September 12, 2013

Bits Bucket for September 12, 2013

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




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212 Comments »

Comment by ahansen
2013-09-12 02:22:02

On-the-scene news from Boulder tonight/Coexistance with the floodwaters. Stay safe Carl, Colo, goonie et al:

“…The gurgling woke me up.

Then water suddenly threw up out of the shower. I was saved because the muddy water flowed across the floor and down into the heater vents, probably leaking in to the dirt crawlspace. It filled a foot deep in the bathtub but didn’t overflow. After about an hour it stopped and drained out.leaving the mud on the floor.

It’s mostly mud without poop, fortunately. Streets are flooded with the same muddy water….”

They say it will keep raining

Comment by Jingle Male
2013-09-12 05:33:01

The sun will come out eventually A.H. and a rainbow will appear. Not much consolation today though, with sewer water bubbling up through the drain pipes like oil did for Jed Clampett. Stay dry Boulderians…..

In other news about flooding…

“The foreclosure floodwaters have receded in most parts of the country, although lenders and communities continue to clean up the damage left behind,” he added. “This is a strong indicator that the crisis is over,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:15:09

“This is a strong indicator that the crisis is over,”

Give those stopped-clock predictions for the end of the crisis another decade or so, and they will eventually prove correct.

 
Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 06:48:56

Lets see what other “experts” have had to say:

“There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash.”
- Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist , New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929

“When I hear [about a housing bubble] I get the sense that people aren’t connecting the dots.”
- James Glassman, JP Morgan Chase Economist

“The national media is reporting a housing bubble. Don’t believe it.”
- Dale Akins, President, Market Edge

“I’m calling it a soft landing — a return to what is considered to be more normal market conditions,”
- Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist, California Association of Realtors

“Existing-home prices have not collapsed. They’ve come down to a more normal pace…”
- Larry Murphy, President SalesTraq, Real Estate Trend Tracker

“The continuing shortages of housing inventory are driving the price gains. There is no evidence of bubbles popping.”
- David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, August 2005

“The retreat in housing-market activity that’s now under way amounts to a simmering-down process…rather than a classic cyclical contraction that could spiral down for some time.”
- David Seiders, Chief Economist, National Association of Home Builders, Jan 2006

LOTS of other gems on this website. The moral of the story is; NEVER believe the “expert” who has a vested interest in separating you from your money. NEVER. They are BIASED, they LIE and they are often IGNORANT and just plain WRONG. Just ask any honest student of history.
http://survivingthecrash.blogspot.com/2006/09/housing-bubble-vs-great-depression.html

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:57:25

Thank you so much for this retrospective of expert predictions!

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Comment by Jingle Male
2013-09-12 08:24:14

Thank you Whac. Please note I am not making predictions, just providing you access to some data that indicates foreclosure are at their lowest level in years.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 08:52:47

No….. You provided a quote from a serial misrepresenter.

Get it?

 
Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 10:19:37

And foreclosures ARE are at their lowest level in years- but for a very, very BAD reason that will manifest itself in another, much more devastating housing crash than Bubble 1.0. The foreclosure process is a healthy and completely legal process for cleansing malinvestment from the economy as a whole, resetting the ‘debt clock’ for individuals who made poor choices and ensuring accurate price discovery within the market. Foreclosure is a type of ’safety relief valve’ . When this type of relief valve is intentionally bypassed or thwarted, then the system is broken and running on borrowed time. The system no longer functions in a healthy, sustainable fashion. Accurate price discovery becomes opaque and flawed, causing misallocation of resources and malinvestment. Inventory imbalances occur and while they may be unknown or masked for a period of time, eventually they are realized often in an uncontrollable price correction. In this economy, a dearth of foreclosures does not signify a healthy market at all. It is like constipation: the inability of an organism to eliminate waste. If it goes on long enough, the host dies.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-09-12 10:57:47

There is a HUGE difference between judicial and non-judicial states.

In states like CA and AZ, the foreclosure process continued, and largely cleared out the distress. There are multiple sources for this data, and all that I’ve found show the same thing, lower numbers of homes in the foreclosure process, being foreclosed, and entering the process.

In states like NY, NJ and FL, the foreclosure process was clogged because they needed to go through the courts…THIS is where the problems will either a) never result in a recrash if they keep trickling out the problem assets, or b) result in a recrash if they ever start to foreclose faster.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 11:59:06

There is no “difference” when the foreclosure pipeline is clogged and tinkered with a’la California with its’ 4 million excess, empty and defaulted properties just sitting there.

 
Comment by United States of Moral Hazard
2013-09-12 13:34:45

Comment by Jingle Male
2013-09-12 08:24:14

Thank you Whac. Please note I am not making predictions, just providing you access to some data that indicates foreclosure are at their lowest level in years.

You’re just shilling as usual, ignoring the handwriting on the wall. I can drive around any neighborhood in NV or CA, and find empty house after empty house which is neither for sale nor rent, just rotting away. This is inventory which was intentionally removed from the marketplace to artificially raise prices. The idea that this somehow magically erases reality is delusional beyond words.

If you went to buy a new car at a dealership where they had only five for sale vehicles parked out front with price tags well above MSRP, but 500 more of the same cars hidden in plain sight around back, would you pay the premium they were asking? Are you that stupid? I guess I shouldn’t ask because you have been bragging about buying houses for a long time now. People like you are the reason the MSM gets away with reporting the tripe they do. You eat it up and ask for seconds.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 15:50:46

“The idea that this somehow magically erases reality is delusional beyond words.”

California Dreamin’

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 17:42:18

Touchdown US Moral Haz.

 
Comment by rms
2013-09-12 18:53:31

“I can drive around any neighborhood in NV or CA, and find empty house after empty house which is neither for sale nor rent, just rotting away. This is inventory which was intentionally removed from the marketplace to artificially raise prices.”

+1 And the irony: empty homes on the left and homeless families on the right, and separating them are artificial lending practices, fraudulent prices and an NAR “professional” looking to drown another family in debt.

 
 
 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 05:43:18

wet but safe in south metro. it’s getting really real up north, evacuations and possible dam breaches.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 06:14:23

It’s been raining non-stop since last night. So far no flooding in my little burg, but there was some flooding in the Big Thompson Canyon nearby.

Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 09:53:21

Meanwhile, in northern Illinois, we are having a drought. At least the beastly hot temperatures are a thing of the past. For the moment.

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Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 11:03:19

It’s been like that here for the summer months prior to the storm.

 
Comment by Taxpayers
2013-09-12 12:17:57

IL will go bk 1st
good thing they aren’t fracking or anything like that

 
 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 06:01:43

House in a low area or at the end of the sewer lines - which pipes back flowed and flooded with the excessive rain?

If so - there is lots o’poop in it.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 06:03:53

Time to roll out the Godwins and hard hoses.

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 06:24:03

They need to separate the old storm sewers from the sanitary sewers. An expensive process- we’re doing it in my town now.

Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 10:01:02

That brings back fond memories…three days after we moved into our house in 1990, the village sent us a notice that our laundry tub was illegally hooked into the storm sewer. Cost us 600 dollars (which was about all we had left at the time) to divert the washing machine water into the sanitary sewer. That was the beginning of the Little House From Hell period. In retrospect, we should have torn it down and started over. But such things weren’t done in 1990.

Speaking of which, I now know for sure that there is another housing bubble. This morning a crew showed up to cap the sewer line going to another soon-to-be teardown. That will be the second one on the street this summer.

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Comment by Biggvs Richardvs
2013-09-12 11:26:53

“sanitary sewers.” Isn’t that an oxymoron?

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Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 07:12:17

Someone will probably make a low-budget horror flick out of it and call it, ‘Turdalanche!’ or Turdnami!’. Much like ‘Sharknado!’ but with poo. Now where did I put my typewriter…

Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 08:00:13

Coming soon on the SyFy channel!

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Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 08:04:18

Fecal Time!

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Comment by oxide
2013-09-12 13:09:03

+1 :cool:

 
 
Comment by polly
2013-09-12 08:40:16

Why do you need to call it “Turdnado” when the phrase “Sh-t Storm” already exists?

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Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 10:23:33

+1,000 :D

 
 
Comment by Dale
2013-09-12 11:29:36

Mr. Hankey takes Boulder. Hieeedy hooo….

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:13:51

Sounds like a familiar tale to those who live in the canyons of the LA mountains.

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2013-09-12 08:30:53

On-the-scene news from Boulder tonight/Coexistance with the floodwaters. Stay safe Carl, Colo, goonie et al:

Thanks. No problems here, the trailer park is in the less desirable areas farther from the creek :-). Drive to work this morning was rainy but uneventful. The streams going under the road looked high, the bike paths following the streams under the road looked unusable. There are issues for anyone whose house is in a low area, though. We don’t usually get much rain and to get significant rain for days at a time is a big deal here. School was closed for my son today, which I’ve never seen for rain before. It’s also unusually warm for a rainy day this time of year here.

Comment by rms
2013-09-12 11:39:02

“It’s also unusually warm for a rainy day this time of year here.”

+1 Same here up in eastern Washington; ~94-degrees F all week. This is mid September, but next week I see low 70’s. We had a very wet June this year, which was about a month later than usual.

 
 
 
Comment by John B.
2013-09-12 03:22:59

While Canadian prime minister travels and occupies his mind with problems like military intervention in Syria or paying country debt to IMF, the common Canadians are struggling with their own personal debt. It has been stated here many times before, but I will repeat it: Canada has one of the highest levels of the household debt in the world. What does it mean in practice? It means, for example, that many elderly citizens are still struggling to pay their mortgage, even they have been retired from their work. How is it possible? Bank of Montreal is not making this question, but I think it is pretty obvious. It is possible because there is no “political will” that would change it. Politicians are too occupied with international relations and with pipeline they barely find some time to take care of their own fellow citizens.

 
Comment by Jingle Male
2013-09-12 05:28:32

“…Our long national foreclosure nightmare may be over. The number of new foreclosure filings in August hit its lowest level in nearly eight years, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties……”

More signs of recovery from the craziness of 2002-2006. It has only been 7 years since the popping sound woke us from a deep sleep of denial.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:34:45

With foreclosure moratoriums in all 50 states holding back tens of millions of foreclosures, it’s no surprise.

 
Comment by Combotechie
2013-09-12 05:57:55

“…Our long national foreclosure nightmare may be over.”

Keepin’ hope alive.

Keep ‘em hopin’ and you’ll keep ‘em stayin’ and you’ll keep ‘em payin’ and they will spend time and money to keep the place up because they will be allowed - be encouraged even - to somehow think of themselves as the True Owners.

But the True Owners are the ones who hold the titles and when the time is right for them the True Owners will take title to the place and just shove the occupants and their belongings out into the street.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:16:32

“But the True Owners are the ones who hold the titles and when the time is right for them the True Owners will take title to the place and just shove the occupants and their belongings out into the street.”

That’s one of those things that has to eventually happen for the crisis to truly be over. And it hasn’t happened, just yet.

Comment by Combotechie
2013-09-12 06:43:46

“And it hasn’t happened just yet.”

It can happen any time the lenders - the title holders - want it to happen. Right now they are metering out the foreclosures so as not to flood the market.

Not flooding the market will help keep prices up and keeping prices up keeps “values” up.

Their game, their rules, they call the shots.

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Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 06:50:55

It can happen any time the lenders - the title holders - want it to happen.

When would they want it to happen?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:58:38

“When would they want it to happen?”

Possibly waiting until enough new buyers are entering the market so that unloading a bunch of foreclosure homes won’t depress prices…

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 08:08:48

Possibly waiting until enough new buyers are entering the market so that unloading a bunch of foreclosure homes won’t depress prices…

Won’t that require good paying jobs?

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2013-09-12 08:34:02

Won’t that require good paying jobs?

Traditionally, yes. But we’re working on a way around that…

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 08:42:16

Which begets the question;

Do you really believe wages will double to meet the massively inflated asking prices of resale housing or do you understand that housing prices will resume falling to dramatically lower and more affordable levels to meet current wages.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:50:20

The other thing is, if it truly is the all-cash Chinese and Canadian investors who are propping up coastal housing values, then why should Midwestern U.S. taxpayers be forced to help with the effort? Wouldn’t it work more in the U.S. interests to let the market crash on the all-cash foreign investors, in order to set the stage for young American families to buy in Coastal California at affordable prices? Why should Uncle Sam be in the business of making foreign investors wealthier while U.S. citizens bear the burden of doing so?

Who knows…maybe the California economy could someday recover if they didn’t make it so unaffordable for young families to settle there.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 06:14:07

A little more advice and analysis from the RE “experts” for your enjoyment…

“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
- Irving Fisher, Ph.D. in economics, Oct. 17, 1929

“Home sales are coming down from the mountain peak, but they will level out at a high plateau — a plateau that is higher than previous peaks in the housing cycle.”
- David Lereah, Chief Economist, National Association of Realtors

“It’s impossible for prices to go down this year.”
- Gary Watts, Spokesman Orange Country Association of Realtors

“I don’t worry about new home sales,”
- James Glassman, JP Morgan Chase Economist

“If you own your own home free and clear, people will often refer to you as a fool. All that money sitting there, doing nothing.”
- Anthony Hsieh, CEO Lending Tree

“I think investors will have a good reason to come out here and buy again.”
- Jeromith Sutton, 2006, NAR Investment Advisor

“…housing activity will remain healthy for some time to come.”
- David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, October 28, 2005

“There is no bubble to burst,”
- Jim Folkman, VP of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico

“I’d say this is another very important signal that the economic soft patch we were all worried about is pretty much confined to March”
- David Seiders, Chief Economist, National Association of Home Builders

“The idea that we’re going to see a collapse in the housing market seems to me improbable”
- John Snow, Secretary of the Treasury

“People who talk about a bubble are blowing smoke,”
- Michael Carney, Real Estate Economist
California State Polytechnic University Pomona.
Thursday, February 10, 2005

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 07:44:59

“It’s still a great time to buy.”~2007, Margaret Kelley, REMAX CEO

 
 
Comment by Blue Skye
2013-09-12 06:53:27

“sleep of denial”

Peculiar comment for a visitor here who blatantly pretends to be someone else.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:57:27

I become increasingly convinced that a sizable portion of the U.S. populace sincerely believes that if only they can convince the masses to believe in their personal vision of reality, the world will instantaneously adjust to match it.

Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 09:10:10

And this is “magical thinking”.

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Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2013-09-12 13:43:05

Kind of on the same lines as “if they build it they will come”

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 16:03:47

“If we withhold inventory, they will overpay.”

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:40:41

“Just for the record; there is no shortage of housing. Not in California, not in Tokyo, not anywhere. And there will come a day (again) when the media will tell us, ‘there’s a glut of houses for sale in….’, and regale us with sob stories, ‘I was doing great until the economy went south and my income went away and I can’t get rid of this damned house!’”

~Ben Jones, August 8, 2013

This false notion…. this lie….. that there is a shortage of housing in the US is laughable considering there are tens of millions of excess empty houses out there. A sea of them. And it’s growing. Day by day.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:41:54

“Housing’s ‘Shadow Inventory’ Still Haunts Banks”

http://news.yahoo.com/housings-shadow-inventory-still-haunts-banks-152949909.html

With tens of millions of excess empty houses and another 35 million additional houses that are just beginning to empty as boomers expire, banks themselves will become haunted houses.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:44:05

How many excess empty houses are Fannie and Freddy (Phoney and Fraudie) holding? Any estimates? 5 million? More?

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:46:34

If you take on mortgage debt at current massively inflated housing prices, you’ll enslave yourself for the rest of your life.

“Debt is bondage.”~ Suze Orman, May 11, 2013

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:49:32

“Mortgage Defaults Skyrocketing”

http://www.billsbills.com/blog/mortgage-defaults-skyrocketing-hamp-has-failed

Default is what happens when the price of housing is grossly inflated.

This is in addition to the massive amount of defaulted properties held by banks, Freddie and Fannie.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:50:36

“The losses associated with buying resale housing at current massively inflated asking prices is irrecoverable.

Rental rates are half the cost of buying.”

Correct.

That explains why housing demand is at 14 year lows… and falling.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:53:23

“With 25 million excess, empty and defaulted houses and another 35 million houses to be vacated as boomers die off, what do you think is going to happen to housing prices?”

I have a an idea what’s going to happen.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:54:54

“Why would pay more than new construction cost ($60 per square foot=materials, labor and profit) for a depreciating 20+ year old resale house?”

Because that’s what dumb borrowed money does?

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 05:58:48

“Mortgage delinquencies take a sharp turn up”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100914292

And they’ll continue rising for as long as transactions occur at massively inflated prices.

And remember, today’s sale at a massively inflated price is tomorrows default.

 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 05:59:49

Score one for the plumber…

———————-

The plumber vs. the billionaire
Pollutico | 9/11/2013 | Rich Lowry

Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York and a media mogul who weekends in Bermuda and whose net worth is an estimated $27 billion. Victor Head runs a plumbing business with his brother in Pueblo, Colo.

The two clashed from a distance Tuesday in the Colorado gun recalls, and Head gave the billionaire a righteous drubbing. The defeat of two pro-gun control Colorado state senators in recall elections sends a message that should be heard all the way back on the Upper East Side, and maybe even in Hamilton.

It wasn’t too long ago that Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns was supposed to be the great equalizer in the gun debate. For too long, the National Rifle Association had dominated with its big dollars and its fierce commitment to its cause. Bloomie would change that. Or so we were told.

This was before dozens of mayors quit the organization, some of them explaining that it had dawned on them that the group wasn’t against illegal guns so much as for making more guns illegal. And that was before the Colorado recall. The vote reinforces the failure of gun control in Congress earlier this year, with the extra sting of a direct populist rebuke.

Nevertheless, it was a career-ending vote for the two targeted Democrats.

The recallees, state Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo, weren’t fighting on hostile territory. In terms of registration, Morse’s district is split three ways among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Giron’s district is much more favorable, a heavily working class and Latino area that has been a Democratic stronghold forever. President Barack Obama carried it by nearly 20 points in 2012.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz waved off the defeats with the usual explanations. She said the Colorado recalls were the result of “voter suppression, pure and simple,” and pinned the blame on the NRA and the Koch brothers.

As for the NRA and the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity, they certainly played in Colorado. The pro-recall forces were still badly outspent, by as much as 8-to-1 according to some estimates. Bloomberg wrote a personal check for the anti-recall side for $350,000.

Head still got Giron to agree to hold one more town hall before the vote on guns, and this time roughly 1,000 people showed up. If Giron didn’t realize then that she had a populist revolt on her hands, she needed to be in a different line of work — and now she is.

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 09:26:09

“the group wasn’t against illegal guns so much as for making more guns illegal”

Yup.

But that’s just how coastal elitists roll. Until the flyover residents decide they’ve had enough and some coastal elitist heads start to roll.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 11:02:19

FWIW, two other office holders were NOT recalled.

What surprised me the most was that Morse represented a district in Colorado Springs. If Colorado has a “red” town, it’s Colo Springs. It’s the home of the Air Force Academy and Focus on the Family. I’m surprised that Morse was elected in the first place. And he was just barely recalled. Weird.

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 12:54:10

Maybe the moral of that story is:

If you are an ultra leftist and win your election by 1% - don’t try to jam your liberal agenda down people’s throats.

Hmmmm

obama won in 2012 with 51.1% of the vote.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 15:27:31

I suppose it was more important for him to vote his conscience than be re-elected.

And I doubt he was an “ultra-leftist”, unless that means he doesn’t agree with Rush. If he was, he would have never been elected in the first place, not in Colorado Springs. He unseated the GOP incumbent. And he was reelected to a second term

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 06:02:35

Anybody notice the intentional suppression of mortgage app discussion in the media yesterday?

Here’s a factoid.

Yesterdays purchase application data fell to a 5 year low..

And demand for housing is at 1997 levels…. and falling.

And all this because prices are massively inflated.

Guess what else just began falling? ;)

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 08:05:54

Where is this “rise in home-purchase lending” supposed to come from in a rising interest rate environment? If they can’t afford to pay sellers’ wishing prices now, then prospective home buyers will definitely not be able to afford to pay them at higher lending rates.

It already looks as though mortgage loan demand has dropped off a cliff. What a perfect time for Mr. and Ms. Bear to go shopping for a Southern California home!

MARKETS
Updated September 11, 2013, 9:10 p.m. ET

Home-Loan Ebb Is a Blow to Banks

Lenders Had Hoped New Mortgages Would Help Ease Pain From Slowdown in Refinancing Activity

By ROBIN SIDEL, ALAN ZIBEL and NICK TIMIRAOS
CONNECT

Bank executives have been hoping they could dull the pain of a plummeting mortgage-refinance market by shifting focus to loans for home purchases. So far, that isn’t working out.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday that mortgage applications dropped 13.5% in the week ended Sept. 6 from the previous week. The data, which include an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday, reflect a 20% drop in refinancing and a 3% decline in purchase loans.

“Demand is significantly down,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin, which works in 22 U.S. markets. “Anybody who was going to buy a house this year tried to get it done in June or July because they saw the writing on the wall and worried about the rate increase.”

Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 4.80% from the prior week’s 4.73% in the latest data from the mortgage bankers group. That is up from 3.60% at the end of April.

Refinancing has been a big casualty of the rate jump, starting with a sharp drop three months ago. Refinancings stand at the lowest level since June 2009 and are down 71% from a recent peak in May, the trade group said.

But recent data from the mortgage group show that demand for home-purchase loans also has softened, beginning in April. Purchase applications are still running 7% above their levels of a year ago but are less than expectations.

That bodes ill for lenders that have begun emphasizing loans for home purchases in hopes that it would help offset the refinancing slowdown.

To be sure, rising mortgage rates don’t usually affect home purchases made in cash. Roughly one-third of all home purchases were made in cash in July, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Refinancing activity, meanwhile, is much more sensitive to rising rates than is purchase activity.

The MBA on Aug. 22 forecast that overall lending would shrink nearly 32% next year to $1.09 trillion, with a 60% decrease in refinancing but a 14% rise in home-purchase lending.

Still, the most expensive markets tend to get hit hardest when rates rise quickly.

Jed Kolko, chief economist at real-estate website Trulia, said housing markets in places like California and New York could slow if rates rise to around 5.5%. In that case, renting a home could become more financially attractive than buying, he said.

Rising interest rates also mean house hunters might be forced to lower their sights in terms of what they can afford, resulting in smaller loans.

Elizabeth Bear and her husband, David, are moving to Southern California from Albuquerque, N.M., because of a change in Mr. Bear’s job. She said she is glad she is looking for a house now.

We think that we’re pretty lucky because rates are just starting to go up,” said Ms. Bear, who was house hunting this week.

Comment by Neuromance
2013-09-12 08:36:02

The problem is, when Wall Street starts to squeal, politicians push the losses onto the taxpayer to make sure Wall Street stays profitable.

It’s like that line from “Fortunate Son” by CCR: “When you ask them how much should we give, they only answer, ‘More more more!’”.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:38:51

“Elizabeth Bear and her husband, David, are moving to Southern California…”

That kind of news sure tickles my funny bone!

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 09:29:37

Amy Hoak’s most recent fellating of the NAR on MarketWatch tried to whip up the urgency, “mortgages will become harder to get” or somesuch Lawrence Yun deep throating.

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2013-09-12 22:10:29

“mortgages will become harder to get”

Good! That means houses will become harder to sell. That means lower prices.

(short term the median would probably go up. That isn’t sustainable for long. Then cue higher interest rates)

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 06:05:51

“And don’t forget. The 82 million boomers that just began to die off own or did own 1.7 houses per paired couple. That’s alot of excess empty houses.”

BINGO… “vacation” houses are all owned by boomers.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:13:56

Luckily there are plenty of new Americans coming through the pipeline to replace the Boomer die-off.

OH WAIT


CDC: US Birth Rate Falls to Historic Low

Tuesday, 10 Sep 2013 07:48 AM
By John Morgan

The U.S. birth rate has hit a fresh low, and experts say the poor economy is probably the romance-killing culprit responsible for the decline.

Fresh numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the nation’s fertility rate slumped to a record low in 2012, with 63.0 births per 1,000 women of childbearing years. That beat the previous all-time low of 63.2 in 2011

It takes 2.1 children per woman for a generation to replace itself, or break even in size, and U.S. births have been below replacement level since 2007, according to CNNMoney. American women now give birth to an average of 1.8 children, the CDC estimated.

If there are fewer younger people in the United States, there may be a shortage of young workers to enter the labor force in 18 to 20 years,” University of New Hampshire demographer Kenneth Johnson told CNNMoney. “A downturn in the birth rate affects the whole economy.

The decline accelerated during the recession that ended in 2009, with high unemployment putting a damper on many young peoples’ plans to start families. A Pew Research Center study found 22 percent of 18 to 34 year olds surveyed in 2011 had postponed having a baby because of the bad economy, and that 36 percent of millennials in 2012 still lived with their parents.

However, CNNMoney reported, demographers believe the U.S. birth decline is now leveling off. Demographic Intelligence, a company that predicts birth rates for clients like Disney, Fisher-Price and Gerber, predicts the rate will actually rise in 2013 to 1.9 children per women because the economy is rebounding.

CNNMoney noted that birth rates might be the ultimate lagging indicator, since they reflect decisions made at least nine months earlier. By many accounts, the U.S. economy has improved in recent months, especially compared to the recession’s trough.

The CDC figures showed the teen birth rate declined 6 percent in 2012. There were 29.4 births per 1,000 teenagers 15-19 years old in 2012 compared to 31.3 in 2011, an historic low. Birth rates for women in their 20s also fell last year, but birth rates for women in their 30s and early 40s rose last year, the Journal said.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 06:06:54

“Houses are rapidly depreciating asset no different that automobiles.”

Exactly. And the losses to depreciation are magnified tremendously when you finance a rapidly depreciating asset like a house for 30 years.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:17:46

I keep reading articles about how September is going to be a terrible month for stocks, a veritable perfect storm, etc.

And yet the U.S. stock market keeps going up.

What gives?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:19:23

Sept. 11, 2013, 9:24 a.m. EDT
The perfect storm
By John Nyaradi

Syria, next week’s Fed meeting and the upcoming debt ceiling battle set up a perfect storm for global financial markets.

Syria remains a fast-moving and fluid situation, as first the “fear” trade took hold, sending equity markets lower and gold and oil higher. Then, virtually overnight, a diplomatic solution is now on the table and the “fear trade” is currently unwinding, at least for the time being, as world governments explore the Russian proposal for disarming Syria of its chemical weapons. Expect the twists and turns of this drama to continue whipping financial markets over the next few weeks.

Sept. 17-18 brings the long-awaited Federal Reserve meeting, Bernanke press conference and the anticipated beginning of the end for quantitative easing. The latest noise from Wall Street Journal columnist John Hilsenrath points to a “dovish taper” after last week’s nonfarm payrolls report came in weaker than expected.

The latest rumblings point to a small reduction in the Fed’s bond-purchase program to the tune of $10 billion/month, which would reduce the program from $85 billion to $75 billion and leave options open for future action depending upon the strength of the economy and employment.

Clearly the Fed is nervous about the impact of pulling the “punch bowl” of easy money, as previous attempts were met with less than a joyous reaction by U.S. stock markets.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:21:44

Aug. 27, 2013, 11:44 a.m. EDT
Bond bear could maul global markets
By John Nyaradi

With the phase out of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative-easing program looming on the horizon, the bond market is getting nervous.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet on Sept. 17-18 in what could be a pivotal turning point for global financial markets.

At the meeting, the Fed will discuss and perhaps decide upon the future of quantitative easing, the easy-money policy that has been supporting and driving global equity prices for more than four years. As the mid-month meeting approaches, an increasing number of economists are suggesting that the Fed will announce the inception of its tapering effort — to gradually stop buying Treasury and mortgage-backed securities.

The Fed is currently buying $45 billion in Treasury securities each month, along with an additional $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Boston Federal Reserve President and FOMC member Eric Rosengren has recently toyed with the idea that the Fed might taper its Treasury purchases first.

Expectations are that the first tapering move will be a $15 billion monthly cutback. If the taper is initially applied to Treasurys only, the amount purchased each month will drop by one-third to $30 billion. This will obviously impact Treasury bond prices and yields unless enough eager buyers come out of the woodwork to pick up the slack.

 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 06:22:18

$1 Trillion/year in annual obama deficits
$85 billion/month in obama QE
46 cents out of every dollar obama spends is borrowed.

All that “created out of thin air” money has to go somewhere…

And it has.

Stocks, real estate (to include subprime car loans) and gold.

NOT to wages, factories or R&D - that is for loosers…

:-)

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:25:32

“$85 billion/month in obama QE”

Does Obama run the Fed in your world?

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 06:30:12

Obama has appointed ALL seven Fed Board of Governors to include the chairman.

Who do you THINK runs it?

Quiet fiduciary responsible people that have no loyalty or affiliation to obama???

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Comment by polly
2013-09-12 17:01:17

Loyalty in DC isn’t to the person that gave you your last job. It is to the person who can a) fire you or b) give you your next job. Sometimes the person who gave you your last job is the same as a or b. But for the current Fed Board, Obama isn’t a or b. So he isn’t in charge of them.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2013-09-12 18:48:02

GS is in charge of all of them.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 18:53:43

JPMchase.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:35:07

“Loyalty in DC isn’t to the person that gave you your last job. It is to the person who can a) fire you or b) give you your next job.

But for the current Fed Board, Obama isn’t a or b. So he isn’t in charge of them.”

Yep. Obama can’t fire them, and any one of the FOMC members could walk out the door tomorrow into a much higher paying job than their current one.

They have total independence.

By implication, 2banana is full of gas. But we all knew that already, right?

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 06:33:37

if it rains, it’s because of obama.
if you stub your toe, it’s because of obama.
if you burn the toast, it’s because of obama.

for someone who was born in a mud hut in kenya, he is pretty omnipotent.

but then again, few people initially believed jesus was the messiah.

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Comment by michael
2013-09-12 06:44:43

“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.” - Vladimir Putin

Dieu et mon droit!

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 06:53:30

“if it rains, it’s because of obama.
if you stub your toe, it’s because of obama.
if you burn the toast, it’s because of obama.”

If 2nannerz runs out of bananas, it’s because of obama.

 
Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 06:59:21
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 07:31:33

And I can blame obama 5 YEARS after he is out of office too…

if it rains, it’s because of obama.
if you stub your toe, it’s because of obama.
if you burn the toast, it’s because of obama.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:34:14

Obama will rule the inside of your brain, FOREVER!

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 15:17:09

Obama will rule the inside of your brain, FOREVER!

Don’t forget the Union Goons!

 
 
Comment by michael
2013-09-12 06:41:00
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Comment by Beer and Cigar Guy
2013-09-12 06:57:45

Obama let slip that he essentially DOES run the FED. At the last G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg he stated to the other attending pols that the US would be ‘tapering QE gradually’. How else could he make that statement about a secretive, “independent” entity like the US Federal Reserve?

http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_12799.htm
“…The Federal Reserve, like many other central banks, is an independent government agency but also one that is ultimately accountable to the public and the Congress. The Congress established maximum employment and stable prices as the key macroeconomic objectives for the Federal Reserve in its conduct of monetary policy. The Congress also structured the Federal Reserve to ensure that its monetary policy decisions focus on achieving these long-run goals and do not become subject to political pressures that could lead to undesirable outcomes…”

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Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 08:07:30

How else could he make that statement about a secretive, “independent” entity like the US Federal Reserve?

Because the banking clan told him what to say?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 08:09:50

‘How else could he make that statement about a secretive, “independent” entity like the US Federal Reserve?’

Perhaps he was merely parroting the FOMC discussion that has been ongoing since last spring?

 
Comment by the golden boy
2013-09-12 13:16:48

Because the banking clan told him what to say?

So the teleprompter is a banker?

 
Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 15:16:09

So the teleprompter is a banker?

They get to program it.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:00:34

I take it that Uncle Fed Love Me hasn’t yet closed out her short positions, as Mr Market clearly wants to correct, but simply can’t do so yet.

Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 07:02:44

“the FED is the only game in town.”

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:14:32

The market never has been simpler to follow, really.

If the Fed follows through on the taper plan as announced, stocks, gold, Treasurys and real estate investments will all get hammered by rising rates and the dollar will rally.

If the Fed instead plays the “weaker taper” or the “delayed taper” card, stocks, gold, Treasurys and real estate investments will all rally and the dollar will get hammered.

What could be simpler?

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Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 10:35:30

The taxpayers tab keeps going up to keep wall street happy and the system from failing.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:05:06

Treasury Yields Are Near Two-Year High as Safety Demand Recedes
By Masaki Kondo - Sep 10, 2013 10:56 PM PT

Treasury 10-year yields were four basis points from a two-year high after U.S. President Barack Obama called for a pause in authorizing a military strike against Syria, easing demand for safer assets.

A term-premium model signals 10-year bonds are near the cheapest since May 2011 before the government auctions $21 billion of the securities today. Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley will speak tomorrow amid speculation the central bank will decide at its meeting next week to slow its $85 billion monthly debt purchases.

There are quite a few investors who have to dump their positions because selling is leading to more selling,” said Akira Takei, the head of the international fixed-income department in Tokyo at Mizuho Asset Management Co., which manages the equivalent of $37 billion. “Treasuries have become substantially cheaper relative to other bonds.”

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note was little changed at 2.97 percent as of 6:51 a.m. in London after climbing five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, yesterday. It touched 3.01 percent on Sept. 6, the highest since July 2011. The price of the 2.5 percent note due in August 2023 was 96, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:12:04

Yet another great buying opportunity for true believers in the saying that “gold prices always go up”!

Sept. 12, 2013, 9:00 a.m. EDT
Gold feels ‘punishing selling pressure’
By Victor Reklaitis and Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold prices slumped 2%, or nearly $30, on Thursday, as analysts said the commodity’s drop below key chart levels accelerated selling.

Gold was also under pressure from reduced expectations for a strike on Syria, as well as from investors betting on a tapering of stimulus measures at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week.

Gold for December delivery (GCZ3 -2.60%) tumbled $29, or 2.1%, to $1,334.80 an ounce, with silver for the same month (SIZ3 -3.96%) dropping 68 cents, or 2.9%, to $22.49 an ounce.

Gold is “under punishing selling pressure after the support zone of $1,360 was broken this morning with massive selling orders,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade, in emailed comments. He said the next immediate support areas for the precious metal come at $1,280 followed by the $1,220.

Ross Norman, CEO of Sharps Pixley, said key technical support levels of $1,357 and $1,350 an ounce have given way and opened up the market to more selling. “With things quieter on the Syria front and really not much to add on taper, the market is behaving quite technically just now and traders very much studying the charts.”

Gold is on pace for its eighth down day in 11 sessions, noted Jonathan Krinsky, chief technical market analyst at Miller Tabak.

Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-09-12 19:52:44

“Yet another great buying opportunity for true believers in the saying that “gold prices always go up”

- who says that? PB can you find me one URL that quotes someone who wrote or says “gold prices always go up?” A Youtube link will suffice as well.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:30:23

“gold prices always go up?”

Albeit a slight exaggeration. More to the point:

“Every dip in the gold price is a buying opportunity.”

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Comment by In Colorado
2013-09-12 08:02:08

What gives?

Mr. Market isn’t believing for a second all the talk of taper QE.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 06:25:44

interview transcript with economist and author tyler cowen discussing his new book ‘average is over’

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/12/221425582/tired-of-inequality-one-economist-says-itll-only-get-worse

the future belongs to lucky ducky

welcome to the recoveryless recovery

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2013-09-12 22:22:29

Hoid that today while on the road. He says a lot of what is said here daily.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 06:44:01

it’s a good thing the gun ban in d.c. is working and keeping the streets safe!

oh wait…

‘one man was killed and three others were wounded in a shooting that occurred about midnight wednesday on a street just south of new york avenue nw, d.c. police said.

the location of the shooting is about two blocks from tyler house, a low-income apartment complex where 13 people were injured in a mass shooting in march linked to a dispute between neighborhood crews. police have made arrests in that case.’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/four-shot-one-fatally-off-new-york-avenue-in-northwest-dc/2013/09/12/a355400c-1b9c-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 07:57:09

Any white-hispanics involved?

If no - then the media or the government does not care

 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-09-12 08:15:58

Obama, Feinstein, Bloomberg, etc. support providing fully automatic Kalashnikov’s and RPG anti-tank launchers to terrorists in Syria affiliated with Al Qaeda, while doing everything they can to ban semi-auto AR-15’s from law-abiding Americans who are protected by the 2nd Amendment.

At what point do you consider these people terrorists and traitors and treat them as such?

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 09:42:33

That may not be a discussion for HBB but it is a key topic on westernrifleshooters dot blogspot dot com.

And how does the WaPo story relate to housing? The mass shooting in march at that location was discussed here with local commenters reporting that that part of D.C. was rapidly gentrifying.

Because everyone wants to live in D.C.

PUKE

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 10:54:11

correction: dot wordpress dot com

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Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 10:07:07

Now. It starts by saying it.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 10:50:09

“Now. It starts by saying it.”

There it is. TRUTH.

The corrupt liars won’t give up without a fight but the empowerment begins by discussing TRUTH.

Carry on brother.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:08:38

Turns out that QE3 and Syria tensions were among the best things to ever happen to gold. Now that both are going away, so is the premium they added to the gold price.

Sept. 11, 2013, 2:26 p.m. EDT
Gold ends lower for a second straight session
Syria developments, next week’s Fed meeting in focus
By Myra P. Saefong and Polya Lesova, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures finished modestly lower Wednesday, with the market on edge as efforts toward a diplomatic solution to avoid U.S. military intervention in Syria continued, and as investors looked for hints on what the U.S. Federal Reserve will say about monetary policy next week.

Thursday’s data on weekly jobless claims may offer the next clue on whether the U.S. central bank will decide to taper its bond-buying program at its two-day monetary-policy meeting next week.

Gold for December delivery (GCZ3 -2.64%) fell 20 cents to settle at $1,363.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had touched a low of $1,356 in electronic trading.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 16:21:34

D’jya ever notice how there is always a bull hiding out in a goldbug’s closet?

Gold selloff takes down miners ETF, but here’s a bull case

September 12, 2013, 7:15 PM

This week’s gold selloff has engulfed the miners, with the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF GDX down 10% so far this week. But often, the best time to consider a bull case is when there’s blood in the streets.

Those sounding bullish lately on GDX — albeit a little half-heartedly — include DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeff Gundlach and Morningstar ETF Strategist Samuel Lee.

 
 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2013-09-12 07:10:03

And in case you missed out on your daily Soul Train fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOPVmvqi7JY

Comment by spook
2013-09-12 07:54:24

thank you.

Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2013-09-12 08:53:47

Just discovered Daft Punk. Cocaine was a hell of a drug in the 70’s btw.

Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 10:05:48

Thanks for posting. I was noodling around on youtube the other evening and enjoying Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t that Peculiar” videos. Great tune by a class act.

Also enjoyed the Brothers Johnson doing “Stomp”. Those were the days. Sigh. Where’s my Huk-A-Poo shirt?

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 10:36:19

Bro Johnson? Classic.

Here’s to you Joe Liberace….

http://youtu.be/7yKC4Nw2Ggo

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 11:11:12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs25ML9Ap9I

Let’s have a Bro’ Johnson rumble! This is fun. Get da funk outta my face.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 11:54:42

I can top that funk any day! The King of Funk!

http://youtu.be/1dNIQVYGXbM

 
Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 14:18:02

I’ll see your Rick James and raise you one P-Funk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvjWh2Vhu4

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 17:37:15

hmmm….. that’s the epitome of da’ funk.

Here….
http://youtu.be/t4LWIP7SAjY

 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 08:04:27

I want hair like that.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 07:23:36

soylent green is the solution:

‘most of the nation’s oldest population is now clustered in the northeast and growing rapidly, according to census data, straining medical, housing and transportation budgets and forcing lawmakers to look for new approaches. and legislators and governors are reaching the conclusion that the way to pay for the elderly is to cater to the young.

that’s because younger residents just beginning their careers make up the foundation of a tax base that can support older workers who have retired or will soon do so. and a decade of dramatic internal migrations away from northeastern states and toward the sun belt and mountain west is putting those shrinking tax bases into the spotlight.’

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/09/12/the-northeast-is-getting-older-and-its-going-to-cost-them/

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 08:00:03

Or to sum up

No one wants to pay for the liberal agenda.

Buy you are a racists if you disagree

Easier to move to a right to work and low tax state

Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 09:59:30

Here’s how you solve that problem: make people stay, or give them an incentive to do so. Problem is, no incentive in the Northeast.

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 10:09:47

insane property taxes and cold hard winters don’t count?

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Comment by Patrick
2013-09-12 13:23:09

Zbanana

I imagine our property taxes would be considered insane in Southern Ontario.

But cold hard winters - never. That is what hockey takes care of !

And skiing.

And snowmobiling.

And yes - occasionally freezing

And that is why Florida was invented.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 07:24:29

Is it possible for da boyz to somehow prop up the stock market by dumping losses on gold bugs?

I don’t claim to know how this might work; just find it puzzling to see stocks hover at the flat line when gold is getting hammered for no reason.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 07:32:26

gold is getting hammered for no reason.

I thought it was getting hammered because tensions with Syria were easing.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 08:08:18

Then why aren’t Treasury bonds getting hammered equally hard, as both gold and Treasurys saw a flight-to-quality bump as Syria tensions ramped up?

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 09:18:20

I guess the real question is why Treasuries aren’t getting hammered by the ‘good’ news.

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Comment by cactus
2013-09-12 11:12:59

Gold has entered a Bear market it will go down for years

Same with treasuries

I think stocks will continue up

Place your bets..

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 16:09:27

1. Treasurys and stocks moved up in tandem during the boom years; do you expect decoupling during the bond bear market?

2. Have you considered that “The Great Rotation” is a Wall Street scam designed to separate greater fools from their money?

3. Check out what happened to Treasurys and stocks over 1966-1981 for a historical example of where we may be headed (hint: “Great Rotation” it wasn’t).

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-09-12 19:19:08

” Check out what happened to Treasurys and stocks over 1966-1981″

Check out what happened to gold from 1976 to January 19, 1980 (and then timberrrrrrr…from there) but stocks went down while gold went up.

Gold was below $1200 in late June / early July. This was before Obammy threatened Syria.

Cactus, my Starbucks buddy, what fundamentals about our economy changed? Do we no longer have to worry about unfunded liabilities?

ObamaScare, ma ny boomers retiring but low paid young people not putting enough into social security for the boomers and then Gen-x is knocking on the door for Social Security. Leading edge of boomers are in their late 60s now and are collecting Social Security. I’m a tail end boomer. Don’t think I will have that many years of collecting. Then I did not mention MediScare either.

Ignoring those, interest rates will have to go back up and they will. For every 1% increase, another $170 billion is added to the debt.

Bottom line, either our bank accounts will be seized like in Cyprus or our 401k accounts will be seized. Gold bullion coins you hide will be the high hanging fruit. Believe me, they will take your treasuries and stocks long before they grab my gold bullion!

I will keep stacking

 
 
 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-09-12 19:55:44

Back in late June and into July, there was no talk of invading Syria. Gold bumped up by $100 in one month. So Syria is not the issue.

This is merely a buying opportunity. I have added a lot of cash in my bucket ready to take to my favorite coin shop on a day off in a month or so for a bunch of quarter ounce gold eagles.

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 07:52:12

“I’m calling it a soft landing — a return to what is considered to be more normal market conditions,”

- Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist, California Association of Realtors

“Maybe we need something new. That’s all I’m prepared to say”
“I’m sorry I ever made that comment.”
“When I get my new term, I’ll let you know.”

- Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist, Cal. Assoc. Realtors
When asked about her “Soft Landing” prediction

Instead of “prepared” misrepresentations, how about just speaking truthfully about this debacle that is housing? Who is “preparing” these tall tales for you to read and why?

 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 07:54:47

“Trayvon Martin was, for the black community, a symbol of every young black male, each with vivid memories of averted faces, abrupt street crossings, clicking car locks and insulting police searches. As we move up the socioeconomic scale, the memories extend to attractive job openings that suddenly disappear when a black man applies, to blacks interviewed just to prove that a company tried, and even to a president some still hate for his color. It’s understandable that Trayvon Martin serves as a concrete emblem of the utterly unacceptable abuse, even today, of young black men.”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/getting-past-the-outrage-on-race/

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 07:59:06

Remax CEO Margaret Kelly, 2007 states “guaranteed appreciation” and “it’s a ‘perfect’ time to buy” a house.

http://youtu.be/TD2_NmPevVs

Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 10:39:39

what an absolute stooge.

 
 
Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 08:11:53

Pink Floyd - We Don’t Need No Education

“More than two-thirds of U.S. states are spending less per child on schools than they were five years ago, a study found, showing how slowly governments are replacing funding that was cut because of the recession.

In dollar terms, Alabama led the decline. Funding there shrank by $1,242 per student since 2008, adjusted for inflation. It was followed by Wisconsin, where the figure slid $1,038, and Kansas, with a $950 cut.”

Alabama and Kansas don’t need no uppity book learning. Books make Negroes forget their place and turn people commie!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/most-states-school-funding-tumbles-since-recession-study-finds.html

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 09:23:28

Books make Negroes forget their place

Yep, it makes them think they can walk down the street at night to get some skittles.

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 11:16:40

“to get some skittles”

To mix with Promethazine with codeine and Arizona Iced Tea brand Watermelon Fruit Punch to make a batch of “fire ass lean”, but CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR never reported that.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-09-12 19:04:30

I heard he whistled at a white woman too. But you never heard that on CNN.

Either way, he clearly deserved to be shot. A white guy can go out at night and buy some rolling papers, but a black guy can’t go out and get skittles and soda. That’s just a bridge too far. A shootin’ bridge.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:22:48

“I heard he whistled at a white woman too. But you never heard that on CNN.”

Why are you trying to change the subject from the media whitewash to give the appearance that Trayvon never touched purple drank? Isn’t that a relevant detail of the story that deserves to be told and retold to make up for the Democratic party’s propaganda campaign to suppress it?

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 20:56:40

“fire ass lean”

How is that compared to “purple drank”? Would those be two equally fragrant roses by different names?

Fun Fact: Trayvon Martin walked a mile in the pouring rain to pick up his bag of skittles and can of tea.

Fun Analysis: Isn’t it amazing the lengths some people go to satisfy their sweet tooth? In fact, I once crawled over six miles of broken glass and hot sauce to get a milky way and a thimble full of Pepsi.

Funner Fact: There are several Facebook messages from Trayvon Martin asking his friends if they could get him a prescription for Codeine.

Funner Analysis: While this certainly doesn’t prove anything about Mr. Trayvon Martin, it sure gives us reason to step back and think.

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Comment by ahansen
2013-09-12 22:03:50

Martin had four minutes to walk the <100 yards to his father’s girlfriend’s condo, open the door, go inside and close the door behind him. Instead he chose to double back and jump a neighborhood watch volunteer who turned out to be carrying.

Ooops.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:22:07

“Ooops.”

Right.

The facts don’t quite equate to the spotless lamb MSM portrayal of an unarmed teenager, do they?

 
 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 10:00:11

More money spent per student always equals a better education.

Just be sure to send your kids to a Washington D.C. public school.

—————

$29,409 per-student cost of D.C. public schools puts them in an elite group, but without the results

The $29,409 per-student educational price tag for D.C. schools is just slightly below two of the area’s most prestigious private schools – Georgetown Prep ($29,625), founded in 1789 as the nation’s oldest Jesuit school, and Sidwell Friends School ($33,000), the “school of choice” for President Obama’s daughters. It’s also almost twice as expensive as Bethesda-based St. John’s College High School ($15,950) and almost three times as expensive as D.C.’s Archbishop Carroll ($10,500).

However, judging by the graduation rate of D.C.’s public high schools of only 58.6% for the Class of 2011 (compared to the national average of 75.5% for public schools), District taxpayers might wonder why they’re getting such poor results from such an elite level of spending. For every 100 students who graduated from D.C. high schools in 2011, there were 71 of their freshman classmates who either dropped out or didn’t graduate on time. At one of D.C.’s worst-performing high schools – Cardozo Senior High – fewer than 40% of its students graduated in 2011, which means that for every 100 students who graduated, there were 154 of their freshman classmates who did not graduate.

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/06/29409-per-student-cost-of-d-c-public-schools-puts-them-in-an-elite-group-but-without-the-results/

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 11:47:47

Vote with your feet (don’t live there), and vote with your wallet (don’t buy overpriced real estate with high property taxes).

And I’ll vote with my feet to live in a state with the 2nd highest percentage of population with a Bachelor’s Degree (per wikipedia) and the 8th highest percentage of population with Graduate Degrees, which interestingly is also a state ranked 34th in per capita state government expenditures for all education.

 
 
Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-09-12 10:07:02

Kansas, with a $950 cut….Alabama and Kansas don’t need no uppity book learning.

So a Repub Gov. lied about tax cuts for the rich? And the Dems were correct?

Gov. Brownback Says Tax Cuts Won’t Hurt Kansas School Funding

http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/121_196/gov-brownback-says-tax-cuts-wont-hurt-kansas-school-funding-1044784-1.html

An invigorated private sector in Kansas created by recent state tax cuts will overcome a feared drop in state aid to local school districts, Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday…..

Democrats: Kansas tax cuts will lead to school funding cuts

http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/02/2512046/democrats-kansas-tax-cuts-will.html#storylink=cpy

TOPEKA — The massive income tax cuts that kick in Jan. 1 could lead to huge cuts in education funding, Democratic leaders in the Statehouse said Tuesday.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/02/2512046/democrats-kansas-tax-cuts-will.html#storylink=cpy

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 11:52:20

Kansas should just shut down all their public schools (commie indoctrination centers) and replace them with creation museums, that will help them compete for STEM jobs with the Chinese and Indians!

http://creationmuseum.org/

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 12:26:30

Nah

Just send your kids to the same school Obama sends his daughters for a top notch education.

Can’t afford it?

No school choice?

Sucks to be a slave on the democrat plantation

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Comment by inchbyinch
2013-09-12 20:34:02

My EE husband is a product of a K-11 Kansas education. Came out to So Ca to finish HS and go to a University. The dude had a great education in KS. His math skills exceeded his contemporaries in HS. He has patents with his former employer.

Would he go back to live there? No way.

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Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 08:22:33

It’s a good thing all the other taxpayers are making up the difference to pay for their employees’ Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches, Earned Income Tax Credits, Section 8 vouchers, Obamaphones, et cetera

“America’s richest family, worth more than $100 billion, has exploited a variety of legal loopholes to avoid the estate tax, according to court records and Internal Revenue Service filings obtained through public-records requests. The Waltons’ example highlights how billionaires deftly bypass a tax intended to make sure that the nation’s wealthiest contribute their share to government rather than perpetuate dynastic wealth”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/how-wal-mart-s-waltons-maintain-their-billionaire-fortune-taxes.html

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 10:02:24

Do you really think the ultra-rich pay taxes?

The estate tax - how to tax money/property that has already been tax several times at least one more time.

Or - how to force small farmers to sell their land to corporations who NEVER have to pay an estate tax.

 
Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 10:10:45

The Waltons spend an equal amount of time and effort avoiding sharing the wealth with their employees.

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 12:49:56

The Waltons (TV farmers) spend an equal amount of time and effort avoiding the insane regulations and taxes of their government.

Comment by RioAmericanInBrasil
2013-09-12 17:02:21

The Waltons (TV farmers) spend an equal amount of time and effort avoiding the insane regulations and taxes of their government.

Are you a moron? The Waltons have 100 billion dollars. Think and do the math.

How could the Waltons amass 100 billion dollars if the country that enable them to amass 100 billion dollars had “insane” regulations and taxes?

How? You are a clown.

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Comment by prayer walker
2013-09-12 18:32:32

How? You are a clown.

May be the Waltons would have had 200Billion dollars?

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Bubbabear
2013-09-12 08:27:07

Housing Bubble In Full Bloom, Zany Price increases, And Now A Sudden Slowdown

Cities have seen dizzying home-price increases that are giddily reported and fuse with pandemic housing hype and trillions from the Fed into a self-propagating force. And it has become accepted wisdom that the housing market would recover all the way to where it was in 2006, which would represent a complete recovery, a sign that the Fed has done its job, that it cured at least one of the ills that has been dogging this economy for so long.

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/9/11/housing-bubble-in-full-bloom-zany-price-increases-and-now-a.html

 
Comment by Neuromance
2013-09-12 08:45:04

“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.” — P. J. O’Rourke

I thought of this as I was considering the dilution of QM/QRM.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2013-09-12 09:08:33

Just got another credit card solicitation from my bank. They are offering a 15 month no interest bait. What puzzles me is why don’t any credit card solicitations offer a no-catch trial period for cash advances? I’d love to free up cash flow for a few months with the help of a bank but I never see anything offered, or at least anything transparent. I think any credit lines for cash equivalence offered ever in a solicitation have strings attached and gotchas that are not disclosed straight-forwardly. I understand they loan you out money if you have equity in a house and can let you rack up credit card charges in the many thousands, but when it comes to getting some cold hard cash without much fanfare, the banks don’t wanna allow for that. In these low interest rate environments and all the cash banks keep tied up in who knows what, they are awfully stingy. Are they worried that they will never see that cash again if they disperse it in a no-fee cash advance? We are talking 4% fee just to get a cash advance from a bank. This is why I tend to keep minimum amounts of cash in a bank. They really are stingy.

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 10:07:16

They actually used to.

I remember reading about some guy who really took advantage of the program.

He took out the max cash advance, put the money in the bank and wrote a check in full in plenty of time to clear. So the cc got nothing from him except their own money back.

Not only did he get the free interest (before obama’s ZIRP days) but he earned frequent flyer miles. Lots of FF miles.

The cc and airline company finally caught on after he had accrued over a million free miles.

Comment by oxide
2013-09-12 13:48:07

Banana, I think I remember that story, but I don’t have time to dig it up.

Beginner, can you free up floaty cash by using a balance transfer check from one credit card to pay off another credit card? You’re effectively not using real money to pay a bill. As long as you go right back to paying the bills, it shouldn’t cost you much in interest charges.

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 10:06:47

California Notice Of Defaults Up A Whopping 38.7% In Second Quarter

http://www.ksby.com/news/california-foreclosures-rise-in-2nd-quarter/#_

 
Comment by michael
2013-09-12 10:11:41

war’s back on.

Comment by jose canusi
2013-09-12 10:22:10

????

 
 
 
Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 10:15:17

The “Real” America: Near Record 20% Struggle To Afford Food, Highest Since Crisis Began
Zero Hedge | 9/12/13 | Tyler Durden

With US equity markets on a 7-day roll and excited TV anchors proclaiming the worst over and new all-time highs must signal recovery as they ‘celebrate’ five years on from Lehman, the following two charts of the state of real America should open a few eyes to just how blinded American has become to the truth (unless you live it). A stunning 20.0% of Americans were found to have struggled to afford food in the last year - surging in recent months to its highest since the peak of the crisis in 2008 - as American’s ability to consistently afford food has not recovered to pre-recession levels. Furthermore, Americans access to basic needs (13 factors including housing, healthcare, and food) hovers near record lows - dramatically lower than pre-recession levels. The Gallup polls point to a very different image of American than Dow 15,000 - and is set to get worse as the food stamp program is set to be cut in November.

More Americans are struggling to afford food — nearly as many as did during the recent recession. The 20.0% who reported in August that they have, at times, lacked enough money to buy the food that they or their families needed during the past year, is up from 17.7% in June, and is the highest percentage recorded since October 2011. The percentage who struggle to afford food now is close to the peak of 20.4% measured in November 2008, as the global economic crisis unfolded.

Comment by goon squad
2013-09-12 11:07:04

“You work three jobs? How uniquely American” - George W. Bush

The squad has correctly predicted that within a generation less than 15% of USA residents will enjoy what could be considered a middle-class lifestyle (see also NPR link posted above in which author affirms that correct 15% figure). The future = there is no future. Welcome to the recoveryless recovery.

Comment by 2banana
2013-09-12 12:29:19

Quick

Make government even bigger

Make more regulations

Raise taxes

That will surely fix the problem this time

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 16:15:02

Don’t let the facts stand in the way of your endless rants.

Report: Federal sector to shed 100K jobs next year
Sep. 12, 2013 - 04:22PM
By ANDY MEDICI
Large Storm System From Midwest Makes Its Way East
Storm clouds fill the sky over the U.S. Capitol in June. Sequestration cuts will force agencies to trim 100,000 federal jobs over the next year, according to a report published Tuesday. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

Budget cuts from sequestration will force agencies to trim 100,000 federal jobs over the next year, according to a report published Tuesday by banking firm Goldman Sachs.

Federal employment has already fallen by 71,000 jobs over the last year, according to the report. It assumes that Congress will not reverse sequestration budget cuts. The job loss numbers, taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, include the Postal Service as well as part-time and seasonal federal jobs.

Even though the economy continues to improve, federal employment will continue to drop because agencies largely avoided permanently cutting their workforces until now and will have to make permanent job cuts over the next year, according to the report.

“Many federal agencies have employed temporary strategies to adjust to sequestration this year, such as employee furloughs and deferral of maintenance and training, with the hope that sequestration would ultimately be reversed,” the report said.

The workforce will continue to decline at a smaller rate after the next year, according to the report.

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Comment by goon squad
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:51:56

“Have-TVs-VCRs-Cell-Phones-Air-Conditioning”

Of course everybody needs the essentials!

Comment by chilidoggg
2013-09-13 03:48:21

What are “VCR’s”?

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Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 10:22:11

It’s 2007 all over again on my cul de sac. The teardown mania has returned, as the second ranch house in the span of one month succumbs to the bulldozer. Both lots are at the entrance to the oval, which means construction traffic will be interfering with leaf pickup throughout the fall and with the snowplows all winter. Yippee!

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 10:52:18

Then you better dump that shack because the window is closing fast.

Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 12:05:56

No way. Our goal of having the smallest, cheapest house in the neighborhood is now two houses closer to being realized.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 12:14:31

It’s about to get alot cheaper. Why would you want to increase your losses like that?

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Comment by Middle Coaster
2013-09-12 13:11:32

Oh, maybe because we don’t have a mortgage, and renting anything in the area would cost alot more than taxes, insurance and maintenance on the current domicile. Plus, homegrown tomatoes!

 
Comment by nh transplant
2013-09-12 16:31:27

Not true. You can rent a studio apartment in a musty basement in an “up and coming” neighborhood for half the cost of your current taxes alone, if you don’t mind sharing a bathroom and kitchenette with a few undocumented immigrants and their families.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 17:30:14

All the more reason to dump it for what you can get for it.

Remember… you’r “maintenance” costs are double what you think they are.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2013-09-12 12:07:04

LOLZ….. c ya.

 
Comment by nh transplant
2013-09-12 13:42:22

Good read:

Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973 by Mark Woodruff

 
Comment by phony scandals
2013-09-12 16:39:47

Some days you get the bear, other days the bear gets you.

Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 17:43:14

the ponzi scheme in the bond market makes madoff look like a rookie.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 16:41:51

This story is a housing market Schadenfreudist’s dream. Enjoy!

The Financial Crisis: Five Years Later
After Las Vegas’s Housing Crash, Fraud, Ferraris, and Gun Fights

By Felix Gillette September 12, 2013
Resident Vance photographed many events in the Meridian courtyard. Here, in November 2010, a visitor rests
Photograph by Frazzetta/Vance

Jan. 20, 2009: The National Association of Home Builders predicts a 29 percent drop in real estate prices

Amid the housing boom and subsequent bust, no place in the country heaved up more extreme real estate behavior than Las Vegas. During the first six months of 2009, the city racked up the highest rate of foreclosure of any major metropolitan area in the U.S., according to RealtyTrac. Citywide, 1 in 13 properties had fallen into foreclosure, more than six times the national average. And by 2009 no place in Las Vegas had evolved into such a baroque and extravagant set piece of housing horrors as the Meridian Private Residences.

Through a set of binoculars mounted on a tripod by a window in his living room, Robert Vance, 60, watched it happen. When things got really weird, which was often, he took photos. “The homeowners association asked me if I saw something bizarre, to get a record of it,” says Vance, a film technician who lived in a three-bedroom condo on the fourth floor. The year 2009 proved to be a vintage one.

Designed to look like a Mediterranean oasis, the Meridian is located on E. Flamingo Road, which passes through the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, past the Bellagio fountains and the Paris Casino’s miniature Eiffel Tower. In 2005, American Invsco, a real estate company in Chicago, bought the 16-acre gated community through a subsidiary LLC and converted its 678 rental apartments into condominiums. At the time, new condominium projects were sprouting up across the city. Interest from abroad was huge, which meant that American Invsco could sell condos almost exclusively to people who had no intention of ever moving in.

In glossy brochures distributed at parties from Las Vegas to London, American Invsco guaranteed that for a period ranging from 12 to 36 months, anyone who joined their corporate “leaseback” program would (a) have their taxes covered, (b) get their homeowners association fees paid, and (c) receive a generous monthly rental income. It assured investors it would cover all three incentives, even if the buyer’s unit was unoccupied. It was the quintessential sales pitch, reflecting the prevalent spirit of a madcap era: Investors could buy, hold, then flip a property without ever setting foot inside.

Only 14 were ultimately sold to owner-occupiers, according to one subsequent estimate by a former American Invsco manager. The other 98 percent of the units were bought by investors who lived in far-off places such as New York, California, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Italy, and Japan. Time would prove that selling the bulk of a condo development to absentee owners on the eve of a real estate collapse is not a great recipe for community stability. (American Invsco did not respond to several interview requests.)

Like the legions of people who arrive in Las Vegas hoping to get rich on blackjack or roulette only to find that the system is stacked against them, the boom-time real estate investors, once stripped of their cash and illusions, hastily got out of town. At the Meridian, according to one estimate by a member of the homeowners association, roughly 490 of the units eventually went into foreclosure or short sales.1

From his living room, with its magnificent view of the casino-studded skyline, as well as of the Meridian’s communal areas, Vance watched the condo complex empty out. And the more deserted the property got, the sketchier it felt for those who remained.

One day, Vance called the police to report that someone appeared to be stealing furniture out of empty units; the police told him that unless it was his condo being robbed, there wasn’t much they could do. Another night, at 2:30 a.m., Vance got a call from a neighbor who heard noise coming from the trash receptacle area. The next morning, Vance looked around. He found that in the dead of night, somebody had been filling the Meridian’s industrial-strength trash compactor with boxes of condominium documents.

With each passing foreclosure, who owned what at the Meridian grew more opaque. One Thursday in April 2009, a group of day laborers showed up and erected a chain-link fence blocking the primary driveway to the complex. Some company, which none of the residents had ever heard of, claimed it owned the land and was owed back rent. Eventually, the dumbfounded condo owners paid the bill, and the fence came down.

Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 17:36:35

the economy is dependent on QE. There is no growth without QE.

Debt monetization is the only thing keeping the whole system afloat.

You know, I know it, and when the public wakes up out of their stupor they will know it.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 20:46:18

Fuggetabout QE. Wasn’t that a great post? I love the photo of the hooker lying on the sidewalk (face scrambled to protect the non-innocent…).

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 20:47:36

This prominent line about sums up the story:

“The entire system was rife with fraud”

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2013-09-12 16:47:13

I think this is footage of a young Barrack Obama in a confrontation with Opie Taylor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thQLfeND4SI - 149k -

 
Comment by azdude02
2013-09-12 17:40:18

tapering is simply an illusion to keep you in the dark.

 
Comment by Patrick
2013-09-12 19:10:36

I have never understood how QE would ever help the average worker but I can see how it has held up many banks from failing by indirectly buying up their failed mortgages at par, and how it has supercharged the stock market (gamblers).

It almost seems as though the Fed wants to cover Basel now while it can get away with it. Their inflation gamble will hit them. They have been lucky so far because they did not help employment and thus demand.

To get this economy going we have to move away from protecting the banks and stock markets and deal directly with Joe 6pack.

That can only be done now with aggressive innovation, marketing and govt largesse to spike it.

It is so funny to hear bankers say that it will be easy to reach 6% by 2018 when they haven’t been able to budge from 3% despite the avalanche of money QE has deposited over the last five years.

Until a strong government led by people who can understand the excesses of the system ie merge capital, hedge funds, and deposits ! and get so many different percentages you cannot even calculate their safety. How can laws allow this ?

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-09-12 20:46:56

Meanwhile, fundie Muslim violence spreads to other nations like a cancer

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-12/thousands-flee-in-south-philippines-as-islamic-violence-spreads.html

Coming to the USA too. In my own apartment complex there are fundie Muslims. A guy wearing a long gown. A woman all veiled. Orange County.

I think if I was dictator I would require all beaches be clothing optional for those between 18 and 30 as long as they are not obese. Also clothing optional shopping malls. Make the fundie Muslims leave America…please?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:42:44

Wall Street remains highly unpopular five years after crisis
By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News

Americans continue to overwhelmingly dislike and distrust Wall Street five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing financial crisis, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Forty two percent said they have a negative view of the New York financial institutions while just 14 percent have a favorable opinion. The remainder of respondents had either a neutral view or no opinion. That is the lowest rating of any institution included in the poll. In comparison, 45 percent view President Barack Obama favorably while 25 percent expressed the same about the Tea Party.

The antipathy remains high despite record gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average of more than 15,000 points, which is 3,000 points above than where it was when the market began its decline in 2008.

Still, a majority of Americans – 52 percent – continue to say they have been either greatly or somewhat affected by Wall Street crises and the housing market over the last three to five years. That’s just seven points lower than in the immediate aftermath of the financial collapse in October of 2008.

Americans also remain deeply pessimistic about the state of the economy. Just 27 percent think the economy will get better in the next year, while almost half of the country – 48 percent – thinks it will be about the same, the lowest since July of last year.

Despite months of slowly improving economic data, a majority – 52 percent – disapprove of President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, his worst rating since August of 2012.

Part of this is likely because of the disconnect between Wall Street and the job market. Recovery in the job market has happened at a much slower pace than the gains on Wall Street.

After the financial collapse of 2008, the jobless rate spiked to 10 percent a year later – eight months after Obama took office. Four years later, that rate stands at 7.3 percent – a decline, but not back to the pre-economic meltdown levels of unemployment in the five percent range.

There was a small spike in economic optimism just before the last presidential election. In October 2012, a high of 45 percent said the economy would get better in the next 12 months. But nearly a year later and with the election season over, nonpartisan pessimism is back.

With the top 1 percent taking home more money than at any time since 1928, there is also evidence in the poll of the widening income inequality gap. More Americans consider themselves poor than 15 years ago, the last time the question was asked — in boom economic times.

Twelve percent consider themselves poor compared to just seven percent who said so in 1998. And there are more people saying they make less than $30,000 a year – nine percent now versus five percent in 1998. But adjusting for inflation, an annual $30,000 today is equivalent to making just $21,000 in 1998.

Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine, CA
2013-09-13 07:25:48

If instead of bizchin and moaning about it for five years they shouldve invested in stock index funds. My 401k has a very favorable opinion of Wall Street.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 21:47:20

If you don’t ever post on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, do searches on Google or Yahoo, or use gmail or hotmail, then you won’t have to worry so much about the NSA spying on you.

Zuckerberg Says Feds ‘Blew It’ on NSA Spying Issue
By Angela Moscaritolo
September 12, 2013 03:53pm EST

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said the U.S. government has done a bad job explaining the NSA’s spying efforts.

Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Zuckerberg said it’s the government’s job to protect U.S. citizens from terrorism but also defend our freedoms and protect the economy.

“I think they did a bad job balancing those things here,” Zuckerberg said. “Frankly I think that the government blew it. They blew it on communicating the balance of what they were going for here with this.”

For instance, the government’s initial comments that it was not spying on Americans left confusion for global companies, Zuckerberg said.

“It was like – Oh wonderful, that’s really helpful to companies who are trying to serve people around the world, and really going to inspire confidence in American Internet companies,” Zuckerberg quipped. “It’s like, thanks for going out there and being clear about what you were doing.”

Facebook has been pushing the government to be more transparent about its actions, he added. The company, along with Google and Yahoo, this week filed suit asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to publish more information about the requests it recieves from the government for user information.

Facebook last month released its first official government transparency report, revealing that U.S. government officials made up to 12,000 requests for user data in the first six months of 2013, far higher than any other country on the social network’s list.

Zuckerberg’s comments about the NSA leaks were part of a wide-ranging discussion that touched on everything from Yahoo’s new logo (which he said “seems fine”) and Bill Gates to Facebook’s initial public offering.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:16:30

Five years after the Fall 2008 financial firestorm, and the financial markets are still FOOBAR.

Maybe QE1, QE2 and QE3 were an abysmal failure?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:18:27

Corporate bond market liquidity concerns mount five years after crisis
September 12, 2013, 3:26 PM

Five years after the onset of the financial crisis, cries of “illiquidity” in the corporate bond market have grown louder, especially as bonds sold off in the past few months.

The one-two punch of increased regulation and lower risk tolerance post-crisis has been blamed in part for markedly shrinking dealer balance sheets in recent years, slowing the ability of big banks to serve as market makers. As bonds become less liquid, the ability for investors to quickly and cheaply buy and sell holdings becomes more difficult.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2013-09-12 22:44:32

Oops…I misspelled FUBAR.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2013-09-14 04:03:43

-33

 
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