A Real Estate Meltdown May Very Well Be On Its Way
The Global News BC reports from Canada. “There is no denying that the real estate market in Vancouver is red hot – prices have been rising with no end in sight. But one market analyst thinks we will see the bubble burst. Marc Cohodes used to run one of the largest hedge funds on Wall Street. Speaking on Global BC News Morning, Cohodes made it clear that he has no personal stake in the Vancouver real estate market. Cohodes said he wants to speak out about the housing market in Vancouver because he feels strongly ‘people are being taken advantage of.’ ‘I think it’s a money laundering-induced market,’ said Cohodes. ‘Where the local politicians, or the BC Liberals, are kept or in cahoots with the real estate brokers, developers, lawyers, that angle. And they have sought Chinese money to keep the market propped up and it won’t last. China has capital controls on and Vancouver has become the money laundering mecca of either the world or North America and something is going to change and change drastically.’”
“Finance Minister Mike de Jong has said he does not believe Vancouver is in a real estate bubble, to which Cohodes said ‘he’s full of more crap than a Christmas turkey.’ ‘The market is ridiculously high and Christy Clark goes and takes real estate people over to China. They have the records,’ said Cohodes, ‘they just don’t want people to really know or they don’t want people to know the truth.’”
From Estate Agent Today in the UK. “Housebuilder St Modwen has been forced to write down the value of the landmark Nine Elms regeneration scheme because ‘recent transactional evidence’ suggests it is worth less than before the capital’s housing market slowdown. Last week the buying agency Black Brick named Nine Elms when it was reviewing London’s market following the referendum. ‘Areas such as Nine Elms in Vauxhall and Earls Court in west London are particularly vulnerable due to oversupply of expensive properties aimed at the overseas investor’ said Black Brick chief executive Camilla Dell.”
The Australian Financial Review. “Three out of five Melbourne developers are struggling to access bank funding to complete new housing projects, according to a survey by the Urban Development Institute of Australia. ‘The institute’s survey findings have measured and confirmed the groundswell of concern about volatility, market conditions and funding constraints in Victoria,’ its Victorian chief executive Danni Addison said. Ms Addison said a ‘broad expectation’ that there was a wealth of capital available in global markets was ’simply not the case’ given the global uncertainty and local concerns stemming from the federal election.”
“Developer and BRW Rich Lister Tim Gurner told the Australian Financial Review the results of the survey were not surprising. He said there had been a huge amount of change in the past seven to eight weeks and banks were now demanding that developers throw in an additional 15-20 per cent equity and knocking back applications for funding above $50 million. ‘The fundamentals of the market are really, really strong, but the banks are becoming increasingly nervous. If you are not a developer with a proven track record, you won’t get any funding,’ Mr Gurner said.”
From Forbes on China. “Although real estate sales have picked up in recent months, property developers continue to suffer from high levels of inventory with no clear end in sight. ANZ China’s economics research team recently estimated that it will take about four years for developers to sell their existing property stocks at the current rate of investment. The stock of property is large, and sales are not growing rapidly enough to provide sufficient demand for the excess supply.”
“The average price of land in 100 cities is rising, having reached 3,100 RMB per square meter in May. This could mean, in an economy with a fully marketized real estate sector, that prices are starting to reflect land scarcity, which could slow property development going forward. However, high land prices have not presented a large deterrent to property development in some cities, as land can be used as collateral for loans, and now there is even worry that home prices may be sold for less than the price of land, leaving developers with further losses.”
The Economic Times in India. “Lenders to the real estate sector fear that price correction and shrinking liquidity in the segment are increasing the risk of loan defaults. About a fifth of the Indian banking system’s assets are exposed to the real estate sector, according to analysts. The exposure, in the backdrop of a rise in unsold inventory and slump in sales, has bankers worried.”
“‘If property prices go down further, bank mortgages will be much more than the security banks are holding. If that happens, the probability of a default increases,’ a senior executive of a public sector bank said on condition of anonymity. He cited the poor response to the auction of Kingfisher house as example. After failing to find a buyer at a reserve price of Rs 150 crore, bankers have now put the property on the block again for a base price of Rs 135 crore.”
“Experts say that with an increase in the number of unsold homes and drying up of sales, a real estate sector meltdown may very well be on its way. ‘The situation is so precarious that if one company goes down, it will take the rest of the system down with itself,’ said Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of Liases Foras, a real estate research firm. ‘In several cases, the loan origination value is so exorbitant that any price correction reduces banks to further risk.’”
From Nigerian Today. “It is no longer secret that many people in Nigerian cities, especially of Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt, live in shanties in the slum areas of the cities amid many completed private and government housing schemes that are unoccupied. Many factors are said to account for this situation including unaffordability, money laundering, insensitivity of government authorities, among others.”
“Nigeria has about 17 million housing deficit, according to the United Nations, and it is estimated that Abuja, the federal capital territory with a population of 1,406,239 based on National Population Commission figures, carries 10 percent of this deficit. Business Day survey shows that many houses in housing estates in high-brow areas such as Asokoro, Gwarinpa, Maitama, Wuse II, Utako, Katampe districts, have remained unoccupied for many years after they were completed. The situation is virtually the same in hitherto middle-class areas like Apo, Dei-Dei, Gwarimpa, Lugbe, Kubwa, Gwarimpa, Gudu, Life Camp, and Gaduwa. Completed housing estates litter these areas unoccupied several years after they had been completed.”
The Standard on Zimbabwe. “Most landlords in plush residential areas who used to demand that a single family take up the whole house are now renting out rooms to several tenants because very few people can still afford to pay huge rentals. A survey by Standardbusiness showed that rentals for properties in the low-density suburbs for middle-income families were now ranging between $400 and $450 for the whole house. Before the economic meltdown, the properties attracted rental fees of $800 and above.
“Zinahco president Mike Duru said tenants had become kings as landlords could no longer charge as they used to. ‘Now you find that if someone has a house, the landlord is actually persuading these tenants to stay. The paradigm has shifted and instead of the tenant kneeling down begging for accommodation, it is now the landlords going down on their knees. Some of these landlords are multi property owners. One might have five or 10 houses in Harare and they occupy just one house and expect to raise money from the other properties. So there is no way they can charge high prices because there will be no takers,’ Duru said.”
“Property analyst Washington Musiiwa said the high-end houses had seen huge rental declines as they were the most affected. ‘Just like the worker who used to eat lunch at a hotel is now eating from take-aways, most tenants can no longer afford the executive ambassadorial houses they used to pay monthly rentals of $4 000 for. These have gone down to an average $1 500,’ Musiiwa said. ‘The very high-end type of residential dwellings have been the most affected by the current environment.’ In some cases, if a tenant is faithful and consistent in monthly payments, landlords have found it wise to even initiate a rental reduction to maintain good relations and therefore longer occupancy. ‘The logic is quite clear, ‘half a loaf is better than nothing’, Musiiwa said.”
‘The market is ridiculously high and Christy Clark goes and takes real estate people over to China’
Clark thanks condo kings for their support - The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com › News › British ColumbiaThe Globe and Mail
May 16, 2013 - The must-attend event of the year for Vancouver’s condo industry began on Thursday with a standing ovation for Premier Christy Clark from a …
Clark’s Pay from Donors Too Tied to Real Estate Moguls: Eby | The Tyee
thetyee.ca/News/2016/05/02/Clark-Donors-Tied-Real-Estate/
The Tyee
May 2, 2016 - Premier Christy Clark with BC Liberal Party fundraising chair Bob Rennie, who has made … Condo king runs fundraising, a cut goes to Premier.
Jun 5, 2015 - Vancouver condo king Bob Rennie calls for tax on speculation · UBC … It didn’t take long for Premier Christy Clark to respond, saying taxes …
Jun 28, 2016 - Christy Clark @christyclarkbc Jun 28. Canada’s … @christyclarkbc how does condo King and BC Liberal strategist Bob Rennie feel about this?
Condo king Bob Rennie suggests a speculation tax on real-estate …
http://www.straight.com/…/condo-king-bob-rennie-suggests-s...
Georgia Straight
May 22, 2015 - Condo king Bob Rennie… political supporter of Mayor Robertson and Premier Christy Clark.
Condo king Bob Rennie condemns NPA board for not allowing …
http://www.straight.com/…/condo-king-bob-rennie-condemns-...
Georgia Straight
Condo King pitches increased transit to help offset density concerns
http://www.vancourier.com/…/condo-king-pitches-increase...
Vancouver Courier
Jun 7, 2016 - From Bob Rennie’s lips to Premier Christy Clark’s ear. Well, you would think. But you would be wrong. There was Rennie, B.C’s “Condo King,” …
Vancouver condo king Bob Rennie floats speculation tax to politicians …
http://www.metronews.ca/…/vancouver-condo-king-bob-rennie-fl...
Metro News
May 24, 2015 - He confirmed he sent his speech to Premier Christy Clark’s office. While Clark has previously rejected the idea of a foreign ownership tax, she …
Smyth: Who’s bankrolling Premier Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal Party?
http://www.theprovince.com/news/…Christy+Clark…/story.htmlThe Province
Bob Rennie, Vancouver Condo King, Calls For B.C. Tax On House …
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/…/bob-rennie-vancouver-real-estate-tax_n_7425...
May 22, 2015 - B.C. Premier Christy Clark, who counted Rennie as a big supporter during her election campaigns, has already ruled out raising taxes for …
Can Canada, or the province of British Columbia, imprison or seek civil legal remedies against Mr. Cohodes for his statements? It has to be only a matter of time before comments like this are criminalized, kind of like food industries in the U.S. have been able to get food libel laws passed in some states.
‘Vancouver’s real estate market has been very good to Amanda. She’s not a licensed realtor, but buying and selling property is her full-time job. She started about eight years ago as an unlicensed “wholesaler” in Vancouver. She would approach homeowners and make unsolicited offers for private cash deals. Amanda made a 10-per-cent fee on each purchase by immediately assigning the contract to a background investor.’
‘Unlicensed wholesaling is an illicit and predatory business that is quickly growing in Metro Vancouver because enforcement is virtually non-existent. It’s similar to a tactic currently being examined by B.C. real estate authorities known as “assignment flipping,” which involves legally but secretly trading homes on paper to enrich realtors and circles of investors.’
‘However, unlicensed wholesaling is completely unregulated. Amanda estimates hundreds of wholesalers are scouring Metro Vancouver’s never-hotter speculative market — not including the realtors who are secretly wholesaling for themselves.’
‘Amanda said she believes that unethical and ignorant investors are driving B.C.’s housing market at full speed towards a crash. For these reasons, and with the condition that we not use her real name, she came forward to reveal how wholesalers operate.’
“A lot of money is leaving China, so now every second day people are asking if I can go out and find places for them. They have tons of money,” Amanda said. “They are basically brokering business deals specifically for Chinese investors.”
‘The wholesaler persuades a homeowner to sell, offering immediate cash, no subjects, no home inspections, and savings on realtor fees. While the wholesaler claims to represent one buyer, or in some cases to be the buyer, Amanda said three or four contract flippers are often already lined up, with an end-buyer from China who will eventually take title in most cases. These unlicensed broker deals appear to be illegal.’
‘A veteran Vancouver realtor confirmed these types of deals. The realtors we spoke to have been asked by their brokerages not to comment to reporters, so we agreed to withhold their names.’
“I work with some non-licensed flippers,” one said. “They walk on to the lawn of an older house, see the owner and yell, ‘We’re not realtors!’ The owner invites them in, thinks they’re saving a commission — which they are — and loses big-time on the actual sale. I’ve seen it first-hand.”
‘Vancouver realtors confirmed that money laundering is a big concern in assignment-flipping deals, whether organized by an unlicensed wholesaler or a realtor.’
“When you are a non-realtor broker you no longer have to play by any rules,” one Vancouver realtor said. “There is a role for assignments, but nobody is asking where the money came from. We are creating vehicles for money laundering. No person in their right mind wants to buy your house once, and sell it three more times in a small window of opportunity, unless they have a whole pool of people lined up trying to get their money out of the country. The higher the prices go, these vehicles to get money out of the country get bigger and bigger.”
‘If you’ve been eyeing Surrey as a potential place to buy, be prepared to shell out some big coin. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board has just released its June numbers, with the benchmark price for a detached house in Surrey now $981,700.’
‘Board President Charles Wiebe says the price isn’t turning off buyers. “Despite the price, Surrey is still a very desirable place to live and we obviously continue to have people moving into the Fraser Valley and into Surrey specifically to buy homes,” says Wiebe.’
‘Looking at this year-over-year, that’s a 40 percent increase in the price for a detached house in Surrey, which in June 2015 sat at $689,700.’
It appears like the easiest way to make windfall money in the global economy is simply to get out ahead of Chinese speculators and money-launderers. Wine, garlic, Vancouver houses.
What asset class will attract them next?
‘We are creating vehicles for money laundering. No person in their right mind wants to buy your house once, and sell it three more times in a small window of opportunity, unless they have a whole pool of people lined up trying to get their money out of the country’
The Chinese guy who got in trouble last week was using his “assets” in China to buy multiple houses in Vancouver - with Canadian loans. 100% loans. If I’m buying houses there, what’s to stop me from refinancing every 6 months? This involves a lot more than dirty money leaving China.
Govt sanctioned economic espionage of the West perhaps?
“This involves a lot more than dirty money leaving China.”
“The most transparent administration in U.S. history.” —Obama
How is Obama responsible for the Canadian housing bubble in Vancouver? Sheesh. …
‘Boockvar believes that this activity is a ticking time bomb for the global economy. He reasoned that U.S. Treasury yields are being dragged down by negative-yielding debt out of Germany, Japan and Switzerland and misplaced monetary policy, and is therefore skeptical as to how much longer the rally can continue.’
‘He reacted to the newly released FOMC minutes and further questioned the Fed’s ability to act effectively. “They’ll call it being ‘patient.’ Their forecasts are now irrelevant, their communication is now meaningless and their tools to handle whatever might come our way are toothless,” noted Boockvar when describing the Fed’s ability to address a flattening yield curve.’
‘In Europe, concern for Italy’s economy continues to rise as that nation struggles to maintain negative interest rates while simultaneously raising capital for its banking system, which is straddled with mounting debt.’
“Maybe Italian banks are telling us that central bankers and their negative interest rate policies are actually destroying the Japanese and European banking system?” asked Boockvar in the CNBC interview.’
‘He reasoned that Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi could take a look at what’s happening in Italy and decide that their respective monetary policies are the wrong course of action. Ultimately, Boockvar warned of the fallout that could occur if multiple nations opt to end what he referred to as a “negative deposit rate regime.”
“Even if they put it back to zero, imagine the carnage, at least in the short-term bond markets,” concluded Boockvar.’
‘Even if they put it back to zero, imagine the carnage’
But they had to DO something. We’re one step away from either buying a million dollar shack in California or eating gruel.
Oh well, it was a good experiment. If you’re going to produce a wealth effect, better hope there’s growth to support the shack price. If not, retire and give $100k speeches.
“or eating gruel.”
From wooden bowls in an orphanage.
A WSJ headline:
‘The Big-Bank Bloodbath: Losses Near Half a Trillion Dollars’
I almost missed this in the flurry of articles about how much people who have saved their money are getting robbed by the central banks. Every day.
Can’t I eat gruel in my million dollar shack?
Only if you were cursed enough to be paying for one.
Ben Jones: Oh well, it was a good experiment.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it is what you know for sure just ain’t so.”
‘In this picture taken last week, Italian Police officers in riot gears push back protesters during clashes with members of the local Chinese community’
‘A crackdown by Italian authorities on the increasingly powerful Chinese community in Tuscany resulted in new searches Friday in Italy’s Chinatown and clashes this week that drew the ire of China’s Foreign Ministry. Several people were injured in clashes Wednesday outside a factory near Florence where workers tried to prevent Italian health inspectors from entering. Riot police were called in after members of the Chinese community, including the leader of a vigilante group, descended on the scene.’
‘Italy has beefed up inspections of Chinese-run businesses following a 2013 fire at a Chinese-run garment factory that killed seven people in Prato, the heavily Chinese manufacturing district in Tuscany known for its black market factories and illegal workers.’
‘A court last year convicted three people for the factory deaths. Chinese activists have complained that Italian authorities are only interested in handing out fines, and are planning protests this weekend.’
‘As part of the crackdown, police in Prato conducted searches Friday and placed nine people under investigation in a separate probe into the operations of a Chinese community group, the White Stag association, said Prato’s deputy police chief, Francesco Nannucci. He said members of the group, formed recently to safeguard the interests of the Chinese community, had conducted vigilante patrols, beating up Moroccans and other North Africans. Those detained were accused of criminal association aimed at racial violence, he said.’
‘Nannucci said Friday’s searches were unrelated to the clashes earlier in the week but were part of a broader crackdown into criminal activity within the Chinese community. He noted that the head of the White Stag association and another Chinese expat were arrested last month as part of an investigation into prostitution and the drug trade in Chinese-
run nightclubs.’
‘The Italian crackdown is also financial: Preliminary hearings are underway in Florence against some 300 people accused of money-laundering charges after 5 billion euros (USD5.6 billion) passed from Italy to China via wire transfers. A judge in April rejected a prosecutors’ request to indict three Bank of China officials in the probe, saying he must interrogate them first, news reports said.’
This same site has an article about one of those Hong Kong booksellers detained in mainland China http://macaudailytimes.com.mo/beijing-wants-bookseller-back-hong-kong-says-no-chance.html
It’s funny that the Chinese protestors in Italy are complaining about how the Italians treat them. They should go back to their own country and see what happens.
Is China’s game plan to take over the world by purchasing residential properties on foreign soil in order to colonize every other country on the planet?
If so, they have a good start.
‘Housebuilder St Modwen has been forced to write down the value of the landmark Nine Elms regeneration scheme because ‘recent transactional evidence’ suggests it is worth less than before the capital’s housing market slowdown. Last week the buying agency Black Brick named Nine Elms when it was reviewing London’s market following the referendum. ‘Areas such as Nine Elms in Vauxhall and Earls Court in west London are particularly vulnerable due to oversupply of expensive properties aimed at the overseas investor’
‘Three of the U.K.’s largest real estate funds have frozen almost 9.1 billion pounds ($12 billion) of assets after Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union sparked a flurry of redemptions.’
‘M&G Investments, Aviva Investors and Standard Life Investments halted withdrawals because they don’t have enough cash to immediately repay investors. About 24.5 billion pounds is allocated to U.K. real estate funds, according to the Investment Association.’
“The dominoes are starting to fall in the U.K. commercial property market,” said Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The problem these funds face is that it takes time to sell commercial property to meet withdrawals, and the cash buffers built up by the managers have been eroded by investors heading for the door.”
Is $12 billion a lot?
Is $12 billion a lot?
Isn’t that the going price for a new Gerald Ford class aircraft carrier?
Yes it is, but that’s before they immediately turn around and reoutfit it with the latest and greatest after it took 4 yrs to construct (computers, IT, furniture, etc)
… don’t forget that third restroom.
A Real Estate Meltdown
Metro Denver sees a big jump in the inventory of homes for sale in June:
“New home listings rose in June in metro Denver, but the pace of sales softened, boosting the number of properties available on the market.
There were 6,796 homes and condos available for sale at the end of June, which was 24.4 percent more than the count of active listings at the end of May, according to a report Wednesday from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
“We are starting to see signs of a much needed market correction and a market plateau may be on the horizon,” suggested Anthony Rael, chairman of DMAR Market Trends Committee, in the monthly update.”
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/06/homes-for-sale-inventory-denver/
Note that even after the website redesign, the Denver Post is still incompetent at editing, note the article subheading says median where it should say average.
It’s good to see this charade grinding to a halt in another city.
Denver = Debtver.
These articles never mention that median household income here is less than $60,000.
Who cares what the median I when you can rely on locusts?
Colorado = The Next California.
FWIW, Colorado isn’t really the destination of choice for emigrating Californians. They’re far more likely to end up in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon or Texas. I think most are scared of the snow or something. Whenever I meet someone who has moved here, they usually come from the midwest. Yesterday I met an Iowa transplant. East coast transplants are very rare, they probably get turned off by Denver’s “Cowboy” image. Demographically Colorado is still very white, unlike California. So maybe Colorado is The Next Iowa or Nebraska?
That said, it’s good to see the Denver bubble run out of gas. As goon rightly points out, wages here are not very high. So it was a matter of time before fundamentals reasserted themselves.
‘it’s good to see the Denver bubble run out of gas’
There was a lot of construction going on there last year. If it’s a bubble and if it pops, there will be a bunch of unemployed people. Loans will go bad, foreclosures. People who thought they were going to retire, won’t. As we’ve been seeing, it isn’t just Denver. Most of the bubble markets around the world have run out of gas. And as I’ve asked in several weekend topics, what happens if they all crash at roughly the same time?
One thing is different this time. We’ve never entered a recession with interest rates at 1-2%.
East coast transplants are very rare, they probably get turned off by Denver’s “Cowboy” image. Demographically Colorado is still very white, unlike California. So maybe Colorado is The Next Iowa or Nebraska?
Colorado is a lot closer to the Midwest than is to the East Coast. The interesting thing is that unemployment is probably significantly lower and housing significantly cheaper in places like Des Moines, Minneapolis and Omaha.
The interesting thing is that unemployment is probably significantly lower and housing significantly cheaper in places like Des Moines, Minneapolis and Omaha.
Probably true. When I talk to midwest relocatees and ask them why they moved here, the answer is more often than not “the weather”.
I bought oil at 27 a barrel, but it will still be a good buy up to 60 a barrel.
I bought some Greek coins today. It seems like all the coin collectors have died off. I’m on a feeding frenzy.
I just got back from spending three days in Denver.
New homes from $200K out near the airport (where I am working). That’s just a touch over 3X median income of $60K as given above.
And a large majority of the newcomers are working 1-2 service jobs serving up fine ale and cheese boards.
If you aren’t a techie, in healthcare or construction, there isn’t much else that pays well. There is no manufacturing to speak of. Denver isn’t an HQ town, just back offices with lower paying cube farm jobs. There are better jobs than serving food and beer, but the pay will be low.
I visited Agilent in Fort Collins years ago to sign off on a tester .
It was nice I think October ? Smelled like hay.
Very flat and the mountains were off in the distance as I drove up from the airport.
I think around 1999 ? bubble times in high tech
“a market plateau may be on the horizon”
Plateau! One of my favorite HBB drinking game keywords. Next up should be “minor pullback” (prices got ahead of themselves), then “soft landing” (ok, maybe things were a bit overpriced, but now it’s back to normal), then “serious downturn” (lookout below), “bloodbath” (the sky is FALLING!!), and, finally, “predatory lending,” which spawns a bunch of fun new gov’t acronyms, after which we start all over again when a newspaper begins an RE article with the phrase “good news…”
+17
I can’t really understand real estate at this point. With the inflation since 2007, our money is not buying very much in comparison to how the Fed has inflated the currency, so bubbles have to continue despite all the wishful thinking to the contrary.
That’s not inflation my friend.
Hipsters gonna hip.
Does Denver have an image problem? Hell yeah it does!
“KUSA - Last week, a video of a homeless man apparently attacking people on the 16th Street Mall went viral.
Tuesday, 9NEWS did a story on the blatant use of heroin on the Cherry Creek trail near downtown Denver.
We talked about the potential public relations implications of these incidents with Darrin Duber-Smith, a marketing professor at Metro State University.
He says the problems can largely be attributed to growing pains, but that Denver needs to start taking control of its image.
“We’re developing a reputation as a city that has a problem with transients,” Duber-Smith said. “And this is not a new problem. We’ve had this problem for decades.”
He says social media has made the problem more visible, since “you’ve got everybody and his brother with a video camera.”
http://www.9news.com/money/business/does-denver-have-an-image-problem/265456527
“We’re developing a reputation as a city that has a problem with transients,” Duber-Smith said. “And this is not a new problem. We’ve had this problem for decades.”
I thought winter dealt this hand.
Homeless in Denver must be horrible. Nothing a down sleeping bag and lots of tea can’t fix. I’m going to build a house in Mexico tomorrow. There will be no plumbing or electricity so 20 unexperienced people can build it in 2 days. I paid 200 dollars for the privilege of pitching in.
Denver doesn’t have an “image” problem. It is going down the same dystopian path as every other municipality run by corrupt, incompetent Democrat (redundant, I realize) administrations. The parasites and criminals will overwhelm the productive, and then it’s all downhill.
I’ve never understood why it’s cool to live in or near downtown Denver. The place has always been overrun with bums and winos, like most downtown areas across the country.
Growing up in the ‘burbs, and spending many work projects in various cities, the one thing I enjoy about the ‘burbs is the ability to park anywhere. Go to dinner, even at nice restaurant, good amount of parking, same for any aspect of life, post office, groceries, etc. The hassle of buses, trains, taxis just gets old.
I lived near the Governor’s mansion in the early 90s and remember that downtown was virtually deserted after 8pm.
Inventory up therefore prices up, um ok?
“Active home listings in metro Denver increased by 9.7 percent year-over-year in June, but average home prices increased at a faster clip, jumping 12.2 percent, according to a report Wednesday from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
Including both detached single-family houses and attached homes such as condominiums, the average price of a home in metro Denver reached $421,226 in June, up from $375,331 in the same month last year. While the price increase is dramatic, there could be relief for buyers in sight, according to DMAR.”
(Why are these numbers so off from the Post article?)
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2016/07/metro-denver-home-inventory-up-in-june-but-prices.html
And then there’s this:
“Colorado saw another hefty drop in online ads to fill jobs in June, part of a nationwide slowdown in worker demand, according to a report Wednesday from The Conference Board Inc.
Unduplicated online ads to fill Colorado jobs fell by 3,400 in June from the previous month, for a total of 114,800, according to the organization’s latest monthly Help Wanted OnLine report.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2016/07/06/another-drop-in-online-help-wanted-ads-hits.html
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
“…..average price of land in 100 cities is rising, having reached 3,100 RMB per square meter….”
That equals $50/SF or more than $2,000,000/acre in 100 cities in China. A 1/4 acre lot is $500,000 before improvements???
Sounds bubblicious!
How do all of these countries ‘tie in’ to the U.S.? Is it possible that the bubble misses the U.S. AND hits the other countries? Also, what happens to financing of single family homes if the bubble bursts:
1. Do the rates go up or down?
2. Are loans even available
3. Is down payment amount raised back to 25%
I used to hear that ocean front condos were almost being given away and that those with cash were buying multiple units. What percentage of a drop did these units experience?
What happened on ‘07 and is that even relevant to today?
Given the fact this global mania has driven resale housing prices in the US to grossly inflated levels currently 300% higher than long-term trend and double construction cost, the US is in the same stagnant economic condition as the rest of the globe.
Housing prices have a very long way to fall.
The only difference between 05-07 and today, is we pretend Dodd-Frank and “strict” lending standards are helping. It’s already been proven lending standards/Underwriting is lax again. If the appraisers/inspectors aren’t in bed with the developers or realtors, well that’s ok, because the bidding wars allow for waving of standard inspections. People are in a frenzy once again, and its fear driven. Get in now at 3.5%, single family homes are disappearing!!!!!!
Last week I got into a scuffle with HBB when I asked for examples of recent I/O and neg-am loans.
Where are those IO. neg-am loans? Then again, what does it matter?
‘The IMF has confirmed earlier reports and warnings that household debt has risen much too high in Norway on the back of low interest rates and high property prices. Housing was already “strongly overpriced,” according to the IMF, even before the national real estate brokers’ association revealed the latest numbers for June showing prices up again over last year, by an average of 7.3 percent.’
‘In Oslo, prices are up 13.4 percent over last June and an average 88.4 percent just in the past 10 years. On a nationwide basis, prices are up 74.6 percent since 2006. While prices fell 7.2 percent in the hard-hit oil capital of Stavanger, they were up 3.1 percent in Bergen, 5.8 percent in Trondheim and 11.4 percent in Hamar.’
‘Small apartments cost the most in Oslo, where it’s not unusual for one-room units to sell for more than NOK 100,000 per square meter. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported that a 13-square meter (130 square foot) unit in Oslo’s popular Fagerborg district sold for NOK 1.79 million (USD 215,000). “It’s just sick,” remarked one young woman at its open house. She did not participate in the bidding round.’
‘The vacation home (hytte) market remains strong as well. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that a 39-square-meter cottage with no running water and no view sold for a record NOK 4.45 million last week.’
The bubble is in the price.
“Where are those IO. neg-am loans? Then again, what does it matter?”
And it never did.
Remember…..The majority of mortgage defaults are/were prime mortgages.
130 sq ft?!?! Yikes. That’s not even a studio. I’m all for small footprint living, but yikes, not even a 12×12 room for $215,000? If I’m paying $215,000 I better be able to take a $h!t and not smell it when I’m watching TV or cooking dinner.
oxide: Last week I got into a scuffle with HBB when I asked for examples of recent I/O and neg-am loans.
Financial innovation consists of two things:
1) Coming up with logical constructs that can be sold.
2) Figuring out ways to load people up with more debt.
So, Neg Am and I/O worked last time. Think Maginot Line. The new method is 3% down / de facto 0% down loans. The trick here is the risk is pushed onto the taxpayer. So when these go bad, there will be more stimulus / stealth tax to bail out the GSEs while the pundits see zero downside to that. After all, money printing hasn’t led to inflation yet. So they say.
I remember reading that the bailouts “made money”. My favorite comment was: “So, when the entire de-regulated financial system collapsed it was a great thing for the American people. We should do it again soon eh?”
Indeed. Unemployment is at 5%, near its natural maximum, we’ve had double-digit months of economic expansion, corporate profits are up, house prices are up, the stock market is up.
Yet… something is amiss, most clearly indicated by the rise of protest candidates on both sides of the political spectrum.
I’m reminded of Air France 447. Everyone knew the plane could not stall. The engines were at full throttle. And yet it was losing altitude, which baffled the pilots. And it crashed. Because it, in fact, could stall.
I posted earlier: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
What sort of black magic diluting the money supply was supposed to accomplish clearly is not having the desired effect.
Money never went poof. It was merely disorderly transferred in ways that were inimical to the PTB.
A couple of other factors at play as well:
* It’s well known in economic circles that a rich country trading with a poor one results in wages in the poor country coming up and going down in the rich one.
* No industrial policy which encourages jobs here. The last time that happened was with Reagan (that imbecile) who forced foreign automakers to build factories here. What a catastrophe that was.
* Congress frankly selling us out to the highest bidder. Bob McDonnell recently got off for blatant corruption because of the difficulty in proving quid pro quos. If it is in the nature of quid pro quos that they can’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt then the civil burden of ‘preponderance of evidence’ should be applied somehow. Else bribery will be de facto legalized. Insider trading already is - passing on a secret resulting which one does not directly benefit from is perfectly legal. Proving the quid pro quo is well nigh impossible.
Regardless. The concept of diluting the money supply to encourage spending by the masses is highly suspect. It’s been tried multiple times throughout history but THIS TIME they have the skillfulness to do it “right”.
Persistent, cumulative, low-grade inflation with no wage inflation for the masses takes much of the blame IMO.
We always hear about how WWII got us out of the Depression. A shining example of pointless, debt-driven government spending making things to just blow them up or turn them into scrap worked to usher in an age of unprecedented prosperity.
But they ignore a few probably significant differences:
Like:
* Increased technology.
* The US being the only country not in shambles, giving it competitive advantages in the world and home market.
And I’m sure others. Printed money is the most politically expedient course of action available. It’s been tried repeatedly over the millenia. But it’s different this time because of the daring and skill of the policy makers this time.
If Japan and Germany were in a shambles, the war would have ended much more quickly than it did.
My friend in Stavanger sold for a big bubble bonanza last spring. Timing was great, given that no one could have seen the oil crash coming.
“de facto 0% down loans”
Do to mean like Piggyback Loans, for instance, a hot item leading up to the 2007-08 mortgage meltdown?
Real Estate
‘Piggyback’ Loans Revisited
The New York Times
December 19, 2014
Mortgages
By LISA PREVOST
“Piggyback loans” are readily available once again, but not in the form that allowed many borrowers to buy homes with no money down before the housing crash.
These mortgages are essentially a two-loan package — one “piggybacks” on the other to go toward the purchase price.
During the housing bubble, piggyback, or combination, loans were commonly available as what were known as 80/20s. A home buyer got a first mortgage for 80 percent of the purchase price, then a second, subordinate mortgage from the same or a different lender to count as a 20 percent down payment. This relieved the buyer of the cost of private mortgage insurance, which is generally required when borrowers are financing more than 80 percent of the home’s price.
After the housing bubble burst, and values plummeted, many piggyback borrowers found themselves with negative equity. And those who defaulted often had trouble obtaining a loan modification or approval of a short sale.
“The first-lien investor would ask the lender holding the second to write it down, but many times they were unwilling to do that,” said Rohit Gupta, the president and chief executive of Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance.
…
It always reverts to the mean and you and I may not be alive to see it. Right about the time polar bears go extinct and Trumps PB holdings become waterfront literally.
“1. Do the rates go up or down?”
-10% mortgages for everyone!
Where you find grossly inflated prices you will find frrrraaaaaaud.
‘there is even worry that home prices may be sold for less than the price of land’
The Comrades of Proven Worth at the DNC like to flaunt their impunity from laws written for the little people. Once they have their permanent Democrat supermajority, the lawbreaking and larceny will become much more brazen. Forward!
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/nancy-pelosi-driver-cuts-across-traffic/
Minneapolis will be the next Baltimore.
http://www.businessinsider.com/falcon-heights-minnesota-police-shooting-2016-7
Will DB be the next domino to fall?
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/06/deutsche-bank-crisis-coco-bonds-shares-new-low-bond-buybacks/
75 trillion in derivatives. What could go wrong.
Chump change. In a decade trillionaire will be the new wealth level. Millionaire’s will be forced to shop at Walmart.
An interesting comment pertaining to a recent Wolfstreet.com post …
“I had a brief chat yesterday with a friend of mine who is a conservative and successful investment advisor. ‘Nick, how long can we go at zero interest and in some cases negative yields?’ I asked.
His answer, without hesitation, ‘Forever; this thing is going to be at least a generation. There is no growth anywhere in the world, and nothing but debt. There’s no way interest can go up!’
I reckon he speaks the truth, and the Central Banks have changed the rules from capital having cost to capital being issued to borrowers at no cost, or in some cases, borrowers paying back less capital!
The natural order of free market capitalism has been ‘Shaken, not stirred’.”
So “no growth and nothing but debt” means what to those who have a good-paying job and no debt and lots of savings? IMO it means they are in the Catbird Seat, they get to call the shots, they get to prevail.
The others? Not so much.
We ARE the smartest generation to have ever lived.
Prosperity used to mean hard work, savings and sacrifice.
Now it means artificially low interest rates, insane amounts of debt and printing money…
Amazingly no one has ever thought of this before.
“Prosperity used to mean hard work, savings and sacrifice.”
My point is this is still true. It didn’t seem true when acquiring lots of debt was in fashion but this truth is in the process of returning.
I know, right? Text, Like, download and profit!
The House of Representatives is going to “grill” Comey today. Yeah, they’ll get to the bottom of things, all right. Good luck with that.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/07/07/james-comey-house-committee-clinton-emails-chaffetz/86793176/
OTOH, Comey’s career as a “law man” is effectively over. He may stay on in the post, but the no-confidence voices are getting louder and more numerous. He was “Roberts-ed”. (Reference to Chief Justice of SCOTUS and the rumors regarding his backing of Obamacare on a flimsy pretext)
It just seems like the Clintons are some sort of chaotic vortex, sucking people in to a maelstrom that leaves lives and careers in ruins, a wake of destruction in their path. To be an enemy is dangerous. To be a friend is fatal. She and Obama must have some sort of mutually assured destruction pact.
As president, Hillary would do for the US as a whole what she and hubby have done for many an individual.
Oh, and for the benefit of some of the newer posters here, I’ve switched back to my original, long term HBB handle of “palmetto” from my temporary “Bill DaWahl” handle.
I was thinking about switching back to RioAmericanInBrazil.
LOL. I was reading about the rowing teams getting special anti-bacterial suits for the canals in Rio.
Sure, let’s watch these posers “grill” the FBI head who probably has dirt on every single one of them.
Here We Go Again——August 2007 Redux
by David Stockman • July 6, 2016
Nearly everywhere on the planet the giant financial bubbles created by the central banks during the last two decades are fracturing. The latest examples are….
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/here-we-go-again-august-2007-redux/
Worth reading. Thanks for posting.
I dunno.
Venezuela sits on more oil than Saudi Arabia and has amazing farm land.
And progressives/the left destroyed it.
—————-
Will California Ever Thrive Again?
Townhall.com | July 7, 2016 | Victor Davis Hanson
There was more of the same old, same old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predictions of huge cost overruns and yearly losses on high-speed rail — before the first mile of track has been laid. One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.
Such pessimism is daily fare, and for good reason.
The basket of California state taxes — sales, income and gasoline — rates among the highest in the U.S. Yet California roads and K-12 education rank near the bottom.
After years of drought, California has not built a single new reservoir. Instead, scarce fresh aqueduct water is still being diverted to sea. Thousands of rural central California homes, in Dust Bowl fashion, have been abandoned due to a sinking aquifer and dry wells.
One in three American welfare recipients resides in California. Almost a quarter of the state population lives below or near the poverty line. Yet the state’s gas and electricity prices are among the nation’s highest.
One in four state residents was not born in the U.S. Current state-funded pension programs are not sustainable.
California depends on a tiny elite class for about half of its income tax revenue. Yet many of these wealthy taxpayers are fleeing the 40-million-person state, angry over paying 12 percent of their income for lousy public services.
Public health costs have soared as one-third of California residents admitted to state hospitals for any causes suffer from diabetes, a sometimes-lethal disease often predicated on poor diet, lack of exercise and excessive weight.
The poor road grades rings home for me here north of Boston. I’ve only lived here for a yr, and my first thought was how poor the road quality is throughout the towns and major highways. Route 128 into the North Shore towns has huge potholes, in-town roads are patched up to the point where its like driving over a dirt road/uneven bumpy ride. Over my two years in/out of the area (Mass-NH-Maine), I’ve only just now seen some of Interstate 95 receive some new asphalt.
Funny how these states home to “elites” and rich seem to have some of the worst public infrastructure I’ve ever witnessed (Ca included). Back home in VA, the roads are always receiving repavement/repainting/expansion. But the people up here in Mass tend to think those southern states are filled with rednecks and not a high standard of living like these tax-black holes.
So, are you going to at least take advantage of a glorious summer in the Northeast and spend some time “down th’ Cape” or on the North Shore coast?
Really, the best place to head for are the beaches of Rhode Island. Rent a little shack by the ocean for a week or two. Anywhere from Narragansett down to Watch Hill is fine. I recommend the Ninigret and Charlestown areas.
It has been a nice summer thus far. I was actually down in CT visiting a waterside town. It was funny to see the I-95 North migration to Maine, while heading south was free and clear. You’re right, people seem to forget about RI or CT for summer fun. I’ve yet to experience the Cape, I was debating on waiting for the weekend after Labor Day, haha
And watch it reverse in the fall.
The 757? Downtown Norfolk roads are bad. The interstates sometimes are rough. Heck, when George Bush Jr. did a talk at Chrysler Hall his one comment about the area was the roads are terrible. All the money goes to Northern VA or something. And now living in Northern VA, I can say I do see road upkeep. Harsh winters are more brutal to them though.
Well Norfolk is a corrupt ghetto tax pit. I was referring to VA Beach, which seems to doa good job on road upkeep. The road in NoVA are tricky though, all those new express lanes near Tyson’s Corner are EZPass tolls, which is kind of ridiculous.
One-third of Bay Area residents were polled as hoping to leave the area soon.
People say stuff like that and have been saying it for ages. When I lived in SoCal people constantly talked about moving to greener pastures, but no one ever did. When we did, our social circle was astounded. To this day, they all still live there. People like to complain, but they also hate risk, and moving and relocating involves risk. You might not fit in and not make any friends. The great job waiting for you in that idyllic paradise might not be so great and finding another one could be hard. Maybe you won’t like the weather (too humid, too dry, too hot, too cold, too cloudy, too sunny, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc).
One of our vendors once said that he was fed up with the CA politics and wanted to leave. He then said that his problem was that his next two places on the list of where he would want to live to are also in CA.
According to demographers the baby-boomer retirement wave will begin to slow after 2029. Hillary’s two-terms will be finished too. Hehe.
And, by 2029, it will be left to everyone younger to spend the rest of their lives cleaning up the mess.
Fifty years of Boomer ideology and hedonism will cost future generations early.
There are going to hundreds of thousands of rotting motor coaches.
The only thing I’ll be thankful for from the Boomers will be when they die off and their houses are available for cheaps.
The Boomers are the most worthless, feckless generation this planet has ever seen. The sooner they shuffle off this mortal coil, the better.
I’ve posted the following before; this appears to be a good time to post it again.
(The circus of the past two weeks here and abroad is prompting me to re-post it. Think about Brexit as you read it. Think about Hillary.)
I am not the author. I don’t know who is. Dates back to about January 2016:
“Boomers have hollowed out society in such a way that it cannot and will not survive unless their dogma is rejected. And it may be too late. There are a number of components that all work together to produce this result. There are certain things that any nation needs to have if it is going to survive. Boomers have assaulted them all.
First, by relentlessly focusing on the negative aspects of American and Western history, they have discredited the political principles and philosophy the nation is based on. If all of the founders of the US were horrible people, the things they stood for must be rejected as well, including the Constitution. The entire philosophical framework of self-government and democracy is discredited.
Second, “identity politics” fosters enormous division, refuses to let it heal, and disintegrates the very premise of a single, united country. “Multiculturalism” treats efforts at assimilation as reprehensible racism. Once again, the people are not allowed to get along, and not allowed to see themselves as part of a single, unified country.
Third, the cultural influence that always unified society, despite all of the disagreements and differences that existed, was Christianity. Not much needs to be said about the Boomer assault on religious faith and traditional morality.
So the United States only ever had two things that held it together as a society. In simplest form, they were the Constitution and the Bible.
Now, add on top of that the Boomer drive towards “globalization”, which has included a massive influx of foreign immigrants, legal and illegal, and a refusal to enforce immigration laws. The people coming in are not forced to assimilate as they were in the past, and any suggestion that they should be is denounced.
What all of it adds up to is a “Tower of Babel” where there may be a common language, but Boomer political correctness has guaranteed division and tribalism so deep that people identify with their “identity group”, and reject the society as a whole. Nothing holds the society together, and there are no controls over who comes in.
Meanwhile, the privileged elites in the “ruling class” use all of this ideological posturing of “Boomer values” as an excuse to ignore the law, and impose laws undemocratically through executive and judicial fiat, while enriching themselves. The ultimate masters of that game are, of course, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama is less interested in the enrichment (although it’s a given he’ll make out like a bandit), and more interested in imposing his dogma on the people whether they vote for it or not.
What we are seeing then, is terrorists who have correctly assessed the massive weaknesses in the societies Boomers have brought about, and are exploiting them at every opportunity. The arrogance, decadence and complacency of the affluent, white western left and their amoral corporate partners has created a situation that cannot be sustained.
It is illustrated clearly and repeatedly when Boomer elites respond to terrorism with some version of, “we’re not going to compromise our values!”. They always try to pretend those are long standing values, when in fact they are merely Boomer values. They are willing to put their own citizens at risk in order to maintain political correctness, multi-culturalism, and economic globalism. It’s that simple.
The founders of the US were very conscious of what happened to Rome, and they did their best to forestall the same outcome. We have the example of history, the greatest empire of all time, which disintegrated and disappeared. We’re ignoring it, and it’s happening again. Thanks Boomers (and everyone who follows them unthinkingly).
Of course, the Boomers will die off without fully suffering the consequences, which will be left to their children and grandchildren. Which is, of course, totally in keeping with their character since the day they were born.”
When things like this were written 150 years ago, it was Protestant Christianity whose importance was emphasized. The Protestant part was dropped by the right wing media so that they could get Catholics to listen to their AM radio shows and read their websites, thus engaging in a little multiculturalism. Perhaps it would even be called political correctness.
More basically, if a coherent philosophy can be discerned fromm that rant, probably only a minority of baby boomers agree with it.
“As Redemption Panic Accelerates, Two More UK Property Funds Slash Value Of Their Property Assets”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-07/redemption-panic-accelerates-two-more-uk-property-funds-slash-value-their-property-a
This is gaining speed quickly.
“Yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah … but triggered a 17% cut to its asset values for anyone who wants to withdraw their money.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“This idea appears to have struck a chord with the rest of the country’s “liquidity-challenged” asset managers, and overnight two more fund proceeded to “cut” the value of their property fund assets.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“As Reuters reports, Legal & General’s fund arm and F&C Investments both cut the value of their UK property funds on Thursday, as the industry seeks to stem a tide of redemption requests since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“The move to cut the value of the fund is a less extreme method of controlling redemptions, as it effectively forces those looking to leave to accept a lower price than was established the last time the property portfolio was valued.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Ignorant pukes send to these funds their hard-earned money and the guys who run the funds (after extracting some hefty fees) decide to give only part of it back.
Actually, I kinda like it.
A major selling point used to entice these ignorant fools to hand over their hard-earned money to these fund guys is …
(wait for it)
(drum roll)
PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT!
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Ben, your blog really needs that laugh track.
Not to worry, Mr. Banker.
All bad economic news from this point into (at least) the near future will be blamed on Brexit. That’s a huge plus for you banker types.
Just ask Prof Bear. He’ll be working hard to help make it happen.
Somehow, the Comrades of Proven Worth and their billionaire donors must find a way to make taxpayers cover the cost of this party damage. Or maybe Yellen the Felon can just print an extra million dollars.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-hedge-funder-trashes-20m-hamptons-home-2016-07-07
‘Now the furious owner of the 14-bedroom estate in Bridgehampton plans to sue Barna, 31, for $1 million, saying the Wall Street hot shot had claimed the party would be a fundraiser for an animal charity for a mere 50 guests. Plus, Barna is disputing the $27,000 Airbnb rental and is refusing to pay.’
‘The owner, who asked to not be named, told us, “They drowned themselves in Champagne, they had midgets they threw in the pool, they broke into the house, trashed the furniture, art was stolen, we found used condoms. So many people were there that the concrete around the pool crumbled and fell into the water. It was like ‘Jersey Shore’ meets a frat party. We are preparing a massive lawsuit . . . We’re waiting to serve him. Brett was last seen on Sunday chugging Champagne with two midgets.”
Airbnb.
I’d say that’s a typical outcome for AirheadBrokeAndBusted.
Next time the DebtDonkeys won’t be so flippant about signing up for a massive mortgage payment.
It pains me when some of my friends 25-30 speak about house hunting in this environment. Especially up here in New England. Crushing debt for 150 yr old shacks.
It’s all fun and games until midgets start to be thrown…
There’s always someone taking the joy out of life by interfering with the midge-tossing.
The fun begins when the midgets take flight.
Speaking of which…Mexican lucre libre wrestling matches feature plenty of flying midgets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yIL5R80dv8
“…feature plenty of flying midgets.”
ROTFLMFAO!!
There are no more “markets,” only the Goldman Sachs adjuncts at the Fed and central banks.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-fight-the-central-bank-gang-that-might-hand-us-dow-20000-2016-07-07
‘Now you find that if someone has a house, the landlord is actually persuading these tenants to stay. The paradigm has shifted and instead of the tenant kneeling down begging for accommodation, it is now the landlords going down on their knees.’
They might even help you move.
‘Calgary’s downtown office vacancy rate climbed 1.5 per cent during the second quarter of 2016, as another 620,000 square feet of space emptied out. Colliers International pegs downtown office vacancies at 22 per cent as of June 30, ranging from 16.8 per cent in AA class buildings to 29.4 per cent in hardest hit class B stock.’
‘More than 9.2 million square feet of downtown space is now unoccupied, while the market awaits the arrival of 2.3 million square feet currently under construction and scheduled for completion by 2018. Of this, 1 million square feet has not yet been leased.’
‘Rents continue to slide, with the average net asking rent reported at $17.50 per square foot — down from $25 one year ago. However, Colliers analysts forecast this momentum will slow somewhat as the current ratio of head lease to sublease space rebalances in the coming months. They expect landlords to hold a harder line on rents once they take back a greater portion of the nearly 3.8 million square feet of sublease space now available downtown.’
“Landlords are less inclined to lower rental rates as they are focused on maintaining building asset value, whereas sub-landlords are less concerned about lower rental rates, as their prime motivation is to reduce liability and overhead,” Colliers’ Q2 report for downtown Calgary reasons.’
‘Year-over year, Vancouver’s benchmark housing price index is up 30% to just under $900k while single family detached house prices increased a whopping 40% to $1.374MM (in U.S. dollars) in a city where median household income is around $67k in U.S. dollars. So how does an MSA with such a low median household income (one of the lowest of major Canadian cities) end up with a median home price that is among the highest?’
‘Foreign buyers have come under increasing scrutiny of late for the impact that they are having on the world’s most expensive real estate markets. Some of it is justified. For example, the U.S. Treasury department now requires that title insurance companies report the people behind shell companies on all-cash purchases over a certain level in N.Y. and Miami in order to curtail money laundering. Others, like Great Britain, increased the stamp duty on second-home purchases by 3% and raised taxes on more expensive homes in an effort to drive down demand. Few places, though, have considered responding as harshly as Vancouver, which is considering a tax on vacant homes.’
‘The steps taken by the U.S. and Britain either increase transaction costs or regulatory paperwork in an effort to slow demand from a certain buying segment. The Vancouver proposal takes a very different approach: it would actually increase the holding cost of foreign-owned (but unoccupied) real estate by imposing a different tax structure. This isn’t limited to the purchase transaction, instead it’s a recurring annual cost.’
‘This strikes me as the quickest way to cause an exodus of foreign capital from a given real estate market because, unlike the US and British solutions, it would not just apply to new purchases. It is also rife with the potential for unintended consequences. For example, who is to say if a property is under-utilized? Who actually gets to make that distinction and is there a hard and fast rule that could be applied. If you were a foreign (or domestic for that matter) investor or home owner who had a house there and you knew that costs were about to go up a proposed 1.5% a year based on home price (not unsubstantial on a million dollar home) would you hang around to see how it was implemented? This type of tax could send foreign investors rushing towards the exit before a glut of supply hits the market as investors seek friendlier locales in which to invest.’
‘I hope that Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Clark’s logic prevails as this would be an incredibly dumb way to tank a real estate market, and the collateral economic damage done to existing homeowners would be all too real. In all of the talk about how to bring Vancouver’s prices under control, it seems as if no one (or at least very few people) are proposing a real solution: relaxing restrictive zoning codes so that more units could be built to meet demand. Ultimately, that’s the only way to avoid what some are now calling a bubble.’
Build your way out of a bubble. And he says this:
‘This type of tax could send foreign investors rushing towards the exit before a glut of supply hits the market’
Why build anything if there’s a glut of supply? There should never be speculation in houses. It shouldn’t exist. Houses aren’t pork bellies.
There should never be speculation in houses. It shouldn’t exist.
Why not?
I’m no fan of the current toxic environment but morality and economics don’t mix.
To quote a certain Ben Jones, “Stamp your feet and see what happens.”
‘morality and economics don’t mix’
That’s an odd thing to say. When I was hauling peoples life time accumulations to the dump several times a week, I pondered such things. One time in a child’s bedroom, (painted with bunnies and bright colors) someone had slathered in black “it could be worse”. And it could. Some take foreclosure very differently than others. Once I saw a house that was impeccably cleaned. There wasn’t one piece of lint even in the corners. Other times I saw entire kitchens ripped apart. There was the all time show stopper; a really rich guy (owned a Harley Dealership and a condo developer) went upstairs in his vacation house, stomped on the toilet supply line, and left. When they sent me over a couple months later, (the water had been running the whole time), just about every section of drywall had collapsed. All the electric stuff rusted, and it was a mold ranch fer sure! Fungi 3 feet high. Now that’s stamping feet for ya!
Oh, those were the days. Once, out in some lonely foreclosure near the California border, I came across a note pad. The husband and wife were working different schedules I guess and were having this written back and forth over several days. Lines like, “don’t have the money to buy detergent/wash clothes”, “don’t have any food to take for lunch,” “this is really hard on the kids.”
They had it coming.
But when I would stand in these shacks, with peoples dashed lives all around me, I would wonder about the morality of various players in the housing bubble. Did they really understand they were gambling? Was $300,000 too much money to borrow? Did they not know they could lose their jobs? What about their UHS, or loan officers or wall street?
And here we are all these years later: do people know they are gambling with huge sums of borrowed money? It’s just money, right? Easy come easy go.
“I’m no fan of the current toxic environment but morality and economics don’t mix.”
This couldn’t be more wrong.
It is very much the absence of morality that has led us to where we are now, including economically.
Raping future generations for your own material gain is very much a morality play. It doesn’t matter whether your own family gets raped. Most people will be raped economically for the next 100 years.
We people of today are going to be heavily resented.
It is very much the absence of morality that has led us to where we are now, including economically.
Fine. Agreed.
Was $300,000 too much money to borrow? Did they not know they could lose their jobs?
So do you believe in personal responsibility or don’t you? Did anyone hold a gun to their head?
Nope.
Sou have a nation full of dopes and two to take them.
It takes two to tango.
Raping future generations for your own material gain is very much a morality play.
Like the libertarian take on environmentalism?
Sometimes the internal contradictions just make me giggle.
(For the record, I’ve never owned a house although I will probably inherit one some day and I have no connections whatsoever with the machine.)
Cynical -
Your replies above are from questions/ideas posted by two different people (Ben and myself).
“Raping future generations for your own material gain is very much a morality play.”
Like the libertarian take on environmentalism?
My response: I’m not quite a libertarian…I’m more of a paleo-conservative. Unlike strict libertarians, I don’t believe in freedom of choice without morality. I consider “open borders”, for example, to be highly unethical.
Now, back to your comment. Well….
Environmentalists = Religious fanatics.
And therein lies my answer to your question. It would be much easier to work with environmentalists if they weren’t duplicitous collectivists.
“Global warming/global change/global cooling” is similar to verbiage used by religious fanatics. Blind followers of faith who insist others believe and do as they do.
Fanatics “punish” their foes by making outlandish statements such as “you’re doomed to hell” if you don’t believe as Baptists believe (for example), or that “you’re dooming the planet to destruction” if you don’t buy carbon credits.
Utter nonsense, and a great way to turn people off.
Environmental fanatics don’t acknowledge that their most ardent foes aren’t any more in favor of a compromised planet than themselves are. Yet the fanatics treat them as such.
Perhaps if you invited people in to help address environmental issues rather than condemn those who don’t provide easy access to their personal tithe, you’d fare better.
Like religious fanatics, environmental fanatics refuse pragmatics. It’s more profitable, plus pragmatics requires work.
It’s easier to whip people into a frenzy about an imagined foe, and they’ll gladly part with their money.
Kinda like how realtors and bankers whip their marks into a frenzy to get them to fork over the dough.
Let’s stick extraordinarily narrowly to the housing bubble so as to not get anything derailed.
Do you expect people to take personal responsibility or don’t you?
If you do, nobody made them sign those $300K contracts.
All the cutesie-pie “don’t have the money to buy detergent/wash clothes” and “this is really hard on the kids” are just endless sob stories.
You signed the contract. Deal with it.
Now if you don’t expect people to take personal responsibility then somebody has to either be in charge or do the informing.
Pray tell me who that magical entity will be, O worshippers at the altar of libertarianism.
You need to direct your question to Ben. He is the individual who referenced $300K. I did not. Again, you are assigning your comments to one individual whom you still incorrectly assume wrote everything you commented on.
Go re-read the posts.
Further, as far as environmentalism goes, you brought up that topic. I did not. I just responded to it.
BTW:
Environmental fanatics = Feed the Tithe.
‘morality and economics don’t mix’
Morality and economics are intrinsically intertwined. A Constitutional Republic can only work for a moral, vigilante people. However, when more than half of the population is prepared to vote for a criminal sociopath who promises them free stuff someone else will have to pay for, our downward spiral into IDIOCRACY and a DNC-run collectivist kleptocrat looting plantation is a fait accompli. We are going to get exactly the dystopia the ignorant, amoral majority voted for - just like Venezuela.
Exactly - without self-regulation, we will have utter chaos as there are not enough law enforcement to keep the peace.
And I fear that we are starting to see this more and more - breaking news this evening, several Dallas police officers shot at a protest, with several of them dead.
This does not end well methinks. But how fast does it unravel?
And here we are all these years later: do people know they are gambling with huge sums of borrowed money? It’s just money, right? Easy come easy go.’
some care many don’t , when nobody cares the game is over
“…some care many don’t…”
It’s difficult to discuss these economic issues with anyone because they’re all in debt too… damned near everyone.
Exactly. And intimidated.
I think I’ll ask for a price reduction upon lease renewal near the end of 2016. I’m far enough away from Boston that I shouldn’t see that expensive of rent. Plus I already know that when I signed on in early 2016, the landlord mentioned they had tried to raise the rent but got no nibbles…
It took Hillary to show that we’ve reached banana republic status.
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/hillary-clinton-could-get-away-with-murder-defining-deviance-down/
Hillary = Banana Republic.
I’m a-gonna steal that. It’s been a while since I’ve created a new equivalency, and I think the one above is really apt. Thank you.
The FBI’s announcement that it won’t recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton is not only a stunning repudiation of the rule of law, it’s a coronation of American royalty. The FBI told us that Hillary broke the law, but that it’s of no consequence because she, like a queen (or king), is above the law.
You don’t need to look beyond the four corners of the very FBI announcement that exonerates Clinton to see that she committed a crime carrying up to a 10-years sentence in prison. The FBI’s internal inconsistency—concluding that Clinton is above the very law that the FBI just finished showing that Clinton violated—is a glaring rejection of the rule of law, and a formal adoption of a legal system premised on royalty.
What’s so noteworthy is how far the FBI went out of its way to make it clear that while Hillary Clinton is above the law, the rest of us remain very much at its mercy (like serfs in a kingdom).
Before showing as much, let’s be clear about what the rule of law is, and about its mortal enemy, the rule of kings. When it comes to governance, there are two and only two systems. They are mutually exclusive. Either the law is reigns supreme over the land, or men do. It’s one or the other.
Since its inception, the U.S. has self-identified as a nation of laws, not of men. The U.S., of course, has never lived up to this impossibly perfect ideal, but there is no dispute whatsoever that the rule of law is the reigning ideal against which justice is measured. The negation of the rule of law is the reign of a king (or queen).
Abortion and gay rights are in the Constitution.
The right to bear arms and equality under the law is no where to be found in the Constitution.
This is what democrats mean by a living document…
‘GOP foreign policy elites flock to Clinton’
‘Also saying he would choose Clinton over Trump is Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA case officer and influential neoconservative writer for The Weekly Standard.’
‘And the morning after Britons shocked the world by voting for “Brexit,” sending U.K. politics into a tailspin along with global markets, Trump lauded the results and promoted his golf course. The following week’s speech trashing the U.S.-led global trade order, a shared project of Republican and Democratic elites alike, also didn’t help.’
There’s that word again. Elites. And neocons continue to flock to Clinton. Democrats, you’ve become what you hate. Or what you say that you hate. Oh for the days when sad pandas would go on about the 1%. Now you are standing with the elites.
Unaccountable elites.
‘FBI: Hillary Clinton Broke The Law, But Don’t Prosecute Her’
‘The latest in shocking but not surprising news came yesterday as FBI Director Jim Comey formally recommended not indicting Hillary Clinton for her alleged mishandling of classified information.’
‘Given America’s less-than-stellar track record of prosecuting the powerful, this outcome has been a virtual certainty for some time. Even so, the event is still important. It offers the clearest evidence to date that the rule of law does not exist. One set of rules applies to the politically connected, and an entirely different set applies to everyone else. Nothing could illustrate this fact better than the Clinton email scandal.’
It really is amazing that fans of both parties don’t realize they are a reflection of each other with some minor disagreements. Democrats are not a party of peace and Republicans are not a party of conservative constitutional principles. Ron Paul has been preaching the 1 party system for a long time. It should have been obvious when the Top 3 or 4 donors of Romney and Obama were the same (Wall St).
The data doesn’t support your meme. Unions are the LARGEST political donors of all time and they give nearly ALL their money to democrats.
Top All-Time Donors - Open Secrets
Here’s the top 11.
1 Service Employees International Union $232,694,670 $230,686,304 $1,294,789 99% 1%
2 National Education Assn $96,992,506 $92,780,871 $3,337,558 97% 4%
3 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $96,616,434 $95,637,586 $671,580 99% 1%
4 Fahr LLC $92,549,836 $92,549,836 $0 100% 0%
5 Carpenters & Joiners Union $80,703,022 $75,777,021 $4,784,376 94% 6%
6 American Federation of Teachers $76,640,133 $75,791,316 $359,750 100% 1%
7 National Assn of Realtors $73,814,910 $25,631,684 $27,519,118 48% 52%
8 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $70,694,413 $69,259,488 $1,124,225 98% 2%
9 Las Vegas Sands $70,482,523 $48,781 $70,436,861 0% 100%
10 Laborers Union $69,199,057 $64,831,310 $3,891,066 94% 6%
11 United Food & Commercial Workers Union $65,391,345 $64,889,299 $325,150 100% 1%
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
Just follow da money.
And here’s this equivalency again:
NeoCons = Progressives.
Correction: Neocons = Neoliberals
No.
NeoCons = Progressives.
The outcome is stunning. Frankly I’m shocked at the lack of response by the public.
49% of the public is the FSA.
The outcome is stunning. Frankly I’m shocked at the lack of response by the public.
These are the same ‘tards who voted for “hope ‘n change Goldman Sachs can believe in” or the even worse GOP alternatives. Did you seriously believe such zombies would have a problem with a criminal sociopath breaking the law with impunity?
Before showing as much, let’s be clear about what the rule of law is, and about its mortal enemy, the rule of kings. When it comes to governance, there are two and only two systems. They are mutually exclusive. Either the law is reigns supreme over the land, or men do. It’s one or the other.
If a little thought was given to it, one could probably come up with quite a few more than two systems.
Irrelevant.
Mr. Irrelevant
I’d like to say I’m surprised by the FBI decision, but I’m not.
I am, however, appalled by people’s indifference to the fact that HRC was found to have very likely broken the law (I supposed it is still “alleged”), was grossly negligent in her handling of classified materials, and people are willing to give her a free pass.
In any other circumstance, with similar fact pattern, she would not even have gotten an interview.
Found to have been grossly negligent in handling sensitive corporate information?
Fired, not eligible for rehire.
Found to have been grossly negligent in handling personal information of investors?
No investors would give you a dime.
Found to have been grossly negligent in handling classified information of the US Government?
Commander in Chief? Sure, why not?
As I’ve said before, HRC was one of two things as it relates to the e-mail:
1. Incompetent; or
2. Criminal.
You gotta choose one, there is no third option.
The greatest foreign investment mania in the history of U.S. real estate appears to be winding down.
The Brexit will exacerbate the unwinding.
Housing
Foreign Interest in U.S. Homes Cools
Foreigners pulled back on home purchases and also bought less expensive homes than they did in the prior year
A strong U.S. dollar and weakening economies abroad weighed on purchases of U.S. residential real estate by foreign buyers.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Laura Kusisto
Jul 6, 2016 10:00 am ET
Miami condo developers, California realtors and others in the housing industry have hoped recent turmoil in the global economy would boost foreign interest in U.S. real estate. New figures suggest the opposite is likely.
Purchases of U.S. residential real estate by foreigners who aren’t residents of the United States fell by $10 billion in the year ending March to $44 billion, the lowest level since 2013, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors released Wednesday.
A strong U.S. dollar and weakening economies in Europe, South America and China along with rising U.S. home prices have hurt the purchasing power of foreign buyers. Tighter restrictions by the Chinese government on moving money out of the country also have made it more difficult for people there to buy U.S. homes.
…
Apparently Wall Street did not buy the “Brexit is Hitler” meme, as U.S. markets are humming along as if nothing changed.
Yeah, what’s with tagging anything the FSA doesn’t like as “Hitler”?
Supposedly it was the lucky duckies who voted for Brexit while more educated people with higher incomes voted to remain in the EU.
Yet, most Millennials were too busy snap chatting to vote??
Low turnout among young voters has been around a long time - long before anyone ever heard of Snapchat.
The San Francisco housing bubble – locally called “Housing Crisis” – needs a few things to be sustained forever, and that has been the plan, according to industry soothsayers: an endless influx of money from around the world via the startup boom that recycles that money into the local economy; endless and rapid growth of highly-paid jobs; and an endless influx of people to fill those jobs. That’s how the booms in the past have worked. And the subsequent busts have become legendary.
http://inbusiness.ae/2016/07/06/san-franciscos-housing-bust-is-becoming-legendary/
They just need a few beer delivery apps and wine price tracker apps to keep the bubble going. Perhaps a new rival to Uber where its V/W vans exclusively and the back is outfitted with board games and bean bag chairs.
I think he looks quite natural.
Bill O’Reilly shares photos of Barack Obama in traditional Muslim dress
By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com
Published: 22:34 EST, 6 July 2016 | Updated: 11:03 EST, 7 July 2016
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3678209/Bill-O-Reilly-reveals-pictures-young-Obama-Islamic-wedding-claims-emotional-attachment-Muslim-world-hurt-USA.html#ixzz4Dk05DQit
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
“I think he looks quite natural.”
Needs to be heating a rock smoker to lend authenticity.
Reston, VA Affordability Improves As Housing Prices Meltdown 9% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/sunset-hills-reston-va/home-values/
>>“The average price of land in 100 cities is rising, having reached 3,100 RMB per square meter in May. This could mean, in an economy with a fully marketized real estate sector, that prices are starting to reflect land scarcity, which could slow property development going forward.
So THAT is the problem. Land is TOO CHEAP at $5/m2. Basically, the local governments in china are practically giving away land, the property of the people, to greedy developers. Developers that by building a concrete box on top of that land can (could) get $1000/m2 or more for the finished product. So it is the big land (100yr lease?) giveaway that is causing the whole bubble? Am I wrong?
When I searched it, I got:
1 Chinese yuan per (square meter) =
0.149678 U.S. dollars / m2
My bad, my estimate should have been $500/m^2 based on roughly 6RMB/$. Yours is better, $464/m2, 3100*0.149678 = 464.0018.
Fraud leading to massively inflated prices is causing the global housing bubble.
all this crap going on I think I will hit crater rage soon……
My head doesn’t have the capacity to take it all in anymore…….
Cheer up, you could be this guy:
‘Jacksonville Jaguars running back Denard Robinson and a female passenger were assisted from a sinking vehicle by police after he reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and drove into a retention pond early Sunday morning.’
‘Robinson was found by police asleep and had to be woken multiple times by police before he would exit the vehicle. The Florida Times Union reports that authorities determined Robinson, 25, was not impaired ashoul should not face a DUI charge.’
‘When police arrived on the scene of the single car accident Robinson’s driver side of the car was submerged in the pond. Officers knocked on the window of the car until the passenger 29-year-old Marissa O. Staples woke up and said “what’s up” according to the police report.’
‘Staples listened to the officer and then tried to roll the window back up before the officer was able to reach in and unlock the door. The woman had to be removed from the car while Robinson remained asleep the whole time the report says.’
‘When Robinson finally awoke the report states that Robinson thought he was still on the road and didn’t want to exit the car. The police explained the car was sinking and Robinson needed to get out. With the running back’s door submerged he finally had to exit on the passenger side of the car the report said.’
HBB update; the FBI has determined Robinson did not intend to drive his car into a pond while sleeping.
Just made my day!!
“the FBI has determined Robinson did not intend to drive his car into a pond while sleeping.”
is the 30 yr bond yield = S&P yield creating any excitement ?
Update: Crude Oil Craters $2/bbl On Plunging Global Demand
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic
NIC: Occupancy Trouble Brewing for Independent Living
“Independent Living…Assisted Living…”
Why do I smell Uncle Sam’s B.O. all over terms like these?
Fremont(Seattle), WA Affordability Surges As Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/fremont-seattle-wa/home-values/
Is all the brexit bs finally over?
Now were backing watching the FED. This is a circus .
This might be a good time to schedule that trip to London you and the missus have put off for years due to the high cost.
Brexit Accelerates the British Pound’s 100 Years of Debasement
Simon Kennedy and Lukanyo Mnyanda
July 4, 2016 — 4:01 PM PDT
Updated on July 5, 2016 — 9:20 AM PDT
1984 Levels Could be Back on the Table, Says Wyllie
The last century is a ‘downward ladder’ against the dollar
Boris Johnson sees pound pessimism as ‘wildly overblown’
In 1967, U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared devaluation wouldn’t diminish the “pound in your pocket.” Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont admitted he was heard “singing in the bath” after sterling’s link to the deutsche mark was severed in 1992, sending the currency tumbling.
If history is any guide, Brexit leader Boris Johnson’s assurance that the negative consequences of withdrawal from the European Union are “being wildly overdone” will prove off-base too.
…
Mortgage rates swoon as investors flock to safe assets
By Andrea Riquier
Published: July 7, 2016 10:00 a.m. ET
Home loan rates are approaching record lows as Brexit jitters reverberate.
Rates for home loans slid again, and are nearing toward their lowest on record as investors continue to pile into safer assets, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.41% in the July 7 week, down from 3.48% in the prior week and just 10 basis points higher than its all-time low, notched in November 2012.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.74%, down seven basis points during the week.
The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 2.68%, compared to 2.70% in the prior week.
Mortgage rates aren’t falling as fast as the yields on Treasury notes, but they’ve tumbled 15 basis points in the past two weeks, Freddie noted in a statement.
…
“Is all the brexit bs finally over?”
We gave it fifteen minutes. —Obama Administration
Oil Markets
Brexit Aftermath May Stem Oil Recovery, Banks Say
Investment banks see Brent crude averaging $57 a barrel next year, roughly unchanged from May
A person walks past pump jacks operating at the Kern River Oil Field in Bakersfield, Calif., in January 2015. Oil prices are up more than 65% since earlier this year, but analysts say the outcome of the Brexit vote could derail that recovery.
Photo: Associated Press
By Georgi Kantchev
Updated July 7, 2016 5:19 p.m. ET
After three months of raising oil-price forecasts, analysts say the U.K. vote to leave the European Union could crimp crude demand and weigh on prices next year.
A survey of 14 investment banks by The Wall Street Journal sees Brent crude, the international oil-price benchmark, averaging $57 a barrel in 2017, broadly unchanged from the survey in May. The banks expect West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil gauge, to average $55 a barrel next year.
Oil prices are up more than 65% since earlier this year, when they hit lows of more than a decade on a global glut, as a spate of production outages dented supply and U.S. production declined.
Analysts said Britain’s referendum outcome could derail that recovery. Investors are concerned about the effect of the vote on the U.K. and eurozone economies and the uncertainty that it introduces across the world.
Crude is down about 10% since the referendum, as investors have fled risky assets such as commodities. On Thursday, Brent crude fell 4.9%, to $46.40 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, while oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange lost 4.8%, to $45.14.
…
we need more capital gains so tax revenue comes in to the coffers!
WTF…guys fall for this?
http://nypost.com/2016/07/07/women-are-using-tinder-to-con-men-into-doing-chores/
When the little head does all the thinking . . .
Talked to a friend of mine in Minneapolis tonight. He’s disgusted with both the police shooting of a black man who was complying with the orders of the cop who pulled him over, as well as with Obama reflexively making this about racist cops…in fact, my friend said that police departments in the Twin Cities area, being lib-Dem municipalities, bent over backwards to recruit minorities, especially the Hmongs (Lao hill people), who were “representative of the community” - then applied affirmative action lowered standards to put them on the force. The cop who shot the black guy was an Asian, and from the looks of things he panicked…but hey, Minneapolis has that all-important diversity goal for its police forces, so quality and sound judgement are secondary considerations. But somehow, according to Obama, this is solely the fault of rayciss cops….
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/07/shootings-obama-police/
It’s a sad story, made even sadder by efforts to turn it into a political stereotype.
My kids and I visited a theme park in the Midwest a couple of days ago, and I was impressed by how empty the place seemed. I heard that it was similarly empty on July 4, despite that being a holiday and a day off for most workers.
The thought hit me that people with expensive mortgages might find the $57 a head admission a significant hurdle — another example of the housing market dry cleaner effect.
Coastal locusts out-spending the corn-fed locals?
Lil Sis bought our tickets. She and BIL own two paid-off homes, both have good jobs, and only one kid. They have lots more cash flow and savings than probably ninety-five percent of their neighbors.
+1 Sound like good people with principle.
Worthless housing. Worthless worthless housing. Housing is worth less and less with each passing day.
How To Reduce Your Chances Of Getting Shot By Police:
1. Don’t Be Black
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reduce-chances-shot-by-police_us_577d2192e4b09b4c43c1c53a
Ice Cube — Amerikkka’s Most Wanted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nL2oiO4k9Q&index=2&list=PL4W8R09fH8WAKqlHe-AVNV0nb1unTg3kt
Listen to the lyrics of the first few songs then turn it off if you can’t stand it. These lyrics were written in the very early 1990’s, just before Los Angeles went up in flames in 1992.
2. Don’t drive while black.
And an encore from Ice T — Escape From The Killing Fields:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3305wzxkPRA
See also the film: New Jack City:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102526/?ref_=nv_sr_1
And because hip-hop music is not about violence — De La Soul — A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tu-qDHSSZo
“Don’t drive while black.”
There’s a few youtube clips of polo-shirt, cubicle type crackers getting “tazed” on the side of the road by a bully cop. They’re surprised that “white-guys” can be tazed too… as if working 40-hrs/wk and paying taxed grants some sort of immunity. Hehe.
“Get off my d_ck, N_gga, and tell yo’ b_tch to come here”
How charming!
Bloomberg went from useful to Pravda in just a few short years.
What happened?
‘It’s Time to Stop Saying – “But Cops Have A Dangerous Job”‘
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-07/its-time-stop-saying-%E2%80%93-cops-have-dangerous-job
In the top 5 threats to freedom and liberty in the US
Criticism of how some police interact with the public is justified and necessary. But this kind of response should be condemned by all decent people.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/multiple-police-officers-shot-after-rally-in-downtown-dallas-2016-07-07?link=MW_latest_news