What An Incredible Force It Was
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Pilloried as the hallmark of the 2008 financial collapse in the movie The Big Short, Miami and South Florida’s condo market has made a colossal comeback since 2011. But with sales slowing since the end of last year, and an onslaught of new units slated to come to market through 2018, market observers near and far are wondering whether they’re about to see the same movie twice. ‘I think for some people, it will end badly,’ says developer Ryan Shear. ‘It boggles my mind when I see announcements for brand-new condos coming out of the ground today. There’s so much product coming on line, why would you want to launch right now?’”
“Consultant Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting, points to Related’s recently completed, 300-unit IconBay building in the Biscayne Corridor. He says more than 30% of the units are listed for resale, with some owners offering to vacate at a 7% discount to what they paid. ‘What’s going to cause a lot of pain for developers who have unsold inventory is that they’re going to end up competing against their investors,’ McCabe says.”
“The Houston region saw record-high median home prices last month and sales remained strong, despite challenges from slipping oil prices and uncertainty in the overall economy. Drilling down to individual neighborhoods, though, there are signs of weakness. For homes priced at $1 million or more, the inventory is 13.3 months. ‘The prices are dropping fairly quickly in the most expensive parts of Houston,’ said Bill Gilmer, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. ‘There are big inventory buildups.’”
“Bill Bacque, president of Van Eaton & Romero, said mortgage lending rates in the 3.5 percent range for 30-year mortgages are keeping the local market from collapse, despite steep job losses in the oil and gas industry, which is a mainstay in Lafayette’s economy. Especially hard-hit are luxury homes in the million-dollar and up range. Only two have sold in Lafayette this year; 31 remain on the market. There have been seven sales at $800,000 and above from January to June; last year, there were 24.”
“Bacque said there has been some ‘uptick’ in foreclosed properties, not a significant number but it could grow if jobs don’t rebound. ‘There is a time lag from pink slip to foreclosure,’ he said. ‘More foreclosures may show up in the second half of the year.’”
“You don’t have to search far for a New Jersey homeowner who would end up losing money by selling his or her home today. In fact, according to experts in the housing industry, that would be the case for most folks who bought a home in New Jersey from 2005 to 2010. ‘What you’re seeing now in 2016 is a leveling out and a correction of what existed in those years,’ said Amber Noble Garland of Keller Williams Realty West Monmouth. ‘There was this sort of artificial appreciation that existed.’”
“New Jersey’s slower-than-normal rebound, meanwhile, is having an effect on the inventory of homes for sale. Those who purchased towards the end of last decade are hesitant to let go of their properties before market conditions improve. ‘Homeowners do not want to list their house and then get offers below what they’d be willing to entertain,’ said Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at CohnReznick in Roseland.”
“New foreclosure data out from RealtyTrac show foreclosures are down, but there are still some rough spots. Some houses have been abandoned entirely by banks (making them ‘zombie’ homes with effectively no owners), which then in turn drives down property values further. ‘You can’t even give the houses away in certain parts of the city of Rochester because we have thousands of vacants,’ said Ruhi Maker, a lawyer at the Empire Justice Center in Rochester, New York.”
“Near-empty skyscrapers and rising vacancy rates are pressuring landlords to offer big incentives – such as a year of free rent or money for renovations – to keep a shrinking number of tenants in their downtown Calgary towers. And with more than two million square feet of new construction set to become available, the soft market for Calgary landlords is expected to last for as long as a decade.”
“Calgary Economic Development president and CEO Mary Moran said 25,000 people that had been working in the city’s downtown core have lost their jobs in the past two years, which has contributed to the city’s empty office towers. She also notes that some in the real estate industry have discussed tearing down older buildings given vacancy rate projections. ‘There are a lot of people in Calgary that would say, ‘We’re not overbuilt, we’re under-demolished.’ So there are some products that probably could go,’ Moran said.”
“Leicestershire construction companies and building specialists are counting the cost of the EU referendum, with a big drop in their share values. Barratt Developments, brick company Ibstock, Breedon Aggregates and even Topps Tiles have seen millions wiped off their share prices following concerns about a drop in property demand. A spokesman for stockbroker AJ Bell said: ‘Since the EU referendum vote, the roof has fallen in on Barratt’s shares – as it has across the whole housebuilding sector.’”
“David Cheetham, market analyst and foreign exchange broker, said while the long-term impact of Brexit on construction was uncertain, there had been ‘panic-selling in shares of firms within the industry. Whilst there is little to suggest this will mark a substantial house price decline like the one seen during the 2008 financial crisis, sentiment has certainly soured and the relentless run-up in house prices over the past few years may at the very least pause.’”
“Perth renters are enjoying the easiest conditions in the country, with plummeting rents and a luxury of choice as the market continues to adjust to the collapse of the mining boom. ‘Three years ago we were writing about the remarkable increase in Perth rents,’ Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said. ‘The mobile workforce dragged thousands of people into the economy and housing was provided to meet that demand, but now the party’s ended. It just shows you what an incredible force it was, but there’s the hangover after that party.’”
“Recent research on Phnom Penh’s condo market by Century 21 Cambodia found that in the first six months of 2016, 13,790 off-plan condo units were launched, jumping 52 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period. The growing condo supply isn’t expected to slow down any time soon, with the report anticipating available condos to reach 37,570 in 2020. Thida Ann, associate director of CBRE Cambodia, said that while the condo market in Phnom Penh is changing direction, there is no cause for alarm. ‘The condo situation is not stuck. It’s just hard to sell. If you want to sell, you have to provide a special price,’ she said.”
“Stephen Higgins, managing partner at Mekong Strategic Partners, told Post Property that demand will not be able to keep up with condo supply in the next few years. ‘A lot of those condos are going to sit vacant or unsold, which ultimately will put downward pressure on rents and prices,’ he said. According to Higgins, property developers had banked on a large amount of foreign purchasing activity. ‘The developers were hoping to sell to foreign buyers, and for a while that worked,’ he said, noting further: ‘It seems now foreign buyers are realising that maybe it isn’t such a good investment, and they’re staying away.’”
“Tea-shop manager Zhang Yue is so desperate about her home city of Tieling’s future that she has borrowed about five times her annual income to buy a work visa to leave for Japan — an economy that has flat-lined for a generation. ‘Two years ago, everything was fine and I bought whatever I wanted,’ said Ms Zhang, 29, whose husband’s wages have since halved and her own have stalled. ‘Then, suddenly, the slump started. The economy went straight down. It’s in free fall.’”
“Tieling is among the places hardest hit by a slowdown across the nation of 1.4 billion people triggered in recent years by a commodity-price slump, housing correction and campaign to rein in wasteful investment. At a coal mine in Diaobingshan, about an hour’s drive from downtown Tieling, coal-truck operator of 20 years Zhang Xiuju, 49, says business has halved over the past two to three years.”
“Some coal miners who were paid 3,500 yuan (S$705) a month two years ago now receive 2,000 yuan, she said. Another sign of weakening employment: Many at the mine have been offered unpaid leave packages for two years while the company pays their social security. ‘It’s a terrible time for the workers,’ said Mr Zhang. ‘After 2012, things went down and this is the worst time ever.’”
“Home foreclosures continue to plague Worcester, with the latest data from April showing a 133-percent increase from last year. Part of the goal of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team is to put a human face to the problem – which they did July 11 by blockading Marilyn Orr-Davis’ Frothingham Road home and finding a loophole that has kept Orr-Davis’ possessions in the home. Orr-Davis is the latest in her family to own the picturesque property since her grandfather built it in 1910. It looks like she could also be the last, as the home was bought in a foreclosure action in February after she stopped making payments on the mortgage.”
“Davis’ home, which is valued at around $310,000, is only one piece of the Central Mass foreclosure crisis that began after the economic crash of recent memory. But it is an important reminder, WAFT members say, of the damage foreclosures do to neighborhoods and communities.”
“‘We want the community to come together and bear witness to the heartbreak of foreclosures, the devastating effect it has on our elderly and disabled residents and all of us,’ Ismail Abdelhamed said. ‘We got our homes and invested our hearts and our money. An illegal, unrealistic housing bubble should not mean we lose our homes. The banks knew the prices were inflated and planned to just foreclose. When they promised we could afford these mortgages, we believed them and took our commitments seriously.’”
‘The latest market report is not good news for homeowners trying to sell in Boca Raton.’
‘Released by New York’s Douglas Elliman Real Estate — produced quarterly in conjunction with independent appraisal firm Miller Samuel — the latest report shows homeowners trying to sell in Boca Raton are in for a long struggle. There are 1,431 homes on the market (as of the report being issued) with the average days on market coming in at 81. That’s up from the first quarter. Homes are selling, on average, 7.4 percent lower than their original list price. The average sales price: $708,396 or $209 a square foot.’
‘For luxury homes — considered the upper ten percent of sales — the average price is $1,361,121, with days on market rising to 109. There are 230 homes on the market in the “luxury home” category in Boca Raton. Luxury homes are selling, on average, 9 percent lower than list price.’
‘Around Boca, the MLS indicates this is very much a buyers market. There are 21 homes for sale in Saturnia, 44 homes for sale in Boca Falls, 160 in Boca West, 20 in Woodfield Hunt, 117 in Broken Sound, 63 in The Oaks, 98 in Polo Club, and 55 in The Bridges (technically Delray).’
‘Selling a relic: Site of failed boom-era tower complex remains on market’
‘Jack Woodcock has sold houses, developed office buildings and owned retail properties. But over his four-decade real estate career, he’s never owned anything as big or expensive as his 12-acre hole in the ground in the Las Vegas suburbs.’
‘It’s 40 to 50 feet deep, and down in the pit, a partially built parking garage has an unfinished ramp and rust-streaked, concrete walls and columns sprouting metal reinforcement bars — all out of view from the motorists on the 215 Beltway who drive right past the site.’
“It’s pretty amazing when you think of the magnitude of this,” Woodcock said recently when touring the property.’
‘It’s not the only giant hole in the ground in the southwest valley that stems from an aborted high-rise development, and there are other failed, boom-era construction sites still sprinkled around the valley. His listing, however, raises a question: How does someone end up owning a massive hole in the desert?’
‘Woodcock says he sometimes wonders how he wound up in this situation. “I never dreamed of it, frankly,” he said.’
‘Enough housing units are now on the development playing board to turn Manteca into a city of 105,000 residents if they are all built. And nowhere will the transformation of the landscape from open fields, almond orchards, and vineyards to housing tracts and apartments be greater than south of the 120 Bypass where 8,274 housing units — or 8.5 of every 10 proposed new homes and apartments — are targeted to be built. Altogether 9,779 future homes are in play with the potential of adding 29,337 residents to Manteca that is expected to reach a population of 75,000 people later this year.’
‘Sizzling Bay Area economy, long review process increases
chances of the homes being built. While it doesn’t mean the homes will all be built, given that they represent significant upfront money on the part of developers it significantly increasing the odds of the “paper lots” being turned into homes.’
‘But perhaps the biggest two factors that will likely mean most of the proposed homes will be built is the continued growing Bay Area economy that is married with a growing shortage of housing as well as it can take five years under California’s exhaustive environmental review process to go from conception to lots ready to build. While that includes perhaps a year or less of time to actually construct subdivision improvements to create lots ready to build on, it underscores the value of projects moving through the planning process and being ready for market demands.’
‘It also has opened the door to making the biggest players in the new home building market in Manteca no longer local firms such as Raymus Homes and Atherton Homes but out-of-area builders that purchase subdivision maps that have been shepherded through the planning process and have all of the necessary approvals needed to turn dirt.
Manteca’s 1980s-era growth cap that limits housing on sewer allocations to 3.9 percent of the previous year’s housing stock is already to the point 1,000 plus homes can be built each year.’
‘It can actually top that given the ordinance is written in such a manner that any allocations not used are rolled over into future years. That has created a situation where theoretically close to a third of all of the nearly 10,000 lots could be built in one year. The rollover made seen when the annual sewer allotments under the cap were less than 350 a year.’
‘Possible flood of houses could shape council election’
‘And unlike River Islands at Lathrop where 11,000 homes are planned through one developer who has agreed to build everything from schools and parks to even the state-mandated levee protection, Manteca needs to deal with multiple developers to address such needs.’
‘Rural south Manteca residents not only may one day find their country estates backing up to tract homes but they may also have their rural neighborhoods disrupted by major roads to handle anticipated traffic movements as well as to provide flood protection for future residents. While none have advocated stopping growth, they have criticized the lack of diverse housing being built.’
‘The hot market — and the ones banks are most willing to back developers to build — is essentially affordable housing for Bay Area workers that often make Manteca’s median household income or more. They are being forced to head east over the Altamont Pass to find either homes to purchase or rent. And in a growing number of cases they are simply trying to find apartments to rent. As a result Manteca-based workers are being squeezed out of housing as rents have soared in response to the market.’
‘One bedroom Manteca apartment rents for $1,590 at upper end. A check of apartment rents in Manteca shows rents have gone up nearly 10 percent since January, Manteca’s costliest one bedroom apartments — 737-square-foot units at Paseo Villas billed as a luxury complex on Atherton Drive — are now commanding between $1,490 and $1,590 a month depending upon the unit’s location.’
Wasn’t this town a poster child for the bust? And I’ve read accounts about the commute to San Francisco or Silicon Valley from there, something like two hours each way, and it’s not a easy drive but a frustrating and exhausting journey through gridlock, the sort of thing that would get old after a week.
‘Wasn’t this town a poster child for the bust? ‘
What I don’t get is why people are still signing up for the punishment.
and it’s not a easy drive but a frustrating and exhausting journey through gridlock ??
It is for many but it depends on the time of day you are traveling…People in the construction trades leave very early in the morning and head back early in the afternoon and there are a LOT of computers that are in the trades…
Aladinsane posted a new catchphrase in 2009. Instead of “mark to market”, he called it “mark to Mantra”!!
I recall probably 15 years ago seeing a map of CA with projected population growth locations…a large amount of it was inland. So, growth in Manteca should not be a surprise.
One interesting item of note is SB-5, a law in CA that limits development in the 200-year floodplain. Lenders typically require flood insurance only within the 100-year floodplain. This law is dramatically changing the landscape of where housing can be built in Northern inland CA.
I can’t say whether the lots in Manteca will be built on, or when, but if they are outside the 200-year floodplain, they will have less competition than there would have been 10 years ago.
The real question is how many they will try to build at once. If they do indeed build many thousands of homes per year, then I think they’ll have trouble.
‘Nearly 20 years after plans for Gilroy’s largest housing development were first discussed, houses for the first four neighborhoods at the 309-acre Glen Loma Ranch are now up for sale. There are a total of 274 units in the first four neighborhoods. Starting prices range from the high $600,000s to the high $700,000s.’
‘At full build-out, expected to be by 2020, Glen Loma Ranch will have 1,643 homes in all. The economic downturn stalled the overall development. A Dispatch article from 2005 quoted Tim Felice, whose family has owned the majority of the land that is considered Glen Loma Ranch since the 1930s, as saying the first houses would go on the market by 2007.’
Gilroy: Come for the overpriced shacks, stay for the garlic.
Jingle says build your way out of a bubble. So, how many people in Gilroy can afford a $700,000 house? I’d bet there’s a bank that will loan the money, with a government guarantee of course.
But you need the Jingle_Frauds as active participants to sell these empty shacks back and forth to each other.
Minorities are the emerging face of the subprime crisis
By Carol Lloyd, Special to SF Gate | on April 13, 2007
When Alberto and Rosa Ramirez began looking for a home, they never imagined that 18 months later they would personify a national real estate crisis. It’s not that they bought a house with walls crawling with toxic mold or inherited an insane neighbor next door or, even, God forbid, that they didn’t buy at all. They bought, and they love, their slice of the American Dream.
“It’s all very nice and beautiful,” Rosa tells me through a translator. “The neighborhood is very peaceful. The problem is not with the house at all. It’s the price of the house.”
…
Classic! Including the notion that the worst thing a person could ever do is skip becoming a debt donkey.
I didn’t even noticee the date until I went to the link! Thanks for the nostalgia.
HBB newcomers and lurkers, if you see people talking about “strawberry pickers,” here’s the article that started it all.
‘the article that started it all’
How many times do I need to set the story straight? It was the Hollister Freelance where I first found the story. They were covering it as a legal matter of migrants being taken advantage of, not ‘how in the world could these loans have been made in the first place’. The Chronicle picked it up from this blog.
Sorry Ben… oh well, at least this article is a good reference.
Funny thing about this article: it looks like the banks took the income of all four buyers (two strawberry pickers, two mushroom farmers) into account when they made the loan, but only one name was actually on the mortgage. Is this a precurser to our favorite HomeReady multiple-resident mortgages?
Home Ready made what was fraud, legal as of last December.
I’m not diminishing what the Chronicle did. They went out and did the journalism and wrote it up as a housing/lending story. The original article was about the DA’s investigation on migrant abuse claim a migrant lawyer had brought to their attention.
My role was this; the Hollister paper was one of a group that shared web space. Probably a common owner of small papers. Their text format wasn’t searchable by web engines but I just happened to be digging through their web pages and found it. The text couldn’t be copied, so I had to re-type what I posted into the blog. I obviously was more interested in the broader implications that a loan like this could be made than what the original article focused on. The end.
Ben, thanks for sharing the great back story on the Watsonville strawberry picker FB saga. Somehow although I was here reading when you first brought the story to light, I missed the details regarding how the Chronicle picked it up until just now.
I recall how shocking it seemed at the time that such obviously unqualified buyers could obtain such a large loan. Now that such loans are legal and federally guaranteed, I guess there is nothing to worry about going forward.
So, how many people in Gilroy can afford a $700,000 house ??
The ones that can work in Silicon Valley…
A camper in the Facebook parking lot is starting to look very smart.
Just like Gonzo on Trapper John M.D.
“I’d bet there’s a bank that would loan the money, with a government guarantee of course.”
If it will supply needy children with a home I will be willing to talk terms, perhaps discuss the merits of my Dotted Line Special.
The first cup of coffee is free. The price of cream/sugar is subject to negotiation.
The point of building more houses is so supply meets demand and prices stay low. No one in Manteca should pay $700k for a house.
With demand at record 20-year lows and record high housing inventory it doesn’t make sense to build more.
What about water and sewage treatment for all of these mega developments?
‘A Vancouver realtor is irritated that would-be buyers are increasingly missing out on condo sales due to developers selling out units to friends, family, and investors before opening to the public. Steve Saretsky, the Vancouver realtor who made news last month for his comments on real estate speculation, is concerned the high turn-over rate for residential units at the freshly-opened Telus Garden tower shows how unattainable the Vancouver condo market is becoming.’
‘Telus employees were some of the first to be offered the opportunity to buy into the building, at a one per cent discount, and some 150 of them scooped up just over a third of the units during the VIP pre-sale in April 2012. At the time, the condos were for sale from $279,900 to over $3 million.’
‘The other two-third of buyers were likely friends and families of the developer and marketing agencies, and big-wig clients with well-connected realtors, according to Saretsky.’
‘Before regular buyers even had the chance to make an offer, the building was completely sold out. Saretsky says 16 per cent of units have already been flipped for profit since the private pre-sale four years ago, and that number is likely to increase in the coming weeks as owners finally get the keys to their finished condos.’
‘A total of 68 out of the 428 units have already changed hands with nine currently listed on the MLS. The cheapest is a $589,000, 515 square-feet, one-bedroom on the 33rd floor. They range upwards in price to a $1.79 million, 1,166 square-foot unit with two bedrooms.’
‘Saretsky says according to his data, the first unit was flipped in July 2014, just after ground was broken on the Richards Street tower. He isn’t able to determine how much of a profit the seller made, but he does say the average selling price of the 68 resold units is $740,562 so far.’
‘But Saretsky says he’s not out to vilify speculation and home-flipping. “Personally I have no issue with people assigning contracts and flipping them for a profit. It’s their investment they can do whatever they please,” he said in his blog post.’
‘What he does take issue with is the common argument that Vancouver’s housing crisis can be solved by increasing supply.’
“Everyone keeps talking about the supply, especially the B.C. Liberals, but all the supply that is coming up in Vancouver is, first of all, the majority is not affordable for locals. Second of all, it’s pretty much impossible to get your hands on any of that supply. Unless you have direct ties to the developer, you don’t stand a chance,” he told Global. ‘Everything is basically pre-sold and once the public has access to it, it is basically resold to them at a higher price.’
This reminds me of the tech stock bubble in the late 1990s, when some IPOs had a “friends and family” option that allowed employees and others to buy in. Not that anyone learns anything from recent experience anymore, but that didn’t work out too well for most participants.
‘This reminds me of the tech stock bubble in the late 1990s, when some IPOs had a “friends and family” option that allowed employees and others to buy in. ‘
All that is missing is a real estate channel version of CNBC that is on all the time at work or bars. Back in the late 1990’s it was the national past-time.
‘As Australia prepares for a correction, Chinese buying of U.S. housing units falls 15 percent’
‘Meanwhile, several housing analysts in Australia are warning of a possible real-estate correction Down Under. News.com.au cited new restrictions on foreign buying and an oversupply of condos as two factors that have led to these forecasts.’
‘The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver recently reported that the number of housing sales fell for the third straight month in June. “At a meeting w 50+ of top realtors in BC (invite only). It’s not just me-consensus is, even in Vancouver, the real estate market shifting.”
“Today, young people are being priced out of the market, renters are losing their homes and companies are struggling to attract workers,” Leader John Horgan said in an NDP news release. “But according to Christy Clark and her government, all that these people deserve is a vague YouTube video and 19 days of half-hearted data collection. That’s shameful.”
‘The reported drop in Chinese buying of U.S. real estate comes as China’s president, Xi Jinping, has embarked on a far-reaching anticorruption initiative. A hagiographic book about the president, The Xi Jinping Era: His Comprehensive Strategy Toward the China Dream, quotes him saying that the Communist Party of China has “set no limits for tiger hunting and leaves no dead space for flies”.
‘The so-called tigers are the corrupt officials at the highest levels, whereas “flies” are lower-level crooks. Elaborating on the point, the book notes that Xi has declared that those found guilty “will be punished severely, without any tolerance, no matter how much power they have acquired or how high their position is”.
‘Among those who have been arrested are the former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a former member of the party’s political bureau, and the former secretary of the political and judicary committee, according to The Xi Jinping Era.’
‘Dozens of trucks had to cart away the loot found in the former political bureau member’s home. In the first nine months of 2014, 35,633 people were charged with corruption and bribery, which was up more than five percent over the previous year. Among those who’ve been arrested is the mother of Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson’s girlfriend, Wanting Qu. Qu’s mother, Qu Zhang Mingjie, worked as a senior municipal official in the northern Chinese city of Harbin.’
‘Internet snitch pages have been created, which receive more than 800 reports per day. The book also reports that the Chinese government has created a “fox hunting” missions to go after corrupt officials who’ve fled to other countries.’
‘Whether that could be linked to any drop in Chinese purchases of U.S. real estate is anyone’s guess.’
How corrupt does it have to get?
‘Among those who’ve been arrested is the mother of Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson’s girlfriend’
‘Those using unreported foreign income to buy property in Vancouver will soon be under more scrutiny, according to an exclusive report from the South China Morning Post. Fifty Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) auditors are headed our way, according to documents leaked to Ian Young, the Vancouver correspondent for that newspaper.’
“It’s a secret tax crackdown on real estate deals in Vancouver related to foreign money,” says Young, who notes the investigation will also look at property flipping.’
‘Census data from 2011 previously highlighted by Young have pointed out a disconnect between incomes and housing costs in some local neighbourhoods.’
“It showed there were 25,000 households in Vancouver, where their housing costs actually exceeded their declared income,” says Young. “This is a related field. This gives a suggestion that this is unreported income that is fuelling home buying or at least home expenses here in Vancouver.”
‘In one slide from a secret CRA presentation shared within Young’s article, the owner of a home purchased for $5.8-million was actually claiming the “Working Income Tax Benefit,” intended to provide government support to those living on low incomes.’
‘there were 25,000 households in Vancouver, where their housing costs actually exceeded their declared income’
At some point the capital flight spigot does get shut off, usually after the important people have safely expatriated a hefty portion of their wealth.
‘Rental decline accelerates as Perth, Darwin slump continues’
‘The annual decline in overall average rents was driven by a 16.2 per cent slump in the resources-driven city of Darwin, and an 8.6 per cent slide in the similarly commodity-reliant city of Perth.’
‘CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher said that pain for landlords and joy for tenants is set to continue for some time to come. “It is anticipated that the weakness in the rental market will persist and where on an annual basis, we will see rents fall even further over coming months,” he noted in the report.’
‘CoreLogic said historically high levels of new construction is increasing housing supply at the same time as slowing population growth is reducing growth in demand. Added to that, the slowest wage growth on records that go back to the late 1990s (probably the weakest since the last recession in the early 1990s) has reduced the ability of tenants to afford larger rent increases.’
‘CoreLogic said tenants now have more choice on offer and may be able to move into superior homes for similar, or even lower, rents.’
‘Australia’s property market parodied in a terrifyingly relevant video’
“And then Mr Turnbull said, ‘Just get your parents to help you out,’ lol.”
‘Orr-Davis is the latest in her family to own the picturesque property since her grandfather built it in 1910. It looks like she could also be the last, as the home was bought in a foreclosure action in February after she stopped making payments on the mortgage.’
‘Davis’ home is valued at around $310,000′
“I am losing my home that five generations of my family have lived in,” Orr-Davis said. “My family has had important parts in the building of the historic Worcester … I am outraged by the injustice of predatory loans and the devastation of foreclosures and will fight to inform homeowners, legislators and municipal officials about this crisis.”
‘When constables and Worcester Police showed up at the home this week to evict Orr-Davis, WAFT was waiting with signs and chants. Their issue with the eviction was twofold. They contend the foreclosure was illegal, and that Orr-Davis has not had her rights upheld through the court system. Her legal appeals did not stop the ball rolling on her eviction, since she missed a court deadline she said she was unaware of.’
“In a normal, rational world, that would have stopped the process,” said Chris Horton, who has gone to jail himself in past foreclosure protests. “But it doesn’t seem to work in Worcester.”
Now how did a house her grand dad built over a hundred years ago get a mortgage? And why does she have a mortgage at such an age? Why doesn’t she sell this 300k shack and pocket the difference?
And if she refinanced it, what did she do with all that money?
I am outraged that you mortgaged a home that had been in your family for generations, spent the money, and stopped making payments.
+1 She needs to be caned on the courthouse lawn… uploaded to Youtube.
And five extra whacks for that hyphenated surname!
+1 to all of the above recommendations.
A house her Grandpa probably had built for $2,000…she probably reached into equity twice in the last 2 decades. Why would you pay $2 ATM fees for money you dont have when you can tap into dead grandpa’s sweat equity from 1910?
Stankey monay!
‘Luxury home bought at height of boom now worth €300,000 less’
‘In May 2006 the pair took out a mortgage to buy a luxurious, gated house at Alexandra Manor in Clane, Co Kildare - valued at €890,000 at that time. However, following the crash, the property is likely worth far less. Similar properties in the estate have changed hands for between €430,000 and €580,000 in the past two years.’
‘According to the brochures prepared by Sherry Fitzgerald Reilly, all the houses in the estate featured double-height entrance halls and hardwood feature staircases. Standard fittings in the luxury homes included granite worktops and underfloor heating.’
‘Mr Kelly was first identified as a spokesperson for the charity Console in an article in the ‘Irish Times’ in December 2005. He would later say, in an interview published in 2014, that he founded the charity in 2002.’
‘However, a trawl of the charity’s company records shows that Console did not first apply to be registered as a company until December 2006. No figures were contained in the accounts lodged for the company for 2007, 2008 or 2009. But accounts filed for the year ending 2010 showed the charity was by then a huge recipient of funds in the battle to combat suicide.’
‘According to its accounts that year, it received €778,755 in income, which included donations of €410,452, grants of €189,253, fundraising of €14,608 and a contribution from 1 Life of €164,442. That same year, the company expended €486,206 in direct charitable expenditure and wrote off a ‘pre-corporate operating deficit’ of €129,209.’
In a related article I clicked to from that one:
“One of the cars, a 2009 Mercedes CLS, was sold for €11,000 while the other, a 2010 Audi Q5, sold for €12,000.
The combined total original purchase price for the cars to the charity was €87,000.”
Seems like a lot of depreciation?
Cars in Europe are usually in the junkyard by the time they are 10 years old, because of stringent inspection rules. Those two cars are just a few years away from the 10 year mark, hence why they have lost so much value. The cost of getting a 10 year old Benz or Audi to pass inspection would easily be more than $10,000, and then it gets inspected again a year or two later and even more expensive, mandatory (and unnecessary) repairs follow. So once it hits the 10 year mark it’s essentially worthless, even if it’s still trouble free.
My BIL in the UK only buys cars that are 2 years old, as they initially depreciate there the way they used to here. He gets the car at a hefty discount and it’s still fairly new. He drives it for 8 years and then it ends up in the junkyard. He recently threw away a perfectly good Nissan.
’she has borrowed about five times her annual income to buy a work visa to leave for Japan — an economy that has flat-lined for a generation. ‘Two years ago, everything was fine and I bought whatever I wanted,’ said Ms Zhang, 29, whose husband’s wages have since halved and her own have stalled. ‘Then, suddenly, the slump started. The economy went straight down. It’s in free fall.’”
‘Tieling is among the places hardest hit by a slowdown across the nation of 1.4 billion people triggered in recent years by a commodity-price slump, housing correction and campaign to rein in wasteful investment. At a coal mine in Diaobingshan, about an hour’s drive from downtown Tieling, coal-truck operator of 20 years Zhang Xiuju, 49, says business has halved over the past two to three years.’
‘Some coal miners who were paid 3,500 yuan (S$705) a month two years ago now receive 2,000 yuan, she said. Another sign of weakening employment: Many at the mine have been offered unpaid leave packages for two years while the company pays their social security. ‘It’s a terrible time for the workers,’ said Mr Zhang. ‘After 2012, things went down and this is the worst time ever.’
I’ve said before, the most significant events of this bubble happened after 2007. Specifically, when the central banks, especially the Chinese went on a money creation spree. Remember how they poured more concrete in 3 years than the US had in 100 years? A powerful force indeed.
‘The annual Chartered Professional Accounts of BC (CPABC) Regional Checkup is out, and no surprise, 2015 was a tough year for Northeastern BC.’
“Depressed mineral and oil and gas prices and Alberta’s economic downturn have impacted our region’s economy. While there were 18 proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in northern B.C., none of them received the approval to proceed. In addition, several coal mine and wind projects have been put on hold indefinitely. These factors have impacted communities like Chetwynd and Tumbler Ridge. And until the market improves, it is unlikely that these projects will begin construction,” said Ben Sander, FCPA, FCA, partner with Sander Rose Bone Grindle LLP in Dawson Creek.’
‘In Tumbler Ridge, the coal industry remained stagnant throughout 2015 and into 2016. Four of the region’s metallurgical coal mines owned by Anglo American and Walter Energy ceased operations between 2014 and 2015, with no signs of restarting.’
‘In January, Walter Energy announced that it is selling its three idled mines in the region as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Anglo American also announced that it’s getting out of the coal business and is planning on selling its Trend and Roman properties when the prices come back.’
‘These factors affected unemployment, population numbers, and housing prices. Last year, the region saw a decline of 860 residents from the region, not including a significant temporary workforce that lives in industry camps, hotels, and motels near project sites.’
‘The average price of a single detached home in Fort St. John declined by 32.5 per cent to $373,000 between the 2014 and 2015.’
373k Canadian pesos? It’ll be 50k, if that, before it’s all done.
‘There are some stormy clouds hovering over the housing market in St. John’s. With the Newfoundland and Labrador economy slumping, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) says prices are at the lowest point since 2009, and the market is uncertain.’
‘Thanks to falling prices, 23-year-old Kelsey Guy and 24-year-old Russell Sooley say they were able to get into their very first home at a discount rate. Guy and Sooley got the keys to their new place in the Southlands area of the city this past week.’
‘The five bedroom home needs a bit of work, they admit, but comes at a price they find nice at $350,000. “What you could get for your money was a lot better now than it was two years ago,” said Sooley. “It’s a buyer’s market now, we could pretty much name our price on this.”
Well Russell, you should have named a price a lot lower than 350k, because you’ll never pay that off.
Remember how they poured more concrete in 3 years than the US had in 100 years? A powerful force indeed.
Even after considering that they build their residential construction out of mortar and not sticks and drywall, and that they have 4x our population … that’s a lot of concrete.
Will China just keep building empty apartment buildings and highways, bridges and bullet trains to nowhere? It will be interesting to see what decisions their Politburo makes. I’m guessing that they will continue with more of the same.
Religion of Piece
Scores Die in Nice, France, as Truck Plows Into Bastille Day Crowd
“A Bastille Day fireworks celebration was shattered by death and mayhem Thursday night in the southern French city of Nice when a large truck barreled for more than a mile through an enormous crowd of spectators, crushing and maiming dozens in what France’s president called a terrorist assault. It came eight months after the Paris attacks that traumatized the nation and all of Europe.
Officials and witnesses in Nice said at least 84 people, including children, were killed by the driver of the rampaging truck, who mowed them down on the sidewalk. He was shot to death by the police as officers scrambled to respond on what is France’s most important annual holiday.
Graphic television and video images showed the truck accelerating and tearing through the crowd, dozens of victims sprawled in its path, and the bullet-riddled windshield of the vehicle. Municipal officials and police officers described the truck as full of weapons and grenades.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/world/europe/nice-france-truck-bastille-day.html
And this is for your Facebook temporary profile pic, show the world you care:
http://imgur.com/qdU5rdg
For that reason, I’ve never used one of those. Helping is not a profile background, tweet or car magnet. Those things are easy; helping is hard. And massacres are happening so often that you could have a new profile background every month.
a new profile background every month
Many of my younger slacktivist friends do just that…
And get ready for the planned paid protests next week in Celeveland. How will the cops react to the lawlessness? On the heels of this easily reproducible terror attack where a gun can’t be demonized the cops are going to have a whole lot of leeway dealing with crowds of people and agitators.
I lived there from 2006 to 2009, and went back to visit last July.
The city has improved in many ways from a few decades ago, and now Soros’ paid employees are gonna burn it to the ground. Sad.
Is this what the alleged $30M or so from Soros is paying for?
Cleveland mass protests = Trumpling wet dream
You are so wrong about that statement that I don’t even know where to begin.
Let me help you out, then. Protests in Cleveland would be a great validation of Trump’s “outsider candidate” status. The optics of such publicity would be so valuable to the Trump campaign that it would be in the Republican Party’s interest for this to happen. Thus it would not be logical to expect Soros to fund such activities, would it?
You’ve got some interesting logic there, but you’re missing the point that these Soros-paid agitators will be pretending to be Trump supporters, as the blame for the violence must be attributed to the Trumpsters. That’s how it’s done.
“…these Soros-paid agitators will be pretending to be Trump supporters, as the blame for the violence must be attributed to the Trumpsters.”
Occam’s Razor FAIL
so maybe my idea of leveling thousands of mosques and helping the imans and ayatollahs meet allah today, may not be so wrong after all. i just dont want innocent people hurt.
’so maybe my idea of…’
Just don’t act all butt-hurt and innocent when it blows up on you.
Sorry, France, but candlelight vigils and solemn mass memorials aren’t going to fix this.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3691019/Several-people-injured-truck-crashes-crowd-Bastille-Day-celebrations-Nice.html
Clearly a false flag opera by Obama to rob us of the right to pilot our own vehicles!
Ouch! But I was thinking that this shows one doesn’t need guns, explosives, etc. to cause mass casualties.
I haven’t looked at the news coverage this morning but I wonder what the story is with all the weapons on the truck? Where was he taking them? What were they destined to be used for?
Maybe he planned to hop out and shoot people when he ran out of gas? Perhaps he didn’t appreciate the lethality of a big ol’ truck.
That Tesla guy is probably funding the DNC.
Elon… clearly a foreign, muslim terrorist name!
It’s worse than a moosleem name.
A Divine Image
By William Blake
Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face
Terror the Human Form Divine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress
The Human Dress, is forged Iron
The Human Form, a fiery Forge.
The Human Face, a Furnace seal’d
The Human Heart, its hungry Gorge.
I wonder if the idea for this originated with the crazy chick in Las Vegas who drove up on the sidewalk and ran over people?
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lasvegas-crash-idUSKBN0U40X120151223
Stocks Will Crash – and Crush (California’s) Pension Funds & Taxpayers: Report
by Wolf Richter • July 14, 2016
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Google+Share on RedditPrint this pageEmail this to someone
The Price-Sales ratio (among others) has blown through the roof
The California Policy Center published an interesting study – “interesting” in all kinds of ways, including its outline of the doom-and-gloom future of California’s state and local pension plans if stocks turn down sharply, preceded by its prediction that stocks will turn down sharply because valuations are totally unsustainable……
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/14/stocks-will-crash-california-state-local-pension-funds-taxpayers-price-sales-ratio/
Tech bubble crash coming soon. The valuations are massive lies based on nonexistent users and fake eyeballs, financed by easy money chasing yeilds as ad as anything going on in real estate.
Everybody I know has at least 2 FB accounts. That 1.5 billion users is such a big lie. At best 500 million users and how many are using it everyday? No, commenting using a FB account or using your FB account to log into other sites don’t count.
#FraudOfTheCentury
I am eternally disappointed that Twitter’s stock symbol isn’t TWIT.
Yet my friend who works for the CA Dept. of Corrections is convinced he’s gonna retire in a few years with 90% of his paycheck for life.
Did you tell him he’s dreaming? I did not move my municipal bonds into California’s munis when I moved to California last October. California taxes my interest income but no biggie. I still think the AA in Arizona is really like an AAA compared to California’s AA.
Wolf obviously has not yet caught on to the New Era we have entered, where sovereign bond yields continuously drop farther below zero, and yield-chasing investors drive stocks ever higher.
and yield-chasing investors drive stocks ever higher ??
If you were managing lets say, 100 mil, how would you invest it ??
A Barclays Chart Shows Just How Negative Bond Yields Have Become
The pile of bonds yielding less than zero is growing by the day.
Alastair Marsh
July 15, 2016 — 5:48 AM PDT
Negative yields are spreading to more areas of the fixed-income market by the day.
Data from Barclays Plc. highlight the staggering pace of change as this week Deutsche Bahn AG became the first non-financial company to sell negative-yielding bonds, and the German government auctioned 10-year debt with a sub-zero yield for the first time.
To get a sense of the downward momentum, look at Barclays’ global aggregate index which tracks $47.3 trillion of investment-grade debt sold in 24 different currencies, and includes everything from sovereign bonds to mortgage-backed securities. More than a quarter of that yields less than zero, with more than half yielding under 1 percent, according to data compiled by the London-based bank.
Barclays
The pile of these bonds is growing as central banks around the developed world step up policies to bolster growth. While it’s been possible to lend to some governments at a loss since at least 2012, the phenomenon has gathered pace since the European Central Bank’s decision to cut its deposit rate below zero in 2014.
It has got even larger in the past few weeks as the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union and concerns about Italy’s banking system accelerated a global rush for the safest assets, and the ECB started buying company debt as part of its asset-purchase program.
Investors who buy negative-yielding bonds now and hold until maturity will receive less money than they paid. That’s a palatable prospect for those seeking safety in volatile markets. For others, sub-zero bonds have unleashed a global hunt for yield that’s boosted demand for stocks and other riskier assets.
…
The Financial Times
Equity Earnings
The bizarre logic behind record low yields and high-flying stocks
Post-crisis logic reinstated as slumbering interest rates coexist with peak share prices
2 hours ago
John Authers
You can’t turn your back for a second. I have just enjoyed a brief vacation, in Greece. During my Mediterranean idyll, the rest of the world saw: violence, murder and protests on the streets across the US; another terror attack in France; political turmoil in the UK and Boris Johnson as foreign secretary; and fevered speculation that Japan will resort to “helicopter money”.
Meanwhile, the US S&P 500 stock index hit its first all-time high in 14 months. It has gained 17 per cent in the past five months alone. And bond yields plumbed historic lows. Even some corporations are now able to borrow at negative rates. US 10-year Treasury yields fell below 1.4 per cent.
Smartphones mean that you cannot isolate yourself from such events, even on a Mediterranean beach. But distance did underline how contradictory these events are.
Falling bond yields like this imply virtual certainty of a recession. It means that people are rushing away from riskier assets such as stocks.
But the biggest new item of economic data while I was away was the June US jobs report, which was surprisingly strong, and suggested that May’s weak reading was a fluke. That implied less risk of a recession, and a stronger chance of higher rates. Yet Treasury yields remain near historic lows.
The new S&P high breaks a well-established pattern. Several attempts had been made to break through its high from May 21 last year, without success. So the new high is on its face very positive. If the S&P goes so long without a new high, it usually presages a bear market. But if stocks break out after a long sideways period, it is very positive. Traders have their risk appetite back and stocks rise fast.
But this does not fit the pattern of moves within the market. Since the last S&P high, the sectors to fare best have been those most resistant to a recession. Minimum volatility stocks have outperformed, and so have high-yielding stocks seen as substitutes for bonds. Thus utilities, real estate and telecoms, all conservative investments that produce a reliable stream of cash, have done well — and now look very expensive.
This is classic behaviour for the end of the business cycle, before profits fall and a recession starts.
…
California is the most impoverished state in the country.
L.A. has 46,874 people who are homeless. If we’re not smart, we’ll have 250,000 more:
“Tents in the Arroyo, sleeping bags on the beach, RVs parked on our boulevards. Heartbreaking visual manifestations of Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis are everywhere. The recent homeless count found that 46,874 people in Los Angeles County experience homelessness every night.
As shocking as that number is, imagine for a moment that lined up behind each of those unsheltered human beings are five more. That’s roughly how many more Angelenos are at high risk of imminent homelessness.
Because of our housing shortage, rents have gone up 28% since 2000. Over the same period, renters’ median incomes fell 8%. The result is an untenable situation: More than 250,000 households in Los Angeles pay 90% or more of their income on rent. These families are just one illness, one eviction, one car accident, or one lost job away from homelessness.
For those who are chronically homeless or afflicted with serious mental illness, the city and state have proposed bonds to build approximately 14,000 permanent supportive housing units in Los Angeles — a vital use of public housing dollars. That said, it’s not going to dent the overall shortage of affordable housing.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-murray-preventing-homelessness-20160713-snap-story.html
Normally I am a skeptic of these estimates of the number of homeless because they turn out to be based on little data coupled with wild ass guess speculation and agenda driven assumptions, but LA has a butt load. I wouldn’t be suprised if it was double this number easily.
There’s an entire encampment that has grown in Venice that wasn’t there 10 years ago.
Where’s the rich college kids that enjoy kicking the chit outta the homeless?
Booooooooo! I’m not a bleeding heart, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to attack some of societies most vulnerable. A lot of these people are mentally ill. Some of them are probably scum, true, but let’s not root for this sort of thing plz.
It’s called the Just World Hypothesis. If people are destitute, they must be bad people.
Crime, Courts & Fire
Suspect arrested in homeless killings after new attack
A man sleeping under I-5 in Golden Hill survived a fifth brutal assault
By Pauline Repard | 7:28 a.m. July 15, 2016 | Updated, 5:54 p.m.
San Diego police released a sketch of the serial killer responsible for a string of violent attacks on homeless people. — San Diego Police Department
SAN DIEGO — A man suspected of killing three homeless men and critically injuring two others in a series of brutal early morning attacks across San Diego was arrested Friday, an hour after the fifth victim was found in Golden Hill.
…
“…rents have gone up 28% since 2000. Over the same period, renters’ median incomes fell 8%.”
“More than 250,000 households in Los Angeles pay 90% or more of their income on rent”
Hope and Change.
“….The banks knew the prices were inflated and planned to just foreclose. When they promised we could afford these mortgages, we believed them and took our commitments seriously……’”
WTF…”they promised we could afford”….
There is the heart of the problem. How about you take a little responsibility for your own life.
Then there won’t be any “gain.”
Sacramento sales & inventory update:
Sales up 1.8% YoY
Inventory down 12% YoY.
Sounds like we need to build more houses.
Seems like there really is a shortage of nice neighborhoods in sacramento.
Who wants to live in n highlands, s sac and even s natomas?
they are building some new homes in n natomas but seem pricey.
The new arena might boost property values? LMAO
West sac is still full of homeless.
“they are building some new homes in n natomas but seem pricey.”
That’s a flood zone unless you locate close to the airport.
The airport is within the 100-year flood zone, per the latest mapping. I just spend three years designing a project there and we had to raise up the building by fourteen feet (no funding on the horizon for construction, however).
Sacramento is a freaking armpit. Not as bad as Fresno, but still…
2011: “California’s troubles helped it land eight of the 20 spots on our annual list of America’s Most Miserable Cities, with Stockton ranking first for the second time in three years.”
http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/02/stockton-miami-cleveland-business-washington-miserable-cities.html
@ anonymous, I recall my father telling me what a dump Stockton was when my friend got into University of Pacific there. Stockton was ranked either #1 or 2 a couple yrs ago for grand theft auto. It’s also one of the first officially bankrupt cities in the US.
My wife has relatives there and I visited about ten years ago.
Now I know where all of the used car tires go to die - stacked 20-high in the front yards of people’s homes, with a spray-painted “USED TIRES” piece of plywood out front.
Isnt the best part of Sac living awya from Sac in the ‘burbs of Elk Grove?
Or Folsom.
And Granite Bay, but it takes some serious coin these days.
And the commuting is horrible.
Officials try to untangle commute on Hwy. 101 on Peninsula:
“Any way you drive it — north or south, morning or evening — the commute on Highway 101 on the Peninsula is barely tolerable and has been getting worse as the economy, especially the tech industry, gets better. Transit is little relief with Caltrain packed and BART extending only as far as Millbrae. Even the much-maligned commuter shuttle buses crawl through traffic.
But a shuffling of federal funds, once committed to a series of projects that are languishing, promises to speed the 101 commute by adding express lanes — carpool lanes that single drivers can also use for a price — through San Mateo County to the San Francisco city line. Caltrans still needs to approve the idea.”
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/8-9-million-shifted-to-begin-studies-of-express-8376933.php
Traffic here has gotten really bad. The upcoming recession will help commute times.
As will President Trump setting California straight on federal funds.
And then he’ll give each of us a pony!
Wont Feinstein just have Trump or any naysayers of Cali’s gravy train killed accidentally? She’d never let her hometown be exposed.
Californians voted for open-borders Democrats who are faciliating the great south-to-north population migration that will enable the DNC to establish its permanent Democrat supermajority, while turning California into a congested, dystopian Third World hellhole.
“…turning California into a congested, dystopian Third World hellhole.”
Too late, it already is! lol
“Californians voted for open-borders…”
Yeah I guess all these 3rd world Latinos are taking the high skilled tech jobs in Silicon Valley. That’s the cause of the larger congestion…
Geesh.
Poor millennials. Befuddled by low walk scores but still stuck in traffic. LOL.
Rigged markets and inflated home prices don’t put people to work.
We need more better private sector jobs where people are producing something. We don’t need more borrowing to hire people to shuffle paperwork around.
A lot of the folks around have their paychecks basically linked to the printing press.
We need another 10 million brought in through massively expanded chain migration with no background checks. That’ll help the job environment. If you say otherwise, especially in the Southern California academic environment, you are a racist.
Seems like the only businesses opening up these days are tattoo parlors, nail/eyebrow threading salons, vaping/e-cig stores, and payday lenders.
Dont forget the massage parlors with Chinese slaves.
Buy here, pay here slimy car dealerships - don’t forget that.
I swear when I go outside and see some of what passes for citizens nowadays I think 50 years ago if you had seen these people you would have thought the circus/carnival was in town. Just freaky people.
Search and rescue shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with natural selection.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jul/13/pokemon-go-encinitas-cliff-fall/
Chalk another one up for the Darwin Awards.
‘There are a lot of people in Calgary that would say, ‘We’re not overbuilt, we’re under-demolished’
Coming to a San Francisco near you. Build your way out of a bubble.
Housing prices are thru the roof everywhere. Looks like everybody wants to live in every city/town all over the world.
Selling empty houses back and forth to each other is exactly what the diamond traders do.
Isnt Nigeria one of the worlds “hottest” markets? Arent they always at war? Lol.
The miracle of debt fueled capitalism!
Genuine question for the commercial real estate pros out there: can developers/owners of older buildings actually make demolition pencil out?
I get the theory - fewer buildings, rent goes up or steadies for their remaining portfolio. But in more rational times wouldn’t it be better to sell an older building for even $1 than to spend money to tear it down and then be stuck with the maintenance on a plot of vacant, undevelopable land?
Hillary to resettle one million Muslim migrants in her first term alone.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/14/clinton-resettle-one-million-muslim-migrants-first-term-alone/
How many migrants has Saudi Arabia or the UAE taken in?
Oh, right…
Then get ready for the France-style monthly (weekly?) attacks.
Oh-oh, does saying that make me racis’?
No, but we obviously need to pass laws requiring background checks for all truck purchases.
‘Wells Fargo & Co., the world’s most valuable bank, said second-quarter profit fell 2.8 percent as more energy loans soured, expenses rose and revenue from mortgage lending declined. Mortgage banking revenue declined 17 percent from a year earlier to $1.41 billion, falling short of the $1.8 billion estimate.’
‘Provisions for credit losses more than tripled to $1.07 billion from a year earlier on expanded losses in the oil and gas portfolio, the bank said.’
Massive layoffs in the offing?
Of course.
Must.control.The.Narrative.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-15/caught-tape-cnn-reporter-cut-air-she-critiques-hillary-clinton
Control…
I posted today’s C-SPAN segment with Jill Stein on Facebook, globalist Mark Cuckerberg will be blocking it from people’s news feeds:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?412226-4/washington-journal-dr-jill-stein
Solar electric power production in California hit eight gigawatts earlier this week, a new record high — and double the electrical production in California just two years ago.
I installed solar on my home in 2014 and my electric bill dropped from $100/mon to $0. It cost $8,000 to install the system (after a 30% fed tax credit) and I save $1,200/year. We are also much more comfortable, since we use the A/C more. It is 14.49% return on my investment and the Mrs. is very happy with the new comfort temperature range in the house. Win/Win.
There are no solar fired compressors.
Another fantastical story from you.
We all know that is impossible. How can you run the AC at night? doesn’t it kill birds or blind UFO’s?
lol@lola
8 gigawatts, or 8.21 gigawatts?!!?!? Sorry had to.
Also arent you only making 14.5% ROI once you actually break even on the $8,000 set up cost, so 6.7 yrs from now? And whats the lifespan on the panels, they gradually decline efficiency, so you wont be netting the same power 3-4 yrs from now.
The 14.5% ROI is over a 25 year period, fully amortizing the cost of the installation. Also, keep in mind it is tax free, since I don’t pay taxes on money I don’t need to use. I just leave it in my IRA.
Alameda, CA Housing Prices Plunge 5% YoY As Bay Area Housing Inventory Balloons
http://www.zillow.com/alameda-ca/home-values/
“You’d have to have rocks in your head to buy a house at these prices.”
Or at anytime in the last 16 years.
I bought in 2008, 9, & 10. I have cash flowing into my pockets. Sorry you missed the opportunity!
How many did you default on?
Does this matter? Pence has a 23% approval rating in IN.
Buying more defense stocks today.
It is too amazing to be true. Donald Trump charged Arthur Culvahouse, the same DC lawyer who vetted Sarah Palin, with vetting his VP choices.
And Trump has ended up picking Sarah Palin, without the charisma.
One source who used to work as a senior staff member in the House of Representatives told me, “Pence, smart? I used to eat salads at the Rayburn cafeteria that had more brains than Mike Pence.”
Told you? Were you hang-gliding with Brian Williams at the time?
“By picking Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump has doubled down on some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate known for supporting discriminatory politics and failed economic policies that favor millionaires and corporations over working families,” campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement.
Copy and paste campaign posts….that’s what you do.
No, I take notes, then retype them…. the efficient way. doh!
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), whom Trump has allegedly selected to be his vice presidential running mate, struggled to answer questions about evolution during a 2009 interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. At the time, Pence was a congressman representing Indiana’s 6th District.
Matthews repeatedly asked if he believed in evolution, which the scientific community widely accepts as fact. Pence would not outright answer the question, but implied that he instead subscribes to creationism.
MATTHEWS: Okay, you want to educate the American people about science and its relevance today. Do you believe in evolution, sir?
PENCE: Do I believe in evolution? I embrace the view that God created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that’s in them.
MATTHEWS: Right. But do you believe in evolution as the way he did it?
PENCE: The means, Chris, that he used to do that, I can’t say. But I do believe in that fundamental truth.
What is it about Hoosier Republican VP choices and grey matter (or the lack thereof)?
Politics
Mike Pence used campaign funds to pay his mortgage — and it cost him an election
By Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Alice Crites July 15 at 5:21 PM
A brochure from Mike Pence’s 1988 House race, the first of two election defeats that helped shape Pence’s future political image.
(Congressman Philip R. Sharp Papers/Ball State University Libraries)
Mike Pence was a young lawyer on the rise, challenging a longtime Democratic congressman in a Republican-leaning Indiana district.
And then, scandal.
Campaign finance records from the 1990 effort showed that Pence, then 31, had been using political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife.
The spending had not been illegal at the time. But it stunned voters — and undermined Pence’s strategy to portray the incumbent, Rep. Philip R. Sharp, as tainted by donations from special-interest political action committees.
“It was a brazen act of hypocrisy,” said Billy Linville, who was Sharp’s campaign manager. “It was a bombshell, for sure. . . . Without question, he may well have won the election if it had not been for that.”
…
I used to buy Raytheon. I cannot in my conscience buy any defense stock anymore or any oil company stock that drills where the violence is. Or any banks. I only allow my stock fund managers to buy them. I like gun stocks and tobacco and booze stocks though.
Gun stocks, but not weapons-maker stocks? So killing is still ok, as long as it’s an individual person making the decision and not a government?
A weapon that only kills government would be a hit.
Actually, killing by government has almost always been wrong. 262 million people killed by governments in the 20th century. 20 million to 30 million killed by the U.S. government since WW II.
Millions killed by governments so far this century.
You are a state worshipper if you do not see this.
Another payday and on the payday when no rent is due. Geez I have so much money left over by renting I had to stuff more cash into my brokerage account.
Establish limit on one of PHM, TOL, HD, LOW? Not sure yet.
Nice thing is I still have cash while I wait for the crash.
Cash is KING!!!
Cash is paying higher returns than sovereign bonds in many countries…
Go get a new smart phone, it makes Pokeman Go much better? Do you have a 70″ tv yet? New car? Jet ski? Guns?
Ha!
Best to have it handy for coasting with in case I lose my J-O-B
Does a 70″ TV amplify the mediocrity of what is broadcast these days?
I haven’t had cable in years. Every time I stay at a hotel my decision is confirmed as the right one, just watching a few minutes in the hotel room confirms that it’s even worse than last time.
I can enjoy a 70″ monitor for the desktop PC for putting various windows up at the same time. But for watching idiot programs - not really - I find them boring. Last time I watched a TV series regularly was I think in the year 2000.
tv sucks, but movies are still great!
http://fedupmovie.com/
Credit Manager Index Crashes To 7 Year Lows; “Bankruptcies Soar”
http://zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-14/not-encouraging-credit-manager-index-crashes-7-year-lows
This is the end result of borrowing to pay grossly inflated prices for depreciating assets like houses. Bankruptcies, defaults, tears.
Big brains:
Long after government regulators had confirmed the lethal consequences of cigarette smoking, Mike Pence mocked their warnings as “hysteria” in 1998.
“Time for a quick reality check,” he wrote. “Smoking doesn’t kill.”
1998???? Schools were showing pictures of black lungs in junior high health class 15 years before that. I know, I was in that class in 1983.
Same here - early 1980s, and the film we watched (graphically showing them jacking apart the guy’s just-cut open ribcage and then yanking out the lung which looked like a prune) was made back in the mid-1950s IIRC.
How any doctor could smoke after seeing that was beyond me, but illustrates how addictive nicotine really is.
I had two doctors as a kid that both smoked, and I think they both died in their 60s.
Meanwhile in the utopian paradise of Chicago…..
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-olympics-chicago-2016-met-20160715-story.html
‘You can’t even give the houses away in certain parts of the city of Rochester because we have thousands of vacants,’ said Ruhi Maker, a lawyer at the Empire Justice Center in Rochester, New York.”
Multiply this a few thousand times over our great land and you get an idea of the cratering to come.
’since her grandfather built it in 1910. It looks like she could also be the last, as the home was bought in a foreclosure action in February after she stopped making payments on the mortgage.’
Built in 1910 and still making mortgage payments? Interesting….How many times did they go to the ATM on this pimped out colonial slut?
Grandpa probably built it for $2,000 and his granddaughter is defaulting? PA-THE-TIC
Oh and Worcester is gross. For some reason Mass residents pronounce it Woh-ster, they always sound like ignoramuses to me when they say it because Dorcester (another Mass dump/murder hole) is pronounced DOOR-chester.
Events in Turkey - Your house and stawks will go up by another 10%.
Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), praised Hillary Clinton for her handling of the chaos in Libya during the early days of civil unrest there and encouraged the Obama administration to take aggressive action in the country.
The comments, which came during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in March 2011
Daytona Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY As Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://www.zillow.com/daytona-beach-fl/home-values/
Whatever became of the global financial Armageddon that was supposed to follow the Brexit?
U.S. stocks and bonds are near all-time record highs. It seems the Brexit was just the shot in the arm the global economy needed!
Ben Jones can we repost this and discuss tomorrow? Thanks.
Pages of U.S. 9/11 report detailing possible Saudi ties made public:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-usa-congress-idUSKCN0ZV1W0
Must.preserve.The.Narrative - the oligarchy-controlled French government and media suppressed accounts of Islamist torture of their “infidel” victims during the Bataclan massacre. Wouldn’t want to inflame the populace against the globalist-multculturalist agenda being pushed by their elites.
http://heatst.com/uk/exclusive-france-suppressed-news-of-gruesome-torture-at-bataclan-massacre/
Happy Valley, OR Affordability Surges As Housing Prices Tumble 6% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/happy-valley-or/home-values/
Another fun link:
http://oil-price.net/en/articles/saudis-lost-US-clout-over-oil-price-war.php
Fundamental transformation comes to Cologne.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/15/teenager-became-pregnant-after-cologne-sex-attacks/
Pokemon Go players are the eyes of big brother.
War by candlelight vigil.
http://usdefensewatch.com/2016/07/war-by-candlelight-vigil/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1Lf_1y7rYE - 381k -
The Blues Brothers were all over it:
Blues Brothers - Groove Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAESRBMaxA
The Blues Brothers - Groove Me - 12/31/1978 - Winterland (Official)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v04tadqckTI
Belushi: “That’s Groove Me by King Floyd. We changed it a little bit.”
Thanks for posting.
An Indian businessman who made headlines in 2013 for purchasing a shirt made entirely of gold has been beaten to death in western India, according to a report on Friday.
Datta Phuge gained fame when he ordered a customised gold shirt worth 12.7 million rupees, around $240,000 at the time.
It was made up of 14,000 pieces of 22-carat gold, weighed 3.32 kilogrammes (7.3 pounds) and was put together by 15 craftsmen over 16 days.
The hefty garment earned Phuge – a money lender from Pune in Maharashtra state – the moniker “gold man”, a title he cherished.
Police said Phuge, believed to be in his mid-40s, was attacked and killed by 12 assailants brandishing stones and sharp weapons on Thursday night after one of the suspects had invited him for a party, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
“As per preliminary information, Phuge and his son were invited by one of the suspects, who know each other, to celebrate a birthday. However, we are investigating how Phuge reached the open ground where he was murdered,” PTI quoted local police inspector Navnath Ghogare as saying.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/16/indian-businessman-famed-for-240000-gold-shirt-beaten-to-death
Check Zillow and look at the inventory for any bubblicious city from 2007 and you will see that inventory is at, or above, the last bubble. This will not end well.