Bits Bucket for October 18, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
November 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Shiller: “Home Equity Isn’t A Place To Put Your Money”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/shiller-s-lesson-housing-was-never-a-great-investment.html
Why?
Because houses are depreciating assets that result in loss every.single.time.
Remember…. “equity” is a fallacy. It doesn’t exist.
“People have learned that a highly leveraged, illiquid, high-transaction cost “asset” requiring regular annual maintenance of thousands of dollars is not worth the risk”
You better believe it. Housing is always a loss. ALWAYS
“Mortgage Defaults Skyrocketing”
http://www.billsbills.com/blog/mortgage-defaults-skyrocketing-hamp-has-failed
Default is what happens when you pay a massively inflated price for what is always a depreciating asset…. in this case, a house.
Washington DC Housing Demand Cratered 12%+ in 2013
And the cratering is accelerating
http://picpaste.com/pics/7301cf5d3c9b8e731ea36f68359434f0.1382097703.png
That’s good news - I’m hoping to move to Northern Virginia and prices are pretty insane up there. But jobs pay.
Rental rates in DC are falling too. Rent for a mere fraction of the cost of buying.
Brent crude has popped above $110 a barrel today. It is about five dollars above where it started the year. Diesel fuel is about 60 cents a gallon above gasoline prices. Anyone that thinks gasoline prices will not rise soon does not understand how the prices of gasoline is set. I am sure people that heat with heating oil are already experiencing sticker shock when they fill up their oil tanks.
One final note oil companies have started to pull out of Iraq due to the instability so the glut that was suppose to develop in oil production will not develop.
It’s Dan…. our favorite Fed Reserve Inflation Pimp.
I am not a broken clock. I am a housing bear sometimes and moderately bullish sometime. Actually, I think housing places nationwide are going to go flat for the next 12 to 14 months after their bounce. The FHA essentially subprime loan prop is gone. On the individual level, I bought at the right time and refinanced the loan at the right time. Having around a 3.5% fixed loan just before an inflation episode is a good place to be. Thank you.
And underwater DebtDonkey too.
Is that part of your ruse or the truth?
This blog gets results, they have just dropped Brent below $110. lol Of course, they cannot keep it there and it is still above January 2013 prices.
When I checked the latest news I see that Iraq is near it’s historical high production levels and China is investing big in their oil industry promising to increase imports by 70%.
Death to Amerika!
Death to the Petrodollar!
By Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report
Published Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Iraq’s total exports dropped to 2.07 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, the lowest in 19 months, down from 2.579 million bpd in August.The main reason for the decline is a massive campaign to increase the capacity of Iraq’s primary oil export outlet in the Basra Gulf, which has temporarily shut in 500,000 bpd. The persistent bombing of Iraq’s northern pipeline to Turkey has also reduced exports for the past several months and compounded struggles in and around the Kirkuk field.
The PTB were expecting four to five million barrels a day out of Iraq by now when they invaded Iraq. Even the Angolan oil company is pulling out due to instability. Western companies have sold operations to China.
Considering oil demand has fallen to 1995 levels and still sinking, no need to fan the fraudulent flames of a flaming Inflation Pimp.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WQQoEyBMGP8/UIlW6InHXTI/AAAAAAAAUpQ/mfSImlST7tQ/s1600/recent-us-oil-consumption.png
Got price fixing?
Try reading some non-western news sources to balance out the propaganda. Who do you think is sponsoring the terrorist in Iraq?
http://www.arabnews.com/news/467935
http://www.gulf-times.com/Business/191/details/368835/Iraq-to-boost-oil-exports-to-China,-India-next-year
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/latest-news/257263-china-seeks-850000-bpd-of-crude-from-iraq-for-2014-.html
Looks to me Iraq is becoming BFF with China and oil companies that associate with the US and UK are persona non grata.
I noticed that Saudi Arabia turned down UN Security Council seat. I think Saudi Arabia is pissed that Iran might give in on nuclear inspections and get the sanctions lifted. It also looks like S.A. is loosing the Syria civil war too.
Plans of production are not the same of production. I do read many non-western sources.
Death to Amerika!
Death to the Petrodollar!
And unless China does something about their air pollution problems, people in large cities are going to be the ones dying. Burning more fossil fuels isn’t going to help.
people in large cities are going to be the ones dying. Burning more fossil fuels isn’t going to help.
Depends on what your definition of “help” is. Air pollution will decrease live expectancy but not the same way in each age group, i.e., doesn’t kill the same percentages of each age group. As usual, the very young & very old are the first to die. Chronic lung disease will change the curve of life expectancy, so that the proportion of retirees / area under the curve will be less in areas with bad air pollution.
I hear leftist and eco-terrorist claim that man-made climate change and air pollution are linked. But most skeptics say there is no such thing as man-made climate change so air pollution must just be natural variability in local air patterns.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/10/17/the-good-side-of-climate-change/
It’s true because the best science blog on the web is “Watts Up With That?”
http://2013.bloggi.es/#science
Slate predicted that we would break the record for hottest year on record. Slate is wrong another year cooler than 1998. How can you call it global warming when there is no warming? How can you call it climate change when we have been on a Temperature mesa for 20 years?
I forget… why was 1998 so special? Are you trying to tell me that just because a patch of water 12,000 miles away was a little warmer for ONE YEAR so suddenly the whole planet’s air temperature spikes to a record!? Oh that’s right, a bunch of lying scientist told us it was a record. 1998 was a lie promoted by the UN and Al Gore. Let this be a lesson to everyone - don’t trust scientist.
And yet the ice caps continue to melt.
How can you call it global warming when there is no warming?
Average 1998 with the two years before and the two years after and compare that with the last five years, and tell me that there is no trend. 1998 was a huge anomaly at the time, the adjacent years were all cooler. Fast forward to today and 1998 temperatures are now the norm.
It’s all good, I haven’t purchased gas since May. I think my wife had to fill up the VOLT a couple months ago and the tank is still full.
Electricity can be made using oil, nat gas, coal, wind, solar nuc etc. Most of which can be found right here in the USA. When my solar panels go up, I’ll have my energy costs covered for the next 20 years.
Good for you, measton. That’s why I favor electric over nat gas. By the time there are enough refueling stations that I’m not afraid to be caught out, cheap LNG will no longer be cheap. With electric you can pick your poison.
I’m just about to take my 2007 beater in for 50K maintenance. I hope it will last me another 6-10 years, and by that time, plug-in hybrids will be the norm, and we’ll have some refueling infrastructure.
another 6-10 years
If that’s the case, by that time they’ll have figured out how to tax you $5000/year for your non-use of gas.
There’s the cynic in me again, but at some point I don’t see how we avoid tracking devices that measure mileage traveled to charge for use.
Just tax the fuel. Covers efficiency at the same time and doesn’t require giving up privacy.
How’s that 335i doing for you?
Finally bit the bullet on an Allroad (2004, not the new ones). Love the power of that car. Eyeing the newish BMW Xdrives for a used purchase in about 4-5 years.
It’s an xi, but it’s good. Not as reliable as a Japanese car in my experience. The big stuff is reliable, but the little things can get to you. When it’s working right it’s the best all around car I’ve owned or even been around much. But I have all the options…the base model loaners I get aren’t that great.
Just got some racier brake pads put on in preparation for a little track time this winter. It’s not faster in a straight line in my old car even with the turbos maxed out, but it ought to be a lot faster around a road course.
The big stuff is reliable, but the little things can get to you. When it’s working right it’s the best all around car I’ve owned or even been around much.
That about sums up my experience with the AR.
My issue is I want MT, AWD, in a wagon. Audi, BMW, and Subaru had been the only game in town on that score but after visiting the Audi dealer a few months back everything is going paddle shifters at best here in the States, and it looks like BMW isn’t doing the 5-series wagon anymore and the 3-series has gone all AT at this point as well.
I should look into what the local speedway offers. Sounds like a blast.
Speaking of MT, that’s what I got. The weird thing is that even as the automatics keep getting better and better, I keep enjoying the MT more and more. The autos in the loaners are great…for autos. But it still makes it feel like a totally different car, even if you manually control the changes. There’s still a huge psychological difference between asking the car to do something and just doing it yourself. Bigger than I even realized.
Hi-5 dude!
When you get you panels up you can use this tool to forecast your production for 5 days ahead.
http://www.meteoblue.com/en_US/apps/pointsolar
I’ve been using it for about a month and it’s pretty good.
Are you going to lease or buy? And if you are buying are you going with a string inverter or micro-inverters?
“Anyone that thinks gasoline prices will not rise soon does not understand how the prices of gasoline is set.”
All in all, the U.S. will produce 12.1 million barrels per day this year, which is 300,000 barrels higher than Saudi Arabia and 1.6 million more than Russia. Since 2009, NGLs and biofuels rose 3.2 million barrels per day.
When it comes to crude oil, Saudi Arabia and Russia still produce 3 million barrels more than the United States. But in the long-term, the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia in liquids production after 2020, and this will continue until around 2030.
http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/us-oil-production-surpasses-saudi-arabia/3933
If your not in the game you have no shot at some free equity.
Remember… equity is a fallacy. It doesn’t exist. Either you own it or you down. And sadly, as Robert Shiller so eloquently states, “home equity just isn’t a great place to put your money”.
Dump housing while you still can for whatever you can get for it.
Dump housing while you still can for whatever you can get for it.
Unless your mortgage is less than rent and you like where you live and you don’t like to move stuff because your back hurts and you are busy with life and you like your kid’s school an neighborhood and you have a job and you don’t care and your neighbors are cool and your dog likes your fenced back yard and your other dog is old and blind and you can ride your bike to work.
Considering rental rates are half the cost of carrying a depreciating millstone around your neck, relieve the oppressive burden sooner rather than later.
Spain Hunting Lodge Overrun by Deer a Parable of Bust
By Charles Penty - Oct 17, 2013 9:58 AM ET
Bloomberg
Spanish developer Luis Gonzalez Chozas used to boast of the nobility of the horses at his 600-hectare (1,480-acre) hunting estate in the lee of the San Pedro Hills, one of the best for boar and deer in the region.
“We’re well aware that these properties can degrade rapidly so we want to return them to productive use as quickly as possible,” said Alvaro Escribano, Sareb’s land planning manager. “For every moment that this land stays in our hands it loses value.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/spain-hunting-lodge-overrun-by-deer-a-parable-of-bust.html
Yes, I realize that the PTB are trying to have the foreclosures and shadow inventory “meet the bulldozer”, but this also highlights another point - most people ignore the cost of taxes, insurance and maintenance when they look forward to having that paid off house.
Where I live rents are steadily climbing.
Local businesses are struggling because all the money is going to rent (that’s my theory.)
And tons more crappy “luxury” apartments on the way.
In Norfolk? We’ll check on that. No sense in buying when renting is half the cost of buying.
“For every moment that this land stays in our hands it loses value.”
It always has, it always will.
And if you paid much more than $800/acre, your losses are irrecoverable.
That old, blind dog better watch out when Obama gets hungry
Just don’t play the “game” with a variable interest rate mortgage.
leverage yourself my friend, its your only hope.
“Variable interest rate mortgage”.
I like to think of such a mortgage as a sort of “starter mortgage” - something a young person can dip his foot into (just like dipping his foot into a tar pit) to get used to the feel of financial independence (See? We bankers do have a sense of humor after all) .
hey mr. banker, here’s some young dude who foolishly borrowed alot of student loans for college and then had a wake up call several months after graduating. he is starving the beast by aggressively paying down his loans early, $20,000 of principle paid off in just the past nine months.
http://studentloanrage.com/
weren’t variable interest loans tied to the LIBOR rate that the big banks were rigging?
LIBOR rigging: One of our finer moments.
Ah, nostalgia, it ain’t what it used to be.
What was neat about rigging the LIBOR is the same set of guys that set the LIBOR rates - we bankers - were the same set of guys that benifited from just where these rates were set.
The way Bernanke has rigged every conceivable market, LIBOR rigging is a walk in the park.
no doubt brother basically every market is rigged. I cant get myself to buy any stock because I don’t believe there is any value there what so all.
Most companies have their stocks gone up 50 to 100% but revenue and profit has remained more or less same.
Unless the dollar collapses, stocks have to collapse by at least 50% to find the equilibrium.
stocks are not on sale thats for sure.
Mr. Banker, I thought you sold your mortgages to Fannie within a month of originating them. Do you gain enough extra cash from high or variable interest rates to care one way or the other? Or is your profit all from the fees?
My profit comes from indenturing as many people as I possibly can. I look to the future, I am not restricted to looking at the present.
The present (present = gift) allows me to extract money from schmucks - which I enjoy spending - and this present money extraction tends to leave the schmucks a bit short of money later on down the line - as in months and years from now; It leaves the schmucks indentured, indentured to me.
Which is just where I want them to be.
how come you are not lending to people but instead gambling in FB stock?
“If your not…”
If you’re not…
The FSA votes.
And expects more and more free sh*t.
“California is the best place to get free sh*t. Free day care, free food, free pizza…$221 in cash/month. If you have four kids, you get four times as much. Most people have their friends as day care providers so they split that cash too. Who would want to work?”
——————————–
If the Walmart ‘Situation’ Made You Mad, Wait Until You See This Woman Tell About Her EBT Card
96.5 KVKI ^ | Oct 15, 2013 | Robert and Erin
Almost 100% of our listeners were incensed at the actions of EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card holders this weekend at Walmarts in Mansfield and Springhill. In fact, one went so far as to call it, ‘legalized looting!’
So after everything you’ve seen in the past few days, you won’t be surprised to learn there are folks ‘working’ the system, a system designed to help folks going through hard times, to their advantage…as this woman explains.
http://965kvki.com/if-the-walmart-situation-made-you-mad-wait-until-you-see-this-woman-tell-about-her-ebt-card/
Food stamp welfare queens = $80 billion a year
Government contractor welfare queens = $500 billion a year
Shoot one, hang the other. Problem fixed.
No way, buddy.
People’s Republic of Lockheed Martin = the Real Free Sh*t Army
We just hired two more contractor staff this week, shutdown be damned!
Why isn’t anyone angry at Wal-Mart for allowing the EBT cards to go over limit? Chances are, they’ll make up any losses off the hides of the workers, either in the store or in Foxconn. Or do you think that the Walton family would forego the annual Bentley.
I thought Wal*Mart is eating the loss?
I still predict those cards get nothing until they are back to even. It’s the government way, and nobody eats the loss.
When you say that Wal-Mart is “eating” the loss, you seriously didn’t think that they would be content with making a little less profit, did you? No, they’ll keep the profit margin and charge a few pennies more for nail clippers or something until that lost EBT money is made up.
Carl, good point, the gov could just say the over limit will cover two months of EBT instead of one.
At a sticker price of $36, this book is destined to not sell many copies.
Greenspan: ‘I Probably Could Have Caught’ Economic Crises
by NPR Staff
October 18, 2013 8:18 AM
5 min 36 sec
The Map and the Territory
Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting
by Alan Greenspan
Hardcover, 388 pages
More on this book:
Alan Greenspan was celebrated as a master of monetary policy during his long chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, from 1987 to 2006. But policies put in place during Greenspan’s tenure have been blamed by some for the financial crisis that began shortly after he left, and the so-called Great Recession.
Greenspan, 87, now president of Greenspan Associates LLC, a consulting firm, talks with Morning Edition host Renee Montagne about his new book, The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting, and discusses why he says it is so difficult for even experts to predict economic calamity.
Interview Highlights
On why top government economists didn’t foresee the economic collapse, despite years of warnings from some business journalists who pointed to predatory lending and other signs
It’s not that we didn’t see it. I, for example, was saying in 2001, 2002, that the big surge in housing financed by mortgage debt, can’t continue. But it went on for four more years. One of the things I try to designate in the book is why it is so difficult to catch these actual crisis periods. I probably could have caught a number of different crises. I came very close in the dotcom boom. I did not come close at all on the housing boom. You’re talking in terms of the roof was falling, and after a while you stop saying so, because the roof isn’t, the roof never fell.
On lessons from the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the nation’s largest investment banks
You’d need government regulation to set up the capital standards because most banks, as I’ve seen, will fight endlessly trying to get as little capital requirements as possible. If you’re thinking in terms of the period when we all thought that people acted in their long-term self-interest, you can demonstrate in that hypothetical case that you need no regulations at all. It will be automatic. But that’s not the way the world works. The premises that I believed prior to 2008 I had to discard because the evidence definitely said I was wrong.
…
When facts change, I change the facts.
–mftp
mexico goes all bloombergy nanny state in war on fats
wall street journal - mexico tries taxes to combat obesity:
‘mexico city — congress’s lower house of congress passed late thursday a special tax on junk food that is seen as potentially the broadest of its kind, part of an ambitious mexican government effort to contain runaway rates of obesity and diabetes.
the taxes would put mexico, a country notorious for its love of sweets, fried foods and pastries, on the cutting edge of government efforts to cut obesity rates.
seven of 10 adults in mexico, and a third of children, are either overweight or obese. mexicans have now surpassed americans for the title of the fattest country in the oecd, according to the organization.
all that fat has contributed to an alarming rise in chronic illnesses like adult-onset type 2 diabetes, which afflicts an estimated 15% of mexicans over the age of 20, the highest rate for any country with more than 100 million inhabitants. illnesses related to excess weight cost the mexican public health system more than $3 billion a year, according to the legislation.’
As someone who lived in Mexico City in the 70’s, when most Mexicans were lean and healthy, seeing the army of hyper obese people there is sobering.
I think the problem isn’t so much diet. They had junk food back then as well as the usual fare of greasy fried foods they love. IMHO the problem is inactivity. From what my relatives tell me it’s way too dangerous to let the kids go out to play. So instead they spend their free time in front of the TV, eating snacks and drinking sugary sodas. And it’s dangerous for adults too, who minimize their time away from home too. So instead of being out and walking about, they too stay home, snack and watch TV.
Got Cheetos?
Si tenemos!
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3152/2579420248_6a1d2364e8.jpg
In Mexico the name is pronounced cheh-tos
Mmmmm….Jarritos Mandarina.
Does the Congress plan to compensate the rest of America for the $24 billion that went down the drain over the past couple of weeks?
Shutdown Hit Boehner’s Favorite Diner as $24 Billion Lost
By Toluse Olorunnipa, Kathleen Miller & Brian Wingfield - Oct 17, 2013 1:19 PM PT
Gum Tong owns a diner in Washington, D.C., and Matt Bellinger charters fishing boats in the Florida Everglades. They have this in common: The shutdown of the U.S. government cost them money they will never get back.
Pete’s Diner & Carryout, a 50-year-old Capitol Hill eatery frequented by House Speaker John Boehner, lost about 80 percent of its usual business, said Tong, surrounded by empty seats and Halloween decorations. Bellinger missed out on $1,000 a day in canceled charters because Everglades National Park was closed.
“What people have been doing in droves is saying ‘We’ll go to Disney World,’ or ‘We’ll cancel our trip and go home’,” Bellinger said in a telephone interview. Nineteen groups dropped plans for four-hour fishing trips.
“I can’t make that money back,” he said. “It’s gone.”
…
We have met the enemy and it is us.
The feds get hazard pay for the damaged egos from being deemed non-essential, I suppose…
$1 Trillion in additional debt to keep the government running for 3 more months doesn’t count?
Welcome back!
Took you 3 weeks to sign up for O’Care, huh?
Thousands of defaulted mortgages might not have served well to help keep DC housing prices inflated.
At most, feds would have lost one or two paychecks. Not enough to default a house. But it would be long enough to evict a lot of renters.
“… lost one or two paychecks.”
Bring them to me. I may be of some help.
long enough to evict a lot of renters
Only if they are Lucky Ducky GS-7’s and such who live paycheck to paycheck in overpriced metro D.C.
Mortgage albatross loanowners are the ones who are broke broke broke. The smart renters (like myself) do not live in bubble markets like D.C. and we sit on piles and piles of cash that we have left over after “throwing money away on rent” every month.
“So much cash, gotta keep it in Hefty bags” — Ice T, New Jack Hustler
Who cares, PandaCam is back!
Per the WashPost, “The animals were cared for, but the zoo’s 15 different camera systems — which require federal resources, primarily staff, to operate — were deemed nonessential during the impasse.”
“Error loading stream. Could not connect to server.”
Evidently all of DC is eager to see that she can now scoot around a little bit.
Pickups highly profitable for automakers
I changed the headline from a generic one. FTA:
Whoop-tee-doo! Nothing is more important for a truck than flashy headlights.
Meanwhile my old 2001 F150 will rust itself to death while my even older 1983 F250 continues to hold itself together despite my negligence. The only durability advantage my 2001 version has is an aluminum hood, which is the only part of it not to show corrosion. My ‘83 hood should have been replaced years ago, due to its rust damage.
Training customers to pay extravagantly does pay off.
howmuchamonthharvey continues to be the only game in town.
And they are selling them by lowering the credit standards for truck loans. The taxpayers lost on GM the first time, are we ready for another bailout?
what is the difference between money and currency?
moral hazzard’s a bitch.
peter schiff breaks down the myth of yellen…a great example of why obama doesn’t like his subjects reading blogs.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-17/janet-yellen-exposed-truth-behind-myth-0
your compensation is the academic janet yellen.
To know her is to love her.
posted a link but it has not posted yet…go to zerohedge and watch Peter Schiff’s video on dispelling the myth of yellen.
great example of why obama doesn’t want you reading blogs.
she is a pawn for the politicians, sad.
obama doesn’t want you reading blogs
You should only trust news from Dianne Feinstein’s roster of “real journalists”
Well that zerohedge guy uses the name of a fictional character. So he’s not real.
I wonder how many Zerohedge readers are short the market? I’m not claiming the stock market is rational but if you take Peter Schiff’s financial advice you are stupid.
Shorting is all about timing.
“markets can stay irrational a lot longer than you can stay solvent.”
Everyday these markets continue to defy gravity it just increases the size of the eventual crash.
Google and priceline are the poster childs for irrational exuberance.
if you take Peter Schiff’s financial advice you are stupid.
Yes…..but if you trust Yellin, what does that make you?
a frog sitting in a nice warm bath.
No doubt his timing is bad. And he underestimates the ability of the PTB to rig markets. I myself have lost a lot of money betting on silver and gold, for example. But Peter’s facts and analysis are invariably correct. His takedown of Yellen is a wonderful piece of investigative reporting, and all these media editors and Obama himself should really be publicly shamed for outright lying about it.
I really feel for Peter - who, like Rodney Dangerfield never “gets no respect”. It’s one thing to ignore his warnings and ridicule him. It’s quite another level to blatantly rewrite history and ascribe sageness to people who never remotely showed it - while at the same time continuing to ignore those who actually did.
The rational thing to do is to read Peter to understand the reality, then invest with the big boys with tight stops in place, so that when the SHTF you are out sooner rather than later.
And he underestimates the ability of the PTB to rig markets.
The rational thing to do is to read Peter to understand the reality, then invest with the big boys with tight stops in place, so that when the SHTF you are out sooner rather than later.
Exactemudo!
I still like him but you do not want to invest without considering what the 2 invisible hands of free market; the fed & the gobmint would do.
I read a little about his Dad. His dad is even more impressive. I wish I had ball$ like that.
great post.
This little song is like an anthem for our times and I am downloading it now. It DOES have the F-word in it repeatedly, for those who are offended by such things- don’t click the link. Ben, I hope this doesn’t break any rules.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yge311sFhC8
Because everyone wants to live here
“Denver’s housing market supply is tied for the second-lowest nationally, tucked just behind San Francisco, according to the latest Re/Max report.
With 2.5 months of supply in September, the area was tied with Los Angeles while San Francisco’s supply sat at 1.6 months, according to the monthly report.
The median price nationally sat at $185,000, compared with $255,000 in Denver, which was up slightly from a year earlier.”
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24330254/denver-housing-inventory-remains-low
its the peyton effect.
6-0 baby!
After we win the Souper Bowl, every Denver homeowner gets $100,000 of instant equity!
parade peyton around in your neighborhood for some instant equity?
And a coupon for Papa John’s Pizza (Peyton owns several franchises in the Denver area)
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the Chefs beat the Bongos both times this season?
I’m counting on it!
Even Peyton is powerless against Alton Brown.
Even Peyton is powerless against Alton Brown.
Somehow, Gordon Ramsey seems like a better fit:
“You call yourself a football player!?”
Colorado has been leading the charge of larger states when it comes to reduction in non-current loan rates. The only states with lower non-current loan rates are North and South Dakota.
As of the last LPS Mortgage Monitor, they were down at a non-current loan rate of 4.4%. This compares to North Dakota (shale boom) of 3% (the best in the country), and a long term average of the US as a whole of approximately 5%.
In contrast, FL is still at 15.1%, NJ at 14.5%, NY at 12.2%.
CO moved through their distress much faster than other states.
Of course they are! LOLZ
Quoting a known criminal enterprise again.
It wasn’t very long ago that you sent an article with a splashy headline with LPS as the source data. Selective memory?
And it’s never the case that you post something that isn’t authored by the housing crime syndicate media.
Selective disclosure?
I regularly post from more traditional media sources as well (Bloomberg, etc.), or do you believe that ALL media is the HCS?
Keep eating up the lies to support your distorted outlook.
From what I have observed here in the Centennial State is that foreclosures happen within 6 months or so of non payment.
Yesterday I gave my short version book review of “Lean in”.
My short version was basically:
Sheryl Sandberg was born into a wealthy and connected family, all of whom went to HYP colleges (her brother, the “smarter” sibling, is a neurosurgeon). She got incredibly lucky on top of that. And FB is basically a natural monopoly, so a bonobo could do her job without a huge difference. Therefore, I don’t think anyone should take career advice from her and the real reveal of the book is that Sheryl went to the right college, made the right connections, and had some luck. She was afforded the ability to take risks in her career because money was no issue and because her school credentials opened doors.
———————————
I left out a bunch of how I arrived at this, but I think it’s worth pointing out:
In undergrad (25 yrs ago), her advisor was a young Econ prof named… Larry Summers. 2 yrs after Sheryl graduated UG, Summers became Treasury Secretary under Clinton. So Sheryl got incredibly lucky. Sheryl magically ends up as Chief of Staff for Summers after doing a few yrs at McKinsey (another job that is basically reserved for grads of a half dozen top colleges). Needless to say, if she hadn’t been a recent advisee or if she’d been born a yr or two later, after Summers left for Treasury, she’d be just another random MBB drone.
Then she went to Google during its highest growth period because she had an “in” (knew Sergie, IIRC). Again, she didn’t need the paychecks (wealthy parents) so she just maxed out on her shares which worked out amazingly well with GOOG had its IPO.
She met FB founder Zuckerberg at a couple places no ordinary woman (or man) ever gets to go. Some VC’s holiday party in Cali and at the Davos forum. Again, this is a pre-IPO tech company so her timing couldn’t be better.
A couple other things:
1) Worth noting that Sandberg’s bosses have all been liberal progressive MALES. Never got help from a woman. And she admits that in the context of encouraging current female leaders to help women more. But then in other places in the book she talks about men holding women back. But it’s not like she EVER worked for a man that held her back.
2) Sandberg talks about co-parenting with her husband. She lists the type of things each of them do around the house and with the kids. None of it involves hands-on stuff. Like she talks about buying (probably ordering from Whole Foods) the food (not necessarily cooking it), paying bills, maintaining the family schedule. Same for her husband’s list of duties. It’s all very hands-off stuff. Nothing wrong with this, at all. Except that she wants to make it seem like she’s BOTH an executive and a hands-on mom. But it’s clear, the person who raises the kids is the nanny.
3) Sandberg’s husband is a tech CEO as well, obviously for a smaller company compared to FB. So, again, all her advice to women seems a little convenient. Sheryl could take big risks in part bc even the worst outcomes for her family were going to be extremely comfortable.
4) Sandberg goes out of her way to show that women are excluded. There’s an entire chapter about “women should demand to be at the head of the table” or somesuch. The story here is that Tim Geitner visited FB a couple years ago and his top staffers were 4 women. All women. You’d think that would impress Sheryl. Instead, her takeaway was why did the women (Geithner’s staffers) walk behind Geithner? Why did they sit at a different table during lunch when Geithner sat with Sandberg and Zuckerberg? But in reality, obviously cabinet secretaries do not sit at the same table as staffers, it’s not protocol. And they were discussing classified types of things anyway. But Sheryl makes it seem like the women should DEMAND to sit at the same table. Even though it had nothing to do with gender, it’s just protocol.
5) There are inaccuracies or “white lies” in a few places. Things like “Facebook crashed the Harvard network when it was set up in Mark’s dorm room”. This is a lie. Anyone in college in the early ’00s knows that colleges had huge storage capacity even back then, even on dorm networks. It’s just weird bc there are a lot of things like this where she tries to make it seem like pre-FB the world was primitive.
6) The name-dropping is off the charts. Again, not necessary if what you really wanted was to advise women. Most women can’t call Oprah for advice or bump into Marc Andreeson at a coffee shop on Sand Hill Road.
7) Sandberg makes it seem like education doesn’t matter if you have the right personality/skills. I’m not sure how she’d know. It may be true for a software engineer or coder. But Sheryl’s whole book is about how to get the TOP job, not a middle level one. And Sheryl, her husband, her brother, her dad (doctor), her mom (has a PhD and was a teacher) are all counter-examples to the idea that education doesn’t matter. Even Zuckerberg and the Google guys… sure they didn’t finish their degrees (Harvard/Stanford). But that’s in large part because they were handed money from VCs _and_ they were motivated/smart enough to get into top schools anyway. It’s not the same if you’re leaving early from East TN State to take a random coding job.
First World Problems.
Coastal elitist tw@t has never “worked” a day in her life.
Pol Pot had effective solutions to dispose of people like this
I wear glasses so the pol pot solution does not appeal to me. LOL.
I agree with this analysis (not really the solution though).
What appalled me, I guess, is that she tries to sell her story as a blueprint for other women to follow. But the most important parts of her story are the fact she never needed money or a job in the first place. Few men or women can be as ballsy or take the risks she did. (She makes so many suggestions my post would’ve been 10 pages long if I recapped. But one suggestion was to be very vocal and speak up often to superiors, even in meetings, bc the act of airing your suggestions/opinions is in itself a good behavior.)
The most important ingredients in her success story were being born rich and matriculating at a top college where she was assigned to the “right” academic advisor a matter of months before that advisor gets a very big job.
If she’d been a yr or two earlier, Summers may not have picked her and besides, the timing would be wrong, she wouldn’t be looking at those types of jobs. If she’d been a yr or two later, Summers would be good. If she’d been assigned a more established professor, he’d be focused on other things.
coastal elitists help other coastal elitists become more elite, got it
So she fails to acknowkedge the role of luck, in other words. That’s typical of people with her level of wealth, isn’t it?
Coastal elitist tw@t has never “worked” a day in her life.
Born on third base & bragging that she hit a home run.
zuckerburg sitting down with the treasury secretary.
FB trading at 225.88 P/E per MarketWatch
The only worse “business” or “career advice” book I’ve ever read was Jack Welch’s most recent book.
Jack’s book is even worse bc it’s basically about how a guy who would otherswise be some middle-level supply chain manager became a CEO and rode strong economic times to be considered some Titan of Wall St. In Jack’s book for some reason he thinks the reader needs to know the name of every middle manager at every GE subsidiary. He seems to think it makes his stories relatable, but really they’re just boring.
I also love Jack’s moral/personal life advice. Because he’s just such a classy guy like that (obvious sarcasm).
The best “career advice” book I’ve ever read was by Garry Spence. I’m forgetting the name now. But it’s all about how if you’re going to have a corporate or professional job, you need to find ways to LIVE and not be a slave. He talks about his setbacks as a small town (mountain west) prosecutor and struggles early on defending corporations. And how he traded that in to represent real people and how getting rich was an unintended consequence because the work itself made him feel alive.
“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.” — Barry Switzer
go through life thinking they hit a triple.
I’m fine with that. Bragging about it to others & telling them they are stupid for not doing the same, is what I object to.
You know how Jack Welch made all the GE divisions #1 in the market? Because if a division wasn’t #1, he sold it off.
GE employees didn’t quite catch on how ruthless Jack was until he outsourced the light bulb manufacturing. Even the hard-hearted folks thought that Jack might at least keep the mildly profitable light bulb, out of respect for GE’s founder.
Jack is where, how, and when America went wrong.
Under Jack Welch GE “reformed” itself from a manufacturing company that dabbled in finance to a finance company that dabbles in manufacturing.
It work for GE for 20 years.
Then they should have gone bankrupt in the 2009 crash.
They were bailed out as the current CEO of GE is a FOO (Friend of obama).
You realize Jack Welch is a big-time Reptile supporter, right? He was all over the place pushing Romney last cycle.
You’re done here, Bananarama.
You realize Jack Welch is a big-time Reptile supporter, right? He was all over the place pushing Romney last cycle.
You’re done here, Bananarama.
You realize Jack Welch wasn’t CEO of GE in 2009 or now, right?
Your reading comprehension is 1st grade, googly eyes.
Banana identified the big reason that GE was so susceptible to market downturns. It was no longer manufacturing or innovating. It became akin to a PE firm which uses leverage and financial engineering to generate “profits”. Profits that could easily be overshadowed by downturns.
Mike, you’re done here, too. Go play in the sandbox with Cabana Boy.
What’s your point? Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney is a “Republican” and I think he is reprehensible. Plenty of worthless politicians and corporate hacks on both sides of the aisle.
As to the ruthless nature of Welch as CEO, you don’t get to be CEO of one of the largest corporations in the US with a reputation as a nice guy… not saying it’s right, just saying.
As to the ruthless nature of Welch as CEO, you don’t get to be CEO of one of the largest corporations in the US with a reputation as a nice guy…
Not anymore. That died with David Packard.
“But it’s clear, the person who raises the kids is the nanny.”
This is my understanding (through some VERY knowledgeable sources).
Sandberg makes it seem like education doesn’t matter if you have the right personality/skills.
People who are in the right place at the right time with everything they need always seem to think that it’s their wonderful unique snowflake qualities that did it for them, and all you need to do is act like they act and you’ll be golden.
Even among people with top education credentials, she’s been lucky. But to see her spout this advice to women (or men) who are in interchangeable jobs is what really stood out to me. If you’re an accountant or code writer or a junior attorney at a law firm and you take her advice, you usually can’t take the high risk/high reward strategies she proposes. Imagine being in a meeting with 10 people and “speaking up” throughout the meeting as if you’re the one in charge. Most people can’t take that risk. It’s not that they’re stupid or lazy or shy.
And since it is a high risk strategy, there have to have been people for whom the strategy didn’t work. But we don’t get to hear from them. Only from the one that it worked for, who thinks it was something anybody could do.
Yeah, that reminds me of the campaign last year when Romney said that he wanted to encourage more risk taking. It made me wonder how he determined that there wasn’t enough risk taking going on.
It made me wonder how he determined that there wasn’t enough risk taking going on.
Maybe he meant us.
‘Yeah, that reminds me of the campaign last year when Romney said that he wanted to encourage more risk taking. It made me wonder how he determined that there wasn’t enough risk taking going on.’
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/357/900/1cd.jpg
I have a friend who is a middle manager in tech. One of his direct reports is a woman and she is constantly asking when he’ll promote her. Seems she read some book somewhere that convinced her the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
My friend told her to knock it off as there were no way anyone was getting promoted given the company’s economic situation. The reality is that she annoyed her boss with the badgering and has no chance in hell of being promoted now…
“People who are in the right place at the right time with everything they need always seem to think that it’s their wonderful unique snowflake qualities that did it for them”
“i have a gift”.
There’s a whole genre of this sort of writing. You see articles a few times a year in places like the NY Times Sunday magazine or The Atlantic Monthly. You start reading the article thinking it’s about women balancing the demands of career and family. It always turns out that the career in question involves a very high salary and that the woman has a husband who also has a very good job. In other words, the concerns of women in the 1% are addressed, not women in general. So it sounds like this Sandberg turned one of those articles into a book.
In a way, this is nothing new. If you look at the history of suffrage movement, you’d see that it was led by priviliged women. On the other hand, when their movement secured the vote for American women, there was some benefit that accrued to all women. It’s hard to imagine people like Sheryl Sandberg doing anything for working mothers making 10 bucks an hour.
And while we’re talking about Silicon Valley, I need to mention again the fact that all the wealth associated with the names that she drops - Zuckerber, Google, Andreesen - was made possible by the massive federal spending on research and development going back to the last 1940s. For example, the initial work done by the Google guys on their search engine was funded by an NSF grant when they were Stanford grad students. So the American taxpayers are among the VCs who make this whole industry and its wealth possible, we just don’t get any stock options.
Yup, First World Problems of the 1%ers.
Regarding your first paragraph, there is a whole forum dedicated to the “struggles” of people with $400,000+ household incomes, the D.C. Urban Moms forum. Go read some of it (especially the finance subforum) if you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit…
My husband didn’t have time to protest anything on campus during the 60’s. He was a piss poor kid working on an Engineering degree, working summers, and staying focused on a better future. He told me the politically active -anti-society beat-nicks and hippies were from the more affluent families. They “tuned out” while dad and mom gave them a comfortable platform. Related to the privileged few, although not rich, same bully pulpit.
Many years ago a girlfriend told me that her girlfriends knew all the guys who had a slide rule sticking out of their back pocket; they were the ticket to the suburbs.
Government should have never invested than.
On the other hand, what about the the role of the Fed? How the cheap money has flown into this speculative industry with low cost of entry. And the results are dubious at best IMO.
So the American taxpayers are among the VCs who make this whole industry and its wealth possible, we just don’t get any stock options.
If the tax structure was where it ought to be it would balance out so that the taxpayers had the equivalent of stock options.
One way to do that would be own a piece of any patents granted. Here’s a story that I may have posted here previously. A reserach organization that is part of Australian government patented some of the technology behind WiFi. So they sued some of the major manufacturers that use that technology and won a big settlement for the Australian taxpayer.
Sometimes you hear people say that the government should be run like a business. This would be a way to start.
WiFi patent case results in $229 million payment to Australian government
Tech vendors including Lenovo, Acer, Sony, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will reportedly pay an Australian scientific research agency $229 million in a patent settlement over use of Wi-Fi technology. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), run by the Australian government, patented wireless LAN technology in the early 1990s and alleged infringement by numerous companies in the US court system.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/04/wifi-patent-case-results-in-229m-payment-to-australian-government/
I can assure you that anyone who gets a windfall via stock options pays their “fair share” of taxes on the gains, either via short term cap gains or AMT.
If there was a way out, I would have found it by now
“Get what you can get for your house today because it’s going to be much less tomorrow for decades to come.”
That is correct.
how much do you think granite and stainless will add in equity?
About half the cost of the appliances.
One of the gay couples Househunting on HGTV walked into a kitchen. Beautiful dark granite countertops, stainless appliances, cherry cabinetry, hardwood floor. The guys were horrified because it all looked so… dated.
Nobody wants that 2006 style anymore. Now it’s all about pops of color.
All depreciated junk.
See how that works Donkey?
FIAT is not an acronym but actually the Latin term for “faith”
you need to get some faith brother.
I see JCP got a 6 handle today. U gonna buy that new wardrobe today and help them?
That reminds me of a story from a family member of mine. She’s a realtor in Florida. One day earlier this year a bunch of realtors from her office were walking around a house that one of them had recently listed. As they were driving on to the next house a number of the realtors said that the house needed to be updated. It was only 12 years old.
I keep thinking that the day will come when the vast majority of Americans will realize that the notion that what’s “in style” when it comes to countertops, faucets, etc. changes every few years is something that they just can’t afford.
Our buyer’s broker (great guy) and I had the conversation where he called me “granitized” when we viewed an nice but “vintage” home. Then it dawned on me, I really did like my Aunt Rose’s Mamie Eisenhower’s 1950’s pink bathrooms.
Save the pink bathroom is a fun website.
It’s my miss my Aunt Rose go to website.
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
Don’t Be A Debt Donkey®
I would rather chew on rocks and broken glass than enter the prison that is loanownership
I entered the prison that is loanownership and wound up digging rocks and broken glass out of the yard anyway. Ya dodged a bullet there squaddy.
Digging up food already.
You’re case study for Mortgage Serfdom.
You mean like this mortgage slave?
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/language_tips/trans/attachement/jpg/site1/20110128/0023ae731d750eacd22e31.jpg
Sign a mortgage and get a free trip to Jonestown:
http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/files/styles/card_wide/public/201301/Jonestown.jpeg
And that dude with the gun is the banker handing you a pen (a cup of koolaid) to sign the mortgage
Ahh, central planning - is there anything it can’t do?
VA Loan Program Backs All-Time Record 630,000 Mortgages
Posted: 10/18/2013 8:50 am
Huffington Post
The Department of Veterans Affairs backed nearly 630,000 mortgages for service members and veterans this fiscal year, an all-time record for this nearly 70-year-old home loan program.
Here’s a look at VA loan guaranties over the last seven years:
FY13: 629,312
FY12: 539,884
FY11: 357,592
FY10: 314,011
FY09: 325,690
FY08: 179,670
FY07: 133,313
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-birk/va-loan-program-backs-all_b_4118573.html
Why do you hate the veterans?
They served the country, now they will serve the government and banks rest of their lives.
Heroes all the way…
So what changed from FY07 to FY13???
About 90 percent of VA borrowers purchase without putting down a single dollar.
Which means 90 of VA debtors will default.
Up and to the right. Always, and in every way.
Good Bye ATT.
Just switched to StraightTalk for even better unlimited plan for $45 a month. I was paying $80 a month for a limited ATT plan. Why, why I didn’t do it before, I have no idea.
maybe because you didnt want to tell people you got a phone from walmart?
“Just switched to StraightTalk for even better unlimited plan for $45 a month.”
+1 I bought into this plan for my daughter’s first smart phone.
CRAAAAAAAAAAATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101124856
Overbudget
Based on old technology
Not working
Anything else we can put under the umbrella of the Feds? They seem to really have their act together.
I guess we should give them a break, they’ve only had since early 2010 to figure out how to make it all work. The technology that they are using was only seven years old then…just like using an iPhone 1 in 2012.
I know Rio will call me some sort of name, but it is quite telling that the states are managing the technology MUCH better. Doesn’t this argue for MORE of this kind of thing to be handled at the state level? And not at the Federal level?
‘A new report from a special U.N. investigator says drone strikes have killed far more civilians than U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged – at least 400 in Pakistan and as many as 58 in Yemen – and chides the U.S. for failing to aid the investigation by disclosing its own figures.’
‘U.N. Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, who issued the “interim” report, said the U.S. had created “an almost insurmountable obstacle to transparency.” “The Special Rapporteur does not accept that considerations of national security justify withholding statistical and basic methodological data of this kind,” wrote Emmerson in the report, which is due to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly next Friday.’
‘In a major speech on drone strikes this May, President Obama openly acknowledged civilian deaths, saying “they will haunt us for as long as we live” — but didn’t provide any hard numbers or estimates.’
“It is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exist in every war,” Obama said. “And for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss.”
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/17/21009870-us-has-killed-far-more-civilians-with-drones-than-it-admits-says-un?lite
‘a risk that exist in every war’
We’re not at war with Yemen or Pakistan.
‘for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss’
Yeah, but seeing you tried for war crimes might bring them some sense of justice.