Value Is Not There
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “More than 13 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage have fallen behind on their payments or are in foreclosure. The record-high numbers released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association are being driven by borrowers with traditional fixed-rate mortgages. Cindy Kennedy ran a successful cleaning business in Allentown, Pa., for seven years. But she lost most of her customers once the recession hit. Kennedy paid more than $1,700 to a California company that promised to help modify the loan. But the company stopped returning her calls in June, and she suspects she has been scammed.”
“She and her longtime companion stopped paying on their $840-a-month mortgage in February and their house has gone into foreclosure. They attended a mediation conference in county court Wednesday with their lender but are not optimistic about saving their home. Now making $120 a week as a part-time supermarket cashier, Kennedy says she commiserates with her co-workers, some of whom are also facing foreclosure.”
“‘We talk about it and laugh,’ she said. ‘It’s not really a funny situation, but sometimes you have to laugh to keep your sanity, so you don’t make yourself nuts.’”
“The developers of long-struggling Bella Verde have been named in the first of what could be several foreclosure filings. As developments unravel across the Tampa Bay area, the Bella Verde Golf filing echoes last year’s foreclosure by the Riverwood Estates CDD against its developer, Doug Weiland. In both cases, the developments failed to produce any houses to repay the borrowed money.”
“Two sales buildings went up in 2005, only to be demolished years later without opening their doors. At one point, earthmovers cleared much of the land, which reverted back to weeds after work stopped. Several unfinished concrete structures with rusting steel bars sticking out of them now sit on the property.”
“A Florida Supreme Court task force is calling for uniform mandatory mediation for all residential foreclosure cases in the state to deal with the tide of foreclosures that has swamped courthouses. Broward Chief Judge Victor Tobin…disagrees with the task force’s plan to have mandatory mediation in all instances. ‘It’s not a good idea in all cases because a lot of the homes are vacant, and they are going to remain vacant,’ Tobin said. ‘The owners of the property don’t want to negotiate or can’t negotiate’”
“At 11 a.m. most mornings in Chicago…it’s time for the foreclosed property auction. Investors such as these in Chicago, scout foreclosure auctions hoping to pick up undervalued properties. But of the roughly 30 properties that go to auction on this day, only two to three are sold. The foreclosure auction is often the last stop for a property, after the lender has attempted a short sale.”
“‘When it gets to foreclosure, value is not there,’ said Thomas FitzGibbon, executive vice president of MB Financial Bank NA, noting that 34 percent of home sales in the first quarter in Chicago were short sales. ‘Someone has already tried to do something else.’”
“Valley home prices are dropping at a slower clip than they were earlier this year, according to the Arizona State University Center for Real Estate Theory and Practice at the W.P. Carey School of Business. The study found prices declined 33 percent between May 2008 and May 2009. That’s down from a 35 percent year-over-year drop in April and a 37 percent drop in February and March.”
“Translation: The worst is over. One realtor said she has a hard time believing the numbers. ‘I think we’re being duped, quite frankly,’ said Pattie Haugland, a broker who handles properties in the East Valley. Haugland said the banks are holding back on selling thousands of foreclosed homes, which is creating an artificial seller’s market and slowing the decline in prices.”
“She said if banks start dumping properties back on to the market, ‘we’re going to see a big crash again.’”
“Realtors in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier area report that half of their sales are in foreclosed homes. The stubbornness of foreclosures is no surprise to some housing market observers. For months, some have cautioned that there’s a glut of 60- to 90-day defaults on the market. It hasn’t helped that many ‘underwater’ homeowners aren’t qualifying for loan modification programs. Even when they do, many of them are defaulting several months later, Realtors said.”
“The news about fixed-rate loans wasn’t a big surprise for Marty Rodriguez, a Glendora Realtor. As unemployment rises, and people realize they owe more on their homes than they are worth - even if they bought with a fixed-rate mortgage - ’some people are just walking away,’ she said.”
“Last month, 3,549 homes sold in San Bernardino County, an increase of almost 41 percent from a year earlier and the highest monthly sales since August 2006. Sales have increased year-over-year for 16 consecutive months in Riverside County and 14 consecutive months in San Bernardino County. The median price was almost 29 percent lower in Riverside County than a year earlier and more than 39 percent lower in San Bernardino County.”
“In Riverside County, foreclosures represented about 59 percent of sales, falling from a peak of 71 percent in January. In San Bernardino County, foreclosures accounted for about 61 percent of sales, slipping from a peak of 69 percent in April. The change is due to fewer foreclosed homes available to buyers, said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. Mortgages are continuing to default in high numbers and it is unclear why banks have been slowing the foreclosure process, LePage said.”
“Possible reasons for the trend, he said, are foreclosure moratoriums, bank mortgage modification efforts to prevent foreclosure and paperwork backlogs. ‘For whatever reason, there are fewer repos,’ he said.
“James Monks, branch manager for Prudential California Realty in Riverside, said banks also have been slow to list already foreclosed houses for sale. ‘There are homes all over Riverside that have been empty for a year and still are not on the multiple listings,’ he said.”
“Monks said home sales have been spurred in part by the federal government’s $8,000 tax rebate for first-time buyers. But he said sales would be higher if not for a shortage of bank-owned, bargain-priced properties to satisfy demand. In some cases, he said, buyers confronting multiple offers on bank-owned houses have stopped looking.”
“High unemployment is also discouraging some prospective buyers, Monks said. ‘We have had quite a few folks who have lost their jobs during escrow and could no longer purchase a home. That is the heartbreaker,’ he said.”
“Matt Johnson, a broker associate, said there was a boom of home construction in Austin and Owatonna. He described that as being where the bubble can burst. Since the Midwestern housing market was not hit as hard as the national market, the market in Albert Lea didn’t have to recover as much as other areas. Hugh O’Byrne…has been selling real estate for 38 years, and he said this last recession was the worst he’s seen the housing market and people’s confidence in the market. He said it was one of the only times when people feared what could come in the future.”
“‘We needed to recover some, but our biggest recovery was convincing buyers that it was time to buy, and it was a good time to buy,’ O’Byrne said.”
“Local real estate agencies have seen the economy pick up from lows earlier this year. ‘Are we at historical high rates? No, we’re not. But are we selling houses? Yes. Realtors are getting to go to the grocery store now,’ said Bill Leland, broker at Kenneth R. Leland Realty Inc.”
“The Real Estate Council of Austin held its ninth annual mid-year Economic Forecast Tuesday. Economists said many investors have a wait and see attitude when it comes to jumping back into housing investments. They also said the Texas housing market looks good. ‘The nice thing was we never had a housing price bubble in Texas early in the decade, so without a bubble we’re not going to burst and have any kind of market like that,’ Chief Economist for The Real Estate Center, Dr. Mark Dotzour, said.”
“After five years and five days on the job, Mark Sprague will go to work for the last time Friday as the Austin partner for Residential Strategies Inc., a housing industry consulting and forecasting firm. The firm is closing its Austin office. Sprague said he’s a casualty of the economy and tough times in the homebuilding industry.”
“In Dallas, the company has lost about 22 builder clients among the top 60 in that market, Sprague said. In Central Texas, the company has lost six builder clients out of the top 25 home builders in the past 12 months, he said. ‘I hope there won’t be more downsizing of consulting groups, (but) I think we’re going to see more of this, unfortunately,’ Sprague said.”
“Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA appears to have won the bidding for the assets of Guaranty Bank, the hobbled Texas lender, according to reports. Guaranty, battered by the housing bust, said last month it was ‘critically undercapitalized’ and probably couldn’t stay in business.”
“Laurie Accetta has her Ford Expedition cleaned out, gassed up and ready to go. Her goal is to shuttle seven bargain-hunting passengers per trip on a ‘foreclosure tour’ of properties in Pike, Monroe and Wayne counties. Pike tallied about 750 foreclosures last year and, this year, is already close to 600. Acetta got the foreclosure tour idea from a real estate broker her sister knows in Texas.”
“Accetta figures she can cover a lot of territory starting at, say, Lake Ariel, then swinging down to Dingmans Ferry, Bushkill and into Monroe County. Dozens of foreclosures per month are hitting the housing market in Pike and Monroe counties.
“‘They’re just sitting there,’ said Accetta.”
“Allison Jensen is among the Alexandria real estate agents who said that the first-time homebuyers’ $8,000 federal tax credit played a major role in helping to revive the housing market this year. ‘I see brisk sales through the deadline,’ she said. With the credit due to expire on December 1, she added, ‘I just hope they will extend it, because it really got things moving.’”
“She may get her wish. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have introduced resolutions to extend the credit through next year at least, while expanding it to all homebuyers. The National Association of Realtors plans to lobby Congress actively for the extension when it reconvenes. ‘We have a sizeable government-affairs group that lobbies congressmen on many issues,’ said Public Affairs Director Lucien Salvant. ‘This will certainly be one of them.’”
“‘Cash for Clunkers proved to be very popular and successful,’ he added, ‘But it will hardly have the kind of long-term effect on the economy that the first-time homebuyers’ tax credit did. We want to extend it to all homebuyers.’”
“Home purchases will spread the wealth through the economy, he explained, since they account for $63,000 worth of related acquisitions including furniture, appliances and cars. As he put it, ‘President Obama and Congress have said that the way out of the recession is through housing.’”
“As I’ve said before, the most important measure of an economy is GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Real GDP of goods and services is what truly represents economic activity. So far I have not seen meaningful steps to end these higher risk lending practices that gave rise to the housing bubble.”
“Is the last great bubble of this economic run comprised of cash for clunkers? We are at the end of a tube of toothpaste trying to squeeze out every last bit. Why do the sides always start leaking goo?”
“I digress. The Austrians had it right: save and invest. Instead of sound economic policies that encourage the purchase of goods and services at sustainable levels, we try and crunch out 500 reps from one economic sector and then wonder why it seizes up on the ground only to lay flat for the foreseeable future. Our psychology is funny. One person’s gain in the short term is everyone’s loss in the long term.”
Another great week! My thanks to the guest bloggers and those who support this blog. There is more to come this weekend. so please check back.
It seems like there is a feeding frenzy in some parts of the markets right now.The same speculation that created the bubble is starting back up.How long before stated income loans are back?
Sixty years or so.
I posted a link on Bits bucket from the AZ Repugnant about the Arizona unemployment rate creeping up above 9%. Post is not there yet (I checked). (Let’s see: It’s 8:12 a.m. as I write this one! Just to keep track…)
The article guesses AZ unemployment rate will hit 11%.
And many Bettys are saying the real estate depression in Arizona reached the bottom? WTF?
I’m about to hit the unemployment roll myself in the next few months. Contract engineering in software is going into a funk rapidly. Looking for work in November through January is not so good for someone with a MS degree in a technical field and 50 years old. I haven’t seen it this bad since 2001. Hourly rates are down. Many places that were once in the low $60s are now $35. That’s no benefits at $35 per hour, so equivalent to $55,000 annual income.
If anyone can power through this on bluster alone, Bila, it will be you. Time to put your philosophies and all that forward-planning to the test. Sounds like a grand adventure!
(Personally, I’d get a season pass at Mammoth and have at it.)
Thanks! And I used to do a bunch of skiing at Mammoth. My left knee and foot pains just about disappeared, so it would be great to be like a ski bum again at 50. Find a place to live cheap up there and ski from 9:00am to 4pm and party until midnight.
again at 50. Find a place to live cheap up there and ski from 9:00am to 4pm and party until midnight.
Night and day difference between 20 something and 50.
I ’spect you will be tired & in bed asleep by 9 if you are skiing all day. Cause a 50 yr old chasing ski bunnies,unless you are a hunk AND loaded with dough, won’t cut it. Nor will your knees/arches.
Good luck though, it sounds like fun. Used to be at least!
you’re talking to BILA, so it should be:
“unless you are a hunk AND loaded with dough that you are willing to spend chasing ski bunnies…”
Yep. If you put an ad out in the local paper now, you can bet you’ll be able to score a room from some local FB –cheap. Trade in a few of your hoarded oh-zees for some fly equipment, do the leather bomber jacket routine, get ready to rumble. YEEEEOOOOOWWWW.
I feel for you. Hubby does tech support and has been out of work since April. He’s starting to get really discouraged.
Sorry to hear it, wolfgirl. That’s no fun.
Good wishes for you.
I’m sorry to hear that too wolfgirl. Tell your husband to hang in there and I wish him the best.
Been that husband myself. Try to help him stay cheerful and optimistic if possible. As hard as it seems, he’ll eventually find work if he keeps looking.
Good luck!
Dang wolfgirl, sorry to hear about that. Tell him to take a break and read some comic books or sci-fi. Helps me alot when I need to get away from the real world.
What kind of tech support ? I could network with him - I am in So Cal. I do tech project mgmt - new implementations.
I may be without job soon by the way.
Mainly PC desk support or help desk. Upstate SC is fairly dead right now. 59 is a rough age for jobhunting right now.
Comicbooks are great. Twenty-five years ago we had an impressive collection, including almost every first appearance of the Marvel heroes from the 1960’s. Most of those were sold in the late 80’s. We have probably 3000 left but none of much value. It’s still enough to give our oldest daughter major geek creds though.
Our poor youngest daughter had to suffer through Lois and Clark jokes. She asked if she were really named for Lois Lane. After we explained who we had named her for, she had a lot of fun telling people that she was named for a bisexual Trotskyite we knew in the early ’70’s.
We have over 500G of comics on hard drives.
Science fiction is another favorite in our house. I have no idea how many movies we own. Dr. Who is possibly our favorite to the point that our 21 year old son dresses bears as various versions of the Doctor. He also gives action figures and sonic screwdrivers as presents. And our daughter how lives next door named her dog for her favorite Doctor and Master—David John.
You people are awesome. You gave us a needed lift today. Thanks.
I don’t always post much,but I follow this blog religious. That’s fine though. My deities like people who try to think for themselves.
Wow. It’s like “coming-out week” for the HBB geeks.
My best to wolfgirl family and everyone else dealing with unemployment or the threat of it.
Now that I know wolfgirl’s backstory, I had to google the name.
So, wolfy, is it about the horror thriller with Grace Jones and Tim Curry? Or is it an obscure comic book character?
A couple of years a friend of my son’s introduced him to a girl. She said, “You’re an even bigger geek than I thought you’d be.” Wemost died laughing since she knew he’s a math major.
Actually my name comes from a fondness for wolves. I will have to check out the horror film though. I amy have seen it and not remembered it since we like Grace Jones and Tim Curry.
I may check it out, although I don’t normally watch horror movies but any movie with Tim Curry and Grace Jones has got to be good. Lesley Ann Warren is in it too.
Any fans of The Big Bang Theory here?
Wolfgirl, they had a segment on comic books at the Pawn Shop TV program last night. Good luck to all looking for jobs. When the Mesiah starts the ‘death panels’ some older workers in your field will be denied care and check out. You will be able to find work then.
And that’s a good reason to stay healthy and learn some forms of alternate medicine. Personally, I’m fond of herbs.
Pismo
‘death panels’ some older workers
My grandmother lived till 112 and I don’t want to live like she did the last 5 years of her “life”
So Maybe some people will need that wake up call to say its time to go.
PS: I dj’ed a surprise 100th birthday party for her and about 80 people and she walked in spryly and without any walker..
That had to have been a fun party. What kind of music?
That had to have been a fun party. What kind of music?
Wait! Wait! IIIII can answer this one! Was it…zydeco?!
*falls off chair laughing with joy *
I love zydeco!
wolfgirl,
I’m a fan of the Big Bang Theory.
Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard used to be on Roseanne
He played the character David.
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBj7-50bloE
Bill, you can do it.
Just like ahansen said.
Also, I am right behind/beside you.
Boss’s daughter (Boss secretary) is Boss II now, (well, always has been I guess) along with Boss, along with third-party bling chiropractor who gets drunk with Boss, who won’t accept reality re cut your bill to settle these dog soft-tissue files I work on, when we are his glorified bill collector.
I just quit, (10) days ago, age 52, lawyer, no jobs, no prospects. enough $ to live 2 years, then, dumpster time.
Do I regret it? Yes, and No.
By the way, I don’t want a sympathetic or encouraging response, (although I would appreciate it :)), but, the other attorney just left left for the same reason, and he is a better man and lawyer than I.
That sounded Ate-Up. I guess that is why I am ATE-UP!
8up
I’d respond as I assume others would but I don’t understand the reason you and the other attorney left - what kind of business - where does the chiropractor fit in? What does this mean?:
dog soft-tissue files I work on, when we are his glorified bill collector.
There’s a great story in here somewhere.
Ate,
Since it is done, I’d forget the regret part - just stick with the “no.” Good riddance to the lot of them, you’ve moved on.
You have been through a lot in life, you seem like a nice guy, and you have a bizarre charm that sort of grows on people.
I think things will work out well for you in some odd, unexpected way.
Ditto.
That was what I was going to say, except that you didn’t have to ‘grow on’ me like some sort of spore—I liked you right away. You’re neat-o, and I’m firm on this.
But yes, ATE, everyone goes through things like this. It’s a hard ol’ life, and I expect every single poster on Ben’s Blog knows this. Sometimes everything looks sucky, and sometimes that’s because everything IS sucky.
But the fact is, you have valuable skills and two years of savings! Those are GIANT pluses. I’m not really very worried about you experiencing ‘dumpster time’.
*waves hand dismissively *
I completely agree with zilky—I bet things work out for you, and work out well.
Watching: i sincerely appreciate your response. Just don’t want to go into details right now, or ever. But thank you so much, and I mean it.
hip: The same to you. It means a VERY LOT to me that someone on here responded. I have seen others suffer here, and I was worried about them from my heart.
We may have not met each other, but we are all friends here, I think anyway.
I have no family left, but a lot of good friends at home who are agreeing with me, but I think I made a bad decision.
My personality leads to trouble unemployed. Not bad trouble, but, yes, trouble. One thing I know is, I will never do cocaine again. Never. (16 years clean!!)
I thank you guys.
If nothing else ate…this place is almost becomming a self help group…we all are screwed..I had lots of good jobs in my past working for TV stations Even worked at Court TV during OJ and with Johnny Cochran and Nancy Grace, and left to become a paralegal which worked out for a few years….
then my father got sick and been a fulltime DJ for a couple of years….then whamo….last year people stopped spending money.
My personality leads to trouble unemployed
You might look into a P-T volunteer gig to give your life some structure and get you out and about. Depending on what kind of lawyer you are, you could help a non-profit with their paperwork, or volunteer at an organization that helps people with legal concerns.
Spend a few hours at a soup kitchen, Meals on Wheels, some kind of service org, food co-op, community gardens, etc.
Something like that could help you stay focused when you are job searching.
That is a good idea, I’ve done it before, and I will do it again.
Just needed a light bulb!!
What was that silly (but good) song? “That’s what friends are for!
Thanks hip!!
Sometimes the only sane thing to do is to walk otherwise you can’t live with yourself. Take care.
Ate-Up,
Don’t second guess yourself. I’ve stayed with a job 2 years longer than I should have. I was miserable. I will never do that to myself again.
Who knows you do some dumpster diving and you may find some treasure.
You take good care of youself.
SanFranGal: Like, I think, I have told you before, you are a Sweetheart.
wolfgirl: Thank You.
I have family that I don’t speak to. The people here are much nicer. The housing and financial information is excellent, but it’s the people I keep coming back for.
wolfgirl,
anytime you want to talk let me know. You can send Ben your e-mail and I will contact him and ask for it.
You take good care of yourself also.
BILA, 8up and Wolfgirl - Count me among your well wishers. I send you good vibes with lots of energetic puffing to make them get there fast.
Polly has said this before, and more eloquently. But the greater DC area is the only place in the country where being over 50 is an advantage. The Federal career ladder peaks here. A lot of the work is Fed related. Senior Feds do NOT like dealing with inexperienced (aka young) people on policy and strategic matters, regardless of pedigree. Plus, they take this “no discrimination on account of age” thingie very seriously. For IT folk: if there is a Fed job for which you are most qualified, you will get a crack at it. You have to do some research on how to negotiate the application, though. Relative to the “soft” parts of the application, certain phrasings specific responses. You need to know how answer the question that is actually being asked, rather than the question you think is being asked. There are books on it.
I know one hot area in Fed IT is network security. I have seen four ex-lawyers reinvent themselves as project and program managers, running IT development projects. Acquisition is (obviously, in a cost cutting era) an area with growing demand. Since the total headcount in the departments I have worked amongst as a consultant is less than 300 souls, I think seeing four ex lawyers in project management is telling.
Just my two cents.
Bill - Go ambulance chasing for convicts who were convicted on DNA evidence. Saw where DNA can be faked. Guess what , O.J. IS really innocent !!! Barry Schick where are you now???
Thanks gang! Yes I have my sights set on the Washington D.C. area. Government work is very lucrative. I was a feral employee for nearly half of my career. I could do it again. Or continue to be a contractor to the feral gubment, which is my preference.
The US Government has been one huge Wal-mart in the economy for the last 30 years or so. Without it, we’d certainly have an efficient economy and lower prices in everything. If the choice is to not eat or go to the Church of USSA, I’ll go the the Church of the USSA
(United Socialist States of America). Fly the flag!
Wasn’t it you, Bill, who blamed long term unemployment on laziness and a lack of good character? How long is an acceptable period of unemployment until you become one of those you have contempt for?
Owwwch.
*selects post-it pad and makes studious note to self: ‘Do not irritate or vex GrizzlyBears” *
I even wrote that legibly, because I don’t want to forget.
Oly, thank you too, my buddy.
Let’s flip it around.
Is being employed an indicator of good character?
Oly, is that a 100% yup?
Can’t someone be employed and have bad character?
Can’t someone be employed and have bad character?
Sure…if it’s you. Hahahah!
Naw, I’m just teasing you. I bet you have a tiresomely good character.
…Oh, see! I’m still teasing you! I can’t seem to stop. It’s a character defect, brought on by zydeco music and wholesome herbs.
Thanks. I needed to laugh. Was getting way to serious pondering “moral character”.
How many days until the grand opening at Trader Joes?
I heard when TJ opens a store in a neighborhood home prices automatically go up 5-10%. No, it’s true! Psych!!!!!!!!! Just giving the FBs some false hope then slapping them down.
“we are all screwed”
…no, not yet. Ben Jones apparently has quite a bit of work connected w/ foreclosures. I myself have no “work” but my mortgage clients are STILL all paying promptly (because most of them are on Social Security, so they don’t lose their jobs). I thought the zheet was going to have hit my personal fan by now, but every month goes by, and still they all pay on the due date.
Oh yes, one minor piece of zheet hitting my personal fan: as you may know, the “Massachusetts plan” of health care included outlawing high-deductible health policies. I have a $10K-deductible policy issued by BCBS of AZ. If Obamacare outlaws high-deductible policies, that will certainly abrogate his promise that “you can keep your insurance if you like it.”
How many days until the grand opening at Trader Joes?
Rob, Rob…it’ll make me weep to tell you this—it was today. Yes. Today. And I was not there.
Oh, the pain! And I’m not even exaggerating much when I tell you it was like a javelin in my heart! A javelin with lemon juice on it! Two cups of lemon juice! Plus a sprinkle of chili powder!
There was an emergency in the morning and it stretched out all day long, while I tracked down people who didn’t want to be found on a summer Friday and talked about stormwater regulations. Of course you and me love stormwater regulations, but some people are strangely uninterested in the subject…
But, you know what, it worked out super good, and all is well, and I go into the weekend without anxiety and contumely, so there is that. I was thinking that tomorrow I will head out to some yard sales, and drop off some overdue library books, and then I will go to Trader Joe’s, and maybe Joe will forgive my dereliction and my absence if I buy 25 pounds of dark Belgian chocolate and 4 packages of California rolls and some sesame crackers.
What do you think?
Donde esta mi post?
That sounds like a typical Saturday, even down here in California. I’ve been going for the vegetable rolls as of late. The dried cranberries are reasonably priced and great on the organic Joe-O’s. Ahhhh….TJ.
One of my latest finds at a yard sale was a set of all metal 50’s patio chairs for $25.
Anyway, glad to hear someone of your caliber deals with storm water regulations. Here in the central valley of CA, lord only knows what ends up in the rivers and estuaries. All drains flow directly to the American and Sacramento Rivers then out the Delta to the SF Bay Area. Pesticides, oil, etc.
Reward yourself with that dark chocolate.
Isn’t $35 an hr equivalent to $70k per year at FT? Gross.
Every Indian I ever hired for web work has contacted me this week asking if I have more work. What does that tell ya?
What does that tell ya?
Hmmmm….
*puts on thinky face *
…Does it mean those ‘green shoots’ aren’t gonna get very big? Before being eaten by hungry Indians?
Grizzly. Wasn’t me who said that about the long term unemployed. I have a nephew who worked one year in his life. He is lazy. He’s 33 years old. I did not say this about everyone who has been out of work a long time though.
There are certainly lazy people, druggies, and handicapped people who won’t or can’t work like most of us. My father was blind from WWII and still worked, had his own business.
Geez, Ben, thanks so muck for your desk clearing Fridays and the blog in general. I’ve been mostly lurking but occasionally posting since spring 2005. Four years! How time flies! You and the posters here have really saved my financial hide, at least thus far. ( I’m a “JBR”) Ha ha! Remember that one? Well, here on long Island things are still high, and I’m wondering if the somewhat good neighborhoods will ever get to where I can really afford a house. But anyway, thanks again. And I really enjoy the guest bloggers, so thanks to them, too.
Hey, Lender of Last Resort. What sort of lender are you? Are you really a lender, or are you a person who arranges loans? Who are your clients and what do they borrow on? (Mine borrow on mobile-home lots in condoized situations.)
At one point, earthmovers cleared much of the land, which reverted back to weeds after work stopped.
“back” to weeds. Lemme tell you, around here, tilling or “improving” the land guarantees it will turn into ALL noxious weeds, many of them toxic to livestock like Leafy Spurge, and spread to neighboring parcels. The equity locusts who bought ranchettes here were clueless and let their properties turn to crap too. Ranchers and hay farmers are pulling their hair out..
Nothing like a small patch of star thistle to improve
your morning….second cup time..morning everyone.
There is a certain perverse pleasure to be had in pitting one invasive plant colony against another. Judicious watering from time to time, depending upon my whim, or repositioning a length of stock fencing. If I really want to do the whole “shock and awe” thing there is always Round-up, or failing that, a dozer (but that’s so blatant.)
I see it as a relatively harmless outlet for my rampant megalomania….
TEE HEE!!
LOL
Funny, ahansen!.
This spring, I taught some Japanese knotweed a lesson by eating it. Take that, invasive weed! Ahahaha…haha..ha? What, back again?! And bigger than ever.
Dammit!
IIIII’m ready for the bulldozer followed by napalm.
“IIIII’m ready for the bulldozer followed by napalm”,
followed, of course, by Shorty!
“IIIII’m ready for the bulldozer followed by napalm”,
followed, of course, by Shorty!
That’s actually a very good idea. That little f*ooker will eat anything. He once tried to consume a rooster.
I’ll ship him out and then say firmly ‘Don’t touch this beautiful patch of plants, Shorty, because I love them very, very much.’
They’ll be all the way gone in 15 short minutes! I won’t even need napalm!
InMontana,
A few weeks back I’d rec’d a mailer from a developer up near Whitefish that was trying to move 2 acre lots at ‘07 prices. The guy followed up w/ a call and seemed fairly down to earth.
I told him ( since I handle self-directed IRA’s ) that I’d at least try and gauge client’s level of interest. Ahem, even at 25% of asking, only (1) lukewarm reception. Nice country and all but given it’s at least a 10 hr. drive from Seattle ( probably longer from PDX ) seems people are more than willing to let this stuff die on the vine?
Yup, it’s a massacree up there but they’re still in denial. Don’t you know everyone wants to live here? Recently an out of state owner had an honest to God auction of a 5.5 acre lakefront property “worth” 3.2 mil I think but it went for 1.5. That ought to make them all sit up and take notice, but who knows.
http://tinyurl.com/mcf6hb
Well I tried to answer but it got hung up on my tinyurl link I guess.
Yes they’re still in dreamland up there in the Flathead. It was crazy there just 2 years ago then the roof fell in.
Supposedly out of staters are again *snapping up* investment properties but…there was a (real) auction 2 weeks ago for a lake property 5.5 acres & nice house, “worth” 3.2 mil but went for 1.5 IIRC. That event should be the start of the wakeup.
InMontana,
Thank you for the article. In fairness to the gentlemen that called ( he ‘did’ ref. that particular transaction ) Further ( and you’ve gotta’ love those guys in Big Sky Country ) he was open in the light that he said, he really was just trying to get a feel as to ‘what’ investors were willing to pay?
So he was open to entertaining offers considerably below his cost basis in the hopes they would use him as the builder and recover ’some’ of his investment that way. He’d paid cash for the property in ‘04, but borrowed to develop it.
So in ways, I thought it had potential as he’d rolled profits from previous projects into ‘this’ one, and actually… had some equity in it. Very fair and honest guy.
Nee Salam, 56, lost his engineering job at an automotive electronics supplier south of Atlanta more than a year ago.
At the time, he said, “I was thinking the job market was going to change right away.” But it hasn’t.
Since then, he’s been working as a consultant, earning less than half his old salary of $115,000. His wife has been cleaning houses to keep the family afloat.
But after draining their savings and retirement accounts, the couple have missed four payments on their $636,000 mortgage.
Holy crap, at around the same salary I wouldn’t even dream of taking on a $300,000 mortage, wtf are people thinking?
they already had it, but didn’t try to sell it?
Remember the “market was going to change right away”.
But it hasn’t.
oh.
They’re thinking that they’re entitled to anything they want.
‘They also said the Texas housing market looks good. ‘The nice thing was we never had a housing price bubble in Texas early in the decade, so without a bubble we’re not going to burst and have any kind of market like that,’ Chief Economist for The Real Estate Center, Dr. Mark Dotzour, said.”
LIAR. Not deluded, not stretching the truth, not playing loose with the facts….. just LIAR.
And Texas got it’s a$$ handed to it in the 80″s housing bubble - !!
They are VERY familiar with RE bubbles in the state of Texas !!
But they don’t remember! It’s like some bizarre kind of amnesia that allows them to remember the 80s, but without any ability to see parallels.
I’m not talking about the RE “professionals” (per my post below), I’m talking about people I like and like being around.
I left Texas years ago, but out of curiosity, I looked up a house that I bought in Desoto, south of Dallas, in 1972. I paid $32,500 for it, new. A nice 3-2 rancher in what was then a pretty good neighborhood.
That house sold in 2007 for $100K plus change. That is probably about what can really be expected from Real Estate over a the long term. That didn’t come close to keeping up with inflation.
exeter, he’s more than just a liar …
He doesn’t do it for the hell of it, he does it for money.
Professional liar, liar for hire, lie-whore…?
Unfortunately, I hear that same statement every single day from people I don’t consider liars … deluded I guess.
Several of the HBBers have quoted in the past insane comments by that realtard Dr. Mark Dotzour. What is he a doctor of - proctology ?
cranio-proctology
Desk clearing time and it’s only 6:30 am? Geez, I just got up!
Yeah, well I’m in Mohave county working and then I have to zoom off to another place, so I don’t know when I’ll get to log back on. I figured it was best to post this while I had a signal.
I take it as a very good sign for Ben’s business that he cleared the desk before many of us even heard our alarm clocks.
I heard mine, cursed at it, stumbled across the room, turned it off, went back to bed, and ended up twenty minutes late for work.
“She and her longtime companion stopped paying on their $840-a-month mortgage in February and their house has gone into foreclosure. They attended a mediation conference in county court Wednesday with their lender but are not optimistic about saving their home. Now making $120 a week as a part-time supermarket cashier, Kennedy says she commiserates with her co-workers, some of whom are also facing foreclosure.”
$840 a month for a mortgage in Allentown, PA is not bad and could be affordable but you need to work more than 20 hours a week at a minimum wage job…
This is $420/month per person! That’s very reasonable. What do they EXPECT to pay?
maybe the companion is underemployed as well?
The part that bonked me over the head was the successful cleaning business. Another business that booms during boom times. When times get tough, people rediscover the fine art of cleaning their own house. Or (gasp!) they make the kids do it.
Which leads me to a thought that’s been rattlin’ around in my brain. Time to let it out.
I’ve been leaning toward calling our current times the Comeuppance Economy. As in, a lot of businesses and individuals are getting their comeuppance. Numerous examples presented every day on this blog.
Slim, Comeuppance Times.
good one;>
I like it, too.
Also, and I just thought of this, ‘Comeuppance Times’ would be a good name for a dominatrix.
)
(channeling Dennis N.
Also, and I just thought of this, ‘Comeuppance Times’ would be a good name for a dominatrix.
But an old-timey dominatrix with a severe face, petticoats, perhaps a whalebone corset — ‘Comeuppance Times’ sounds a little too Wild West for a vinyl/leather/stilettos/whatever the heck they wear outfit, no?
I also was visualizing the more prim and severe style. With a tidy bun and button-up boots. Although I was thinking more of Cotton Mather country than the Wild West. Still, I agree.
…And don’t give me that: ‘Whatever the heck they wear…’
Surrrrrre…I can easily see that you know your dominatrixes.
Hahahaha!
Does she have a whip? I’d demand a whip.
de riguer
Although I was thinking more of Cotton Mather country than the Wild West.
Ah, yes. Old school 17th century New England witch-hunter severity would make for a great dominatrix. Forbidding, very forbidding.
A bun and finely made side-button boots (with a slightly dangerous heel in a nod to the modern day, I think): a must, regardless of Ms. Comeuppance Times’ century.
Wow. Like I said!
Re: …And don’t give me that: ‘Whatever the heck they wear…’
Surrrrrre…I can easily see that you know your dominatrixes.
Indeed.
I LOVE that, Slim. That’s exACTly what it is…a Comeuppance Economy.
As he put it, ‘President Obama and Congress have said that the way out of the recession is through housing.’”
Then we are not coming out of this “recession” for a very,very, long time, if the PTB think housing is the only way out.
I’m not sure the WH or President Obama has stated that, but if it’s true they’re banking on housing, increased consumption and $150/bl oil. Wall street investors should take notice because none of that is sustainable.
“…if the PTB think housing is the only way out.”
Have you heard any indications to the contrary? I certainly haven’t…
What’s worse, I have not heard anyone in a leadership position express much other than an intention to respike the housing bubble punch bowl as quickly as possible. The thinking on high seems to be that the housing collapse is a reversible process, and once the housing market recovers (presumably to the 2005 level of frenzy), the economy will be back on its feet.
Does this seem highly delusional to anyone besides me?
“Does this seem highly delusional to anyone besides me”?
It’s pie in the sky, head up one’s arse delusional. It is not possible to recreate the monetary environment that created the mammoth housing bubble. To even come close the PTB would have to start lending/giving money to any Tom,Dick or Harry, as before. Which in turn would not have the “desired” effect, it would sink the ship that is already on the rocks.
This unwinding has a long way to go. Like the eye of a hurricane, just when you think it’s safe to venture out… Wham! The backside knocks you down.
What if this isn’t a depression but something much worse? Don’t have any idea what I would call it but how about we start with global economic collapse? Might be a tad over the top right now, but hey you just never know. One thing labeling what this is doesn’t matter the reality is just getting rolling, wait a year or even two then things would be really out of hand.
Of course another stimulus plan is what we need, that’s the ticket. How do these delusional folks that supposedly run this country can possibly think that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes is anything less than total insane delusional psychosis? But then I am not privy to the lives of these exalted folks, how could I be?
“What if this isn’t a depression but something much worse?”
One interesting aspect of the Great Depression is that the level of denial by the PTB was extremely high in the period immediately following the Great Crash of 1929. All the talk about recovery, green shoots, etc would be completely consistent with a replay (not to suggest we are experiencing one, though).
“What’s worse, I have not heard anyone in a leadership position express much other than an intention to respike the housing bubble punch bowl as quickly as possible. The thinking on high seems to be that the housing collapse is a reversible process…”
What else can they do? Do you think they will ever admit they stood by while the middle class bankrupted themselves with ridiculous amounts of leverage and the “lifestyles” that went with it: new car in the driveway every 2 or 3 years, remodeled kitchens & baths, expensive vacations, eating out, etc.
Extend and pretend will be with us for a long, long time, I’m afraid.
“What else can they do?”
My high school coach was very fond of inculcating his team members with his wealthy knowledge of cliches. One of these popped into my mind as I read your post:
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear dumb
than to open it and remove all doubt.
Fed to mortgage bankers: “We gonna pump you up!”
market pulse
Aug 21, 2009, 12:15 p.m. EST
Fed buys record $5.6 billion in agency debt
By Deborah Levine
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York bought $5.605 billion in housing-agency debt on Friday, the biggest purchase since it began buying debt in the sector in December in the hopes of capping mortgage rates. It bought about half of the $11.209 billion offered to it by bond dealers, which analysts noted was rather high. The large purchase is a big switch from recent operations, which have slowly gotten smaller. Analysts hypothesized the central bank may have been trying to stretch out its purchases over a longer timeframe to improve the effect. “The size of today’s purchase will lead many to pay greater attention to the next pass to see if the Fed is increasing the speed at which it purchases Agencies,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak. The Fed has bought $116.6 billion of the originally-stated $200 billion in debt issued by home-finance agencies Fannie Mae (FNM 1.23, +0.13, +11.82%) , Freddie Mac (FRE 1.75, +0.15, +9.38%) and the Federal Home Loan Banks, according to Morgan Stanley. The central bank has also bought hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities and Treasurys.
I’ve heard congresscritters state it outright. I’ve not heard it from the President.
Kirisdad,
We hope Kiri is well! Anyway, nor have “I” heard The President make any claim to that effect? I’m going to beg to differ though *wmbz, this is not unlike Gold Rush’s of the past.
Everyone that was a butcher, baker or candlestick maker boarded up their shop in search of gold out west. ( I believe at the height of the mania, 1 out of every 94 man, woman & child in CA was a Re-litter ) When people board up their shops ( abandon their families “back east” ) and get bitten by the gold bug, how can ‘anything’ be “normal”?
Tough road back? No sane person is arguing that! But once we correct The Misallocation, we can at least see where we’re at.
Kiri’s doing very, thank you. She had a severe learning disability and asthma as a child, but is now entering her third year of college with a b avg. and has a part time job in the college book store. I have never heard her say a bad thing about anyone, in her entire life. For all of things, I am very proud of her.
Kirisdad,
Awesome! You ’should’ be proud!
You know, I take a fair amount of heat for the rare instances I introduce the ‘possibility’ the American Worker might have ’some’ accountability in all of this?
But if you ‘really’ want to see happy and dedicated workers? ( Stop by a Goodwill! ) Man, it even cheers ‘me’ up! Never seen so many people that happy just to be clocked in? Oh and btw, there’s a Commencement Ceremony your future!
DinOR
Thanks Dinor, you know I had completely forgotten she was also diagnosed with scoliosis, at 14, and had to wear a hard plastic back brace for 11/2 yrs.( it was heartbreaking). She took up swimming and, at 17, won a couple of backstroke races, with the varsity swim team.
ex-cons druggies drunks homeless mental patients…Sure DinOR they would be thrilled to be there and have a job.
Now how do we get Happy Jobs for the rest of US…who are not any of the above?
But if you ‘really’ want to see happy and dedicated workers? ( Stop by a Goodwill!
Kirisdad,
It occurs to me that both you and your amazing daughter are truly blessed with each other. You’ve cheered me immensely with these posts. Thank you.
I’m sure you know I didn’t make the claim, it was a quote from the article.
That sounds more like it, kirisdad. Corporate owned congress critters speak in dubious tongues. Ambiguous ones too.
That quote caught my eye too, wmbz.
“Home purchases will spread the wealth through the economy, he explained, since they account for $63,000 worth of related acquisitions including furniture, appliances and cars. As he put it, ‘President Obama and Congress have said that the way out of the recession is through housing.’”
Excuse me while I vomit, puke, barf.
Now, do people really “spend” $63K extra in doilies and dinette sets and such when they buy a house? I put “spend” in quotation marks, b/c they’re really financing, not spending cash.
From anecdotal observations…yes, they spend at least that much.
When you’re a homeowna baby ya gotta look the part!
LOL! Well.., perhaps they ‘did’?
Well the REIC always ran Chicago, so it makes sense that they now run the nation too.
Saw where the CUBs just sold.
Combine the story on mortgage delinquencies with this one on investments:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aPb5L1hUL0FE
“CIT joined GMAC Inc., Prudential Financial Inc. and more than a dozen other companies that tapped individuals as credit markets closed to them through underwriters led by Chicago-based Incapital LLC. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority now says it’s investigating whether the risks associated with the securities were adequately disclosed.”
The bonds were marketed specifically to the elderly, the only genertions that have any money held by anyone other than the super rich. What is left of the middle class lost on both ends, as borrower and lender. The dealmakers apparently shifted the money to Switzerland.
“The senior unsecured notes underwitten by Incapital contain a ’survivor’s option’ that allows them to be sold back to the issuer at par when their owner dies. InterNotes issuers typically have ‘a discretionary right to limit’ the amount that can be exercised per year through the survivor’s option to the greater of $2 million or 2 percent of outstanding principal amount, according to Ricketts. ‘It’s almost an affinity type of financing geared to elderly people,’ said Levitt. Incapital’s Web site lets visitors enlarge the font if they’re having trouble reading its contents.”
“We have had quite a few folks who have lost their jobs during escrow and could no longer purchase a home. That is the heartbreaker.”
For who? I suppose you would be smiling if they closed and then lost their job, or kept their job and were forever in debt with respect to over priced property.
+1
Hi, obschina! Oh, wait, I mean ‘Hi, Natalie!’
…Which name will you be using tonight, again?
Or is it Danull? Or ProudPwnOwner?
Or ProudPwnOwner?
That one, too? That’s a new one to me. Wow–she’s really piling ‘em up, huh?
I’ve been on the road for a while, and reduced by blog intake, so I haven’t been here in a while, other than to read Ben’s digests…
Just got back from Ireland, which seems to have been hit very hard by this crash. “To Let” signs on every office space where there used to be some web-design shop; for sale signs everywhere. Units that were formerly rentals above retail/bars/restaurants that were converted to condos are for sale everywhere.
There’s only about 4.5 million people in Ireland, not a lot of new job creation. A lot of them fell for the Real Estate “wealth creation” ponzi-scheme.
Back home, on my block in 94087, there are now two houses for sale. One was owned by a woman who inherited her house free and clear–including a low tax rate–and is now “forced to sell” (I didn’t press for details, but I know she had some second mortgages). Another neighbor also told me that they have to sell quickly (they are in the property management business). With the prices they’re asking, IMHO, neither will move fast! There’s been a home next to my office (also in 94087, a few block north of my house) that’s been for sale for over a year! I don’t know what the owner’s thinking…I presume they’re just waiting for the bank to foreclose because they can’t negotiate a short sale.
Reuven,
Welcome back! ( But so sad ) What are you supposed to do when you can’t even hide your eyes from this in Ireland ( of all places? ) And then come home to it as well.
Ireland got the bubble big time, too.
And as previously mentioned, there are alot of horses that are being abandoned in Ireland. Those helocs paid for the gentleman farmer to buy thoroughbreds and well you know.
Now, as per one of the UK tv news shows, they are finding it hard to place all those horses.
In June, I was driving with my family from a small town that profited mightily during the boom on the west coast back to Dublin. We got lost on the back roads trying to find our way to the main highway so we wound up taking an impromptu tour of the “burbs” of this town of about 1000. About 2 miles out of town, there must have been a couple dozen or so houses in what used to be farm/pasture that looked like they had either been completed within the last few months and had never been occupied or the construction just stopped one day while the house was half done. I was later told that this scene now plays out all over the country. I think we saw what you Californians call a ghost subdivision. Unlike in the US, however, it didn’t appear that these empty/half built houses had been stripped of their fixtures yet, but perhaps it needs just a little more time.
The media there was full of stories about various aspects of life in the post Celtic Tiger boom. Basically, people there divide the world into the villains (builders, speculators, bankers) and victims, i.e., everyone else. Many remarkable parallels to the situation here. Some media types were saying it may take another generation to recover.
go: another generation to recover…
From Reuven’s comment:
Just got back from Ireland, which seems to have been hit very hard by this crash. “To Let” signs on every office space where there used to be some web-design shop; for sale signs everywhere. Units that were formerly rentals above retail/bars/restaurants that were converted to condos are for sale everywhere.
Slim has been in the web design biz since 1995. And at nowhere during that time have I ever rented outside space. Always worked out of home.
And why might that be?
Well, for one thing, many of my clients have been outside Tucson. Which means that they wouldn’t have given a hoot about my show-offy Tucson studio space. For some strange reason, they’ve always been more concerned about what I produce, rather than where I produce it from.
And, for another thing, clients are getting real picky about paying for some studio’s overhead. Especially now.
love low overhead businesses …
Arizona Slim,
While we’re at it, I may have mentioned letting my lease run out on my office. Of ALL things ( after just having mentioned it to my wife ) I looked at a smaller, cheaper office and met the owner/mgr.
Nice gal, asked me what biz I’m in and she said -just- the previous night she was at an “investment seminar” offered by one of the local guys that’s been here forever. She said: He–was–pleading… with clients not to leave! Almost begging.
I thought it was pretty undignified but I told my wife, ever since our local bank totally f’d up and got shut down by FDIC, why the HELL should anyone place their trust in a “building”!? Hey, ‘they’ had marble floors, highback leather chairs and onyx pen holders! ( And they folded at the slightest financial strain! )
So I said, on… Wed. night, “What’s the point? All these local guys humping HUGE mortgages on their buildings. I certainly -hope- they don’t think they’re impressing anyone?” And wouldn’t you know it..?
Oooh, thanks for the on-site obervations, reuvy. Very interesting.
Well, hopefully you had a great vacation. Did you just stay in Ireland? I was in London for two weeks in June with my Mom.
Hey Reuven:
I was wondering where you went. Good to hear ol’ Sunnyvale is gripped by panic and woe (but not you, of course). Ah, good times.
Good to see you again, Reuv! Welcome back.
Another silly rally on Wall Street today. Why does every “investor” listen to Bernanke as if he were the ultimate prophet of all things economic? We had news of bumps in jobless claims and foreclosures yesterday, and he’s convinced the “economy will grow soon”? Whose economy?
The stock market always goes up. Get over it. Buy stocks now or get priced out forever.
People are chasing the market bigtime.I guess they have not learned a thing.
Sounds to me like they have learned quite a lot about gambling. The beauty of gambling in the stock market is that it becomes respectable if you call it “investing.” It is even legally allowed and publicly acceptable in places like Utah where honest gambling is illegal.
The other thing about gambling in the stock market as opposed to, say, at a Las Vegas casino, is the human element involved. Isn’t it more exciting to think of being on the other side of all manner of potential financial manipulation of stock prices than to have the outcome of your bet depend on an impersonal spin of the roulette wheel?
Funny afterthought: Everyone seems to think the risk of ginormous Ponzi schemes has ended now that Madoff has been caught. I note that cockroaches seldom live alone.
I view it as a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, the power brokers have already cashed out and are sitting in big comfy chairs. The small frys are left standing with their pockets turned inside-out.
Anyone older than 40 with 100% equities is walking a tightrope with a missing leg (hopping a tightrope?).
The only way I can be in stock mutual funds and individual stocks is to have several years worth of living expenses in government securities.
And it looks as though I may have to start tapping those assets soon (savings bonds and municipal bonds).
As we learned last fall, the truly powerful have blanket too-big-to-fail risk protection from the Fed / Treasury.
“When the music stops, the power brokers have already cashed out and are sitting in big comfy chairs.”
What’s worse, if they wish to do so, the power brokers can position their portfolios for a musical stoppage, then make it happen, in order to hit themselves a jackpot.
It is even legally allowed and publicly acceptable in places like Utah where honest gambling is illegal.
Hahah, funny, PB!
…Say, wasn’t Utarr rated 5th in the whole US of A in incidents of mortgage fraud? How can this be?
no offense Oly, and I know you are being humorous or sarcastic about Utah, but I worked with Mormons I would not trust to be with my Grandma. Most of the ones I worked with network together and promote each other. My response was to work on Saturdays and/or Sundays to out-produce the ones at my level.
There is a simiar situation going on where I work in LA, but not Mormons this time. It’s Vietnamese-Americans in the client company on the one hand and a subcontracting company of mostly white married guys in their 30s who go to the same church together (eeewwww!). The two groups do not like each other. I want both groups to never win. That way a lot of the attention will be turned off of me.
Chasing is the right word. Desperation rules the day. Lots of folks got burned and they are in mighty big hurry to make good by any means possible.
Sounds like bubble thinking to me.
Yahoo and PBS report that B says the economy is improving. Of course he’s going to say that, if he wants to keep his job. True to form, this was not mentioned.
I stand by my prediction that Ben Bernanke will soon be heading back to the Princeton economics department.
Shoot, B has to say that, its Friday and he doesn’t want another Friday like last one. So, it must have been manipulated. Whether big time or small, it doesn’t matter, it just was.
Here is still more proof that the stock market always goes up:
US STOCKS-Wall St hits 2009 highs after home sales, Bernanke
Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:04pm EDT
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks surged to 2009 highs on Friday after a surprising increase in existing home sales offered solid evidence of a recovery and positive comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bolstered optimism about the economy.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit 10-month intraday highs, while the Dow industrials rose to their highest level in nine months. The S&P is now up 51 percent from its 12-year closing low set on March 9.
At the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Bernanke gave his clearest signal yet that a recovery is at hand, but warned that it would be sluggish for a time.
“The home sales data got the market rolling, but Bernanke really persuaded investors to (keep up) the rally,” said John Augustine, chief investment strategist at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati.
“His comment was optimistic, but also prudent about the quantitative easing ending sometime. But the market took it all as good news.”
The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 136.11 points, or 1.46 percent, to 9,486.16. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 16.49 points, or 1.64 percent, to 1,023.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 25.23 points, or 1.27 percent, to 2,014.45.
A surprising 7.2 percent jump in the July sales of previously owned homes gave stocks a shot of adrenaline. It was the fourth straight monthly increase and the highest level of existing home sales since August 2007.
…
“A Florida Supreme Court task force is calling for uniform mandatory mediation for all residential foreclosure cases in the state to deal with the tide of foreclosures that has swamped courthouses. Broward Chief Judge Victor Tobin…disagrees with the task force’s plan to have mandatory mediation in all instances. ‘It’s not a good idea in all cases because a lot of the homes are vacant, and they are going to remain vacant,’ Tobin said. ‘The owners of the property don’t want to negotiate or can’t negotiate’”
I am not well versed in property law, but in principle, this does not seem like it should be difficult to fix. Local governments should pass laws to enable them to charge fees to the owners of vacant properties to cover the extra costs imposed on providers of local government services. If no owner of record can be identified, or the owner is unwilling to pay enough to cover the extra costs imposed, the local government should create for itself a legal right to take possession of the homes and sell them at auction. Whether this is best done at the state, county or city level probably depends on the facts and circumstances of the situation at hand.
Under this plan, the housing market would quickly be cleared of myriad vacant homes, housing would become affordable again, and local government would be self-financing. Where is the downside?
I like your plan, Bear.
Where is the downside? I am beginning to suspect that a massive sell-off/auction of such homes in the manner you just described would FAIL to bring in funds sufficient to reimburse the local governments for their expenses in managing the properties. Instead there would be wastelands of vacant homes theoretically owned by the taxpayers. Widespread seizure of REO properties might accelerate the pace of bank failures.
You are missing the point. Taxpayers would not own the homes, as they would immediately sold at auction to the highest private bidder, who would become the new owner.
With the report out yesterday that over 13 pct of US mortgages are in nonpayment status (delinquency or foreclosure), it sounds like there might be six million or so homes in limbo status about now. Making the ultra-conservative assumption that these could be sold on average for $150,000 at auction, the total value of potential sales would be something like
$150,000 * 6,000,000 = $1.50 * 6 * 10^11 = $900 bn.
Please clarify why you think a sizable fraction of this amount of money would not suffice to reimburse local government for their expenses?
Even better: The stimulus and liquidity created by this move would really help the economy move in the direction of recovery!
“Widespread seizure of REO properties might accelerate the pace of bank failures.”
Last time I checked, the US economic system was based on capitalism. Banks that threw away money should fail. Too-big-to-fail bailout insurance should be ended, and the hundreds of billions of dollars that the Fed has given to its friends on Wall Street should be freed up as startup capital to establish banks that don’t throw money away.
Freddie and Fannie would implode. Actually not bad in the short term.
I could have sworn they already did that. Sounds like common sense to me. Dang Bear, you think too clear.
I sure hope someone with common sense and the power to act is paying attention. I would love to see what happens if a few local governments actually tried out a version of my suggestion.
“Translation: The worst is over. One realtor said she has a hard time believing the numbers. ‘I think we’re being duped, quite frankly,’ said Pattie Haugland, a broker who handles properties in the East Valley. Haugland said the banks are holding back on selling thousands of foreclosed homes, which is creating an artificial seller’s market and slowing the decline in prices.”
“She said if banks start dumping properties back on to the market, ‘we’re going to see a big crash again.’”
Uh-oh — UHS are starting to frankly think they are getting duped. Who is doing the duping in this story? Is the banking industry engaging in illegal collusion?
“She said if banks start dumping properties back on to the market, ‘we’re going to see a big crash again.’”
to me…that’s the most important comment in the entire post. it’s almost scary when you think about it.
At what point did truly affordable housing become such a scary prospect?
lol
But think about this, due to all the stupid ‘foreclosure moretoriums’ lending will be tight for a decade. So homes will have to become truly affordable to sell.
Best to get the homes into owner hands. People get giddy for ~3 years after ‘buying’ a home. Best to keep the lawn cut/weeded and the home painted. The first state to clean out the bogus inventory will be the first to recover.
Those states will become known as low cost business centers and will thrive. The Proffesor’s plan will work. Not doing it will creat many South Central LA like hoods. I’m a bear, but there are steps that should be taken. A la Houston bulldozing homes by the tens of thousands.
Que the movie ideas.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
at the same time 90% loan losses became possible ?
Banks have chased people out of their homes only to stop the foreclosure process leaving the home in limbo. There are a ton of these that will hit the market eventually.
“Our psychology is funny. One person’s gain in the short term is everyone’s loss in the long term.”
This writer has obviously left the denial phase of the housing bubble stages of grief, but the masses have not. The bubble will never end so long as media experts keep spouting nonsense and the sheeple keep buying into it.
From the original post:
In some cases, he said, buyers confronting multiple offers on bank-owned houses have stopped looking.
OTOH, some of the peeps seem to have some smarts. If I came upon a bank-owned house (which often means that major repairs and renovations are in my future) with multiple offers, I’d stop looking too.
A commenter on an Austin housing story yesterday suggested a “Cash for Clunker Condos” program.
I was wondering about this “Cash for Clunker” program..As best I understand, they need to scrap these cars…They cannot be re-sold…Can they be parted out ?? If not, over time won’t it start to become very difficult to repair a old car ?? I can’t believe they would waste all those used parts but then again, with the Gumitt, that would be one way they could “Force” you out of your old clunker whether you liked it or not if you can’t fix it..I would not put it past them…
The engine, most valuable part, has to be destroyed. There is little money in the rest of the car.
Like I said before, anytime you destroy a working engine in a recession/depression the program is de facto crazy.
Last time they burned crops and spilled lots of milk.
Last time they burned crops and spilled lots of milk.
It makes me crazy when I think of that, even though it was, relatively, a long time ago. I HATE waste! And people were starving at the time, too!
Angry face!
The reason they (engines / drivetrains at least) must be scrapped is to insure the same clunker is not resold and then re-submitted over and over again… elsewise a $4,500 clunker might pull in $15,000 or maybe $45,000… or any amount.
Rules say many parts of the cars can be (and are being) salvaged, but their lives must end as registrable, licensable vehicles.
Hopefully, a majority of these clunkers are early model SUVs that spew twice the pollution of regular cars, besides getting sucky gas mileage. So, good riddance!
“…According to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Transportation and reported by Automotive News, ….. the average fuel economy of the first 184,304 clunkers turned in was 15.8 miles per gallon. On the other hand, the average fuel economy of the 184,304 vehicles purchased to replace those clunkers was 25.3 mpg.”
[snip.... So, we get a roughly 60% fuel efficiency improvement.. take 60% of 15.8 and add that to 15.8]
“The DOT also shared lists of the vehicles turned in as clunkers, and the cars driven away from dealer lots by former clunker owners.”
The top 10 trade-ins were:
1. Ford Explorer (4wd)
2. Ford F-150 (2wd)
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee (4wd)
4. Jeep Cherokee (4wd)
5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan (2wd)
6. Ford Explorer (2wd)
7. Chevrolet Blazer (4wd)
8. Ford F-150 (4wd)
9. Chevrolet C1500 (2wd)
10. Ford Windstar (fwd)
//
izoom.com/blog.aspx?bid=1&date=8/9/2009
It looks like the DOT is publishing all the data.. it may be on their website, but color me lazy..
A commenter on an Austin housing story yesterday suggested a “Cash for Clunker Condos” program.
It’s called TALF TARP ect.
After a 30-year run, rise of the super-rich hits a wall. (From today’s NY Times)
add what you need to make it a link:
nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1250859823-hxI6yE/NFkfwEnsJqsTRcw
sniffle, stifling a sob..
although a fake sob.
Where is my tiny violin?
Where is my tiny violin?
Here in my hand, where I crushed it when I clenched my fists in wrath as I read the article.
Agreed…boo de freakin’ hooooo!
Yeah an the Donald is back in the bay area pimping real estate seminar’s…What a POS..
unbelievable…
There’s probably a bunch of bimbos in the wings wanting to marry him too.
Jeez, Oly. I was just going to ask desert to play “Plight of the Über-consumer” and you messed it up.
Ooops, sorry. Maybe you can fix it. You seem handy.
*hands zilky a little pile of virtual flinders *
“Plight of the Über-consumer”… sounds enchanting! I can’t wait to hear it.
I can’t wait to hear it
It sounds like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NulxRmIX4kE&NR=1&feature=fvwp
that’s great.. i hope my rich boss really eats it.. i hope he’s forced to close this business.
Hey Joey:
Is your boss really that rich? If so, is it because his labor costs are so low due to cheap, easy labor in dirt-poor countries with near-worthless currencies? Well, that’s unsustainable due the depressionary forces of wage arbitrage.
The bastard deserves to go under. You deserve to work for someone who will pay you decent wages. That’s what our economy is BASED on.
Marketwatch:
We saved the world from disaster, Bernanke says.
The patient was “saved” by being put on a respirator and being pumped full of all sorts of powerful drugs.
He’s still “alive”, but only in a very artificial sense.
Serious God complex.
not God…just his partner.
Didn’t the guy who said he spoke to ‘his father, but not his own dad’, then annointed BB say since we are now within touching distance,
then you can call yourself god too?
Bernanke, this isn’t much better,world says.
FED set the fire then claim to be the hero when they put it out. When fire fighters do this they go to jail.
I had the same thought — isn’t there some kind of law that applies to Megabank, Inc against the figurative version of arson?
“I digress. The Austrians had it right: save and invest.”
Can’t do that in the U.S. of A. Yesterday I was looking for a place to park some cash. Three-month CD rates are now less than 1%! That got me to thinking. The g’ment doesn’t want its citizens to save. They keep rates low so that there’s no point in saving. They want its citizens to spend, spend, spend! Go further in debt!
Savers are being punished like no other time in recent history. They hope we chase yield by investing in the stock market or foolishly buy long term bonds. I’ll have none of it, my money will go into a mattress before I piss my money away on manipulated markets.
I agree, Mo!
heck, you/we can pi ss on our own money, thank you very much.
And at least we can get to it later without showing ID of all kinds!
I prefer to piss my money away on “potent potables” if you catch my drift…….
Kahula, Baileys Irish Creme, Margueritas, good bottle of red or white wine are my potent potables.
Kahula, Baileys Irish Creme, Margueritas, good bottle of red or white wine are my potent potables.
Same here! At least to start the evening..
No point in saving? Why.. because CD returns are poor? Well, then forget about CDs. “Save” your money in something that has the high risk-return you desire. There are plenty of those.
“Save and invest” is not an instruction to do both at the same time. CDs are hardly an investment.
“There are plenty of those”
And yet you didn’t name one.
eh? You need me to name… what exactly? Something that offers higher return than a CD?
How about corn futures? There ya go.. put your savings in commodities. Knock yourself out.
Joey:
Commodities do not have APYs. They are an “investment”. You can lose money on them.
..as if you can’t lose money on a CD…
Save money in large CCs (coffee cans). Forget about earning returns until you’ve got several cans full of money.
“The study found prices declined 33 percent between May 2008 and May 2009. That’s down from a 35 percent year-over-year drop in April and a 37 percent drop in February and March.”
Translation: The worst is over.”
The rate of home price declines has leveled off at only 33 percent year-on-year? If I were a prospective buyer in that market, I just might be tempted to sit on the sidelines for a while to see how long that 33 percent annual rate of decline can last.
It might be interesting to know for how long a 33 pct annual rate of decline would need to continue for prices to drop by 90 percent. Whad’ya know — I have the calculation right here, in the back left corner of my brain:
(1-0.33)^t = (1-0.90)
t = ln(1-0.90)/ln(1-0.33) = 5.75 years (5 years, 9 months).
The good news for prospective sellers: Anything which cannot go on forever will stop. Clearly a 33 pct annual rate of price declines cannot go on forever.
Sure it can, asymptotically
“They want its citizens to spend, spend, spend! Go further in debt!”
Well, it worked for a while. Those who got out before the bubble collapsed probably made a lot more than they would have with CD accounts. It’s just hard to shake that mentality, unfortunately. And saving money is a lot less glamorous than leveraging up on RE, and it sure does put a damper on instant gratification and keeping up with the Joneses.
Lisa,
I’ll agree. And try as you might, it was awfully hard to distance yourself from this crowd. You’ve no idea how many times over the last decade I’ve had to ‘explain’ as to why “I” *don’t own a Harley?
But here’s the reality ( and the paradox ) ‘most’ of us will -never- have made enough money to retire even comfortably from cash or money markets. Very few. I mean, just run a hypothetical.
If employees are having a rough go of it ‘as-is’ how are they going to be able to have ‘any’ kind of life when 40% of their pre-tax income has to go toward savings? I’ve challenged many here to show me how ‘that’ can work and I’ve yet to be taken up on it.
It can work for a short period. Most successful immigrants do this .. they sacrifice short term (5-10 years) consumption in order to save 40%+ of their income (even though they only have access to the lowest paying jobs) and then parley those savings to start businesses. I know of many recent arrivals who have gone this route.
Goes back to what the book states about Millionaires,
are mostly first generation millionaires…
The Millionaire Next Door, 1990s book.
Hard hard workers, 1st generation.
Then the 2nd gen does okay, not as good, then 3rd pi sses it away.
Most successful immigrants do this .. they sacrifice short term (5-10 years) consumption in order to save 40%+ of their income (even though they only have access to the lowest paying jobs) and then parley those savings to start businesses.
I’ve witnessed this quite a few times. Most closely back in Utarr, where some good family friends first immigrated from El Salvador, worked their bu*ms off, hardest working people you ever saw—and that’s saying something, because I grew up in an area where most everyone had a very strong work ethic—and built a successful business. The American Dream achieved! Hooray!
‘Course, then their kids, that they had worked so hard for, turned into teen-aged single mothers and gangstas doing time in prison for armed robbery.
A bit of a bummer.
So now I wonder…does this still qualify as ‘The American Dream come true?’
NAR Reports Strong Uptrend
http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/08/strong_uptrend
“For the first time in five years, existing homes sales have increased 4 months in a row”
Well! Isn’t that a relief? Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the hangover has lasted longer than the ‘party’ that caused it at this point?
Unemployment Rates Rose in 26 U.S. States in July (Update2)
By Timothy R. Homan and Alison Sider
Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) — Unemployment rates rose in 26 U.S. states in July, a sign the labor market will take time to improve and budget crises in capitals across the nation may deepen.
California, Nevada, Rhode Island and Georgia all reached their highest level of joblessness since records began in 1976, with California’s rising to 11.9 percent from 11.6 percent the previous month, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The number of states with at least 10 percent unemployment held at 16.
The figures are a blow to states already hammered by falling income and sales-tax receipts and underscore economists’ projections that the national unemployment rate will reach 10 percent by early next year. Companies will probably trim payrolls at a slower pace in coming months as factories and the housing market show signs of stabilization.
“State revenues could fall short of expectations if consumer spending doesn’t pick up and if the labor market fails to improve,” said Alex Miron, an economic analyst at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “We’re going to see higher unemployment over the month ahead.”
…
While the bankers visiting Jackson Hole pat each other on the back for a job well done, the shoots don’t look very green in the Golden State.
Friday, August 21, 2009, 9:47am PDT |
Modified: Friday, August 21, 2009, 12:48pm
State jobless rate at all-time worst
San Francisco Business Times
California led the nation in job losses in July, while a third of the nation showed decreases in unemployment for the month.
California lost 35,800 jobs, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday, to boost its unemployment rate to 11.9 percent, a mark unequalled since modern labor record-keeping began.
The new numbers bring California’s total job losses to 760,200 over the last year. If there is good news, it is that the rate of job losses slowed for a second straight month. July’s job losses were barely half those in May.
…
I have to wonder if the uptick in existing home sales played out in California, given the worst labor market situation since modern record keeping began?
” Realtors are getting to go to the grocery store now,’”
They ought to be at the unemployment office, any smart Realtor knows the game is a manipulated house of cards still waiting to take a second tumble.
Given Dough-4-Dumps, Fed MBS purchases to drive down mortgage interest rates, FHA and GSE loan guarantees and other housing market stimulus, not to mention foreclosure fire sale discounted pricing, why is the uptick in July home sales whatsoever surprising?
New York Times
Fed Chairman Says American Economy Is Poised to Grow
Article Tools Sponsored By
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: August 21, 2009
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered his most hopeful assessment in more than a year on Friday, asserting that “the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good.”
In a much-awaited speech here to central bankers and economists from around the world, Mr. Bernanke went beyond the Fed’s most recent assessment that the nation’s economy was “leveling out” and that the recession was ending.
Noting that short-term lending markets are functioning “more normally,” that corporate bond issuance is strong and that other “previously moribund” securitization markets are reviving, Mr. Bernanke said that both the United States and other major countries were poised for growth.
A surprising increase in sales of previously owned homes in July bolstered that view.
…
Some messages behind the message:
1) I saved the world from global economic Armageddon.
2) Nobody could have foreseen the crisis, and hence the Fed is not whatsoever culpable.
3) Despite the worst economic crisis since at least the early 1980s, recovery is on the way (never mind those 6m or so US mortgages in nonpayment status or the rising double-digit unemployment rates across the land).
4) Reappoint me.
When does BB find out if he is re appointed.
My guess is that the GS Morgan Stanley’s ect want to keep the gravey train rolling w BB. Would it be in their interest to keep the markets up. How hard would it be to put someone else into the job knowing that if the market later crashed your guy and you would be held accountable.
My money is on BB staying for this reason. After he is reappointed market tanks again and FED prints more money to buy the rest of the garbage on the banks books saying look how well it worked last time.
Further, since he was integrally involved, BB will never question the legality of handing the largest lump sum tax payment in US history directly to the private banking sector, not to mention untold amounts of zero-interest loans the bankers can lend out to consumers at highly profitable spreads.
Jackson hole is obviously NOT where you will get your accurate views.
Ahh but Jackson Hole has some great views. Pretty country
..A surprising increase in sales of previously owned homes in July bolstered that view.
Are they looking through the wrong end?
Could a roughly 33% drop in prices and the resulting increase in home sales be the cause for whatever improvements they see?
Great point! Falling home prices are very stimulative, and provide liquidity to the housing market. Stand back and let those prices keep on falling, and the housing market will rescue itself with no need for government intervention to prop up the market
well… the idea that the reversal of the cause of the problem (unaffordable price level) is the solution to the problem ain’t exactly rocket science.
True. No probability theory or finance background is necessary to grasp this. However, the MSM would never, ever suggest it, so I am glad you stepped up to the plate
People with financial backgrounds will point at the hole in the bottom of the boat and debate what caused it. “First of all, define the problem.. is it the hole or the water? Who or what made the hole? Was the instrument used legally? How can we prevent this from happening again.”
They know so much and can conceive of so many possibilities.. While they never reach an agreement, it’s quite a treat to listen to them.
Meanwhile, the ignorant deck hand, thanks to his lacking such learned background, immediately grasps the problem, it’s consequences and it’s solution.
The ignorant deckhand is quite likely to get out of the boat and start swimming before the boat sinks.
By contrast, the learned inspectors will gape at the hole in the deck, measure its diameter, analyze its cause, estimate the velocity of the water flowing into the bottom of the boat, gauge the depth of the water, and so on, right up until the point when the boat sinks and takes them down with it.
Yes, but the banks will collapse. Is that what you want? What about my rainy day fund? Should I become a survivalist? And why don’t you get this point, professor?
“Yes, but the banks will collapse. Is that what you want?”"
I don’t want just any banks to collapse. I particularly want the banks which loaned copious amounts of money out to people who most obviously would never be able to repay it to collapse, and sounder banks to start up to replace them. And if the CEOs of banks that participated in crazy lending were tarred and feathered, then chased around by angry mobs weilding pitch forks, that would be all the better.
Looks like reality and credit problems finally hit builders here in Kansas City. The local builders think a youtube video to congress will help their cause.
Story
http://tinyurl.com/n4lv4x
More detail in the Video here:
http://tinyurl.com/l456gv
I hate builders. I really, really hate them. I mention this in case I’ve forgotten to tell you this before.
(from today’s Olympian)
‘Builders’ home tour opens this weekend’
http://www.theolympian.com/business/story/946233.html
This year there are 11 homes on the tour, down from 12 in 2008, and down from about 30 in 2007, OMB executive officer Laura Kimbrough said Thursday…. Kimbrough said the event gives prospective buyers a chance to meet the builders and remodelers firsthand. “They can look them in the eye and kick the tires, if you will,” she said.
Forget the tires, I’d prefer to look them in the eye and just kick the builders.
go girl! kick the s**t out of them
Okay, do my best.
And then come down to Texas and kick the s**t out of them here. I think a trophy chain mail vest constructed of large belt buckles would be very becoming on you.
I think a trophy chain mail vest constructed of large belt buckles would be very becoming on you.
Why, I was just wishing I had one of those. As long as it goes with my severe bun and finely made side-button boots.
“…just kick the builders.”
Snork, Oly. Good one!
At the end, the reporter states that KY lenders who made the youtube video want:
1. Lending policy relaxed so they can get loans to build.
2. Tax credits to buyers extended to ALL home purchases, not just first time purchases.
All so they can add more inventory to an already overloaded system.
WONDERFUL!
Another fire in the same part of Brooklyn! Seems like every month a development is burning within a dozen blocks of this one.
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2009/08/thursday_night.php
Not to be cold-hearted, but damn..
“Kennedy paid more than $1,700 to a California company that promised to help modify the loan.”
Duh. Not the sharpest tack in the box.
“She and her longtime companion stopped paying on their $840-a-month mortgage in February and their house has gone into foreclosure.”
Between the two of them they can’t get together $840 a month? Turn off the boob tube and get a second job both of you, or go back to the seedy $450 apartment you probably had before visions of get-rich-quick hit you.
“Now making $120 a week as a part-time supermarket cashier, Kennedy says she commiserates with her co-workers, some of whom are also facing foreclosure.”
Un-F-ing believable. Duh, duh & duh. Whats the “longtime companion” do? Collect aluminum can?
Tinfoil hat theory time:
1) Suppose the PTB like BB because he has been very, very good to Wall Street.
2) Suppose the PTB can help the stock market time its rallies.
Then wouldn’t it make perfectly good sense to time a rally for the very day that BB delivers his “crisis is over now, thanks to my efforts” speech?
Cause and effect are much harder to sort out than the MSM reporters typically suggest.
An audit of the Fed might provide useful data for testing the direction of causality.
Markets Brief
Bernanke, Housing Data Fuel Friday Rally
Steve Schaefer, 08.21.09, 12:10 PM EDT
Wall Street surges on positive July home sales data, calming words from the Fed chief.
08/21/2009 4:00PM ET
Investors were wary Friday morning ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on the state of the economy, but their nerves were soothed after a promising report from the National Association of Realtors.
The NAR report found that exisiting home sales jumped 7.2% in July. Prices continued to fall, down another 2% from June, but chief economist Lawrence Yun said the housing market has “decisively turned for the better.”
…
“Crisis is over? ”
“Thanks to my efforts.. !?!”
“BB” is Bernanke? Ben Bernanke?
You made that up. Admit it.
Of course he made it up, but it might very accurately summarize the essence of Bernanke’s speech.
Hey crazy kids from the hbb,
Hello from England. I am taking a little break from the states. Got here in mid-July and won’t be back until January. I’ve been peaking in every few days to see what you guys are up to. Always happy to find the usual crew hanging around.
Anyway - I’ll try to keep you guys posted on any news over here. Take care, everyone!
Well, good morning to you (I guess it’s still morning over there, just barely)…and thanks for posting the first message of 8/22.
Where’s the coffee? I need coffee….