The Housing Bubble

I sold home in Cyprus when my husband died…and bank kept my money
EXPAT Sharon Connor was trying to move forward after the sudden death of her husband Gary when Cyprus’s economic crisis just as abruptly made her life fall apart again.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/391672/I-sold-home-in-Cyprus-when-my-husband-died-and-bank-kept-my-money

Letter from Rosa Koire, Executive Dir. of Post Sustainability Institute to Democrats in the Oklahoma Legislature to Support HB 1412

February 3, 2013

To my fellow Democrats in the Oklahoma Legislature:

Concerns about UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development are spreading throughout the United States. Although you will hear that this is a right-wing position, in fact there are many Democrats across the nation who share these concerns. Loss of rights—private property and civil rights—are a concern of all Americans and are not partisan. As a registered Democrat since 1974, I have a different point of view from many others who oppose UN Agenda 21. My group, Democrats Against UN Agenda 21, is active in educating the nation on what it is, where it is, who is implementing it locally, and how to fight it. As the author of Behind The Green Mask: UN Agenda 21, I have been invited to lecture all over the United States, and expect to be in Tulsa this April. Your constituents in support of HB1412 have requested that I write to you about this important vote.

UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is a blueprint, the action plan to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all energy, all education, all information, and all human beings in the world. It is a global plan but it is implemented locally. This comprehensive plan was agreed to by G. H. W. Bush in 1992 at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. You will hear that this is a non-binding agreement, that it is a dusty twenty year old document, or that it is a benign plan for the salvation of the planet. The truth is that it is dependent on artificial consensus, on manufactured democracy, on government by unelected boards and commissions, and on regionalization at the expense of local and state government. In fact UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is a green mask. Far from being a conspiracy theory, it is a fact, and has had tremendously negative impacts in nearly every town in the nation. Based on Communitarianism—the individual’s rights must be balanced with the rights of the community—Sustainable Development is at odds with our Constitution. The guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are considered to be selfish when ‘balanced’ with the undelineated and

Oklahoma has an opportunity to pass a bill that reaffirms its commitment to the fundamental precepts upon which our nation was founded. As a nation we fought in a war for independence which joined people of differing religious beliefs, cultural origins, and political viewpoints in the birthing of liberty. This hard-worn battle must be fought every day in the halls of Congress and the Senate, and in the statehouses of every state in the Union.

I urge you to recognize that this battle is non-partisan, vital, and elemental to our continuing ideal of ourselves as a nation conceived in liberty and committed to the protection of our citizens. Please vote to support HB1412. Thank you.

Rosa Koire, ASA
Executive Director
Post Sustainability Institute

http://resist21.com/2013/02/05/letter-from-rosa-koire-executive-dir-of-post-sustainability-institute-to-democrats-in-the-oklahoma-legislature-to-support-hb-1412/ - 56k -

Rosa Koire is a liberal Democrat who happens to be gay, she is smart, articulate and my new hero. If you listen to this interview Behind the Green Mask, skip to the 2 minute mark and you won’t have to listen to the start of the radio program.

01/27/2013

hey, canada! don’t get fooled again! - Democrats Against UN …
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/1/post/2013/01/hey-canada-dont-get-fooled-again.html - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
HEY, CANADA! DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN! 01/27/2013. 0 Comments. Listen to a Canadian radio interview on UN Agenda 21 in Canada …

From posts on the blog, we gather that The Pimp/RAL/manyothernames works for, or knows about, pre-fab homes. Great. Pre-fab is a great idea.

The Pimp claims that he can build houses “on your lot” for $50-$60/square foot. For fun, I poked around the net for pricing. The lowest example I found was $64/ square foot. If he can find something lower, I invite him to post it. And then try to find a buyer actually willing to live in such a POS house. A mobile home is about $51, but that’s not really “on your lot.”

Yesterday, Pimp said that labor and materials for houses — I assume just the house, not the land — cost the same from state to state. They do NOT. They may cost the same in the factory, but at the very least, someone’s got to move the house from the factory to “your lot.” This alone costs more. I’ve listed two examples below.

The Pimp demanded to know how much we all paid per square foot for our debt junkie houses. Very well, Pimp, I paid $78 / sq ft for my HOUSE, which is right in line with these prices. A greater fraction of the value of my property is in the LAND. Why should I include the land value in the price/sq ft? You never do.

Here are some sample price/sq ft for pre-fab homes:

Single-wide mobile home: $51*
Blu Homes: (modern green design) Most of the US: $204 - $290
Blu Homes: (modern green design) CA, Canada, HI: add ~10%
Schumacher Homes: $64-$110
Phoenix custom homes: $73 for basic basic “Harvest Gold” (!) rambler
Irontown Homes “Walker” 3/2 rambler Utah: $111
Irontown Homes “Walker” 3/2 rambler CA and CO: $139

http://www.bluhomes.com/homes/pricing/

http://www.schumacherhomes.com/floorplanfilter.aspx?mn=big

http://www.phoenixcustomhomes.us/id84.html

http://www.irontownhomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Predesign-specials-Pricing-UT.pdf

http://www.irontownhomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Predesign-specials-Pricing-CA-CO.pdf

—————
*Smallest single wide = 14′x60′ = 720 sq ft
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/answers/renting-and-real-estate-20110426160519AAX9kSS.html
*cheapest single wide = $37000
http://home.costhelper.com/mobile-home.html

AP Exclusive: Likely tax cheats flock South, West
AP | 4/14/13

Worried the Internal Revenue Service might target you for an audit? You probably should be if you own a small business in one of the wealthy suburbs of Los Angeles.

You might also be wary if you’re a small-business owner in one of dozens of communities near San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta or the District of Columbia.

A new study by the National Taxpayer Advocate used confidential IRS data to show large clusters of potential tax cheats in these five metropolitan areas. The IRS uses the information to target taxpayers for audits.

The taxpayer advocate, Nina Olsen, runs an independent office within the IRS. She got access to the data as part of an effort to learn more about why some taxpayers are more likely to cheat than others.

The study also looked at tax compliance in different industries, and found that people who own construction companies or real estate rental firms may be more likely to fudge their taxes than business owners in other fields.

Many of the communities identified by the study are very wealthy, including Beverly Hills and Newport Beach in California. Others are more middle class, such as New Carrollton, Md., a Washington suburb, and College Park, Ga., home to a section of Atlanta’s massive airport.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/editorial-citizens-bill-would-be-unfair-to-south-f/nXLpw/

Insurance, at least property insurance in FL, seems to be a total ponzi scheme. I’m surprised what these morons are doing is even legal.

First off, it probably helps to talk very quickly about the “theory” of insurance (at least as I learned it in college). First, you have to figure out the value of the asset that you’re insuring. Pretty straightforward (and dropping, but we’ll leave that out for now), not a lot of argument around this.

Next, you figure out the risk of loss. The person who does this is known as an actuary, they look at historic numbers and determine, based on a lot of criteria, how likely a loss is of the given asset that they are underwriting.

So, real simple example; if I want to insure a 100K house and the risk of loss is 1% annually:

100K*1%=1K/yr

And then, on that 1K/yr, we then add the insurance company’s profit.

Why all this math in the morning?? Well, because, per that article “New policies, however, could rise between 60 percent and 84 percent in Palm Beach County for the same property.”

This makes absolutely NO SENSE. It also makes no sense that after a hurricane comes through people’s policies start to double. The only way that makes sense is if, instead of figuring out the risk, in fact, they are just running a ponzi; collecting all the premiums and paying out of the kitty until it’s empty. What this means is that the “risk of loss” number above is off by up to 84%?!? Why even hire people to compute that number, why not just pull it out of the air, it would apparently be just about as accurate.

A hurricane barreling through should, in fact (perfect insurance model) have no impact what-so-ever on your rates. It was figured in; hurricane damage every X years, to your rate ahead of time. In fact, the only thing that should really impact your rate is if you do something to YOUR home or personally that changes your risk profile (like put in a highly flammable roof in fire country, for example).

The highest insurance quote I got last year (after I got dropped again) was about 15K/yr, the lowest was 2.5K (coverage limits held pretty equal). That’s ridiculous people! That’s like shopping a few banks and getting MTG rate offers from 3 to 15%, depending where you shopped.

My experience in S. FL tells me that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the insurance market. It doesn’t make sense that one insurer would be so far off from another when comparing policies. They should all bunch up, perhaps with a few outliers on either end. Instead, what’s happening is that the “Mr Wizard” guys at State Farm have my house at a 10% chance of loss per year and at All State they have that number at 5%!? That makes NO sense (and even less if you extend my example to include the re-insurance market).

Interesting to read some of the headlines this fine AM. Anyone who doesn’t think NoKo is China’s proxy isn’t paying attention. Bwahahaha! But, you know, keep sending Owl Man to SoKo proclaiming “Stop! Or I’ll yell stop again!” Keep outsourcing there. Keep buying their defective crap. Keep insourcing their scientists and techies so they can engage in espionage. Keep borrowing from them.

What a decadent, perverted bunch Washington is.

November 30, 2011

“Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective.”

Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wildlands Project

Harvey Ruvin Biography

On National and International Levels

Harvey Ruvin served as the President of the National Association of Counties (NACo) (1987-88). He chaired separate NACo Task Forces on Immigration, Environment and Energy, and the Liability Insurance crisis. NACo is the only national organization representing the interests and acting as a clearing house for the more than 3,000 county governments in America.

Ruvin is a past chairman and current member of the Urban Consortium (UC) of Public Technology, Inc. (PTI). PTI is the technology arm of its parents, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and the International City/County Management Association. The UC is a coalition of the Nation’s 50 largest urban government seeking to apply emerging technologies to local government needs.

In addition to his leadership of America’s Counties and the Urban Consortium, Ruvin’s service at the NATIONAL (where he has served five Presidents in an advisory capacity) and INTERNATIONAL level has included:
Member, Intergovernmental Science Engineering and Technology Advisory Panel to Office of Science Advisor to the President (Presidents Ford and Carter, 1975-80).
Member, President’s Council on Energy Efficiency, as well as Vice Chairman of Local Government Energy Policy Advisory Committee (President Carter, 1977-80).
Served a four-year term on the prestigious Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR). He chaired the ACIR Research committee. (Presidents Reagan and Bush, 1987-91).
Served as a member of the President Clinton 1988-91 Sustainable Communities Task Force of the President’s Counc
il On Sustainable Development (PCSD).
Member, Board of Directors of the National Association of Counties (1983-present).
Member, Board of Directors of National Association of Regional Councils (1973-1978).
Member, Board of Directors of the Community Associations Institute (1978-1982).
Vice Chairman of National Immigration Forum (1980-1984).
Delegate to the United Nations World Congress for a Sustainable Future, representing America’s Counties at this first-ever international effort to coordinate local governments’ environmental initiatives (1990).

Vice Chairman, Executive Committee of ICLEI which is the 15 member governing body of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). ICLEI is membered by 600 local governments from all over the planet, seeking pro-active ways to combat global environmental and sustainability concerns. He serves as President of USA – ICLEI. Inc. – the corporate entity operating the organization’s efforts in America.

ICLEI has been designated to represent local government at all United Nations’ meetings dealing with the environment and sustainability.

http://bradleycountynews.wordpress.com/2011/11/ - 206k -

300 million guns in the hands of American people now. 70 million of them purchased since Obamao’s first inauguration. My handguns and rifle will help me keep my individual rights a while longer.

Remember this link our Blog DebtJunkie provided to substantiate massively inflated housing prices and her own tragic error of paying them?

–> http://www.building-cost.net/

That’s a typical example of the “research” Dumb Money does. Understandable. But when Dumb Money attempts to float it as real is when we step in to expose the ignorance.

Now… Months ago after this ruse was attempted, we did a quick review and mark up of this charade… here it is.

http://imageshack.us/f/87/estimate.png/

For the public…… Material and labor costs are the same anywhere in the country. Anywhere. Don’t let charlatans, paid hacks and dumb money detract you from performing your own analysis and estimate on the value of a house in price per square foot. We bid and win bridge and highway work in tens of millions of dollars based on price per square foot. There is no other way to do it.

How is it that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA can offer federal mortgage guarantees for so much cheaper than private mortgage insurers do for the same level of default risk, yet remain competitive for their shareholders (U.S. taxpayers)?

RISK DOCTOR
Let the FHA Charge for Risk, Like Fannie and Freddie Do
by Clifford Rossi
APR 11, 2013 12:45pm ET

The mortgage securities business has become a shell game. Consider the disconnect in pricing of credit guarantees between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on the one hand, and the Federal Housing Administration on the other.

One of the important differences in pricing between the government-sponsored enterprises and FHA is that Fannie and Freddie adjust their prices to some degree for risk while FHA largely charges fees that are flat across risk attributes. And although FHA has raised upfront and annual mortgage insurance premiums since the crisis, the all-in pricing for a GSE mortgage-backed security and a corresponding Ginnie Mae MBS (which is where most FHA loans end up) leaves FHA the clear winner for the riskiest pools. In that regard, we are merely shifting risk from one set of federally insured entities (the GSEs as wards of the state) to another. There does not seem to be any apparent rhyme or reason to this pricing — one more piece of evidence of the lack of cohesion in pricing in federally dominated mortgage markets.

The issue is far more than academic. The latest actuary report estimates that the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is underwater by more than $16 billion although the Obama administration’s estimate released Wednesday places it now at just under $1 billion. If FHA employed a more granular pricing approach, charging much higher premiums for riskier attribute combinations and less for lower-risk attributes, it would reduce the risk of the agency’s troubled MMIF over time.

Look at the pricing decision between a pool of 95% loan-to-value, 660 FICO score fixed-rate 30-year mortgages going into a 3% coupon Fannie Mae or a comparable GNMA security. The Fannie bond was recently quoted at $104.09 per $100 of principal, the GNMA at $105.56. For this pool, Fannie would charge an “adverse” delivery fee of 25 basis points, a loan-level pricing adjustment of 225 basis points. And since the loans have such little equity and low credit scores, a private mortgage insurer would charge 350 basis points for the risk that it bears.
For the same pool, FHA would charge an upfront premium of 175 basis points and an annual premium of 130 basis points. If we further assume that the pools have an effective life of five years, then that annual premium takes 650 basis points off the dollar price of the bond.

Taking into consideration origination and differential servicing costs that also affect the bond coupon, the net price of the Fannie MBS is 95.24 per $100 of principal while the GNMA MBS is $97.57. In this example, the higher-priced GNMA MBS is the “best execution” for delivery of 95% LTV, 660 mortgage pools.

This simple illustration of relative mortgage pricing underscores the need to revisit FHA’s approach to pricing and it has implications for the extent of the federal guarantee as well.
…

Does anyone know how much of a windfall GSE bond owners collectively reaped from Uncle Sam at the point when the federal guarantee went from implicit to explicit in the wake of the Fall 2008 Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac collapse, right at the point when the fools who speculated in these MBS should have lost their shirts?

Does the Fed own every dollar it prints, which it can then use to competitively bid on whatever dollar-valued asset sales happen to be taking place? This private ownership business gets very confusing when a single federal agency has monopoly rights to mine the Bitcoin of the realm.

How much of these stellar GSE profits can be directly attributed to the Fed’s QE3 MBS purchase program?

Cyprus Bailout Deal Is Hit By New Fears
A warning about political meddling in the independence of the country’s central bank raises fresh doubts over the rescue.
2:17pm UK, Sunday 14 April 2013

A bank employee shouts slogans and holds a banner reading in Greek: “employees are paying”

Cyprus’ central bank governor has warned he will only work with ministers on the country’s EU bailout if the bank’s independence is respected.

The comments from governor Panicos Demetriades come following a rift in Nicosia between the bank and political leaders over the EU/IMF-brokered bailout.

Last week, the government said the total bailout cost had jumped 6bn euros (£5.1bn) to 23bn (£19.6bn).

Mr Demetriades was appointed last May by the communist former administration but tension with the ruling centre-right government, in power for just two months, has deepened.

There has been growing pressure on him to resign over his handling of the economic crisis amid an unprecedented levy placed on bank accounts.
…

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

http://silverdoctors.com/10-of-us-annual-silver-supply-just-vaporized/#more-25002

10% of US Annual Silver Supply Just Vaporized…

April 13, 2013 By The Doc 33 Comments
*BREAKING
5 million ounces of annual silver supply and 500,000 ounces of annual gold supply have just been vaporized landslided.
Rio Tinto’s Kennecott mine in Utah- the US’ 2nd largest silver mine and world’s largest copper mine has just suffered a massive landslide which will likely shut down production at the mine for years as upwards of 1 billion tons of dirt and ore have collapsed into the basin.
10% of US annual silver production just vanished. Good thing there aren’t any physical supply issues in silver currently or anything…

Astonishing Photos below:
According to Rio Tinto’s VP of Marketing Vania Grandi, Kennecott produces up to 5 million ounces of silver, and 1/2 million ounces of gold annually:
“We produce about 3 (million) to 5 million ounces of silver a year and 300,000 to 500,000 ounces of gold,” said Vania Grandi, vice president of marketing for the Precious Metals Copper Group at Rio Tinto — parent company of Kennecott Utah Copper Corp.

The Media Release from Rio Tinto:

Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine pit wall slide

At 9.30 pm local time on 10 April 2013, Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine experienced a slide along a geotechnical fault line of its north eastern wall. Movement on the north eastern wall had accelerated in recent weeks and pre-emptive measures were taken to relocate facilities and roads prior to the slide. All employees are safe and accounted for.

Mine operations are currently suspended while experts assess the extent of the slide and impact on operations.

About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and New York Stock Exchange listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto’s business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, thermal and metallurgical coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide and salt) and iron ore. Activities span the world and are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.|

From VisitUtah.org:
In addition to copper, the mine also produces about 400,000 ounces of gold, 4 million ounces of silver and 20 million pounds of molybdenum.
Located 28 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, the mine is 2 3/4-miles across and 3/4-mile deep. It is so big that it can be seen from outer space. Standing at the overlook within the Bingham Canyon Mine, you can see, hear, and feel the breathtaking and awesome magnitude of this massive man-made excavation. Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine is the world’s largest man-made excavation!

It’s official…just saw Kendra Todd on the teevee.

This may be the next book I tackle, once I finish the last1250 pages of Les Miserables.

Review: The Robespierres of central banking
By Dominic Elliott
April 5, 2013
By Dominic Elliott

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The most lasting inheritance of the 2008 financial crisis may be a change in the purpose of central banks. From the 1980s until 2007, most believed that monetary authorities should primarily use a policy interest rate to combat inflation. Interventions in the markets or in the financial system were outside the remit, or so the orthodox view went. Neil Irwin’s “The Alchemists” shows how that thinking has been turned on its head.

Central banks now have vast power. The European Central Bank, led by Jean-Claude Trichet, flouted the spirit of the Maastricht Treaty by buying bonds of euro zone states; Mervyn King’s independent Bank of England became part of the political debate as it engaged in monetary easing on a vast scale; and Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve has experimented with even more radical and creative ways to fix the U.S. economy. Irwin, a Washington Post journalist, underscores just how revolutionary those moves were.

The book breezes through central banking’s troubled history, starting with the first central banker, Johan Palmstruch, a jailed debtor who assumed a new identity. He plunged Sweden into an economic depression and died a much-reviled man. Reichsbank President Rudolf van Haverstein’s unfortunate penchant for monetising German debt during World War One was another low point.

Irwin really provides spice, however, with a blow-by-blow account of the financial crisis and its aftermath. There’s a fine level of detail: Mervyn King dog-sledding at a central bankers’ convention in the remote Canadian territory of Iqaluit, for example. Central banking seems sexy after all, even if the claim that French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s walk at Deauville with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the “most consequential stroll on a beach in history” is exaggerated.

Still, it’s an achievement to produce a page-turner that also explains the various ideologies of central banking. In essence, central banking has been a game of trial and error. And the seat-of-the-pants decision-making in the euro zone involved many strange manoeuvres. Bundesbank head Axel Weber reneged on his support of Trichet’s bond-buying plan, placing the euro zone in even greater peril. Meanwhile, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, was promising bailout money before he was authorised to do so.

Of the book’s three main protagonists – Trichet, Bernanke and King – only the U.S. Fed chairman comes out remotely well. His openness to new ideas is contrasted with King’s stubbornness and Trichet’s self-importance.

The author could have done more to consider the negative effects of flooding the global economy with cheap money. The concept of eurobonds – an important possible way to fix European finance – is also dismissed without comment. But China’s lack of central banking independence is highlighted as an important counterweight to the Western approach: the government’s authoritarian control of monetary policy helped the Chinese economy snap back with barely a blip post-crisis.
…

For an example of excellent timing, check out the date on the article posted below.

If only the Plunge Protection Team had been there to supply liquidity to the Bitcoin market, the crash need never have happened!

The Logic Problems That Will Eventually Pop the Bitcoin Bubble
By Kurt Eichenwald
4:54 PM, April 9 2013

The one fundamental truism of investing, and the one most often ignored, is this: the higher the returns, the higher the risk.

The past is littered with examples of when that rule was ignored. The stocks of dot-com companies raced to stratospheric heights in the late 1990s, until they came crashing to the ground. After a decade of astonishing growth in value, junk bonds defaulted en masse in 1989. Values in the housing market zoomed for years, until they grew unsteady in 2006 and then collapsed in 2008. The bottom-line message of history is that, if you’re doubling and tripling your money in record time, you’re also more likely to lose it all.

Which brings us to the Bitcoin craze and what is almost certain to be the coming debacle.

For those who don’t know about Bitcoins, they are a brilliant technical concept designed to create a new, digital currency that essentially cuts out the middleman—values of Bitcoins are established online, peer to peer. There are no central banks, and at least for now, there is no government involvement. Like standard currency, Bitcoins can be traded or used for purchases, but only with those sellers who will accept them. Because it is a system independent of external meddling, there can be no sudden devaluation of Bitcoins through the actions of governments. (But make no mistake—there can be sudden devaluation of the currency through the actions of players in the Bitcoin market, and too many of them seem not to realize it. More on that below.) The values are not pegged to any existing currency; instead, members in the Bitcoin market establish the exchange rate through simple supply and demand—when the number of people wanting Bitcoins grows faster than the availability, the values go up.
…

Isn’t it interesting how, even though Bitcoin is a “virtual currency,” the geek cult who trade in it felt the need to create a physical version of the coinage? Don’t they realize that if it exists in physical form, the government could potentially CONFISCATE IT?

And here is an even worse reason to for Bitcoin buyers to be afraid: Given the utter anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, there is no reason a central bank could not use a flood of fiat money to create a Bitcoin bubble, sucking in lots of wealth from the sidelines out of the pockets of geeks who think they will profit from the bubble. The central bank can be the first to sell, profiting handsomely off the premium sale price and leaving individual bubble speculators holding the bag on the price collapse. Like the vile Winklevii…

I note this is basically the Wall Street stock sales business model, appropriated by sovereign banks with massive financial fire power.

http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20130412NC_2.html

Cyprus, sell your gold, said Draghi.

If they sell their gold, they are left with toilet paper. Supposedly this is the reason for the sell off Friday. Cyprus has no resources other than being a money laundering place. If their gold is gone and since they permanently chased away tax evaders their future is fuster clucked.

If the gold detractors are right, why is gold still held by central bankers?

Buying gold is getting to be more lucrative. I hope the price falls to $1300.

Spring Market Observation from suburban Boston. For sale inventory seems the same as past years. Low end (condos and houses under $400K not moving. Past few weeks lots of stuff on the market in the $750K - $500 range. And it seems to be selling quickly. But the newer listings of $750K look like what have been $450K - $500K houses. Honesty don’t know what they’re thinking. Lot’s of stuff $800K+ sitting. Many of the same houses have been for sale for the 3 years that I have lived here. This is western suburbs - Winchester, Arlington, Lincoln, Concord, Lexington, Waltham, etc… The housing stock is not great here in the sense that there have been very little added in the past 30 or 40 years. Maybe if you go way far out. Lots of the stuff is junk. Surprises the junk people buy bubble or no bubble. You can rent very nice apartments for reasonable amounts.

Happy April the 15th One Day Early

Folks, for those that are filing today and tomorrow, isn’t it grand to finally get the taxes done. Thank God the higher taxes for the rich didn’t affect me.

Oh wait, I got hosed again.

High Street bakery Greggs has been slimming down its food - while still pushing up the prices.

Several of the store’s best-selling savouries, including steak bakes, bacon rolls and pizzas have shrunk in size.

But the bakery giant has defended the shrinking size of its food, saying it is better on the waistline.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308843/Who-shrank-pies-Bakery-giant-Greggs-slims-pasties-bacon-rolls-pushing-prices.html#comments

Perhaps we shouldn’t fear the obesity epidemic as much

What’s really going on in California

California imposed a new law on banks innocuously called “Homeowners Bill of Rights” which forces banks to switch over to a judicial foreclosure process, which they can opt to do on their own, but takes a year or more to renegotiate contracts and compensation structures for the foreclosure law firms who do all the leg work for the banks. And while those changes are being made… it makes it appear that foreclosures have slowed down dramatically in the state.

The reality?

Defaults (undeclared) are spiraling upward that yet have to pass through the foreclosure pipeline.

The truth?

California is still the highest foreclosure state in sheer volume and percentage.

The low-down?

Resale housing in California is still massively overpriced as a result of unprecedented interference by individual states and the federal government. The market distortions will be removed and the down draft will continue allowing the market to correct.

With millions of excess empty houses and housing demand at 17 year lows, housing prices have a long way to fall. A very long way to fall.

If you’re paying more than $55-60 per square foot for a resale house, you’re paying far too much.

ALWAYS perform a per square foot estimate of the value of a house and NEVER entrust anyone else to do it for you. The Real Estate Machine will do and say anything to keep you from performing this analysis.

Suppose you had four choices of how to allocate your savings:

1) Put all your money into gold.
2) Put all your money into Bitcoin.
3) Put all your money into a dollar-denominated passbook savings account.
4) Put all your money into U.S. residential real estate investments.

Which is most likely to prove to be a money-losing strategy through the lens of the rear-view mirror?

Housing demand has collapsed in the SF bay area. Down a whopping nominal 40% YoY and still falling.

http://picpaste.com/pics/10e645f823dc582e3f40990262beae01.1365961377.png

Washington DC rental rates down YoY,QoQ and MoM…. And still falling

http://picpaste.com/pics/70136eebddf41bfa4aa4cbdec120e110.1365961908.png

Why pay massively inflated prices for housing in the DC area when you can rent for half the monthly cost?

Shoeshine boy sell signal noted in today’s Parade Magazine cover story:

Living
Navigate the New Rules of Real Estate
April 13, 2013 – 6:00 AM
Kate Rockwood
By Kate Rockwood
Joe Zeff Design

After taking a beating during the Great Recession, the housing market is finally staggering back to its feet—but millions of Americans are wondering: Is it safe to get back in the real estate game?

“It made so much sense at the time,” says Maura C. of the Chicago condo she and her husband purchased in 2009.

The 30-something couple—motivated in part by the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time homeowners—decided to buy the $310,000 two-bedroom unit shortly after their wedding.

“I’d been a renter for more than a decade,” Maura says, “but I never doubted that I would eventually own. In my mind, it was an integral part of building a future for myself and my family.”

Fast-forward four years and their apartment is underwater. A neighboring unit went through a short sale last summer, going for just $220,000, and another condo in the building is on the market for $243,000.

Now pregnant with her second child, Maura wants to eat the loss and buy a larger home. “Prices are starting to come back up, and interest rates are so low. If we wait to get above water, we’ll miss our chance,” she says.

But first, Maura has to convince her husband, Paul. “He feels trapped by the whole situation,” she says. “For him, renting would mean regaining our freedom and flexibility. But I grew up dreaming of having a ‘forever home.’ I just can’t let go of that idea.”

Maura and Paul are not alone. As statistics hint at a budding housing recovery, millions are struggling with the same questions. Is it time to get back in the game? Can we trust the market again? And perhaps the most difficult question of all: Is owning a home still the right dream?
…

What could possibly go wrong with pumping $40 bn a month into mortgage backed securities purchase, then loaning out the proceed to help needy people buy homes?

Neediest Homebuyers in U.S. Lifted by Japan: Mortgages
By Jody Shenn - Apr 14, 2013 10:00 AM PT

U.S. homebuyers are getting an unexpected boost from the Bank of Japan.

As Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s efforts to spark inflation by doubling the central bank’s bond purchases shrinks the available debt in his country, traders are betting that will bolster demand for U.S-owned Ginnie Mae’s mortgage securities, pushing up prices and lowering yields that guide home-loan rates.

Japanese investors venturing into the U.S. home-loan market typically favor debt from Ginnie Mae, which helps finance borrowers with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, because it carries an explicit government guarantee, unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac notes. Bond buyers from the Asian nation that has suffered three recessions in five years may increase their Ginnie Mae holdings by $50 billion annually as a result of the BoJ’s easing, Nomura Securities International estimates.

“It’s amazing to see the spillover effects of different central bank actions,” said Greg Reiter, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based head of residential mortgage research at the securities arm of Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender. “It could be quite stimulative to the U.S. economy by keeping mortgage rates low and assisting the Fed.”

Potential demand for Ginnie Mae securities from Japanese investors such as banks and insurers comes at an opportune time. The rebounding U.S. housing market has entered its most-active season and Federal Reserve officials signal they’re considering scaling back their own debt buying, which adds $40 billion of U.S. mortgage bonds a month to the Fed’s holdings.
…

“motivated in part by the $8,000 federal tax credit”

SUCKER! lol

And the best part about it….. even with the “tax credit”, they’re still underwater.

Posted: 10:00 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 2013

Post Special Report Wall Street buys up Main Street

New kid on the block:corporate titans

By Kimberly Miller

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Palm Beach County real estate investor Chip Bryan added 35 homes to his expanding cache in the first 60 days of the year. Backed by a private equity fund, he’s in buy, hold and rent mode. And he’s in a hurry.

Bryan’s competition is America’s financial masterminds, corporate behemoths who have set their sights on Florida as Wall Street buys up Main Street.

Another twist in the nation’s evolving housing market has hedge funds and multi-billion dollar companies becoming the landlords of the future, snapping up discounted single-family homes to rent out as they’ve done in the past with commercial properties and multi-family apartments.

It’s been just a year since a spontaneous comment by billionaire Warren Buffett ignited the corporate world’s home-buying spree. But already the New York-based Blackstone Group has 20,000 homes nationwide, including 4,000 in Florida.

Canada’s Tricon Capital, working with Lake Success Rentals, claims a bounty of 1,500 homes in South Florida and North Carolina. Colony Capital, based in Santa Monica, Calif., just announced its intention to buy 1,000 South Florida homes with a $2 billion nationwide investment.

One of the more aggressive buyers in South Florida is the Connecticut-based Starwood Property Trust. Despite having “no news to share” when contacted by The Palm Beach Post for this story, the company has picked up more than 80 Palm Beach County homes at foreclosure auction since it began buying in late November.

“This business used to be a subculture of deal makers and opportunists, mostly Realtors and contractors,” said Bryan, managing partner of Boca Raton-based Rebound Residential. “Then Wall Street arrived.”

Don’t be late on rent

The rapid-fire acquisitions are driven by a murky shelf life. Climbing home prices eat into profit, meaning a tipping point will arrive when the buy-hold-rent business model no longer makes sense. And unlike the mom and pop landlords of lore who may let a rent check slip in late now and then, corporations are all about the bottom line.

During a Starwood Property earnings conference call in February, one executive likened buying homes to trawling for tuna. You catch a lot of fish, keep the tuna, and throw everything else back in the ocean.

In late February 2012, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Buffett sat in a director’s chair on CNBC’s Squawk Box and said if he had a way of managing them, he would buy “a couple hundred thousand single family homes.”

$37 million in this county

By April, the Blackstone Group was in the single-family landlord business, investing $3.8 billion nationwide. Blackstone created the new housing firm Invitation Homes to market and manage the rentals, buying heavily on Florida’s west coast with at least 700 homes in Hillsborough County, according to property appraiser records. Its South Florida purchases include about 150 homes in Palm Beach County, which cost a combined $37 million, according to the property appraiser’s office. Blackstone has another 500 homes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

‘Sweet spot’ price

Tricon Capital Group announced its partnership with Lake Success in July 2012 as part of an aggressive push to buy more distressed real estate. The basic business plan, said Lake Success co-founder Barry Bergman, is to buy homes at a “sweet spot” of between $75,000 and $150,000, spend an average of $15,000 on repairs, and rent them out until housing prices increase enough that it makes sense to sell. Lake Success has spent about $19.6 million in Palm Beach County for 140 homes.

“If the market changes and home prices go crazy, then maybe we’ll sell them in five to 10 years,” said Bergman, whose firm buys at auction and through bulk sales of distressed homes. “But we think there is a long term paradigm shift in the affordability of people to own homes. There is a definite portion of this population who will be renters for a while and want to rent in nice communities.”

Bryan, of Rebound Residential, said his company puts between $10,000 and $25,000 into remodeling a home before renting it out.

The clean-up job at a home on Cam Lee Road in suburban West Palm Beach wasn’t even finished before potential renters started calling. The house is on a cul-de-sac with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a big backyard and wood flooring. The company paid $80,100 for the home in February through a short sale. The previous owner bought in 2006 for $250,000.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/new-kid-on-the-blockcorporate-titans/nXLFt/ - -

PERSONAL FINANCE
April 14, 2013

Limited Relief in Foreclosure Pact

The vast majority of borrowers being compensated for mortgage-related abuses will get $1,000 or less apiece.

About four million borrowers will share $3.6 billion in cash as part of a settlement between federal regulators and banks accused of foreclosure-processing mistakes. U.S. regulators said last week that banks wrongfully took away homes from 1,082 borrowers who were members of the U.S. military. Another 53 borrowers were found to have lost their homes despite not actually defaulting on their loans. Those 1,135 individuals will receive checks of $125,000.

Most borrowers will see far less, with about 80% receiving checks ranging from $300 to $1,000, according to data released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.
…

How large is the Fed’s propaganda budget?

The attorney for the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin wants details about a wrongful-death settlement — which could have paid $1 million or more — given to the late teen’s parents.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/11/attorney-wants-details-of-trayvon-wrongful-death-suit/2075759/

Cramdowns are coming.

“It does not require a majority to prevail,
but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”
–Samuel Adams - Leader in our Fight for Independence

WILDLANDS PROJECT: Incredible, Outrageous and a Very Real Danger

Most Americans are completely unaware of the true nature of the threat from radical environmentalists. Although many of our countrymen are in a deep coma while others are pre-occupied with satisfying their appetites, we cling to the hope that there are enough good-intentioned but misinformed Americans who would join us in rescuing our way of life if they knew the truth. If you have any doubt that the green Fascists are undemocratic, elitist, socialist anti-Americans who despise humanity while worshipping “Mother Earth”, the rocks, the shrubs, the rodents and the grubs, we invite you to learn the truth from their own mouths, publications and websites.

The mission statement of the Wildlands Project states that “…we live for the day when Grizzlies in Chihuahua have an unbroken connection to Grizzlies in Alaska; when Gray Wolf populations are continuous from New Mexico to Greenland; when vast unbroken forests and flowing plains again thrive and support pre-Columbian populations of plants and animals;…” This sounds warm and fuzzy but what would it mean for the humans in the area?

Davis says about the Wildlands Project publication, “Wild Earth exists in part to remind conservationists that in the long run all lands and waters should be left to the whims of Nature.” Davis says that serious conservationists cannot accept development for human needs which he calls “sacrifice zones”. Davis prophesies the complete and final demise of human civilization when he states that, “the premise that we ought to save the full range of biodiversity leads logically to the conclusion that humanizing of landscapes must stop now and be reversed.” By “full range” Davis means the natural bios as it existed in Pre-Columbian America. This is the premise that most environmental groups are committed to.

Davis concludes his harangue with this revealing statement: “Does all the foregoing mean that Wild Earth and The Wildlands Project advocate the end of industrial civilization? Most assuredly. Everything civilized must go.”

Davis unwittingly reveals the dirty secret about the public face these groups put on to elicit public support for their radical view of the future. “..no one need advocate dismantling industrial civilization in order to join with The Wildlands Project. One need only favor the perpetuation of the full range of biodiversity and natural processes. (If you like bears, eagles, scurfpeas, and pearly mussels, join.)”, he says. Join even though you don’t support the outcome we have planned for you. Join and add your voice to ours and let us worry about the future. Join because you have warm, fuzzy feelings about wild creatures and leave the driving to us.

Dr. Reed Noss who is associated with the Wildlands Project as well as the University of Oregon and other radical environmental groups describes the corridor that would be needed to assure viability of the grizzly bear in Montana. “If the population of grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is to be connected to other populations, which seems to be necessary to assure population viability, then wide corridors with resident grizzlies must connect Yellowstone with the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (about 200 miles away) and the wildlands of central Idaho. …corridor for grizzly bears should be at least 44.25 km (27.5 miles) wide.” In further describing the corridor, he states, “Because Road densities above about 0.5 miles of road per square mile of habitat may be a threat to grizzlies (Bader 1991), road closures would be required to make inter-regional corridors safe .”

The proposed corridor would have to run somewhere between the southern end of the Scapegoat Wilderness north of Lincoln, Mt to Yellowstone Park south of Bozeman. It would cross hundreds of roads not to mention pipelines and large regional power lines and thousands of acres of private land. If these people have there way, do you think they would allow I-90 to run slam through the middle of their grizzly bear corridor? Of course not. It would either be closed and torn up for the width of the corridor plus a buffer zone on each side as would most of the rest of the roads in the area or it would tunnel under the entire width of the corridor. East- west travel would be restricted to one or two narrow, dangerous slow speed roads with no services. This would be the best we could hope for since even high altitude overflight of these areas is considered harmful.

What the radical environmentalists of the Wildlands Project want are ” Vast landscapes without roads, dams, motorized vehicles, powerlines, overflights, or other artifacts of civilization..” Noss, who is generally more restrained than Davis states the goal thus: “I suggest that at least half of the land area of the 48 conterminous states should be encompassed in core reserves and inner corridor zones (essentially extensions of core reserves) within the next few decades.” Core reserves equals wilderness.

Typical environmentalist that he is, Noss is not satisfied with half as we find out further on in this article. “I would offer a more ambitious long-term goal, pending human population reduction, that at least 95 percent of a region be managed as wilderness and surrounding multiple-use wildlands.” Of course Noss envisions himself and his colleagues roaming the 95% in some scientific/management capacity. They would set themselves up as kings of the forest with all the wealth and authority of the federal government at their command. The rest of us will be forcibly confined in the remaining 5%. Thankfully, there will be fewer of us to share that urban desert of poverty, crime and hopelessness. The loggers have already been told by government officials and radical environmentalists alike that they must adapt to the new social realities. Sooner or later we all follow that road if these people win this battle.

Don’t think that Dr. Noss is some lightweight, hemp smoking, tree hugger whose opinion can be easily dismissed. He has a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology, a long list of awards and professional appointments to boards and committees. He has written hundreds of articles and books. Noss has worked as a naturalist/conservation biologist for 28 years for various universities, federal and state agencies, including the EPA, and environmental groups. These credentials don’t make him right - just respected. We don’t dare turn over control of our lives to educated fools no matter how many degrees they may have.

But that is exactly what we will do if we let Noss and his colleagues set the agenda for this century.

Wildlands Project - Montanans For Multiple Use
http://www.mtmultipleuse.org/wildlands_project.htm - 22k -

It’s a small house in Detroit, but it carries a big warning.

“This house is being watched. You will get shot.”

But it’s not clear who is watching the house on West Davison and Petoskey. Every window and door is boarded up. Each board carries a similar message – squatters beware. And on the garage, a giant set of red cat-like eyes stares between the words, “Don’t let me catch you. I will shoot you.”

“I think it’s kind of weird,” said Nakesha Horton, 18, who was walking down West Davison Sunday night after her shift at Burger King.

She said she’s seen the house a couple of times, and wonders if the warnings will keep people out. Houses around it are in bad shape. Some are vacant, many are burned and others appear to be slowly falling apart. This is a neighborhood far from the hustle, bustle and promise of Detroit’s core neighborhoods.

“You can’t just walk down the street, People don’t even go in that park,” said Clay Vuron, 41, a resident of the neighborhood, walking near a playground across the street from the red-eye house.

County records show the home on West Davison went into forfeiture one month ago for non-payment of taxes. A few years ago, it carried a $75,000 mortgage. It’s not clear when the signage went up and publicly available phone numbers associated with the former owner, who apparently lives in Southfield, are disconnected.

“It’s a waste of time,” said Vuron, who said he is moving north of 8 Mile with his grandmother at the end of the month. “People are already in there. They need to just tear it down.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20130414/NEWS01/130414027/Detroit-house-carries-scary-warning-You-will-get-shot-

That’s the trouble with Chinese food. A few hours later, you’re hungry again.

Police: 6-year-old Lapeer boy caught driving family car was headed to chinese restaurant
Detroit Free Press

A six-year-old Lapeer boy driving his family’s car made it about three miles before he was stopped by residents Saturday morning.

“I opened the door and asked him what he was doing,” Lapeer County Sheriff deputy Karl Sapp recalled. “He told me he was going to the dealer to get the car fixed.”

The boy, who had hit a street sign near his house and cracked the bumper, initially blamed the damage to the car on his father, he said.

His parents were home sleeping around 7:30 a.m. and didn’t know the child was gone with the family’s Ford Taurus station wagon, authorities said.

The boy was initially heading to the Chinese restaurant where he ate the night before.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130414/NEWS06/130414004/Police-6-year-old-Lapeer-boy-caught-driving-family-car-headed-chinese-restaurant

‘Tis a mere flesh wound.

It’s time for beggar-thy-neighbor competition in cybercurrencies.

Or perhaps I am overly skeptical, and the technogeeks will figure out how to spin unlimited amounts of gold out of memory chips?

Computing News
Bitcoin Isn’t the Only Cryptocurrency in Town

Currencies designed to fix perceived flaws in Bitcoin could lead to competition that makes the idea of digital “cryptocurrency” stick.

By Tom Simonite on April 15, 2013

Why It Matters

Even if interest in Bitcoin fades, it could still have a lasting legacy as an inspiration to better-designed forms of digital money.

In recent weeks, the digital currency Bitcoin has soared and then dipped in value, along the way attracting more public attention than ever before and speculation as to whether it could become an established and widely accepted way to pay for goods and services.

But Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency out there. Several others are also surging in popularity and value, and they claim to offer technical improvements that make them better suited to mainstream use.

Some of these competing currencies already represent significant stores of value. The value of a single bitcoin on the most popular exchange was $93.70 at time of publication, and the total value of all bitcoins in circulation just over $1 billion (it was over $2 billion at the market’s high point last week). The largest alternative cryptocurrency, litecoins, were worth $2.31 each and $38 million in total; the next largest, PPCoin, were worth $0.22 each adding up to a total value of $4 million.
…

This is so inane, only a technogeek could love the scheme.

Bitcoin Miners Are Racking Up $150,000 A Day In Power Consumption Alone
Ryan Lawler

There’s a gold rush going on these days, or a Bitcoin rush, at least. Driven by the recent swings in the value of a Bitcoin, more and more people are learning about and becoming interested in the currency. While they could just buy Bitcoins at the current market rate, others are looking to try their luck at mining Bitcoins. And like prospectors who traveled west during the Gold Rush of the 19th century, many Bitcoin miners will find that they spend more on chasing the Bitcoin dream than they’ll ever hope to win back.
…

Squatters win, landlord loses –
Dave Thomas, an Akron area landlord, was surprised when he stopped by one of his rental homes

and found a bunch of complete strangers living there.

The previous tenant moved out without telling him and handed the keys to another group, which moved in without saying a word. He didn’t find out until the rent was way past due.

The newcomers didn’t fill out a rental form, so he couldn’t run a credit or background check. They didn’t put down a security deposit. They didn’t pay the first month’s rent. They didn’t sign up for utilities.

Thomas, 66, had never laid eyes on the people living in his house until he knocked on the front door. And even after that first visit, he still didn’t know their names.

So all he had to do was call police and have them thrown out, right?

Not even close.

Thanks to the state legislature, squatters have rights.

To get them out — which Thomas finally managed to do last week after two months of trying — he had to wade through the same legal process required to evict a legitimate tenant who has stopped paying the rent.

“It’s astounding, isn’t it?” says Stephanie York, city spokeswoman and assistant city law director. “Squatters have rights! It just blows my mind.

“It’s state law. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what they were thinking when they made this law.”

In 25 years as a landlord, he never had to evict anyone. He has been to court only once, when a tenant who ruined a carpet challenged his right to keep her security deposit. (He won.)

“I’ve never had problems with people,” he says. “I’m probably too easy. I just think, ‘Live and let live.’ If you rent a piece of property off me, there’s no reason for me to ever go in there unless you call and want something fixed.”

As he retraces the story of his squatters, though, he doesn’t sound the least bit mellow. The decibel level reaches about 120 and plateaus there.

“How can they live in my house — MY HOUSE! — and I don’t know them, and I got to pay their utilities?” he says, eyes shooting laser beams. “What the hell is wrong with this picture?”