Some Buyers Seem To Have Unlimited Money
Bloomberg reports on Canada. “The pain in Canada’s oil patch is extending to one of the country’s biggest real-estate magnates. Lamb Development Corp. is delaying construction of two condominium projects in Alberta as the slump in the price of oil guts jobs and housing demand. ‘The situation in Alberta is worse than 2008,’ said Brad Lamb, known as Toronto’s condo king. ‘This is a unique event that is annihilating anywhere in the world that produces oil.’”
“Lamb is pulling back as condo sales in Calgary and Edmonton posted the steepest decline in 2015 since the financial crisis. Lamb’s other projects in the province are forging ahead, including the Orchard, a two-tower condo complex that starts construction this fall, and 6th and Tenth, a 31-story tower that’s under construction with buyers slated to move in March 2017, Lamb said. Both are in Calgary.”
The Calgary Sun. “Calgary’s sagging rental market is opening up new affordable housing options, but challenges still persist for the city’s working poor. ‘Things have changed dramatically because of the downturn, with layoffs, people leaving the province and a much slower in-migration of people coming here,’ said Gerry Baxter, spokesman for the Calgary Residential Rental Association. ‘There’s a lot of empty units, so it’s very much a tenant’s market right now.’”
“Baxter said with vacancy rates as high as 15% to 20% in some downtown buildings after an exodus of laid-off oil workers, landlords are doing whatever they can to attract tenants.”
From Global News. “A growing number of incentive-laden apartment ads are leading some to question whether Edmonton is finally becoming a renter’s market again. ‘We decided to do the one month free rent – which is amortized over 12 months,’ said Trina Ryan, a property manager with 15 years of experience. ‘There’s lots of competition… because we have three buildings that are opening. Plus, we know there are lots of other companies out there that have new buildings opening. This is the worst I have ever seen the industry.’”
The Daily Herald Tribune. “While news is circulating that some people in the province are packing up their things, mailing their house keys to the bank and leaving their mortgages, that’s not necessarily a ‘trend’ seen locally. John Krol, president of the Grande Prairie and Area Association of Realtors, said there are a few cases of repossessed houses on the local market but he wouldn’t necessarily call it a trend. Some of the reasons for former residents giving up their home in the Swan City could be attributed to job loss.”
“‘It’s no secret there’s been a lot of layoffs or they’ve taken huge wage cuts and if there are job opportunities somewhere else, they’re going. We’re seeing that among tenants too. The vacancy rate among tenants is rising as well,’ he said.”
From CBC News. “Evidence of Fort McMurray’s new reality is everywhere. Once-packed restaurants and hotels have cleared out and work at downtown construction sites has come to a standstill. For Sale signs have sprouted like weeds in residential areas. Salvation Army director Major Stephen Hibbs said many clients came to Fort McMurray to better themselves and create stable lives for their families, but now their savings are depleted and they’re liquidating to pay the bills. ‘The reality is, that’s where a lot of people are at this point,’ said Hibbs. ‘Your heart bleeds with them.’”
“A local Facebook page called YMM Helping Others has become a lifeline for an increasing number of people in need of baby items, food, clothing and other supplies. Kristin Burhoe started YMM Helping Others two years ago to help struggling families over the holidays. More recently, she recruited help just to keep up with demand, noting many are struggling because of cuts to overtime. ‘Now we have requests every day for someone that’s hard on their luck,’ said Burhoe, adding many are families with young children. ‘A lot of people are asking for bottles just to help pay the mortgage or the bills.’”
From CTV Vancouver. “The flyer Charlie Kiers mailed out to Vancouver homeowners isn’t exactly subtle, but then, it’s not supposed to be. ‘Truth in advertising,’ Kiers said of the mailing, which boasts that his RE/MAX Metro Realty is ‘the Chinese Buyer’s Connection’ and can get sellers extra money for their properties by selling to foreign buyers. ‘Yeah, it’s reality,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t trying to be negative in any way, I was just trying to be realistic and just trying to offer my services for them to get the most money for their home.’”
“Kiers is hardly the only real estate agent making the case to local homeowners that they should sell to buyers from outside Canada. Flyers from lots of different companies have been hitting local mailboxes in recent months, as the average price of a detached home in the City of Vancouver soared past $1.8 million. There’s no question that people who live in the city are hurt by the superheated market, especially when some buyers seem to have what Kiers called ‘unlimited money.’ ‘If there’s more than one buyer putting an offer in on the property, then only one buyer’s going to win,’ Kiers said. ‘Whoever has the most money is going to buy the place.’”
“While news is circulating that some people in the province are packing up their things, mailing their house keys to the bank and leaving their mortgages, that’s not necessarily a ‘trend’ seen locally.”
Say, … what?
“John Krol, president of the Grande Prairie and Area Association of Realtors, said there are a few cases of repossessed houses on the local market but he wouldn’t necessarily call it a trend.”
Okaaaay …
“Some of the reasons for former residents giving up their home in the Swan City could be attributed to job loss.”
Okaaaay …
“‘It’s no secret there’s been a lot of layoffs or they’ve taken huge wage cuts and if there are job opportunities somewhere else, they’re going.
Lots of layoffs, huge wage cuts, people going to job opportunities somewhere else … okaaaay …
“We’re seeing that among tenants too. The vacancy rate among tenants is rising as well,’ he said.”
Well, that certainly sounds line a … a trend.
“Evidence of Fort McMurray’s new reality is everywhere. Once-packed restaurants and hotels have cleared out and work at downtown construction sites has come to a standstill. For Sale signs have sprouted like weeds in residential areas. Salvation Army director Major Stephen Hibbs said many clients came to Fort McMurray to better themselves and create stable lives for their families, but now their savings are depleted and they’re liquidating to pay the bills. ‘The reality is, that’s where a lot of people are at this point,’ said Hibbs. ‘Your heart bleeds with them.’”
Here’s a chart the shows the increases in wages in places in North Dakota due to what went on with oil; These wage increases are what sucked people in.
Yeah, I know, North Dakota is not Canada … but in this sense it is.
https://www.google.com/search?q=oil+worker+wages+chart&biw=1360&bih=667&tbm=isch&imgil=yTiHRWTO_07U_M%253A%253Be825xhdW6WY9OM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Ffortune.com%25252F2015%25252F01%25252F09%25252Fgas-prices-worker-wages%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=yTiHRWTO_07U_M%253A%252Ce825xhdW6WY9OM%252C_&usg=__gLqBxU-J_d03Xcph7G4Pa9gH7Ag%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjYxp2-s4HLAhVYzGMKHZgJAdcQyjcIJQ&ei=58TFVpi3JtiYjwOYk4S4DQ#imgrc=-7953WNeObnZhM%3A
It will be interesting to see what this does for politics in Canada.
With the resources boom, the western providences were net contributors to the federal budget. “Why do we have to help those big, lazy eastern providences, one of whom is French and keeps threatening to secede?”
Human nature being what it is, we could see “why aren’t those big eastern providences doing more to help us” in a couple of years.
I was thinking about a similar thing yesterday after I posted this comment:
‘Uber has raised more than $8 billion from investors wanting a piece of the privately held ride-hailing giant. Yet even Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, chides the “irrational funding going on” — and he’s not talking about his own company.’
‘Kalanick condemned the amount of money some competitors are raising to buy up market share, according to a report from BetaKit. “You can get your butt kicked by others who are raising more money and buying market share,” he said. “So you have to find a way to contain the irrational when it’s happening.”
‘Kalanick is not talking about Uber raising billions to edge out Lyft, but his Chinese competitor Didi Kuaidi, which has raised more than $3 billion to defeat Uber in China. “We’re profitable in the USA, but we’re losing over $1 billion a year in China. We have a fierce competitor that’s unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they’re buying up market share. I wish the world wasn’t that way,” Kalanick told the crowd.’
‘While Uber’s appetite for cash has shown no bounds, the company’s CEO seems to be weary of the continuous fundraising while accepting that this is how the game is played. “I prefer building rather than fundraising. But if I don’t participate in the fundraising bonanza, I’ll get squeezed out by others buying market share,” Kalanick said.’
Basically, all these companies have done is evade taxes and regulation. They accomplished this partly by bribing politicians and gate-rushing local governments with their expensive lawyers in tow. But if taxi’s were expensive because of taxes and monopolies, won’t the taxes and regs creep back in after the fundraising bonanza (bribes, expensive lawyers) go away?
Enjoy the dry cleaner business Travis, and make up your loses in volume.
‘Amazon expanding deliveries by its ‘on-demand’ drivers’
‘Amazon.com Inc is quietly inviting drivers for its new “on-demand” delivery service to handle its standard packages, as the online retailer known for low prices and razor-thin profit margins looks to speed up delivery times and tamp down its growing multi-billion dollar logistics bill.’
‘If the gambit works, industry analysts said it could help Amazon contain its shipping costs, which grew more than 18 percent to $11.5 billion last year. It might also create a logistics network to compete with United Parcel Service Inc, FedEx Corp and the patchwork of local carriers which currently deliver Amazon packages.’
I see this as more “solving a problem that doesn’t exist”. Take my can of almonds. I can walk two blocks to two different convenience stores and buy almonds. I can drive a mile away to a big grocery store and get them cheaper. I might even pick up some bottled water and fruit while I’m there. But nowhere in my thinking is there a problem of needing almonds delivered to my door in a big box.
Maybe not in your thinking or mine, but I am surprised when I read comments from people rhapsodizing over their Amazon Prime service. The “genius” is getting people to pay a membership fee for the privilege. We took a free trial membership, hoping for some good movies. Buncha tripe. Canceled. We didn’t purchase anything from the site, its pages are way too confusing. Amazon doesn’t sell anything I can’t get anywhere else.
But Amazon does have one thing no one else has:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meerkat_At_the_zoo_Novosibirsk_Siberia.jpg
Well I don’t know where you live, but I have found exactly the opposite to be true - the local stores no longer carry the items that I am looking for. It is far easier to find them online and have them in a couple of days without wasting a couple of hours after work driving to three different store without success.
Don’t get me wrong here, I shop on line, just not at Amazon. For every day stuff, we have an amazing Dollar General within two minutes of my house.
I’m very lucky in where I live. Just about anything I need is within a ten minute drive. We’ve got Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Big Lots, Wally World, Dollar General and other Dollar Stores, Tuesday Morning, the post office, two auto parts stores, Walgreens, CVS, four major grocery stores, every kind of doctor you can imagine, two hospitals (one is within the ten minute, the other is 20 minutes), four major gas stations, a WaWa and Aldi’s on the way. Plenty of car and computer repair, too. Also a local DMV It’s actually a very unusual cluster.
What we lack is malls and decent dining. Plenty of the usual fast food choices, but not much in the way of decent specialty restaurants. You have to drive a ways for those. A local Florida department store, Bealls (Live the Florida Lifestyle!), has both a retail store and outlet in the area, the local Penney’s and K-Mart did close down, but nobody seems to miss them.
Yep, I’m one lucky ducky. I keep threatening to move elsewhere, but never do, and the above is probably why.
Oh, and lolz, the Amazon warehouse is within that ten minute radius I mentioned. I don’t like to be on the road in that area when there’s a shift change.
“…delivered to my door in a big box.”
I recently bought a data plan for a tablet. The sim card was delivered in a box that was 10″ x 10″ x 8″ with a plastic bag pillow inside to keep the sim card against the bottom.
‘Bursting of Alberta’s oil bubble on display at St. John’s airport’
‘For years, many rural communities have been propped up by big wages earned in Alberta and Northern Canada. But the collapse in oil prices that began about 18 months ago has significantly changed the atmosphere at the airport, and indeed in many communities throughout the province.’
‘Like passenger traffic, the mood among transient workers is also down. Whiffen said 600 people were employed as his worksite last year. That’s now been cut in half. At 63, Whiffen is hoping to stay gainfully employed until the end of this year, and then enjoy retirement. He said all his colleagues are nervous about their jobs, especially the younger generation.’
“(Many of them) just built houses … bought new trucks. This time last year everything was looking good. Now it’s not looking so good and they stand to lose,” he said.’
‘Workers at the airport on this morning tell stories of wage rollbacks of as much as $10 an hour, cuts to overtime and benefits, and a general sense of uncertainty as their long-term employment prospects plummet right along with oil prices. It’s a dramatic reversal for workers who have enjoyed big wages and a standard of living never before imagined in this province.’
‘Roger Abbott of Musgrave Harbour, who has worked in Alberta for a decade and recently purchased a pricey new pickup truck. It’s a decision he regrets now that the job market is drying up, and Fort McMurray is slipping into the doldrums. “Everybody is tightening up their belts,” he said. “Things are not like they used to be. A lot of people have left. A lot of suicides … from what I’ve been hearing.”
So how would this compare to the Texas oil patch bust of the 1980s? Differences, similarities?
I found this:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/01/15/hard-times-in-the-texas-oil-patch-as-bust-takes-hold/
Gilmer said much of the idle equipment now sitting in fields is damaged from a lack of routine maintenance, and may never go back to work. Instead, it it’s likely to be cannibalized for parts.
“This is exactly what happened in the 1980s. The longer equipment doesn’t run, the more likely it will be used as spares or junked,” Gilmer said.
But when oil prices turn around, the surviving service companies with good equipment will have a lock on the market. “This is also what happened in the 1980’s,” Gilmer said. “Fortunes are built in the busts.”
Much is being made of the suicides in the media, but I don’t recall Texas having that problem. Of course, different times, different media.
I did know a guy who had been an oilfield welder in Canada back in the 1980s. He had a criminal record, but was desperate enough for work that he jumped parole and went down to Texas and of course, couldn’t find work there, either. So he drifted over to Florida and found work in a ship yard, lived under an assumed name. That’s how desperate he got. Apparently he was a very good welder and not afraid to climb a mast, if that’s what it took to repair a fancy yacht. The money was flowing pretty good in Florida at the time.
‘It was a slow day selling oil field pipe — nothing new there — when Richard Collier had handed his son a select list of customers. Call them, he said. But there were no buyers. “That list of people I gave him is the ones that don’t pay their bills,” Collier told the San Antonio Express-News. “And they won’t even buy anything.”
‘To Collier, who owns a small pipe business based out of Concan and a ranch in Zavala County, it’s starting to look a lot like 1984, when the last great Texas oil boom shuddered to an end.’
“Anybody who played in this game and didn’t take care of their finances really well? They’re gone,” Collier said. “You’re looking at living out of your back pocket for three years. I do believe there are people out there who are broke and just don’t know it yet.”
“When everyone had cheap money and lots of it, they could drill sub-optimal wells,” Roth said. “Some of that acreage isn’t that fantastic. If the Eagle Ford was discovered today, how much would actually be leased? At $40, what would have happened? A lot less would have happened.”
‘Chuck Shepherd of Galveston, the night mud-logger at the site, doesn’t think the Texas economy will fare well. “We’re not going out to the mall and out to the movies,” he said. “We’re not buying all of those big trucks. It ripples on and on.”
‘Allen Gilmer of Drillinginfo said his research firm had a pool of 2,000 applicants to fill 70 positions last year. “Anyone hiring today has a very deep talent pool to choose from,” Gilmer said.’
‘Charlie Cavazos of Benavides, the driller at Collier’s ranch, said he went about six months without work in 2015. “Paying one month my truck, one month my trailer,” he said, since unemployment was not even half of what he was used to living on.’
‘By mid-December, Irving-based Magnum Hunter, which operates on the far eastern edge of the Eagle Ford, had also filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it had $6.4 million in cash and $1.1 billion in total liabilities at the end of the third quarter.
“It’s a time for condensing, consolidation, and frankly, survival of the fittest,” Truss said. “There are folks who will not make it.”
‘He got a call recently about three truckloads of pipe for sale in a yard near Dilley. He drove south to look at what should have been 600 to 700 pieces of pipe, each 30-feet in length. “This yard is like 50 acres and there is pipe everywhere,” Collier said.’
‘He and his son asked about the pipe for sale. The yard manager held his arms out wide. “This is it,” he told them. All of it was for sale, but the Colliers didn’t buy anything.’
‘When everyone had cheap money and lots of it, they could drill sub-optimal wells’
And there you find Janet and her deflation machine.
It’s sad, because I lived this 80’s everyone refers to like it was the holocaust. The difference? Back then we found out we were sitting on a real estate bubble. It was mostly commercial, and the houses that went into foreclosure were largely because of job loss. Now we have $900,000 houses on the outskirts of Dallas bought with zero down. It could be worse than the 80’s, but only time will tell.
It is difficult to live out of your back pocket for several years when all you find there are debt collection notices.
‘Much is being made of the suicides in the media, but I don’t recall Texas having that problem’
We got the Dallas Morning News at my house. I started to notice the suicide/murder suicide articles. But they buried them on back pages. There were more and more, then multiples in a day. Never much detail and no quotes. Just where, method used, maybe info on the job they used to have.
If I recall correctly, there was a daily road rage shooting as well.
Suicide and early death are a NATIONAL trend for our generation Ben. An those after.
https://larrylittlefield.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/death-is-the-ultimate-statistic-ii-the-most-important-news-in-ten-years/
Wow, I had no idea it got that bad. If they buried the stories in Texas, then no wonder it didn’t get out to the broader media.
I do remember your story years back about grown men fighting over paper routes. Also about houses practically being given away, $1.00 if people would just take ‘em. The banks don’t seem to be as anxious do that now. Not sure how it is in Canada, but it seems they’d rather sit on inventory and let it rot than let it go.
No paper routes today.
‘It was a slow day selling oil field pipe — nothing new there — when Richard Collier had handed his son a select list of customers. Call them, he said. But there were no buyers. “That list of people I gave him is the ones that don’t pay their bills,” Collier told the San Antonio Express-News. “And they won’t even buy anything.”
When even the people who don’t pay their bills won’t buy anything…
Money is cheaper this time =more leverage
= more pain
“Anybody who played in this game and didn’t take care of their finances really well? They’re gone,” Collier said. “You’re looking at living out of your back pocket for three years.”
There’s an entire generation or two living from check to check, no equity to tap or savings.
“I do believe there are people out there who are broke and just don’t know it yet.”
Yep. Just like the stars in the night sky… burned out long ago, but you can still see the light.
“…recently purchased a pricey new pickup truck.”
Lemme guess, only $65,000 with $5,000 cash back at the signing (to be used for a down payment), 96-months of pain, and a balloon payment that will require financing at a much higher rate because it’s 8-yrs old and worn-out. LMFAO!
‘New housing construction in Wood Buffalo came to a near standstill last January. Just five new housing units were started in January 2016, compared to 114 new housing units during the same period in 2015, according to data released by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The region saw 87 housing completions in January, down from 141 in 2015.’
‘The effects of the continued economic slump can be seen in the prices and availability of property in Estevan’s real estate market. This past year, the housing market has seen a drop in the price of homes and an increase in the number of available units within the city.’
“In 2015, we’re down almost 28 per cent in total sales, versus 2014. Median sales price of houses changed a bit between 2014 and 2015,” said Linda Mack, a realtor with Re/Max Blue Chip Realty. “There is so much inventory available that people have had to drop their prices somewhat.”
“We have a lot of properties with about 180 properties for sale in Estevan,” said Mack. “About 12 units have been selling per month, for the last few months. That’s a lot of inventory, and we have a lot of condos for sale.”
‘As apartments sit empty across the city with Calgary in the grips of an oil downturn, many landlords are offering tenants rent reductions and incentives like free parking and utilities. Although no official figures are currently available, Baxter says vacancy rates are all over the map — from the low single digits to even a few buildings with vacancies around 20 per cent.’
“There just isn’t the tenant base here to be able to fill all of the units that are empty in this city at this time,” Baxter says. “Many of the landlords I speak with tell me they have nice property, they’re getting none to a few phone calls…. It’s taking them much, much longer to be able to be able to rent the units now,” he added.’
‘Lisa Reinhardt says the lease on her Beltine apartment was ending this month — and when she told her landlord she was looking around, they responded right away. “They actually offered me some money off my rent every month, in my case it was about $150. Then they offered me an incentive off of my first month’s rent after I signed,” she added.’
There are going to be a lot of apartment building foreclosures. Lenders have always considered apartments very safe collateral, thus advancing 80% loans. When rents drop, expenses rise and occupancy plummets, it is like taking a long walk off a short pier! There is no salvation.
‘The province’s self-regulating real estate watchdog is refusing to investigate realtors who may be involved in fraud and money-laundering, even as it’s tasked with investigating possibly widespread problems in the industry, the NDP’s housing critic charged in the BC Legislature.’
‘The Real Estate Council of B.C. is sitting on its hands despite credible evidence of realtors behaving badly – something the public shouldn’t tolerate with so much money at stake in Vancouver’s red hot market, David Eby said.’
“When the Real Estate Council receives credible information about realtors involved in fraud, or money laundering, they don’t ask police for assistance,” Eby said. “They don’t call the federal anti-money laundering agency FINTRAC. They don’t even open an investigation file. They do nothing,” he said.’
‘ Eby said the council had received 536 complaints and held just one investigation hearing last year, saying that is mounting evidence that the agency refuses to investigate “bad apple” realtors. He wrote a letter asking what the Real Estate Council planned to do about the case of Liang Wei, a realtor whose dealings were examined in a B.C. Securities Commission hearing.’
‘Eby said in the legislature that the hearing heard Wei assisted a client in opening a bank account with fraudulent information, and personally deposited money into that account. Instead of opening an investigation for possible sanctions against the realtor, Eby said the Council wrote back to him saying they could do nothing.’
I remember reporting appraisal fraud by sub prime lenders to the State of CA appraisal board. It was like talking to a rock. 2006. A decade later the Housing bubble is still impacting people.
Has the bursting Canada bubble had any effect on the number of all-cash Canadian investors in U.S. real estate?
‘Snowbirds rush to sell U.S. homes to profit from tanking loonie’
‘Arizona real estate agent Diane Olson, says she’s swamped with calls from Canadians itching to sell their U.S. properties to cash in. Olson says she has 29 Canadian-owned Arizona homes either on the market or about to be listed. “I am zooming, zooming, it’s crazy!” she says while driving on a Phoenix freeway, heading to her fourth meeting that day with a Canadian client.’
‘From buying frenzy to selling spree’
‘In Florida, Brent Leathwood is also seeing a surge of Canadians cashing out. The real estate agent says that when the loonie was stronger — from 2009 to 2013 — virtually all his Canadian clients wanted to buy. Now, he says, about 80 per cent of them want to sell their homes in the Sunshine State.’
‘But Leathwood adds it’s not just big profits that are encouraging people to sell. He says there’s a high price to pay these days when hanging on to U.S. property. Suddenly everything from American property taxes to electricity bills have become more expensive.’
“A lot of these people are feeling squeezed by the ongoing monthly costs of maintaining a residence as the exchange rate continues to go against them,” says Leathwood.’
Of course the article is a gold rush nature. That’s fine Mr Alberta, whoop it up. Just don’t put that shotgun in your mouth.
‘Snowbirds rush to sell U.S. homes to profit from tanking loonie’
Nobody could have seen it coming!
‘From buying frenzy to selling spree’
To quote George Takei: Ooooh Myyyyy!
‘In Florida, Brent Leathwood is also seeing a surge of Canadians cashing out. The real estate agent says that when the loonie was stronger — from 2009 to 2013 — virtually all his Canadian clients wanted to buy. Now, he says, about 80 per cent of them want to sell their homes in the Sunshine State.’
Let her rip.
What I wants ta know is, do any other states besides Florida use this little gem in RE listings: “Live the (insert name of state) dream!” ??
Does anyone say “Live the Michigan dream” “Live the Arizona dream”? Ohio dream? Georgia dream?
Just curious. I see this all the time in RE listings here: “Live the FLORIDA dream”. My guess is that it is probably used in California RE listings, too, but nowhere else. What’s up with that?
Orange City, FL Housing Market Craters; Prices Plunge 9% YoY As Rental Rates Dive
http://www.zillow.com/orange-city-fl/home-values/
‘If there’s more than one buyer putting an offer in on the property, then only one buyer’s going to win,’ Kiers said. ‘Whoever has the most money is going to buy the place.’
There’s the word win again. Here’s a little clue for any Canadian reporters out there. This article mentions blowout prices and sales numbers in Vancouver. But there’s a key function in supply and demand; the higher the price, the demand should go down. If that isn’t happening, something else is at work.
“Housing ‘Recovery’ Hope Humbled As Billings & Purchases Plunge”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-17/housing-recovery-hope-humbled-billings-purchases-plunge
Remember…. A housing ‘recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.
Anyone notice the financial media isn’t saying the markets are volatile now that the S&P went up 5% in three days?
The whole thing is Orwellian, false, deceptive, dangerous, corrupt and corrosive…. brought to us by ‘central planning’.
Yes. Looks like it’s been engineered to let the extractive class take their money out, leaving the muppets holding the bag.
I’ve noticed the same thing. The mainstream media is really burying the daily market report these days, even on NPR.
all those housing slump areas yet Crooklyn wants to build a super tall building
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/1066-Foot-Tall-Tower-Proposed-for-Brooklyn-Would-Be-Boroughs-Tallest-369220671.html
Competing with Manhattan to see who can accumulate the most dark, empty towers.
‘Whoever has the most money is going to buy the place.’”
“Whoever can take on the most debt is going to mortgage the place.’”
Fix’t it.
China has around 1.3 billion people right? That makes 13 million ‘one percenters’. If just 10% of their 1%er’s choose Vancouver that is 1.3 million people with lots of money to bid on shacks. I’m assuming there’s a few 2 and 3 percenters who might like to own there as well.
Brilliant public policy we have today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/mgm-loss-misses-estimates-as-gamblers-continue-to-shun-macau?cmpid=yhoo.headline
Ventura, CA Housing Market Rolls Over; Prices Plunge 16% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/ventura-ca/market-trends/
Any reports from silicon valley now that the unicorns died
Collapsing demand and….. you guessed it. Falling prices.
The Economist is worried enough about collapsing demand to suggest firing up the helicopters.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21693204-central-bankers-are-running-down-their-arsenal-other-options-exist-stimulate
‘Things are not going to get any better for shipping in 2016 with a senior shipping banker saying this week there was no can left to kick down the road.’
‘Speaking at the Capital Link Greek Shipping Forum, Henriette Brent-Petersen, of DVB Bank said, “2015 changed the perception of shipping and this will continue in 2016. The mindset of the banker will now not see all sectors with the same glasses.’
‘Banks will look more carefully at the demand side, as demand is different for each sector, she said, warning, “It is going to get worse in 2016.”
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/banker-warns-shipowners-no-can-left-to-be-kicked-down-the-road/
At least he can get laid for a bologna sandwich.
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2 days ago … “Obama the Grave Digger” Ben Garrison cartoon.