The Housing Bubble

Comment by rms
2013-05-22 06:15:55

“And the Weiner is officially IN!!”

-1 Dead on arrival, IMHO.

———-

Don’t judge weiner jokes. Writing them is hard.

Our differences make us stronger…

Oh - and gun control/bans makes us safer.

——————

Blood on his hands…Islamic fanatics wielding meat cleavers butcher a British soldier
UK Daily Mail | 5/22/13 | Arthur Martin and Sam Greenhill

Clutching a bloodied meat cleaver after executing a soldier on a crowded street, he delivers a chilling message of hate.

‘You people will never be safe,’ he declares in a clear south London accent. ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’

In broad daylight, he and an accomplice had just repeatedly stabbed and tried to behead an off-duty soldier in front of dozens of passers-by.

Throughout the frenzied attack they shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is great’ – then demanded horrified witnesses film them as they ranted over the crumpled body.

The two black men in their 20s, waited calmly for armed police to arrive before charging at officers brandishing a rusty revolver, knives and meat cleavers.

Out of curiosity - I wonder how the costs compare to America.

Oh yeah - huge housing bubble in Australia on the popping point.

————————

Ford Australia to close Broadmeadows and Geelong plants, 1,200 jobs to go
ABC News Australia | 5/22/2013 | abcnews.com.au

Ford Australia says it will close its Australian manufacturing plants in October 2016, with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Ford president Bob Graziano said approximately 1,200 workers would lose their jobs when the Broadmeadows and Geelong plants were shut down.

He made the announcement in Melbourne this morning after announcing that the company had lost $141 million over the last financial year - taking losses over the past five years to more than $600 million. Key points

Ford to close plants in 2016 More than 1,000 jobs to go, more at risk Government promises support for sacked staff

“Our costs are double that of Europe and nearly four times Ford in Asia,” Mr Graziano said.

“Just like Benghazi. GOP cuts funding for embassy security the previous year, then blames the President for security FAIL.”

“According to the email, several officials in the meeting shared the concern of Nuland, who was not part of the deliberations, that the CIA’s talking points might lead to criticism that the State Department had ignored the CIA’s warning about an attack.”

“Even the closest force couldn’t get there in time.”

“The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour’s flight from Libya.”

“But that’s not the point. The point is the embassy security was gutted from lack of funding, thus making it vulnerable in the first place.”

Forget the fact that both loser parties cut the funding, (see washington post fact chcker) what was the funding for? 3-5 more guys with rifles? I don’t know do you? Seems like any security under attack from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles would just have to hold the fort until help came from say, oh I don’t know maybe a Naval Base that is an hour’s flight from Libya.

This was incompetence or worse, with a cover up that included a lot of help from the media.

By Sharyl Attkisson /
CBS News/ May 6, 2013, 12:00 PM

Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told “you can’t go” to Benghazi during attacks

The deputy of slain U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens has told congressional investigators that a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa.

The account from Gregory Hicks is in stark contrast to assertions from the Obama administration, which insisted that nobody was ever told to stand down and that all available resources were utilized. Hicks gave private testimony to congressional investigators last month in advance of his upcoming appearance at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

According to excerpts released Monday, Hicks told investigators that SOCAFRICA commander Lt. Col. Gibson and his team were on their way to board a C-130 from Tripoli for Benghazi prior to an attack on a second U.S. compound “when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, ‘you can’t go now, you don’t have the authority to go now.’ And so they missed the flight … They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it.”

No assistance arrived from the U.S. military outside of Libya during the hours that Americans were under attack or trapped inside compounds by hostile forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles.

Hicks told congressional investigators that if the U.S. had quickly sent a military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour’s flight from Libya.

“I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them,” Hicks testified. Two Americans died in the morning mortar attack.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57583014/diplomat-u.s-special-forces-told-you-cant-go-to-benghazi-during-attacks/ - 125k

Initial Benghazi Talking Points Changed 12 Times, Mentions Of Terror Removed

Doug Mataconis · Friday, May 10, 2013

ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before sheappeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.

According to the Stephen Hayes at The Weekly Standard the changes all seemed to come at the request of the State Department:

[O]ne previously opaque aspect of the Obama administration’s efforts is becoming somewhat clearer. An email sent to Susan Rice following a key White House meeting where officials coordinated their public story lays out what happened in that meeting and offers more clues about who might have rewritten the talking points.

The CIA’s talking points, the ones that went out that Friday evening, were distributed via email to a group of top Obama administration officials. Forty-five minutes after receiving them, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed concerns about their contents, particularly the likelihood that members of Congress would criticize the State Department for “not paying attention to Agency warnings.” CIA officials responded with a new draft, stripped of all references to Ansar al Sharia.

In an email a short time later, Nuland wrote that the changes did not “resolve all my issues or those of my building leadership.” She did not specify whom she meant by State Department “building leadership.” Ben Rhodes, a top Obama foreign policy and national security adviser, responded to the group, explaining that Nuland had raised valid concerns and advising that the issues would be resolved at a meeting of the National Security Council’s Deputies Committee the following morning. The Deputies Committee consists of high-ranking officials at the agencies with responsibility for national security​—​including State, Defense, and the CIA​—​as well as senior White House national security staffers.

The Deputies Committee convened the next morning, Saturday the 15th. Some participants met in person, while others joined via a Secure Video Teleconference System (abbreviated SVTS and pronounced “siv-its”).

The proceedings were summarized in an email to U.N. ambassador Rice shortly after the meeting ended. The subject line read: “SVTS on Movie/Protests/violence.” The name of the sender is redacted, but whoever it was had an email address suggesting a job working for the United States at the United Nations.

According to the email, several officials in the meeting shared the concern of Nuland, who was not part of the deliberations, that the CIA’s talking points might lead to criticism that the State Department had ignored the CIA’s warning about an attack. Mike Morell, deputy director of the CIA, agreed to work with Jake Sullivan and Rhodes to edit the talking points. At the time, Sullivan was deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department’s director of policy planning; he is now the top national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Denis McDonough, then a top national security adviser to Obama and now his chief of staff, deferred on Rhodes’s behalf to Sullivan.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/initial-benghazi-talking-points-changed-12-times-mentions-of-terror-removed/ - 203k

“The Massive Housing Price Decline Ahead Of Us”

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/7812/caseshiller.jpg

“Housing prices falling to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is bullish optimism and a boost to the economy.”

Low-skilled Worked Get Raw Deal Under Obamacare
Townhall.com | May 23, 2013 | Michael Barone

You might be wondering what a “skinny” or “low-benefit” insurance plan is. The terms may vary, but the basic idea is that policies would cover preventive care, a limited number of doctor visits and perhaps generic drugs.

They wouldn’t cover things such as surgery, hospital stays or prenatal care. That sounds similar to an auto insurance policy that reimburses you when you change the oil but not when your car gets totaled.

You might ask how Obamacare could encourage the proliferation of such policies. It was sold as a way to provide more coverage for more people, after all.

And people were told they could keep the health insurance they had.

As Weaver and Mathews explain, Obamacare’s requirement that insurance policies include “essential” benefits such as mental health services apply only to small businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

But larger employers, they write, “need only cover preventive service, without a lifetime or annual dollar-value limit, in order to avoid the across-the-workforce penalty.” Low-benefit plans may cost an employer only $40 to $100 a month per employee. That’s less than the $2,000-per-employee penalty for providing no insurance.

“We wouldn’t have anticipated that there’d be demand for these type of Band-Aid plans in 2014,” the Journal quotes former White House health adviser Robert Kocher. “Our expectation was that employers would offer high-quality insurance.”

It’s probably true that businesses trying to attract and retain high-skill employees for long-term positions have an economic incentive to offer generous and attractive health insurance. Otherwise they’d lose good people to competitors.

But the kind of businesses mentioned in the Journal story — restaurants, retailers, assisted-living chains — tend to employ lower-skill workers who typically work there only temporarily.

In a high-unemployment economy they may not need to offer gold-plated health insurance to get the workforce they need.

Such employers would have to pay a $3,000 penalty for each employee who buys insurance on Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. But it seems likely that many workers, especially young ones, would opt not to pay the hefty premiums for that.

The problem here is that Obamacare’s architects seem to misunderstand the concept of insurance.

“The Housing Market Recovery Is ‘A Complete Hoax’”

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_housing_shell_game_20130503/

Afterall, a “housing recovery” is dramatically lower prices by definition.

If you bought a house 1998-current, you’ve already lost alot of money. And the losses will continue to grow.

Beware.

Japan Stock Market Crash Leads To Global Sell Off
Zero Hedge | May 23, 2013 | Tyler Durden

We had no idea how right we would be because the second Japan opened, its bond futures market was halted on a circuit breaker as the 10 Year bond plunged to their lowest level since early 2012, hitting 1% and leading to massive Mark to Market losses for Japanese banks, as we also warned would happen. That was just the beginning, and suddenly the realization crept in that the plunging yen at this point is not only negative for banks, but for the entire stock market, leading to what until that point was a solid up session for the Nikkei to the first rumblings of a ris-off.

Shortly thereafter we got the distraction of the Chinese Mfg PMI which dropped into contraction territory for the first time since late 2012, and which set the mood decidedly risk-offish, although the real catalyst may have been a report on copper from Goldman’s Roger Yan (which we will cover in depth shortly) and whose implications may be stunning and devastating and may have just popped the Chinese credit bubble (oh, btw, short copper).

And then all hell broke loose, with the Nikkei first rising solidly and then something snapping loud and clear, and sending the index crashing a massive 1,143 an intraday swing of 9% high to low, leading to an over 200 pips move lower in the USDJPY, and leading to a global risk off across the world. Looks like Mrs Watanabe’s infatuation with the “get rich scheme” known as the stock market is once again over, and it is time to start from scratch for Kuroda and Goldman proxy company.

Nikkei: -7.32% Hang Seng: -2.54% DAX: -2.64% FTSE 100: -1.9% CAC 40: -2.3% FTSE MIB: -2.56%

“Why pay these grossly inflated asking prices for resale housing when you can rent the same thing for half the monthly cost?”

Has anyone taken a look at the new “your accounts” page at USAA Federal Savings Bank? Looks pretty terrible to me. I checked out the “your spending” page. It double counted everything and triple counted anything paid by credit card.

For example, they counted moving money from my savings account to my checking account as spending. They counted paying my credit card bill as spending. And they counted buying something with a credit card as spending. So, when I bought a pair of sneakers last month with a USAA credit card, it was counted as spending on the credit card, counted again when I paid the credit card bill and counted again because I paid the credit card with money I had moved from savings (where my work checks are deposited) to checking.

I deleted the “your spending” tile. Accounting that brain dead is not useful to see.

More Top Stories:

West Sacramento homeowner uses new state law to stop foreclosure

http://cl.exct.net/?ju=fe591c707761027e7213&ls=fe1b1d777d6c017e741275&m=fefc1172766306&l=fed1157376640678&s=fe35157277640d7d711074&jb=ffcf14&t=

No bubble here in Austin
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2,563 – Single-family homes sold, 32 percent more than April 2012.

$227,250 – Median price for single-family homes, eight percent more than April 2012.

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AUSTIN — There’s no question that right now Austin is a seller’s market. Even with buyers spending tens of thousands of dollars over the asking price, new numbers released Tuesday show Austin home sales are up 32 percent compared to this time last year.

Additionally, homes sales here are the highest they’ve been for nearly a decade, and prices are up eight percent.
This rapid growth has some wondering whether the boom will become a bubble.

Austin real estate is so hot, national housing site Trulia put it on “bubble watch,” calling it the “number two most overvalued market in the country.”

The force behind this trend is job growth and supply and demand.
“What it says is that the Austin market has a very tight inventory,” said Cathy Coneway with the Austin Board of Realtors.

Too many people moving and not enough homes means buyers are making offers far over the asking price and still getting outbid.
“We’re seeing things go on the market, and we could get six to 10 offers on the first day,” said Coneway.

“I’ve been a realtor for 18 years. I’ve worked in two states, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Theresa Bastian of KeepAustinWeirdHomes.com.

But is this boom pushing us toward a housing bubble? The Austin Board of Realtors says “no.”

“Jobs are what drive the housing market. As long as jobs are coming in, we’ll have a hot housing market,” said Coneway.

Coneway also says Austin is avoiding the “housing bubble” because people move here to buy homes for their families, not as investment properties.
The Austin Board of Realtors expects the market to continue to grow for the next several years.

Today there are 72 designated fusionin centers the U.S. (one in each state and 22 in major urban areas.

So where does The Department of Fatherland Security, I mean The Department of Homeland Security keep the comments from this blog? The fusionin center in Arizona or the fusionin center where the comment originated?

Well it is the government, so they probably keep them in the fusionin centers from where they were sent and then spend millions of dollars to figure out that they all went to this blog that is run by a dude in Arizona.

MSM commentators are acting as though Bernanke somehow slipped up yesterday, thereby failing to keep the stock market propped up on a permanently high plateau.

Haven’t these peops ever heard about the Fed’s role of taking away the punchbowl before the party gets out of control?

Gold bugs to markets: “Rumors of my untimely demise are greatly exaggerated.”

What’s the difference between saying an asset class is “in a bubble” and saying it is greatly overvalued?

Despite all the upheaval in the financial asset markets, at least U.S. home sales are still holding up strong.

Home sales continue to climb
By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney May 22, 2013: 10:34 AM ET
Home sales continued to climb in April.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Home sales continued to climb in April, according to the latest reading on the housing recovery from an industry trade group.

The National Association of Realtors reported home sales edged up 0.6% to an annual pace of just under 5 million homes. Compared to a year ago, the pace of sales was up nearly 10%.

The pace of sales would have exceeded that level were it not for tight credit and insufficient houses for sale to meet rising demand, the group said.

“Without these frictions, existing-home sales easily would be well above the 5-million unit pace,” said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist. He said that customer traffic is up 31% compared to a year ago, showing greater demand than actual sales.
…

Dow’s down 50. And this is a panic sell off? Ohhh kay!

Too late now to “sell in May and go away”?

Wuz out for a stroll yesterday morning while visiting an area north of SD and came across this home which obviously was abandoned. I memorized the address out of curiosity over what Zillow would say it was “worth.”

The story on Zillow is pretty laughable. The home last sold for barely north of $600K in July 2007, the very month when Zillow sez it was “worth” $885K. And it went on the market late last year for $400K with no sale, even though the Zilldoes say it is now “worth” $501K. I guess pimping overpriced homes ain’t all that any more…

Zestimates
Value Range 30-day change $/sqft Last updated
Zestimate $501,246 $391K – $722K +$10,615 $176 05/21/2013
Rent Zestimate $2,287/mo $1.6K – $2.7K/mo +$38 $0.81 05/13/2013

Price History
Date Description Price Change $/sqft Source
12/08/2012 Listing removed $400,000 – $141 LETICIA JIMENEZ
11/02/2012 Listed for sale $400,000 -35.1% $141 LETICIA JIMENEZ
07/27/2007 Sold $616,500 23.5% $217 Public Record
05/24/2005 Sold $499,000 31.3% $176 Public Record
11/21/2002 Sold $380,000 – $134 Public Record

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/05/23/tesla-pays-off-government-loan-nine-years-early/

When China catches cold, the rest of the tightly-interconnected global economy is certain to come down with pneumonia.

May 23, 2013, 9:35 am EDT

China PMI Hints Again at Hard Landing
With manufacturing officially in contraction, Asia stocks are reeling

For the first time in seven months, China manufacturing is shrinking — and that has investors running for the exit in Asian stocks and other companies with Chinese exposure.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/the-housing-market-receives-another-impressive-surprise.html/?ref=YF

An article that is about housing boring huh ?

http://www.lpsvcs.com/LPSCorporateInformation/NewsRoom/Pages/20130522.aspx

Delinquencies falling, I’m wondering where they are going…is there an uptick in short sales or foreclosure completions? Or are rising prices allowing some people to simply sell their home to pay off the debt in full?

Full report supposedly in the first week in June.

Delinquencies of 30-90 days (one or two missed payments) now appear to be very close to “normal” at about 3.5% of loans.

Some of today’s housing headlines:

Housing Off to Solid Spring
Wall Street Journal-16 hours ago
The report brought several new signs that the housing market is well on its way to recovery from the housing bust. Homes sold in April were on

Manatee County house sells in 17 minutes. The market’s that hot.
Bradenton Herald-12 hours ago

Housing market balancing out
Schenectady Gazette (blog)-22 hours ago

South Florida’s existing home prices jump by double digits from year …
In-Depth
-MiamiHerald.com-18 hours ago

Median home price hits all-time high
Blog
-Houston Chronicle (blog)-May 21, 2013

Frantic housing market recalls boom times in battered Florida Modesto Bee-4 hours ago
With the peak buying season in full swing, South Florida’s housing market is on fire. Real estate agents complain about needing more to sell.

Flaherty Says Doesn’t See a Bubble in Canadian Housing Market
Bloomberg-14 hours ago
“There’s been some beneficial effect in the retail housing market, particularly the condominium market,” Flaherty told a committee of senators in …

San Antonio’s housing market gaining strength
San Antonio Business Journal (blog)-15 hours ago
Houston-based Metrostudy, a leading residential research firm, has released its latest newsletter highlighting San Antonio’s housing market.

Luxembourg Housing Market Sours
NuWire Investor-1 hour ago
Data show that Luxembourg’s residential real estate market has had a good run over the past three years, but the latest numbers show that …

Better Chicago housing market getting sellers off the fence
Chicago Tribune-13 hours ago
Forty percent fewer homes were available for sale in the nine-county Chicago area in April than a year ago, leading to higher sales prices. That …

Why the Housing Market Won’t Drive the Recovery
CNBC.com-4 hours ago
Those who keep close track of the ins and outs of the housing market know the names of Case and Shiller for the monthly home price index …

Why did Al Gore buy a house in Montecito which is near the ocean so global warming will flood it ?

You can walk to the ocean from this house, backs right off Olive mill rd

address is Old country lane ## if I remember right.

Some of the most expensive real estate in the WORLD??? Nothing to see here…..

Real estate prices’ increase in Rio and Sao Paulo among the highest in the world

http://en.mercopress.com/2013/04/02/real-estate-prices-increase-in-rio-and-sao-paulo-among-the-highest-in-the-world

The latest Knight Frank’s Global Real Estate Index released this month has Brazil ranking No. 3 in the world and No. 1 in the Americas for rising home prices. Only ridiculously expensive Hong Kong and Dubai, which are not countries, have seen prices rise more. So in fact, no single country has seen its housing prices increase as much as Brazil.

…Average price per square foot in São Paulo was 6,806 Real or around 3.403 dollars. Rio was even worse and has become the most expensive city in Brazil when consider square foot pricing. In Rio, it’s over 8,300 Real or around 4,000 dollars. In 2012 average price per square foot in New York City was 1.294 dollars.

But despite this spiraling of prices FIPE says there is no real estate bubble in Brazil.

By the popular US definition, Brazilian real estate is not in a bubble. Its banks do not trade in risky mortgage backed securities. Housing loans are not packaged up into sophisticated investment products for hedge funds and the bulge bracket banks to play around with. Moreover down-payments are actually required, unlike in the U.S. where sub-prime clients were able to get into a house with little or no money down, leading to a foreclosure crisis. Brazil is not even close to foreclosure crisis.

Strangely enough, despite the higher prices and red hot demand, many of Brazil’s real estate developers are struggling. Homebuilder Rossi Residential reported a 2012 loss of 206 million Real (102 million dollars) and PDG Realty did even worse, losing 2.17 billion Real, close to a billion dollars last year.

Rising material and labor costs are some of the reasons for the loss, though a lot of it seems inexplicable.

So, the the Great Recession and the ensuing bailouts were a result of two factors:

Well, the government and financial sector knows this too. But there’s big money in prolonging the imploded system, for politicians and for the FIRE sector. So, below is a report on undermining Part 1 - separating consumer deposits from the financial company’s gambling operations - see below:

Volcker: Multiple Bank Regulators Is ‘Recipe for Getting Nothing Done’
Wall Street Journal
May 22, 2013, 3:22 PM
By David Wessel

Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, says the U.S. has too many agencies charged with the supervision and regulation of banks.

“It’s a recipe for getting nothing done,” he said at a forum at George Washington University inaugurating a scholarship in his name for law students pursuing careers in financial regulation.

“This really is a disaster,” Mr. Volcker said in an on-stage interview conducted by Donald Kohn, a former Fed vice chairman.

Mr. Volcker said he was particularly frustrated that three years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank law, regulators still haven’t agreed on a way to implement a still-controversial provision, known as “The Volcker Rule,” which is designed to force commercial banks to stay away from trading for their own accounts.

– “Realtime Economics”, Wall Street Journal

And, in undermining Part 2 - Lenders being forced to retain repayment risk - we have the House Financial Services Committee “expressing concern” (i.e. totally rejecting) the Qualified Mortgage (QM) regulation which requires them to see if the lender can repay a loan, if they want to sell it to the government (note: FHA is drafting separate rules).

They’re both hooked on the opium of OPM.

Members of the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee expressed concerns at a hearing today that the Qualified Mortgage rule mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act will reduce access to credit that qualified borrowers need to buy homes.

Banks and credit unions have already pulled back on extending mortgage credit and have tightened underwriting standards in response to the financial crisis. The Qualified Mortgage (QM) rule may well exacerbate this reduction in access to credit.

http://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=334810

Unsurprisingly, Chairman Hensarling gets the vast majority of his money from the FIRE sector, by a wide margin.

Jeb Hensarling money contributors: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=2012&cid=N00024922&type=I

“Sales of new single-family homes rose 2.3% in April, and prices climbed to ***record high*** levels, offering strong proof the sector’s rebound trend is intact. The Commerce Department said on Thursday sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to rise to 425,000-unit rate last month.

The median sales price for a new home was $271,600, up 14.9% from a year ago, and the ***highest on record*** since the Commerce Department began tracking the data in the early 1960s. Home prices are rising across the country and are helping consumers and the economy.”

Oh but I know, I know housing demand is off by 1000% according to Housing Analyst.

Guys, I found a picture of 2Banana’s car/bumper sticker: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BDlYlH3CYAAK5pk.jpg:large

Cali Forecloser Starts Up 13%

http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebconsumer-attorney-service/california-foreclosure/prweb10746773.htm

The Plunge Protection Team did a great job of rescuing Wall Street bacon today…

http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

debt financed wealth redistribution without representation.

gen x take it back from the boomers…lolz.

why worry about that when they can just saddle those too young to vote or even the yet to be born with even more debt.

I wonder if having a gun would have helped this woman? Nah. I’m constantly told by my liberal betters that guns are bad and gun free zones are the way to go since NOBODY ever deters criminals with a gun.

JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Ore. (CBS Seattle) — An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts.

Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday. “Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?…….Police say Bellah choked the woman and sexually assaulted her. He was arrested by Oregon State Police following the incident.”

Why are there so many lawyers(sounds like ‘liars’) posting on The Housing Bubble Blog?

What happens when a liberal Democrat president runs a car company that employs unionized workers to build the cars?

The wheels literally fall off.

CHICAGO, May 22 (Xinhua) — General Motors Corporation said it is recalling nearly 20,000 new Cadillac SRX SUVs for faulty wheel lug nuts, according to a Detroit News report on Wednesday. The Detroit automaker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration it is recalling 18,871 2013 SRX SUVs in the United States and nearly 1,000 in Canada over concerns that a wheel could eventually fall off.

GM has been investigating the issue of loosening wheel nuts since October 2012. In March and April, GM received six reports for noise and other issues caused by loose lug nuts. But according to GM spokesman Alan Adler, the automaker has no reports of wheels falling off.”

“Why pay a massively inflated price for depreciating asset like a house for which your costs double due to financing?

Red Bone - Redbone - Come and Get Your Loan - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7eloXr2iak - 223k -

The Outlaws - Green Grass and High Tides (Lyrics) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boR0mqkFDic - 213k -

Green grass and high tides forever

or

Free homes and Deadbeats forever

In a place you only dream of
Where your house is always free
Silver stages, golden curtains
Filled my head, plain as can be
As a rainbow grew around the sun
All the stars above who died came from
Somewhere beyond the scene you see
These lovely people paid just for me

Now if I let you see this place
Where sob stories all ring true
Will you let me past your face
To see what’s really you
It’s not for me I ask this question
As though I were a king
For you have to stop paying, believe, and whine
Before the burst of bailouts can take you there

Free homes and Deadbeats forever
Castles of stone, souls and glory
Loan papers say we adore you
As taxpayers bow and pay for you

Those who don’t believe me
Find your loans and let them see
Those who do, believe and know
We’ll always live for free
Time and time again I’ve thanked them
For a peace of mind
That helped me find myself
And loan papers robo-signed
That enchants you there

Free homes and Deadbeats forever
Castles of stone, souls and glory
Loan papers say we adore you
As taxpayers bow and pay for you

Yeah, they pay just for you

Lovely:

The lady across the street, who finagled a free house from a dying old lady (after abandoning the one next to me), is now suing the penny-loafer/g-string guy because water from his sprinkler occasionally drifts into her yard depending on the wind.

“We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

My, that is troubling.

They need to put that dude in a cell with Jodi Arias and make him take a shower.

May 23, 2013, 10:04 a.m. EDT
Mortgage rates rise for third straight week
By Steve Goldstein

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Mortgage rates rose for the third straight week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.59% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending May 23, 2013, up from last week when it averaged 3.51%. The 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.77% with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.69%. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.63% with an average 0.5 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.62%. The 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 2.55% this week with an average 0.4 point, the same as last week. “Fixed-rates moved up for the third consecutive week, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage about a quarter-percentage point higher than three weeks ago. While this may slow some of the refinance momentum, rates are nonetheless low and home-buyer affordability high, which should further aid home sales and construction in coming weeks,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist.

May 23, 2013, 12:16 p.m. EDT
Bernanke to Congress: You’re killing us
Commentary: Fed chief tries to use bully pulpit one more time
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“Fiscal policy at the federal level has become significantly more restrictive,” he said. “In particular, the expiration of the payroll tax cut, the enactment of tax increases, the effects of the budget caps on discretionary spending, the onset of the sequestration, and the declines in defense spending for overseas military operations are expected, collectively, to exert a substantial drag on the economy this year.”

The Fed chairman once again called on Congress to re-prioritize its deficit-cutting efforts to allow some fiscal stimulus in the short term and a more sustainable balance in the long term.

“The objectives of effectively addressing longer-term fiscal imbalances and of minimizing the near-term fiscal headwinds facing the economic recovery are not incompatible,” he said.

Let’s keep in mind that Bernanke is not a Democrat, liberal or otherwise. The former Princeton professor, who was appointed to the Fed by George W. Bush and briefly served as Bush’s chief economic adviser, has always been considered a Republican.

But he is first and foremost an economist, and for him the economics of our current situation are clear: High unemployment is our biggest problem and must be the primary target of policy.

“High rates of unemployment and underemployment are extraordinarily costly: Not only do they impose hardships on the affected individuals and their families, they also damage the productive potential of the economy,” Bernanke lectured lawmakers this week.

The best way to reduce the deficit, this economist made clear, is to put people back to work.

“The loss of output and earnings associated with high unemployment also reduces government revenues and increases spending on income-support programs, thereby leading to larger budget deficits and higher levels of public debt than would otherwise occur,” Bernanke said, not for the first time.

The Fed chairman’s admonitions to Congress came as lawmakers continued their chicanery over the federal budget.
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