Bits Bucket for May 2, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Anyone here cruise the City Data Forums? It’s a website I take a peek at every once in a great while, and I’ve noticed a few postings of “Is it a good time to buy a house”. Why on Earth would you go to an anonymous forum, frequented by RE agents and ask for their advice? I remember back in college psychology class about an internal method people used to continuously ask the same question until they got an agreeable response. Basically they want to hear the answer they want to hear, not the truth.
I’m off to my local Ford dealership - I want to see if its a good time to buy a Mustang.
Because people don’t realize they’re talking to a bunch of real estate agents.
I remember back in college psychology class about an internal method people used to continuously ask the same question until they got an agreeable response. Basically they want to hear the answer they want to hear, not the truth.
There’s your Cassandra model right there. The few that can handle truth actually want to know the answers. I wonder what sets the Cassandras apart. I know one thing. When I was a young more sociable pup, enjoying life and trying to establish my place in the big game, I was clueless. At some point I realized it might behoove me to sit back and be a watcher. Man, what an education that was. The more detached you are, the more the curtain pulls back.
“When I was a young more sociable pup, enjoying life and trying to establish my place in the big game, I was clueless. At some point I realized it might behoove me to sit back and be a watcher. Man, what an education that was. The more detached you are, the more the curtain pulls back.”
You’ll likely find yourself ostracized too.
LOL not in the creepy sense. You just don’t expend all your energy trying to fit in. So you actually allow yourself to notice details.
City Data is notorious for misinformation and being run by the lying realtors.
Never trust city data.
worst. website. ever.
a self-congratulatory circle-jerk of kool-aid drinkers and realtor babble.
“I’m off to my local Ford dealership - I want to see if its a good time to buy a Mustang.”
I know you’re joking, but it is. 0% interest for up to 60 months, 1.9% for 72 months, includes GT but excludes Boss 302 and GT500.
I’d get one of my own, but unbelievably my wife thinks we should spend our money on things other than a 420 hp 6-speed 5.0 liter fuel-injected suicide machine. And no, I’m not a Ford salesman.
My husband wants a Dodge Challenger so badly. They’re not that expensive if you’ve been out car shopping and seen sticker prices on family size vehicles. He’s been a true Dad martyr going without much for the long term sake of his family. However I suspect until we have paid off housing, toys will just be daydreamed.
http://www.dodge.com/en/2013/challenger/?sid=1037056&KWNM=dodge+challenger&KWID=3520431977&TR=1&channel=paidsearch
a paid off house in upstate NY seems like a great idea. then you “only” have to worry about those little things called property taxes
honestly, the challenger would probably be a better use of your money given that the house is a) upstate b) subject to confiscatory property taxes c) easily substituted by renting in a dying market with plenty of oversupply.
Oversupply is nationwide.
“He’s been a true Dad martyr going without much for the long term sake of his family.”
A rare breed…keep him happy when he needs it.
You betcha.
speaking of cars, my wife’s birthday is 1 week from today, i’m down to either the CRV or the Escape, need to work fast because the neighbor girl got a Q5 last month and she’s been eyeing it. i was going to pay straight cash, but i’m very tempted to use the 0% for 60 months just for the hell of it. the reason i say this is, the salesmen at both places refuse to go lower on price if i go all cash. seems like a screwed up system to me, honda and ford auto credit is obviously backed by ZIRP. i really wish Obama would end ZIRP, it’s perverse that we’re rewarding people for borrowing and punishing (or at least not rewarding) them for saving.
+1 on the CR-V. We have one in the squad fleet. This vehicle has been everywhere, we even took it over Cinnamon Pass last year.
http://www.everytrail.com/guide/cinnamon-pass-4×4-road
Honda CRV.
I have the older model that they stopped production in 2007. I am glad I have a 2006 because I do not like the body of the crv since 2007..too common place, IMO.
The curved lines of the rear windows of the 2007 and later models look gay.
You mean “ghey”……. you looser!
The curved lines of the rear windows of the 2007 and later models look gay.
You’d love my ‘84 Tercel w/331,500+ miles; turns heads, away!
Those Tercels went and went. I’d love to have a Datsun B210. Now that was a car that never quit.
“Those Tercels went and went. I’d love to have a Datsun B210. Now that was a car that never quit.”
+1 A friend and I drove to the arctic circle on summer in a Datsun LB-110 hatchback bumping along the AlCan highway.
If you want the discount, you’ll have to go with financing. I’d just make sure there’s no prepayment penalty.
I found the same from the Subaru dealer. It’s very rare for me to shop for a new car so I was shocked that cash offers are met with a big “Meh…” Wasn’t there a time when they (like used dealers) were willing to deal if you offered cash? My, how times have changed.
I remember almost 30 years ago I was with my older brother who was shopping for a new car and the dealers did not care about his ability to pay cash, they wanted that loan.
I ask for cash discount whenever possible. Usually gets me about $50-75 off for services, but not for stuff.
They get a fee from the financing arm of the maufacturer if you take the loan. These loans are all securitized and sold as bonds. Negotiate the price while letting them assume you will take their financing. Get the price in writing. Then tell them you have set up another way to pay.
Personally? My parents just put a new AC compressor in my future car. Seems it was damaged by a rock. Delighted to know that the compressor will be less than a year old when I buy it off them. For cash. Well, a check, really, but you get the idea.
Go with the CRV. Mine has been a champ. Get the racks on top and you can pretty much transport anything that can’t fit inside.
My only complaint has been the door locks keep needing to be replaced, but that could just be me (due to surfing and using a key that might have salt water on it).
Not only can you fit ALOT inside the CR-V, you can do ALOT inside the CR-V, like sleeping and other horizontal activities.
My CRV is a 1998 model. So inexpensive to run. Best car ever.
So you’re saying that when you replace parts (for example, alternator) it’s pretty cheap? This contradicts the wisdom of RAL.
The only thing (other than door locks and a dog-chewed seat belt) I’ve had to replace on my CRV has been brakes and tires. Air filter, oil changes, alignments. 80,000 miles, still has original clutch.
What’s a “clutch”?
(While traveling in my car recently my manager asked, “why would you ever want a manual transmission?”)
…sigh…
“why would you ever want a manual transmission?”
Because the thieves can’t drive manual and won’t steal your car. Fer reals.
My next car will be a manual transmission. I just love so much about the experience.
do newer hondas still have the opposed timing belt?
0%, 1.93%?
You forgot the part about having perfect credit for those rates.
turkey lurkey is in the hiznouse
almost as if our entire economy is a forced debt model. i have always paid cash for a car…until this “new economy”.
Been that way since the 1980s.
Eco, don’t be too skeptical before you see for yourself. Very good credit is needed, but perfect credit is not. Money down (or trade equity) resulting in good LTV helps too.
Take it from Krusty Perkins your Lyin local realtor-scum.
my wife thinks we should spend our money on things other than a 420 hp 6-speed 5.0 liter fuel-injected suicide machine.
I had to laugh at this. It only seems like a suicide machine when you’re used to driving slow cars. You adjust to the new normal quickly :-).
0% interest for up to 60 months
They must be desperate.
Cars are overpriced, and besides, they are a depreciating asset. Maybe waiting until they are 65% cheaper would be a better idea.
My 2004 auto is about 65% cheaper than new.
So is your house.
The tax man doesn’t think so.
Lately we’ve been seeing posts that housing is a depreciating asset. I’m starting to think there is a point to buying big on car/status and small (or none) on real estate. At least my neighbors in “EL”-”lay” are like that. Nice Audi TT’s, Nissan 370zs, once a Jaguar, some mercedes benzs, Lexuses, and such are parked along the street or in the assigned spaces in the two big garages.
If you got a lot of net worth, maybe enjoy yourself by getting your dream car.
If you got a lot of net worth, maybe enjoy yourself by getting your dream car.
I agree. It’s dumb to do it like a $30k millionaire, but if you have the money and want to spend a small bit of it on something you really enjoy, why not? I just feel bad for the people who do it but don’t really enjoy it…they are just trying to create an image for themselves. Seems dumb. They should spend the money on something they really like.
When I had my Z28, the insurance was as much as the payments. Low interest doesn’t help much.
People have no self respect. Most of them do their best to throw all their money away, which is basically throwing all their time and energy away, on things they will later wish they did not have.
trying to impress someone they’ll never meet while they’re sitting at a stop light or walking down the sidewalk to the office. stupid.
that said, i do see value in not being overly cheap, usually you do have to pay more than a de minimus amount to achieve a certain level of quality. the marginal rewards drop off beyond that point, obviously.
Exactly. If you shop diligently, you can usually find a very good price point to performance that is still far below the premium for that product or product category.
Services are a different story. It works that way in theory, but when you need a service, you usually need it right away.
I agree.
My young manager (who is obese and has a high voice - sum it up, no ladies’ man) just bought that $65,000 Lexus. It looks like an old man’s car, for one. We know he’s out to impress, but who? The girl (we thought for awhile he tried to impress) is engaged to a young lawyer who is not obese and not nerdy and with a lot of money anyway.
Feel good personal purchases have been around forever…They will never go away….
The only reason I don’t own a Porsche or a Corvette is that I am afraid that I will lose my license. Btw a Corvette blows a Porch away.
Depends on the model…on both sides.
And the road.
Colleague at work is well-to-do (born with a golden spoon). Had such playthings as a Porsche. He said he drives mediocre cars now because he “knows” he will kill himself in a Porsche. He claims he has no self control and will always go pedal to the metal. Said he was airborne once in his Porsche years ago.
Now has a jeep SUV and a Honda S2000.
Just as easy to kill yourself in either one of those.
$ity-Data is a huge RE scam, run by realtards. I got TOSed several times for being negative Phoenix real estate. I brought up HBB several times.
“I brought up HBB several times.”
That’ll do it.
Dr. Bruner: Raymond, wouldn’t you feel more relaxed in your favorite K-Mart clothes?
Charlie: Tell him, Ray.
Raymond: K-Mart sucks.
Dr. Bruner: Oh, I see.
“House Hunters” is running out of plausible show premises. The other night they had a couple from New Jersey who were looking for a “pied-a-terre” in Philapdelphia. Philadelphia? seriously? (My other thought was that some of the HBB regulars have taken over the show and are satirizing it…). They like the night life in Philly apparently. Maybe compared to Jersey it’s great?
Anyway this doofus couple looked at three high rise “studio” apartments that were priced at over $ 100 K (plus condo fees) with lovely views of other high rises. The missus actually raved about the view…
So they finally picked their glorified hotel room and at the end they had moved in and furnished the place with a couple of bar stools and a blow up mattress. And they had replaced the shower curtain! The joys and privileges of home ownership! I was laughing so hard my wife came down stairs to see what was wrong.
One of my favorite episodes of House Hunters was a young mid-manager + wife + toddler buying a house in New Hampshire. They finally settled on an ugly 1970’s rambler. You know the type of house: dark gold siding, eat-in kitchen with single wall of cabinets, a “finished” basement with linoleum tile, paneling and office-type ceiling panels and scrap wood strewn around, decent size yard but bare and weedy. It cost about $70K, they were weeping tears of joy.
I like that it was SO realistic, something I that I could see millions of families doing. Much better than the gay couple looking for a loft in downtown Toronto, or the near-retirment couples looking at colorful furnished palaces in Costa Rica. (I got tired of Costa Rica pretty fast.)
I wonder where it was in NH. I’m gonna assume there was a decent job commute attached to that price home. In 1984 my 3 BR loft apt rent was $650 but my commute to my coastal job was 15 min. I can only imagine what they get now.
Just looked it up. 3 BRs apartment at that location start at $1300.
Some people are willing to commute 1 hr or more to save some piddling amount on taxes. They’ll drive 2+ hrs/day to save what amounts to 100 bucks a week. LOL. Not to mention the cost of gas and maintenance for the car.
You don’t need all that great a job to afford a $70K home. Especially if you have one person staying home so that the family can avoid child care, eating out, and a whole host of other expenses in which the price is set by the willingness to pay of people who make more money than you.
Some friends of the family up and moved to Costa Rica. It was hardly the paradise they’d been told. They were actually followed by citizens in the village in which they’d settled, they were being monitored to see if they were working illegally in the country. Imagine that.
Costa Rica is a haven for socialists.
That many people still don’t understand that merely shows how uneducated they are about all things Costa Rican.
MacBeth is in the hiznouse.
throw your hands in the air
and wave ‘em like you just don’t care
It is?
I guess that explains why many large corporations are setting up operations there.
Corporate American seems to love Costa Rica. Most have set up shop there, even if just a call center. Intel and HP have a big presence. HP has a lot of high end (non consumer) tech support down there and even a little R&D. I’m sure that white collar wages that are 1/4 or less than in the US plays a big role.
Yeah, it is, ecofeco.
Costa Rica is not another Panama or Singapore.
That today’s corporations arte setting up shop inm Costa Rica is no surprise. Many companies actively look for governments that will give them money.
Other people’s money.
Next great place may actually be Columbia. We’ll have to wait and see on that.
Went there on my honeymoon…hope to never go back. Don’t tell my wife I said that.
Many companies actively look for governments that will give them money.
Wouldn’t that be “all companies”?
And as far as to “let’s bribe them to come here”, pretty much everyone is doing that. Tax credits, tax holidays, providing infrastructure, heck, everyone’s doing it. There’s a global shortage of jobs and everyone is fighting for them like ravenous dogs.
But I do agree that Costa Rica is overhyped. It’s just another 3rd world banana republic. Nothing special about it.
Though a quick looksie online shows that tax rates in Singapore and Panama are pretty comparable to Costa Rica.
“Went there on my honeymoon…hope to never go back. Don’t tell my wife I said that.”
We went there last October. The capital city, San Jose, is a hellhole, but the rest of the country was pure beauty. Unfortunately, to get around cheaply using the buses, you need to use San Jose as a base.
it’s definately beautiful…and if i were an avid surfer…would love it there…but the poverty along with all the .01% multi-multi millionare hideways was un appealing.
i did really like aruba though…but i am sure it’s more of same…but just seemd less so.
My favorite is the young British couple that bought a house in Tunisia right before the “arab spring”
the way you describe that basement, you’re right - it’s definitely not a finished basement.
and LOL at siding on a house. i can’t believe HGTV can pretend to know anything about homes. if i ran HGTV, there would be a scrolling disclaimer at the bottom fo the screen: “HGTV does not actually condone living in a house with vinyl siding and accepts no blame for the social stigma of doing so.”
Kick ‘em when they’re down, eh, Joe?
I thought that a real, Romney-hating Democrat wouldn’t stoop to such levels.
No way would a Romney-hating Democrat stigmatize others for having less.
No way would a Romney-hating Democrat believe that $100 a week is nothing in the eyes (and wallets) of most people everywhere.
Guess I was wrong.
Enjoy your phat, vinyl-sided taxpayer-funded paycheck Joe.
I did dirt, put in work
And many n***** can vouch that
But since I got stripes
I got the right to rap about that
Apparently, I have said a few things lately that hit a bit too close to the bone.
That you don’t like it doesn’t make it any less true.
my boy said ‘that ain’t you ice
that sh1t sounds like him’
so i sat back, thought up a new track
didn’t fantasize, kicked the pure facts
Apparently a Romney-loving republican makes so little that his time is worth less than $10/hour, before gas and car wear.
Such are the rumblings of the oppressed underclasses.
Gotta agree with MacBeth here. Joe’s on another “gimme a medal because I should be a Republican but I’m not” streak today.
Actually I think it was aluminum siding, not vinyl.
It’s clear from his writings that Joe is a fraud. Some of the stuff is amusing to read. He’s a fraud nonetheless. He’s modeled his life after his idol RMoney although he criticizes him frequently. That’s the dead giveaway, isn’t it? He could be one of Romney sons for all we know….
Claiming one is socially aware while actively stripping others of their wealth and status to feather one’s own nest and ego doesn’t sit well with me.
That such people want to live in places such as Boulder, San Francisco and the Hamptons is hardly surprising.
That such people condemn others who act in very similar ways is hardly surprising either.
It’s an attempt to justify one’s own selfishness, essentially by stating that “everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t I?”
You see a lot of that in wealthy areas where residents proport to be “socially aware”.
” Claiming one is socially aware while actively stripping others of their wealth and status to feather one’s own nest and ego doesn’t sit well with me.”
And yet you were a Romney supporter? Do you read what you write?
????
Since the goon has introduced rap talk this morning, I would say that Joe directs most of his criticism at the game, not the player.
We’re just sad because Chris Kelly from Kriss Kross died. And we actually went to school with someone who wore his clothes backwards to be just like them…
……………..
Jump, jump
The Mac Dad will make you, jump, jump
Daddy Mac will make you, jump, jump
Kris Kross will make you jump, jump
……………..
‘Cause I’m the miggity, miggity, miggity, miggity Mac Daddy
Miggity, miggity, miggity, miggity Mac
‘Cause I’m the miggity, miggity, miggity, miggity Mac Daddy
Miggity, miggity, miggity, miggity Mac
I make you wanna
Jump, jump
………………..
Check out the youtube video by a 6 year old rapper.
B00ty Pop is the song. 100x better than Kriss Kross.
directs most of his criticism at the game, not the player.
Is RMoney a game?
Is RMoney a game?
That sounds like a great idea for a game. It would be like Monopoly, except players would build their fortunes engaging in various rent-seeking activities not available to the 99.9%, along with stashing money in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, etc. Oh, and every player would start the game with a few million dollars from mom and dad. This would be a great game for family home evening.
No, only one player would start the game with extra money from mom and dad. Everyone else would start with nothing but a pair of boot straps.
One of my favorite episodes of House Hunters was a young mid-manager + wife + toddler buying a house in New Hampshire. They finally settled on an ugly 1970’s rambler. You know the type of house: dark gold siding, eat-in kitchen with single wall of cabinets, a “finished” basement with linoleum tile, paneling and office-type ceiling panels and scrap wood strewn around, decent size yard but bare and weedy. It cost about $70K, they were weeping tears of joy.
Sounds like your self-portrait.
70k to 150k is pretty much the bulk of house buyers.
Welcome to Philly!
Highest wage tax in the nation (4%)
Highest automobile insurance cost (trial lawyers are the #2 contributors to the dem party)
Union goon controlled
Democrat controlled for the last 50 years
Half the population has left in the last 50 years
Worst run schools in the nation despite spending $14,000/child
They just “reassessed” all property for a massive increase in property taxes - coming next year!
Crime - let’s just say I felt safer in Afghanistan than about 80% of the city.
Oh - and the city in beyond bankruptcy. Way beyond. Who do you think they will tax to oblivion before they touch one public union goon contract?
But it is all worth it is you can stroll out of your condo to some overpriced bistro and/or bar on a few weekends of the year. (PS - Philly is wretched in the winter and empties out all summer long as everyone heads to the shore on the weekends).
Isn’t this why God invented hotel rooms?
Maybe they bought the condo for the appreciation! And to sell it to fund their retirement to some greater fool.
Afghanistan?
Did you catch Saddam? Did you find the yellow cakes?
Twinkies ARE coming back. We need to bomb Iran.
I grew up in Philly ‘burbs and living in the city could be cool (I would favor south philly, not any of the trendy areas). But Philly is not NYC, there is no need for a pied a terre and no reasonable prospect of making money on the sale. The only area I can even imagine this making sense would be Rittenhouse Square, meaning right on the square, not 5+ blocks away by the Penn campus/hospital. And even if you can afford a pied a terre in Rittenhouse Square then why wouldn’t you just get one in NYC for the better arts scene/night life? NYC isn’t exactly far away.
Perhaps these individuals did not want to live in New York City. Perhaps they don’t like it there. The overwhelming majority of human beings would hate to live in New York City.
So, do you not have siding on your house? It’s just interior materials all the way through to the outside?
Siding, in this context, means aluminum or vinyl siding.
The hyperbole about “I’d never live in one” is something I say to get to oxide. I grew up largely in a house that had vinyl siding.
And you’ll die in one.
Glad to know you grew up largely. It would suck to grow up smally. Just kidding, being small is awesome.
The overwhelming majority of human beings would hate to live in New York City.
You may overstating the case. However, I would think that a large majority of Americans who would not want to live in NYC would feel that way because they would not want to live in a large city in the Northeast. Why would such people buy a condo in Philadelphia?
If you have access to a “permanent” place to live in NYC (either own or lease) and you spend even a small portion of 30 days a year in the city, you are considered a resident of NYC for tax purposes. It could be very, very expensive.
Hey Pimpy . Do you have any 5k lots or $50 / sf houses redone in the past 10 years on a quiet street in
Rye-Harrison NY
Concord Lincoln Sudbury MA
Pemberton Enfield Austin TX
Morningside Va Highlands Atlanta GA
?????
Just decide where you want to live. Then buy the biggest house you can on a 30 year debt plan. Let us know how you make out.
I’m a cash buyer at pimpy’s prices in these areas .
Send him the cash, he will build one for you.
Where do we send the cash and where’s the contract? If he can find a 5k lot in a nice established area, I’ll buy _as many as he can find_. But really, what RAL considers a nice area (”commutable”, LOL) is exurban sprawl or beaten-down areas near secondary markets. He also considers 1 hr+ driving commutes to be “commutable”, not realizing that most people would rather die. No thanks, we only live once, no need to live in a sh*thole.
If RAL could build you a house for $50/sqft on a $50,000 lot, it would be still be a great price.
You can’t get a lot for 5k in Lowell MA or port chester NY much less in rye in concord !
And here’s your $3,000/acre lot 10 minutes from Lowell.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/Broadway_Haverhill_MA_01830_M43350-91923
pssst……. No matter the lot cost, it doesn’t get you to your lying realtor/debt junkie prices. You’re going to have to come up with another excuse.
Would you like to challenge the truth more? Would you like to be honest with the public about Westchester county too?
You have a chance. Take it quickly.
Downtown Haverill to downtown Lowell is 24 miles. 28 minutes according to google. Now, someone do a compare and contract on the school systems and the other stuff that makes a town a good place to live.
And all your other “facts” are “according to google” too.
You don’t know what you’re talking about…… again.
And worse yet for you….. your “it’s the lot” song and dance doesn’t get you any closer to your debt-junkie prices.
You’ve run out of straws.
I haven’t had any debt since 1995. None. Not for a house. Not for a car. Nothing on a credit card that wasn’t paid off before it started to accrue interest. Bet you can’t say they same.
It remains that crappy old houses are still selling for way more than it costs to build new, yet demand for new housing is at 60 + year lows. And they say we are in another housing bubble. It’s not possibly “another” bubble, the original didn’t clear yet.
But I want my lifestyle, dammit!
For, how can I be me without my lifestyle in a socially-aware environ?
Do you really expect me to live within eyeshot of vinyl-sided housing? Seriously?
How do you expect me to enjoy my life if I have to live anywhere near those people?
Jeez, who do you think I am? European?
Straight outta Compton kickin’ up dust
The place where guns don’t get a chance to rust
I’m not a purveyor of rap music. Thus, your attempts at whatever you are trying to attempt are lost. Perhaps others here will understand your socially-significant message and can enlighten idiots like me.
P.S. - Why go all the way to Compton? Isn’t Aurora, Colorado, the rough equivalent? If you strive to be socially aware, why not spend your next weekend in Aurora rather than in Aspen?
Aurora is supposed to be rough by Rocky Mountain standards. I don’t think that puts it anywhere close to places that are actually rough. Everybody just has to have somewhere to look down on to make themselves feel better…for Colorado it’s Aurora.
@MacBeth, we are in Aurora right now, less than a mile from the theater where Tea Party member James Holmes decided it was “Go Time” last summer
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/07/aurora-abc-draws-possible-tea-party-connection-129568.html
Or Vail.
Pimpy not so great but you found something . Now come up with something in areas worth livibg in as I originally described!! Or are you all hat and no cattle
No matter how you twist it, “the lot cost” doesn’t get you remotely close to your debtor price.
Yours was the best I’ve seen yet though. Nice try.
Bay Area Rents Fall 9% YoY
http://picpaste.com/pics/6c7dc53f7a1275ab7f36d6a285c6a155.1366994213.png
Contra Costa County is not what most people consider “Bay Area”. It is part of the overall Bay Area, but, how about:
San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Marin County?
‘Contra Costa County is not what most people consider “Bay Area”. ‘
I guess you have never been there, as it is right on the friggin’ bay!
P.S. Could somebody who knows español kindly translate Contra Costa for Mr. Rental Watcher?
As I said, it is part of the Bay Area, NOT the Bay Area.
He cherry picked a single piece of data, from a single county in an AREA that is called the Bay Area, which includes NINE counties, which also include:
Alameda (up 2.2% year on year), Contra Costa (down 9%), Marin County (up 11.1%), Napa County (down 17%), SF County (up 10.2%), San Mateo (up 11.9%), Santa Clara (up 11.1%), Solano County (up 2.5%), and Sonoma County (up 3.4%).
Only someone trying to obfuscate the truth would pick one of nine counties in an area and imply that it is representative of the whole area, when in fact, 7 of the 9 Bay Area Counties show rents per square foot rising year on year.
As I said, it is part of the Bay Area, NOT the Bay Area.
That’s funny.
Rents in Bay Area keep rising
San Mateo Rents Down And Falling
http://picpaste.com/9e76cd10946e414ea3d893f68834b29e.png
Why buy a house when rental rates are falling? Rent for less and buy later after prices crater for 70% less.
Up 11.9% Y-o-Y.
Down 3.7% and accelerating.
Poor liar. No ‘lot cost’ is going to get you to your lyin realtor debt junkie prices no matter how much you twist reality.
And for every cherry picked exception you come up with, there are 100 that meet.
Thanks for disclosing yet another old username. You corrupt liar.
Mr B
That’s not me…I don’t change my username to manufacture alternate voices with the same comments.
I am not him. I was a doomer back in 2006 . I just want to buy property at your prices in places worth living in like I described . By the way haverhill is not Lowell.
No matter how you twist it, “the lot cost” doesn’t get you remotely close to your debt junkie price….
For how long will the stock market correction last until the rally gets back on track?
Jobless claims numbers like these suggest the Fed may need to pull the plug on QE3 “Sooner than expected.”
May 2, 2013, 8:30 a.m. EDT
Jobless claims fall to more than five-year low
By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The number of people who applied last week for new unemployment benefits touched the lowest level since January 2008, falling by 18,000 to 324,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to rise to a seasonally adjusted 345,000 in the week ended April 27 from a revised 342,000 in the prior week. The average of new claims over the past month, which smoothes out weekly volatility, dropped by 16,000 to 342,250. That’s the lowest level in six weeks. The government said there were no usual factors in the latest claims report. Claims often seesaw in the month after Easter because of seasonal quirks, but the effects usually fade by early May. Meanwhile, the government said continuing claims increased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.02 million in the week ended April 20. Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits. Initial claims from two weeks ago, meanwhile, were revised up 342,000 from an original reading of 339,000, based on more complete data collected at the state level.
Check out the sudden correction on the Global DOW this morning! Maybe I’m not the only observer who smells the premature demise of QE3 in an improving U.S. jobs picture.
Global Dow
Realtime USD 2,155.52
Change -11.09 -0.51%
Volume 1.98b
May 2, 2013, 9:22 a.m.
Previous close 2,166.61
Day low 2,154
Day high 2,168
Open: 2,165.68
52 week low 1,697
52 week high 2,178
I guess keeping interest rates low forever is the goal. Granny must be getting use to alpo by now.
Are interest rates really the fix? Rates have been low for years.
The real problem is lack of jobs, over regulation in the private sector.
If you dont have any money low interest rates are going to do a dam thing for you.
QE is basically swapping Treasuries and MBS for electronic credits on the primary dealers bank reserves. anyone seen a chart of bank reserves lately?
Banks would rather play in the casino than lend.
I’ve been seeing some rumbles about a Fall correction but I believe we hear those every year. Yesterday’s Biderman’s Blog entry mentioned the JPY going a bit haywire and pushing things over the edge soon.
How will it end this time? My guess is that initially at some point in the next few months the Japanese currency will plunge to 200 to the dollar, much more then the Japanese Central Bank wants. That will create financial panic in the Japanese consensus based society. After that the Euro will be next then followed the US dollar, forcing all three economies into a sort of bankruptcy.
He ended his screed saying that once the detritus was cleared out we’d again enjoy robust times via a “robust online world”. Hmmmmmm…..
My guess is that initially at some point in the next few months the Japanese currency will plunge to 200 to the dollar
Wouldn’t that be a boon for Japan Inc’s export driven industry?
Everyone wants to be a net exporter. Or at least they want to import less. So the race to the bottom continues.
“Japanese currency will plunge to 200 to the dollar”
The Yin-Yang of currencies: Look at the Chinese Yuan.
“Yuan hits another record high, traders increasingly mystified”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/forex/yuan-hits-another-record-high-traders-increasingly-mystified/articleshow/19830358.cms
market correction last until the rally gets back on track ??
Here is a hint where we are at right now with the stock market….Margin Debt is at a record level…..
My thoughts as well.
Cantankerous - what market correction are you referring to?
When was the last 10%+ drawback? It’s been a while.
The same one this market sage foresees:
You’re going to lose money investing
May 2, 2013, 2:53 PM
Bloomberg News
Bill Gross
Bill Gross, Pimco’s chief investment officer, used his monthly investment outlook to take on the timely topic of haircuts.
For those unfamiliar with the jargon, a haircut is simplistically defined as an imposed trimming of the value of an investor’s holding. As the Total Return Fund manager points out, this can come in all shapes and sizes.
His conclusion: every investor will take some sort of haircut. And it’s mostly because the central banks say so. Here’s his rundown of where the barbers are lurking:
…
just curious as to how you know this information?
was there an article?
More “special” lending programs* for minorities are on the way.
* But not discriminatory
POLITICS
Updated May 1, 2013, 7:22 p.m. ET
Obama Taps Watt for Housing Post
Congressman Faces Tough Confirmation Fight to Lead the Agency That Controls Fannie and Freddie
By NICK TIMIRAOS
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Mel Watt to head the regulatory agency that controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
His choice appears set for a confirmation battle and debate with Republicans over the biggest unresolved legacy from the financial crisis: what to do with the failed mortgage-finance companies nearly five years after their government takeover.
The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has become an important economic-policy post in Washington because the agency serves as the warden of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee about half—or $5 trillion—of all U.S. mortgages. As a result, many of the agency’s decisions now carry unusual sway over the housing sector and the broader U.S. economy.
Mel Watt faces a confirmation fight to lead the agency behind Fannie, Freddie.
Mr. Watt (D., N.C.), who was elected to Congress in 1992, pushed for an overhaul of mortgage-lending rules in 2009 that ultimately became part of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul bill.
“Mel understands as well as anybody what caused the housing crisis. He knows what it’s going to take to help responsible homeowners fully recover,” Mr. Obama said.
Edward DeMarco, the agency’s acting director for the past 3½ years, drew sustained attacks from liberal groups and politicians after he spurned a push last year by the White House to allow Fannie and Freddie to cut the debts of some borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.
The mortgage-finance companies, which have cost taxpayers more than $120 billion since they were taken over in 2008, have begun reporting hefty profits in recent quarters.
Consumer advocates and industry analysts said Wednesday they believed that if Mr. Watt is confirmed as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he would work more closely with the White House to expand access to credit for borrowers looking to purchase homes and to refinance underwater mortgages, where homeowners owe more than their homes are worth. Mr. Obama highlighted those two issues in his remarks Wednesday.
…
Some Republicans on Wednesday questioned Mr. Watt’s record on housing finance and his political independence from the White House.
“I could not be more disappointed in this nomination. This gives new meaning to the adage that the fox is guarding the hen house,” Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) said in a statement.
The White House’s first nominee to succeed Mr. DeMarco—Joseph A. Smith Jr., then the North Carolina banking commissioner—ran into opposition from Senate Republicans and withdrew his candidacy two years ago. Since then, Mr. DeMarco’s willingness to block certain administration proposals has made him more popular with Republicans.
Most analysts said Wednesday that they expected a tough confirmation fight, a point that Mr. Obama appeared to concede when, speaking at the White House, he drew laughter for thanking the Senate “for what I’m sure will be a speedy confirmation process.”
A spokesman for Mr. Watt declined to comment. Mr. DeMarco, in a statement, said he looked forward to working with Mr. Watt “as he prepares for his confirmation hearing and for undertaking the important work at FHFA.”
Mr. Watt has pressed for better access to mortgages for minority and low-income borrowers, but he has also forged close ties with the financial-services and insurance industries, in part because he represents parts of Charlotte, N.C., a banking hub.
“He’s someone that can work with the industry well,” said Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit advocacy group for borrowers. Mr. Calhoun said banks had worked frequently with Mr. Watt during the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul.
…
Hey cracker
Shut up, sit down, get back to work and pay your fair share.
I wish your Republican buddies all the success in the world at blocking this latest FHFA nomination.
‘blocking this latest FHFA nomination’
He’s looking more like Wrong-Way Obama to me.
http://blogs.rep-am.com/time_out/2013/01/02/grand-tradition-of-wrong-way-plays/
So, in Obama’s world Forward = Backward?
Not if you are running in the wrong direction. Looks like a bubble; bring back subprime! Foam the runway for the banks with poor people.
Or guns; propose legislation that prompts people to buy every rifle and bullet available. Or immigration; immigrants set off bombs; let’s make illegal immigrants legal!
Not if you are running in the wrong direction. Looks like a bubble; bring back subprime!
As heard today during lunch with a co-worker: His wife works with someone who does the same job she does and earns roughly $75k/yr with a stay-at-home wife. He just put an offer on a house for $600k. This is in the Boston 128 area…
TPTB are doing everything they can to convince the sheep that housing is back. Same game as before, only Subprime Sam is beign financed by FHA instead of Countrywide.
“earns roughly $75k/yr with a stay-at-home wife. He just put an offer on a house for $600k. ”
LMAO. Just like millions of others. And we know how that ended.
POLITICAL DIARY
May 1, 2013, 8:30 a.m. ET
Obama, Housing and Blacks
By JASON L. RILEY
A new study from the Urban Institute on the wealth gap between blacks and whites cites the housing downturn as a major factor.
“Between 2007 and 2010, Hispanic families’ wealth plummeted 44 percent, due largely to falling home prices,” according to the study. “Black wealth dropped 31 percent, a product of hits to their retirement assets and high rates of unemployment during the Great Recession (2007–09). White wealth skidded 11 percent.”
As a New York Times story on the report explains, many Hispanic families in Arizona and inland California bought homes as the bubble was inflating. “Black families also were hit disproportionately by the housing collapse, because heading into the recession housing constituted a higher proportion of their wealth than for white families, leaving them more exposed when the market crashed,” said the Times. “Higher unemployment rates and lower incomes among blacks left them less able to keep paying their mortgages and more likely to lose their homes, experts said.”
Not surprisingly, neither the Urban Institute nor the New York Times have much to say about the federal policies that pushed lenders to loan money to people unlikely to be able to repay it. But the reality is that well-intentioned housing policies aimed at low-income minorities have ultimately left those folks worse off.
…
I guess they missed finance 101 somewhere along the lines?
If it feels to good to be true it wont last forever! Get out before the crowd stampedes you.
It sure seems like the FED is sending a message that markets wont crash again.
Government = Housing.
Housing = Government.
Not much else needs to be said, really.
And Economy is Racis.
“the worm is the spice; the spice is the worm”
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people” — Kanye West, 2005
Guess what’s wrong with that report from the Urban Institute:
http://www.urban.org/publications/904582.html
“In 2010, white families averaged six times the wealth of black and Hispanic households ($632,000 versus $98,000 and $110,000, respectively), up from a 5-to-1 ratio in 1983. Wealth is total assets, such as bank and retirement accounts and home value, minus debts, including mortgages, student loans, and credit-card balances.”
A zero?
I used to hate it when rap-loving gangstas would move into a neighborhood where I was renting (with their no-pay subprime loans). That would be the impetus for moving.
May 2, 2013, 8:37 a.m. EDT
Europe stocks barely changed after ECB rate cut
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MADRID (MarketWatch) — European stock markets stayed choppy after a European Central Bank rate cut on Thursday, showing muted reaction to the widely expected move. On a busy day for corporate earnings, Statoil SA and Sanofi SA dropped after results, while Infineon Technologies AG soared on an upbeat view.
…
“The recent debate about the global economy has taken a distressingly simplistic turn,” Reinhart and Rogoff said in an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Wednesday.
“No one should be arguing to stabilize debt, much less bring it down, until growth is more solidly entrenched - if there remains a choice, that is.”
Looks like some back pedaling.
“Borrowing to finance productive infrastructure raises long-run potential growth, ultimately pulling debt ratios lower. We have argued this consistently since the outset of the crisis,” they said in the Financial Times.
(Read More: Why the Fuss Over Reinhart and Rogoff Is Overblown )
“Ultra-Keynesians would go further and abandon any pretense of concern about longer-term debt reduction…it throws caution to the wind on debt and, to quote Star Trek, pushes governments to ‘go where no man has gone before’. The basic rationale is that low interest rates make borrowing a free lunch,” they said in the paper.
Really “Ultra-Keynesians” Sounds like they are trying to move to center from their Austerian position (that appears to be pushing Europe towards deflation and massive unemployment) while at the same time painting their opponents (who were right) as being way off to the other side, nobody wants to listen to ULTRA anything. Again “going where no man has gone before”. I guess they haven’t been to Japan. I know in addition to their errors were guilty of selection bias when they wrote their paper.
The euro fell for the first time in five days against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers had an open mind on a negative deposit rate.
This won’t distort markets right?
I think someone posted about a company that puts a safe in your bed. I’d like to invest in that company or maybe one that makes shovels.
came across this last night 500 short videos the collapse of Toledo , also nevada and more….
Toledo, Ohio - Welcome to America’s 11th most-miserable city.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSqoZlCRXBY
http://www.youtube.com/user/EconCat88/videos
Most American cities I’ve been too are pretty miserable.
Outside of special areas of town, they all look run down and scruffy.
Every, single one.
Don’t say that out loud here in THIS town, blasphemer.
You haven’t been to the City of Lake Forest, Illinois.
“Signs The Housing Market Is Starting To Head South”
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1361191-signs-the-housing-market-is-starting-to-head-south
We’re already seeing it here in Monterey.
“I received an e-mail from a reader who says a friend who works at Wells Fargo has been slow lately.”
Mike Whitney nails it yet again. The money quote:
“Everything about the US housing market is fake”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/11/housing-hijinx/
From the article;
“There remain over 10 million vacant housing units” and that does not include the “shadow supply”.
Again….. if you bought a house 1998-2013, you’re going to lose a lot of money. ALOT of money.
How many different monikers do you have, RAL? Jesus…
@joe smith, there’s no need for blasphemy.
And that same question could be asked of:
Professor Bear
Jeff Saturday
palmetto
turkey lurkey
Who in hell is Ralph?
RAL aka Housing Analyst aka Exeter aka lwog aka 10 others I’m forgetting.
Single-handedly destroying housing blogs.
I don’t visit patrick.net anymore, pretty much because of annoying, repetitive, and meaningless posts like the ones that are starting to seem ubiquitous here.
Macchio, the karate kid?
Ralph Malph from “Happy Days”
How many different monikers do you have, RAL?
It’s the only way to get around the Joshua Tree Extension.
Wh do you hate the truth?
Road to nowhere tampa….Connerton, a development in Florida’s Pasco County
Florida real estate crash #83. More footage from Connerton - a HALL OF SHAME road-to-nowhere!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p5qJhi7fc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzzzP7uvN28
And the hits just keep coming…
Obama nominates subprime lender whose bank failed, costing depositors millions
ConservativeIntel.com | 5/2/13 | David Freddoso
President Obama has often denounced “fat-cat bankers” for their role in the 2008 financial collapse, the subsequent bailouts and the recession.
His strong words on the topic suggest that he would have little sympathy, say, the former chairman of her family’s bank, whose collapse caused 1,400 depositors to lose millions at the time. You’d expect him to have even less sympathy if said bank had collapsed because it had adopted an aggressive subprime lending strategy; if it had tried to sell itself and its subprime packages to low-income borrowers as their only hope of getting loans; if it had fixed them up in loans with interest rates north of 10, 12 or even 16 percent; if it had liberally employed balloon loans and other gimmicky products characteristic of the recent gilded age of mortgages.
But no, you’d be wrong. Obama has just nominated Penny Pritzker, the billionaire former chairwoman of just such a bank (until 1994) and later a director for its holding company (with an active role in its operations, according to Crain’s, from 1999 until its failure in 2001) as his new secretary of Commerce.
Donald Pritzker (1932–72), co-founder and President of Hyatt
Penny Pritzker (born 1959), chairman and CEO of PSP Capital Partners and Artemis Real Estate Partners, 2012 national co-chair of Obama for America, Stanford University trustee and member of Chicago Board of Education
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritzker_family
Now that’s Hope and Change you can believe in!
No crony left behind.
Saul Alinsky is laughing at you.
Penny and Fam own Hyatt Hotels and Hyatt Happy (nursing) Homes or whatever they’re called these days, staffed mostly by low-paid immigrant wimmins whose service workers union is being shunted aside now that their votes are no longer needed. What do you want to bet that billionairess Penny is on board with (ahem) amnesty?
First Robert Rubin’s beneficence gets rewarded with the appointment of Timmy and Larry. Now Penny gets her due just as immigrant rights legislation comes front and center. Cute politics, but Socialist Saul is most decidedly NOT laughing.
So predictable I thought we still have W as the prez.
Actually – if you can believe it – the Bush days are now the “good old” days.
Annual deficits of around $260 billion
Gas at $1.50 gallon
Gold at $1000/oz
Unemployment around 5%
Half as many people on food stamps
Proud to have GITMO open
And McCain would have had us there again by now, right?
He would not have passed the Porkulis bill or Obamacare, but this country would still be nearly as f*cked in the year 2013 had he won. And the deficit savings from not passing the Porkulis or implementing Obamacare would likely have been erased by our new wars in Iran, Libya, et cetera.
Nice try…
So you don’t think bomb bomb bomb Iran would’ve been good for the economy?
“Nice try…”
Not to mention WHY we had things like $1.50 gas (economic depression)
or 5% unemployment (free money causes people to spend; spending creates expansion/jobs; aka - nonstop stimulus)
Mergers & Acquisitions December 25, 2007, 6:57 pm
Buffett to Buy Marmon From Pritzker Family
By DEALBOOK
Warren E. Buffett agreed on Tuesday to buy a 60 percent stake in Marmon Holdings, the industrial holding firm owned by the wealthy Pritzker family, for $4.5 billion with the goal of eventually owning the entire firm.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/buffett-to-buy-marmon-from-pritzker-family/
Under McCain gas would be $7 now.
Under McCain, Sarah Palin would be POTUS now.
Energy Future Holdings update.
For the first quarter 2013, EFH reported a consolidated net loss (in accordance with GAAP) of $569 million compared with a reported consolidated net loss of $304 million for the first quarter 2012. This is the ninth consecutive quarterly loss.
*KKR & Co., TPG Capital LP and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., leaders of the $48 billion buyout, said they would support the proposed Energy Future restructuring if they can retain a 15 percent equity stake in the company.
The EFH natural gas hedging program is designed to reduce exposure to changes in future wholesale electricity prices due to changes in the price of natural gas. Under the program, subsidiaries of EFH have entered into market transactions involving natural gas-related financial instruments. At March 31, 2013, these subsidiaries have effectively sold forward approximately 310 million MMBtu of natural gas (equivalent to the natural gas exposure of approximately 36,000 GWh at an assumed 8.5 market heat rate) at weighted average annual hedge prices ranging from $6.89 per MMBtu to $7.80 per MMBtu.
Just to add insult to injury Nat. Gas is down 5% today to near $4.05 MMBtu.
http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/05/02/4826177/energy-future-holdings-reports.html
Nat. Gas is down 5% today to near $4.05 MMBtu.
That must be the wholesale price. Last month’s bill was $7.09MMBtu net of all costs, although the base cost was just $4.03. Many years ago, if I consumed 0 MMBtu in a month, my bill was $0. Not any more, I must pay a stiff charge just to be billed for 0 consumption.
Floating Solar Sun Rings for heating the pool.
Anyone here hear pro or cons on these, by personal use, or people you know?
The reviews online were mixed.
Windy hot day in So Ca. Fire season has arrived.
You heat the pool by farting in it.
Rick Newman, the chief business correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, sat down with The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster at the 2013 Milken Institute Global Conference to discuss what’s driving the housing market.
He says both individuals and institutional investors are pushing the market forward.
In March, Blackstone Group took out a $2 billion loan to invest in single-family homes, the Wall Street Journal reported. But Blackstone is not alone. Firms like Colony Capital and Waypoint Real Estate Group are also hot to invest in housing as the market recovers.
Investors are pushing prices up by taking a lot of distressed property off the market and creating an increase in demand. Many of these firms are putting these properties into real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which are accessible to the retail investor.
“If you really want to invest in a housing recovery that is the way to do it,” Newman says.
Some of the demand for housing is also being driven by the Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy. When the Fed starts to increase rates, the impact on the market “is a big unknown,” he says.
“I think the real answer is it depends on how fast that happens,” Newman adds. If the Fed changed policy over night it would be a “disaster.”
But while housing is improving, there is one black spot that still remains: mortgage financing and the fact that it is still backed by the government (i.e. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), Newman says.
“We live in an economy that is dominated by the government,” he notes. “The whole economy is dominated by the government.”
dominated by government
2 invisible hands of free market econmy in USA are the Fed and the US government. It has been this for a long time.
Yeah - for about the same amount of time of the CRA.
We are from the government and we are here to help.
The same with keeping health care affordable
The same with keeping college affordable
From today’s NY Times, a groundbreaking article on Williamsburg, Brooklyn:
“How I Became a Hipster”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/fashion/williamsburg.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
groundbreaking
Not.
Every generation changes. Neighborhoods change.
the “groundbreaking” part was tongue-in-cheek.
I found the article mostly humorous. A typical passage:
“Great food wants a great dessert, so I hied myself to the showroom of Mast Brothers Chocolate, a lodestar of the artisanal foods movement. This company makes it a point to wind-sail its cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic to Brooklyn, then to hand-sort these beans, then to let its chocolate “rest” 30 days before sale. Only Leona Helmsley’s dogs have ever been so cosseted.
The store smells like heaven; I would happily die there. For $10 you can buy a burlap sack used to haul the beans in, perhaps for use as a satchel. I told a freckled young employee in a peasant blouse: “I bet those sacks are very popular with single men. If all your stuff smelled like chocolate? Bingo.” The girl nodded and enthused: “I got one for my birthday. Most of the people who work here have them.”
There is nothing alternative or countercultural about any of that.
It is just as much about consuming as the mainstream lifestyle they are allegedly rejecting.
But what a fun way to be a corporate lackey of the capitalist running dogs. (And a great way to write off a 92′ schooner-rigged motor sailer.)
Sounds like another commission only “job”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_marketing
May 1, 2013, 11:02 a.m. EDT
Global bond markets look eerily like 2005
Commentary: Consider your position when the music stops
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…
We’re in the grips of a liquidity-fueled “reach for yield” moment, one in which investors dispense with clear-headed risk assessments as they strive to keep up with each others’ returns. As the pre-crisis years taught us, moments like this have a habit of ending badly.
Here’s how the yield reach works: central bank commitments to buy sovereign bonds — whether it’s the ongoing programs of the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, worth a combined $155 billion a month, or the European Central Bank’s promise to buy peripheral euro-zone bonds if markets break down again — drive yields on relatively “safe” assets so low that investors go for the next best thing. The process starts with U.S. Treasurys, German bunds and Japanese government bonds and then, as the flood of liquidity continues, moves successively out into ever-riskier bonds to drive their yields ever lower.
With hopes rising for an ECB rate cut on Thursday, this cascading effect is most apparent in the euro zone, where Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Greek bonds — the poster children of the debt crisis — have all delivered double-digit returns over the past year.
But it’s not just in Europe. Last week, Rwanda closed a heavily oversubscribed 10-year bond offering at just 6.875%. Bearing a “junk” single-B rating from both Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, this impoverished African country with a history of extreme violence and political instability thus locked in a lower yield than Italy did 18 months ago, when it was rated at an investment grade single-A. There’s something fundamentally not right about that.
…
Somebody bought a Rwanda bond?
“I want to look like I play the banjo.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
While I so love the banjo, this is incredibly funny (because it’s true…here in Portland too). And the beardos. Oh, the beardos.
I’ve oft wondered why/when everyone started dressing like they were auditioning for a Dickens play. Looks like I’m not the only one, ie - “19th century farmer”…lmao
Grr…meant to post under Joe’s comment above…
Bay Area And Alemeda County Housing Price Correction Resumed And Trending Down Again
http://picpaste.com/pics/3a0bf912e42e8c06bccff308694ece29.1366303165.png
Demand is cratering too.
Note to the reading public:
Prices are falling. Now is a horrible time to buy a house. You WILL lose ALOT of money if you buy now. Rental rates are falling too. Rent for half the price of buying at these horribly inflated prices. Buy later, after prices crater for 65% less.
Referring to the NBC story on Fukushima…..
It’s been coming out in MSM little by little that this is a more serious problem than they’ve originally let on. I’ve long wondered (a) if housing sales have been up in certain US cities as the Japanese attempt to get their children away from Fukushima hotspots, and (b) if sales on the West Coast will eventually freeze up as the conversation regarding bioaccumulation of isotopes carried in both the wind and Pacific waters moves beyond the nuke industry blogosphere.
NBC News: Fears that Fukushima plant could “break apart” during cleanup process
Independent nuclear expert John Large — who has given evidence on the Fukushima disaster to the U.K. parliament and written reports about it for Greenpeace — said there would be hundreds of tons of “intensely radioactive” material in the plant.
He said normally robots could be sent in to remove the fuel relatively easily, but this was difficult because of the damage caused by the tsunami.
Large said the plant was close to the water table, so it was difficult to stop water getting in and out.
“Until you can stop that transfer, you will not contain the radioactivity. That will go on for years and years until they contain it,” he said. “The structures of containment start breaking down. Engineered structures don’t last long when they are put in adverse conditions.”
Larged added: “It may have some marked effect on the health of future generations in Japan. What it will create is a Fukushima generation — like in Nagasaki and Hiroshima - where girls particularly will have difficulty marrying because of the stigma of being brought up in a radiation area.”
Leaks into the sea would not only affect the marine environment, Large said, as tiny radioactive particles would be washed up on the beach, dried in the sun and then blown over the surrounding countryside by the wind.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/01/17813244-a-very-fragile-situation-leaks-from-japans-wrecked-nuke-plant-raise-fears?lite
Update your graph. As of the end of March, the median sale price is $425k, up 23.8% Year on Year.
The February low is a seasonal event.
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-Alameda-County-home-value/r_1510/#metric=mt%3D19%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D6%26r%3D1510%26el%3D0
and rental rates are falling too.
Bay Area Rents Fall 9% YoY
http://picpaste.com/pics/6c7dc53f7a1275ab7f36d6a285c6a155.1366994213.png
Contra Costa County? Really?
Contra Costs is not the Bay Area. It is part of the Bay Area.
Contra Costs is not the Bay Area. It is part of the Bay Area.
You wouldn’t think it would be as funny the second time, but it was.
I can’t tell if you are being serious or not…It’s like saying that California home prices are falling, and then showing a graph for Yolo County.
Just observing the linguistic gymnastics necessary to separate “us” from “them”. Perhaps other words are needed to differentiate rather than saying “Bay Area” versus “part of the Bay Area”.
“Palm Beach Realtor charged with trying to pick up boy online”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/palm-beach-realtor-charged-with-trying-to-pick-up-/nXXJN/
Wow - imagine the day this happens in America.
Of course - going from 0.00001 to 0.00002 is not that big a deal…:-)
————————-
Bank Of Ireland Doubles Mortgage Rates, Homeowners Fear More To Come
Tyler Durden - 05/02/2013 - ZeroHedge
With the Bank of England cutting its wholesale interest (bank) rate to historic lows and now the ECB slashing 50bps off its key rate (as well as remonstrating on the reduction in fragmentation across European nations), it is perhaps perplexing (or simply too obvious) that a bank would raise its mortgage rates.
As the Daily Mail reports, government-owned Bank of Ireland (BOI) doubled mortgage rates for 13,500 customers in the UK leaving homeowners with huge increases in their monthly payments. The bank, exploiting small print in the legacy mortgage contracts, will hike the interest cost for 1-in-14 homeowners from 2.25% to 4.99% (raising the spread over the bank rate on these loans from 1.75% to 4.49%). Anger is rife as customers complain “it’s all very frustrating,” adding that they thought this was a ‘tracker’ mortgage but BOI defends their massive rate hike on increased funding costs and the need to maintain higher levels of capital. The disconnect between wholesale gorging provided by the Central Bank and wholesale gouging of the real economy grows ever wider it seems.
Sounds like they are playing the Andrew Mellon card in Ireland against home owners living large on low-interest loans.
90% of Foreclosed Properties Held Off the Market
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/07/13/shadow-reo-as-much-as-90-percent-of-foreclosed-properties-are-h/
They’re still there. 20-30 MILLION of them. Disposition: Excess empty inventory.
pssst…… If you think a 20 year old ranch is worth more than $50/sq ft, you’ve been lied to.
… and if you’re paying more than $60/square foot for a resale housing, you’re getting ripped off. Especially anyhere on the west coast.
Palo alto sunnyvale cupertino. … $60 per sq ft . I’m in . Put up or shut up.
I’d prefer a nice $50 PSF house on an acre in Atherton…heck, OK, a half-acre.
Rental Rates in Phoenix Cratering YoY, QoQ and MoM
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/AZ-Phoenix-home-value/r_40326/#metric=mt%3D48%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D5%26rt%3D8%26r%3D40326%252C112345%252C111818%252C112547%26el%3D0
Kuh-raiderrrrrrrrrr
blackstone invests
4.5 billion
For many hedge funds, asset managers and private equity firms trying to play the housing recovery, the strategy is buying individual homes. For buyout titan Blackstone Group—with a bent in real estate—the answer has been to build an entire company, which it eventually plans to take public, according to sources.
The only way this is a good investment is
A. If they plan on unloading it to a group of fools (most likely)
B. They know the US gov is going to ramp up spending and debt similar to Japan.
The Blackstone corporate elite has been seen and heard running with the government crowd lately. They are all over NPR too. I’m sure they will get a bail-out or cheek-turn at some point.
Mr. Ben Jones many sites on the net won’t tolerate “FOLKS BEING CALLED LIARS” by this poster Pimp, please can you disclose that name calling won’t be tolerated.
This site seems not to be the type to condone such behavior.
Thanks
I can’t speak for Ben, but this site neither condones nor condems boorish behaviors. Ignore the name calling and pay attention to the message. The pimp/RAL/bigspy/gatsby/exeter/housinganalyst is more right than wrong about this $hit filled lies perpetrated by the ruling class and their supporters in MSM and in this board.
Here is RAL’s message, the best I can tell:
It is cheap to buy land, and build a house (all-in $50-$60 psf), so with that low cost to add supply, prices will inevitably fall–and because of the inevitability of the fall, you should wait.
If you are inclined to believe him, ask yourself the following:
If it is so easy to build a home so cheaply, and sell for a profit, why aren’t we hearing of all sorts of homes being built and flooding the market with cheap supply?
If indeed they are doing so (or don’t want to because of weak demand), why are there multiple bid situations at higher prices for older homes?
No no no, leave Pimp/RAL alone. He just called me a name today, it’s OK, I’m grown. I (almost) never agree with anything he says, but I want him here and just like he is, because this site would be much less interesting without him and his style. Just give it right back to him.
People generally have free speech here, but not entirely. For instance, you won’t get away with implying that Ben’s mother was a chupacabra.
I think RAL has been calling me a liar ever since I rejoined the scene on this blog, but I’m not sure because it’s always on a thread with a bunch of other people. It’s not that big of a deal. I think he’s in a bit of denial about the rebubble is all.
If you want to have an honest assessment and discussion regarding housing, come here and do so. However, if you believe you’re going to dominate the discussion with housing crime syndicate lies, we have bulletin for you; It’s not gonna happen.
I think RAL has been calling me a liar ever since
That just means he loves you..
Doom,
Think of him as one of those horrid little yapping dogs that run around under everyone’s feet piddling on the carpet, chewing up the sofa and barking its fool head off — until you realize that the house is on fire.
……and the house is on fire.
Mr. Ben Jones many sites on the net won’t tolerate “FOLKS BEING CALLED LIARS” by this poster Pimp, please can you disclose that name calling won’t be tolerated.
My observation is that Ben will tolerate this behavior from some (those who share his views) but not from others, whom he has banned from the site.
It’s his sandbox, so he can do what he wants. One thing is certain, there is a lot less traffic here than a few years ago. And even less discourse.
My observation is that Ben will tolerate this behavior from some (those who share his views) but not from others, whom he has banned from the site.
No way. Ben must not have done a good job then. I still think the site is dominated by people who are let of center.
But they don’t go around screaming “LIAR!” at everyone they disagree with.
Nor do they go around like a drama queen who doesn’t know the difference between truth and propaganda.
doom
You used to rat kids out in school didn’t ya.
Just in case….
Phrasal Verb: Rat out
Meaning: Inform the authorities about someone
Example: He RATTED me OUT to the police.
verb - transitive
•to report misdeeds to an authority; “narc”, “snitch”.
Speaking of ratting people out, our sheriff just took a $1 million piece of cheese to create a 1-800- RAT line. Seems like I read something like this in one of those history books.
Palm Beach County sheriff gets $1 million for violence prevention unit amid questions about civil liberties, care for mentally ill
Posted: 7:23 p.m. Monday, April 29, 2013
By Dara Kam and Stacey Singer - Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
Florida House and Senate budget leaders have awarded Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw $1 million for a new violence prevention unit aimed at preventing tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., from occurring on his turf.
Bradshaw plans to use the extra $1 million to launch “prevention intervention” units featuring specially trained deputies, mental health professionals and caseworkers. The teams will respond to citizen phone calls to a 24-hour hotline with a knock on the door and a referral to services, if needed.
Bradshaw said his proposal is a first-of-its-kind in the nation, and he hopes it will become a model for the rest of the state like his gang prevention and pill-mill units.
“We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him,” Bradshaw said. “What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ ”
http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/bradshaw-gets-1-million-for-violence-prevention-un/nXbs4/ - 62k
Another coworker excited, putting an offer on a 1/2 mill. $ house tonight. The house is only a 1000 sq. ft., and an old lady died in it. It’s in a so-so neighborhood in the OC. Here we go….bubble mania 2.0. She and her fiance are concerned that they will be priced out of the market so they better buy now.
I tried to calm her down saying that she won’t be priced out forever, that the market is being maniupulated right now by the banks, the gov., etc. I also talked about the millions of homes that are part of shadow inventory. But it fell on deaf ears. All I could do was wish her good luck. I won’t get preachy.
“All I could do was wish her good luck.’
Yet all your condolences won’t help her recover from an irrecoverable loss.
IRS to Spy on Our Shopping Records, Travel, Social Interactions, Health Records and Files from Other Government Investigators
Posted on May 2, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog
More and More People Are Staring Into Our Fishbowl
We noted in March that all U.S. intelligence agencies – including the CIA and NSA – are going to spy on Americans’ finances.
The IRS is joining the fun.
U.S. News and World Report notes today:
Starting this year, the IRS tools will be able to track all credit card transactions, for starters. The agency has also instructed agents on using online sources such as social media and e-commerce sites including eBay, as well as the rich data generated by mobile devices. In one controversial disclosure in April, the ACLU showed documents in which the IRS general counsel said the agency could look at emails without warrants, but the IRS has said it will not use this power.
While the agency has declined to give details about what third-party personal data it will use in robo-audits and data mining, it has told government and industry groups that its computers are capable of scanning multiple networks at the same time to collect “matching” comprehensive profiles for every taxpayer in America. Such profiles will likely include shopping records, travel, social interactions and information not available to the public, such as health records and files from other government investigators, according to IRS documents.
***
The IRS is following the philosophy of former Obama regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein [remember him?], who advocates using technology tools and behavioral science policies to “nudge” people to do the right thing. In the case of the IRS, that policy so far has fallen most heavily on lower-income taxpayers and has done little to collect substantially more tax revenue.
***
Harry Surden, a University of Colorado—Boulder Law School associate professor and former fellow at Stanford’s Center for Computers and Law, who has done in-depth studies on the use of technology by government … has found that data mining and new technology make possible a level of government intrusion into personal lives that few realize is possible.
And I guess if you’ve someone who has successfully avoided leaving an online footprint that will make you the biggest suspect of all.
you’ve = you’re
China housewives stocking up on gold. $16 billion worth…
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/42836/-china-housewives-stocking-up-on-gold-42836.html
Myself, sold off some of my winningest stock mutual funds to raise cash for more gold buying over the rest of the year. Have too much allocation in stocks and underallocated in money. Money == gold. Money does not equal paper under the mattress. Gold retains value over time. paper does not.