Investors Remained Caught In Property Euphoria
The Wall Street Journal reports on the UK. “A major U.K. landlord warned Tuesday that the boom in global real estate is coming to an end. London-based Grosvenor Group said in its annual report that years of rising property values could be set to reverse. Grosvenor is continuing to ‘expect and plan for a slowdown, particularly in high-end commercial and residential property,’ Mr. Scarles said. Other historic landlords in Britain have also been preparing for a downturn.”
“In addition to high property values, ‘there is a risk that sustained low oil prices could lead to sovereign-wealth funds reducing investment in high-end commercial and residential property in London and elsewhere,’ he said. ‘All of this points to a correction in the near future,’ he said. Prices of luxury housing in these areas have fallen in the past year. ‘In the U.K., the top end of the residential market in London has passed its peak,’ said Mark Preston, Grosvenor’s chief executive, in the report.”
From Al-Arabiya on Dubai. “Dubai residential property prices fell 10 percent in the first three months of the year because of a strong dollar and as buyers had less cash to spend following the oil price slump, industry consultants JLL said. The Dubai real estate sector has softened since late 2014 after a three-year boom fed by an influx of cash from politically unstable Arab nations. But tougher borrowing regulations and higher transaction fees helped cool the market, with sales volumes slumping last year along with prices.”
“That trend has continued into 2016, JLL notes, estimating apartment and house prices fell by 10 and 11 percent in the first quarter year-on-year. Rents dropped 5 percent over the same period. On Monday, the chairman and founder of Emaar Properties , builder of the world’s tallest tower and Dubai’s biggest developer, revealed he was ‘really scared’ of market conditions coming into 2016.”
The Daily Nation on Kenya. “Housing in Nairobi is nearing ‘hyper supply’ in the real estate cycle after more than a decade of super growth, new reports indicate. It occurs when supply starts to exceed demand. Experts say the oversupply being witnessed is as a result of investors commencing construction without doing market research. ‘There is too much construction going on, a lot of it is by investors who are building without knowing what the market wants,’ said Mr James Hoddell, chief executive of Mentor Management Ltd.”
“‘People with money just decide to construct at the nearest available piece of land. The result is an oversupply in certain sub-sectors of the market,’ he added.”
The Straits Times in Singapore. “Prices of luxury homes are hitting new lows at several developments as owners offload properties amid plunging rents. An owner at Cairnhill Plaza is said to have sold his roughly 3,000 sq ft four-bedder for about $1,300 per sq ft (psf) - the lowest psf price recorded at the project since 2007. It is believed he was pressured to sell as his private bank did not want to handle an auction sale. A 678 sq ft studio apartment at The Sail @ Marina Bay went for $1,475 psf in late February, a price not seen at the project in over five years.”
“Some owners are selling due to business problems or job losses, experts noted. Others may fear the outlook could deteriorate further. While not all sellers would have lost money - The Sail @ Marina Bay was launched in 2004 at prices from about $900 psf, for example - more sellers are booking losses. Across the Core Central Region (CCR) - which includes the traditional prime Districts 9 to 11, the downtown core planning area and Sentosa Cove - 63 secondary market sales of condos lost money in the first quarter, according to SRX Property. This is up from 35 of such sales a year earlier and 60 in the fourth quarter last year.”
“At Orange Grove Residences, for example, all three transactions this year have each involved losses of close to $1 million.”
The International Business Times on China. “The names and the slogans are alluring: ‘In the city, on the mountain, villa life,’ says one. ‘Rain Valley — Zhuzhou’s first love-themed garden,’ proclaims another. ‘Luxury Bay,’ ‘Luxury Mansions,’ ‘Original French-style villas and row houses,’ the aspirational list continues. Yet in the city center, where most of the population still actually lives, the slogans on the advertising boards are more down-to-earth and suggest that all may not be quite so rosy in the garden of real estate, in this city in south-central China.”
“‘Buy one get one free!’ says an advertisement for units in a new commercial building. ‘Pay 1,000 yuan upfront to join our group-purchasing collective, and we’ll give you an extra room for just 1 yuan more!’ tempts another. And there are many others: ‘Free home electronics, no tax, free maintenance fund;’ ‘Free leisure balcony;’ ‘Cheaper price this month;’ ‘See two rooms become three rooms;’ ‘Buy an apartment and we’ll give you a free storefront for a year’ … the opportunities seem endless.”
“‘Zhuzhou has an inventory problem — there are a lot of empty places that are pretty hard to sell,’ sighs one middle-class citizen. ‘And the tendency has been for prices to fall.’ Some people are selling properties they bought in the last boom at a loss, according to one agent. ‘They bought as an investment, but now they need the money, so they have to sell,’ he says.”
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “When one of Australia’s most renowned real estate spruikers teamed up with a bunch of investment bank spruikers to float the real estate agency on stock exchange there was always going to be a fair bet it would end up in tears. Those tears are now being shed by the investors in McGrath Ltd who pumped in $288 million to buy shares last December which are now worth $127 million. This high-profile real estate group McGrath Ltd has fallen victim to Australia’s deflating property bubble.”
“And those who took shares in the float have broken several of the cardinal rules of investing – including buying business rather than brand, and buying at the top rather than the bottom of the industry cycle. John McGrath took $37 million out of the float which got underway close to the pinnacle of the property bubble – even though there were some early signs that the heat could soon started seeping out of the property market. Banking industry regulators had already started to tighten bank lending parameters and the the first of the big four banks, Westpac, had edged up its interest rate.”
“But the broader sharemarket to a large part glossed over these early red flags and remained caught in property euphoria. And it wasn’t just any property cycle. It was one that saw prices move up by 50 per cent in three years. There was no room in the McGrath float price for a slowdown in the market, only for super success. And certainly nothing in the listing price to absorb ‘unforeseen’ deterioration in the property market.”
‘investors in McGrath Ltd who pumped in $288 million to buy shares last December which are now worth $127 million’
Easy come, easy go.
‘McGrath said the slump in listings and sales started to emerge in late March, but the extent of the decline in recent weeks was unforeseen and sudden. “McGrath has continued to experience an unforeseen low volume of listings and sales in the first half of April, particularly in the north and northwestern suburbs of Sydney,” a company statement said.’
‘The company said the fall was in line with the market in the areas. There has been a sharp fall in auction clearance rates in recent weeks. Patersons Securities economist Tony Farnham said there was also concern that interest from Chinese investors in Sydney and Melbourne property markets was easing.’
“Sydney and Melbourne has been the place to go and now they have topped out,” he said.’
‘The Reserve Bank has warned that a sharp economic slowdown in China would hurt the apartment markets in Sydney and Melbourne because Chinese buyer activity was prevalent in those cities. The RBA also warned that a wave of new apartments coming onto the market in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane may weigh on property prices and rents.’
‘With rental yields on residential properties in Sydney and Melbourne at record lows, residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued in 2016 and 2017 could be in for a rough ride, says Moody’s Investors Service.’
“Should capital gains not materialise, these investors will suffer significant losses and their behaviour towards their investment loan servicing obligations may change,” the report predicted. “The incentive to continue servicing their investments (thereby continuing to suffer further cash flow losses), will diminish, resulting in greater levels of investor loan defaults.”
‘“The higher risk of 2014 and 2015 investor loans is particularity significant, given the high-growth in investor lending during this period. “A total of $154.5 billion worth of residential property investment loans were advanced between January 2014 and December 2015, a 50 per cent increase over the prior two-year period. Investor lending constituted 43 per cent of total housing lending between January 2014 and end-2015, compared with 39 per cent over the prior two years.”
‘Should capital gains not materialise…their behaviour towards their investment loan servicing obligations may change’
Smart guys, at Moody’s. Really on the ball.
Winning.
“We’re really, really rocking”
Mathematically eliminated.
Yes sir^
“In addition to high property values, ‘there is a risk that sustained low oil prices could lead to sovereign-wealth funds reducing investment in high-end commercial and residential property in London and elsewhere,’ he said. ‘All of this points to a correction in the near future,’ he said. Prices of luxury housing in these areas have fallen in the past year. ‘In the U.K., the top end of the residential market in London has passed its peak,’ said Mark Preston, Grosvenor’s chief executive, in the report.”
It would be awesome if the oil crash proved to be the precipitating factor that ends the global property mania.
It would be awesome if the oil crash proved to be the precipitating factor that ends the global property mania.
He may point at that, but that doesn’t make it true. They’ll both fall, because they’re both mis-priced; one falling first doesn’t mean that it caused the other.
Consider what lifted the price of oil and housing in the first place. That is what is faltering.
+infinity, Blue. They are both mis-priced due to the same thing: central bank actions.
Since oil crashed first, it is plausibly a cause for subsequent property price declines. But then wasn’t the China slowdown what caused commodities to crash?
The oil racketeers were not the first ones to notice that the music had stopped. China didn’t need even to slow down, simply to stop growing parabolically.
Will China’s debt and credit bubble explode before ours?
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-train-wreck-2016-4
‘China engineered a 6.7 percent year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter the old-fashioned way: via a huge injection of credit. Borrowing increased at a stratospheric 58 percent annual rate in the first quarter, taking credit to a figure approaching nearly half of output in nominal terms.’
‘That this money is going disproportionately into all the wrong areas - housing, manufacturing, infrastructure and state-owned companies - is a problem for China. Short term this has helped to stabilize Chinese markets and growth, but longer term it leaves China with more debt with which to reckon, more unneeded capacity to ultimately cut, and further away from its goal of an economy balanced more on domestic consumption and less on investment.’
Page 1 torn directly from the Fedres playbook. Nothing like solving a problem by making the solution twice as difficult.
There’s a reckoning on the horizon. It’s a painful reckoning for the debt-burdened holding depreciating assets. A rare and extremely lucrative proposition for those with cash reserves.
Yellen the Felon is debasing those “cash reserves” into worthlessness.
Let the prices fall my friend. Let the prices fall.
It seems like increasingly huge injections of credit are needed to hold the China bubble aloft. At what point does this fail to work at all?
Just returned from New Zealand where we had the pleasure of spending time and dinners with Aussies and Kiwis. Housing discussion centered on the astronomical prices in Melbourne and Auckland in NZ. Newspaper article noted that “Auckland’s prices are now more than 70 per cent higher than they were at the last peak.”
I caught an online version of the same paper I was reading while in NZ with an article on concerns of rising housing prices across NZ:
“The interesting things here is not necessarily the Auckland market, but the fact that housing markets across almost the whole of New Zealand are ramping up, the sharemarket is also rising and debt levels are rising.
“All of this indicates that low interest rates are playing a role.”
Possible options for the Reserve Bank included raising “loan to value” ratios in the regions, which are 10 per cent.
Auckland’s “LVRs” are 15 per cent, which mean banks cannot make more than 15 per cent of new loans to homeowners with less than a 20 per cent deposit while investors must have 30 per cent.
A second option would be to require banks to have more capital on hand but it had already done this before.
Stephens said that if anything, there was more of a case for it now with household debt levels rising. Mortgage credit levels have risen within the space of a year, from 5 per cent annually to 8 per cent now.
The third option was a completely new restriction, lending based on debt to income ratios.
On the education front, an Aussie professor from Melbourne stated that the country was well aware of the student debt problem in the US and were keen to avoid the same. As I recall they said their system loaned money to students up front but repayment happens when a certain income level is reached. (I’m not sure what happens if that level is never reached?). NZ and probably Australia are somewhat restrictive on who comes in and what they will do for work, perhaps that is the difference in job availability.
And of course they have their own intertwined economic dependence on China money whether it’s housing, education or products like milk powder.
“Stephens said that if anything, there was more of a case for it now with household debt levels rising. Mortgage credit levels have risen within the space of a year, from 5 per cent annually to 8 per cent now.”
Just because rates are low isn’t a reason to go into debt. Would you rather “check-out” with a .357 or a 12-gauge?
Analogy perfected right there.
I was in Aus last month and my friends wife was thinking about going back to school to finish her degree, but there are no jobs to justify the cost which is out of control - to them. Probably cheap by US standards. My friend, who I went to college with in the states, questions the point of college now as the return on investment is sketchy at best. Outside of hard sciences, I agreed.
My friends wife also lamented their wonderful health care system. A simple dermatology procedure requires a wait of more than a year. Basically no one wants to go through the hassle of becoming a doctor anymore, so the country makes an exception to its strict immigration policy by letting in nurses from the Philippines and doctors from India and Pakistan. Not sure what the educational standards are in those countries, but I’m sure they can apply the leaches and fill out a billing statement properly!
That doesn’t sound like an exception to a strict immigration policy. It sounds like an essential part - reserving a large portion of all visas for skilled migrants.
India and Pakistan still have strict educational standards - no “everyone’s a winner” NEA lunacy - and turn out first-rate doctors and engineers.
“‘Buy one get one free!’ says an advertisement for units in a new commercial building. ‘Pay 1,000 yuan upfront to join our group-purchasing collective, and we’ll give you an extra room for just 1 yuan more!’ tempts another. And there are many others: ‘Free home electronics, no tax, free maintenance fund;’ ‘Free leisure balcony;’ ‘Cheaper price this month;’ ‘See two rooms become three rooms;’ ‘Buy an apartment and we’ll give you a free storefront for a year’ … the opportunities seem endless.”
The ads are amazingly similar to the SF apartments Craigslist that Ben recently posted.
A case being made for going to cash …
“A major U.K. landlord warned Tuesday that the boom in global real estate is coming to an end. London-based Grosvenor Group said in its annual report that years of rising property values could be set to reverse.”
Translation: Price rises that for many years created wealth are now going to turn around and for many years they will destroy wealth.
Equity will vanish but the debt that financed the equity will remain, remain for a while but eventually it too will vanish. Anyone on the wrong end of this vanishing equity or on the wrong end of this vanishing debt will get to enjoy the experience of seeing his wealth vanishing right before his eyes. Now you see it, now you don’t. Poof.
Prices, it’s all due to prices. The PTBs of the world need to keep prices up so as to keep the world’s economies up. But they can’t, not anymore; There’s too much capacity out there and there’s not enough demand.
IMHO.
“coming to an end…”
Real Estate was just one symptom of the largest debt pyramid in history. Without acceleration, there is nothing holding this thing aloft.
A rotting corpse.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/04/19/how-low-will-j-lo-go-to-unload-her-home/
not low enough to do HA
Stick with the data my friend…. Stick with the data.
Falls Church, VA Housing Prices Crater 7% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/falls-church-va/home-values/
Price per square foot is still crazy high.
Agreed. With a long way to fall. Problem with sq/ft on a used up house is the additional items that are included have to be accounted for.
The probable next V/P of the U.S. is cracking down on housing discrimination by landlords…Sorry for the long post but if this statement is true it is sobering…Its a inditement of our criminal laws and the criminal justice system;
HUD’s guidance released on April 4, 2016, states that as many as 100 million U.S. adults – or nearly one-third of the population – have a criminal record of some sort. The United States prison population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. As of 2012, the United States accounted for only about five percent of the world’s population, yet almost one quarter of the world’s prisoners were held in American prisons. Since 2004, an average of over 650,000 individuals have been released annually from federal and state prisons, and over 95% of current inmates will be released at some point. When individuals are released from prisons and jails, their ability to access safe, secure and affordable housing is critical to their successful reentry to society. Yet many formerly incarcerated individuals, as well as individuals who were convicted but not incarcerated, encounter significant barriers to securing housing, including public and other federally-subsidized housing, because of their criminal history. In some cases, even individuals who were arrested but not convicted face difficulty in securing housing based on their prior arrest.
Linky;
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?REInsider/3b70c70a33/2c95d5623a/7fa1d6da2a
I smell smelly mel watt
easy loans for felons too?
this is Obama’s chosen guy
started w loans fo welfare recipients
If you bother to read it, the relevant bureaucrat is HUD secretary Julian Castro. The smelly Mel stuff makes you sound like a not particularly bright fifth grader.
Irrelevant.
Both appointees
Zero chance it’ll be Julian Castro now that immigration is on the table.
And the tendency has been for prices to fall
ohkay you never tried to sell stuff on ebay……..when it dont sell ya gotta lower da price…
The Political Death of American Coal
http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/StreetTalk/coal-political-death-mining/2016/04/19/id/724610/
The idiot coal miners listened to their union Quislings and voted for hope ‘n change. Now they’re getting their hope ‘n change unlubed. I have no sympathy.
Kittitas County, WA Housing Market Tanks; Prices Plunge 11% YoY Countywide
http://www.zillow.com/kittitas-county-wa/home-values/
Mornin Boyz and Girlz:
Ummm…..Mark Hanson’s post today is very telling - well worth a look re San fran sicko and South FL.
Post the link…
Linky here…..
http://mhanson.com/4-19-hanson-housing-bubble-pop-quiz/
Hmmmm…. in the comments section Mr. Hanson states, “mortgage fraud is back to 2006 levels”.
Not that this is any great revelation as the fraud has been widespread and deep all along but the fact he observes it is a positive.
At what point did abnormally high rates of U.S. home price appreciation become an indicator of market health? It seems like Shiller’s Irrational Exuberance book featured a graph documenting average U.S. home price gains under 2% between 1890-1996 or so. But now 5%+ per year across the U.S. above inflation is considered healthy?
Bear in mind Herbert Stein’s Law:
“Anything which cannot continue forever will stop.”
Marketwatch dot com
Existing-home sales soar 5.1% in March, as housing demand remains strong
By Andrea Riquier
Published: Apr 20, 2016 10:04 a.m. ET
A strong pace of home resales continues to push prices higher as inventory remains low
Bloomberg
A house for sale in Redondo Beach, California. Existing home sales rose in March.
Home resales rebounded strongly in March, signalling sturdy demand in the housing market even as the recovery remains choppy.
Sales rose 5.1% to a 5.33 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That was higher than the 5.3 million rate forecast by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.
That pace was up only 1.5% compared to a year ago, but the average for the first three months of the year, which NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun called “bouncy,” was 4.8% higher compared to the same period in 2015.
All four geographic regions saw gains in March, ranging from 11.1% in the Northeast to 1.8% in the West.
Strong sales are still bumping up against lean inventory. The months’ supply eased slightly, to 4.5 months, but that’s still well below the long-term average of 6 months, which normally signals a healthy market. Homes stayed on the market for only 47 days, down from 52 days a year ago.
That robust demand continues to boost prices. The median price rose 5.7% compared to a year ago, to $222,700. That growth rate is more than double the average wage gains, Yun pointed out.
Surging prices are keeping a lid on first-time buyers. Their share of overall sales was 30%, unchanged both for the month and compared to a year ago.
…
Strange people these realtors.
US Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yX5B5Hn95bQ/VYC3Wr6ihBI/AAAAAAAAj7I/alOslZa-cK8/s1600/MBAJune172015.PNG
I just saw that on MW. Does not make sense at all when compared with market data.
It depends on who’s writing the press releases and what advertisers the media in question is trying to impress. And what the writer’s personal agenda is.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-is-the-obama-administration-trying-to-keep-11-000-documents-sealed-20160418
“Why is the Obama Administration trying to keep 11,000 Documents Sealed”
All about Fannie/Freddie and fraud.
“Mainly, it’s a sordid history of the government’s seizure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also known as the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs.”
This is a horrific pandoras box that includes 25 million excess empty houses, egregious levels of mortgage and appraisal fraud, accelerated sub-prime lending since 2008 that continues to this very date.
Stupid is as stupid does.
“Murphy and Sullivan gave the production company $140,000 for the renovation”
Couple Sues HGTV’s ‘Love It Or List It’ For Tearing Up Their Home
04/19/2016 05:10 pm ET
Homeowners who appear on the popular HGTV series “Love It Or List It” are usually offered one of two options: stay in a home newly renovated by Toronto-based interior designer Hilary Farr, or put their place on the market with Toronto-based realtor David Visentin.
A couple in Raleigh, North Carolina, are going for a third option: Sue the production company that makes “Love It Or List It,” as well as the contractor who did the home renovation, according to the Raleigh News-Observer.
Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan appeared on the popular HGTV show in December. They hoped to make their 2,400-square-foot home suitable for foster children, or find another house that fit their lives better.
The show typically climaxes with a big reveal of the renovated home while the homeowners dither about selling or staying. According to the lawsuit, the couple discovered a different kind of big “big reveal” after the show finished shooting.
The lawsuit alleges that Aaron Fitz Construction “irreparably damaged” the floor, leaving numerous holes “through which vermin could enter the house,” as well as unpainted surfaces, low-grade industrial carpet, and painted-shut windows.
The lawsuit contends Murphy and Sullivan gave the production company $140,000 for the renovation, only $85,000 of which went to the remodel. The rest was allegedly used by the production company to make the series.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…hgtv-north-carolina-homeowners_us_57167982e4b06f35cb70dca7 - 179k
That 404 won’t climb.
In related flipper news the cheesy stars of “Flip or Flop” are now behind the “SuccessPath” scam, a 3 day course is $2K, advanced training up to $40K, etc…the homework consists of calling you credit card companies and reading a script in order to get your limits up the max possible on all your cards.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/success-path-salt-lake-city-2
Radio man just reported that Denver is the 8th most polluted city in the country.
Median household income $60K, median house price $400K.
“You gotta roll with it” — Caitlin Vestal
Please come to Denver with the snowfall
She said no
Please Come To Boston - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDRLZFgEoGw - 241k -
What about Beantown?
Boston Metro Housing Prices Crater 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/ma/home-values/
Im seeing definite signs of “cooling” in the north Boston suburbs. I’ve seen 4 or 5 For Sale signs around my street that haven’t moved at all in a couple of months. I never see anyone going to the houses or signs for open house.
The homes all have this historical placard of the year it was built and the architect. Most of the signs are the late 1800s!!!! How the hell is 150+ yr old wood, old crusty pipes, and slat siding worth $400+k????
Please come to Baltimore for the riots
She said no
I go to Baltimore once in a while. It’s sketch.
I was driving up north on a road trip and me and my friend got detoured through the wrong part of Baltimore. It was 2010, before the current mess, but it still was sooo sketchy
Boston is the epitome of funny money and housing market exuberance. I’m seeing homes in north Boston suburb town sitting on the market for a few months now. They all have the original historical placard stating the year and architect, most are from the 1800s. Insane how a 150+ yr old house with rotting wood, rusty pipes, wood siding, and no central heating/cooling is worth $400-500k.
That’s why they’re sitting. Given demo and disposal costs, they’re worth about zero.
Some friends of my lady are house hunting and consistently being outbid on these 150 yr old homes, ready and prieme for “Sweat equity”. $350,000 bidding wars!
This notion of “bidding wars” is a fallacy. In Boston anyways.
Mrs. Vestal….favorite quote of 2016!
Millennials + YOLO + $400K starter house, what could possibly go wrong?
The resident millennial on the team at work is *shudder* a renter. At the lunch table (he never joins us geezers) the others were pitying the poor guy, because “he isn’t building equity”.
It was then pointed out that he takes awesome vacations every year: New Zealand, Europe, South Seas, etc., and that were he saddled down with a mortgage he couldn’t do that.
“Well, yeah; I guess that’s true” some reluctantly agreed, before adding “But he isn’t building any equity”
In case you forgot, Rockstar:
“I got hoes in different area codes” — Ludacris
Day 22 on skis this season.
People with mortgages can’t live like this, because they are slaves…
All my friends saddled with homes back in VA never go on vacation. They have the typical problems, including pets.
Me, I’ve been renting the last 2 yrs, and while it feels like “throwing money away”, I’ve gone to Iceland, London, Nashville, and Seattle. So I’ll take experiences over the false illusion of equity anyday. The northern lights were awesome.
In my circle it varies. The dual career couples with their 200K+ combined incomes do take fancy vacations. Those with the Stay at Home Mom, not so much.
What did you think about Iceland? I’m thinking about stopping over there on the way to Europe next year, but I’m worried that the place might be kind of uninteresting. I’ve been to Stockholm and I found it to be rather dull with few interesting sights to see.
Interesting but the annual HH income in the US is $66k.
Back to reality.
Iceland is a moonscape
the blue lagoon is the only thing they have.
BTW you land a Kefleflack NATO built air base -not reikevic
you have to bus on into town.
spell check
Iceland was great. Spent 3 full days and nights there. The flight was budget, direct from BOS to KEF for $350 round trip. The capital is very small, apartments/hostel guest rooms are cheap ($50-100/night).
We did the Blue Lagoon which was nice for a couple of hours, pricey, but its one of the main attractions. Also did a glacier hike, which on the way back we “hunted” for the lights, which we were able to watch for a couple hours. Also did a lava tube/cave crawl/hike. All in all, it was a great experience. The food is a bit pricey, given a lot of it is imported, except for lamb and white fish.
“the blue lagoon”
Read the reviews online of the place. Sounds like a cattle roundup and many of them state that whatever you do, don’t grab a handful of sand and look to see what’s in it. Gross!
Stagnant wages too, whoopee. Unless you shuffle financial paper around, then somehow you make bank.
Radio man just reported that Denver is the 8th most polluted city in the country.
it is when those winter thermal inversions kick in; but it’s always been like that. I find it much more tolerable in the spring and summer when it rains occasionally.
Now the traffic congestion … I’m glad I don’t live in Denver.
Hey Rockstar.
11:15 local time, enjoying a Bloody Mary with my spinach and roast chicken salad at the bar at Loveland Ski Area with all the other renters today.
Life is pretty good when you rent for less than a third of the cost of buying.
coming from the east coast I thought Loveland was great
wound up at Arapaho basin
black X slope w no grooming= wow
Lurkers and newbs, look at all these renters enjoying life:
http://www.picpaste.com/20160420_120819.jpg
and 2 hrs from skiing. Might as well live in Kansas City.
Less than an hour to get here:
http://www.picpaste.com/20160420_104617.jpg
And yes, the bar is full of renters.
What’s with the onslaught of millenials on trails these days? I mean, being outdoorsy has been a thing since the late 90s, but is it a “gotta post it on Facebook” issue?
The 14ers.com Facebook group is a circle jerk of millennial douchebaggery. Climb mountains between 13,000 and 13,999 elevation and there’s nobody out there.
Selfies on the summit is all the rage on pages I belong to. I’m a supporter of fitness (and yoga pants) but FFS.
Buying a a house today in San Fran is a lot like asking Chuck Norris what time the earthquake is, he always says, “Two seconds till.”
After you ask, “Two seconds to what?” he roundhouse kicks you in the face.
Buying a house now or any time in the last 15 years is like getting excited over a death sentence by firing squad.
Lola, was 16 yrs ago (in 2000) fabulous?
Data my friend. Stick with the data.
Lutz, FL Housing Prices Crater 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/lutz-fl/home-values/
Re: jet registration.
The re-registration of aircraft is a relatively new requirement. The FAA was finding that people were disposing of airplanes (scrapping, exporting) and not telling the Feds. Their registration database was inaccurate and outdated. Hence, the 36 month re registration requirement.
I add this as a line item on the aircraft’s maintenance tracking program. (I’m supposed to maintain an aircraft in an “airworthy condition” which includes the required documents be on board and current). Some guys don’t hire mechanics, in which case the question of who keeps track of things like this becomes a little fuzzy.
In this case, the aircraft was being operated by a Deleware registered LLC. Someone at the LLC should have been responsible for keeping track of this. The trouble is, its possible that all of the employees are 1099s, in which case nobody was responsible, unless it was contracturally designated, or someone took it upon themselves to do it.
This is not a unique problem. And its not limited to registrations. More and more operators are trying to fly big jets without hiring a full time mechanic. The responsibility for maintaining the airplane is handed off to one of the pilots. Who may or may not know/understand a damn thing about the requirements, and who may or may not have time/inclination to do it, if they are flying a lot.
IOW, an accident waiting to happen. And a new regulation, because if you don’t mandate that someone be reponsible, they will dodge it.
If some CEO buys the farm in his poorly maintained Gulfstream I will be devastated.
Just in case anyone hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
Mike & The Mechanics - The living Years - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGDA0Hecw1k - 383k -
And dont forget the closest rendition of a studio record ever in a live performance. And keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyrank it up to 11.
https://youtu.be/xxBzUZ1q7Vw
RIP peace Danny Joe Brown
You just can’t fix stoooooopid…..
The list of taxes in Chicago is very loooooong - read on HBB’ers
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/rahm-plans-to-borrow-1-2-billion-to-construct-lucas-museum/
Bear in mind Herbert Stein’s Law:
“Anything which cannot continue forever will stop.”
MOVE!
What happened to Donk? Did she have another rupture?
she’s a she
gov workers don’t do any heavy lifting
Poor Donk. Poor poor Donk.
Obama - http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/20/barack-obama/barack-obama-claims-deficit-has-decreased-two-thir/
Data my friend. Stick with the data.
San Francisco County, CA Housing Prices Dive 5% On Cratering Housing Demand
http://www.zillow.com/san-francisco-county-ca/home-values/
Sure sounds like a noble claim. But when you look at the debtclock it’s basically tripping over dollars to scrape one penny.
But saving $5.99 in shipping on Amazon after paying $5,000 for a 30 year old toilet makes you feel better.
Crater McRage Face.
Debt is for loosers. Don’t be a looser
http://goo.gl/yUwfQz
Lower and lower prices are great for the Economy…
http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-has-a-lot-of-problems-2016-4
Housing my friend.
Ventura, CA Housing Prices Plummet 16% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/ventura-ca/market-trends/
The Keynesian fraudsters at our central banks and their .1% accomplices thank the sheeple who continue to bend over for them election after election.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-20/keynesian-central-bankers-wrong-beginning-no-one-stop-them
Closed.
Floriduh. Good luck with all that…
Florida is the center of the universe. It used to be Murfreesboro, Tennessee, but now it’s Florida.
Congratulations!
All the best to you and your family in your home Muggy.
Thanks again for the call. I appreciate it.
Congrats, Muggy. I think you did the right thing.
Thanks. I know I did the right thing for my kids. It’s a phenomenal neighborhood for families. If the decision was for money only, I wouldn’t have purchased the house. My wife is happy too. We made love in the parking lot of the title company after closing. Naw, just kidding.
We raced home so I could run to Lowe’s AND Home Depot.
“Realtor Arrested”
http://www.kswo.com/story/31673049/lawton-realtor-arrested
With Yellen the Felon and her fellow counterfeiters at the Fed hellbent on taking us down the road to Weimar 2.0 with their deranged money-printing, even the dullest of the sheeple are starting to figure out that gold and silver are essential to wealth preservation.
http://www.businessinsider.com/silver-prices-april-19-2016-4
I’ve been encouraging a sister to buy silver. She does not earn much money but lives cheap (and has the largest place to live of all us siblings).
I want to get them into bitcoin but they think it’s Calculus.
No wonder Jack Lew and the elites want Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill.
http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/20/the-media-has-it-wrong-andrew-jacksons-legacy-was-fighting-crony-capitalism/
Andrew Jackson also secretly invented Facebook.
Just another day in the life of a renter:
http://www.picpaste.com/20160420_182232.jpg
Region VIII
What have you done with our dog!?
That’s Mt Elbert, son. Highest in Colorado and 2nd highest in the lower 48 after Whitney in California.
There is no dog on this trip.
This narrative provided by FM 93.7 Salida / Buena Vista.
Rigging the gold market won’t be as easy now that China has its own gold exchange.
http://kingworldnews.com/chinas-shanghai-exchange-sends-price-of-silver-soaring-gold-surging/
AUY still going well. Will hold it for at least a year. 1,000 shares at $1.89 was my buying price.
I’m sure their exchange will be totally on the up and up..