Bits Bucket for September 1, 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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I ran across this tidbit this morning:
China’s manufacturing slows.
“The Chinese surveys come in both official and private sector flavors. The National Bureau of Statistic’s version fell from a 27-month high to 51.1 in August, as factories shed jobs for at least the 24th consecutive month.”
You might want to home in on this statement:
” … factories shed jobs for at least the 24th consecutive month.”
The market for China is the West and the West is broke. The West went broke about … about when? … about 24 months ago?
Link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-manufacturing-slowdown-ripples-region-053644078.html
Critical question: Will their GDP growth rate of 7.5% remain intact (or was it 6.5%)?
China Will Need Stimulus to Hit 7.5% Growth Target, KC Fed Paper Says
By Dow Jones Business News, August 25, 2014, 03:32:00 PM EDT
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
A sputtering housing market threatens China’s economic outlook and would probably force the central bank and local governments to intervene if they want to hit the country’s 7.5% economic growth target for this year, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
The latest figures “indicate the expansion of the real-estate sector has slowed significantly,” write economist Jun Nie and research associate Guangye Cao. “Taking both the short- and long-term factors into account, the real estate sector’s recent slowdown is likely to continue as housing activity stabilizes at a lower growth path.”
The authors say housing and construction have played an overwhelming role in China’s supercharged growth rates, which have elevated it to the second-largest economy in the world. Real-estate investment grew at an average annual rate of 20.2% since the country’s 1998 housing reform, about twice the rate of gross domestic product expansion, Messrs. Nie and Cao write.
“The slowdown in China’s real-estate sector poses a risk to the country’s near-term GDP growth. To achieve the 7.5 percent growth target for 2014, additional policy stimulus from both the central and local governments will likely be needed,” they say.
The latest figures out of China indicate recent stimulus attempts have yet to relieve distress in lending and real estate markets. Growth in new lending declined sharply in July after a strong June increase. Housing sales fell by more than 10% in the first seven months of the year. The drop came despite an easing of property sale restrictions.
The growth in bank loans and total credit coursing through the economy hit their lowest single-month levels in over four years, People’s Bank of China data showed.
“More worrying was the HSBC/Markit PMI, which eased to 50.2 in August, only a whisker above the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction.
“The official survey showed falls across output, employment, new orders, delivery time and raw material inventory, while the private version highlighted subdued demand.
“The economy is healthier than it was in early 2014, but the recovery is tepid and patchy, with housing weakness a weighty anchor on both activity and confidence,” said Huw McKay, a senior international economist at Westpac in Sydney.
“The authorities would be wise to stay the course with easier policy settings, especially on the fiscal side.”
And (as usual) the answer to all problems is …
“Easier policy settings, especially on the fiscal side.”
How long can China’s economy kiss 50.0 before penetration happens?
Even the faked Chinese statistics can’t hide the extent of their economic downturn. Wonder if all those Chinese FBs have their own Riot Dog.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-31/double-whammy-china-pmi-misses-spark-sell-side-demands-more-stimulus
“The West went broke about … about when?”
About 72 months ago. It’s been a humungous credit expansion in China since then.
Is the China real estate bubble bursting as I type?
Sep 01, 2014, 02.25 PM IST | Source: CNBC
China real-estate: A bubble bursting
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. “If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth in this market, even in the next ten to twenty years,” said Wang, who bought a home under construction last December. “The whole housing bubble is a fear; it is a concentration on the risks that the real estate market faces.”
Underlying confidence expressed by residents such as Wang may be what China`s authorities hope will aid a recovery in a market that has seen prices fall for three straight months. For other observers a downturn in China`s once red-hot property market poses one of the greatest threats to the economy, the world`s second biggest. “The risks and exposure to property don`t look the same as in the US sub-prime [mortgage crisis], but new bubbles never look exactly like the last bubble (otherwise they`d be easy to recognize),” said Patrick Chovanec, chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management. “The exposure of China`s banks (and now shadow banks) to real estate may look different than it did in the US, but it`s very real. The main exposure is the reliance on property as collateral to support virtually all forms of lending throughout the economy, a situation that is very similar to Japan in the 1980s,” he added, referring to a collapse in Japan`s property market after a boom.
The importance of China`s property market cannot be underestimated - it accounts for roughly 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and directly affects other sectors such as banking and construction.
…
How Chinese millionaires are buying their way out of China:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2014/09/01/ozy-chinese-millionaires/14794433/
Here’s the money quote:
“What’s in it for Chinese? Foreign markets rebounding from recession can sometimes provide profitable opportunities. They boast an investment environment free from corruption, patronage and government control, at least relative to China.”
At least relative to China.
Wang drank the Kool-Aid.
I’m not going to repost, but if you are interested, I linked several more articles on the Chinese real estate crash in progress at the end of yesterday’s “Malevolent Force” thread.
Contraction in German GDP confirmed
Published: Sept 1, 2014 2:47 a.m. ET
By Emese Bartha
Germany’s economy contracted in the second quarter after a robust start to the year, the Federal Statistics Office, or Destatis, confirmed Monday, putting pressure on policy makers to move ahead with measures to boost the economy.
In adjusted terms, Germany’s gross domestic product shrank 0.2% in the second quarter after growing 0.7% in the first quarter, Destatis said, confirming its preliminary estimates. The statistics office said that GDP grew 1.2% in the second quarter compared with the same period of last year, also unchanged from the first estimate.
The statistics office said domestic demand added 0.1 percentage point to the quarterly figure, while net trade cut 0.2 percentage point.
Among the major categories, gross capital formation fell 0.2% on the quarter, while construction investment fell 4.2%.
…
What is the prediction for the number of illegal aliens that will be brought out of the shadows with the stroke of a pen this week?
5 million? 5 million officially, but 10 million in practice? The biggest thing to happen in the Southwest since the bubble popped in 08 is happening in the next month and everyone is pretending like nothing is happening.
What the PTB wants, the PTB gets.
Ronald Reagan brought out 2.7 million illegal aliens when he signed the amnesty bill back in 1986.
And you are mistaken if you think all the illegal aliens are in the Southwest.
Who said they are all in the Southwest?
And your answer is to quadruple Reagan’s mistake?
They (illegals) will be competing for Gubmint goodies with the communist drones who elected this unqualified marxist-in-chief. I doubt if anyone on public assistance will do with less, so more printing or taxing will commence, otherwise the system collapses.
#ClowardAndPiven
Take a guess on who will pay for this increased demand in services? If you guessed the rich, you could not be more wrong. This will be the final intentionally thrown death blow for what’s left of the middle class. The POTUS and his marxist crew are really following through on the promise to transform America.
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
Spanky throws money out the window
Our Gang, indeed.
Maybe more of this will surface:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/business/more-workers-are-claiming-wage-theft.html?_r=0
Germany’s gross domestic product shrank 0.2% in the second quarter after growing 0.7% in the first quarter ??
Thats the one to watch although China is a big part also…But, if the healthiest country in Europe (Germany) goes negative then how bad is it everywhere else…A; really, really bad….ECB going to open the gates…More flight to US bonds…
…. which ultimately ends in collapse.
Vienna VA(DC metro) Housing Prices Down Dive 11% YoY On Rising Excess Empty Housing Inventory
http://www.movoto.com/vienna-va/market-trends/
Living in a rental will never feel like a real home.
Why buy a house at these grossly inflated prices when prices are falling? Rent for half the monthly cost and buy later for 65% less.
Working in real estate will never feel like a real job.
The morally corrupt and hopelessly helpless need a job too ya know.
Good one! OTOH, I think that’s the point of working in real estate.
“Working in real estate will never feel like a real job.”
It works for me or, rather, Amy works for me.
Amy spends her time and money hustling-up the customers and then she brings them to me for the signing-on-the-dotted-line-shake-down.
Amy gets to enjoy a one-time win and then she needs to go out and hustle up another customer to bring to me.
As for me, I get to kick back and enjoy a win each and every time a new month makes its appearance.
You can’t lose with the stuff - and the people - I use.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Go Amy! The dotted line is waiting.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Living without integrity will never feel like a worthwhile occupation.
If you lose your integrity everything else in life becomes easy.
Governor Patterson NYS
Free Jon Corzine!
Oh, wait….
San Mateo County, CA Sale Prices Turn Negative MoM And QoQ; Demand Collapses Statewide
http://www.zillow.com/market-report/09-14/12447/los-angeles-ca.xls
T R O L L
Cheer up Poet… housing prices resumed falling everywhere in CA.
Temecula, CA Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY As Excess Empty Inventory Balloons 77%
http://www.movoto.com/temecula-ca/market-trends/
NE Washington, DC Sale Prices Plummet 15% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/market-report/time-series/66140/washington-dc-20017.xls
Don’t forget the rent is due today.
My rent is half your monthly cost on your rapidly depreciating shack.
As is the house payment.
Indeed it was. And it got paid, along with a little extra principle.
The losses are due ALWAYS. Go clean that pool then drive over to Lowe’s and shell out three hundred bucks for a new filter.
Eurozone economies continue their downward spiral despite trillions in QE. When the ECB-Fed asset bubbles burst, the price discovery is going to be epic.
http://www.businessinsider.com/eurozone-economic-alarm-2014-9
“When the ECB-Fed asset bubbles burst, the price discovery is going to be epic.”
What makes you think the central bankers will ever allow price discovery to happen?
What makes you think the central bankers will ever allow price discovery to happen ??
When price discovery is deflation it will get you a depression…
Which suggests that real estate must always go up forevermore, right?
“What makes you think the central bankers will ever allow price discovery to happen?”
It won’t. They will do anything and everything to not allow it.
Wouldn’t that constitute illegal price fixing — a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act?
The crash is beginning in earnest in southeast Phoenix area. Price reductions growing larger and larger. Some apparently have to sell. They will try to hold off and ignore these new comps for a few months longer but it ultimately ends up the same way. Price per square foot in this area now droppong below 100/sq ft, which has always been the barrier. Reduced 10K Aug 22nd then another 10K yesterday:
08/31/14Price change$279,900-3.1%$92
08/22/14Price change$289,000-3.3%$95
06/02/14Price change$299,000-2.0%
05/13/14Price change$305,000-4.6%$100
05/01/14Price change$319,650-0.1%$105
03/02/14Listed for sale$319,900+38.7%$105
Like we forecasted months ago…. the craters are forming all over the map.
Look out below.
Monteverdi in N LV (Ryland Homes) had a sign up the other day saying $90/sq ft. I’ve got a photo of it.
Here’s their site:
http://www.ryland.com/find-your-new-home/31-las-vegas/6116-monteverdi.html
…. and making buckets of money at that price.
(Ryland Homes) had a sign up the other day saying $90/sq ft ??
Wow…Makes me wonder what the hourly wages are…
Wages have nothing to do with it.
Sale by Dutch auction is a time-tested method for discovering the market price of an asset in a declining price market environment.
P.S. News of Dutch auctions once again supplanting bid wars is a sure sign the Echo Bubble is on its last leg.
“Some apparently have to sell.”
The only people who can afford $300k houses around Phoenix are the equity locusts since the local economy’s wages simply aren’t high enough.
The wages for average, non genius, non STEM J6Ps in any metro area aren’t high enough.
What? Easily doable for 2 incomes.
Throw in a kid and that falls apart.
I don’t think that is correct unless you assume that with the kid the second income goes away, which doesn’t seem to be the case for most people I know. I suppose it depends on what the two incomes are, but 2 people bringing in over 100K total is easily doable in the Phoenix area. This is especially true for the college educated not just out of school crowd.
“I suppose it depends on what the two incomes are, but 2 people bringing in over 100K total is easily doable in the Phoenix area.”
I’d say that $50k/yr per person is accurate for Phoenix with a college degree, but that $100k household will be stretched tighter than a snare drum trying to support a family of four in a $300k house. It might work on paper, but they’re plenty of spending distractions these days especially when those teen years arrive.
With a divorce rate higher than 50%, that means HALF of all couples who buy a house will not be able to afford it in the future.
The median household income in Phoenix is $41,200. You need at least an income of $100,000 to afford a $300,000 home. Until buyers adhere to the old rule of “3 times salary is the maximum house price one can afford” there will be an unending stream of foreclosures in the future and many heavily indebted “homeowners.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_locations_by_per_capita_income
“The median household income in Phoenix is $41,200.”
That sounds more like it; sad for a major metro area.
This isn’t a median priced house to go with the median household income. It is a good house in a good area with lots of dual income college educated people. I want to see a crash as much as anyone. The price here is too high still even with price drops. It needs to go back to prices a decade or more ago. But that 41k median is not applicable.
Interesting stat’s Shillow…Thanks for the info…
“The crash is beginning in earnest in southeast Phoenix area.”
I have a friend in that area (Ahwatukee), says they’ve seen about a 5% price drop during the spring/summer “selling” season. At the same time, this person does not see quality neighborhoods brimming with inventory, sees more rental signs than “for sale” signs.
#FindingAnEquilibrium?
#Cratering?
We are now out of that season and on in to the fall. I’ve seen several with very big cuts in price in just the last few weeks. Someone is heading for the exit bigtime.
Germany, like the rest of Europe, is seeing a growing popular backlash against their ruling elites being adjuncts of the EU and the banksters. The window for limitless ECB bailouts of speculators and swindlers may be closing.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/germany-alternative-fur-deutschland-afd-eurosceptics-saxony
An honest Mexican judge blocks Monsanto’s drive to introduce its GMO franken-corn into Mexico (and upset thousands of years of bio-diversity for the country’s most important food crop).
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/09/01/mexican-judge-departs-from-script-turns-monsantos-mexican-dream-into-legal-nightmare/
We have some unhappy housing hacks.
Suggestion: Learn a useful skill and develop a real career.
The NAR shills’ desperation is about to get a lot more palpable.
Will the increase in desperation result in an increase or a decrease in Amy Hoax posts?
Eventually the public library will tell Amy to stop abusing her free computer privilges.
Public libraries are closed on Labor Day. I think she’s posting from open houses she’s tryin ta hawk. God knows what else she’s leaving in their browser history.
Here’s an idea:
First, plant a bunch of trees and then fix them up so as you can live in them:
https://www.google.com/search?q=tree+houses+for+sale&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=enEEVPzgLsPmoASHnYGIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CCYQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=805
The only thing you’ll ever analyze are the walls of mom’s basement.
Clopety clop clop. You’re a donkey.
How are you planning to escape from that hole in the ground where you got stucco?
Fund managers starting to dump shares in toxic TBTF banks?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/01/hsbc-stock-neil-woodford-fund-manager-fine-inflation-misconduct
Sanctions starting to bite in Russia.
http://www.businessinsider.com/food-prices-have-begun-skyrocketing-in-parts-of-russia-2014-9
They should fire the food stylist.
Looks right. Granted, I was there long time ago (Moscow/Kiev/St.Petersburg, 1987), but the food was awful. I told the group we were with to clean their plates because we’ll get this again tomorrow. (And we did, boiled ground beef (?) I started skipping breakfast for more sleep - they could keep my chunk of cheese.
Boo-hoo, celebs who posted their nudie pics “in the cloud” got hacked. Maybe instead of vapid self-absorption they could start taking an active interest in fighting for personal privacy rights for all of us.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11067182/Nude-Jennifer-Lawrence-photos-leaked-by-hacker-who-claims-to-have-private-pictures-of-100-A-listers.html
Maybe they could stop posting nude pics of themselves.
There’s always that….
yeah like one would wonder why they complain. At some point they had to have given their own birthday suit pic(s) to someone else.
The joke is on the public actually. Now she’s more famous. The way Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson all became famous.
From Jennifer Lawrence (whomever she is) to Chelsea Clinton….self absorption is all the rage among the haves.
I can’t see much demand for Chelsea Clinton nude pics. Just tellin’ it like it is….
For the record, Jennifer Lawrence was the girl in Hunger Games. Face: meh. Tracts of land: kinda like A-Dan’s Chinese IQ.
Lawrence won an Academy Award for “Silver Linings Playbook”.
Good thing the Academy doesn’t just give out awards based on faces.
Jennifer Lawrence is a total babe.
I agree.
#Shwinggg
Any man who fails to be struck helpless with love and lust at the sight of her may not be full-blown gay, but he’s definitely peering over the fence.
#Shwinggg indeed. Someday, surely, she will return my phone calls.
She’s cute, but I prefer Michelle Williams. Man, I just love that gal.
“Former” Goldmanite-turned-ECB bank head Draghi warns of deflation, which would benefit those who have not taken on irresponsible levels of debt (i.e. overpriced mortgages) but terrifies governments facing the prospect of not being able to inflate away their debts and obligations, or banksters and speculators addicted to free crack from the ECB.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-31/draghi-s-deflation-warning-and-the-qe-obstacle-course.html
My suspicion is that Apple and Microsoft are trying to lure their customers into the cloud so they can give their corporate pals free rein to rifle through all that data so they can better direct and personalize their relentless marketing efforts (and sell your info to any buyer that wants it). No thank you, Apple and Microsoft, I won’t be putting my data in your insecure cloud.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/is-apples-icloud-safe-after-leak-of-jennifer-lawrence-and-other-celebrities-nude-photos-9703142.html
You have no expectation of privacy or security for anything you entrust to “the cloud.”
It’s amazing how short-sighted the average consumer is, isn’t it?
Let’s see…on one hand you have The Cloud. On the other, the NSA. And on the big toe, you have the tens of thousands of hackers.
Yeah. It sounds like a great idea…to add my files/info to The Cloud.
The average consumer is a grazing cow content to be herded into the elite’ incorporated global plantation.
You know the real truth? The NSA just about equals the big U.S. corporations. Glenn Greenwald’s book on Snowden leads me to that conclusion. The espionage against other countries’ corporations gets “leaked” to the big US corporations. “Department of Commerce” is the key phrase I got to in that book, as one of the government organizations using the NSA internet spying.
It’s crony capitalism / Progressivism. You combine Dianne Feinstein, a staunch NSA proponent and gun grabber into that mix and you understand that progressivism == statism == crony capitalism. Just like out of “Atlas Shrugged” - James Taggert, Owen Boyle, Wesley Mouch and the bunch of insiders who are lame when it comes to earning money but they are experts at stealing OPM.
Hey Britain, how’s that multiculturalism and massive immigration pushed by your elites working out for ya?
http://rt.com/uk/184212-british-mother-isis-christians/
B..b..but the talking-head permabulls on CNBC assured me the situation in Ukraine was de-escalating.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-01/ukraine-defense-minister-warns-worst-conflict-wwii-shifts-forces-combat-full-scale-r
https://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/8532580705/
Buy moar stawks!!
While most “Russian” oligarchs looted former state enterprises in the former Soviet Union before fleeing to London with their ill-gotten gains (and thus would be welcomed by their City of London accomplices), any Russian oligarchs in London aligned with Putin who have illiquid assets like houses are going to be as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch.
http://rbth.com/articles/2012/01/17/russian_oligarchs_come_to_london_14200.html
London housing is not illiquid.
‘It is claimed house prices in most London boroughs are now at least 10 times the average salary. Research by the TUC found that in 1997 just over a quarter of boroughs had house prices more than five times the average local salary - but by last year every borough had exceeded that ratio.’
‘Kensington and Chelsea was the most unaffordable area with a ratio of 32.4 in 2013 (compared to 11.6 in 1997).’
‘The Bank of England has recently instructed banks to limit the amount of morgages they give that are more than 4.5 times the salaries of those applying. TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Over the last 16 years, the increase in house price rises in London has outstripped the increase in peoples’ pay packets. There is now not a single borough in London in which housing is affordable for those on an average local salary.”
‘Approvals have been falling since high street banks and building societies implemented tighter lending policies at the beginning of the year. While the lengthy mortgage approval process has disrupted agreed sales, estate agents have also seen cautious surveyors downgrade house prices after the point at which offers have been accepted.’
“We are increasingly seeing a gap between agreed sales and sales that complete,” said Mr Wilson.’
‘This is driving a higher proportion of aborted sales as vendors then break the deal and relist the property, chasing the higher price, he explained.’
‘The director of research at Hometrack argues that there is “clear evidence of a slowdown, particularly in the London market”. What’s more, “important lead indicators in this survey are turning and pointing to a loss of momentum in house price growth”.
‘Up until about six weeks ago, things were crazy. Prices were rising so quickly that the asking price was seen as a floor, not a ceiling. In some cases, properties were being listed on Friday and being sold come the following Monday.’
‘However, recently owners are more willing to make concessions, estate agents have more time to show people around, and flats are lingering on the market. Meanwhile, the asking price has moved from being a floor back to its more normal place as ceiling.’
‘I’ve also seen a few cases of a property marked as “under offer” suddenly appearing back on the market again at a lower price. This isn’t an isolated phenomenon – according to The Times, 40% of deals in the capital are falling through.’
‘In short, it feels like we’ve reached a turning point in the housing market. And once that happens, past experience suggests that prices won’t just plateau – they will start to fall.’
All housing is illiquid. That’s what makes it a money losing proposition.
homes appreciate , cash loses value due to over issuance.
To the contrary Poet. Houses depreciate. That’s why they’re such money losing propositions.
London housing is not illiquid.
If a pro-Putin larcenous oligarch crony needs to get out of Dodge in a hurry, let’s say to avoid having his London mansion seized under some new sanctions regime, the house is illiquid in the sense that unless it’s priced significantly under market value, said oligarch can’t just convert the asset to cash and park it immediately in another (safe) financial hub.
Of course the larcenous “Russian” oligarchs who fled Russia to escape being brought to justice having nothing to worry about.
Is the solution for America’s housing market problems to qualify more low-income borrowers to buy homes?
I’m all for it, as the area where my folks have lived for half a century has reverse-gentrified from middle-class to low-income socioeconomic status, and we need to sell the old homestead some time early next year. The sooner low-income mortgage subsidies boost demand, the better their prospective sale price!
Is it legal to target mortgage lending at particular income groups, i.e. through quotas? Or would that constitute redlining?
UPDATE 1-U.S. housing regulator seeks more support for poor borrowers
Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:00pm EDT
By Jason Lange
Aug 29 (Reuters) - The regulator for U.S. housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac <FMCC.OB) said on Friday it wants the two firms to provide more support to some low-income Americans taking out mortgages and refinancing their home loans.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency released proposed goals for the two state-owned firms for 2015-2017 that would advance agency chief Mel Watt’s aim to widen access to housing credit.
The FHFA said it wants Freddie Mac, which is second only to Fannie Mae in the amount of housing finance it provides, to gradually expand the number of loans it backs for low-income multifamily buildings, such as apartment buildings, to 230,000 in 2017 from its target of 200,000 this year.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been owned by the U.S. government since taxpayers bailed them out in 2008 during a housing market implosion.
The two firms don’t lend money directly, but rather buy mortgages from lenders and sell them as packaged securities with a government guarantee. They back most new U.S. mortgages, and their purchases are a major driver of credit access.
Under the FHFA proposal, the two firms would continue to make sure low-income families accounted for 23 percent of the firms’ purchases of single-family home mortgages. However, the firms would raise the share of their purchases that back mortgages in low-income areas with large minority populations.
The proposal would also have the firms increase the share of their mortgage refinancing operations that target low-income Americans.
The proposal is part of the shift at the FHFA that began in January when Watt took the helm. Watt, a Democrat who was nominated to head the agency by President Barack Obama, mothballed his predecessor’s plans to scale back limits on the sizes of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Boosting support for low-income borrowers could stir controversy in the U.S. Congress. Many Republican lawmakers think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s policies to support mortgage access for the poor helped inflate the U.S. housing bubble that eventually burst around 2006.
…
Poor people should not even be allowed to borrow. If you’re poor, going into debt is the worst possible thing you could do.
Yet another socialist paradise running out of other people’s money. California, meet your future under Comrade Pelosi’s DNC Supermajority.
http://news.yahoo.com/cubans-angered-restrictions-importing-consumer-goods-122718255.html
Define irony: Biden gives a rah-rah speech to the unions while presiding over an administration that has exceeded even the Bush administration in its zeal to be water carriers for Wall Street and the corporate raiders who have gutted the productive middle and working classes in this country.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-01/biden-unions-built-middle-class-america
More empty VP Biden rhetoric for the DNC-owned labor union goons who have long since thrown the American worker under the bus. The day is coming when the union rank-and-file are going to see right through this charade and start turning on their co-opted labor union “leadership.”
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/26417788/vp-joe-biden-speaking-in-detroit-on-labor-day
There is no greater housing truth than this.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_KMlHTyq8qsM/RqOVxNFaUdI/AAAAAAAAAO4/YGk2QP3wmwE/s1600-h/remax+sign.jpg
Renter for life.
Clop clop cloppety clop.
“Renter for life”
It means freedom for life.
loser for life?
Renter for life? Hardly. But when I buy it’s going to be post-crash when all the FBs are walking away en masse and realtors like you are selling more than used houses in a somewhat more honorable profession.
That’s right. Why buy at these massively inflated prices when prices are falling?
From start to finish this is packed with wisdom. ZeroHedge’s Tyler Durden interviews Marc Faber:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/no_author/the-whole-region-will-blow-up/
+1000. Ron Paul warned of the unintended consequences of the neo-cons’ adventurism in Iraq: had the sheeple looked up from their grazing and paid attention a costly strategic blunder could have been avoided.
Neo-conservative - progressive - all the same deal. The one side is nationalist and thinks “Murica must have second to none defense” - even though we could blow up the world many times over. The other side is activist and thinks the world will like democracy if we force it on them. They don’t. The Middle East does not want Democracy. Even Russia does not want Democracy. The novel “At Play in Fields of the Lord” was required reading for me in a literature class when I was young. It haunted me. It showed how the good intentioned missionaries in the jungles of South America lost big time in the end.
http://www.amazon.com/Play-Fields-Lord-Peter-Matthiessen/dp/0679737413
And of course this has been out for decades. Einstein’s quote is warranted for the “brain trust” imposing US nationalism in the Middle East: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -
The antidote for neo-con lunacy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-01/ron-paul-perhaps-obamas-lack-strategy-glimmer-hope
There is a remote chance that Obama can redeem the 6 years of his presidency by coming right out and ending the USA meddling in any nation.
I would fry an egg on the ground where people spit and animals pi$$ and eat that egg if Obama becomes a libertarian and explicitly says he is now a free market non-interventionist libertarian before Inauguration Day January 2017.
I have jewish friends who challenged me on my Facebook John McCain’s about face positions, aiding the rebels to defeat Assad in Syria, which then helped to grow ISIS. And now McShame is calling for the defeat of ISIS, which of course will help Assad! So I found a few links - thanks to Google. I did not find the exact quotes that were attributed to him. All the same these neo cons are depending on a forgetful American public, each providing their own jar of vasoline.
John McCain is brain damaged. It is unfathomable to me that even one person voted for that retarded tool.
topics in the above:
USA is like Great Britain up to WWI and China is like Germany up to WW!.
The incompetent US foreign policy run by incompetent Ivy league school “progressive” graduates - the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson meddling/banking.
China’s gas pipeline deal with Russia is a strategic win-win for both countries and a major loss for the USD.
No war (as we know it) between China and the USA will happen. Faber says…
“First of all, they don’t have the money.
Second, a survey done by the US military stated that over 71% of their youth are unqualified to join the military for a number of reasons, including educational, behavioral and health conditions. So, if 71% of American youth are not qualified, it means the US doesn’t have the labor force to actually implement its foreign policies. And so they resort to private contracting companies that create more problems than solutions.”
Our empire will just fade away like Great Britain’s. - My opinion is that this is going to be a burden to China. China will make the mistake of becoming the world cop and have to contain the Middle East or if China is smart enough just let the countries there kill off each other.
Hold Gold. (Note MF did not say “buy gold”)
this is so wrong…….nobody should be treated like this;
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/08/mississippi_school_says_kinder.html
Climate change topic - I normally don’t take this up. But I wonder about how a quicker rate of change (whether warming or cooling) can be a determining factor on buying real estate in an inner state?
Arizona newspaper article warns of megadrought - it’s been going on in Arizona for more than 14 years now. Another warns of average high temperatures in Phoenix in a few decades will be 5 degrees higher. Could mean summer nights at 100 degrees.
If climate change rates are predictable, how could someone want to obligate $100s of thousands of dollars in a location where RE could end up being ten cents to the dollar?
I would say if regions can be stable for at least 100 years then buying a house could make sense - and I never say it’s as an investment, but as a place to mold to your own tastes and to be long term.
But note in the 70s we were supposed to fear “nuclear winter” and a new ice age. So if that kept people from buying a house in, say, Seattle, then they could have missed out on something, especially if they were raised in Seattle and wanted to stay there.
u are so paranoid you will never buy a house.
I may be paranoid, but I have so much money left over after renting I have to rent another room to put it in.
paranoid bill at your service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY
Region VIII checking in
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_9953-S4qAErDU.jpg
Wow—is that your own, goon?
We may have to summon AB Dan out of exile to laugh at him.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-01/asian-property-prices-are-falling-if-theres-global-financial-crisis
The corporatocracies’ drive to maxamize profits for the few at the expense of the many is going to produce more horrific forms of exploitation and abuse of workers (while co-opted labor union leaders turn a blind eye).
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/greece-migrant-fruit-pickers-shot-they-kept-firing
The proverbial chickens are coming home to roost as Detroit, driven into the ground by successive corrupt Democrat administrations, finally arrives at its financial reckoning day. Coming soon to a corrupt maladministered Democrat-run municipality near you.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-fate-of-detroit-in-his-hands-judge-reviews-plan-to-write-off-7bn-of-debt-and-rescue-city-from-bankruptcy-9704937.html
http://maine.craigslist.org/fbh/4647346736.html
A pizza ‘professional’ eh? That’s like saying a dish washing position is professional.