Bits Bucket for January 10, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
February 2025 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
I also posted this on yesterday’s bits, but I think it’s important to see how Dodd Frank is turning out…IMHO, the most important things to come out of Dodd Frank are the Volcker Rule, and Qualified Mortgage requirements. There are certainly other consumer protections, but also a lot of the other stuff that I’ve seen is making the flow of capital more restrictive in the market, which is not a good thing.
In any event, there was an article on Bloomberg earlier this week that noted how “The Goldman” still is playing the big casino with company money (despite saying they shut it down)–the Volcker Rule is supposed to shut this down, but I have my serious doubts based on this article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-08/secret-goldman-team-sidesteps-volcker-after-blankfein-vow.html
And now the CFPB releases their rule on “qualified mortgages”…I don’t know if there is more to come out on this, but here is the gist based on what I’ve read:
No down payment requirements
Debt service must be no more than 43% of income (verified)…43%!!!
Ability to repay cannot be calculated on a “teaser” rate
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/01/09/consumer-financial-protection-mortgage/1821329/
From what I can tell on the two big matters to be dealt with by Dodd Frank, based on the above my scorecard says Dodd Frank - 0…Wall Street - 2.
Depending on what the Volcker Rule ultimately says, and if they institute some sort of down payment requirement for securitization of mortgages, the scoreboard could change, but it looks like the attorneys, accountants and lobby for Wall Street are winning the ground war.
And since we are 2.5 years from the original signing of the law…it is out of people’s minds…so they might just get away with it. Party on!
In summer 2011 I posted a proposed rule for Credit Risk Retention for Qualified Residential Mortgages (QRM). The rule proposed that a bank had to retain 5% of a loan if the buyer had less than 20% down and 28% rule. Hundreds of comments, including some Senators, thought 20% down was too much.
From what I read, this is a different rule. (see below) Repeating what Rental Watch said, “Risky” means having any of these risky features:
Debt service 43% or more
Fees/Points 3% or more
ARMs, I/O, neg-am, 30+ years, and other 2005-2006 ninja-type crap.
“If lenders meet those standards, borrowers who later default will have little recourse to fight foreclosure by claiming the lender sold them a risky loan.” In other words,
1. If the bank offers a Qualified loan and the FB defaults, it’s the FB’s fault and the FB has no recourse to sue.
2. If the bank offers a Risky loan and the FB defaults, it’s the bank’s fault and the FB can sue for predatory lending.
Consumer advocates think the rule is too loose, especially the 43% requirement. They see scenarios of low-income buyers getting a loan at 42% income, defaulting, and not being able to sue the bank.
IMO, I don’t think this is a bad rule. What really suckered in the bubble buyers was those ARM’s, I/O’s and neg-ams, where payments shot up 3-5 years in. But with this new rule, I don’t think banks will ever offer those again. A bank may offer a fixed loan at 45% of income, but that payment will be fixed from the get-go, and the FB will KNOW up front it. If the FB can’t figure this out, it should be the FB’s fault.
“Consumer advocates think the rule is too loose, especially the 43% requirement. They see scenarios of low-income buyers getting a loan at 42% income, defaulting, and not being able to sue the bank.
IMO, I don’t think this is a bad rule.”
Old lending standard: Fixed mortgage payments at no more than 30% of income.
New lending standard: Forget about ever taking a vacation, going to the movies or eating out. Paying 43% of your income for the privilege of home ownership is the new normal.
P.S. Our rent is at 23% and shrinking as a share of household income.
Rental rates are shrinking faster than incomes.
I think the 43% is for all debt payments, not just the mortgage. I think the traditional standard for this was closer to 38%, but with student loans thrown in the mix, I don’t see how they could keep it that low.
Of course, there is a very good argument that total debt as a percentage of income should be lower now that it used to be, because people often have child care costs that weren’t part of the traditional (50s and 60s) analysis.
“Of course, there is a very good argument that total debt as a percentage of income should be lower now that it used to be, because people often have child care costs that weren’t part of the traditional (50s and 60s) analysis.
”
I’ve argued this point for some time now. And child care is not the only additional expense today that were not part of the ’50s and ’60s analysis. Things like health care cost, retirement savings, college savings, student load debt, ‘working costs’ such as cell phone, internet, computers, cars for longer commutes, etc
But it is a reasonable compromise between freedom of contract and the government’s interest in preventing fraud. Do you really think that someone that really does want to make sacrifices to own a home should be denied that right because you think that anything over 30% of her income is too much? Where you draw the line on the nanny state is subjective. However, we are not talking about a strawberry picker buying a $700,000 house here.
That still does not make this a bad rule. This rule does not say what the lending standards should be; they just define whether the FB will have any hope of winning if they sue.
IMO this rule achieved its major purpose by effectively knocking out ANY mortgage which changes the howmuchamonth: ARM, I/O, neg-am, option, whatever. That’s what caught all the subprimes. FB’s thought they could afford the howmuchamonth… until the grace period was up and the howmuchamonth skyrocketed. Then the FB’s played victim because they “didn’t know” what they signed.
With this rule, a bank wouldn’t dare offer you a neg-am unless you’re Mitt Romney, for fear of being sued.
Nope, banks will only offer a mortgage where the howmuchamonth is FIXED from Day 1. And the FB will know what the howmuchamonth is and they know they will have to pay it NOW, not 5 years or 3 years or 2 months from now. It will be the FB’s responsibility to decide if they can afford that fixed howmuchcmonth or not. It places some responsibility on the FB, as it should be.
That said, yes, I can see banks offering 43% as a new normal of stable mortgages because the gov said it was okay. I can see FB’s signing them because if they don’t, someone else will and the other guy will get the house. But as Raj Date said, that’s not in the purview of his agency. If they want banks to stop offering 43+% at all, then they’ll have to place more requirements, probably using the Credit Risk Retention regulation.
“Do you really think that someone that really does want to make sacrifices to own a home should be denied that right because you think that anything over 30% of her income is too much? Where you draw the line on the nanny state is subjective.”
I draw the line more tightly if my tax dollars* help provide for federal guarantees and bailouts.
* I include printing press money loaned out at zero- or near-zero percent rates under this category, as I fail to grasp the effective difference between honest taxation and running the printing press, aside from distributional impacts (e.g. retirees are currently getting hammered by ultra-low rates; may as well just cut their entitlements as taking away the returns widow and orphan investments).
No, it’s the new normal for the FB to have a chance of suing. That should be a looser than the standard.
As I said, the important part of the regulation is axing things like adjustable rates and interest-only options etc.
Remember, those bubble loans were not about the howmuchamonth, it was the howmuchamonth NOW. People used to buy with a low howmuchamonth, but then the howmuchamonth jumped after 5 years, or 3 years, or even 2 months. That’s what caught them.
With this new reg, the howmuchamonth will now be FIXED, from Day 1, and the FB will know what it is. Then it’s up to the FB to decide if he can afford the FIXED amount NOW, whether it’s 28%, 38%, or 43%. It puts some burden on the FB, as it should.
Oops, sorry for essentially writing the same comment 3 times. I’ve been busy all day and lost track of postings.
This got me wondering how much of their income people are actually paying in rent, and to the ongoing discussion that renting is always cheaper than buying.
Depending on where you live, what I have found is that the cost of housing (renting OR owning) has gotten more expensive across the board, except in places where there are no jobs and/or places that many people have no desire to live. Sure, I could rent (or buy) for cheap if I wanted to live in Detroit…
NYC is not a surprise:Federal benchmarks deem rent unaffordable when it costs 30% or more of household income, and almost half of all New York City renters pay rent that is unaffordable by those federal standards. (http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2012_releases/pr12-09-102.shtm)
But Ohio??: Renters also have struggled. In 1999, 28 percent were paying at least 35 percent of their income on rent; last year, the figure was 36.5 percent.
“Both renters and owners were squeezed,” said Cindy Flaherty, director of homeownership at the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which helps low- to moderate-income Ohioans purchase homes or find affordable rental housing. (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2009/09/22/census21.html)
The Rent(al Income as a Percentage of GDP) Is Too Damn High, and Households Severely Burdened with Housing Costs
Many of the Ohio poors became Lucky Duckies thanks to the (bipartisan sponsored) deregulation and outsourcing of jobs.
Wilmington, OH which lost a DHL hub is a good example of what happens when a town’s major employer goes bye-bye.
See also Youngstown, Canton, et cetera
How do you outsource a DHL hub?
Wrong word choice. They didn’t outsource, they shut down completely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/business/11dhl.html?_r=0
Truly sad, even after receiving subsidies.
for what I pay in rent, i could only get a $140k loan + taxes. But then I would have pay for maintenance. for me, much smarter to rent and travel and play. to each his own.
(since 1989 i have owned 3 places in my life, age 44 now) All cash now.
Good way to look at it, and I did.
At current rates (30-yr fixed = 3.67%, 15-yr fixed = 2.92%), our monthly rental payment would amortize a 30-yr loan of $500K or a 15-yr loan of roughly 2/3 that amount. Of course, this calculation ignores other components of PITI (insurance, taxes, HOA, Mello-Roos, etc), so assumes a higher monthly for the privilege of owning.
I have no interest in taking out a 30-year loan to buy anything, and don’t believe our family would fit into any home in our area priced below $400K, so it looks like we are going to keep on renting for now.
We used to use 33% based on mortgage, taxes, interest, insurance, and depreciation to qualify borrowers
Everyone qualified and see still repossessed 5-10 houses a month in the area of Caifornia I was in!
We repossessed houses where the monthly payment was $45 a month! And we would find the houses with new TVs and pool tables in the house!
Jack,
What area/county was this?
Thanks.
Are you Joe’s brother?
’scenarios of low-income buyers getting a loan at 42% income’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzE76nUSjL8
“What really suckered in the bubble buyers”
Well you’re our resident case study….. what suckered you?
Rent that was $450 more a month.
And my howmuchamonth was fixed from Day 1.
Darn those facts.
And you conveniently left out the fact you’re paying 40% more per square foot now than you were renting.
Darn those pesky facts.
Oxide, you actually had him over for dinner? (how else could he know how big your house is?)
No, the pimp is doing his usual.
And actually, the house I live in now is a little bit bigger than the townhouse I was renting, and the PITI is a little lower than rent. So my PITI is less than rent not only on a property basis, but on a sq ft basis too. And that doesn’t include the yard.
Nor does it include taxes, insurance and maintenance. And of course you conveniently exclude these costs in addition to the fact that your debt-shack is miles from your town house. You can’t be honest about that either.
You got suckered because you didn’t understand like the tens of millions that made the same mistake before you.
everyone ignores those weekend trips to home depot, they add up! and eat away your weekends.
PITI includes taxes and insurance, dude. Can’t you read?
Oxide will have to tell us whether the house is in a better location for her than the rented town house was. They can’t be too far apart if she still has a reasonable commute to work. Nothing that is many “miles away” in Montgomery County is still a reasonable commute to a location that was a reasonable commute from the first location.
My current apartment is at least a 20 minute drive from my old apartment and that is only in the middle of the night when half the traffic lights have switched over to flashing yellow and there is no traffic. When there is traffic it could easily be 40 minutes to an hour and that is only 8 miles.
It was principal only just two weeks ago. And maintenance cost aren’t included in todays charade. Can’t you read?
Oxide will have to tell us whether the house is in a better location for her than the rented town house was.
laughing…. not only does our blog debt junkie have her own bias, she can select which location is worth more based on her opinion?
You’re an attorney? lmao.
Of course she determines what location is better for her. She knows where her job is. She knows where she likes to shop. She knows how much she values having a yard vs. living in a town house. Who the heck else is going to decide what a house is worth to her better than she is?
You are still thinking like a developer, honey. Real people only care about a few possible houses in a very small area. Not hundreds of houses in dozens of locations. The last time we talked about lot values you gave us a list of cheap lot prices in places on the outskirts of Albany. What good is a lot near Albany to a person who has a JOB in Montgomery County, MD? Is she supposed to commute from upstate NY every day? What is that, a 12 hour round trip commute each day if there is zero traffic? I’ll even dare speak for oxide in this one. No way.
And you are completely wrong that the payment she was talking about was only principle two weeks ago. She is at the beginning of fairly long mortgage. The principle is a couple hundred bucks at most. That plus $450 isn’t enough to rent a 3 bedroom townhouse in close in MoCo. Not even close.
Don’t be silly barrister. She doesn’t determine the price anymore than you do. Further, your comparison to any other area other than where she rented and where she bought is a fallacy. Additionally, you know all to well the massively inflated price she paid is far far more than a “couple hundred dollars” plus 450.
PS-Learn the definition of the word developer before you stereotype anyone here. Your bias toward the housing crime syndicate is showing once again. Learn to put a lid on it.
“Of course she determines what location is better for her. She knows where her job is. She knows where she likes to shop. She knows how much she values having a yard vs. living in a town house.”
Don’t forget about the privileges that automatically accrue to all members of the Ownership Society.
In a comment above, I said that the Qualified Mortgage rule is not the same as the 20% Credit Risk Retention Rule. I couldn’t find the actual rule online, but here are some old remarks from Raj Date at CFPB showing that CFPN is talking about something else. His summary of what happened could have been written by HBB:
——-
“…In most lending markets, a lender traditionally has an incentive to care about a borrower’s ability to repay. …
But when you look closely at the mortgage market prior to the crisis, you see that almost everyone involved – mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers, investment bankers, even rating agencies – earned rewards that were front-loaded and insufficiently connected to the performance of the loans over time. Indeed, in mortgages, unlike, say, in credit cards, it was even possible for a loan originator to sell all of the credit risk in a loan.
You could sell everything. Residual credit risk? Sold. Rate risk? Sold. Servicing rights? Sold. All of it could be sold for cash, and all of it sold before anyone could know how the loan would actually perform over time. As a result, originators lost much of their incentive to ensure that credit risks were being mitigated. If loans went bad; it was often, quite literally, somebody else’s problem.
It’s no wonder, then, that originators embraced more risk. From 1990 to 2005, subprime loans, as reported by Inside Mortgage Finance, rose from 8 percent to roughly 23 percent of total mortgage production. Alt-A loans, which include for example reduced-documentation mortgages to prime borrowers, added another 15 percent in 2006. Together, in 2006, subprime and Alt-A loans totaled roughly $1 trillion in originations, or nearly 40 percent of the origination market…
The Dodd-Frank Act addresses many of these incentive problems. First, there is the risk retention provision, which requires sponsors of asset-backed securitizations to retain at least 5 percent of the credit risk. This is meant to align the interests of those who take risk, the investors, with those who make the underwriting decisions in the first place. The CFPB is not one of the agencies responsible for writing the risk retention regulations.
[Date then goes on to address how CFPB is looking at regulating origination, not securitization.]
————–
Remarks given to the American Bankers Regulatory Symposium, September 20, 2011.
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/speeches/remarks-by-raj-date-at-american-bankers-regulatory-symposium/
Oxide-
Thanks for your comments…I was fumbling around last night to see if there was anything else on the “qualified mortgage” matter, looking for anything related to down payment, and couldn’t find it.
I don’t think the risk retention rule has been finalized yet (or at least I’ve seen nothing about it). Still waiting to see whether they punt on down payment requirements (making them $0), or make them ridiculously low (5%), moderately low (10%), or reasonable (20%).
No down payment requirements
Debt service must be no more than 43% of income (verified)…43%!!!
Ability to repay cannot be calculated on a “teaser” rate
Eliminate the government mortgage guarantees, and the invisible hand would do better than this nonsense. Surely the business community can survive without swindling its customers.
“Eliminate the government mortgage guarantees, and the invisible hand would do better than this nonsense.”
be quiet you 1%er you!
Hmmm…. I remember teaser rate loans as far back as the 80’s. “Creative Financing” it was called.
http://www.wtop.com/209/3187362/New-federal-rules-aim-to-curb-risky-mortgages
“The so-called “show cause” order allows a judge to demand the homeowner prove why a foreclosure judgment shouldn’t be issued if a bank’s documents are considered properly documented.”
That still sounds like….
“language most resisted by homeowners”
Quickie foreclosure bill on agenda again
By Kimberly Miller
Posted: 8:59 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A fast-track foreclosure bill meant to hasten the legal process and reduce a mammoth court backlog will again be discussed by Florida lawmakers this year — the fourth consecutive session in which the issue has been up for legislative debate.
Proponents of the bill, filed by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said the years of deliberation and countless exchanges with stakeholders have refined the proposal, which removes some of the language most resisted by homeowners in earlier versions.
Also, the proposal (HB 87) retains the consumer-friendly provision that reduces the time banks have to recoup money owed on unpaid mortgage debt from five years to one.
But consumer advocates said the 19-page plan still leaves too few protections for homeowners who they fear will have little time to muster a defense under a part of the bill that gives a judge discretion in determining whether a fast-track foreclosure can proceed.
The so-called “show cause” order allows a judge to demand the homeowner prove why a foreclosure judgment shouldn’t be issued if a bank’s documents are considered properly documented. A hearing must then be scheduled no sooner than 20 days from the show cause order, and no later than within 45 days of the complaint filing.
The real estate crash and recession have left Florida’s 20 circuit courts with 377,272 pending foreclosure cases as of the end of October, and an average foreclosure timeline of 858 days — more than two years.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/real-estate/quickie-foreclosure-bill-on-agenda-again/nTq4S/ - 95k -
I cant imagine why if you dont pay you get evicted is somehow wrong for “homeowners” and ok for renters
Because it helps the banks.
Holy cow!
377,272 pending foreclosure cases…wow.
“…377,272 pending foreclosure cases as of the end of October, and an average foreclosure timeline of 858 days — more than two years.”
Figures like that make you wonder how bad the real picture is in a place like California with a far larger indigent homeowner population than FL.
CA is far greater of a mess than FL will ever be.
Really?
Then how come I keep reading about how California prices are going up again, how foreclosures are down again, and how the economy is righting itself?
Truth or fiction?
You’re looking at median price. It seems to be fooling everyone. Also, unemployment in CA is hovering around 10% and drifting higher.
Google says the CA unemployment rate dropped from 12.4% to 9.8% from October 2011 through November 2012. Still a high unemployment rate for sure, at the peak level of the early-1990s recession, in fact, though falling…
“median price”…”fooling everyone”?
This is the favored statistic of the illustrious Pimp Watch when he was trying to show that Santa Clara County prices were falling…LOL.
Santa Clara county prices are falling.
CIBT:
Per LPS (October data):
Florida: 12.1% of all their loans are in foreclosure, and another 7.8% are delinquent.
California: 2.0% of all their loans are in foreclosure, and another 5.9% are delinquent.
“Normal” number of homes in foreclosure is about 1%–Even North Dakota with “man camps” and oil shale boom has 0.9% of their mortgages in foreclosure. FL has 11 excess points of mortgages in foreclosure, and CA has 1 excess point of foreclosure inventory…FL is 11x worse than CA in terms of their foreclosure backlog.
Per the Census (as of Q3):
Florida: Rental Vacancy Rate - 12.6%, Homeowner Vacancy Rate - 2.1%
California: Rental Vacancy Rate - 5.2%, Homeowner Vacancy Rate - 1.4%
Per Foreclosure Radar:
California average foreclosure timeline: 278 days
Per the Article:
Florida average foreclosure timeline: 858 days
Per BLS:
Year on Year job growth:
CA: 1.9% growth in employment (representing 268k jobs)
FL: 1.14% growth in employment (representing 83k jobs)
Per NAHB
Estimate of Building Permits for 2012 (both single family and multi-family):
CA: 58,700
FL: 63,600
CA has a better balance of households/housing units than Florida (lower vacancy)
CA has been foreclosing on defaulted borrowers much faster than Florida (approximately 3x as fast–getting rid of the distress much faster)
CA has a much lower supply of non-current loans (Florida has 2.5x the supply)–if you see “normal” as 5% for non-current, Florida has 15 excess points to CA’s 3 excess points, 5x the excess distress than CA (and as noted above, 11x the excess foreclosure pipeline).
CA is adding far more jobs, both in total, and on a percentage basis
CA is building far fewer homes, in total, relative to population, and relative to new jobs
Florida is a bigger mess…no doubt about it.
“California: 2.0% of all their loans are in foreclosure, and another 5.9% are delinquent.”
7.9% problem loans X how many loans(?) = bigger mess than FL?
Loan count estimates:
California: Approximately 4.6 million
Florida: Approximately 2.6 million
Total non-current:
4.6MM X 7.9% = 363k (CA)
2.6MM X 19.8% = 515k (FL)
Excess non-current (the amount over 5%):
4.6MM X 2.9% = 133k (CA)
2.6MM X 14.8% = 385k (FL)
Nope, even excluding the fact that CA is a much larger state (size, population, etc.), Florida is still a bigger mess.
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: March 3, 2012
Judith Fox, a law professor who directs the Economic Justice Project at the Notre Dame Law Center in South Bend, Ind., has changed the advice she gives defaulting clients. “Three or four years ago, I would always tell clients, ‘You have three or four months to get yourself together,’ ” she said. “Now I tell folks, even if they’ve been foreclosed, ‘Just stay put, because it could be years before anything happens.’ ”
One of Ms. Fox’s clients is Nicholas Cline, 35, a construction worker who fell behind on his mortgage payments in 2009. (He thought he had modified his loan, but the company he was working with has since pleaded guilty to criminal fraud.) The bank that holds Mr. Cline’s mortgage has left him alone, he said. No letters, no calls, no hassles.
“But now that it’s going on three years, what do you do?” Mr. Cline said. “I am living in my house. But the stress of this, not knowing what’s going to happen or when, it’s an unbelievable burden on your mind.”
In New York, the time to complete a foreclosure has almost quadrupled, from 263 days in 2007 to 1,019 days in 2011. Abraham Kleinman, a lawyer in Uniondale who represents homeowners fighting foreclosure, said he counseled a client who felt guilty about remaining in his home so long after defaulting. “He says to himself, ‘I’m sitting here rent free, it can’t go on forever,’ ” Mr. Kleinman said. “But the plaintiff has not been aggressive. As near as I can tell, they’ve put this to the side.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/us/when-living-in-limbo-avoids-living-on-the-street.html?pagewanted=all - -
“But the stress of this….”
Not nearly the stress of actually making those relentless payments!
+1
that’s what drugs AND sex are for!
“But now that its been going on three years, what do you do?”
You keep staying and keep guarding the house from the strippers, and you keep maintaining the place so the bank will have an asset worth seizing when the time is ripe for the bank to do so.
Meanwhile keep your bags packed.
‘you keep maintaining the place’
That’s usually not the case. I’ve walked into so many foreclosures now that I have to remind myself how strange it is to step over a rotting bag of food on the living room floor, or see cabinets ripped off, or just about anything destructive and without care. Think about it; when have you ever left a place that you rented or owned and purposefully tore something up on the way out?
Not everyone is like this. I’ve even had FBs ask me to winterize a house because they were worried it might get freeze damage before the lender would get to it! And I’ve never charged a penny for that either, just because it is so rare that people give a damn. But the majority? (And remember, we’re talking about grown, otherwise normal adults, with families). It is completely routine to see a lamp ripped out of the wall. So they wanted that $15 lamp, and do $100 of kinda-violent damage to take it with them. And odds are they will just toss the lamp in a box anyway.
So what is it with these people? Spite, revenge, acting out their victim-hood? Lots of us may not have liked a landlord along the way, but would never dream of kicking a hole in the wall on the way out. Somehow, this has become more common than not, on various levels.
Just another example of American Exceptionalism
lmao!!!
“That’s usually not the case.”
This is where the loan modifiers come in. They offer to modify the loan and thus keep the FBs hopes alive and well.
If the FB thinks he gets to stay - gets to keep on owning - then he will behave differently than if he thought he was going to be tossed out at any time.
“I’ve walked into so many foreclosures now that I have to remind myself how strange it is to step over a rotting bag of food on the living room floor, or see cabinents ripped off, or just about anything destructive or without care.”
Which makes my point. The houses you walked into were forclosed - the owners were tossed out. The houses that still have FBs living in them - the ones that are not foreclosed, the ones where the FBs still think they are the owners - are going to be treated a bit differently by the FBs.
“owners were tossed out” = “FBs were tossed out”
‘where the FBs still think they are the owners - are going to be treated a bit differently by the FBs’
It’s impossible to generalize about the behavior of millions of people and I’ve never seen a study of the matter. Some of it makes me wonder if a lot of people are just slobs, and it shows when they leave. Do you pull your fridge out and sweep up from time to time? Or is that something you do only when you leave? Would it embarrass you for other people to know you never, ever dust? Or the stuff behind your couch? How does a freezer get pet hair in it? Some of these people leave without a single cobweb in the house. Others will use a toilet several times without flushing and leave it that way. That’s something that seems sub-human.
“How does a freezer get pet hair in it?”
We know a family who once stored their dead dog in the freezer. The story made quite a ripple in their circle of friends…
“Do you pull your fridge out and sweep up from time to time?”
Mrs. PW does. And after every last square foot of the house has been washed down 2x, dried and dehumidified, she proceeds to detoxify every room with a can of Lysol in one hand and a crucifix in the other shouting “out virus!”.
It’s nuts I tell ya.
Stories like this are not as uncommon as you might think.
Pretending to be part of American Dream. Grief. Denial. Anger.
Grief. Denial. Anger.
Punching holes in the wall and leaving a floater in the bowl are pretty harmless. Wonder how many murder-suicides, or cases of spousal abuse and child abuse/neglect have occurred because of the bubble? What happens when the husband in the “Suzanne researched it” NAR-scum ad finally snaps?
Some of it makes me wonder if a lot of people are just slobs, and it shows when they leave ??
There is your answer right there….
Others will use a toilet several times without flushing and leave it that way. That’s something that seems sub-human.
——–
Some people are just gross, just a step above animals. I could say this about my office bathroom, and the starting salary is above $50k.
Some of it makes me wonder if a lot of people are just slobs
Common sense is not so common.
Fractured families and little or no real community means that many kids are not taught the basics of how to take care of themselves (nutrition, cooking, etc.), how to keep house (cleaning, laundry, etc.) and just how to be a citizen.
Back when we were shopping for houses, it was a rare house that had been cleaned up before we showed to look at it. Or questionable personal items put away.
My personal favorite was the place that had the full porn library, and the gynecologist’s exam table in the basement.
Would not be difficult to find DNA in that house.
Some of the elementary schools have self-flushing toilets now. Well so do a lot of other places..so you can see how a kid might not learn.
…she proceeds to detoxify every room with a can of Lysol in one hand and a crucifix in the other shouting “out virus!”.
Our wives should compare notes/strategies…
heh…. the cleanliness is what makes her, “her”. And that habit extends in all directions. She has the hairs numbered on my daughters head figuratively speaking. And knick knacks are blasphemy.
“Wonder how many murder-suicides, or cases of spousal abuse and child abuse/neglect have occurred because of the bubble?”
Maybe we should explore whether Ben would run a thread on this topic? It could be quite interesting, albeit morbid.
Prosecutors: Woman stabbed mom to death over $40 debt
January 07, 2013|By Adam Sege | Tribune reporter
A woman stabbed her mother to death over a $40 debt this weekend following a dispute over the money, prosecutors said.
Lonika Welch, of the 8300 block of South Kingston Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood, was charged with first-degree murder and was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail today in a hearing before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Laura Sullivan.
Her mother, Angela Welch, 55, was stabbed Saturday in the home Angela Welch had let Lonika Welch, fiance and their 2-year-old girl move into recently after the home they were in fell into foreclosure, prosecutors said. Angela Welch was declared dead at 7:26 p.m. Saturday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Lonika Welch and her mother got into a dispute over $40 that her mother owed Lonika Welch, and the dispute quickly became a physical fight, prosecutors said. Lonika Welch’s fiance got between the two, and the fiance tried to get Lonika Welch to leave the home.
“I’m going to deal with this—I need my money,” Lonika Welch told him, according to prosecutors.
…
I was refraining from posting this but your post cries out for it:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/
Thanks for posting. Our experience with many of the millenials / facebook generation concurs. So many of them are incapable of doing anything without getting some kind of external validation.
best line:
“The bubble of narcissism is always at risk of bursting.”
Nothing new and certainly not unique to just this generation.
Modern tech just amplifies it.
THAT is new.
Maybe it’s because a lot of them ARE smarter, more ambitious, better liked, and more forward-thinking? The social character of the young people I’ve dealt with is a far cry more egalitarian than the majority of their simpering, ill-informed, resentful elders.
Or maybe, just maybe, it’s their politics that has foxnews’ opinionators all up in a twist?
It is not a Fox study just a Fox commentary. I saw the study many days ago but decided not to post it and it was not on Fox. Their appraisal of themselves does not match the statistical data.
Better is a relative term. Most of us don’t really remember the “Greatest Generation” (that came of age during WWII).
What we see is Baby Boomers (probably the “worst generation”, paradoxically raised by the greatest) in power. And that has been an epic embarassment.
I do think it’s safe to say we can do better than that.
That being said, social media is a big joke for the most part. And people who are incredibly active on facebook tend to be pretty lame. I do not see much of this around me, but do know some of these people tangentially.
“Most of us don’t really remember the “Greatest Generation”
Either you have no family ties to speak of or you are under age of 25. Otherwise I don’t see it.
Maybe it is just me. When I was a pup there were still some Civil War era folks around.
“When I was a pup there were still some Civil War era folks around.”
They’re still around.
When I was a pup there were still some Civil War era folks around.
Thank for this. I’ve never thought about it. My parents were born in the early 30s, and I’ve not ever thought to ask them if they knew any Civil War vets or anyone from that era for that matter.
So what is it with these people? Spite, revenge, acting out their victim-hood? Lots of us may not have liked a landlord along the way, but would never dream of kicking a hole in the wall on the way out. Somehow, this has become more common than not, on various levels.
————————————–
Disapointment is the mother of rebellion.
*keep hope alive*
“Disappointment is the mother of rebellion.”
“keep hope alive”
There it is. Well said.
Disappointment is the mother of rebellion
Didn`t they tour with
Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention
Overpaying for a home only to later get foreclosed is the mother of disappointment.
Those who suffer the real consequences are those who pay inflated prices, borrow and repay 2x the transaction costs and continue paying for decades. In the end? They might recover 15% of what they have in it. Losses like that are stupendous.
They might recover 15% of what they have in it.
And if you rent til you die? What do you recover then?
If you rented cheaply that whole time, you recover all the money you saved during that time…whatever you did with it.
If you rented cheaply that whole time, you recover all the money you saved during that time…whatever you did with it.
The Rent is Too Damn High.
Looking for an affordable rental market? Study says you’re out of luck
March 2012 Rental Advice: The gap between tenant wages and housing costs is widening precipitously, forcing millions of Americans to make tough choices.
For middle- and low-income tenants, things just keep getting worse.
Tenants know this: The rent keeps going up. Housing counselors know this: More working families are struggling to pay rent and are coming in to seek help, afraid they’ll end up homeless. Now, here come the numbers.
First was the report in February from the federal Center for Housing Policy, which revealed that an astonishing 1 in 4 working households in America — around 10.6 million families — spend more than half of their pre-tax income on housing, a level that experts say is unhealthy, if not impossible, to sustain.
Then on Tuesday came the latest exhaustive and dismal data crunch from the National Low Income Housing Coalition: “Out of Reach 2012,” which finds that in no community in America is it possible to reasonably make the rent on minimum wage. In 86% of counties surveyed, even the average pay of tenants, which is about twice the minimum wage, won’t cut it.
renting cheaply
Not within 50 miles of a job base.
The rent IS quite affordable for poors and Lucky Ducks as long as you live with 11 people in a 3BR house. Our sons of Aztlan neighbors get by just fine that way. It’s your USA attitude of entitlement (to more than 100 feet of living space per person) that is unaffordable.
I rented a small modest place for less than a decade and lived aboard a boat seasonally after leaving the Big-House-Money-Sucking model behind. I saved enough to buy a modest house cash. I don’t believe I am the only person who could make this work, if that was what one wanted.
If you rented cheaply that whole time, you recover all the money you saved during that time…whatever you did with it.
You are quite correct Carl. Renting is a small fraction of the cost of buying the same square footage at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
Some understand this truth. Some run from it at their own peril.
And remember, rental rates are falling.
go outside and play!! then you don’t care if your place is 600 sq ft or 3000!! people act on fear
I wonder how the military calculated these rent adjustments:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20121231/BIZ/712319966
Who cares but it says rents fell in 21% of the locations where they have bases.
Pretty cool huh?
go outside and play!!
We greatly enjoy our rented “backyard” of Rocky Mountain National Park for the lowly sum of $40/year
I’ve even had FBs ask me to winterize a house because they were worried it might get freeze damage before the lender would get to it!
What percentage would you say? Some FBs earned a respect from me. That is weird.
“…, but would never dream of kicking a hole in the wall on the way out.”
My kids have kicked a few holes in the wall or doors over the years since we started renting. I use these events as teachable moments, to teach my sons how to patch up holes in case their kids inflict similar damage some day.
Because there’s no consequence to it. The average person can become very brave when there’s no consequence.
in the internet gaming community we call it “nerd rage”.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the average person is a blowhard or a sociopath or anything. The average person is relatively decent. The actual number of sociopaths to good people in society is 1 in 50. How do I know this? They did an experiment in Florida with putting plastic turtle in the road. They discovered about 1 in 50 drivers would swerve out of their way to crush the turtle.
Turtles are such harmless creatures. It takes a real sh-tbag to do something like that. Hence my 1-in-50 ratio. Personally? I’ve stopped the car to pick up a turtle in the road and move it to safety.
College Student’s Turtle Project Takes Dark Twist
By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press
CLEMSON, S.C. December 27, 2012 (AP)
Clemson University student Nathan Weaver set out to determine how to help turtles cross the road. He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/college-students-turtle-project-takes-dark-twist-18076298
Was it a nasty-azz Snapping turtle?
I try to avoid hitting animals. But in their case, I might make an exception.
Or armadillos. No matter what you do, those stupid effers with go out of their way to get hit.
X-GSfixr: “Was it a nasty-azz Snapping turtle?”
From the article? Naw, just a box turtle. The ones I’ve stopped for have been box turtle-sized too.
Snapping turtles are quite dangerous. Fortunately they’re extremely slow.
He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.
John Steinbeck already observed that in the opening scene of Grapes of Wrath.
acting out their victim-hood
Yes. We live in a “you owe me” culture.
Are you saying there might be a flaw in an all out capitalist society?
Are you saying there might be a flaw in an all out capitalist society?
Capitalism brings out the very best in human nature.
brings out the very best
Doing “God’s work” indeed.
You people are sick….really sick.
Our society with all of its flaws has given you the lifestyles you all enjoy. It’s given you the right to spew your hate and disdain for anything American….and your not happy. Well cry me a river you selfish dweebs.
The main reason why I think banks are pushing down the short sale route. An incentive to keep the occupants from destroying the place.
I also heard something interesting about one of the home rental firms…they put in a “surprise inspection” provision in their leases. If you pass the “surprise inspection”, you get a reduction in your next month’s rent. Another way to provide incentives for the non-owner occupants to not destroy the place (of course, a security deposit also helps in that regard for tenants).
I’ve see this plenty.
It’s amazing how many people live like and act like pigs and will destroy or damage the place they live in.
I will NEVER EVER consider being a landlord after what I’ve seen.
I will NEVER EVER consider being a landlord after what I’ve seen.
My former landlady’s stories about crummy, sloppy, destructive tenants were what immunized me against the temptation to own and/or manage rentals.
I think you nailed the reason our landlords love us. We clean, do routine repairs, and don’t trash the home we live in. And our rent payment comes on time, month-in, month-out.
You keep staying and keep guarding the house from the strippers, and you keep maintaining the place so the bank will have an asset worth seizing when the time is ripe for the bank to do so.”
In phoenix they would sell off the landscape big cactus cheap
neighbors somtimes would call cops but the owner is still the owner and he simply says he’s going to re-landscape
fun times lots of cactus I passed on the really big ones though if they were taller than me then no thanks
From the U.S. DOL:
In the week ending January 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 371,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 367,000. The 4-week moving average was 365,750, an increase of 6,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 359,000.
We are currently hiring more government contractors. Sequester be damned
Per Bloomberg, the Pentagon has put a freeze on hiring civilian contractors.
No net increase perhaps. But our Project Manager is retiring and they will be replacing him. And yes, were hiring more analyst staff to replace those who left when the new contractor took over a few months ago.
“We are currently hiring more government contractors. Sequester be damned”
I guess we need more government to pay for all of that additional government.
Vladimir Franz, an opera composer and painter, is tattooed from head to toe, his face a warrior-like mix of blue, green and red. He’s also running in a surprising third place ahead of this week’s Czech presidential elections.
He seems the most unlikely of candidates for a prestigious post previously held by the beloved dissident playwright Václav Havel and by Václav Klaus, a professor credited with plotting the economic transition from communism to a free market.
During a televised debate, a caller compared him to “an exotic creature from Papua New Guinea”. But he’s not short of admirers in a country where voters are increasingly tired of politicians they say are corrupt and failing to deliver on years of promises, more than two decades after the fall of communism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/09/vladimir-franz-tattooed-czech-elections
What do you call the guy who comes in third place in a presidential election?
A double-o LOOSER!
Exactly.
The start of a beautiful friendship; send me an invite to your first stand up gig.
New host on FOX News?
+1
I read somewhere that a lot of candidates run for office just so they can build a database of names and addresses of donors which they then sell.
Perhaps not when he is the loser of the presidential race in The Czech Republic, but you have a point if you are talking about the Repblican primaries in the US.
Thanks Gbot.
Personal Finance |1/08/2013 @ 9:16AM
Finding Little Evidence Of Foreclosure Fraud, Feds Give Up
Over at the Huffington Post they’re still talking about “rampant foreclosure fraud.” But I was always skeptical of claims banks were stealing houses from innocent homeowners. One big problem with that theory: Banks lose money on virtually every house they take back in foreclosure. And now the federal government seems to agree.
With a pair of terse notices yesterday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency basically admitted that its elaborate process for turning up evidence of fraud in hundreds of thousands of loan files was a waste of money.
I was barraged with comments from critics accusing me of downplaying foreclosure fraud. I responded with one simple question: Has there been a single case in the past five years of a homeowner who was current on his mortgage being foreclosed through fraud?
Fraud is a flexible term, of course, and many lawyers think it includes lending money to people who have no hope of paying it back. This so-called “predatory lending” doesn’t make any economic sense, unless you’re willing to buy the theory that the fees flowing from an ultimately unprofitable loan were enough to induce bankers to destroy their own institutions in search of a year-end bonus. That’s possible, but it downplays the responsibility of the borrowers who signed detailed loan documents, filled with caveats and cooling-off periods mandated by federal regulators.
As for robosigning computers stealing homes, still not much evidence for that. If you know of a case, do let me know.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2013/01/08/finding-little-evidence-of-foreclosure-fraud-feds-give-up/ - 118k
“As for robosigning computers stealing homes,”
They are not only stealing homes from victims, they formed a rock band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22RLnA2YJZc - 201k -
That Robo signing drummer has four arms!
I thought the supposed problem was foreclosure mistake. That is a big difference legally.
…forged MERS documents excepted…
Seems kind of obvious…banks don’t want REO. If they are getting paid on a mortgage, that is just fine with them.
Any foreclosure on a home that is current would be a mistake, not malicious.
Happy fun chart from Bloombergy detailing average temperatures in contiguous USA for last 100+ years. And yes, your coastal Florida real estate will be underwater soon, LOLZ!
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-09/last-year-wasn-t-just-hot-it-was-an-habanero-chart.html
Can’t let it go can you goon squad? Until you can explain why he Earth has not warmed for over 15 years you have nothing. Most all scientists have conceded my central point that I made on the blog six years ago: Natural factors were far more important that people like James Hansen were admitting. Now, like the nuture or nature debate we are trying to assign to man and nature the correct amount of warming. Just like in that debate, nature is far more important. BTW, NASA is doing new studies on the Sun because more and more data is confirming how important it is. When this peak sun spot period is over, no one is not going to be able to see it, even you.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/08jan_sunclimate/
Have you alerted the Nobel scientists to this development?
How incredibility amateur of them to not factor in the sun cycles!
No one has “conceded” jack. He’s like the barking dog they have to put in the garage so he doesn’t bother the dinner guests.
But goonie is being mean to tease him.
Who’s being mean? The (nanny-state, gun-grabber) Bloomberg website has its own section called “Sustainability” (secret code word for the one-worlder globalistas destroying USA sovereignty) with articles every single day that we do NOT post here.
The year 2012 just ended. And it was just reported that 2012 was the warmest year in USA recorded history. That warrants discussion.
And to reiterate previous posts, the root of the problem is too many humanoids. If there were less than 1-2 billion humanoids on planet then there would be no “climate change” problem.
“…If there were less than 1-2 billion humanoids on planet then there would be no “climate change” problem….”
With you 100% on that, but we’re accused of misanthropy or worse whenever we mention Malthus. Or ZPG. Or on-demand abortion and birth control. Or a cessation to fertility “treatments”. Or (shudder) eugenics.
And from the New York Times:
“consider that 34,008 daily high records were set at weather stations across the country, compared with only 6,664 record lows, according to a count maintained by the Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton, using federal temperature records.
That ratio, which was roughly in balance as recently as the 1970s, has been out of whack for decades as the country has warmed, but never by as much as it was last year.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/science/earth/2012-was-hottest-year-ever-in-us.xml
Still just talking about what happened on what I think is 2% of the world’s surface. Need to see global warming and that is unlikely in a significant way over the next twenty years due to lower solar activity and the PDO.
http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2011/08/25/cern-experiment-confirms-cosmic-ray-effect-on-climate-another-blow-to-climate-models/
Nice objective article you found there.
/sarcasm
Take it outside you guys:
http://global-warming-blogs.feedcluster.com/
I’ve been hoping for the tide to rise for more than 10 years, with all the talk of catastrophism. I have a shallow canal behind my house and can get small boats in and out, but it runs shallow during winter load tides. A nice 1 to 2 ft. rise in the water level would make up for all the silting that has occurred over the years.
No luck.
It hasn’t gotten even a few inches deeper.
Still, the panic-stricken environmentalists are saying that my whole house my be underwater. I don’t see how. I am waiting patiently.
Look Dio, I appreciate the support but even I am tired of this topic. Why can’t we just let the data come in over the next two years? Why and quite frankly how can we resolve this today.
Should be why do we need, and quite frankly how can we resolve this today?
Just kick that can down the road with the others…
The subprime crisis occurred largerly because computer models convinced wall streeters that they could correctly assign risk to subprime mortages. AGW is premised on computer models that have failed to predict temperatures for twenty years. Garbage in/garbage out.
“Garbage in garbage out” describes your media consumption and regurgitation.
maybe we should just stop bailing out insurance co’s. that way there is a real cost to building on flood zones. the people of NOLA should move to Kentucky.
NostraDan: Expert goal post mover. Also expert polling analyst.
Joe Smith, ambulance chasing attorney posing as a 1%. He came on to the board by buying a house with a government grant and turned into a man that said that $20,000 was chump change and you should not have a car if buying an alternator was a burden.
Right, because representing major U.S. corporations is ambulance chasing.
My now-wife is a teacher and qualified for some “down payment assistance”. We were not married at the time, so she qualified. She was a 2nd year teacher that year and only made something like 52k. Sorry, but why would someone not take advantage of the program?
Over the course of a lifetime, $20k is chump change. Many people lack an appreciation of the time value of money. I can’t help you with that.
Yes, anyone who has problems affording an alternator for a Honda Civic should really consider other means of transportation. An OEM alternator for a civic (or CRV, for that matter) is less than $100.
It’s somewhat funny that a washed-up, nearing-retirement small-time lawyer is calling me an ambulance chaser. I guess that goes along with your Romney Triumph predictions (you fluffing the “haves” when you are a have-not) and your vigorous global warming denials (in the face of overwhelming evidence from actual scientists).
Keep the laughs coming. You really are the funniest poster here. The Koch-fluffing Northeasterner is a distant second at this point.
LOLZ!
You can claim what you are all you want but associates do not have the time to post that you have. Also, you have no idea what I have accomplished in my professional life and if I told you it would be the same as posting my real name, it is that unique.
I’ve been redacting documents related to a GAO bid protest for the past 2 days. I have plenty of time, my friend.
You provide a lot of laughs. Believe me, I am not complaining. More teabillies means more laughter. I don’t take it personally if you Koch fluffers act against your interests. I have arranged my life so far based on the assumption that the rabble on both sides (right and left) will prevent the US from making progress on its major issues. I hate what the US has become. Like your boy Mittens, I plan to take advantage of the tax code and act against the interest of American workers.
Joe is an established liar here. He’s no more an attorney than Ben Jones is a belly dancer.
Amazingly, I can plug in proposed redactions while I read/post here.
When we have to actually draft documents, this is completely different and I disappear for a while.
I know one thing for sure you haven’t accomplished: A Nobel prize.
Which doesn’t seem to stop you from thinking you know better than those with one.
I guess you should just follow helicopter Ben’s advice then.
representing major U.S. corporations
You are a thug for a mafia family, you know it. The real thugs used guns and knives to beat moms and pops, you use the “law”.
I’ve said numerous times that I don’t consider what I do to be particularly honorable. The thing is, the US voters apparently disagree. Their congresspeople (the House especially) LOVE our clients. They GOP nominated a candidate who made a life’s work of helping our clients and employing people like us. So I’ve given up beating myself up over not exactly being in love with the outcome of my work. Because at least Republicans love us.
I’ve said the same things w/r/t my parents’ and in-laws’ businesses. Rent seeking, tax-avoiding, zoning-manipulating, etc. This is how you family-owned small businesses work these days. Is it “honorable”? No. Do Republicans love us and tilt the tax code in our favor? Yes.
Now excuse me, I have to get back to redacting virtually everything meaningful out of these documents, to the point that they will be useless when the GAO releases the public version of this bid protest.
All I ask is that you stop pointing out the obvious–that I’m not “ethical” or “honorable”. I’m just doing what private industry/boot strappers/job creators/Republicans seem to want me to do.
@Pimp Watch - tell us all about the high costs of replacement alternators for Honda Civics/CRVs.
I’ll admit when I’m wrong about things. Last I checked, you were still insisting that an alternator would cost multiple hundreds of dollars and posted a link to some $700 alternator. LULZ-y…
My now-wife is a teacher and qualified for some “down payment assistance”. We were not married at the time, so she qualified. She was a 2nd year teacher that year and only made something like 52k. Sorry, but why would someone not take advantage of the program?
Ditto for us.
Except the “only 52K” reinforces what some here are claiming.
The median US salary is $50,054.
The national average wage is $42,979
Some steal with a gun others use a fountain pen. But I do not believe he is what he says. I think he just thinks it gives him more credibility when he talks about the 1%.
He’s no more an attorney than Ben Jones is a belly dancer.
I’ve met Ben.
.
.
.
Joe is an attorney.
I said only 52k because she won’t qualify in another yr or two. (Also, that yr she didn’t teach summer school so no extra money from that.) The cap on the Maryland assistance program was around $70k in income. She’s somewhere around 65k now, so if we waited longer or if we married, we wouldn’t qualify. I’d have to look at the chart, but at her “step” in the payscale she’ll hit 70 in her 6th or 7th yr of teaching, not sure which.
Yes, I realize some other states don’t pay as much for teachers. Cost of living in MD is high thanks to “invisible hand of the free market” government contractors in the state.
“I think he just thinks it gives him more credibility when he talks about the 1%.”
That’s it. It’s a ruse intended to trick people into thinking that the well-off in this country are somewhat less than principled, which is of course a lie. <—- heavy sarcasm
If you don’t realize yet that corporations hate American workers, politicians hate middle-class taxpayers, and the rich are preoccupied with staying well-off even if at the expense of others, there isn’t much I can do to help you. Just keep voting for Mittens-types, because after all he knows how to fix “sick businesses”.
Worried Mitt would deport your parents?
“…Also, you have no idea what I have accomplished in my professional life and if I told you it would be the same as posting my real name, it is that unique….”
You know what, Dan? If you truly want this to end today, how about you have the courage of your convictions and out yourself? You like to present yourself here as an authority, taking umbrage whenever someone challenges your questionable assertions and hammering us over and over (and over) with the same plausible-but-discredited data (”data” btw, is the plural of “datum”, as in “the data suggest”).
Why not let us judge your credentials for ourselves? (It’s called peer-review, and it’s as valid here as it is in academia.) Some like oxy, Rental, joe, Polly, homowner have done it anonymously; Ben, Carl Morris, (and to a somewhat lesser extent) I have done it in public.
Give yourself that credibility and perhaps the rest of us will too. I will, I promise.
“I’ll admit when I’m wrong about things.”
“Joesmith”…. You lied about the price of an OEM alternator for CRV then, you’re lying now.
You’re a liar.
Somtimes I wonder what people on this Blog do ?
esp. the constant posters
I figured retired or IT
But laywers huh I thought they worked all the time even more than Engineers
My dad and father in law are both US Citizens and my mom and MIL have green cards and have legally lived here for decades. Was this supposed to be some kind of joke?
It’s not their fault your teabilly friends don’t seem to think people who have the most should pay a similar tax rate as the avg person.
I also don’t see what someone’s citizenship has to do with Mittens being a horrible candidate.
No joke. Your issue is immigration. I wanted to find out why so I pulled your chain. I still don’t believe your story and what you just told me just adds to my doubts. You made your family sound like WASPY Republicans. Given that background, I do not think your parents or in-laws are Republicans. I also cannot reconcile why someone coming from such a “rich” background is not living in a wealthy enclave. People that love money enough to whore themselves for money, like the trappings of wealth and power. You would not live in the area you identified in a million years but you had already told the board you did so you could not change. It is much more believable to me that you practice poverty or immigration law (probably for the government) and have created a persona of the corporate lawyer to make comments about the 1% with more credibility.
Adding to that is this comment from you:
It’s not their fault your teabilly friends don’t seem to think people who have the most should pay a similar tax rate as the avg person.
Your parents should love paying less since they are so rich. But it is not “their fault”?
Maybe Joe’s peeps are from the UK? And if you think first-generation immigrants can’t be Republican, I’d like to introduce you to nick.
As for “rich background” folks choosing to live quietly in unassuming neighborhoods, I’d like to introduce you to MY peeps.
Have to say that so far, Joe’s bona fides sound a lot more authentic to this reader than yours do.
As far as I know, you are not whoring yourself to wealthy people so where you live is not relevant. If you do things just for money you expect to live well. Joe talks all the time about how he hates the type of people he works for so only the trappings of wealth would motivate him. Thus, you do not live where he lives. None of my liberal classmates that sold out cheaply, but because they had to have the BMW and the expensive house. I don’t care if his father is Piers Morgan, he is not a republican.
“that sold out did it cheaply”
I’ve said before that my in-laws are Greek. And my mom is Cypriot (UK citizen). When did I say I was a WASP? My dad is a WASP and I have some WASP ideas because of schooling.
Why would this be anything to be embarassed about?
Also my parents are decidedly not egalitarian. They are hard-core GOP “invisible hand of the free market” types. They share some of the ugly prejudices of posters on this board. Actually, probably worse because they feel that anyone not of the ownership class is a pawn and should be treated as such.
Unfortunately, this is not uncommon amongst Greeks here in the US. Heck, they look down on Greece and love to point out that the US is next (but can’t see how their own greed contributes…). For example, in Baltimore, Greeks own a disproportionate amount of things–the biggest examples are Peter Angelos and John Paterakis, but there are many more. The type of people who were good friends with Sen. Sarbanes (D-Thesalloniki, of Sarbanes-Oxley fame) and now with his son John Sarbanes. And the vast majority look upon working people as schlubs. They j ust don’t get caught on tape saying it like your boy Mittens.
Most of my family is hard core Republican. My dad went to West Point and 2 of my brothers went to USNA. I care for them, just not their politics. I will say that, at least in their case, they have served so at least they aren’t chickenhawks like many GOP.
My in laws are basically good people but are what GOP/WSJ types would consider “shrewd businesspeople”. Grover Norquist “taxes are evil” types. Galt Gulch worshippers. But good people to be around, big on family, etc. I like them, just not their politics. Same as I’d imagine BillinLA to be.
For example, in Baltimore, Greeks own a disproportionate amount of things–the biggest examples are Peter Angelos and John Paterakis, but there are many more. The type of people who were good friends with Sen. Sarbanes (D-Thesalloniki, of Sarbanes-Oxley fame) and now with his son John Sarbanes.
Hardly Republican and I still don’t buy it.
I thought your family were a bunch of cheating businessmen with lots of businesses that were not paying taxes? I have trouble keeping up with this.
That’s what it said a few weeks ago. Expect the story to change.
“Like your boy Mittens, I plan to take advantage of the tax code and act against the interest of American workers.”
You see pimp if he is telling the truth he has no ethics and if he is lying about and creating a persona then he also had no ethics. In any event, he has no ethics, so why should I not assume he is a liar too.
lying about it
had=has
“Happy fun chart from Bloombergy detailing average temperatures in contiguous USA for last 100+ years. And yes, your coastal Florida real estate will be underwater soon, LOLZ!”
Right. You are really accelerating your effort to out yourself as a global progressive communist.
Should be virtually all, not “most all” in post above. Now, can we move on to another topic since I have plenty more links to evidence and not goon’s opinion pieces.
There is no “opinion” in the Bloomberg or New York Times articles.
And how does this relate to housing? Florida may not be underwater for another 100 years, but the desirability of living in Arizona, Texas, Florida, et cetera could be affected by relentless hot weather. After last summer, we are questioning having moved to Colorado, we didn’t move here to live in Phoenix’s climate, maybe Boise would be better.
And since Bloomberg and the New York Times may be too commie for you, here is a link from CNS News (the Right News, Right Now) linked from the Drudge Report discussing drought conditions in USA:
http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/how-dry-we-are-current-drought-reminiscent-dust-bowl-days
Goon, how does the article you cited help you?
(CNSNews.com) – Almost 62 percent (61.8%) of the continental United States experienced drought in July 2012, making it the largest drought-affected area since the end of the “Dust Bowl” era in December 1939, when 62.1 percent of the U.S. was drought-stricken, the USDA said.
The very beginning of the article says that the drought area was larger in the dust bowl era, when co2 emissions were far less than now. Makes the case for natural cycle not AGW.
How about this sentence:
“But many of them expressed doubt that such a striking new record would have been set without the backdrop of global warming caused by the human release of greenhouse gases.”
This burying of opinion in supposedly news articles is widespread and numerous.
we are questioning having moved to Colorado, we didn’t move here to live in Phoenix’s climate
Last summer was pretty hot, but I wouldn’t say that we even came close to being Phoenix hot.
If the temperature got below 80 degrees at night, then you didn’t have Phoenix hot. I didn’t mind the daytime temps, but not having any relief in the evening for weeks on end gets a bit old. What a joy it is in September, when you can finally roll down your car window for a cool breeze.
San Francisco can be downright bone-chilling, and if global warming meant that everyone were just a little warmer then that sounds nice and cozy, doesn’t it?
That’s why many are suggesting that we stop using the term “global warming” and call it “climate change”, or even “catastrophic climate change”.
A few degrees warmer doesn’t sound as bad as tornadoes in Brooklyn, superstorms, dust bowl style droughts, and the kinds of extreme weather that rip the roof off your house.
Just be high up. Around every 100 years there is a superstorm in California. Last one about 150 years ago. It has nothing to do with AGW it is a natural cycle. During those storms California may see heavy rain for months at a time. Related to the pineapple express if your familiar with that term but much bigger.
your= you are
Link: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/17/is-a-superstorm-the-next-big-one-for-california/
Being high up might not help much either. In the winter of 1969 (85″+ of H2O in the Sierra Snowpack) the snow got so high in Mammoth Lakes we had to climb up onto the roof of our two-story house in order to get out to the street. Over 300 cars in the little town were crushed by snow that season and left abandoned by skiers until spring, (quite the sight during the thaw), and numerous homes exploded from propane buildup in their owners’ absences.
Having lived with drought and prolonged summer for the last fifteen years (the last big rains here in the S. Sierra were in ‘94 and ‘97) I’d LOVE a superstorm — and so would my oak trees!
He lives in SF, I was just suggesting a high place in the City.
I just heard on the radio that the stock market was up because unemployment went up by “less than expected.”
So I am wondering why Mr Market suddenly started dropping like a rock?
Need…more…liquidity!!!
Jan. 10, 2013, 9:41 a.m. EST
U.S. stocks start higher, technology sector leads
By Kate Gibson
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks began higher on Thursday after jobless claims illustrated ongoing economic improvement in the U.S. and signals from Europe and China were also supportive. “We see decent if unspectacular jobs growth. In Europe the recession is not worsening, Chinese growth is accelerating and in the U.S., the worst of the fiscal cliff is behind us,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA +0.05%) rose 43.17 points, or 0.3%, to 13,433.68. The S&P 500 index (SPX +0.17%) added 6.89 points, or 0.4%, to 1,467.91. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP -.00%) climbed 19.48 points, or 0.6%, to 3,125.29.
It looks like Mr Market is backstopped today. So gamble away — pour your life’s savings into stocks, in fact — as there is no downside.
Economy & Policy
U.S. Unemployment Aid Applications Tick Up to 371K
By Associated Press
Jan. 10, 2013
(WASHINGTON) — Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week, the latest sign of stability in the job market.
The Labor Department says applications rose 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 371,000, the most in five weeks. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, increased 6,750 to 365,750, after falling to a four-year low the previous week.
A department spokesman says all states reported data and none were estimated. In the previous two weeks, many states were estimated because they weren’t able to report data over the holidays.
…
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but UE has been running less than 400K for a while.
I’ve noticed that new claims have recently crept back up towards 400K/week.
So I am wondering why Mr Market suddenly started dropping like a rock?
This is what I think, whatever the market does the radio or the news often doesn’t know and just makes somthing up
like its rational
Jan. 10, 2013, 10:31 a.m. EST
Nevada casino revenue falls sharply
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Nevada casinos had a rough November with total gambling revenue falling 11.1% to $782.6 million in the month, the state’s Gaming Control Board said Thursday. On the Las Vegas Strip, which accounts for more than half the total, revenue fell almost 13% to $431.9 million. Strip table win was off 16% while the take from slot machines dropped 10.3%.
…
I’ve never understood the allure of casino gambling, especially since the odds are stacked in the house’s favor.
Because it’s a more aesthetic environment to be a looser than scratching off lottery tickets in a 7-Eleven?
I’m with you, In Colorado.
“I’ve never understood the allure of casino gambling, especially since the odds are stacked in the house’s favor.”
Generally, they are. But blackjack, besides being fun, gives the casino a .28% edge, assuming you are playing the game using the accepted strategy (of when to hit, stand, double down, split, etc). If you follow this over time, it becomes damn near even odds. And still, over time, the casino does win. But if you start a bj round with 500 to kill, making 10 dollar bets, the odds are that you will, at some point, be up fifty dollars. It’s up to you to leave the damn table when you should. Which is why the free drinks keep coming. But I’d “wager” that you could go home with an extra fifty in your pocket on most days, if you relentlessly stick to the published strategy and leave when you should. Other than that, if you aren’t yet allured by a casino, you never will be. So good on ‘ya!
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/peter-schiff-doubles-down-inflation-prediction-144054976.html?l=1
Peter is going to be right eventually.
just talking about what happened on what I think is 2% of the world’s surface.
This NOAA measured (land and ocean) global world? The 2000’s warmer than the 90’s which were warmer than the 80’s which were warmer than the 70s?
thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/decadal-global-temps-1880s-2000s1.gif
We have a full-blown teabilly on our hands with NostraDan. He’s basically impenetrable to facts. He is so obtuse that it is impressive.
How is your real job, immigration attorney out of a storefront going?
ABQ Dan said he doesn’t want to hear about this anymore.
You can stop posting about this now, thank you.
I don’t want to hear about your climate pimping. Take it somewhere else.
Your (recently revised) prediction of a 65% drop provides as much value as a bucket of warm santorum. The correct number is 25-40% across metro areas. Let’s check back in 5-10 years and we’ll see who’s right.
Your (recently revised) prediction of a 65% drop provides as much value as a bucket of warm santorum. The correct number is 25-40% across metro areas. Let’s check back in 5-10 years and we’ll see who’s right.
Agreed.
Do I wish that the price of housing had crashed 65% in San Francisco? Hell yeah. Do I think it should have? Yes. But is it going to? Probably not.
Agree with all of this. If I could find what I posted a few weeks ago, I’d post it again. But basically what should happen and what will happen can be quite different. RAL is always rambling on about “the value of a dollar”. The truth is that there is no static, uniform “value of a dollar”. Basic economic principles dictate that you can at best superimpose the “value of a dollar” onto someone’s utility function and then use this to look at trade offs. As for the trade-offs, they are too numerous to mention. Time is probably the most relevant to us as human individuals. When you get down to it, humans are just a variety of animal. A variety that can be tricked & fooled by the same brain functions that can also ocassionally produce insight and discovery. We assume we know a lot more than we know.
I’m sure on some level even RAL realizes that 65% is just his most recent guess. It’s probably about as accurate as when he told tall tales of $700 alternators for Hondas.
“The correct number is 25-40% across metro areas.”
40% decline in metro areas is far too optimistic. Considering most metro areas are inflated by 200-300%, an 80% decline is in store.
RAL is correct!
25 + 40 = 65
This should end it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjmtSkl53h4
Fortunately for all of us, Geo. Sea was a far better humorist than he was a scientist. Love your handle, btw.
But as I showed yesterday we are cooler now than in 1998. Rio, I have told you over and over the PDO is a cycle of about thirty years of warming followed by 30 years of cooling. We have cycles where you warm for decades on a global basis, then you go on to a Mesa for ten to 15 years (where we are) and then you cool. Finally, you have cycles of warming and cooling that last tens of thousands and hundred of thousands of years. We are in an interglacial and we are still 1-3 degrees C below a number of peaks in the last 420,000 years. This is all natural and has nothing to do with man. However, I have always conceded that 1/7 of the warming might be man-made and every year scientists get closer and closer to that conclusions. I posted another example yesterday where the MET reduced its estimate of warming.
But as I showed yesterday we are cooler now than in 1998
Why would that mean a lot in relation to the bigger rising global temperature trend? Today is a lot cooler than yesterday in Rio but that does not mean the summer is over here.
the PDO is a cycle of about thirty years of warming followed by 30 years of cooling.
What I’m seeing on this NASA chart is bounces up and down but with a rising global temperature trend. I’m not seeing much of your 30 year pattern of cooling either.
http://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/warming_world
Rio, I looked at that graph and it seems compelling except for one thing: they say nothing about where the measurements come from and how many their are. I seriously doubt they were taking measurements from all over Africa in the late 1800s. They probably do now. How do I know this graph doesn’t show an upward trend because they’re averaging in more and more measurements from all over the world and the newly added measurements are from regions that are hotter (and thus raise the average)?
Without seeing what makes up their aggregate, the graph seems useless at best and misleading at worst.
Apparently, not just in Africa. It the science is really on there side why to they consistently get caught pulling crap like this?:
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/19080/2012-Didnt-Crack-The-Top-Ten-For-Record-Maximums-NOAA-has-inflated-2012-record-maximum-number-by-adding-new-stations-which-didnt-exist-during-the-hot-years-of-1930s
there = their
The mercury thermometer was invent in 1714.
Detailed (for the times) world wide sea conditions have been recorded by sailors for hundreds of years before that.
Before world wide sailing, there are still hundreds of years for general weather records from past civilizations.
There is PLENTY of data available before having to resort to scientific testing and deduction.
Dude, if you’re serious about not wanting to discuss this anymore, just let it go and stop replying to every climate change post.
And here’s our personal housing angle on it. We are anticipating a career move in the next 2-3 years. If it stays as hot in Colorado as it was last summer, we may relocate somewhere north/colder. Which means not buying a condo/house in metro Denver.
You can always by my sisters condo in metro Denver. They bought in 2004 and they’re underwater. (no-cash out refi’s either).
You can always by my sisters condo in metro Denver. They bought in 2004 and they’re underwater.
Just curious, what part of town? Some Denver burbs, like Aurora, didn’t fare too well. Others like Broomfield or Westminster fared much better.
They can walk to SA stadium.
The problem is that it’s well known that carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas, some X watts per meter squared.
We’re unsequestering vast amounts of carbon dioxide every year, as the world burns one cubic mile of oil a year.
Now, there might be feedback mechanisms to resequester the carbon dioxide, such are more plant life and such, and stronger storms to radiate away the excess trapped energy. But these are very poorly understood, at best.
I once heard Limbaugh poo-poo the threat of global warming. He specifically said that God wouldn’t let anything happen to humanity. I immediate thought of counterexamples, as I am wont to do and thought of all the disasters that have happened to man over the eons. So, perhaps He won’t completely destroy man, but he has no compunction with brutally culling the herd.
But speculating about the mindset of God is not a traditionally reliable way to come to conclusions about the physical reality. Evidence has shown to be the most effective way to come to true conclusions about the physical reality.
Here’s the fact: We don’t have all the information. But this is a common scenario (Don’t get me wrong: the overwhelming number of scientists who’ve looked into this believe there is anthropogenic global warming. I’m not a climate scientist and you’ve never claimed to be). So how do we act when we don’t have all the information, but have strong suggestions one way or another? Well, it’s like playing poker. We play the odds. That’s the smart thing to do.
The problem is that it’s well known that carbon dioxide is a heat trapping gas, some X watts per meter squared.
That is the problem because it is x watts per meter squared but they do not know what x is. All the early computer models just assumed that the rise in c02 in ppm caused the observed rise in temperature and then they extrapolated that number forward. I know it sounds insane but so were the computer models that predicted the subprime default rates or assumed that houses could appreciate at 7% per year. There is a lot of money being made off global warming so many have a vested interest in calling it AGW. But none of the models predicted a 20 year pause in warming.
BTW, here is a story that still talks about weather but I think ties in better to a housing blog. Is China going to have to raise interest rates to deal with this inflation and what will that do to their and our housing markets?
http://www.businessinsider.com/historic-cold-snap-in-china-is-causing-dizzying-inflation-in-the-price-of-vegetables-2013-1
“thinkprogress”
Think Communist!
Why not just be honest?
“thinkprogress”
The numbers are from NOAA.
Think moron.
Why not just be honest?
“Has there been a single case in the past five years of a homeowner who was current on his mortgage being foreclosed through fraud?”
No but the Free Shit Army has scores of “cases”.
Several cases of people with paid off mortgages being foreclosed.
“Several cases of people with paid off mortgages being foreclosed.”
3 people with paid off mortgages being foreclosed
vs
10,000,000 people living for free in houses for years they never intended to pay off
“But now that it’s going on three years, what do you do?” Mr. Cline said. “I am living in my house. But the stress of this, not knowing what’s going to happen or when, it’s an unbelievable burden on your mind.”
In New York, the time to complete a foreclosure has almost quadrupled, from 263 days in 2007 to 1,019 days in 2011. Abraham Kleinman, a lawyer in Uniondale who represents homeowners fighting foreclosure, said he counseled a client who felt guilty about remaining in his home so long after defaulting. “He says to himself, ‘I’m sitting here rent free, it can’t go on forever,’ ” Mr. Kleinman said. “But the plaintiff has not been aggressive. As near as I can tell, they’ve put this to the side.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/us/when-living-in-limbo-avoids-living-on-the-street.html?pagewanted=all - -
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: March 3, 2012
Judith Fox, a law professor who directs the Economic Justice Project at the Notre Dame Law Center in South Bend, Ind., has changed the advice she gives defaulting clients. “Three or four years ago, I would always tell clients, ‘You have three or four months to get yourself together,’ ” she said. “Now I tell folks, even if they’ve been foreclosed, ‘Just stay put, because it could be years before anything happens.’ ”
Foreclosures (2012 Robosigning and Mortgage Servicing Settlement)
Updated: Jan. 7, 2013
But federal officials said that a massive independent review of foreclosure files mandated by the Federal Reserve was not yielding significant evidence of wrongful disclosure, while the costs of the review had ballooned, prompting the talks that led to the federal settlement.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/foreclosures/index.html - 88k
If you think the Fed consists of omniscient masters of the universe, think again.
A Bold Dissenter at the Fed, Hoping His Doubts Are Wrong
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
New York Times via Yahoo Finance
Tue, Jan 8, 2013 10:10 PM EST
But for the last several years, Mr. Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, has warned repeatedly that the central bank’s extraordinary efforts to stimulate growth are ineffective and inappropriate and, worst of all, that the Fed is undermining its hard-won ability to control inflation.
“We’re at the limits of our understanding of how monetary policy affects the economy,” Mr. Lacker said in a recent interview in his office atop the bank’s skyscraper here. “Sometimes when you test the limits you find out where the limits are by breaking through and going too far.”
Mr. Lacker, 57, often uses the word “humility” in describing his views. He means that the Fed should recognize that its power to stimulate the economy is limited, both for technical reasons and because it should not encroach on the domain of elected officials by picking winners and losers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bold-dissenter-fed-hoping-doubts-031058582.html
Concerted attempts to stoke inflation expectations?
The surgeon’s credo is “First, do no harm.” Perhaps the Fed officials should consider this.
HOWEVER - the one common theme in all their efforts is that the financial sector is enriched with public money. The Fed officials wipe their behinds like the rest of us. They’re self-interested humans. So, from lawyers to bankers, you don’t want to irritate, and actually want to help, future employers and clients.
‘Mr. Lacker, 57, often uses the word “humility” in describing his views.’
He sounds poorly qualified for a position which apparently requires extreme hubris in the face of being utterly wrong over and again.
More American Exceptionalism in the New York Times:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/sports/football/junior-seau-suffered-from-brain-disease.xml
Only in USA do sheeple applaud a “sport” that renders its players into vegetables by early middle age. There is nothing “athletic” about weighing 300+ pounds. NFL is for retards. Lindsay Vonn is a real athlete. Inarticulate, illiterate, obese men in tight pants are not athletes.
The “Lucky-Duck” future.
Prisoner of the banks. Prisoner of your employer. Prisoner of your Landlord.
This was supposed to go down the column…….
Prisoner of your Landlord
Unless you can buy outright, you’re either a prisoner of your landlord or a prisoner of the bank.
The laws seem to favor homeowners/debtors over renters.
We rent a place for much less than we can afford. If paying 13% of gross monthly income for housing is being a “prisoner” then prison is a pretty nice place to live.
Yes, your land of fruits and nuts is different, it’s special, we get it. BTW am registered for a 25 mile desert trailrunning race in Fruita, CO this April, will be the squad’s longest distance ever.
BTW am registered for a 25 mile desert trailrunning race in Fruita, CO this April, will be the squad’s longest distance ever.
Good luck! I love trail running. The longest distance I’ve done is 30K. #ilovehills
The holidays shrunk all my clothes. Gonna slack off a few more weeks before training in earnest. NYC Triathlon lottery: I’m in.
Toying with the idea of doing an Iron Man before I turn 50. Not this year, so it’s going to have to be next.
There’s only so many years you can put off doing the things you want to do in life. When you’re in your 20’s and 30’s it seems like you have all the time in the world.
That’s actually the biggest reason I bought a house this year. Waiting another 10 years for the 65% crash just felt like putting my life on hold, something I’m not willing to do anymore.
Renting for a fraction of the cost of buying is putting your life on hold? lmao
And even if you own your house outright - you are still always a slave to the state (and public unions) for property taxes.
Miss just one property tax payments and you will see who REALLY owns your house.
Unless you can buy outright
2banana
Yep, we still owe our poperty taxes (have earthquake and homeowners insurance as well), but at least if the shtf we can come up with it. Keeping expenses at a minimal level feels great.
Unless you can buy outright, you’re either a prisoner of your landlord or a prisoner of the bank.
Prisoner, slave, whatever…you can leave your landlord any time you want.
This reminds me of conversation I have with some of my old army friends who stayed in and are starting to retire now. They think it’s weird that I couldn’t work happily in a situation where my boss could send me to jail if I didn’t do what they said. They think, hey, military, civilian, it’s all the same. No it’s not. I can leave my job any time I want and nobody can say a word. Same with my landlord. I like freedom.
The fact that you then need to find somewhere else to live is a separate and solvable problem.
“Inarticulate, illiterate, obese men in tight pants are not athletes.”
Not the NFL but I know of one Michigan running back that wishes his 300 lb. lineman was a better athlete.
Jadeveon Clowney Highlights - Big Hit - Outback Bowl … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itZfQt5Soug - 134k -
PS
Unless you are talking to a kicker (and I`m not sure you should even try that) which are kinda like skier type athletes,
I wouldn`t actually walk up to an NFL player and tell them that the ” NFL is for retards” if I were you.
“I wouldn`t actually walk up to an NFL player and tell them that the ” NFL is for retards” if I were you.”
+1.
“Inarticulate, illiterate, obese men in tight pants are not athletes.”
Inarticulate? illiterate? Certainly you are not talking about Tom Brady from the University of Michigan or Andrew Luck from Stanford. Jeff Saturday with Greenbay is an offensive lineman but very well spoken. So who are you calling inarticulate and illiterate?
Ooooh I think I know! Why this has to be the most racist comment of all time! This is like the Nobel Racist Award. It`s like the Tripple Crown of racism (by the way who is the athlete the horse or the jockey?)
“Only in USA do sheeple applaud a “sport” that renders its players into vegetables by early middle age.”
Is there any activity, food, service, habit or thought that the progressives will not attack and try to eliminate? What is wrong with you people?
A Mortgage Bond Boom Isn’t a Housing Recovery
By Mark Gimein
Jan 4, 2013 2:37 PM EST
Bloomberg
The new issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine looks at the year’s best-performing hedge funds. Topping the list are several that have invested in mortgages, led by the 38 percent return at Deepak Narula’s Metacapital. Within this winning category there are funds that invest in Fannie and Freddie-backed mortgages, and (believe it or not) in subprime. For everything there is a price and a time.
Housing has risen this year, with a 4.3 percent gain in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. As is usually the case with housing, it doesn’t take much for the word “recovery” to start getting tossed around. Don’t confuse mortgage bonds with housing. The Big Picture’s Barry Ritholtz has several times charted the long run view of home prices, and they’re still above the historical average relative to household income.
http://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2013/01/04/a-mortgage-bond-boom-isnt-a-housing-recovery/
Very nice piece from commie/anarchist website Counterpunch detailing the evisceration of USA middle class and how the future belongs to Lucky Ducky:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/10/the-long-term-jobs-and-wage-picture/
Welcome to the recovery-less recovery.
It’s gonna get worse, and then it’s gonna get more worse
Government, as always, plays it’s part as the “sucker of last resort”.
Giving tax breaks demanded by businesses for automation, then inheriting the problem of un/under employed people.
And flooding the market with skilled employees, for the few jobs that can’t be automated.
The logical conclusion of the counterpunch article is that in the not so long term, only those people with substantially above average IQs and razor sharp skill sets will be able to maintain a middle class standard of living. We will live in a world of plenty where pretty much everyone is poor.
Even though we might produce enough so that nobody has to work much, capitalism says we’re not going to pay you for those hours you’re not working. That should properly motivate you to come up with something new you can trade to those who own the means of production. They already have all they want, but it’s your job to “wow” them. Or die. Whatever works.
Yup, you got it. When’s the HBB Boulder happy hour happening?
We’re even more negative and depressing in person
I don’t know, but I’ll attend.
“It’s gonna get worse, and then it’s gonna get more worse”
Your president statist wants it this way and so do you. Progressives are addicted to chaos…Why? That’s where revolutions are born.
Filed under: is this a joke?
“Buried in Friday’s rather middling December jobs report was a small ray of light: Hourly wage increases are finally starting to gain speed after four years of deceleration. That’s not to say wages have been declining, just that their pace of increase has slowed steadily.
That’s good news for workers, though it could spell trouble for the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. Declining wage growth has been the “Fed’s best friend” in its continued argument that it can keep interest rates near zero without triggering inflation”
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-08/wage-growth-may-mean-inflation-ahead
Any nominal gains in Lucky Ducky wages will be wiped out by lying liar CPI inflation that under-reports real inflation by 50%. There is no future for USA poors (we all know that HBB is the exception, everyone here is richer, smarter, prettier). Welcome to the recovery-less recovery. The future belongs to Lucky Ducky
Somebody is lying. I know very few people who got raises. And I talk to literally thousands of people.
That Christmas turkey you got was your raise for 2012.
Nothing but pay decreases for me.
What is this “pay” you speak of?
My salary has not gone up in 3 years. Once you have been with the school district for a certain amount of time, there are periods where your salary does not go up at all for 2-3 years.
Due to furlough days, all of our salaries have gone down. Except maybe admin. and the paper pushers.
I don’t talk to thousands of people, but of those that I do talk with, few have been getting raises. And folks in my nabe are hanging on to their cars for much, much longer than they used to. No more new car every 2-4 years.
They must be lazy. Most people (>80%) I know are getting raise in 2 - 5% range.
You must not know many federal workers.
House votes to freeze congressional, federal worker pay
Posted by Ed O’Keefe on January 1, 2013 at 6:55 pm
The House of Representatives is poised to vote as early as tonight on a bill addressing a series of tax increases and spending cuts taking affect this week. But first lawmakers voted on a plan to freeze the salaries of lawmakers and federal employees.
…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/10/us-korea-north-google-idUSBRE9081CS20130110
But they make great videos.
A prospective tenant looking at a house had no idea what her landlord would be like.
What she didn’t expect was to be handed a list of increasingly bizarre house rules, before even signing a contract.
The 31 instructions posted online by Laura Evelyn include limiting showering to 15 minutes, having visitors approved two weeks in advance and never using somebody else’s shampoo.
Any personal belongings left in communal areas of the flat in Wood Green, north London, would be ‘thrown out as junk’, the list says, and no food is to be eaten in bedrooms.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2260035/No-pork-fridge-showers-longer-15-mins-I-approve-visitors-Womans-shock-shes-presented-list-house-rules-viewing-flat-rent.html#ixzz2HavEGQH7
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Sounds exactly like “The Big Bang”. (TV show)
Sheldon Cooper is REAL!
I used to rent a room from a guy who’d edit his housemates’ food choices. To the point of tossing out food that he did not approve of.
I moved out of that guy’s house in March 1987. Went bicycling for a few months, then moved to Tucson. Wasn’t long after that when I got my own place. Where I was able to eat whatever I damn well pleased.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/10/us-usa-defense-budget-idUSBRE90900820130110
If we get furloughed in March at least we’ll have a better snowpack for skiing by then. Would like to take an extended trip south and ski Wolf Creek, Taos, Purgatory, Silverton, Telluride. Maybe cap it off with some ice climbing in Ouray.
I might have to buy you a beer or two, if you make it there.
“Get what you can get for your house today because it’s going to be much less tomorrow for many many years to come.”
Will be renewing our lease at the end of February. We have been renewing in six month increments for the past 2.5 years but if we renew for 12 months they throw in a free carpet cleaning.
The latest growing enticements in NYC, Boston, Philly, Balto and DC are 2 months free rent.
I guess you nixed the condo?
For now. Going to keep adding to the down payment savings, which the Credit Union of Colorado is richly rewarding with 0.1% APY.
We are also interested in a small piece of raw land in Chaffee County (Buena Vista / Salida). This area does not have the climate to go full Oil City, but would be a good bugout destination in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, and would also be a good base camp for the squad’s alpine activities since we seem to be passing through there at least once a month.
“which the Credit Union of Colorado is richly rewarding with 0.1% APY.”
Righteous bucks!
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982): Anatomy Class -
Mr. Vargas: They sold their bodies to medicine for money. About $30, I think.
Dr. Miller: Twenty-five.
Jeff Spicoli: Righteous bucks!
Video
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-ajHH4mt27hbJmm/fast_times_at_ridgemont_high_1982_anatomy_class/ - 98k -
Nothing beats a free carpet cleaning. Ah, the nice smell of fresh toxic chemicals…..
The -fixr is reluctantly coming to the conclusion that he may have to buy a house.
Rents close to work are ridiculous. Rents on places with enough shop space for my hobbies/projects are even more ridiculous.
The often-predicted collapse in housing prices is undetectable locally by even the Hubble telescope. Not that I disagree with the prediction. It’s just that government intervention and Luddite behavior by the wretched refuse may delay the inevitable for many, many years. Making a drop in prices irrelevent for me personally…..I’ll be dead by the time it happens.
The cost of commuting negates the price advantage of affordable places out in the boonies.
Of course, I can just ditch about every interest besides work that I have, and live in a $400/month $##thole. You don’t have to worry about your stuff getting stolen, if the only thing you have worth owning is in a bank. At least in the $##thole,I’d have enough money to replace an alternator.
Never mind…….banks will rip you off worse than the ghetto/scumbag crowd.
I’ve attained Lucky Duck Nirvana.
Making a drop in prices irrelevent for me personally…..I’ll be dead by the time it happens.
What I said.
Weren’t you recently b*tching about being single in that part of flyover?
If you’re going to don the noose of mortgage albatross slavery, wouldn’t it be better to do it in a place with better mating opportunities?
Here’s the thing: Buying a house would not be a big deal if people could be confident they could sell it without a major loss. Government price supports and temporary enticements to hedge funds to buy up inventory have a perverse impact on expectations. But then Fed is threatening inflation to force people into assets.
I have to agree with the squad. Your mobility may be more important, of you can afford it.
In fact, I’m wondering if you should think long and hard about staying in flyover. (not that anyone takes my advice) Could you at least poke around some other area of the country for mechanic type jobs? Can you transfer/retrain your skillz from aircraft, to, say, city buses? I know it’s a huge comedown but there are a lot more buses than aircraft, and you would have a lot more options in a lot more areas of the country.
But if you need to buy, please don’t discount buying a really cheap condo (under $50K). Or consider the Carl Morris option of a trailer. Something that you can own, but still retain your mobility.
I’m reminded of a Bloomberg video where a Rolls Royce executive is discussing sales and growth prospects. At 2:59 in the video, the speakers note that Rolls Royce growth is not affected by global market conditions as the wealthy remain wealthy regardless.
My takeaway is that perhaps the aircraft market is more durable than at first glance and maybe other airport hubs of these jets might have some opportunities as well.
Buying a house would not be a big deal if people could be confident they could sell it without a major loss.
Well….. Let’s be honest. Housing is loss at any price, ALWAYS. Now at current inflated asking prices, the losses are tremendous compared to any other option. And these losses are irrecoverable.
Keeping housing prices high is THE obama legacy.
An amazing feat considering the headwinds.
Our children’s children will STILL be paying off the obama deficits.
What did we spend the money on?
Bailing out banks to keep property value at insane levels.
Hope and change.
Forward.
What did we spend the money on?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36×8rTb3jI
You don’t feel like you got your $20,000 per individual worth in the six trillion in new debt?
My $0.02: If it improves your quality of life, then do it. If not, don’t.
If you were going to do it, try to look for some government program that might cut your costs, like sfhomowner discovered:
“Student loans and mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration, among more than 100 other lending programs,” - the government loves funneling public money, either taxed or borrowed from future generations, to the financial sector. So maybe there are some programs from USDA or VA or FHA or other that might be helpful.
There’s a component of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” If Warren Buffett decided that a high cost of gasoline was to his benefit, and he started buying politicians and manipulating the market to make it so, well, he’ll probably be successful for a while. Replace Warren Buffett with the Fed and the FIRE sector and that’s what we’re dealing with regarding house prices.
ON THE OTHER HAND: The Fed minutes suggested they were going to stop bond buys at the end of the year. If they do spark an inflation, a lot of politicians will lose their jobs. Seniors will be negatively impacted. They think there’s antipathy now towards the financial sector? Then erode people’s wealth to help out deadbeats, and watch what real antipathy is.
Who knows how long the hedge funds will be involved in it, increasing prices and restricting inventory. What about shadow inventory? Will that ever enter the pipeline or will it quietly meet the bulldozer?
You nailed it (”I’ll be dead by the time it happens”) - it comes down to how long the government and the Fed can keep propping up prices. It could be a for a good long time. If you’re comfortable paying the mortgage though and have factored in price drops, and it improves your quality of life, financial and physical, then buying is not such a bad thing.
Fixer
Interest rates should go up; and from all the commotion it appears they will. Small business owners are now paying prime plus 2.75 (say 7%) with good credit and the “experts” are crying - again.
Rates go up I would expect housing to go down. Along with the stock market.
I also noticed that bond sales this week trended upward.
I’ve attained Lucky Duck Nirvana.”
take the blue pill..
The religion of peace, love and body parts. Ban car bombs now:
http://news.yahoo.com/bombings-kill-103-people-pakistan-185413160.html
Not to be outdone, Bakersplat enters the student-as-target fray. Except here the kids are tweeting they want armed teachers in the classroom. USA! USA! USA!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/01/taft-high-shooting-kern-county.html
And what was the religious angle of the shooting? Apples to oranges like usual.
WTF?
Funny thing
Yesterday one of my guys got hurt and I was at the hospital ER giving them the workers comp information. As I was standing in a three person line to see which office I had to go to I noticed a sign that said…. No Firearms Except for Police. Well I looked around and there were no police anywhere and I kinda got a funny feeling like, this isn`t good.
If there is some nut around I am pretty sure they have seen this sign and they can obviously see that there are also no police. Also thinking the people that obey laws and rules are not the ones I have to worry about. Oh well the nail came out and there were no nuts so what the heck.
Yet another reason for the NAR to use why the houses aren’t selling:
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/major-flu-outbreak-threatens-slow-us-economy-further-1B7928002
I wonder which makes you feel worse - the flu or being upside down on the mortgage? I guess the good news with the flu is that it generally is only temporary. The underwater mortgage may linger a lot longer than the flu.
If they’re right about the debt - that growth will bring down the debt to a sustainable level - then all this gigantic debt will not be a major cost on future generations.
However, after WWII, the rest of the world was in ruins and the US was reaching the peak of empire. So while it never paid down any WWII debt, GDP growth reduced it as a percentage of the economy.
Now however? The US is a mature economy, like Japan and the EU. Is it credible to count on post-WWII levels of growth to bring down the debt? The major growth is happening in developing countries.
I wonder how much of the reduction of US debt was because of GDP growth, and how much was because of inflation.
In other words, has anyone ever taken the quarterly US debt numbers and grown the principal by inflation to see what the Debt/GDP ratio would be WITHOUT the benefit of inflation eating away at the debt?
Might be an instructive exercise, as I’d be willing to bet that GDP growth has been a big help, but that inflation has been pretty big as well. This is not lost on policy makers…
If real GDP growth averaged 3% post WWII (total guess, probably more like 4%), but that average inflation was 3%, you’ve got to wonder if/when the US sets a higher inflation target than 2%…to counterbalance the below average growth in terms of reducing the debt burden.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57561841/where-is-the-housing-market-going-in-2013/
Here ya go Pimpy…someone for you to agree with.
Tough luck Rental Pimp. Get honest.
It’s sickening reading people talk about the down payment requirement on newspaper comment forums.
Things like “Now only RICH PEOPLE will be able to buy houses.” Don’t they realize that all the POOR PEOPLE buying houses killed our economy?
Do you know what will happen if banks required 20% downpayments and no more than 30% of income? House prices would drop! It’s as simple as that.
When I graduated from college in 1984, starting salaries for college grads on Long Island were about $26,000, and you could get a house for $40,000.
We could easily get back to those good old days, but the Government won’t let house prices reset to where they should be!
Hi Robert,
Great for you to share your views here. Though I admit you remind me of what my boss has already said to me more than once:
Paging Neil to put down the popcorn. I think he was the one who said “no buying until 20% down payment returns”
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0110/Zombie-foreclosures-terrorize-ex-homeowners
not all homeowners keep up houses just because Banks don’t forclose
I’m pretty sure whoever came up with this wacko idea is either an academic economist or an attorney.
The Truth Behind The $1 Trillion Coin
January 10, 2013 | Filed Under »
Debt, Economy, Government and Politics, Investing News
It’s just silly - that’s what it is. If you haven’t heard about the $1 trillion coin, here’s the story. The year was 2011. Both political parties were - surprise! - bickering about something they had been rubber-stamping for decades - the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is the amount of money that the government is allowed to borrow to meet existing debt obligations. Once the debt ceiling is reached, the government can no longer pay its bills. You might ask, “Wouldn’t it be more helpful to bicker about whether or not to spend the money in the first place, instead of whether or not to write the check and pay the bill?” Most people would agree with you and if history is any indication, decades worth of government officials did too. But since 2011, whether or not to pay the bills has become a debate.
Ready for a Fight
Since the fiscal cliff debate was so “problem-free” the last time around, everybody is looking forward to the 2013 rematch of republicans versus democrats concerning the debt ceiling.
Republicans are signaling a battle while Obama has said that he refuses to engage in a fiscal cliff debate. Seem a little absurd? Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) thinks so. He said, “It’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard. He’s going to have to negotiate.”
You are likely thinking, “What does the debt ceiling have to do with a coin?” Everything - and that’s the “preposterous” part of it. Somebody found a loophole. The Treasury can’t just print money at will. If it could, your next McDonald’s cheeseburger could cost $500.
…
Has any of this guy’s gloomy predictions ever come true? Cause now that I have decided to go all in on stocks, he is parroting a prediction for a 42% drop.
And this prediction comes out at the moment the S&P 500 hit a five-year high. Go figure!
Jan. 11, 2013, 12:02 a.m. EST
Washington ‘clown’ set up 42% stock-market drop
Commentary: 3 more fiscal cliffs, with bigger risks, are coming
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — One fiscal cliff down. Three more to go: The $16.4 trillion Federal Debt Limit cliff, the $1 trillion Sequestration Cuts from defense and discretionary spending and the $2.5 trillion Congressional Budget cliff.
No wonder investors are being warned of a 42% market drop by Gary Shilling, long-time Forbes columnist and one of the world’s top economists, author of “The Age of Deleveraging.”
But if you really want to know why American markets are going into another bear crash, check out Bloomberg/BusinessWeek’s latest cover. It will win the “Political Cartoon of the Century” for the best snapshot of the totally dysunctional state of Washington … the real reason markets will crash and our economic recovery will be a sluggish handicap race with low GDP growth.
Bloomberg’s cover is a classic: You see an shot inside the Congressional building, with “Babies” in huge bold cap letters. Subtext: “The politics of the fiscal cliff deal are outrageous. The economic thinking even worse.” You look closely. No senators. No representatives. All you see are hundreds of babies, whining, throwing temper tantrums, balling and generally raising hell just because that’s what crybabies do. Get it: 435 representatives and 100 senators, all acting like immature children.
…