Giving Back Extraordinary, Stratospheric, Dramatic Growth
The Austin American Statesman on Texas. “For the fifth straight year, Austin-area home sales set a record in 2015, the Austin Board of Realtors said. And for the fourth year in a row, the area’s median home sales price hit a new high, rising to $263,900. ‘House prices have increased a lot in recent years, and our own indicators (including house-price-to-income ratios) imply that the market is becoming overpriced,’ said Ed Friedman, a director with Moody’s Analytics who follows the Texas economy.”
“Amy Bernhard, an agent with Realty Austin, said she thinks the housing market ‘will be the same, or even a little better, than last year.’ ‘Everything has appreciated very organically,” Bernhard said. ‘I don’t think we’re in any sort of bubble.’”
“Local real estate agent George Vance McGee, however, said he thinks ‘prices are just a little too high.’ ‘Buyers are not paying these pie-in-the-sky prices,’ McGee said. ‘Some of my sellers are giving me a dreamy price and hoping I may be able to perform a miracle, and I have not been performing miracles lately.’”
From WOAI News. “Hundreds of Realtors were told at the annual San Antonio Board of Realtors Housing Forecast that the price of homes and the hot housing market should continue in San Antonio through 2016, News Rdio 1200 WOAI reports. But that doesn’t mean that Real Estate Economist Dr. Mark Dotzour doesn’t see problems on the horizon, and one is what has become known as the ‘San Francisco-ization’ of Texas. ‘The average Texan is having a hard time finding a home to buy any more,’ he said. ‘Land prices are getting bid up so high that homebuilders can’t afford to build moderately priced homes any more, it is getting very hard to find a new home prices under $200,000.’”
The Dallas Morning News. “The apartment building boom will lose some steam in 2016. In 2014, nationwide apartment starts rose 14 percent, and they were up 12 percent last year. ‘2016, I think, will be only about 5 percent above 2015,’ said David Crowe, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders. ‘I am seeing a bit of tempering in these raging increases.’ Apartment building across the country has more than tripled in the last six years. ‘We have had a very fiery return of the multifamily market’ since the recession, Crowe said.”
“Greg Willett, vice president at Carrollton-based apartment analyst MPF Research, agrees with forecasts of slower growth in apartment construction this year. ‘It’s appropriate to slow the growth in starts, given the volume of product already on the way that will need to be digested,’ he said. Apartment analysts at Axiometrics Inc. are even more cautious in their outlook. ‘I think this slowing in new supply in 2017 or slowing in construction starts in 2016 is giving a chance for demand to catch up in some markets,’ said K.C. Sanjay, senior real estate economist.”
The Odessa American. “Odessa home sales in December fell 18 percent from the same month of 2014 while prices increased, according to the Odessa Board of Realtors. Board officials describe a market feeling the effects of an oil bust, but so far without the pain felt in the oil and gas industry. Abigail Montgomery, a 26-year-old former elementary school teacher, became one of those new homeowners when she bought a home for about $192,000.”
“Montgomery said she probably couldn’t have afforded the home on her teacher’s salary. But she left the Ector County ISD in summer 2015 to work as an office assistant at her father’s company, BCM and Associates, which plugs wells in the Permian Basin oilfield. ‘We are in the oil industry, and things are pretty scary right now,’ Montgomery said. ‘But we are stable and we are still doing OK. I had enough savings where I am OK if anything happens.’”
“In the end, the price Montgomery said she paid for the home was about $8,000 below the asking price. To buy it, Montgomery said she took out a conventional loan with about a 5 percent down payment. ‘The way I look at it, is if you have the means and the stability, then this is a big asset,’ Montgomery said. ‘And yes, it’s not the greatest market of all time, but if you’ve been around in the 80s you know it will pick back up at some point.’ As it happens, Montgomery said her parents have struggled to sell their home listed in the $400,000-plus bracket in the Chimney Hollow area, after moving this summer to a new home.”
The Midland Reporter Telegraph. “As the foundation of the Midland-Odessa economy — the oil and gas industry — crumbles, the overall economy continues to slip. The petroleum index has been falling by 10 points or more per month, fueled by the plunge in commodity prices and resulting decline in oil field activity, said Karr Ingham, the Amarillo economist who prepares the index. The decline has been increasingly reverberating through the overall economy, Ingham said. ‘When we peaked with the index in January 2015, the first several months were fairly immodest declines and not all that steep. That contraction has been gaining momentum and losing ground in larger chunks,’ he said. There is little doubt ‘we’ll see deep year-over-year declines in each component,’ he said.”
“If there is any consolation in that fact, it’s that those declines are from very high levels, Ingham said.”
“‘Right now we’re giving back — we’re running out of words to describe it — extraordinary, stratospheric, dramatic growth. We’re giving back that growth at this point. It may feel scarier this time but we can’t forget the fact that economic growth has been so extraordinary in recent years, it won’t come close to being undone,’ Ingham said. ‘That doesn’t change the fact that the economic contraction will be one that is deep, that is accelerating and will cause turmoil at the household level and at the business level.’”
“That contraction is also increasingly being seen in the housing market, Ingham said. ‘The housing numbers are very interesting. They started out with not much of a decline but that is beginning to accelerate,’ he said. ‘I say this with a caveat but the decline in Midland-Odessa housing prices is not a bad thing. The caveat is, unless you purchased a home at the top of the market and it’s losing value and you’re under water.’”
The Wall Street Journal. “Home sellers are slashing prices and offering incentives to keep buyers from walking away from contracts as an 18-month oil slump buffets this city’s once-booming housing market. Builders are hustling to reverse declining sales and rising cancellation rates by beefing up incentives. KB Home in October advertised homes in several of its Houston developments with price cuts of up to $31,000 and commissions available to buyers’ agents of $2,000 to $10,000.”
“Overall, the area’s average single-family home price was down about 7.5% to just over $280,200 in December from its June record high, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Even the high end is hurting: The average sale price for luxury homes, defined as the top 5% of the market, fell 5% to $1.3 million in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin. Michele Marano, a Houston real-estate agent who specializes in oil-and-gas clients, said ‘my buyers have completely backed off.’ She added, ‘I have an enormous number of buyers but they’re sitting.’”
“Few neighborhoods illustrate Houston’s slowdown as dramatically as the communities that sprouted since 2011 around the site of Exxon Mobil Corp. ’s 385-acre campus just north of Houston. Developers readied thousands of lots for upscale houses in anticipation of a flood of oil executives moving to the area. Now, unsold homes sit near the Exxon Mobil campus, with the supply of so-called speculative houses there exceeding the metropolitan area’s average since the second quarter of 2014, according to Metrostudy.”
“Gary Sova and his wife were able to negotiate a roughly $140,000 discount on a home in the $1 million range in the Woodlands, near the Exxon campus. He said many buyers were selling because they had lost jobs or were relocating. Agents started to say ‘just make me an offer.’ That never happened at the beginning of their house hunt, he said. ‘I think this oil thing has spooked people a little bit,’ he said.”
Was 2015 the Echo Bubble’s peak year?
Perhaps but it will take a while for people to accept the new reality. Days on market in Dallas is increasing by the month but realtors there have convinced people that this is the new normal. It mirrors Arizona in 2006 almost perfectly.
http://www.movoto.com/dallas-tx/market-trends/
BTW, Movoto’s numbers have been completely screwed up in my area for months and are now worthless. I tried to let them know via email but got no reply. No idea if this is the case in other areas…
http://www.movoto.com/santa-rosa-ca/market-trends/#city=&time=5Y&metric=Median%20List%20Price&type=0
I speculate they’ve fallen prey to housing crime syndicate pressure.
Sacramento, CA Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 7% YoY As Delinquencies Balloon
http://www.zillow.com/west-sacramento-ca/home-values/
California The Welfare Capital Of The US
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2012/jul/28/welfare-capital-of-the-us/
“Odessa home sales in December fell 18 percent from the same month of 2014 while prices increased, according to the Odessa Board of Realtors. Board officials describe a market feeling the effects of an oil bust, but so far without the pain felt in the oil and gas industry.”
The coyote has run off the edge of the cliff, and his legs are spinning furiously in mid-air. He’s gona be just fine until he hits the ground below.
‘And yes, it’s not the greatest market of all time, but if you’ve been around in the 80s you know it will pick back up at some point.’
Would anyone who lived through the Texas oil bust in the 80s care to offer comment?
She’s 26 years old, is in the oil biz in Odessa, she buys a house just as oil tanks, and her parents do too. They obviously don’t remember the the bust.
Probably blocked it out of their collective memories?
“Probably blocked it out of their collective memories?”
They don’t need collective memories; Amy and Suzanne will remember for them.
Or think for themselves; Amy and Suzanne will do that for them as well.
She’ll be begging for that teaching job eventually.
This is like the oilfield worker who just went out and bought the $70k new diesel pickup after his buddies got laid off.
Midland is a mud hole. I suppose she is right, it’ll recover at some point. It only took 30 years for midland to recover from the 80s so….All she has to do is hang on until 2040 or so!
Nobody wants to live there right Idgits?
‘It only took 30 years for midland to recover from the 80s’
Note Midland and Odessa are practically one economy, separated by semi-pro football teams. I was in Dallas twice in 2014. I wrote on this blog it was getting goofy in DFW and after I flew over the Permian basin, headed straight to this blog to report the drilling out there was astronomical. Oh, but no one here predicted the oil bust!
“Oh, but no one here predicted the oil bust!”
Albuquerque Dan unpredicted it, and won himself a future lifetime of crow dinners.
I have been calling for $25 per barrel oil for over 2 years on Marketwatch. The teeth gnashing from the permabulls has been nasty the entire time. They have recently disappeared.
‘we’re giving back — we’re running out of words to describe it — extraordinary, stratospheric, dramatic growth. We’re giving back that growth at this point. It may feel scarier this time but we can’t forget the fact that economic growth has been so extraordinary in recent years, it won’t come close to being undone’
That doesn’t sound like economic talk.
Sounds like desperate denials a ‘la Jingle_Fraud, Rental_Fraud, The Donk and a few others.
I bet his arms were flailing during this verbal gyration.
I give back…..principal reduction to the bank and cash flow to my bank account!
You give back…….the house to the bank after you default.
I have so much cash flow after you pay rent, I don’t know where to spend it all….HA!
I have so much BS
cash flow after you pay rent, I don’t know where to spend it all….HA!Corrected for accuracy Jingle_Fraud.
I have so much…
Indeed. A 1% ROI on borrowed money in an Epic bubble would have a sane man crapping himself. All you have is anticipated sale price appreciation.
There is a shit storm brewing. Buckle up.
Sounds like bubble speak.
‘we’re giving back — we’re running out of words to describe it — extraordinary, stratospheric, dramatic growth.
What we’re giving back is called “false growth”—also known as transitory, illusory mal-investment.
Tampa, FL Housing Prices Crater 5% YoY As Housing Demand Plummets
http://www.movoto.com/tampa-fl/market-trends/
‘Some of my sellers are giving me a dreamy price and hoping I may be able to perform a miracle, and I have not been performing miracles lately’
Drop this zero and get yourself a hero.
‘I am seeing a bit of tempering in these raging increases.’ Apartment building across the country has more than tripled in the last six years. ‘We have had a very fiery return of the multifamily market’ since the recession’
But David I thought no houses were being built? Raging increases? Tripled in six years? Is that a lot?
We’ve got some coordinated data reporting going on by the housing crime syndicate operators.
Chevy Chase, MD Housing Prices Crater 14% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/chevy-chase-section-three-md-20815/home-values/
Golden, CO Housing Market Craters; Prices Plunge 6% YoY As Bubble Begins Shrinking
http://www.zillow.com/golden-co/home-values/
‘For months, oil companies and their suppliers have gone through layoffs. With profits tumbling, oil and gas companies have already laid off tens of thousands of local workers—and more job cuts could be on the way. “If it’s sustained, job losses are going to affect us,” said Tim Surratt with Greenwood King Properties, a local real estate agency. “There’s no choice but for it to affect us.”
‘Surratt says he’s already seen a cool down in Houston’s once very hot housing market. But there’s a silver lining, he says: home prices are starting to normalize. “The market absolutely has slowed down a bit, but we were overheated,” Surratt said.’
‘That’s little comfort to people like Moll Arenno, who’s husband just lost his welding job. “Since nobody wants to hire them or buy their products, the company owner—he just decided to let everybody go,” Arenno said.’
‘Perhaps no other area feels the pain quite like Houston, but Surratt says this is nothing compared to the oil bust of the 1980s. “A huge difference, because at that point, everything stopped,” he said. “There were no buyers and a lot of homes went into foreclosure. We don’t have anything like that now.”
Again. Oil was bad, but it was a real estate bubble that sunk the Texas economy in the 80’s.
‘Mark and Linda Thering’s brand-new house in Spring boasts 3,100 square feet, a fireplace, game room and two patios. The couple also got something homebuyers until recently could only dream of - a $15,000 discount. “It was a really good deal considering it was a new house,” said Linda Thering, a paralegal.’
‘The Therings, who moved into the two-story, four-bedroom house east of the Hardy Tollroad in November, are the beneficiaries of a new reality in the local housing market. Mass layoffs in the energy sector and fears of slower growth ahead curbed demand throughout 2015, giving buyers leverage they hadn’t had in years.’
‘After rushing to build houses for an influx of workers flush with cash from the energy boom, some builders are now discounting prices and offering generous specials to those still shopping for homes. Others are buying fewer lots and trying to negotiate better deals from land owners who had been getting top-of-the-market prices when crude was at $100 a barrel.’
‘They started 27,778 homes last year, and Metrostudy expects that number to fall to 25,500 this year. “I think this oil thing is probably going to last longer than anybody has suggested,” said Scott Davis, Metrostudy’s Houston regional director.’
“We’re beginning to see a lot of sectors begin to feel this lack of momentum,” said Bill Gilmer, chairman of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business.’
‘During the recent housing boom, Gilmer said, lots became so expensive that builders had to fill them with pricey homes to turn a profit. When the flow of energy executives and well-paid engineers dried up, builders were left with fewer customers. “The problem is, we just built the wrong kind of houses,” he said.’
‘Another bit of good news is that the market isn’t overbuilt, said David Jarvis, a senior vice president with John Burns Real Estate Consulting. “We just went through a period of five years where we generated 400,000 new jobs, and now we’re kind of at a zero-net-sum game,” he said.’
‘Will Holder, president of Trendmaker Homes, said he wants to be prepared for when the market recovers. His company has started buying lots now that prices have started to come down.’
“What I’m promoting inside our company is we need to buy lots in the best communities we can find. And we do it on today’s terms,” Holder said. “The bottom line is, I’m not running from this. I believe in Houston, and I believe as soon as it turns around, then we’ll all be back scrambling for lots, and those who ran away will find themselves in a diminished market position.”
‘Trendmaker is downsizing some of its models to attract today’s buyer. “I’m not sensing anybody wants to go to a lower feature level, but they might buy a 4,000-square-foot house instead of a 4,400-square-foot house and get the price down 50 grand and feel better about it,” Holder said.’
‘Will Holder, president of Trendmaker Homes, said he wants to be prepared for when the market recovers’
Yellen bucks looking for a place to die.
Why does anyone need a 4,000 sq/ft house anyway?
To pay for retirement?
‘Year end housing construction numbers put Dallas-Fort Worth in a solid second place position among the country’s’ top building markets. Builders received permits for more than 38,000 single-family homes in the Houston area last year, compared with 22,550 D-FW starts, the new census report said.’
‘Economists expect that this year D-FW will emerge as the top U.S. homebuilding market while Houston sinks in the rankings. “Houston is definitely taking it on the chin with regard to oil prices,” said Brad Hunter, top economist for housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. “We are seeing a 14 percent decline in terms of housing starts.”
“We are seeing some impact on home prices there as well.”
‘That’s not the case in North Texas, which is expected to see a gain in home starts in 2016. “Dallas housing starts are up 17 percent,” Hunter said. “Dallas is not suffering at all from the oil decline.”
‘Along with single-family home construction, Houston was also the top apartment start market in 2015, according to the census bureau.. Builders started more than 25,000 Houston area apartments last year. In North Texas, new apartment building permits totaled 22,550, according to the census bureau.’
‘With apartment starts slowing in Houston, D-FW has more units under construction than any other metro area with more than 39,000 apartments being built at the start of 2016.’
Going back to the well for more.
Think about it this way. These guys got all of maybe $100k into these shacks while the govt provides a steady stream of debt-slaves paying $400k+. $300k/unit goes in the “builder” wallet, $400k goes to govt in interest payments.
This is what happens when you don’t understand the value of a dollar.
‘With apartment rents in Dallas-Fort Worth growing 6 percent — more in certain submarkets — in 2015, Seattle-based Zillow Chief Economist Svenja Gudell said she expects the rise in apartment rents to slow in 2016. “The pace in which rent is appreciating will decline and rents will continue rising, but at a slower rate,” Gudell told the Dallas Business Journal.’
‘Dallas’ rental appreciation is driven by the migration of jobs into the market, which has built up a demand for rental housing and is driving up rental prices. As more apartments are built in North Texas, Gudell said the region could see some easing of rent appreciation.’
‘Other hot apartment cities — Miami, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver — will continue to show high rent appreciation in 2016, while some cities, such as Chicago and Indianapolis, will see their rents decline.’
‘For those residents considering buying a home, Gudell said she’s still bullish on the Dallas homebuying market with low interest rates if buyers can find a home.’
If buyers can find one Svenja. There are no houses in DFW, none. Everybody lives in a dug-out. Houses are a scarcity, probably only to be found on Ross Perot’s secret ranch.
This is the 5 mile search:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Prosper_TX/type-single-family-home,condo-townhome-row-home-co-op,mfd-mobile-home,multi-family-home/radius-5?pgsz=15&pos=33.146277,-96.968976,33.379663,-96.6416
2,582 properties found
The 20 mile search:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Prosper_TX/type-single-family-home,condo-townhome-row-home-co-op,mfd-mobile-home,multi-family-home/radius-5?pgsz=15&pos=33.146277,-96.968976,33.379663,-96.6416
9,678 properties found
Gosh Svenja, look at how many are new construction!
4,187 properties found
If buyers can find a house Svenja? IF?
Who’s been headquartered in DFW? RadioShack. JC Penney. Tenet Healthcare. A few airlines and a whole bunch of energy companies and their resultant family investment funds.
Future so bright, gotta wear shades.
Toyota! I was told the other day about a Toyota welder who is making $24/hour. When I lived in Arlington in the 80’s there was a GM plant in the metroplex and most people were being paid $30/hour or more. Typical houses were going for under $100k at the time. Then it crashed.
Well perhaps their wages have declined but at least their pensions are better funded than they used to be! And at least their cost of living has improved! And at least their health care is more affordable!
Everything is awesome!
‘The return of the NFL Rams to Los Angeles has created new conversations on the economic impact of football stadiums on housing markets–specifically, whether the presence of an NFL team helps increase home values. The answer, according to a new study from Trulia, is neither positive nor negative. Instead, the situation varies from market to market.’
“Of the 31 neighborhoods around the nation’s pro football stadiums, nearly two thirds have higher housing values, on average, than houses in non-stadium neighborhoods,” said David Weidner, managing editor for Trulia’s Housing Economics Research Team and author of the new study. “[But] during the last 10 years, five new pro football stadiums have opened and none, so far, has had a noticeable impact in raising home values in its immediate vicinity (a two mile radius). Near Dallas, prices around AT&T stadium have lost value compared to the greater Arlington, Texas, area since that venue opened in 2009. Prices of homes near Lucas Oil Stadium have failed to keep pace with the greater Indianapolis market since the venue opened in August 2008.”
The frequency of hookers and stadium scum slithering around is good for the neighborhood.
‘the ‘San Francisco-ization’ of Texas. ‘The average Texan is having a hard time finding a home to buy any more,’ he said. ‘Land prices are getting bid up so high that homebuilders can’t afford to build moderately priced homes any more’
It’s not just Texas Mark. It’s places like Omaha Nebraska and Perrysburg Ohio, and Bozeman Montana. These and many others have seen land prices double or triple in just a few years. You would think some media or government types would have noticed.
Scharole filled envelopes, phony appraisals and gimmes coast to coast.
It is happening in many cities all over the US - no lots priced under $200k and builders building $750k+ houses on them, all the while the average median income hasn’t budged in a decade over 40kish, oil jobs lost while service sector (low paying) jobs increase… When will it give out? Predictions for 2016 are up, up and up.
And don’t forget there are no construction workers. Builders are using very expensive robots to construct the biggest number of apartments in 30 years. Luxury apartments only mind you, as nothing else pencils out on this dear land.
http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/lumber.aspx?timeframe=10y
Get away from these filthy crime ridden cities and you’ll find all the lots you want. $500/acre.
Land value. Ha. The biggest misconception in real estate. One day people will come to understand that you don’t own land. You lease it in the form of property taxes. A home is only worth the material with which it is built and the labor it required to construct.
My Mom’s house in north Texas has an annual property tax bill that exceeds her original annual mortgage payments.
Property taxes…. NY Style.
annual property tax bill that exceeds her original annual mortgage payments.
Yikes!! That’s a fantastic reminder that you are really always renting it from the state.
‘December brought some news everyone has been awaiting. The Fredericksburg area real-estate market had its best year in a decade—as in pre-bubble, pre-Great Recession. You know, the disaster that wiped trillions of dollars off the global economy’s balance sheets and left millions of people jobless.’
‘We welcome news that 2015’s robust housing sales in our region included more than 5,000 units sold, the most since 2005.’
‘We also take heart in the word of Kim McClellan, spokeswoman for the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. She said it’s a healthy benchmark for the local market to reach since the recession showed that the 2005 sales of 7,200 homes sold were “unsustainable.”
‘Other numbers were up, too: $127.7 million worth of real estate sold in the region in December, up 39 percent from the same month in 2014. FAAR members’ sales closures rose 27 percent from December 2014. And the median sales price climbed 4.4 percent year-over-year.’
‘We won’t break out the champagne just yet, because a) we’re skeptics, and b) FAAR President Christine Singhass added that “Our usual market trends are becoming not so predictable, and the trend seems to be that there no longer are reliable trends.”
‘This week our Growing Pains project is looking at how population growth, the economy and development are affecting housing in and around San Antonio. For this report TPR’s Louisa Jonas headed to Fredericksburg.’
‘A booming tourism industry, strong housing market and a low unemployment rate. What town wouldn’t want that? Fredericksburg has all three and is doing great in many regards. Except increasingly, the local workforce can’t afford to live here.’
“We’re only a town of 10,000. Before long you just know everybody in the store. If you have problems with your car, someone’s going to stop and pick you up and take you where you want to go. You go into Dooley’s Five and Dime; the little ladies speak German there,” Starks says.’
‘This, the shops on Main Street, and Fredericksburg’s 30 or so wineries are what the town has built its tourism industry around. And it’s why out-of-towners with money are buying property here in record numbers.’
‘”A lot of homes that would fill the need of a lower income or working-class guy very often are bought up as a second home,” Starks says. “Just your typical little two-bedroom 1940s house close to Main Street. That’s a very attractive thing for somebody to buy who lives in San Antonio or Dallas or Houston, just to use as a weekend house for when they come to town.’
‘In 2015, nearly half the buyers moving to Fredericksburg paid cash for their houses instead of taking out loans. Starks says the average price of a house in Fredericksburg grew to nearly $297,000. That’s a 15 percent increase in just one year. Currently, there are only three homes in Fredericksburg selling for under $200,000.’
“I’ll have a new police officer or a nurse at the hospital who’s just moved to town, and they’re actually making good money, but when they come in looking for a home to purchase, a lot of times it’s just not possible,” he says.’
‘John Rauschuber, Director of Fine Arts at Fredericksburg High School, says, “Fredericksburg’s such a desirable area to live. They have lots of beautiful homes, and lots of things to do, so we really wanted to relocate here.”
‘Rauschuber’s wife also teaches at the school. They had owned a house in San Antonio that was a little over 2,600 square feet. He said they paid about $270,000 for it. When they learned a similar house in Fredericksburg would run $400,000 or more, they bought a home that would fit their budget in Kerrville, which is 20 miles away.’
“It was a little bit heartbreaking because we really wanted to live in this community to be near all of our students and our families that we’ve grown to know here while teaching here,” he says.’
‘Rauschuber says a first year teacher in Fredericksburg earns a little over $40,000 a year. If you’re an athletic coach or lead activities like band choir, you can earn an additional stipend. He also says quite a few teachers at the school commute from San Marcos, Boerne, San Antonio, and even Wimberley, an hour-and-a-half away.’
‘Starks, the Realtor, doesn’t see an easy solution either, and he’s tired of delivering bad news to prospective home buyers. “Who doesn’t want to own their own home where they live?” he asks. He knows he’s selling an American Dream that not everyone in Fredericksburg can afford.’
‘Dooley’s Five and Dime…the shops on Main Street, and Fredericksburg’s 30 or so wineries are what the town has built its tourism industry around’
$10 an hour jobs, tops.
‘And it’s why out-of-towners with money are buying property here in record numbers’
Yeah, cuz staying at a hotel for a fraction of the property taxes is cash in the trash. Jeebus, I had no idea how bad things were in Texas these days.
Yeah, cuz staying at a hotel for a fraction of the property taxes is cash in the trash.
Yep—these GF’s are in love with the idea of staying somewhere “for free!” while it pays for itself in appreciation. Merely speculators, all.
lol
‘When they learned a similar house in Fredericksburg would run $400,000 or more, they bought a home that would fit their budget in Kerrville, which is 20 miles away’
You have to understand this about the hill country; it is up and down and around driving there. There are almost zero straight roads. Little farm to market, two lane jobs. Can’t pass, now clogged with cement trucks I’m sure.
‘Just your typical little two-bedroom 1940s house close to Main Street’
Which cost $5,000 or less new. You could buy the whole town for $400,000 not that long ago.
And Fredericksburg is really pretty boring. It’s just one main strip with tourist shops and eateries, and then the wineries and u-pick fruit farms in the region.
I went there and was bored after a day. Can’t imagine why anyone would want a second home there. It must be speculation (”investment”) because they see it going up and think they can sell for more later.
That has to be the reason. I got bored there in one afternoon.
Interesting! I live in the Calif. wine country and the situation is similar in many ways, many middle class locals are priced out. One factor the article didn’t expand on is that when there is a very high percentage of cash buyers they will nearly always shut out anyone buying with a mortgage when bidding on a given house…experienced this first hand a half dozen times in 2011/2012, I had a great job, credit, preaproved loan, enough cash for 50% down, etc.
Gave up after a year of this and in the meantime local prices are up 60% or so and buying no longer makes sense.
They didn’t make sense before they inflated another 60%.
‘It’s cold, rainy and dark outside. Not the ideal time to house hunt. Still, first-time homebuyers Gabriela Ramirez and Brian Wakely have rushed to see a five-year-old, 1,600-square-foot home for sale, near the Stone Oak area of San Antonio.
The home is priced at $205,000, which is a bit of a stretch for the couple’s budget. Gabriela is finishing her marketing degree. Brian works at a cable television company.’
“We were thinking lower than $200,000, but when we started looking, we didn’t want to live in those neighborhoods so we decided to bring up the price,” says Gabriela. “Once your family grows you’re going to grow into a bigger house so you want resale.”
“When you’re looking at the lower end of the price range, $175,000 to $180,000, the areas aren’t as well kept,” says Brian as the couple checks out the tile floors and open kitchen of the home they’re touring.’
‘Their Realtor, Brian Mylar, urges them to move quickly if they want this house. “If you go from $150,000 to $250,000, those homes don’t stay on the market very long. That is the most popular price range in San Antonio. There are lots of cases of multiple offers, sometimes homes only stay on the market for a day,” says Mylar.’
‘The San Antonio Board of Realtors, (SABOR) says that in Bexar County last year, the median price of a brand new home climbed to $255,000. The median price of all homes sold rose to $184,000. That’s 42 percent more than the cost of the median priced home 10 years ago.’
‘Meanwhile household income for our area actually went down. The U.S. Census Bureau says the San Antonio metro area had a median household income of $52,689 in 2014. When adjusted for inflation the median household income in 1999 was $55,631 in today’s dollars.’
‘So how did this happen?’
“When we started we sold lots for many, many houses under $100,000, that wasn’t uncommon at all 25 years ago,” said San Antonio real estate developer Norman Dugas. He says the dramatic increase in the cost of new homes today begins with the price of raw land.’
‘John Dugan, the City of San Antonio planning director, says in the future there could be more affordable homes for buyers willing to give up their Texas-sized yards. “Maybe a home inside a high-rise building, or a mid-rise building or attached to another building in terms of a townhouse. It may be a different kind of home but it’s still theirs they own.”
‘But Bob Dotzour, the former chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M, doesn’t see new housing catching up to demand anytime soon. “A school teacher, a firefighter, just an average American person living in San Antonio or most of the state of Texas, what you’re going to do is buy a 10-year-old home or a 20- or 30-year-old home and fix it up over time.”
‘That’s what soccer coach Sally Stewart and animal care services employee Jessica Travis are doing. They wanted a house priced around $150,000, but Jessica says it was almost impossible to find. “The thing that was frustrating is they needed so much work. It became so stressful thinking about moving into a house, and you had to do so much before you moved in,” says Travis.’
‘But Stewart says they jumped when a three-bedroom in a great neighborhood came back on the market, even though it needs some work. “The master bathroom is not usable. The tiling and drywall is all coming off,” she says.’
‘She says they’re also replacing the electrical system because it is a fire hazard. “The house was listed at $155,000. We bid the full price,” says Travis, who adds the older home suits them.’
‘Gabriela is finishing her marketing degree. Brian works at a cable television company’
Gross income probably around $25,000. Sure, a $200,000 house is just the ticket. Mel Watts will finance it!
‘the median price of a brand new home climbed to $255,000. The median price of all homes sold rose to $184,000. That’s 42 percent more than the cost of the median priced home 10 years ago.’
‘Meanwhile household income for our area actually went down.’
‘So how did this happen?’
Well that’s a good question. I’m thinking it had something to do with government backed loans that only go up. Don’t forget that 10 years ago was a bubble and now it’s 42% higher.
‘The master bathroom is not usable. The tiling and drywall is all coming off,’ she says…She says they’re also replacing the electrical system because it is a fire hazard. “The house was listed at $155,000. We bid the full price,. says Travis’
Of course you did Travis.
Don’t forget that it ‘came back on the market’. The first buyer had some sense and walked…
“‘Their Realtor, Brian Mylar, urges them to move quickly”
Of course he did. What fraudsters these realtors are.
‘Rents for Houston homes and apartments are still rising, albeit at a much slower pace amid the oil slump, according to two new reports. Apartment rents grew by 1.7 percent year over year in December, the sixth straight month where year-over-year rents fell. For comparison, apartment rents grew 5.5 percent in December 2014, according to Axiometrics.’
‘Most of the rent growth decline occurred in the Montrose and River Oaks submarkets, which saw rents fall 1.5 percent year over year in December. Axiometrics attributed the decline to an oversupply of apartments in the area.’
“The supply levels are too high for the demand right now,” Stephanie McCleskey, Axiometrics’ vice president of research, said in a statement. “Some 11,229 units have been delivered to Montrose/River Oaks in the past three years, with 4,911 more identified for delivery this year.”
http://www.apartments.com/houston-tx/
25,005 Apartments Available in Houston…
A few months ago this 20 mile search yielded 14,000 listings:
Houston, TX Real Estate and Homes for Sale 29,694 properties found
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Houston_TX/type-single-family-home,condo-townhome-row-home-co-op,mfd-mobile-home,multi-family-home/radius-20?pgsz=15&pos=29.23962,-96.058966,30.329875,-94.700893
Price reduced:
7,603 properties found
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Houston_TX/type-single-family-home,condo-townhome-row-home-co-op,mfd-mobile-home,multi-family-home/shw-pr/radius-20?pgsz=15&pos=29.23962,-96.058966,30.329875,-94.700893
‘During the last several years of Houston’s blistering economy, demand for luxury apartments was so intense leasing agents were signing up as many as 50 residents per month in some new complexes. Longtime Houston developer Marvy Finger was building as fast as he could. He opened four new projects and just this month he debuted his fifth: a seven-story building at 500 Crawford across from downtown’s Minute Maid Park.’
‘As the local real estate market enters yet another slowdown in the face of ultra-low oil prices, the founder of the Finger Cos. spoke to the Chronicle about what he has learned from previous downturns and how he plans to navigate the market going forward.’
‘Q: You started leasing One Park Place, your last downtown apartment pro-ject, just months after the national economy crashed in 2008. Now you’re leasing 500 Crawford at a time when oil prices have hit a new low. Is this déjà vu for you?’
‘A: In ‘09, ‘10 and ‘11 the consumer was not buying any big-ticket items: houses, cars or high-end, big apartments. Those apartments at that time were probably $2,500 to $8,000-plus for penthouses. They were very large apartments. I opened four months after the crash and we started with a one-month concession, and then a two-month concession, and then a three-month concession. Before the market turned, there were some four-month concessions because you just don’t sit there with vacant apartments. We had an incredible recovery in the spring of 2011 until, we’ll call it, October of ‘15.’
‘the big employment is gone for some time. We’re all waiting for a bottom so the industry can legitimately project income and net profits. There are such huge financial burdens on so many companies here in Houston because they were borrowing money when the price of oil was $100 a barrel. Now that the price is $50 or less, there’s a shortfall in the collateral and these companies have got to cover that. Many of them will not be able to do that, so there will be more consolidation and more layoffs. And this last trough of apartments, this 18½ thousand units which are going to come on stream between now and the end of the year … that’s really affecting the marketplace.’
‘Q: When did you start noticing a slowdown here?’
‘A: The one (Finger complex) that I think really exemplified what happened to oil and gas is in west Houston. I opened it in January of ‘15 and from January to October I got to 70 percent (leased). Then someone says, ‘Oh, it’s over. Stop. Pull the brake.’ It did stop, and to go from 70 to 90 percent, that 20 percent, took six months at a much reduced rental price and the concessions are growing there. I have two other projects that are older projects, but they always remained full, that are in the Energy Corridor. I mean really great properties, but there are just no bodies walking through.’
‘Q: There are multiple apartment towers under construction downtown. How concerned are you about the competition as you open 500 Crawford?’
‘A: The first ones will open the end of this year so I have a real head start in this sub-market. (500 Crawford) is not a high-rise, so I think we’re going to do well. But I think we’re going to be well under the projected income. You can’t sit with vacant apartments. I know. I was there with One Park Place. The price is set by the consumer. He/she is smart. They know what the market is and they’re going to walk in and say this is what I’ll pay.’
‘We’re in a pause and it’ll take a couple of years to absorb this overflow of inventory. This always happens.’
‘Q: What kind of concessions are you offering at 500 Crawford?’
‘A: One month. Come back in three, six months and we’ll see.’
‘we started with a one-month concession, and then a two-month concession, and then a three-month concession. Before the market turned, there were some four-month concessions because you just don’t sit there with vacant apartments’
I’ll give you two bananas Marvy. For the penthouse.
‘I opened it in January of ‘15 and from January to October I got to 70 percent (leased). Then someone says, ‘Oh, it’s over. Stop. Pull the brake.’ It did stop, and to go from 70 to 90 percent, that 20 percent, took six months at a much reduced rental price and the concessions are growing there’
There’s going to be a bunch of foreclosed apartment complexes the next few years.
Gig Harbor, WA Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/gig-harbor-wa-98332/home-values/
Ignoring the noise, that data-set looks almost exactly flat for the last couple of years. Dec 2015 is the latest data-point; did you look at Dec 2013? 392K -> 408K. Nearly flat.
Down 9% yoy is flat?
Is that like DownizUp?
That Dec data-point is clearly noise. Did you even look at the Oct, Nov, Jan and Feb data-points that surround it? Feb should show a huge YoY increase, in your world where noise is ignored.
Its invalid when price is falling but valid when prices are rising.
Nice try Downizup.
No, the reality is that Feb YoY will likely be flat by my interpretation—it is only your tendency to ignore signal vs noise that will lead YOU to conclude that it is way up.
Let’s check back on this one in a couple of months.
There is no interpretation besides prices fall 9% YoY.
Data my friend.
Let’s look at what the data said about Gig Harbot one month ago, then:
Nov 2014 398K
Nov 2015 419K
Wow, it’s up 5% YoY! That can’t be true—after all, you have been saying that it is cratering everywhere for at least a few years!
And fell 9% YoY per latest data.
Data my friend. Stick with the data.
http://news.yahoo.com/bezos-space-firm-duplicates-reusable-rocket-breakthrough-160938456.html
‘Two months after the breakthrough launch and vertical landing of a reusable rocket, the space firm created by Internet entrepreneur Jeff Bezos did it again. “I’m a huge fan of rocket-powered vertical landing,” he said in the statement. “Why? Because to achieve our vision of millions of people living and working in space we will need to build very large rocket boosters.”
Living and working in space? And give up my paperless office and self-driving car? Not on your life Jeffy-baby.
Living and working in space? I love it! Will Mr. Bezos roll out a new service for these space inhabitants? Amazon Sub-Prime, perhaps? Cause I imagine these interstellar dwellers will have a hard time keeping up with their meteoric mortgages.
Amazon sub-prime
genius!
It occurred to me that these billionaires playing with rockets could be Yellen bucks looking for a place to die. It’s like fixing a problem that doesn’t exist. There’s no food, water, or air in space. Why would I want to go there much less live there? Work? Where are the help wanted ads?
I’d like to tie in something posted in the bits bucket today:
“Comment by BlueCollarMale
I really must admit I do not understand much about the bond market or bond bubble, but it seems to me I’ve heard of various similar crashes predicted or claimed to have begun here for the last few years but never any actual reckoning.
With the exception of oil.”
I replied:
“Yeah, house prices never fell, for instance.”
I’ve said before, when the history of this is written, the most important actions will be those taken after 2008-2009.
‘Angela Merkel was missing from Davos this year, but the German leader’s optimistic mantra “we can do this” echoed through the snowy resort in the Swiss Alps. China’s economic slowdown? Manageable. Plunging financial markets? Temporary. And Europe’s refugee crisis? A big challenge, but one which will ultimately push the bloc’s members closer together, audiences were told over and over again.’
‘Beneath the veneer of can-do optimism at the World Economic Forum, however, was a creeping concern that the politicians, diplomats and central bankers who flock each year to this gathering of the global elite are at the mercy of geopolitical and economic forces beyond their control.’
“You’ve had deadly crises in Europe from day one and we’ve overcome them. However we always had one crisis at a time. Today we have about five, from Brexit to ISIS and everything in between,” said Josef Joffe, the publisher-editor of German weekly Die Zeit.’
‘On the economic front, there was also a growing sense of policymaker impotence. Last January, in a bold sign of policy activism, the European Central Bank unveiled its hotly anticipated stimulus, or quantitative easing (QE), program in a bid to kick-start growth and inflation in a euro zone still reeling from financial turmoil and breakup fears.’
‘A year later, despite Mario Draghi’s assertion that the bank still has “plenty of instruments” at its disposal, the consensus in Davos was that it has now used up all its monetary ammunition and that politicians have failed to use the time the ECB bought them to implement economic reforms at home. Meanwhile growth remains subdued and inflation close to zero.’
“We understand that there may be no limit to what the ECB is willing to do but there’s a very clear limit to what the ECB can and will achieve,” chairman of Swiss bank UBS and former Bundesbank chief Axel Weber said after Draghi signaled yet more monetary easing.’
‘The central theme of this year’s meeting was the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” — the idea that technological advances will allow ever greater levels of automation, transforming the global economy in profound ways.’
‘But in a sobering report on the implications of these advances, UBS said they were likely to increase inequality across the globe, and the authors expressed scepticism about whether politicians could put a halt to this trend.’
‘At a lunch entitled “The End of Political Consensus”, there was broad agreement that rising inequality, and the sense that elites were only looking out for themselves, was fuelling more and more resentment of established politicians, and giving rise to a tide of populism.’
“We are witnessing the decay of power,” Moises Naim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the audience. “The view is that anything is better than the people in power.”
‘However we always had one crisis at a time. Today we have about five’
I’ve note that there are several severe imbalances now, or some might call them mania’s. Bonds, stocks, real estate, the list goes on.
‘in a bold sign of policy activism, the European Central Bank unveiled its hotly anticipated stimulus, or quantitative easing (QE), program in a bid to kick-start growth and inflation’
See how easily what we call QE rolls off the tongue? We slip it in here and there like it’s the ultimate financial medicine. Once considered illegal and impossible, a last resort, it’s now the only weapon between us and disaster. Yes, they can drive stocks higher. They can put so much money in the hands of billionaires, they will build space rockets and electric cars. They can cause the price of houses in San Antonio to Fredricksburg and everywhere in between to skyrocket. Because people are greedy, they want something for nothing. But that’s what QE is, something for nothing. It remains the unfortunate truth that wealth cannot be printed.
‘We understand that there may be no limit to what the ECB is willing to do’
Instead of reassuring, this statement alone proves QE is a failure. It failed but it has had terrifying consequences.
‘On Friday the Japanese stock market ripped 6% higher and the European bourses were up 5% because their respective central bankers emitted some hints of more easing just ahead. Even the US market managed to find green for the week.’
‘Apparently, the day traders and robo-machines think BTFD still works. But they are going to be sorely disappointed - just as they have been for nearly 700 days running. That is, since the S&P 500 crossed the 1870 mark in early March 2014, there have been 35 attempts to rally higher. All of them have failed.’
‘In the meantime, you can’t blame the punters for trying. This week they succumbed once again to the BTFD delusion undoubtedly because the “moar money” chorus grew ever louder as Friday approached. That baleful refrain was led this time around by no less than the posse of oligarchs and apparatchiks assembled at Davos. Thus, when Mario Draghi, the world’s most ludicrous monetary dunce, let on that there were “no limits” on how much fraudulent credit could be emitted by the ECB’s printing press, he surely spoke a frightening truism.’
‘Yet the world largest asset gather, Larry Fink, founder of $4.5 trillion BlackRock, gushed with an endorsement of what was pure monetary crack pottery: “We’ve seen over the last few years you have to trust in Mario,” Laurence Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., said in Davos. “The market should never, as we have seen now, the market should not doubt Mario.”
‘As Jeffery Snider shows in a nearby post, the massive ECB exercise in QE, which has already emitted some $700 billion in printing press airballs, has had no impact at all on its ostensible targets. Namely, the generation of a burst of private borrowing in order to stimulate spending and inflation.’
‘In fact, European bank lending has been on the flat-line for 7 years and neither the ECB’s massive LTRO of 2012 or the QE explosion during 2015 has changed this trend.’
‘That’s because Europe is at “peak debt” and has been so ever since the original single currency borrowing binge peaked in 2008. Surely, Larry Fink knows that QE has been a failure in Europe, the US and everywhere else it has been tried. To wit, when the household and business sectors are at “peak debt” central bank money printing amounts to pushing credit on a credit string. It does nothing except inflate the value of existing financial assets and provides cheap carry trade funding for speculators.’
‘That is actually the point, of course. Contemporary central bankers function like a team of monetary wranglers, herding the retail cattle toward the asset gathers. And the latter always and everywhere manage to scalp a fee from investor portfolios being inflated by central bank action. It’s the modus operandi of our regime of bubble finance.’
‘So what if stronger real wages and better purchasing power on global commodity markets result in a lower trend of nominal wages and prices in Europe. For 200 years until about 2009, most economists thought that was a very good thing. And virtually none of them believed in “inflation targeting”, let alone a magic threshold of 2%. That was the half-baked theory of Ben Bernanke and a small posse of second rate academics.’
‘There is no logic or empirical evidence whatsoever that supports the idea that 2.00% consumer inflation is better for economic growth and improvements in real productivity and living standards than is 1.22% or 0.02% consumer inflation.’
‘This is just a postulate made-up from wholecloth that justifies massive central bank intrusion in the financial system and constant efforts to falsify and inflate the prices of financial assets. Since the annual Davos confab has increasingly become the equivalent of an asset gatherers ball, it is not surprising that it has become a loud lobby in favor of moar central bank monetary fraud.’
‘But let me pick out Ray Dalio for special mention in the roll call of shame. The founder of the $200 billion Bridgewater complex of hedge funds was talking his book like there was no tomorrow on the sidelines at Davos, assuring the world’s punters that QE4 is just around the corner: “I think a move to a quantitative easing would bolster psychology,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box: at the so-called World Economic Forum at Davos…..This will be a negative for the economy, this market movement. The Fed should remain flexible. It’s shouldn’t be so wedded to a path……. “The risks are asymmetric on the downside, because asset prices are comparatively high at the same time there’s not an ability to ease,” he said. “That asymmetric risk exists all around the world. So every country in the world needs an easier monetary policy.”
(He goes on to cite what a con-artist Dalio is).
‘So enter the Red Ponzi of China and the linked and derivative mercantilist central banking policies of its EM supply chain and the petro-states which, on the margin, literally fueled the world’s explosive growth between 1992 and 2014. As it happened, however, in the last few months the long reign of the global money printers has begun to sprout fractures.’
‘Mr. Deng merely unleashed a Credit Monster that sucked in capital and resources from all over the globe into a domestic whirlpool of digging, building, borrowing, investing and speculation that was inherently unstable and incendiary. It was only a matter of time before this edifice of economic madness began to wobble and sway and to eventually buckle entirely.’
‘That time came in 2015 - roughly 30 years after Mr. Deng proclaimed it is glorious to be rich. So saying, he did not have a clue that a credit swollen simulacrum of capitalism run by communist apparatchiks was a doomsday machine.’
‘Since the global economy has had its artificial boom and CapEx frenzy already, years of deflationary liquidation and correction lie ahead. Money printing has failed. Any effort by the central banks to double down on another $20 trillion of bond purchases would blow the world’s financial casinos sky high. At the end of the day, the asset gathers will profoundly regret what they are clamoring for.’
‘We understand that there may be no limit to what the ECB is willing to do’
Instead of reassuring, this statement alone proves QE is a failure.
To me, what that statement really suggests it that our monetary fate is in the hands of mad-men.
No limit in the face of ineffectiveness? Just do more of the same. Many unintended monetary consequences buffeting the global economy? Put your head in the sand. Pay no attention to those risks behind the curtain.
If it is in the hands of mad-men, it has been for a long time. A couple of months ago I had a weekend topic that looked at the market share of the GSE’s. How it shot up from 1986 to 1989. Now it’s grown with FHA to over 90% government backed. What would the prices in Fredericksburg be without it? More like the $40,000 in the mid-90’s? This has me concerned because I am familiar with that little town. It means the bubble has been pressure cooked into nooks and crannies I never dreamed. Second homes in the hill country? It’s really humid there, you can’t just lock it up and show up 3 months later. You’d have to have the AC on year round. It doesn’t get very cold so everything grows like crazy. The taxes will clean out your wallet. A less likely place for speculation could hardly be found. But that’s obviously what’s going on.
The article mentions cash buyers. Are they the majority? I doubt it.
FHA Mortgage Limits List - County: Gillespie $271,050
11/13/2014
https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicost1.cfm
Fannie Mae’s limits on the PDF page:
https://www.fanniemae.com/content/fact_sheet/historical-loan-limits.pdf
1980 $93,750
2007 $417,000
“*Beginning in 2008, there are two sets of loan limits - “General” and “High-Cost”. The “High-Cost” areas are determined by Fannie Mae’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
temporarily increased the loan limits in high-cost areas. Then, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of
2008 permanently changed Fannie Mae’s charter to expand the definition of a “conforming loan” to include “high-cost”
areas on loans originated on or after January 1, 2009.”
“**Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, beginning January 1, 2009 through December 31,
2009 Fannie Mae may purchase loans up to $729,750 for a one-unit dwelling in designated high-cost areas. In October
2009, Congress extended the $729,750 limit through the end of 2010. In September 2010, Congress extended the
$729,750 limit for loans originated on or before September 30, 2011.”
That may be the best piece I’ve ever read from Zerohedge. Truly exceptional…not fear mongering or alarmism for alarmism’s sake. Just cold, hard reality…and without a single hole in the argument.
The simple truth is this. The world has millions upon millions of folks in the finance industry. The world requires only tens of thousands of these folks. The excess tens of millions provide nothing to global growth. You just can’t create something out of nothing, after all.
But these millions upon millions of excess finance professionals own the Federal Reserve and central banks the world over. And they ain’t going down without a fight.
It occurred to me that these billionaires playing with rockets could be Yellen bucks looking for a place to die. It’s like fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.
I believe that the idea is to lower the cost of launching a payload into orbit; which SpaceX has already achieved (and they are also working on a reusable rocket to further lower the price).
That said, the idea of “moving” to space to live is risible. Even if the costs come down it will remain unbelievably expensive, not to mention very dangerous.
^lol
“moving” to space to live…
Space is the ultimate embalmer.
The world has millions upon millions of folks in the finance industry…
They are looking for the last of the voluntary debt slaves. I do not intend to be among them. I intend to continue to wage war against the finance industry, by not borrowing a penny, and by also not investing in their predatory products, to the extent I am able.
‘to lower the cost of launching a payload into orbit’
To get cheaper groceries to the space station? A space station that does almost nothing? What percent of GDP does this space station contribute? I like Star Trek, the original. Jeff needs to quit wasting money on his version. Nobody is going to be working or living in space in his lifetime or mine.
Like I said, solving a problem that doesn’t exist. When the time comes that there is demand in space, develop it. What Bezos is doing now will be irrelevant by then.
It’s worth mentioning that Bezos’ rockets have yet to actually reach orbit.
” ‘Michele Marano, a Houston real-estate agent who specializes in oil-and-gas clients, said ‘my buyers have completely backed off.’ She added, ‘I have an enormous number of buyers but they’re sitting.’”
Well, then they’re not buyers, are they? I love to window shop.
Bellevue, WA Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/market-report/time-series/403175/cougar-mountain-bellevue-wa.xls?m=19
I say New England and Arizona.
Pats and Panthers.
That incredible Bronco defense sure put Brady’s pocket-shooting style to shame.