Bits Bucket for July 19, 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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“Stand Your Ground applies to school bus fight, appeals court rules”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/fl-school-bus-stand-your-ground-20130717,0,5851116.story
Trayvon Zimmerman.
Speaking of Trayvon Zimmerman, somebody got a hold of photo shop and made it happen:
LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aplq2k8Pkdo
“Why buy a house at these massively inflated prices? Rent for half the monthly cost of buying. Buy later after prices crater for 70% less.”
a lot of people did buy for 70% less in the last crash. they are now selling those homes to people chasing the market for a nice profit.
Maybe so in AZ. I see higher prices on the same old houses we saw for sale five years ago but they’re just sitting. Mostly rental caliber property (cheap and in need of lots of work unless you like living in filth)
agreed Hard hit area like vegas and phx prices were down 70%.
Coastal properties in CA are still ridiculously overpriced.
Makes sense considering houses depreciate.
I’ve been waiting for affordable Silly Valley prices for over 30 years!
Really? They collapsed in the mid 90’s.
And they’ll collapse again.
They were NOT affordable in the 1990s even if cheaper.
And they’ll collapse again. Sit tight.
70% less
Dat Too Lo
I laugh when I see bulldozer material in bad neighborhoods in CA central valley and they still want > 100k for the shanties.
Sum Ting Wong!
Im so ashamed to admit that I burst out laughing when I read that story about the Korean pilots names.
BTW, the prankster said the other pilots name was “Wie Tu Lo”
Shame on me.
Shame on me
Same here. I am a grown a$$ man in my 30’s. I still love these kind of silly childish stuff. Hope I didn’t offend anyone.
I heard part of the audio on the radio. The female broadcaster clearly was not listening to herself.
Ho Lee Fook
Wie Too Lo
Sum Ting Wong
Those were the pilots according to a local TV station in SF.
I don’t think it’s so much that they “want” 100k, it’s that they probably owe at least 100k on the mortgage and can’t scrap up much of their own money to get out of the house. Most of these people would’ve been smart to walk away in 2008 and declare BK if need be. They’d be more than half way back to a completely clean credit report if they’d done that. And if they were savvy they could have a very high FICO as well, even if their 2008-era FICO was complete crap.
I don’t care if people say I’m promoting deadbeat behavior. What I’m promoting is facing the music earlier rather than later and not letting your life circle the drain forever so you can pay back a bank that was part of an unsustainable, unethical, and arguably immoral system. It’s not like banks were bearing real risk, it’s not like they did due diligence on borrowers, and it’s certainly not like they didn’t know appraisals and inspections in 02-08 were full of sh**.
you guys are a bunch of rascist!
you forgot Bang Ding Ow.
I am reading these names again and I am literally laughing out loud myself. I think I am a horrible a person. It’s Friday though….
I keep imagining the astonished faces of a couple o’ college kids who (I speculate) punked them on the names, watching in disbelief that they actually sneaked those names through.
I heard part of the audio on the radio. The female broadcaster clearly was not listening to herself.
Perhaps Anchorman was closer to a documentary?
I’m imagining Bart Simpson on the phone to the TV station.
Selling?
Housing I Demand is at 17 year lows……… and falling.
my rent is going up at the next lease renewal. now i have to rent at 51 percent of the cost of buying before i can buy later for 70 percent less.
So that means you have piles of excess cash at the end of every month….. nice
’so much cash, gotta keep it in hefty bags’ - Ice T
What seems to have been lost during the first housing bubble is that renting is an excellent way to build net worth. Most people forget that buying and maintaining a house is typically much more expensive for a few decades, than is renting. And if the purchase price is really expensive, net worth (excluding primary residence) might not ever recover.
Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m a big fan of owning. However, only at the right price, where I can credibly build wealth and not be house poor for decades.
Neither owning nor renting are nirvana. Both have pro’s and con’s.
Re-post from last week, research shows (researched by real researchers, not by Suzanne) that homeownership does not make people happier:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/realestate/homeownership-the-key-to-happiness.html?pagewanted=all&
Re-post from last week, research shows (researched by real researchers, not by Suzanne) that homeownership does not make people happier:
It certainly makes you poorer. This we know.
Not if you go with low-e double-insulated windows w/argon gas, and R-35 insulation where possible.
Our average electric bill is around $50 per month. We are happier than you!! -
And it would have been cheaper for you to pay for the extra BTU’s.
Not if you go with low-e double-insulated windows w/argon gas, and R-35 insulation where possible.
Our average electric bill is around $50 per month. We are happier than you!! -
____________
Yep! My house is over 4000 sq ft and electric is $80-100.
We too have top notch windows and insulation. The house was also positioned to get the most efficient use of winter sun and deciduous trees were planted to provide shade in the summer at peak hours when the sun is most intense. Even on a day like today where the temp is in the low 90s and sunny, the A/C barely turns on.
In the winter there are no drafts since the house is sealed so tightly. On a sunny day, even if the temp is in the 20s or 30s, the heater barely has to run.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
LOLZ
“Detroit on Thursday became the largest American city to file for bankruptcy, a historic move sure to ignite complex battles in coming months with creditors, pensioners and unions who stand to lose significantly as the state tries to rescue a city whose failure Gov. Rick Snyder said was 60 years in the making.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20130718/NEWS01/307180107/
That should cause stock prices to double.
DETROIT - A poster child for the end result of Progressive Governance. For all of you kids watching at home, this is what happens when the big bad progressive parasite kills the host.
I have said numerous times that progressive are nothing of the sort, Detroit is the future they desire for the rest of the country…In their opinion we’ve had it far too good for far too long.
Time to vote progressives out of office at the federal, state and local levels before they finish having their way with us. Vote in non-authoritarian, non progressives from any party of your choosing…Please…
Actually, it’s a poster child for what happens when you try to have “free trade” with countries that don’t do free trade.
Unions are parasites. Like all parasites they eventually kill the host.
Odd that Germany is such a manufacturing powerhouse, since they give unions seats on their BoDs.
“Detroit on Thursday became the largest American city to file for bankruptcy…”
I was listening to a version of this story on NPR this Friday morning on the Diane Rehm show. The two experts attending were professional mouth pieces when the dialog turned to the inner city ghetto. They had all sorts of “work-around” words to avoid saying, welfare, unemployable, food stamps, etc., a true twist of the spoken language; they must take a course to learn these keywords.
But what I did take away from the show was retired pensioners might be cut loose, but the ghetto gravy was untouchable.
Here’s the audio clip:
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-07-19/friday-news-roundup-domestic
NYC has been all but “technically” bankrupt at least twice.
Google the 1975 NYC bailout. The seeds of entitlement were planted then.
The future belongs to Lucky Ducky:
“The economic recovery of summer 2013 is playing out in an all-too-familiar way for poor and middle-class Americans: Gas prices are up, growth is slowing, and there still aren’t nearly enough new jobs to employ the almost 12 million people seeking work.
An improving housing market and rising stock prices appear to have done little to increase the take-home pay of the typical U.S. worker. And while the economy continues to heal faster than that of almost any other Western nation, evidence remains strong that the recovery has done little to boost the fortunes of the people in the vast economic middle.”
http://m.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/middle-class-still-left-behind-in-recovery/2013/07/18/a408b174-ef9f-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html
You silly goose, America is about assets not income!
(Cato Institute spokesperson)
America is about assets not income!
And wide stance in public restrooms.
>You silly goose, America is about assets not income!
Yep, because most incomes are worth less every year.
Hope and Change:
“Its population, which peaked at 1.85 million in 1950, has declined to about 700,000, according to U.S. Census data. Manufacturing jobs fell from about 296,000 in 1950 to fewer than 27,000 in 2011. About 60,000 properties in the city, or 15 percent of all parcels, were barren and at least 78,000 buildings were vacant, including 38,000 deemed potentially dangerous”
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-18/detroit-becomes-biggest-u-s-city-to-file-for-bankruptcy.html
America doesn’t need all those low-skilled manufacturing jobs. We will lead the world by pumping out STEM majors in massive quantities, and then deregulating all the industries, and getting rid of minimum wage. FORWARD!
…and if they aren’t smart enough, well they can just east cake!
Forward:
“The number of workers holding full-time positions fell in the U.S. in June as part-timers hit a record after rising for three straight months … The number of part-time employees in June rose by 360,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, based on its survey of households. Full-time workers fell by 240,000, erasing much of the gains from April and May. The share of Americans who work part-time for economic reasons, meaning they can’t find full-time jobs or because their hours have been cut, is 78 percent higher than in December 2007, when the 18-month recession began.”
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-19/fed-ponders-part-time-shift-as-obamacare-role-questioned.html
The trend isn’t your friend
Dept of Labor revising full-time employment status to 30 hours per week in 3, 2, 1…
Wal-mart cutting workers to 29 hours in 3…2…1
LOL, yes. Darn, those unintended consequences!
The number of part-time employees in June rose by 360,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, based on its survey of households. Full-time workers fell by 240,000
Booyah! More SNAP recipients!
Thank goodness we’re in a recovery.
VIVA OBAMACARE!!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R40I20100928
You are a hopeless masochist.
More Hope and Change:
“The Chicago public school district announced Thursday that it was laying off about 2,100 teachers and support staff — a figure more than twice as large as the teachers union head was expecting and one the district blamed on the Legislature’s failure to reach a deal on pension reform.”
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Chicago-Public-Schools-announce-layoff-of-2-110-4673772.php
If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon:
“At least six people were arrested Thursday night in San Bernardino after rocks and bottles were thrown and officers and pedestrians were attacked in a protest against the George Zimmerman trial verdict.
Protesters ended up at a Jack in the Box restaurant near Waterman Avenue and Baseline Street and began hurling rocks and bottles at passing vehicles and officers who arrived at the scene … Officers gave orders to disperse. At that point, groups of people took off running and began attacking and robbing pedestrians, according to police.
Police late Thursday were still monitoring roving groups of people in the streets.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-6-arrested-zimmerman-protest-san-bernardino-20130718,0,3483456.story
All the more reason for pedestrians to shoot attackers.
“At least six people were arrested Thursday night in San Bernardino after rocks and bottles were thrown ”
Weakest. riot. ever.
So basically all that hoo-haw about widespread riots if Zimmerman were found not guilty was a figment of the warped right wing mind. As was the idea that the jury would be too scared to find him not guilty.
No. The hoo-hah was based onpeople tweeting that they would riot.
A sample…
http://twitchy.com/2012/04/12/twitter-lynch-mob-predicts-riot-if-zimmerman-is-acquitted/
I know facts to a liberal are like krypton to Superman, but come on
Tweets are facts?
Damn, that explains EVERYTHING about you.
You HAVE NO CLUE!
Why didn’t the tweeters riot? Too lazy?
Racists tend to be like that.
I received a 30 day move out notice from a tenant who was on MTM after passing the 1 yr mark on her lease. That was on Wednesday.
Last night, after screening all the responses on CL, I met the person I thought would be best qualified for the spot. He agreed to it at 8% more than I had been getting previously (I still think it’s slightly underpriced, but I do that so I can get & keep no-hassle tenants). Going to ink the paperwork tonight & get his deposit.
So, the report from Greektown Baltimore is, you can increase the rent and still get multiple responses to a non-fancy/standard (but well maintained) rowhome.
Liberace,
Where u giggin’ tonite?
(I still think it’s slightly underpriced, but I do that so I can get & keep no-hassle tenants).
————————————————————————-
How long does it take new land lords to learn this lesson?
Ive tried to explain this value to many of them but I think the dollar $igns in their eyes blind them to the logic.
Same thing with low bid/quality repairs. If you call me to finish a job the previous contractor did not complete/ did a cheap job on…; its going to cost you the same amount OR MORE than if you called me first.
Why?
Because I have to “unfuk” the previous nonsense before I can do it correctly.
Cue Ben Franklin.
Using cheapo materials makes no sense, same with the cheapest labor. Additionally, it often makes no sense to do piecemeal repairs, like only doing a bathroom or only doing a kitchen. Better to set aside a month or two when the whole house is empty and take a more long-range approach to things, pulling all the 50-60 yr old pipe and replacing with PVC or PEX, etc.
A flipper would never do such work to the systems of a house. I guess they hope to find a dumb buyer. I see a lot of 50+ yr old houses sell for too-high prices and it’s pretty obvious the electrical/plumbing is also 50 yrs old. “But honey, did you see the french door stainless steel fridge?!”
Better for whom? The flipper who’s going to take the money and run?
They call it “builder grade” for a reason.
But that’s precisely what you paid an inflated price for…. “builder grade”.
You wold starve in my city. Cheap labor and materials are the rule.
NOBODY pays for quality. Not even the rich, who stiff their contractors as often as possible.
Anybody want to guess what the unintended consequences are?
I received a 30 day move out notice from a tenant who was on MTM after passing the 1 yr mark on her lease.
Do the numbers still work if your tenants are moving every year? (It’s not clear if she is moving in month 13 or if she had been there longer.)
I would think you’d want tenants to stay for at least 2 or 3 years for the hassle to be worth it.
People don’t move every year. She had been there a yr, but the lease defaults to MTM after the yr is up, thus only had to give me 30 days next rent due date. She gave it to me on the due date.
If tenants are good and want to re-up, I usually lower the rent a token amount, say, $50-100/month. It depends how good they are and how confident I feel at the time. In 2010 I felt like the rental market was soft, so I would offer closer to 100, now I can get away with less.
I basically never have anything sitting vacant. It’s much more common for me to be volunteering to store some boxes in my garage for a tenant or to help them move mattress/box spring out on Sat morning so I can get the new person in on a Sat. afternoon. I usually know well ahead of time that someone won’t renew. And even if it’s just the 30 day min., I stay up to date on what prices will work and don’t try to jerk people around to get an extra couple percent. Quite the opposite, I always ask people if there’s anything I can do. That said, I screen out bad credit, legal issues, and psychological problems before I consider anyone. If you have a revolving door of losers, it would be annoying, even though you might be able to get a little more money from higher rents.
I’ve only ever had to go to court on an eviction 1 time and after court they voluntarily moved out, I never had to pay a sheriff’s fee or file a writ. They were a couple headed towards divorce and the guy refused to pay the entire rent (saying his wife should pay half). The wife eventually paid it voluntarily after court since they were both on the lease and she just wanted to be done with it. (I could’ve taken the payment before court, but then I wouldn’t have been able to get a judgment for eviction. I just wanted them out, so couldn’t take partial payment.)
You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Being a LL or a flipper requires diligence, experience and knowledge.
Without ALL 3, you will get burned.
This was on the local news a couple of days ago. It is worth clicking the link, scrolling down about 50 stories on the Top stories list and watching the interview with this victim (make sure you have Kleenex available). Pretty typical victim for this area, she bought in the mid 90s for what would have been $150k house, refied during the boom (probably $200k-$350k cash out), stopped paying 4 years ago because “the bank told her to stop making payments” for a loan modification (good thing the bank didn’t tell these people to stop making payments and go throw rocks through your neighbors windows to get a loan modification or there would be a lot of broken windows in this country). Now she got a sale notice and she had no inclination what was going on.
Woman’s foreclosure highlights need to be proactive
By Chuck Weber/CBS 12
TEQUESTA– Gail Zamore is fighting foreclosure, even though her home has just been sold.
Zamore knew her Tequesta home was in foreclosure for more than 3 years, but she says the sale notice came two days after it already happened.
“I had no inclination what was going on,” said Zamore. “Nothing. So you can imagine how I felt.”
Zamore says when she tried for a loan modification.. the bank told her to stop making payments.
She did, but Zamore says she never heard back from the bank.
Brian Korte, a West Palm Beach attorney specializing in foreclosures, said this was common several years back.
“She should have saved the payments, not spent the money,” said Korte. “Because if they ultimately turned her down for a modification, she could have caught up on her mortgage payments across the board.”
Korte says procedures have since improved. His advice?
“Get paperwork in early,” said Korte. “Follow up very cleanly and clearly with the bank in writing. That way if there are any disputes, you’ve got a piece of paper. A phone call is not going to protect you against the banks.”
Zamore says she wants to keep fighting, until she exhausts all her legal remedies.
Woman’s foreclosure highlights need to be proactive
http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/ - 432k
It is worth clicking the link, scrolling down about 50 stories on the Top stories list and watching the interview with this victim (make sure you have Kleenex available).
Agreed—and thx for the link.
I take this as a very hopeful sign: banks _are_ starting to clean up some of the older inventory that it looked as though they might never move on! That’s awesome.
Wow, she sure plays the victim card well, for someone who hasn’t made a mortgage payment in four years.
Did you hear the sense of entitlement dripping from her voice while saying that he had _asked_ for a modification, but had not _received_ one?? Of _course_ she deserved to receive one—she was _entitled_ to one!!
Why didn’t she just use her cash-out to buy another house at the bottom of the recent crash?
I wonder the same thing.
even more hope and change:
‘portland, me — heroin, which has long flourished in the nation’s big urban centers, has been making an alarming comeback in the smaller cities and towns of new england.
the city, like many others across the country, is experiencing ‘an inordinate number of heroin overdoses,’ said vern malloch, assistant chief of the portland police department. ‘we’ve got overdose deaths in the bathrooms of fast-food restaurants. this is an increase like we haven’t seen in many years.’
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/us/heroin-in-new-england-more-abundant-and-deadly.html
Nor a surprise since Portland ME is a bit of a slummy town in a steep decline.
Why is this a problem?
Is there is shortage of junkies?
BADDA BING!
Beat me to it!
(I have no sympathy for junkies)
This was my thought too.
Heroin is too dangerous and dealing with needles and spoons is too messy. They should mix up a batch of “fire ass lean” like Obama’s son did.
This post right here is gold. Gold!
http://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0513/discovery_3/extraction_reports/report1.pdf
MSG 328[incoming]: You know somebody with some 38?
MSG 329[outgoing]: Yea 150
MSG 340[outgoing]: U wanna share a .380 w/–?
In between the last two were some rough price negotiations. You can read for yourself above.
Ya, this kid was pure as the driven slush.
That said, he certainly didn’t deserve to get shot, but you can read it and get a feel for the level of general thuggery or wannabe thuggery around this kid and see it doesn’t match up with the version of “sweet innnocent little boy” we’re getting spoonfed.
It’s odd that no codeine was found in Trayvon’s system. All that was found was traces of THC.
So all this talk that Trayvon was whacked out on sizzurp is just a bunch of bunk.
trayvon martin was strung out. he had purchased the other ingredients to make a batch of lean, arizona watermelon punch and skittles, and was on his way to his father’s house to mix it up and get high. george zimmerman got in his way and delayed him from getting high on some ‘fire ass lean’, so he attacked him.
Obama was right. He was just like St. Trayvonn 35 years ago as he was in the CHOOM GANG.
“So all this talk that Trayvon was whacked out on sizzurp is just a bunch of bunk.”
Try to keep up….
He went to the store to buy the ingredients. He hadn’t made it yet. He was going to make it once he got home.
It’s really not that hard to figure this out.
So…he WASN’T high on sizzurp. But now THAT’S why he attacked Zimmerman. Because he was sober and grouchy.
Try to keep up, indeed. The story changes with the wind.
No chance at all he was just a teen going to eat some candy and drink a soda? Occam’s razor, and all that?
He’d already outraced the fat cracker. Why didn’t he go on home to do the drug he was jonesing for? Why would he decide to wait and ambush someone he’d already outraced?
Doesn’t really add up.
Didn’t Detroit receive a massive bailout in the aftermath of the Fall 2008 panic?
Detroit: How the Motor City went bust
Detroit has become the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy. State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday asked a federal judge permission to place the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. (July 18)
Nancy Kaffer, Stephen Henderson and Matt Helms , Detroit Free Press 6:27 a.m. EDT July 19, 2013
Story Highlights
* The city’s unemployment rate has nearly tripled since 2000
* Roughly 78,000 city structures have been abandoned
* Bankruptcy filing more than 100,000 creditors, more than $1B in estimated liabilities
DETROIT — Detroit, the once-thriving Midwest metropolis that gave birth to the nation’s auto industry, is now the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.
Kevyn Orr, the city’s appointd emergency manager, formally sought federal bankruptcy court protection on Thursday after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, approved the filing, deeming the decision necessary “as a last resort to return this great city to financial and civic health for its residents and taxpayers.”
“I know many will see this as a low point in the city’s history,” Snyder wrote in a letter authorizing the bankruptcy filing. “If so, I think it will also be the foundation of the city’s future — a statement I cannot make in confidence absent giving the city a chance for a fresh start, without burdens of debt it cannot hope to fully pay.”
…
Detroit’s 500,000 registered voters delivered over a million votes for Chicago Jesus in the last two elections, therefore Detroit will be bailed out.
Some have blamed the decline of the US auto industry for the decline of Detroit. But you have to ask why, if the decline of the US steel industry hit Pittsburgh harder, how has Pittsburgh managed to survive, turn things around and thrive? Perhaps Detroit could examine what Pittsburgh did and didn’t do and follow the same model?
It seems, as per Slim, Pittsburgh had multiple streams of income upon which to rely. Of course, they’re now down a stream so who knows how long the remaining streams will sustain them.
I’m curious too about the state’s involvement. I don’t know how these things work, but why not just cut Detroit loose and let the city handle things and work it out with their creditors? Is it something in the state’s constitution that says it has to intervene? Does the state guarantee the city’s debts or something? Because it seems to me that this is a no win situation for the state. No matter what Snyder does, he’s gonna be dissed. Can’t he tell Detroit what another Michigander, Gerald Ford, told NY: Drop Dead?
“Pittsburgh had multiple streams of income upon which to rely. Of course, they’re now down a stream so who knows how long the remaining streams will sustain them.”
How do I find Slim’s post? (I do recall her posting something about Pittsburgh, but it wasn’t very flattering, I think she called it Sh*tsburgh, if memory serves.) I’m curious what the income streams for Pittsburgh are and which stream went down.
Also, would there be any comparison to what happened to Jefferson County, AL:
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/07/detroit_now_in_bankruptcy_coul.html
I hate that investment banks are so involved. Really, ‘eff ‘em, let them take the loss if they were stupid enough to make a bad investment. That’s the way it goes. What’re they gonna do, foreclose on Detroit? LOL, I’d love to see it.
“I’ll buy THAT for a dollar”.
From yesterday’s bucket.
Down = steel
Up = health care/medical device/pharma, higher ed.
(she said healthcare, but from my own understanding they’ve specifically built up medical device and pharma)
Obviously the revenue stream that went down for PGH was Steel. PGH had huge steel mills, including Bethlehem Steel. Specialized glass was also a big sector, I assume that is going/gone as well. PPG and Westinghouse were big players in PGH a few decades ago, the buildings are still prominent downtown near the 3 rivers’ convergence.
PGH has since developed a strong healthcare/hospital sector. UPMC is a world class hospital. I really don’t know what else is going on. I doubt many Pitt or Carnegie Mellon grads stick around all that long.
The intern I’m “entertaining” for the summer (nephew of a client) is from PGH and will be a senior at Penn State in the fall. He won’t be going back to PGH either. I’m trying to talk him out of L school. We also have a paralegal who is originally from Pitt and keeps turning down big scholarhips to Pitt Law because Pitt doesn’t exactly have a strong pipeline to DC or NYC jobs and it’s not exactly a cheap school even with scholarship.
Well Pittsburgh has the second highest proportion of lawyers in the country next to DC. And Pitt and Duquesne churns out an overabundance of law school grads every year - many more than the market can absorb. What’s interesting was that I recall reading that one of the two admitted more female law students than males.
Detroit failed for one reason: UNONS
And UNIONS too.
Don’t forget ONIONS!
What about BUNIONS?
Funions?
Larry-yuns?
Detroit failed because the Big Three made effing crappy as hell cars and got their ass handed to them by Japan and Europe car makers, who had better paid UNIONS at that.
Their initial response was to outsource, thus killing the tax base from lack of jobs and industry.
…and they STILL make crappy cars.
Which one lost the greatest amount of white population?
Its not “magic” that allows white people to do the great and vast things of constructive value they do; its the clean, safe environments.
You can’t function as a white person in a hell hole; thats why they leave, and any nonwhite person with some sense and ability leaves too.
Real Estate is not “location,location,location”, its, people,people, people.
and any nonwhite person with some sense and ability leaves too.
I’ll see if I can find it but I remember a USA Today article from a few years ago that stating this trend…
That didn’t take long:
Blacks’ exodus reshapes cities.
Taxes are high, rent is high, groceries are expensive,
This is “The Plan” old black folks talked about….
White men (in this case liberal white men) will drive the blacks out of prime locations.
That didn’t take long:
Blacks’ exodus reshapes cities.
Interesting article. Both the suburbs and the cities become more diverse.
I wouldn’t say P’burgh is thriving. Allegheny county is one of the oldest counties (demographically) in the US. You’d have to go to certain parts of FL to find older people. PA is one of those states that doesn’t income tax SS or veteran’s benefits.
BTW, I like the ‘burgh a lot and have written about it here before. I think it will survive but wouldn’t bet on it being a mecca for young educated peeps. You can say that about 80% of PA, once you go beyond Chester County or above Bux/Mont it ain’t lookin’ good. At least the property taxes aren’t insane like upstate NY which is completely done.
I should also point out that PGH’s mayor is under investigation or indictment (don’t have time to look up which it is). I believe his name is Luke Ravenstahl.*
* Funny to me that the mayor of PGH’s name includes the rival NFL franchise’s team name.
Unless the eviro crazies get their way, PA could be a mini-TX with regards to natural gas. There is a ton of money underground in the state. Only question will sanity prevail or will the nutjob enviros prevail?
I think it will survive but wouldn’t bet on it being a mecca for young educated peeps.
Actually, you’re quite mistaken about that. This is a few years old, but probably still valid.
Pitt Report: Pittsburgh’s Young Workforce Among Top 5 Most Educated in U.S.; Almost Half Hold a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher
Plus, Pittsburgh takes number one spot for percentage of the 25-to-34 set with graduate and professional degrees, tied with Washington, D.C., according to Pitt’s University Center of Social and Urban Research
http://www.news.pitt.edu/news/pitt-report-pittsburghs-young-workforce-among-top-5-most-educated-us-almost-half-hold-bachelors
On the other hand, it is a somewhat small city with a very large number of students. There are probably a lot of kids who go to college there and would like to stay, but can’t find jobs. Thus it could get a reputation as a bad place for young educated people.
I grew up outside of Pittsburgh. It may always have been a bit more economically diverse than Detroit. Coal mining was always big in the area and I don’t think that declined when steel did. Steel was out-competed by newer technology in Japan after WW2. And it is possible that the decline in the steel industry was a bit slower than autos or earlier. I haven’t studied that, so I can’t say for certain.
Alcoa is headquartered in Pittsburgh. The glass industry developed in Pittsburgh because of natural resources. I don’t think there was a rapid decline in that industry. Carnegie Mellon started software and robotics programs at least 20 years ago, so there is a bit of that industry there, too.
Population stagnated in Pittsburgh, but the city did not see the rapid decline that Detroit did. It is possible that climate and terrain have influenced people to stay in the city rather than push outward. The climate is a bit milder than Detroit or Chicago. And it is substantially hillier than either one. Perhaps that somewhat limited outward development as compared to flatter cities so that Pittsburgh proper was able to retain more of its population.
>And it is possible that the decline in the steel industry was a bit slower than autos or earlier. I haven’t studied that, so I can’t say for certain.
I have.
Steel’s decline began in the 1970s. Car maker’s in the 1980s.
Part of it was “dumping”, part was lack of investment in better manufacturing systems, part was early “globalization”.
“Steel’s decline began in the 1970s. Car maker’s in the 1980s.”
So timing may have been a factor. Pittsburgh may have benefitted from having to adapt earlier.
A few small factors may have been enough to make the difference in trajectory. A steep decline is harder to adjust to than a gradual decline. And there may be feedback loops that affected Detroit more than other cities.
How Detroit went bust:
Slowly, then all of a sudden.
Question for experts here
I am interested in a house which is market in South NJ. As far as I know, the owner/defaulter is living in the house for almost 3 years without paying any mortgage payment to bank. The deal with the bank is perhaps that you keep the house maintained and you move out when the bank is able to sell the house.
The house was listed for 229K few months back and I offered the listing agent 229k but he said that there is another offer but the bank is not agreeing to anything less than 265K. The house after sometime went into under contract but one month later it again came back in market at 205K. I contacted the listing agent again but he is not responding. To me it seems that current owner and listing agent are conspiring against the bank and are engaging in fraud, so that they can buy the house at much less than what others can give.
My question is what should I do?
Get it in writing that the bank “is not agreeing to anything less than $265k.”
It makes no sense. If they want $265k, then it should be listed at $265k.
Call the principal broker (the boss of the agent you’re dealing with) at that agency and make your feelings known.
If that doesn’t work, call the state Real Estate board.
Thanks, It does not make sense but it does make sense if listing agent is trying to do fraud which seems likely because he is not responding to my better offers.
I will try to find NJ Real Estate Board details and contact them but most likely I will skip this house.
I will skip this house.
Probably your best option…
The only other reason I can think of for listing low and hoping for higher is to get a bidding war started.
bidding war is good explanation but that did not happen when it was listed at 229K and I offered 229K and the listing agent knows that I can pay more than what he listed now 205K and he is not responding. So to me it looks like a fraud.
“So to me it looks like a fraud.”
Housing is a fraud.
what he listed now 205K and he is not responding.
If you want to f*ck with the guy, put in an offer at $125k.
Legally he HAS to present all offers to the seller (might be dependent on the state but that’s the case here in OR) and have it accepted or rejected.
“I am interested in a house which is market in South NJ”
Wouldn’t you rather live in the United States?
Thanks for your help, I did not know know that South NJ was not in United States. I will try to move to United States.
I am mad at the agent who smuggled me in South NJ telling me that he is taking me to United States and took all of my money.
Market for “up north” vacation homes in Michigan very poor
I’ve made a couple of trips that way this summer & have seen more For Sale signs on homes there than ever before. Info missing from the article: Crawford & Kalkaska counties were among the last places in Michigan to be settled. Not even the Indians lived or hunted there — too cold, too remote from transportation. Removing the old growth timber was the only economic boom those 2 counties ever had. Very few jobs up there even when times were better. Many of my relatives who originated in northern Michigan left the area before 1960 due to lack of employment opportunities. Last month I tent camped in state parks, next to multiple ginenormous RVs, each costing new from $250,000 to $500,000 with 5-8 people inside paying the huge sum of $27 a night to stay, the same price I paid to park & pitch just my one tent. The abandoned cemetery & village where my ancestors used to live on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan are themselves overlooked by a huge mansion (it really looks more like a resort hotel) on a hill above. If gasoline is ever rationed, this part of Michigan will have an economic collapse.
There are cabins……. and there are the Housing Crime Syndicate driven “vacation homes” beginning in the early 1990’s.
Both are losses yet the former is far less of a loss and everyone knew it. The latter are losses of massive proportions.
The fact that an uneducated, unskilled UAW worker had a cabin in the first place shows what is wrong with the US auto industry. These people should have at best had a 2 bedroom apartment to live in, not summer lake homes. This is what destroyed manufacturing in America. Overpaid, entitled, lazy union workers.
Sorry if I don’t shed a tear that they can’t unload their summer lake homes to a new generation of thugs.
No doubt.
They best get what they can get for them now because it’s going to be much less later for many years to come.
This is what destroyed manufacturing in America. Overpaid, entitled, lazy union workers.
Yeah, it had nothing to do with bad, obsolete gas guzzling designs. While Japan Inc. designed hybrids, Detroit designed Suburbans and Expeditions. Then again, management had to maximize next quarter’s profits, and you don’t do that by investing in new, competitive designs.
Most of the northern Michigan summer homes I was referring to are not on a lake. The lakeside stuff is not doing that badly. These are homes in the woods, maybe a mile or so from a lake (hard to get farther than that from a lake in northern Michigan, there are so many lakes).
Right after WWII you could buy summer shacks there for $300, land included.
So Smithers is endorsing our lucky ducky future. Only around 1 out of 5 jobs in America requires a college education. So this must mean that 80% of the population should be consigned to lucky ducky status - either living in poverty or on the edge of poverty.
This includes all sorts of people who do work that those of us with higher educations don’t want to do for ourselves - the farm workers who produce our food, the mechanics who maintain our cars, the home health aides who take of our grandparents and the soldiers and marines who fight and die in our wars.
“and the soldiers and marines who fight and die in our wars.”
Ahh yes, the John Kerry meme…soldiers be all dumb ‘n stuff.
Odd, because pretty much all the people I know who were in the military have a college degree.
Your stereotyping aside, my point was that the pay union workers got in the 50s, 60s, 70s that allowed these slackers to buy lake summer homes was out of proportion with what they contributed. These goons got paid bug bucks for tightening a bolt on an a assembly line. That job is a $10/hr job. Not a $70/hr job which is what they were making (including benefits).
People who should own lake summer homes:
- doctors
- engineers
- lawyers
People who have no business owning one
- manual laborers
- unskilled uneducated union workers
Ahh yes, the John Kerry meme…soldiers be all dumb ‘n stuff.
Odd, because pretty much all the people I know who were in the military have a college degree.
They probably got their degrees after getting out of the military, unless you’re talking about people who were officers. Isn’t that the way it usually works?
Also, there are many people of all sorts who have college degrees who aren’t particularly smart. It’s not like we’re back in the year 1930, when only something like 10% of young people went to college.
You know who will get a degree? St. Trayvon’s BFF Rachel ” I don’t read cursive” Jeantel. She has a 3.0 GPA too!!
People who should own lake summer homes:
- doctors
- engineers
- lawyers
People who have no business owning one
- manual laborers
- unskilled uneducated union workers
Who put you in charge of deciding who should have a summer house? Why should only certain jobs come with summer houses?
How about those guys working in the North Dakota oil boom who live in man camps? Some of those guys are working at fairly low skilled jobs and making big bucks even without a union. What if some of those guys work their butts off for years and save a ton of money and then go buy a summer house somewhere? What do you want to do, ban sales of summer houses to such people?
You’re comparing lazy union thugs with oil workers? Laughable.
And stop twisting my words. I never said sales should be banned to union thugs or that I should decide who buys them. I said the fact they earned enough to buy them says all you need to know about why Detroit is dead. Uneducated, unskilled lazy slobs making $70/hr and buying summer lake homes doesn’t last for long since eventually the whole system implodes. As it did.
Crappy cars and head-up-its-arse management of the car makers killed Detroit.
People just like you.
“Ahh yes, the John Kerry meme…soldiers be all dumb ‘n stuff.”
I think you misread the original sentence. The meaning I took was that “the home health aides who take of our grandparents and [home health aides who take care of] the soldiers and marines who fight and die in our wars”.
Based on the punctuation in the rest of the sentence, I would have expected a comma after grandparents to take the meaning you appear to have taken.
People who should own lake summer homes:
:
[snip]
People who have no business owning one
:
Who are you to say who “deserves” what? I thought conservatives were all about letting the market decide? A market with unions is still a market.
>The fact that an uneducated, unskilled UAW worker..
And you know this, how?
Exactly. There is a strong assumption there that UAW factory labor is unskilled and that the folks on the assembly line are uneducated.
A lot of factory work is skilled, especially these days with computerized machine manufacturing. Try applying for one of those jobs with no training and no experience.
I’ve worked in a few factories. The nick-name for the line workers is “factory rats”.
What does that tell you?
And try to expect more than $14hr even with the training and experience. Benefits? You’re dreaming.
The real irony is that a lot of the decent paying factory jobs put a lot of kids through college. Funny how they showed their gratitude.
I suppose it depends on the factory as well. The C&C jobs expect some level of programming ability and training. There may be other jobs which require less skill.
And I think the Chinese factories depend on unskilled labor.
Hey, if quantitative easing can prevent the 2nd. Great Depression why not global warming? Or as I like to say: How Behavioral Economics fixed global climate change.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/55329/news-agencies-begin-ignoring-climate-change-because-america-doesn-t-care
‘News Agencies Begin Ignoring Climate Change, Because America Doesn’t Care’
Stephano Medina
Rather than being the evidence of a global, anti-science, climate-denying cabal, Reuters’s decision reflects a far more troubling trend: the news is covering it less because, frankly, we just don’t care anymore.
Over the course of 2012, Fogarty, who had covered climate change in Asia for years at Reuters, was increasingly told by his superiors that the agency would be moving away from environmental stories, which were no longer a “top priority.” Though Fogarty tried to do it anyway, it became ever more difficult to get an article on climate change past the editors’ desks that were influenced by a “climate of fear” against publishing unpopular stories.
This would all be less disconcerting if it weren’t for the fact that Reuters is hardly alone in being a major news agency moving away from climate change coverage. In early 2013, the New York Times discontinued its Green Blog, and, around the same time, the Washington Post shifted its lead climate change reporter, Juliet Eilperin, away from covering environmental news. As for television, the cumulative time on all of the major Sunday talk shows devoted to covering Obama’s recent climate change speech adds up to zero (The Daily Show did best, with 3 minutes, 29 seconds). Despite all of TV’s recent “weather” coverage, only 6% of stories on this year’s major wildfires mentioned a possible connection with climate change, though many leading scientists posit just that as an explanation.”
So who’s left covering climate change? Al Jazeera?
Do you honestly believe Al Gore ever gave a flyin’ F about climate change?
I think he did, but who cares?
If anyone that ever warned about global warming ever flew in a private airplane, it disproves global warming.
Obama seems pretty dedicated about global warming. I’d hardly say that Americans don’t care. There may still be some hicks who don’t believe in it.
Taking an Airforce one (and entourage & logisctics to go with) to a useless half an hour speech across the country is NOT caring for the environmet.
I think that’s required for the VP.
” There may still be some hicks who don’t believe in it.”
LOL
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml
“Don’t look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.”
Don’t be obtuse.
LOL Fed, just stop digging.
How’s this for obtuse?:
When did we stop being a part of nature? WTH does that even mean?
“a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming”
It means it’s imbecilic to blame evil SUVs for what has been happening for billions of years, ie, temperatures go up and then down on earth.
Al Gore knows this. But he also knows that most of his followers are brain dead morons. I don’t blame Al. If I could make $300M from this scam I’d be out there spewing his lies as well.
It’s all rocket surgery to you, isn’t it slithers?
Ease up on The Slith…… Entertainment is why BJ keeps him around.
You tried to pull this out of your arse last month and I posted a detailed response about your source(s). All 1077 are employed by the Canadian national petroleum industry.
Americans don’t care?
EXCELLENT! Now if we can just get them to buy more beach houses….
Taking the advice of a realtor in seeking affordable, suitable shelter is like going to a bar to find a spouse.
“Don’t stick your _ _ _ k in crazy”, I believe is the phrase.
[Fill in the blanks above: 4 0 1]
“like going to a bar to find a spouse.”
Wouldn’t recomend that.
Led Zeppelin - Hey Hey What Can I Do - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVzyoMVjWA - 141k
Chris Matthews Apologizes To Black Colleagues On Behalf Of ‘All White People’
The Huffington Post |
By Rebecca Shapiro Posted:
07/19/2013
Chris Matthews apologized “on behalf of all white people” on Thursday after two of his black colleagues said the George Zimmerman trial reminded them of difficult memories from their own teenage years.
———————————————————————————
I was talking to some other white people and we decided we don’t want Chris Matthews or George Zimmerman. Can we have them disbarred or something?