Bits Bucket for May 5, 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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Now that bubble 2.0 seems to be gaining steam I wonder how the next collapse will play out. Yesterday my coworker was talking about buying a place with 0 down at 4.5% so i guess funny money is back. This time started different with more “cash investors”. Will it be as easy to walk away when things go south? I suppose so if said investor is overseas.
The intermission was nice, better start making popcorn for part II. Btw I’ve lurked here for years, great blog Ben. Thanks
This is the final curtain. The last frame of the game where the pins(suckers) are all set up. Don’t be one. The scene is made to look innocuous, the threat obscured, the future so certain>/b> that every last sucker will be had. You can enter but you cannot leave.
What we really know for certain?
Those who bought houses from 1998-current(all underwater or will be very soon), and this new raft of debt-junkies getting sucked in and signing up for debt-enslavement are the foundation for the crushing weight of the coming collapse. After they are washed out and flushed from the system, a sound foundation will be cast made of dramatically lower and more affordable housing prices.
Beware of getting sucked into the housing machine. You will crushed by it.
I was driving all day yesterday and heard a radio ad; the guy said he was the host of “Flip This House” or something like that on TV. Then he said Flagstaff and Prescott were perfect for his formula. They are looking for a few investors and you could call for free tickets to a seminar coming up here in Flagstaff. I knew some people were trying to flip houses here, but I haven’t heard if they were successful. Anyway, this should get interesting.
And at the same time, about one out of five radio ads are for HAMP loans aimed at FBs as much as 50% underwater.
“about one out of five radio ads are for HAMP loans aimed at FBs as much as 50% underwater.”
The fix is in.
South Florida still hot for home flips, average gross profit of $51,227
by Kim Miller
This West Palm Beach home on Heath Circle North for $84,000 at foreclosure auction. It sold a year later for $155,000.
While home investors have been trending toward the buy and rent business model, a new report shows flippers are increasingly enjoying a higher rate of return in South Florida as home prices rebound.
In Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the typical flipper in 2012 made a gross profit of $51,227 on their investment as the value of homes grew 16 percent, according to a RealtyTrac report.
The report measured the top 25 markets in the nation for flipping homes where the practice offered the highest rate of return. The profit amount doesn’t include the costs to renovate the home.
Orlando ranked first for potential profits with the average home selling for $103,701. But with a little spit-shine, the flipped price went up to $168,677.
Tampa ranked third nationally, with South Florida coming in sixth.
Flips were counted when the sale of the home occurred within six months or less of the previous sale of the same home.
According to the report, there were 4,299 homes flipped in South Florida in 2012, an increase of 36 percent from the previous year. Flippers bought at an average sales price of $138,064 and sold at $189,291.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 3rd, 2013 at 8:29 am and is filed under Florida economy, Foreclosures, Housing affordability, Housing boom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I agree with the suckers thing. Listen to this… I ran into an acquaintance of mine. Got married last year about 7 months ago. Baby on the way. Job does not pay much to support two people. Guess what? He is looking for houses to buy! Asked why, he gives me the “house as investment” angle. He also mentioned that everything is poised to take off, including houses and stock.
Is this a sign that the reflation is peaking. I mean isn’t this akin to the proverbial shoe shine boy giving tips on stocks? This will one heck of an interesting ride to those on the sidelines. No doubt devastating to the suckers.
Is this a sign that the reflation is peaking. I mean isn’t this akin to the proverbial shoe shine boy giving tips on stocks?
BINGO
I concur that it is a sign—though I would point out that the last time the incredibly-ineligible were all hot to buy, it still took several years to peak…
With massive losses on housing on the horizon, what does duration have to do with it?
what does duration have to do with it?
For those who would like to meet their housing need with maximum control (e.g. not subject to the whims of a LL), the duration may matter quite a bit.
I’ve been waiting ten years now for sanity to return. Yes, I can wait longer—but I might prefer not to.
Maybe eventually I’ll stop caring; it could happen.
You’re talking foolishness now.
Who cares if it takes “a few years to peak” when we’re talking about losses on housing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And the only “maximum control” is renting considering rental rates are half the cost of buying at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
And the only “maximum control” is renting considering rental rates are half the cost of buying at current inflated asking prices of resale housing.
There is more than one kind of “control”. Renting is certainly maximal freedom—primarily the freedom to move to better circumstances, if they become available.
And yet I’m getting tired of moving. Maximal freedom might eventually mean freedom FROM moving.
For the moment, though, I am mostly still content to rent…
…for half the price of owning (at least in my area).
Ben, in L.A. that same ad, by a guy who claims he was with “Flip this House” in the 1980s airs on the radio. In this version, it’s Southern California RE. Scam!
Ive been hearing this at least daily now on the PHX radio. Is it e one that starts with “Do you want to make a ton of money flipping houses?” or something close to that? I thought down here it says The Phoenix and Tucson markets are perfect for his system.
Might as well have drug dealers do radio commercials also.
it says The Phoenix and Tucson markets are perfect for his system ??
The gig is up when you see this…Why the hell would you tell people how to make a small fortune with a $99.00 seminar entry fee…Wouldn’t you just keep the special secret to yourself ?? Astounding how gullible people are..
The Flagstaff ad said they would give a select few free tickets if they called soon. So yes, we seem to be going into speculative mode quickly. As I mentioned previously, last month realty track put out a press release on the best markets to rent. This month it was the best markets to flip. A month or two ago, I posted an article on hedge funds buying Las Vegas condotels. Condotels make timeshares look like secure, little old lady investments.
So do you think this new speculative push is driven by the hedgies trying to unload inventory onto J6P? Or it is just people trying to dump failed flips from the last round?
That Montelongo guy from Flip that crapshack put on a couple of seminars in Dallas last month.
‘this new speculative push is driven by…’
I don’t have any evidence of exactly who is behind it. But IMO it couldn’t possibly be happening without approval at the highest levels of the Federal Reserve and Washington DC.
Condotels make timeshares look like secure, little old lady investments.
I’m vague on legal form of an HOA-equivalent for a condotel, but I would imagine that if you can buy enough of the building to have control, then it might well have money-making potential—primarily via the extraction of fees from the other “owners” while also running it as a hotel business.
“But IMO it couldn’t possibly be happening without approval at the highest levels of the Federal Reserve and Washington DC.”
Which couldn’t possibly be happening without the approval of the Bilderberg gang.
Bilderberg Kingmaker Kissinger ‘Jokes’ About President Hillary Clinton At Elite Gathering
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 2, 2013
Of course, when Henry Kissinger makes ‘jokes’, anyone who knows anything about the man knows that they are not actually jokes, primarily because a cold hearted war criminal doesn’t joke around.
In recent data dumps by Wikileaks, dubbed the ‘Kissinger Cables’, the Bilderberg stalwart is quoted as saying, “Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, ‘The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer’.”
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-kingmaker-kissinger-jokes-about-president-hillary-clinton-at-elite-gathering/ - 79k -
The K was/is very well-known to certain dominant ladies of international repute. The biggest jerks often are….
That same ad in running in the booming, everyone-wants-to-live-here housing hotbed of South Bend, IN. Sounds like identical ad copy too.
Perfect ingredients for fly-by-night flipper success:
1. Homeowners are more than 50% underwater.
2. Big Brother Fed decides to help them out by making the value of their home equity wealth increase.
The 50% underwater owner-occupants will probably never get made whole, but the flippers who bought at 50% off and are now riding the Fed’s QE3 liquidity wave up are certain to get rich once they sell in a year or two.
I watch a few housing markets which I am intimately familiar with. Asking prices on houses in good areas are already back to bubble highs, and this is in markets which cratered hugely. I know asking prices do not equal selling prices, but wow how quickly things changed. I do not know how this all ends, but it is absolutely sickening how they are desperate to try to make bubble prices stick. High house prices hurt people and the economy, especially one where discretionary spending is such a large part.
I’ve heard the same ad for both Madison, WI, and Janesville, WI.
Interesting! Arizona, California, Indiana, Wisconsin…”Flip this House” is idiot bait.
Funny you mention that. I was going to post about those commercials a few weeks back to see if he was calling anybody else’s market perfect for his system. Seems Portland also just happens to have exactly the right qualifications! How fortunate we live where we do! It’s Than Merrill and the only reason I know that is because it comes on at least twice an hour. Hadn’t heard of him before…
Bubble 2.0 must be about to crash. Even though this news is from the commercial side…. from yesterday’s New York Times.
“Last week, Peter L. Malkin and his son Anthony E. Malkin, who currently control the Empire State Building, drew closer to their goal of bundling the 102-story tower with 19 other properties to create a $5.2 billion company called Empire State Realty Trust that would offer shares to the public.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/business/empire-state-building-has-a-tangled-history.html
The language is startlingly similar. I just heard a real estate news piece on DC news radio. They phone-interviewed a fellow looking for a place in Northern Virginia. He and his wife were looking, and I think he said she was pregnant. He said they were always involved in a bidding wars, so they started their offer above asking, put in “escalation clauses”, and their realtor told them they had to submit a bid within the hour after seeing a property. Oh, and they wrote handwritten notes hoping the seller would select them as the buyer!
Just like old times. Smelled like BS to me back then, and the odor has not improved.
S&P sees deepening house slump in Spain, France and Holland
Spanish house prices are to fall a further 13pc by the end of next year as the authorities flood the market with a backlog of repossessed properties, Standard and Poor’s has warned.
…..
Dutch home prices will slide another 6.5pc by late next year, bringing the accumulated fall to more than 23pc. The agency said the apparent recovery in mortgage loans this year was a statistical distortion that would fade as job losses mount. Dutch unemployment surged to 8.1pc in March from 5.9pc a year ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/10025864/SandP-sees-deepening-house-slump-in-Spain-France-and-Holland.html
I think our old Dutch poster might finally be seeing the correction he never thought would happen, happen
Remember there’s never been a better time to buy your European holiday home.
I visited Holland two years ago and was surprised at the brisk activity in trading houses. In places bordering the industrial base such Breda, Tilburg, Dordrect houses turned over pretty fast. The local wisdom did not see anything odd. Apparently, there is a version of home depot over there, as people were spending their weekends working on the house. The beauty of this whole thing was beautiful flats could be rented for cheap.
Buying a second home is ludicrous. The amount of money spent towards something which sits empty most of the year could pay for several 5 star vacations per year for life, with much money left over.
But used vacations don’t always go up.
Foreclosure Process Hammers Florida’s Housing Market
by Robin Sussingham
February 04, 2013 3:36 AM
Florida’s ‘Broke’ Legal Process
Why does it take so long to get these foreclosed houses back on the market?
Analysts say the cumbersome legal process in Florida sets the state apart from other hard-hit states.
But judges say they’re not at fault. They say banks need to get a handle on finding promissory notes that have been shipped all over the country and on organizing their paperwork.
Others, like Sharmon Lenth, blame foreclosure defense lawyers. She’s the president of a small credit union that has been trying to foreclose on a house for years. She watched the proceedings from the courtroom gallery.
“These people, they’ve lived in this house over 2 1/2 years for absolutely … for nothing,” she says.
Lenth doesn’t want the judge to give the homeowners any more time.
“We worked with these folks,” she says. “We worked with them starting back in 2008. We combined things for them so we lowered their payments. Eight months later we worked with them again, to help them to get through some tough times. They made 14 payments on that, they defaulted on it and hired one of these attorney groups.”
The homeowners didn’t attend the trial, but their attorney, Satyen Gandhi, was at court. Gandhi said the loan modification expired after two years, leaving his client unable to make payments again.
Biebel ended up giving the borrowers more than 60 days to leave the house.
Lenth was disappointed. She says the members of her credit union needed to acquire that house and have it sold.
“The whole process is just broke. It’s just broke,” she says
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/170752042/foreclosure-process-hammers-floridas-housing-market - -
Home-equity loans make quiet comeback
Lenders worsened the housing bust by allowing homeowners to borrow aggressively against the rising value of their homes. Now they are gingerly testing the waters again.
By Marilyn Lewis Apr 23, 2013 6:38PM
Just when you resigned yourself to the idea that you’ll never get that kitchen remodel you dreamed of, home equity loans are making a comeback.
Home equity loans, you’ll recall — along with home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, were among the shovels that let homeowners dig their own graves and bury themselves in debt during the bubble. At the height of the boom, home values were rising so quickly that homeowners used the loans like ATMs, literally taking cash out of their homes.
Home equity borrowing disappeared after the housing market tanked in late 2008. Lenders concluded — a little late, to be sure — that helping borrowers squeeze every last dime of equity from their homes wasn’t a safe banking strategy.
They sure were right about that. And anyway, they couldn’t make loans on home equity we didn’t have. By late last year U.S. homes had lost, on average, nearly a fifth of their value from the peak in 2007. (For the big picture at a glance, see Zillow’s terrific color-coded, interactive map. The red shows homes underwater. Zoom in to see your county.)
Home equity losses were worse on the coasts, where prices had bubbled highest. By late 2011, nearly a third of U.S homes with mortgages were under water.
Now things are changing. Maybe you can get that new kitchen after all. With home values rising for 12 consecutive months, lenders are open again to home-equity lending.
Lenders opening up
Lenders are starting to make equity loans again, especially where home values are rising. Discover Financial Services, which also offers the Discover card, announced in March that it will offer fixed-rate home-equity loans of $25,000 to $100,000, initially to current customers and eventually to others.
But you won’t be able to borrow against every last cent of your equity. Lenders may be slow learners but they have noticed that their bubble-era practice of lending on 100% of a home’s value left them holding the bag when those homes suddenly were worth a lot less than the loans.
So even with great credit, don’t expect to borrow more than 85% of your home’s value, real-estate expert Kenneth Harney says. For example, that if your home is worth $400,000 and your mortgage balance is $280,000 (70% of the value), you could borrow, at most, $60,000. That might not bankroll your dream kitchen, but should allow you to give it a nice upgrade.
Existing-home prices are up nearly 12% from a year ago, on average. That’s the biggest year-over-year increase since the superheated days of 2005.
http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=93f1baaf-d89b-4dfd-9761-b36939386824 - 212k -
Our neighbors are remodeling on a HELOC loan, and they walked away from their prior residence when it was underwater. FHA buyers, sucking the banks again and no consequences. Just makes me sick.
On a happy note, we’re feeding the squirrels peanuts for their Sunday Brunch. Enjoying.
“again and no consequences.”
Not only no consequences but they probably bought the oil rubbed bronze kitchen cabinet hardware for their remodel with the check they got from the $25 billion dollar mortgage settlement from their last serial refinanced foreclosure.
Stanley
Was this a federal settlement or a state by state settlement?
I’ve lost track of all the shenanigans.
The schleps we are, we did without, saved our regular sale (house) proceeds, delayed other gratifications, and paid and remodeled our modest cottage debt free.
These neighbors walked our home by invite and are now copy-cats. I bet when they go underwater again …
wash.rinse.repeat.
Banks buy out of the robo thing. Talked to a dude the other day who lived free for 3 years, built another house during that time. Lives in his new house free and clear after walking away from a $350k mortgage and got a check from this settlement a couple of weeks ago. Took his wife out to dinner and bought new tires.
Payments to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure
.Update: April 22, 2013
Approximately $1.5 billion of the funds recovered in the national settlement are being used to compensate borrowers who lost their home to foreclosure during the period of January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2011. The deadline to submit a claim form has now passed. If you have submitted a claim form, the Settlement Administrator Rust Consulting, will contact you if any additional information is needed to complete your claim.
Rust Consulting can be reached at 1-866-430-8358. Checks to borrowers who submitted claim forms are expected to be mailed mid to late May. The exact amount of the payment to be made to each eligible claimant is not yet known but it is anticipated it will exceed the minimum payment of $840 that was indicated on the claim form.
National Mortgage Settlement
http://www.nationalmortgagesettlement.com/ - 27k -
Stanley-Thanks.
Excuse me while I technicolor yawn.
Talked to a dude the other day who lived free for 3 years, built another house during that time. Lives in his new house free and clear after walking away from a $350k mortgage
Wow, that sounds like someone who is actually fairly astute financially.
How was someone like that get swept up in the bubble to begin with?
“Lives in his new house free and clear after walking away from a $350k mortgage and got a check from this settlement a couple of weeks ago. Took his wife out to dinner and bought new tires.”
Does this guy qualify as a responsible borrower?
If not, why did he get a settlement check?
If not, why did he get a settlement check?”
Can’t ‘ya tell…he’s a victim for crikey sakes!
In hindsight, the shrewd play was to borrow as much money as possible from Megabank Inc., and buy the nicest, biggest house available. Then, during the meltdown, stop paying and live mortgage-free for three or four years, banking all that cash. Once you were kicked to the curb, you could buy your new house all cash, or close to it.
“Falling housing prices to dramatically lower and increasingly affordable levels is bullish optimism.”
I got a kick out of the last comment in the description of this home. Taxes grieved and will go down! Love the exclamation point.
I actually didn’t think the taxes were that bad for what this house is compared to others in the area. It’s on 90 acres on a road where your neighbors also have a decent spread. Not my niche but most Syracuse area homes at this price point look exactly like homes in my price point only bigger so I’m not impressed. I do find this house breathtaking. Sigh. I hope its next owner pays cash, deserves it due to hard work, and is able to maintain its beauty.
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S288199
These two properties are on the same block. The one below is taxed at more than $1000.00 per 100 sq.ft of the house. Yet our city is going broke. The Mayor has suggested “shared sacrifice” meaning more taxes. Politicians do dumb things for votes.
3620 sq .ft Taxes $37,874
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S289939
3593 sq.sf Taxes $19,269 - This one looks like a steal
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S289955
I can’t believe those taxes…They are deductible now…What happens if through tax reform those taxes are no longer deductible…How the hell does a retiree afford to stay in their home with tax rates like this…
Military veterans in New York get a huge discount ( 50 or 75% off ) on property taxes and most pensions are not taxes at the state level.
Golden Parachutes?
Seriously anyone. What is there in outer Syracuse that justifies property taxes of this magnitude? Do the police drive around in late-model Lambos? Are the streets paved with goat?
And for those school taxes, does every kid in Central New York receive a private tutor?
Union pensions.
“How the hell does a retiree afford to stay in their home with tax rates like this…”
Sir if you have to think about taxes you cannot afford to retire in NYS. Where do you think people in FL and Carolina come from? heaven? And bring their attitudes with them.
The correct answer shall be NY.
Sir if you have to think about taxes you cannot afford to retire in NYS ??
What a great concept…Tax the old-timers right out of their lifetime home…Wonderful…
We put a stop to that crap here in California with Prop#13…
…and we’ve been ass in ice-cream ever since…
Oh yeah…Blame Cali’s debt problems on Prop#13 Wienerschnitzel….Get a grip…
I would never even consider buying a house in New York with those kind of taxes. That is sickening.
“How the hell does a retiree afford to stay in their home with tax rates like this…”
Many states have senior (over 65) discounts on primary residence property tax.
I don’t know if NY if does.
“The Housing Shell Game
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/03/the-housing-shell-game-prices-up-ownership-down/
Mike Whitney speaks truth to housing once again.
Beware of housing sales business. It’s a corrupt enterprise where you will lose. Especially at current massively inflated asking prices of resale housing
To prove my tax point on a listing which probably won’t post for a while, here’s a place in the same town as that listing. The asking price is almost 1/2 of the first, 2 acres instead of 90 but the taxes are the same! Smaller place is bike ride out of village. Larger place is up a road you might need 4 wheel drive for winter storm driving conditions and no neighborhood for kids.
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S285621
We looked at the house across the street. It is a bank foreclosure I think bank of America. There is nothing in the house you would not find in lower price house and I mean much below $100 sq.ft. Similar size houses with 1.75 acres and a swimming pool are selling for around $350,000 near mallards landing. Pimp is right on the money with his analysis. We will sit tight and wait. If I never buy a house it is not the end of the world. Happiness is not having debt but freedom to do what you want in life.
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S285448
SUGuy
Yep, happiness is a state of mind. And btw, a pool is a pita. Got an in-ground one, and the “Spring” fire (Camarillo, Ventura County, Ca. area fire) gave us 6 hours of pool cleaning work. What a pita.
“Yep, happiness is a state of mind.”
Unless you are poor, then it’s just delusion.
Hubby is 1 of 10.
Poor as dirt growing up
in the mid-west.
All the kids were smart.
Most went to college and
lived their lives as professionals.
They we taught to rise above life’s
vicissitudes and wear a smile.
But I hear ya, ecofeco, it was the way
back machine.
“Happiness is not having debt…”
+1 Fifty six here, and never going in debt again.
Rental Rates in San Francisco Bay Area Down 9% YoY
http://picpaste.com/pics/cc07b0f595e7eb48904ee98e22533b1b.1367755404.png
12,000 sq feet, almost $55k in taxes/year
So I have to ask….brain surgeon, Shell oil exec (yes there is an office to help w/fracking contracts locally), industrial era oligarch heir or perhaps more small potato variety ownership heavily leveraged w/other people’s money?
http://www.cnyhomes.com/Listing/Search/info.cgi?mlnum=S270388
Shalimar way neighborhood is on our target as it is much closer to work, wegmans, gym and shopping etc. Shalimar way has very few homes like less than 12 ( my guess). They are mostly owned by muslim doctors and all of them are selling and moving. Here are some comps that sold recently.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6908-Shalimar-Way-Fayetteville-NY-13066/31728059_zpid/
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6916-Shalimar-Way-Fayetteville-NY-13066/31728027_zpid/
I calculated the price per sq ft in Shalimar way based on recent closing is $84 per sq.ft. I had tested the waters by making an inquiry with the liar on this one below. The owners are moving out of state I think Washington area and retiring near the daughter to be close to the grand kids. We will see what happens in 6 months. So far they are in denial. Based on recent comps this house below on Shalimar way should be around $525K.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6909-Shalimar-Way-Fayetteville-NY-13066/31728062_zpid/
No matter their occupation or title, “rich” would be the common denominator.
BUILDING SUPPLIES HAMMER BUYERS
Construction suppliers raising prices as housing market heats up
By Shobhana Chandra & John Gittelsohn
BLOOMBERG NEWS
4:24 p.m. May 3, 2013
Updated 12:01 a.m. May 4, 2013
Even as U.S. housing rebounds from its worst downturn since the 1930s, production bottlenecks are pushing up building-materials costs, land prices are rising and skilled labor ready to begin work is hard to find.
Suppliers of glass, drywall and wood products who reduced output during the slump are testing the vigor of the rebound by boosting prices before committing to restore capacity. Builders, including Lennar, Toll Brothers and KB Home, are asking homebuyers for more money as a result or are delaying sales, posing a temporary hurdle for the industry that has become one of the pillars of the economic expansion.
Building-material manufacturers “are raising prices dramatically, and once they’re convinced that these prices are going to stick, they’ll start reinvesting in those plants,” helping ease supply constraints, said John Burns, chairman of Irvine-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, which provides research to developers, construction-product manufacturers and investors. “Those can take a year to get up and running.”
In a sign demand remains strong, a report showed sales of new houses advanced in March — the latest data available — capping the best quarter for the industry since 2008. Purchases of new single-family properties climbed 1.5 percent to a 417,000 annual pace, the Commerce Department said.
…
Nice post Pbear….I guess its higher material cost for everybody except RAL as we all know…
Even RAL raised his prices almost 9% just yesterday, from $55/sq-ft to $60/sq-ft.
Are those Chinese drywall prices or the safer version?
Nice post Pbear….I guess its higher material cost for everybody except RAL as we all know…
Like it was established long ago, you’re a retail junkie posing as a contractor buying junk and out of spec materials from home depot at twice the cost of a supply house.
So your point is?
There are horrible price distortions in all areas of the bubble economy.
Does the Fed have an REO department?
How is the Bitcoin revolution playing out these days, in the aftermath of the “flash crash” a few weeks back?
THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW
May 3, 2013, 5:57 p.m. ET
Bitcoin vs. Ben Bernanke
The chief scientist for the digital currency talks about its appeal—and pitfalls—in a world of fiat money.
By JAMES FREEMAN
Could a virtual currency created by an anonymous Internet hacker someday replace the U.S. dollar? What seems like a ridiculous question has become more intriguing as trading in the digital money called Bitcoin has surged more than 300% in the past year to roughly 60,000 transactions per day.
Gavin Andresen, the 46-year-old lead software developer for the Bitcoin project, is eager to find the answer. “I’m hoping to learn,” he says, whether “a nongovernmental global currency” is possible. “Can you get from where we are to the vision of billions of people all over the world using Bitcoin just like they use any other currency? That’s the grand experiment.”
Thousands of mostly small online merchants are already accepting payment in Bitcoin, though this virtual currency has no intrinsic value and isn’t tied to anything that does. Yet the virtual money that debuted in 2009 with a value of zero and traded for the first time in 2010 at a price of three-tenths of a cent recently changed hands at $97.
For Mr. Andresen, a Princeton graduate who once wrote technical standards for 3-D graphics on the Internet, Bitcoin has already begun to replace the U.S. dollar. In November, the Bitcoin Foundation, where he serves as chief scientist, began paying him in the virtual currency. So far he has persuaded his barber to accept this new money, but only from Mr. Andresen. A haircut costs half a Bitcoin.
The IRS won’t accept Bitcoins, but that doesn’t mean his salary is tax-free. “I get paid in Bitcoin beginning every month. Taxes are computed based on the dollar equivalent.” Luckily, his wife, Michele Cooke-Andresen, is a tenured geology professor at the University of Massachusetts, so their household enjoys some dollar-denominated income.
…
“Could a virtual currency created by an anonymous Internet hacker someday replace the U.S. dollar?”
How about Crash?
Hey, you got any Crash on you?
Bubble Bucks? Stanleybacks?
Backed by the full faith and credit of Stanley Johnson.
Lending Tree Stanley Johnson Debt Up To My Eyeballs High Quality …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV_YAeXOSiw - 151k -
Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff
Welcome to The Not-So Private Parts where technology & privacy collide
Tech
5/04/2013 @ 5:47PM
Living On Bitcoin For A Week: Bitcoiners Are The New Vegans
Day 4.
Bitcoin’s value hit its low point on Friday
On Friday, I skip breakfast again; it’s an unavoidable part of the Bitcoin diet as there are no places that serve food before 10 a.m. accepting my currency. I lose my appetite anyway when I check the value of Bitcoin; it has plummeted to $90 over night. It has been on a steady decline since I started my Bitcoin challenge. Is it me? My editor suggests the value is falling because I’m showing “what a drag” it is to use it. But I think it’s due instead to a huge Bitcoin lawsuit that became public Thursday night. The virtual money has sparked a $75 million (real world currency) complaint; Seattle start-up Coinlab is suing Mt. Gox, saying the Japanese Bitcoin exchange has failed to follow through on the partnership they inked, refusing to let Coinlab take over management of Mt. Gox’s American and Canadian accounts as it allegedly agreed to do. Wrote Adrian Chen at Gawker:
Lawyers are about to make a killing on Bitcoin, even if it’s not the currency they get paid in.
…
It’s volatility is causing all sorts of issues on the Silk Road.
That’s easy to solve: just price all items in some other currency, and do the exchange rate computation to/from bit-coin at the time of purchase. That way, the seller has dramatically less exchange-rate risk, and does not need to constantly change pricing for their goods.
Both buyer and seller know what an item costs, and they can manage their exchange-rate risk independently. Either can choose to hold bitcoins, or choose to convert them immediately to/from another more stable currency just before or just after a transaction.
A better virtual currency than Bitcoin would be one that is pegged (convertible at a fixed exchange rate) to the dollar. The advantage would be to freeride off the Fed’s efforts to maintain a stable currency while gaining the various touted advantages of a borderless, virtual medium of exchange.
Look for this to appear within the next 12 months, if it doesn’t yet exist.
A better virtual currency than Bitcoin would be one that is pegged (convertible at a fixed exchange rate) to the dollar.
Why would I want to hold a virtual currency with the property that the Federal Reserve still has the stated desire and the ability to erode its value? That seems silly, when I can instead hold one that they cannot erode.
Stability of value can be better achieved by a more active Forex marketplace.
May 3, 2013, 1:25 pm EDT
Dollar Haters Look for New Alternative Currency After Gold Crash & Bitcoin Bust
After crashing 60% from its April peak, Bitcoin feels like a fading fad
Bitcoin took the financial blogosphere by storm in April as the electronic currency soared — at one point tacking on 50% in just 48 hours as the value of one Bitcoin raced up from $20 at the start of the year to $220.
But like all fast-moving assets that become the playground of speculators, the momentum worked both ways, and Bitcoin has fallen more than 60% from its peak.
Interestingly, right around the time Bitcoin went bust, we also saw a huge contraction in gold prices. The precious metal lost about 26% in six months, crashing from above $1,800 an ounce in October to a low of around $1,322 in April — which included the biggest one-day drop in gold prices in 30 years. The popular SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) exchange-traded fund is down about 12% YTD as a result despite double-digit gains for the market, and is regularly among the leaders in ETF outflows lately.
So considering the volatility in gold and Bitcoin, where will those looking for alternative currencies go next?
…
How about a total world stock index fund? Vanguard has one of them. Start with $3000 at age 22, invest $100 per month and ignore the ups and downs. Gradually increase your investment as your salary increases. At age 67 your cost basis will be very low compared to your NAV. Skim the average annual gain starting at age 67. There’s your “alternative currency,” based on tangibles, real companies that produce what is demanded.
Even though less than ten percent of my net worth is in gold and over fifteen percent is in treasuries and cash, I have a thing about gold as real money. I posted yesterday the fact that if you did not buy any gold in the month of January 1980, the most you would have paid would be $621 spot plus commission. Gold has never had a spike like January 1980. In fact, if you stopped buying gold in late 1979 you would have paid well under $400 per ounce.
Critics of gold don’t want people to be aware of this fact. Gold is insurance. Gold is money. Gold is not an investment because insurance and money are not investments. But heirs of estates are never unhappy when they find their grandparents had a secret stash of Saint Gaudens coins instead of gold certificates.
Everything is cyclic. But stocks pay off the most in the long run. Gold holds its value in the long run but does not gain in the long run. Paper money grossly loses its value in the long run. If I want an alternative to gold, I would pick platinum or silver as money. Actually I have some of each.
Where do you keep your gold?
Most of it is not in a bank.
e K was/is
He keeps his gold in the pantry. Look behind the oatmeal.
“How about a total world stock index fund?”
Too volatile versus consumer goods and services.
Next…
Wait. I’m saying a total stock index fund over a period of at least 20 years. Buy $100 per month into it. $3,000 down. The tenth year you’d have $15,000 principle invested. Very likely you would be seeing a 7% annual rate of return at that point. If it has dividends you reinvest it at all the time at the beginning. The 21st year you have $27,000 of principle. More likely your average annual gain at the tenth year is over $1,000.
Risk and volatility over the long term in stock index fund investing go toward zero. But in T-bills and cash the risk goes up in the long term. This is why investment advisers caution you to have plenty of cash for short term goals and stocks for long term goals. The risk of holding cash long term is that the dollar devalues. Cash is in fact, riskier to own than precious metals bullion.
“I’m saying a total stock index fund over a period of at least 20 years.”
I’m not arguing against a total stock index fund as an investment (in fact, I use them myself). Rather, I am pointing out why it doesn’t work as an alternative currency.
Gold crash? It’s almost $1500 per ounce.
How is it playing out?
Most of the suckers have bought in, with a few remaining stragglers left to rope in.
World’s first Bitcoin ATM Unveiled in San Diego
Bitcoin making financial headlines worldwide
Posted: 05/02/2013
Last Updated: 2 days ago
Craig Herrera
SAN DIEGO - The first ever Bitcoin ATM was unveiled Thursday, putting San Diego at the forefront of this new technology.
BitcoinATM CEO Evan Rose, a San Diegan, said, “Basically allowing people to buy Bitcoins with cash, cash Bitcoins out right on the spot.”
Bitcoin are not physical currency; they are digital currency that can be sent through the Internet without going through a bank or clearinghouse. It’s anonymous on the free market, and the financial world is watching this new way of exchanging currency closely.
Bitcoin can be used to buy products online with merchants who accept them.
“Bitcoin is inherently technical; it’s somewhat difficult to buy, it’s very difficult to exchange Bitcoin for hard currency and the solution that we’ve come up with in the very familiar ATM platform accomplishes all three of those bottlenecks,” said Rose.
Right now, all Bitcoin exchanges are done online, but the new ATM changes it all by allowing users to get cash out or make deposits to their accounts.
Users can walk up to the machine and make a deposit. The user then gets a receipt and that receipt has a confirmation number on it. That confirmation number can be given to anybody around the world and they can go up to a machine and make a withdrawal themselves.
There are several currency exchanges where users can trade Bitcoin for dollars, Euro and more. The value is all based on currency, and on May 2, 1 Bitcoin was worth about $100.
“Bitcoin is an idea whose time has come,” said Rose.
…
Is the global housing bubble still expanding, or do the leaky parts let out more air than the still-frothy parts add these daze?
Luckily no “flooding of markets with a backlog of repossessed properties” could never happen here, as this is AMERICUH!
S&P sees deepening house slump in Spain, France and Holland
Spanish house prices are to fall a further 13pc by the end of next year as the authorities flood the market with a backlog of repossessed properties, Standard and Poor’s has warned.
Estate agents’ signs advertise apartments for sale in Madrid. Spanish property prices have already dropped by 28pc from their peak in March 2008 and face a fall of 8pc this year and 5pc next year Photo: Bloomberg News
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
5:06PM BST 29 Apr 2013
The agency said the housing slump is deepening across large swathes of the eurozone. French declines are “gaining momentum”, with prices likely to fall 5pc this year and a further 5pc in 2014.
French property faces a “protracted correction” as the economy buckles, hit by fiscal tightening, higher taxes and a surge in unemployment to post-war highs.
France’s price-to-income ratio rose to a record 180pc of historic levels during the bubble, one of the most stretched levels seen anywhere in the OECD bloc.
The property market began to roll over last year, prompting warnings by the French consultants PrimeView that values could tumble by as much as 40pc before excesses are purged.
S&P said the deep crisis in the Netherlands would grind on despite the government’s partial retreat from austerity and its decision to delay €4.3bn in spending cuts.
…
The Chinese Are Freaking Out About A Sudden Drop In Housing Prices
The Economist | May 4, 2013, 5:54 PM
Feng Li/Getty Images
The Economist
…
But even if you accept those long-term arguments, says Alistair Thornton of IHS, a consultancy, the market right now looks increasingly as if it is becoming detached from the fundamentals, as speculators looking for an investment swamp buyers looking for somewhere to live. Many flats sit vacant despite legions of prospective buyers desperately seeking affordable housing. Capital Economics, a research firm, estimates that investment in residential property accounted for 8.8% of China’s GDP in 2012.
The alarm bells are being rung in unexpected quarters. Wang Shi, the charismatic boss of Vanke, China’s biggest property developer, would seem to have more to gain than most from further price rises, yet he too warns of a looming “disaster.” The plunge in prices that would result from a pricking of this bubble, he declared on “60 Minutes”, an American television programme, could lead to popular protests on the scale of the recent Arab uprisings.
China’s new leaders are keenly attuned to such concerns and are trying hard to head off the danger. The ruling State Council and the country’s central bank have issued numerous decrees in recent weeks designed to dampen the market and to crack down on speculation. Among these are larger down-payments and higher mortgage rates for people buying second homes and a reminder to local governments that a 20% capital-gains tax on second-home sales must be enforced.
But plenty of central-government edicts are ignored. The capital-gains tax on resales, for example, was only rarely levied in the past. Ren Zhiqiang, boss of Hua Yuan Real Estate Group, another property giant, recently denounced the country’s policies. The central government’s message to local officials, he claimed, could be described as: “We hope prices won’t continue rising; you go and fix them; and if you don’t fix them, we will punish you.”
…
60 Minutes did an informative segment recently from China on their massive “ghost city” housing and commercial boom.
(Saw the segment online thanks to an HBB poster link.)
The Australian
Norway shows the smart way to handle boom
by: Alen Mattich
From: Dow Jones
May 02, 2013 2:49PM
AUSTRALIANS may be about to learn that mineral wealth can be a mixed blessing.
Increasing signs of a slowdown in China–the latest manufacturing survey shows the sector is only just treading water–are blowing a chill wind over Australia’s miners. Mining makes up around half of Australia’s exports and China is by far the country’s biggest customer, accounting for nearly a quarter of Australian sales abroad.
If the Chinese slowdown proves more than temporary, Australia’s chill could turn into a rather long and brutal winter. And some pundits think the turn in the Chinese economy is a structural rather than a cyclical phenomenon as its new leadership seeks to shift growth away from unprecedented rates of investment in export industries and infrastructure to privately-generated domestic demand.
The resulting drop in Chinese demand, argues Michael Pettis, a professor at Peking University, means commodity prices are likely to halve or more over the coming years.
And that means pain for Australia.
In part that’s because of how the country’s dealt with its minerals windfall over recent years.
Economists discovered in the 1970s that a resources boom has the nasty habit of causing a huge currency appreciation and subsequent gutting of non-resource industries subject to international competition; the so-called Dutch Disease, named after what happened to the Netherlands following its gas production windfall of the 1960s and 1970s.
Since its post financial crisis lows in the spring of 2009, the Australian dollar has appreciated by more than half. The result has been brutal for Australia’s manufacturing industry. The latest data show exports are at their lowest level since 2004.
One big problem now facing Australia is that it chose the British route to dealing with its mineral wealth, rather than the Norwegian one.
During the past 30 years, government revenues from the UK’s North Sea oil have gone towards current consumption. The government used the windfall to cut taxes and spend more on services. Norway, by contrast, salted much of it away into a sovereign wealth fund, there to soften the blow for when the oil runs out. Its sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world, is worth some $730 billion.
OK, so the analogy can be stretched too far. At their peak, rents from oil (i.e revenues in excess of the costs of production) were at most around 2 per cent of U.K. GDP, compared with more than 10 per cent for Norway.
Looking at the figures another way, oil makes up between a fifth and a quarter of total Norwegian GDP, while mining is around a tenth of the Australian economy.
But making allowances for the fact that these comparisons shouldn’t be stretched too far, Australia seemed to follow the UK model rather than the Norwegian one. Rather than save the windfall, the Australian government used it to cut taxes and to boost current spending. Notwithstanding the commodities boom, Australia ran a government deficit equivalent to around 3 per cent of GDP last year against Norway’s 14 per cent surplus.
And the money the Australian government handed to its households was consumed. Despite its large mining and minerals exports, Australia is expected to run a current account deficit worth 5.5 per cent of GDP this year, compared to Norway’s 12 per cent surplus.
What’s more, Australians leveraged up heavily into a housing boom that looks suspiciously like a bubble. Yes, Norwegians are heavily leveraged too. Finding comparable data is tricky but, based on Eurostat figures, the average Norwegian household debt-to-income ratio was around 180 per cent in 2011. Extrapolating from the McKinsey debt report, Australia’s works out at around 150 per cent on the same basis.
But if Norwegian households hit trouble, the government has plenty of scope to do the heavy lifting; Australia’s less so. The Norwegian government has a net surplus of 175 per cent of GDP. Australia’s has net debt of 13 per cent.
China will ruin more than a few economies.
I recently posted articles stating that Chinese corporations have debt that is 110-120% of their GDP. This is basically junk grade debt. In the first quarter of this year, $1.5 trillion was created by global central banks; $1 trillion of that was in China, and their GDP shrank.
$730 billion…Thats about $145,000 for each person in Norway…
Norway Population
- 2012 census 5,033,675[4]
GDP (PPP) 2011 estimate
- Total $265.911 billion[5]
- Per capita $53,470[5
MARKETS
Updated May 3, 2013, 11:04 a.m. ET
Rise in Chinese Housing Prices Speeds Up
Fastest Increase in 18 Months Defies Tightening Moves, Though Beijing’s Enforcement of a Tax Leads to 88% Resale Drop
By ESTHER FUNG
SHANGHAI—Average housing prices in 100 of China’s largest cities rose in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, persistently defying policy makers’ efforts to bring them down.
A survey of developers and real-estate firms showed the average price of new homes in April was up 5.34% from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive monthly rise after eight months of decline, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Thursday.
The pace accelerated from 3.9% in March and 2.48% in February, hitting the highest level since November 2011, when it was 5.65%.
“This confirms [our] view that the recent government control measures will not prevent housing prices from rising,” said Jinsong Du, an analyst at Credit Suisse, referring to a central government pledge to enforce a 20% tax on profits from home sales and impose other tightening measures.
…
Vancouver home resales down 6.1 per cent in April from year ago
TARA PERKINS - REAL ESTATE REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, May. 02 2013, 12:43 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, May. 03 2013, 12:25 PM EDT
Sales of existing homes in Greater Vancouver fell 6.1 per cent in April compared to a year ago, but were up 11.9 per cent from March’s level, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said Thursday.
The number of homes that changed hands over the Multiple Listing Service this April was the lowest in the region since 2001.
…
Are subprime loans safe again, now that housing is rapidly going up once more?
Is two years of steadily rising prices and declining unemployment a long enough period to tell whether subprime is safe now?
News
2 LENDERS SUCCEED IN ZERO-DOWN LOANS
By U-T San Diego
4:19 p.m.May 3, 2013
Updated 12:01 a.m. May 4, 2013
Who says lenders need to charge you a cash down payment when you take out a mortgage in this era of hyper-strict underwriting?
Just about everybody:
• The biggest sources of home loan money, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, won’t fund a loan without a down payment. Even then, if your down payment is less than 20 percent, they require private mortgage insurance.
• Federal banking regulatory agencies have proposed — but have not yet finally adopted — a regulation requiring a 20 percent minimum down payment as the new standard for safe lending and best pricing.
• Congressional critics complain that the Federal Housing Administration’s current 3.5 percent minimum is part of the reason the agency is now in financial hot water. They want 5 percent down at least.
• Financial analysts and mortgage industry experts argue that requiring some amount of “skin in the game” is essential to provide borrowers a stake in the transaction.
But hold on. Two prominent federally chartered credit unions beg to differ with this consensus opinion. They have quietly been running what they consider to be successful, carefully administered zero-down-payment programs for borrowers for much of the past two years, and are seeing almost no defaults or foreclosures.
…
I dunno, whackhead, would you lend to a lower FICO? Here are some hints to help you:
1. Do these low-FICO borrowers have to “pass underwriting muster in terms of income and reserves” as Navy Federal requires, as stated in the article that you, good prof, posted yesterday?
2. Are these loans fully amortized PITI from Day 1? As in, not ARM/pick-a-pay/I-O or some other loan where the PITI will increase after a grace period?
3. Bonus question: are these loans in a recourse state?
You’re quite emotional these days.
Your ruse isn’t working. It’s only a matter of time now….. maybe a few days left.
It’s only a matter of time now….. maybe a few days left.
LOL!
It’s easy to point out the eventual direction, but only a fool thinks they can accurately predict the timing.
The last time around, the markets stayed irrational for far longer than I expected; this time, I decline to hazard a guess at the timing.
You’re in drama queen territory now. Stay out of it.
‘Do these low-FICO borrowers have to…Are these loans fully amortized’
I don’t understand all this puzzling over loan terms. Quicken Loans is running ads constantly for HAMP loans that are 200% LTV. That would have made the most corrupt subprime shop blush back in the day. And some of these “programs” are no income verification, no appraisal. FHA has had 3% down loans for at least 2 years and same with the GSE’s. Jeebus, look at the USDA loans! Even a crack head can see those are going to blow up. Subprime has been back for a while and it’s all on Wrong Way Barack.
Instead of denying this is happening, look at the possible outcomes. As the ads say, ‘if you owe $300,000 and your house is only worth $150,000′ you can get a 30 year fixed loan at XYZ%. Or a 15 year loan at …’
So, if you think these government programs are supposed to help people, you are assuming these houses are going to at least double in price. You are assuming that what happened in 2000-2005 is going to repeat itself with the exception being that prices will stay that high.
Or if you are skeptical, like me, you may be inclined to think this is being done to benefit someone other than these “home owners.” Like the banks who are unloading these bad loans onto the government. A government desperate to keep houses off the market, so as to make the economy look better than it really is (which is pretty terrible anyway). And as they become more desperate, they float new, even more reckless loan programs to keep the scheme going.
And if you see it this way, what of the consequences? Do these government bubble blowers not care what happens to millions who borrow too much for a house? Who keep making payments to the lender when they would be better off walking away? Are they really just foaming the runway for banks with the lives and finances of millions of families?
Are they really just foaming the runway for banks with the lives and finances of millions of families ??
And if so, are they just corrupt or are they scared $hitle$$ ??
IMO, If they are corrupt then its a issue of greed/money…
If they are scared, that suggests a set of circumstances that nobody knows the final outcome for the country…
David Stockman has a opinion that is plausible…
It goes even deeper:
‘A riotous expansion of the Warfare State was foremost among the policy errors of the Reagan Revolution,” writes Stockman: “Within days of Reagan’s taking office, the White House made a historically devastating mistake by signing over to the Pentagon a blank check known as the ’7 percent real growth top line.’ This massive injection of fiscal firepower nearly tripled the defense budget from $140 billion to $370 billion within just six years. More importantly, it fueled powerful expansionist impulses throughout the military-industrial complex at exactly the wrong time in history.”
‘as Stockman points out, the US embarked on an unprecedented buildup of conventional forces: “land, sea, and air forces that were utterly irrelevant to the imaginary Soviet nuclear first strike.” They were, however, “well-suited to imperialistic missions of invasion and occupation,” writes Stockman. “Ironically, therefore, the Reagan defense buildup was justified by an Evil Empire that was rapidly fading but was eventually used to launch elective wars against an Axis of Evil which didn’t even exist.” And, says Stockman, it wasn’t just a question of wasting a few percentage points of GDP: “The Reagan defense buildup gave birth to a historical monstrosity: the Bush wars of occupation and imperial pretension that were possible only because of the immense conventional war machine the Gipper left behind.”
“It’s apotheosis came six decades later, when the Fed orchestrated a veritable dance of the zombies during the aftermath of the September 2008 meltdown. Reaching back to its school days in war finance, the Fed again engineered a steep Treasury yield curve by driving front-end rates to nearly zero. In doing so, it gifted legions of insolvent banks with a simulacrum of profits. It thereby reduced depositors to penury, of course, even as it kept zombie institutions alive and their executives in bonuses a while longer.”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/04/14/the-great-deformation/
“In fact, war deficits are the worst fiscal policy imaginable. They add to civilian demand but generate no marketable output of consumer products or capital goods. Accordingly, war deficits tip the economy toward excess demand, inflationary bottlenecks, rising interest rates, and financial instability. They destroy wealth and lower living standards.”
“Indeed, in a few short years after Ike left office, the profound danger of a symbiotic nexus among the warfare state and welfare state became starkly apparent. Reflecting the imprint of the Hubert Humphrey “guns and butter” liberals, both sides of the budget hit simultaneous peaks in fiscal 1968. With constant-dollar defense spending back to the $515 billion Korean War peak, domestic outlays followed suit, reaching an all-time peak of $455 billion” [in 2005 dollars].”
The end of the cold war gave us no relief, only “a modest rollback,” as Stockman characterizes it. Bill Clinton‘s military budget was as large as Eisenhower’s, even though, at that point, there was no major threat to America’s unprecedented military hegemony. As for George W. Bush – well, we all know what he did: “Then followed George W. Bush’s senseless misadventures in the barren expanse of the Hindu Kush and on the bloody plains of the Tigris-Euphrates. These campaigns generated the third great post-Eisenhower surge in constant-dollar defense spending – an all-time high of nearly $600 billion in constant dollars.”
“On exactly the fiftieth budget anniversary of Eisenhower’s farewell warning, evidence of the insuperable power of the military-industrial complex was stunningly evident in Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget. The 2008 election, of course, had been even more unequivocally a ‘peace’ election than 1968 had been, because this time the ‘peace’ candidate actually won. Yet election mandate or no, the third great surge in the post-Eisenhower warfare state gave no ground whatsoever.
“In fact, inflation-adjusted defense spending in fiscal 2011 of $670 billion was a new record, eclipsing even George W. Bush’s final war budget. It was thus abundantly evident that even an out-and-out ‘peace’ president is no match for the modern warfare state and the crony capitalist lobbies which safeguard its budgetary requisites.
“Indeed, Barack Obama pushed the frontiers of the warfare state further than ever before. Beating his mandate for plowshares into an even mightier sword, the peace president pushed defense spending to a level 80 percent greater than General Eisenhower concluded was necessary.”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/04/16/eisenhowers-reprieve-and-the-descent-into-fiscal-insanity/
Great stuff Ben…Thanks so much…
“I don’t understand all this puzzling over loan terms.”
It’s all part of Debt-Junkies ruse.
Look… We all know housing demand is cratering. Mortgage apps at 1995 levels, housing sales at 1997 levels.
These are the two primary fundamentals that the fraudsters/junkies want to shut down discussing. Well here they are….. Why? Why are these fundamentals what they are? It’s quite simple. Resale housing prices are massively inflated by 200%, minimum. Everyone here knows it. Most of the public understands it. The pool of buyers consists of the uninformed, tire kickers and those who don’t understand the value of a dollar. Other than this tiny pool of suckers, there is no demand at current prices. And that’s not going to change until prices adjust to dramatically lower levels.
The Problem: Grossly Inflated Housing Prices
The Solution: Falling Housing Prices to Dramatically Lower And More Affordable Levels.
The solution is going to arrive. The more it is delayed, the more painful the solution is.
“Quicken Loans is running ads constantly for HAMP loans that are 200% LTV.”
And Bammy, Bammy
HAMP me gently
HAMP me slowly
Take it easy
Don’t you know
That I have never been HAMPed like this before
Rock me Gently + Lyric - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIVX1_J_87s - 217k -
So, if you think these government programs are supposed to help people, you are assuming these houses are going to at least double in price.
I think the real point of these programs is to Keep Hope Alive.
And I would point out that the house prices ARE going to double, eventually; the Fed is bound and determined to cut the purchasing power of your currency in half over every single 30yr period. Think about that: EVERY 30yr period.
So if they can con people into staying and paying, some of those suckers might actually surface from being underwater, right around the time the loan is payed off.
‘the Fed is bound and determined to cut the purchasing power of your currency in half over every single 30yr period’
Wages in the US have been flat or falling for 30 years. How are house prices going to double, and stay that way, in that environment?
This lack of ability to inflate wages means, IMO, that money creation merely creates bubbles on top of a deflationary sea.
And I would point out that the house prices ARE going to double, eventually
Well you’re going to be in the surprise of your life when prices are 25% of what you think they’re going to be. Why? Because they’re already priced above the long term trend by 200%.
“Wages in the US have been flat or falling for 30 years. How are house prices going to double, and stay that way, in that environment?”
Investors will snap them up, rent them out, then sell for big capital gains in a few years.
At least that’s the plan, as I understand it…
“I don’t understand all this puzzling over loan terms.”
Spot on! Though I actually don’t notice anyone besides bromide puzzling over them…
“You are assuming that what happened in 2000-2005 is going to repeat itself with the exception being that prices will stay that high.”
Isn’t this where the Fed’s ability to use QE3 liquidity to buy $40 bn worth of MBS a month and bury them on its balance sheet forever comes in?
“Are they really just foaming the runway for banks with the lives and finances of millions of families?”
Also for the fly-by-night investor crowd who can easily liquidate their gains at the point when 9%+ annualized home price appreciation decelerates back to stall speed.
“I dunno, whackhead, would you lend to a lower FICO?”
I wouldn’t loan to you, bromide.
Amazing how the myth still lives that subprimes were the majority of the defaults, when in fact, it was the primes.
Google it.
majority of the defaults
Majority of default: yes, prime.
Higher _percentage_ of defaults: sub-prime, by a landslide.
Don’t try to say that the sub-prime, no-doc, and NINJAs weren’t the riskiest loans; they definitely were.
Just in case Oxide or others may have missed this great explanation of subprime lending from a few years back, I am reposting it…ENJOY! (I’ve always wondered about the voice over for this. Is the guy unable to read simple English, or is he just so enraged that he can’t get the words to come out right?)
SubPrime Mortgage Mess Explained (with voice)
Demand For Housing in US Craters 6.3% Year Over Year
http://picpaste.com/pics/6c71658a944ad6b5e612b36e8630a28e.1367764674.png
Renting is freedom. Mortgage is slavery. Contracting is freedom. Employment is slavery. Being single is freedom. Marriage is slavery. High tech Henry David Thoreau.
High Tech and shiny gadgets are slavery - The OG Henry David Thoreau
Umm…I am not a materialist, as you suggest. In L.A. my furnishing in my studio apartment consists of one bar stool an an air mattress.
“high tech…” I suppose you also wish the polio vaccine never was discovered. That is high tech. Maybe we should all become ditch diggers. Oh wait…you would want to retire from that by age 45.
Well you are always talking about your money and gold…
Nobody wants techies over 45, either.
Nobody wants techies over 45, either ??
You got that right…@ 45, you are no longer capable of working 16 hour days 6 days a week…
They forgot to tell my clients I turn 54 in three weeks.
Nobody wants techies over 45, either.
Calling BS on that. I am over 45, and got hired a year ago at a place with a great reputation; in fact, I got a nice raise to boot.
Of course, someone on my team just guessed that I was in my late 30’s, so it is possible my experience may change down the road if/when I start to look over 45—but I’ve always been aware of the risk of age discrimination in my field, and I’m prepared for that.
Same situation with me Prime. Back three years ago at nearly 51 a gal at work in her 30s said I look to be 37. I told her jokingly “the check is in the mail.”
My priority is health. Secondary to that is career. My friend I worked with in Florida is still contract engineering in his 70s. Well he looks to be over 60 but is not a doddering old man. Work keeps you younger than your chronological age. Keeps you out of trouble.
I hope to be working in my 70s, even 80s, even if I have to downsize to mail room clerk. This is why number 1 is important.
IMO exercise and healthy eating alone is not enough to ward off debilitating health. Sometimes there is genetic issues that you cannot avoid (e.g. my thyroid issue). It’s foolish to be over 50 and not find a good doctor. There are bad doctors with bad opinions out there. I found one bad doctor in my Phoenix neighborhood a couple of years ago and he scared me into checking myself into a hospital when I got back to Florida. All because of a mis-reporting of numbers on a heart ultrasound test. I’m now a believer that negative news can make you very sick, even if the news is wrong/false. Fortunately I found a great cardiologist in Tampa near USF. Can’t say enough good things about those folks in Tampa. I now have a great endocrinologist in L.A. I’ll put it this way. The cardiologist, when finding I swim over eight miles per week four days a week told me there is no way I could do that with such a written text description of my heart that the Phoenix guy gave me. He said keep up the good work and double my amount of red yeast rice supplements that I have been doing.
A need for constant self-justification is the real slavery.
Ah, then you must be married.
If she isn’t, she could be if she wanted to. I saw her picture on her book.
Ahansen & Bill in the Alaska wilderness for a week with a knife & a pack of matches…Lets see who survives…I bet the whole ranch on the lady…Bill wouldn’t last the first night…
We’d probably co-opt each other and live happily ever after….
i would not survive the first night. without her I might survive the second night (thanks Winston Churchill).
Woman to Sir Winston: “Sir, if I were your wife, I would poison you.”
Sir Winston’s response: “Madam, if I were your husband, I would gladly drink it.”
Exactly what inspired me for my response Whac! We’re on the same wavelength!
posting to agree from 12,500′ on st marys glacier.
Most likely you are skiing your knees off?
HA! The knees are fine. But today was a real calf and quad burn. We skied up to where this picture was taken, I stopped for lunch and the other half of today’s squad continued on to the pictured summit, well above 13,000′.
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20130505_122607_098-sMdAS4ao.jpg
You once posted here that skiing is a waste of money. Paying for $115 lift tickets at Vail or Aspen is a waste of money. But when you earn the turns it costs only the gas to drive there, today’s total less than $15.
I think I posted that my dad said skiing is a waste of money unless it’s cross country skiing. No I don’t think downhill skiing is a waste of money. A ski instructor 20 years ago at Mammoth told me skiing keeps you young. He was in his 50s and I said he did not look it.
Alpine Touring (A/T) is the best of both worlds. The cardio health benefits of skinning uphill for 2,000-3,000+ vertical feet is incalculable. When skiing down, those turns were truly earned.
Goon, I daydreamed about Alpine Touring for years back in my teens and twenties. Wanted to do “Helicopter skiing” in Nevada’s Ruby Mtns. Alas the best I ever did in powder was on my fourth day of skiing on a four day Mammoth Mtn vacation. It was such a blizzard condition they closed down a lot of runs. I had to do a diamond run and had no other choice. But it was deep enough powder to allow me to learn fast how to use it to slow me down.
The answer is obvious.
We need a war on bathtubs, Home Depot and kangaroos!
The Threat of Terrorism
May 25, 2011 by richardjacksonterrorismblog
10 Things More Likely to Kill You Than Terrorism
1.Bathtubs and toilets – more than 300 people drown in their bathtubs and toilets every year in the US alone, presumably after bouts of alcohol. In the US at least, more people have died from drowning in the bath since 9/11 than in terrorist attacks.
2.Vending machines – although the total number of people killed by vending machines (presumably when they are shaking it to get their money back and it falls on them) is not greater than the average number of people killed by terrorism year on year, there are many years and many places in the world where they kill more people than terrorism. In the 1980s, for example, more people died from vending machines than died from terrorism in the US and Canada.
3.Animals such as deer, kangaroos, reindeer, crocodiles, hippos, snakes and other wild animals – admittedly, most of these deaths are not caused directly by the animal, but due to the road accidents they cause. In Australia, a kangaroo killed a man in 1936, which is one more person than terrorists have killed on Australian soil. The same applies to reindeer accidents in Scandinavia. In the UK, people are killed by cows on a fairly regular basis. Of course, we are not including the deaths caused by domestic pets, especially dangerous dog breeds.
4.Insects such as bees, spiders, scorpions and especially mosquitoes – while dozens of people die from allergic reactions to bees or from poisonous spiders and scorpions every year, it is mosquitoes that kill around three million people per year through the transmission of malaria. Next time you’re swatting a mosquito, you can be assured that you are engaged in a war against an enemy that is far more deadly than terrorists!
5.DIY – thousands are killed every year, and tens of thousands injured, in DIY accidents. If you’re ever tempted to fix up your own house, try to remember that you’ve just become a greater danger to yourself and those around you than terrorists.
6.Alcohol – more than 15,000 people per year die from alcohol poisoning and disease in the UK alone, which is far more than those killed in terrorist attacks across the whole world. Think about that next time you raise a glass.
7.Lightning – around 24,000 people per year are killed in lightning strikes, and many more injured. This number is a great deal higher than terrorism.
8.Hospitals – around 100,000 people a year die from preventable medical errors in the US (that is more in a single month than died on 9/11), while another 100,000 die from hospital infections. In other words, if you have to go to the hospital for any reason, you are far more likely to be killed by a doctor or a nurse than by a terrorist!
9.Car – around two million people per year die in automobile accidents, and dying in an accident while out driving is one of the most likely causes of death today at odds of 1 in 5,000.
10.Yourself – tens of thousands of people commit suicide every year in the US alone, which means that you are more at risk of getting depressed and killing yourself than you are of getting caught up in a deadly terrorist incident. Of course, this does not include those people that kill themselves while undertaking a terrorist attack.
http://richardjacksonterrorismblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/the-threat-of-terrorism/ - 74k -
I don’t know if was noted or not, but those figures are based on world wide stats.
“In the US at least, more people have died from drowning in the bath since 9/11 than in terrorist attacks.”
Yes. What could I do about it other than having voted for Gary Johnson in 2012 for POTUS and libertarian candidates in all other contests on my Arizona ballot?
Paul Simon - Kodachrome + lyrics - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsDxvAErTU - 217k -
Where did the myth come from that the price of a house goes up?
Does anyone else recall MSM reporters talking about the real estate market “rallying” or the implications of rising home prices for “your investment” before the Housing Bubble years?
I certainly don’t, and I have been paying attention to the financial news for over a quarter of a century already.
Home Prices Are Surging
The real estate market is rallying. What it means for your neighborhood and investment.
02:17 | 04/30/2013
I just posted a classic “shoeshine boy moment” Dianne Sawyer interview, featuring a twenty-something couple in San Diego who can’t find anything to buy. Even Robert Shiller endorses the idea of buying a house now, though I suspect Dianne Sawyer used her usual “interview technique” of snipping a five-second sound bite out of context from a twenty-minute interview with Shiller in a way that totally twisted his overall point.
If you buy a house to live in today, you will lose alot of money. And you have been warned.
Whac-a-bubble is that you? Thanks. I did not read enough of your posts lately to see if you are emphatic these days. I got it now! Thanks and I agree.
Do I smell deflation? In the macro economic sense how does the this statistic jive with the latest GDP and unemployment numbers?
“April electricity demand hits three-year low”
Power demand hit a three-year low for the month of April, as temperatures were warmer than usual on the East and West coasts and below-average temperatures lingered in the Upper Midwest, according to Genscape’s Generation Fuel Monitor Report.
Electricity demand dropped 1 percent from April 2012. It was down 8 percent from March 2013.
The report also found that coal power generation continues to reclaim market share from natural gas, reflecting higher natural gas prices.
Henry Hub natural gas prices are up more than 100 percent year-on-year, while Genscape estimated that delivered coal costs have increased just 5 percent.
April coal consumption per megawatt was up 15 percent compared to 2012, according to the report.
Natural gas power generation was down 19 percent.
Year-to-date, Genscape reported that coal-powered generation had increased 13 percent, while natural gas generation had dropped 11 percent.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/05/03/april-electricity-demand-hits-three-year-low/
“Do I smell deflation?”
That, plus QE3 liquidity injections designed to prevent a deflationary mindset and trend from taking hold. So long as the stock market and housing market keep going up, there is nothing to worry about.
“Do I smell deflation?”
No. Just ate baked beans though.
Beavis: Hey Butthead. Did you know I’m from Compton? Hehe, yeah.
Butt-head: Damn it Beavis, shut up. You’re not from Compton.
Beavis: No way, Butt-head! I’m serious. I was kickin’ it on the street. Hehe. It was hard times. Hehe yeah. I used to drink gin and juice, it was cool.
Butt-head: Beavis, you’re a white wussy from right here.
Beavis: No way Butt-head, you don’t know, you weren’t around then. Me and Snoop, we used to go to the Compton swap meet together. Ehehehe.
Butt-head: Beavis, you used to go to the flea market with your mom.
Beavis: No way Butt-head. I wear this shirt see, because these are my colors. Hehehe, yep. I’m a straight G.
Butt-head: Beavis, shut up.
Beavis: Yep, going down to the Compton swap meet with Snoop, you know, sometimes I used to kick it with Dre. Yeah. Hehe.
Butt-head: Beavis, shut up. You’ve never been to Compton, you’re never gonna go to Compton, you’re gonna be here for the rest of your life, you’re stupid, you don’t have any money, and you’re never gonna score.
Beavis: Umm, oh yeah. Hehe.
Just stay outta my toolshed.
Oxide, check this out:
Mortgage Crisis in a Nutshell - Presented by John Campbell
Does the Fed’s $40 bn MBS purchase program buy loans that don’t ever need to be repaid? After all, if the money is owed to the Fed, and they can print as much as needed to replace any money that is lost or keep the soured MBS on their balance sheet forever, who will be harmed if the payments backing the MBS go into default?
CAREERS
November 10, 2011
The Toll on Parents When Kids Return Home
By JOANN S. LUBLIN
Mark Ovaska for The Wall Street Journal
Many young adults find themselves still tethered to the Bank of Mom and Dad, and that dependence is taking a toll.
Kevin Davis moved back home last December after receiving a business finance degree from the University of North Carolina. He has yet to land a full-time job.
The 25-year-old often commiserates with his father, John, an information-technology professional who was laid off as a project manager in October 2010 for the second time since 2007. “At times, it’s hard for me to keep up my own spirits as well as Kevin’s,” admits John Davis, a resident of Winston-Salem, N.C., who currently receives unemployment insurance.
As recent college graduates scramble to find full-time jobs, numerous parents are helping their children pay bills or letting them live at home again. About 59% of parents provide or recently provided financial assistance to children aged 18 to 39 who weren’t students, concluded a May survey of nearly 1,100 people by the National Endowment for Financial Education.
According to Census data, 5.9 million Americans between 25 and 34 years of age—nearly a quarter of whom have bachelor’s degrees—live with their parents, a significant increase from 4.7 million before the recession.
But many parents can’t afford the extra expense. A full 26% of those polled by the nonprofit group took on more debt to help their offspring, 13% delayed a planned life event such as a home purchase, and 7% postponed retirement.
Compounding the problem is the fact that certain parents are crowding the younger generation out of the job market because their support of their grown kids means they can’t afford to retire.
Kevin, a licensed pilot with aspirations to run an airport, says he knows someone more than twice his age who beat him for an airport managerial post this summer because the older man had more experience.
The strain of joblessness and continued financial support for Kevin—which his father estimates costs $300 a month, or 18% of the family’s living expenses—have exhausted his parents’ savings and forced the 61-year-old Mr. Davis and his wife, Donna, a 54-year-old teacher’s assistant, to start spending money from their retirement accounts.
“Short of winning the lottery, I don’t know when I will be able to retire,” says Mr. Davis. And he says his wife “probably will never retire.”
“If the economy remains weak, you may see more parents sacrificing their financial health for their struggling adult offspring,” warns NEFE President Ted Beck.
…
ABREAST OF THE MARKET
Updated May 5, 2013, 4:53 p.m. ET
U.S. Treasurys Still Defy Bearish Calls
By CHRISTIAN BERTHELSEN and MIN ZENG
Bond-market bears are taking their lumps—again.
A run of uneven economic data this spring has wrong-footed scores of investors—including some of the bond world’s boldface names—who entered the year betting that an accelerating U.S. expansion would send Treasury prices tumbling, ending a three-decade-long fixed-income bull market.
Among those who have rolled back bearish calls are Bill Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., and manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, and Rick Rieder of BlackRock Inc., who oversees fixed income for the giant investment firm with $3.96 trillion in assets under management as of the end of March. Even so, the diversified bond funds run by both investors are beating their market benchmarks this year.
Pimco founder Bill Gross began the year betting against 10-year Treasurys. But the feared declines in the market haven’t come to pass.
Messrs. Gross and Rieder are among dozens of investors and pundits who have warned after the financial crisis of the risks of holding U.S. government debt with interest rates near record lows. The feared declines in the Treasury market haven’t come to pass, however, amid tepid economic growth and the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies that bolster bond prices.
Since the end of 2009, Treasury debt has returned a total of 19%, including price appreciation and interest, according to Barclays. Even with government-bond prices sliding after Friday’s report of stronger-than-expected U.S. job growth, the 10-year Treasury yield, at 1.740%, is roughly flat with the end of 2012, and less than half of the April 2010 postcrisis peak of 4.01%. Bond yields fall when prices rise.
Investors say the reversals for bond bears highlight the perils of investing in a slow-growth, low-interest-rate world and underscore the need to approach the $11.4 trillion U.S. Treasury market opportunistically.
“It’s not timely to be betting on higher interest rates,” said Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive and chief investment officer of DoubleLine, a Los Angeles firm with $59 billion under management. He said economic growth remains too soft to allow the Fed to consider cutting back its $85 billion-a-month bond-purchase program known as “quantitative easing,” a shift he views as a necessary precursor to any increase in interest rates.
Bond-market bears have predicted since 2009, when the Fed began its Treasury-bond purchases, that the efforts would lead to an increase in inflation, a development many said would pressure the Fed to roll back its easing programs, hurt bond prices and send yields higher.
Those predictions came to naught in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Each year began with a first-quarter rise in Treasury yields, driven by fund managers selling bonds and buying riskier assets such as stocks and industrial commodities in anticipation of an economic upturn. But those modest bond selloffs gave way to weak data and strong Treasury-price rallies that left yields lower at year-end.
This year has played out much the same way. In January, Pimco’s Mr. Gross told investors to avoid U.S. government bonds maturing in at least 10 years, because low yields on the debt raise the risk that holders will have their purchasing power eroded by inflation.
BlackRock warned investors that long-term government bonds had limited upside. Prices fell and yields rose above 2% in March from 1.78% at year-end.
But weak manufacturing data, slowing jobs gains and a fall in gasoline prices, undermining the bears’ inflation argument, have again limited the impulse to flee government bonds.
Mr. Gross changed his view on 10-year Treasurys in early April, turning bullish as prices rose, though he remains bearish on 30-year debt.
BlackRock, meanwhile, purchased a “significant amount” of 30-year Treasurys in April for a wide range of portfolios, said Mr. Rieder, the New York company’s chief investment officer of fundamental fixed income and co-head of Americas fixed income.
“Pimco’s advice is to continue to participate in an obviously central-bank-generated bubble,” Mr. Gross said in his monthly investment outlook published last week.
…
Behold the source of future housing demand: 22.6 MILLION adult children so bereft of either income or job prospects they are living in their parent’s basements.
WEEKEND INVESTOR
Updated May 3, 2013, 7:13 p.m. ET
Mother, Can You Spare a Room?
By KIRSTEN GRIND
As Rachel Zahn’s three children were growing up, she liked to warn them, half jokingly, not to overstay their welcome. “Checkout time at this hotel is age 18,” the 56-year-old nonprofit director would tell them.
It hasn’t worked out that way. A year and a half ago, Ms. Zahn’s oldest son, Sam, 25, asked if he could move back to the family’s home in Solana Beach, Calif.—near San Diego—with his girlfriend in tow. He wanted to save money when attending graduate school while his girlfriend worked full-time.
Ms. Zahn and her husband agreed. Sam and his girlfriend moved into his old bedroom.
“We made that decision to let him save money,” Ms. Zahn says. “The cost of living in San Diego is crazy.”
The Zahns are hardly alone. As an expected 1.8 million college graduates descend on the real world this month and next, many of them will move back in with their parents. The trend is keeping the graduates from assuming responsibility for their own finances.
Parents, meanwhile, are finding themselves stuck caring for children, sometimes for much longer than they planned, with no exit plan in sight—often damaging their own financial health and retirement savings.
Financial advisers say hosting an adult age child back at home can cost between $8,000 a year to $18,000 a year, depending on how much parents are shelling out for extras like travel and entertainment.
“It is one of the biggest problems affecting our clients,” says Benjamin Tobias, president of Tobias Financial Advisors, a wealth-management firm in Plantation, Fla., that oversees about $200 million.
Financial advisers and industry experts say there are many ways parents can protect their finances if their kids move back home. Parents should be firm with their kids, say advisers, by making them pay for rent and other expenses if possible, setting a limit for how long they are allowed to stay, and avoiding the temptation to offer extra financial help, like loans.
According to the most-recent U.S. Census Bureau figures, 22.6 million adults between the ages of 18 and 34 were living at home with their parents in 2012, about 32% of all people in that age group. That is up from 18 million, or 27%, a decade ago.
The percentage of young adults between 18 and 24 years old living with parents has increased the most, to 56% in 2012 from 51% a decade ago.
The weak economy—and the lack of jobs available for recent graduates—is the biggest reason kids are moving back home, says Zhenchao Qian, professor and chair of the sociology department at Ohio State University, who led a 2012 research study on the subject.
All of this is weighing on parents’ finances. A 2011 study by the National Endowment for Financial Education found that 26% of parents with adult-age kids living at home have taken on debt in the process, either to help their child with a loan or for their own spending needs. Thirteen percent delayed a life event like buying a house, and 7% delayed retirement.
Even parents who can afford to have their kids return home without significant financial strain should be worried about the consequences. When kids move back home with parents, it puts parents in the complicated position of wanting to support their children while trying to help them launch their own lives. The line between support and coddling can be blurry, experts say.
“The parents are frustrated by it, but they’re also embarrassed by it,” says Clarissa Hobson, a financial adviser at Carnick & Kubik, a wealth manager in Colorado Springs, Colo. “It’s really hard to say no to your kids sometimes.”
…
RealtorBot™ sales pitch:
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
1. Real estate always goes up.
2. If u buy ten investment homes now and rent them out, they will double in value within a few years, when u can sell them and make yourself RICH.
3. Buy now or get priced out forever.
…
TI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-MBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why the sudden vertical direction of the Global DOW?
This Old Short Sale
The First Episode of This Old Short Sale Was Broadcast Locally
WGBH Boston broadcasted the first episode of This Old Short Sale on Tuesday, February 20, 2010 at 8:30pm. It featured the renovation of an upside-down serial refinanced Victorian in Boston’s historic Dorchester section, with contractor Norm Abram, host Bob Vila, and plumbing expert Ron Trethewey (his son Richard, now the show’s plumbing and heating expert, also made his debut, in a “cameo” appearance). The first 13-week This Old Short Sale series set a new ratings record for WGBH.
Morash “discovered” his crew in unlikely places. Abram had been commissioned to build a barn on the serial refinanced property. The quality of his work was so impressive (Norm had the smallest scrap pile Russ had ever seen) that the carpenter was invited to lend a hand with the eviction of the Dorchester family. In his search for a host, Morash came across a developer and builder specializing in delinquent loans in the pages of The Boston Globe. Bob Vila, who had no prior television experience