The Price For Unsellable Properties Is Just Too Damn High
The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. “The median price for existing, single-family homes in January hit $285,000 in both Palm Beach and Broward counties, local Realtor boards said. That represented annual increases of 4 percent in Palm Beach and 8 percent in Broward. The number of home listings remains low across South Florida, and that typically gives sellers the upper hand. Even so, real estate agents say they’re noticing a shift in the market that’s giving buyers more leverage than they’ve enjoyed in the past few years. Many sellers are overpricing their properties, but savvy buyers can see the padded prices and are refusing to cave, agents say.”
“‘Sellers are being irrationally exuberant, and that’s playing into buyers’ favor,’ said Gary Lanham, an agent with Coldwell Banker in South Florida. Lanham said a Fort Lauderdale house recently was listed for $396,000 — a heady price for a two-bedroom property with no pool. Finding a few issues with the inspection report, a prospective buyer, Lanham’s client, insisted on and received a $15,000 discount off the sale price. The deal is expected to close in March. ‘Buyers have a lot of confidence right now,’ Lanham said.”
The New York Post. “Manhattan’s real estate market may be at an all-time high (median sale price: $1.15 million) — and weighted with cutthroat competition — but that doesn’t mean every single apartment is getting snapped up. No-buyer syndrome disproportionately affects very expensive properties. More than a dozen experts interviewed by The Post agree the price for most of these ‘unsellable’ properties is just too damn high.”
“‘If the apartment has been sitting on the market for more than a couple years, there’s a problem,’ says CityRealty’s director of research Gabby Warshawer. ‘The market is responding. It’s saying, ‘No!’”
The Green Valley News in Arizona. “Challenging. That’s how Ginger Kneup, with Bright Future Real Estate Research, summed up the regional and local housing market this week. She presented a similar outlook to the Sahuarita Town Council. The greater Tucson region in general – and Sahuarita in particular – continue to have a market plagued with a high number of foreclosures, a lack of demand and the stumbling block of slow job growth. Kneup said part of having so many distressed homes on the market means it’s harder for existing houses to appreciate in value.”
“In Sahuarita, the difference between the price of a resale and a new home is about $70,000, she said. So new homes in the area are competing against larger homes built only 10 years ago that haven’t appreciated, Kneup said. ‘A 2,600-square foot home should be a move-up home, but it’s not,’ she said.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer on New Jersey. “As New Jersey lawmakers consider taking over Atlantic City’s finances and asking voters to approve casino expansion to the northern part of the state, a new report paints a bleak picture of the ailing resort town’s underlying economics. Job loss is the new normal, the labor force is in ‘free fall,’ and the housing market is ‘moribund,’ according to a report by the South Jersey Economic Review, published by the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.”
“The metro area’s population declined last year for the first time since the late 1970s. Meantime, one in every 261 residential properties in Atlantic County was in some state of foreclosure in December, more than double the statewide rate and nearly five times the national rate, the report says.”
From Bloomberg. “Dale Oxley doesn’t need to hear about rising odds of a U.S. recession to dread the future. For the West Virginia homebuilder, the downturn has already arrived. ‘Everyone is going to have to tighten their belts,’ said Oxley, the 48-year-old owner of a Charleston-area construction company. ‘The next couple of years are going to be difficult.’”
“Four states — Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — are in a recession, and three others are at risk of prolonged declines, according to indexes of state economic performance tracked by Moody’s Analytics. The regions suffering the most are in the flop stage of the energy industry’s boom-to-bust cycle, and manufacturing-dependent areas hurt by a rising dollar are at risk of receding. Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma are all at risk of recession, according to Moody’s. Wyoming and North Dakota’s economies have declined for at least the past 10 months, according to the Philadelphia Fed.”
“Oxley’s Modern Home Concepts built four $500,000 custom homes last year in southern West Virginia, down from five in 2014 and fewer than half 2009’s level, when the last U.S. recession ended. ‘There is not a lot of job creation and you are not creating new households,’ he said. ‘I am not optimistic in regard to our future in West Virginia.’”
From MTN News. “From good times to bad in the Bakken oil region of western North Dakota and eastern Montana — in just 15 months. Officials in Williston, North Dakota — the heart of the region — stress that their town is still open for business, but the reality of the boom and bust cycle of the nation’s oil industry is taking a toll. Over the past year and a half, the city of Williston went from the fastest growing small city in the country to a town dealing with layoffs, and nervous investors.”
“Hotel room vacancies in town are now running close to 30 percent; at the height of the boom, hotel vacancies in Williston were rare. If you were lucky enough to find a room, nightly rates of more than $300 were commonplace. A shortage of housing has flipped to a market where apartment vacancies now run around 40 percent. Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms says the oil price weakness is now anticipated to last well into this year’s third quarter. ‘Operators are now even more committed to running fewer rigs as oil prices remain at very low levels,’ said Helms.”
The Casper Star Tribune in Wyoming. “Fewer listings are on the market than at this time last year, and a slightly lower number of homes have closed, Burridge said, but the average sale price of a home has actually increased. The average sale price for residential properties in Natrona County in January 2015 was $225,142, she said, and this year it’s $232,248. ‘If they’re going to sell, and they want to sell, they’re not going to be ridiculous with their pricing,’ said local Realtor and developer Lisa Burridge. ‘They’re going to be much more conservative, take a much more conservative approach and list the property at the right price to begin with.’”
“It felt like a handful of people would come in each week and tell Elizabeth Meyers they lost their jobs, they were moving out of the state and that they were leaving almost immediately. Meyers, the business manager at The Preserve at Greenway Park said that at this time last year, almost all the apartments were full. Three-bedroom apartment rent prices have fallen by 27 percent in the last year, Meyers said, and that was done just to keep The Preserve above water during Casper’s economic decline. ‘We’re trying to stay competitive enough to maintain some occupancy,’ she said.”
“Even offering a free month’s rent hasn’t restored occupancy at luxury apartments like The Preserve. The complex opened when Casper was booming and is now experiencing the busts that Casper residents know all too well. ‘I would argue — I mean, we are are the most expensive — we would argue we’re the nicest in town,’ Meyers said. ‘I think that because of that, we’ve lost a huge part of our demographic, which are the people making really good money in oil-related positions. Any of the good-paying jobs just seem to have kind of dissipated.’”
“‘If the apartment has been sitting on the market for more than a couple years, there’s a problem,’ says CityRealty’s director of research Gabby Warshawer. ‘The market is responding. It’s saying, ‘No!’”
My God these realty folks are exceptionally observant aren’t they?
‘At One57, Extell Development raised prices at least 10 times to push some of the world’s richest buyers to their limits. But at its latest project on the Lower East Side, the developer is flipping the script by lowering the target sellout.’
‘Extell dropped the sellout price at One Manhattan Square by $207.3 million to a total of $1.87 billion, according to a Jan. 22 amendment to the building’s offering plan.’
“We’re going to be very conservative here,” Extell chief Gary Barnett told The Real Deal. He disputed the notion of having cut prices per se, instead describing the markdown as a change to early placeholder prices to better match the current market, which is showing signs of a slowdown at the top.’
“We priced it where we want to start and we think we’ll raise prices from where we’re starting now,” he said.’
‘Last fall, Extell said it would start marketing One Manhattan Square in Asia, giving buyers in China, Malaysia and Singapore first crack at scooping up units. Despite turmoil in China’s financial market, Barnett said demand among Chinese buyers remains high.’
‘The New York Attorney General approved One Manhattan Square’s offering plan in October, and Barnett said a “fair amount” of buyers signed at the original prices, though he wouldn’t disclose further details. Extell gave those buyers price reductions after filing the Jan. 22 amendment, Barnett said. “We didn’t want to be unfair,” he told TRD.’
Sure Gary, and you also just put them underwater by a few million and don’t want them to bail.
‘5 telltale signs the Miami condo market has peaked’
‘Real estate brokers get a sense of changes before things hit the headlines because we are on the ground on a daily basis talking to prospective buyers and sellers, listing and showing properties, and sharing our recent experiences with colleagues. The average homeowner or prospective homeowner does not get (or believe) the message until it comes out in a market-damning front-page headline.’
‘1. Relaxing finance options and standards. Obtaining financing is becoming easier than a year or two ago as lenders look for ways to attract a new pool of buyers. Fannie Mae approved condos can now close with only 5% down payments and nonconforming condos can close with 10% down payments; 20% down payment would have been the typical minimum just a short while ago.’
‘2. Lots of new real estate licensees. If you live in Miami, you probably know a handful of people who recently obtained their real estate license, are studying for their license or were out of real estate for a while and ready to jump in because they read in the newspapers that “the market is hot.” When someone makes a decision to jump in a hot market from reading the news or hearing about glamorous parties thrown by developers, it’s usually a little late to enter the market as a real estate agent.’
‘3. Loosening preconstruction deposit standards. While developers have strong sales momentum, it is too much of a hassle to make exceptions or compromises as the signed contracts come flooding in at a nice pace. But when sales get soft, developers have to find new ways to attracts ready buyers. When developers start advertising exceptions it is a clue that they are looking for a new pool of buyers as their existing pool is running dry. A number of projects, including Le Parc at Brickell and Brickell Heights, have publicly announced that they have reduced their deposit standards.’
‘4. Reading between the headlines. Even when the market headlines remain positive or nuanced, quotes from developers usually offer clues as to the market momentum. To achieve their goals of selling their inventory, developers need to be overly positive to create sales momentum and a sense of urgency for their products. When they start getting nuanced with their predictions and view of the current market, you know the market momentum is slowing. In a recent article from The Real Deal, developers were quoted using words like “equilibrium”, “balanced market” and “healthy market”, telltale signs that the preconstruction market had slowed. (Occasionally we get a refreshingly honest quote from a developer like Gil Dezer, when he said in a Miami Herald article in October, “Anyone who tells you they’re not feeling the slowdown is lying.”) Headlines about long-time Miami developers selling off some of their developable land assets gives us a similar perspective on where the market is heading.’
‘5. Cancelation of proposed new construction projects. In the past nine months a number of preconstruction projects have been canceled, Including Ion in East Edgewater, Six Midtown, Edge Residences in Brickell, Bath Club Estates in Miami Beach and others. Developers don’t cancel projects unless developers know their properties won’t sell.’
Cancelation of proposed new construction projects. In the past nine months a number of preconstruction projects have been canceled..Developers don’t cancel projects unless developers know their properties won’t sell ??
Particularly today with the scars of the 2009 rout…Pre-development (entitlements) are not that expensive…The next stage is a bit more expense with plans, engineering and plan check fees to finally get to the permit table…At this point, the Go/No Go decision is made..This is the point where a lot of projects go on the shelf due to the massive commitment of money thats required….
Fitbit Inc. (FIT) -NYSE
12.24 Down 0.84(6.42%) 9:40AM
52wk Range: 12.03 - 51.90
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=fit&ql=1
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -NasdaqGS
540.01 Down 12.93(2.34%) 12:16PM EST
52wk Range: 365.65 - 696.44
P/E (ttm): 431.97
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=amzn
There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a hole, there’s a hole,
There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea.
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In the bottom of the sea,
There’s a log in the hole
In the bottom of the sea,
There’s a log, there’s a log,
There’s a log in the hole
In the bottom of the sea.
There’s a branch on the log in the hole
In the bottom of the sea,
There’s a branch on the log in the hole
In the bottom of the sea,
There’s a branch, there’s a branch,
There’s a branch on the log in the hole
In the bottom of the sea.
There’s a bump on the branch on the log
In the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a bump on the branch on the log
In the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a bump, there’s a bump,
There’s a bump on the branch on the log
In the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There’s a frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a frog, there’s a frog,
There’s a frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There’s a tail on the frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a tail on the frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a tail, there’s a tail,
There’s a tail on the frog on the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There’s a speck on the tail on the frog
On the bump on the branch
On the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a speck on the tail on the frog
On the bump on the branch
on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a speck, there’s a speck,
There’s a speck on the tail on the frog
On the bump on the branch on the log
In the hole in the bottom of the sea.
There’s a fleck on the speck on the tail
On the frog on the bump on the branch
On the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a fleck on the speck on the tail
On the frog on the bump On the branch
On the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea,
There’s a fleck, there’s a fleck,
There’s a fleck on the speck on the tail
On the frog on the bump on the branch
On the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea.
I remember this song well! Can’t remember if it was YMCA camp or Boy Scouts.
Down from a high of 51.90?
And there are so many stupid apps/products trying to hitch a ride on the Fitbit fitness bandwagon, whoops.
Fitbit’s greatest effect maybe widespread “self licensing” of sedentary tech slobs.
“There’s also a much more subversive reason exercise causes us to overeat. It not only increases hunger but it gives many of us the permission to indulge. The phenomenon is called moral licensing — the psychological tendency to splurge in one area of our life when we’re being good in another.
Moral licensing is why a study found people “are more likely to cheat and steal after purchasing [environmentally] green products as opposed to conventional products.” It’s why other studies found participants who believed multivitamin pills provided significant health benefits also exercised less, were less likely to choose healthy food, and smoked more cigarettes.”
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/13/your-fitness-app-is-making-you-fat/
Most of the fitbit wearers I’ve seen are quite heavy. Is fitbit helping them or are they just trying to get physical fitness do-gooders off of their a$$?
Denver, CO Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 19% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/highland-denver-co/home-values/
‘Mike Thompson, Managing Director and Chairman at Standard & Poor’s Investment Advisory Services, said he didn’t think investors knew how to respond to Trump’s run. “I think markets are in a kind of a state of disbelief. I don’t think they’ve ever seen anything like this.”
‘Thompson said the election process itself was like something that nobody has ever dealt with. “It’s like somebody broke all the rules.”
Like the rule that “the Establishment” gets to pick the nominees? Just who is this establishment? Can we have a few names? Where do they meet and how could there be two establishments? Who decides the rules Mike?
“the Establishment” gets to pick the nominees? Just who is this establishment ??
I would submit that its Corporate America and wealthy individuals compounded to the 10th degree with the citizens united decision…It turns people like Rove, Adleson, Soros and others lose on the american electorate from state offices all the way up to the Presidency…Term limits and more restrictive campaign financing would go a long ways to improving the way elect our representatives…
“Just who is this establishment ??”
The establishment is made up from the selected few, the anointed ones, the anointed ones being the ones who are anointed by other anointed ones.
If this explanation sounds a bit circular then that’s because it is.
“It’s a private club and you aren’t a member.” G. Carlin
I was amazed when Bush was bragging about being part of the Establishment. What kinda banana republic is this? These super rich guys just expect to buy the election and pass the baton from one family member to the other.
BTW, if Trump won Nevada he must have gotten a lot of Hispanic votes. And I’ve mentioned here before illegal immigration hurts Hispanics just as much or more than everyone else, as the Arizona referendums have shown.
illegal immigration hurts Hispanics ??
Both in image and their pocket books…..
“the Establishment”
It’s no joke that they think they are in a different class. I imagine you would have a hard time explaining to them that they are not.
“January New Home Sales Collapse Most Since 2009 As Prices Plunge To 2-Year Lows”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/january-new-home-sales-collapse-most-2009-prices-plunge-2-year-lows
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-home-sales-fall-sharply-150339251.html
A comment:
“The last sentence “The median price for a new home fell 4.5% from a year ago” should have been the first sentence and the whole story, instead they spent the whole article trying to put lipstick on a pig. Thanks for the propaganda.”
The national economy is what regional economies add up to.
Overall weakness as disguised by growth in the oil and gas states and Texas generally, and a few innovation centers such as NY, Boston, SF, SD, Seattle, Denver etc. that young people not on heroin are desperately moving to in order to get a life. That disguised the lack of recovery elsewhere.
The pain is spreading outward and upward.
The early 1990s recession was much worse in the Northeast and California than anything that has happened there since. It lagged the last oil bust by a few years.
1990s recession was much worse in the Northeast and California ??
Yep…It was also quite long….It was a double whammy for my area because of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake…
I think CA housing suffered much worse in 2007-2012 than it did fro 1990-1995
“…but savvy buyers can see the padded prices and are refusing to cave, agents say.”
Wish we had buyers like this in SoCal! They’re tossing money at crap shacks like it’s nothing!
Where the heck are these SoCal money flush buyers getting all this cash!? I want some too, so I can pay cash for an overpriced crap shack!
It’s all borrowed money, especially in locations where wholesale fraud has drive prices like CA. But keep in mind housing demand in CA is at 30 year lows.
Zillow has Palm Beach County at $223 median.
But the SFH is up at 313. The peak was last August.
“From good times to bad in the Bakken oil region of western North Dakota and eastern Montana — in just 15 months. Officials in Williston, North Dakota — the heart of the region — stress that their town is still open for business, but the reality of the boom and bust cycle of the nation’s oil industry is taking a toll.”
Imagine an economy based on this sort of pro forma - in a matter of 15 months upside down. That does not make for a sustainable and stable life. Welcome to the new Murika courtesy of Carter, Clinton, Bush and obamynomics.
AND……
Green Valley AZ
“Challenging. That’s how Ginger Kneup, with Bright Future Real Estate Research, summed up the regional and local housing market this week. She presented a similar outlook to the Sahuarita Town Council. The greater Tucson region in general – and Sahuarita in particular – continue to have a market plagued with a high number of foreclosures, a lack of demand and the stumbling block of slow job growth. Kneup said part of having so many distressed homes on the market means it’s harder for existing houses to appreciate in value.”
Isn’t this the area that Ben did a video in?
No I haven’t been to Tucson in years. I get listing emailed to me though. Prices are much lower than Phoenix, except around the University. There it’s bubble city in the multi-family.
lots of really old homes in North east Tucson, Flat roofs, cinder block construction, Funky Elicher angles. 1960’s Dated.
Probably as energy efficient as a tent.
“No I haven’t been to Tucson in years.”
Not much curb appeal in most of Tucson, IMHO.
“‘Sellers are being irrationally exuberant, and that’s playing into buyers’ favor,’ said Gary Lanham, an agent with Coldwell Banker in South Florida. Lanham said a Fort Lauderdale house recently was listed for $396,000 — a heady price for a two-bedroom property with no pool. Finding a few issues with the inspection report, a prospective buyer, Lanham’s client, insisted on and received a $15,000 discount off the sale price. The deal is expected to close in March. ‘Buyers have a lot of confidence right now,’ Lanham said.”
If it goes like last time those buyers are going to wish they had asked for a $150,000 discount instead of $15,000.
And that may not be enough.
WATCH the 60 minute video at the bottom of this article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/new-big-short-australias-housing-bubble-grip-insanity
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/theres-reason-excited-u-housing-152551847.html
is HA excited?
How many years have I been in your skull?
Rent free even!!
“Four states — Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — are in a recession, and three others are at risk of prolonged declines, according to indexes of state economic performance tracked by Moody’s Analytics.”
Crap can happen when you price yer life at $100 oil and field men buy
$50K Ford Raptors.
Sorry….I meant put $50K Ford Raptors on a payment schedule.
‘The world’s most powerful oilman brought a harsh message to Houston for executives hoping for a rescue from low prices: high-cost producers — many of them sitting in the room — need to either “lower costs, borrow cash or liquidate.”
‘As many as 74 North American producers face significant difficulties in sustaining debt, according to credit rating firm Moody’s Investors Service. Shale explorers from Texas to North Dakota will be “decimated” in coming months amid a wave of restructurings and bankruptcies, said Mark Papa, the former EOG Resources Inc. chief executive officer who helped create the shale industry more than a decade ago.’
‘For the oil industry itself, the warning is a sign of more months — and perhaps years — of financial pain. The S&P 500 Oil and Gas index has fallen roughly 60 percent since mid-2014 to its lowest since 2009. The debt of junk-rated U.S. oil companies is yielding more than 20 percent, the highest in at least 20 years, according to Bank of America Corp.’
‘Naimi told the executives in Houston that Saudi Arabia believed that freezing oil production — as it just agreed with Russia — would be enough to eventually balance the market. Over time, high-cost producers will get out of the business, and rising demand will slowly eat up the oversupply, he said. The International Energy Agency believes that means another two years of low prices.’
‘The freeze agreement isn’t “cutting production. That is not going to happen,” Naimi said. “Cutting low-cost production to subsidize higher cost supplies only delays an inevitable reckoning.”
‘”Shale oil in the United States, I don’t know how we are going to live together,” Abdalla Salem El-Badri, OPEC secretary-general, told the same conference in Houston on Monday. Naimi made clear, however, he knew how OPEC would coexist with high cost producers like shale: putting as many companies as possible out of business.’
‘While Naimi insisted that Saudi Arabia wasn’t at war with shale, or any other producer, he was clear in his aim. “We are doing what every other industry representative in this room is doing,” he told the audience. “Efficient markets will determine where on the cost curve the marginal barrel resides.”
“It’s going to be really, really ugly to get through this valley,” Papa said.’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-23/saudi-arabia-to-u-s-oilmen-cut-costs-or-get-out-of-business?cmpid=yhoo.headline
‘putting as many companies as possible out of business’
That must have made the post-conference meet and greet kinda awkward.
San Pedro, CA Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 6% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-pedro-los-angeles-ca/home-values/
‘Helping companies sell debt had been one of Wall Street’s brightest businesses in recent years, but that’s starting to fade. Corporations are borrowing less, in large part because investors aren’t as willing to lend. That means fewer fees for the big banks that help them sell the deals.’
‘How much less? Well, take a look at high-yield bond underwriting in the U.S., one of the most lucrative corners of this business. It’s off to the slowest pace since 2009, with just $17.7 billion sold so far this year compared with $45.5 billion in the period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The estimated fees tied to these sales have fallen to $138.9 million this year from $500 million in the period last year and $895 million in the period in 2013.’
‘On the corporate side, this means that companies need to actually start paying off their debts rather than just relying on the ability to refinance indefinitely. Chesapeake Energy, for example, signed agreements to divest $700 million in gas fields and other assets to pay off the remainder of a half-billion dollar debt that is coming due in three weeks, it said Wednesday.’
‘The overall pool of underwriting fees for banks is dropping, without much to compensate for it. The slower pace of debt sales also signals more defaults ahead. Years of Fed stimulus helped keep the balls in the air, but they are starting to fall, and it’s unclear what can hold them up at this point.’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-st-debt-gain-gives-163156223.html
Oh dear…
‘Should Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen be worried about life under a President Donald Trump?’
‘Trump is looking more and more like the potential Republican presidential nominee after his landslide victory in the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday.’
‘And just two days ago, Trump tweeted that he thinks the Fed should be audited.’
‘Former Fed chair Ben Bernanke argued in January that an audit raises the risk that “reviews and recommendations concerning individual monetary policy decisions would provide a vehicle for members of Congress to apply political pressure on the Fed.”
‘But Trump actually has already accused the Fed of being too political. In an interview with The Hill in October, Trump said Yellen was keeping interest rates low so President Obama “doesn’t want to have a recession-slash-depression during his administration.”
‘Trump has repeatedly expressed concerns that the stock market is a bubble waiting to burst because of Fed policies. He told CNBC in September 2012 that Bernanke’s quantitative easing program of buying mortgage-backed securities was leading to “phony numbers” in the economy.’
‘Based on what Trump has said about Yellen, it seems he would want someone who is willing to hike interest rates far more dramatically than the current Fed. The stock market may not like that very much though.’
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/24/news/economy/donald-trump-federal-reserve-audit-the-fed/index.html
“Debt Is The Cause, Not The Cure”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-23/debt-cause-not-cure
Borrowing for 15 or 30 years to finance a rapidly depreciating asset like a house at a grossly inflated price is a tragic error you never want to make.
A press release I just came across:
‘Just this week it was announced we are in a buyers’ market in certain segments of the Real Estate Market in Houston. Certainly confirmed by the announcement and scheduling of an Auction of the remaining inventory of the Oasis Pointe Condominiums in The Woodlands; scheduled for Saturday, March 5.’
‘This is certainly the first real estate auction in quite some time in the Houston market. Is this the first of many to come? Certainly the slide of the economy in 2008 generated several auctions in our market from 2008-2010.’
http://www.mmdnewswire.com/mark-thomas-assoc-condo-auction-houston-131655.html
Previous buyers, you are now underwater!
NDDOT cuts temporary workforce as gas taxes, other user revenues drop
http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/business/3954442-nddot-cuts-temporary-workforce-gas-taxes-other-user-revenues-drop
increased across King County 9.35 percent, largely driven by the generosity of voters. In Seattle, taxes jumped even higher — about 15 percent on average. Seattle’s hike was largely thanks to a major transportation levy, funding of a metropolitan park district and a publicly financed campaign voucher system
WOW ! pols are making a big grab before prices fall. Much harder to hit j6p when they know prices are heading down.
Also 9% tax increase = about 2% equity lose over 15 years=ouch