Bits Bucket for April 23, 2014
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
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Is now the time to buy?
I’ve never been bothered by the sight of blood except my own.
http://www.secrettoeverybody.com/buysomethin
Interesting question. Certainly not because prices have just begun to crater and the lower FHA loan limits have only just kicked in. But what will be the signal for the bottom? An announcement that they are going to raise those limits again? Prices ticking back up?
My favorite signals all come from the shrillness and desperation of the shills here.
“My favorite signals all come from the shrillness and desperation of the shills here.”
Yeah. They’re screaming louder. Now I’m getting threats for posting links showing falling prices.
When I first came upon Ben’s blog there seemed to be a 50/50 split between RE pumpers and dumpers. As the trends in RE sales showed the crash for all to see, many pumpers departed the blog but those who stayed became even more rabid in their opinions until they too left, never to be heard from again.
I’ve started to notice the same trend on the HBB. The pumpers are many and they are loud about how this time will be different. Mark my words, as the pumpers start to leave the blog those who remain will become even more strident in their positions until they too drop off, never to be heard from again. For me, that will be the official announcement of the new RE crash.
2006 doesn’t feel like a lifetime ago.
Interest rates reverting to historic norms would be one “buy” signal.
Could ya give me a number? I’m not good with math. Interest rates hitting what number?
I’m not sure “historical” matters any more in today’s world because the distortions have been so prevalent for so long that what used to be normal no longer affects the psychology. 20 percent down used to be normal.
Two percentage points (200 basis points) north of where rates are today should be sufficient to send prices tumbling.
Not to be Captain Obvious, but buy only when you actually have the extra money to do so.
U.S. Home sales fall 14.5% in March
http://www.kitco.com/news/2014-04-23/March-US-New-Home-Sales.html
Ther’s that collapsing housing demand showing up again.
HA maybe you can explain this to me. We are building houses at a 900,000+ clip but selling them at a below 400,000 clip, we already had a massive inventory of foreclosed houses and vacant houses. However, we are constantly told that there is an inventory shortage. Is this Lola math?
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2014/01/17/housing-starts-forecast-for-2014-past-is-not-prologue/
Lola never made it to algebra so yes… It very well could be LolaMath.
I’ll wager the construction units are understated. I know hand fulls of guys putting up houses putting up houses on spec in sparsely populated suburban areas right now. Not national shack builders who report every last stick of lumber erected.
900,000+ - 400,000 = 500,000+ new, unneeded, unwanted vacant housing units per year added to the millions already in shadow inventory.
For purposes of correcting the under-reporting due to small independent contractors, add in another couple hundred thousand units currently under construction or recently finished and unsold.
“Is now the time to buy?”
Sure, if you enjoy financial amputations. I look at the local mls every once in a while and it is littered with properties sporting peak 2005 prices. I have found a few of these properties were in fact purchased at the peak, and the loanowners are trying to pass their folly off to someone else. Curiously, they don’t seem to be garnering much interest. Gee, I wonder why….
In my nabe, there are a couple of accidental landlord properties on the market.
One is being offered at a price that’s about a third below the original 2006 purchase price. The other is being offered for all of $1k more than the (here’s that phrase again) original 2006 purchase price.
The year 2006 was when Tucson’s housing bubble was starting to hiss major air.
Just remember, for every savvy investor who sells at the peak, there is a greater fool who catches a falling knife and rides it all the way down until becoming tomorrow’s sad panda foreclosure victim.
The bottom was early 2012, but things are still stagnating or on their way up. There will be no lowering with the stimulus still in place.
It was? Are you sure?
Of course it was. The market bowed to my superior timing.
Have you lowered your 2014 housing market outlook?
Apr 22, 2014, 4:21pm EDT
Fannie, Freddie cut forecasts as U.S. housing market posts slow start in 2014
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have lowered their outlooks for the housing market.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have both lowered forecasts for the U.S. housing market in 2014, coming off a slow first quarter for the market.
Existing home sales in March fell for the third consecutive month, the National Association of Realtors announced Tuesday. On Monday, Fannie Mae said it expects housing starts to rise by approximately 1.05 million units in 2014. That’s an increase from last year, but 50,000 fewer housing starts than Fannie Mae previously estimated at the beginning of 2014.
Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan cited “builders’ credit and labor constraints.”
“We have downgraded our housing forecast slightly due to a lackluster sales picture, but the recent loss of momentum is likely a temporary one,” Duncan said in a statement. “Overall, we expect housing to add 0.3 percentage points to economic growth this year. While existing home sales have remained essentially flat, we continue to believe that new home sales will increase at a double-digit pace.”
…
Might gold get hammered due to a flush of the Chinese shadow banking sector?
April 22, 2014, 9:29 p.m. EDT
Will China drop gold next?
Commentary: Chinese gold demand vulnerable to yuan carry-trade reversal
By Craig Stephen
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Investors have done well in the past with a simple strategy of buying what China was buying. So earlier this year, things were looking up for gold when it was revealed that China had swept past India to become the world’s biggest buyer in 2013.
For the first time, Chinese demand topped 1,000 tonnes, reaching 1,176 tonnes after a 41% year-on-year gain, not including central-bank buying.
Apparently Chinese consumers had rediscovered their affection for the yellow metal and gone bargain hunting after prices shed 28% last year. The China buying dynamic was credited with restoring gold prices to their upward trajectory.
But now, a succession of holes in the bullish China gold-demand story have appeared.
Last week, the World Gold Council (WGC) forecast China demand would likely be flat this year, suggesting last year’s surge was a one-off event.
There was also a worrying explanation as to why Chinese gold demand slowed so precipitously: The WGC revealed that China may have more than 1,000 tonnes of gold tied up in financing deals.
This suggests a big chunk of China’s gold demand is a part of another growth story, namely the spectacular growth in China’s shadow banking, for which that the government is now trying to apply the brakes.
Put another way, gold demand in China has become a function of the enormous yuan carry trade, where U.S.-dollar borrowing has been used to fund exposure to all sorts of yuan investments.
Reports suggest using gold as collateral was just another way to secure U.S.-dollar loans which could then be funneled back into China.
So resources which the world thought it sold to China for consumption have turned out to be for something else. More likely, those purchases were just another way for shadow-banking liquidity to find its way into speculative areas such as property investment.
China does not release data on its gold purchases, but one proxy for the size of gold financing deals is the growth in mainland China’s gold imports from Hong Kong — these have leapt from less than $5 billion in 1990 to roughly $70 billion in 2013.
The collateral connection clearly takes some shine off the China gold narrative. For one, it looks unlikely previously spectacular China gold demand will be repeated. Instead of the 41% growth we saw in the past year, the WGC now foresees Chinese physical gold demand rising at a more pedestrian 25% by 2017.
One conclusion is that marginal demand growth for gold in China is less about physical buying and more about volatile shadow banking, which the authorities have been trying to rein in.
This also raises the possibility of a gold crunch, depending on how the People’s Bank of China flushes out the yuan carry trade by orchestrating a weakening in the Chinese currency.
…
The story is filled with inconsistencies. There was a surge in demand last year and this year will be flat and that is terrible for gold? I don’t think so since the only way gold demand was satisfied was to reduce the amount held by ETFs by 45%. Also, the fact that gold demand is going to grow by 25% by 2017 is treated as bad for gold. 25% growth in demand with essentially flat production is not a bad thing.
Speaking of China, they are restructuring their economy, state run steel plants are being closed since these plants are actually losing money, importing Brazilian iron ore and Australia coal to make steel. This is a positive development for China both economically and environmentally. The state steel jobs are being replaced with free enterprise jobs. Apple better be quite worried:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-08/china-s-xiaomi-plans-to-give-the-world-iphone-cool-at-half-price.html
Excerpt from link:
Now founder Lei Jun, 44, is taking his formula abroad. He’s beginning in markets with Chinese populations like Singapore and has hired Google Inc.’s Hugo Barra to lead the effort. Lei’s goal is to boost sales fivefold to 100 million phones in 2015.
“We’re moving as fast as we can,” Barra said. “We’re working around the clock with our supplier and manufacturing partners to meet demand.”
Xiaomi reflects a shift in China’s economy, with technology companies gaining prominence to match state-owned enterprises in sectors like oil and coal. The country’s standouts include Internet portal Tencent Holdings Ltd., computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the e-commerce company headed for a multibillion-dollar initial public offering.
I wish the Chinese would do something useful and respect human rights in their own country and take advantage of no FDA to produce life enhancing wonder drugs.
I agree and I would not be surprised if they move into the pharma area. Of course, given China’s record with transplants, I expect they will test drugs in an unethical manner.
Bill an interesting article about platinum and palladium and pollution and China. To clean up its air it is going to have to increase, greatly, the use of platinum and palladium:
http://platinuminvestingnews.com/5771-rick-rule-platinum-palladium-silver-gold-investing-zimbabwe-south-africa-russia-supply-demand-price.html
Thanks Dan, very good article!
Worthless, worthless dirt:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-22/even-china-s-dirt-is-dirty?cmpid=hpbv
Yeah, but they’re “business friendly”. So 20% of farmland is tainted? If you’re rich enough, only eat imported food, or better yet, move the family out of the country, to one of those “business unfriendly” nations with stricter environmental laws.
Better yet, buy a big US food company (like Smithfield) and quietly swap the tainted food for the good stuff and sell the crap to the Merikans.
They could sell the tainted stuff at Dollar Stores.
“New! Shenzhen brand Corn Flakes! Now with cadmium! Only $1″
The Chinese ex-pats can shop at Whole Paycheck.
If they have some with arsenic, it might be a best seller. People could save on the costs of divorce.
lol! good one!
I bet those Shenzen corn flakes would be just smashing served with Melamine flavored baby formula!
I bet those Shenzen corn flakes would be just smashing served with Melamine flavored baby formula!
Coming home from work today I saw a home and garden store almost having the equivalent of a Black Friday. Vehicles pouring in and out of the small parking lot to get 40 pound bags of soil off of the pallets next to the lot. Probably freeze weather is over officially in these parts. Hmmm. Organic gardening was not so trendy years ago. Dirt you could not give away, let alone sell it in a bag.
Realtors Are Parasites
Realtors are my lackeys.
They work, I reap.
However, the one good thing about being a realtor is if the realtor ever gets into financial difficulty the taxpayer will always be there to backstop him/her, will always be there to bail him or her out.
Oh, wait! My mistake … this bailing out thingy only works for bankers.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
realtors are tapeworms. they will eat you from the inside out until you are flopping on the floor in convulsions with blood pouring out of both ends. they try to mask their parasitic nature by donating $153 million just in the 2012 election. realtors make the ethical standards of big tobacco look like they are mother teresa.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F10
Realtors are more like mosquitos than tapeworms. Mosquitos take a one-time hit from the host then move on to find another host.
A tapeworm stays for the duration.
I don’t know it depends on how you look at it. Just like when people were buying a home and the seller was throwing in a free flat screen TV or a vehicle and we were saying that is smart pay for flat screen TV for thirty years, you can argue that the seller incorporated the realtor’s commission into the price of the home that the buyer bought. Thus, from the perspective of the buyer it is a tapeworm since they will be paying for the commission for thirty years. Of course, from the Realtor’s perspective he or she was a mosquito. Finally, from the bankers’ perspective the higher house price allows them to earn additional interest, so they are tapeworms.
Realters should do the toilets, Amy says so.
you can flush the floaters but you’ll never rid your house of the stench of realtor.
I love this sort of thinking; The realtors take the flack, the bankers take the money.
BofA is downsizing their mortgage operations the stuff they got from Countrywide.
the rent is too damn high:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/22/what-youd-need-to-make-in-every-county-in-america-to-afford-a-decent-one-bedroom/
You should be able to work a minimum wage job and have a house with a 1020p HDTV in every room.
You should also be able to eat Arby’s every meal and never gain weight.
The Obama phone should be the latest I-phone.
“The National Low Income Housing Coalition took those fair market rents and calculated how much a worker would have to earn per hour to cover such modest housing, if we assume a 40-hour work week and a 52-week year. They call this rate a “housing wage,” and it is, unsurprisingly, much higher than the minimum wage in much of the country.”
+1 Corporate and government policy is forcing lower wages while simultaneously driving housing costs higher.
Living alone is a luxury.
“I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude” — Henry David Thoreau
This tortured soul grew-up in a silent world that was forever changed by the industrial revolution.
You can say that again!
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/breaking-ground/2014/04/multifamily-market-courts-pampered-millennials.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2014-04-23&u=kmOD9NGoR4SOwPsYyKTc3HI+fis&t=1398284446
somebody let the washington post off the nar leash.
are you saving money by owning a home?
no, you are not saving money. you are loosing money and will loose more money every day until the day you die. buying a used house is financial suicide. you are better off putting your head in a microwave than buying a house.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2014/04/22/are-you-saving-money-by-living-in-your-own-home-rather-than-renting/
There it is, in language plain and obvious enough for anyone with an IQ north of 70 to understand.
precisely. i continue to add to my bill in los angeles pile of money every month, while the debt donkeys sink deeper and deeper in the hole. keep telling us how you’re gonna retire in a ‘paid off house’ donkeys, even though you’ll be barely making the minimums on your home depot and lowe’s credit cards, eating cat food, and cutting your pills in half to survive.
Retirement is just a fantasy for a debt donkey.
All debt is dumb.
Series I bonds purchased now yield an annual rate of 1.38. The predicted rate of those issued after May 1 yield an annual rate of 1.8% - reliable prediction and it is not me who predicted. You get a 3 month interest penalty redeeming within 5 years. But could be worth it if you otherwise put it all in some silly bank
(sorry to Mr. Banker).
You can buy up to $10,000 worth of electronic Series I bonds per year.
To keep the example simple, let’s also assume you paid cash for the house –interest rates were about 16% in 1982,
Sorry, but this lady is a real beeyotch. Half those comments — which she conveniently did NOT acknowledge — were about benefits about owning a paid-off house and not paying rent. And here she is, touting the benefits of owning a paid-off house and not paying rent!
Also, she assumed that we had a 100% down payment lying around, which would start compounding returns on Day 1. In that case, yes, renting might be better. In fact, renting is precisely what I recommended to two HBB posters with high down payments: Bill in LA and 25-year-old Kristopher in CA somewhere, with the $100K job and $100K cash.
And she conveniently picked 1982, a time when interest rates were very high and house prices were very low. So, her $69K would seem like “not a lot of money” today. In today’s 4.5% environment, much more of the total PITI outlay is for the home price, not interest.
Why doesn’t she run the rent vs. buy case where house prices are commensurate with low interest rates and you only have 10-20% down and pay as you go, like renters? In fact, her former employer, the NYT, has a handy dandy calculator for that. Oh right… she didn’t. Because that would prove her entirely wrong.
In the beginning she talks about larger modern houses being more desirable, but then she counsels us against buying “too much house.” So which is it?
“I have so much money after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it”
You better believe it.
It is ironic that you advise people who have a lot of money to rent, and those with little money to buy a house.
It is not “ironic.” It is the way the math falls. (yeah yeah I know, Karl Rove said the same thing.) As I have said many times, this isn’t a thermodynamic question. Thermodynamics dictates what the final outcome will be if given infinite time and generally constant inputs. This is kinetics. We are working with changing variables within a 30-year time frame. During that time, the line favoring rent and the line favoring buying can cross, sometimes more than once.
[although strictly speaking, given infinite time, buying would trump renting 100%. You would pay a mortgage for 30 years and then live with only maintenacne for ∞ - 30 years. But's that's only possible in theory. In reality, thermo dictates that long before then, the house itself will return to the earth whence it came.]
You’ve your mind entirely woman.
“It is the way the math falls.”
Right up until making the relative comparison between what you paid and what it cost to build. That’s when the tapdancing begins.
Tap me a dance.
Quite the dance around the block to avoid looking mania in the eyes. Math doesn’t “fall”, it is hard work. This is not chemistry, tossing big words like thermo and kinetics doesn’t make it so. If you grasped these concepts you would not settle on kinetics, the rate of chemical reactions, but rather dynamics. I would have chosen statics. Unfortunately, you’ve glued yourself and can now only be acted upon.
If the mania lasts another 50 years, you’ll be fine.
You’ve your mind entirely woman.
Why thank you! After all these years on HBB, it’s good to see I’ve kept all of it.
More tapdancing.
linked from google news, one dude’s lucky ducky life:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dj-cook/working-poor-series_b_5120547.html
if this was a wall street journal article, there would be a hundred online article comments saying how he should have majored in stem, that the only reason anyone should even attend college is to major in stem, and that he should just drop dead for choosing to have majored in economics and education.
and since this is the libtard huffpost, he plugs the class warfare:
‘for the vast majority of citizens in the u.s. and the world for that matter, we are not in a recession. we are in a depression disguised as a recession due to the fact that the upper one percent continue to pull obscene amounts of wealth out of the global economy, which ultimately covers up the loss of wealth the rest of us have suffered through.’
should have majored in stem, buddy. or better yet have rich parents. looser!
“In my seven years as an educator, I’ve been laid off six times.”
Sounds like my SIL. She’s a bilingual ed teacher, and at the end of every term she, and most of the staff at whatever school where she teaches, are let go. She spends the summers scrambling to find a spot in another district. And since she has no seniority, she doesn’t get any raises. She’s still paid in the low 30’s.
My sister has fared better, only laid off once in about 15 years, and she has been able to get a few raises raises.
Both are teaching in North Carolina.
That’s unpossible.
My Republican betters inform us that all those public union parasites make $85K a year for teaching six hours a day for only eight months a year and retire at age 39 with pensions and free health care for life.
Maybe in upstate NY.
In our school district new hires don’t get pensions anymore. From what my sister has told me, she doesn’t get one either, but that the 403b match is pretty good.
And my SIL was laid off on a year when she was chosen the teacher of the year at her school. Apparently the districts do this to keep wages down.
Also, my son wants to be a HS teacher. He was told by his own teachers to NOT get a Master’s degree until he was entrenched in whatever school he’s at. This is because the contract stipulates that they have to pay those teachers a bit more (like 2000-3000 a year more), which means that if you have a masters you won’t get hired.
Is it any different for STEM teachers? My understanding is that rural schools were begging for STEM teachers. If I hadn’t landed the job that I did, that would have been my second option.
I understand that Math teachers tend to be in demand in most districts.
I think the demand is there. But I think the pay isn’t negotiable. And the supply of STEM grads willing to work for half pay in a very political environment is low.
My understanding is that employers willing to pay only peanuts are unlikely to get applicants above monkey level.
How much interest earnings have savers lost due to the Fed’s rate-cut policies?
April 23, 2014, 7:00 a.m. EDT
What’s that fishy smell? The Fed’s corrupt policies
Opinion: Central bank costs savers more than $100 billion a year
By Al Lewis
Our financial system is so corrupt you might say that a fish rots from the Fed.
How else can one describe a regime that punishes savers and rewards borrowers and speculators for years on end? Our central bank is essentially taking billions of dollars a year from average Americans, who are still struggling to get by in a bombed-out economy, and it is giving it — yes, giving it — to the very banks that helped cause the 2008 financial crisis in the first place.
American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Paul Kupiec on who really benefits from the red tape in Washington. Photo credit: Getty Images.
Richard Barrington, an analyst with Moneyrates.com, estimates the Fed’s policies have cost savers $757.9 billion since the crisis, in an analysis released Tuesday. That’s approaching $1 trillion, which used to be considered a lot of money, even to bankers, before the crisis. The Fed, meanwhile, has only given the world a little assurance that its policies will change at some point in the distant future.
“It’s a stealth bailout,” Barrington said. “Low-interest-rate policies have helped bail out banks, the stock market and real estate, but the Fed has not publicly acknowledged the cost of those policies.”
Of course, not. Because the costs are staggering.
Money-market rates have been stuck between 0.08% and 0.10% but the annual inflation rate has been, at least nominally, 1.5%. That’s pretty low for inflation, yet this spread eroded the purchasing power of American deposits by $122.5 billion over the last year alone, Barrington said.
Barrington’s analysis, by the way, is conservative. It only counts what inflation has done to savers. It does not include what savers might have made if interest rates were closer to historic averages. And after five years, these costs are only mounting.
“Unlike the other bailouts we’ve seen, this one has become open-ended,” Barrington said.
…
“What’s that fishy smell?”
The first female Federal Reserve chair? LOLZ
Goon, if you tell that joke around women be ready for a life of celibacy or be prepared to switch teams. Just saying.
But if you like solitude that might not be a bad thing.
My FWB knows I only need her a few (waking) hours at a time
Any regrets, Mr. Bernanke? ‘Taking the job’
April 22, 2014, 3:49 PM ET
Ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seems to be slowly letting down his hair, so to speak, after his eight-year run at the central bank ended earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Bernanke spoke at the Economic Club of Toronto and was asked about his biggest regret as head of the U.S. central bank.
“Taking the job,” Bernanke said, to the round of laughter from the audience, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog.
…
“round of laughter from the audience.”
Anyone get the impression that he said that just to raise the demand for his highly paid speeces? The big boyz just love having their egos (among other things) stroked with a little economic gallows humor while the little guy catering their power dinner struggles to support his family. How much do you think Bernanke’s little jokes are worth? A $25000 hike per speaking engagement sounds reaonsable.
He is probably take that fiat currency and put it into gold.
Should investors worry about a U.S. troop buildup near Russia?
April 23, 2014, 4:38 a.m. EDT
U.S. sends troops near Russia as Ukraine tensions build
Kiev looks to restart military crackdown on activists
By Julian E. Barnes, Carol E. Lee and Philip Shishkin
U.S. Army soldiers train in Latvia in an archive image from October 2010.
Hundreds of U.S. troops are headed for maneuvers in Eastern Europe through year’s end, the Pentagon announced, new deployments intended to reassure allies on Russia’s borders as violence took a sinister turn Tuesday in embattled Ukraine.
Vice President Joe Biden, in a visit to Kiev, warned Russia to pull back its troops and abide by last week’s international agreement or face the certainty of swift new sanctions. Biden also urged Ukraine’s leaders to adhere to democratic principles and respect cultural differences, reassuring them, “You will not walk this road alone.”
Despite Washington’s efforts, tensions flared as Kiev accused pro-Russian separatists of torturing and killing two people and of shooting at one of its military planes, prompting a call by the country’s interim president for a resumption of what he termed counterterrorism actions to uproot militants.
The Kremlin didn’t comment on the developments but has complained that Western military moves only serve to raise tension in the region.
…
“Hundreds of troops” are merely an amusement for both sides.
The Wall Street bulls and bears are in a dramatic tug-of-war this morning, as Mr Market seems determined to dump any and all risky assets from shares to gold to oil, but the Hand of God keeps buoying them back up again.
What gives?
Mr Market seems determined to dump any and all risky assets from shares to gold to oil, but the Hand of God keeps buoying them back up again.
I agree that it is a tug of war but I think you have it backwards on the rest. The hand of God or GS is trying to drive down gold and oil but the free market keeps pushing them back up.
From what I have been reading GS has taken a major bet that interest rates will not rise this year. They are highly leveraged and it interest rates would pop they would be looking at bankruptcy. Apparently, their friends in government have assured them that interest rates will not rise. The only thing that might trip that up would be the Fed forced to act due to inflation and rising gold and oil are indicators of inflation. Thus, they are trying to protect their positions by bad mouthing both and probably strategically trying to push them down to protect their interest derivative contracts.
Does it seem like most financial developments these days involve top-down market manipulation abetted and disguised by MSM propaganda messages?
Whatever became of the efficient free market’s invisible hand?
Does it seem like most financial developments these days involve top-down market manipulation abetted and disguised by MSM propaganda messages?
It sure does to me. The media has always been manipulated by planted stories but they now seem to be active participants in efforts to deceive.
in efforts to deceive
And they disguise it by pretending like any counterpoint doesn’t even exist, presenting things in a matter-of-fact, this-is-the-way-it-is, manner.
As the dust begins to settle on today’s market move, it looks like gold is set to benefit from a flight-to-quality out of anything that smacks of risk.
The coming CRATER is going to be spectacular:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_25617949/home-values-at-or-near-high-29-metro
Don’t try warning your coworkers, all you’ll get for your trouble are rolling eyes. Everyone here is convinced that Denver real estate is invincible.
A dustbowl cowtown of tumbleweeds and prarie dogs, with miserable traffic, choking smog (it’s almost wildfire season!), and no culture. It can all be yours for the bargain price of $250+ per square foot.
Some people can go bankrupt whether they rent or buy:
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/what-the-fock—meet-the-parents–star-teri-polo-files-for-bankruptcy-191010045.html
It can all be yours for the bargain price of $250+ per square foot.
And hurry! They aren’t making anymore land in Washington Park or Highlands Ranch.
No … wait … don’t move here .. you’ll hate it.
Worthless housing…. worthless worthless housing… it’s worth less and less with each passing day.
CRATER!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sales-of-new-homes-plunge-145-in-march-2014-04-23
“If you have to borrow money for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.”
You better believe it Mister.
Are you suggesting the slavery of freedom?
I think they call escalating housing debt a “property ladder” because the higher you climb, the further out is your horizon.
Borrowed from you if I recall correctly.
I think so. I am still reeling from the debt pusher’s comment that “rent is slavery”.
That was a doozy. A strange disconnect going on there.
It does sound like it came from the novel 1984.
Renting is slavery.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for Harriet Tubman to lead you to freedom, only a Realtor® can do that.
Cheetos. Fetch them PRONTO!
“But don’t hold your breath waiting for Harriet Tubman to lead you to freedom, only a Realtor® can do that.”
Janis Joplin suggested that freedom is just another word that means nothing left to lose.
Bring me a client, Amy, and we - you and I together - will make him totally free.
Benghazi attack could have been prevented if US hadn’t ’switched sides in the War on Terror’ and allowed $500 MILLION of weapons to reach al-Qaeda militants, reveals damning report
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
Published: 15:09 EST, 22 April 2014 |
The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented – if the U.S. hadn’t been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.
‘The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,’ Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.
She blamed the Obama administration for failing to stop half of a $1 billion United Arab Emirates arms shipment from reaching al-Qaeda-linked militants.
‘Remember, these weapons that came into Benghazi were permitted to enter by our armed forces who were blockading the approaches from air and sea,’ Lopez claimed. ‘They were permitted to come in. … [They] knew these weapons were coming in, and that was allowed..
‘The intelligence community was part of that, the Department of State was part of that, and certainly that means that the top leadership of the United States, our national security leadership, and potentially Congress – if they were briefed on this – also knew about this.’
The weapons were intended for Gaddafi but allowed by the U.S. to flow to his Islamist opposition.
‘The White House and senior Congressional members,’ the group wrote in an interim report released Tuesday, ‘deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terrorist organizations in order to topple a ruler [Muammar Gaddafi] who had been working closely with the West actively to suppress al-Qaeda.’
‘Some look at it as treason,’ said Wayne Simmons, a former CIA officer who participated in the commission’s research.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2610598/Group-US-switched-sides-War-Terror-facilitating-500-MILLION-weapons-deliveries-Libyan-al-Qaeda-militias-leading-Benghazi-attack.html - -
Cops Tie Up 75-Year-Old Grandmother in Botched Raid
“He never said I’m sorry, never apologized… he said you got to get someone to fix that door”
Mikael Thalen
Infowars.com
April 23, 2014
A 75-year-old Virginia woman says she was tied up and interrogated this week after police raided her home.
According to Ruth Hunter, Virginia State Police bound her hands with zip-ties after wrongfully targeting her apartment in a drug raid.
“I thought it was somebody just breaking in to rob me and kill me,” Hunter told CBS 6. “… Took my hands and handcuffed me with the ties because they told me I was under arrest and then after they handcuffed me that’s when they proceeded to ask questions.”
Police told Hunter that her home was listed as a major drug spot according to court documents, a claim Hunter says is absolutely ridiculous.
“Asked me if I ever stored drugs for anybody,” Hunter stated. “I said how dare you insult my integrity.”
Officers then began questioning Hunter on her relationship with certain family members, accusing her granddaughter of knowing drug dealers.
“…Associating my granddaughter with knowing these people. I sat up in my bed like how dare you bring my granddaughter into this stuff,” Hunter said. “She’s a law abiding citizen, works everyday and doesn’t even like coming here.”
Police then suddenly stopped the interrogation, left Hunter hadcuffed in her apartment and made an arrest two-doors down.
The fiancée of the man arrested told reporters that police undoubtedly mixed up the apartments.
“Just so happened they came to apartment ‘G’ and they got it mixed up with apartment ‘E,’” the woman said.
Despite having no drugs whatsoever, Hunter says police refused to apologize and even told her that she would need to pay to have her door fixed.
“I’m very irritated and angry, he never said I’m sorry, never apologized for having the wrong house… he said you got to get someone to fix that door,” Hunter said.
Hunter says she is so haunted by the raid that she now plans to move to a new location. State Police declined to answer any questions, citing the ongoing drug investigation.
This article was posted: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at 4:01 pm
‘Despite having no drugs whatsoever, Hunter says police refused to apologize and even told her that she would need to pay to have her door fixed.’
Remember that crowd-funded relief for police thuggery? It sure would be a grant-worthy moment for this one. Get the grandmother a new door!
I rent rather than own in San Diego. I’m 25 and have $110k saved up towards a downpayment and zero debt with a $100k plus career. Prices here in San Diego are definitely “wishful” these days, with a meteoric 20%+ rise in prices over the last year. At this point an under 1000 square foot fixer in a decent neighborhood goes for over $500k. I just can’t justify these prices and prefer to rent.
I currently pay $900 all included to live 1/2 block from the beach in a rich area and enjoy my extra savings. I hope that the market returns to normal in the next several years, but who knows? If prices recede 15-20% I will feel more comfortable buying. I don’t expect a 50% drop or any other doomsday prophecies. Time will tell if my waiting was worthwhile, or if prices will continue ever higher.
<i.I currently pay $900 all included to live 1/2 block from the beach in a rich area
$900 a month in SD? Good god, do NOT buy a house, OK?
Please note, I’m not the norm here on HBB. I’m a lonely old ugly hag in my mid-40s who needs a paid off house to avoid the cat-food retirement. From a societal standpoint, I’m pretty much done for, so nobody much cares if I throw away time on a house. When I go, at least I can say that I left the world a better place because it had a little less wallpaper in it.
But YOU are young and have the means for a good retirement ahead of you. Financially, you could buy a house now, or 10 years from now, and it probably won’t matter either way in the long run. Don’t waste your youth on mowing the frickin’ lawn or running to Home Depot. Pack away that down payment. Spend your next decade having fun and making memories. Find a woman and enjoy the beach. And forget about the house.
“I hope that the market returns to normal in the next several years…”
+1 I’ve been waiting more than a decade. Fingers crossed!
NY Homeland Security Encourages Businesses to Snitch on Preppers as Terrorists
Purchase of MREs, flashlights & ammunition is a “suspicious activity”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 23, 2014
The New York State Division of Homeland Security is encouraging businesses to snitch on preppers as terrorists, urging that the purchase of MRE’s, ammunition or flash lights be treated as a suspicious activity.
As the video above illustrates, the LZ Army Navy Surplus store in Auburn, NY received a visit from a state trooper who put up a flyer in the window which encourages customers to call the New York State Terrorism Tips Line, 1-866 SAFE NYS, to report suspicious activity under the mantra of the “See Something, Say Something” campaign.
1-866 SAFE NYS is part of Safeguard New York, an NY State counterterrorism program that uses promotional material to encourage citizens to report people for engaging in “suspicious activity….which makes them stand out from others”.
An accompanying letter provided by the state trooper listed such “suspicious activity” as the purchase of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), flashlights, weather proof ammunition, night vision equipment, match containers, or gas masks.
http://www.infowars.com/ny-homeland-security-encourages-businesses-to-snitch-on-preppers-as-terrorists/ - 67k -
With the U.S. positioned in Poland, gold will have to rise.
Honey, do you smell gas?
http://q13fox.com/2014/04/25/north-bend-businesses-rocked-by-explosion-fire/#axzz2zuJdo9OU
And then there was the town in Wyoming that had to be evacuated recently because of the explosion at the natural gas plant.
Face it, folks. We’re unable to handle this stuff. Whether it’s because of aging infrastructure, cost-cutting corporations, or just plain stupidity, we can’t handle it as an energy source. Ticking time bomb.