Bits Bucket for September 8, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Housing is always a loss. Always.
Paul Krugman, the mouthpiece of Keynesian crony capitalism, warns to Scots to be good little serfs. May they lift their kilts to to moon him.
http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugmans-warning-to-scotland-2014-9
Rebellion against the banking clan can be hazardous to your health. Just ask the Ukrainians.
Another worthless, corrupt supra-national body that US taxpayers are forced to go on supporting.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/08/us-foundation-somalia-peacekeepers-idUSKBN0H30YX20140908
Banks continue to sit on inventories of “zombie homes” that FBs walked away from, but the banks haven’t foreclosed on.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/new-york/2014/09/07/new-york-takes-abandoned-zombie-homes/15260737/
Do we know how many millions of excess empty and defaulted houses there are in NY?
Eventually, a legal advocacy group helped Slaper modify his mortgage and he moved back in.
Interesting—I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of an FB who moved on later moving back in.
Of course, he may well move out again when the teaser-payment of his modification expires…
But the money quote:
Solving the problem requires more programs designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, Schneiderman said. He’s also backed the idea of letting communities create land banks to buy, refurbish and resell abandoned homes, and has proposed legislation that would require lenders to maintain a property that’s been abandoned after the start of a foreclosure.
So, the thing that we need is MORE programs—even though the abandoned houses are clearly a result of the existing programs that extend-and-pretend.
How about instead we just expedite the foreclosure process when a house is unoccupied and unmaintained, and move it along to a new owner who may maintain it better?
Now requiring lenders to maintain a property—that’s an idea I could get behind. Anything that increases their expenses of holding off on a foreclosure is also likely to encourage them to move things along…
“So, the thing that we need is MORE programs—even though the abandoned houses are clearly a result of the existing programs that extend-and-pretend.”
Instead of letting the free market work it’s just distortion after distortion, picking winners and losers. Imagine if after the 3rd out of a baseball game, the umpire told the defensive team they were required to get a 4th out, because they wanted the home team, which was batting at the time, to win. That’s what’s going on here. If this corrupt, crony capitalist failure of a country would have just let all the mega banks fail, and the whole chain of dominoes to fall as they may have, we would have already recovered to a much stronger, more sustainable model.
This isn’t about a strong, sustainable country.
This is about ratcheting the collar on the 99% ever tighter with each boom/bust cycle.
This is about the end game of government by capitalists.
This is where your descendants will look back to and say “it was there we became slaves.”
i’ll be eating like a king tonight at papa john’s pizza
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_26488580/broncos-beat-colts-31-24-season-opener-at-mile-high
50% off all Denver area Papa John’s pizza orders the day after the Broncos win
“Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning will star in a new series of commercials for the pizza chain Papa John’s that will hit the air this week.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/morning_call/2014/09/peyton-manning-steps-in-front-of-cameras-for-new.html
And with their undefeated season this year, I will weigh 280 pounds by February
Whoa there cowboy - I watched the beloved Donk last night and frankly that defense has alot left to be desired!!! Second half Donk against a full game Seahawk - ummmm…..ouch AGAIN!!!
Yes, this. Region X > Region VIII.
But I’ll have to double check whether we get 50% off our pizza.
No, you don’t get 50% off your Papa John’s pizzas.
And they bake better here at the higher altitude, the gourmet flavor just doesn’t release at sea level like it does here. I just wish they had a breakfast menu.
Region VIII = FAIL (again)
Not only 50% off Papa John’s, but Jack in the Crack, a free haircut, and Red Throbbin’ as well:
http://www.seahawks.com/promotions/
And I’ll be asking for (and will receive) xtra dipping sauce too.
..they bake better here at the higher altitude, the gourmet flavor just doesn’t release at sea level like it does here
That’s why I do all my baking upstairs.
“xtra dipping sauce”
I like when my girlfriend uses it as a body wash.
Had a personal pan pizza in my Phoenix nabe the other day with a Sam Adams on tap and a gal friend. Swam 4200 yards ghat morning and was still hungry after the beer n pizza. So delicious but by depriving, I can keep my body fat under 10%.
Are the women in Phoenix still doing the botox-bottle-blonde-bimbo thing?
Not the one I was with. She is asian.
Plenty of the women around here have pink or purple hair, including grandmas.
DenverDonkeys won’t wait until the sooperbowl to Crater this year.
Peyton Manning is throwing 50% off discounted slices of Papa John’s pizza into my mouth faster than I can chew or swallow.
Too bad your team sucks and you have to pay full price for Papa John’s.
The defense tried to melt down and lose the game. I am not sold on the Donkeys.
I don’t even watch the concussionball games on the TeeVee.
Every game day Sunday, I fast for 36 hours until Monday evening, so that I can consume more 50% discounted Papa John’s pizzas, and I am not satiated until every pore of my body is oozing Papa John’s brand garlic butter dipping sauce.
That sounds super healthy- oozing garlic butter dipping sauce pores. “Concussionball.” I like it. Nice ring.
How’s that hope ‘n change working out for you, Angelenos?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-street-vendors-20140907-story.html#page=1
Really, is that all on Obama? Couldn’t be related to the Latin ghetto street-vending lifestyle. Also, check out the bars on the windows of those $600,000.00 LA bungalows.
Her right arm is thicker than my upper thigh.
You need to “man up” and marry a girl like her, Bill.
And she’ll be softer to cuddle with than your bags of money.
Just love that building in the background with the bars covering every opening; even Tinkerbell would have a tough time getting in there.
Yeah, that sort of morbid obesity is disturbing. I can’t imagine how people let themselves get to that point. If I notice that I seem to be gaining a few pounds, I cut back on eating.
The third worldification of SoCal, with its growing chasm between haves and have nots, has been a fixture there for decades. This is nothing new. I remember seeing street vendors, windshield washers on freeway offramps, etc. as far back as the 1980’s.
Colorado = The Next California.
So, how is the haves/have nots scenario playing out in Colorado these days?
i was chatting with a millennial this weekend who pays $1,900 a month for a 700 square foot apartment in downtown denver.
no idea if parental support is funding that, or if he just has a good job, but that amount of rent is just ridiculous for living in a smog and traffic choked flyover cowtown.
We have two living a few doors down paying $2000 a month for a townhouse. Granted it’s probably twice the square footage you mentioned, but most everyone else here pays at least $500 less per month (for slighter smaller places) and is older.
I’m not one to generation bash, but am I just getting curmudgeonly or is there a reason Millenials like paying top dollar for everything? $15 for a pulled pork sammich at the hip, new BBQ joint? No problem! Where do I sign up? (always packed with Millennial hipsters)
i was chatting with a millennial this weekend who pays $1,900 a month for a 700 square foot apartment in downtown denver.
Denver is absurdly expensive. Other parts of the state are far more reasonable, and they also get the Papa John’s deal
As for the chasm, it’s growing here too. Of course, it’s growing everywhere. But at least we are still decades behind SoCal. Every time I go back to visit SoCal I have an “oh cr@p” moment when it hits me just how much it sucks there.
Younger people have always been willing to overpay for stuff. They haven’t had their first BK yet.
I see the same in downtown DC on weeknights. Restaurants packed with Millenials off work. The alcohol costs more than the food.
“Younger people have always been willing to overpay for stuff. They haven’t had their first BK yet.”
LMAO. “First BK yet?” Are there that many people going BK? And, people are going BK multiple times? I’m now curious how common this whole thing is.
These precious little snowflakes have never lived through a recession or layoff (or two) and would have no clue how to adjust if their monthly income dropped by half for a few months.
F*ck the millennials, they deserve everything they have coming to them.
What the hell is “shea butter” anyway. Is that from the shea plant? What does it do; do you eat it?
What the hell is “shea butter” anyway…. do you eat it?
You rub it all over you skin for protection when you’re harvesting salt in Lake Retba Senegal in the Cap Vert peninsula.
Protection from what? I’m allergic to shea butter. I hate that stuff.
Well, well, what have we HERE?
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/unidentified-respiratory-virus-hit-kids-country/story?id=25334106
Gee, I wonder how THAT came about. Lol, the media are spinning this already as a routine, going back to school event, it’s just that the virus is rare. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the kiddie bio-weapons from surging across the border. Couldn’t possibly.
Racist
This is the fundamental transformation that you were promised.
Throw a little Ebola and some dirty bombs into the mix, and the stage is set for Obama, Holder, and Feinstein to launch Go Time, because registration, confiscation, and extermination is the name of the game, kidz.
Got 7.62×39?
http://www.rapidtrends.com/surving-argentinas-economic-collapse-part-1-3/
You are not allowed to bring fruit across the border, but viruses are OK.
The earth is just trying to lighten it’s load.
Go, Scotland!
Go where?
Go, Scotland!
It’s all about the broken social contract. 34 years of Supply-Side tripe tears countries and unions apart. We’re seeing it in real time in the USA and Great Britain.
We have 10 days to find a settlement to save the union
There is only one way now to stop the independence bandwagon. Westminster’s party leaders must offer a fully federal Britain that would benefit everyone
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/06/will-hutton-10-days-to-save-the-union-scottish-independence
……The big argument is that Scotland does not need to be permanently yoked to English Toryism’s infatuation with a libertarianism that denies obligations to society and each other, has abandoned justice and equity in its public policy positions and is the author of the great “cashing out” of the past 30 years. All our utilities, five million council houses, many of our great companies and swaths of real estate in our cities have been cashed out in the name of market forces, of liberalisation, of being open for business and wealth generation. What has been created is predator capitalism, massive inequality and a society organised to benefit the top 1%. The country needs to build, innovate and reinvent social partnership. Independent Scotland can strike out in this direction
+1
They keep saying on tv that housing is more affordable than ever.
How long will it take to suck in enough retail investors to offload all this overpriced stock?
Considering asking prices of resale housing is double or triple construction cost (lot labor materials and profit ), do you think they’re truthful?
Parts 1 and 2 of a three part series about pigs with badges and guns illegally confiscating cash from motorists:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/07/police-intelligence-targets-cash/
Thankyou! I saw the first one before. But I shared it again to all my FB friends (the nonpolitical ones hate me for sure I bet). I will not stop agitating and publicizing the criminal gang calling themselves “government.”
^True Patriots
A cop stole my wallet once.
The future belongs to Lucky Ducky
Survey of company execs: US pay likely to stagnate
“U.S. workers face a dim future, with stagnant or falling pay and fewer openings for full-time jobs.
More than 40 percent of the respondents foresee lower pay and benefits for workers. Roughly half favor outsourcing work over hiring staffers. A growing share prefer part-time employees. Nearly half would rather invest in new technology than hire or retain workers.
The survey suggests that incomes aren’t likely to increase much anytime soon. Forty-one percent of respondents see lower wages and benefits ahead”
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_26490035/survey-company-execs-us-pay-likely-stagnate
And there is no “pent-up demand” for $500,000 starter homes
New York Times article chock full ‘o stats confirms the Lucky Ducky future is here
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/upshot/how-are-american-families-doing-a-guided-tour-of-our-financial-well-being.html
Welcome to the recoveryless recovery
Welcome to the recoveryless recovery
America’s wealth gap ‘unsustainable,’ may worsen: Harvard study
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/42031478.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
BOSTON: The widening gap between America’s wealthiest and its middle and lower classes is “unsustainable”, but is unlikely to improve any time soon, according to a Harvard Business School study released on Monday.
The study, titled “An Economy Doing Half its Job”, said American companies - particularly big ones - were showing some signs of recovering their competitive edge on the world stage since the financial crisis, but that workers would likely keep struggling to demand better pay a ..
..”Shortsighted executives may be satisfied with an American economy whose firms win in global markets without lifting US living standards. But any leader with a long view understands that business has a profound stake in the prosperity of the average American,” according to the report.
“Thriving citizens become more productive employees, more willing consumers, and stronger supporters of pro-business policies,” it said. “Struggling citizens are disgruntled at work, frugal at the cash reg ..
Crater is the new normal. Think about this……it could all be avoided if the price fixing and bottlenecking were to stop.
So why exactly is share of company stock valuable? It has no tangible benefit to the individual investor as far I can tell.
I ask because manias run in a certain way: A few people notice a thing is going up regularly in price. This is publicized to the general public, and if the price increases hold, it spreads to the population at large, going consistently and rapidly up in price - the bubble. At the end, people start asking, why on earth is this nearly valueless thing so expensive? And the bubble collapses.
So - what’s the value in stocks? Simply the hope that a greater fool will pay more for it in the future in debauched currency?
good question I keep asking myself the same thing.
Companies have been borrowing from uncle FED at zero and buying their own stock to sugar coat earnings. most of the sheep are to ignorant to do a few simple calculations.
Go back and look at the history of shares outstanding of some of the big companies since 2009.
They report earnings as earnings / share. If you lower the number of shares it makes it looks like you are earning more than u are.
Executive pay is also tied to stock performance. so a big incentive to fudge numbers.
Look at the revenue of these companies. Its harder to fudge that.
I’m not a believer.
Much like the fraud going on with real estate.
So - what’s the value in stocks?
Well, some pay dividends, so they can be considered an income generating asset. Those are the so called “Value” stocks.
Then there are the “growth” stocks, which don’t pay dividends. Their “value” is purely speculative, as can be attested by companies to don’t make a penny in profit but which have market caps in the billions.
What happens when the average dividend is something like 1.5% on the dollar annually? Shouldn’t that cause people to stop buying them?
There is actually a formula for calculating the price of a value stock based on its dividend and the prevailing interest rates. In the current ZIRP environment a small dividend goes a long way.
If a value stock’s dividend increase, so does its value.
That said, in a bull market a value stock’s price will have a speculative component, especially if there is a belief that said firm will experience strong growth.
Value stocks tend to be blue chips like Coca-Cola or Procter and Gamble. You won’t see any explosive growth, which is why they pay dividends.
The value/price formula is a useful metric as long as someone is willing to pay it, right?
While a dividend stock gives a typically tiny interest rate, there’s little risk compensation relative to safer sources of interest.
Good question. I am starting to feel like I need to buy stocks because the prices should have started going down (a lot) about a year ago, but they are still going up. If it can defy gravity for a year, then maybe gravity is dead. If gravity is dead, then stocks will levitate forever. Make sense?
timing the market is a suckers game income average in
Good time to lock in gains and sell. Hoard cash.
This line of thinking is how sheep get shorn.
If you bought a house in the past 15 years, you’ve got rocks in your head.
If you bought in the last 5 years you have a rock as a head. If you financed it you’ve lost yer head.
….. and your ass.
Phx is arid. Why’s it so dry today?
Dry huh
Monsoon storms hit the valley hard early Monday and continued throughout the morning. Flooding could be seen on streets and freeways around the valley.
The National Weather Service recorded 2.99 inches of rain by about 7 a.m., breaking the old record of 2.91 inches set in 1933.
The Monday morning rainfall also eclipsed Phoenix’s average total rainfall of 2.71 inches for Phoenix’s entire summer rainy season.
Monday has had the wettest data ever in Phoenix. Governor Jan Brewer declared a statewide emergency for area impacted by the severe rainfall and flooding.
Firefighters in Phoenix-area cities were dispatched on multiple calls for water rescues during Monday’s flooding.
Sammy:
You said the other day that you only hate women who “know how to act like women”, but then you denied us the wisdom of how that is. Can you tell us how a woman acts?
So far, based on your commentary, we only know that the typical American woman is a housewife with a job who is a needy, soul-sucking, self-entitled harpie. However, it seems that you feel this “typical” woman is not really a woman. I’m confused! I need you (a man) to tell me how I (a woman) acts. Then I can stop acting like a real person, and instead live my life like I’m in a play, with YOU as the star!
crater
Crater
Women want a man who’s rich, handsome, great with children, likes to do household chores, never watches football, walks over to the “honey do list” first thing every morning only after telling his wife how beautiful she is- and to go ahead and sleep in, surprises her with gifts and vacations constantly, is a hopeless romantic yet strong and steady, reads her mind, etc.
Men want a woman who looks like a super model and likes to have sex multiple times every day, who doesn’t nag and doesn’t talk very much, and is not materialistic.
How realistic does all of this sound?
I agree that men should be that way. Very realistic
Oh, yeah, suuuuper realistic.
“If more politicians in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the next election, it might be better for the United States and the world.” -Claude Pepper, senator and representative (1900-1989)
The free sh*t army votes.
And they are NOW in the majority.
a.k.a. the “permanent Democrat supermajority”
a.k.a. the “pool of 1st time home buyers”
Lysander Spooner was right in his essay “No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority.” Government is a band of thugs. Stop worshipping the state as if it is some mystical entity above its own laws.
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can lead this nation to prosperity and solve our problems…
Now go eat your peas.
Is there any doubt? It’s like a religion.
Have Economists Been Captured by Business Interests?
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/09/have-economists-been-captured-by-business-interests/
To be an economist, you kind of have to believe that people respond to economic incentives. But when anyone suggests that an economist’s views might be shaped by the economic incentives he or she faces, that economist tends to get bent out of shape. This happened perhaps most famously in the documentary Inside Job, in which filmmaker Charles Ferguson posed his questions to the likes of Glenn Hubbard and Rick Mishkin as tendentiously as possible in order to spark just such reaction. But it’s actually pretty common to hear economists saying things like — this is from the usually no-nonsense John Cochrane of the University of Chicago — “the idea that any of us do what we do because we’re paid off by fancy Wall Street salaries or cushy sabbaticals at Hoover is just ridiculous.”
It is perhaps ridiculous to suggest that economists do what they do only because of the prospect of consulting gigs or think-tank stints. Economists are human beings, with diverse motivations. But it is definitely ridiculous to suggest that such rewards have no impact at all. Economists are human beings, and human beings respond to incentives. Right, economists?
Realtors are liars
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/7-things-that-are-wrong-with-your-house-2014-09-08
Reston, VA Housing Prices Turn South; Down 3% YoY As Inventory Surges 94% And Demand Plunges
http://www.movoto.com/reston-va/market-trends/
Cloppety clop clop!
flipping burgers?
Oh my word…..
Herndon, VA(DC Metro) Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY On Collapsing Housing Demand
http://www.movoto.com/herndon-va/market-trends/
Food stamp check come in this month?
You can’t argue with the truth….
Temecula, CA Housing Prices Plummet 5% YoY As Inventory Explodes 78%
http://www.movoto.com/temecula-ca/market-trends/
more rubbish data? no one here cares
Remember… depreciating assets like houses always results in loss.
Hacienda Heights Asking Prices Dive 6% YoY As Housing Demand Collapses Statewide
http://www.zillow.com/hacienda-heights-ca/home-values/
1st thing wrong with your house:
It’s worth way less than what you owe on it.
if it doesn’t fit u must acquit! houses appreciate thx to the creation of more currency.
Houses are commodities on steroids.
http://www.azcentral.com/
Record rainfall About three inches of rain has fallen over the Valley in less than 12 hours, according to the
National Weather Service in Phoenix. Here are some areas to avoid due to flooding and road closures, including an area of Interstate 10 near 43rd Avenue where officials cleaning abandoned vehicles off the mud-caked road expected closures to remain in place through early afternoon:
Phoenix:
Lower Buckeye Road from 35th to 75th avenues
Dobbins Road between Seventh and 35th avenues
40th Street between Broadway and Vineyard roads
Baseline Road between 24th and 48th Streets
Yeah, my control freak boss just used the rain as an excuse to exert her power as the official Queen of England over here. Long story. Ugh.
Region VIII checking in.
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20140908_171354_088-iiHaqEOm.jpg
Regarding the FSA (the creation of the “progressives”)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/09/gary-north/bastard-nation%E2%80%A8/
If you vote you have no right to complain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jnf9GILjFM
Religion is Bullshit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE
Corporate buybacks - a key to propping up the Ponzi markets and boosting short-term P/E and CEO stock options at the expense of capital investment in long-term sustainability - just fell off the cliff.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-09/buyback-party-indeed-over-stock-repurchases-tumble-second-quarter