Bits Bucket for May 13, 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.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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With 25 million excess empty houses and resale housing prices 300% higher than reproduction costs(lot, labor, materials and profit) and housing demand at 19 year lows, what did you think was going to happen to housing prices? Fall up?
Realtors are liars.
crater
“Realtors are liars.”
And hopelessly incompetent and incapable.
They smell bad too?
What is interesting to me is the term “real estate” implies “land”, so when you talk of real estate values you should be talking about land values.
But people do not measure real estate by the size of the land, they measure real estate by the size of the house that sits on the land (i.e. so many dollars per square foot).
And while the size of the land is fixed the size of the house that sits on the land is not fixed - one can build any size of house he desires. So if someone wants to increase the value of his property all he needs to do is increase the size of his house.
That’s like saying I’m going to lose less buying a Coupe Deville instead of a Malibu.
“all he needs to do is increase the size…”
That’s a classic way to lose half of whatever money you spend.
RIVERSIDE,CA +2.5% MONTHLY GAIN, +$9,000 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/riverside/
LOS ANGELES ,CA +2.0% MONTHLY GAIN, +$10,000 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/los-angeles/
ORANGE COUNTY, CA +0.9% MONTHLY GAIN ,$5,600 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/orange-county/
SAN FRANCISCO,CA +5.4% MONTHLY GAIN,+$35,000 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/orange-county/
SAN JOSE,CA +2.9% MONTHLY GAIN,+$20,000 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/san-jose/
SACRAMENTO,CA +2.6% MONTHLY GAIN,+$9,000 MONTHLY GAIN
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/asking-prices/california/sacramento/
Real estate is the best investment if you live in California.
Oh god it’s going to be painful in Riverside and SoCal. That asking price for Riverside is back to January 08. And this time we are starting with a worse economy and higher govt debt already. Thank god the banks have offloaded the losses to suckers like IE Queenie.
He the last squirt of runway foam.
I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where are the buyers at that price?
Remember;
California Housing Demand Plunges To 10-Year Low; Craters 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-home-value/r_9/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D14%26r%3D9%26el%3D0
Why would you come on a blog and post what Queenie does? The fear is thick. But then why not just sell and pocket profits if you bought low and now can sell high? Why come on a blog and troll instead? He must be stuck. Too late to find a buyer that can make his flipping profitable?
Exactly.
People who make money rarely talk about it. You just do it and enjoy the money.
Comment by Faster Pussycat, Sell Sell
People who make money rarely talk about it. You just do it and enjoy the money.
Like RenterinCalirvine???
No no…. you fraudster. Not Bill.
Comment by MrsLolaSoros
Oh god it’s going to be painful in Riverside and SoCal. That asking price for Riverside is back to January 08. And this time we are starting with a worse economy and higher govt debt already. Thank god the banks have offloaded the losses to suckers like IE Queenie.
2014 January asking price in Riverside was $331,973 ,now it’s $364,900 increase of +9.91% ,+$32,000
Asking price and inventory both up. That means they are asking but nobody is buying, so inventory is climbing because houses are sitting. This Fall the pain will be unbearable.
All of MoVal could drop to zero. It’s worthless.
The inland empire is a hot, sprawling mess. Outside of little cute pockets like Claremont, it’s pretty awful.
MrsLolaSoros
How much equity have you made by renting since January 2014?
Repost from a few days ago about the poors in Inland Empire:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/us/hardship-makes-a-new-home-in-the-suburbs.html
Stick a fork in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, because they’re done
Again….. Why buy a house at these grossly inflated prices when you can rent it for half the monthly cost?
How much equity have you made by renting since January 2014?
I’m just mystified at the level of financial illiteracy this country has.
Equity = Assets - Liabilities
It’s a basic accounting fact. I believe they teach it on the first day of class.
So if you are renting and putting the difference between the cheap rental and the expensive monthly payment in a savings account or investment, I hate to point out the bleedin’ obvious that since it goes on the Assets side of the balance sheet, that is building EQUITY.
How do these people get out of bed each morning?
Comment by MrsLolaSoros
Why would you come on a blog and post what Queenie does? The fear is thick. But then why not just sell and pocket profits if you bought low and now can sell high? Why come on a blog and troll instead? He must be stuck. Too late to find a buyer that can make his flipping profitable?
I have sold some rentals already and made +200% profit on a few rentals. If i was a renter i would have made zero profit. I bought at the right time in 2009.Foreclosure rate was 58% .
Home prices will not fall as most of you renters on this blog expect. Homes will continue to rise. Low inventory and home builders need to build 250,000 annually in California to house California annual groth rate.
You won’t make any equity by being a renter and paying your landlords mortgages :} lol
You’re doomed J._Fraud.
IE_EMPEROR: “You won’t make any equity by being a renter and paying your landlords mortgages :} lol”
Got cognitive disconnect?
I feel good story for my renter friends on the blog.
Bobcat kitten discovered in spa wall
Ann Patton, manager of the Waldorf Astoria Spa at the Boulders Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, says that last Thursday, staff were coming to her to let herknow that there was an odd noise coming from the walls of the business. Ms. Patton told KTVK 3TV Phoenix, “They called and said, ‘Let’s have one of our engineers come over because we think there’s something in the wall.’” Engineers came in, took down part of the wall, and then looked inside. What they found was an adorable baby bobcat.
full story below
https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/bobcat-kitten-discovered-in-spa-wall-203006051.html
It’s not always a lack of financial literacy. A lot of the perversion in our system stems from how very cunning people choose to classify line items as assets or liabilities. How do they discount for risk, what do they consider liquid, which quarter should a disclosure be made or a charge be taken, should a company raise money by issuing new stock when it is overvalued, should a company do a stock buyback when they have the cash and the price is too low, should a big project be expensed to reduce current earnings vs capitalized and depreciated over time?
The really sad thing is I could keep writing that list^^ for the next 30 minutes and still only be scratching the tip of the iceberg. My point being, at some point it’s about something beyond literacy and more in the realm of regulatory capture and political fundraising.
Dude, you’re not preaching to the choir. You’re preaching to the bishop.
This is all old news.
And you need to read some history. It was old news in the time of Cleopatra.
Modern terms and guises; long, venerated and ancient history.
“January asking price…”
Only the high end of the market seems to be doing well. The solution is obvious; price your piece of crap like it was high end.
How much equity have you made by renting since January 2014?
This is a fair question. I’ll answer it using Stealtor fraudster math. By renting and not buying I’ve made a good amount. If I had bought then, I would have lost quite a bit of money already and even more to come. Instead I have that money in my bank account still, so I made it by not losing it.
You are a degenerate gambler at best who crows about big pots he won but never mentions the losses that make him an overall loser. The IE was full of similar losers all throughout the bubble before and the same thing now. Everyone bought at the bottom and sold at the top. Everyone is a genius.
IE LANDLORD KING = 2014 version of “Taco Bell Jeff”
‘2014 version of “Taco Bell Jeff”’
Wasn’t he on HBB ca. 2006 ? I think he was a TB manager or something and was mortgaging/renting out multiple properties. Maybe a Google search of HBB will reveal that.
May have been a caricature of him here. As I recall there was some specu-vestor site called sdia or scdia that he posted his ongoing underwater debt fueled tales of woe.
Is Janet Yellen the fall guy?
Gal. Fall gal.
I stand by guy.
“I stand by guy.”
+1 LOL!
District of CRATER
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/wp/2014/05/12/d-c-area-housing-market-is-having-a-disappointing-spring/
Fortunately, the Washington Post has some National Association of Realtors members as staff writers, who desperately deny reality by publishing this trash:
“Seven years ago, the United States had too much housing stock. Now the country faces the opposite problem: We’ve already worked our way through the overhang of extra homes from the bubble years and are now underbuilding — especially when you consider population growth and the share of young people doubled up with their parents and eager to move out. Homeownership remains a central part of the American dream, and most people, including young renters, still aspire to own their own homes.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catherine-rampell-congress-is-keeping-the-housing-market-on-hold/2014/05/12/c0fe1eda-da00-11e3-8009-71de85b9c527_story.html
With DC housing demand sitting at a fresh new low and looking down the barrel and heading for a 10 year low, whats not to like?
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/DC-Washington-Metro-home-value/r_395209/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D6%26r%3D395209%26el%3D0
It’s funny, the only ones who come here and try to defend housing prices and there being too few homes in an area are pretty much limited to a couple of very small geographic areas, Bay Area (but not Oaktown), Junkramento, Denverish, and DC.
For San Diego I don’t think there is a regular shill defender, it seems like even though it is nice, everyone realizes that prices are nutso and unjustified there.
That’s about 1 percent, if that.
Still setting up for the next leg down at this point…
San Diego Home Prices Continue To Climb Despite Nationwide Cooling Trend
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
San Diego home prices rose 1 percent in February and were up nearly 20 percent compared to February 2013, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released Monday.
San Diego was one of seven cities among the 20 tracked by S&P to show a monthly price increase.
The indices were created by taking the housing prices in 20 large U.S. cities in January 2000, assigning them a value of 100, and tracking their subsequent rise and fall.
San Diego’s value in February was 196.97, reflecting a nearly 97 percent appreciation over the last 15 years. That’s the third fastest increase in the country, behind Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“Despite continued price gains, most other housing statistics are weak,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Sales of both new and existing homes are flat to down. The recovery in housing starts, now less than one million units at annual rates, is faltering.”
While prices across the 20 markets as a whole were flat in February, compared to January, the annual gain from February 2013 was 12.9 percent.
“The annual rates cooled the most we’ve seen in some time,” Blitzer said.
…
I don’t think there is a “shill defender” for Denver either. Goon, Carl and I all agree that Denver is way over priced.
I have documented how my coworkers think Denver should be expensive and have been able to sell their houses in days with multiple offers. That doesn’t mean that I support such nonsense.
I stand corrected.
Overpriced is not the real issue though. The real
issue is where prices will go from here. Prices may
remain irrationally high for the next 50 years with all
the free Koolaid flowing into the market. Even Nouriel
Roubini doesn’t see any bubble currently. Instead of hanging
on to our illusions, we need to analyze the true direction of
several markets simultaneously if we want to make money.
No my friend. Overpriced is the fundamental issue….
And now some good housing news confirming the unquestionable fact that renting is better:
“The stress of living near a foreclosed home may increase a person’s chances of developing high blood pressure, according to research published Monday in an American Heart Association journal called Circulation.
While foreclosures are known to drag down the values of neighboring properties, the new research suggests that they can also undermine the health of the neighbors themselves.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/study-foreclosures-may-raise-neighbors-blood-pressure/2014/05/12/5f519952-da03-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html
Because debt donkeys = dead donkeys
And Bill in Los Angeles = WIN
Mortgage and homeownership in neighborhoods that go Detroit is self imposed slavery. I cannot think of any other way a developed nation’s citizens willfully put themselves into slavery.
Other than by voting in elections.
Can you think of a better way for a society to elect representatives and pass laws?
“And pass laws”
Now you got me started. In a rule of law society you have statesmen, not lawmakers. In a rule of men society you have so many thousands of ridiculous laws piled on every year that by following one you violate another.
Should have 10 laws repealed for every new law made at any government level.
Well Bill, how do you propose that human beings congregate, then?
“Well Bill, how do you propose that human beings congregate, then?”
Through voluntary association.
Ireland from 700 to 1700 functioned very well that way.
Can you imagine being anchored to a house with tweaker or gangbanger neighbors? Just stepping out into the yard could be a miserable or life-threatening experience. I cannot imagine a worse prison with the exception being prison.
The problem is that your neighborhood might be peaceful for 10 years like my parents’. A great place to raise us kids and safe. Until city LAWMAKERS move low income housing to your neighborhood. Detroit almost overnight. Well within one summer.
Because there are no buyers:
“Home prices continued to rise in the Denver area in April, as did inventory of homes on the market, but home sales numbers slipped from a year earlier, according to the latest monthly report based on Metrolist Inc. data.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2014/05/home-prices-still-climbing-in-metro-denver-sales.html
From iafrica.com, so what will the Syrian Lolas do now? Seriously, this is what happens when you try to promote democracy in the middle east, the crazies that the dictators were suppressing begin to run the asylum:
Syria’s most extreme jihadist faction issued a ban on Monday on mannequins in shop displays and the sale of women’s underwear to male customers, a monitoring group said.
The decision by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in their northern stronghold of Raqa also bans men and women shopping together unless he is her husband, father or brother, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Observatory also said ISIL has decided that traditional garments on sale must be neither “tight, transparent or ornate”.
Raqa is the only provincial capital in Syria to have fallen from the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and it is now completely under ISIL control.
ISIL is believed to be holding some 1 000 hostages in Raqa, rights groups say, many of them peaceful activists, rival rebels or civilians caught committing “crimes” such as heresy or smoking.
The group also carries out frequent public executions, with some victims reportedly crucified in Raqa.
Lucky Ducky is broke, broke, broke
“American consumers took a respite from going to malls and restaurants as retail sales climbed less than forecast in April after the strongest gain in four years.
Consumers were less inclined to ramp up again after March saw a release of pent-up demand caused by harsh winter weather.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-13/retail-sales-in-u-s-rose-less-than-forecast-in-april-after-jump.html
What’s not to like?
Increased taxes = fewer retail sales
ObamaCare = fewer retail sales
Lower salaries = fewer retail sales
All is good. The United States is too wealthy for its own good anyway. If you can’t cut the population’s mindless consumption, then tax the crap out of ‘em I always say.
There it is….. decreasing economic activity.
Because the permanent democrat supermajority is a plantation of black and brown poors with a bunch of white, latte-sipping, liberal overseers cracking the whip:
“every one of these 35 districts lies in an urban center dominated by two groups of people living in close proximity to each other: highly educated, highly paid whites and poor blacks and Latinos. These groups are essentially the Democratic Party’s base.”
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-12/income-inequality-is-higher-in-democratic-districts-than-republican-ones
“Income inequality is higher in democratic districts than republicans ones”
How is this news?
I submit that all one has to do is take a quick look at Washington, DC. Ever been there? Toured all the neighborhoods and lifestyles?
Washington, DC is the wealthiest metropolitan area of the country. And it routinely votes 85%+ NeoCon-Progressive.
And it operates as a net loss to society.
And it has many neighborhoods that are slums.
And numerous neighborhoods where the elitists live.
Off-topic (sort of)
Anyone catch the news from the GAO? (That’s the General Accounting Office for those requiring “proof” that I’m not ranting once again.)
The GAO says that there was a net loss of ONE job as a result of the government sequester.
As I said numerous times (without “proof”) that the “sequester” was meaningless. A ruse to take the focus off the horror that is ObamaCare.
As I said numerous times (without “proof”) that the “sequester” was meaningless. A ruse to take the focus off the horror that is ObamaCare.
So then why did the GOP force the sequester instead of focusing on Obamacare? Sounds like the played right into Obama’s hands. Maybe it’s true, the GOP is the “Stupid Party”.
….the horror that is ObamaCare.
Thank you for making me laugh on a dreary day.
Sorry we can’t all be rich and perfect like you
Just found out my health insurance premiums going up by 17%.
Thanks, Obama.
we can’t all be rich and perfect like you
Rich, perfect people would not care much about Obamacare.
Just found out my health insurance premiums going up by 17%.
Business Insider By Lauren F Friedman May 12, 2014:
a new analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute finds.
“In 2014, the premiums for health plans offered on new state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are comparable to — and in some cases lower than — those being offered by employers with similar levels of coverage,” the analysts concluded. “The data suggest the new exchanges are competitive with the current insurance market.”
The analysis is based on employer-sponsored premiums of 156 million people in 2013. Here’s an infographic illustrating those numbers (this is the median annual price for each kind of plan)…………But overall, the cost of insurance on the exchanges is competitive: about 4% less than employer plans, before taking subsidies into account.
Silly me, I recall HBB being really excited about the sequester, predicting job losses so massive that portions of DC would go into default and craaaater house prices.
‘really excited about the sequester’
Did they ever get that panda-cam back on? And the leaf tours; those are back right?
What happens if a panda farts on camera? Do they edit that out?
“What happens if a panda farts on camera? Do they edit that out?”
Farting is OK, sharting is not.
The panda was never sequestered. She was shut down. But yeah, the panda-cam is up and running.
Have you accessorized Mz. Craterton?
Everyone got a free vacation and back pay. What should have happened was the cuts should have been permanent cause things went on just fine.
Top States Exhibiting Collapsing Housing Demand Year Over Year
Arkansas -39.1 %
Nevada -28.1 %
Nebraska -22.2 %
Arizona -18.7 %
Delaware -16.4 %
Virginia -15.7 %
Kentucky -14.0 %
Georgia -11.5 %
Minnesota -11.4 %
Ohio -11.2 %
California -10.6 %
Penn -8.3 %
Michigan -7.9 %
Maine -7.4 %
Colorado -6.7 %
New York -5.2 %
Hawaii -5.1 %
Dump’em if you got’em.
May 13, 2014, 8:25 a.m. EDT
7 places where home prices are falling
Home buyers have an edge in these markets
By Quentin Fottrell
The recovery in the U.S. property market has proved to be choppy. National home prices still haven’t returned to 2005 levels, according to David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, who cites both new and existing home sales. “Many people predicted a huge surge in 2014, and we’re not quite seeing that,” says Don Frommeyer, president of the Association of Mortgage Professionals. Mortgage rates are up about a percentage point from last year, home prices are rising, housing inventory is low and the economy is still shaky, he says.
While many Realtors remain positive about the prospect of sales of new and existing family homes and condos for the spring season, an increase in mortgage interest rates, strict lending standards, and the gradual withdrawal of investors from many major metropolitan areas have produced a triple threat for home sellers, says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “We’re already seeing some evidence in a few markets that some prices are going into negative territory,” he says. The good news for those who do qualify for a mortgage: There are still competitively priced homes for first-time buyers, Blomquist says.
Here are seven markets where existing home prices dipped — even slightly — in the first quarter, according to data released to MarketWatch by RealtyTrac:
Oklahoma City, Okla.
…
Jacksonville, Fla.
…
Tulsa, Okla.
…
Greensboro-High Point, N.C.
…
Lancaster, Pa.
…
Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa.
…
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.
…
I can’t wait until it’s a list of 700 places.
This is a shill article designed to show only a few far flung places have dropped, but not anywhere big or important. It’s appeasement designed to lull the sheep who might be starting to worry.
Have conforming loan limits hit a permanently high plateau?
Got runway foam?
May 13, 2014, 9:54 a.m. EDT
Fannie, Freddie’s regulator won’t cut loan limits
By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t be directed to lower the limits for mortgages that they back, the head of their federal regulator said Tuesday.
In a departure from his predecessor, Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is generally seen as favoring efforts to maintain borrowers’ access to credit, rather than focusing on winding down the government sponsored enterprises.
“This decision is motivated by concerns about how such a reduction could adversely impact the health of the current housing finance market,” Watt said Tuesday at a Brookings Institution event.
…
“In a departure from his predecessor, Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is generally seen as favoring efforts to maintain borrowers’ access to credit, rather than focusing on winding down the government sponsored enterprises.”
No surprise that Mel Watt says, mo credik.
“…mo credik.”
Never mind the results so far!
Bear, are you street smart, or did the urban dictionary coach ‘ya?
I used to live in Vallejo. Sometimes the mail carrier would just not show up to work. Like twice a week. Do you guys remember that Seinfeld episode where Newman was hoarding mail? This is the type of place that Vallejo is.
“I used to live in Vallejo.”
I used to play in the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra (yes, they have one!).
““This decision is motivated by concerns about how such a reduction could adversely IMPACT THE HEALTH OF THE CURRENT HOUSING FINANCE MARKET,FINANCE MARKET, FINANCE MARKET Watt said Tuesday at a Brookings Institution event.”
THERE IT IS!! NOT ABOUT HOUSES BUT THE FINACE MARKETS!!!
Would you pay all cash if you bought a place now?
May 11, 2014, 8:05 a.m. EDT
43% of 2014 home buyers paid all cash
What the reliance on cash sales means for housing
By Quentin Fottrell
Americans are still buying homes in all-cash deals, despite more investors leaving the market, according to a new report.
All-cash purchases accounted for almost 43% of all sales of residential property in the first quarter of 2014, up from almost 38% in the previous quarter and 19% in the first quarter of 2013, according to data released Thursday from real-estate data firm RealtyTrac. “It’s a surprising thing for us that cash sales have stayed high for so long even though the big hedge fund investors have pulled out of the market a bit,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The high percentage of cash sales reveals the soft underbelly of the housing recovery.”
Experts say the high percentage of those paying cash won’t last much longer, though. “Cash buyers will become few and far between,” Blomquist says. So who does have the money to buy a home outright? Wealthy Americans and downsizing empty nesters make some of these all-cash deals, he says. Investors who are eager to make a profit by buying low and renting those properties — or flipping them — also drive up the number of all-cash deals, he adds.
Americans are still buying homes in all-cash deals, despite more investors leaving the market, according to a new report. MarketWatch’s Quentin Fottrell discusses what cash deals means for the housing recovery on MarketWatch.
Institutional investors — people or companies that have purchased at least 10 properties in a calendar year — appear to be gradually pulling out of the housing market. Investors accounted for 5.6% of all U.S. residential sales in the first quarter, down from 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 7% in the first quarter of 2013. But while the share of institutional investor buyers declined in 18 of the top 20 markets for institutional investors, home prices continued to appreciate in most of those markets, although at a slower pace. “But price appreciation will definitely flatten out,” he adds.
The top five markets for cash sales were in Florida, which experienced one of the biggest property crashes after the 2008 recession: Cape Coral-Fort Myers (74%), Miami (67%), Sarasota (65%), Palm Bay (64%), and Lakeland (62%). Other major metro areas where over half of all property sales were done in cash included New York (57%), Columbia, S.C., (56%), Memphis, Tenn. (55%), Detroit, Mich. (53%), Atlanta (53%) and Las Vegas (52%). Many high-end homes are also purchased with cash and buyers in competitive areas where inventory is low are more likely to offer cash.
…
Hey! They foamed the runway. It worked out great for one party.
I don’t get the skyrocketing share of all-cash buyers, even in pricy NYC, especially if the investors have left the building.
What gives?
The answer is kinda “obvious”.
Unlike you, I simply don’t believe the statistics. No evidence has been given and even more important, what’s left out is actually quite clear.
You’re a smart guy. Percentages have two components. A numerator and a denominator.
Note carefully that in the entire article two things have been left out - what the denominator actually is, and how much the denominator actually was.
Also note the really clean sleight-of-hand by first stating misleading percentages and then saying “many high-end homes also”. The implication is that these two numbers are related.
It’s a fluff piece. You should be able to filter these out effortlessly at this point.
C’mon, man. Build up your BS-eliminating muscles. It should be second nature by now.
1/3 of homes have no mortgage. If those people move, they pay cash. The able debt donkey army is shrinking.
Nice one.
So the machine is still extracting cash.
Very nice.
I simply don’t believe the statistics
It’s obvious by your 2011 predictions. It’s 2014 none of them regarding Brazil has come even remotely close to coming true.
I put my gently used vehicle up for sale. A buyer comes and hands me a cashier’s check for $30k. I’ve just sold my vehicle to a cash buyer. The cashier’s check is drawn off of BofA, who approved a car loan for $30k to said buyer. “Cash sale”.
The cashier’s check is drawn off of BofA, who approved a car loan for $30k to said buyer. “Cash sale”.
I built my house with 10’s of thousands of Dollars and Reals withdrawn almost daily from a Rio ATM machine.
Many homes everywhere are purchased with no debt cash.
I put my gently used vehicle up for sale. A buyer comes and hands me a cashier’s check for $30k. I’ve just sold my vehicle to a cash buyer. The cashier’s check is drawn off of BofA, who approved a car loan for $30k to said buyer. “Cash sale”.
The Blackstones of the world are certainly spending other people’s money to buy these houses. But I’m thinking it’s more like Hedge Funds or REITs than actually borrowing from a bank.
“C’mon, man. Build up your BS-eliminating muscles. It should be second nature by now.”
I’ve had so much BS to eliminate lately that I am beginning to feel constipated. Ex-lax, anyone?
As regards those historically-high shares of all-cash purchases, I am not sure how to differentiate between outright lies versus cleverly-constructed metrics which mislead by construction. I suppose the end result is the same.
I built my house with 10’s of thousands of Dollars and Reals withdrawn almost daily from a Rio ATM machine.
You don’t have a checking account? It’s statements like this that make me think he is posting drunk. Who builds a house with money withdrawn from an ATM?
Nope. I admit I check Phoenix prices. But since 2011 they have gone the opposite of where they should be headed, still higher than 2011 but coming down, and should be at 1997 levels.
I would pay cash and get a 250k loan. get me out of my rental!
If you like your plan, you can keep your plan:
“In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/business/more-insured-but-the-choices-are-narrowing.html
To see any doctor you want you need a Cadillac or near Cadillac plan. Everything else is just junk with huge deductibles and tiny networks. And it was that way before Obamacare.
And a good family plan (like ours) costs more ($18K) than what a full time minimum wage earner makes in a year ($16K).
Our system is so broken that it needs to be torn down and started over from scratch.
Our system is so broken that it needs to be torn down and started over from scratch.
Our highly government regulated and heavily taxed system is so broken that it needs to be torn down and started over from scratch.
How about starting with the notion that health care decision should be basically between a doctor and a person?
But that would shrink government power and control - and we can’t have that.
In every other developed nation on the planet, the government plays a larger role in paying for health care and private, for-profit insurance companies play a much smaller role. Most of those countries pay much less for health care, with similar or better outcomes to ours.
How about starting with the notion that health care decision should be basically between a doctor and a person?
Well, THIS is a positive sign. The usual conservative view is that the health care decision should basically be between the person and the person since he didn’t “work hard enough” to afford an actual doctor.
So now you’re saying the person has the right to the money to pay a doctor to help make a health care decision?
How about starting with the notion that health care decision should be basically between a doctor and a person?
So you’re saying that once that decision is made that it’s funding should be guaranteed and that an insurance company should not be allowed to deny the claim?
How very progressive of you!
Every provider takes cash. You don’t need a plan.
From Zero Hedge, the farce is complete: Joe Biden’s son joins board of Ukraine’s largest gas producer. Just so you know why Washington was interfering over there, killing and maiming and stirring things up. And why JOE BIDEN was so heavily involved and why Victoria Nuland referred to him in her infamous phone call.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/farce-complete-joe-bidens-son-joins-board-largest-ukraine-gas-producer
Read it and grunt. And shrug.
“Joe Biden’s son joins board of Ukraine’s largest gas producer.”
+1 Nepotism works.
Well, I mean, my parents helped me get a job back in the day, on two occasions that I can recall. To get me started, and I took it from there.
But they didn’t use the vast powers of the US state department and stir up two countries and create unrest leading to killing and maiming.
I mean, the guy must be a major loser if his daddy has to go to such lengths to get him a gig.
Let me understand this correctly. The Obama Admin is constantly accused of being “weak” on foreign policy. Yet, wimp-O-bama was able to convince the mighty Putin himself to carry out months of imperializin’ just to create a job for some schmo?
(At least that makes Putin a job creator… maybe Obama bribed him with a tax break?)
Those are a couple of interesting remarks there, Jose. You needed your parents to get you a job twice, but they didn’t use the resources of the federal government to do that. It must be safe to assume that hey did not hold high positions in the government when they were helping you. If they had, they may have in fact used their connections to help you out.
Strange ’cause I just watched “Sons of Saddam” last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HNXcrhCIRg
Unchecked power and savagery, real Plato-esque stuff.
From Zero Hedge, the farce is complete: Joe Biden’s son joins board of Ukraine’s largest gas producer. Just so you know why Washington was interfering over there, killing and maiming and stirring things up.
I think there is more behind it than just getting Biden’s son a sweet gig.
Not a smidgen of corruption…
“I think there is more behind it than just getting Biden’s son a sweet gig.”
You’d think so, but I have come to accept that evil can be just that simple and banal.
The mistake we make is in thinking there has to be all this vast conspiracy behind things of this nature. Perhaps there is, but the truth is, the vast conspiracy machinery supports this simple, banal, thing.
And wouldn’t it really be so much better for humanity if Joe Biden just simply said “They were interfering with my son’s gig”, instead of all the hoo-rah about Putin and international law and the poor Ukrainians and so on and so forth?
For example, it was never necessary to have a Civil War to free the slaves. England managed to implement a peaceful plan to dissolve the institution in its own empire, and that plan was available to the US. The problem was, Lincoln was slut-shamed into war.
http://melbarger.com/Civil_War_Necessary.html
We could have had a peaceful solution, ended slavery and preserved the union. But we had to go to war, all because Lincoln was stung by the words of a disgruntled abolitionist.
If Abe had really been honest, he’d have said “I couldn’t bear to be thought of badly by that guy. Besides, war was more profitable”. It was all about his reputation.
it was never necessary to have a Civil War to free the slaves..all because Lincoln was stung by the words of a disgruntled abolitionist.
Those are myths that make a mockery of American history.
I suggest you study The Great Compromise, The Kansas/Nebraska Act, The Lincoln/Douglas Debates, Bleeding Kansas, Harper’s Ferry and the explosion of the Southern militias and heated rhetoric after it. Most Southern States seceded before Lincoln even arrived in DC to take office.
We could have had a peaceful solution, ended slavery and preserved the union
Another myth.
I suggest you study The South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession December 20, 1860
And the :
Constitution of the Confederate States; March 11, 1861
The South was not ever rejoining the Union and giving up their slaves with a “peaceful solution”.
And comparing the 1860 English with the Southerners of 1860 is a false comparison- like comparing today’s England with today’s White Folk of Alabama.
I suggest you study The Great Compromise, , The 3/5th Compromise, The Missouri Compromise…
For example, it was never necessary to have a Civil War to free the slaves.
We could have had a peaceful solution, ended slavery and preserved the union.
Wait a minute, I thought the southern view was that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery at all; it was about states’ rights. Now you’re telling me that the Civil War WAS about slavery after all, in that the real conflict was about how to end it?
more progress!
‘more progress’
I’ve already schooled you on that. Now, which was the party of segregation? And the bonus round; who was the president that won a Nobel peace prize, was a war criminal and had hundreds of innocent people killed by drone?
Well, that certainly was fun. Always a blast to see the reactions when you question a US war. Any war. As Rio pointed out, Washington and its acolytes have a LOT invested in it. Love that “making a mockery” business. Got a good belly laugh out of that one.
“Mine eyes have seen the gory of the coming of the Lord” and all that.
Of course Ben. Lola excuses Obamarx because Obamarx is not white, is a Dumbocraps, is a “progressive.” the triple “Bammy” of being perfect and the messiah.
Always a blast to see the reactions when you question (The Civil War) of which the right is ignorant of.
You can’t change history because of your politics. Read a book.
Obamarx is not white…
Thanks for the update Cliven the government worker.
Love that “making a mockery” business. Got a good belly laugh out of that one.
Why would you get a belly laugh after being schooled on American historical events of which you did not even know of?
Does that happen? Why?
Of course this makes some posters mad, bringing up war crimes of the guy who says he’s “good at killing people.” I wonder why they aren’t mad at Obama for doing it.
What I meant is that the banking clan is behind the strife in Ukraine, they are the ones who are going to strip it bare of it’s wealth with their soon to come austerity demands. The job for Biden’s son was just a reward for doing their bidding.
Glenn Greenwald nails it on Hillary:
“Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power.”
http://www.infowars.com/greenwald-criticism-of-president-hillary-will-be-labeled-misogynistic/
Reminder: he will be appearing live and taking viewer calls on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal tomorrow 5/14 at 9:00 EDT
The things Hilary represents make me really ill. It’s actually a lot different than Obama. Obama was not nearly as calculating and sociopathic, at least not until he arrived in the WH and had the usual legion of “advisors” push/scare/browbeat him in those directions. Hilary has been about Hilary from day 1 and will gladly say or do anything to get power.
The silver lining is there are still 18 months before the field is set on either side and there are a number of people than can beat Hil.
Hil goes beyond the usual idiocy of our 2 party system and seems like she is actually evil. I feel the same way about Palin, except substitute “proud stupidity” for “evil”.
+1
There is something fundamentally vile about that woman that makes my skin crawl. I’m sure others feel the same way.
This will be her now or never opportunity. She’s already too old, she looks like a hag. Sure, some would vote for her even if she looked 100 years old, but as we all know, looks matter with politicians.
http://www.picpaste.com/a_hillary_campaign_colorposter-n6YW4022.jpg
How many people get the visual reference?
It’s a reference to the works of Ivan Albright whose art work hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Did you even know that?
Google it.
Seriously, you can manipulate this country in any direction without even thinking. You just have to appeal to their prejudices.
I am voting for this zombie Hilary.
I am voting for this zombie Hilary.
Not me. I like them young and exotic.
I’d vote for Hilary too if I were a Housing CEO. There is no doubt the Democrats are more behind ongoing housing market fluffing than Republicans are.
Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power.
It sounds like Greenwald wants a job on right wing talk radio. Where is his evidence that opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist? Has anyone called him and Snowden racist for criticizing Obama?
Opposition to (Hillary) is going to be depicted as misogynistic
How could the libs possibly depict Hillary’s opposition as misogynistic? How? This video must have been tampered with.
Bill O’Reilly: “There’s Got To Be Some Downside To Having A Woman President”
O’Reilly Is Just Asking: “Something That May Not Fit With That Office, Correct?”
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/02/26/bill-oreilly-theres-got-to-be-some-downside-to/198250
Misogynistic? Like Bimbo eruptions?
That’s what I love so much about this dog and pony show. The Repubs (through their incessant attacks on femininity in recent years) have set themselves up not just for a Democrat President, but a female Democrat President.
lovely
At the same time they consider Margaret Thatcher to be one of the greatest leaders in world history.
Don’t forget Sister Sarah and her soulmate.
Current feminism is not about femininity. Hillary is a terrible role model for a young girl. Heck, she’s a horrible role model for a human being.
There’s a content-free statement.
Hillary is the new old Loretta Lynn. Stand by your maaaan….
How’s that for content free?
money for nothing and the check ups aint free:
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/13/billion-dollar-obamacare-contract-pays-people-to-do-nothing/
Get ready for the federal lending spigots to flood the housing market with federally guaranteed loans. The investors knew what they were doing.
Politics and Policy
Fannie, Freddie Regulator Signals Broad Shift in Housing Policy
FHFA’s Watt Directs Pause in Contraction of Mortgage Companies
By Nick Timiraos
May 13, 2014 9:33 a.m. ET
Fannie Mae FNMA +8.96% and Freddie Mac FMCC +9.52% will shift their focus toward making more credit available to homeowners instead of their existing policy of pulling back from the mortgage market, the new head of the regulator overseeing the companies said Tuesday in his first public remarks.
The speech by Mel Watt, the former North Carolina congressman who took over as the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in January, offered clear signs of a shift in direction at the agency, which controls Fannie and Freddie while they operate under a legal process known as conservatorship.
Mr. Watt largely steered clear of hot-button policy debates, resisting for now demands from liberal supporters to provide more generous foreclosure relief and saying little about what steps the agency might take if legislation to replace or overhaul the companies can’t pass Congress in the next few years.
But he signaled important changes in reports that outline the performance goals for the companies’ management teams. Citing concerns about the health of the housing market, Mr. Watt said he wouldn’t direct the companies to reduce the maximum loan limits, something his predecessor, Edward DeMarco, had actively contemplated late last year.
He also said Fannie and Freddie would participate in a new pilot program focused on neighborhood stabilization in Detroit that could be expanded to other parts of the country later. “We believe this will be a win-win for hardest hit communities and for our conservatorship objectives,” he said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
In recent years, the companies have been given three broad mandates: to build a new infrastructure for the mortgage market, to maintain foreclosure prevention and credit availability, and to contract their presence in the market. Last year, the FHFA’s acting director, Mr. DeMarco, placed the highest priority on the latter step.
Mr. Watt said that for the coming year, the firms’ most important mandate would be to promote credit access.
“Housing finance market conditions are far from what could reasonably be considered satisfactory or normal,” the FHFA said in a report released Tuesday outlining its priorities. The report said the agency expects Fannie and Freddie to assess “whether there are additional opportunities to reach underserved creditworthy borrowers.”
…
If this is not enough to turn every single person who isn’t a shill on this site against the current administration, I do not know what is.
Where has our HBB librarian (azslim) been? I am wondering what her take is on a few finance/econ books I’ve been considering. Summer reading season is nearly upon us.
Also, has anyone else read “Enough” by Jack Bogle (Vanguard founder)? I’m about halfway through and it has provided a decent amount of food for thought.
Liberace!
Cut him some slack, bro!
He went to Princeton. Deserves a medal and all that just for that. First in his family. They’re so proud of it and he puts his diploma in a frame and all that.
It’s a direct sign of class actually. Low class.
You don’t need to advertise the status. You just ARE the status.
It’s very funny. He’s not going to get it. But he will. Eventually.
My degrees are in the linen closet next to the toilet paper.
At my first law firm we were forbidden from displaying degrees. They didn’t want clients to know who went where. If you worked at the firm, that was all a client needed to know. Not that a client ever saw an associate’s office anyway, but they still enforced the rule.
What’s a sign of low class? Is it parents being proud of their kid’s accomplishment or is it framing a diploma?
Both actually.
To those that got it, these are just routine facts like eating at a McDonald’s or something.
It’s not particularly interesting and certainly nothing to talk about.
You’ll figure it out but first you must learn that there is something there to be figured out in the first place.
I’m not being rude. I am deadly serious. This is important stuff.
Bullsh*t. They don’t talk about what university their kids went to because they are too busy casually sneaking mentions of their own pedigree, and the success of their kids is more a product of nannies and headmasters than their own volition.
It’s even more embarassing that this level of naval gazing is meant to be aspired to.
Aah, yes, the other “third rail” of America.
Social class.
Permit me to illustrate:
Couch or sofa? Divan, perhaps?
Soda or pop?
Do you summer somewhere?
You must learn a few things, daahling! Get out a little.
Are you personally part of this aristocracy, Pussycat, or is this something that you’ve just read about?
I summer somewhere every year. It happens to be wherever I am. Do I win?
I also eat at McDonald’s. This is fun!
It’s the davenport. Get it right!
Class is one thing. It’s those who aspire to be another class and worship and toady to them that are worse. Inherited wealth amounts to zip in my book, same as green eyes. Rare but not your own doing.
Trust fund scumbags or welfare scumbags, whatever. Just don’t work. God forbid.
I’m not being rude. I am deadly serious. This is important stuff.”
they let em vote smoke and drive
even put em in pants.So whatta ya get,A democrat for president
A lot of smoke up your chimney,russian roulette on the highway
ya can’t even tell brother from sister,unless ya meet em head on
Are you personally part of this aristocracy, Pussycat
Pussycat brags that he grew up with money, but he does not have much class imo.
He stopped posting before you came on I think. I can name his predictions that have not come true, even years later.
Name predictions from years ago?
Lola… you can’t keep your two-week old tall tales straight.
I predict Lola will lose what is left of his mind come November. Then he will have to raise his price for Brazilian ATM.
There’s a wonderful little book called How to Lie Using Statistics that I highly recommend to the readers of this blog.
It’s reasonably old. Written in 1954.
And it’s concise. 144 pages.
95% of the arguments you see in the papers fall under these guidelines. You will be able to eliminate most articles based on the first paragraph.
Do not miss the “Acknowledgment” section under any circumstances. He names all the fallacies he found in the statistics textbooks of his day. It’s a wonderful hatchet job.
Think of it as speed-reading using basic math and logic. Very useful.
Pointing out that using pictures - which are sized proportionally so that something twice as tall is visually 4 times as large - in graphs is such a great example in that book. It is so completely obvious once he points it out. And people were doing it back when it was much more difficult to resize pictures than it is now.
You picked out my favorite chapter.
I have a second favorite:
This was written in 1954!
This unwarranted conclusion has for its basis the equally unwarranted assumption that since college-trained folks make more money, they make it because they went to college.
And another cargo cult is born.
But today, all the decent-paying jobs require a college degree. Not because you would actually use any of the information that you learned in college, but because the HR department will not forward your resume unless you have a degree.
This was written in 1954!
You can tell that it must have been written a long time ago by this sentence - ” Colleges get a disproportionate number of two groups of kids: the bright and the rich.” These days, nearly anyone can go to college. The many changes that have ocurred in the economy since 1954 call into question the current validity of that passage.
Actually, that is still 100% true, and especially so if you look at who not only attends but actually graduates.
I’m sad that neither of my kids were twins so I can’t run double blind studies on this stuff. One of the perks of parenting in my opinion.
Well I suppose that the bright and the rich are still disproportionately represented among college students. They’re just much less disproportionately represented than they were in 1954. There was a massive expansion of colleges and universities starting right around then in the 1950s.
Did our intrepid statisticians run a control for college major, like STEM vs. non-STEM?
That isn’t enough. You have to also control for the selection bias between those who choose STEM for a major.
(…and the non-STEM majors)
Pointing out that using pictures
Fox News is good at pictures but math is hard.
Fox News Airs Seriously Misleading Obamacare Graphic
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-airs-seriously-misleading-obamacare-graphic/
…..Fox News’ America’s Newsroom showed a bar graph on screen can only be described as seriously misleading when it comes to the overall success of the Obamacare program (by) …..showing that as of March 27th 6 million of the Obama Administration’s 7 million goal had signed up for insurance. But, contrary to what you might see in said graph, 7 million is not almost three times more than 6 million:
If I am remembering correctly (it has been a while since I read it), the book also discusses cutting off the “bottom” of a graph to make a small change look like it is huge. A graph of a change from 92% to 95% will look very small if your x axis is at zero. It looks a heck of a lot larger if your x axis starts at 90%.
If I remember correctly, I learned about this trick in high school.
Math is hard.
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - 92k -
The most common fallacy in statistics is the one where you use math to prove or disprove a thing that is obvious to any observer. If you can already tell the answer just by looking at a thing with one eye sideways, then any statistical analysis is an attempt to influence your belief system.
For instance, people who use statistics to tell us that bubbles are not a’brewin in stocks and housing have an agenda. One may quibble about when these bubbles will pop (when the manipulation will dry up), but the dang things are like festering blisters on the labia majora of global finance.
Aren’t you the one who’s always complaining that the HBB men are hatin’ on the ladies, and then you actually wrote that out?
What? Labia majora? Taint nuthin wrong with that word.
Here is an internet archive version:
How to Lie With Statistics
Darrell Huff
And thanks for the reminder that I have to “borrow back” my personal dead tree copy that I recently loaned out to a fellow BS-eliminator at work.
There’s a wonderful little book called How to Lie Using Statistics
I think you’re good at total BS without using statistics FastPussCat. It’s 2014. You told me in 2011 that Brazil would be in a major recession in 2012 and a Great Depression in 2013 - And that my house would crater.
Well its 3 years later and you are wrong on all counts. All.
You might be a NYC money dude but you’re too ignorant on world’s events to be such. I think you skated in because your daddy had some money. But his money didn’t translate into any class or knowledge for you.
But nice seeing you again. I really missed you and your predictions. lol
And the wheels are coming off your 3rd world economy right now.
Lay off the sauce Lola.
I must say that we have quite the resurgence of posters here on the HBB. Many coming out of the woodwork. It is an interesting phenomenon. Keep it up all.
I think we had no AGW posts today!
Like someone said recently. It’s 2006 all over again. The donkeys are getting spooked.
http://www.safehaven.com/article/33761/welcome-to-the-third-world-part-13-suburbs-become-ghettos
“The concept of suburbia, meanwhile, always depended on debt and cheap energy. For a typical American family to heat and cool four times the space of its counterparts in other countries — and to move two tons of metal 100 miles each day just to get to a job — is only possible as long as the rest of the world is kept poor and therefore unable to consume fossil fuels at the North American rate. But as China, India and Brazil get into the game, energy costs are rising. Combine this with the ongoing decline in finance/government jobs, and the unworkability of modern suburbia becomes obvious.”
Here we go again.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac expanding housing market role
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/13/5020430/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-expanding.html
The U.S. regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remove targets for reducing their mortgage-market footprint and keep current limits on the size of loans they buy under a new strategic plan announced Tuesday.
The changes outlined by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin L. Watt in remarks prepared for a Washington speech mark a reversal of efforts to shrink the role of the two companies, which have been under U.S. control since 2008.
The companies will also renew their focus on helping troubled borrowers, beginning with a program in Detroit that will offer deeper loan modifications, Watt said in his first public comments since taking over at FHFA in January.
“Our overriding objective is to ensure that there is broad liquidity in the housing-finance market and to do so in a way that is safe and sound,” Watt said in his remarks.
Watt also announced he was loosening rules that have forced banks to buy back billions of dollars’ worth of flawed home loans they sold to the two U.S.-owned mortgage financiers, a move designed to spur the housing market. Watt said he would seek public input before deciding whether to increase the fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to guarantee loans.
This bothers me.
Doing god’s work.
We’re all in this together, it seems.
May 13, 2014, 1:01 p.m. EDT
It’s back to the future for Fannie and Freddie
Opinion: Not much reform coming to mortgage-finance system
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection
Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future.”
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — It would be an overstatement to say that nothing has changed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since the financial crisis. Just not very much.
The loans that they have been backing are noticeably better-performing than before the crisis. It’s probably too soon to judge 2012 and 2013 vintages, but the default rate on single-family conventional loans from 2009 to 2011 are running pretty much on track with 2003. Fannie and Freddie have been acting, so far, with restraint in what mortgages they will approve.
The twins also are charging more to guarantee loans, in a bid to get more private capital into the system. And there’s a very slow but real effort being made to combine the two firms.
And that’s about as far as it’s going to go. Mel Watt, the new sheriff in town, on Tuesday basically drew a line in the sand and said he’s going to stop the efforts of the former FHFA head, Ed DeMarco, to further rein in the giants. He wants the spigots to open.
As for Congress, housing has always been a high-voltage issue, and the fact there was a housing-induced financial crisis hasn’t put the brakes on government support. The housing reform being contemplated in the Senate, that has a sliver of opportunity to pass after the mid-term elections, would basically guarantee 90% instead of 100% of mortgages. It’s important to realize that is the high end of reform — Congress may well not get that far.
While Fannie and Freddie may not be as wild and crazy as in the days they were competing with the likes of Angelo Mozilo, there’s still plenty of risk from the two firms that cost taxpayers $187.5 billion.
…
Let the good times roll…they gotta do something, they know it’s going down.
crater
crates
Obamacare shills, your Soros check is in the mail
So 8 million Lucky Ducks now get sh*tty bronze plan coverage, and 80+ million working Americans get to pay for it with double digit health insurance premium increases.
Thanks, Obama.
EVERYONE MUST SIGN IN
FEMA region VIII checking in.
All operations as scheduled to proceed as normal.
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-05-11 13:47:46
[...]
Let me clarify; There isn’t a house on the planet that can’t be built for $250k or less.
Simple math can disprove that statement:
You are the one who always says that housing can be built anywhere, for (IIRC, please correct me if the current rate has changed) $55/sq-ft.
By simple division, we can prove that any house larger than $250K/($55/sq-ft) = 4545 sq-ft will cost more than $250K to build.
So…
Your statement is false.
And you’re still wrong.
And because Barack Obama was born on the continent of Africa:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/joe-manchin-climate-change-106634.html?hp=l5
Name a problem that IS NOT solved by a cheap house.
http://maine.craigslist.org/sls/4468427439.html
Top drops so far today:
last squirt of runway foam.
annual groth rate
scratching the tip of the iceberg
“shill defender” for Denver
Ireland from 700 to 1700
Syrian Lolas
panda farts
mo credik
BS-eliminating muscles
donkey army
Rio ATM machine
Lincoln was slut-shamed
festering blisters on the labia majora
Question of the day:
Who builds a house worth many 100’s of thousands of dollars today, with the majority of the money to build it being pulled out of an ATM?
Answer:
Someone who can.
And in the last 5.5 years, I’ve saved about $150K in “free” rent.
(Ain’t some brains, cash, dumb luck timing, free-markets and capitalism grand?)
But the bubble timing was mostly luck. I didn’t do it for money really.
A transvestite streetwalker?