Bits Bucket for January 17, 2011
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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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Name:Ben Jones
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The housing sales Crime Syndicate know as NAR apparently rolled out another lie campaign. This morning on WBBR I heard a new NAR ad pumping house debtor slavitude. The common thread of every single ad I’ve heard on WBBR? “Every market is different”. In other words, it’s ok to pay more because you’re buying here instead of there.
They’ve had that motto for years.
But what we’ve learned is that the market for housing finance is global, not local.
And every market had a different bubble (price explosion vs. overbuilding) and a different bust (price collapse vs. abandonment), but bubble and bust were the same.
Relax, and learn to love the NAR. The NAR is the taxpayer’s friend.
Somebody has to take out the garbage. The NAR is enticing folks to not only take out the garbage but to fork over good (and scarce) money for the privilege.
That would be all well and good, except that the vast majority are not cash buyers, and the vast majority of the loans are from the taxpayer.
‘the vast majority of the loans are from the taxpayer’
Yes, but who is responsible for that? Recently Wells Fargo came out with 30% down loans. This obviously reflects the risks involved. But if the govt loans you mention require 3% down, which do you suppose the consumer is going to pick?
And which house is going to sell for the unaffordable price: The one funded by a 3% down “affordability” loan, or the one funded by the 30% down prudential-underwriting-standards loan?
You can tell the bubble is still with us, because DC folks have yet to grasp the Econ-01 level cause-and-effect relationship between low downpayment loans and unaffordable principle balances, with attendant high risk of default and taxpayer-funded insurance claim payment on the federally guaranteed debt.
‘which house is going to sell for the unaffordable price’
At least in the short term. All that these schemes do is draw out the inevitable. And in the bizzaro world of govt intervention, departments that have affordable housing as a mission, serve to produce the exact opposite.
Take the GSEs; they were supposed to make housing affordable by ensuring private loans were available to everyone. Yet here we are, and Fannie/Freddie played a key role in the housing bubble, and private loans are almost non-existent.
The most astonishing part from my standpoint is that so many genius economists in DC apparently lack either the insight or the integrity to explain to our political leaders the folly of trying to use low-downpayment loans to supposedly make housing more affordable. Isn’t it plainly obvious at this point that the reason so many low-income families are currently in dire financial straights is a direct consequence of liberal Democratic politicians’ misguided attempt to use easy money loans to help ease the entry into the Ownership Society for those with neither the accumulated wealth nor the expected future earnings potential to support home ownership, enabling many low-income households to borrow themselves into financial ruin?
The cluelessness (or venality) of the political elite is a direct reflection of the cluelessness of the Republicrat-voting electorate. Let’s put the blame where the blame belongs.
What you all seem to miss is the underlying root problem.
US wages are not competative in the global market place. Therefore, trade deficits. Therefore, a need to have constantly rising debt. If there is a hole in the bottom of the cup from which liquid leaks, how do you keep the cup full? Have new liquid pouring into the cup as fast or faster than it is leaking out.
High house prices was not an unintended consequence of trying to help people afford houses. Helping people buy houses was a necessary step toward desired house price inflation, which allowed people to spend more than their income, to provide a means for generating new debt to replace the money that is flowing out of our economy via the massive trade deficits.
High house prices was the intent. The problem was, the fraud was too rampant and the debt slaves are refusing to play along.
“debt slaves are refusing to play along”
Plus they can’t even if they wanted to. Now you actually need to document income to get a mortgage. Imagine that. Suddenly that sinking median HH income does matter.
US wages are not competative in the global market place. Therefore, trade deficits. ”
I read German wages are not competative either. I think the economists figured the US could make things people would pay a high price for becuase of quality.
Helping people buy houses was a necessary step toward desired house price inflation,”
yea made alot of builders rich also like schools
medical care also ?
“If there is a hole in the bottom of the cup from which liquid leaks, how do you keep the cup full? Have new liquid pouring into the cup as fast or faster than it is leaking out.”
If it were up to me personally, I would begin by plugging up the hole before I started pouring in more liquid. But then I don’t live or work inside the Beltway, so perhaps I am just clueless about what kind of economic policy is most effective.
I hate to break the news to you guys, but there are people stopping dumb ideas (dumb as determined by basic economic or market information) all over DC. It isn’t always easy or possible, because there is this Constitution thingy and the legislative branch gets to make the rules, but there in room in the interpretation to avoid some real bozo applications of those ideas. I’ve done it at least once all on my own, and I’m working on a second one.
The first was easy. Some dudes wanted a subsidy for a particular activity because it was “good” and the subsidy would allow more of it to happen. A senior manager who knew about my background and respected me came over, presented the idea and asked me what I thought. It took about 3 seconds to reply that the activity was a primary activity of investment banks (they probably weren’t in this sector at the time), and while it wasn’t illegal, it sure as heck didn’t qualify for a subsidy. He walked away pleased and I never heard about it again. The whole interaction may have been less than a minute.
The second is harder as there may be some legislative history against my micro economic analysis of the situation, but I have certainly made my views known in internal discussions. A little while ago a citizen who was picking my brain on the phone (oddly enough we are allowed to do this) brought up the issue. I gave him an earful of the standard analysis (which he was very familiar with). Then I dropped my personal analysis on top of it, being sure to tell him it was MY view and not anyone else’s. He was stunned. Barely caught himself before he said it was nice to talk to an intelligent person in the government. Suggested it would make a good law review article. I agree about the article, but I would need a real economist to explain how damaging the contrary position would be (not that law review articles always bother to go that far). Anyway, I can hope that my little meme about how letting some people have a preference in this activity would be bad, will get out and about. That is all I can do for now.
So, stop with all the darn conspiracy theories already. Reality is hard enough. Yes, government preferences seem to have a life of their own. Some of us are out there building appropriate fences around them - because it is our job.
“stop with all the darn conspiracy theories already.”
What conspiracy theory? That the government has worked very hard to get the debt flowing? That the government worked hard to increase demand for houses to get prices rising, to increase the wealth effect, to get people to spend more, to give them room to borrow more against their house????
This isn’t conspiracy theory. This is stated policy!
Ben Bernanke says the WHOLE reason for WE2 is to inflate prices, encourage wealth effect spending, and to allow for more lending… for every loan there is a what? What? what? Right… a borrower. More lending means MORE DEBT.
Without total debt outstanding increasing at 3x the sustainable rate over the last 30 years, we would not have had the standard of living that we enjoyed.
Short-sighted? You bet. Unintended side effect? NOPE! Conspiracy theory? No f’n way. It was official stated policy of the Fed and federal government.
Hey Darrell:
I agree with you about stated policy vs conspiracy. It was a publicly stated conspiracy that none of us had any power to change.
Inywayz, I was thinking about the debt, and it crossed my mind that the last 30 years of debt actually might have been sustainable had we not decided to start offshoring our labor. If we had never started in with the dismantling of simple tariffs and certain tax measures, then our incomes would have continued to rise at a natural pace (rather than falling) over the last 30 years. Then we might not have felt like we needed to keep borrowing more and more just to cover the first bill.
Just a thought.
“High house prices was not an unintended consequence of trying to help people afford houses. Helping people buy houses was a necessary step toward desired house price inflation, which allowed people to spend more than their income, to provide a means for generating new debt to replace the money that is flowing out of our economy via the massive trade deficits.”
This is a conspiracy theory. There have certainly been a few attempts to stop the fall in house prices through loosening credit once the fall started, but to claim that the original run up was orchestrated by the government on purpose is absurd. The gradual (it eventually accelerated) decrease in underwriting standards was inevitable when the risk of the loan failing was separated from the people who originated the loans. Just people seeing the chance to make more money by getting a little less careful, ignoring a technical rule here and there. No pre-planning is needed. Occam’s razor applies.
Big V , I have often felt it was the combination of the off-
shoring of production and labor that put the pressure on to
create wealth that wasn’t there ,so the creation of the Housing Boom . The Housing Boom created a lot of false jobs because
the demand just wasn’t there for real jobs . They were building houses just for investors to flip . Some guy was on the TV who was a big developer of luxury condos in Florida who more or less admitted that .It was a false market so the money generated was false but it
spurred a whole hell of a lot of economic activity ,which just left unsustainable debt .
The creative loans were just a fraudulent way of getting a unqualified buyer into the Ponzi-scheme .
I have often felt had de-regulation of lending practices not occurred the money would of not been available because in large part it was based on these leverage schemes in the Secondary market . It was a way for Wall Street /Banks to make a lot of money while off-loading the risk . Risk got de-coupled from loans and prices were simply fake ,just based on a principal of “real estate always goes up .”
Also had the favorable Capital gains tax exclusion not occurred it would of discouraged this two year investment
hype sold that every 2 years you can get tax free appreciation gains by being a flipper and not a long term end user of a property . This is a perfect example of how a
tax policy can encourage speculation or bubbles . The intent of the original tax exclusion was that a person had a one time opportunity to not pay as much capital gains on real estate when they were buying down ,usually only taken at a older age in life . So ,real estate appreciation gains even became more attractive by this tax structure change in
I guess it was 1999. So ,the value of real estate appreciation
money went up in other words and no doubt this factor increased prices in a artificial manner . Low interest rates and toxic loans on top of everything else .
It was entirely irresponsible to disconnect real estate loans
from qualifying for those loans and normal down payment
requirements ,or even having insurance on low down loans ,
or even the concept of a liar loan ,the person just states their income without verification . Look ,I come from the old school on how they use to weight risk and the foreclosure rates were really low because of this . You could have the normal risk of someone losing a job ,or a medical problem ,or a divorce ,or a entire town losing jobs ,but this was normal risk and down payments offset that risk . In fact lenders use to make you put down more if you were in a high
risk job or you hadn’t been on the job long enough .
If anything off-shoring and foreign manufacturing should of
created a situation in which loans were more risky in 2000
onward ,but this is the disconnect that comes about with
faulty lending …a Ponzi scheme . But you go back to the money-changers just mis-rating risk and dumping it off their books ,which resulted in money changers not even bothering to underwriting loans and the fraud skyrocketed . Look at Mozillo having a 80% foreclosure rate on some on that junk he endorsed in those final days when he was trying to pump up the Company stock and take the money and run . A foreclosures rate like that is just unheard of and a lot of those loans were big loans made in California . This goes way beyond just a concept of they didn’t see it coming ,they created the Ponzi -scheme conditions by a entire breach of
duty . Why did we even need the money-changers if they sole function was to just pass high risk junk loans to the Secondary market . Why did they even get the ill-gotten gain
of their commissions if they weren’t preventing fraud or underwriting loans ? What was their function …it certainly
wasn’t the normal long term job and function of a lender for decades in this Country .Underwriters would get fired if they
had to much loss in the old days .
Its just unacceptable plain and simple . Had the buyers rejected this absurd Ponzi-scheme it would of died a earlier death .but non-stop brainwashing and greed convinced people to suspend judgement and even commit fraud themselves . Course a lot of people felt if the bank approved them it must be ok .We have all kind of tale of the loan agents just making the packages look good and look like they conformed to requirements and getting the borrowers to just sign it . How many borrowers said , “No thats not the income I make ” why is that on my loan application ?” Maybe some borrowers never even saw was was being submitted because the loan agents were rewarded hugely for packaging
fraud and passing it down the line ,or pushing unsustainable loans or toxic loans and promising the borrower if they have any problem they could re-finance . So many were on the 2 year flipper program anyway so what did they care if they went on a toxic teaser rate loan ,it was the best way to leverage ,and this is why people weren’t demanding fixed long term loans in a low rate market .
How anybody could say that this wasn’t a Ponzi-scheme of epic size is either a worker in the industry who gained by the ill-gotten gains or they are in la la land .
Helping people get into homes has always been the function of
that business . The border line borrowers was always helped and often times the first purchase was always attempted with a extra charges like PMI insurance for that extra risk . When the loan market simply became a Ponzi-scheme for the Wall Street
loan peddlers all rules went out the window . This was the cause of the fake inflated prices ,its usually called fraud ,but now they call it “I didn’t see it coming “.
That’s complete bullshit, Polly. There is no way you can tell me that the regualtors (government oversight whose only frigging JOB was to mointor lending standards) allowing No-doc loans and banks to leverage 30x bets on the appreciation of the loans was anything but an orchestrated scam. The level of collusion which took place and the amounts of money pocketed by those involved was nothing short of record-breaking outright staggering. Conspriacy theory, my ASS!
In addition , if it was just policy,rather than a conspiracy to not interfere with the Wall Street Money Changer crime bosses who are Governing Bodies bosses ,than we wouldn’t of had all check and balance system’s become inoperative and
bail outs to obstruct justice . Not to say that Politicians that were supportive of the Wall Street Money Changer Crime
Bosses knew the extent of their fraud and Ponzi scheme and
leverage games . A lot of that unregulated action was not transparent . Those guys knew they needed major bail-outs
from the government or they were going to be exposed .
It would be like Madoff saying to the Government ,”I have a little problem here ,could you help me out .” When Mozillo got caught holding the bag on not being able to off-load billions in junk/fraudulent loans he was the first person
screaming “The Government has to do something .” And there was his friend Senator Dodds right there talking bail-out talk from day one . This is the conspiracy ,to bail out culprits when standing law should of taken care of their hide
The Feds were giving short terms loans to those insolvent creep leading up to the BAIL Outs so they could last until the bail-outs .
Why have regulators if they close their eyes to activity and just have a policy of hands off . Why have cops if they don’t arrest the criminals ? Why have a government body if they refuse to mess with large scale financial Ponzi - schemes ?
Why have unregulated financial instruments that can mingle with regulated financial instruments there-by making all
financial activity lacking in transparency . The rating agencies wouldn’t even look at the bundles they were rating ,and it became standard practice to just go on whatever Wall Street peddlers told them the risk was .
De-regulation was a perfect set up for a bunch of criminal financial money changers to play their casino games and create Ponzi schemes .
Most of the conspiracy was the Government going along with
obstructing justice and bailing out these criminals and not exposing their malice and fraud and Ponzi-scheme . It took a little doing getting Hank Paulson in there doing the dirty work . It doesn’t surprise you that a GS Guy all of a sudden
retires and becomes the Treasury Sec ,and he get 700 billion
based on a three page proposal with words like “I need a big Gun ” .Couldn’t of been a more conflict of interest party put in that spot exactly at the right time ….Hank Paulson . Is it any wonder that AIG got bail out and GS got 100% on the dollar on bogus credit default swaps that amounted to about
close to 20 billion actually .
The policy of not messing with the money changers and they can self-regulated was the first mistake ,but the conspiracy
of bailing out these criminals is where the conspiracy takes hold and what ever followed that obstructed justice involving these thugs that are still the biggest lobby group of the Government Politicians .
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it” - Upton Sinclair
“allowing No-doc loans and banks to leverage 30x bets on the appreciation of the loans was anything but an orchestrated scam”
You make it sound like all the information was in the same place at the same time. It wasn’t. The SEC does disclosure standards on bonds. The entirely private ratings agencies rate those bonds. There are a gazillion different bank regulators and I don’t know that any of them had jurisdiction over the investment banks until they converted to bank holding companies. The part of AIG that did the CDSs wasn’t the part that was an insurance company (and insurance companies are regulated mostly by the states). The disclosure about their business exposure is again at the SEC for public companies (not private partnerships) but they only get numbers that are subject to standard accounting and that excludes all the SIVs and crud. It is much easier to think that this happened though greed. A few people in private business may have figured out what they were headed for before things were getting bad. As a matter of fact that is how Goldman got out of the huge hole they dug for themselves.
But the idea that this whole thing was orchestrated by government regulators? Created on purpose from the beginning? No way. No fracking way.
IMHO ,just leaving the Big Investment Entities to just self-regulate was the mind set and don’t mess with their operations
was more of the mind-set of the Government . Congress had regulators complaining , they had a group of appraisers complain about the appraisals and they were ignored .
Why would the Government suspect that the rating agencies were bogus and that all these transactions that were’t transparent were just one big piece of a overall Ponzi-scheme .
It’s more like people in high places just choose to ignore the limited amount of whistle-blowers that came forth .
Senator Dodds had a favorable loan from Mozillo ,so why would he attack a guy like that . This is what happens when governing bodies get to close to lobbyist .
I think its more like the government didn’t see it coming rather than the loan peddlers didn’t see it coming .
I think about the fact that the loan peddlers Ponzi-scheme took the heat off our Politicians and the real problems that faced
America . As long as everything appeared to be rosy and low unemployment and all that jazz than isn’t everything great ?
I really really question how competent many member of the
Senate/House of Resp. are on top of everything else . They have admitted they don’t even read bills half the time .
Also Professor William Black in essence said a lot of FBI (financial crimes divisions )
were diverted to homeland security ,so they actually didn’t have enough cops on the blocks for financial crimes at the time .
The SEC. was a joke . You had blank regulators who weren’t the regulators of SEC securities ,yet these two worlds were com-mingling with each other .
This was another reason why Glass-Steagal was so important in that it separated the different financial activities ,which makes it so much easier to enforce .
After the 1929 Stock Market crash they figured out what went wrong and part of it was allowing Investment Entities
to also be lenders to make it simple . It’s a conflict of interest position .
After the revoking of some pretty major long term regulations like Glass-Steagal it didn’t take long for that conflict of interest to create a major Ponzi-scheme of epic
size .
All factors colluded at the same time ,otherwise this absurd
housing bubble would not of gained traction .
“Every market is different”.
That`s true. Some are bad and some are scorched earth.
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What ever happened to this useless “economist”? I remember making many rude comments about what a useless moron he was, but what has become of him??
I can only assume since he is about a dumb as Christina Rohmer that he got a job with a University or is working for the Obama administration providing cost information for healthcare.
Would MLK be happy with how America turned out? Or with rap hip hop music?
I don’t know, but the Pentagon says he would have approve of the current wars:
‘If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, would he understand why the United States is at war?. Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department’s general counsel, posed that question at today’s Pentagon commemoration of King’s legacy…In the final year of his life, King became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Johnson told a packed auditorium. However, he added, today’s wars are not out of line with the iconic Nobel Peace Prize winner’s teachings.’
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=62448
That press release was repulsive and laughable. That’s like saying Teddy Roosevelt would approve of Microsoft, the banking cartel, etc.
Or that Grover Cleveland would be in favor of the growth of government starting with FDR.
SS is a reality Bill and will long after you’re gone. Deal with it.
Sociopaths can justify anything.
…while blaming the victim at the same time.
The Ministry of Truth at its best.
Yeah right …and the Pentagon and our PR people ALSO SAID that me and my nice little friends were in Nam to “Win Hearts and Minds, build “churches”, erect orphanages and open roads to market for the poor oppressed pheasants all while protecting US Air Bases, Property and Interests.
“Yeah ma, sorry that I haven’t written lately but I have been real busy building “churches”… Love mikey.
Ever notice how the most avid supporters of US troops and war are adamant Christians?
“Ever notice how the most avid supporters of US troops and war are adamant Christians?”
I guess I’m the (one and only?) exception.
Maybe you’re not as adamant as you think. Do you go around advertising?
“Ever notice how the most avid supporters of US troops and war are adamant Christians?”
The freaks you’re talking about interchange the words conservative, Christian and evangelical. It’s quite sad how the conservative extremist fundamentalists highjacked a religion just like the conservative extremist fundamentalist muslims.
“Ever notice how the most avid supporters of US troops and war are adamant Christians?”
Beg to disagree. One of my childhood neighbors was a staunch supporter of the Viet Nam War. As were his two older brothers, who both fought in that war.
The two older brothers came home with PTSD that was never dealt with. My former neighbor has buried both of them. He’s now an antiwar activist. And a deacon in his church.
Funny how most people believing in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism had very little use for US religion and white square buildings with a cross on top.
Guess the Pentagon, US Intelligence Psy Op Boyz and the Special Forces Green Weenies misjudged that one too.
Ya can’t win them all.
Well both the commander-in-chief and MLK won Nobel Peace prizes…so both of them must be right.
Yeah, I know what dead ppl think too. I ain’t crazy, though. HA!
“Would MLK be happy with how America turned out?”
Dunno, but he’d need a hard-on to hold his baggy pants up.
I think MLK would have frowned upon baggy pants and Rap music. MLK was dignified and well spoken. I am white, and I truly admire him as a great American role model.
Dignified enough to plagiarize his doctorate thesis.
Wolf
Interesting post. I have not heard your additional information or allegations floating around .I do know from reading “Parting The Waters”, an excellent book on the Civil Rights Movement, he screwed around on his wife (according to the author).
I just really respected his call for no violence and his stance on education. He had some great messages and was inspiring.
Now why would you toss out a lie to discredit MLK on a day that we honor his self-sacrifice, vision and work?
It’s not a lie. Nobody disputes this (except apparently, you) He copied vast amounts of his dissertation from a student named Jack Boozer. The only controversy about it is what Boston U. decided to do about it, once the plagiarizism was discovered. It’s a fascinating story that I would urge you look into rather than accusing me of tossing out a “lie.”
“…I truly admire him as a great American role model.”
I admire his courage to press on against all odds; never quit.
I to am blown away by MLK and some of the other Leaders of those times .
One of my favorite lines by MLK was the line that went something like …..
“You tell us to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps ,but
we have no boots .”
“Would MLK be happy with how America turned out?”
I think MLK would be upset with the state of fatherhood in the black communities and he’d secretly listen to Jay-Z and Public Enemy.
Did Bill Cosby channel MLK?
I think he would be gratified that there has been progress. We no longer have presidential candidates running on segregationist platforms and the worst of the Jim Crow laws are history. We have blacks at all levels of government.
I think he would recognize that we still have a ways to go. Racism is not dead. It is less visible, less acceptable, and less common. But there are still racists being bred. As a person of very pale color
, I realize that I will not see most racism.
If he were alive, I think he would be working for the benefit of poor folks of all colors. ISTM that he was starting to move in that direction when he was killed.
I think my realtor’s giving up on me. He won’t return my calls or emails — kinda weird since we currently work at the same school. Lol!
Perhaps he is sensing that I may never buy a house.
Another sign of the slow return to normalcy: Realtors have day jobs.
“I think my realtor’s giving up on me.”
Good thing they’re a dime a dozen.
Realtors have day jobs ??
Think about that for a moment….People that are licensed to assist other people to commit to the biggest obligation of their lives and they are part timers….Doing it on the side….
IMO, therein is the major problem in the RE industry…Ease of entrance…Someday, I believe, Corporate America will be able to breakthrough the roadblock that NAR has successfully maintained in DC by not allowing banks or other corporate institutions to sell real estate thereby offering competent interface in the real estate transaction at a much lower cost…
Actually, SC, many realtors are looking for real jobs now because they make a small fraction of what they did during the boom. In my office quite a few disappeared. The ones who stayed were the best salespeople. Of couse, a good salesperson is not who you want helping you to buy a house, but they are exactly the person you want to sell your house!
I’m still doing it on the side, but I have very few clients and only one is planning to buy now. We’ve been looking for a year.
Lots of deep price reductions in the new year. A very good thing. We’ll make an offer today on a bank-owned house that has undergone 40% price reductions since being listed in the fall.
REhobbyist
Great update, thank you.
In my area of So Ca, I am seeing a fixer listed in my desired neighborhood with a price reduction of $10K after one week on the market. Evidently, they bought the listing, because a house down the street is $125K less, and it’s a fair comp. The one down the street ($125k less one) is still unsold after a reduction too. Nice size lots for So Ca, and a very stable neighborhood. Most homeowners have been there 30+ years. Now, that’s my style!
Us smart buyers are doing our due diligence and not willing to buy just to buy. We’re paying cash. How many cash buyers for primary (not flippers) are you seeing in your area?
Not many. My buyers are cash, but I look at recent sales and am disgusted by the number of 3% down FHA loans. Jeesh.
“IMO, therein is the major problem in the RE industry…Ease of entrance”
It’s a lot easier to get a license to sell used houses than a license to cut someone’s hair.
In Colorado-
You nailed the sad truth.
“banks and corporate institutions to be the competent interface”!!! you mean like Enron, Goldman Sachs, Fannie, Freddie, Countrywide, Washington Mutual. You want THEM to be your Realtor! You just jumped out of the Kettle and into the Fire.
Actually ,if the price is low enough ,these 3% down low interest fixed loans that are backed by the government are good for borrowers ,no doubt about that . The private market would be charging a whole lot more and requiring a whole lot more down .
On some of these foreclosures the Government is paying for the closing costs ,throwing in new appliances and all kinds of stuff
to encourage sales . In some of these areas the numbers are way lower than rent .
But to overcome job insecurity and to overcome the possible additional drops in price is the Elephant in the room ,for people who require a loan to purchase . I also think that the supply of buyers were exhausted during the housing boom and took future demand away . Probably a lot of buyers are investors and people who are not qualified ,even at these lower prices . The people who were foreclosed on have a wait before they can purchase again ,if they even want to . How many buyers are you going to have for locations that don’t have a employment base that supports it ? Its cheaper for the lender in a lot of cases to just turn the place back to the Government to sell
for the tax lien . Look at the large-scale liability these creeps
put on the Government by these lenders actually dumping the
house on the Government who has to get rid of it for tax lien
owing . Against lenders and Corporate America dump anything they can back on the Government as if taxpayers where there
to be their punching bag . This is what happens when you have
a small percentage of the people controlling the Politicians .
You want THEM to be your Realtor! You just jumped out of the Kettle and into the Fire ??
Ewww…I touched a little root canal nerve there did I realtorbill ?? Don’t like the idea of a little competition now do you…If they would be as inferior or unethical as your surmise, then you do not have anything to worry about now do you…
“CAIRO/ALGIERS (Reuters) – The self-immolation that set off the protest wave which toppled Tunisia’s leader has led to apparent copycat protests in other north African states, with four men setting themselves on fire in Algeria and one each in Egypt and Mauritania.
In Cairo, a man set himself ablaze on Monday near parliament in a protest against poor living conditions.”
I’d follow suit if accelerant wasn’t so damn expensive in the Northeast. Filled my oil tank today, $476.00 for 150 gallons of heating oil.
“$476.00 for 150 gallons of heating oil.”
Wait until it’s $5/gallon. Sweaters are going to be the next “in” thing.
1940 it cost my father $2.50 to fill up the 50 gallon distillate tank for our space heater. $2.50 was 10 hours labor!
150 gallons at $473, divided by 3, for the difference in gallonage, is $158 dollars, divided by 10 hours labor comes out to $15.80 an hour for labor costs.
Minimum wage in 1940 was 25 cents, present minimum wage in about $7 so minimum wage is up about 30 times, more or less, so $15.80 divided by 30 is about 51 cents.
\
All in all, it looks like the cost of oil has gone up by a factor of 2, and oil is now only twice as expensive as it was in 1940 according to wages.
Strange , isn’t it?
How long does 150 gallons last you during the winter in the northeast?
I burn about 1200gals/yr. Obviously most of it in the winter but I have a hot water coil in the boiler for domestic water so it fires year round.
Holy heck. I only buy about 500 gallons of gas for my full-size pickup truck per year, and it’s my primary ride.
10 gallons a week? You must not drive very far. I know folks who go through 40 gallons a week.
I’m retired so I don’t commute. My F-150 has the smaller 4.6l SOHC V8 and gets 17-19 mpg. I drive around 8K miles a year. People who get 10 mpg out of their trucks must really have giant rigs. My 17-19 mpg compares favorably to many modern “sports sedans” - ever check the economy on a BMW 5 or 6 series lately?
I drive the Miata as much as I can but it’s no good on Idaho’s gravel roads. It gets more like 30-34 mpg and I drive it maybe 5K miles a year.
I burn about 1200gals/yr. ??
Wow !! I would have never thought it would be that much…Isn’t burning wood a alternative ?
Holy carbon-sasquatch, Batman
I had Mrs. Exeter tally the deliveries June09-May10……. 958gals. Sorry bout that.
Why don’t the utilities use natural gas in the east?
The gas lines only go out so far from the more densely populated areas. But the cities and close in burbs are all natural gas.
Oil never made sense to me. Don’t they use natural gas for cookiing in the Eastern part?
“I burn about 1200gals/yr.”
So about $3600 per year. My nat gas bill is about $700 per year.
Calculate it in BTU’s and you’ll understand.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to set somebody else on fire, though? I mean, the ppl who cause these terrible living conditions are the rich/powerful/etc, right? They don’t care if a dude sets himself on fire. They’re selfish, that’s why they’re doing this.
To badly paraphrase Patton: “The way to win over your philosophy is not to die for it, but to get the other dumb son of a bitch to die for his.”
Here is more evidence that the Banksters and Fraudsters are complicit with the Fed and the govt. to continue robbing everyone blind through housing. They desperately want to keep the cash cow alive.
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer
What is the difference between a Realtor and a Crack Whore?
A: One is a perpetually dishonest, money-grubbing, delusional, untrustworthy, thief who would do or say anything to get the next “score”. The other is a drug-addict.
One of them works hard for a living; the other one tries to trick clients into buying homes they shouldn’t.
You’ll be happy to learn that the surviving realtors I know are working really hard. My RE agent neighbor does 8 hours worth of open houses every weekend, and drives buyers all over the place looking for bargains. My office puts in about 12 offers per client before the deal goes through. She is depressed, but hanging in there. She has to work long hours to pay her $1295/month mortgage. I think it will make her a better person.
Maybe she’ll start refusing to list overpriced houses for greedheads. That should cut down her workload and stop wasting everybody’s time.
Absolutely a true statement, Sammy. Instead of “buying” the listing, I wish UHS would get a clue. The buyer decides the price, and if it’s way beyond reason, we will not even look at it. Time is money. The longer it sits overpriced, the longer it will follow the market down.
“Maybe she’ll start refusing to list overpriced houses for greedheads.”
BULLSEYE!
Rehobbyist, in case you haven’t observed us discussing it, the latest trend established by RealtorScum is to boost already inflated prices. Inflated prices caused this debacle.
But prices are coming down in my neck of the woods. Overpriced houses just sit there, and the smarter agents are finally overcoming their denial and getting with the program. The dumb ones are chasing the market down. And the smartest agents (I count myself as one) are lowballing.
I just found out my Realtor is a crack-whore. I’m thinking I shouldn’t be signing anymore purchase contracts……………….
It would prolly be cheaper to pay him/her in crack than to pay the commissions they are still demanding.
exteter , This u-tube just goes to the heart of more bail-outs that
the public isn’t aware of .
Someone mentioned to me today that we the Taxpayer own 92% pf AIG
and the Government is going to sell the stock in it .
If I remember correctly we just gave AIG a big fat loan close to 200 billion with Tarp money that they were suppose to pay off with interest .
Now its changed to the taxpayers own a 92% stake in AIG and they are selling the shares . All I got to say is how in the hell was GS and others
going to get paid if a insolvent Insurance Company couldn’t pay on their credit default swaps .Kinda like a sub-prime borrower not paying on a loan they couldn’t afford .
I have read that AIG had 400 billion in CDS that they insured ( of course without the reserves to make those bets ) .
This is a perfect example of the unregulated world of Wall Street
whereby a insurance Company could make bets like this without
the necessary reserves .Would you want insurance from a car company that insured 5 million in potential claims if they only had a dollar ?
Its just maddening to me what they did to bail out these entities and
the casinos are still alive . Your tax dollars at work .
How can anyone possibly say that a looting isn’t taking place with
the Government going along with it .
It`s funny that the people who are being allowed to short sell second or third houses (as is the case with my last LL below) that they are not screaming about broken chains of title or robo signers while they are being allowed to walk away from their debt. While people living in their houses for years and not paying a dime cry about the rule of law. The couple below owed $300k+ collected rent for almost 3 years without paying the mortgage and the house sold at $150k.
Document Detail
Type: SAT
Date/Time: 4/22/2010 14:25:11
CFN: 20100149875
Book Type: O
Book/Page: 23809/1294
Pages: 1
Consideration: $0.00
Party 1: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NA
WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK
WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK FA
Party 2: SARRO JAMES
SARRO NANCY
Legal: JUPITER LNDG L119 L
The $40k home equity loan in 2005 and the neg-am mortgage don`t show up here.
Mar-2010 23759/0443 $150,000 WARRANTY DEED MARRIOTT BRENT L &
Jul-2004 17304/0702 $260,000 WARRANTY DEED
SARRO JAMES &
Aug-1995 08860/1671 $121,000 WARRANTY DEED
China’s Hu Jintao: Currency system is ‘product of past’
BBC
Chinese President Hu Jintao has said the international currency system dominated by the US dollar is a “product of the past”.
Mr Hu also said China was taking steps to replace it with the yuan, its own currency, but acknowledged that would be a “fairly long process”.
Beijing has previously come under pressure over its currency from the US, which has accused China of manipulating the yuan to help boost Chinese exports.
On Sunday night, three Democratic senators announced they would introduce a new bill to increase penalties the US considers to be “currency manipulators”.
However, the move is unlikely to receive support from senior Republicans - who recently took control of the House of Representatives.
The new House speaker, John Boehner, voted against another bill that failed last year that would have helped US companies challenge currency subsidies.
Zimbabe Ben’s injets make the US the biggest “currency manipulator” (and counterfeiter) of all.
No one knows what China’s inflation really is, but the are giving 20% raises to the worker bees.
The US does not have the monopoly on currency manipulating.
20% raises can compound rather quickly, especially if they happen more than once per year.
The lowest salary in Beijing will be raised by almost 20 percent – from the current 960 yuan ($142.75) per month to 1,160 yuan – the biggest increase ever, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human…We adjust social security policies on July 1 every year,” Wang said. “But this year they are coming much earlier, at the very start of the new year. Because food prices have risen a lot, the government hopes the new policies will benefit the people who need help as soon as possible.”- China Daily
http://cnbusinessnews.com/minimum-wages-to-increase-by-20-in-beijing/
Low demand for housing ……
(1) Job insecurity ……
(2)Wage cutting practices ,and benefit cutting by Corporations ,while health costs are rising .
(3)Talk of slashing pensions ,or BK’s of pensions creating a lack of buying mood .
(4) Talk of slashing Social Security creating insecurity toward
long term commitments such as loans .
(5) A fear of inflation by people who are concerned about
ability to make long term commitments .
(6) Insecurity about health care for the masses especially
since health care costs more than rent . Can’t afford a health under those conditions .
(7) Moral hazard from the fact that the government and the real estate industry and the experts were wrong about real estate declines ,so who cares what they are saying now .
(8) Insecurity over taxes rising ,making any long term purchases unsustainable in the future .
(9) Fear of Government passing kooky laws that would make a long term purchase unsustainable ,or inability to rely
on laws or the enforcement of laws by the governments .
(10) Bail-out Government policy creating the moral hazard
of people believing that what they work will be taken and given to undeserving parties .
(11) Moral hazard of Banks being bailed out ,so people have
insecurity about who will be next at my expense .
(12) Lack of enforcement of laws ,and reduction in services
and possible property tax and insurance cost increases creating insecurity in real estate ownership . HOA fees going up to pay for deadbeats ,another example of increase cost
insecurity .
All of the above points to a over-correction of real estate prices ,if anything .
Oh yeah? So what’s Hu gonna do? Stop buying dollars?
There is no joy in Hu-ville.
Well, no one can say he didn’t warn us.
If anyone thinks the greenback is going to remain the world’s reserve currency in perpetuity, think again.
Please excuse me while I look beyond the hood ornament.
There are forces at work planning the next fiat scam. Human nature being what it is, the new scam won’t be presented until people are running for the exits from the current scam. Sheeple will gladly and willingly sign on with the new game. Hell, Cramer will probably have a prime time special extolling it’s virtues.
Tin foil?
Wait & see.
Yeah, you know the world prefers artificially devalued currencies. If the US dollar is a risk, then the Chinese yuan is a riskER.
One of Britain’s bailed-out bankers is set to receive a $3 million bonus as part of an $11b pool of bonuses which will be paid out to bankers in the city of London over the next month.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to defend the payout to outgoing Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Eric Daniels as he fronted the first parliamentary Question Time of 2011.
Mr Cameron promised the Government was committed to reining in bankers’ pay.
“What we all want to see is the banks paying more in tax, and we will see that,” he said.
“We want to see the banks doing more lending, and we will see that. We want to see bonuses cut, and we will see that.”
Mr Daniels has been largely held responsible for steep losses at the bank.
He is expected to accept a $3 million bonus plus about the same again in a long-term incentive plan.
Lloyds is 41 per cent owned by the UK Government.
Why not offer jail time instead, un-flucking believable…
Hallmark of bubble-era banking practice: Once successfully stolen through an inside job, the money is yours to keep.
“Mr Daniels has been largely held responsible for steep losses at the bank”
Top-talent like this Daniels might go elsewhere if the bonus is not paid. Wasn’t that the rationalization back in the AIG bonus days?
It’s hard to find talent like that. And gee whiz, think of all the great new businesses that were financed by the banking ingenuity of these folks this past couple of years.
They’ve managed to push up commodity prices, food prices, stocks and luxury items, while providing absolutely no benefit whatsoever to their local economies. Not everyone could do it, you know.
South Africans accept Wal-Mart bid, giving giant retailer foothold in Africa.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African chain’s shareholders have overwhelmingly accepted Wal-Mart’s offer to buy 51 percent of their company, the chief executive said Monday, paving the way for the giant U.S.-based retailer to enter Africa.
Massmart said the proposal was approved by 97 percent of shareholders who voted Monday — 75 percent had been needed. Wal-Mart offered 148 rand (about $20) per share in a 17 billion rand (about $2 billion) deal.
The deal will have to be approved by South Africa’s anti-monopoly regulators.
I like that name: Massmart. It has a certain truth in advertising ring to it.
Drop the ‘m’ and it’s just like the ones in the US.
wallart? whut?
m*assmart??? ohhhhhh!!!
Cause yer asce will smart if you used to run a local business in a WalMart area?
One more big monopoly going into a area that will screw up the competition .Monopoly power at it’s best .
Another “TruePurity™” Gov’t has to dodge, duck & weave from a JulianLeaks truth-shrapnel grenade launcher.
Swiss whistleblower hands bank data to WikiLeak:
* Ex-banker hands over data on offshore accounts to Assange
* WikiLeaks to vet data before publication
Rudolf Elmer once headed the office of Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands until he was fired by the bank in 2002. He is scheduled to go on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaching bank secrecy.
Elmer, who worked in the Cayman Islands for eight years, said: “I know how the system works… It’s damaging… (I want) to educate our society.”
By Mark Hosenball and Olesya Dmitracova / Reuters News
“(I want) to educate our society”
Of course, that is why you waited until you were going on trial for stealing this information to release this somewhat past best-by date data. Just a servant of conscience no doubt.
An honest man does not blackmail. So, what do you do with “information” from a dishonest man?
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad. ~Aldous Huxley
I for one am looking forward to the new information.
Me too, I just suspect some discrediting possible.
Another report on this story claimed the Swiss Banker attempted to take his info to authorities in several different countries but there was no interest. He considered going to WikiLeaks as a last resort (or so the story goes).
Who cares? That’s one of the reasons you’re supposed to keep your nose clean. Cuz otherwise, your enemies will surely out you.
If your enemies are big enough, they will bloody your nose.
Truth be damned.
Camco could eliminate 300 jobs
CAMDEN (NJ) — Camden County employees are facing furloughs and sweeping layoffs under plans announced by the county on Friday.
Civilian employees will be furloughed 22 days this year under a plan submitted to the state Friday. In addition, county Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said the county plans to later submit a layoff plan that could cut as many as 300 employees if concessions, including voluntary furlough days for public safety employees, aren’t accepted.
“It’s a work in progress. We’re putting everything on the table,” Cappelli said. “We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.”
Both the furlough plan, which affects some 600 employees, and any future layoff plan would have to be approved by the state Civil Service Commission before they can be put in place.
“It’s ours, let go!”
“No!, it’s ours, you let go!”
“It is not!”
“It is so!”
“Oh, Governor Mitch, they won’t let go of it!”
“Well, now..let’s just see about that….”
Indiana Family Feud, makes Illinois smile…
Indiana lawmakers move against local budget hoarding:
By Eric Johnson /INDIANAPOLIS | Sun Jan 16, 2011 / Reuters News
It is far better to accumulate money than it is to spend it, said Jeff Espich, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, but he intends to change the tax laws this year to incorporate increased flexibility.
“The townships put in place the maximum tax the law permits. Then they get this money and save it. We need to change the law so the townships don’t have to levy at the rate of inflation and it’s not tax it or lose it,” Espich told Reuters.
The cash is evidence of too heavy taxation and the townships could redistribute the cash in the form of lower taxes or charitable contributions, critics say, but some politicians believe the better alternative is to enact more flexible policy.
Espich said he would favor decreasing taxes but not using the funds for charitable giving.
“We are being eaten alive as a state from charitable or welfare spending. We need to keep taxes low for Hoosier families and let them decide on their own how to spend it,” Espich said.’
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said he favors merging the funds at the county level and removing townships altogether.
This is why governments don’t have enough cash on hand to weather 500-year floods like the current Great Recession.
If they are wise enough to save, someone will accuse them of taxing too much or try to get ahold of it for their own purposes.
Homeowners see values drop, dues rise as owner of remaining units faces foreclosure. - Charleston, S.C. January 17, 2011
Clusters of empty, foreclosed condominiums at a modest Dorchester Road complex sit as evidence of the strained housing market.
Nearly half of the homes at Regency Square Condominiums in North Charleston, a 110-unit complex near Charleston Air Force Base, are winding through the lengthy legal foreclosure process after the owner who converted them from apartments couldn’t find buyers.
Meanwhile, remaining homeowners who already have seen their own property values drop have had to pay twice as much in monthly dues to keep simple property tasks in line.
The Regency Square complex in North Charleston was converted from apartments to condos, but buyers could not be found for many of the units.
“That’s been a hardship for a number of homeowners,” said property association vice president Steve Ziker, who said monthly dues jumped from about $100 to $215. “We haven’t gotten payments from the owner for close to a year.”
The troubles at Regency Square underscore the uncertainties and unexpected financial burdens that can surface when a residential property with multiple ownership interests falls into foreclosure.
The property’s owner, B&B Flynn Corp., bought the two-story, brick apartment complex in 2003 with plans to split up the units to sell to individual homeowners.
The first units — all one-bedroom condos with 690 square feet of space — were marketed for $69,900 without upgrades. At the time, the group that marketed the property estimated it would sell out in less than six months, according to an article on the conversion.
But several months later, asking prices were cut to the $50,000 range. And county property records show that a crippled housing market gradually took its toll: one unit sold last October to an Ohio couple for $32,000.
“This situation, like many I deal with every day, can be summed up in three words: real estate meltdown,” said Russell DeMott, B&B Flynn’s attorney, in an e-mail. “Once the value of the units collapsed, they could no longer be sold.”
“Once the value of the units collapsed, they could no longer be sold.”
Once the Ponzi scheme collapsed and there was no longer a fool willing to over pay or a no money down no doc loan to be had, they could no longer be sold. The value of the units never changed.
Granitized apartments ain’t all that any more…
Meanwhile, remaining homeowners who already have seen their own property values drop have had to pay twice as much in monthly dues to keep simple property tasks in line.”
This is going to happen on a State level soon. People who still have jobs will have to pay twice as much just to keep state service tasks in line.
See Illinios.
“The Regency Square complex in North Charleston was converted from apartments to condos, but buyers could not be found for many of the units.”
During the boom, I saw apartments converted to condos here and some of the tenants, who were in no position to buy, moved in with family. So many were converted that there was a dearth of apartments. I never understood that. Where did they expect all of the buyers to come from?
U.S. bills states $1.3 billion in interest on jobless-pay loans
Some may turn to tax hikes while scrambling to get out from under debt
The New York Times
As if states did not have enough on their plates getting their shaky finances in order, a new bill is coming due — from the federal government, which will charge them $1.3 billion in interest this fall on the billions they have borrowed from Washington to pay unemployment benefits during the downturn.
The interest cost, which has been looming in plain sight without attracting much attention, represents only a sliver of the huge deficits most states will have to grapple with this year. But it comes as states are already cutting services, laying off employees and raising taxes. And it heralds a larger reckoning that many states will have to face before long: what to do about the $41 billion they have borrowed from the federal government to help them pay benefits to millions of unemployed people, a debt that federal officials say could rise to $80 billion.
The states, when they borrowed the money, hoped that the economy would have turned around by the time the first interest payments came due, or that future Congresses might loosen the terms. But the economy did not turn around in time and the new Congress, dominated by Republicans determined to shrink the size of government, shows little appetite for deepening the federal deficit by bailing out the states.
” what to do about the $41 billion they have borrowed from the federal government to help them pay benefits to millions of unemployed people, a debt that federal officials say could rise to $80 billion.”
Default?
Follow the interest all the way to the succubi who receive it.
Then ask yourself, WTF?
P.S. Have any heart meds close at hand.
Perhaps if the states stopped paying people not do work?…
When I was laid off in 2009 I was looking at a weekly benefit of $490, a fraction of what I was getting paid. It sure didn’t seem like much of an incentive to “not work”. I sure couldn’t pay the bills with that.
I’m just happy to know mine should be enough to cover Cobra if it comes to that.
No kidding Colorado. The only people who seem to think UEI is “fat bank” are those that have obviously been lucky enough to never need it, but seem to not realize that it is just luck.
The only people who seem to think UEI is “fat bank” are those that have obviously been lucky enough to never need it
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone say it’s “fat bank”. Simply that it’s paying people not to work.
Getting UEI is a disincentive to work. Without UEI, I think many would take a job, *any job* that came their way. With UEI, some can hold out for a better job that better fits their skill set (arguably this is the point?)
However, at the same point in time, with UEI, some can hold out when they aren’t qualified for a better job (not good, especially when the taxpayers are picking up the tab, with all the extensions, and the interest the states must pay on the loans to cover UEI payments).
UEI is always significantly less than 100% of what you used to make. Those on the lower end of the pay scale may be able to hold out if they stop paying for housing or otherwise cut expenses. Most of them live a hand-to-mouth existence, so they have less fat to cut from their budget.
Those on the higher end of the payscale are capped. So if you make significantly over the cutoff, you get less of a percentage of your former income than those below the cutoff. Higher wage earners probably have some savings and may get some severance, so they have greater resources to hold out and look for a job that is closer to the one they lost.
What is the alternative? If they don’t collect UE, it doesn’t mean that there will magically be a job for every person. It means that there will be more desperate people competing for the same job. Skilled labor takes the unskilled jobs. Unskilled labor takes the day labor jobs. Day laborers panhandle on the highway.
Ha! That’s a lot of money. It’s only $250 a week in Florida.
I think he ment some of the state employees.
Ex-banker says he’s giving Wikileaks files on rich
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER The Associated Press
Posted: 6:34 a.m. Monday, Jan. 17, 2011
LONDON — A former Swiss banker on Monday supplied documents to WikiLeaks that he alleges detail attempts by wealthy business leaders and lawmakers to evade tax payments.
Rudolf Elmer, an ex-employee of Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer, said there were 2,000 account holders named in the documents, but refused to give details of the companies or individuals involved.
He has previously offered files to WikiLeaks on financial activities in the Cayman Islands and faces a court hearing in Zurich on Wednesday to answer charges of coercion and violating Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy laws.
“I do think as a banker I have the right to stand up if something is wrong,” said Elmer, who addressed reporters at London’s Frontline Club alongside WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“I am against the system. I know how the system works and I know the day-to-day business. From that point of view, I wanted to let society know what I know. It is damaging our society,” Elmer said.
Keep talking Mr Banker dude . To bad you didn’t come out with a fog-horn before the damage was done .
America, what a country!
Trailer accommodations in Joshua Tree:
Park it in a trailer at the getaway encampment known as Hicksville.
By Phil Zimmerman Special to the Los Angeles Times / January 16, 2011
“…After a 10-minute drive, a telephone pole appeared with a ragged poster attached to it. A hand-drawn arrow pointed me toward a cluster of tiny trailers surrounding a kidney-shaped pool. As I pulled up, a group of twentysomethings was playing Frisbee and rocking out to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” blasting from a stereo on their trailer’s porch.”
“Before calling it a night, I headed over to the barn and perused the old-fashioned Pepsi machine, which dispensed bottles of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and a variety of soft drinks. I put in $2, pulled out a bottle of Orange Crush and sat by the fire pit with a few other guests who managed to stay awake after a day in the sun.”
Check in to Hicksville Trailer Palace and you may find yourself in an Old West log cabin or a punk-rock tiki hut. The encampment in Joshua Tree, Calif., is part desert getaway, part artist’s retreat. The seven themed trailers include those pictured here, from left: the Pioneer, the Integratrailor and the Fifi. The saltwater pool is heated by solar power, as is the property at large.
(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
Aren’t most pools heated by solar power?
You wish. Most of my friends in northern CA pay big natural gas bills to heat their pools to “tolerable” temperatures.
Went to check out an ‘open house’ in Salinas yesterday. When I arrived the RE house sitter was prancing around outside trying to look sexy while getting items out of her car. The house was built in 1934 on quote a double lot (only one on the block). It had some curbside appeal but everything else was dated and a little seedy. Wishing price at $500K. Flow was not great, bedrooms lacked good storage space as did the rest of the house (2300sq.ft?). Kitchen updated with rock tops of course. A shed like detached building outside was the laundry and I guess accounted for sq. footage. Screen on screen door was ripped and curling up.
RE asks: Isn’t it cute, don’t you just love it. Me: No. It doesn’t go with what’s in the neighborhood. It is way over priced. I can buy a better house for the money here in Salinas or I can go to Carmel Valley, Monterey for that money. RE:Well, everybody likes the same thing and all I need is ONE buyer. Besides, the owner owns the house free and clear and he can carry some of the paper. Me: Thank God everyone doesn’t like the same thing as that means I’ll have fewer people to compete against next year. I go outback to check out the yard. RE: runs out the door as says “look those are Magnolia trees and the neighbors say they smell up the whole neighborhood when they bloom. Me: Great, I’ve go allergies (really don’t), and go back inside. Peeved I said, ‘It’s all about location’. RE: Well yeah, location, location, location, but you won’t get all this cherry wood trim with location. Me: I walked out the door as new prey arrived. Not once did she inquire as to what I wanted or was interested in, just a house setter.
“Not once did she inquire as to what I wanted or was interested in,”
What`s that got to do with her commission?
Nothing to do with commission, but since I’m actively looking she might be interested in finding a future sale. However, maybe she sensed that I have no intention of including any RE in a sale.
So friggin’ useless realtors are. Holy suffering $hit.
How short-sighted of her salinasron. You’re my ideal client - somebody who will buy a house that they can afford for the right reasons. On the other hand, you don’t need a RE agent, you could have your license within a few months, or you could use Redhat.
Magnolia trees don’t smell that much! I once knew a dog who would play football with the leaves, though.
Explosive Food Prices Biggest Risk to Economic, Political Stabilty, Says Analyst
Overheating emerging markets, in China in particular, pose the biggest threat to the market and political situation in 2011 according to Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets.
“These economies are clearly overheating and governments are putting measures in place to slow them down to fight inflationary pressure. More than anything else, food inflation is a problem,” Gijsels told CNBC.com.
“In countries were 70 percent to 80 percent and sometimes more of a family’s budget goes to food, explosive price rises risk to destabilize these societies. Remember the old saying: ‘hunger starves civilizations,’” he added.
“We believe that some of these governments will be quite aggressive in their inflation fight. And we do not even want to think about the consequences if this year were to have a disappointing monsoon,” Gijsels said.
He is worried that everyone is so bullish on China’s ability to engineer a soft landing.
“There is almost no emerging market bear to be found. And that in itself is already scary,” Gijsels said.
“Nobody will be surprised when we see more (economic) volatility in Europe or even the US. A stronger slowdown in emerging markets than we currently expect would take everybody by surprise. Therefore its market impact would be much more violent,” he added.
“…..China’s ability to engineer a soft landing……”
It helps having the ability (and will) to shoot a few people, whenever the need presents itself.
But having a central government engineering a soft landing would be “Socialist”. I guess that means all of the MNCs that do business in China are going to pick up their footballs and go home.
Is it any coincidence that food is subsidised by the government (food stamps). Subsidies make bubbles.
Food production is subsidized world wide due the vagaries of growing conditions and differences in crop yields year after year along with helping to curb excessive speculation in the market.
It’s the large corporate growers and speculators you need to worry about, not government subsidies.
It’s the large corporate growers and speculators you need to worry about, not government subsidies.
It’s government subsidies that allow for that.
Due to gov’t corn subsidies, US farmers make more money they more corn they grow, period. Regardless of the demand in the market. Normally, increased supply would decrease prices (given same demand). However, uncle sugar guarantees a price to the farmer, and makes up the difference between that price and what the open market will pay.
Two things come of this.
1) bigger farms
2) large food (not ag) corporations get their materials for an artificially low cost, thus increasing their potential profit margin.
The government *IS* the problem.
On top of that, consider all the regulations that farmers must meet. For example, to be able to slaughter animals, they need to provide dedicated office space for the USDA inspector, should he come around. Only farms with large economies of scale can afford to comply.
(watch Food, Inc. and King Corn, and read Omnivore’s Dilemma to get informed on this).
ITEM: Surveys show that many Germans are worried about the future of the euro, but the country’s political parties are not taking their fears seriously. The number of grassroots initiatives against the common currency is increasing, and political observers say a Tea Party-style anti-euro movement could do well. ~Der Spiegel
Maybe they need a second Beer Hall Putsch!
Here in Boise the good news is that many developments got stopped before becoming “plastic pipe farms”.
The Ada County P&Z pulled the permits/zoning changes on two more planned communities. Here you have a “two year use it or lose it” approval, and these FD’s (F’d Developers - is that a neologism?) sat around and waited for things to get better. They didn’t get better.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/01/17/1491229/2-big-ada-developments-fall-through.html
Vista and Arbor Hills: Last month Ada County took action to terminate its development agreements with these two planned communities, both south of Boise. A planned community developer must meet certain milestones within the first two years of receiving approval from the county. If the developer fails to do this, the county can terminate the agreement and revert the land back to its original zoning, one home per 40 acres for both Vista and Arbor Hills.
This John Starr character is a land broker - is that another name for a realtor who sells raw land in bulk?
Poor planning and pricing policies created the surge — and then killed it.
First, demand for houses drove city house and land prices up. Developers had to look farther out for affordable land, Starr said. The county basically offered one development option: To build in the outskirts, developers had to build big — high-density, mixed-use planned communities on at least 640 acres.
Second, developers and others in the housing industry didn’t take into account the reality of median household income.
“You can’t suddenly sell a bunch of $300,000 homes just because that’s what it cost you to buy the land and build the home,” Starr said. “Pricing so far outstripped the ability of median household income to pay for things, that everything stopped.”
This guy Starr sounds like he has his eyes open now.
This guy Starr sounds like he has his eyes open now.
You can hear it in his voice, you can sense in his thinking, you can see it reflected in his eyes:
-($$)
I am starting to look at different options for housing after my rent increase of 18%…. one unit that really got my interest is a condo about 1 mi from where I live in a great building called Milago in Austin, TX…. it’s in the outskirts of downtown, but it has direct access to the lake.
This unit is 786 sq ft, and the asking price is $1650 per month.
I previewed the unit on saturday, and it’s a hot item in this market… when I left, there were two other people waiting to see this unit.
Anyways, this unit was listed in the MLS for sale last year for 300k, which would be the equivalent to ~$1350 in principal & interest (with 20% down), $540 in taxes (~2.25% in Texas) plus $250 in HOA fees, and let’s say the monthly home insurance is $125…. the cost of owning this home would be $2300.
Rent = $1650 vs Owning = $2300
Brett, at this point in the bust (arguably still at the bottom of the third), I have no idea why you would buy a condo with an HOA. This to me seems like a date with disastrous assessments due to abandoned units, deferred maintenance, maintenance due to constructions issues, etc.
Honestly, I can’t imagine a worse time to buy a condo. I would buy your argument for an SFH in an area you intend to reside in for many years.
I love Austin… I’ve been here for many years, and I would hate to leave. I am not buying anything at this point because I think units are overpriced, but I love living downtown, and that’s why I am leasing. However, very few buyers are changing their minds; prices are not dropping, but few people are buying.
HOAs are a neccesary evil when you live in a community; there are advantages when all owners pay their dues, but I have heard horrible stories about other places throughout the US.
Austin’s market has been very stable during the bust; sales have softened, but prices have not.
“prices are not dropping, but few people are buying.”
This is the same thing for the barrier islands in my corner of Florida. I suspect the zombie banks are holding these off longer than ghetto crapshacks.
sales have softened, but prices have not…….
That’s exactly what traders look for when waiting for a trend reversal in price. As the price is rising in a poor (over-price/overbought) investment, volume begins to decline. eventually, the volume is almost nothing as the price begins to falter.
when there are no buyers, you have a pricing problem.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to “buy” a Condo for $300K. 700 sq ft even. HOAs ad finitum even. Not being able to couple with the buy option, I cannot couple with a rent vs buy comparison.
“Rent = $1650 vs Owning = $2300″
That much for a tiny condo in Texas (to be fair, there are also overpriced condos in downtown Denver).
The bubble is alive and well.
A lot of people are moving to Texas
“So, it’s no surprise that Texas added more than 3.9 million residents during the 2000s. Its population also grew by the greatest number of people (478,000) during the 12 months ended July 1. “
The majority are moving from the south.
So they are already used to the weather?
The HOA fee should include insurance on the unit(not contents).
Rent = $1650 vs Owning = $2300
As an owner you will be responsible for all repairs which can be…considerable.
Now how does it look?
As an owner you will be responsible for all repairs ??
Not in a Condo….You don’t own the building the association does…You own the airspace within it so any work to the structure is paid for through the association dues…The most significant thing you can do as a condominium buyer is to research the HOA’s annual minutes, budget and this is the most important item, their “Budget Reserve Studies”….There should be a independent budget reserve study done every three years at a minimum…If they have not, I would probably stay away from it…
From $25m to $61m in ten short years — if only a buyer could be found at that new wishing price!
$61,000,000
929 Border Ave Del Mar, CA 92014
Beds: 9
Baths: 6
Sq. Ft.: 10,164
$/Sq. Ft.: $6,002
Lot Size: 5.5 Acres
Property Type: Residential, Detached
Style: Other
Stories: 2
View: Ocean, Panoramic
Year Built: 1937
Community: Del Mar Bluff
County: San Diego
MLS#: 071064797
Source: SANDICOR
Status: Active
This listing is for sale and the sellers are accepting offers.
On Redfin: 1251 days
—————————————————————————-
Property History for 929 Border Ave
Date Event Price Appreciation Source
Jan 28, 2010 Price Changed $61,000,000 – SANDICOR #071064797
Aug 15, 2007 Listed $76,000,000 – SANDICOR #071064797
Jul 07, 2000 Sold (Public Records)
This was part of a multi-propertyA sale in which more than one property was purchased simultaneously, resulting in a purchase price that may not accurately reflect the property’s real value. sale. $25,000,000 – Public Records
“This was part of a multi-propertyA sale in which more than one property was purchased simultaneously, resulting in a purchase price that may not accurately reflect the property’s real value.”
Something about the ‘days on the market’ = 1251 suggests that the seller’s wishing price may not accurately reflect the property’s real value, either.
Here are a few demographic facts for the community of Del Mar, where this property is located:
Number of households = 6,522
Median age = 45.63
Median household income = $123,446
Housing inventory by residency status:
- Rented 28.2%
- Owned 59.5%
- Vacant 12.3%
Here are a few geo-
demographical facts for the community of Del Mar, where this property is located:Steps from the train station to the Pacific Ocean beach:
293
Hwy youtube’s a Sunday morning favorite:
“I hear the train a-comin,…’ a-comin’ round the bend…” Johnny Ca$h
I used to rent an apartment in Solana Beach. The train (The ‘San Diegan’) runs right next to HWY 101, a stone’s throw from the beach. It also ran next to the apartment building where I lived.
“$/Sq. Ft.: $6,002″
The graph on this page shows the recent list price per square foot in Del Mar was $1,110 per square foot, versus a sold price per square foot of $525 per square foot. The sold price per square foot had a nice pop to $1,050 per square foot during the $8K first time home buyer’s credit (I guess because lots of “first time buyers” snagged $1m+ homes in Del Mar) but has subsequently fallen off by a decline of 50%. At the recent sold home price, one could hypothetically snag a 2000 square foot home which listed for $2,220,000 for a modest sale price of $1,050,000.
Why anyone believes they will be able to sell even ocean front property for $6,002/sq ft when the nearby comps are going for $525/sq ft is a deep mystery to me. In what parallel universe does it work out to a seller’s advantage to keep a high-priced home on the market forever at a price where it is sure to never sell?
PB …I guess they want to sell on its future value .
D.C. Current
“Drill, baby, drill.” It’s unlikely you’ve heard any politician with an ounce of survival instinct utter this catchphrase since BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf.
But if gasoline prices hit $4 in 2011, as experts predict, then you are likely to hear it again, and not only from politicians. “Drill, baby, drill,” will be on the lips of consumers suffering pain at the pumps. They realize that increased domestic production can cut prices.
From consumers’ lips to President Obama’s ears: That sums up the U.S. energy policy. Based on the president’s past behavior, it is probable that voter outrage quickly would translate into another energy policy flip-flop and a loosening of the restrictions on drilling new wells. This would be good news for deepwater producers suffering the political backlash from last spring’s spill.
Obama’s energy policy is a bouncing ball. During the campaign, candidate Obama initially championed a program that would have heavily taxed oil to diminish its attractiveness to consumers and used the proceeds to subsidize green energy, which he projected would create five million jobs. But when opponent John McCain began to gain traction among voters with his “Drill, baby, drill” message, Obama changed his tune. In a surprise, he embraced more domestic oil production in his party nomination speech in Denver.
“Drill baby drill” is what the Administration and the Fed are saying to Wall Street, as they help hold down squealing taxpayers for another dose of hope ‘n change Jamie Dimon & Lloyd Blankfein can believe in.
Yup, gotta bail out J6P who ran out and bought a 10 mpg, 400 HP pickup truck after the last time gas hit $4+/gallon. Of course, wih the Chineses buying 18 million cars a year, plus the rest of the developing also ramping up their thirst for oil prices will probably continue to go up, drill as they may.
So J6P, enjoy feeding your thirsty truck. At least you’ll look cool in it (not).
“Drill, baby, drill,” will be on the lips of consumers suffering pain at the pumps. They realize that increased domestic production can cut prices…….
Just one problem. Finding and obtaining new finds is very expensive and takes a long time. It won’t happen in the next 2 years, and the incentives to do it are NEGATIVE.
Due to the Obama “moratorium”, rigs that we set up and drilling and in place to do more recovery have been shipped off to other parts of the world. Deep water rigs cost 100’s of millions and are expensive to put in place. Even if the administration changes it’s position and orders its various “czars” to do an about face on drilling, do you think BP or SHELL or anybody with the ability is going to come running over here to put in a well? You know what happens if something goes wrong? The government, rather than helping you, sends the Attorney General down to see if they can fleece you. Would you be willing to risk you capital under such a scenario? I wouldn’t.
I care a lot less about gas prices now that I’m riding my bike to work 40% to 80% each week. That reduces my consumption a lot, although it increases my food consumption!
I’m riding my bike to work 40% to 80% each week ??
Where ??
Los Angeles. I’ve had a few encounters with cars, but if I keep my wits I can make it fairly safe.
I average 70% bike, 30% subway for the nine mile trip to work, and drive a thrifty 13-year-old Saturn when I do drive. So gas prices aren’t much of an issue for me. They could be an issue for others.
I have noticed food prices getting out of hand, particularly fresh produce. Some of it is seasonal, but even cabbage isn’t cheap.
I’ll be commuting to work on my bicycle once the snow is gone.
You can bet Simple Sarah will be uttering “Drill, baby, drill” along with “blood libel,” “I can see Russia from my house,” and other catchy phrases as she tries to capture the electorate’s attention without ever raising one substantive issue in a future WH bid.
Is “Hope and Change” more or less complicated than “Drill, baby, Drill” - I can’t seem to figure that one out.
FYI - “I can see Russia from my house” - is from Tina Fey in a SNL skit.
You Betcha…….
Another article who’s only purpose is to continue to soften us up for high gasoline prices, hoping we’ve forgotten that when gas topped $3 the last time, demand dropped off the cliff.
Unemployment has NOT gone down since.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/20111175129401574.html
The seven-day protest by growers, which started on Monday, could fuel supply concerns just as dry weather linked to the weather phenomena La Nina worsens the outlook for soy and corn production.
Farmers in Argentina, one of the world’s biggest food suppliers, have been at odds with the government for years over export curbs aimed at taming inflation and guaranteeing affordable supplies of everyday staples.
They say the system of wheat and corn export quotas lets millers and exporters pay farmers low prices, and have urged the government to scrap the caps.
“These distortive, interventionist measures have been repeated for several harvests in recent years,” Hugo Biolcati, leader of the Argentine Rural Society, said when the country’s four farming groups announced the strike last week.
The protest is bad news for Christina Fernandez, the president, nine months from the October election in which she is widely expected to seek re-election.
The wave of farmer strikes that began in March 2008 over a tax hike on soy exports battered her popularity, hit Argentine asset prices and disrupted grains shipments at the height of the soy harvest.
However, the impact of this week’s protest on grains prices will likely be muted because soy and corn harvesting has yet to begin.
Some tinkering with Canada’s government mortgage insurance.
They’re dropping the max amortization to 30 years from 35 if the LTV is over 80%.
They will lower the accepted refi LTV to 85% from 90%.
The biggest change will be dropping mortgage insurance from HELOCs.
I’m sure the housing industry will predict the end of the world.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n11/11-003-eng.asp
Free Houses in Utah.
It’s finally happened. A Judge has ordered that title to the property of home-borrowers be transferred “free and clear” because MERS had insufficient records to support their claims to payments on the mortgages. This should send shivers down the spine of any potential lenders:
A Utah court case in which the owner of a Draper townhouse got clear title to the property, even though he still owed $132,000 on it, raises new legal and financial questions about a property-records database created by mortgage bankers.
The award of a title free of liens means that whoever owns the promissory note on the Draper property — likely a group of faraway investors — no longer has the right to foreclose to collect on a delinquent loan. Indeed, the townhouse owner has sold the property and kept the money. Those who own the promissory note probably don’t even know what occurred.
Decisions such as the one 3rd District Judge Glen Iwasaki handed down in the Draper case could have a big impact as the state wends its way through hundreds of lawsuits involving foreclosures, loans on properties for more than they’re worth and predatory lending practices that led Utahns to lose their homes as the real-estate bubble burst.
Here is a link: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51006287-78/mers-property-mortgage-loan.html.csp?page=1
Let’s just say the appeals process is warming up right now.
Exactly……
I am sure it is. But what will this do to the reliability of “title” to property? I am in the market to buy. My last sale was pulled out from under me over lawsuits by the previous borrower (note I did not say “owner”). I have another offer on a bank foreclosure.
Can I get title insurance? Does the bank have title from a court action? Will that order be overturned?
All of this uncertainty is the result of MERS. None of the “financial innovation” that led to the Housing Bubble could have happened without MERS. It is MERS that allowed “bundling” of mortgages and AAA ratings based on various tranches of grouped loan documents.
The original documents were destroyed in many cases.
MERS says they are information network, merely tracking ownership.
They don’t have an interest in the loans or the properties.
Is it safe to buy any property that has been previously purchased by a mortgage in the past 10 years? Who knows?
I am willing to pay cash and assume title with TITLE INSURANCE.
Will the Title companies by able to pay off in the event of reversed decisions? Will they still be in business?
Perhaps Barney Frank can come up with a scheme to have Fannie/Freddie take over the Title companies and pass their losses onto the taxpayer, at large, via a FED bailout scam?
I don’t like uncertainty in the market. The higher the level of uncertainty, the less I am willing to invest.
If this raises the level of uncertainty in the housing market, as it should, then housing should be in line for further declines, beyond just defaults. It also raises larger questions about the stability of our Country, overall. Are any contracts good anymore? If not, the all systems will fail. Everything will be done by Court edict.
You will win or lose based on the rulings handed down. It’s more like Soviet government everyday.
Will the Title companies by able to pay off in the event of reversed decisions ??
Use Fidelity National Tittle Co. and don’t touch it with a ten foot pole without title insurance particularly in todays environment…
My best guess is that the last guy who’s recorded at the county recorder’s office (Mister X) is the actual mortgage holder. These suits will be overturned on appeal since Mister X wasn’t served with notice of the lawsuit - notice that these were default judgments. Then the fun begins. Mister X will be sued by all the downstream guys who bought now-worthless MBS’s. Mister X will have to defend against them AND sue the FB.
A lawyer’s full-employment scheme: that’s what MERS is all about.
No McMansions for Millennials
Here’s what Generation Y doesn’t want: formal living rooms, soaker bathtubs, dependence on a car.
In other words, they don’t want their parents’ homes
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/no-mcmansions-for-millennials.html
It is easy to say that you don’t want to be dependant on a car, when you are 20-something, single with no kids.
Get marreid and have a couple kids. No longer cool having that studio apartment downtown. Taking infnats on a bus? Not so much fun. Your 2 bags of groceries a week turns into 10 bags+. You are forced to change jobs more often than you want to move, and the best job is not the closest to your condo/apartment.
In short, a 20-something is totally clueless about what they are going to want 5, 10, 20 years from now.
+1 Well said.
I’m right smack in the middle of your example, paying all the bills, no vacations, out pocket dental, etc., and mom is too busy to be employed, so yeah it’s a tough row to hoe.
“It is easy to say that you don’t want to be dependant on a car, when you are 20-something, single with no kids.”
And in most of the western USA its simply impossible get by without a car.
“And in most of the western USA its simply impossible get by without a car.”
For sure.
I’d hate to be stuck in Donner Pass without a car in the winter!
“I’d hate to be stuck in Donner Pass without a car in the winter!”
As long as you’re traveling with a bunch of folks smaller or weaker than you, no problem…….
“As long as you’re traveling with a bunch of folks smaller or weaker than you, no problem…”
Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?
Weather guy said we might get 5 inches of snow.
I already have 5 inches and it’s still coming down. I will have enough snow to attract a herd of Polar Bears if this keeps up.
Stop it…I say stop it!
Where’s my stupid mittens on a string, I’m gonna go out and talk to these snowflakes!!
I wonder how many of those 20-somethings are going to decide not to have kids? The studio apartment downtown stays great for a couple, young or not, when there are no little ones under foot.
I think people are thinking too far between extremes on this. I doubt people in my generation, once they start having kids, will be trying to raise them in 700sq. ft. apartments downtown.
What seems more likely is that a lot of people about my age might dial back a few notches the idea of living in a huge house (3000+ sq ft McMansion) in the middle of nowhere, instead going for something like, say, a 1500-2000 sq ft house or townhouse that’s relatively closer to the city center.
Same deal with cars — it’s not an either/or proposition between commuting 100 miles/day and not owning a car at all. We’ll probably just cut down significantly on the amount of driving we do (living closer to our jobs, using public transit more, etc.), and instead just keep a cheap car or two around for those times when driving is necessary/desirable.
As if everyone in GenX is living in a 3000 sqft mcmansion, 50 miles from their job, and owns a brand-new V8 SUV.
I am 43, so leading edge of GenX. I live in a 33 year old, 1600 sqft, 3-bedroom. I was 2 miles to work before work changed offices, and am now 7 miles.
My wife and I owned 2002 and 2003 vehicles until our son turned 16 last summer. He got my 2003 Ranger with 4-cylendar, my wife’s nicer 2002 extended cab Tacoma with v6 got handed down to me, and she got a new to us 2008 Freestyle.
The old “Trickle down the junker to the Man of the House” Theory.
I remember a guy telling me “I’ve been driving 10 year old piece of crap cars, for the last 40 years”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Like most 20nothings can even afford a house.
(C’mon baby do the loco-motion)
Borrowed from Locomotion Lyrics
You`re a savy buyer so just look at the view wow
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
I know you’ll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
I can write a contract just as fast as you please
It’s easier than learning your a b c’s
So come on, come on,
That 6% commissions for me
You gotta swing your hips now
Come on baby, jump up, hmmm jump back
Oh well I think you got the knack
Look at those wood floors cause there in perfect condition
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
2 miles to the beach is where you`ll soon be a fishin
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
You`ll have covered parking and emenities too
This place will make you happy
When you’re feeling blue
So come on come on, come on
That 6% commissions for me
Wo oh Wo
Now you`ve seen two places so
So let’s write them an offer
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
The countertops are granite and the cielings are coffer ed
(C’mon baby 6% commission)
Do it nice and easy now and don’t lose this place
A little bit of money for a lot of space
So come on, come on,
That 6% commissions for me
You gotta swing your hips now
Come on, come on,
Get that fat commission for me
Come on, baby,
Get that fat commission for me
Yeah
Come on, It won`t last
Get that fat commission
You gotta swing your hips now
This markets gonna turn around
Get that fat commission for me
It wont be a buyers market forever
7% in my neck of the woods.
7% where? Why?
Has anyone on the HBB read this book, The Great Super Cycle?
~ In The Great Super Cycle, David Skarica says:
The U.S. “empire” is undergoing a tectonic shift of gravity. As when Great Britain lost its empire in the 1940s and ’50s as the world’s economic power shifted to the United States, America now is facing the same dramatic axis shift to Asian economic powers such as China and India.
The dollar will lose its reserve currency status as the dollar continues to collapse over the next five years.
The dollar has collapsed 50 percent since 1985 and it will devalue by another 50 percent in the next five years!
As the dollar tumbles the stock market actually may rise! But this will be because of inflation — in reality, YOUR STOCK INVESTMENTS WILL BE DEPRECIATING IN VALUE!
Americans will see a loss of freedom as the federal government’s insolvency becomes more apparent and America sinks into a Third World-style economic malaise.
America is repeating many of the same mistakes as Japan did 20 years ago. Japan’s economy was roaring when, by 1990 the average Japanese made more than the average American. Today, Japanese make 85 percent of what Americans make. This is already happening to Americans as their standard of living falls.
INTEREST RATE ALERT: the Fed’s decision to keep rates artificially low is the only thing preventing the U.S from becoming immediately bankrupt. Eventually, Federal Reserve attempts using “quantitative easing” will stop working and interest rates will rise, Skarica predicts. Long term rates are already rising!
The real cost of the housing crisis has been staggering, with the U.S. essentially adding $5.3 trillion in mortgage debt onto the public debt roll.
The real debt number is not the government debt-to-GDP ratio, but the total private and public debt-to-GDP ratio. What’s the number? Skarica says that, when you add all the debt in the U.S. economy, it comes to a staggering 350 percent of the current GDP! The United States has entered its “Argentina” phase, a Harvard professor says.
Why George Soros is both right and wrong about his “Super Bubble” theory, which contends that the United States has benefited enormously from the dollar serving as the world’s reserve currency. Skarica argues that Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve “panicked” after the 9/11 attacks and the 2001 recession, creating a massive debt bubble — “the ultimate Ponzi scheme” — in all of history.
We are not witnessing “deflation,” as many experts say. Instead, we are experiencing incredible “deleveraging” as bad debts are written down or taken completely at a loss. This process will continue to encourage the Fed and the U.S. Treasury to push for more inflation to stop a stampede of debt collapse that could sink the United States into oblivion.
“I believe the credit bubble of the last 20 years will lead to an inflation bubble for the next 10 years,” Skarica argues in The Great Super Cycle.
Be wary of T-Bills and government bonds! In The Great Super Cycle, the U.S. government bubble will eventually burst as interest rates rise.
We are clearly living in a “secular” bear market for U.S. equities that will last 15 to 20 years — one Skarica says began in 2000 and will continue until at least 2015 and possibly until 2020! As he says in The Great Super Cycle, market valuations are key, and no U.S. secular bull market has ever begun until the S&P has a 10-year average P/E ratio of less than 10! The current S&P P/E ratio is over 20!
Beware of the fake “bull market.” The stock market will not “crash” — but will trade “sideways” and possibly even increase. Still, this inflation of the market will mask a de facto collapse of the market’s value as the dollar falls.
“the ultimate Ponzi scheme” — in all of history.”
I think I would have gone with….
The Mother of all Ponzi schemes
But on the bright side….
“We are not witnessing “deflation,” as many experts say. Instead, we are experiencing incredible “deleveraging” as bad debts are written down or taken completely at a loss. This process will continue to encourage the Fed and the U.S. Treasury to push for more inflation to stop a stampede of debt collapse that could sink the United States into oblivion.”
So what do you do? Buy canned food, stocks and ammo?
Wife of Tunisian president fled riot-torn country with 1.5 TONNES of gold (that should help feed the son-in-law’s pet tiger)
Glamorous lifestyle: President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s wife Leila earned herself the nickname of the Arab World’s Imelda Marcos for her fondness of wealth’s trappings is said to have ordered the Tunisian central bank chief to hand over the gold bars last week.
http://detnews.com/article/20110112/SCHOOLS/101120356/Without-aid–DPS-may-close-half-of-its-schools
Detroit — Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.
62? So, they are going to hold all their classes in the gym or burn the desks for fuel and have the kids sit on the floor? Class rooms are not built to have that many children sitting safely. The fire department would shut them down first.
Knock out a wall or two, problem solved.
How many will drop out when they realize their education is a waste of time?
I suspect they won’t come to that realization until after they’re done. In the middle you’re too busy to listen to theories on why you shouldn’t be there.
Address was not available on Realtor.com but I found it on the property appraiser map.
Address Not Available
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
$155,000 Price Reduced
3 Bed 2 Bath 2,150 Sq Ft
Status: Back On Market
Days on site 169 days
———————————————————————–
Location Address:
932 PROSPERITY FARMS RD
Jun-2010 23909/0565 $98,800
CERT OF TITLE DEUTSCHE BANK TRUST COMPANY AMERICAS TR
Jun-2005 18891/0427 $307,000 WARRANTY DEED
KISNER ROBERT &
Dec-1992 07514/0499 $90,000 WARRANTY DEED
RAUSTLER BRUCE W
How did that housing market cooling turn out? Just as painless and innocuous as expected?
Bernanke: There’s No Housing Bubble to Go Bust
Fed Nominee Has Said ‘Cooling’ Won’t Hurt
By Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Ben S. Bernanke does not think the national housing boom is a bubble that is about to burst, he indicated to Congress last week, just a few days before President Bush nominated him to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.
U.S. house prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years, noted Bernanke, currently chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, in testimony to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. But these increases, he said, “largely reflect strong economic fundamentals,” such as strong growth in jobs, incomes and the number of new households.
…
Yea but BB’s been right about everything else! LOL!
Like “subprime is contained,” for instance?
Market Scan
Bernanke Believes Housing Mess Contained
Evelyn M. Rusli, 05.17.07, 4:21 PM ET
The subprime mess is grave but largely contained, said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Thursday, in a speech before the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S. economy, he said. The speech was the Chairman’s most comprehensive on the subprime mortgage issue to date.
“Given the fundamental factors in place that should support the demand for housing, we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited,” Bernanke said.
…
I am 100% confident…
Government relies on the short term memory of the masses .
Debt Fight Heats Up; China Zaps Obama on Dollar ~ FoxNews
GOP May Blow Off Obama’s Debt Limit Demand
“Put up or shut up.”
– Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., on “FOX News Sunday” encouraging Republicans in Congress to block a requested increase in the federal debt limit.
Republicans are trying on for size the possibility of actually saying no to a pending request from the Obama administration to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, despite warnings of an economic “catastrophe” worse than the Panic of 2008 if no action is taken.
The idea is gaining momentum and sets up a huge fight and a potential government shutdown. It will also prove embarrassing for Obama to have the discussion about rejecting the increase while the leader of America’s biggest creditor, China, is in town for a state visit.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will be Obama’s guest this week, and the federal government owes China’s government-controlled banks about $1 trillion. Hu has expressed concern in the past about America’s ability to meet such staggering debt obligations, causing jitters among other lenders, who together provide about 40 cents of every dollar the U.S. government spends.
If Republicans are serious about brushing off Obama’s demand to add to the current $14.3 trillion limit, which was bumped up by $1.9 trillion less than a year ago, it will not reassure Hu and the Chinese lenders that American debt is a safe haven anymore.
The Establishment Republicans won’t “brush off” Obama’s demand to raise the debt ceiling. They’ll huff and puff, but will ultimately raise it into perpetuity, as their Wall Street masters order them to.
Oh yea, it’s going up with out a doubt. I do like to see log jams in D.C. though.
No question about it.
Damn those republicans!
Oh wait…
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Senator Obama - March 16, 2006.
If Obama is for it, republicans must be against it, right?
Funny how things change sooo fast. I guess if Obama was against it in 2006, Bush and the other GOP must have been for it.
The economy was a lot healthier in March, 2006. What would have been painful then could well be catastophic now.
~ Banks never disclosed their real housing-related debts, bailouts were done blind, banks kept the cash for bonuses, never paid off any of the debts and debts have GROWN since 2008, next bank crisis now a certainty for 2011 and it will be double the last one, Fed will expand QE’s by 20 trillion, Gold and Silver enter next leg up as dollar crashes (hyperinflation). ~ Max Kieser
Item: Philly Fed’s Plosser once again releases a slam dunk speech which is the most vocal critique of Ben Bernanke’s interpretation of the freedoms afforded to him by monetary policy to date. “How do you use monetary policy to burst a bubble in Las Vegas real estate, where house prices were appreciating at a 45 percent annual rate by the end of 2004, without damaging the Detroit market, where prices were increasing at less than a 3 percent annual rate? Because monetary policy is such a blunt instrument, asking monetary policy to do what it cannot do, such as seeking to deliberately influence the evolution of asset prices, risks creating more instability, not less. Moreover, the moral hazard created by the belief that the central bank would intervene if prices of a certain class of assets became “misaligned” might, in fact, cause more inefficient pricing and more instability, not less…monetary policy cannot reverse the sharp decline in house prices when the economy has significantly over-invested in housing”
And more: “I have advocated the elimination of Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, which allowed the Fed to lend directly to “corporations, partnerships and individuals” under “unusual and exigent circumstances.””
The Fraud at the Heart of Social Security
by Charles Hugh Smith
To understand the fraud at the heart of the Social Security Trust Fund, we start with a very simple fact: cash can only be spent once.
There are two frauds at the very heart of the Social Security system, and I am going to describe and source them in detail. After spending a number of hours poring over public data from the Social Security Administration (SSA), The U.S. Treasury and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and additional hours searching the Web for other published analyses, I can state with some authority that there are no published analyses or accounts of Social Security which incorporate the actual outlays and receipts from fiscal year 2010 in a context which includes the Social Security Trust Fund.
In other words, all published analyses are based either on SSA or CBO estimates, not the actual numbers from the Treasury, and all media reports I could find are simply cut-and-paste repetitions of these estimates. I cannot find a single source which provided any evidence of digging through the data and assembling a coherent picture of the Social Security system.
The media simply repeats “conclusions” published by “official sources” based on estimates, not facts. The laziness this implies is staggering. Meanwhile, pundits such as Paul Krugman and Robert Reich, however knowledgeable and talented they may be, have obviously never performed a single minute of original data collection and analysis of the voluminous public accounts available to anyone with a computer and web browser.
If this is the best our most prestigious pundits and media resources can manage, then we truly are in dire straits.
All claims that Social Security is “secure for decades” are based on bogus fantasy-estimates, as are claims that the Trust Fund is anything but a carefully contrived fraud. I am rather shocked–and I don’t shock that easily–that it comes down to me, the classic independent-journalist “blogger in old blue jeans” to actually assemble the data and draw the simple common-sense conclusions which reveal Social Security as a fraud with two components: the bogus estimates, and the bogus Trust Fund.
“…cash can only be spent once.”
Then I guess I should burn these green pieces of paper in my wallet with pictures of dead presidents on them?
“All claims that Social Security is “secure for decades” are based on bogus fantasy-estimates, as are claims that the Trust Fund is anything but a carefully contrived fraud.”
Yet he says earlier:
“I cannot find a single source which provided any evidence of digging through the data and assembling a coherent picture of the Social Security system.”
What a tool.
http://shamethebanks.org/
Lots of FBs wailing about being foreclosed on. It would take a heart of stone to read their tales of woe without laughing.
Brazil Cities Hit by Landslides, Floods Will Need $1.2 Billion to Recover
Rebuilding from floods and mudslides in Brazil that killed 642 people will cost at least 2 billion reais ($1.2 billion), according to estimates by the three hardest-hit areas in Rio de Janeiro state.
Petropolis, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, cities in the mountainous area about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Rio, will need to rebuild roads, bridges, homes and businesses after the heaviest rain in 44 years sent earth and rocks rolling down hillside communities and flash floods swept away entire neighborhoods. Nova Friburgo, where at least 294 people have died, will need at least 1 billion reais, said David Massena, a spokesman for the city.
“We’ll need to rebuild all bridges, the main highway, at least 3,000 houses, and the entire downtown area, including our 19th century church,” said Massena. “That building was priceless, and very dear to our people.”
$1.2 billion? Pocket change. Obama/Reid/Pelosi spent that kind of money in about seven hours.
On vacations…
Exactly, Doghouse. Nothing compared to the $700 BILLION Bush spent on the bankers.
Nothing compared to the $700 BILLION
Bush*CONGRESS* spent on the bankersBanker bailouts are actually 10 trillion ,but who is counting ,and that doesn’t include loss like low savings rates and loss of wealth by the masses .
Up-Chuck sez…
Threat to Deny Increased Debt Ceiling Is `Playing With Fire,’ Schumer Says.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said that threatening to deny an increase in the government’s debt ceiling would be “playing with fire.”
“If we didn’t renew the debt ceiling, our soldiers and veterans wouldn’t be paid, social security checks wouldn’t go out,” the New York Democrat said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “Worst of all, we might permanently threaten confidence of the credit markets in the dollar, which would create a recession worse than the one we have now, or even a depression.”
Republicans in Congress told President Barack Obama and Democrats last week they won’t agree to raise the government’s debt limit unless there are specific spending cuts. In a letter to congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the $14.29 trillion debt limit may be reached as soon as March 31 and “most likely” by May 16.
Schumer said both parties will “have to come together on spending,” adding that Democrats “agree there ought to be spending cuts.” He said he is “glad” that Republican House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have said they won’t use the debt ceiling as a threat.
Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, said on “Meet the Press” that failing to increase the debt ceiling would be “nothing compared with what’s going to happen to us if we don’t address the real issues facing our country” and work on spending cuts.
Health-Care Repeal
With the House, now with a Republican majority, set to consider legislation to repeal the health-care overhaul enacted by a Democratic-controlled Congress, Coburn said, “We’re not through the debate on health care in this country.”
Congress enacted the health-care law in March as the centerpiece of Obama’s domestic agenda. The $940 billion plan, passed with no Republican support, aims to provide coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans.
House Republicans delayed a planned vote on health care last week after the Arizona shooting rampage that killed six people and critically injured Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The vote is now scheduled for Jan. 19.
While House Republicans have enough votes to pass a repeal, the Democrats who control the Senate say they will block it there.
Increased Civility
Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said he expects more civility in the debate over repealing the health- care law in the wake of the killings in Tucson.
“I’m not sure the substance of the debate will change that much,” Flake said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “Republicans are committed to repealing the law in the House, obviously, but I do think the tone will change and that’s a good thing.”
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said calling health-care overhaul a “jobs-killing” measure isn’t appropriate. “All of us need to be more careful about the words that we choose to use,” Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said on CBS.
The debate should focus on specific parts of the legislation that are contentious, said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat.
“If we can move that conversation to what about the bill do you want to change, that is a legitimate debate that we should frankly have,” Gillibrand said on CBS. “The bill’s not perfect. It never has been.”
Schumer said there are changes to the bill both parties can work on together, such as the repeal of a provision requiring businesses to report annual expenses to individual vendors in excess of $600.
If we don’t pass the increase…
“This country is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.”
“What do you mean, ‘biblical’?”
“What he means is Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff.”
“Exactly.”
“Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!”
“Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…”
“The dead rising from the grave!”
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”
Blind stupidity: How ‘Vodka eyeballing’ drinking game is ‘bad as pouring bleach in your eye’ ~ UK Mail
Health experts have warned that a dangerous drinking game known as ‘vodka eyeballing’ could rob players of their sight.
The game involves pouring a measure of neat vodka onto the eyeball from the bottle. This strips away the protective membrane covering the eye causing it to sting.
Vodka eyeballing is popular with students. Those who do it claim that it makes them drunk at break-neck speeds and provides an instant high.
Students who do ‘vodka eyeballing’ could permanently damage their eyes
Students who do ‘vodka eyeballing’ could permanently damage their eyes
But experts have pointed out that this is unlikely as only a small amount of alcohol can get into the system through the eye.
However, the practice can cause devastating long-term damage to eyesight and is a major worry to university authorities.
Video sharing network YouTube features more than 800 clips of people pouring vodka into their eyes and there are host of Facebook groups supporting the phenomenon.
Dr Cindy Tromans, the President of the College of Optometrists, is so concerned she has appeared on a BBC documentary about Britain’s binge drinking culture.
‘Vodka eyeballing is like pouring bleach in your eye - it’s extremely painful,’ she warned.
‘The main danger from pouring 40 per cent alcohol into the eye is damage to the epithelium which is a delicate layer of skin cells covering the eye,’ Dr Tromans told Mail Online.
‘Alcohol will damage this layer which then leaves the eye vulnerable to infection and potentially scarring which in the long run can be sight threatening.’
Dr Tromans appears on the BBC Three documentary, Ready Steady Drink, presented by The Inbetweeners star Emily Atack.
Ahhhhh, I remember the good old days, when the kids were doing alcohol enemas.
Shanghai Prepares for Trials of Property Tax to Curb `Speculative’ Buying
By Bloomberg News -
Shanghai, China’s financial center, will this year prepare for a trial property tax, becoming one of the first cities in the nation to introduce the measure aimed at curbing “speculative” investment.
Mayor Han Zheng announced the move in a speech to the Municipal People’s Congress yesterday, without giving details of how much the tax would be or when it would be implemented. Shanghai and southwestern Chongqing are the two cities that will begin trials of a property tax, according to a Jan. 10 report by Nomura Holdings Inc., which expects China to selectively introduce a tax rate of about 0.8 percent.
“We will step up macro-control measures, prioritize the supply of non-luxury residential units to be owned and occupied by ordinary citizens, and prepare for the trial reform on property tax as required by the central government,” Han said.
Wait. Let me get this straight. The world’s biggest commie country doesn’t already have RE property tax?
So what does that make us?
UK Government Plans Major Health Care Reform
British government plans major health care overhaul, but critics say changes could cause chaos The Associated Press
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said that the Government cannot afford to delay essential reform of Britain’s public services, as ministers prepared to publish legislation to radically overhaul the National Health Service. In a keynote speech the Prime Minister said that failure to modernize was draining resources away from the public sector, and he dismissed suggestions that services could carry on as they were as “a complete fiction”.
Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday waded into terrain where past British governments have foundered, promising fundamental changes to the country’s expensive and over-stressed public health care system.
Cameron said the reforms would cut red tape and improve treatment, but critics claim they will cause chaos and could lead to backdoor privatization of the much-criticized but widely popular National Health Service.
The British leader, whose Conservative Party heads the country’s coalition government, said he would save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.
Funny no comment on cost effectiveness or health.
This way your doctor will become your enemy. His paycheck will depend on depriving you of what he or she might decide is expensive care.
UK already spends 50% less per person than the US. What do you think is on tap for the US.
From the Arizona Republic:
“‘The number of single-family home transactions, both foreclosures and resales, in the Phoenix area in 2010 was 106,975.’
That’s down from 112,730 in 2009, Butler said.
Foreclosures represented 39 percent of the transactions in 2010, up from 36 percent in 2009.
The actual number of Phoenix-area single-family home foreclosures in 2010 was 41,625.
‘The year ended in the midst of foreclosure moratoriums, legal challenges to the foreclosure process, weak economic and job recovery, and strict underwriting guidelines for home loans,’ Butler said.
‘The main question for 2011 is whether - when the issues are resolved - the market will begin a path to improvement or keep being dominated by foreclosures.’”
What?
Problems are…. Fewer transactions, more foreclosures, robo signing, challenges to MERS registered titles, weak economy and jobs, and tight lending standards.
When the issues are resolved… as if that is a given! Come on man… not only are the issues being resolved NOT a given, they are in fact, highly unlikely to be resolved.
Banks have pretended to clean up the robo-signing issues, but they have not evn started addressing the MERS ownership and right to foreclose issues.
There are expected to be more foreclosures this year than last. Stimulus money pulled transactions forward, so there will be less demand not more.
Job market continues to be weak. Sure, we are creating jobs, but not as fast as the population is growing. All decrease in the unemployment rate has come from a shrinking work force participation as people stop even bothering to look for work. Stimulus is ending, is not going to be extended, so we’re likely to see job losses resume, not more job creation, imo.
NO ONE is buying, nor is anyone about to start buying, new MBS. Therefore, the insane lending standards are not about to return. What he calls “Strict Underwriting Guidelines” are atrifically loose becasue of FHA, VA and GSE guarantees being underpriced but the federal government and are actually, still far too loose.
There is no “recovery” in real estate about to happen. The price declines are accelerating, not about to suddenly reverse into magical gains again.
The French government suspects that former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family may have fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold, French daily Le Monde reported Monday.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41115532
Can you fit 3000 lbs of gold on a carry-on?
It’d be about 110 gold bars, so no, you couldn’t get it in your carry-on, but you could easily fit it in the plane.
Be worth about 65 million dollars.
Maybe gold isn’t the answer after all. At least for the Banksters.
A run of the mill Citation or Learjet isn’t going to cut it. You’re gonna need a G-V or Global Express to fly out the family and 1.5 tons of gold. And to those guys, 65 million bucks is chump change.
If they send the airplane back to pick up more, it will probably get “lost” on the return trip.
Yeah, you wouldn’t want to load it in your Piper Cub and take off on a short runway.
If the SHTF, and I found out that the multi-gazillionaires that own the airplanes I’m currently working on are flying out gold, both of them might develop “mechanical difficulties”.
I know a way to disable an engine, and the wiring will ring out okay. Unless they’ve seen it before (and 99% of the guys out there haven’t), they could troubleshoot it for a week and not find it.
Drilling a quarter inch hole in the hot section where the flame would be aimed at the oil or fuel lines could potentially shorten the flight.
Nah, you want to disable it before it even gets to the runway. And a 1/4 inch hole will take a while. In fact, it would probably run okay to hot section.
You wouldn’t believe how trashed an engine has to get internally, before you start having perfomance issues
Easier for the crowd with pitchforks and torches to catch up, if you break it before engine start.
He’s ready to buy in Holmby Hills, CA.
No. 2 bank overcharged troops on mortgages
NBC News exclusive: JPMorgan Chase also improperly foreclosed on
One of the nation’s biggest banks — JP Morgan Chase — admits it has overcharged several thousand military families for their mortgages, including families of troops fighting in Afghanistan. The bank also tells NBC News that it improperly foreclosed on more than a dozen military families.
The admissions are an outgrowth of a lawsuit filed by Marine Capt. Jonathan Rowles. Rowles is the backseat pilot of an F/A 18 Delta fighter jet and has served the nation as a Marine for five years. He and his wife, Julia, say they’ve been battling Chase almost that long.
The dispute apparently caused the bank to review its handling of all mortgages involving active-duty military personnel. Under a law known as the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), active-duty troops generally get their mortgage interest rates lowered to 6 percent and are protected from foreclosure. Chase now appears to have repeatedly violated that law, which is designed to protect troops and their families from financial stress while they’re in harm’s way.
A Chase official told NBC News that some 4,000 troops may have been overcharged. What’s more, the bank discovered it improperly foreclosed on the homes of 14 military families.
“We are deeply appreciative of those who fight to protect our country and Chase funds a number of programs that provide benefits to military personnel and veterans, and while any customer mistake is regrettable, we feel particularly badly about the mistakes we made here,” Chase chief communications officer Kristin Lemkau said in a statement to NBC News.
A good reason why we need the troops back home: to fight the REAL enemy.
As everyone in the aviation business knows, pilots are not the most financially saavy group of guys out there.
Why doesn’t Detroit just raise taxes? Or issue a bunch of new bonds to finance their schools.
Without aid, DPS may close half of its schools
Class sizes also would swell under proposal filed with the state
The Detroit News
Detroit — Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.
The plan, part of a monthly update Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb gives the Department of Education, was filed late Monday to provide insight into Bobb’s progress in his attempt to slash a $327 million deficit in the district to zero over the next several years. Under it, the district would slim down from 142 schools now to 72 during 2012-13.
Bobb has said school closures, bigger classes and other measures would be needed if he cannot get help from lawmakers to restructure finances in the state’s largest school district.
DPS considered but declined to file for bankruptcy in 2009. In the past year, debt in the district has increased by more than $100 million, brought on by a mix of revenue declines in property taxes, reduced state aid, declining enrollment and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall.
Why doesn’t Detroit just raise taxes? Or issue a bunch of new bonds to finance their schools.
Or ask the public unions for concessions?
It is for the children - 62 kids in a class
“Or ask the public unions for concessions”?
That’s the third rail nobody wants to touch that, but it will come one day.
They are firing half the staff and you want concessions?
They aren’t just closing the schools because of funding problems, they are closing them because (and this may be hard to comprehend) there are no students.
So here they are, doing what they should do according to conservative doctrine, cutting staff and facilities, yet somehow that’s still not good enough?
Do you guys even listen to yourselves?
“They aren’t just closing the schools because of funding problems, they are closing them because (and this may be hard to comprehend) there are no students.”
If there are “no students”, then why do they say that there will be 62 in each classroom?
That kind of teacher-to-student ratio suggests there are more students and fewer teachers than almost anywhere else in the country.
I’m confused… declining enrollment and unplanned staffing surge? What, WHAT?
I love the last line…
Year ahead looms as toughest yet for state budgets
Across the country, states face painful decisions as budget deficits cut into core services.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — If 2011 is hinting at a national recovery, there is little sign of it in statehouses across the country.
States that already have raided their reserve funds, relied on borrowing or accounting gimmicks, and imposed deep cuts on schools, parks and public transit systems no longer can protect key services in the face of another round of multibillion dollar deficits.
As governors roll out their budget proposals and legislatures convene this month, they do so amid a sputtering economic recovery and predictions of slow growth for years to come. State and local governments face lackluster revenue projections, worries from Wall Street over looming debt and the end of federal stimulus spending.
In the first weeks of 2011, Republican and Democratic governors alike have begun detailing across-the-board pain for education, health care, transportation, public safety and other programs. Some say the year of reckoning for state and local governments is at hand, with calls for structural changes that could radically shift expectations of what services government provides.
Many believe the months ahead will be the most challenging in memory, with consequences for millions who depend on government funding.
“We need to send a message to the governor: We’re real, and we depend on all these services,” said Sergio Garibay, a 41-year-old Southern California resident who relies on state disability payments and recently protested deep cuts to Medi-Cal programs proposed by California Gov. Jerry Brown. “There are other alternatives to the budget. Why don’t we tax the rich, these corporations?”
The “recovery” is limited exclusively to D.C., Wall Street, and brokers between the two. Making Wall Street billionaires even richer by inflating a new stock and commodities bubble does little to help the tax receipts of the other states.
+1
Actually… google “CAFRs”
The states are HEAVILY invested in Wall St.
Goldman Sachs Halts Facebook Share Sale to U.S. Investors on Rule Concerns
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. halted an offering of Facebook Inc. shares to U.S. investors on concern that “intense media attention” on the deal may violate rules limiting marketing of private securities.
Yeah, right.
I bet the real reason is not enough interest from the investors no matter how they tried to spin it.
I think they are trying to take this company with very little real revenue, public for an ungodly high IPO price… like $50 billion… Really????
I’ve heard numbers on total revenue being $1 billion. Even if they manage to take half that to bottom line that is a P/E of 100.
What do they think this is???? Year 2000?
They are using hype from the movie, CNBC specials, planted news stories, and other non-traditional viral and other marketing to inflate interest in this pig in a poke.
SEC may have picked up the phone and told them to stop it…. or atleast cut Government Sachs in on the deal.
“I think they are trying to take this company with very little real revenue, public for an ungodly high IPO price… like $50 billion… Really????”
A while back, Krugman wrote a NY Times piece arguing the Fed had run out of bubbles. But it seems he missed the possibility that they might recycle them. Now we have recycled oil, gold and tech stock bubbles in play. Booyah!
He is doing all he can to fuel the “left-right hate” bubble going though.
I like that expression.
Would someone please explain to me how Facebook makes money? Or is it too hip and cool for that sort of thing?
Ads I believe.
Although I am not active on Facebook anymore, somewhere I read that FB wants to improve the search capabilities and display ads like GOOG does.
Probably the same way the U.S. Postal Service generates revenue: by selling customer data.
Check Bloomberg archives. ’tis true!
Ads.
Percentage of “applications” (think Farmville/Mafiawars).
Demographic data.
Third ratings agency downgrades Greek sovereign debt to junk
Disagreement grows over size of eurozone’s rescue fund in light of possible need to bail out Greece as well as Ireland
Greek public transport workers protest Striking Greek public transport workers protest outside parliament yesterday. All three ratings agencies have now downgraded Greek sovereign debt to junk. Photograph: Simela Pantzartzi/EPA
The ratings agency Fitch slashed Greece’s credit rating to junk tonight as Europe’s leaders struggled to agree on measures to tackle the mounting crisis affecting the 17-nation eurozone.
Expressing severe doubts about the ability of Greece to grow fast enough to pay off its debts, Fitch said it could not rule out further downgrades.
Fitch said it could not rule out further downgrades
What is below the junk bond level?
“You are an idiot if you buy this bond” level?
or
“Why don’t you just burn you money instead” level?
or
“You are never going to get it back” level
“Fitch said it could not rule out further downgrades.”
What’s below junk grade? Ppptt-ouey grade?
Pink sheet.
All three rating agencies work for the TBTF banks which pay for their “evaluations” of a given country’s fiscal condition. If said country refuses the banksters offer of new loans on conditions favorable to the banksters, though not the country, a ratings downgrade is assured. For the same reason, the ratings agencies gave AAA ratings to toxic crap MBS because they would never risk jeopardizing their lucrative business with Wall Street by giving honest ratings.
See above for “orchestration” discussion. Bogus “ratings” tie right in.
Richest Members of Congress:
Name Minimum Net Worth Average Maximum Net Worth
Darrell Issa (R-Calif) $156,050,022 $303,575,011 $451,100,000
Jane Harman (D-Calif) $151,480,522 $293,454,761 $435,429,001
John Kerry (D-Mass) $182,755,534 $238,812,296 $294,869,059
Mark Warner (D-Va) $65,692,210 $174,385,102 $283,077,995
Jared Polis (D-Colo) $36,694,140 $160,909,068 $285,123,996
Herb Kohl (D-Wis) $89,358,027 $160,302,011 $231,245,995
Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla) $-69,434,661 $148,373,160 $366,180,982
Michael McCaul (R-Texas) $73,685,086 $137,611,043 $201,537,000
Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) $61,446,018 $98,832,010 $136,218,002
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) $46,055,250 $77,082,134 $108,109,018
Yes, but the repubs are the only wicked “evil” rich. The rich dems made all their money in business’s that are very charitable,caring,earth friendly and for the children.
The Repubs voted against ending tax breaks for offshoring jobs.
Only in some bizarro alternative universe would that be a minor point.
How can a person have a minimum, average, and maximum net worth? Do they have level 3 assets?
The exact figures are not know, so they are guessing…..
This is our min guess, our max guess….
A person’s personal success does not necessarily reflect their political beliefs. Democrats understand that the wealthy will always suffer too whenever the working class is strapped. Republicans, not so much.
Interesting.
I always thought that those interested making more supported the republican party and those who are done making money but wanted to preserve their wealth supported the democratic party. More the government regulations the harder for newcomers to take a bite out of Gates’ and Buffet’s fortunes.
Obviously the above doesn’t apply to current republican party. It’s full of neo-cons and religious lunatics. No wonder this party loves wars and violence in other countries so much. This party has lost its way and has nothing to offer to American people. Not that dems are any better. But that’s for another day.
Does anyone believe Rockefeller worth only 100 mil? This list is for the sheeple.
Rockefeller=FED
I watch the helicopters in and out of the Rockefeller compound in Tarrytown all day long. It really makes you wonder who is so goddamn important to be riding around in helicopters all day.
Source - Bloomberg
Federal Reserve staff and policy makers identified a housing bubble in 2005, and failed to alter a predictable path of interest-rate increases to slow down the expansion of mortgage credit, transcripts from Open Market Committee meetings that year show.
* The “measured” pace language helped fuel the housing boom by keeping longer-term interest rates low and was inappropriate at the time given the uncertainties about both inflation and asset prices, said Marvin Goodfriend, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
* “It was a major mistake by Greenspan,” said Goodfriend, who attended some of the 2005 meetings as a policy adviser to the Richmond Fed. “It gave markets a sense that the Fed was on top of everything to a degree that wasn’t the case. It gave the impression that this was a mechanical adjustment to normality. The market was overconfident.”
New York Fed researcher Richard Peach dismissed press reports describing a bubble in housing markets.
* “Hardly a day goes by without another anecdote-laden article in the press claiming that the U.S. is experiencing a housing bubble that will soon burst, with disastrous consequences for the economy,” Peach told the committee.
Greenspan followed the presentation with questions about the effect of underlying land prices in housing indexes, and the quality of data on whether home purchases were for investment or residences.
* “There was a fundamental failure of economic analysis to understand what was going on in the potential for house prices to stop rising,” said William Poole, the former St. Louis Fed president who attended the meetings in 2005. “The high degree of assurance that we all felt that house prices could not decline on a national average basis in a fundamental way — that was a significant mistake.”
By 2005, the damage was done. They needed to have seen, and put tighter controls on the securitization market, back in early to mid-2004 when the insanity really got rolling. Mid-to-late-2005, would have been WAY, WAY, WAY too late.
It’s hard to see ahead after you once have acquired the habit of driving while looking out the rear-view mirror.
“New York Fed researcher Richard Peach dismissed press reports describing a bubble in housing markets.”
He was working in Geithner’s shop at the time he coauthored this report.
FRBNY Economic Policy Review / December 2004
Jonathan McCarthy and Richard W. Peach
Are Home Prices the Next “Bubble”?
• Home prices have been rising strongly since the
mid-1990s, prompting concerns that a bubble
exists in this asset class and that home prices
are vulnerable to a collapse that could harm the
U.S. economy.
• A close analysis of the U.S. housing market in
recent years, however, finds little basis for such
concerns. The marked upturn in home prices is
largely attributable to strong market
fundamentals: Home prices have essentially
moved in line with increases in family income
and declines in nominal mortgage interest rates.
• Moreover, weaker economic conditions are
unlikely to trigger a severe drop in home
prices. Historically, aggregate real home
prices have fallen only moderately in periods
of recession and high nominal interest rates.
• While such conditions could lead to lower home
prices in states along the east and west
coasts—areas where an inelastic supply of
housing has made home prices particularly
sensitive to changes in demand—regional price
declines in the past have not had devastating
effects on the broader economy.
From The 5Min Forecast:
Before Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia on Friday, French intelligence agents say his wife Leila Trabelsi showed up at the central bank and collected 1.5 metric tons of gold — roughly $66 million worth.
Ben Ali’s men tried to raid the central bank yesterday to grab more gold, a Tunisian economist living in exile adds, but the army turned them back.
That’s the trouble with trying to maintain an empire. It gets very expensive. And messy…
A deal between the United States and the Ben Ali regime funneled $349 million in U.S. military aid over to Ben Ali over the course of his 23-year regime, official Pentagon figures tell us.
Admittedly, $349 million is not a lot of money considering the trillions the State Department has spent on Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, as just one outpost on the fringe of the empire… these sums begin to pile up.
Last year, the Obama administration asked Congress to approve a $282 million sale of 12 “excess” Sikorsky military helicopters to Tunisia with engines made by General Electric.
Not since the Marcoses in the Philippines does it appear one couple so systematically enriched themselves on the back of the political structure condoned, even supported by, the State Department.
“Swiss banks ultimately disgorged $684 million of Mr. Marcos’ holdings to the Philippines,” The Wall Street Journal reported last year, “though he is thought to have stolen between $5-10 billion.”
Time will tell if Ben Ali and Leila hold a candle to that pair.
Indeed, the royal graft might have gone on indefinitely, except for a confluence of recent trends we’ve discussed ad nauseum in this space… WikiLeaks and rising food prices.
Tunisians had always known Ben Ali and company were kleptocrats (his family was known as “The Family”), but the State Department cables supplied to WikiLeaks provided detailed proof, like “how” the first lady profited from the sale of an elite private school that got free land from the government.
One of the cables sums up the Family in this way:
“Despite increasingly liberal economic legislation, all key decisions, especially related to investment and privatization, are made at the highest levels of the government — probably by the president himself.
“This arrangement has permitted President Ben Ali’s extended family (siblings, in-laws and distant relatives) to become aware of, to assert interests in and to carve out domains in virtually every important sector of the Tunisian economy.
“People are now convinced that the First Family is an insatiable economic animal bent on gratuitous enrichment and unchecked influence-wielding.”
The charade began unraveling last month after a destitute student was denied a permit to sell fruit and vegetables on the street. To protest, he set himself on fire.
Before he fled on Friday, Ben Ali made one last desperate gambit — ordering the prices of staples like sugar, milk and bread to be cut. Obviously, their visit to the central bank proves they knew the writing was on the wall.
Alas, the story’s not over. Protests continue today because it appears the new “national unity government” consists mostly of Ben Ali’s cronies, members of the political party that’s been in charge ever since independence in 1956.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRtd8ArvH_s
I would like to dedicate this song to Ben Ali’s kleptocrat stooges.
Hmm. That song was rather unexpected. I may have to readjust my mental image of you, Sammy.
Wow. Nice Sammy.
A deal between the United States and the Ben Ali regime funneled $349 million in U.S. military aid over to Ben Ali over the course of his 23-year regime, official Pentagon figures tell us.
Has there been one third world democracy that has had similar full faith and backing of the US? I’m sure the US loves the “single window” dictatorships to do business with, but this seriously undermines the credibility of American foreign policy in the developing nations. And today we have not one but two uncaring masters to pick from - US and China!
Joan Rivers — Sarah Palin Is ‘Stupid and a Threat’
1/17/2011 9:43 AM PST by TMZ Staff
Palin hates plastic surgery and botox too?
Benanke, WallStreet, Obama, etc. are f***ing the country as we speak and people still gripe about Palin. I just don’t get their priority. Then again these are the same people who rightly believe Palin is dumb. I don’t pay attention to dumb people, not sure why can’t they?
No way. Have you looked closely at Palin’s “chestal area”?
Are you blind?
Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’
A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive “superstorm” that could flood a quarter of the state’s homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.
It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California’s geological history shows such “superstorms” have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.
The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.
The risk is gathering momentum now, scientists say, due to rising temperatures in the atmosphere, which has generally made weather patterns more volatile.
The scientists built a model that showed a storm could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state. The storm would be goaded on by an “atmospheric river” that would move water “at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the Gulf of Mexico,” according to the AP. Winds could reach 125 miles per hour, and landslides could compound the damage, the report notes.
I suspect the FED and TBTF Banks are seeding clouds as we speak. Excess inventory problem gone.
Look on the bright side. The state will have plenty of water, and all that rain will keep the fire threat down.
There is no limit to the imagination, but there should be a limit on who gets to be called a “scientist”. Who pays these people to continually come up with doomsday predictions? Any mental health patient standing on a street corner in NYC with his clothes on backwards could out-predict our modern age scientists.
“A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive “superstorm” that could flood a quarter of the state’s homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage.”
Back to the future? I don’t recall the year, but I am aware that at least once since the advent of European settlements, California’s Central Valley was literally underwater in the wake of a ’superstorm,’ as opposed to its current condition of being figuratively underwater in mortgage debt. For a repeat of the flooding conditions, the floodwater control system would have to massively fail. I suppose this sort of event is hypothetically possible, but I am guessing the engineers who designed California’s flood control system were aware of the risk and planned accordingly.
So where will the chemical fertilizers and toxic repellents wind up?
Yes, I know it will be downstream, but I am horrible at geography -
Central Valley (Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento and points north) empties into SF Bay.
Lake Tulare once occupied a good deal of the land between Bakersfield and Fresno.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulare_Lake
The land was “reclaimed” in much the same way that the Dutch reclaim polders.
Are a quarter of the state’s homes really located in the Central Valley?
“Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.”
But this one, if it happens, will be cited as further evidence of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Guaranteed.
Is there any natural disaster California does not have?
Thank goodness I live in NYC, where we only have unnatural disasters.
Our twisters don’t do much damage…(nothing like in The Day After Tomorrow).
I hate lazy journalists who quote stories from the NY Times rather than the original source material. The conference information is at the following link.
http://urbanearth.usgs.gov/winter-storm/
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/asia/australia/2011/01/18/288039/New-US.htm
The newly-elected Establishment GOP fluffers of Wall Street are sniveling about China’s “undervalued” currency. Of course, none of these bankster stooges will call out Zimbabwe Ben on his QE greenback gusher that is debasing the currency and feeding asset bubbles.
GOP and “sniveling is synonymous.
Accountability - What a concept.
Singapore may send a former government executive to prison for life to protect its graft- free image, after jailing the first of his alleged accomplices in a decade-long scam for 10 years.
Ho Yen Teck, 31, was sentenced on Jan. 14 for his part in cheating three government agencies of more than S$12.5 million ($9.7 million), the city’s biggest public-sector graft case since 1995. Prosecutors say Koh Seah Wee, a former deputy director at the Singapore Land Authority, masterminded the fraud, which has “severely shaken the public confidence” in government controls. Koh, whose trial hasn’t been set, faces 372 charges, each of which carries a maximum term of up to 10 years.
“Given the severity of the case, it’s not surprising that Ho was given a heavy sentence,” said Wilson Ang, a Singapore- based regulatory and investigative lawyer with London-based Norton Rose LLP, who isn’t involved in the case.
Public servants convicted in the case will face a more severe sentence as a deterrent, Ang said.
Prosecutors have moved Koh’s case to the High Court given the seriousness of the matter, according to an e-mailed statement from the Attorney-General’s Chambers. There isn’t a statutory ceiling on possible jail terms in the High Court.
Singapore pays its top officials the world’s highest public salaries to prevent graft and was ranked the most business- friendly country by the World Bank in November. The city-state has built a $182 billion economy by attracting companies including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Pfizer Inc. with its reputation for strong investor protection and low corruption.
“($9.7 million)…..372 charges, each of which carries a maximum term of ten years.” “Given the severity of the case…….”
Hell, I’d be happy if they’d give some Banksters 1/4th of that sentence.
OTOH, even a 1/4 sentence on a couple of billion dollars means that you’d be putting the bankster’s kids in jail for the next six generations.
Not that I have a problem with that……
Did you ever notice how government efforts to “help” especially favored subpopulations often times makes them collectively worse off than those who are not offered the special treatment?
Monday, January 17, 2011
African-Americans hit hard by housing crisis
Padlock and key lock boxes on front door of home
In the mid-2000s, government programs and risky subprime mortgages had boosted African-American home ownership to an all-time high. But now foreclosures are rampant, and African-Americans are losing ground fast. Mitchell Hartman reports.
…
“No loan is exempt, no bank is immune. For those (bankers) who thumb their nose at us, I promise vigorous enforcement” (Footnote 21).
–Janet Reno, the attorney General of the Clinton, directly threatening bankers for any fair lending violations of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). This sleepy act was greatly expanded during the Clinton administration to compel banks to give mortgages to people that could not qualify for a traditional “old fashion” mortgages such as minorities and the poor.
How did that work out for the myriad borrowers that Reno and Clinton tried to help get into houses they couldn’t afford?
By Christine Stapleton Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 11:17 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011
Posted: 9:43 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011
WEST PALM BEACH — Somewhere, presumably Georgia, lives a woman named Linda Green. According to investigators, her signature - and variations of it - appears on hundreds of thousands of questionable mortgage documents.
One of those homes belongs to Lynn Szymoniak, a Palm Beach Gardens lawyer who specializes in white-collar crime. Szymoniak, 61, has ferreted out economic crimes for years and federal prosecutors have called her as an expert witness in four trials. In July 2008, after negotiations with her lender over an increase to her adjustable-rate mortgage failed, she received foreclosure papers on her home.
ADD COMMENT
Be cautious about blaming people who bought homes, optimistic their values would remain stable, their incomes would remain intact, and their law makers would protect them from fraud. No one I know of predicted the Fed’s 17 consecutive interest rate hikes that tripped the foreclosure switch in ‘06. No media outlet I’m aware of informed us of the evil financial instruments Wall Street invented to capitalize on the destruction that resulted. It’s an attack on the American way of life. Nothing less.
Warren
1:33 PM, 1/16/2011
The people posting here have no clue as to the extent of the massive fraud being perpetrated by New Yorkers on the entire country. the character limit on this Comments page prevents me for setting it all forth. In short, the Note does not even describe the Obligation, as the money came from a source not described in the Note. By the time the Note is sliced and diced, the “bank” is not the owner and has no Standing. The people who do are not before the Court. Hence, false documents.
Director
3:02 PM, 1/16/2011
You people have life so in the mix and are so worried that somebody might get the upper hand on these crooked banks and it may not be you! So you;d rather the banks just be able to claim a persons property even if they have not one dime invested in it so long as your neighbor is paying somebody, anybody, just because you do?. They should pay even if its an entity they dont owe. You are jealous and slow.
lisamarie
7:34 PM, 1/17/2011 REPORT ABUSE
You know????? It’s amazing how the dirty laundry is getting aired out “NOW”… This has been going on for a very long time now. When some of us were talking about it in 2006 everyone thought we were crazy. When people were trying to save their homes in the begining, no one listened. Not the Judge, Not the lawyers, No ONE… I just feel bad for the people that already lost their homes… It’s not fair.
cmc
5:11 PM, 1/17/2011 REPORT ABUSE
What Jeff and others don’t realize is why people like Lynn often “stop” making payments. Once you enter the foreclosure process, the servicer REFUSES to accept any further payments from you (unless there is an agreement to do so, i.e. catch up past due in lump sum). So even if a homeowner wanted to make payments, the bank will just reject them! Stop picking on Lynn when you don’t have the full story. She is doing a HUGE service for us all to help expose this fraud.
JL
3:01 PM, 1/17/2011 REPORT ABUSE
Most people posting do not understand our banking system. Under generally accepted accounting principles not one bank can explain how they lent you money. They created it out of thin air. You pleged your home and they pledged nothing. It is a unilateral contract and the bank put no consideration. Per every $1 deposited, they lend $9. They make huge profits out of something they do not have. If we did this, we would go to prison. But they charge interest, fees, etc on something they do not have.
QNY81
2:50 PM, 1/17/2011
NAPA VALLEY MANSION
Built 1900, modernized >1995 and price increased 10 fold. List - delist - list - delist etc. I don’t get it. Everyone zillows! And delist-list cycles show.
12/24/2010 Listing removed * $4,400,000
10/25/2010 Listed for sale * $4,400,000
10/25/2010 Listing removed * $4,400,000
05/24/2010 Listed for sale * $4,400,000
05/07/2010 Listing removed * $4,400,000
03/09/2010 Listed for sale * $4,400,000
01/29/2010 Listing removed * $4,400,000
09/03/2009 Price change * $4,400,000
08/07/2009 Listed for sale * $4,400,000
06/24/2008 Listing removed * $4,400,000
05/05/2008 Price change * $4,400,000
02/15/2008 Listed for sale * $4,400,000
07/03/2000 Sold $4,410,000
10/31/1995 Sold $435,000
Housing market energy definitions:
Potential housing market energy = high housing prices
Kinetic housing market energy = falling housing prices