Bits Bucket for March 26, 2012
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
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My parents are staying with me and heading off this morning to their newly purchased FL home. The new home is on the west coast outside of Tampa (one of the ground zero’s, for sure) that last sold for about 220K; they bought it from the bank for right around 80K. 1500/sq/ft, small yard in a mid sized HOA community; IE, a good sized FL house for 2 retirees to come and enjoy for a few months in the winter.
I think they’ll do fine of the house (financially) and they are really looking forward to it. Got to wonder what that bank was thinking though (yes, it had every drop of equity extracted out of it); they likely had a value assigned to this house that was 3X it’s “true value”. Shocking incompetence, that’s for sure.
“Shocking incompetence”
Success through failure. When your bonus is based on this quarter’s and this year’s corp reports, because the stock holders you work for plan on getting in and out within weeks, who cares about long-term?
Long-term investing is for the Muppets that exist for the big boys to have someone to dump the shares onto before the truth comes out.
I can beat your 3x. Condos at the end of my street that were selling for $150K at peak are not commonly changing hands at $25-30K.
changing hands at $25-30K
Are these in a Neighborhood where its safe to live?
I can second that. Condo’s up the street from us can be had for $19K to $35K range, were $150K-$200k pre-bust. ofcourse you have to watch out for the HOA and the special assessments.
As for being safe: they are plenty safe by my standards. disclaimer - i have had a brush with being around Newark,NJ, so any place else is a stroll in central park. you just have to be aware of your surroundings, and follow some basic precautions, like lock your doors, have a security system with a sign in the yard, reach out to your neighbors and ofcourse always call in a ’suspicious person’ report on the gal hanging by the lamp-post for the last hour and the corolla circling the nab since morning- the officers love to drop by on those.
Hmm … that is the kind of “safe” we left behind when we escaped from California.
of course always call in a ’suspicious person’ report on the gal hanging by the lamp-post for the last hour and the corolla circling the nab since morning- the officers love to drop by on those.
I agree. And, even though my neighbors and I haven’t always been taken seriously on such calls, we’re not giving up. We’re going to keep on smiling and dialing 911.
Long-term investing is for the Muppets that exist for the big boys to have someone to dump the shares onto before the truth comes out.
Yup, that’s buy and hold for ya.
While I was back east, I read a WSJ article talking about the pitfalls of oft-given investment advice. Article noted that buy and hold was a great way to get yourself (and your money) clobbered.
I love when you bait these dupes…..let the fun begin!
“they bought it from the bank for right around 80K. 1500/sq/ft, small yard in a mid sized HOA community;”
Awesome. Not unusual in this neck of the woods these days. Give your folks my congrats!
good luck to them on their sunny purchase, though the traffic there is insane. we recently noticed a lot of traffic cameras at the intersections in that part of Florida, which seems to calm things down a bit .
Certainly some market segments in some areas seem to be near bottom. Of course HOA fees and insurance can add lots to the cost of ownership, but 80k for 1500 sq feet sounds like the kind of pricing that was WHY FL became a Mecca for retirees.
“sounds like the kind of pricing that was WHY FL became a Mecca for retirees.”
Exactly, the economics of that start to make sense again for people who want to snowbird here for 6 months a year, or for people who just want to move here and sell the house “up east”.
I suspect that no state income tax plays as big or bigger a role for the relocating retiree’s…The tax savings on even a modest income could amortize a $80,000. purchase…
Exactly what they are thinking. They are claiming FL residence for my mother who will pull the income they use for their retirement and who will be a FL resident. It’s a big deal if you’re pulling significant amounts out of a taxable account, NJ income tax can be a pretty big deal.
Yep…I have witnessed it around here for years particularly for government pensioners although I have seen many others also…Most from around here headed to Reno or Vegas area’s..Florida is to far in that these people can get back to their original roots (kids etc.) very quickly on a spur of the moment…
Have some good friends that retired a couple of years ago…Mid fifties…He was in a trade union for 30 years…She worked for the school district for about the same…Kept their home here in 95051…Bought a house in Reno and changed residency…The State income tax savings is paying for the house purchase and some…
“The new home is on the west coast outside of Tampa (one of the ground zero’s, for sure) that last sold for about 220K; they bought it from the bank for right around 80K. 1500/sq/ft, small yard in a mid sized HOA community; IE, a good sized FL house for 2 retirees to come and enjoy for a few months in the winter.”
If you’re talking true coastal Pinellas, I call BS, unless you’re talking about Pointe Alexis, in which case, your parents will regret it.
It’s not that close to the coast, I haven’t been there yet, but I’m guessing about 10-15 miles inland.
Other than that, you can call BS all day long, that’s what the numbers are, the ink is dry and they have the keys in hand.
These prices are not that unusual here in this part of Tampa Bay. It’s a big area. Muggy may be right about coastal Pinellas. But here in eastern Hillsborough County, it’s not a surprise.
Zillow confirms your assertion. Many many shacks under $50K, many more under $100K. Yes they’re small and not architectural wonders, but empty nesters don’t need that. And it’s no big deal to drive to the beach if your weekdays are full of nothing.
these prices are not that unusual here in this part of Tampa Bay. It’s a big area. Muggy may be right about coastal Pinellas. But here in eastern Hillsborough County, it’s not a surprise.
So housing in Florida isn’t outrageously overpriced because of the deadbeats. It’s actually outrageously affordable, at around $50 a square foot.
So why are some of you FL guys always complaining then? Still waiting for that beach-side house for $10,000? Not gonna happen.
Or are you just pounding a political drum? Dead-beats, dead-beats, it’s all coz o’ the dead-beats. (Conveniently ignoring- and even defending- the banksters who orchestrated and made millions from it.)
When you say “coastal,” that means barrier islands to people here. I have no doubt you can buy inland at that price, even a few years ago.
There’s is a monstrous difference between coastal and inland.
Muggy,
Yeah, sorry, I should have clarified. They aren’t that close to the beach/intercoastal, but they’re not in Orlando (the pit of he** that place is) either. It’s a reasonable drive to the beach, but not in their back yard.
Maybe the HBB Floridians are complaining about the wrong thing? The problem isn’t the house prices, it’s the unstable job market. It’s no good to buy a house for $85K if you think you’ll have to relocate. Even if house prices are mostly bottomed out, you still lose a bit of money on the sale. So you rent and rent and rent. LL’s know this full well and squeeze your dry. Don’t blame the deadbeats, blame the outsourcers and insourcers.
“So housing in Florida isn’t outrageously overpriced because of the deadbeats. It’s actually outrageously affordable, at around $50 a square foot.”
I don`t know about outside of Tampa but around here $50 a square foot will get you a nice little house in the hood.
Here is one from the Deadbeat`s neighborhood who was showcased on this blog for losing her hardest hit money after a cash out refi binge and collecting rent on a couple of condos for a few years without paying the mortgage. Decent middle class neighborhood not anywhere near water and not anywhere near $50 a square foot. Sold for $163,000 in 1999 with an asking price of $275,000 today for a 1,975 Sq Ft house.
246 Sussex Cir Jupiter, FL 33458
$275,000
Beds:3 Bed
Baths:2 Bath
House Size:1,975 Sq Ft
Single Family Home
Year Built 1988
MLS ID R3269299
Location Address 246 SUSSEX CIR
Municipality JUPITER
Parcel Control Number 30-42-41-11-15-000-1270
Subdivision HAMPTONS AT MAPLEWOOD
Official Records Book 11978 Page 1239
Sale Date AUG-2000
Legal Description HAMPTONS AT MAPLEWOOD LT 127
DEC-1999 $163,000 11544 / 1176 WARRANTY DEED KAY JOHN M
This is closer to what you are talking about alpha.
6833 2nd St Jupiter, FL 33458
$77,500
Beds:3 Bed
Baths:2 Bath
House Size:1,152 Sq Ft
Lot Size:0.34 Acres
Single Family Home
MLS ID R3230656
If you buy it bring your AK 47.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the wild west style crime in certain areas of FL have something to do with it.
I zillowed it Jeff. Looks like a decent little house. Great yard. You say it’s in a bad neighborhood? Move in there and help clean it up. Quit waiting for the government to solve all your problems. Get in there and show some initiative.
Think of it this way: If the houses in your ideal neighborhood were $75,000, wouldn’t a bunch of low-lifes and slum lords be able to buy houses there? And then would it sill be your ideal neighborhood?
“Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the wild west style crime in certain areas of FL have something to do with it.”
There are neighborhoods that are not safe in a lot of areas, I knew of many in the North East as well. 2nd St in Jupiter is Limestone Creek but is known as Crimestone Creek.
Oxide is right. Jobs stability.
Wait till AMR gets through dumping 13,000 employees, dumps the pensions and cuts their left over employees pay furth by 1/2 from their BK. And didn’t 2 other big corps just terminate more employees. All to make shareholders wealthy- the caveat being, the people won’t be able to buy the stuff the shareholders want dividends on.
I would say housing will take another hit coming up.
Move in there and help clean it up. Quit waiting for the government to solve all your problems.
Yea, go all Zimmerman on your neighbors and visitors.
Yea, go all Zimmerman on your neighbors and visitors
Heh! I knew someone would say that. But surely there’s a difference between knowing your neighbors, keeping an eye out, and reporting suspicious stuff to the cops- and chasing down and shooting unarmed kids.
Yeah that’s all we need. Pussy Posses meting out viglante justice to peons, serfs and working schleps.
You buy in Rowayton and your not gonna see much crime, other parts of Norwalk you are going to have problems. It doesn`t have to be Rowayton either, a friend of mine owns a house in Norwalk (and he does own it, no mortgage) and it`s a good neighborhood. There are neighborhoods in Stamford Ct. 5 miles from my parents house in Old Greenwich where I am willing to bet no one on this blog would want to walk through at night.
Norwalk Population: 82951
Norwalk Crime Rate Report (Connecticut)
In 2009 the city violent crime rate in Norwalk was higher than the violent crime rate in Connecticut by 71.04%
2012 Crime (Projected Data)* Incidents
Aggravated Assault 282
Arson 5
Burglary 226
Forcible Rape 10
Larceny and Theft 1,003
Motor Vehicle Theft 147
Murder and Manslaughter 2
Robbery 144
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 1,714
Property Crime 1,381
Violent Crime 438
2009 Crime (Actual Data)* Incidents
Aggravated Assault 257
Arson 8
Burglary 314
Forcible Rape 10
Larceny and Theft 1,269
Motor Vehicle Theft 203
Murder and Manslaughter 1
Robbery 157
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 2,127
Property Crime 1,794
Violent Crime 425
alpha
Lead by example, take your wife and family and move in to a high crime neighborhood and fix it.
How about Danville, IL
Violent Crime Comparison per 1,000 residents 10.54
If you don`t like that one here are a few more to choose from.
Top 100 most dangerous places to live in the USA …
… rates of crime within the United States. Crime ratings are listed in order from most/highest crime. All cities listed here have the highest rates of crime in America.
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/ - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
Since you are already going to be living there perhaps you could join MS13 and straighten out those misguided youths.
MS13 – Worlds most Dangerous Gang
The MS13 gang, aka Mara Salvatrucha 13, is one of the most violently dangerous gangs in the United States – and one of the most organized. The MS13 gang has cliques, or factions, located throughout the United States and is unique in that it retains is ties to its El Salvador counterparts. With cliques in Washington DC, Oregon, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and several other South American countries, the MS13 gang is truly “international” and on the verge of becoming the first gang to be categorized as an “organized crime” entity.
I zillowed it Jeff. Looks like a decent little house. Great yard. You say it’s in a bad neighborhood? Move in there and help clean it up. Quit waiting for the government to solve all your problems. Get in there and show some initiative.
Agreed.
And I’m not saying that because I participated in a “town and gown” neighborhood cleanup this past Saturday. We old fogeys had some great university students helping. Matter of fact, they did the lion’s share of the work, and that was the intention.
Better yet, after the work was done, the students made lunch for all the cleanup people. Great fun!
As for making bad nabes good, one of the most enjoyable ways to do this is to put in a great yard and be seen taking care of it. Wonderful way to meet your nice neighbors and keep an eye on the not-so-nice ones.
You can also diversify into such things as picking up the gar-bazh on your block. I do this, and I make sure I’m out there when people can see that, yes, someone cares about this block. It’s my hope that some of them will refrain from littering in the future.
“Quit waiting for the government to solve all your problems.”
I am waiting for the government to stop trying solve all my problems. 1st time homebuyers, HAMP, HARP 1-2-3-4 , Cash for clunkers, tax rebates for electric cars etc. But one problem I don`t have is being stupid enough to buy a house in a neighborhood where the chances of my wife or one of my daughters being assaulted or raped goes up by 95%. I will leave that kinda Hope and Change to alpha.
If only alpha had moved in next to these poor kids perhaps this tragedy could have been averted.
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, February 16, 2012MS-13 Gang Leader in San Francisco Sentenced to Life in Prison
Seventh MS-13 Member to Receive Life Sentence in San Francisco
WASHINGTON –Danilo Velasquez, aka “Triste,” a local leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was sentenced yesterday in federal court in San Francisco by U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup to life in prison, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for the Northern District of California and Director John Morton of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Velasquez was convicted in November 2011 by a federal jury of racketeering-related charges. At sentencing, Judge Alsup described the defendant as a “vicious murderer.”
Velasquez was part of the violent, transnational gang known as MS-13, which claimed part of the Mission District of San Francisco as its territory and operated in the Bay Area since the 1990s. Velasquez joined the “20th Street” clique, or local MS-13 chapter, in 2004. Since its inception, MS-13 members have warred with rival gang members and sought to extort payments from other criminals in its territory. When the federal government indicted the majority of the 20th Street clique members on Oct. 22, 2008, Velasquez assumed leadership on the streets. T he evidence presented at trial showed how Velasquez, with others, conspired to commit a variety of crimes to further the goals of the gang, including attacking and killing rival gang members and others who defied or challenged MS-13.
During Velasquez’s trial, the government presented evidence of multiple murders committed by MS-13 members in 2008. Several of the victims were not involved in gangs or any illegal activity, including a 14-year-old, but were mistaken to be rival gang members by MS-13 members.
The evidence at trial showed that on Feb. 19, 2009, Velasquez and fellow gang members Luis Herrera, aka “Killer” and Jaime Balam, aka “Tweety,” went looking to kill rival gang members in the San Francisco Bay area. In the Excelsior District of San Francisco, they spotted a car of young Latino professionals – two were college graduates of UC Berkeley, one a law student at UC Hastings, one a bank employee and another a student at City College in San Francisco who was working his way through school at the time. According to evidence presented at trial, these victims were targeted because some of the men wore baseball caps in colors associated with rival gang members. None of the victims were gang members themselves.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/February/12-crm-230.html - 27k -
Harrisburg PA has more crime than Baltimore. Who woulda thunk…
I don`t even know where to tell you to point the U-Haul alpha. California, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia etc. You guys told me all the crime happened where I live.
U.S. Violence | January 8, 2012
Cartel violence is here: Teen tortured, beheaded in Oklahoma…press silent
Dave Gibson
Bethany, OK - On December 21, Bethany Police Chief announced the arrest of Francisco Gomez, 31, who has been charged with multiple drug trafficking charges and is believed to have knowledge of the grisly murder of 19-year-old Carina Saunders.
Gomez’ co-defendant, Jimmy Lee Massey (aka “Big Country”), 33, was already in custody. Both are allegedly members of a drug/sex trafficking ring operating in Oklahoma.
According to an affidavit, Massey has admitted to kidnapping another woman and forcing her to watch as Saunders was tortured to death on October 9, 2011. Massey also told investigators how the young woman’s body was then dismembered.
On October 13, Saunders’ remains were discovered inside a duffel bag behind the Homeland grocery store at NW 23 and Rockwell Avenue. She had been beheaded and could only be indentified through dental records.
Though the mainstream press has failed to report on the growing cartel and Latin American gang violence in this country, beheadings and torture killings are nothing new.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Cartel violence is here: Teen tortured, beheaded in Oklahoma…press silent - National drug cartel | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/drug-cartel-in-national/cartel-violence-is-here-teen-tortured-beheaded-oklahoma-press-silent#ixzz1qG4OyJwH
“The MS-13 thrives on violence—violence directed at suspected rivals, as in the Hamilton murder and Timberline Park shooting, violence against its own members, as demonstrated in the Gomez murder, and violence directed at innocent, hard-working Long Islanders, as demonstrated in the armed robberies charged in this indictment,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “Today we mark the latest product of the tenacious investigations conducted by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force.” Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for its assistance in this case.
2 MS-13 gang leaders in New York convicted of murder
Defendants killed innocent young man in case of mistaken identity
NEW YORK - A federal jury convicted two leaders of the international street gang MS-13 Monday of murder in-aid-of-racketeering and other charges, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Oscar Fuentes, 30, and Julio Chavez, 25, both of Huntington, N.Y., were convicted following three hours of deliberation by the jury. Fuentes, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, was the state leader of the New York MS-13 chapters; Chavez was the leader of the Huntington chapter of MS-13.
The jury convicted both men of committing the May 2007 murder of 21-year-old Maurice Parker in Flushing, New York, and using a firearm in furtherance of the murder. Fuentes was also convicted of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The evidence at trial established that, in the early morning hours of May 18, 2007, the defendants and other MS-13 gang members drove through the streets of Flushing, armed with a gun, and looking to shoot rival gang members. Around 12:30 a.m., they saw two young men, Maurice Parker and his friend, standing outside a store at 41-80 Bowne Street.
Parker’s friend was wearing a red sweatshirt - a color often worn by members of the rival Bloods street gang. Chavez and a second gang member jumped from the vehicle driven by Fuentes, ran up to the two men, and Chavez shot Maurice Parker six times, including three shots to the head. Maurice Parker died at the scene.
Jethro,
There are streets in Stamford, CT I wouldn’t be on at nite.
Jeff my home town Near Brien McMahon HS …good safe area…now other parts of South norwalk near the train station used to be real nasty but the urban redevelopment and some upscale condozes and a revitalization of south norwalk as an arts location helped….still pockets of stupid…but most moved up the line to Bridgeport then to new haven and waterbury…..yes stamford still has the projects off exit 6
You buy in Rowayton and your not gonna see much crime, other parts of Norwalk you are going to have problems. It doesn`t have to be Rowayton either, a friend of mine owns a house in Norwalk
“There are streets in Stamford, CT I wouldn’t be on at nite.”
Unless they bulldozed it and put up condos and moved the hood to another hood, yes. We used to buy nickle bags there. Of course we used to get off the train at 125th St. and walk to the subway on the way into Yankee games, we got some comments every time we made that brisk walk. We went all the way to Grand Central on the way home, we weren`t that dumb.
“Jeff my home town Near Brien McMahon HS”
I went to Greenwich HS. Our HS band was not allowed to travel to games played at Brien McMahon after Greenwich beat them on the last play of the game that decided who went to the FCIAC championship in 1973/74. The student body at Brien McMahon took exception to the loss and threw what ever they had including bottles at Greenwich football players, band members or whoever. At least the football players had helmets. I graduated from HS in 1978 so I am sure it has changed.
Great to hear prices have bottomed out in Tampa.
For Californians who are watching and waiting for similar developments in desirable coastal areas, may the odds be ever in your favor.
“Great to hear prices have bottomed out in Tampa.”
I’m not sure they are at the bottom, I’d never claim that to be the case. However, with as far down as they are, it’s only “another 1/3rd” of original value before it hits 0.
So, sure, it could fall another 30%, but now we’re only talking 25K, not a “financial disaster” in most people’s books like the initial 150K of loss is/was.
The neighborhood where I am currently renting.
1995 $150k
2005 $500k
2012 $310k
I would go $200k for the right house and have a $220k bid on a house in a different neighborhood.
1995 $150k
3% inflation from that data-point would suggest $250K to be a reasonable valuation…
“3% inflation from that data-point would suggest $250K to be a reasonable valuation”
It would suggest somewhere around $100K is a reasonable valuation. Median income has been dropping every year while the cost of “everything else” has gone up more than 3%/yr. Your median mortgage payment will be the median income minus expenses which used to be about “a third” of income, although that has dropped as other costs have risen (what are you going to do, stop buying food, or gas, or health insurance? those increases come out of the mortgage budget…). Either way you count it, the income fraction to spend on a mortgage has dropped since 1995, not risen, so its certainly not going to be more than ‘95.
Also we are at multi-generational low interest rates… buying now is catching a knife. Simple multiple choice question:
1) You are at multi-generational low interest rates. Rates will eventually rise. What happens to the sale price of the property?
a) It implodes (correct)
b) It rises (you are a real estate agent)
It’s bottoms all the way down.
LOL…
Cantank, I take it you saw the Hunger Games this weekend?
What I see and what I heard from a RE person are conflicting stories.
What I see is lots of listings, and lots of sales.
RE agent said it was going at a pretty good clip till 3 weeks ago and hasn’t gotten any calls since then. Some looky loos- but no offers at all.
Quiet like church mice.
He even doubled checked his phone battery.
He did say, that if priced right- sales add up quickly for full price.
But he said hardest thing to do is get sellers rational about pricing, which they are seriously delusional about, STILL>
However, I see many in high end area that some are reducing prices.
Sellers of almost anything often think their stuff is worth more than it really is. I used to see this behavior at garage sales all the time. The most delusional of the sellers overprice their junk and it is best to move on rather than insult them with what you consider a fair price.
When/if they finally cave(or better, find a sale where the sellers are just trying to make room in their garage and appreciate you taking stuff you can use off their hands at any price); they accept less than they think it’s really worth; and that they are doing you a favor by selling at such a low price. Actually they are getting exactly what it is worth-what someone else is willing to pay.
Fannie and Freddie cheated Oakland and state out of millions in taxes, federal judge rules
Detroit Free Press
Michigan and Oakland County would get millions of dollars under a judge’s ruling today that national mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac illegally withheld real estate transfer taxes on foreclosed properties they sold from 2006 to 2011.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts ruling could open the door to all the 82 other Michigan counties who weren’t a part of the original lawsuit.
Fannie and Freddie contended they were exempt from the tax as quasi-government entities. Individuals who sell a home, however, must pay the tax which amounts to $860 on the sale of a $100,000 property.
The case has attracted national attention in light of the mortgage foreclosure crisis in the United States. In this case alone, Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner estimates the county is owed up to $4 million from Freddie and Fannie, while the state could be owed up to $20 million just for mortgage transactions in Oakland County from 2006 through 2011.
Under Michigan law, the transfer tax is $8.60 on every $1,000 of the sale price of real estate. Of that amount, $1.10 goes to the county and $7.50 goes to the state’s school aid fund.
Since the housing market began its dive in 2005, Oakland County’s transfer tax collections dropped from $10.5 million in 2005 to $4.1 million in 2010.
After the mortgage crisis hit, Fannie and Freddie became the owners of tens of thousands of foreclosed home in Michigan. In Michigan, one in every 433 housing units in the state received some sort of foreclosure notice in February, according to the Irvine, Calif.- based Realty Trac, which follows foreclosures across the nation.
The privately owned but federally backed mortgage companies claim in the lawsuit that Oakland County filed last June that their federal charter exempts them from paying all taxes.
But Roberts ruled that Fannie and Freddie are essentially a privately owned mortgage banker and that a transfer tax is an excise tax, rather than a tax on real property.
“In the end, this case turns on a single question: whether a statutory exemption from all taxation includes excise taxes such as the Michigan Transfer Taxes,” she wrote, adding that Fannie and Freddie are not exempt and therefore liable.
Even though Meisner said he expects an appeal of the ruling from Fannie and Freddie, he hailed the summary judgment as a victory for Oakland County taxpayers.
“What this lawsuit is about is making Oakland County taxpayers whole for the money they’ve lost and holding those responsible for the crisis accountable,” he said.
Meisner said treasurers from across the state and country have contacted him about the lawsuit. “You’re going to see a class action lawsuit filed after this ruling.”
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, echoed the sentiment, praising Judge Roberts for recognizing that Fannie and Freddie aren’t government entities.
Doug Duvall, spokesman for Freddie Mac, declined to comment. The state didn’t have an immediate comment.
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower 2012-03-25 09:15:06
“It strikes me as incredible how the same real estate investing foolishness can play out in nearly identical fashion across multiple international settings, despite the availability of the internet to share information (like this thread) about how badly the bubble’s collapse turned out elsewhere.”
You are only focusing on the crash. You should look at the trillions made during the inflation of the bubble.
I get it, and I agree. Like Chuck Prince said,
“It strikes me as incredible how the same real estate investing foolishness can play out in nearly identical fashion across multiple international settings, despite the availability of the internet to share information (like this thread) about how badly the bubble’s collapse turned out elsewhere.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower 2012-03-25 18:08:17
“Maximizing taxpayer value by auctioning vacant houses to the highest bidder would clearly be a better solution than destroying them, especially if the auction prices were made public so that future buyers could have an idea about where current market values lie.”
Why do you want a Greater Depression? And no, that is not rhetorical. That is an honest question.
In many markets, there is far more supply than demand. At that point, the price is virtually $0. Virtually $0 price means trillions of dollars of mortgage debt, and the off setting money that debt created, poofing out of existence. That means every larger bank is insolvant and needs to be liquidated. $5T more bad debt coming onto the US Treasury pushes us well over 100% debt/GDP, especially when all the BS banking “activity” is subtracted from GDP… then we are Greece, and then the global economy is doomed.
Why are you so focused on driving down prices and forcing a structural, systemic default of the global economy?
Why will you not even consider that it may be better to drive up wages rather than driving down prices? Why do you prefer the road to collapse instead of a road to sustainability?
How freakin’ much gold do you think you own anyway?
Excellent free lunch strategy for the debt slave. Give him higher wages and inflate his debts away. Choose the big risk takers as the winners and crush anyone who holds a few FRNs to buy food in their old age.
Surprise, the big banks are actually insolvent. Your wages are not going to go up. House prices are falling and will continue to spiral down even if you burn down whole cities in your efforts to keep the Ponzi going. The Age of Credit is coming to a close and houses will fall to prices that people can afford, even if they are new houses.
+1000
Our 50 year credit bubble is gone, a whole new
financial paradigm is here, we just don’t recognize it yet..
” houses will fall to prices that people can afford, even if they are new houses”
If this was true, then people in the 3rd World wouldn’t live in cardboard shacks.
What I’m saying is that it is possible for housing to remain unaffordable. Their prices won’t necessarily fall to levels where people can afford them (they will fall, however).
You take it to the extreme. Along that line though, smaller houses are sure to be the trend. Pre bubble, the average working family lived in much smaller houses than today.
Just saying that if we are waiting for housing prices to drop to levels affordable for Lucky Duckies, we might be waiting a looooong time. They get to live in run down trailers.
You take it to the extreme. Along that line though, smaller houses are sure to be the trend. Pre bubble, the average working family lived in much smaller houses than today.
Right now, I’m typing away in a 936 square foot house that’s on a 60×60 property. In short, not a mansion. I’m currently the sole occupant, but in the past, this has been a family home.
Whose getting raises???
Who is getting raises?
Not many, especially not the Lucky Duckies.
Whose getting raises???
Was this a rhetorical question?
I just got a 4% raise and 2.5% bonus… the bonus is supposed to be 10% at target, but the company didn’t meet it’s financial targets for the year.
I just got a 4% raise and 2.5% bonus
I did a bit better than that, though my company did hit it’s financial targets, so it was a 10% bonus.
There are people/companies out there who are doing well (that *aren’t* financial companies/banks)
I just took a pay cut (school district cut 3 days off the school year; 500 bucks I won’t be making). In our neighboring 25,000 population town of Redmond, OR, T-Mobile also just laid off 400 people from its call center; it was the second largest employer in town.
Yeah mike thank the FCC for not allowing the Att merger….att promised not to layoff anyone…
att promised not to layoff anyone…
Oh, they promised? Well then, of course they’ll follow through! Their word is their bond!
(really? you think that means anything??)
“…even if you burn down whole cities in your efforts to keep the Ponzi going.”
It just incenses me that people such as Darrell think this is a good way to avoid the Greater Depression he always preaches about on this board.
Where do crazy notions like this originate? Can’t the lamest-brained idiot recognize how much embodied labor, materials and fossil fuel is represented in each home they propose to tear down?
This is the broken window fallacy again, folks.
This is the broken window fallacy again, folks.
And the idea that the reason America flourished after WW2 was because the rest of the world was bombed flat, is also a broken window fallacy.
“…is also a broken window fallacy.”
Indeed.
I further note that Germany faced austerity measures in the period that led up to The Rise and Fall of Adolph Hitler, calling into question the prudence of another currently-popular economic policy remedy.
And the idea that the reason America flourished after WW2 was because the rest of the world was bombed flat, is also a broken window fallacy.
Why, did our middle class not benefit from being the sole source of high end goods for a couple of decades after WWII?
Did you read the broken window fallacy link, Carl? Do you disagree with the fallacy? Why?
But read it first.
OK, just did. I agree with it. So yeah, on a worldwide scale maybe we were worse off. But our country was the glazier in that case. We really were better off relative to everyone else, just as he would have been.
“Did you read the broken window fallacy link, Carl? Do you disagree with the fallacy?”
Maybe I’m not thinking this through, but it seems the glazier might just take that found money and buy his own suit, which he only found possible after getting paid by the baker.
Wouldn’t we be the glazier if we bulldozed a bunch of houses, and if people wanted one, they had to build a new one?
No, you would be the aquisitor. you break his windows, you make him pay you to replace them. Even if you let him replace his own windows, you have pretty much enslaved him for another 30 years, while you sit on your couch collecting bennies, or work at a higher paying job because there is a labor shortage. Left alone, no sane person would destroy their own property just to keep the value of other’s property up. It speaks to the Liberal/Conservative struggle.
The broken glass thing works great, when you are in charge and can destroy only other’s property. Germany didn’t get this to fly after WWI because they lost and got the bill.
The Age of Credit is coming to a close
Not according to the LL I applied to a yr ago. They were stunned.
“How could I possibly survive without credit?” One word, CASH.
LL’s would be so lucky to have me as a tenant.
Former LL myself, enjoying no serious housing upkeep, as it were.
“Why do you want a Greater Depression? And no, that is not rhetorical. That is an honest question.”
And here are some honest questions for you in return:
1) How will destroying myriad valuable properties stave off a Greater Depression?
2) If destroying properties is the way to revitalize the economy, then why don’t we just start off by dropping some bombs on our cities? (Wait, it looks as though that might have already happened to Detroit…)
3) Why do you meet every idea that doesn’t fit your narrowly-circumscribed list of policy remedies with the suggestion that a Greater Depression will result if it is followed?
If destroying properties is the way to revitalize the economy, then why don’t we just start off by dropping some bombs on our cities? (Wait, it looks as though that might have already happened to Detroit…)
That’s precisely what the moralists, preaching Austrian School austerity, say was the cause of the golden years of the post-WW2 period (Keynesian economics had nothing to do with it, of course).
Why wouldn’t it work now?
“…moralists, preaching Austrian School austerity…”
Please try your best to address my point about auctioning off vacant properties as a means of maximizing taxpayer value, in contrast to the bizarro-world notion that tearing down properties will somehow increase wealth.
Leave your political-economic strawmen out of it.
So the idea that the reason the US flourished after WW2 was only because the world was bombed flat (which it wasn’t) is a “bizarro-world notion”?
I agree with your argument. Sorry if I expanded on it to draw in a historical parallel.
“I agree with your argument.”
Sorry if my pre-coffee rant misconstrued your post.
What really traggered the post WW2 prosparity was wiping out most global debt combined with 90% top tax rate with lots of deductions that prevented the collection of too much money into too few hands.
combined with 90% top tax rate with lots of deductions that prevented the collection of too much money into too few hands.
AKA Keynesian economics.
“…the collection of too much money into too few hands.”
I don’t suppose QE1 and QE2 had anything to do with wealth concentration, did they?
To put this more specifically, wouldn’t a bunch of wealthy people have gone to the poor house over excessively stupid investments, were it not for bailouts to make them whole at the expense of other economic entities which were not deemed “too big to fail”?
I agree w Cantakerous
We should have let them fail.
Nationalized the banks and resold them.
Spent all the borrowed money on creating jobs in the US.
“Spent all the borrowed money on creating jobs in the US.”
I almost shudder as I type this, but you could actually employ more Realtors® if home prices were low enough to attract local purchase demand.
We should have let them fail.
Nationalized the banks and resold them.
+INFINITY.
Failed banks did not have to mean that anyone other than shareholders and bondholders lost any funds.
The banks would have gone on, under new ownership and new leadership. Customers would have come out whole.
Bondholders should have become equity-holders. The Government should have stepped in to recapitalize and keep them going, but not with the gains going to current equity-holders, and with bondholders being made whole.
Bondholders should have become equity-holders.
And equity-holders should have been wiped out if the bank was insolvent.
Why wouldn’t it work now?
It would work great now—for China. The more wanton and wasteful destruction we take part in here at home, the more replacement “stuff” they can ship us to rebuild…
Our loss is their gain. This is not your grandfather’s WWII.
Do the Chinese build our houses? Supply us with the lumber?
drywall…
“Do the Chinese build our houses? Supply us with the lumber?”
The new Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge has been under construction for a while now. Massive project, as you can imagine. Made in China. When the project was approved, we were in the middle of a building frenzy, so cement costs were through the roof, which might be one factor in the bidding. Anyway…..
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/business/global/26bridge.html?pagewanted=all
“Maximizing taxpayer value by auctioning vacant houses to the highest bidder would clearly be a better solution than destroying them, especially if the auction prices were made public so that future buyers could have an idea about where current market values lie.”
—————————
I’ve looked at some of these houses before, and even though the price was low, there were all sorts of liens for unpaid taxes and the like, so they aren’t actually as cheap as the sales prices suggest. I’m sure a lawyer could maybe get rid of some of that, but that’s still money out the pocket increasing the price of something that only works in a business sense at the margins. Also, once you purchase them, the taxes weren’t 2% of the low $$ asking price like normal taxes are - they were close to $1000 a year.
I also had a coworker who previously worked for a company that purchases and rehabs cheap houses, and he said alot of them they wouldn’t touch for free - the lead paint, the asbestos and other environmental hazards make them impossible to remediate into liveable places for bargin basement prices.
So, I mean, I don’t think auctioning off crappy houses, even for $1 is going to result in price discovery or anything else. These aren’t liveable properties if only the price were a lower. So destruction of these so maybe the land can be resold is financially something only the government can do.
“I also had a coworker who previously worked for a company that purchases and rehabs cheap houses, and he said alot of them they wouldn’t touch for free…”
It doesn’t matter what your friend would touch them for. An auction sets the price as the highest bid, which is the first order statistic of many, many potential buyers — generally higher than any one individual’s friend’s offer price.
I’ll just take that to mean that you can’t address my point that the highest anyone would bid is actually below $0.
“I’ll just take that to mean that you can’t address my point that the highest anyone would bid is actually below $0.”
Au contraire — I’d be happy to address it.
The only way to determine what anyone would bid is to conduct an auction and test the market. Otherwise, we can BS here till the cows come home about whether the price is less than, equal to or greater than $0.
Too much caffeine today, pbear.
“Too much caffeine today, pbear.”
Ironically, almost all my posts in this bit of the bucket were typed pre-coffee.
almost all my posts in this bit of the bucket were typed pre-coffee.
I’ve always been impressed by the fact that the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome were built and maintained by people who had no access to caffeinated beverages, nor any other widely used stimulant.
They did it all with wine and beer.
“They did it all with wine and beer.”
Unfortunately with the price of my cheap wine up by 75% due to high gasoline prices, I stopped drinking it a couple of weeks back.
I may as well just drink a good bottle every other week, as the proportional markup due to higher gasoline prices is a declining share of the purchase price.
Gas prices already closing in on last year’s high
By CHRIS KAHN, AP Energy Writer – 39 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of gasoline is less than a dime away from last year’s high.
Gas reached a nationwide average of $3.90 per gallon on Monday. It has risen 17 cents so far this month. Pump prices are expected to keep rising in the weeks before Memorial Day weekend — the traditional kickoff of the summer driving season.
The national average peaked last year in early May at $3.98 per gallon. The record high of $4.11 was set in July 2008.
Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, expects that at the very least “we’re going to get very close to the record.” He said prices could keep climbing through June if a potential Sunoco refinery closure in Philadelphia significantly tightens East Coast supplies of gasoline.
The price of gasoline has tracked the price of crude oil. Benchmark U.S. crude has gone up 8 percent already in 2012. Oil rose 16 cents Monday to $107.03 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price oil imported by U.S. refineries, added 52 cents to finish at $125.65 per barrel in London.
…
That’s nothing. Bubbles Bernanke announced today that he’s going to continue blowing the price of commodities to the moon and beyond.
“The record high of $4.11 was set in July 2008.”
Can someone kindly remind me of how the rest of 2008 turned out, financially speaking, after that record high gas price was reached?
Not to suggest this will happen again the same way this go round…
“So destruction of these so maybe the land can be resold is financially something only the government can do.”
Any fool knows it would be far more efficient for the government to conduct a reverse auction, giving the home away to the private party who is willing to take the lowest amount of compensation for disposal, than for the government to carry out the demolition operation. There is a good chance many properties the government would summarily condemn could have positive value to the private individual who offers to accept delivery.
I never proposed burning down a house.
“Why do you meet every idea that doesn’t fit your narrowly-circumscribed list of policy remedies with the suggestion that a Greater Depression will result if it is followed?”
Simple. You track the symptoms to teh root casue. You then attack and reverse the root cause, or the symptoms won’t get better.
Bubbles are not the problem. Bubbles are the result of excess money which results from loose credit.
Loose credit is not the problem, it was a solution to slowing economic activity as we offshored and outsourced our economy.
The root cause of the trouble is our attempts to persist trade imbalances.
We must attack and reverse the trade imbalances. What happens if we do not? Simple. Excess debt, people with that debt being mathmatically unable to repay, cascade debt default, mass money poofage, depression.
Great post.
Ditto
Darrel. Nice holistic view. Expanding it we might see too many trees despite you having given us a great look at the forest.
Point. No matter what, in every classic definition all banks are bankrupt with their high leverage. Why has this been allowed? Banks that used to lend to the world now act as mere commission agents.
Point. Cantank, you make excellent posts but in your replies I cannot support you. Burning down a lot of houses will soon be a requirement - because of serious black mold. This severe recession may someday be called a depression but no-one will blame it on burning down houses. On greed will lay the blame.
Point. I believe in Yankee ingenuity and although I don’t like what BB is doing, I think he has forced the ship’s rudder to favour the strongest economy, put his finger in the debt dyke, and has positioned the USA to regain some of it’s manufacturing might by devaluing the US buck.
“Burning down a lot of houses will soon be a requirement - because of serious black mold.”
If a home is beyond rehabilitation, I see no problem with burning it down.
But trade imbalances are starting to reverse, even as I type.
March 23, 2012, 7:36 a.m. ET
Dual China, Europe Slowdown May Trap Both In Currency Skirmish
(This article was originally published Thursday.)
–Grim Chinese, European data may spark currency war
–More trade flows between both countries make euro, yuan sensitive issue
–Should Europe worsen, China could “batten down hatches”
…
Time to load up on stocks?
Currency depreciation in the US is bad, in China where many spend most of their income on food and fuel with little left over it’s a disaster. It will uterly destroy domestic demand. The race to the bottom is on and it won’t be fun.
Darrell’s post may be true, but it doesn’t explain the mild animosity. I’m seeing distinct differences between HBB owners and HBB renters. The HBB owners have watched prices drop on their own homes. It was all fun and games when their homes dropped from a peak bubble price to a lesser bubble price, but now prices are dropping to within spitting distance of what they may have paid in the past 10 years,* which is feeling uncomfortable. HBB owners are tired of house prices dropping. Meanwhile, the HBB renters are tired of renting and want prices to drop even more. Then you have the veneer of moral hazard on top. Hence the conflict.
———-
*In my hood, houses which sell are priced at mid-2003 prices (2001 prices adjusted for inflation), a 40% haircut from peak. Any other drops will likely be undesireable housing like condos, stacked townhomes, commuter housing, hoods, trashed rentals, etc.
“HBB owners are tired of house prices dropping. Meanwhile, the HBB renters are tired of renting and want prices to drop even more. Then you have the veneer of moral hazard on top. Hence the conflict.”
For the record, I could not care less where home prices go, so long as no market-distorting price fixing is involved.
. I’m seeing distinct differences between HBB owners and HBB renters.
Great point, oxy!
This very well may explain the attitude of “the system had to be saved” that we are hearing from a number of posters recently.
Can you pick out which HBBers are owners and which are renters?
“the system had to be saved”
…to save the value of my personal part of the system, which is the home I own and occupy.
You can’t claim the price is $0 when nobody has bothered testing the market. And there is a very simple way to test it: Hold a widely-publicized auction with long lead time and ample information about the properties for sale to allow prospective buyers to make well-informed decisions about their offer prices. If nobody offers more than $0, then it is safe to conclude the price is $0 (or less).
My conjectures:
1) A vanishingly small share of houses would auction for $0.
2) Those that did auction for $0 (or less) could still be handed over to investors by offering compensation to take them off the REO-holders’ hands.
3) Once the homes were off the books of lenders and GSEs, the real estate market would quickly right itself.
4) The Greater Depression which you fear would not materialize, as housing represents an ever=shrinking share of the U.S. economy.
Once the homes were off the books of lenders and GSEs, the real estate market would quickly right itself.
4) The Greater Depression which you fear would not materialize,
What about all the pension funds- the ones whose MBSs you so worry about when there’s talk of cram-downs? Won’t they lose a ton of money, maybe go broke? Do you no longer care about them? Or will cheap houses cure everything?
“Won’t they lose a ton of money, maybe go broke? Do you no longer care about them?”
I assume CalPERS and other ginormous pension funds which gambled on real estate are as too-big-to-fail as lots of other financial entities that were bailed out. Haven’t we had a recent precedent to show what might happen when these TBTF Goliaths lose a ton of money?
While I am on the subject of auctions, I’m wondering if Ben Bernanke’s White Paper mentioned them as a possible way to right the broke-back housing market?
And if they were omitted, why is that?
If the house is actually worth $0 on the open market, then this conversation has run out. Burning it down, giving it away, letting it rot will not affect the national housing market one tiny little bit.
Darrell’s point was the we should destroy valuable houses in order to avoid economic loss so great that it would sink us into the dark ages.
100% incorrect.
My point has consistantly been that the housing crash is every bit as much a wage and job problem as a price problem.
There are two possible courses of action.
1) Continue to pretend that trade imbalances can be persisted. Let the USA federal government continue to fund the global econonmy via $1.3T a year deficits for another 5 years or so until we “greece”, then be forced into austarity and cascade global debt default into depression.
2) Attack and reverse the root casue of the trouble, the trade imbalances that have made us dependant on unsustainable debt growth.
Everything else is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
+10 also trade imbalances = less jobs
So have a minimum bid of $5K. Those which don’t attract that bid WILL be bulldozed like those gap-toothed blocks in Detroit, and $5K should cover the cost of doing so. But really those are the exception, I think. There ARE a few areas that overbuilt, but in most areas, at a low enough price, somebody would come forward and buy. But destroying housing just to “price fix” and keep price up seems on the face of it like a bad idea, one of questionable morality IMHO while there are still those out there who have trouble affording a house.
‘But destroying housing just to “price fix” and keep price up seems on the face of it like a bad idea, one of questionable morality IMHO while there are still those out there who have trouble affording a house.’
Thank you.
But you don’t need a minimum bid. I assert once again that it would be more efficient to pay investors to take the homes which won’t sell at a price above $0 than to let the government internally handle their disposal.
Well the point that I was trying to make is that near $0 homes aren’t what people are truly concerned about. That’s just a distraction. They’re worried about recognizing 50%+ declines in areas that AREN’T characterized by Detroit-level oversupply. If we didn’t want 50% declines the time to stop that was when prices were going up. After prices doubled in just a few years preventing them from falling back to some reasonable multiple of incomes is a fool’s errand.
“If we didn’t want 50% declines the time to stop that was when prices were going up.”
Ya think?
I assert once again that it would be more efficient to pay investors to take the homes which won’t sell at a price above $0 than to let the government internally handle their disposal.
Interesting idea, PB, but I don’t see how you can obligate the new buyer (if you can call them a “buyer” when the government is paying someone to take a property) to accomplish the disposal.
Worst case, they might pocket the cash subsidy they got from the government on their negative-price bid, then do nothing to the property. Eventually the government would end up owning the property due to the property-tax arrears.
Problem not solved…
I assert once again that it would be more efficient to pay investors to take the homes which won’t sell at a price above $0 than to let the government internally handle their disposal.
The government’s HUD might end up with the properties, and they’ll move in human trash that will destroy the rest of the neighborhood. I’ve seen this happen to several friends in California back in the seventies. The k12 busing programs were the icing on top of the whole mess.
“Problem not solved…”
I don’t see why some mild conditions couldn’t solve the problem; e.g. have someone who agrees to take possession of a home for demolition post bond which stays in force until the demolition is carried out. It could be as simple as withholding the fund transfer until the demolition was complete.
Guess that would work.
“If the house is actually worth $0 on the open market, then this conversation has run out.”
As Warren Buffett astutely pointed out, the only way to know an asset’s worth on the open market is to sell it at the highest offer price. Why so many posters here suggest it is easy to discern whether a home is worth more than $0 by other means is a mystery to me; perhaps lots of academic economists are posting?
Maybe because you are dreadfully confused. Aren’t we talking about homes already owned by the *government* which is owner of last resort?
If these houses are supposedly so valuable, then why wouldn’t the original owner of the mortgage (BAC, Citi, wtf ever) sell them to somebody?
I think you want those homes to be sold off by some sort of auction to help price discovery. The ones currently in decent shape and owned in some semblence of the term by Bank of America, Citibank — a general mortgage financier. The ones that are worth more than nothing and are currently sitting empty.
In any case, I actually agree that an auction still would be a good way to sell the ones owned by the govt. Make the reserve $1000 less than what the govt would pay to blow them down, and have an auction.If it costs $10k to destroy, then pay someone up to $9000 to do it. So the real value is > - $9000 to the govt.
And a genius like Warren the Buffetslayer should know there are several ways to price assets and unless transparency is the only goal we are aiming to solve here, it’s value on the ‘open market’ is just as meaningless as anything else. I don’t think transparency should be the primary goal - rather the most productive use of the land should be. If that means it’s better as a plot of grass than a busted toxic hovel, so be it.
And just off the top of my head, you could use the CAPM, you could use a good construction guy as an appraiser, and probably a couple other methods would work as well as an auction would.
“Aren’t we talking about homes already owned by the *government* which is owner of last resort?
If these houses are supposedly so valuable, then why wouldn’t the original owner of the mortgage (BAC, Citi, wtf ever) sell them to somebody?”
I don’t know what ’supposedly so valuable’ is supposed to mean, but I presume the reason Megabank, Inc doesn’t sell is because doing so would reveal that the value on their books is much higher than market value.
The range between a market value of $0 and a market value above book value can be wider than the Grand Canyon.
PB:
#1 i dont think many houses will go for $1 unless you rehab and live in them for 5 years like they did here in nyc back in the 80’s
Now if you are talking about condozes yes even at$1 they might be too expensive…the carrying costs Hoa’s taxes insurance will be more then the rent you could get..not sure how to get around that
“How freakin’ much gold do you think you own anyway?”
Zero, nada, zilch.
And totally off topic…
I’d like to humbly apologize for all the abusive language I have served up on this thread.
Stop saying idiotic things, and I will never again be abusive.
Good manners are only proven when you are in rude company.
My rudeness is just for effect, anyway.
March 26, 2012, 9:44 a.m. EDT
Non-distressed home sellers opt for auctions too
Going, going, gone: Real estate auctions aren’t only for foreclosures. Pam McKissick, CEO of the Williams & Williams auction company, says auction firms are hearing from more home sellers who are losing patience with the traditional “list-and-wait way.”
“Why are you so focused on driving down prices and forcing a structural, systemic default of the global economy?”
Why are you so focused on propping up housing prices and keeping real estate market liquidity in a deep freeze?
Obama wants an etch a sketch too
OBAMA CAUGHT ON HOT MIC: TELLS RUSSIAN PM HE‘LL HAVE MORE ’FLEXIBILITY‘ ’AFTER MY ELECTION’
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
Politicians are feces.
I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
So in private Medvedev doesn’t even pretend to be the Russian leader.
Good catch
BTW, good morning alpha-sloth, my favorite oxymoron
Good morning, SFBAGal.
Oxymoron? I’ve told you- no one out-naps me, no one out-craps me. And yes, it’s good to be the king.
Reminds me of another presidential “Open Mic Night” moment from the not-too-distant past:
HOME / War Stories : Military analysis.
The Two Reagans
Which version of the Gipper would Republicans like Obama to emulate?
By Fred Kaplan|Posted Friday, Feb. 13, 2009, at 6:28 PM ET
…
At their first one-on-one talk, Gorbachev tried to talk substance, but Reagan kept telling interminable anecdotes and anti-Soviet jokes, leading Gorbachev at one point to mutter, “On boltayet yeshchyo” (”He’s babbling again”). The next day, in a larger meeting that included 34 U.S. and Soviet officials, Reagan repeated the performance, causing Secretary of State George Shultz to scold him afterward. “Mr. President, that was a disaster,” Shultz said. “You can’t just sit there telling jokes.”
…
Reagan WAS the joke. And one that has kept on giving to this day.
Unfortunately, the joke was on us.
Far less harm is done by telling jokes to the soviets than by whispering sweet concessions in the Russians’ ear.
Concessions? lmao.
Your misrepresentations are quite expansive Charlie. From construction to foreign policy.
If you think that’s a misrepresentation, check out the comment section following the article. Their interpretation of the hot mike is that this is Obama’s “last election” because afterwards Obama is going to turn himself into a dictator and turn over the entire USA to Vladimir.
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.
Hey Ohbahhma how about a little sympathy here:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station
Can’t you find a white-supremacist site where you can talk to your friends?
I’m sure they love Zydeco music, too.
Even Drudge is getting into the act that political correctness is over:
Will Obama comment on Miss State murder?
http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=16252
One day alpha you will get political correctness is over, and fair is fair….
I still want to know why trayvon was suspended for 5 days and a recent picture…he had no business being in that gated community when he should have been home in bed in miami on a school night….I’m not saying it was justified just saying the media will not allow the whole truth to be told..
PS gangstas and thugs don’t go to zydeco dances…its really hard to find any violence reported at the thousands of shows a year
ISTR reading that Trayvon’s dad lived in that community. And that he was on his way back to his dad’s house after buying iced tea and Skittles at a store.
Why? They are going to arrested the suspects, aren’t they?
That’s the difference.
Yours Truly checking in from the KXCI deejay school. Here’s what I have to say about mikes: They’re dangerous.
Why? Because those things can be hot and pick up all sorts of things that you didn’t want on the air.
How do you avoid this problem? Well, if you’re the deejay like I will be at 5 a.m. this coming Saturday morning, you turn the mike on, say “You’re tuned to 91-3 KXCI Tucson, Real People, Real Radio” and then shut the thing off! Get ‘em back into the music, because that’s why they’re listening to KXCI.
This is easy for me to do because I’ll be the one running the mixing board. In the case of Obama, he obviously wasn’t in charge of the board. So, what he should have done was assume the mike was hot and move away from it.
Have fun slim…once you get used to it it will become easy. Then when you have to engineer a live show with a couple of people in the room, you WILL want to turn your mike on and get involved.. bringing up points or asking questions to get them back on topic or to liven it up..
Only a real techie can remain quiet.
On the subject of preserving your wealth , it is in the news that a lot, if not most , of Gold Bars of all sizes are faked to some degree. I’ve always stayed well away from gold coins for that same reason .(besides not being able to afford them).
Recently saw an older gentleman showing off several ‘old ‘ Morgan silver dollars in a store . He dropped them on the counter , with a solid ”thonk” , instead of the ”ringgggg’ they should have made. Cheap Chinese fakes.I did not bother to enlighten him.
At least houses are real , at this point .
Good morning from Key West.
I can never get a picture of it, but at Mile Marker 72 there is a large shell of a house that has been abandoned since we started this annual trip 7 years ago. Amazing.
My parents report that this year has been average in terms of crowds and business.
“Good morning from Key West.”
Ahhh, Key West. Used to be a great escape from the grind of South Florida (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale) back in the day. Crappy beaches, great fishing, awesome drinks.
Heck, Key Biscayne used to be a great escape from the grind of South Florida (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale) back in the day. And it’s about 4 miles from downtown Miami. And it has great beaches.
Have you seen any of those Chihuahua-sized rats?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2714622/more-hug-gambian-rats-found-in.html
Did you stop at Holiday Isle or Lorelei on the way down? (Islamorada)
I love the way so many writers are connecting the dots between The Hunger Games and the financial crisis which nobody could have seen coming.
‘The Hunger Games’ Crosses Child Warfare With Class Warfare
By Nicole Allan
Mar 23 2012, 8:04 AM ET 43
By taking its subject matter seriously, the movie offers smart political commentary.
Suzanne Collins published The Hunger Games on September 14, 2008, the day before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Since then, reaction to the two events has seemed equivalent in scale—The Hunger Games swept through middle and high schools across America, building terrifying box-office momentum before this week’s movie release, while the financial crash ignited a populist fire Americans didn’t realize they could still muster.
In Katniss, ‘The Hunger Games’ offers the populist hero the Occupy movement wasn’t able to deliver.
Is it ridiculous to compare the two? Probably. But the film is earnestly, self-consciously political, so why not? Shrugging aside Twilight and Harry Potter comparisons, a Taylor Swift-heavy soundtrack, and an unseemly amount of internet hype, let’s try taking this movie seriously.
It certainly takes itself seriously. Even Woody Harrelson’s boozy sage, one of the few characters not weighed down by imminent death, is more of a depressing drunk than an entertaining one. Only Elizabeth Banks seems to be having fun, reveling in her role as an aggressively fuchsia harpy of a chaperone. The movie occasionally drags, thanks to its play-by-play loyalty to Collins’s book and a resulting run time of more than two hours and 20 minutes. But this very sincerity is, in another sense, its greatest strength. By treating his underage characters—and their young fans—with respect, director Gary Ross has created a guaranteed teen box-office phenomenon that also happens to be an ambitious, timely political parable.
…
As usual, the critics have it backwards: It’s a timely social commentary that also happens to be a teen favorite.
Basically much like most of (the good) sci-fi has always been.
I’ll see it, to see what message the teens are getting.
Hopefully it will be as good or better than the Mad Max trilogy, which was also set in a bad future dealing with the consequences from the present.
Oh, I have no idea if the movie is any good or not.
I read all 3 books (fun read!) and saw the movie (with a gaggle of tweens). The movie was well-done. Read the books first…
Agree. The only reason it’s a ‘teen’ series is the absence of sex.
And the prevelence of violence. Old George Carlin had a great monologue about that one.
Where would we be without “sincere” movies to help us understand the meaning of life.
I find it interesting how many people find some sort of comparison to what is happening in today’s society. My question is has anyone asked the writer what she was thinking when she wrote the story?
Watch Japanese film “Battle Royale” if you want to see where Collins “borrowed” the ideas for her book(or at least the first two books in the series, I do not think she wrote the third). Luckily, Japanese don’t sue for stealing ideas like Americans do.
Be warned it is a lot bloodier film. No carefully editing for a PG-13 rating.
As I mentioned yesterday, variations on a theme that has been around for a long time.
The Long Walk by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman, and The Lottery, short story by Shirley Jackson, among others.
And then there’s Gladiator.
The Naked Prey
The Most Dangerous Game
Heck, what am I talking about? We have our own Hunger Games going on already, within the armed forces.
And then there’s the stories out of Mexico about the sadistic drug gang members who hold up buses on the highways and force the passengers to fight each other.
Kiddie fights on YouTube, sometimes encouraged by parents.
The difference is Hunger Games is a direct copy. Collins even lifted complete characters from Battle Royale. This is no doubt one reason the director stuck closely with the book.
I have yet to find any interview where Collins explains the message behind Hunger Games or from where she drew her influences.
In my opinion, the 3rd book shows how bereft she is of original ideas.
Steve J, FYI Ms. Collins says she never heard of Battle Royale until someone brought it up to her.
I read an interview that brings up her influences but am too lazy to look it up. Obviously you don’t like the series and her writing. Many others do.
Running Man.
Which “Gladiator”?
There is a great scene in the movie “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield. He is a rich businessman but does not have a college degree so he goes back to school. He takes an english literature class and they are studying something by Kurt Vonnegut (slaughter house five?). He doesn’t understand it so hires Vonnegut to right his term paper for him and gets a failing grade from his pretentious professor as well as a lecture on how stupid he is.
pretentious professor ?
Crichton showed a keen interest in writing from a young age and at the age of 14 had a column related to travel published in The New York Times.[3] Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960.[3] During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to catch out a professor whom he believed to be giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style.[9] Informing another professor of his suspicions,[10] Crichton plagiarized a work by George Orwell and submitted it as his own. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of “B−”.[11] His issues with the English department led Crichton to switch his course to biological anthropology as an undergraduate
One of my favorite movies.
I figured this is worth mentioning.
High property taxes in the northeast are nothing new but check this out. While persuing new listings at truly fantasy prices in upstate NY, I’ve noticed the property taxes have skyrocketed since last year, unless zillow is wrong. We’re talking 20% increases in a single calender year folks. $10k/yr property taxes for a 10 year old ranch in *upstate NY* is beyond insanity. No new jobs, the jobs that exist are low wage. It’s not like people are moving there. People are moving out due to the ongoing economic decline and oppressive weather. I’m no tax whiner but I don’t see how these kind of taxes are sustainable for anyone I know that stayed there. It seems maddening to me. Insane. There is no way I will buy a place in NY state, ever.
A 10 year old ranch should not be $300K where household income is $45K, taxes are high and the heating bill is a second mortgage payment for 4 months of the year.
Welcome to the conundrum that is housing in New England.
Public unions control New York State.
Insane salaries/benefits and pensions will be paid as promised.
Public unions and their supported politicians don’t care if taxes on a crack shack is 20k/year.
They don’t care if ALL other programs are cut.
The public unions will be paid.
Until the whole system collapses (see Detroit/Vallejo/Central Falls/etc).
C’mon fruity. My wife is a state employee and her pay and benefits are far far from “insane”. Even if she worked full time she’d earn in the $35k range. And just so you know, state insurance SUCKS and has since the 1990’s.
Don’t confuse him with the facts.
My wife’s situation sounds a lot like yours. She’s a municipal employee. NO PENSION, just a 403b. Other bennies suck too. If she worked full time, she’d make 40K. There are only 4 people at the Library who are full time, everyone else (including Librarians) is part time.
And I make more money than the Library’s director. If he worked where I work, with the same level of responsibility, he’d double his salary, if not more.
Don’t confuse him with the facts.
What facts do you present? That your public union wife in another state does get all the insane benefits of NYS?
Maybe that is why your state is not heading for bankruptcy yet?
————————————
The bleeding statewide
Here are some numbers to choke on: New York City’s annual public-pension costs have risen from $1.5 billion a decade ago to a staggering $7.8 billion today. The $6.3 billion difference is more than what City Hall will spend on the NYPD and FDNY next year — combined.
Municipal-pension spending has soared an astounding 499 percent, according to a new report from NY Leaders for Pension Reform, a bipartisan group of mayors and county executives lobbying Albany to pass Gov. Cuomo’s pension-reform plan.
The city is hardly alone.
The overall burden on local governments has soared 630 percent since 2002, and every corner of the state is suffering, according to the NY Leaders Web site.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_bleeding_statewide_ewLznhqgLQtlrgx6xqkkdI
What facts do you present?
My wife is a 20+ NYS employee earning less than 35K/yr full time. FACT
YOU provide something to back up your ideologically driven bull$hit for once.
Maybe that is why your state is not heading for bankruptcy yet?
Actually, Colorado has been in a constant state of budget crisis for the past 10 years. A lot of that has to do with the swelling roles of those receiving public assistance as the chasm between the haves and have nots has grown here as well.
In fact, this is going to be the first year in a long time where the budget will actually grow due to increased revenues collected.
That said, our state employee retirement system (PERA) is a ticking time bomb, predicted to be wiped out (as in no assets left) by the mid 2020’s. So I tell my wife that she’s better off with her puny 403b plan and Social Security.
If we hadn’t destroyed the private unions, we could still afford the public unions. Now they’re just the last crabs anywhere near the top of the bucket, so the rest of the crabs must pull them back down into the pit.
The privileges of the public unions were once enjoyed by a wide swath of the American public, before we were propagandized into believing that greed was good, wealth trickles down better than it rises up, and unfair trade was free trade.
I’ve only a few direct experiences with the death of a private union, but in each case they destroyed the company they worked for first. Perhaps they simply failed to recognize the dwindling profitability of the company and held a death grip on them.
“Hey, close that valve!”
Sorry boss, I’ll have to call a union operator to do that, and he will have to call a union carpenter to move the ladder a few feet!
Carpenters don’t have EO training and aren’t EO’s and I wouldn’t trust an EO with non-motorized equipment, i.e Genie lift or even a hammer for that matter.
Thanks for the Archie Bunkerism- I believe I’ve discussed my theory about Right Wing Personal Anecdote Syndrome here before.
The Germans have strong unions, and highly efficient and profitable companies. How do they do it?
Honest ex, at the Bayway refinery only a “carpenter” could move a ladder a couple of feet down the pipe rack.
I’m not involved in general industry trades. Strictly construction here.
Insults do not a conversation make.
Have you ever worked in Germany? I suspect that you do not have any anecdotal reference points to understand how different the situation may be there from say a Pullman Standard plant in PA.
I suspect that you do not have any anecdotal reference points to understand how different the situation may be there from say a Pullman Standard plant in PA.
Please enlighten us as to the differences.
“The Germans have strong unions, and highly efficient and profitable companies. How do they do it?”
Exports to USA? People who buy German at any price for the ego factor.
Unfortunately there are more reasons to buy German than just ego. I wish I could buy the same car from Chevy.
so the rest of the crabs must pull them back down into the pit.”
or pay for it
But was it the unions… or Wall St we had to bail out?
Was it the unions… or Wall St that sent our capitalist jobs to communist China?
Was it he unions…. or Wall St that packaged mortgages into bad securities?
I’m no fan New York unions (namely the NYPD and teacher’s) but they are amateurs compared to Wall St.
I’m no fan New York unions (namely the NYPD and teacher’s) but they are amateurs compared to Wall St.
It’s easier to go after the guppies as opposed to the sharks.
In this case, the guppies have thrived on shark droppings.
I’ve only a few direct experiences with the death of a private union, but in each case they destroyed the company they worked for first. Perhaps they simply failed to recognize the dwindling profitability of the company and held a death grip on them
This is your answer. The loss in profitabillity was due to unregulated trade w countries that employ slave labor and have no environmental rules. The reality is no company can hold up to that for long unless labor is a tiny fraction of the cost of their product. This was hidden from the working class using a massive debt bubble and now the curtain is being drawn back to show reality.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/made-america-domestically-made-furniture-appliances-cost-imported/story?id=13049571
While I was back east, I had the opportunity to open a piece of mail from the PA public employees retirement system. It was my mother’s pension check, and trust me, it wasn’t a huge check. All I can say is, I’m glad that Mom saved like a squirrel for her later years.
Said check went into her bank account. And believe you me, I was very sparing in the use of the cash she told me to withdraw for the purpose of buying groceries.
We’re talking 20% increases in a single calendar year folks. $10k/yr property taxes ??
County Tax Assessor doing what they do best…Raising the taxes to cover their costs and any pet projects they want to fund…Basically its an extraction of equity from every home in the jurisdiction…Its like having a bottomless piggy bank…
Sheesh…that’s almost as high as what we pay in low tax rate Texas.
FYI, here is what is going on. New York State passed a limit on property tax increases at 2.0% per year, or the inflation rate, whichever is less.
Upstate New York and the suburbs are pretty much welfare states now, with local government the leading industry. Knowing the tax increase limitation was coming, local governments put in huge increases the year before.
The unions managed to get increases in pension costs exempted from the 2.0% increase cap. New York handed out lots of retroactive pension increases, giving pensions that were much richer than those promised when hired. The unions provided an actuary who provided the claim that all these deals would cost nothing, so no extra money was put in. Well guess what, now years later the pension funds are in trouble, and pension costs are soaring.
Sounds like a train wreck WT….
It’s sure looking that way scdave. I was truly stunned at the increase. I haven’t had a chance to discuss with friends and family back there but I’m going to at the first opportunity. It’s getting so upstate taxes are as costly as downstate where you can commute to jobs in NYC. The notion that “it’s alot cheaper upstate” is going away quickly.
Head for the exits.
BIG government costs a lot of money.
Not near as much as Big Banks.
Aren’t they part of the government now, at least judging from how much assistance they have received since 2008?
Monetarism costs a lot of money.
Monetarism is costing a great deal at the gas pump these days. Interesting how the blame for prices is being deflected everywhere except the Fed and its vastly weakened dollar.
If you combine the Gettysburg address with Citizens United…
But the banks!!! The poor banks!!! We NEEEEEEEED them!
Small government costs a lot of money too, if you get a raw deal or have costs deferred to you by Generation Greed.
And it’s not even January 2013, yet. Wait until those increased federal costs/taxes/job losses are added to New York State’s quickly expanding property taxes.
In reated news, I heard the Long Island (Township?) part of Long Island, New York, now is filing for bankruptcy.
Wonder what local Township residents will pay on THEIR property taxes going forward?! Fancy that!
Long Island City is not on Long Island….
Funny You mention that steve…you would not believe how many NYer’s don’t know that
Each month is get 4-5 responses to my resume thinking i live on Long Island, Staten island, coney Island….
technically I live in LIC by the po is sunnyside
Long Island City is on the western portion of Long Island, in the borough of Queens, part of New York City. To NYC residents, “Long Island” is composed of the eastern counties of Nassau and Suffolk. However, looking at a map of Long Island itself, Long Island City is part of Long Island.
Just send back all that money that NY and California funnelled to red states over the last 20 years via paying more in federal taxes then they recieved and your problem is solved.
Few homeowners accept free foreclosure-fraud review
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:00 a.m. Monday, March 26, 2012
Less than 3 percent of more than 4 million homeowners eligible for a free fraud review of their foreclosure have taken the government up on the offer, even though it could mean monetary compensation, a credit report fix or a loan modification.
Since November, mortgage servicers have sent out 4.3 million letters nationwide to homeowners whose foreclosure cases may contain flaws that, in extreme cases, could result in the return of the home. As of last week, just 121,725 people have responded.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is overseeing the effort, has pushed back an originally scheduled April 30 application deadline to July 31, and is selecting files on its own for review.
Struggling homeowners, already under a daily mail assault, may unwittingly toss the review offers, which advocates said are written in legalese more appropriate for attorneys than borrowers. Also, some lawyers recommend against applying for the review.
“For borrowers who have legal counsel, there’s no benefit in this,” said foreclosure defense attorney Michael Wasylik, whose firm has offices in Stuart and Dade City. “In my opinion, this is a mechanism for servicers to whitewash the widespread impropriety recently reported by the federal government.”
How you
can qualify for a review
Eligibility requirements include:
•Must have been in some process of foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2009, and
Dec. 31, 2010.
•Servicer was one of 27 participating in the review. For a list, go to http://www.independentforeclosurereview.com.
•Property is your primary residence.
Examples of financial harm that could be eligible for compensation:
•The mortgage balance at time of foreclosure was more than actually owed.
•You were following a loan modification agreement, but the foreclosure still happened.
•The foreclosure occurred while you were protected by bankruptcy.
In this season of March Madness, let’s take a look at how the Final Four Financial Institutions stack up:
http://www.twylah.com/MotherJones/tweets/137030548735533056
I don’t know of the veracity of this and I haven’t been able to find the original article (if any). But, conceptually, it’s quite amusing. Damning if accurate.
Attempts to delay and undermine regulation? That’s just crazy talk.
Senators look to ease Volcker Rule worries as deadline approaches
By Peter Schroeder - 03/22/12 12:29 PM ET
The Hill
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation that would make clear that financial institutions would not have to comply with a key piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law if regulators have not finishing putting it in place.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/banking-financial-institutions/217599-senators-look-to-ease-volcker-rule-worries-as-deadline-approaches
Republicans and the financial industry have bombarded regulators with comments warning that too restrictive requirements could limit the effectiveness of financial markets.
So if it’s such an inconsequential piece of legislation that really won’t change anything, as I’m often told, why is the financial industry (and their minions, the GOP) so furiously opposed to it?
Their opposition makes me think there’s some real value in the law.
“Republicans and the financial industry have bombarded regulators with comments warning that too restrictive requirements could limit the effectiveness of financial markets… TO LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL FORM THE TAXPAYER.”
There. Fixed it.
Any item they can push-back on, they will.
Plus, for accuracy purposes, here’s a breakdown of who the financial industry
bribessupports:http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.php?ind=F&cycle=2010
One can select election cycles. In the current cycle, it does appear to be true that the financial sector is supporting the Republicans more heavily. However, historically, they’ve supported both sides more or less equally.
historically, they’ve supported both sides more or less equally.
Really? In your link,take out 2008 (arguably an anomaly, or at least an outlier), and the Wall Street firms consistently give more money to the GOP in every election cycle going back to 1990. I wouldn’t call that “more or less equally”.
But I don’t deny they give a lot to the Dems too. Both parties are bribed by the 1%ers on Wall Street, but the GOP is far more consistent in their support of the things that allow and enable this bribery, such as our current campaign finance system. And far more consistent in defending the profiteers of this corruption, and their low tax rates. And far more opposed to any regulations that might interfere with Wall Street’s shenanigans (such as their opposition to the Volcker Rule now).
So again, it’s hard to call it equal.
Okay, 52% GOP, 48% Democrat, historically. Approximately.
Approximately.
Looks more like 60-40 to me, if you hit each election cycle, and look at the pie chart. And also pay attention to who the actual contributors are. For instance, the natl ass of credit unions is a big giver to the dems, and I don’t really consider them to be Wall Street. If you focus on the actual Wall Street firms, it’s even more skewed towards the GOP.
It does lessen a bit as you go further back to the early 90s, but Wall Street was a different beast then, no? As their cancer grew, they paid more in bribes to the party that enabled it.
The Volcker rule (wiki) prohibits trading that doesn’t benefit the bank’s customers. If you disallow this type of trading, this should ostensibly have no impact on the customers. So how would this “disrupt” markets?
The reason for the delay is that bankers bombarded the regulators with 17000 comments, all of which have to be addressed. So I guess corps now think that if they see a reg they don’t like, they can run out the clock on it? This sounds like a very dangerous slippery slope.
Also from the article: “following the disclosure by Deutsche Bank that it had restructured its U.S. operations so that it was no longer a bank holding company in America and therefore not subject to higher capital requirements set by Dodd-Frank. ”
Wouldn’t that make them subject to tax rates on foreign income?
This is a legal obligation? I thought it was more of an attempt to get user input.
If the FIRE sector wants to DDOS the regulatory agencies, the regulatory agencies don’t have to act like dumb routers and take it. They can just take the highlights of what they’ve been able to address and go from there.
we’d have to ask Polly, but I’m pretty sure that all comments must be addressed in some fashion. I’ve seen rulemaking documents (all publicly available) consisting entirely of charts of public comments and why or why not the text was or was not changed in response to the comment.
You have to read them all, categorize them (they tend to run in themes) and state why/how they were addressed or why they were not.
It is exhausive and enormously time consuming.
I have no idea what the heck they did before excel. It must have been so much worse.
Trump Monument to Bubble Failure Stands Tall:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-25/news/mh-trump-tower-fiasco-20120325_1_trump-international-hotel-roy-stillman-donald-trump
Rule #22 of RE:
Never - ever - buy anything with the “Trump” name on it.
—————————————-
“The market wiped us out,” said Julius Schwarz, a member of Bayrock Group LLC, a developer in the project. “We did as well as anyone could have done on this project.”
But investors say Trump International Hotel & Tower was plagued by problems far more serious than the slumping economy: Trump stripped his name off the 298-room project just months before it was to open, stinging buyers who put down millions because of the name.
And just months before the real-estate collapse, developers sold most of the future profits of the project for millions — including paying $1.5 million to a former New York crime family associate for his role in the deal, according to court records.
There were people gutting the jewelry store that recently shut down in my neighborhood this morning. It leaves me with a few choices as to what it going on.
The landlord is getting serious about renting out the space and is fixing it up to try to make it attractive to a business,
or
the space has been rented and is being renovated to suit the needs of a new tennant.
So, what do you people with commercial real estate experience think? Is it the former or the latter? And if the latter, will the new tennant be
a bank,
a bank,
a bank,
a bank,
or a bank?
Payday loan places are spreading around my neighboorhood.
^ this
almost 10 years no pawn shops now 3 and maybe a 4th in 15 months
I’m seeing a lot of payday loan sign twirlers these days.
I’m waiting for oxide to make fun of the idea of a payday loan place or a pawn shop going into this neighborhood. There is a realtor’s office not too far away. High end international real estate, but a realtor all the same. Maybe we will get another one, though I think they generally like bigger spaces.
Jewelry stores really are odd little spaces. Maybe there is more room in the back that I don’t know about because I never went inside and really saw their set up?
I was just about to reply with exactly that, Polly. :LOL: In Polly’s ‘hood, it’s not a pawn shop, it’s “unique vintage clothing on consignment.” Nor do they have nail places, they have “spas,” generally with a red door.
I’m not sure what goes into small space in a high-end nieghborhood. Travel agent? Subway? Another jewelry store?
The former Italian designer clothes shop across the street is still empty. The old Borders space has outrageously over priced overstocks and seconds from a high end furniture store (it had a pop up Halloween place during the season). There are “spas” around and only one has a red door, but I think you need infrastructure (water, back rooms, etc.) for that. There are already two high end cooking supply places. The cupcake place seems to be doing OK where it it. The ice cream shop closed, then reopened, then closed again. You wouldn’t want to put a counselor’s office there - too public a space and there are medical buildings for that. It might work as a florist (good impulse buy location) but there already is one about 2 1/2 blocks away, though in a less visible location. One of the really snooty places across the street has a lot of sunglasses, but I suppose it might work as a Sunglass Hut. The only other thing I can think of is Fedex or UPS.
I’m afraid we are looking at another bank.
I’m afraid we are looking at another bank.
I share your fear.
And, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t help thinking that this “bank on every corner” thing won’t end well. After all, online banking is growing ever more popular. Guess what those banks don’t need? A bunch of branches and tellers, that’s what.
a short-lived cafe
I don’t think that the space works for a cafe. Other close locations are several clothing shops and two (three?) bank branches.
69% Say Those Struggling With Mortgage Should Sell, Buy Cheaper Home
Rasmussen Reports | March 22, 2012
While most Americans agree now is not the best time to sell a home, they feel stronger than ever that those struggling to pay their mortgage should sell their home and buy a cheaper one rather than receive help from the government.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that just 19% believe the government should assist those struggling homeowners in making their mortgage payments. Sixty-nine percent (69%) think someone who can’t afford to make increased mortgage payments should sell their home and find a less expensive one. That’s up three points from January and the highest finding in nearly two years of regular tracking. Thirteen percent (13%) are undecided.
There is always rent….. at a much lower monthly cost.
Gosh, I wonder why they didn’t think of that?
Did the report also say WHO they could sell to?
And how much they needed to bring to the table?
Details, details …
Realtors Are Liars®
Can we agree on even the most basic of economic primciples?
What is money in the modern economy?
If we still have fools claiming that used bicycles and piggy back raides are money in a modern economy, than I think there is no hope for us. Bring on the crash!!!!!
Little nugget-
“which in turn sold the loans to hedge fund managers. ”
http://http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120326/BUSINESS04/203260326/Developers-try-pick-up-pieces-neglected-housing-projects?odyssey=nav|head
The Week in Charts Archives
March 23, 2012, 2:56 p.m. EDT
The unclear picture from the week’s housing data
Almost there Ox alpha……the truth will prevail
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2714778/thousands-expected-at-trayvon.html
So he smoked pot. A lot of kids do that. I believe that half the kids on my son’s upper middle class soccer team have smoked pot. It doesn’t make them dangerous gang bangers. In fact, most of them are on the honors program at the high school.
I’ll confess to having been a pot smoker in my younger days. And what did I do while under the influence of said substance?
1. Get high
2. Get the munchies
3. Eat, eat, eat
4. Pass out
Not exactly the makings of a criminal. But I will say that pot didn’t work wonders for my weight. Or my short-term memory. Took a while to get the weight down and the memory back.
I guess the soccer kids don’t have to worry about gaining weight.
That said, the real danger is if they ever get busted. Then it goes on their record, which means no federal financial aid for college and it will pop up on background checks for who knows how long, effectively barring them from just about any middle class job.
Read it again now Multiple suspensions burglary tool jewelry
and the stereotypical black male:
“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.
Yes. Yes it will.
Transcript of original 911 call. Bookmark it. You’re going to need it.
http://www.examiner.com/unsolved-cases-in-national/george-zimmerman-s-911-call-transcribed
I’m reserving judgement on what happened until all evidence is available. However, I will say, I don’t think the guy is whispering. I just hear him getting out of his truck to follow the guy.
So, he profiles the kid as acting oddly and calls 911. He then figures out the kid is black after the kid gives him a stare down. With cops on the way, we follows the kid. Call ends.
Other calls….. Zimmerman is screaming for help long before the gun shot is heard.
I have to say, if I was on a jury and this is all the evidence I had, I’d have a hard time convicting.
I’d have a hard time convicting.
What if the kid was white? Maybe one of your kids, guilty of buying candy at the store, and frightening a neighborhood vigilante.
after the kid gives him a stare down
And your proof this happened? Or is that just how they act? And is it a shooting offense to look at someone who is following you?
Maybe one of your kids
This should be absolutely irrelevant. This is a call to emotion, not based on the facts. Guilt or innocence isn’t about emotion, it’s about the facts of the case/situation.
Any one on here follow the Zeitgeist Movement?
I find the notion of an economist “getting angry” at a market rather peculiar. It’s not as though markets are some kind of living, breathing entity worthy of an emotional response.
March 26, 2012, 10:44 a.m. EDT
Bernanke getting angry at the bond market
Commentary: Recent increase in bond yields unnerves Bernanke
By MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There are lots of ways to interpret the Federal Reserve’s continual talking down of the U.S. economy, but the comments from Ben Bernanke on Monday have a clear target: the bond market.
The well-worn axiom “don’t fight the Fed” is well worn for a reason: it’s a smart move. Stock-market investors who went long after the Fed cut interest rates to nearly zero in December 2008, or bought after the central bank’s various bond-buying initiatives, have been well-rewarded.
Ben has commanded: “Thou shalt take risk.” He also has commanded from Mount Jackson Hole, and other venues: “Bond rates shall stay low.”
But Wall Street traders were starting to disobey. The yield on the 10-year note (10_YEAR +0.36%) has been heading the other way. UBS economists have declared the three-decade long bull rally in government bonds is set to end.
Bernanke is fearful that an increase in yields will kill off the recent gains seen in the U.S. economy. That’s why the Fed has started quarterly press conferences and revealing the interest rate forecasts of Federal Open Market Committee members — all to keep a better grip on interest rates.
But that grip is loosening, and probably not helped by the hawks on the Fed who have been on the warpath saying the central bank really isn’t committed to low rates, after all. Just an hour before Bernanke spoke, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser was in Paris, warning an audience of a central bank without boundaries.
Bernanke is willing to tolerate the likes of Plosser and Dallas Fed Chief Richard Fisher in the name of academic diversity so long as no one actually believes them.
…
Apparently BB is not angry at the stock market.
Ride the Bernanke bubble
March 26, 2012, 1:52 PM
By Cody Willard
So you guys remember when I used to write articles like this?
Bernanke says “Let’s inflate the biggest stock market bubble in history” 3:03 p.m. July 13, 2011 | By Cody Willard
Or
Shut up and buy the tech bubble 4:39 a.m. May 26, 2011 | By Cody Willard
Or
Why you must fight the Fed and get ready for a new stock market bubble 10:33 a.m. Dec. 31, 2010 | By Cody Willard
Now let’s fast-forward to today. And guess who’s in the headlines for stoking stocks again? Yup. Your favorite bank crony and mine, Ben Bernanke. Some of today’s headlines, include:
Stocks Gain on Bernanke Comments U.S. stocks rose, rebounding from the year’s biggest weekly declines, after Bernanke said additional accommodative policies are necessary to create jobs. 21 min ago
Buying into Bernanke rally U.S. stocks rise sharply Monday, rebounding from last week’s losses, after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke signals the central bank is committed to a monetary policy that’s helped buoy stocks for several years.
No Quit in This Market JAMES “REV SHARK” DEPORRE MAR 26, 2012 | 10:48 AM EDT | 14 COMMENTS With the words ‘quantitative easing’ in the air, who knows how much higher the market can go.
Look, this isn’t your grandfather’s or your father’s stock market. Basing our savings allocation and balancing our portfolios is not supposed to be an endless exercise in gaming the Federal Reserve. But as I’ve pointed out to you guys for a long time now, that’s the reality of our domestic and political economies and we have to learn how to invest in this marketplace that has been revolutionized by these changes in the underlying principles of what used to be our “markets”. This isn’t how you and I are supposed to be trading and investing.
…
The future direction of the stock market seems to depend on the Fed’s resolve to ensure it keeps going up, including requisite political support on the FOMC, plus the technical means to do so.
all this govt manipulation of markets is making me sick…..Because of artificially low interest rates, home prices are still to high (400 K in my hood for a starter),and the stock market is way out of whack….of course my loser stocks still suck……..
Nobody is putting a gun to our heads to make us buy stocks (so far, at least…).
Stocks face ‘rude awakening’ if Fed stays dovish too long: Laidi
March 26, 2012, 10:58 AM
Ashraf Laidi, chief global strategist at City Index Group, says Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s continued dovishness may be a miscalculation.
Laidi says in a note Monday that the Fed is trying “to contain the recent run-up in bond yields. The gain in long yields has stood counter to the objective of Operation Twist.”
However, “the Fed could be at risk of miscalculating. Further Fed dovishness combined with continued upside data surprises may produce higher oil prices and higher bond yields, both of which could stand in the way of the current economic recovery.”
…
Some knowledgeable Fed watchers seem quite confident that QE3 is in the bag.
UPDATE 1-PIMCO’s Gross sees Fed QE3 hints in April-Twitter
Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:26am EDT
By Jennifer Ablan and Richard Leong
(Reuters) - Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at PIMCO, said the U.S. Federal Reserve will likely hint at a third round of bond purchases, better known as “quantitative easing,” at its April policy meeting.
Gross issued his view on Fed policy on social media platform Twitter on Sunday. “#Fed likely to hint @ QE3 in April meeting,” said Gross, co-chief investment officer at PIMCO.
It wasn’t Gross’s first time tweeting on QE3.
In June, Gross said the Fed would signal a third round of bond purchases in a bid to boost sluggish economic growth at the closely watched Jackson Hole annual global central banking conference, led by the Fed, which takes place in Wyoming.
Gross, who oversees the $252 billion PIMCO Total Return Fund , is betting big on the Fed.
Gross increased the Total Return Fund’s exposure to mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to 52 percent in February from 50 percent in January. In October, the fund’s exposure to MBS was just 38 percent.
Gross has been steadily plowing into MBS on the expectation that the Fed would announce a new round of mortgage bond buying. But with the Fed’s latest decision, it appears a new round of mortgage bond buying is on hold, or least delayed.
On March 12, Gross said the U.S. central bank “must keep buying bonds that the market doesn’t want.”
…
On March 12, Gross said the U.S. central bank “must keep buying bonds that the market doesn’t want.”
The polite way of saying, mopping up the toxic chit?
Hey folks….. just a take off on my first post I made today regarding taxes in upstate.
I just got off the phone with Mrs. E and she told me her boss(they’re close… more like coworkers) got a “property taxes paid” statement from the Assessor. No big deal right? Her boss hasn’t made a mortgage payment in 18 months. The lender is M&T(Empty?)Bank. This is downstate NY where $5000/yr property tax bills are cheap.
So…..
The bank hasn’t seen a penny from this borrower in 18 months and pays the taxes for the borrower. I’ve never heard or read about this… at least not on the HBB.
As of January, 2012, M&T owed $381.5 million to the US government Troubled Asset Relief Program.[7]
Wikipedia
Doesn’t sound like enough when you consider the above anecdote.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/26/the-daily-caller-obtains-trayvon-martins-tweets/
My sister just bought a house up near Santa Maria, CA. She was getting killed on taxes and had money burning a hole in her bank account. Even though she had been talking about it for a while, I told her to hold off until prices came down further. She didn’t. She paid $295K at the end of February and on March 7, Trulia adjusted their estimate of her new home to $204K. Already under water and hasn’t even moved in yet! Ouch.
“Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” -Benjamin Franklin