Bits Bucket For July 22, 2009
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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We saved the economy….yeah right …….
people don’t even answer the phone or email anymore if you are looking for a job
The government obviously just needs to give the banks more money. If only they could triple their record profits instead of merely doubling them, then we could get out of this. TARP III is clearly the only way. Get to work, congress.
Tarp 6 …”We just got to get those toxic assets off the books ,you know ,the GOOD BANK/ BAD BANK idea .” Oh brother …….
I heard an exerpt from Bernanke’s day 2 of testimony, where he basically said that the economy would not get better until housing and the stock market went up. (Since when does the valuation of publicly traded companies accurately reflect the health of the economy?)
But this was a pretty scary thing to hear, particularly when spoken to Congress. Those clowns don’t need any more incentive to try and prop up the housing or stock markets.
If he believed that, wouldn’t he want to drive both to their bottoms as quickly as possible? If houses got down to below historic pricing (2.5 salaries) and stocks die as well (valued by P.E.) then we’d have the recovery in the bag.
They don’t want a recovery as it “normal people with savings and a job buy a house they can afford.”
They want “Big Banks horde all the houses and keep them at 2005 prices while occasionally selling houses to infestors who then lose money on them while producing the Slums of the Future.”
Hi! I’m officially changing my handle to : Lenderoflastresort, which I think is appropriate and a bunch less spooky. I’ve been a daily reader since spring 2005, BTW. Let’s see how it goes. Basically my argument is that in a financial crisis, a lender of last resort is needed to carry through the financial system. That’s what we got, more or less. Unfortunately, it wasn’t rich bankers who came to the rescue this time, but the taxpayers of the United States of America.
Indeed!
Because as we all know, having the top 0.1% with all the money will make for a great economy. It has worked so well in other long-dead societies, surely it will work here! We just need TARP 3, TARP 4, and so on until there’s nothing left.
“people don’t even answer the phone or email anymore if you are looking for a job”
That’s what really bothers my son in his job hunting efforts….it all looks so fruitless that he just feels like giving up sometimes. And with the “underemployment” rate at nearly 20 percent here can’t really say I blame him for feeling that way.
“Stretches of the country can be considered in a depression, with the unemployment rate for Michigan at 15.2%, California 11.6%, Nevada 12.0%, Oregon 12.2%, Ohio 11.1%, North Carolina 11.0%, South Carolina 12.1%, Kentucky 10.9%, Tennessee 10.8%, and Indiana 10.7%. ”
~Peter Ferrara
Note: We have at least two counties here in S.Carolina with reported unemployment above 20%.
http://www.shadowstats.com and drill down to the explanation of how the modern unemployment stats are being gamed. By 1970’s style calculations the figures ought be much higher.
But EVERYTHING is being gamed - so why should we be shocked?
What’s really happening vs. what’s being reported is like night and day. We’re already in a depression, it’s just not being reported as such.
And it never will be.
I fully expect future history books will be purged of any negativity from this era. It will be called “The Great Rough Patch” and will be considered a wonderfully prosperous time since the bankers were happy.
CA budet will only add to the woes.
Blano,
I hear you. Our youngest finally… got on F/T along w/ 401k ( meaningless garbage of… course! ) and the bigee, medical so we’re tickled!
I realize this may not be popular, but it’s really a time to refrain from empathizing w/ our kids. As much as our hearts go out to them, and as much as they had no hand in raping the financial system, we still have to portray the fact that this IS the new reality.
I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new here.
I hear ya Din, in fact I don’t give him any slack when he doesn’t try to look real hard. He’s heard the “you’ve got to keep at it” from me so much he’s probably sick of it, lol.
Fortunately he’s been doing a little landscaping work for his stepdad’s brother so he’s gotten a little cash in his pocket. It’s not much, but having a little moolah has sparked his interest in finding more, despite the local situation.
Good on ya for your young’un too.
Blano,
Thanks, if she hadn’t been “driving” it ( it -never- would’ve happened! ) There was another gal that worked there that was in no way appreciative of her position. She had another PT position and was applying for FT ‘elsewhere’.
It’s not like we ( as parents ) don’t know this situation sucks. So you’re like the ranking Sarge on the Bataan Death March telling the guys to “suck it up and quit being such a bunch of wussies”.
Well expressed, DinOR.
hip in zilker,
Well, maybe… a little over the top but I can’t see myself telling -any- young people;
“You’re right, this situation is pretty much hopeless. You’re better off throwing in the towel now and moving back in while you still can! Things will never get any better and you’re not being treated ‘fairly’.”
However… TRUE that might be! Look, we had ‘our’ shot and we owe them at least this much? I’d rather not be counted amongst the very same parents that were livin’ large of the Fat Of The MEW only to buckle on their own kids the minute their HELOC Lifestyle gets rained on?
Ditto with both my son’s…One unemployed and getting discouraged and the other severely underemployed…
My son graduates college in December with a degree in edumacation. I expect him to want to move back in in January. It’s going to be tough breaking the news to him.
What, like he’s broke with no job, and can’t afford shelter in the midst of this depression, yet you, his father, aren’t interested in helping? Nice.
The Man Who Thinks He Can
by Walter D. Wintle
If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world we find
Success being with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you’re outclassed, you are:
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.
Hey dj, I want to thank you and Prof. Bear for your understanding reply to my “coffee grounds” comment the other day. It meant a lot to me, and just goes to show the quality people that are on this blog.
Thanks again,
ATE-UP
Cool man……hit me up if any of you get to the Beeg Apple.
Always have a sofabed for guests.
Will do dj!
NYCdj
I almost hesitate to offer this suggestion, but have you searched the USAjobs website?
I know that some federal agencies do training and other presentations over closed circuit TV with studios and everything. It isn’t as exciting as covering news, but it is work. No idea if that sort of thing happens in NYC or NJ areas, but it is worth few searches.
The one thing you will find in a federal job search is there is no age based discrimination on getting on the list of qualified applicants. None. And I also think they are much less inclined to care how recent you experience it as long it is the right kind. And I had been long-term unemployed when I applied and it had no bearing on my application.
Worth a shot, anyway.
Speaking of fed jobs, my plan to to take over the DOE in about 10 years. You read it here, first.
Yeah, and I want to be a federal photographer. (Hey, if Dorothea Lange did it, so can I ;-))
polly,
Excellent suggestion as always. My oldest daughter rec’s to all her friends. One other suggestion, is… Americorps. Sad is it might seem, ’tis a far better thing for young people to have ’something’ on their application then spending the next -decade- trying to live it down when applying elsewhere.
I’ll never forget when I first got out of the service back ‘89. The ( incredibly RUDE ) interviewer was hammering me on a gap in my resume from the late 70’s. I was like, Dude, do you have -any- idea how many people… oh nevermind, I didn’t want to work here anyway…
The other thing they don’t seem to care about much is being overqualified. As long as you are willing to take the pay grade, they will let you be overqualified.
The other thing they don’t seem to care about much is being overqualified. As long as you are willing to take the pay grade, they will let you be overqualified.
Very true. I’ve seen a couple of people take downgrades just to get to a different location.
SDGreg,
As have I. It’s all part of the “GS Strategy”. Sometimes they have to take a cut to move ahead. I know, sounds weird but..?
The way “I” told the kids to look at Americorps is that, sure, it’s probably a make work type position, but don’t worry, you’ll have a lifetime of servitude to pay taxes back! I feel the same way about WIC Programs etc.
Polly:
I always thank you for any suggestions. But here is what we are facing, If i need recent experience on my resume, why can’t i be an Intern for a few months?
Do you know how many times I even applied to the Maury show and I have friends who work there, but they have no job openings but a dozen internships. He even has a video for interns:
http://www.mauryshow.com/intern.php
This is the kind of Immediate change we need in America, why should I be discriminated against because i am older,not a recent college grad, or not in college (can’t afford it)
The FLSA need to be amended for people like me. Why cant i work for Free for a few weeks and it not violate the law?
Yes its a trade off, but putting a real employer (not free lance) on a resume with a 2009 date will help get us in the front door.
Just a random thought dj,
Think about the college thing. Suppose you said you want to go to college. Suppose you said you needed employment to make it work. Suppose you said this to the local community college and asked them to help you find a part time gig at the same time you apply for classes.
just a thought.
Just make stuff up.
If we end up with a ton of interns, companies will quit paying employees and expect stuff for free. Kind of like letting an employer use too much open source software, eventually they will expect there to be no software costs at all and eliminate the budget for it.
VaBeyatch,
Kind of felt that way about the pilots that live in trailers in the parking lot while on call? ( Article linked in OC Register yesterday )
They’re paying $60 a month to park there. Sorry, but you can’t park your car for $60 a month. Much of what supports most airports is tax dollars. So it isn’t even the municipality’s or the company’s TO “give away”.
Now the pilots ‘expect’ it.
The vast majority of airport money comes from rent + fees added to tickets.
Skip,
Probably, but at least initially and upon improvements, they’re done by bond underwritings. Firstly, in spite of recent pay cuts, I can think of a lot of people that “deserve a break” before pilots?
I just don’t think it’s their place to be doling free rent. It can’t be a healthy environment to begin with and how would we feel if the Parks & Services Depts. allowed City workers to park their 5th wheels in the city park? I mean especially when they CHOSE to live 4 hours away!?
That is what I am trying to address. Your old experience may be just fine for a federal job. They aren’t going to care unless you don’t know how to use their equipment. Actually, since federal equipment is often old, you may be much better off with old experience because you will know the stuff that they are using. A new grad from a program at NYU that only used the most updated stuff, won’t know how to deal with the older equipment.
I don’t know if it will work, but it is worth a look.
I wonder if the PPT is hiring. They seem really busy.
hmm.. job hunting by phone or email..
Since I’m not exactly loved by most on this board and have little to lose in the way of popularity, I’ll be the tough-love bad cop and tell it like it is. This is not directed at you, aNYCdj.. It’s just general advice.
Make yourself presentable and pick a street in some busy commercial area.. a retail district like stores, restaurants, etc.. or wholesale like warehouses, light industrial, etc.. and walk into every front door.
Say “I need a job and will take anything you have.” Offer a simple resume where appropriate. Chances are that before you’ve gone a block or two you’ll be employed.
If that job’s pay won’t support you in the style you’re accustomed to, keep walking and find a second job. If the combined income still won’t pay your bills, you’re living beyond your means and need to cut back on spending.
Joey:
That works for Retail, and for forklift type jobs which i have no experience in.
I just don’t think anyone gets how badly we Dumbed Down America. 90% of the places you just cant walk in and ask for a job anymore. So we hire clueless barely literate “security guards” who even if you slip them a 20. wont even let you up the elevator to hand deliver your resume. Heck even if you get a real HR persons name and send a letter with a return receipt usually you get a clown in the mail room signing for it.
No we have made finding a job a disgusting unprofessional exercise in America. I pray to meet a real ADULT who will look at my resume and ask a few questions…shows they can read….
I am sorry to say this…
But you are looking for HR in the wrong places. Most of them have moved to more, how should I put it mildly?, cost efficient locations!… You might have to walk to Mumbai, or Manila!.
I wish you luck in your search though!
i agree with and sympathisize with the frustration … so many jobs seem to have an online application that asks a million questions, then asks for you to attach your resume, and then it all disappears into a black hole. And there is no way to find out the name of a real person so you can follow up. If you do manage to have an “insider” to look into it for you, they inevitably explain that your information can’t be found in their system.
My coworker’s son had this problem recently .. it’s very frustrating.
Man I HATE it when they have you enter in every piece of your resume so their app can shove it into a MySQL database, then they have you upload the entire document.
The funny one is when you apply at the scary gov’t contractor, and it asks for your resume file and presents you the results already separated into the database fields.
No experience? How on earth did you manage to leapfrog over jobs like dishwasher, waiter, punching a cash register, pounding nails and humping cargo?
I understand what you are going through. When I was looking for work in 2002-2004, it was the same way. Nobody to talk to. The temp agencies wouldn’t even talk to me because they were flooded with resumes.
I took free lance and underemployment jobs just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.
The free lance work eventually led to a 2 month temp position that I am still in 4 1/2 years later.
The underemployment work helped me to overcome a reluctance to talk on the phone that had been with me since childhood.
Make connections through volunteer positions. I volunteered at the local Junior High as a Math Club coach that eventually brought in some money as a tutor. If my temp gig had not come through, it might have turned into full time work.
I had experienced some burnout in my occupation, prior to the unemployment. Sometimes I still feel it, but I push through it because I remember how much worse it was to be out of work.
Keep plugging away at it and get what you can out of any job you can find. I came to the conclusion that any work is better than no work.
“They ripped the faces off everyone with these terms.”
CIT Hit With Interest Rate More Than 25 Times Libor.
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Pacific Investment Management Co., Centerbridge Partners LP and the four other bondholders that put up $2 billion in financing for CIT Group Inc. made an instant $100 million on an investment analysts say is almost risk free.
CIT, the 101-year-old commercial lender struggling to retire $1 billion of debt maturing next month, agreed to pay a 5 percent fee to the creditors and annual interest of at least 13 percent. On top of that, the New York-based company pledged assets worth more than five times the amount of the loan as collateral.
“The terms are egregious,” said Dwayne Moyers, the chief investment officer at Fort Worth, Texas-based SMH Capital Advisors, which oversees $1.4 billion, including more than $70 million of CIT bonds. “They ripped the faces off everyone with these terms.”
CIT, led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Peek, said in a regulatory filing yesterday that the loan doesn’t solve the funding challenges and it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection unless holders of $1 billion in floating- rate notes due Aug. 17 accept 82.5 cents on the dollar for the deb
“The terms are egregious..”
So the hunter becomes the hunted. Too bad, so sad.
This was a good and useful company, whose executives decided to turn it into a fake profit/bonus machine. Someone needs to extract the useful CIT from the crap layered onto it.
Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be plenty of money left over for bonuses.
WT Economist,
Good luck, I’ve tried to make that point several times over the last few days? We’re too busy with our ‘everything’s a ponzi/rip-off group think’ to consider any other possibilities.
Paying their employees didn’t do them in. CIT’s lending to a bunch of people who, for whatever reasons, didn’t pay the money back did.
Anyway, the ($2.3B ?) TARP money they received had bonus-pay strings attached. That should satisfy all the armchair micro-managers out there who think high salaries and bonus’ are a waste of money, and that talent, experience and performance can be had cheap.
joey,
Exactly. I imagine most people that went to CIT -had- applied for SBA loans and were turned down. Unless of course we want SBA to administrate ‘everything’?
Here ( I felt ) was the (1) firm that actually had an honest shot at job creation and all I got was “let ‘em fail!”
CIT wasn’t lending to strawberry pickers.. wasn’t writing mortgages, wasn’t involved in the RE boom at all.
They support about a million small-medium businesses of all types… buying accounts receivables at discount, financing new equipment, lending on old equipment, etc. plus the SBA loans.
But, according to the mob-think encyclopedia, they are a “big financial business in trouble” so they must be guilty of something..
joeyincalif,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
And… ( assuming we ever find our way OUT of this thing? ) it will be companies like CIT that are needed to generate legitimate ( non-REIC ) employment!
But… as long as there’s still room under the bus..?
Whether they participated in the RE boom or are guilty isn’t the point.
What I keep coming back to is, if they’re such a slam dunk why isn’t ‘everyone’ trying to lend a hand to them? It’s the free market playing itself out perfectly. If they were making loans to “people who, for whatever reasons, didn’t pay the money back,” it’s probable that they were lending to higher risk folks at higher margins.
They now find themselves in need of money. And now, they are the higher risk entity and get to pay what the market will bear.
…it’s probable that they were lending to higher risk folks at higher margins…
CIT keeps your doors open for business.
Does the local market for widgets suck lately? CIT will lend you some money to tide you over
Did you find a huge new widget customer overseas who ordered 3 million if you can deliver in 6 weeks, and you need to increase production fast? CIT will lend you money for a new assembly line, and for shipping gaylords (pallet size boxes) of widgets to the customer..
A million “yous” depended on CIT and CIT lent the money. Then the economy soured, a lot of the small businesses couldn’t pay, and CIT was in trouble.
If CIT goes away, someone will have to step in and do their job.. Whoever replaces them might do worse but won’t do better.
I’m not arguing against any of that. They effed up. Clearly they underestimated how long the market for widgets would suck. They now have to pay the price.
Has the thought crossed anyone’s mind that The Powers That Be WANT them to fail BECAUSE they support businesses? How can we get to Glorious New Future of Grand Unemployment if we still have businesses? After all, every person employed by a business is one less dependent upon wealth redistribution, and we can’t have that.
Chains we can believe in!
State bankruptcy filings up 30% at midyear
By Paul Gores of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: July 21, 2009
Close Bankruptcy filings in Wisconsin jumped 30% in the first half of the year, with a growing number of people in their late 40s and 50s who have lost their jobs among those seeking relief from debt.
There were 13,801 filings in the state through June 30, the vast majority of them personal bankruptcies by consumers hoping to have debts such as credit card balances, utility bills, medical expenses and home-equity loans erased in court. Through June of last year, 10,581 bankruptcy petitions were filed in Wisconsin.
The reason for the increase is clear, bankruptcy lawyers said: Unemployment and underemployment are leaving people unable to keep up with their monthly expenses. Wisconsin’s jobless rate in June was 9.2%, up from 4.7% in June of last year.
“I’m seeing middle-age people and a little bit older who are not quite at retirement age who have lost their jobs or who have greatly reduced income levels because they were in positions where they received commissions,” said Resop, of the law firm von Briesen & Roper. “The problem is that they are unable to replace their income with different jobs.”
A common example would be car salesmen “who made a lot of money and don’t make a lot of money now or flat-out lost their jobs,” Resop said.
1st the used car salesmen, then the used house salesmen, then…??
http://tinyurl.com/na3sdc
mikey, I was up in Vilas County in June on the Manitowish chain. There were quite a few more For Sale signs than normal, but prices don’t seem to have moved down much. I suspect it will be another year before real capitulation sets in. What are your thoughts?
They should of done that to Goldmans .Charge the daylights out of them for any aid ,just like the Bank Holding Companies did to the
World….Instead ,cheap fed discount loans that have contorted everything in the economy .
Looks like the guys at CIT used a 13% loan to pay off a 5% loan that they couldn’t pay in the first place. Kicked the can down the road a bit. I wish someone would pay me 8 figures to do that.
You think you could convince bond holders to lend you $2 billion at 13%?
lets see.. what’s 1% of $2,000,000,000.
$20 million?
If you’re the one who’s supposed to get the money and you screw up just a little, and negotiate a 14% deal instead of 13%, your “8 figure salary” of 20M was thrown down the toilet by allowing you do the deal.
people think this big business stuff is so easy and anyone can do it..
Wells Fargo Says Bad Loans Rise in Second Quarter; Shares Drop
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender this year, said bad loans jumped in the second quarter as the recession made it harder for borrowers to keep up with payments. The shares dropped 5 percent in early trading.
Assets no longer collecting interest climbed 45 percent to $18.3 billion as of June 30 from the first quarter, the San Francisco-based bank said today in a statement. The increase was disclosed as Wells Fargo reported second-quarter net income soared 81 percent to a record $3.17 billion.
Wells Fargo added to credit reserves amid a 26-year high in unemployment and rising commercial real estate delinquencies. While the acquisition of Wachovia Corp. in January bolstered deposits and home lending, the bank must stanch losses from defaults in California and a portfolio of option adjustable-rate mortgages, ranked among the riskiest loans issued during the housing boom.
“We’re not out of the woods in terms of credit quality,” said Jennifer Thompson, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York. She has a “hold” rating on Wells Fargo, because “with the company more exposed to some higher-risk markets, I’d rather wait for a better entry point,” Thompson said.
The increase in bad assets was tied to Wachovia loans, the difficulty of liquidating holdings, the cost of loan modifications and the deterioration of commercial real estate, Wells Fargo said. Nonaccrual loans jumped $5.3 billion from March 31.
Hahaha! “Wachovia loans…”
I love it! Walk-over-yah (one of the most stupid and pettily corrupt groups I’ve ever had the misfortune of doing business with over the years) was still selling Pick A Payment loans until well into 2007. Gee, I can’t imagine how that mountain of toxic gunk could possible end poorly!
Ah, well - it’s Wells Fargo’s problem now… and then it will be the taxpayer’s problem!
“We’re not out of the woods in terms of credit quality,” said Jennifer Thompson, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York. She has a “hold” rating on Wells Fargo, because “with the company more exposed to some higher-risk markets, I’d rather wait for a better entry point,” Thompson said.
If I’m reading correctly between the lines, I see more pain to come, particularly along coastal Calif.
“If I’m reading correctly between the lines, I see more pain to come, particularly along coastal Calif.”
20/20, and don’t overlook Florida’s two coastlines.
more pain to come, particularly along coastal Calif ?
Some yes, but mostly in the weak hands…
Update on the waterways of Ontario;
Life is good. The Marinas are all full, not like last year when things were slow. The province has not only jacked the canal fee up to $280 something for the season (it’s that or a six day pass), they now want a seperate “docking fee” of the same amount. That is to tie up on their wall overnights, $30 a night or $280 for the season. Some lockmasters enforce this, others refuse to. The closer to Ottowa, the more closely monitored.
Anyway, I’m living the transient life, evading fees everywhere. One afternoon or late night battery charge, and we’re good to go for a few days. The lock hands on the Rideau are great ambassadors for their historic waterway. The locals are really good to me everywhere.
One exception was the “Pirates of Manotick”, a group of teens boarded in the night, stole the gas cans, and set the boat adrift in the river. I woke, but not fast enough for a confrontation. No serious harm done, but the intent was there.
Lots of big new houses on the upper Rideau. No for sale sighs on the water side until reaching bubble central in Manotick. I do not see any construction in progress, but the expansion of the past few years is obvious by the garish arcitecture and landscaping. It still seems to be mostly different here in Canada.
On to Ottowa.
Blue Skye…How long are you on this trip ??
Probably five more weeks.
“late night battery charge”
LOL! I had to read that 3x
Did the “pirates” come on your boat while you were onboard sleeping? That seems somewhat scary, especially since they set you adrift. Leave a well-sugared can of gas on deck for them next time you’re in the area, that should give them a treat.
Our 4br 2ba 2k sqft house sold in 2004 for 147k has an identical one as reo now a few houses down from it at 89k. No inside pics though. Went from 114 > 106 > 89. Still not selling. Nah, no bubble in the midwest. After all, it’s different here! mls 1604413
Where in the midwest?
South Kansas City
It remains cheaper to own than to rent in many parts of the Midwest. At $89k, that house becomes easily affordable for a first-time buyer. Throw in an $8k tax credit as a downpayment, a basic laborer could buy the place with no money down.
The Midwest is by no means uniform, and there are pockets of depression and pockets of stability/growth. Unless this house is in a depressed city or in terrible shape inside, some young 23 yr old should snap it up fairly quickly, at no out-of-pocket expense.
“some young 23 yr old should snap it up”
HBB faux pas! Repent CincyDad!
LOL -
Yea, but think about it for a minute. What does a 23yr old in the Midwest have to lose buy ’snapping’ up the place?
- Monthly mortgage less than rent
- gov’t pays the down payment
- probably some local agency provides another a first-time homeowner credit that covers closing costs.
- *** It’s harder to come up with a security deposit and first month’s rent all at once ********
- If it goes down in value 10%, you are out a whopping $9k
- You can always walk away and go back to renting for a couple of years if everything goes wrong.
Life in the Midwest….
I agree with you — this is most likely why I will buy when my family (hopefully) moves back to Rochester. I got my wife to agree to one year of renting, but that’s it. And yeah, if the house goes down 20%…. oh well…
LOL. Party foul!
Here in Pullman, WA (small college town in the middle of nowhere) sub $100k homes were common circa 2000. Median home price $132k. Now even tear downs are listed for $150k, with the median home price at $265k. It is hard to even image a livable house for under $100k.
SunTrust Reports Third Straight Loss on Weak Housing (Update1)
July 22 (Bloomberg) — SunTrust Banks Inc., the seventh- largest U.S. bank by assets and deposits, reported its third straight quarterly loss as it charged off more real-estate loans because of weak economies in the Southeast.
The second-quarter net loss was $183.5 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with a profit of $540.4 million, or $1.52, a year earlier, when SunTrust had fewer outstanding shares, the Atlanta-based lender said today in a statement. The per-share loss, which includes preferred-stock dividends, beat the average 63-cent loss estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
SunTrust declined 5.4 percent in trading yesterday after rival Regions Financial Inc. cited worsening economic conditions in Florida and Georgia in reporting a $188 million loss. SunTrust ranks first in deposit market share in Georgia and third in Florida, two states where unemployment rates and home foreclosures are among the highest in the U.S.
“It seems unlikely that this bank will return to profitability until the middle of 2010,” Richard Bove, analyst at Rochdale Securities, wrote in a July 9 report. “SunTrust has fallen on hard times.”
Interesting how the JP Morgans and the Goldman Sachs’ of the world are doing so well, and yet the Wells Fargos, the Sun Trusts, the M&T’s, the Regions etc. are doing so bad.
Disaster capitalism - eliminate the competition.
Ding ding ding ding!
We have a winner folks!
I was pondering this very thing today at lunch. This whole debacle wasn’t a “mistake”. It wasn’t a “mania” (at least not at the highest levels). It was completely deliberate and people need to get wise to this fact. It’s really pretty simple. Follow the money. Look at who’s all of a sudden now “profitable” again.
Nothing to see here folks, just move along now and keep fighting among yourselves.
The ONLY thing that really surprises me about this is how BRAZEN the really big players have been about it. The whole thing has more than a superficial resemblance to the French aristocracy. We all know how THAT turned out
SunTrust holds my mortgage. I’m beginning to wonder about them. What should I be on the lookout for, in terms of a change in the mortgage holder?
SunTrust was in the list of 19 banks that were stress tested and “won’t be allowed to fail”. So if you believe the Fed you should be fine.
I’m not sure what you’re worried about with a mortgage anyways. Even if they fail the mortgage will be transferred to someone and I’m sure the new owner will contact you.
“What should I be on the lookout for, in terms of a change in the mortgage holder?”
A co-worker had a mortgage with WaMu with an automatic deduction. The mortgage was sold to another company, but WaMu continued to withdraw the funds; the new mortgage company had mailed a coupon booklet. It took several months to straighten things out, and a “record of late payment” was recorded during the confusion.
Government Motors sales are down, but that’s good news, because it could have been worse.
GM global sales fall 22 pct in first half of 2009
Reuters
July 22, 2009: 09:17 AM ET
* Q2 sales fall 15.4 pct, first half sales fall 21.8 pct
* First half global market share 12 pct, down 0.3 pct pt
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors posted Wednesday a 22 percent global sales drop from a year earlier for the first six months of 2009 amid the economic slowdown and the automaker’s slide into bankruptcy.
GM said its global first-half sales, which include brands the automaker is trimming from its lineup, fell 21.8 percent to 3.55 million vehicles. The automaker’s sales in the second quarter fell 15.4 percent to 1.94 million vehicles.
The automaker said second-quarter sales reflected continuing economic pressures and production cuts in the United States. It estimated a 12 percent second-quarter global market share, down 0.3 percentage point from a year earlier.
And former GM subsidiary Delphi dumps it’s pension plans on the guvmint.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090722/AUTO01/907220387/Delphi-to-cancel-pension-plans–government-to-assume-6.25B-in-costs
Don’t forget we are the government.
That’s the problem……somebody else’es retirement and health care just got dumped on me (and you). It’s not my problem.
Government Motors sales are down, but that’s good news, because it could have been worse.
“Government Motors”
Only time will tell if that will stick like “Fix It Again Tony” or “Found On Road Dead”
Repost from late yesterday:
Anyone care to comment on this chart for NOD vs. sales activity in 93552 Palmdale, CA?
http://wwreader.com/img/93552nod3years.bmp
The 12 month trend line certainly seems to be nosing over. Has the fire consumed most all of the fuel available? The major inflection is right around the Lehman crunch.
I would guess the NOD fire has consumed most of the available subprime fuel. Not so much the prime and Alt-A fuel. So whether it is safe to assume the fire is waning depends on the prevalence of subprime versus prime and Alt-A pick-a-pays.
Seems like 3 factors are in play:
1. What PB said - much of the subprime fuel has been consumed.
2. Foreclosure moratoriums (isn’t there a new one in place in CA now?). Note that the recent spring spike happened after the previous 3-month moratorium expired.
3. Dead-cat bounce; perception that housing prices are bottoming (which they are; albeit probably temporarily) will cause people to hang on longer than they otherwise would.
Maybe also 4. banks are so overwhelmed they’re getting behind on NOD’s even? There was a lot of discussion last week about people staying in their houses long after they stopped making mortgage payments - I’m not sure how the NOD fits into this picture though; whether the bank always sends the NOD on time or whether they delay sending them.
On your point #2:
Since there is a huge inflection point right around the time the banks woke up to the problem it makes me think that part of this is due to voluntary forebearance on the part of lenders.
It may well be that they are just sitting on nonperforming debt without giving NOD so as to avoid realized losses. My own experience 9+ months squatting with no NOD issued would support this idea.
“It may well be that they are just sitting on nonperforming debt without giving NOD so as to avoid realized losses.”
Stealing from another post below:
‘A rolling loan gathers no loss.’
LOL!
My own experience 9+ months squatting with no NOD issued would support this idea.
Question about that - in your case you were just the tenant right? As such - presumably you wouldn’t get the NOD, the owner would; did the owner tell you they went 9+ without getting the NOD?
Just wondering.
Seems like there’s a big untold story that we haven’t seen in the MSM (probably intentionally) - the shadow inventory may be much *much* larger than anyone suspected, for reasons like this.
Tenant correct.
I frequently check the public records for NOD. I haven’t actually spoken to the owner since he told me he wasn’t going to pay anymore. There was written correspondence at that time as well. I’ve actually thought about subletting for free to another renter once I move into my new place but I haven’t checked into it legally. Who knows how long it will take for this thing to actually sell on the courthouse steps?
I agree on the shadow inventory thing. There is a tremendous number of housing units stranded in limbo.
I’m guessing that packman’s landlord got a loan for the rental property as a primary residence. (Yeah, I know. Mortgage fraud.) Which means that packman got all sorts of interesting mail that was addressed to the landlord.
LOL - OK not sure why you think that. I am my own landlord. (And my mail tends to be downright boring)
However I have a friend who has done what you say - gotten a loan in another state to claim a property as primary when it’s really a rental. Though he didn’t at the time own a residence in this state; so it was his only owned house.
L.A. County threatens to sue, a state workers’ union considers a strike, and a GOP leader protests release of prison inmates.
July 22, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Less than 24 hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced a plan to close California’s massive budget deficit, Los Angeles County officials moved to sue the state, a union for government workers said it might strike, and Republicans threatened to back out of the deal over a provision to cut the number of prison inmates by 27,000.
The governor largely stayed out of sight, except for posting a brief video on Twitter in which he played with a big knife and talked about autographing state property to be sold at auction to raise extra money. Legislative leaders, meanwhile, began to brief their members, and staff started compiling a formal proposal in anticipation of a vote that could occur Thursday.
Interesting how a large number of workers have a financial interest in keeping citizens locked up. I can see this causing lots of problems in the future.
financial interest in keeping citizens locked up ??
The whole system from the prison’s all the way down to the DA’s office is just a big ponzi scheme…
If they’re releasing pickpockets, thugs, burglars, car thieves and the like, a lot of citizens have a financial interest in keeping them locked up as well.
I’m thinking an ankle bracelet would be a heck of a lot cheaper to the taxpayer than locking them up though.
These people make a living by ripping people off. Assuming the ankle bracelet prevents them earning a living the only way they know how, who is supposed to support them.. food, clothing, medical.. a roof over their heads? Is mom supposed to take them in?
To become productive members of society they first need to reform their ways. That aint gonna happen.
Even if it does happen by some miracle, combine their criminal records and that bracelet, and the chances of getting a legitimate job are remote.
And the probation-parole system stacks the odds against them. For instance, a thief’s PO won’t allow him to work anywhere near cash money or credit cards, customer personal info or any sort of job where he might steal and fence the stuff. Few jobs exist where this one condition is met… and there are lots of other conditions.
All things considered, jail might be our cheapest solution..
All things considered, jail might be our cheapest solution..
As long as it’s in another state. It’s way too expensive in Cali, more than double the cost per prisoner per year as Florida.
I hear gitmo will soon be vacant.. Has Mexico offered to take some?
How about blocking all access to Manhattan and putting them there.. no guards, no nothing. Drop care packages from airplanes.
Personally, i don”t see any major changes coming to the system anytime soon. It is a huge industry. Huge things have huge amounts of momentum and change very slowly.
Personally, i don”t see any major changes coming to the system anytime soon. It is a huge industry. Huge things have huge amounts of momentum and change very slowly.
+1
Skip:
Think of how many hundreds of thousands of lawyers want to keep drugs Illegal.
Its a pocketbook issue, not morality, or even common sense.
LA is not the only county who has promised to sue. Stealing money from the localities was a pretty lousy plan.
I believe CA did this in the eighties. Took money from the counties. Counties went to court to stop it and the court ruled in CA favor.
Don’t know how this will be any different.
If anything, I think the legal case is now stronger than it was in the 80’s.
However, I think the state assumption that this will turn around quickly enough to repay the local and county governments in a few years will prove to have been seriously wrong. Next year will be worse than this year. After that, slow stabilization at best. The state has still done little to address long term structural spending problems.
Can anyone provide a reference which supports the claim that Congress is trying to take control of Fed rate policy? It would guess they care little about rate policy, but lots about various irregularities (e.g. abysmal mortgage lending industry regulatory failure, $29 bn loan to Bear Stearns, strong arming Ken Lewis to go through with Merrill Lynch deal, etc.).
Bernanke Seeks to Wall Off Rate Policy From Congress (Update1)
By Craig Torres
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sought to cordon off the central bank’s independence on monetary policy from congressional scrutiny as lawmakers challenged its authority on everything from currency swaps to emergency loans.
The 55-year-old Fed chairman yesterday stepped up his defense of the central bank as it faces a bill with 275 legislator-sponsors to repeal immunity from audits of monetary policy. Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee that Fed actions helped avert a credit “collapse,” and gave Congress its own task: cut “unsustainable” budget deficits.
As lawmakers embark on the biggest financial-regulation overhaul in generations, “everything is up for grabs,” including Fed independence, said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist in New York at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. It would “open a Pandora’s box” for Congress’s Government Accountability Office to probe monetary policy, he said.
At stake is the future structure of the 95-year-old central bank, which was conceived to stem financial panics and is charged with achieving stable prices and maximum employment. Bernanke’s remarks yesterday showed he’s open to relinquishing some powers, while retaining autonomy on setting interest rates and oversight of consumer finance.
…
conceived to stem financial panics and is charged with achieving stable prices and maximum employment Conceived to do that, but aborted in practice. Well past time for a full Congressional review of its usefulness.
The problem is we don’t have a real congress. Just a bunch of pathetically clueless, insulated from reality, ignorant douchebags who think their jobs are the most important thing on the planet. Their reviews are a joke.
Hey Prof. If you’re still up, there’s a link to your question at
PBS dot org slash NewsHour
Tonight (Wed.) Ray Suarez interviewed Scott Garrett and Martin Baley about the bill’s underlying agenda. Although supported by a large number of bipartisan sponsors (including Ron Paul,) the Fed is balking at allowing the proposed audit.
Wonder what they’re hiding….
Good morning people,
I hope you are doing well this morning. I need your advice regarding the US dollar bs Euro. I’ll be in Europe for 2 weeks in about 3 weeks (last minute trip). However, the value of the dollar has somewhat plummeted in the past month or so.
What do u belive the short term future of the dollar is? In other words, should I buy euros now? Or wait a couple of weeks?
Thanks
If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t have to work for a living. If you’re really worried (I wouldn’t be) buy half your Euros now, and half when you go. DCA!
Great answer
You could always buy now and hedge your Euro purchase on Forex.
(please don’t do this)
Fair is foul and foul is fair…
Wells Fargo’s Bad Loans Rise in Quarter; Shares Drop (Update1)
By Ari Levy
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender this year, said bad loans jumped in the second quarter as the recession made it harder for borrowers to keep up with payments. The bank dropped 6.6 percent in New York trading.
Assets no longer collecting interest climbed 45 percent to $18.3 billion as of June 30 from the first quarter, the San Francisco-based bank said today in a statement. The increase was disclosed as Wells Fargo reported second-quarter net income soared 81 percent to a record $3.17 billion.
…
Holy Smokes! Where the heck is the green shoot in this data?
Maybe we haven’t hit bottom yet….
Many locals are falling behind on mortgages
July 22, 2009 08:32 AM
By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff
Massachusetts foreclosure petitions in June jumped to 2,835 - more than eight times higher than the 350 petitions in June 2008 and 21.7 percent higher than the 2,329 filings in May, said the Warren Group, which added that the number of petitions to foreclose in June was the highest it’s been in the previous 13 months.
Petitions to foreclose are the first step in the foreclosure process, noted the Warren Group, a Boston firm that tracks real estate data and publishes Banker & Tradesman.
Foreclosure deeds are the final step in the foreclosure process, and in June, Massachusetts foreclosure deeds “plunged 45.1 percent to 621 from 1,131 in June 2008 but climbed 6.7 percent from 582 in May,” the Warren Group said.
“June’s foreclosure petitions were close to the historical highs we saw in the early part of 2008,” Warren Group chief executive Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement. “We saw a big drop-off in foreclosure petitions in the middle of last year after the state passed a law requiring lenders intending to start foreclosure proceedings to give defaulting borrowers 90 days to catch up with missed payments. But in subsequent months, petitions to foreclose mounted.”
The Warren Group also examined foreclosure activity in Massachusetts for the first half of 2009.
Foreclosures in Massachusetts fell 29 percent during the first half of 2009 compared to a year earlier, the firm said, but petitions to foreclose rose 5.6 percent during the first six months of 2009 from the same period last year.
“There were 4,737 foreclosure deeds from January through June, a 29.4 percent drop from 6,707 during the same months in 2008,” the Warren Group said.
“Even though the number of foreclosure deeds has declined from a year ago, they crept up from the prior month, and we’re seeing more people in the initial stage of foreclosure. That’s troubling,” Timothy Warren said in his statement. “There are many incentives for lenders to complete loan modifications to help homeowners who can’t afford their current mortgage payments. But researchers have questioned whether these loan modifications are really sufficient to help homeowners.”
Warren added, “One area that remains a serious concern is unemployment. Many homeowners who lose their jobs won’t be able to make mortgage payments and pay off other bills even with a loan modification.”
The press release added, “While foreclosure deeds have declined year-over-year, the number of petitions to foreclose has increased. Lenders filed 13,813 petitions to foreclose during the first six months of 2009, up 5.6 percent from 13,076 last year.”
I was saying in yesterdays bits, that houses around me that sold 2 or 3 years ago for 450, are now selling for mid 300’s. Granted even with the haircut, they are mightily expensive for the location, neighbors, and what the house really is.
I think that a lot of people around MA are starting to panic, slipping up a payment here, a payment there, and trying to get rid of the albatross.
I am patiently waiting for this wave to hit, as it seems that these are better houses than the previous wave, the Alt-A homeowers, and the better neighborhoods. Before this, you could only find ugly Condoze or run down houses in Brockton, or Taunton that were affordable in the south shore. Now, better places might be opening up.
I grew up in Sharon. Some nasty McMansions, but some nice older nabes too. And, allegedly, the schools are still good. We used to send several people to MIT every year.
Sharon is one of those places I would like to live in. Has some nice amenities when you need to work in Boston, like the MBTA, and is close enough to 95 or 495.
I have been living in the Attleboro area for 10 years now, and I live there because it is cheap, as there are few other reasons.
I also have a friend who is starting a new job. He is to go out and take a picture of a list of foreclosed houses. The list he got was about 300 houses in his vicinity, Plymouth.
This will get interesting in the next couple of months!
I believe June of 2008 was the final month of a moratorium on new foreclosure filings in Massachusetts…
There have been various moratoriums as national policy as well - this year - e.g. they were proposed as part of the stimulus package (not sure if still there), and also there various voluntary moratoriums done by the banks.
Commercial Real Estate:
“Two new phrases have entered the commercial real estate industry lexicon in recent months: “Pretend and extend” and “A rolling loan gathers no loss.” Both witticisms describe an ongoing phenomenon in commercial real estate finance: as the level of distress mounts, lenders have been loath to seize properties from troubled borrowers.”
http://retailtrafficmag.com/news/lenders-wary-losses-0714/
“Instead, in many cases banks are generously granting extensions or other modifications even in situations where it appears unlikely that borrowers will be able to pay back the loans.”
Quite the contrast to home loans.
“Many banks hope that if they stave off foreclosure for a year or two, even if a distressed sale becomes inevitable, they will be able to recover more of their investment than they would if they sold right now.”
That worked out so well with home loans.
“”Sellers are hanging on and hoping that things will get better, but for the most part, they have loans that have loan-to-value ratios of over 100 percent,” says Dan Gorczycki, managing director with Savills. “Prices are still artificially high because there are no sales.”
Looks like the housing market 2 to 3 years ago.
“If their predictions are on target, it will be another three to five years before all the bad commercial loans out there get resolved. But if lenders continue to postpone dealing with troubled assets, the resolution of this crisis might take as long as 10 years.”
Procrastination worked so well in Japan.
I see this every day with half a dozen ghost residential subdivisions in our little town. We have over 200 developed lots on the market, with several hundred more at some stage in the pipeline. Total lot sales this year to date: TWO! Half a dozen all last year! But not a single development has been foreclosed, and not a single developer has lowered their asking prices. Talk about pretend and extend!
I tried posting earlier, but it didn’t work.
Anyways,
Good morning people,
I hope you are doing well. I need some advice. I will be going to Europe on a kind of last minute trip in 4 weeks. I need to buy Euros, but the dollar has plummeted in the past two months or so
Do you guys think the trend will continue? Should I buy now before the dollar drops even further? or do you think it will make some gains?
What do you anticipate the short-term future of the dollar will be?
Thanks
If the trend continues, $1,000 US will decline by about $20 per month when traded for Euros. Decide how much do you plan on converting, and then decide if it’s worth the worry.
You have enough time to keep track of the Euro vs. the dollar and decide whether/when to buy, or whether to get Euros from ATMs while you’re there. I bought Euros before I went (just got home 2 days ago) because I wanted to pay cash whenever possible and I didn’t want to count on ATMs to withdraw as much as I needed.
I use the opposite strategy when overseas. There are ATMs everywhere now days; and even adding in the foreign ATM fee it is still a far better exchange rate than you get buying Euros here in the states.
Also, I’ve never had an overseas ATM put a hard limit on the transaction for me. A coworker just pulled 1000 Euros in Italy this spring in a single transaction, and she was concerned because her bank has a very firm 200 USD rule. Or they thought they did.
I agree. Do a lot of traveling and it is so much easier to not carry much cash. I always have a hidden stash of $100 bills for emergencies, but basically just use local ATM machines.
The dollar hasn’t exactly plummeted, and if everyone gets scared it could even shoot up again. Trying to hedge currencies for this sort of thing probably isn’t worth the worry.
One thing to think of - I’ve had problems finding ATMs in Europe (actually, only Ireland) that can take a PIN longer than six digits, so if you have an eight digit pin you may wish to change it to four or six digits.
On the opposite end of the scale, I’ve yet to discover an ATM in Jordan that requires a PIN number.
.
Off topic but interesting:
China Worker Kills Himself over Missing iPhone
“In the early morning of July 16, Sun jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building, the paper said.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/32078777
Sure, he “jumped”. More like he was thrown off by some Chinese goons working for Apple.
TB
TB, based on this excerpt from the article, your speculation on being thrown off may not be too far from the truth. Company security searching your home and beating you….shesh. Maybe we don’t have it that bad in America after all.
Sun was responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13 he reported that he was missing one of the 16 units in his possession, the newspaper reported. His friends said company security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him, the paper reported.
Bernanke called the peak in foreclosures in front of Congress yesterday. Appears Bernanke may have missed the ARM and Alt A reset charts. http://mortgagenewsclips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dr2.jpg
I betcha Obama liked the part about the stimulus package reducing unemployment.
As a bonus!!!! We have a mouthful from Barney Frank.
Bernanke-
“The combination of unemployment and falling house prices, the double trigger, does create a very high rate of foreclosures,” he said. “Our assessment of the foreclosures is that it’s likely to be — it’s likely to peak in the second half of 2009, corresponding with the peak in the unemployment rate and, perhaps, be somewhat less in 2010.
However, he said unemployment could be even worse had it not been for the $787 billion stimulus package.
Committee chairman Barney Frank said he was reassured by Bernanke’s efforts to fend off inflation.
“I am persuaded by the chairman and others that we are able in an orderly way to undo what we had to do so there will not be that inflationary impact,” said the Mass. Democrat.
Ram Emanuel to Whispering Harry Reid… Get over it.
Government Meeting? Stay Away From Fun City
WSJ 7-22-09
What do Reno, Orlando and Las Vegas have in common? To some pockets of the federal government, they just seem like too much fun.
Instead, employees at some big agencies, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are being encouraged to host meetings in more buttoned-down places such as St. Louis, Milwaukee or Denver.
Travel-industry lobbyists say government policies have essentially resulted in a blacklist of some destinations, such as Las Vegas, top, and Orlando, Fla., above, where Walt Disney World is located.
When a conference planner for MGM Mirage’s New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas tried to book a conference with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she received a polite refusal.
The Department of Justice “decided conference[s] are not to be held in cities that are vacation destinations/spa/resort/gambling,” according to a May email from an FBI employee obtained by the U.S. Travel Association and viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Las Vegas and Orland[o] are the first 2 on the chopping block.”
A Department of Justice spokeswoman said, “We do have guidance that says avoid locations and accommodations that give the appearance of being lavish or are resort destinations.”
Travel industry lobbyists say government policies have essentially resulted in a blacklist of banned destinations that is punishing travel-dependent states, such as Nevada and Florida. Those destinations, which have tens of thousands of hotel rooms and millions of square feet of conference space, often offer the best deals on meetings and conferences, say officials from the U.S. Travel Association.
Earlier this month, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the chamber’s majority leader, expressed concern to the White House about a prohibition on government travel to resort destinations. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel wrote back saying that government travel “is not focused on specific destinations,” but on cost and efficiency.
wmbz,
I spoke w/ an analyst in this arena and they’re calling it “The AIG Effect”. Oh btw I hear that Dana Point prop. where their ill-fated lavish event was held is now in FC.
It’s really killing these people. We’re burning thru billions of dollars but we wouldn’t want to seem ‘wasteful’ now would we?
Tucson has more than a few lavish resorts. They’re just outside the city limits, and, from what I’ve heard, business is wa-a-a-ay down. Because I rarely watch local TV and don’t get an ink-on-paper newspaper, I don’t know if they’re running specials for the locals. They tend to do that in the summertime.
One thing I am noticing is something that, for lack of a better name, I’ll call it “desperation e-mail marketing.” Lately, I’m seeing quite a flurry of e-mails from local businesses advertising specials. Makes me wonder why they’re just discovering their customer database now.
Interestingly enough, these e-mails are from businesses that I haven’t dealt with for several years. One of them was a local company that asked me for a website redesign proposal a couple of years ago, and some other studio got the job. I was tempted to e-mail them back and ask how the new website’s been working out for them, but the reply to address went to some e-mail service provider.
It’s too bad that these outfits didn’t see fit to stay in touch when times were good. I’ve found, from my own experience, that you have to do the keep-in-touch thing on an ongoing basis. You can’t just turn it on when times get bad.
Problem is this will cost money. Airplane tickets to vacation destinations are dirt cheap. And the federal rate for hotels is adjusts according to the price of rooms in that area, so if you pick a tourist destination that is slashing room rates to bring people back, the feds also end up in cheaper rooms.
Try picking the location by doing a cost analysis. That is supposed to be your job.
You tell ‘em, Polly! And when I get this DC client that I’ve been angling for, I’ll be in town and will buy you a drink.
I’ll take you up on that, Slim. Old Ebbit’s (classic DC power broker/tourist trap) or the Exchange (old fashioned dive/sports bar near White House - don’t believe their website - they ain’t a “prestigious Saloon”)?
One recommendation - wait a bit. Summer is finally here and it isn’t a dry heat. OK, it is only hitting the high 80’s, not the high 90’s, but still damp and rather wilty.
Oh, and you talked about bringing a bike here once, but you said it was sort of a beater? I don’t know what the airlines would charge you to transport it, but you might be able to do better buying one off of craigs list when you get here.
Rent one for a day or two at CityBikes. WAAAAAY cheaper than flying with it. The last time I flew with my bike (even in its travel ready hard shell case) the airline charged me a $75 service fee. I was extremely ‘not happy’ and it would have been cheaper to ship it but I wont trust my baby to the animals at UPS.
Wouldn’t holding conferences in airline hub cities be the most efficient? Of course then you’re showing a preference for the airline that uses that hub.
How about holding a conference via satellite?
I would think that’d immediately make the whole subject moot as to what is cost effective.
Besides, many government officials belong in the slammer.
They could have their continentel breakfast in da pen.
Depends. There are all sorts of weird rules for government tickets including the ability to cancel them without penalty, I believe, so they deal with regularly renegotiated contract rates with all the airlines for various city pairs. It may be different than the best commerical price, but it is impacted by supply and there are plenty of flights to Vegas.
I understand the impulse to just say no to Vegas and other tourist destinations. I do. But if a reporter hears about it and contacts you for comment and you can say that you looked at 10 different cities and based on the travel needs of all the attendees plus the cost of lodging and food per diems, having it in Las Vegas was $50K cheaper than any other option, you have a very good response, right?
We often hold conferences at hotels actually attached to the airport. Everyone just flies in, walks to the hotel, a few days of meetings and back on the plane. Very efficient if you actually need to meet in person (though most of the time you don’t).
Hi. How about webinars and teleconferencing ? Still too much waste in government.
How about webinars and teleconferencing ?
That’s mostly a waste if you don’t have a fast internet connection and we don’t. We get a max of about 1.4 Mbps, pretty pathetic for streaming video. Travel’s been cut too, for years, but still lots of funds for the least essential travel.
Problem is the hardware. Government budgeting means it may be possible to get $150K to do your conference/training in person every year but never ever ever be able to get the $2M you need to set up a teleconference situation. Yes, I know you can purchase the service from an outside provider, but it may not be acceptable to have someone else in charge of the equipment for security reasons.
Also, people really do pay attention more - and react/push back/ask questions more - when you are all in the same room. I with it weren’t true, but it seems to be.
If they have to gather people from all over the country, you would think they would do best at the major airline hub cities: Dallas, Denver, and Chicago.
Hey, isn’t Rahm Emanuel from Chicago?
If they have to gather people from all over the country, you would think they would do best at the major airline hub cities: Dallas, Denver, and Chicago.
That’s not necessarily true. Non-hub cities can have just as many flights and lower fares. Also, transportation is only one of the cost considerations.
Serves ‘em right.. they break under pressure over how private businesses pay their employees and now they have to go to St Louis instead of Vegas.
Live by public perception, and die by public perception.
The Fed Gov should just use teleconferencing for everything. Problem solved.
“If anyone thought ratings meant anything, this ought to dispel that belief:
July 21 (Bloomberg) — Standard & Poor’s backtracked on ratings cuts issued last week and raised the ranking on commercial mortgage-backed debt from three bonds sold in 2007.
The securities, restored to top-ranked status, had been downgraded as recently as last week, making them ineligible for the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to jumpstart lending.
Got it?
Ratings no longer mean anything about actual credit quality. They are now simply a ticket to get into The Fed’s programs so you can dump your trash on the taxpayer.”
“Proposing and engineering outrageous, in-your-face multi-billion to trillion dollar theft from the taxpayer by the Fed and Wall Street every single day”.
That is what the Obama Administration is all about these days. Outright, blatant thievery. Continuous lies, deceit, graft, corruption, and theft of taxpayer money on the grandest scale possible.
No one should attempt to defend the indefensible.
If anyone voted for Obama because they were just fed up with the Bush policies, they should now be continuously retching their guts out in horror every morning.
“Ratings no longer mean anything about actual credit quality. They are now simply a ticket to get into The Fed’s programs so you can dump your trash on the taxpayer.”
Actually, ratings haven’t been about credit quality in long time. That requires some brains and lots of hard work auditing the underlying instruments. Until recently, they were about getting a AAA rating so you could sell to pension funds. Access to the Fed’s programs is just a different place to put ‘em.
I thought ratings were about maximizing profits from bond sellers.
“Actually, ratings haven’t been about credit quality in long time. -snip- Until recently, they were about getting a AAA rating so you could sell to pension funds.”
+1
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said today that it will take over the pension plans for 70,000 current and future hourly and salaried retirees at Delphi Corp., saying the Troy-based auto supplier can’t afford to keep its pension plans. In a deal announced June 1, Delphi said GM was to address the supplier’s hourly pension plan because a contract between GM and the UAW required the automaker to address any shortfall in the hourly plan. But the automaker has reversed course.
Had an interesting conversation with a German tourist who is part of the planning process for Mercedes Benz. He told me he was wondering if their future plans to downsize and go to more fuel efficient cars was a mistake, after visiting here and seeing all the big SUVs and pickups. He seemed worried about his recommendations.
Funny, how group think can affect even smart people.
We had a long talk about the future of everything, including oil, and when he left (an hour later when his wife finally dragged him away, laughing, said he loves to talk economics), he seemed to feel better, as we had come to the conclusion that we’re all screwed so it really didn’t matter.
The best part of the whole thing was the look on his face when I told him the U.S. was in serious decline as a superpower. He looked surprised to hear this from an American. He also was very aware of the housing bubble and credit problems.
I have to find someone from a foreign country who will talk to me about these things, my compatriots tune me out and call me a doom and gloomer.
Interesting article on a guy I’ve seen around town, living w/o money:
http://men.style.com/details/features/full?id=content_9817&pageNum=2
Yes, groupthink is very powerful. More than that I’d suspect folks from other nations just can’t grasp how stupid Americans and American companies can really be (such as with the SUV thing). I’m sure Mercedes is doing just fine with their future plans.
Stupidest things Americans keep on doing:
1) Outsource Jobs
2) Offshore entire mfg plants
3) Don’t develop alternative energy cars ahead of the rest of the world.
1 & 2 are suicidal, yet very few people have protests against #1.
Whenever you are designing a car, it is full of compromises.
We currently have an older MB, a 300E that is over engineered for its time, and is much better than the current MB’s. Reason for that is when it was built in the mid ’80s it was built to last at least 40 years under general use. Current models are built to last 5, 6 years depending on the length of the loan, and MB has lost a lot of ground in QC and reliability in the last 10 years, and the determining factor in that change was competition from the likes of Acura and Lexus. There are very few acuras or lexus from the late ’80s still on the road, but that did not matter back then.
At this point, the PTB believe that the US has to go to a small car culture ala Europe or Asia. That is just ridiculous. Have you seen the SIZE of the average US denizen compared with Asians or Europeans? Could you even fit one into a Smart? I am 6′7″ and there is no way in hell that I will buy anything smaller than a mid-sized car. I will phyiscally not fit in it! And NO, a Mini is not really a small car.. More like a smart, or the garbage that FIAT puts out.
Now, if you have kids, a stroller, etc, try fitting all that in anything that is smaller than a mid size car, oh like maybe a volvo S70, or a BMW 5 series, and tell me how cramped you are. Now take a 1 or 2 hour road trip with your family in a small cramped car (have done it, not fun, nor looking forward to it).
The PTB really do not understand how people actually live. They are chauffered around in their stretch limos, and flown in their citations, but they love to pontificate to the masses that we need to conserve valuable resources, and sacrifice for the good of us all.. or are we really sacrificing for THEIR good?
I will NEVER purchase a GM or Chrysler product again in my life. It is just a question of personal standards. Companies and Governments that lie and steal do not deserve to be rewarded by my purchasing their products. Same reason why I have no infestments in the stock market.
rant off.
I have a Toyota FJ Cruiser. It’s perfect for me and my 4 dogs and various photography equipment and tripods and hiking gear and water jugs and folding chair and campstove and coffee pan and binoculars and extra sleeping bag and survival gear and tons of dog hair. Try to get all that into a Smart car, it would be like those old VW college stunts where they cram 20 kids in.
I see the tourists coming here to the desert (Moab, Utah) in their little rental cars that are so low to the ground they can’t hardly even pull off the road to take photos and I wonder and marvel at it all. Sure, my car’s mileage isn’t that great (20 mpg highway, 40 on backroads at 15 mph), but I never go very far.
A Smart car sure wouldn’t work for me. Unless maybe I could buy 5 of them and teach the dogs how to drive…
Unless maybe I could buy 5 of them and teach the dogs how to drive…
HA!
Probably do better than 25% of the drivers here in Vejas…
You only need 2… one for each foot.
No, at least 3, cause I’m not getting in any vehicle where a dog’s involved in the driving - I see people with little lapdogs in their laps while they’re driving…seems like a ticket for trouble (or a ticket).
When I was growing up, one of our dachshunds enjoyed being the driver’s lap dog. My mother wasn’t too terribly amused, and she quickly taught him that the passenger’s seat was his place. Which was fine with him, because that meant he could stick his nose out the window and sneeze at everything.
I have a Toyota FJ Cruiser.
Is it one of the new ones? Isn’t that a bit pricey for a homeless person?
I’ve been debating getting an XTerra to replace my aged Explorer - any shopping tips?
I don’t want aggressive 4WD, but I don’t want to get stuck out in the desert while exploring funky little towns, either.
2007, bought it used with 7k miles, got a good deal. Paid cash.
And you ain’t homeless if you have an FJ and a tent, you’re an explorer.
But I also have a pickup and just sold my camper that I usd on it, so now I only have one home, not two. Don’t wanna be opulant in this economy, someone might notice.
Have you seen the SIZE of the average US denizen compared with Asians or Europeans?
Yeah, I have. They’ll be driving more fuel efficient vehicles soon enough or possibly not driving at all. Some walking might address some size and health issues too. Denial runs deep on some of the choices we may be facing in the not-too-distant future.
I think that people that are over wight, will just keep their cars, until a company comes around and offers mid and large sized cars for them.
Just witness the size creep that cars like a Honda Civic, or a BMW 3 series (or a 2002 for even a better example) have had through out the years, and figure out how much of that was marketing demand, and how much of that size is due to impact and safety standards. You will be more exposed to getting injured in a small car, than in a large car. There is a video somewhere where they crash a MB 300 E into a VW golf of the same year.. Not pretty for the VW occupants.
You have an excellent point. The newest Civics are as long and heavy as the Accord from the early 90’s The new Bimmer 3 series is as powerfull and well appointed as the old five series. They are still both excellent cars but WOW have they ever drifted from their roots.
Probably just the ordinary evolutionary process with the manufacturers. Now Honda has introduced the ‘Fit’ and BMW has the One Series to fill the niche where the Civic and the three used to reside.
Well, it’s not all just being fat, it also has to do with height. My dad was 6′2″ and I don’t think he could even get into a small car, especially after he got older and his knees went feral on him. Had no trouble getting into his old pickup, though. Not all big people are fat. Whooops, overweight (and OK, I need to lose a few pounds myself, gotta quit eating those almond toffees).
Agreed. Also, being 6′7″ or a serious camper/outdoorsman who regularly heads offroad is not exactly typical. The avg person is well under 6′, drives to and from work, the store, pick up junior at school, etc. A smaller, more effecient vehicle makes perfect sense for this majority. Larger, roomier yet still effecient cars can, have, and will be made to satisfy the needs of those who demand more room. The trade off is they tend to be slower than smaller versions.
efficient
Having just seen a couple Hummers today with their tiny little drivers I just don’t have a lot of sympathy for the “Americans are so BIG” they have to drive big cars mantra. That’s just a bunch of BS rationalizing. The average guy is 5′10, average woman about 5′4″. My husband and I are both much taller than average and drive small cars quite happily. Sure, if you are a camper, photographer, dog trainer, whatever and need a honkin SUV, go for it. But in the ‘burbs, the one occupant driving a 6 ton truck aka SUV to buy a couple bags of groceries seems to be the norm.
Have you noticed they also build houses and developments where you cant walk or ride a bike to anything.
I walked to school all 12 years with a lot of other kids, we had bikes and we rode with our baseball equipment to the playgrounds. We had 3 little corner stores that was very close by one had a nice ice cream stand in the back….
Even the Ihop and carvel McD was about 1 mile so we biked to work, in good weather.
Even housing developments were situation on or within a block or two of bus lines.
But all that has changed, i know i walk less here in queens just 3 miles from Manhattan, because my car is parked outside.
—————————————————
Have you seen the SIZE of the average US denizen compared with Asians or Europeans?
I think parking is the real issue. In the US there is plenty of parking. Not so much in Europe.
MIAMI (AP) — The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a Miami street after two men apparently tried to sell it to several fish markets for $10.
http://www4.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI126520/
CENTRAL FLORIDA — A Central Florida man is making money providing a controversial service, housing for convicted sex offenders. Randy Young, who’s a sex offender himself, started a business called Habitat For Sex Offenders. He buys houses and rents them to sex offenders in Central Florida and across the state.
http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/20131015/detail.html
He should rename it Habitat for Inhumanity.
Well, you’ve got to admit he’s filling a niche. (no pun intended) I could imagine some developers of failed subdivisions getting excited over that story. Sexual offenders could be a whole new market segment- sort of a “captive” audience as it were. “Come to Kraphouse Acres, we’re no where near a school. And we have no parks! Buy now or be priced out by tomorrows offenders!”
Peee-yew!
Today I took my pug to the vet for a check-up before handing him off to my sister next Monday. The staff paused when I said this would be his last visit. I also noticed the Dr. roster is down to 3, from 5.
A few months ago, I went for a dental checkup. The practice’s longtime office administrator had resigned a few months before, and still hadn’t been replaced.
Methinks that they couldn’t afford to replace her. My suspicions were all but confirmed when the dental hygienist (who also took my payment for the checkup) tried to sell me a veddy expensive deep cleaning. To the tune of $655.
“To rich for my blood,” was my reply. And I didn’t make the appointment.
Instead, I sought a second opinion at Pima Community College’s Dental Studies program. They train many bit of the dental hygienists in this part of AZ. Both the student who examined me, and his instructor, said that a deep cleaning wasn’t needed.
So, all this talk you hear about health care types being rewarded for doing things, rather than improving our health, is true. The above story is but one example that I’ve experienced.
$655 for a deep cleaning.. sounds like the hygienist planned on injecting that antibiotic around the roots to kill all the anaerobic bacteria that’s found a home, growing and slowly separating the tooth’s roots from the bone… I paid $800 for that. The alternative was to have lots of teeth falling out somewhere down the road.
Back in the bad old days i hadda go to a dental school and have a student do an exam and fix a cavity. He missed something during the exam, and I paid dearly for that “free” service.
Why did they pause? Did they think you were going to bring him in for a check up before dropping him off at the shelter or drowning him or something nasty? That is a little weird.
It’s a walk-in… I mean, instead of saying, “Ohh, we’ll miss you and your cute dog” there was a pause of, “Oh %^#! there goes another client.”
Hey there, HBBers! Just back from two wonderful weeks in Greece. Traveling and being a media dropout are good for the psyche. Plus, we found most of the people to be hospitable and helpful.
Every place we visited was less crowded than I had expected. July is normally high season, and I speculate that the economy may have kept intra-EU tourism down from its usual level. We didn’t need advance reservations even at the nicest restaurants and there were no waits to get into any historic site. The new Acropolis Museum in Athens was crowded but we had advance reservations for tickets, so no waiting in line.
Came home to find the same two houses on my block still for sale. The stock market seems to be at about the same level although oil prices are down, yay. SRS still in the dumps. Gee, it’s like I never left!
Welcome back!
Greek lemonade is the best! Took a liking on a vacation a loooong time ago. Had friends who would bring me back a can or two every now and then, but business doesn’t take them there anymore.
Is that Fanta Lemon you’re talking about? Great stuff. Drank a lot of it, as well as gallons of water. And the local wine wherever we were was always good.
I dunno… it was all in Greek! The only Greek words I learned were “lemonade, please” and another that can’t be mentioned on a family blog.
Welcome back!
Thanks, Losty. I saw your comment above about your car and laughed at the mental image of your dogs driving. And then I thought about the “midsize” Opel Astra we rented in Athens to carry four females and our luggage, which amounted to one carry-on size suitcase and one handbag apiece, and we had to do some creative bag-arranging to fit it all in the car trunk. So yeah, not everyone can make do with a car of Smart Car proportions.
They’re good drivers as long as they don’t see a rabbit. Then all H-E-doublehockeysticks breaks loose.
Hi. Washington Post or Wall Street Journal had a long (1000+ words) front page story yesterday about Celebration, FL(Walt Disney planned community) and the housing bust. Prices have dropped about 25% there. Apprently it a very nice upscale place. Was just kind of surprised that it made front page. Maybe a warning of coming to a “it’s different here” neighborhood near you !
very nice upscale place that sounded too good to be true, or to last for much longer.
“I’ll take ‘Detroit City Council Candidates’ for $200, Alex.”
The answer is: He served 81 months in federal prison in the 1990s after being convicted of transporting a 16-year-old girl to Washington, D.C., to “train her” to be a better prostitute. According to the girl’s testimony, whenever she gave him the money she earned, “I had to bow down to him, kiss his feet, call him ‘oh messiah,’ tell him, ‘I love you oh daddy.’”
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090722/METRO01/907220374/Many-City-Council-candidates-have-blemished-records/?imw=Y
Apparently nobody told him you have to wait until after you get elected to do that.
Can’t they train just as well in Detriot?
Are you kidding? There’s no better place - by a long shot - to learn prostitution than DC.
Not only that but one could probably learn to make money from sexual favors there too.
“…call him ‘o messiah’…” ?
That’s not kinky, that’s weird.
Analysts See Prices at Bottom
Whew! About time.
What are death row inmates for anyway?
Total Number of Death Row Inmates as of January 1, 2009: 3297 … Source: Death Row Population Figures from NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, … That`s plenty.
Govt calls for volunteers to test swine flu shotsJuly 22, 2009 5:01 PM ET
All Associated Press news WASHINGTON (AP) - The race is on: The government and vaccine makers are seeking thousands of volunteers, from babies to the elderly, to roll up their sleeves for the first swine flu shots — to test whether a new vaccine really will protect against this novel virus before its expected rebound in the fall.
On Wednesday the National Institutes of Health tapped a network of medical centers around the country to begin a series of studies, with the first shots to go into the arms of healthy adults, of any age, in early August. If there are no immediate safety concerns, such as allergic reactions, testing quickly would begin in children as young as 6 months.
Using prisoners in medical testing is very iffy according to the ethical rules used by medical researchers. It seems that prison is so boring, that even offering a prisoner the chance to see and interact with a new person a few times is so appealing that it can be considered undue coersion - like offering a drowning man a life preserver if he agrees to participate in your study.
At least that is what the profs in the public health class said. It is OK to do it if you are studying a problem that is particular to the prison population, but in other circumstances, it may not get past the ethics board.
Ethics board? We don`t need no stinking ethics board!
Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!”, Blazing Saddles
Originally though from The Treasure of Sierre Madre (1948).
Is there a death row bubble?
SIZE OF DEATH ROW BY YEAR (1968 to the PRESENT)
1968 2007
517 3,220
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics: “Capital Punishment” for Years 1968-2007
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “Death Row USA”
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-death-row-year
517
Sources: Bureau of Justice Statistics: “Capital Punishment” for Years 1968-2007
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “Death Row USA” -January 1, 2009: 3,297 (uses different counting criteria)
Kill now or be priced out forever.
Bring Offers! Rare 1/1 on death row! Last one killed in 2002! Great light from electric chair & lg MB. Updated bars & cot. Full sink/toilet in unit. 1 last meal allowed. Community offers: tennis, pool, picnic area.
HOA?
The problem fixes itself when we don’t wait 10-20 years to execute them. Just hurrry up and be done already. Problem solved.
LOL - yeah years ago death row maxed out at 1. Just the path from the courthouse to the nearest tree.
See? Inflation. It cannot be denied.
part 1
As home values sink, tax appeals soar
Plummeting property values are hammering local governments’ revenues, yet many assessments remain above market levels. Here are some tips for lowering your tax load.
By MarketWatch
Communities are feeling the sting of tumbling property values as more taxpayers appeal their assessments and successfully lower their tax liabilities.
Take the Las Vegas area, which has been hit hard by home-price declines. More than 6,000 taxpayers — both residential and commercial property owners — filed appeals in Clark County, Nev., after receiving notice-of-value cards in December, up from nearly 1,400 appeals received the year before, said Michele Shafe, the county’s assistant director for assessment services in Clark County. Of the 6,000 who filed appeals this time, more than 4,500 received reductions to their assessed value, she said.
“That’s about a 76% success rate for all the appeals that were filed,” she said. Many of the reductions were in the 30% to 40% range, she added.
That represents a substantial hit for local taxing bodies that have already suffered due to a sharp decrease in sales tax revenue as consumers scale back their spending. One way Clark County is making up for it: Departments will be required to cut 5% out of their budgets as fewer funds make their way into government coffers, Shafe said.
And what is happening in Vegas isn’t staying in Vegas. Many local governments around the country are experiencing similar revenue declines — especially those hardest hit by the housing downturn.
“The property tax is the main source of revenue in a lot of these places,” said Chris Hoene, the director of policy and research for the National League of Cities. “So any hit to the property tax means that there will be some cuts in services somewhere.”
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Communities are trimming budgets for libraries, parks and special events, he said. Many also are instituting hiring freezes in response to lower revenues. And Hoene said that this is only the first or second year of a three- to four-year cycle of declining revenues for local governments.
Many communities aren’t raising taxes to combat the shortfalls at least in part due to the political fallout that would come with it, Hoene said.
“The majority are not raising taxes, simply because it’s a difficult time to do so,” he said. Instead, he says he’s seeing a bigger use of fees, which are “much smaller and more incremental . . . and much more politically palatable to the public.”
Why now?
While some areas reassess property values annually, others do only a portion of homes each year, said Jacqueline Byers, the director of research for the National Association of Counties. So some homeowners may still have assessments that reflect earlier values, say from 2007 — and the discrepancy is evident in rapidly declining markets.
“They’re watching the value of their property go down, and their assessment is on a 2- or 3-year-old value. That’s why they’re appealing,” Byers said. “People are waking up to it and trying to save money.”
California’s system is somewhat unlike the rest of the country; reappraisals for property tax purposes typically occur when properties change owners or when substantial improvements have been made. But in Los Angeles County, the assessor’s office has done a proactive review of assessed values, based on market trends in the area — a process that also cuts down on the number of appeals, said County Assessor Rick Auerbach.
Continued from page 1
The review of 473,000 homes bought between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2008, resulted in lower assessments on 334,000 single-family residences and condo units, according to a news release. The new assessed values reflected an average reduction of $1,400 for single-family homes and $1,100 savings for condo units, the release said. Yet Auerbach acknowledged that other areas in the state have seen even more of an impact.
“Home values have declined and foreclosures are up,” he said in the release, “but not to the same extent as in some neighboring counties.” And, Auerbach indicated, the relief is temporary: “My staff is ready to act quickly and efficiently in reflecting the inevitable turnaround as it did in processing reduced home values,” he said.
What to do
Think your assessed value needs adjusting? Areas vary in the protocols and timelines for appealing an assessment. Below are some tips:
Start with the county assessor’s office. In some places, you may be able to appeal online, others will require a trip to the assessor’s office; some require an inspection of the property, others rely on computer models, Hoene said. The process could be relatively quick if it’s obvious that a change needs to be made, Auerbach said.
Know what homes in the neighborhood have sold for. Keeping track of the prices of comparable homes that have sold within the past year will be most helpful in build your case, Byers said. That information can be tracked down online, or you can get assistance from a local real estate agent, Auerbach said.
Remember, assessed value is often not equal to market value. Many times, an assessment is only a percentage of what the home could actually be sold for, so appealing might not be as financially advantageous as you might think, Hoene said. “Find out what it’s going to take (to appeal) and what is involved, and judge that against the potential payoff,” he added.
This is why it ain’t over….yet.
http://sdcia.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3566391
And the sucker that offered his price.
It’s almost impossible to believe that people are still trying to flip properties in a place like San Diego, CA.
Yeah, great job sir. Do you even watch the news! IT’S A DOWN MARKET! Three months later it will be worth less.
07/11/09 at 10:17 AM Reply with quote #1
Our purchase and rehab of the first house flip went great - up until the end, that is. We accepted a full price offer from the very first night it was on the market, four days before the open house!
Then came the appraisal. It was lower than the one from when we bought the property 3 months ago!