Bits Bucket for June 28, 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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Why is housing market stuck? This family offers one answer
By Bob Sullivan
CHICAGO — Ron and Cheryl Schmalz think they know one reason the U.S. housing market is stuck. They just spent more than two years and created about 50 pounds’ worth of paper trying to get a $300-per-month modification to their mortgage.
Nearly every month for the past two years, the Schmalzes received a warning from their mortgage holder, JP Morgan Chase, that the bank was about to foreclose on their home and that late fees were mercilessly piling up. Nearly every two months, the couple would dutifully fax in a pile of paperwork reminding the firm that they were participating in its loan modification program and making trial payments prescribed by the bank.
“We had 17 different relationship managers,” said Ron Schmalz. “They just make you file the same papers again and again and again. And each time you get a new manager, you have to start over. The last time we thought we had a permanent modification, we got another call that said, ‘Hi, I’m your new representative.’ It makes you crazy.”
There are many troubling clogs in the mortgage pipeline that are keeping the housing market stuck — lenders aren’t lending; there are too many homes for sale; there’s a lack of buyers because of poor employment prospects. But one critical clog is the limbo faced by homeowners who can’t afford their full mortgage payments any longer but who could survive if their loans were refinanced or modified. In 2009, the Obama administration launched its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), estimating it would help keep 5 million families in their home — and keep 4 million empty houses off the market, critical to the health of the housing market. At the same time, banks committed to continuing their similar, parallel proprietary modification processes.
I just helped some folks go forward with their modification. I met them house shopping, and they were decent people. I kept my word! The Neighborhood Asst Corp Of America has those big events, representing 5 of the big lenders and they have an agreement with HUD,iirc. (Same day mods.) This couple I met might have gotten involved in one of those fake class action/mod scams (pre-pay before services), so I sent them the warning information from the Ca DRE, and introduced them to NACA. Part of this couple’s decision matrics was the law firm’s Christian marketing pitch. That religious umbrella thing should have been a yellow flashing light, imho.
Not surprised. The only time we ever got taken by a car repair outfit was one that prominently displayed the fish symbol on it’s signage and advertising.
Bill in Carolina
I hear ya. Not to be critical of those religious folks, but there is an old saying:
“Superstition is the religion of the feeble mind.” Religion falls under that mindset. You are what you do and say, period.
The best car shop I ever went to was called Alpha and Omega car repair. He also had a sign inside claiming Charlton Heston as his president. I don’t think we would have agreed on much if we had gotten to talking about politics or religion.
But a good service business is a good service business.
He had my business.
i saw a car with a “coexist” bumper sticker that was illegally parked.
Unlike Thoreau, someone obviously has an arguement with someone’s god.
The other day I was tailgated, passed on the shoulder, and then cutoff by a car that had a bumper sticker”
“Relax, We On Island Time!”
Some of the worst drivers here (riding slow in the left lane, no use of turn signals, etc) have the bumper sticker:
“Wag More, Bark Less”
Maybe you wouldn’t be getting barked at if you learned how to frickin drive.
“Wag More, Bark Less”
I hadn’t looked at who posted the comment, only read part way through the comment text and said to myself “that must be Seattle”. Looked up, and lo and behold….
LOL. I actually live in Portland but was in Seattle area on the road for biz when I created my moniker. Being Portland, it still works…relatively speaking.
But yes, whenever I see that bumper sticker I know to create a wide berth around that vehicle. I basically take it as a warning that the driver expects everyone else to compensate for whatever careless move they’re about to make.
Lots of those around here, too. Seems like a noble enough sentiment, but like everything else seems to have become a political codeword.
Combining the two - gods and dogs - my favorite bumper sticker is:
“Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am”
I basically take it as a warning that the driver expects everyone else to compensate for whatever careless move they’re about to make.
I hadn’t thought that maybe it was a plea for mercy for their own incompetence. But that’s probably how I’ll see it from now on :-).
participation in HAMP was completely voluntary for the banks, though many did say they were doing it.
So, who drafted the requirements of the program and forgot to add a requirement that the bank/servicer not consider timely payments under a trial modification as sufficient to suspend any already started foreclosure procedings or at least as sufficient to not start a new foreclosure.
Seriously. Who screwed up the drafting? The idea that there would be people who were already at some stage of foreclosure procedings at the time they entered the trial modification was obvious.
“So, who drafted the requirements of the program and forgot to add a requirement [...]”
Do you really think that was an oversight?
My theory has always been that the only reason banks were so willing to sign up for the program was that it placed almost no requirements on them.
“In 2009, the Obama administration launched its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), estimating it would help keep 5 million families in their home — and keep 4 million empty houses off the market, critical to the health of the housing market.”
It may have kept 4 million non-payers in “their” home. I don`t know about the empties though. Visited 2 on Sunday in the same hood I lost the Home Path house to a crooked Realtor`s sale 2 months ago. Both empty, got in 1 and walked it. Clothes, some kid`s toys and various household items left behind in an apparent quick move that according to a neighbor happened about a year ago on both houses. The one I walked LP was filed 3/19/08 Jud filed 8/12/2010 total judgement $389,444.59 Countrywide Loans Servicing LP.
The HP house that I didn’t get sold for $162k which I would give somebody for this one and clean the house and the yard myself. But there is no one to make that offer to.
The other house next door that has been empty for a year had LP filed 9/9/2010 Countrywide Loans Servicing LP. Still no Final Judgement.
Does anybody here get it?
The banks delay modifying mortgages because it is in their interest to do so. If if were not in their interest to do so then they wouldn’t be doing it.
Jacking the FB around buys the banks time, it keeps the FBs hoping that they will somehow be able to hang on to what, eventually, will be going back to the bank.
I get it dude.
Cash is king.
Debt is slavery.
Drink lots of wine (that’s mine).
realtors are losers. you forgot that one.
These FBs are firmly inked onto the bank’s sucker list. The banks know these FBs are suckers because otherwise they wouldn’t be on their list, they wouldn’t be FBs.
So now that the banks have their sucker list all they need to do is work the list, to work the suckers on the list. And they work these suckers by promising everything but delivering nothing.
And when there is no blood left in the turnip, the bank will sell the debt to a very patient collection company, who will knock on the FB’s rental door about 12 years from now.
There it is.
No FB dollar shall be allowed to escape.
So why do people expect lenders to be less rapacious in their role as mortgage lenders than their role as CC lenders? Their goal is to extract as much money from the borrower as they can. The only real limiting factor is the borrowers ability to file for bankruptcy protection.
Totally agree, and for added reasons.
- with low interest rates seniors (and others) are now rolling their savings every year instead of five in the hope of catching higher rates later
- mucho funds removed from stocks and deposited in TBTF
- 98% of TBTF deposits now are for less than twelve months
- average mean yield on mortgages approximately 6%
- biggest real spread ever in history
We not only have a shadow home inventory but also a shadow mortgage system trying to reap as much profit now before that inventory hits the fan in the future.
Why would they do a voluntary mortgage interest reduction?
What really really really browns me off is that TBTF are reaping record profits and bonuses off a federal system that cannot afford to let the interest rates go any higher because to do so would really wreck the deficit - add at least another trillion to it if interest rates run amok.
Uncle Sam cannot allow the effect of higher interest rates on their deficit. TBTF are taking advantage of that. Sam should slap a very big tax on these excessive profits.
I know I’m going to sound like a broken record on this topic, but the banks’ taking their sweet ole time of modification delays is part of a deliberate strategy.
And that strategy is to continue looting the company (in this case, the bank) until the regulators come in and shut it down. This is what happened during the S&L crisis, and it’s called control fraud.
The difference is that this time, they are doing it with a wink and a nod from their regulators. It’s an agreed-upon strategy.
I can’t help but wonder if part of the game plan is to encourage more FBs into thinking they can live rent-free forever, only to later foreclose on myriad FBs when the economy is coming back and better, less deadbeat potential owners are in the market for homes.
Meanwhile, said FB can help cover maintenance expenses and keep out would-be vandals.
I just assume that’s how it’s going to work.
The fact that the banks start over every time they introduce a new modification manager pretty much spells out to me it’s a stall tactic and the only reason I can think for that is they don’t want to write down the asset values.
“there’s a lack of buyers because of poor employment prospects”
Plus prices are still too high.
Obama Serves Lobster Not Justice to ’Fat Cats’
By William D. Cohan Jun 28, 2011 (Bloomberg)
William D. Cohan is the author of the recently released “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World” and the New York Times bestsellers “House of Cards” and “The Last Tycoons.”
As we head into the 2012 presidential election cycle, the new, official Obama administration policy on Wall Street is crystalline: Hands off the bad guys.
Consider what Sheila Bair, the outgoing chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said at a Council on Foreign Relations event on June 9 about whether Wall Street bank executives should be held accountable for the criminal negligence that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
“I think a lot people were looking the other way when they shouldn’t have,” Bair said. “Again, where it transcends to the place of just not doing your job and to actually knowing about it and aiding it, I think that’s clearly criminal behavior and people should go to jail.”
So far so good. But Bair immediately made clear that she wasn’t accusing any Wall Street big shots of doing anything wrong: “It’s not clear that higher up that was the case. But I think that’s what law enforcement should figure out.”
Unfortunately, law enforcement is getting nowhere on figuring it out. Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, recently explained to George Packer of the New Yorker why he had not yet indicted any high- level bankers. “If the well is dry,” he said, “a thousand more people aren’t going to get you water in that well.”
An Offended Prosecutor
He then took offense to the criticism his office has received. “It bothers me a little bit when people suggest, without knowing anything, that we’re not even bothering to look,” he said. “Where there’s smoke, we take a look. Do you have any idea how much people want to bring the case if it exists? So what could be the reason we haven’t? Sometimes people say, ‘It’s because you’re beholden to these guys,’ which doesn’t make any sense. Do we look like we’re afraid to prosecute anyone?”
And yet the only prosecutions we see are tiny fish like Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and hedge-fund honcho Raj Rajaratnam, who was a slimy inside-trader but had nothing to do with causing the economic meltdown.
Well, if the justice system seems stymied, at least we can expect President Barack Obama, who in 2009 referred to Wall Streeters as “fat cat” bankers, to lead the charge. Indeed, last week he went into the lair of the Masters of the Universe and sent them the strongest possible message: He asked them to pony up $35,800 a head for his re-election campaign and to have dinner with him at Daniel, the French restaurant on Park Avenue.
How lovely. About 70 cats got fatter that night — on lobster, roasted local beets, Kobe beef — and the president raised $2.4 million for his coffers.
And yet the cabbages genuinely believed Obama would be “change we can believe in.” The looting will be even more brazen during the second Obama campaign, since the electorate has demonstrated both their idiocy and docility.
+1
Agreed, but will it be any better under a President Bachmann or Palin?
“…under a President Bachmann or Palin?”
Sounds better than moon-face Hillary; ask Bill.
Hey Wait Hill got Lady GaGa to perform in Rome’s gay pride parade…she’s good for something.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hillary-us-ambassador-instrumental-seali
I would’ve voted for Hillary over Obama any day. She’s evil to the core, but she’s also intelligent enough to know how the real world works.
Will it be better under Bachmann???
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the Minnesota congresswoman insisted she was right on the slavery claim and pointed to the career of John Quincy Adams, the nation’s sixth president who was not yet nine years old when the Declaration of Independence was drafted with the help of his father, John Adams.
Bachmann insisted John Quincy Adams, who later worked to end slavery, should be considered a “Founding Father.”
“He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary,” Bachmann told ABC. “He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery.”
But Stephanopoulos interjected, insisting that the younger Adams had never been considered one of the Founding Fathers.
“Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved,” Bachmann replied.
Isn’t it illegal to be a father at 9??
yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/bachmann-admits-john-wayne-flub-still-insists-john-141138713.html
WATERLOO (Iowa) - REPUBLICAN Representative Michele Bachmann surely meant to invoke iconic Hollywood star John Wayne as she launched her White House bid on Monday - not ‘Killer Clown’ serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Speaking to Fox News Channel from this heartland town, where she was born, Ms Bachmann said that ‘what I want them (voters) to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.’
She has the spirit of a serial killer?
I just read Matt Tiabbi’s piece on Bachmann in the Rolling Stone.
I believe that she is the first presidential candidate in my 60+ year life who actually scares me (including Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan). I cannot imagine what her presidency could do to the fabric of this country.
I never thought I would think this, but I would probably vote for Obama just to keep her away from the seat of power.
I never thought I would think this, but I would probably vote for Obama just to keep her away from the seat of power.
I can’t say that I’m the happiest Obama ‘08 voter, but if it came to the 2012 choice between Bachmann and the O-man, I’ll take the O-man. Even if I have to hold my nose while voting for him.
Does she even know that John Wayne was not born as John Wayne? (”Marion Morrison” just didn’t have that same caché on the silver screen).
The father of our country, George Washington had no children.
Bachmann is an idiot. Certifiable. She probably thinks “The Flintstones” should be on the History Channel.
Bible thumping Tea Partiers like her because she is “just like us”.
As Taibbi said in his article, her supporters vote for her because they think it will upset the “socialists”.
Soon we may know have a referendum on how far we have sunk into “Idiocracy”.
I thought the father of our country was Abraham Lincoln.
And his cousin, Continental Lincoln.
As Taibbi said in his article, her supporters vote for her because they think it will upset the “socialists”.
And these are the same people who would bitch if they don’t get a Social Security COLA increase or have to cough up a copay for their Medicare paid for motorized wheelchair.
George and Martha never had any children together – his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile.
well at least you all have a new gal to fear now.
They’re the same two dingbats to laugh at. What’s new about it?
I am sure you are all going to be just as hard on the progressives, communists and other fringe nuts running for office, I look forward to reading those comments.
Right. Communists running for office. Sounds like it’s time to take “Red Dawn” out of the Betamax.
WOLVERINES!
I can’t say that I’m the happiest Obama ‘08 voter, but if it came to the 2012 choice between Bachmann and the O-man, I’ll take the O-man.
This is why I despair for the future of this country. We might as well just turn it over to Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon and cut out the intermediaries.
“We might as well just turn it over to Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon and cut out the intermediaries.”
What do you mean, “turn it over?” They’ve been running it since Hank Paulson’s scare speech in 2008.
“Agreed, but will it be any better under a President Bachmann or Palin?”
Nope. About the only person I could see it being any different under would be Ron Paul. And he certainly seems unelectable.
“Unelectable” or not, I’ll still vote for Ron Paul over Obama, Bachmann, or whatever dwarf ends up being the GOP contender. There’s also a dark horse candidate, Gary Johnson, that I’ve been impressed with. I refuse to vote for Republicrat candidates who do not represent me or look out for my interests.
Agreed, but will it be any better under a President Bachmann or Palin?
Neither one is fit to be President, but that didn’t stop the cretins from electing and re-electing G. W. Bush. Bachmann, to her credit, at least opposed TARP, while Palin joined McCain in groveling before Lloyd Blankfein and Co. Let’s not forget that McCain also broke off his campaigning to scurry back to the Senate to vote for TARP. My own view is that the financial elites who run the Republicrat puppet show view Bachmann as unelectable, so they’ll ensure she’s the GOP candidate to ensure a second term for the Obama Administration, which is, after all, completely subservient to their agenda.
Also agreed. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I can only hope Obama is playing spy of some sort, since it’s been proven over and over againt that playing peacemaker just gets your head cut off. (I’m not optimistic.)
Dear Oxide. If you didn’t love the dream so, you would quickly conclude that he asked for cash, millions, from Wall Street, and they forked it over. He wasn’t looking at their underbellies, he was reading their palms. Graft, corruption, greed, in plain light of day, and we do love it so.
By the way, those numbers pencil out to 67 people at Danial. That lobster dinner may have netted $2.4 mil, but probably lost that much, if not more, in donations from thousands individuals who won’t donate because they are p’d off at the lobster dinner.
Because the lobsters suffered?
While millions of dupes who bought into hope ‘n change wrote checks to the Obama campaign in 2008, I’m pretty sure that in 2012 those donations will be down drastically as the vast majority of Obama supporters who don’t work in downtown Manhattan realize the New Boss is the same as the Old Boss. They’re not going to part with their hard earned money, which means Obama will be even more reliant on the banksters and multinationals to fund his relection campaign. And of course he’ll generously reward them during his second term.
“I can only hope Obama is playing spy of some sort, [...]”
No need to look for a complicated explanation where an extremely simple one will do. Occam’s razor.
Good Morning HBB’ers.
I took it for granted, the Broker we cut a deal with for a sizable rebate on our buyer’s commission was OK. (I hold a Ca License.) Well, yesterday he gave us over to his “partner”, and I got a little curious about what was going on. I looked up his License and found out we were dealing with a “Restricted License”. His DRE License check looked like a rap sheet. Now I am wondering if I signed a valid Agreement, and I am somewhat concerned about doing a deal with him, and using an Escrow Co. he is involved in. (We’re cash.) We all make a mistake in judgement from time to time, but this guy’s record looks nefarious. Yikes! (Why didn’t a do my regular due diligence!) We’re going to get to the bottom of this turn of events, and possibly change our Broker affiliation.
A life lesson here, folks. Check the License status first!
“a” is “I”, it’s pre-coffee!
(We’re cash.) = everthimg suddenly becomes: “As Is”
Hwy
Thanks for that nudge. I appreciate it. Caveat Emptor in other words!
The HBB is by it’s founding nature, a $elf-help type group gathering.
What’s a DRE license?
Awaiting,
How does one go about checking on an agent or broker’s license status. Is the info found online?
In Illinois, earnest money/down payment is typically held in escrow by the listing agent’s broker. (The rest of the closing isn’t done in escrow unless both parties agree to it in the purchase offer, and usually its not necessary) So I suppose I either have to insist that someone else hold the down payment escrow or else check the license of all the listing agents and brokers of houses upon which we make an offer.
A couple of years ago, an Escrow Agent in Newport Wa. decided to invest the agency’s trust funds in the Nigerian Scam. As I recall she lost a couple of hundred grand.
So, you can’t be too careful, thats for sure.
I’ve read that a small but significant percentage of e-mail recipients fall for the Nigerian and similar advance fee scams — people actually travel to Lagos or Kuala Lumpur or Nairobi or wherever with the expectation that a grand windfall awaits them in exchange for their simple cooperation.
After my co-2oworkers nephew fell for a “Pay the Canadian taxes on you sweepstakes winnings” scam, I said “they’re going to get that check when monkeys fly out of my but.” For the next few months, “still no monkeys,” was our catch phrase. The thing is, my co-worker TOLD them it was a scam, even sent links to web-pages that described this as a typical scam. But sometimes when people WANT something to be true, pointing out that them that is isn’t, just makes them mad.
Remember the Red State belief system: It’s not wasteful pork and welfare when people like us get it! Only when the you-know-whos get it! Bachmann will lead us away from government socialism!
Bachmann says her family did not benefit from U.S. assistance for farm, clinic
By RICHARD A. SERRANO
Tribune Washington Bureau
Sacramento Bee
WASHINGTON-Rep. Michele Bachmann deflected allegations that she and her family benefited from government assistance programs and said that hundreds of thousands of dollars to her family farm and a counseling clinic went instead to her employees and her in-laws.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that Bachmann, a Republican candidate for president, portrayed herself as a fiscal conservative while receiving government funds and federal farm subsidies. An examination of her record and finances showed that a counseling clinic run by her husband received nearly $30,000 from the state of Minnesota in the past five years, some of which came from the federal government. And a family farm in Wisconsin, for which she is listed as a partner, received about $260,000 in federal subsidies.
“First of all,” she said, “the money that went to the clinic was actually training money for employees. The clinic did not get the money. And my husband and I did not get the money either. That’s mental health training money that went to employees.”
As for the farm, she said it belonged to her father-in-law. “And my husband and I have never gotten a penny of money from the farm.”
As the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday, however, in financial disclosure forms, Bachmann reported receiving $32,503 to $105,000 in income from the farm, at minimum, between 2006 and 2009.
Bachmann will emerge as the Republican front-runner in Wall Street’s Republicrat puppet show to seal a second term for Obama and let the Federal Reserve - Wall Street orgy of looting continue unimpeded.
The only candidate Wall Street has to fear is Ron Paul. That’s in itself is enough of a reason why he won’t win. Other candidates might differ on wars, abortion, gay rights, prayer in school, flag burning, etc. but they all agree on no bankster left behind. The looting will continue until this country collapses greek style.
from “we are doomed” by john derbyshire
“The Uninted States slips gradually into the managerial state James Burnham warned of . He was a little early with his prediction, but it is coming true at last. We shall strut and fret on the world stage for a little longer as a great power, meddling for a few more years in the everlasting rancors of the Midle East and the irremediable miseries of Africa, till the thud of bombs, the whine of missles, and the rattle of begging bowls is drowned out at last by the clink-clink of devaluing dollars.
At that point the international pretense will be over. We shall retreat to our natural condition as an Inland Empire, a Middle kingdom ruled by corrupt, arrogant bureaucrats, who treat us like the peasants of imperial China.
Prehaps we shall paste pictures of these Gods of wealth to our doors at holiday season before hustling our children off to the examination halls in hopes of their one liftime shot at security and prosperity-government work
“
No they already have Romney, Pawlenty, Palin…. no need for low hangin’ fruit like Bachman.
“And a family farm in Wisconsin, for which she is listed as a partner, received about $260,000 in federal subsidies.”
Gee, I wish I was a big tough rancher or farmer. Get a nice fat check from the government every year, while I regale y’all with homespun tales of how self-reliance made America great, but now we’re losin’ it all, ’cause of them inner-city liberal socialist types who just don’t have the stomach for hard work, and just want to tax us ‘producers’ to death.
Projection.
Yet neither side in CONgress is willing to even consider downsizing that program, let alone eliminating it.
Exactly. Its Tweedle Dee vs. Tweedele Dum
The first primary is in Iowa.
That’s because many of them own or are owned by large farm interests
“Projection.”
Satire, actually. But I know these complex ideas are confusing to the conservative brain set-up.
Winning through insult.
“Winning…”
Winning!
“…through insult.”
You started it.
Or were you accusing the farmers and ranchers of projection? In which case, you are exactly right.
If you think about it, a true “family” farm wouldn’t have a partnership unless it’s another family member. I wouldn’t confuse the true family farms w/their corporate copycats. Can anyone comment on different legal designations here or is the law (intentionally?) vague?
There are still plenty of family farms around here and I think a good portion of them are barely scraping by judging by the shape of their real estate.
I agree; judging also by the shape of the vendor’s vehicles at the farmer’s markets. No shiny F250 trucks there. They look like re-purposed U-hauls or old station wagons.
The tables are made of falling-apart plywood and with crates to hold them up. Some women hide it with a tablecloth, but you can tell it’s no picnic.
There’s no money in small farm veggies; no wonder they’re all growing corn.
I heard of one very energetic and dedicated local organic farmer who recently gave up and sold out. It was her life’s work, she had an ag degree but was about 50 and the work is just too freaking hard to keep going. I think that’s why farmers used to have lots of kids.
I sold vegetables at farmers markets for 10 years. It was lucrative because my “family farm” was actually a truck farm. The family working the markets with me were my bosses kids. Boss would not have bothered with farmers markets until he understood the value of having low-overhead retail outlets when whole foods et al would stiff him on price or amount ordered. Larger farms killed the smaller organic producers and now its mainly those guys (Earthbound, Del Cabo (mexico is more lax regarding what is called organic)
Shipping organics made my boss millions till corporations caught up with demand in the late 90s. Now boss is grateful for the retail; but markets he mostly lets young people run them and he makes cameos as required as the main producer man. But one market during strawberry season can bring the farmer man 3k easy. If he actually did all the work rather than have mexicans do it; not so easy. All he has is a sore finger!
Bachman’s farm is all owned by family.
“while I regale y’all with homespun tales of how self-reliance made America great”
1$ says she is capable of shooting a Minnestoa moose, and paying her credit charge$ at Cabela’s.
Can she stop a charging Alaskan Mala-mute?
I heard the David Rockefeller pockets few hundreds of thousands each year. And IIRC so does Ted Turner, Melloncamp, Spreingsteen……..
Do they own farms too?
It was $260,000 over TEN YEARS.
In the bigger scheme of things not a big deal. But it blows holes in her I get no benefit claim.
If you are a farm owner or stand to inherit same, government payouts/price supports are subsidizing the value of your land.
Sounds like it was over five years, from this article.
How much do food stamp recipients get over the same period? (Of course, that’s a handout to the leeches. Not the same as a subsidy to an all-american farmer.)
Now that is some damn impressive hypocrisy!
Greece gripped by general strike
BBCNews
A 48-hour general strike has begun in Greece, as parliament prepares for a key vote on tough austerity measures.
Thousands of protesters have gathered outside the parliament in Athens and public transport in the capital has largely ground to a halt.
PM George Papandreou said Monday only his 28bn-euro (£25bn) austerity plan would get Greece back on its feet.
If the government loses, the EU and IMF could withhold 12bn euros of loans and Greece could run out of money in weeks.
Polls suggest that between 70% and 80% of Greek people oppose the austerity plan
It’s gonna be Iceland with olives.
No it won’t. Iceland has a population of 300,000 good solid ice people who stood up almost to the person and said “Hell, no!” when their politicians tried to emulate our own Republicrats and force them to cover Icelandic banks’ gambling losses. The Greeks, on the other hand, have been turned into a morally debased rabble by decades of socialism and official corruption that they perpetuated through their active and passive participation. Greece won’t be like Iceland at all. They will suck the EU into loaning them as much as they can, then like the Deadbeat Nation they are, they’ll repudiate the debt.
Why didn’t decades of socialism (universal health care, gov-paid college education, generous unemployment benefits), and banking corruption ruin the solid ice-people of Iceland? Did losing their skin pigmentation in order to absorb more vitamin D make them morally superior to their cousins to the south?
We Americans forget that when compared to us, every other first world nation is more socialist than we are, yet we are the ones with the mother of all budget deficits (except perhaps for Japan, whom we most resemble in many, many ways)
Our health stats are shocking compared to other developed countries. It’s fascinating watching the world “socialism” be demonized when a little more socialism is what most American’s need: health care and education they can afford.
“Our health stats are shocking compared to other developed countries”
A lot about the US is shocking when compared to other developed countries. Widespread poverty, the lack of labor rights (when I tell foreigners that there are no laws on the books in the US that mandate paid time off or severance benefits they are usually very shocked), the lowest minimum wage in the first world, the sky high cost of higher ed and healthcare, the lack of universal heathcare, our crumbling infrastructure, just to name a few shock visiting foreign acquaintances enough to where they say “We didn’t know the USA was a third world country.”
A lot about the US is shocking when compared to other developed countries.
I saw this firsthand a couple of summers ago. Was visiting my aunt in northern Vermont.
We took a drive up to Quebec, and let me tell you, the difference between that province and the state of Vermont was striking. Quebec’s farms looked neat, tidy, and prosperous. And the people seemed cheerful.
OTOH, northern Vermont looked like a tumbledown dump full of grim-faced people.
“We Americans forget that when compared to us, every other first world nation is more socialist than we are, yet we are the ones with the mother of all budget deficits (except perhaps for Japan, whom we most resemble in many, many ways)”
How much do they spend on defending their own country? We bury ourselves in debt not only to feed, clothe and house the worlds poor (and the connected rich), but also to provide these so called successful socialist democracies with de facto military support.
Greece is a battle ground at the frontier of the New Holy Roman Empire. Hold the line, at all costs.
I was thinking more along the lines of an elite force of 300 politicians and banking lobbyists, defending European financial institutions against the overpowering consequences of their own bad judgment. Spartans!
“Spartans!”
Go tell the banksters,
Oh stranger passing by,
That here, obedient to their laws,
We lied.
LOL!
Pure genius, alpha!
Icelanders were given a chance to vote on the issue,
If TARP had come to a vote by the American people it would have failed same in Greece.
Again it should also be pointed out that the big banks helped the Greek Gov hide it’s debts so the people, investors, and many others did not know the full extent of the problem.
It did come to a vote mere weeks later.
99% of Congress was re-elected.
If TARP had come to a vote by the American people it would have failed same in Greece.
in 2008, 95% of the US electorate voted for pro-bailout, corporatist, statist candidates Obama and McCain. This WAS a de facto vote on TARP, and a mandate for the banksters to escalate their economic warfare against the bottom 99% of the population. Our electorate is as docile as they are stupid.
They all took, and they are going down together.
In some ways, that sounds more fair than the U.S.
Papandreou sounds like Paulson did - there’s no alternative - his way is the only way.
We should all probably hope that the
EU bails them out because if they don’t you can bet that they will show up at our door.
I am not really qualified to run the numbers, but it seems to me that they are getting a liquidity issue bailout to try to address a solvency issue problem. Well, that and some really absurd level of tax evasion.
If the proposed solution doesn’t match the problem, there is a significant risk that the proposed solution won’t fix the problem.
A liquidity solution to a solvency problem….What are they, a bank?
The Next Mortgage Bombshell
by Jonathan R. Laing
Monday, June 27, 2011
The private insurers that cover $700 billion of U.S. mortgages are facing an onslaught of foreclosures. The big three—MGIC, Radian, PMI—are at risk.
The housing market has been a cruel goddess, destroying the finances of millions of Americans and driving the economy and financial system to near collapse.
Now the capricious deity threatens to claim even more victims, as U.S. housing prices fall to new post-bubble lows and the backlog of foreclosed properties builds ominously.
The next domino likely to topple is the so-called private-mortgage-insurance industry, which permits buyers to purchase homes without making a full 20% down payment. Private mortgage insurance covers the first 25% of a mortgage’s value against default, plus accrued interest. Some $700 billion of U.S. mortgages carry such insurance, with most of it owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and backed by the federal government.
http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/113015/next-mortgage-bombshell-barrons?mod=loans-home - -
TurboTax Timmy bailed out AIG for 100 cents on the dollar. If MGIC, Radian and PMI are current on their political donations and lobbyist largess to the Republicrats, they can expect the same deal.
Well thank goodness that the politicians and FIRE sector executives, the actual architects of this debacle, are in excellent financial shape. They’ll keep scratching each other’s backs, and the price tag is only the little people’s wealth and livelihoods.
“The housing market has been a cruel goddess, destroying the finances of millions of Americans”
And Venus was her name. No it wasn’t.
Cruel Goddess on the mountain top
Burning like a silver flame
The summit of beating that poor guy
And Suzanne was her name
Wa!
She’s beat him
Yeah, baby, she beat him
She researched it, She`s on fire
You`re a buyer
Well, She researched it, She`s on fire
You`re a buyer
Her weapons were her sub-prime loans
Brow beating every sub-prime man
Black as the dark night she was
Sells what no-one else can
Wa!
She’s beat him
Yeah, baby, she beat him
She researched it, She`s on fire
You`re a buyer
Well, She researched it, She`s on fire
You`re a buyer
Yeah, baby, she beat him
Yeah, baby, she beat him
Yeah, baby, she beat him
Man I really screwed up
She researched it, She`s on fire
You`re a buyer
Should have been
She researched it, She`s a LIAR!
You`re a buyer
Sorry RAL.
BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You’ve outdone yourself again Cousin Jethro. Great song by great performers.
But did you see the size of her garage?
YouTube - Suzanne Researched This Commercial
23 May 2006 …
We fade in on a couple standing in their kitchen, arguing about whether to buy a new house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubsd-tWYmZw - 117k -
The insidiousness of the commercial speaks for itself. This “commercial” establishes the depths the Realtor Crime Syndicate will go to keep the corruption going.
We can imagine a likely sequel. The couple suffered job loss, foreclosure, depression, divorce, and depleted retirement accounts, while “Suzanne” applied the commission towards a cruise or bad plastic surgery and now thinks it’s a good time to buy.
Why is it that this profession continues to exist?
“Why is it that this profession continues to exist?”
Good question.
And you are assuming there is something “professional” when referring to housing sales as a “profession”. Realtors are incapable of performing any productive work, hence they become realtors.
“And the insurer had to pay only if a lender took a home’s title following foreclosure.”
repeat:
“And the insurer had to pay only if a lender took a home’s title following foreclosure.”
From the article:
PRIVATE MORTGAGE INSURANCE was the brainchild of a Milwaukee real-estate lawyer named Max Karl, who founded MGIC in 1957. It was intended to allow folks with decent credit but an inability to come up with a full 20% down payment to qualify for a mortgage without all the red tape and tight restrictions that characterized high loan-to-value loans offered by the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration. Private mortgage insurance proved to be wildly popular in the days of the post World War II housing boom, backing more than 10% of all mortgages written.
The premium charged, typically 2.5% of the risk assumed by the insurers, or around 75 basis points (0.75%) of the total mortgage, was a barely perceptible part of homeowners’ monthly payments. And the insurer had to pay only if a lender took a home’s title following foreclosure.
“named Max Karl, who founded MGIC in 1957″
x1 missing “r” and Nixon could have had another communist plot to pursue.
A very small city under the gun and under the microscope
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/jun/25/manassas-parks-bond-rating-could-drop-notch-ar-1133728/
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://manassaspark.patch.com/articles/public-works-director-explains-citys-water-sewer-issues&sa=X&ei=_MEJTt60MJG10AGQ3aWvAQ&ved=0CC0Q-AsoADAA&usg=AFQjCNFmECoHEoVnGed7UQRcAHPPsDKr3A
Realtors Are Liars
Debt should be treated like a vice. Like gambling, alcohol or tobacco.
Each of these things can offer some pleasure, some benefit, taken in very small quantities. But, each of these things present a tendency for abuse and addiction, damaging the individual abusing it, and the people around him.
I propose a Bureau of Gambling, Debt, Alcohol and Tobacco (GDAT).
Government seeks to monopolize vice, not for the benefit of individuals, but to concentrate streams of wealth. I think we are pretty close to government monopoly on debt, and we are being forced to mainline.
I propose a bureau of: Storage to Influence Commoditie$ (SIC)
The Copper Cops?
enforcing the laws against steeling
Corny Copias
Put graphic images on the loan documents. Pictures of brown lawns, green pools, and cement filled toilets.
+1. And images of kids and PODS on the sidewalk.
‘Put graphic images on the loan documents. Pictures of brown lawns, green pools, and cement filled toilets.’
Pure comedy genius.
The difference between the “rich” and the merely “well-off” is that the rich can stop working if they so choose and not have their lifestyle impacted.
The well-off are wage slaves, beholden to their jobs. They could stop working for a while, but it would be like a jet in a glide, with all engines stopped. They’re losing financial altitude.
The rich don’t lose financial altitude.
I keep hearing about the 250K-plus crowd. I do see how those folks live. They are making quite a bit of money, but they just doctors and lawyers, mostly, or higher level managers. These people are always on call, work hellacious hours, and really bust their behinds for their money.
I also do know some trust-fund types. For these folks, working is optional. It has little impact on their finances.
I do think a distinction needs to be made between the 250K-plus crowd and the truly wealthy.
Agreed
I think that many of the “well off” are very vulnerable, as the lifestyle necessities (nannies, tuition, etc.) and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses status symbols (country club memberships, gyms, vacations, and cars) create a house of cards that can fall very quickly.
Also I suspect there is a sense of “I’ve worked hard and made it, so I deserve it” entitlement that makes grasping the new realities a bit harder than for working class types.
Also, thanks to whoever recommended the movie “the company men”. Nice performances.
“I do think a distinction needs to be made between the 250K-plus crowd and the truly wealthy.”
Where would you make the distinction?
I would say if more than half of your living expenses are covered by investment income (and you’re under retirement age), then you’re part of that “ownership class” our previous president liked to talk about.
Lot’s of people like to think of themselves as investors, we all like to see our 401K’s and IRA’s improve. However, in the power-struggle between capital and labor, most of us are more dependent on our ability to generate income with labor than our capital.
that is the distinction.
capital gains and dividend income - maximum rate - 15%
earned income - wages - maximum rate - 35%
The max capital gains rate is not 15%. It is whatever your ordinary income tax rate is if the capital is held for less than 1 year. So the max capital gains rate is 35%.
well…the max rate on dividend is not 15% technically. its 35 + 15 = 50% (dividends ar double taxed)
so i reckon all is well.
“well…the max rate on dividend is not 15% technically. its 35 + 15 = 50% (dividends ar double taxed)”
Huh?
“most of…the people in the…U$ are more dependent on our ability to generate income with labor than our capital.”
The tax code is bia$ed towards which monie$ accumulation pole?
Right, if you have to work for a living you are middle class. Maybe upper middle class, maybe lower middle class, but middle class.
But if you don’t have a steady job, and are forced to live off temporary paychecks as if you are little more than a day laborer, or off public assistance, you are poor.
Lots of people have shifted from middle class to poor. If you see the boom in “independent contractors” and “temps” without benefits, I think it’s fair to say an entire generation has shifted from middle class to poor.
There’s poor and there’s poorly managed.
WT:
The New America…how do we survive:
INTERN NATION: How to Learn Nothing and Earn Little in the Brave New Economy
http://sites.google.com/site/rossperlin/
From the website:
“Why does Disney World in Orlando employ up to 8,000 interns through its College Program every year?”
FWIW they are paid (but poorly). From what I have heard the kids fight tooth and nail to get into the Disney program, even though the majority of them only do menial work in the Walt Disney World theme parks and resorts. Yeah, I know John Lasseter once worked as a Janitor at Disneyland and that Steve Martin once worked at the Joke Shop and that Kevin Costner was once a Jungle Cruise skipper, but I really fail to see how sweeping the trash or serving burgers at Disney is a career enabler.
Yeah, I know John Lasseter once worked as a Janitor at Disneyland and that Steve Martin once worked at the Joke Shop and that Kevin Costner was once a Jungle Cruise skipper, but I really fail to see how sweeping the trash or serving burgers at Disney is a career enabler.
Ya gotta point there.
And here’s where I’ll confess to my own unpaid internship experience at a radio station in NYC. I had the exalted position of…
…receptionist.
It was every bit as dull and boring as it sounds. Except when The Stars came in.
My impressions? Peter Gabriel: Deeply introverted guy who had real trouble carrying on a conversation. John Prine: One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. I’m a John Prine fan to this day.
Well, the University of Michigan career planning office, which sponsored this intern program, caught wind of the nature of my internship. And since the U-M people were insisting that the interns get professional experience, the radio station was dropped from their NYC placement list.
So, in this instance, Go Blue.
John Prine: One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. I’m a John Prine fan to this day.
Hwy’s friend Roger-the-potter’s cousin.
WBAI? WNYC?
radio station in NYC
“From what I have heard the kids fight tooth and nail to get into the Disney program, even though the majority of them only do menial work in the Walt Disney World theme parks and resorts.”
One of my sister’s drama and stage-loving schoolmates was positively thrilled to get an internship at Disney. That is, until she spent the entire summer making beds. That might have changed somewhat, though. On our recent trip to Disney, we chatted up one of those photographers who take your photos all over the park; she and her coworkers were all interns studying photography. The “mousekeepers” were all older-than-college-age Latinas.
If you *have* to go to work on Monday morning, you are not rich.
The top 0.1% try very hard to blend in with the upper middle class as far as statistics are concerned. They try to convince the public that any tax or law that impacts them will impact all of America’s small businesses or will raise prices for consumers or cause the loss of jobs. They try to throw the blame onto others like public workers and pensioners. They have entire think tanks built to produce this propaganda.
The elite make money by stripping wealth from others via the manipulation of markets, via gov spending, via war, via banking. They strip wealth from corporations with executive compensation and insider trading, backdating stock options etc etc etc.
They pay effective tax rates of 15% vs those 250k workers who pay 25% and up even though they make 10-100x as much.
Some 15 years ago I had landed a software job in the $75,000 / yr region which was good at the time. A relative bought her boyfriend (a fisherman) to a party held by my wife’s folks. He started to tell me about someone he had “heard” about making $50,000 a year. “can you imagine making that?” he remarked. I jokingly replied I did not know how he could get by one that to which the fisherman laughed and said it would be nice!
Point is how much “rich” is really depends on where YOU are.
IMO at $250,000 a year you can be very comfortable and save a good amount IF you are very frugal, but at this income contrary to popular belief you are taxed to death. Wealthy? Me things not.
A single self-employed person in California (not a low-tax state) can earn $200,000 and pay $76,000 in federal, state, and self-employment taxes (38%) That’s before we start subsidizing her mortgage payments.
How much more would you recommend?
$76,000 seems like a great deal of tax to pay on $200k of income - closing on half.
I guess there is NO way we could possibly shrink our government and make it work like it used to when 10% was sufficient.
It often depends on how you make the money. If you have a job/business that allows you to live a frugal life, then 250k is a lot of money- especially in flyover.
However, if your job requires you to live in a flash neighborhood, drive a flash car, go the the best restaurants regularly, belong to the expensive clubs, then 250k a year is gonna be tough to get by on.
But I don’t think we should have to subsidize such things. At 250k, you should be living quite comfortably. If not, either you’re living in too nice/expensive an area and/or you’re living too lavish a lifestyle.
Good thing we have the progressives to tell us how we should live our lives.
Nobody is telling you how you should live. But if you can’t live comfortably and save a substantial amount on $250K per year, then I have no sympathy for you. You are making choices that doom you to the working treadmill, when with a bit less spending you could get off it a lot sooner than most of us.
The well-off are wage slaves, beholden to their jobs.
Ouch. That hits awfully close to home. Golden handcuffs, so to speak. Or perhaps silver.
“I do think a distinction needs to be made between the 250K-plus crowd and the truly wealthy.
Of course, but if you think they deserve any sympathy, just remember that they are still part of the 10% of the population that is light years ahead of the other 90%.
Mostly agreed, but I think there needs to be made a distinction between the $250K crowd and the ~$50K or so crowd. The $250K has cushy options. They can work hard and live well, or work hard live frugal and retire early on an Oil City plan, and they can survive periods of unemployment. The $50K crowd has few options. They make too much to qualify for government aid, and too little to live much better than paycheck to paycheck, and can’t survive a week without work.
And remember median household incomes vary widely…
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/10/05/median-us-household-income-by-state
Sure distinctions can be made. But at 250k they could easily live well within their means if they didn’t live in a McMansion and drive a late model high end vehicle or two. The fact is, the level of federal taxation that they are paying on that income is in all probability much less than somebody making an equivalant income 25 years ago would have been. But they live in a bigger house, have a larger TV, and quite possibly travel more extensivly than they would have 25 years ago. Like many others I’m tired of the complaints by those who spend nearly every penny that they’ve got that they’re not well off. At ~80k, I certainly don’t complain about my income. The fact that I’m single makes saving easier, but I do manage to sock away ~20k/yr into my retirement accounts, and my modest house is close to paid for. So I have little sympathy for people who manage to spend almost all of 250k/yr.
Thoreau commented that it is not how much you make, it is how much you spend.
Proof he was never homeless, hungry nor poor or he would have never said anything so simple minded.
And if he was, then he was an idiot to have forgotten.
(sorry, don’t really know his bio. not big on poets nor their bio’s)
He was an engineer, successful enough. He decided to eat beans and fish caught and live in a pond side garden shed for a year and write about his thoughts.
”
Federal Retreat on Bigger Loans Rattles Housing”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/business/11housing.html
This recent article should remove all doubt that the Realtor Crime Syndicate is the lead cheerleader for grossly inflated housing prices.
From the article;
“Reducing the limits will put more downward pressure on prices,” said the N.A.R. president, Ron Phipps. “I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense.” But he said that in contrast to last year, when a one-year extension of the higher limits sailed through Congress, “there’s more resistance.
This is apalling…. disgusting. These people are the epitome and height of corruption and greed. So much so their top leadership demonstrates so publicly.
NAR…. YOU are the problem. And it’s my job to make sure the world knows it.
There is the little problem of why we the people allow congress to be under the influence of powerful lobby groups.
To stop encouraging would be a good beginning. The loudest voices against the wealthy and big monied interests are also the most loyal supporters of the politicians who are on their payroll. It is truely ironic.
It all comes down to campaign financing and lobbying. We could elect a congress full of libertarians, and they’d be in the exact same position.
“campaign financing and lobbying” = $elf-reliance
(Hwy sense$ a sort of idealogical “conundrum”)
i’m willing to give it a go.
And nothing is stopping you.
just the idiot electorate.
Lobbying is a sympotm of a larger problem. Congress has too much power over our lives. It’s natural for people to want to influence congress in their favors. Should the teachers be not allowed to lobby? Should there be no lobby against injustice if some group sees it?
You want lobbyists out of DC than you must agree to make congress less powerful. As O’rouke said …
“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
This is just human nature. As old as the mankind. No amount of laws will change that. Bees always swarm the honey pot.
I’m thinking more in terms of other certain insects around other certain smelly things.
I posted this late last night, but I’ll say it again: I want to echo Palmy’s sentiment: now that there are many of my target houses at my target price, I don’t want one!
I want one cheaper.
There is a premium added for a nice neighborhood.
EXACTLY.
Just because we can actually afford one without committing financial suicide doesn’t mean they’re priced correctly.
I have the same sentiment. I tell any real-turd that contacts me that I want to find the same 100-200k bonus on the way down when I buy, that the flippers got on the way up when they sold. I won’t settle for 2003 prices, I want 1993 prices. I may be shooting myself in the foot in the long run, but I see any price they list today and I take 30%-50% off the top as my target price for that place. Realistic, maybe not. Sleep well at night debt free, certainly.
“but I see any price they list today and I take 30%-50% off the top as my target price for that place.”
BINGO
“I want to find the same 100-200k bonus on the way down when I buy, that the flippers got on the way up when they sold. I won’t settle for 2003 prices, I want 1993 prices.”
+1
Remember, Muggy, all good things come to those who wait.
2014 is the target date for a bottom, if there is such a thing as a bottom to this godforsaken market.
In Florida, there are many, many reasons to wait. Buyers are really getting screwed over by taxing authorities, insurance companies, etc. Stability and improvement is a long way off.
But, for example, there were some wicked downpours in my area yesterday. And I found out that a storage/golf cart garage addition to the place I’m renting gets minor flooding/seepage because of the drainage in the area. I have a suggestion for anyone buying in Florida: really check out the yard. Even in dry weather, there can be signs of past flooding in the form of crusted/dry flotsam and jetsam on the lawn. If you see this, run in the other direction no matter what.
No water intrusion into the house, it was in the covered carport area. But still I’m glad I’m renting, not a buyer.
This is how the psychology of the market is effecting the market.
The issue is generally no longer price levels, but people not wanting to buy.
Hey idgit…… people refuse to buy because of the grossly inflated price of housing.
“Hey idgit…”
RAL, your comments are getting more obnoxious by the day. Is anyone that disagrees with you an “idgit”? Why not stick to facts rather than name calling. The fact is that many markets are not “grossly inflated” and have already corrected past the historical mean. People tend to want to buy when prices are going up and sell when prices are going down. It’s not smart, but it’s been proven again and again that humans will tend to behave in this way.
Please share with us what facts you have to so definitively conclude that people aren’t buying houses because housing is “grossly inflated” and not because they’re concerned with future price declines as Rental Watch suggests?
Dear Lying Realtor,
You’re here lying. All markets are grossly inflated. Your attempts to puke NARscum will be met with fierce opposition.
For instance, your LIE that “not all markets are grossly inflated is a lie. Your lies will be exposed.
And so typical of a thoughtless foolish lying realtor, you challenge me to profide facts to support my assertion that sales are at 14 YEAR lows because prices are grossly inflated, versus your lying realtor assertion that people are “afraid of future price declines”.
Are you really that stupid to draw a false distinction between the two? I
You realtors are ignorantly pathetic and completely dishonest and corrupt.
And so typical of a thoughtless foolish lying realtor, you challenge me to provide facts to support my assertion that sales are at 14 YEAR lows because prices are grossly inflated, versus your lying realtor assertion that people are “afraid of future price declines”.
Are you really that stupid to draw a false distinction between the two? I
You realtors are ignorantly pathetic and completely dishonest and corrupt.
Wow.
Your evidence that home prices are too high is that sales are at a 14-year low (so they must be too high)?
By contrast then, when sales volumes were off the charts in 2005-2006, it was because homes were appropriately valued?
We are simply saying:
When lots of people feel good about housing, lots of homes are sold, regardless of how high or low prices are.
When lots of people feel bad about housing, very few homes are sold, regardless of how high or low prices are.
AND
People feel good when prices are going up;
People feel bad when prices are going down.
“The issue is generally no longer price levels, but people not wanting to buy.”
Wrong. If prices were lower, I’d want to but. Price is driving my “psychology.”
I understand your position.
However, there is a significant population of potential buyers out there who, if they believed home prices were going to rise after the collapse, would jump into the market quickly, and are only sitting out because they think prices will be lower later.
This assertion is simply based on the affordability measures, which shows that price isn’t the barrier that it once was for people (affordability levels are at or near all-time highs). If price is no longer the barrier, then the barrier must be something else. It could be either:
Availability of financing; or
Psychology/sentiment
Based on the fact that loan applications are pretty weak, my money is on psychology/sentiment.
I understand your position.- No you don’t. You conveniently ran from Muggy’s fundamental point that as a buyer, he believes prices are grossly inflated. And he’s right.
“there is a significant population of potential buyers out there”- Prove it. Substantiate it. Don’t be a realtor about it.
“sitting out because they think prices will be lower later.”- You’re too blinded by your own Housing Crime Syndicate ideology to realize that everyone knows this to be a fact.
“This assertion is simply based on the affordability measures, which shows that price isn’t the barrier”- It wasn’t a barrier when the entire country was committing financial suicide from which they will never recover from. It isn’t a barrier now either. Prices are grossly inflated. Everyone knows it except for NARscum.
Get a real job.
Fair enough, I get what your saying. Then, yeah, consider me a guy that doesn’t want to buy because I believe the market will keep going down. Price is no longer a barrier in my zone - I’d say that my personal price barrier went away in 2010.
The problem now is, things in some REALLY nice neighborhoods are within reach,
Snake, I don’t know if you saw my post the other day, but there are some homes in Don CeSar Place going below $200k. That is a NICE neighborhood. You’d have to get into a fundamental school system, but as far as “Florida nice” goes, to me that’s it.
RAL, for the last time, I’m not a realtor.
And Muggy just admitted, he is one of those people that could buy at current prices, but chooses not to because he believes prices are going to drop further.
There was a study done recently that revealed that for something like 20% of all renters, down payment was not a barrier to buying. Multiply 20% by all renters in the US (approximately 35 million households), and you get 7 million renters that very likely could buy.
I was a renter, and just bought.
A friend of mine who also was lamenting the housing bubble just bought.
Another friend of mine who is about to get married and was lamenting the housing bubble with me is now considering buying.
Muggy, I hear you. We only bought because we found a fantastic house for ourselves on a cul-de-sac, in the best school district around, where the prior owner meticulously maintained the home. If you think you can get to the really nice neighborhood, my only advice is this–look hard and be ready to act when the home you’ve been waiting for arises.
“I was a renter, and just bought.
A friend of mine who also was lamenting the housing bubble just bought.
Another friend of mine who is about to get married and was lamenting the housing bubble with me is now considering buying.”
So you locked in your losses for the next 30 years. If you’re not a used house pimp, why are you hear encouraging others to make the same stupid mistake?
Answer the question.
I didn’t see your post about Don Cesar Place Muggy — I don’t usually frequent the bits bucket and only did so today because I found something off-topic that I wanted to share. But I agree that a house in a nice neighborhood below $200,000 here would be very tempting, even if you are extremely bearish about this state and country. During the bubble places like that would have been selling for over $400,000.
I bought because I wanted a nice place for my kids to grow up, and the rentals around here didn’t cut it. Most are expensive for the quality with only short-term leases available (the owners are away for work for a short term and don’t want to sell the home, etc.). Both my wife and I grew up in the same house, from birth to college. We liked the stability growing up.
Most on this board have been lamenting high prices for years because they too would like to set down long-term roots.
Some will never buy, as they believe that renting is simply how they want to live…being tied to a home is not what they want (they want mobility, etc.), and don’t want the cost/hassle of maintenance.
I have been at the same job for ~15 years. My wife is tied to the major industry in the area. We aren’t going anywhere.
The home we purchased allows the quality of life that we want to live with our children (quiet street, good schools, etc.), and has room that will allow frequent and easy visits from grandparents (guest room is downstairs).
If one never wants to buy, then they shouldn’t ever buy. I lived for 10 years with people telling me I should buy and that rent was throwing money away. I laughed after doing the math and continued to rent. One guy told me to wait for the next recession and then buy…I waited two recessions because the first didn’t result in any home prices falling.
If one wants to own a home, then I believe today is as good a time as any to look. In the hardest hit markets, homes are selling for less than the cost to build–unless you believe that raw materials are going to cost fewer $’s in the future (if you believe in the weakening $, this won’t be the case). I voted with my wallet. If one doesn’t want to own a home, they shouldn’t, no matter how cheap homes get.
“homes are selling for less than the cost to build–”
Wrong again.
Try $51/sq ft for new construction. And earning profits doing it.
Question for Floridians: if a lien in filed against a property, is it done in the county where the property is, or in the county of the entity filing the lien?
I’m starting to think I will never be satisfied with A. sellers chasing the market down B. my realtor sticking to the price point he has in HIS head.
How much does a title search cost? And what does a title company use that I don’t have access to with a few clicky-clicks?
“How much does a title search cost?”
Probably a few hundred bucks, if it’s a simple one. The more complex, the more $.
“And what does a title company use that I don’t have access to with a few clicky-clicks?”
Many of the records still need to be searched at the ‘vault’ or whatever at the county land office. Not all that info is on-line. You can search there yourself, if you like, but it may require some help from someone who knows how to do it.
As far as searching the MERS registry- I have no idea. Let us know if you do it, you could probably hire yourself out as a consultant if you figure it out. No one else seems able to.
“As far as searching the MERS registry”
First you have to answer the question, why is a raven like a writing desk? Then you will know how to search the MERS registry.
A realtor is always going to want you to spend as much they think they can convince you to spend since they get a percentage of what you spend.
My first law firm paid for a realtor to show us apartments. I gave my guy a reasonable price range for the area I was targeting. First meeting, he showed me at the very top of the range and something tragically wrong with each one. One had giant holes in one of the internal walls. One was a tiny dark basement studio. There never was a second meeting.
I rented a workable (though small) studio for less than half the top end of my range a week or two later.
I had a friend meet the Lying Realtor at a house in Sussex County, DE to do a walk through. She showed up driving the obligatory Hummer, had no answers to very basic questions, started her lying by suggesting there were “many interested buyers” in the the dump and that business “couldn’t be better”.
When will the Lying Realtor Crime Syndicate abandon their corrupt practices?
Sounds like your friend was looking at a house that’s a flipper magnet (i.e. low priced dump).
Before she left the business, I took my agent’s comments that “business was picking up” to mean that she might, just might, have some potential clients in the pipeline besides us. Or that she got a listing interview on a short sale.
No. I had him check out a grossly inflated dump built in 1999. Price? $315k. What it’s worth? Maybe 150-190k.
“had no answers to very basic questions”
Did you ask her where she planned on buying her Hummer replacement parts?
She’ll just trade it in on the next cool thing.
Long-time HBB posters know of my enormous hostility towards McMansions. I occasionally have used the word “Versailles” to describe them. Well, the language is no longer hyperbole. As I write this a 67,000 square foot replica of Versailles is being built here. And it’s not part of a theme park.
http://tinyurl.com/4xmvffa
So what’s the motto above the gated entry? Let them eat cake?
The political outcome of that era, and the fate of its beneficiaries, is completely lost on those Americans who wish to live in a similar manner. The dam might not break in my lifetime, but when it does, the flood will wash away the humble as well as our aspirational royalty.
Bend over Germany?
Anyone who lives in the Tampa Bay area knows that Avila is a complete joke. A real Potemkin Village if I ever saw one. It looks completely absurd.
The funniest thing about Avila is that it is the name of the birthplace of Mother Teresa.
It reads like it is a spec house. LOL!
And it looks like a cheap spec house. Lots of square block piled on each other, as if it were a modular home. Cheap construction is easy to spot. There’s something flat and unproportional about it.
None of this stuff will be standing 80 years from now. None.
“The 6-acre Avila spread, modeled after a 17th century British royal palace,”
Mi$$ing in America: The personification of European “Royalty”
Who needs royalty when you have Kim Kardashian and Brangelina. And Justin Bieber. And Joel and Victoria Osteen. (This is mah Bahble: Ah aam whut it sez Ah aam; Ah have whut it sez I have; Ah kin do whut it sez Ah can do…)
I wonder if all those railing are plastic or foamcore…
Saw a McMansion in Darien CT a few months back and yes those “Greek” railings were NOT WOOD!
Little known fact about Versailles - it was built with no bathrooms.
What’s the French word for Chamber Maid?
And here’s another fun fact: There are no public bathrooms at the White House. I found this out during a tour when I was in fifth grade. Man, I had to go.
The good news was/is that the National Archives does have public bathrooms. And that’s where my school group went after the White House ordeal.
So does the Supreme Court Building. The marble is nice.
I think the closest public restroom to the White House is in the Renwick Gallery. I used it once when the water was out in my building. They had to send us home as you can’t keep people in a building with no toilets, but I had a meeting with an executive and I knew he was going to be there, so I stayed.
Corcoran Gallery might be closer to the back entrance, but you have to pay to get in. Renwick is a Smithsonian building (part of American Art) so it is free.
So where did Forest go pee after having his 17 Dr. Peppers?
That’s what the empty bottles are for.
More proof that money can’t buy taste.
Mega Bank$ Inc. seems to be having a difficult time gettting their pimp co. rap sheet espunged.
Rich? Have We Got the Credit Card for You:
Robin Sidel, On Monday June 27, 2011 / WSJ
From cash to frequent-flier miles, issuers such as Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Capital One Financial Corp. are scrambling to take customers away from one another, and to get their own checking-account and mortgage customers to take on new credit cards.
U.S. credit-card companies mailed 1.4 billion offers for new credit cards in the first quarter of 2011, a 69% jump from 826 million a year earlier, according to Mintel Comperemedia. Roughly 60% of the pitches sent out in the first four months of the year included some sort of incentive
“There is an industrywide trend by issuers who are trying to draw attention to their products, and part of the way they are doing that is through attractive initial terms,”
There are fewer adn fewer crill with any nutritional value and now the whales are fighting over them.
Reminds me of one summer in the early 90s when MCI, Sprint, and the other big one of the time were competing like mad for each others customers. One of them offered me 100$ to switch to them, so I did. Them another offered me 60$ to switch to THEM, so I did that. Then my original company called me up and offered me 50$ to switch back to them. Which I did. The payments were immediate, and came with no requirements to remain for any specific term. I think they were all trying to pump their numbers. I never got the offers again, but it was fun while it lasted.
There once was a pervert named Weiner
Who had a perverted demeanor
Forced from the Hill
For acting like Bill
Now Congress is one weiner leaner
I couldn’t help myself. Friend forwarded it to me.
I’ll fess up: I just forwarded that as well. Too funny!
Best political pome ever: (firedoglake about (?) years ago)
An accident it must have been
And not a planned attack
Cuz Cheney shot him in the face
Instead of in the back.
Real estate news from Charlottesville.
C’ville is a nice town. It’s walkable, in a beautiful geographic area, nice Univ climate, hospital is an economic engine, tourist destination, businesses, research center. Retirees like it because of the vibe - it’s enough of a town to be civilized, and it is not stagnant. The usual spiel is they’re close to the pizazz of DC, but once they get down there, DC is distinctly distasteful by comparison.
Oldest child just went through Ph.D. defense, and got her first grown up job in a DoD agency. Growing up as she did in New England, she previously had a marginal disdain for the Fed govt in all of its manifestations, thinking it was an extension of the bloated and ignorant infrastructure masquerading as state employees in CT. I did tell her that the professional levels in FedGov draw from a nationwide pool, and that the folks who are in place didn’t get there through BS, and that she was likely to be very, very surprised. After two weeks, she is flabbergasted to have to admit that she works with a peer group she’d rank higher on just plain smarts than those she worked with during her Ph.D. program.
Real estate: She rents a basement in a house that’s a few miles south, nice little neighborhood, surrounded by trees, idyllic even by my jaded standards. “Basement” back patio looks back into a vast expanse of yard bordered by woods. “Basement” is more spacious than my apartment in Northern Virginia. She is paying less than 60% of my rent. As Oxy sez, rent rates/house prices here are a tax that you pay in order to stay employed. Similar to the tax of avoiding debt etc. to keep your credit record clean.
This little neighborhood is filled with modest 2 story or 2+basement houses, circa 50s. During the bubble runup, 2003-2007, they were going for $400-$430K. There are NOW new listings here under $200. One house went into foreclosure - the last price before it sold was $130K.
So the bubble is deflating even in C’ville.
One of my middle aged friends was a highly placed corporate type in a company (TX) that had a widespread bloodletting in the recession of 2000. He and family moved to C’ville, thinking to start from scratch. He started up a consulting firm to match unemployed and underemployed large segments of people (think furniture factories) with retraining programs, funded by state and local governments. He scrambled for two years, and gave up. His assessment: it is a nice town, but very bifurcated - “you’re either on the third shift or the third million”. Despite the fact that he is the networking sort, he simply was not able to network in to the agencies sponsoring this kind of thing. Thankfully, since he is the networking sort, he landed a decent job at one of the defense contractors around DC. His wife was laid off two years ago from similarly decent job up here, and has not worked since. She is still holding on for the next big job.
Thanks for the local report!
Charlottesville is too far to commute to DC, but probably had a run-up due to its being named “best place to retire” in the mid-00’s.
Repost from late in day yesterday: Here’s something that’s probably difficult to quantify but I’ve been wondering how many of us are out there wtg for the sthtf, wtg to purchase, wtg to for a buying opportunity. I don’t mean how many hbbers but how many Americans. Or even what’s the proportion worldwide that is reading up every day and just watching, waiting.
I know there are no answers for this. Truly I wonder when market capitulation comes if I’ll even want to buy or if I’ll feel like there’s a better place for that still dry powder. Personally I’m looking forward to be able to talk about it all publically even though I think the hbb and several other sites are the best thing since sliced bread. Of course I’d still show up every day for the intelligent & insightful discourse as long as Ben still felt like making this space available.
But I have a hunch the reveal is nigh. And athough it’s ultimately frightening there’s a piece of me that is just so ready for J6pk and his higher income deniers to get a clue…..and then the real work begins.
***********(answering last nights response)
Muggy, I have hbb doctrine shoot through my head several times a day too. Presently we’re not even looking. It’s obvious to me others looking at our price niche are completely motivated by nothing more than low interest rates and turn key opportunity. This was not true in 2008 when people were afraid of losing their jobs. The price/sq foot in my particular market is the same as it was when I started reading the hbb years ago, and I watched new inventory at my price point disappear in days last month. I’m not even remotely interested in being out there in this environment and I can’t help but wonder what will happen this fall that will make them all realize they jumped the gun. Oh well, all the fewer I have to compete with when the sh really does hit the fan.
The problem for me is that being at the point in life that I can and should only buy for cash, I am long enough in the tooth to not be around when this all finally unwinds. Still, I don’t want to throw my money away on buying!
We might be bumping that age ceiling too. All the more reason not to overbuy.
We got a real estate advertising section with our Sunday Chicago Trib that listed homes for sale in northern Michigan, Traverse City area. My husband looked it over last night and commented that at these prices, he might actually consider buying for our retirement. This morning I did some more casual looking online. There are hundreds of nice places, many of them waterfront, for sale up there. What a change from the height of the bubble. Still not ‘cheap’ but prices are down and inventory is way up. We will keep an eye on the situation. A few years ago I would have dismissed moving up there as a pipe dream.
Do you have family up there? Man, after living in Chicagoland the last thing I want to do is move further north. But moving closer to family and friends - that I can understand.
Have you ever been up there? It is absolutely gorgeous. You do have to like winter, however!
On some days I am resigned to the fact that it might be a long time before I buy, or it may be less time and I do my best to calculate how much knife I want to catch, other days I just get pissed. I know that doesn’t help, but the banks are really effing everything up. Everyone in Florida knows it will be a long time before any paperwork gets done. There are homes on the market now, at the same price as they were last year. Why wouldn’t sellers keep wishing? Why wouldn’t banks extend and pretend?
Looking this year was MORE frustrating than last year, even without the tax credit. Most of what I see is still garbage, or, listed at full price but needs a new roof or whatever. This is why I might actually start looking at foreclosures, but I can’t think of a worse state to take that risk.
I made the mistake of looking online to see what is out there in the SFH rental market. NOTHING or something crazy like $2,200/mo. for a shitshack in Mid-Pinellas. So now I need to bunker down and hope my LL doesn’t raise my rent so much that I need to move.
Which reminds: my lease expires in 2 days. It simply calls for mo. to mo. with 60 days notice from either party form here on out. Should I try to re-up or let that tiger lie?
My landlord has made noises about putting the house I rent up for sale next year. If that were to happen, I might have to buy, because my wife and I are looking to start our family and under those circumstances I don’t know if either of us are up for repeating the effort it took to find a stable long-term renting situation.
As for your question, I would re-up, because I don’t believe we are at the bottom. My best-case scenario is a Japan-style long-term real estate deflation.
Remember a signed yearly lease goes with the sale of the house…..
and it works both ways, if the LL or new owner wants to beak it they would have to pay you to move…..could be a way to get your stuff moved to the new digs without you breaking a sweat,
I think you are out of luck in a foreclosure.
People have short memories…the sh already hit the fan. We were at a point where the financial system as we know it nearly collapsed. People I know were maxing out how much cash they could take out every day to have in the event of a banking system collapse, or buying guns, or gold, or food, etc.
We are now dealing with the aftermath of a credit crisis, a slow recovery, and deleveraging of an entire financial system. It won’t be pretty, but we will likely not have complete financial collapse–instead have slow and painful growth.
If you simply look at housing as shelter (not an investment, or as an asset, etc.), as a consumer of housing, you should be looking for the best living situation for the cheapest cost.
During the bubble, they did not do that, buyers made irrational current decisions (paying way more to own than rent) based upon rational expectations of the future based on trendlines.
People are now making irrational current decisions (in many markets paying more to rent than own) based upon rational expectations of the future based on trendlines.
Once it becomes more and more clear (in any market), that the price reductions are largely behind us, the expectation that values will continue to fall will seem more and more irrational, and buyers will pour off the sidelines, making the rational current consumption decision for shelter.
You make a good case Rental Watch, except that we are not post crisis in the least. We are in the early stages of contraction of the largest credit expansion in history. That slow and painful growth you speak of comes after this phase ends, not at the beginning.
Hey, JMO.
IMHO, we are post crisis, we are not post deleveraging.
I do not consider deleveraging the crisis, but part of the aftermath.
In any event, regardless of what we assume will happen with growth, etc., the realities on the ground (rents vs. ownership costs, etc.) are true. Rational economic decisions will follow, one way or another…
“the sh already hit the fan”
You are delusional if you believe that. There’s $2trillion plus in borrowed money that prevented the real unwind from ever happening.
I’m truly stunned how you can come here every day and not understand how much of our economy is being held up by government intervention. That is not recovery.
Oh and honey rental watch, dear. I’ve got $10k in property taxes attached to anything I buy so it’ll be a long time before my rent becomes more than what it would cost me to buy unless we’re talking about buying in a different market which really isn’t apples to apples now is it? Several properties that caught my eye were asking for $13k/year taxes. Of course we just laugh at those. I should be just laughing at the $10k but that would mean we should just move.
Several properties that caught my eye were asking for $13k/year taxes
I know I’ve heard these east coast horror stories before, but it never ceases to blow me away just how much property taxes you guys pay.
All the money that has been poured into the economy has gone no where but the balance sheets of banks and corporations. It is not supporting/causing lending, capital investment or job growth.
What good are lower interest rates (which is what happens with the Fed buying treasuries) if no one wants to borrow and invest, and no one wants to lend? QEII failed to make any difference because of the fear and uncertainty in the markets.
Certainly property taxes are different everywhere. In CA, it’s 1% of home purchase price, and then protected by prop 13 (can’t go up by more than 2% per year)–not the biggest impediment to buying. Other states are clearly different.
And a quick FYI-
I have been on the finance end of the real estate market for about the last 15 years or so. Today, what we are seeing is this:
Very low interest rates and very conservative underwriting (ie. inability to borrow money even on a historically reasonable basis).
My recurring belief that the Fed’s actions aren’t doing anything but sowing the seeds of inflation is based on the fact that I’ve seen no change in the finance markets, but a slow recovery based on banks’ balance sheets getting better, and their shareholders demanding that they try to make money again.
Businesses on the ground make money when people feel secure in their jobs enough to spend money that they have, or to borrow money and then spend it.
People don’t feel secure in their jobs, and they are having a hard time borrowing money even if they wanted to, which is why the savings rate ticked up again last month.
The Fed is not supporting the current level of activity, they are pumping money in trying to get increase the current level of activity, and they are failing to do so because people and corporations are not taking the bait out of fear.
So, how are the banks making money now, when they won’t lend and folks won’t borrow?
In short, they have existing loans and the Fed is letting them borrow money for free. Some banks are now trying to restart lending, as their shareholders are demanding that they grow.
QEII is independent of Fed Funds. FF will stay at close to zero for a while longer.
Don’t get me wrong, banks are lending, just not that many banks, and those who are lending aren’t lending much. We just closed a loan with a bank. It was a pretty simple loan for them, leased building, with new leases to good tenants, low loan to value, lots of cash flow, etc.
However, in “normal times” we might have been able to get 2-3 different banks interested. In crazy times, it would be more. In this case, it was 1.
The other banks (that aren’t lending), are trying to repair their balance sheets, and so are in hunker-down mode. The zombie banks may survive, or not. Since the FDIC is almost out of money, I suspect we will see the zombie banks continue for a while.
What’s the interest rate for a commercial RE loan?
The one we just closed was 6.5%, fixed for 5 years. 65% LTV (35% down). Income currently is about 1.5x the debt payments (that’s after all property expenses). After leasing the last little bit of space, income goes to about 2x the debt payments. Very good debt coverage. In “normal” times, 1.3x-1.4x debt coverage would be considered acceptable.
If you want to borrow on something without cash flow (perhaps an empty building that needs leasing, or a building where you need to renovate in order to move in tenants that have already signed leases), we are commonly seeing a need to go away from traditional bank lenders, in which case the interest rate goes to 8.5% or 9%, regardless of loan to value.
We purchased a different asset earlier this year without cash flow, and wanted to borrow about 30% of our purchase price, which was approximately 15% of replacement cost, and no bank would touch it. The building needed no renovation, just leasing. We ended up borrowing at 9% with 70% down.
In more normal times, you could get a bank to give you a bridge loan to complete a rehab and move in tenants. Generally not today without big personal repayment guarantees.
You could also get a bank to lend you 50% LTV on an empty building that required lease-up. Not today.
The rates in both cases would be closer to that 6.5%-7.5%. Going non-bank is adding 2-3% to rates.
April Case-Schiller report is out. The headline says prices are up in 13 of 20 metro areas. But then halfway down the article it says…
“The positive data released Tuesday came with a caveat: It was not adjusted for seasonal factors. When looking at seasonally adjusted numbers, prices actually fell.”
LOL!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Spring-buying-boosts-home-apf-3361254249.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
The only numbers that matter are year-on-year. Only one market was positive in that regard.
Reposting for those who missed Erik’s comment late yesterday:
Comment by Erik
2011-06-27 17:26:16
[...] I was a realtor during that time period and bailed out in 2002 because I couldn’t take it any more and felt guilty for screwing all the willing victims who couldn’t see the hand writing “mene mene tekel upharsin”.
on the real estate market’s party wall.
Wow, a realtor with a conscience! I knew there had to be at least one honest realtor out there somewhere!
Welcome, Erik…
The most surprising is that he bailed out in 2002! Real estate was still mostly sane in 2002. 2003-2007 must have been unimaginable.
Could have been worse, they could have been jockeys.
Police: Money dispute leads Boynton Beach man to set roommate’s shorts on fire
By Cynthia Roldan Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 11:49 a.m. Tuesday, June 28, 2011
BOYNTON BEACH — A 58-year-old man is in jail this morning over aggravated battery charges, after police say he lit his roommate’s boxers on fire during an argument over rent money.
This morning, a judge ordered Jonathan Steinberg, of Boynton Beach, held in lieu of $30,000 bond, and that he undergo a mental health assessment.
According to the arrest report, Boynton Beach Police were dispatched to the 1600 block of Northeast Fourth Street around 4:07 p.m. Monday.
When the responding officer arrived, 52-year-old Ronald Rohde said he and Steinberg were arguing over rent money when Steinberg left the room and returned with rubbing alcohol.
During the argument, Steinberg poured alcohol on Rohde, the report stated. A witness to the argument attempted to break the fight, but was pushed to the side.
As the struggle continued, Rohde says Steinberg cut his back with a screw driver, the report stated. Rohde says he then noticed that his boxer shorts were on fire. He said he immediately took them off, changed and called the police.
According to the report, Rohde was taken to Bethesda Memorial Hospital and treated for “minor to moderate burns.” He was later released.
heated argument.
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”
Wait, is it Christmas time yet?
I’d sooner live under a bridge than have “roommates.”
Today’s houses in the DC area from Zillow:
This section of the DC area is levitt-town-like development built mid-50’s. It’s a good area if you want to learn Spanish by immersion.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12116-Valleywood-Dr-Silver-Spring-MD-20902/37301209_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
Kind of an odd small house
Sold for $380 in 2007
Listed for $160K now.
Just one photo, so it doesn’t say much.
Next we have the nice little commune:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3308-Floral-St-Silver-Spring-MD-20902/37300145_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
Sold 2006 $415K
Listed now $150K.
Has cutie patootie potential, but:
912 sq ft, 7 bed, 2.5 bath. RED FLAG.
(zillow must report # bed from the seller but sq ft from the public record. Makes it easy to spot illegals communes.)
——
And, a couple neighborhoods over, :
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1018-Crawford-Dr-Rockville-MD-20851/37102932_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
Cute, some potential. Small lot, but this is a better part of town.
LOTS of listing activity. Highest price $329K in 2007, now $190K.
——-
The trend I’m watching is at what price point I see a switchover from mostly attached product to mostly SFH for sale. In the nicer neighborhoods, that price point is around $230K.
The PITI on these sub-$200K houses would be approximately HALF my rent. It’s getting to the point where I can’t afford to wait for a bottom.
912 sq ft and SEVEN bedrooms? The size of closets, maybe. Or five of them are in the basement. Along with 1.5 baths.
It does seem to be getting to the point where you will find a house you like at a reasonable price. Whodathunkit?
I don’t know how they got seven bedrooms. There’s probably a garage converted into two beds, and two beds plus another bath downstairs.
And while I’m in the mood, here’s a house from the famous Oil City:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13-Gateway-Dr-Oil-City-PA-16301/78771154_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-list-address}
Foreclosed run-down raised ranch from 1970. But it has a walk-out basement opening directly to a 0.6 acre yard with few trees and some neighbors. With some work it would be a good homestead. $67K — which is LESS that what it sold for in 2001. But looking at the map, I’m wary. There doesn’t seem to be a major city within 70 miles. I would want a Wal-Mart or a Tractor Supply nearby too.
Wasn’t ByeFL always talking here about how he planned to move to Oil City? Does anyone know if that ever happened? I recall that somebody finally got fed up and told him to move already, and after that he rarely posted.
“The PITI on these sub-$200K houses would be approximately HALF my rent. It’s getting to the point where I can’t afford to wait for a bottom.”
See my comment above on exactly these kinds of decisions that will start to be made…
Unless you intend to move out of the area, or your quality of living would fall dramatically, or you rationally expect rents to fall, or rationally believe that values will fall by another 50%….the rational economic decision is to buy, even if values are 10-20% higher than today based on the rent/own math you are describing.
If you buy today, and look back 5-7 years from now, I suspect you will be happy that you did, regardless of whether you timed the bottom perfectly. You can rent your house and own your money, or own your house and rent your money…and today, in many places it is way cheaper to rent your money.
Oxy,
There is no hurry. Prices will continue to fall for decades to come as 70 million boomers head to the grave leaving 40 million additional, unused empty housing inventory stacked on an already record high housing inventory. The demographics don’t lie.
Also, these places you’re looking at can be built new for the same or less. In many cases, a fraction of the asking price.
Don’t allow yourself to used by the Housing Crime Syndicate.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html
US population projected to be 392 million by 2050.
US population today is about 307 million, growing at about 1% per year.
If homes could be built for less, then builders would do so, undercut the market and make a profit. Builders are struggling to make a profit.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
I build for a living my Lying Realtor. I know building costs. It’s my stock in trade.
Hwy’s is $pending U$ Fed Inc. re$erve notes in the fine city of San Diego this week. Mr. Cole is supplementing is public education with an Art Camp in Spanish Village & (of course) a train camp at the train museum in Balboa park. I’m at an Internet cafe in Hillcrest that Mr. Professor Bear might enjoy: Cafe Libertalia on 5th ave. aka, Mises West
Bought a hat at the village hat shop, breakfast at the Crest Cafe. On walk-about the neighborhood, noting and watching the people go ’bout their “Bidness” saw many many jobs being done that if their salary was $7.75 per hour America could be saved from her fast approaching financial implo$ion. (When eyes look out my brothers “bidness” window in San Francisco I mostly see the facade of the Pacific stock exchange.) Thinking of the difference between the view here at SD street level vs his top looking down view in SF I decided to place a $20.00 bet with him that America will not be a U$ Dollar Debacle by this Christmas 2011. He’ll take the bet on accounts he believes he can beat me at anything all the time. I’ll just consider my winnings as an additional “All aaaaaaboard! Amtrak” discount to start off with in 2012. 
More junk-data placed in an Amish mailbox.
LulzSec Members Apparently Outed:
An anonymous post claims to put names to four of the group’s six members, leading security experts to predict imminent arrests.
By Mathew J. Schwartz InformationWeek
June 28, 2011
The anonymous post makes another interesting point: LulzSec said it was railing against dishonest white-hat and gray-hat hackers who make a buck by capitalizing on businesses’ security fears and ignorance. But LulzSec’s hacking spree has arguably led more businesses to contract with security professionals of the type LulzSec claims to detest.
“What’s funny to us is that these kids are all ‘Anti-Security’ yet by releasing their hacks they are forcing these companies to have to hire security professionals which keeps the Security Industry that they are trying to expose and shut down, in business,” according to the post.
Small and midsize businesses are falling prey to cyberattacks that cost them sensitive data, productivity, and corporate accounts cleaned out by sophisticated banking Trojans
Small and midsize businesses are falling prey to cyberattacks that cost them sensitive data, productivity, and corporate accounts cleaned out by sophisticated banking Trojans
All the more reason to keep the sensitive stuff off internet accessible systems.
Of course you could move everything to the “cloud”. That way when it gets hacked you won’t be alone in being victimized.
Toasted cranberry bagel, coffee & 1/4 mile walk to the FREE street parked rental car, yikes!:
Third World America: Drowning in Debt and Choking on Lies:
Janet Tavakoli
President, Tavakoli Structured Finance
We’re told we are a great country and we can “grow our way out of it.” Exactly how does that occur, when jobs are going overseas, taxes for the wealthiest in our country are uncollectible after exploiting tax breaks, and programs for investment in infrastructure and production are virtually nonexistent?
America’s biggest problem by far is that capital spending in new production facilities that create jobs and real products never occurred, not even after trillions of dollars were thrown at banks in the global financial system.
Why are we giving huge tax breaks to job creators again?
So they can bid up commodities? And invest overseas?
Only a socialist would suggest they pay the same rates on their income as we pay on our income.
Thank god we have a great high speed rail system and an expanding manned space program and the fastest Internet and most advanced personal energy conservation systems in the world.
Oh wait… no we don’t.
But we gots lotsa nuklar bombs, by god!
The Greek public does not want any bailout tied to “austerity” period.
Police clash with rioters as general strike turns violent
Police fired tear gas in clashes with protesters in Athens on Tuesday during a crippling 48-hour strike, as parliament debated a new austerity plan. The plan, unpopular with the Greek public, is a necessary step in receiving a second bailout.
Reuters - Greek police clashed with groups of hooded youths in central Athens on Tuesday at the start of two days of strikes and protests against cuts demanded by international lenders as the price for more financial aid.
As Greece teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, parliament is due to vote this week on a package of spending cuts, tax increases and privatisations agreed as part of a massive bailout aimed at averting the euro zone’s first default.
Labour unions have called a 48-hour strike to protest against the measures and more than 5,000 police were deployed to the centre of the capital to deal with expected trouble as a crowd officials estimated at some 20,000 rallied in Syntagma Square, in front of the parliament building.
The rally was initially peaceful but by early afternoon, smaller groups of youths numbering in the hundreds hurled rock chipped off buildings in the square at riot police who responded with tear gas.
Substitute “Goldman Sachs” for each instance of the word “Greek & Greece” and now you’re reading the truth.
Ron Paul: U.S. should declare ‘bankruptcy’
Paul: Bankrputcy is an option for U.S.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — How should the United States deal with its growing debt problem? Ron Paul thinks declaring “bankruptcy” might be a good idea.
The Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate was discussing Greece’s fiscal trouble with Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson on Monday when he was asked, “If bankruptcy is the cure for Greece, is it also the cure for the United States?”
“Absolutely,” Paul replied.
Of course, sovereign nations can’t declare bankruptcy the same way a corporation might. Instead, the government would be unable to fulfill its obligations, and would stop making payments on its debt, resulting in a default.
Greece is currently embroiled in a debate over how to pare back its social programs and government spending to secure another bailout for paying its debts.
Paul said social programs — medical care and other benefits — have pushed Greece to the edge, and the United States should take note.
“The big message there is the fact that the people who are seeing they are losing their benefits and their free medical care and all, are rioting in the streets,” Paul said. “That is the problem, and we are not immune from that.”
Paul — known in Washington for his renegade economic ideas — wants to convert the U.S. monetary system to one based on the gold standard, and held a hearing last week to grill federal officials about his bill to audit and inventory the nation’s gold reserves.
The Texan is no fan of the Federal Reserve either, and suggested Monday the United States should eliminate the Fed as a way to reduce the deficit.
“We owe, like, $1.6 trillion because the Federal Reserve bought that debt, so we have to work hard to pay the interest to the Federal Reserve,” Paul said. “We don’t, I mean, they’re nobody; why do we have to pay them off?
He is being gerrymandered out of office by Gov Perry, so he will soon be former Congressman.
If I were RP and he did that to me, I’d run against him in his next primary.
Paul said social programs — medical care and other benefits — have pushed Greece to the edge, and the United States should take note.
Take note of what in regards to health-care spending Dr. Paul?
Greece spends about 9% of their yearly GDP on health-care.
The USA spends about 17% of our yearly GDP on health-care.
And our budget deficit, as a percentage of GDP, is almost as bad as Greece’s deficit.
And we have to pay for our healthcare separately.
Saint Ron Paul Tells a Lie
Say it ain’t so, Joe!
Paul said social programs — medical care and other benefits — have pushed Greece to the edge, and the United States should take note.
———-
My problem with Paul: We agree on the outcome, but not on the causes.
“How should the United States deal with its growing debt problem? “
By cutting social programs and services and raising taxes on the average taxpayers while trying to find a way to give SS to Wall St. to pay their debts.
Duh.
Was this a trick question?
I would not be so opposed to cutting SS and Medicare if I thought they would actually pay down the debt. I expect if the Republicans ever get a super majority in Congress and the White House, they will cut social programs and start more wars with the surplus, driving us even further into debt.
Roseburg closing Orangeburg,S.C. plant
T&D Staff Report | Posted: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Roseburg Forest Products plans to close its wood laminating plant in Orangeburg, as well as its Russellville facility.
About 125 employees will lose their jobs in the two plant closings. The Orangeburg plant has 64 employees, according to the Orangeburg County Development Commission’s Web site.
“We made this decision based on the persistently poor market, the growing cost pressure and the limited product capabilities at these two locations,” Roseburg Chief Operating Officer Chuck Ulik said.
“While both plants have reduced their manufacturing costs over the past few years, these improvements have not been enough to counteract the poor performance of the particleboard industry as it continues to struggle with weak demand and overcapacity,” he said.
Particle board, particle board
Doing the things a particle can
What’s it like? It’s not important
Particle board
Is it a dot, or is it a speck?
When he’s underwater does it get wet?
Or does the water get it instead?
Nobody knows, Particle board
- Apologies to They Might Be Giants
Furniture store closing after 87 years
Jacksonville, FL —
The current recession has done something to a Jacksonville store that the great depression, two world wars and a devastating fire failed to do — caused it to go out of business.
The Times-Union reports Liberty Furniture is closing its doors, ending 87 years of doing business in Jacksonville.
The owner says the recession has been too much for the family to bear; and thus, it will be pursing new opportunities.
The store was first opened in 1924 on Adams Street by Herman Weiss, who had just emigrated to the U.S. from Austria.
In 1973, the store was destroyed in a fire that killed Weiss’ son, Paul.
The store is currently owned by Weiss’ daughter, Bea Sherman, and her husband, Marvin.
The store began its going out of business sale yesterday and will close its doors for good in two months.
At that time, 40 people will be out of work.
Few good paying jobs –> Reduced household formation –> Reduced furniture sales
I almost hate to ask, but I wonder what percentage of the furniture they sold was imported from China?
Probably a lot or they would have gone out of business years ago…
How much furmiture is made today in North Carolina?
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/fullpage?id=13001236
Made in America
As part of our new series “Made in America,” “World News with Diane Sawyer” took on the challenge of trying to fill three rooms in a home entirely with 100 percent American-made products. So we emptied out the living room, kitchen and bedroom of this Dallas home, and then filled it back up with American-made products.
Yeah an $8500 sub zero refridge….now how practical is that?
Mapping Home-Value Drops by Zip Code
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/06/28/mapping-home-value-drops-by-zip-code/
Stan Humphries, chief economist for the real-estate website Zillow, mapped the price decline from the peak for zip codes in six major metro markets – Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago (see maps). The data provide a detailed look inside the anatomy of the downturn: Green dots show declines from the peak that are above the metro average; reds are below the metro average.
Happy anniversary real estate bust. You’re five years old
(Source: Tampa Tribune)
http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5256230/happy-anniversary-real-estate-bust-you-re-five-years-old
June 26–TAMPA — It’s an inauspicious anniversary. Five long years ago this month, the Tampa Bay area’s supercharged housing prices ran out of steam, and the housing bust officially began.
Prices have been free-falling since.
The dips have slowed, even reversed at times, but every month new data show median home prices are far below what they were the previous year. Sales, too, have struggled to regain momentum.
…Area prices have plummeted 46 percent, more than any time since World War II. More, even, than during the Great Depression, when the national average home price tumbled 31 percent.
Then, it took 19 years for prices to recover. And even though our economy hasn’t been hit nearly as severely as in the 1930s, it will likely take about as long for the area’s prices to recover from the latest downturn.
Not all economists think the turnaround will take decades, but Moody’s Economy.com predicts it will be 2025 before median sales prices in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area recover to the June 2006 median of $239,600….
……If you think that’s gloomy, just listen to Stan Gerberer, an economist with Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates Inc. He said homeowners need to quit asking when prices will return to peak levels.
“The value was never there in the first place,” he said. “It’s not reasonable to think prices will ever get back to those bubble prices.”
Who is supposed to buy all of these nice, overpriced houses? The college grad who is stuck working the retail job s/he had when in school? The laid off Fortune 500 employee who had to take a 30% paycut to land a new job?
Hey banksters! If you want someone to buy those zillions of foreclosed houses stop offshoring. In the end, the governments and corporations of the world do as you tell them.
Prices have been free-falling since.
Slinky-ing down a staircase built with taxpayer IOUs isn’t exactly “free-falling”.
Longest. Recession. Ever.
The Not A Depression Recession.
“Yesterday, Moody’s said that Greek banks have ‘lost’ 8% of private-sector deposits.
“Bank clients have withdrawn 8% of their deposits. In some cases, they have invested that money in foreign currencies. In some cases, they have bought gold and put it in safe-deposit boxes. In some cases, they have taken the money out and put the cash into the safe-deposit box or household safe.
“Greek citizens are losing faith in the banking system in spite of all of the promises from the European Central Bank. They are not losing faith in the euro, as in some cases they are keeping it, just moving it. Many of them are convinced that they won’t be able to get at their money when banks close their doors.
“This is a big deal. It’s the start of the bank run, only in slow motion. If outflows reach 35% of the deposits, banks will fail. The Greek government will step in then default. The spillover effect: Contagion will hit England, Germany and France harder than E. coli. The effect will be global.
“So how much private money is quietly being withdrawn in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy?
“Watch out for this one — it looks like the trigger on a smoking gun.”
~ Clipped from The 5Min Forecast
It wasn’t that long ago that the FDIC raised its insurance limits. I guess if the Bundesbank guarantees the Greek banks they can kick the can down the road one more day.
Question: I owe state taxes from living in NM. Over $10k for a mistake in the GRT filing. What do they do if I dont pay? They said they file a lien, but I no longer own prop there?
Good question. Can they come after you in California?
You might wish to consult with a lawyer on that one.
I guess I need to. I am making payments, but this is one of those debts that may be the last to worry about. If you live in NM and are self employed, make sure you learn all the local tax laws. services must charge sales tax.
Small banks squeezed on mortgages, lawmakers say.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Equal access to the secondary mortgage market is necessary to curb further bank concentration of the industry, Senate lawmakers from both parties said on Tuesday.
Sen. Richard Shelby, the Alabama Republican who is the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee, raised concerns at a hearing on access to the secondary market for small financial institutions that “mortgage lending is concentrated in just a few banks.”
Last year, three banks originated 56% of all mortgages, while eight institutions serviced 63% of all outstanding mortgages, according to Shelby.
Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said he welcomes more private investment in the housing market. “The consolidation in the banking industry we’ve seen over the last 25 years or so is not healthy to the industry as a whole, and it’s certainly not healthy for the consumers,” he said.
Christopher Dunn, executive vice president of the community-based South Shore Saving Bank in Massachusetts, suggested that government’s role in housing finance should be dramatically reduced.
“One of the reasons that we lost a lot of our market share over the course of last several years is the playing field is not level, and a lot of that has to do with the back-and-forth of regulations that are already in place,” Dunn said.
I’m sure it NOTHING to do with the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act or the Commodities Modernization act. (a couple of Republican authored bills in case you were wondering)
Nope. Nada thing.
Tallahassee Braces For State Employee Layoffs
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s capital city is bracing for thousands of public employee layoffs due to spending cuts in the new state budget.
The city joined with other governmental and private interests in the Tallahassee area Tuesday to launch a re-employment effort.
It features a website that includes job, networking and unemployment compensation information along with retraining opportunities.
The site — BigBendWorks.com — also has contacts for financial resources and social services including crisis counseling and food assistance.
Tallahassee Community College President Jim Murdaugh said the effort is aimed at private as well as public sector employees who lose their jobs as the spending cuts reverberate through the region.
Murdaugh said the cuts are expected to have a negative financial effect of up to $70 million in an eight county area.
For some reason I’m reminded of that old saying:
“It’s good to save money in business, but you CAM also save yourself right out of business.”
“CAN” dammit!
http://www.newbottomline.com/bank_of_america_flash_protest
On Friday, June 24th, dozens of protesters from across Maine occupied the New Brunswick branch of Bank of America. Protesters offered personal stories of watching their communities become desolate ghost towns as Bank of America foreclosed on home after home across Maine.
Charlotte home prices hit lowest levels in four years
charlotteobserver.com Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2011
April was another difficult month for residential real estate in Charlotte, with home prices falling to their lowest levels in four years, according to a report released Tuesday.
Overall, the news from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index reflects cautious optimism about a turnaround for major markets, where U.S. home prices dipped to their mid-2002 levels in March. Average home prices rose to summer-2003 levels in April. Case-Shiller’s 20-market composite rose 0.7 percent from March to April.
But Charlotte was among six major markets — including Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami and Tampa — showing new lows in April. In Charlotte, prices dropped 0.3 percent from March, and remained down 6.6 percent over the year, the report found.
“I’m afraid prices on an overall basis will fall another 5 percent before we hit an absolute bottom,” said Wells Fargo & Co. economist Mark Vitner. “That may still be another year away.”
Just for grins, did a little research on the Super Sonic business Jet that was so breathlessly announced yesterday.
-The principals have little/no experience in design or certification.
(The CEO formerly worked for Arthur D. Little……yeah, lets see the consultants show us all how to do it right……)
-The company (which has never designed, built, or certified and aircraft) will be designing, building and certifying airplane that will need to be certified by agencies that have never certified an airplane that flies this fast, under regs that are a lot more stringent than the Concorde was certified under.
Their aircraft performance depends on a non afterburning engine (of a vague and proprietary design) that somehow is going to be able to manage airflow via electromagnets in the turbine/combustion section, which will get hellishly hot. How they plan on keeping electromagnets electronics alive in that environment remains to be seen.
It appears that they will need to fly this aircraft at 84,000 feet to meet their performance goals. My notepad calculations say that this will require the cabin to be certified to about 40 psi, or thereabouts. (Concorde was certified to 10.7 or thereabouts……most bizjets and airliners are certified to 8-9psi).
X_GS’s Analysis: Another hare-brained project to separate rich people who don’t know squat about airplanes from their money.
Wait a minute. Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 psi. Out in space it’s zero psi. Assuming you can lower the cabin pressure to 12 psi without having to deliver oxygen through a mask, then 12 psi is the maximum any aircraft/spacecraft cabin would have to handle.
Not 40 psi.
84,000 ft = .3 psi atmospheric pressure.
Okay, over 14 psi. Still, nobody has ever certified a passenger carrying aircraft for that kind of differential.
I can’t believe you were unemployed for a while. I love your aircraft posts.
Awwwww XGS we need to have dreams….we have NO leaders and No dreams of achievement anymore, let the poor schmucks aim high
You cant win if you don’t play the NY STATE lotto!
I agree XG, that algorythm you used for pressure rating has to loose its validity above 15 psi + some service factor.
Aside from that, RELAX! We will have a solution in 2025. Just invest and sit back.
Actually, we will see one. The parameters have already been defined. NASA and Lockheed have been flying aircraft modified to reduce sonic booms, We already know what it’s probably going to look like.
Speed……Mach 2 to 2.5
Range……8-9000nm
Passengers…..20-25
Ability to fly over land areas with “mild” sonic booms…..Concorde couldn’t, which limited the routes it could fly.
Don’t expect anything approaching Mach 4…..the extra speed doesn’t gain you that much…..too many exotic materials required. Also too many ground handling problems
Estimated cost: Last I heard, maybe around 100 million per aircraft (2009 dollars). A lot will depend on how many are sold to government/military users.
A Mach 2 airplane that can fly 8000 miles will be a real problem for anything other than an F-22 to intercept. Even a current Cessna 750 (that flies .92 Mach without afterburner) is a problem. Most current fighters need afterburner to catch a .90 airplane. Fuel consumption goes way up, and range goes way down.
(The T-38 chase plane that flew chase on the prototype C-750 could only keep up with it for approx 30 minutes at .90 Mach…..I could tell you all kinds of cools stories about that airplane, but then I’d have to kill you…..
……)
Fuel burns will be a big issue. Boeing decided to cancel the Mach .9-.95 “Sonic Cruiser” because it burned about 5-10% more fuel than a Mach.80-.85 airplane. People like speed, as long as they don’t have to pay the extra fuel for it.
B of A gonna have to pay 8.5 billion settlement.
I gonna have to get a new schadenfreude meter! I think mine just broke!
Realtor Charged with 13 Felonies for Forging Documents
http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/crime/lafayette-realtor-charged-with-13-felonies
The unethical behavior of realtors is stunning.
Damn FBs.
Oh wait…
Let me get this straight: The savvy over-bonused “talent” banksters in charge at B of A bought Countrywide for $4 billion and now after countless expenses on the deal have to pay $8.5 billion to keep everyone happy? Its like buying a used car for $4k and getting repair bills every week because the pos is in the shop every day and then having to buy a new engine for $8 grand just to keep the car. Can they make sweet dealz or what?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/b-of-a-near-85-bln-mortgage-settlement-wsj-2011-06-28?link=MW_home_latest_news
What a surprise!
The guy that was offended by my offer last week called my realtor to let us know it’s still available if we’re interested. Qualified buyer is king.
I dunno though, so much has happened in one week: Greece, Ft. Calhoun, America’s Got Talent… we live in a different world now, and my new offer needs to reflect that reality.
Muggy,
I think it’s time you amend your offer to this particular seller. Slash it another 15% with the contingency that if it’s not accept in 24hrs, your next offer will be 20% lower.
Both sides can play hardball. Batter up.
WTF? I don’t remember specifics of the numbers, but…”I’m offended, but please take another look.”?? If he’s offended, why does he think your next offer will be anything close to what he’s asking?
I’m with exeter. His realtor put him up to the “I’m offended” business. He’s nervous that your offer is reality. Fight the power!
Oh and I’m stealing this:
“We live in a different world now, and my new offer needs to reflect that reality.”
WOW.
Biggest Tax Avoiders Win Most Gaming $1 Trillion U.S. Tax Break
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-28/biggest-tax-avoiders-win-most-gaming-1-trillion-u-s-tax-break.html
But, but… I thought we had the highest corporate tax rate in the world?!
Poor, poor oppressed corporations!
This file is getting thick quickly: “Do as I say!, …not as I do.”
Bachmann’s husband got $137,000 in Medicaid funds:
By Michael Isikoff
NBC News National Investigative Correspondent
While Rep. Michele Bachmann has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the “welfare rolls,” the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News.
The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The clinic, based in Lake Elmo, Minn., describes itself on its website as offering “quality Christian counseling” for a large number of mental health problems ranging from “anger management” to addictions and eating disorders.
Yet people voted for her.
You can’t fix that kind of stupid.
Muggy
And when repatriated they will declare them as dividends - won’t help employment.
The only way they could have accumulated this much money offshore is thru aggressive transfer pricing.
I’m surprised the IRS doesn’t seem interested.
Oh the IRS is interested alright, but by law, there isn’t a damn thing they can do about it.
45 Amazing Photos Of The Riots In Greece
http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/45-amazing-photos-of-the-riots-in-greece
Man, those Europeans know how riot! Gas masks, hammers, sticks, padding. That’s prepared!
No fan of riots or rioters, but love Riot Dog. If RP isn’t on the 2012 ballet I may start a write-in campaign for this mutt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFd0hztEUWk