Sellers Are Beginning To Adjust To Reality
A report from Bloomberg on China. “From the Dutch tulip craze of 1637 to America’s dot-com bubble at the turn of the century, history is littered with speculative frenzies that ended badly for investors. But rarely has a mania escalated so rapidly, and spurred such fevered trading, as the great China commodities boom of 2016. Over the span of just two wild months, daily turnover on the nation’s futures markets has jumped by the equivalent of $183 billion, outpacing the headiest days of last year’s Chinese stock bubble and making volumes on the Nasdaq exchange in 2000 look tame.”
“What started as a logical bet — that China’s economic stimulus and industrial reforms would lead to shortages of construction materials — quickly morphed into a full-blown commodities frenzy with little bearing on reality. As the nation’s army of individual investors piled in, they traded enough cotton in a single day last month to make one pair of jeans for everyone on Earth and shuffled around enough soybeans for 56 billion servings of tofu.”
“It’s the latest in a series of boom-bust market cycles that critics say are becoming more extreme as China’s policy makers flood the financial system with cash to stave off an economic hard landing. ‘You have far too much credit, money sloshing about, money looking for higher returns,’ said Fraser Howie, the co-author of ‘Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise.’ ‘Even in commodities where you could have argued there is some reason for prices to rise, that gets quickly swamped by a nascent bull market and becomes an uncontrollable bubble.’”
The Independent in the UK. “The housing bubble has burst, analysts have said, after sellers started slashing money off their asking prices and accepting offers up to 10 per cent less than the property was listed. The North of England is home to eight of the ten areas with the highest proportion of houses selling for lower than before. Almost half of all properties listed in St Helens (43.7 per cent), Hartlepool (42.5 per cent) and Middlesbrough (40 per cent) having been marked down. Also in the top 10 are Haverfordwest in Wales, and Great Yarmouth in East Anglia.”
“Henry Pryor, a housing analyst, said he had worked through three property recessions and that this market has a frighteningly familiar feel to it. He noted that estate agents are making fewer sales at the top end of the market, prices in London are up to 15 per cent off their asking price and lenders are turning to riskier financial products, like the 100 per cent mortgage announced by Barclays, to make sales. ‘I think [the housing bubble] has popped,’ he said. ‘These are all warning signs that we have reached the top. This is ‘peak property,’ Pryor told The Independent.”
Azer News in Azerbaijan. “Residential rents are continuing to fall in many areas of Baku amid the ongoing drop in house prices, a consulting company said Nusret Ibrahimov, CEO of consulting company MBA Group. ‘Following the manat devolution in late 2015, many landlords have tried to raise the price of housing in the national currency, or to transfer it in the dollar equivalent, but bulk of them failed. Then, house rents in Azerbaijan, mainly in Baku decreased in terms of the national currency, the manat,’ he said.”
“This trend will continue and wave-like price cuts will be seen until the end of summer, Ibrahimov believes. ‘Strong decrease is seen in the price of expensive apartments. A year ago, one-bedroom apartment rented for 800-850 manats ($532-$565) in the city center, while today the figure is 400-500 manats ($266-$332). For two bedroom apartments, the figure was 1,300-1,500 manats ($864-$1,000) and now it stands at 700-800 manats ($465-$530), ‘the expert explained. The most expensive luxury housing was previously offered for 10,000-12,000 manats ($6,647-$7.976), but now it costs 5,000 manats ($3,323).”
The Business Standard in India. “Free office space with an apartment, free maintenance services, free package for summer holidays along with a maximum discount of Rs 21 lakh — these are among the schemes that developers have rolled out in Delhi-National Capital Region to attract buyers in a slow market. There has been a mismatch in the demand-supply in the property market as developers are sitting on huge inventory.”
“‘Despite stagnant prices, sales have not picked up well. Only in select locations, with few developers having backing of a big corporate house are able to sell their units,’ a Mumbai-based consultant said.”
ABC News in Australia. “The number of available rental properties on the market in Perth has reached unprecedented levels, with 10,200 houses and units available for renters, new figures show. The oversupply of available rentals is putting downward pressure on prices, with the median rent down to $395 per week for the three quarters to the end of March. Activity remained slow across the Perth property market, with sales volumes down 40 per cent from the December quarter to the March quarter.”
“Real Estate Institute of Western Australia president Hayden Groves said the number of available properties available on the rental market was at a level never seen before. ‘It really is quite startling,’ Mr Groves said. ‘We are seeing rents fall, they will perhaps fall for the remainder of 2016 by a very small margin and that’s mainly because our population growth has changed so dramatically. Tenants certainly have the rental market in their favour at the moment.’”
The Calgary Herald in Canada. “Prices have been dropping for seven straight months but the decline hasn’t been enough to lure buyers back to the market in any noticeable way, says the Calgary Real Estate Board. Its year-to-date data show detached home sales are down four per cent, while apartment sales and attached home sales are down 19 and 13 per cent respectively during the same period. Average prices actually rose for the month, climbing to $476,427, up 1.5 per cent. But, according to the board, the benchmark price — the price of a typical Calgary home — was down 3.4 per cent from April 2015, to $441,000.”
“Since prices started dropping seven months ago, apartment prices have declined 7.6 per cent, while detached homes are off 4.1 per cent. ‘From re-considering the listing of their home to lowering expectations on price, sellers are beginning to adjust to the current market reality,’ CREB president Cliff Stevenson said. ‘Some buyers in the market are still not willing to pull the trigger because they expect even bigger discounts.’”
“IMO the video associated with the “A report from Bloomberg on China” link is well worth a watch.
The prolonged weakness in oil markets have likely exposed fraud in other business activities around the globe.
Prolonged weakness, or simply following the laws of supply and demand? No one has dropped production. Only consumption is lower. The fact that oil is even at $40/bbl is a speculative farse.
Fear not, fire in Canada and Nigeria being well Nigeria will save them.
Oil rose on Tuesday, boosted by supply disruptions in Canada and elsewhere that have knocked out 2.5 million barrels of daily production and temporarily eclipsed concern over high global inventories and a looming surplus of refined products.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 39 cents on the day at $44.02 per barrel by 1200 GMT, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 were virtually flat at $43.38 per barrel.
In spite of output outages from Canada to Nigeria, oil prices are down by more than 2 percent so far this week, hampered by worries that even hefty dents to production will have little effect on the growth of stocks of unwanted crude.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0Y1026
Talk about clutching at straws.
‘as China’s policy makers flood the financial system with cash to stave off an economic hard landing’
How many times have they done this? Why are we exchanging our pesos for theirs when they print gobs after gobs?
‘In many ways, China’s financial landscape was ripe for another mania. New credit soared to a record in the first quarter, giving individuals and businesses plenty of cash to invest at a time when several of the country’s traditional sources of return looked unattractive.’
‘Jeremy He started pouring his savings into commodities last month after losing money in China’s stock rout and deciding that returns from his WMPs were too low. The 25-year-old employee at a multinational trade company in Shanghai set up a joint account with his friend to trade futures on rebar, coal and cotton, making as much as 150 percent before prices started falling at the end of last month.’
“I’m pretty bored at work, so I trade commodities futures for some excitement,’’ said He, whose account swelled to as much as 700,000 yuan ($107,443) before sliding back to 400,000 yuan at the end of April. “Because I’m making investments with my friend, we can comfort each other when we are making a loss.’’
‘What makes the frenzy in China stand out is the sheer volume of trading. Market turnover on bourses in Dalian, Zhengzhou and Shanghai jumped from a daily average of about $78 billion in February to a peak of $261 billion on April 22 — exceeding the gross domestic product of Ireland. Turnover on Nasdaq’s exchange in early 2000, by contrast, peaked at about $150 billion.’
‘China’s frenzy has begun to cool after the three main futures bourses took steps to curb speculation by raising margin requirements, lifting trading fees and, for rebar, cutting trading hours in the evening session.’
‘exceeding the gross domestic product of Ireland’
Yeah, nothing can go wrong here. Gambling the equivalent GDP of nations everyday.
“I’m pretty bored at work, so I trade commodities futures for some excitement.”
He should bag gains and put it in yuan, gold, Bitcoin. Good times won’t last. I’ve seen it, it happened to me. And then I learned to diversify and enjoy the simple things in life, like swimming and biking.
‘Inventories of China’s 137 real estate companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses exceeded 3 trillion yuan ($461.3 billion) in 2015, according to statistics from Wind, a financial data provider. Of them, the top five listed real estate companies by market value took up 42 percent of the total inventories.’
‘Excluding Greenland Holdings which debuted on the A-share market last August, the remaining 136 listed companies had total inventories of 2.64 billion yuan, an increase of 328.1 billion yuan or 14.21 percent from 2014.’
‘Greenland Holdings posted 397.06 billion yuan of inventory, outpacing the country’s largest residential developer China Vanke Co Ltd, which saw inventory up 15 percent from 2014 to 368.1 billion yuan in 2015.’
‘Inventory turnover, an indicator for a company’s ability to manage inventory and pay off short-term debts, varied largely among different companies. China Vanke, for instance, shortened inventory turnover days from 1,139 in 2014 to 893 in 2015, while Shanghai Capital Development Co Ltd prolonged inventory turnover days to 2,100.’
Hey editor, do us all a favor and list these turnovers in years so we don’t have to get out a calculator. 2,100 equals 5.75 years.
“2,100 equals 5.75 years.”
You’d wonder since it’s no-human-rights China, if mismanagement at the high corporate level is not always finished off with one of those mobile execution trailers.
It’s just one speculative bubble after another over there. It seems as if the tempo has increased, and that the time from boom-to-bust now takes only months.
I have a mental picture of somebody running around a stage trying to keep a dozen plates simultaneously spinning. That “somebody” would be the Chinese Communist Party.
Average wealth of people in China and India increased by 400% as compared to a decline here. They have more buying power but for how long???
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/indians-average-wealth-soars-400-in-2005-15-report/252359/
Here in the “North Shore” of Massachusetts, I’m seeing more houses pop up onto the market around me. They are sitting longer and every single one of them, with a quick glance of Zillow, has lowered their asking price at least once. I saw one house, an obvious flip, list for $500,000 (after purchasing for $385,000- 2 months prior), slap in some SS appliances and new flooring. Needles to say after 2 months on the market, they shaved $45,000 off the price. I’m sure the data would yield the same results in neighboring towns as well.
$500,000 - $45,000 = $455,000
$455,000 - $20,000 in flip fluff - $30,000 in fees/taxes = $405,000
$405,000 > $385,000
But just barely. Add in carrying costs…
The alligator is opening wide…
“Needles to say after 2 months on the market, they shaved $45,000 off the price. I’m sure the data would yield the same results in neighboring towns as well.”
The “closing season” really happens once the kids are out of school.
Here in the “North Shore” of Massachusetts, in my town, there are more and more houses popping onto the market. Perhaps owners trying to cashout while the gett’n is good? With a quick look on Zillow, each house has lowered their asking price at least once. The houses are not flying off the market, I’ve driven by some with the sale sign for a couple of months. One house, originally bought for $385,000 in January, was relisted for $500,000 after the typical SS appliance and floor ‘upgrades’. They have shaved $45,000 off the list price. I’m sure more will shave $10,000+ off at a time as the owners eat the payments.
And not a buyer in sight. And there won’t be considering you can rent it for a fraction of the cost of buying it.
Not necessarily true. This area has a lot of cash bids. A few of the homes took a while, but they are under contract.
Yet rented at half the monthly cost.
Where do you get half the cost? I understand saving time and potential maintenance, but rents in this area are pretty darn high.
I have nothing to do with it. The costs are the costs.
He makes it up.
Don’t be angry my friend. Be happy like Happy Humphrey.
Glendale, CA Housing Prices Crater 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/glendale-ca/home-values/
lolz…. and there’s always this.
http://goo.gl/5iWQff
Yo HA, the pic is not complete. You should draw in a rent check for $0.
Anyhoo, Zillow is a bought-and-paid-for tool of the realtors. However, the price/tax history exposes the cosmetic flips for all to see. Let me guess, does the listing for this $455K flip house…
1. Have skinny-looking beds and dining tables (elongated pix to make small rooms look big)
2. Have multiple beauty shots of the pergraniteel* kitchen?
3. Have no NO pictures of the basement where the old washer/dryer and outdated systems are?
4. Have walls painted in Behr “Swiss Coffee” tan?
5. Have lots of tiny bushes and mulch outside?
All telltale signs of cosmo flips.
—————–
*pergo + granite + stainless steel
Hey donk.
“rents in this area are pretty darn high”
Indeed. Some might argue, too damn high.
The rents to damn high!!!! What a political party…
And with housing demand in MA down 11% YoY and falling, they’ve got some losses to eat.
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/State/State_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
eat.your.losses.
Dandroidz…How long have you been posting here ??
You are bantering with our resident antagonist…His post have no basis is facts and are purposely done so as to attract a response…He loves it…Its his daily routine on going now for many years…
He has many different names he posts under..Just watch carefully and you will be able to differentiate…Joshua tree extension also works but since he just develops a new handle on the board its hard to keep up…
Keep posting what you see on the ground in the Boston area…That kind of information is helpful to most who post here..
As far as our resident pest, just ignore his posts…Don’t respond to him…
I’ve been here for a month or so now, love the blog! I have noticed a pattern across 4 or 5 usernames…
But yes, despite Boston have a very STRONG and high priced market, all the way up to New Hampshire, I am seeing weakness with listing durations, drops in price, and now quantity of listings.
Yeah, sure, it’s HA who’s the liar on this blog
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
Are you sure?
Metro Boston Housing Prices Plunge 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/ma/home-values/
Yes, the Joshua Tree extension is your friend.
There are many posters here who provide useful and interesting information on the housing bubble and the economy in general. The troll who posts with many names isn’t one of them.
He will no doubt respond to this post with an ad hominem attack (probably with a new name to circumvent the Joshua Tree extension), in a vain attempt to draw me into an argument with him. It’s what he does. As scdave said, ignore him. If there is anything a troll hates, it is to be ignored.
HA specifically seeks to find one market that fits his narrative.
It might be one specific zip code in the City of SF, or a single metro area. He will always be able to find one such market.
If you really want to look at data, look at year on year median sale price per square foot (going PSF pulls out effects from different sized homes in the sample).
Here is a link to Zillow’s raw data:
http://www.zillow.com/research/data/
I’m sure you’ll find some negative numbers in there…in fact, 21 of the 166 metros were negative on the year.
You can do the same thing with neighborhoods in the US…77 of 485 were negative year on year.
So, if you want to be just like HA, you can go through this data, cherry pick some bit of negative data and then try to extrapolate it to the entire market.
His comments are akin to picking one stock that did really badly on a day when the market is slightly up, and claim that the market is terrible.
Sir, I’d like to buy 15 square foot of house today.
Don’t be silly Rental_Fraud. Transaction prices are falling.
Further;
Ironically the objections to the data continue for years in spite endless broken promises to ignore the data points.
The truth? The housing losses are crushing.
Bedford, NH Housing Affordability Improves As Prices Fall 6% YoY; Statewide Median Falls YoY
http://www.zillow.com/bedford-nh/home-values/
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
‘His comments are akin to picking one stock that did really badly on a day when the market is slightly up’
Here’s a big fat cherry for ya!
‘The pain in Dubai’s property market isn’t about to go away any time soon. Home prices are set to fall by 10 percent this year. Dubai’s housing market, the biggest and most volatile in the Middle East, is in the doldrums as falling oil prices, a weaker euro and ruble and an abundance of properties damp demand. Residential values fell 2.2 percent in the first quarter, according to consultancy Cluttons, which predicts villa prices will decline 5 percent this year and apartment prices 3 percent to 4 percent.’
“We are seeing some significant job losses among banks and other companies,” Jesse Downs, managing director at Phidar Advisory LLC, which is also predicting falling prices and rents, said by telephone. “Those still hiring are more cost-sensitive than before.”
‘Like S&P, Phidar expects sales prices and rents to drop 10 percent on average this year as landlords are finding it harder to lease larger and more expensive homes, Downs said. Property broker Cluttons predicts rental declines of as much as five percent this year.’
‘Dubai’s biggest developer, Emaar Properties PJSC, responded to a weakening Dubai housing market by implementing “severe cost cuts” chairman Mohamed Alabbar said. “We were pleasantly surprised” as first quarter sales were good, “but we are working so much harder than before. So much harder,” he said.’
See, they built their way out of the bubble with tens of thousands of units on the way. Yes, people are losing money, getting fired, but hey, that’s how this approach works. Borrow and build until the economy falls over.
His post have no basis is facts and are purposely done so as to attract a response…He loves it…Its his daily routine on going now for many years…
Far be it from me to defend HA, but… For many years, he has been cherry-picking tiny little zip-codes with too few sales (small n) to really tell you anything statisticly-meaningful—and of course he picks the ones that fit his narrative, e.g. ones where the noise shows large YoY declines (though there are just as many that show large YoY gains).
Recently, however, he has been posting links to larger regions, or even full cities, not just tiny zip-codes. So maybe things are finally starting to change. Eventually, I expect that he’ll really be correct (kind of like a stopped clock :-).
Don’t like the data? Blame the source.
Here are some more data for you that all point in the same direction.
Cape May County, NJ Housing Prices Plummet 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/cape-may-county-nj/home-values/
Prime is Contained:
There may be truth to your comment. HOWEVER, I think that at any given time, you can find a market that is showing a year on year decline.
Because I’m a data geek, and I know you appreciate the data, I looked at the “by neighborhood” Zillow Data and looked at all year-on-year comparisons that were available going back to April 1997 (all the data they provide), and looked at what percentage of neighborhoods had a year-on-year decline at any given month. The results are interesting.
The “hottest” month, where only 7.8% of neighborhoods showed year on year declines was January 2006…no surprise.
The “coldest” month, where 88% of neighborhoods showed year-on-year declines was November 2008. Again, no surprise.
If you just look at those two data points, today’s measure of 16% looks pretty heated.
HOWEVER, if you broaden your view, 16% doesn’t look that abnormal, and in fact looks pretty normal.
If you look at the average from April 1997 to December 2003, it was 17%.
From January 2013 to today, the average is 16% of neighborhoods showing decline on a year-on-year basis.
You’re shuffling and gyrating again.
Novato, CA Housing Prices Crater 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/novato-ca/home-values/
See, they built their way out of the bubble with tens of thousands of units on the way. Yes, people are losing money, getting fired, but hey, that’s how this approach works. Borrow and build until the economy falls over.
Building massive amounts of housing in the desert with the hopes of foreigners buying vacation homes is different than building enough primary residences to keep up with domestic population growth.
We are now up to housing starts of approximately 1.2MM housing units per annum.
We need to increase this by at least another 20% to get back to a more normal level of development (if not more to make up for the atrocious levels of building over the past SEVEN years).
Your comments akin to “there is plenty of existing housing” simply doesn’t show up in the vacancy rates, which are on the very low end of normal, and which are resulting in high rents, not just high home prices.
(if not more to make up for the atrocious levels of building over the past SEVEN years).
RW, did you try to account for changes in household formation due to the GFC in your calculations? If so, I missed it. It doesn’t seem right to just extrapolate population growth relative to average household size, when household formation has been on pause for an entire generation for almost a decade now…
Irrelevant.
“Perhaps owners trying to cashout while the gett’n is good?”
The same owners who where holding out for higher prices because prices were going up?
Think about this: If you are a seller and prices are rising then the incentive is to hold off on selling. If prices began to fall then the incentive is to sell asap so as to catch as much of the falling price as you can.
If you were the only one doing this they you will probably be in good shape; If a lot of people are doing this they you are most likely are going to get hosed.
Yes, as they keep having to shave off thousands the list price, it seems more are coming on the market. I’ve even seen some realtor signs giving advanced notice of a listing, “coming soon!” which is new to me…just list it?
“coming soon!” which is new to me…just list it ??
Pretty common in a low inventory sellers market…
Indeed. One of our friends got outbid on a $350,000 - 150 yr old beater in an all cash bid. They are quickly figuring out the crazy market that exists in Boston and surrounding suburbs, well I guess its really nationwide.
$350K in what Boston suburb? Lynn or some other post-apocalyptic ghetto? $350K buys a shitty 1-bed condo, at best, within Route 128.
You want to see outbid? Talk to any of the 17 lucky people who got outbid on this house that sold at $850K, which is $171,100 over ask, all cash:
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Arlington/6-Iroquois-Rd-02476/home/8449681
I went to the OH for the LOLz. The place has no backyard. Like maybe 100 SF of grass, at most.
The putz who bought this place should put a quarter in his ass, ’cause he played himself.
I think everyone here understands the egregious levels of housing fraud irrespective of location.
Cash? I dunno about that.
I believe it was an old beater in Peabody, right near I-95.
I didn’t see the specific house, just the story of them offering $10k over asking and getting outbid by an all cash buyer.
Two posts??
——-
$500,000 - $45,000 = $455,000
$455,000 - $20,000 in flip fluff - $30,000 in fees/taxes = $405,000
$405,000 > $385,000
But just barely. Add in carrying costs…
The alligator is opening wide…
It was an accident. It took about 30 mins for the first post to load, I simply thought it did not post at all. My mistake.
Many of the comments needs to be moderated and approved manually by Ben, especially anything with links.
Annandale, VA(DC Metro) Housing Affordability Surges As Prices Crater 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/annandale-va/home-values/
Keep the blood coming!
The townhouse across from me just sold for $520K. The similar unit next to it that recently sold did so for $480K. Both are Indian families or something, kind of common in the area I live.
Northern VA has always been pricey. Too darn close to the Govt spigot.
Where at? Herndon? Manassas?
“It’s the latest in a series of boom-bust market cycles that critics say are becoming more extreme as China’s policy makers flood the financial system with cash to stave off an economic hard landing. ‘You have far too much credit, money sloshing about, money looking for higher returns,’ said Fraser Howie, the co-author of ‘Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise.’ ‘Even in commodities where you could have argued there is some reason for prices to rise, that gets quickly swamped by a nascent bull market and becomes an uncontrollable bubble.’”
So long as they have more cash available to blow another bubble, where is the problem?
“Prices have been dropping for seven straight months but the decline hasn’t been enough to lure buyers back to the market in any noticeable way, says the Calgary Real Estate Board. Its year-to-date data show detached home sales are down four per cent, while apartment sales and attached home sales are down 19 and 13 per cent respectively during the same period.”
Nobody wants to catch a falling knife.
“Prices have been dropping for seven straight months but the decline hasn’t been enough to lure buyers back to the market in any noticeable way”
Yeah? Well that’s because prices are going the wrong way. If prices were rising up and going through the roof then the buy-now-or-be-priced-out-forever crowd would arrive on the scene and - presto! - you would have before you a … a boom!
But the prices aren’t rising, instead they are falling and so the demand has waned (How strange, no? It should be the other way around).
A little bad news and your business case implodes.
Low-cost airline EasyJet has swung to a half-year loss after recent terror attacks saw some passengers stay away and rivals stepped up the pace of competition.
The no-frills carrier posted losses of £24 million for the six months to the end of March against profits of £7m a year earlier, but said its bottom line was hit by a £33m foreign exchange rate impact.
It said sales suffered in the wake of November’s deadly attacks in Paris, which knocked 2.7 per cent off revenues per seat in the first half, while the suspension of flights on routes to the popular Egyptian tourist destination of Sharm el-Sheikh following the Russian airliner crash reduced revenues by another 1.3 per cent.
Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/easyjet-falls-into-red-as-terror-attacks-deter-travellers-1-4123797#ixzz48G0P1ttG
Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook
A comment made by Warren Buffett on airlines …
“The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.”
— Warren Buffett, annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, February 2008.
That was 8 years ago. Since then, we have reduced competition through mergers and codesharing, baggage fees, and we have to pay for our own meals. The airline’s biggest expense, fuel, has dramatically dropped in price, yet tickets haven’t.
The airlines are doing quite well.
“we have reduced competition”
Then this;
“The airlines are doing quite well.”
LOL.
Think and remember this: Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
It’s tough for new carriers to break into the market. We had a regional carrier, come out under the ‘revamped’ brand of PeoplExpress. They were no-frills, pay for everything model, with leased planes. Well they expanded too quickly, had maintenance on one of their planes, had to shutdown routes, and then it sort of unraveled from there. They lasted about 4 months. Luckily I got some cheap direct flights to Boston before they imploded.
But the planes that were leased, they still exist right? So somebody with a Great Idea and a Great Business Plan can lease these still existing planes and can then play the game of ROLL ‘EM AGAIN!
Yes they were owned by another failing airline, Vision Airlines. Pretty horrible business plan, and now they owe the regional airport who let them startup as their hub, around $600k in fees/payments.
“It’s tough for new carriers to break into the market.”
Not to start the business but to break into the market.
“We had a regional carrier, come out under the ‘revamped’ brand of PeoplExpress. They were no-frills, pay for everything model, with leased planes.”
So to break into the market they had to engage in a sort-of price war, a price war that screwed themselves AND screwed their competitors. But they did not make it as a going concern so the business folded and the planes went back to their owners to await another Great Idea so that another Business Plan can be executed and another price war can begin to rage.
And on and on it will go.
Dry cleaner effect.
“Dry cleaner effect.”
Yes. As long as the infrastructure exists then there will be pressure to employ it.
This may not make sense from the macro viewpoint but from the micro viewpoint there seems to be little choice; The owners of the infrastructure have bills to pay so they need to enlist others to help pay them. If these others that are enlisted happen to plunk down their own money and the business goes bust then … “Gee, what a shame. May I help the next person in line?”
Virgin America has done pretty well although they are not a new carrier, but expanded into the western US. Hopefully the acquisition by Alaskan Airlines doesn’t screw it up. The competition between them, Southwest, American has produced some stupidly low fares. I recently booked tickets for my wife and daughter direct from Dal to Oakland for $54 one way…$54!
Wow, that’s awesome. VA is pretty high priced and really only good for SFO to JFK or BOS, or LAX to SFO.
JetBlue is where I find my best deals for flying. Recently fly direct from BOS to Seattle for $200 roundtrip !!
I like Alaska because it serves a lot of smaller markets…I fly to Reno Nevada out of San Jose…35 minutes vs. 4 hour drive each way..
The no-frills carrier posted losses of £24 million for the six months to the end of March against profits of £7m a year earlier
£7m profit for six months? And that was a good year? I’ll bet a busy Walmart superstore generates more profit.
Unbelievable court order is issued to parents of daughter who thinks she’s a boy
May 8, 2016
Carmine Sabia
A Canadian judge has ordered the father of an 11-year-old girl to start treating her like a boy.
The British Columbia Supreme Court judge appointed a guardian to look at for the child’s best interests between the estranged parents as well, Life Site reported.
The case is actually about the child’s father, referred to as N.K., requesting his prepubescent daughter stop taking hormone blockers that her mother, referred to in court documents as N.H., put her on.
Lupron
While many 11-year-old’s are barely capable of picking out their own clothes, the girl’s mother, and apparently the judge, believe she is able to determine her gender choice at such an impressionable age.
The girl, who court documents refer to as J.K. which are her male initials, didn’t want to shop for a training bra, according to Life Site. This issue snowballed into others.
Her mother, who received specialized medical training in New Zealand, took her to a psychologist and the determination was made that she was a male.
The girl was subsequently put on the hormone blocker Lupron.
“This case is really about J.K. and his role in determining his own future. In my view, these issues cannot be properly considered without J.K.’s direct participation,” Justice Ronald Skolrood said, according to Life Site.
The American College of Pediatricians recently stated that “Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse,” Life Site reported.
The statement from the group went on to state that nine out of 10 gender dysphoric children accept their natural sex eventually those that don’t, deal with “a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and [will] likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.”
But that didn’t stop Justice Skolrood who believes an 11-year-old, and the state, know best.
The judge ruled that until a decision is made the child should still continue to take the gender altering drug.
Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/05/08/unbelievable-court-order-is-issued-to-parents-of-daughter-who-thinks-shes-a-boy-338024#ixzz48GB0G5K0
Obvously a bathroom lurking predator.
“Obvously a bathroom lurking predator.”
Just for you Keyboard warrior.
5 Times ‘Transgender’ Men Abused Women And Children In Bathrooms
By: Amanda Prestigiacomo
April 22, 2016
The leftist push to force both private and public entities to open their bathrooms and locker-rooms to transgender people has recently exploded in the media. The governor of North Carolina’s decision to reject such an ordinance by signing HB 2 into law has taken over the spotlight. The left has cast the law as bigoted, along with all those who agree it. Baseball legend Curt Schilling was even fired from his job at ESPN for expressing opposition to the ordinance and proclaiming that “a man is a man no matter what.”
One conservative argument against the leftist push goes as follows: some men will abuse the bathrooms and locker-rooms open to gender identity rather than biology by falsely proclaiming womanhood in order to gain access to women and children for motives of malice. Such facilities could become easy-access breading grounds for predators. Thus, it would be common sense to keep the facilities separated based on biology rather than identity to protect women and children.
Predictably, the left has vehemently denied that such a thing would ever happen—or worse, that this is a price we must pay for “inclusivity” and “equality.”
Here are 5 times “transgender” men abused women and children by exploiting such facilities:
1. A Seattle man, citing transgender bathrooms laws, was able to gain access to a women’s locker-room at a public recreational center while little girls were changing for swim practice.
In February, The Daily Wire reported that a Seattle man who walked into the women’s locker-room—on two occasions—and began undressing, cited the “new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity.” You know, those laws the ingenious left has been pushing because of “inclusiveness.”
“It was a busy time at Evans Pool around 5:30 p.m. Monday February 8,” reports KING5 News. “The pool was open for lap swim. According to Seattle Parks and Recreation, a man wearing board shorts entered the women’s locker room and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said ‘the law has changed and I have a right to be here.’”
Subsequent to this new rule, no one called the police on this man who reportedly came back a second time when young girls were changing into their swimsuits for swim practice.
2. A Toronto man claiming to be transgender was arrested and sentenced to jail for sexually assaulting several women in a women’s shelter after he gained access to the shelter and its shower facilitates as “Jessica.”
As Life Site notes, “A biological man claiming to be ‘transgender’ so as to gain access to and prey on women at two Toronto shelters was jailed ‘indefinitely’” in early March.
Christopher Hambrook, 37, using the name “Jessica,” was able to gain access to Toronto women’s shelters.
“Her tights had been pulled down past her bottom and her bathing suit had been pulled to the side,” reads a court document of one of the incidents. “She yelled at the accused, demanding to know what he was doing. He simply covered his face with his hands, said ‘Oops!’ and started giggling.”
Per Life Site:
Court also heard evidence of Hambrook terrorizing a deaf woman living in the shelter. “The accused grabbed the complainant’s hand and forcibly placed it on his crotch area while his penis was erect,” court heard.
The same deaf women reported that Hambrook would peer at her through a gap between the door and its frame while she showered.
3. A Virginia man was caught and arrested for peeping on and filming two women and a 5-year-old child in a women’s restroom after receiving entry by dressing in drag.
“Richard Rodriguez, 30, filmed a woman in a bathroom stall at the Potomac Mills Mall, Prince William County Police said,” reported NBC Washington. His victim was a 35-year-old woman who was in a bathroom stall when “she saw a bag moved toward her under the stall divider.” According to police, Rodriguez had been filming her.
Apparently, when the victim rushed out of the stall to confront the man, he had already moved to another woman just one stall over. “The victim alerted the woman and then contacted mall security of the shopping center on 2700 block of Potomac Mills Circle in Woodbridge, Virginia,” noted NBC Washington.
Reports suspect that this was not Rodriguez’s first time peeping on women by dressing himself up as woman to enter a restroom; disturbingly, he likely spied on a 53-year-old woman in May of 2015 and a 35-year-old and her 5-year-old daughter back in October.
“Rodriguez, of Fredericksburg, was charged with three counts of unlawful filming of a non-consenting person and three counts of peeping,” reported NBC Washington.
4. A Los Angeles man dressed in drag, entered a Macy’s department store bathroom and videotaped women under bathroom stalls.
As The Daily Wire reported in late March, charges were filed against Jason Pomare, 33, for allegedly disguising himself as a woman, sneaking in to the women’s restroom at a Macy’s department store and secretly videotaping hours of footage of women in bathroom stalls.
Pomare reportedly disguised himself with a wig and fake breasts; he kept his video camera with him in a small purse.
The suspect “was charged Tuesday with six counts of unlawful use of a concealed camera for purposes of sexual gratification. After his arrest, investigators said a video camera found in his purse had ‘hours’ of video of women using the restroom inside the store,” reports NBC4 News.
5. Two male students were caught at the University of Toronto exploiting “gender-neutral” facilities to peep on women in the shower with their cellphone cameras.
As The Daily Wire’s Pardes Seleh reported in October, The University of Toronto had to change their gender-neutral bathrooms back to bathrooms separated based on biology “after two separate incidents of ‘voyeurism’ were reported on campus September 15 and 19. Male students within the University’s Whitney Hall student residence were caught holding their cellphones over female students’ shower stalls and filming them as they showered.”
Segue to “You’ve got your mother in a whirl she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl, Hey babe your hair’s alright, hey babe let’s go out tonight…”
“I’m a boy I’m a boy and my mom won’t admit it I’m a boy I’m a boy and if I say I am I get it”
Any doctor who would facilitate the hormone treatment and potential surgical mutilation of an underage patient should be locked up for child abuse. The parent too.
From ACORN to Planned Parenthood to this you would think these people could see this coming by now.
NC Officials Enable Male Reporter Posing as Sexual … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrrBlS7NLtU - 346k - Cached - Similar pages
Apr 27, 2016 .
The problem is that kids mature a lot faster than court systems make decisions. The kid could be irrepairably harmed during that time.
The real criminal here is that psychologist who “made the determination that she was male.” ?? What is the criteria for this?
‘Residential rents are continuing to fall in many areas of Baku amid the ongoing drop in house prices. A year ago, one-bedroom apartment rented for 800-850 manats ($532-$565) in the city center, while today the figure is 400-500 manats ($266-$332). For two bedroom apartments, the figure was 1,300-1,500 manats ($864-$1,000) and now it stands at 700-800 manats ($465-$530), ‘the expert explained. The most expensive luxury housing was previously offered for 10,000-12,000 manats ($6,647-$7.976), but now it costs 5,000 manats ($3,323).’
This is just another country with a huge housing bubble, fueled by oil money, Russians, Turks (who have a huge bubble at home) and Arabs. Oh well, a 50% haircut will do them and the global economy good.
Average monthly salary in Baku: 3760 AZN (manats)
Median monthly salary in Baku: 2800 AZN (manats)
So rent is automatically 1/3 of salary.
http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=109&loctype=3
“On Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered that a set of urban water restrictions that the state established for the drought be made permanent, including bans on running sprinklers after rain and hosing down driveways. He also said mandatory reductions in water use by cities and towns were here to stay.
At a news conference in Sacramento, officials cited the state’s nearly 24 percent drop in water use since June as evidence that residents are taking conservation seriously. From shorter showers to letting lawns die, regulators said they want to be sure the austerity continues, even as rivers and reservoirs benefit from the wettest winter in five years.
“Californians stepped up during this drought and saved more water than ever before,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “But now we know that drought is becoming a regular occurrence, and water conservation must be a part of our everyday life.”
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Gov-Brown-orders-permanent-water-restrictions-7423288.php
You would think people would consider a necessity like water in their home buying, renting, or domicle choices. No, I guess in SF and other parts of Cali, the “Cali Dream” far outweighs the ability to take a 10 min shower. I suppose Gov Jerry Brown can hit two birds with one stone, and restrict showers to twice a week, and then it will help blend the homeless into the general populace.
Nothing like unflushed toilets to make a million dollar shack built in 1960 feel like home.
Million $$ apartment in the middle of Tenderloin, the bed pulls out of the closet, yippiee!!
Hosing down driveways? Here in the East I’ve never seen anyone hose down a driveway — just some occasional sweeping. Only in the West, I suppose.
“But now we know that drought is becoming a regular occurrence, and water conservation must be a part of our everyday life.”
why is that ? More homes, more farms, more people.
the age of permanent shortages
That and the fact the San Joaquin River is drying up as well as Lake Mead
Obama White House showed ‘bad faith’ in global-warming case, judge rules
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, May 9, 2016
The White House showed “bad faith” in how it handled an open records request for global warming data, a federal court ruled Monday, issuing yet another stinging rebuke to the administration for showing a lack of transparency.
For President Obama, who vowed to run the most transparent government in U.S. history, Judge Amit P. Mehta’s ruling granting legal discovery in an open records case — the third time this year a judge has ordered discovery — is an embarrassing black eye.
In this most recent case, the Competitive Enterprise Institute was trying to force the White House office of science and technology policy to release documents backing up Director John C. Holdren’s finding that global warming was making winters colder — a claim disputed by climate scientists.
Mr. Holdren’s staffers first said they couldn’t find many documents. They then tried to hide their release by saying the documents were all internal or were similar to what was already public.
Each of those claims turned out not to be true.
“At some point, the government’s inconsistent representations about the scope and completeness of its searches must give way to the truth-seeking function of the adversarial process, including the tools available through discovery. This case has crossed that threshold,” the judge wrote.
Discovery is considered exceedingly rare in Freedom of Information Act cases because the government is given the benefit of the doubt in claiming it has tried to search for and release documents. But in three cases this year, judges have called the Obama administration’s efforts into question, finding severe oversights that suggest “bad faith.”
In the office of science and technology policy’s case, conservative activists are trying to figure out why agency Director John P. Holdren declared in a video on the White House website that global warming was causing more severe winters. Scientists generally disagree with that finding.
The office of science and technology policy now claims it’s just Mr. Holdren’s opinion, so there is no need to correct the record or take down the video. But after the Competitive Enterprise Institute asked for documents related to his claim, the agency repeatedly botched its duty under the law to search for and provide those documents, according to Judge Mehta.
Initially the office said it found just 11 pages of documents, none of which included drafts of the director’s final conclusions. Later, the office acknowledged that it found 47 pages of drafts but tried to withhold them, claiming they were protected from release because they were seen only within the administration.
“Both of those impressions turned out to be mistaken,” Judge Mehta said.
The office of science and technology policy then said there were 52 total pages of drafts, that only one person outside the administration saw a draft and that document was similar to what the office had already produced.
“All three of those impressions also turned out to be mistaken,” Judge Mehta wrote, adding in a footnote that he was troubled by the government’s statements that misled the court.
Don’t look behind the curtain, you climate denier!
“Of all the problems besetting Los Angeles, the most fundamental is this: It doesn’t have much of a middle class.
L.A.’s economy has morphed over the last half-century from one that featured widespread prosperity to one in which the pay is too damn low and the rent is too damn high. That was the conclusion of the real-estate website Zillow, which determined that L.A. ranked first among the 35 largest American cities last year in the percentage of income that residents with median-income levels had to pay, on average, for rent (49%; the national average was just 30%). Millions of Angelenos can barely afford to be Angelenos.
At the root of L.A.’s decline is that fact that, like the cities of the once industrial Midwest, it has de-industrialized — indeed, de-industrialized twice. In the 1970s and ’80s, the L.A. area, which had been home to a concentration of auto factories second only to Michigan, saw them all close down, taking with them tens of thousands of unionized jobs that had been filled by a racially diverse work force. In the ’90s, with the Cold War’s end, the local aerospace industry, which employed hundreds of thousands of unionized production workers and engineers, saw massive cutbacks from which it has never recovered.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0510-meyerson-los-angeles-middleclass-jobs-20160510-story.html#nt=oft13a-4gp1
Not only de industrialization but an influx of poor immigrants helped to drive out the remaining middle class. I don’t think I’d be wrong in assuming that the problems the newly arrived poor brought with them made life unpleasant (to put it mildly) for those with some economic means, so the middle class packed up and left. All that remained were the extremely well to do, who never have to rub elbows with their social inferiors, and the poor who are p much stuck there.
All that remained were the extremely well to do, who never have to rub elbows with their social inferiors, and the poor who are p much stuck there.
We get a steady stream of migrant poors in our little burg, who go to the public library to use the computers to look for a job on Craigslist. Most can’t find steady work and end up moving on to the next town, and try again.
As to where they’re from, I don’t know.
It’s pretty much unaffordable in LA buying OR renting. And this used to be the city where you could make a decent wage and find reasonable housing.
I’m living in a small condo with a modest mortgage payment. I’ve also got a the downpayment for a 600k house in the bank. But I just don’t want to pay that much for a house, especially when it’s overpriced.
This is a 600k home in a better part of LA:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Glendale/773-Fairmont-Ave-91203/home/7155415
Friends in L.A. bought in 2012 - 2,600sqft for $445,000 short sale. Now it Zillow’s for over $700K?? Really? Nice pool and nabe. But talk about a massive surge in price. I don’t think wages surged like that.
A chinese family of multiple generations will buy it with funny Yuan.
when are they going to sell ?
At least with the tulip craze, tulips had some value. The best tulips had a lot of effort put in to make them top quality. But it costs the same to make a $1 as it does to make a $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, or a $100.
Evergreen, CO Housing Affordability Improves As Prices Plunge 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/evergreen-co/home-values/
‘Aberdeen has continued to suffer a slump in demand for new office space just as supply soars to its highest level in years, new figures show. Ryden’s 78th Scottish Property Review reveals office take-up in the Granite City fell by 71% to 83,150sq ft during the six months to March alone as the market reeled from the impact of the oil and gas downturn.’
‘The 364,735ft of new accommodation firms signed up for during the 12 months to March was less than half the 10-year average. Office supply has increased by a whopping 37% to 2.4million sq ft, including projects currently under construction.’
‘Mr Finnie said the one glimmer of light in an otherwise gloomy office scene in Aberdeen just now was the amount of better quality accommodation coming onto the market. It will attract interest, given time, he said, adding: “It is what’s left that could then be a problem.”
I came across these podcasts:
‘There’s bad news for Wearside home owners, as house prices in our region have fallen by 7 thousand pounds. But if you’re looking to buy there’s hope, as the 4.9 per cent drop in prices, leaves homes in Sunderland one of the best places to buy in our region.’
‘Managing Director of North East property firm KIS is AJ Jagota. He tells us at the moment it’s a buyers’ market. AJ Jagota tells Sun FM, this could feed into the rental market soon too.’
This is the “build your way out of a bubble” plan in action. Bad news? Sure, some people will lose everything and companies will lay off thousands. But you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Reining in credit could have headed it off, but no one wants to “break the spell.”
Nickname for people in Sunderland is
Mak’em” is an informal name for residents of and people from Sunderland, a city in North East England. Spelling variations include “Mackem”, “Makem”, and “Maccam”. It is also a name for the local accent (not to be confused with Geordie); and for a fan, whatever their origin, of Sunderland A.F.C.
One explanation for the term mackem is that it stems from “mackem and tackem” with mackem as a corruption of the local pronunciation of “make them” (roughly “mack ‘em”) and tackem from “take them.” The expressions date back to the height of Sunderland’s shipbuilding history, as the Sunderland shipwrights would make the ships that would sail down the River Wear which would take them to the sea. A variant explanation is that the builders at Sunderland would build the ships, which would then go to Tyneside to be outfitted, hence from the standpoint of someone from Sunderland, “we make ‘em an’ they take ‘em.” The term could also be a reference to the volume of ships built during wartime on the River Wear, e.g. “We make’em and they sink’em”
Been a long time since they’ve made much in Sunderland.
Isn’t there a Nissan factory near there?
Yes, but that’s about it.
Unemployment has risen in the North East - and wages are going down, new official figures show.
The figures suggest the region is failing to share in the benefits of economic growth, as wages rise across the UK as a whole.
Newcastle East Labour MP Nick Brown said: “They a searing indictment of the Northern Powerhouse idea, which so far has delivered nothing, except higher unemployment and lower wages.”
But Ministers insisted firms were recruiting and business confidence was high.
Latest figures show there are 103,000 people out of work in the North East, up by 7,000 people over the past three months.
It means the region’s unemployment rate is 8.1% - the highest figure for any region of the country. The UK-wide unemployment rate is 5.6%.
And average wages in the region actually fell over the past year, despite rising in most other parts of the UK.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-east-unemployment-up-wages-9842334
‘A New Zealand-born Chinese teenager has blasted the attitudes of some Kiwis towards her, saying they see her as “just another foreigner” here to buy their houses. The 17-year-old student, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she now felt unwelcome in the country she was born and raised in. Her experience is felt by many young Chinese, a community leader has revealed.’
‘In an open letter sent to the Herald, the Auckland teen spoke about the influx of foreign buyers in the New Zealand housing market and how she now felt as if ordinary Kiwis blamed her because of her ethnic background.’
“Just recently, I no longer feel like I am welcome in the country I have lived in for my whole life. I am viewed daily as just another foreigner who is here to take houses away from local New Zealanders. Despite how much I love the land I spent my childhood in, I get annoyed glances because people who share the same blood as me are taking away opportunities that rightfully belonged in our society.”
“Except these opportunities are taken from me too.”
“Our house prices are comparatively low. It’s a great investment to diversify wealth, to many different countries. Unlike other options such as Sydney, there are no constraints. However, whilst New Zealand seems like a great place to invest in, this influx of money is not purely positive.”
“House owners are delighted, as significant increase in demand has resulted in house values skyrocketing. My parents were lucky to be able to benefit from this, and thus increase our living standard through their hard work. However, as a young student, this is terrifying news to me. This increase in housing price is just increasing the seemingly unreachable wealth gap.”
“I have first handedly experienced the difference throughout the years. The cost of our first family home was just under $400,000 when we purchased it around 10 years ago, but now it has a market price of over double. However, the amount my parents earned around then were not that different from how much I hope to earn out of university.”
“Something that used to be attainable through hard work is no longer something we can achieve through hard work. Our unnatural increase in housing price is making it impossible for our generation to purchase our first home without significant funding from our parent. This is means that even if you work your hardest, without prior wealth, it is almost impossible to take the first step into the house market anymore.”
‘Our house prices are comparatively low. It’s a great investment to diversify wealth, to many different countries. Unlike other options such as Sydney, there are no constraints’
He or she will be sitting in a casino pulling levers all day eventually.
“I have first handedly experienced the difference throughout the years. The cost of our first family home was just under $400,000 when we purchased it around 10 years ago, but now it has a market price of over double. However, the amount my parents earned around then were not that different from how much I hope to earn out of university.”
She thinks $400,000 for a house in New Zealand 10 years ago was reasonable?
And her parents earned enough to afford this?
Earlier she said:
“House owners are delighted, as significant increase in demand has resulted in house values skyrocketing. My parents were lucky to be able to benefit from this, and thus increase our living standard through their hard work.”
How did skyrocketing house prices enable your parents to increase the family’s standard of living?
‘just under $400,000 when we purchased it around 10 years ago, but now it has a market price of over double. However, the amount my parents earned around then were not that different from how much I hope to earn out of university’
Same or worse in the US. But you can’t expect them to leave that sweet equity untapped!
We used to have a poster on here from NZ who said it was usual in that country for people to spend 10x income on housing versus the older 3x in the USA.
“Gordon Gekko: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you. “
For decades, Greeks voted for corrupt socialists and crony capitalists who promised them benefits other people would have to pay for. Now the financial reckoning day has arrived. A preview of coming attractions once our Permanent Democrat Supermajority runs out of Other People’s Money.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/greece-austerity-grexit-drachma
Central bankers taking their War on Savers to the next level.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/10/wealth-confiscation-for-the-digital-age-the-new-cash-tax/
Getting ready for the apocalypse is big business.
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/more-preppers-buying-property/
Greece’s “radical left” government that promised to defy the Troika and fight for ordinary Greeks wasted no time caving to the EU once in power. How’s that “something for nothing” working out for ya, Greece?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/greece-austerity-grexit-drachma
Palm Beach County
Decent hood and up.
House prices too high
R
Rents too high
Cherri pick, cherri pick!
‘Home values in Colorado Springs are growing again this year as demand from buyers continues to out pace the available inventory. Realtor Cherri Fischer, the past chair of the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, said lower priced “entry-level” homes are selling particular fast.’
“Once you get to $250,000 and under, it’s very, very sparse,” she said. “Very low inventory.” Many homes in that range end up under contract within a day of being listed. “We even have buyers coming down from Douglas County because there’s nothing there for them to buy in that price range,” Fischer said.’
‘At the same time, rental prices are also increasing. Commercial real estate advisors Sperry Van Ness report that the vacancy rate in Colorado Springs, meaning share of total rental units currently available, is at around 4.5 percent.’
‘That demand is pushing rents higher, but Doug Carter of Sperry Van Ness notes that the increases have been less that what consumer have experienced in other sectors. Over the past 11 years, rents in Colorado Springs have grown by less than $23 per year.’
‘Developers are currently building six new apartment communities in Colorado Springs which are expected to add around 1,000 new rental units.’
$23 a year? That’s less than a tank of cheap gas. The horror!
‘Seven permits issued to build 23 new multifamily housing units in Fort Collins through the year’s first four months represent the calm before what should be a storm of apartment development in the city. Fort Collins has nearly 2,000 apartments in all stages of the development pipeline — with the largest project on the books slated to bring about 400 apartments to the perimeter of Foothills Mall.’
‘McWhinney, Inc., applied for building permits for 15 three- and four-story buildings along Swallow and Stanford roads in March, but because they are still pending, the 400 units are not reflected in monthly building permit statistics reported by the city at the end of April.’
‘Like many of the apartments slated for construction, interior finishes are expected to be high-end, fetching top rents in Fort Collins. Studios are expected to go for about $1,000 per month, with two-bedroom units fetching nearly $2,000 monthly. If those rates hold, they could be the most expensive apartments in the city.’
‘According to the first-quarter Colorado Multifamily Housing Vacancy and Rental Survey released by the Colorado Division of Housing, the average rent for an efficiency — or studio — apartment in the city is $775; while two-bedroom, two-bath units rent for an average $1,395 per month.’
‘While multifamily construction is poised to ramp up in the next few months, the pace of development for single-family homes continues to lag behind the last three years as land available to develop in Fort Collins becomes more scarce and water costs within the city’s growth management area continue to rise.’
“The difficulty to secure water is a major determinant in Fort Collins that is determining the pace of residential growth,” Kaplan said.’
‘As water gets more expensive it puts downward pressure on land costs, the only development cost that is still open to negotiation. “Builders want to be in that range where they can turn around houses as fast as possible,” he said. “The only place they can start negotiating is with the land.”
‘Right now, the sweet spot for home prices is $300,000 to $350,000. “Builders know they will sell the most homes if they build between those price points,” Kaplan said. “Once the price gets over $350,000, the percentage of people in the housing market who can afford that goes down.”
‘Right now, the sweet spot for home prices is $300,000 to $350,000. “Builders know they will sell the most homes if they build between those price points,” Kaplan said. “Once the price gets over $350,000, the percentage of people in the housing market who can afford that goes down.”
The FHA ceiling for a SFR in Fort Collins is $340,400. What a coincidence.
https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicost1.cfm
Let’s do a hypothetical: what if the maximum government house loan was $150,000?
‘Right now, the sweet spot for home prices is $125,000 to $150,000′
‘Like many of the apartments slated for construction, interior finishes are expected to be high-end, fetching top rents in Fort Collins’
Funny how this is going on all over the US at the exact same time and for years now. It’s an amazing coincidence! And with rents only going up at around the price of a case of beer - per year - for 11 years, a skeptic might doubt these apartments are going to make it. Oh well, pensions won’t be paid, lenders will lose capital, maybe fold. But that’s the way “build your way out of a housing bubble” works. Don’t anyone get all McWhinney about it.
“Don’t anyone get all McWhinney about it.”
The McWhinney company is notorious for having others being the bagholders. They built the Centerra outdoor mall, which was foreclosed. Chad McWhinney made sure that he wasn’t a bagholder. He collected big fees for designing and developing the mall, and made money reselling the land to the investors while he was at it. But he didn’t own it.
I’ll bet it’s the same deal with those luxury apartments in Fort Collins. He convinced someone else to own them while he makes money building them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a cut of the rents.
Job growth fueling development of 550 luxury apartments
Dallas Business Journal-21 hours ago
“The housing market up there is pretty tight”
Again with the luxury.
‘Robert Bray, the CEO of Bray Real Estate, said is a 1.3-percent vacancy rate in Grand Junction for apartment complexes. He added the city’s vacancy percentage is low compared to the state average of 5.7 percent.’
‘With apartment housing being high in demand in Grand Junction, Bray said many people may expect rents to increase. “But we’ve seen very little rent increases locally if any at all,” Bray said. “(We think) it’s mostly tied to income and affordability of people (who) rent these units.”
Job growth fueling development of 550 luxury apartments
Dallas Business Journal-21 hours ago
“The housing market up there is pretty tight”
Again with the luxury.
Are we sure about the tight housing market in Dallas?
Mar 31, 2016 DFW developers deliver thousands of apartments as demand stalls http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2016/03/31/dfw-developers-deliver-thousands-of-apartments-as.html
I mentioned the other day a UHS I know in Big D recently saw concession signs go up on brand new apartments for the first time.
The sovereign peoples of Europe are finally getting fed up with unelected, unaccountable political elites.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/10/devastating-mori-poll-shows-europes-peoples-share-british-rage-o/
Tampa, FL Housing Affordability Improves As Prices Dive 5% YoY On Plunging Housing Demand
http://www.movoto.com/tampa-fl/market-trends/
I am taking the $8 from my car pay off (car totaled, they sell for $9000, but after hours of fighting this is the top offer) I am investing in (arcc) for the 10% div.
https://maine.craigslist.org/lab/5578996186.htm
This one for Ray K about his post on freight yesterday……I don’t see him posting today - must have flared out yesterday after the flurry of posts he made.
So….Ray - This is interesting - I had seen something about Maersk on another site a couple of days ago talking the same thing…….
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-08/negative-rates-hit-global-shipping-market-as-zombies-slow-m-a
NIRP is nothing but bad for the productive economy, but other than QE there is no more efficient means to bilk the 99% and transfer their assets to Yellen’s cronies in the financial sector.
I concur—that was a really interesting article, and it pinned the tail on the ZIRP/NIRP donkey just right. I hadn’t thought of it quite that way before.
Zero or negative rates have the effect of propping up firms that would otherwise be failing; by causing them not to fail, ZIRP/NIRP prevent the consolidation that would otherwise occur through bankruptcy—thus ensuring that the industry doesn’t have a chance to recovery. It’s fascinating: a different mechanism, but essentially causing the EXACT SAME craziness that Japan did, back when our central bank was casting aspersions at them for propping up zombie banks and zombie firms.
And now we do the same, though through different channels. Ironic, isn’t it??
Gee - thanks obama - I guess I am not so “lucky” as you are ‘lucky ducky’.
sheesh.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/05/10/the-washington-post-accuses-stingy-americans-of-ruining-obamas-recovery/#more-121992
…can only fit so many plasma TV’s in the hizzie.
One of the smartest guys nobody has every heard of…….. retires:
http://tinyurl.com/jg9bkea
‘Build it, and they will come — to knock it down and build it again.’
‘Arguing that the recent frenzy in Chinese steel prices is sustainable, Credit Suisse analysts say investors should look past the glut of homes in so-called third and fourth tier cities, the soft-underbelly of China’s economy. This oversupply shouldn’t hold back developers from getting their bulldozers going again – and presumably using more steel.’
“Apartments unoccupied for a few years were clearly built in the wrong areas, and the government is considering proposals for demolition. New construction in better chosen sites is starting in lower tier cities, irrespective of the inventory,” the report says. Developers anyway fear that apartments that have been empty for two years are now seen as “unlucky” in the eyes of buyers. Better to start from scratch in better locations.’
‘Erasing foolish investments of the past by razing empty apartment blocks is a thin foundation on which to support recovery hopes. Those apartment blocks were likely financed with debt. Knocking them down won’t pay back the loans taken out to build them, unless there’s a massive government bailout.’
‘Developers anyway fear that apartments that have been empty for two years are now seen as “unlucky” in the eyes of buyers’
Oh, no, no no, I have it on good advice from Dan that these Chinese couldn’t possibly be so superstitious. In fact, it’s all part of a cunning plan. These empty cities will light up with prosperity as millions of peasants flood in from the countryside.
The hope ‘n change rip-offs keep piling up faster than I can keep track of them.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-reason-behind-americas-new-housing-crisis-2016-5
Shirley, MA Housing Affordability Improves Dramatically As Prices Plunge 12% YoY; Statewide Median Price Falls
http://www.movoto.com/shirley-ma/market-trends/
No bubble here….
http://www.businessinsider.com/smallest-home-on-the-market-in-san-francisco-2016-5
“0 beds, 1 bath” for over half a million dollars.
This bubble is isn’t going to just pop, its going to explode in flame covering the earth in the steaming corpses of speculators, debt slaves, would be real estate tycoons, greedy idiots of all kinds.
Listen to these real estate pimping fruitcakes:
“Mini is all the rage: First there was the Mini Cooper and then Mini Bar on Divisadero, and now the opportunity to decrease your footprint ”
Ahh I see it is an “Opportunity”. Realtors, so madcap and fun loving.
Yikes! talk about being is a fishbowl, that would get really weird really quick. S.F. has many quirky one of a kind units like that but back in the day they would have been rentals and priced appropriately…that place would have been low $$$ and maybe worked OK for a starving student, etc.
Bubble is so crazy, even bars are using Uber style “surge pricing” to adjust the price of drinks on the fly!
http://wina.com/news/030030-surge-pricing-at-the-bar/
What is the Keynesian fraudster response to failed trillions in stimulus? Moar stimulus!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/10/eurozone-recovery-wilts-as-sugar-rush-fades-deflation-lurks/
The ugly truth behind the latest “Greek” (read: bankster) bailout.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/10/the-ugly-truth-behind-the-greek-bailout/
“Silicon Valley Realtor Charged With LAH Grand Theft, Elder Abuse”
http://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/news/200-police-fire/52802-silicon-valley-realtor-charged-with-grand-theft-elder-abuse-in-lah
The Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate has embarked on an epic feeding frenzy, thanks to the Fed’s gifts of trillions in free gambling money for its oligarch accomplices.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/10/hedge-fund-managers-salaries-billions-kenneth-griffin-james-simon
“And all the cheap bloodsuckers are flying after you”
Lou Reed — Andy’s Chest (1972):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VV0HCTkHtc
The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society LP(1968):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYMA-qlReg0
Even oligarchs flush with the Fed’s printing-press trillions are balking at the ridiculous prices “art” has been selling for since everything got bubbly.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/10/art-market-unravels-auction-sales-plunge/
Carmel Valley(San Diego), CA Housing Affordability Grows As Prices Crater 18% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92130/home-values/
http://www.ctpost.com/…/article/How-to-discover-the-magic-number-on-a-7885781.php - 122k -
http://joeplummer.com/tragedy-...