Bits Bucket for May 14, 2011
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
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
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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I would buy this house for exactly $100,000 less then they are offering, and that would STILL be above the cost of renting. Geez.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/16214-1st-St-E-Redington-Beach-FL-33708/46987458_zpid/
Geez… is that on the beach as the photos suggest?
1 block away, but here’s the thing:
Homeowners ins: $2,500
Taxes $2,500
Flood $2,000
Almost $600/mo. in TI
Yeah…. that place isn’t worth much more than $75k to me.
I’ll give them the 1988 sale price + 10 percent. Think they’ll take it?
Do you think it’s worth it?
1952? There is so much wrong that place I wouldn’t take it for free.
The last thing you ever want is an old house near a beach.
A quick thought from north of the border, and to see the impact of gas prices:
I worked the Canadian election to earn some extra $$$. The poll I worked was at a huge church in the middle of nowhere. In the past (for provincial/federal elections), the poll was done at a church close to the a couple of subdivisions. Over 10% of the votes complained of the location…first, no transit options. Second, no one can walk there (we are talking about 10km out in the country) and third, gas prices, were the complaints. Some people were quite angry the poll was moved, given gas here is 1.32 per L, that’s a lot (Buffalo - 1.02 per L).
As for real estate - I’m starting to do my investigations, just north of Muskoka. Got to the cottage yesterday, and no one is up here, apart from the full-time residents. I did my rounds yesterday just to say ‘hi’, nobody. Lots of listings on our lake, and the neighbouring lake. I know this is the weekend before the May ‘24′, but still, ususually people are up here opening their cottages, to avoid or figuring out what they need to bring up for the long weekend.
Í’ll provide some updates in the future. From north Toronto, we are 2.15 hrs away.
What was the reasoning behind moving the polling station to the middle of nowhere? Seems a little un-democratic.
What are asking prices like on the lake cottages?
I would assume to save money. They took 4 polls normally in the local neighbourhood, and combined them with 4 polls from rural/semi-rural area. I guess renting 1 church was cheaper then two? The 4 urban polls most people could walk too the church (3km max), and do serve a # of seniors.
In our area Parry Sound, $225K-$300K in the normal for Waterfront. This would be a 3Bdrm 1Ba cottage built in the late 70’s-late 80’s. Some are impacted by the location, closer to Toronto a little higher.
I’ll try and do some regular updates throughout the early part of the summer.
Weather was nice yesterday, overcast (no rain though) at 13C.
Got to the cottage yesterday, and no one is up here ?
Bad Weather ??
I guess what’s good for the gander doesn’t apply to the goose…
State’s raises for 17 follow frugality talk
Two months after state Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan said the economy was too weak to increase salaries for public sector executives, he began handing out raises to 17 managers in his department.
The $140,000 in raises ranged from $1,462 for a senior department lawyer, Maryellen Lyons, to $17,000 for Mullan’s chief of staff, Susan Quinones, whose salary rose from $93,000 to $110,000, an 18 percent bump.
http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-13/news/29540719_1_salary-increases-salary-adjustments-employees
As long as peeps get their ration of gruel-n-grog.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I respectfully ask that they choke on their bonuses…
Mega Brands hopes insider trading allegations won’t diminish investor confidence
MONTREAL - Mega Brands’ chief executive hopes allegations of insider trading against him and his brother won’t cause investors to lose confidence in the toy maker’s recovery.
Years of weak results culminated in shareholders questioning the multimillion-dollar compensation paid to senior executives.
Michel Nadeau, who heads a governance institute in Quebec, accused Mega Brands’ independent directors of failing to do their duty by giving the Bertrand brothers $5 million last year, including options.
“(Mega Brands) is a great story for Montreal but this management lost half a billion dollars of our money in the last three years, that’s too much,” said Nadeau, who was once the No. 2 official at the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.
He also criticized an $11-million golden parachute that would be awarded if there’s a change of control.
“I believe it’s one of the worse case for governance in the history of this country.”
Board member Paul Rivett said he understood shareholder frustrations but urged investors to have faith in the executives’ commitment to the company and their efforts to turn the company around.
“It’s time to move forward and I would respectfully ask the shareholders now in the recapitalized company to look to the future…stop focusing on the past,” said a vice-president with leading shareholder Fairfax Financial Holdings.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/toy-maker-mega-brands-reports-q1-loss-us-131826563.html
It diminished mine when the S&L disaster happened 20 years ago.
I will only play the stock market on sure things. (Yes, there are such things, but you have to do a lot of research and not be stupid greedy)
“Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel”
Realtors Are Liars
So I was catching up on my reading and can see I have to bullet point for certain people that have problems w/reading comprehension:
I never said NY isn’t going down.
I’ve always said it’s going down.
I am waiting for it to go down in my town and am really really tired of how long its taking.
In towns all around me NY is going down.
In parts of my town it looked like things were going down then sprang back to life. But I know some people are still hurting. They just know its not safe to say it out loud yet in these circles. I have run across a few people who do talk of being cautious. They are in the minority of people I talk with but I am talking about my circle not for the entire area. I can only comment on what I see.
I never said the few wealthy people I spend time with will save NY. But the extra money they still have is keeping things afloat in this little burb. In fact we’re seeing businesses move from the city to here.
NY only has 3 good months, RAL? Really? I ran outside including my long runs all winter. The lakes are beautiful. The trails are stunning. I was in good company. There are hundreds of us out there. Did a 50 mph wind gust run with a few red faced brave souls. Skiing was GREAT this year.
Thank you Muggy, People in CNY are generally positive but especially the athletic community. You’ve always got people you admire sharing w/you and telling you you rock even when you’re still struggling. You watch everyone get stronger and better over time and you start appying those one day at a time principles to other areas of your life. You learn to recognize the hurdles in front of you and tackle them head on and you know those people have got your back. I know we’ve got tough years ahead but I gotta tell ya I’ve never been happier.
Too bad to see the bullying, negative V can’t say the same. Life’s far far too short to spend it arguing.
Really. And I’ll stand by that statement during those 3 nice months and expect you to stand by yours the entire rest of the year.
Three nice months per year is silly. I enjoy living on my boat generally from early april until Thanksgiving, with some give and take from year to year. Often out fishing in December. Plenty of outdoor activities in Jan/Feb with different clothes. Sure there are storms, but where are there not?
Some people are happy anywhere, some are unhappy.
Some people are happy anywhere, some are unhappy.
I see your point but I might be the exception to that. I was truly unhappy having to work outside in Tennessee in the summer and was never unhappy doing the same level of physical work outside in the Rocky Mountains. I really hate humidity the way other people apparently hate snow.
It’s far less silly than your assertion that Dec/Jan/Feb are comfortable months in NY.
I’ll stand by the 3 months of nice weather. So let me ask….. You got the inground pool open yet? Been down to the beach for a swim this weekend? Of course you haven’t. And you won’t until mid-June at the earliest and by end of August, your mild weather fun is over….. for 9 months.
County worker’s payout ‘gamed’ taxpayers, Abele says
But Holloway says no rules were broken
Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway said Friday nothing improper was done in connection with a top aide who received large sick pay and vacation payouts after only one month on the job.
However, County Executive Chris Abele said the payouts to Booker were “clearly inappropriate,” though Abele said no evidence had been found yet that any laws or rules were broken in the payments to Booker.
Even if county rules permitted the payments, “the taxpayers were gamed,” Abele said.
The Journal Sentinel reported in online editions Thursday and in Friday’s paper that Booker got $12,037 in salary, plus $25,000 for unused sick leave and $15,509 in vacation pay during his brief employment. He worked about 4 1/2 weeks, from Dec. 29 to Feb. 3, when he quit in the face of County Board criticism about his hiring.
Both his vacation and sick leave payouts were based on the $58 hourly rate Booker earned during his brief stint as administrative services director, a job that paid some $120,000 a year. That’s nearly double what he earned in his previous county job.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/121795439.html
I’ve been asked to refrain from mentioning unions and janitors.
The Spring has sprung.
The gas has riz.
I wonder where the buyers is?
They’re at the payday loan stores borrowing money at an APR of 4,000 percent.
Those stores seem to be spring up everywhere. In South Central LA there are sometimes two payday loan stores located in the same strip mall.
Strip malls used to be loaded-up with nail salons and other stores where people went to spend money; Now they are loaded-up with stores for people to get money.
Here in AZ, payday loans are now illegal. But the check cashing centers are still very much in business. There’s quite a proliferation in our less-than-affluent areas. It’s redlining by another name.
Payday lenders springing up nearby is a leading economic indicator of broke folks in the vicinity.
Wasn`t that a song in the 70`s
broke folks in the city
runnin wild acting sh#tty
Spring housing market slump for Southland home sales - ABC local So Ca evening TV News spot
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/consumer&id=8130538
No money
No honey
obama motors not working out very well for taxpayers…
But it is working out very well for the UAW.
————————-
GM’s Profits are Still a Huge Net Loss For Taxpayers
http://www.theatlantic.com | may 12 2011 | Megan McArdle
How many large-cap IPOs have you bought over the last six months in which the issuer already missed initial expectations by 30% and were hit with senior management turnover? This is what seems to have happened at GM since the November IPO, yet few analysts seem concerned. We struggle to understand why.
About $40 billion of the money that the government gave GM was converted to GM common stock. In the November IPO, the government made about $20 billion selling 478 million shares, leaving us with around $20 billion more to recoup on our remaining 26.5% stake in the company. That means we need to sell the approximately 365 million shares we have left at about $55 per share, net of underwriting and legal costs. At the current share price of $31, we’d be left with a loss somewhere north of $9 billion–plus the $1 billion we gave the “old GM” to wind things up, and the $2.1 billion worth of GM preferred stock we own. Since I don’t know the details of the preferred transaction, I’ll leave that out, which gives us a loss after expenses of $10 to $11 billion on our investment in GM.
But of course, that assumes that the current share price holds. It could well fall over the next few months–or when the government dumps an enormous new supply of GM stock on a market that isn’t showing all that much enthusiasm for the product.
It also leaves out a very important extra: the $14 billion gift that the government seems to have handed the company, in the form of a special tax break:
Support Union Labor. It’s the right thing to do.
“It also leaves out a very important extra: the $14 billion gift that the government seems to have handed the company, in the form of a special tax break:”
Chicken feed compared to what gets wasted in the military, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of real jobs were saved (not just at GM but at suppliers).
And don’t forget that most of the well paid boyz n gurlz were offered buyout packages and were replaced by $14/hr workers. I mean that alone should give you warm fuzzies (if not a wet dream), as the new crop of GM workers can’t afford to buy the cars they make.
Lower wages makes for a stronger America, right?
GM and Chrysler support a huge number of subcontractors. If they went down the crapper, so would the subcontractors. At minimum, every auto assembly plant in North America would have been shutting down or reducing operations for several months.
And to them, we need to add a big chunk of the Aerospace business. The volume of work they do for the Big 3 pays the bills so they can do the low volume, high margin aerospace subassembly work. Aerospace is losing contractors at a high rate as it is. And like every other kind of manufacturing, if those jobs go overseas, they aren’t coming back anytime soon*.
*And this assumes that ever other government in the world is as stupid as ours is, and will allow the MNCs to play “Global Wage Arbitrage” with their citizens.
From what I’ve been hearing, they aren’t as stupid as we are.
Well, except Great Britain.
GM and Chrysler support a huge number of subcontractors. If they went down the crapper, so would the subcontractors. At minimum, every auto assembly plant in North America would have been shutting down or reducing operations for several months.
Yes. The USA auto industry and all its relations represent an important American strategic asset-as important as natural resources, education and health. CDR’s, vampire squids and bundled mortgage securitization? Not so much of a strategic asset IMO.
Do you think GM was facing fair competition regarding its export quotas to foreign countries? Plus, GM’s foreign made competition all were relieved of health insurance costs due to “socialized medicine”. Other countries’ governments are much more subsidizing of their auto industries because they consider them strategic assets. Shouldn’t we too? Do realize how happy the Chinese PTB would have been with a wrecked US auto industry?
Where is your patriotism 2bananna? Stand up for your country and people more than a buck and failed “free-market” claptrap.
I’m still a little fuzzy on this.
Most people on the blog seem to talk about a drop in their property taxes as their home values drop.
Here in CT, the “mill rate” (the tax rate) simply gets bumped up to cover any shortfall. Of course, voters at referendum can vote to lower it.
“Most people on the blog seem to talk about a drop in their property taxes as their home values drop.”
I don’t see that at all. I few people have joked about it, but I thought the sarcasm was very obvious.
simply gets bumped up to cover any shortfall ??
Well sure it does…Its the county’s form of their own federal reserve…There is no such thing as a shortage of money…
In Colorado TABOR keeps the mills in check. They can’t raise them without voter approval.
Totally off-topic, but would someone explain to me why stories about how people facing being flooded out near the Mississippi being scared or praying that their houses don’t end up underwater (literally) are news? I get that information about the levies, about the plans for avoiding floods in more populous places can affect smaller places, about evacuation plans or timing or many other things can be news. It is information and it is not widely known. The fact that people who are about to get flooded out are upset about it, is not news. It a restatement of human nature. It is obvious. And it is a waste of air time. I guess maybe they do it because it is cheap? You don’t have to check multiple sources when you ask one person how they feel. All you have to do is find one fairly articulate person doing something related (like filling sandbags) who is willing to talk.
I’m sick of it. I’ve heard tons of radio segments on this issue this week and I still don’t have a clear idea of the engineering involved, or, even better, if the army corps of engineers could have designed the whole system in a better way.
And, of course, no analysis of whether preventing the flooding is a good idea at all. Would letting the river flood (assuming the water isn’t full of toxins from industry upstream) make the soil better without petroleum based fertilizers? I mean, it worked in Egypt for a few thousand years.
it’s about the oil
It a restatement of human nature
That’s what I sense after spending $160.00 going to the Opera.
Darn shame to see a grown man cry as his entire farm crop is washed away.
Darn shame to see the poor load up their meager belongings and head to an upscale high school gym.
But their pain helps Ol’ Hwy realize that America is a Nation of people that at the end of the day of 8 minutes of sun tossed light energy, we still have one another. Helps with sleeping at night.
A good Schadenfreude fix can do wonders for the sleeping.
Polly, I’d rather see that on the news in place of the usual drivel. The major news sources refuse to dig into stories that should be reported because the American people really don’t want to face a dose of reality.
Watching the destructive nature of mother nature helps keeps me grounded, as does unrest in other world countries. It helps bring back and firmly plant a mental picture of what’s important in life and that it is surly not a $300K and up house in the city with little space for growing any type of food.
Question for all you city types: Who is more important: the cop, the fireman or the garbage collector?
More important ?? Probably the cop…But in all three categories (particularly firemen) we could do just fine with far less of them…
This isn’t about the destructiveness of nature. If they described the aftermath of a flood, it would be. This is just lettign people talk about how the threat of being flooded out makes them scared or causes them to pray. The first would be informative. The second is not.
And trash collection is extremely important in an urban environment. A community can come together and behave for a while without cops. And fires only affect a tiny fraction of buildings during the course of a year. But everyone throws stuff away every day and trash builds up quickly. Very quickly. And when there is enough of it, it can attract vermin that cause disease. The garbage collector has a less extensive skill set than the cop and firefighter. And in a rural environment, I imagine you could go without trash collection for a while.
The people who keep the water/sewer system running are more important than all three of the jobs you cited combined.
The COE has decided it is better to flood out a few rural farms, than it is to have a whole city flood. Not exactly an out of left field prediction.
If I was living in one of those areas, I wouldn’t park anything that wasn’t mobile in the flood plain. It’s not like they haven’t had a week or more of notice.
Getting flooded out occasionally is the “cost of doing business”, as far as I’m concerned. Sorta like hail dents in cars out here in Tornado Alley.
Sob stories on TV are SOP. See “Queen for a Day”, Dr. Phil, Oprah, etc.
This is what news has become a series of uninformative “human interest stories” These require no journalism and cost very little vs real news. Investigative journalism is on it’s death bed in this country.
I guess you missed the one about a few coal miners?
I see this as a level more removed from news than that one. In that one, there was a clear story waiting to happen. The reporters were filling in time until the story happened. Here, the story is happening - the army corps of engineers are making decisions, the river is cresting in other places, etc. But the majority of the reporting seems to be about people saying they are scared or saying that they are praying or saying that they believe the Lord will provide or saying that they hope their house isn’t destroyed. You don’t have to be on site to know that any time there are thousands of people whose houses might end up flooded that some of them are scared and some are praying and some are hopeful and some are…whatever.
Could some reporter at least tell us what else happens in the areas that will be flooded? Do they grow corn? wheat? veggies? raise animals? Something that couldn’t be written just as easily by a reporter located on the moon.
I’ll tell you….
Believe it or not, most cities and states use a little common sense. Major cities and towns get levee protection. The boonies, not so much.
Most businesses have contigency plans in tehevent of possible flooding. Farmers grow corn and crops that require a lot of water in “bottom land”. Most buy crop insurance. Most have their homes and equipment on high ground, or have contingency plans to move stuff to high ground. Major floods still happen occasionally. Cost of doing business.
Businesses are the same. Stuff that can’t be moved, or is expensive sits on high ground. Most areas close to rivers are zoned “light industrial”. Most businesses have contingency plans for floods. Delay scheduled deliveries of product, or have it delivered somewhere else. Move equipment and inventory to high ground, as time allows. If you don’t have enough time to move it all, make a priority list.
Sometimes, you get heavy, localized rain, and you will get a few feet of water in the business/home with little or no warning…..oh well, $hit happens. Sometimes there’s not a whle lot you can do about it. Do what needs to be done to get the home/business up and running again, and move on.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the same people you get the sob stories from, are the same people who aren’t prepared for anything. If it wasn’t a flood, it would be a tornado……or something else.
The REAL news is that this is a record flood. Maybe even bigger than the 1927 flood.
Everything else is filler.
Wait until the New Madrid cuts loose one day.
“For if human liberty is to survive in America, we must win the battle to restore honest money.” ~Rep. Howard Buffett (1948)
U.S. Congress scrambles for answers to money woes.
A voice from the past suggests the unthinkable; honest money.
In 1948 Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett wrote a short essay supporting sound money. He correctly pointed out that paper money systems always end in collapse and economic chaos.
“When you recall that one of the first moves by Lenin, Mussolini and Hitler was to outlaw individual ownership of gold, you begin to sense that there may be some connection between money, redeemable in gold, and the rare prize known as human liberty.
“Also, when you find that Lenin declared and demonstrated that a sure way to overturn the existing social order and bring about communism was by printing press paper money, then again you are impressed with the possibility of a relationship between a gold-backed money and human freedom.”
Artcle: ~ Human Freedom and Gold Money
Buffett’s remarks fell on deaf ears 63 years ago, but are worth resurrecting as Congress continues to bury the nation under a blizzard of irredeemable paper currency. In the months ahead mainstream media will push back hard against the idea of re-establishing a sound money system in the United States, and a majority of Americans will cling to the idea that printing presses can create wealth.
But the idea of sound money is beginning to rise in the public mind. As Rep. Buffett wrote in 1948, “Unless you are willing to surrender your children and your country to galloping inflation, war and slavery, then this cause demands your support. For if human liberty is to survive in America, we must win the battle to restore honest money.”
“Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett”
Our dear sweet uncle Warren’s four term congressman father.
I think I might take a crack at becoming the worlds first honest Realtor. But first I will try my sales pitch out on the HBB.
6672 Church St Jupiter, FL 33458
$72,900
Beds:4 Bed
Baths:2 Bath
House Size:1,582 Sq Ft
Great 2004 CBS built home at a bargain price in Limestone Creek community of Jupiter. Affectionately known as Crimestone Creek you will be close to I95 the Turnpike and many murder investigations. Clean move in ready home. Just bring yourself, your gun, kick back and relax while enjoying the view of the Sheriffs Helicopter circling above your own private paradise.
For showings (during daylight hours only)
Call jeff saturday
Your local Real Estate expert at 1-800- INTRUDER
Observation here in the same area I bought in Hillsboro, OR. This house recently soldfor $393,000 after having been sold for $360,000 in 2009. House originally sold for $547,000 in 2006.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3743-NW-2nd-Ave-Hillsboro-OR-97124/83085170_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
Hard to convince my DW that SHE made a mistake in buying in Nov. 2010 for $365,000 . However, there are still several homes underwater, as most were bought for ~$500,000, some ~$550,000 and the model home selling for $585,000.
If the low interest rates ever end, then the neighborhood will sink like a rock. I would be ok as I have a lot of cash still in the bank. My mortgage is on a 7 year ARM at 2.5%. I am hoping that interest rates will go up some day and I have a few years of earning some interest on the cash in the bank before paying off the mortage when it adjusts. I sure miss the days of 5% interest on my savings account.
“I sure miss the days of 5% interest on my savings account.”
You and me both.
+1
So does the tax man.
Taxing a zero percent return gets the tax man zero amount of income.
Would you guys like to get a, say, ten percent return? Yes?
Well, the tax man also would like for you to get ten percent returns.
Taxing ten percent returns sure would solve a lot of government tax revenue problems.
Suppose the inflation level was flat and interest income was flat. That would mean the tax revenue on that interest income would be flat.
But suppose that inflation were to run up to ten percent and interest income also runs up to ten percent. Now the tax man’s revenue is no longer flat. Instead it becomes some percentage of the ten percent interest you are earning.
Interest rates as they concern the FedGov are a great exapmle of HDT’s axiom: It’s not what you earn, it’s what you spend.”
Here in Tucson, our favorite megabank, BofA, is opening an outreach center to help homeowners in danger of foreclosure. While it’s still early on a lovely Saturday morning, readers of our daily fishwrap aren’t impressed.
While the story doesn’t indicate where this center will be located, permit me to venture out on a limb and make this prediction: It will become quite the magnet for protests. After all, USUncut already targeted a BofA branch out on our oh-so-affluent east side. And, although that branch is a-ways away from the Arizona Slim Ranch, I heard that the protest was well attended.
It ought too. It’s nothing but a BOA PR con.
Editorial: The foreclosure state
Posted May 14, 2011 at midnight
Foreclosed houses sit abandoned and forlorn, each one telling a tale of heartache and broken dreams. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to have more of them in Tennessee, according to some state legislators.
A bill chipping away at a process that already fails to protect consumers from quick and easy foreclosures was passed by the House this week.
A Senate vote could come as early as Monday on HB1920/SB1299, a bill supported by the Tennessee Bankers’ Association that reduces the length of foreclosure notices published in Tennessee newspapers and drops the number of notices from three to two.
A Senate committee also has voted to approve the legislation despite testimony by Isaac Vaughn, 80, who told how he was forced from his home when Bank of America foreclosed on the property and didn’t learn what was going on until reading about it in newspaper notices.
The legislation is a step back from what bankers have asked for — a single notice and much shorter property descriptions.
…
Since this is a “right to work” state, I suppose this bill was titled the “Right to Homeownership bill.”
“Right to Foreclose faster than the Turnip can hire a Lawyer” bill.
Exactly.
OMG — Now even New York City has a “ground zero” zone for the foreclosure crisis. What is the world coming to?
Budget Cuts Imperil Aid in Foreclosure Cases
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Queens Legal Services helped Luis Mendoza, with his sons Louis and Abraham. He was behind on a $477,000 mortgage.
By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: May 13, 2011
In the large immigrant community of Jamaica, Queens, which is ground zero of New York City’s foreclosure crisis, a small squad of young lawyers fans out to local courts every day to do battle with lenders, negotiate hard-fought changes to onerous loans and provide free legal representation to low-income homeowners about to lose their homes.
Now, however, the anti-foreclosure team itself is facing foreclosure.
The state’s budget squeeze has put at risk more than 120 legal aid and homeowner-counseling agencies across the state that have provided a last-ditch legal and economic lifeline to thousands of distressed homeowners.
“I am not sure I will have enough money to pay my staff by the end of this year,” said Jennifer Ching, the project director of Queens Legal Services, one of the groups whose future is threatened. “New York could soon find itself with thousands of unrepresented homeowners who risk falling through the cracks.”
…
The civil side of legal aide is chronically underfunded. This is nothing new. And there are always tons of people who qualify for help that can’t get it. The quote is technically accurate, but also misleading - NY could find itself with thousands MORE people who risk falling through the cracks. Or thousands who have representation now who would lose it.
My sister-in-law works for the criminal side at legal aide in Brooklyn. They have to be fully funded as you can’t convict someone of a crime without representation, but I’ll ask her if there are problems brewing with funding on the civil side. Not sure if the two sides share buildings or not.
Standard bankster/MNC game plan.
If you can’t get a law pass on making “robosigned” paperwork retroactively legal, take away the funding of your opponents.
The PTB have decided that in order to save the banks (and government), the FBers will be thrown under the bus, legally if possible, illegally if it is required.
Laws will selectively changed if possible, laws that are in opposition to this goal are not enforced.
Ideally, you will make them bear as much of the cost as possible. The more you screw them out of, the more money you get to keep.
Someday, historians will look back, and try to decide what day the USA officially became a “Banana Republic”.
The day Reagan was elected.
Here are a few highlights from the linked video interview with RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga (posted below):
- 3.7 million American homeowners are currently more than 90 days delinquent on their mortgages.
- It’s taking around 400 days on average to process a foreclosure.
- It will take from 3-4 years to clear out the backlog.
Professor Bear’s humble advice: Don’t buy until 2011 + 4 = 2015, as by then we will be swimming in a vast sea of formerly underwater homes.
Foreclosures Slow, but Huge Backlog Remains
Uploaded by AssociatedPress on May 12, 2011
Fewer Americans had their homes repossessed by banks or were put on notice for being behind on their mortgage payments in April compared to a year ago.
Foreclosures Activity Falls to 2007 Level on Bank Sluggishness
By Daniel Indiviglio
May 12 2011, 10:48 AM ET 3
One day, foreclosure activity metrics may again provide some indication of housing market health. Unfortunately, today is not that day. The headline above certainly looks good: foreclosure activity fell by 9% in April to near its December 2007 level, according to RealtyTrac. But this data is it’s actually relatively meaningless. It must be interpreted in the context of banks taking much more time to put defaulted properties through the foreclosure process. Since last fall, foreclosure activity has been strongly influenced by this factor, which can be clearly seen in the numbers.
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How is the red-hot spring sales season shaping up in your area of the country?
And BTW, in case any of you have forgotten, April three years ago was April 2008, which was right in the middle of the Great Recession, not to mention the year that Wall Street had a heart attack and would have died without substantial life support measures.
April home sales in Southern California hit three-year low for the month
The median price paid for a home in the region fell 1.8% from a year earlier to $280,000, DataQuick reports.
April home sales
A “sale pending” sign is displayed in a Los Angeles neighborhood. April home sales in Southern California were down 9.2% from a year earlier. (Associated Press / April 14, 2011)
By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
May 13, 2011
It is shaping up to be a silent spring for the housing industry.
Warmer days and the need for many families to make a move during the summer school recess have long made spring the peak season for buying homes. But lingering economic uncertainties and the expiration of federal tax incentives — which juiced up sales last year — have turned the market soft.
April home sales in Southern California were down 9.2% from a year earlier. The figure, the lowest for April in three years, was 25.4% below the month’s average since record-keeping began in 1988, DataQuick of San Diego reported Thursday.
The median price paid for a home in the region fell 1.8% from a year earlier to $280,000.
“The market is just kind of putzing along,” said David Emerson, a Lakewood agent with Prudential California Realty. “This should be the hottest time of the year in terms of deals going into escrow, but — especially once you consider where interest rates are — it is still a struggling market.”
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How is the red-hot spring sales season shaping up in your area of the country?
I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I was preparing a challeneg to my current assesment. The assesment didn’t change, but even my Zestimate is 50K less than the assessment.
Sorry — forgot to include the sarcasm tags…
Hi. Sorry if this is a repeat but the recent NYT article about Trump developments gone bad was a good read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/nyregion/feeling-deceived-over-homes-that-were-trump-in-name-only.html?_r=1&ref=realestate
It’s not nice to laugh at people’s stupidity but the article make me laugh out loud so hard. This one almost killed me with laughter.
“The last thing you ever expect is that somebody you revere will mislead you,” said Alex Davis, 38, who bought a $500,000 unit in Trump International Hotel and Tower Fort Lauderdale, a waterfront property that Mr. Trump described in marketing materials as “my latest development” and compared to the Trump tower on Central Park in Manhattan.
“It was almost completely worthless,” said Jeffrey Tufenkian, 49, who along with his wife, Sona, enrolled in a $35,000 “Gold Elite” class at Trump University to jump-start a career in real estate
The article did not say why the colonel is suing. My only guess is the general collapse of the RE market. Or bad construction
John Robbins, 62, a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army who is among those suing Mr. Trump, recalled being dazzled by the amenities available in the nearly 2,000-square-foot apartment that he and his wife, Rosanna, bought six years ago at the Trump Tower Tampa: granite countertops, sweeping views of the Tampa Bay, and room service from a high-end ground-floor restaurant.
The most important amenity of all, though, was the name on the side of the building. “With the Trump name,” Mr. Robbins said of his $756,000 unit, “we thought it would be a quality building and address.”
It doesn’t matter what the NY Times or anybody else says about Trump, Trump has millions of die hard followers (aka lemmings) who will defend him and his actions to the end.
It is truly amazing.
He is a boob and a pompous ass. If he gets elected president, our country is doomed.
He’ll never make it. That combover is way too obnoxious. It also screams “terribly insecure.”
I hate to point this out, but Julius Caesar had a combover — supposedly the first in history (just learned this today on NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” show).
I can handle the hair, it’s his lips that bother me– when he speaks he looks like a guppie Ugh.
Also worth noting that Hitler had a combover…
Is it a New York/Northeast Corridor thing, or what?
Out here in Flyover, he is universally scorned by everyone except the “Reality TV addicts”, mainly retirees over 60.
Gotta say this for him, though.
One time, he was flying in on one of our customer’s airplane’s, and the pilot had a problem we needed to take a look at. Grabbed one of my guys to meet the airplane.
Aircraft arrived, our customer and Trump came off the airplane.
But what we didn’t know, was that Marla was on board. In a tight blouse. And short-shorts. We were both pretty impressed. Fortunately, they got in a limo and drove off, or it might have been hard to concentrate.
Mike (the mech I had out there with me) was (and still is) eternally grateful.
It’s a downstate, metro NY thing. He epitomizes the metro NY ‘tude. It’s an act…. a shtick. It’s tough to explain if you’ve never spend time in NYC. That shtick is as unique to NY like NY pizza or pastrami. You’ll find it only in NY.
ps- He’s a flaming @sshole. Most metro NY’ers concur on this.
“But what we didn’t know, was that Marla was on board. In a tight blouse. And short-shorts. We were both pretty impressed.”
I Googled-up some photos, and despite being trim her legs lack definition like fluid retention, possible cankles suggesting heart problems, IMHO.
Trump is the master of being rich through serial bankruptcy.
Not only will he throw you under the bus, but he’ll charge you for it as well, just like your stock broker or realtor.
‘Donald Trump often appears on Fox, which is ironic, because a Fox often appears on Donald Trump’s head’ Seth Meyers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWuv2txl_5M