gains?
“continually travelling from locale to locale”
I think there’s an earful there. Probably a good part of the reason I’ve resisted the temptation to-date. Crowded airports, cattle calls at the car rental and being treated like a tourist. Great… One of the other attributes I’ve found to staying put was that your trip seems to last a lot longer.
“blame and whiner cycle”
? It’s simply a comparison of lifestyles, nothing more. If anything, with my pro-position on cram-downs, plugging the holes in outsourcing and emphasis on sensible retirement packages for public employees I ( along w/ WT Economist ) are probably 2 of the more “pro-FB” posters here. Although we’ll never get credit for it?
“Blame and whine about each other while the real thieves walk away.”
Point taken, SFGal. But I don’t think it’s out of place to mention the B- and C-grade thieves, especially when they’ve gotten very little notice anywhere else.
DinOR….
GTFOO Dodge. Your personal sanity almost demands it.
If for no other reason, there are some pretty amazing deals out there. Especially if you can schedule stuff in the off-season.
I’m saving for my oldest daughter’s Las Vegas wedding in October.
“B- and C-grade thieves”
Right, and there isn’t a whole lotta’ “each other” here to lean on? In terms of lifestyle, the only way most posters ‘here’ could have any less in common w/ MEW-aholics is if we lived in a different country?
Again I think there’s a real disconnect here AND in the MSM that most FB’s -were- part of the workforce. Further, we seldom seem to connect the dots that the FB’s j-o-b was ( in many cases ) treated as nothing more than a way to leverage themselves into the biggest home the lender would allow.
Other than clowns like Casey Serin, you really can’t seperate the two.
DinOr this was not an attack on you.
I was posting about the attack on the generations, the attack on the races, the attack on the sexes etc.. that happens here on this blog. The anger is misplaced.
I’m sure the real thieves are more than happy to let us tear each other apart.
X-GSfixer,
LOL! Yeah, I like the way you think. For us here in OR it’s about getting a “real” summer. Or should I say a “full” summer. That’s why I’ve always targeted May and Sep/Oct.
Beyond June, July & August we really don’t have any guarantees here? And as DOC says, it needn’t be anything “exotic”.
Oh congrats on the Wedding too! You’ll get through it.
I’m saving for my oldest daughter’s Las Vegas wedding in October.
I’ll be going to vegas at the end of this month. It’s the best time of year to go, right? I hear the weather is wonderful!
We got a boomer FSBO couple up the road looking for an FB to fund their retirement. The house has been on the market the better part of four years
Save a boomer. Buy a house, fund a retirement.
(Disclaimer: I’m a renting boomer)
Her thinking was, “Who want’s to go out of their way to go to Wichita for a wedding?”
She doesn’t want a Bridezilla wedding, just wants to get married with friends and family, and give everybody a reason to go to Vegas and play around for a few days.
Allegiant Airlines has direct flights to Vegas for approx $200 Roundtrip, and all the hotels are running specials/discounts…..we are working on a deal to try to get a special rate for 30-40 people, if we stay at the same place. We’ll see how it goes.
“real summer”
Although the highs and lows have not been as bad the past few summers/winters, typically it’s way too cold (with little or no snow) to do anything outside between mid December and March, and too freaking hot (95+ or higher) between end of May and mid September…….basically, we have about 4 months a year that are fairly tolerable.
I remember a week when i was in Wichita…….snowed 18 inches on Wednesday; on Friday it was 75 and sunny. First summer I was there (1980), temperature was 105 or better for something like 45 days straight……as I recall, night temps never dropped below 90 or 95.
Our hangar door faced west, so the concrete floor started heat-soaking from 2pm until 8-9pm. Has no airflow thru the hangar, so it would still be between 95-100 degrees in the hangar when we left @ 2AM.
John Keegan wrote that no place on the planet has the temp extremes that you see on the Great Plains. If there is a place, let me know, so I can give it a wide berth……
The wife and I went to the Sequoias over the weekend: Saw Crescent meadow and Thule log, hiked the sierra trail, took a tour of crystal cavern. It *was* a 5 hour drive from our house, but that was about 350 miles, and cost us 1 tank of gas in her older Ford taurus each way. On the way back we stopped in to check on my parents house who live right up the valley from one of our very own HBBers on the Kern river.
We stopped and had a steak dinner in Visalia on the way back. Overall, i think we spent about $150 including the $22 cave admission and $50 dinner bill. We had a great time, saw a juvenile bear foraging(I know those stories are touchy here), and got to breathe some clean mountain air while enjoying amazing scenery. My point is, why would you wait to do something this amazing, and this affordable? Every state in the union has amazing destinations within driving distance. (Even Texas)
Maybe I should get an HBB bus, and lead HBB camping trips to all the great destinations we have in CA.
“Agreed….I don’t see many Hummers and $60,000. wake board boats with the 50 and over group…”
The former owner of this REO property owned two Hummers both in “look at me” yellow! He was over 50; well at least he looked it.
http://syracuse.craigslist.org/reb/1251184072.html
Instead of blaming the baby boomer generation why don’t you target your wrath at the inherent corruption on Walt Street led by banks such as Goldman Sachs (Rubin, Geithner, Paulson, Thain, et al. all former GS), the Federal Reserve (lobby your congressman to support the audit of the Fed HR1207 / S 604), Fannie / Freddie and the enabling political hacks on both sides of the aisle (Frank, Dodd, W, et al.) that act as enablers so the bankers / investment banks can continue feeding at the trough and benefit on the way up and when it comes crashing down!
The financial and political systems are rotten to the core!
“Instead of blaming the baby boomer generation why don’t you target your wrath at the inherent corruption on Walt Street led by banks such as Goldman Sachs (Rubin, Geithner, Paulson, Thain, et al. all former GS), the Federal Reserve (lobby your congressman to support the audit of the Fed HR1207 / S 604), Fannie / Freddie and the enabling political hacks on both sides of the aisle (Frank, Dodd, W, et al.)”
Those ARE the boomers!!!
From Wikipedia:
When President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Ford assumed the presidency.
Ford served 29 months as President until January 20, 1977 and presided over what were then the worst economic times since the 1930s, as the cost of living rose higher than at any time since the collapse of the Confederate dollar.
Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush Sr. were all major politicos back in those days.
The VERY SAME folks in Bush Jr. admin.
Theses are your real culprits.
Thanks, I have been investigating this for years looking for the real culprits. Now I can rest easy
> The run-up in debt has hastened a power shift that is sapping the industrial world’s authority to impose its economic doctrine, currency arrangements or greenhouse-gas reduction strategies.
They say this like it is a bad thing.
U.S. Home Prices to Fall Through 2011’s First Quarter, PMI Says
July 7 (Bloomberg) — Home prices may fall in more than half of the largest U.S. cities through the first quarter of 2011 as unemployment and foreclosures rise, mortgage insurer PMI Group Inc. said.
Thirty of the 50 biggest metropolitan areas have at least a 75 percent chance of lower prices through March 31, 2011, Walnut Creek, California-based PMI said in a report today. The decline is likely to spread to “all regions of the nation” from California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, the states most affected by the housing slump, PMI said.
“The housing market has been hit by a demand shock of high unemployment and a supply shock of distressed foreclosure sales,” LaVaughn Henry, senior economist at PMI, the fourth- largest U.S. mortgage insurer, said in an interview.
Unemployment rose to 9.5 percent in June, bringing the total number of jobs lost to 6.5 million since December 2007, the Labor Department said July 2. Foreclosure filings may hit a record 1.8 million in the first half of the year as more jobless homeowners default on their loans, real estate data service RealtyTrac Inc. said last month.
Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas dropped 18.1 percent in April from a year earlier, following an 18.7 decrease in March, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Prices are forecast to fall 41.7 percent from their peak, Deutsche Bank AG analysts led by Karen Weaver wrote in a June 15 report.
Florida Drops Predicted
“Affordability is no longer the driving issue in the housing market, and we believe prices still have a ways to fall in many areas before home prices reach their trough,” the Deutsche Bank analysts wrote.
Sweeeet! Makes T-bills and Savings bonds balances seem more significant!
PMI says through first quarter of 2011. They did not predict the price slide won’t continue beyond that.
I think the bottom will be February 2011 with two brutal drops during each winter down market. Remember, we’ve been going through the best time of the year to sell a home. May, June, or August compete to be the best closing months of the year. January and February are the least kind to sellers…
I agree with this prediction. Well… maybe a little more drop on price.
People are spooked. That shouldn’t be happening during the fun summer months…
Got Popcorn?
Neil
I don’t think so. Remember how much shadow inventory is out there. It takes a long long time for those houses to make it to the MLS.
Might also see the houses sold in bulk to investment firms that will sit on them for a long time.
Perhaps we will be close enough to the bottom that it doesn’t matter but expect things to drift down slowly for several more years. The modifications and other slow bleed programs have the potential to drag this out for another decade.
Sitting on a house doesn’t do anything to improve its attractiveness to the next buyer. If anything, this sort of house-sitting creates a huge maintenance and repair problem.
In short, houses need people to take care of them. (A point that my house reminds me of on a regular basis.)
House just hit the MLS last week or so. I’m gonna guess it’s been vacant since last fall when the owner, a financial guy of some sort, was arrested for embezzlement. I hear there’s a pipe coming through the wood floor in the living room and mold absolutely everywhere. A lot of the ceilings and cabinets have just plain been ripped it. It’s in a pretty decent middle class neighborhood. My heart fell for the neighbors. The home is only a few decades old and the person passing on the comments told me you could tell it had once been a really nice house.
Why are letting their collateral go to ruin?
Well CarrieAnn, they probably have no idea the place is falling down. I doubt anyone has actually visited the place.
One of biggest problems with this entire disaster has been analysts and decision makers “mistaking the map for the terrain” at all levels, along with the insane greed.
You’re right ecofeo. I wonder if we’ll ever hear a dollar figure on the value of homes left to rot.
Hope every May, desperation every October.
Spooked, or not, speculators are buying in droves right now in distressed markets. For instance, in Reno, NV where the median is down 50%, the number of houses sold last month of 511 is as high as it was during the peak 4 years ago, albeit at much lower prices. The median actually increased a bit. The fact is, there are buyers out there. I don’t believe prices will ramp up, and I think that the number of speculators buying is troubling, but buyers there are.
Bantering,
This reminds me of a story my BIL told us the other night. The former owners of his multi unit Victorian rental used to pay him to screen and sign tenants. They were very careful who they allowed in and my BIL and others felt lucky to be there as they all helped cleaning the yard, planting flowers and generally making the place even more beautiful.
Fast forward to a few years ago, the local owners had to sell after their son suffered a horrible accident. The new owners were speculators from NJ. We’re outside Syracuse. They didn’t care who moved in as long as they paid rent. They tried to get my bil to do the same screening but seemed surprised that they ought to pay him for it. My bil moved out almost immediately feeling some real discomfort at how the place was going downhill fast. Now the cops are there regularly and its regarded as an area slipping into slumlike conditions. Just up the hill is some really high priced property for sale right next to a gated home or two.
So I’m waiting for the next story in this saga to be the deterioration of rental property standards.
That’s sad, CarrieAnn.
Yeah, Bantering.
Sad and scary. Because even as a homeowner you might not be aware how many of your neighbors are speculator-owned rentals.
A co-worker indicated that he now has about 28% of his mortgage note paid down, but they are still charging PMI. I told him to talk to the lender. They said, “No problem…for $308.00, we’ll check it out.”
Call a lawyer.
James,
Well, if it comes to that. How can that not be disappointing? Typical REIC’sta, only two years ago PMI couldn’t see a bubble, now they’re freaking out. Oh and at the mortgage payer’s expense, of course.
Wouldn’t he charge more than the $308? Quite a bit more?
Tell the co-worker to check his mortgage for any mention of fees for discharging the PMI. Also check anything that he’s received from the lender about fees.
If there is no mention of fees anywhere, the co-worker should pay the PMI next month, then file an action in small claims court for getting the money back.
This is advice from one of the many books I’ve read about real estate. It was written by a lawyer who’d used this ploy a few times to rid himself of PMI charges.
Refugee,
Sound advice. Then he could apply the amt. that would normally go into the PMI Black Hole toward paying down his mortgage. Assuming finances permit?
I bet the fees are to pay for an appraisal.
Yes, if the value of the house has declined more than 8% he may STILL be obliged to pay PMI. Check the fine print.
I think we should draft another stimulus and another and another….
I don’t see how the “Japan plan” is going to work out. Increasingly large amounts of government debt will end up being a major burden on US business structure going forward.
I’d like to recommend this Aleynikov dude for a Congressional Medal of Honor. Anyone know how I go about doing that?
I’d like to recommend this Aleynikov dude for a Congressional Medal of Honor. Anyone know how I go about doing that?
From the article
“The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways,”
Now we know how stuttering hank made money. No wonder he was appointed as treasury secretary by the gang from Texas.
“…..could use it to manipulate the market in unfair ways.”
(left unsaid)
“Unlike Goldman Sachs, who only manipulate the market in unselfish, altruistic ways…….”
I think I just hurt myself laughing!
You took the words right out of my mouth.
I’m trying to decide whether to be frightened or just chalk it up to hype.
The bloomberg article states that whoever gets their hands on the code could do some real damage to American markets.
My question is, what was Goldman doing with it? Are they any better than whoever has it now? If it’s so powerful, no one, or everyone should have it.
It would take another bank months to set up the right equipment to take advantage of the algorithms.
They could use the Amazon cluster service.
Slang/SecDB are not exactly common.
“The bloomberg article states that whoever gets their hands on the code could do some real damage to American markets.”
LOL, damage like Goldman? I’m looking for tin foil… this sounds like the fall guy for whatever is about to happen to stocks — another leg down. Aren’t we tracking the first GD in lock step?
Combo, are you still out there?
I agree with you, Muggy. I’m following this story with avid interest. Something stinks like ten-day-old fish. First of all, this incident comes hard on the heels of Matt Taibbi’s excellent Rolling Stone article. What a coinkydink! Secondly, this guy seems sort of hapless, almost like a deer caught in the headlights. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was being scapegoated for something big time. I mean, if I’d done what he was accused of, I wouldn’t be flying into Newark Airport from outside of the US, right into the arms of the FBI.
And speaking of which, one commentator was struck by the swiftness of the FBI’s actions in the case, lamenting the fact that the FBI just doesn’t seem to move as fast in cases of potential terrorism. He called the FBI Goldman’s “security firm”, LOL!
If program trading can damage American markets so badly, then we’ve got a problem and that system should be relegated to Las Vegas, not in an arena where millions of people, just regular folks trying to go about their lives, can be affected. That’s the real problem.
And by “markets” they mean “Goldman”. I suppose the only real damage to the markets would be the loss of faith in Goldman. Another side-effect of too-big-to-fail.
And the “German” website he uploaded to wasn’t a hacker site, per se, but rather just a file sharing site. If you didn’t know the file name, you would never be able to find it.
An immigrant Ruskie, a hi fi trading VP developer with proven record at GS, a Rutgers and Moscow Institute of Transportation Engineering background with trips to the motherland.
I bet that this guy was on someone’s gov’t issued “Etch A Sketch” board with a handy dandy Advanced Person of Interest Monitoring Program that sends out daisies, unicorns and red 5 star clusters when certain varibles align with Aquarius, the NSA beehive and the little blue moon.
I bet you’re right, Mikey. I read the article and immediately thought, Russian govt has to be involved somehow.
Russkie made $400K/year coding at GS. Not shabby. Wonder what their sysadmin/netadmins make
When I was a kid, some Phd ijitts gave me Big Time access to and lots of shared time on one of the gov’t 1st mainframe supercomputers, an old CDC 6600 (think Seymour Cray and the Wisconsin boyz.) yeah, old 70’s stuff in an cool undergound Washington, DC location and everything but it was the FASTEST computer in the world at the time and I was TOTALLY unsupervised and had plenty of time on my hands.
Plus, at the time, I knew how this THING, the wires and rooms full of stuff actually worked….basically. Some programer guy down in New Mexico used to call me when his CDC toy used to hang up or crash at night.
I could have OWNED Wall Street, Washington and the even known world…except none of my evil little hippie friends had a computer and there was NO FREAKIN’ INTERNET .
Yeah…I’m that old and now I can’t even outfumble my neighbor’s kids to KICK them off my stupid wifi connection.
…..Auggggggggh
My question is, what was Goldman doing with it?
Da Grinchi Code?
“Da Grinchi Code?”
LMFAO!
+ 3.14159265
+ 3.14159265
It’s probably a bad sign that I continued to rattle on extra digits in my head, eh?
One of these days I’m going to learn how to be cool….
drumminj,
they used to say “Get a girlfriend!”
+ 11001001
Keep going, drumminj. Some women find the recitation of pi digits to be irresistible.
“One of these days I’m going to learn how to be cool…”
What’s cool, is being yourself.
Some women find the recitation of pi digits to be irresistible.
I think I’d be scared if I ever came across such a woman.
Don’t ask me Lavi d.
My old security clearance credential was the top of a Wheaties box and it didn’t come with a whistle.
The way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised hear that Goldman has the “Football” and all of the US Missile Launch Codes as well.
“Sleep well tonight America– Goldman Sucks is awake”
Looks like our code thief bought a house in NJ during the bubble and had trouble unloading it. Not saying this was the reason why he did what he did, but it is an interesting wrinkle to this whole affair:
From njrereport:
Ok, ok, everyone has been buzzing about how Serge Aleynikov stole some code from GS. For those who don’t know the story, google it or read the Reuters story. But I’ll sum it up for the lazy ones. Serge was a VP at GS, and before he resigned in June, he downloaded some code and sent it off to somewhere in Europe. GS realized this and had him arrested by the FBI over at Newark Airport for stealing trade secrets.
Oh, quick note to the journalists out there, it is “code” and not “codes” that he stole. The plural of code in this context is code. We’re talking about source code and not the secret nuclear missile launch codes.
Anyway, I was curious when it mentioned that he lived in North Caldwell. Always like to see what kind of digs these high-end GS hackers live in. For those outside of this area, North Caldwell is considered a relatively prestigious town. Non-Jerseyans might recognize it as the town Tony Soprano lived in.
Well, I didn’t find any tax record pointing to a person with that name owning property in North Caldwell (he might rent, or have very recently purchased), but I did find a tax record pointing to a property owned in Little Falls.
Turns out that Serge bought a house during the bubble and has been unsuccessfully trying to unload it for almost a year now.
Looks like Serge purchased the Little Falls house in September of 2004 for $600,000.
Looks like Serge purchased the Little Falls house in September of 2004 for $600,000.
He reportedly made $400k/yr + bonus, so one might say he was very frugal for a Manhattanite.
And I don’t think a VP means as much as at other companies. I think GS had a plethora of them.
VP on Wall St. is a mid-level officer, not senior. Seniors are Managing Directors and Partners (in case of Goldman). VPs can make 7 figures if he/she works in a highly profitable trading desk, I happen to know several personally. Heck I even know one person who works on that very same Goldman desk (high frequency equity trading) this guy is accused of stealing the code from.
But if you go read about this guy’s RE venture, he is trying to sell the house he bought with some wishing prices and he lowers the price slowly and bit by bit, like most FBs. The only difference is that he happens to make a very good Wall St. salary to fall back on but now he doesn’t even have that any more.
Greed always bring down these types sooner or later.
He’s a working class hero but of course the press makes him out to be a monster. It would have been a beautiful event to watch GoonmanSux crumble at his hands…..
But of course………… The Poor Banks!!!!
But if you go read about this guy’s RE venture, he is trying to sell the house he bought with some wishing prices and he lowers the price slowly and bit by bit, like most FBs. Which makes one wonder about his perspecacity at judging markets, doesn’t it? Just WHAT exactly was he doing to earn his high salary?
He’d be a hero if he put the code all over in public, but he was just looking to steal it for a competitive business. Greed.
“He’s a working class hero”
I don’t think that kind of salary is something that most working class folks can relate to.
>He’s a working class hero but of course the press makes him out to be a monster. It would have been a beautiful event to watch GoonmanSux crumble at his hands…..
Well if he stole it in order to exposed any improper trading by Goldman, yes I would agree. But if he did so that he could take it to the next company where he was offered 3x his current salary, then that is just personal greed getting the best of him. I am afraid I can’t see him as a working class hero (and he was gonna make > $1m… what kind of working class hero makes 7 figures)?
>Just WHAT exactly was he doing to earn his high salary?
Code monkey for high frequency trading platform. Looking at his Linkedin profile it is obvious he has a lot of experience in neural networks and pattern recognition, which are some of the key aspects of high frequency trading as speed and efficiency is everything.
This is a very smart guy we are talking about, but not smart enough not to get caught. He may have been a great programmer, but he was unaware of the real-time monitoring of his UNIX server activity logs implemented by Goldman, and that’s how they caught this guy.
Those server logs’ll get you every time!
Hey can someone give me the skinny on what the housing market in Davis, ca is like?
Buddy of mine is itchying to buy, he sounds alittle rushed. Told me he is nervous about inflation and wants to get locked into an asset. Also told me that nothing sits on the davis market it gets picked up pretty fast.
I was mulling it over in my head wondering if waiting another 6 months would really make that big of a deference?
More like waiting another 30 months can make a huge difference instead. 6 months will be knife-catching still.
Enjoy renting in large apartments in the meantime. No maintenance worries, time enough for enjoying snow skiing at Tahoe instead of working on maintenance issues.
why do you think two+ years is when the knife catching will be over?
VVV I am familiar with the community and how the Uni plays a roll in all this but I assume the bubble pretty much inflated all thing equally, though at different rates AKA the metro areas went up first and then the surrounding areas fallowed. AKA the inland empire in SO cal
Partly the link above about PMI saying house prices all over the U.S. will continue to fall through Q1 2011. Partly also because of the nature of central California real estate. Prices falling in the Bay area will pressure prices to come down in the “flyover” country in California.
Keep a watch on rent prices in the Davis area. They may stall, but then drop again. My rent in Phoenix stalled for a year while home prices dropped. Then my rent dropped 25% all of a sudden. Falling rent is by no means the bottom of the home price declines.
I think Davis is dependent on UC Davis. Prices are still very high there but its an easy commute to plenty of nice rural communities. Hopefully prices crater there in the next year-year and a half as the U has to cut back.
Davis is your typical university town that is also considered one of the best UC schools…It also offers a fairly easy commute to job centers (Sac.,SF,Berkley,Walnut Creek) so it offers a rural lifestyle that caters to students and families but within a reasonable commuting distance to the job centers…With the University as the “base” generator the housing prices there have not taken the hits that a lot of other rural communities that surround it have taken…
It also offers a fairly easy commute to job centers (Sac.,SF,Berkley,Walnut Creek)
OK sorry but going to have to disagree with that mostly. Trying to commute to anywhere in the bay area from Davis would be extremely long; at least an hour, and would be two to some places at some times (like SF during rush hour). Sacramento is feasible though.
from Davis would be extremely long; at least an hour ??
You consider a one hour commute in the bay area “extremely long” on average or just for
you ??
I consider anything over 30 minutes to be long, anything over an hour to be extremely long. Sorry but I’m not willing to give up over 2 hours of my life each day to driving, regardless of circumstances.
Per MapQuest Davis to Berkeley is 1 hour and 9 minutes, and that’s without traffic. During rush hour it’s at least an hour and a half I’m sure (I’ve done that stretch many times though not much during rush hour). That anyone would consider that *not* extremely long to me shows how insanely accepting we have become of long commutes.
Davis is a fantastic place, but IMO if you’re commuting from there to SF area you’re wasting a pretty big chunk of your life; to me not a worthwhile tradeoff.
If you have to work in SF there are other places much closer that are comparable.
So its a personal choice…On average, a one hour commute in the bay area is “nothing”…I know many people who commute 2 hours or more each way…
scdave,
I know two people who like to hang themselves from hooks in their flesh. It’s also a choice. That doesn’t make getting a nipple pierced ‘nothing’.
My bay area commute is 8 minutes.
Update from the waterways…
Spent last night in Phoenix (NY). It is a wonderful place to dock, free shore power and the kids that volunteer at the Bridge House Brats served us omlets on the dock, run from the restaurant next door. I dropped a 20 in the contribution box and was only the 5th to sign the register for the season. Ours was the only boat overnighting, and that on the 5th of July.
Traveled the length of the Oswego Canal. Lots of new construction along the river in the last two years. All the new stuff is huge, two and three story affairs with windows up to the peak facing the river. About half of them don’t have their landscaping done. They look just plain ugly. Saw a new complex of large buildings half completed south of Fulton, where my two year old chart does not even show any roads. There are no jobs in that area.
Oswego international Marina went bust last year and is now run by the Port Authority. 70% of the docks are empty.
Waiting for calm to cross to Kingston.
You went right past my old house, then. I owned an old house on the river, about 1 mile north of Lock 3 in Fulton. I used to love watching all the boats go thru lock 3 and thru my front yard. My son was even permitted to operate the lock one time (with the attendant’s hands on my young son’s hads the whole time).
So they are building all over the place, now? The river was becoming a popular place to build when I left 5 years ago, but as you say, the economy is in the dumps. Now with the (former) Chrysler plant in Syracuse slated to close, even more jobs will be gone.
The area had a net contraction in employment during the 1990s, but I think that has stopped. House building ceased altogether in the mid and late ’90s, so there is probably some pent-up demand still seaping out. (all builders left, so it takes time to restart the industry).
However, home buying in CNY (Syracuse Region) is likely to crash inthe near future.
I think you’re right on target Cincy Dad. Got to speak to some interesting people at the various parties this weekend. At one spot several people in the building trades were discussing the slowdown. They talked about projects planned and then cancelled, and small repair jobs replacing larger projects. I saw one big monstrosity being built in Cazenovia. This builder’s homes just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger.
There’s also a large home being built in Manlius which is replacing a home that was damaged by fire a while back. It seems to me this replacement home is much larger than the original. Around the block is another really large home being built on what seems to be a multi acre lot. This home is w/in a several mile radius of several “aspirational” homes in foreclosure. One owner was a suicide a few months back. A mile or two beyond those is a 4000 sq footer that’s been vacant since it was finished at least 18 mos ago. I think the builder lives on site now.
Waiting, waiting for capitulation as still new sellers come on too high to even bother.
The 4,000 ft2 monstrosity is the hallmark of the 2000’s bubble.
I’m very jealous of your trip down the canal. Hopefully we’ll someday do that with the kids.
Meanwhile I hope you’re having a fantasitic time. Keep telling the stories and I’ll live vicariously. : )
News article from the Charlotte, NC Observer:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/819924.html
Heres’ a snippet from the article:
For the first part of 2008, homeowners were still able to put homes on the market and sell them for close to the asking price. It wasn’t until September that the bottom dropped out, UNC Chapel Hill professor Roberto Quercia said. “Early last year was a different mindset,” he said. “People knew the market was softening up, but they didn’t know there was a crisis.”
In September, big economic news began putting people on edge. It put uncertainty over major banks, including Charlotte-based Bank of America and Wachovia, two of Charlotte’s largest employers.
“I’m not going to give the house away.”
Ohhhh, that was a CLASSIC line! I just want to scream at her…KEEP IT THEN!!!
The number of homes
sellinglisting for at least $1 million could satisfy demand for 10 years…There, I’ve fixed it for you.
The first one was so successful, let’s do it again sometime! I mean, what could go wrong?
http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSSP37926820090707
In a way, I feel sorry for Obama. He’s got the worst advisers money can buy and he’s completely oblivious.
We need to have a TARP II ready Palmy. Its the way we are going and since the banks will get crushed again by the option arm recasts might as well be prepared.
I’d have to agree, james, tho I don’t want to.
With Obama recently spending a week vacationing with bankers off Martha’s Vineyard - or thereabouts (it’s all essentially the same place), it’s clear that El Presidente is buddies with our pals, the bankers.
Don’t underestimate the bought-n-paid-for option. Bankers are giving themselves the biggest bonuses in history right on the heels of bailouts and legalized book cooking. Pretty soon they will need another transfusion. Congress isn’t likely to ignore their call.
Its not an election year.
However 2010 elections are on the horizon.
2010 is.
2010 elections are.
2010 elections be.
I’ll take the over. Stimulus packages 3, 4, 5, and 6, here we come!
He reminds me of the dog that chased cars for years, and now that he finally caught one, he doesn’t know what to do with it.
So he is falling back on the Democratic Party Brain Trust……, which means we’re fooked.
Hi Exeter,
Here is the link to the sinking wage stats for NY State areas I posted yesterday. “New York State Has Everything” used to appear on my Dad’s paychecks. Apparently now they even have Falling Wages to go with Niagara Falls.
Link: http://tinyurl.com/n6ymqw
(From Forbes.com via Yahoo Finance)
The article does not mention cuts in overtime hours (resulting in huge cuts in pay for the workers). Upstate NY, at least west of the capital district, still contains quite a bit of manufacturing.
I wonder what percent of Rochester and Syracuse’s falling wages are due to cuts in OT, not in layoffs of higher-paying workers.
Thank you CB.
I was presently surprised at my utility bill, since the month of June was our highest usage ever. The bill was $268 (1150sq.ft. under air).
A lot of these new Florida developments are clear cut. I have no idea what kind of monster bills those FBs face, especially since many are tinderboxes. I know most Floridians keep the thermostat between 78-80, but we keep our around 74-76. We also have a block house with two huge oaks that give us shade up until about 4 o’clock. 4-6 can be pretty hot somedays, but I can imagine not having a block house with some shade.
Ugh. My June electric bill was $39 and the gas bill was $28. That’s for a 2K square foot house here in Boise.
I can normally use passive cooling for most of the day. It gets down to the 50’s at night so you open up the house at night and close it off mid-morning. You only need run the A/C from say 4PM to 9 PM.
Where does the electricity come from for Florida? Can’t be from hydro. Coal burning plants?
“Where does the electricity come from for Florida? Can’t be from hydro. Coal burning plants?”
Some of it is coal. Some nuclear, believe it or not. Fla has three nuke plants that I know of. We even have solar coming on line. It’s a mix.
There’s actually kind of a neat story how the warm water discharge from the Turkey Point nuclear plant near Miami seems to be accidentally bringing the American crocodile back from the brink of extniction. (The plant’s discharge area is about as perfect a crocodile habitat as you could envision)
Locally in the Panhandle, power is from coal. In my house, husband keeps the AC cranked down to the low 70s and the power runs about $225/month in summer/winter and $175/month in fall and spring in a 1700sf single family with decent shade trees and a lot of insullation. Which is less than what we used to pay when we lived in a two bedroom cememt block townhouse with no shade and no insullation.
Surprisingly, a lot of the newer McMansions do fairly well in terms of insullation and energy efficiency. And if you’re willing to pay a little more up front, ICF construction can give you some pretty tiny power bills for a good-sized house.
How many kilowatt-hours are you all using? The price per kilowatt-hour is all over the map due to regional variations, but kilowatt-hours are what your A/C system turns into cool air.
DennisN
Try living in Phoenix Arizona. I have a 1,600 sf house that has valted ceilings and a spa. My electric bill for July will easily be north of $200. August will be at least that much. The monsoon is in full force and the humitity is making things worse. I have been playing golf starting at 6:00 am and it still soo hot that I question my sanity.
Yeah but it’s a dry heat.
My bill in Phoenix is down to the $35 range for 1,000 square feet. I think maintenance must have turned my thermostat high while I’m gone, trying to do me a favor…Won’t be back home until mid-August.
32 days thru June 23rd cost us $105 (all electric).
We have 1900 sf on the main level, and another 1000 finished and conditioned sf on the lower level. There’s just the two of us. The thermostat is programmed for 77 degrees during the day, stepping down through the evening hours to 74 overnight.
Ceiling fans definitely help. So does a summer rate of just 7.5 cents per kwh.
Summer rate here is 6.09 cents/KWH. Winter rate is 5.57 cents/KWH.
This rate map of the US tells a story.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/electricity/images/us%20map.gif
Summer rate here is 6.09 cents/KWH. Winter rate is 5.57 cents/KWH.
In Texas 9-11 cents/KWH.
Thankfully, our power generation markets are no longer regulated by the state and we are able to take advantage of the free market.
Energy distribution map:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/maps_feb_08/SEP_Map_US_Dist2.gif
“Ceiling Fans…”
That reminds me…….does anyone know of a QUIET, high quality attic fan?
The house I grew up in had one, which worked pretty good at keeping the house cool, especially at night. But everyone I’ve ever seen is loud/noisy…….it appears to me that this is due to the drive system (belt), unbalanced fan that is not vibration isolated, and electric motor that is not vibration isolated from the frame.
Or is this something I need to invent (and make a million bucks from)?
Attic fans rule. My first place was a little sweathouse with a steep pitched roof, and right after we were married the DH installed a fan on the south side pulling air from the shady north side. Worked fabulous.
He put one in our current raised-ranch but it has a shallower roof and different orientation so it doesn’t work as well.
Those numbers boggle my mind. I added up my bills for 2008 awhile ago. Total 2008 electric $469, gas $1,056. That’s an average of $127/month. The temperatures around here are in the 80’s and 90’s in the summer and get down to around 10 degrees at night in January.
DennisN,
Sometimes easier said than done. When I officed at home, I had my passive techniques down to a fine science. Right at 11:00am I’d close off the west windows and THEN “activate operation ceiling fan”!
But when you’re not at home all day, it’s more of a compromise. It’s set it and forget it. I’m trying to talk the HOA into installing solar powered attic fans to vent some of that heat off. So far it seems fairly well rec’d. That aside, for two of us we live in about -half- the space you do by yourself?
DennisN,
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/passive_cooling.htm#Other
By using “Earth Tubes” at a depth under the home for pre-heating and pre-cooling it makes just about any system more efficient. In theory…
That aside, for two of us we live in about -half- the space you do by yourself?
Don’t forget I’m a retired lawyer. My ego takes up a lot of square footage all by itself.
I always wonder what people do with those 5,000+ square foot houses. I find that a 2K square foot place seems like a mansion to me.
What to do i na 7000 sq ft house…………….
—————————————————-
JonBenet Ramsey house back on market for $2.68M
The former Ramsey home on 15th Street in the University Hill area of Boulder is back on the market.
Ramsey house timeline
November 1991 — John and Patsy Ramsey buy the house at 755 15th St. for $500,000.
Dec. 26, 1996 — JonBenet Ramsey is found dead in the basement of the home. Her family never spends another night there.
February 1998 — A group of investors buys the home for $650,000, pledging to resell it and donate profits to the JonBenet Ramsey Children’s Foundation.
1999-2001 — E.J. “Doc” Kreis, the University of Colorado’s speed, strength and conditioning coach, rents the house before being fired and moving to California.
June 2001 — The address is changed to 749 15th St.
May 2004 — Tim and Carol Milner buy the house for $1.05 million.
July 2008 — The house is listed for sale at $2.68 million
The house where JonBenet Ramsey’s body was discovered nearly 12 years ago is back on the market.
The 7,092-square-foot, four-story house at 749 15th St. — the former home of John and Patsy Ramsey, whose 6-year-old daughter was murdered and found in the home’s basement on Dec. 26, 1996 — recently was posted on the public listings for $2.68 million.
The listing price is more than double its $1.05 million sale in 2004,
DennisN,
We always have to factor in that you guys have an actual winter there! Unlike the Willamette Valley where there’s really only a handful of days where we couldn’t walk to dinner?
Had we snow on the ground for 3/4 months -straight- I’m not sure 1,200 s/f would suffice? There really isn’t any room for indoor hobbies and just this past weekend we were relieved when visitors from out of town ( that brought along a friend ) told us they’d made other arrangements. We can have another couple visit, but even w/ kids, it’s strained.
755 15th St
I’ve been by the that house (on the way to Chautauqua Park to see a concert) and it doesn’t look that impressive or that big.
But it is in Boulder.
If money was no object, I think I’d have to put up a big metal building, and so something like this. This is next to someone’s house. From the outside it looks like a 6 car garage:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanotoole/3478074577/sizes/l/
Everything is from the 70s and 80s. Only one arcade machine is from the 90s.
My electric bill here in Tucson was $29.26 last month. Haven’t gotten this month’s bill yet, but it will probably be higher.
BTW, I am in the process of converting the interior lighting over to CFL, which I think will help lower the electric bill. I’m finding that I no longer have to illuminate half the house so I can sit on the couch and read.
Muggy:
This is what gets me so angry about this whole Housing stupidity, my father was a bricklayer and I remember him showing us even when we were adukts all he beautiful houses he worked on, they kept the trees, driveways were paved around those 150 year old trees…..
——————————————
A lot of these new Florida developments are clear cut.
My father taught me how to lay bricks when I was in grade school. Oh, boy, was that ever a job!
I have the utmost respect for masons.
Our bill is about $70 per month electric (no AC but electric dryer) and $30 per month for gas when the heat is not on (for the stove and hot water heater).
We’ve got solar panels going up next week. I consider it an inflation hedge, a way to pay now and lock in the cost of supply.
Unfortunately, it only will supply 70% of our modest demand, as we have a small roof and street trees blocks half of it. With a little more energy efficiency maybe we can increase that percent.
Those same trees, moreover, block the sun from the south in summer and let it in during the winter.
“I was presently surprised”
P L E A S A N T L Y
OMG! My bad (mistakenly channeling inappropriate cultural stereotype).
Just paid my PG&E bill $50.77. Not bad this renting thingy!!
Was talking with my former coworker in Texas yesterday. His electric bill last month was something like $450.
My bill up here in Seattle? $14.50. Yep. Fourteen dollars and fifty sense.
Living in a temperate climate and not in a 3000 ft^2 McMansion is so much better!
In Texas, I pay more than $14.50 just in electrical transmissions tariff, state taxes, and charges for that nuclear power plant we built 25 years ago each month.
Texas is a free market, I bet in Seattle you guys still regulate the energy industry.
I bet in Seattle you guys still regulate the energy industry.
I have no clue. Looking at my bill (I’m new to Seattle, so don’t know all the details)….
There’s a “Base Service Charge” of $3.50. It was then 3.76 cents/KWH
Living in a temperate climate and not in a 3000 ft^2 McMansion is so much better!
Testify!
Fourteen dollars and fifty
sensecents.Muggy,
I live on the other coast and my bill was $178 for a 2K sq.ft. house. My house is completely surrounded by large trees. My house is frame, which is actually a much better insulator than concrete.
I have a buddy who lives down the street. His last bill was $450ish with a 2500 square footer and a large pool.
Ah. Fond memories of $650 power bills in Virginia Beach…
users.757.org/~telmnstr/pics55/hw5/Image11.jpg
That was before the huge bills.
My apartment is hitting $200+ now. Horrible air conditioning unit, lame fridge. More pain of being a renter.
My sister and BIL pay something like $800 per month to keep their 5,000 sq. ft. AZ gated golf course community monstrosity cooled in the summer. The place is a soulless money pit.
Hey Muggy;
It’s not too bad in Minne-soootaaahh… Our electric dropped down to $56 per month (we’re on the annualized plan: ie total annual projected electric usage divided by 12). Season averaged billing. Natural Gas, $52 per month.
Our house is 3000 finished square feet (including finished basement), with no shade. Built (slapped together) in 1996. 13 SEER 3-ton Central A/C, 80% 100,000 btu furnace.
Keep the t-stat at 74 during hot summer days (yes, we do have hot and humid summer days here), and 72 in the winter months.
Electric rate is seasonal, $0.0765 in summer months, $0.0685 the rest of the year. Have one of those “demand reduction” radio controlled switches on the A/C unit which gives us a $15 summer credit on electric bill for the privilage of Xcel Energy to cycle the compressor to meet demand during peak times (get’s a little sticky some afternoons, but not unbearable).
TrimTabs puts the kibosh in greenshoots:
Analysts at TrimTabs Research reported last week that the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis is painting a wildly inaccurate picture of the health of U.S. consumers. The statistics agency reported that personal savings as a percentage of personal disposable income was a stunning 6.9% in May, the highest since December 1993. That’s about 7 percentage points above the rate of 2008, and it suggested a new era of frugality.
Ha — you knew that couldn’t be right. TrimTabs’ analysis, which is based on real-time income tax deposits rather than mathematical models, suggests that the real savings rate is a lousy 0.9%, not 6.9%. This is bad news for both optimists and pessimists, which fits my both-sides-lose theory to a T. It shows that consumers are in much worse shape than government statistics suggest and therefore have little money available to make house payments or pay for yoga gear bought on credit.
How did the government get it wrong? According to TrimTabs, two temporary factors lifted the savings rate: Social Security recipients got one-time payments of $250 in May as part of the stimulus package, while another huge chunk of money went to welfare recipients. Strip out those anomalies, and the savings rate drops to 4.8%. Meanwhile, TrimTabs’ analysis of daily Treasury Department data suggests that the government models — which are based on lagging Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data from last year and thus have not been updated to reflect the true impact of the recession — greatly overestimate wages, salaries and dividend income. Using live data and backing out one-time payments, the analysts conclude the real savings rate is less than 1%.
To be more specific, using its outdated model, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in May that personal income had risen 0.3% year over year despite the worst recession and employment crash in 70 years. That’s craziness.
TrimTabs’ model, using real-time data, shows that personal income fell 3.6% year over year in May while salaries and wages sank 4.8%. That’s much more believable. The bureau won’t catch up to what’s really happening in the economy until its data is updated through the first quarter of this year, and then it’ll likely show a big drop.
Another snippet showed that the majority of the
“savings” were in the higher tax brackets, or those
that could, those with higher disposable incomes.
Hence the NY Times article on Tiffany’s sales being down 30%.
Oh the humanity!
greatly overestimate wages, salaries and dividend income.
Ouch…
Not data the sheeple are ready to see. How will the MSM spin this? Hold on, the roller coaster has started.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
I thought the roller coaster had already started. I’ve seen a few white knuckles and closed eyes.
I’m starting to think that the “sheeple” are in DC. No reason to think that they aren’t in a state of denial, too.
If you don’t go anywhere except places that have a lot of government workers, the economy doesn’t look that bad. It’s only when you get out in the “real world” that things start to stink.
You know, living in suburbia, its hard to tell how your neighbors are doing. If you live in middle class areas you don’t see the pain directly.
Amen,
Here in the MD suburbs of DC the Federal government types are in LA LA land - clueless. Those of us here in private business represent an unacknowledged subset.
There is a protected smugness from these Fed employees that is infuriating - and some of those folks are my close friends and neighbors. AAAARGHHHHH
Exactly. If you live in nice area and you have fairly secure job, the current disaster is just news on TV and numbers in the paper.
Now that I’ve just described DC, you can see how it easy it is for them to CONSTANTLY mistake the map for the terrain.
But to be fair, many of them DO know how bad it is, but they don’t dare paint anything but an optimistic picture.
The story in Phoenix Continues - this can’t end well.
Phoenix fire investigators said a blaze that gutted a lavish Biltmore Estates home weeks after it failed to sell at a charity raffle was one of 10 structure fires they tackled over the holiday weekend.
Authorities also arrested two people in connection with a fatal arson that destroyed a south Phoenix youth-sports facility last month.
“This was not a normal weekend,” said Jack Ballentine, director of the Phoenix Fire Department’s investigations unit.
The most significant of the weekend fires happened at 4 a.m. Sunday at 71 Biltmore Estates Drive in a home owned by Michael Marin, a local entrepreneur known for his charity work and recent climb to the summit of Mount Everest.
Marin was hospitalized after he climbed from the second story of the home wearing a scuba oxygen mask and tank, according to fire officials. He bought the home, which includes an art studio and personal theater, in September for $3.5 million, records show.
Earlier this year, Marin offered the home as the grand prize in a raffle to raise money for the Mesa-based Child Crisis Center, which recently suffered nearly $8 million in cuts to its state funding. The raffle only raised $90,000, which the agency split with the winner.
“There was never any opportunity for Michael to make a penny on it the way it was set up,” said Chris Scarpati, the agency’s CEO.
Investigators said they have yet to interview Marin. The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, investigators arrested two people in connection with a fire and embezzlement plot at Young Champions, a youth-sports center at 5414 S. 40th Street.
Jeffrey Otto, 19, and Moniza Murillo, 20, face charges of arson and murder in connection with the June 14 blaze which investigators said killed an associate who caught fire as he tried to spread gasoline through the interior of the building.
John Antonucci, 19, a disgruntled former Young Champions employee, was arrested weeks ago. The group is accused of trying to destroy records of their embezzlement from the non-profit business, investigators said.
I guess some of us were completely out of line yesterday when we suggested arson might have been involved involving an underwater FB.
Earlier this year, Marin offered the home as the grand prize in a raffle to raise money for the Mesa-based Child Crisis Center, which recently suffered nearly $8 million in cuts to its state funding. The raffle only raised $90,000, which the agency split with the winner.
This statement doesn’t make sense to me. If the raffle was for a house - they why did the winner get $45,000 instead? I’d be one pissed off raffle-ticket-buyer to settle for that instead of a house that had been recently purchased for $3 million. Being that the agency also got $45,000 free and clear - sounds like a scam to me. Hopefully they’re investigating where that money went.
. If the raffle was for a house - they why did the winner get $45,000 instead?
I would assume that the conditions of the raffle were that if the mortgage couldn’t be satisfied, the winner would split the proceeds with the charity.
Sounds fairly equitable to me.
“Marin was hospitalized after he climbed from the second story of the home wearing a scuba oxygen mask and tank, according to fire officials.”
I can’t be the only person entertained by this visual. Sounds like a scene from Revenge of the Nerds or Porky’s.
I was fairly enchanted myself. It would have been even better if he had jumped off the roof into a wading pool or something, though.
Yeah, that, or if the quote read, “…after he climbed from the second story of the home wearing only a scuba oxygen mask, tank, and magnificent blue Speedos.”
If he was wearing flippers, I’d be more interested. Idiot.
The press probably screwed up the story royally.
He wasn’t a scuba diver: he was a mountain climber.
That probably wasn’t a “scuba tank” at all but rather one of those tiny pure O2 tanks that mountain climbers use above about 18K feet. Now the story makes a lot more sense.
yea that makes sense. My diving tanks are stored in the bedroom closet (because I live in an apartment, I’d keep them in a garage otherwise). They are fairly heavy. Also, if you’re at the window or outside the window you wouldn’t need it anymore.
“Jeffrey Otto, 19, and Moniza Murillo, 20, face charges of arson and murder in connection with the June 14 blaze which investigators said killed an associate who caught fire as he tried to spread gasoline through the interior of the building.”
Let me see if I got this straight: the guys is pouring GASOLINE around the inside of the building while in the process of torching it, but someone ELSE is to blame when he catches fire and dies?
Yes, arson charges make good sense, but _murder_???
guys ==> guy
e.g. the guy pouring the gasoline was the one “murdered”.
It’s the common theory of “felony murder”. Goes like this. If you are committing a intrinsically dangerous felony (arson, armed robbery, carjacking, etc.) and someone dies - even accidentally - YOU will be held liable for MURDER of the deceased. A more detailed legal analysis uses the theory of transfered intent.
Say you go in to rob a liquor store and wave a gun at the cashier, who drops dead of a heart attack. Sorry, buddy, you have just committed his murder.
It’s the same principle as counting the deaths for a hurricane - they include people who fall off the house a week later trying to chainsaw the tree that blew over on the roof. The criteria isn’t whether the death was directly caused by the action (the hurricane), but whether or not the death would have happened if the action hadn’t happened.
Not sure I agree with it - but it is what it is.
““There was never any opportunity for Michael to make a penny on it the way it was set up,” said Chris Scarpati, the agency’s CEO.”
Sure, maybe he wouldn’t have made a penny from the raffle, but he sure as h*ll would have gotten out from under his FB mortgage! That’s incentive enough right there…
He bought the home, which
includesincluded an art studio and personal theater, in September for $3.5 million, records show.Marin was hospitalized after he climbed from the second story of the home wearing a scuba oxygen mask and tank…
Man! How far underwater was this guy?
Investors eye IOUs
Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
State IOUs, issued starting Thursday, are payable Oct. 2. The first batches of IOUs went out today and we have a ch…
The California IOU has become the prey of so-called vulture investors who hope to profit by buying them on the cheap and redeeming them later.
The idea is that “distressed asset investors” (their nicer name) will pay less than face value to mom-and-pop businesses that receive IOUs but need cash immediately to meet payroll or other expenses. Once the IOUs mature on Oct. 2, the investors will cash them in for their full value plus the 3.75 percent interest the state is offering.
While people legally can sell their IOUs, the state will only redeem ones accompanied by a notarized bill of sale signed by the IOU payee, the California treasurer’s office said Monday.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/06/BU3E18JVA9.DTL
I wondered about this yesterday. Anybody know the going discount?
Ditto. Heck, I’d even buy them at face value. Where else can you get an easy 3.75% return?
I know that our credit union is accepting them as if they were checks.
Next week they might treat them like checks, too — certified checks printed and sent from Nigeria. Will the banks continue to accept these after July 10th as they are doing now? That’s when things get interesting.
Canada update.
A friend of mine, who admits even now that I warned him about “investing” in condos, is scrambling. He bought an off-the-plan unit in booming Calgary back in late 2007, due to be delivered in spring of 2009. And indeed it’s ready.
But he’s not ready! He’s trying desperately to back out of the deal and get his condo back. He had earlier lined up a renter for his investment, but she bailed when she found a better price elsewhere, and then his lawyer told him that if he actually takes delivery of the place, he’s on far shakier legal ground for trying to get out of the purchase. (He needed a lawyer to tell him that?)
So now he’s trying to go through all the contracts, along with many other rueful buyers, and find things in there that can negate the sales agreement. Oh boy. But what’s his alternative? Get snared into paying way over current market value for a unit in that depreciating, half-occupied tower of flats?
Isn’t his other option just to walk away from his deposit and not close on the unit?
That’s what he OUGHT to do. I’m not sure if they can come after him to force a sale like some US devlopers are doing, and the thing is — he doesn’t know either! He said the salesman told him when he put the money down that he could. HA! Read the docs, my friend. It might be much worse. But he won’t. I can’t figure him out.
why does he want to get his condo back? doesn’t make sense
deal and get his condo back</i/
My bad. I mistyped and meant: “get his DEPOSIT back”. Sorry for the day-long confusion. (Something about this day job distracting me.)
So what he wants to do is get his deposit back, call the deal cancelled, and be done with it. The developer will have none of that, and who can blame them? They’d be stuck with a huge, empty, overpriced building. Hence them pressuring the buyers to go through with the final closing.
And to top off my typos, I leave the italics open. Sigh.
Bad day, bad day.
Say, isn’t there a correlation between incomes and house prices?
“Rochester, N.Y. – Rochester leads a list compiled by Forbes magazine, but it’s not a great contest to win.
Rochester is the number-one ranked city in the U.S. for falling wages. The magazine says wages in the Rochester fell by 2.3% from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, according to Brookings Institution data. Cities across the state rank high – or low – on the list, placing six of the top ten entries: Rochester (#1), Syracuse (#2), Albany (#3), New York City (#4), Poughkeepsie (#5), Buffalo (#8).”
I will be the happiest man in the world if I can move back to the Rochester ‘burbs in a year or so, buy a modest 3/2 with cash, and have the wifers stay at home with the critters.
Having the wife stay at home with my two tax deductions has been the best thing that me and the missus could have done. If you can do it, I say go for it, the peace of mind is worth millions!
Me too. My wife works part time just to keep her sanity. But she has been a great mother to three great kids. She keeps a beautiful home and makes my life so much easier.
Plus it has disciplined us to live on 1 income, so there’s no debt build-up that requires 2 incomes to support. Stress level is way, way lower. I make plenty of dough now, but we did that back in the day when my take home was $37K. We made our mortgage payments and sucked it up.
Muggy
Are you planning to take all of the “critters” back to Rochester …or just the kids ?
Hi Mikey, if you’ll recall, I plan on crushing, burning, irradiating, ionizing, boiling, killing, microwaving and nukularing all of my families’ belongings.
BTW, Fasty, I’m holding out for your signature “Bwahaha” for NYC making #4.
it’s just a question of time.
Anyone know about the hit on your credit report with a short sale? I’m hearing conflicting info on the TV with their so called experts and want to know what is correct. I’m hearing that a short sale hits your credit report for only 3 years. Is that correct? If so, why, since all reports typically report for 7 yrs or more?
I’ve heard from 2 mortgage brokers that both short sales and foreclosures stay on your record for three years. I had heard 3 for s/s and 7 for f/c. So there doesn’t seem to be a big benefit to a short sale over a foreclosure, but depending where you live there could be a huge problem in that the short sale contract may make a non-recourse loan recourse.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/04/25/business/z096c1b1a5c67baac8825759a00757a6f.txt
U.S. consumers fall behind on loans at record pace…
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt and home equity loans to all-time highs in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills.
Delinquencies on the value of all card debt soared to a record 6.60 percent from 5.52 percent in the fourth quarter as more cardholders relied on plastic to meet day-to-day expenses, the American Bankers Association said.
Late payments on home equity loans rose to 3.52 percent from 3.03 percent, and on home equity lines of credit climbed to 1.89 percent from 1.46 percent.
A broader gauge showing late payments on eight categories of loans rose for a fourth straight quarter to a new record, edging up to 3.23 percent from 3.22 percent. That rate actually understates consumer pain because it excludes credit cards. The ABA tracks loan payments that are at least 30 days late.
“The biggest driver is job losses,” ABA Chief Economist James Chessen said in an interview. “When people lose their jobs or work fewer hours, it makes it that much harder to meet their obligations. Unfortunately, we’re going to see higher job losses in the next year, and I expect elevated delinquencies.”
The ABA represents most large U.S. banks and credit card companies. Tuesday’s data are a bad sign for them as they prepare to report second-quarter results starting next week.
While improved capital markets may boost the bottom lines of some, analysts expect lenders such as Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Capital One Financial Corp and American Express Co to suffer higher credit losses, especially in cards.
While improved capital markets may boost the bottom lines of some, analysts expect lenders such as Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Capital One Financial Corp and American Express Co to suffer higher credit losses, especially in cards.
Despite ever-increasing losses like this - the major banks have been remarkably quiet recently, with the only significant news being how many have returned TARP funds. Which speaks to me of several things:
- The immenseness of the profits they made during the boom, to enable them to absorb these losses.
- That most of these banks knew it was coming, and thus knew to sock away reserves to allow for the losses.
- That last years fall “crisis” was mostly manufactured and artificial. The timing of the crisis in relation to the election was… interesting.
You do know it was the CC companies that pushed hard for the bankruptcy “reform” don’t you?
Damn right they knew it was coming. And for anyone who doesn’t think they can forecast that well, let me tell you, they can and so can any of the Fortune 500 as well as the government.
Still doesn’t mean they’ll make the right decisions though. Liars and thieves never do.
Has anyone else been taking the new Macroshares “down major metro housing” ETF (DMM) for a ride?
I bought 200 shares last week at $31.16 each; they’re currently trading at $36.49, and I have been ratcheting my stop-loss order up every few hours - currently sitting at $35.
It remains to be seen whether the uptrend will continue when the stock market decline reverses, but it’s been a nice ride so far!
My friends house in Campbell, CA (Silicon Valley) appraised last week (an actual person appraising) at $800K. AOL real estate has it at $504k — I understand it uses foreclosures in its data, unlike Zillow, but that,s one heck of a difference. I’m assuming if they decided to sell, the banks would use the first value?
If a potential buyer needed financing, the bank would use their own appraiser, not the seller’s appraiser. That appraiser will most certainly use foreclosure comps, as they should. When half of sales are foreclosure properties, those are not exceptions that should be thrown out.
Thanks AC, that makes sense.
Wait a minute though - they were refinancing, so it was the bank’s appraiser.
I hope they weren’t helocing, or we’ll be seeing that house in foreclosure. 500k is probably closer to correct than 800k. But if they’re refinancing a note strictly for lower interest or changing to a 15 year (not taking more out) it probably won’t make a difference.
The appraiser is dumb.
Michael Jackson may actually look more alive after a mortuary makeover.
(So wrong, I know).
Boo, snicker, hiss, giggle.
At least he’s taking his real money with him. I didn’t think that was possible.
Combo, my condolences on your FEED & RAD positions. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who would like your reflections on the current state of affairs. Are we just skidding sideways? I don’t know what to do with myself: Alad is gone and you’re silent.
Is nothing king?
Now that Mike is gone, I’m afraid you may be right, Muggy. Who will be the King now?
In 1999, Tim Cahill, a writer for Outside mag, wrote an article called Giants of the Earth. Tim lives in the small town of Livingston, MT, in the middle of nowhere, and he called the crash. Funny how no one could see it coming.
http://outside.away.com/outside/magazine/1099/199910outthere1.html
The big Montana houses that so impressed the visiting Chinese are, for the most part, trophy homes built by out-of-staters, some of them occupied for as little as one or two weeks a year. They are springing up all throughout the West, underwritten by the seemingly never-ending bull market, and are symptoms of what has been called “the wealth effect.” In America, I should have told the Chinese, wealth is sometimes measured by the amount of land a person is able to post No Trespassing signs upon.
No one knows how long the bull market will last, least of all me, but all good things come to an end. Ask the dinosaurs. One geological moment they’re standing in some fern glade in the redwoods, bellowing brainlessly, masters of the earth. We were there: the mammals, or proto-mammals, small rat- and weasel-like creatures with sharp teeth and shining eyes. And when the dinosaurs died—when their life cycle went bust—we moved out of the shadows and took over the earth. We are the most fearsome predator the earth has ever spawned, and those creatures that know us, fear us.
Walking through the ruins of Castle, I had a sense of man as the dinosaur of this particular geological moment. There were shining eyes, watching from the shadows of ramshackle buildings. The others were there. I could hear them scurrying about when I looked through empty windows at rooms in which soiled doves once plied their trade.
There are other eyes in the woodlands, under the aspens, and these eyes are watching the big trophy homes that have begun to dominate the western landscape. There will be a bust to the boom, sooner or later, because that has always been the way. The big homes, too expensive for local folks, will fall into disrepair. The paint will peel from the walls, and the bare boards will bleach out, like bones under a desert sun. And then the watchers in the wood will move into the tumbledown buildings. The castles built by the wealth effect will lie broken and still under a merciless blue sky. And in the shadows under the shattered windows, the new inhabitants will scurry this way and that, their eyes shining, masters of all they survey.
Sounds like Coleridge’s Ozymandias.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.[
Behold, the works of Man…
nice quote, Doc!
I sure as sh*t hope so
“new inhabitants will scurry this way and that, their eyes shining, masters of all they survey”
that would be me and my dogs, Squatters R Us
and the “Earth Abides” great science fiction book written in 1950. I read it about 10 years ago.
As the recent oil bubble collapses, the shills are raising their price forecasts in a transparent attempt to cover their bets.
It must be gods will…
Religious broadcaster builds $4M home despite layoffs at his ministry…
CHARLOTTE (AP) — A religious broadcaster is building a $4 million home in a gated, lakefront community in western South Carolina at the same time that the ministry has cut jobs and reset thermostats to save money in its new headquarters.
Inspiration Networks’ CEO David Cerullo is building the 9,000-square-foot home on a lot that overlooks Lake Keowee, The Charlotte Observer reported Monday.
Inspiration Networks has drawn scrutiny for up to $26 million in incentives it won from South Carolina to move from Charlotte to Indian Land, S.C., in Lancaster County. The network’s revenues are expected to approach $100 million, largely donations from people who are told God favors those who donate.
Cerullo has said 80 cents of each donated dollar is spent to spread the Gospel.
In addition to laying off workers, the newspaper reported, the ministry froze wages and stopped making contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts. The thermostat on the network’s new building was cut to 65 degree during the winter.
How can someone like that possibly live with themselves?
At least Madoff didn’t pretend to be someone who’s not in it for profit. IMO someone like Cerullo is lower than him, and deserves a special place in Hades.
Inspiration Networks has drawn scrutiny for up to $26 million in incentives it won from South Carolina to move from Charlotte to Indian Land, S.C., in Lancaster County.
Shades of Tammy Faye…
Exactly. What’s even more amazing is that they never learn.
SEC charges Provident Royalties in $485 million fraud…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Provident Royalties LLC and three founders were charged with securities fraud for allegedly bilking thousands of oil and natural gas investors in a $485 million Ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday.
In a civil case, the SEC alleges that from about September 2006 until January 2009, Texas-based Provident Royalties raised nearly half a billion dollars from at least 7,700 U.S. investors by promising annual returns of over 18 percent and misrepresenting how the funds would be used.
A portion of the proceeds were used for acquisition and development of oil and gas exploration and development activities, but other investor funds were used to pay earlier Provident Royalties investors, the SEC said.
“Investors were told that 86 percent of their funds would be placed in oil and gas investments. That representation was false,” the SEC’s complaint said.
The SEC said a federal court issued an emergency freeze on assets and appointed a receiver to preserve the assets.
Good catch wmbz.
As I said a few months ago, just be patient and you will see a lot of the fraudsters caught. It’s just going to take time because there is much of it.
BTW, now you know why J6P hasn’t had a real cost a living wage increase in years, why jobs are going offshore and why our infrastructure is crumbling. The money was being sucked into these fraudulent schemes.
Why bother with messy real life when you can just push a button and make money?
Another of my typical OT posts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_b_EFCQh-k
vid on Yosemite, Alad’s in one shot, maybe, sorta looked like him hugging a tree off in the distance…
Awesome. Did you stay at the Ahwahnee?
Probably the most beautiful and awe-inspiring trip I ever took was to Yosemite in March one year. I was in Curry Village - nothing like sleeping in a tent and waking up with 8 inches of snow on the roof and it being about 10 degrees outside. (I did stay at the Ahwahnee a few years later - when the finances finally allowed for it).
No, we just wandered around in it and pretended…
My friend lives practically next door to the park, well, compared to me, anyway..Twain Harte. It was a very short trip, we were outrunning a big storm, wished I’d gotten more photos, beautiful place.
Fabulous photos there, Chinle…
You captured the “irresistible” of the place.
Life is good. : )
Hi Lostie,
My favorite, favorite, favorite place to go. My dad asked me if I ever got tired of going to Yosemite and I told him nope.
Did I say Yosemite is my favorite place to go?
Lucky, I’m jealous…
Public officials and CEO’s are in an informal meeting in Sun Valley Idaho to discuss PPIP (Public-Private Investment Program) in order to deal with toxic assets. These people ARE the problem, and the fact that all of these meetings take place in the most ritzy, expensive areas of our country shows the level of greed and corruption. These SOB’s should be meeting at Denny’s or Holiday Inn, but instead they’ll spend the week at five star resorts, golfing and cavorting about as they discuss how to further fleece this country and it’s citizens for their own personal financial gain. Beyond disgusting.
According to a study from The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of lawmakers (and their spouses and entourages) traveled overseas last year at a record taxpayer cost of $13 million. And that doesn’t include off-budget costs like spending in war zones or borrowing government planes to jet set abroad.
Some of last year’s most diplomatically vital trips include: Five representatives checked out the Galapagos Islands to “learn about global warming.” Six senators attended the Paris Air Show. Eight lawmakers enjoyed a delightfull eight-day Italian excursion. And perhaps taking the cake, the House Homeland Security Committee’s jaunt to Brazil, Agentina, Peru and Panama… pertaining to the defense of U.S. borders, we must assume.
While the official numbers arent out yet, the WSJ claims expenses this year appear just as outrageaous. There are over 20 government employees whose sole job function is to plan congressoinal outings.
Let them eat cake.
New idea: get rid of the stock market.
WAHOO!!! Can I have the big flag??? Great idea!
Sounds good!
A while back, an HBB-er talked about being a private investor in local businesses. And he/she had been quite successful at this.
So, ponder this: How about community- or regionally-based stock markets that would fund local businesses?
More green shoots…
U.S. Food-Stamp Recipients Reached Record 33.8 Million in April.
July 7 (Bloomberg) — A record 33.8 million people received food stamps in April, up 20 percent from a year earlier, as unemployment surged toward a 26-year high, government figures show. Spending also jumped, as the average benefit rose.
It was the fifth straight month of record participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and up 1.8 percent from the prior month. Total spending was $4.5 billion, up 19 percent from the previous all-time high reached in March, the USDA said.
The government is boosting food aid in response to a jobless rate that rose to 9.5 percent in June from 9.4 percent in May. An additional $20 billion over five years was authorized for nutrition assistance in the $787 billion stimulus bill Congress passed in February.
Utah had the biggest increase in the number of recipients from a year earlier, 46 percent, while South Dakota had the steepest jump from March, 6.4 percent.
Texas was the only state where the number of participants declined from the previous month. It still had the most recipients, 2.92 million, followed by California with 2.7 million and New York with 2.34 million. The average monthly benefit for an individual rose 17 percent from March to $133.28.
Can you buy green shoots with food stamps?
Been on the market for a while
Property Information for 13067 N 157Th CtSave Listing
Property Features
Single Family Property
Status: Contingency
County: PALMBEACH
Subdivision: JUPITER FARMS
Year Built: 1987
4 total bedroom(s)
3 total bath(s)
3 total full bath(s)
Approximately 2070 sq. ft.
Complex features: Horse Trails
Single story
Style: Traditional
Interior Features
Rooms: Den, Family, Utility-Laundry, Master Bath: Common Tub/Shower, Other Features: Split Bedrooms, Flooring: Ceramic Tile, Bedroom 2 is: 12×12, Bedroom 3 is: 12×11, Bedroom 4 is: 15×14 Listing Information
Refreshed at 3:20 PM PT (8 minutes ago)
Added on Mar 24, 2007 (836 days ago)
Watching “The Great Gatsby” tonight.
Don’t look now, but when the Treasury, Secret Service, and Department of Transportation websites, among others, can all be hacked over the Independence Day weekend, someone is up to no good:
Federal Web sites knocked out by cyber attack
Federal agency Web sites knocked out by massive, resilient cyber attack
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer
On Tuesday July 7, 2009, 8:43 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.
The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening.
Federal government officials refused to publicly discuss any details of the cyber attack, and would only generally acknowledge that it occurred. It was not clear whether other government sites also were attacked.
Others familiar with the outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.
The Homeland Security Department confirmed that officials had received reports of “malicious Web activity” and they were investigating the matter, but had no further comment. Two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem.
Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, called it a “massive outage” and said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.
Oh pooh. I was hoping Ben would do an “early” Bits Bucket so I could remind everyone that in a few hours it will be– wait for it…..
12:34:56, 7/8/9.
Just wanted to point that out to all you linear types.
ahansen,
The linear, curvilinear, assymetric, and metaphysical types who are about to sigh, salute you.