Even If The Bubble Crashed, We’d Be Sheltered
A weekend topic from the REIC, starting with Yahoo Finance. “Wealth generates wealth, especially now, in an economy that has been rewarding people who own stocks and other financial assets a lot more than people whose income comes primarily from working. And new research shows that wealth inequality is growing in the housing market, just as it has been growing in the broader economy. Real-estate research firm Trulia recently found that homes in the highest-priced cities have appreciated far more than homes in lower-priced cities during the last 30 years. That means people who can afford to buy homes in the costliest cities earn a far higher return on their investment than people who buy in cheaper cities.”
“San Francisco is the nation’s most expensive market, and the median home price rose from $161,000 in 1986 to $1.06 million today. That’s a gain of $898,000, or 558%. A theoretical family that bought such a home 30 years ago and sold today would have added nearly $900,000 in wealth, which could be invested elsewhere or passed onto children.”
“In Dayton, Ohio, at the other end of the scale, a median-priced home appreciated from $51,000 in 1986 to $103,000 today. That’s just $52,000 in new wealth, or a 101% gain.”
“But cities with high home prices—which include northern and southern California, New York, Seattle and Boston—tend to be cities with high income growth, which means they’re America’s most vibrant microeconomies. Such urban areas also tend to have limited land on which to build new homes, which limits supply and pushes prices up. Moving to such a place doesn’t mean you’ll automatically become more prosperous. But if you’re there and you can muster the wallet to buy a home, you’ll have a leg up on building wealth (assuming the trend of the past 30 years continues).”
The Newnan Times-Herald in Georgia. “The downtown’s first new residential construction in 30 years is complete and on the market, but casual observers’ initial reaction to the asking price leaves some scratching their head. The townhomes on the corner of Perry and Madison Streets are offered for $495,000. According to Zillow, the median price of homes currently listed in Newnan is $229,900, which puts the homes almost $300,000 above average.”
“McKinney & Son Builders Inc. began construction on the townhomes earlier this year and contractor Mac McKinney said that he believes there is a need for more residential housing in downtown. McKinney’s daughter, Evan, is a real estate agent and will be listing the home. She realizes the prices are in the higher end of the market for downtown Newnan, but she believes being the most recent new construction in the area and the low maintenance is what helps set the price.”
“‘This means no yard to cut, no constant upkeep, painting, and updating, and replacing broken systems as you would have in a historic home,’ Evan added. ‘These have a one- year builder warranty, and the buyer gets a beautiful home, walking distance to restaurants, nightlife, and the shops of downtown Newnan.’”
The Coeur d’ Alene Press in Idaho. “No matter what price range or neighborhood your real estate is in, pricing is critical to affect a quick sale. Often sellers do not want to accept that their property may not be worth what their agent is telling them so will cajole the agent to ‘just try’ a higher price than originally recommended. This is a dangerous practice.”
“When potential buyers see your overpriced property they will dismiss it as overpriced. Not everyone loves to negotiate. So, contrary to popular belief, a buyer may choose to walk away rather than making an offer lower than the asking price. This is especially true if they have lost other properties due to competition. A new study reveals that taking a lesson from retailers may help.”
“Set the asking price just below a round number — that’s the best technique for pricing a home for sale, according to new research published in the Journal of Housing Research. Researchers found buyers are more drawn to a house priced ‘just below’ at, say, $199,000 than to a house priced at a rounded number like $200,000. ‘We tested the age-old debate concerning the best technique to price a home when listing it for sale,’ Michael Seiler said. ‘We find that using a price just below a round number works best, particularly in connection to the left-most digit in the price. So, $199,000 works better than $200,000.’”
“If you are becoming frustrated that your home or other real estate is not selling schedule a meeting with your Realtor to discuss why. There is a good chance it is something other than price but a simple change in presentation may be the answer you are looking for.”
KXAN in Texas. “As more people move to Central Texas, home prices keep going rising. A new report shows homes are now more expensive than before the housing crisis. According to the Austin Board of Realtors, the median price of a home in Travis County is $335,000. Williamson County is closer to $260,000 and Hays County is nearly $100,000 less than Travis County. From June to July, all of the median home costs went up.”
“‘We have hit all-time highs here from even before the crash of 2007,’ said Michael Oakley with Renter’s Warehouse. He says in Texas, home values typically increase 3 to 7 percent a year. That’s on the high end. ‘In Austin, we’re easily seeing 7 to 10 percent — on average — going up in home values,’ Oakley said.”
“He says he isn’t concerned about that trend shifting and people losing value on their home. ‘I’m not worried about it. No. Will there be a pullback, absolutely. Does that mean you’re going to lose money – no, it doesn’t,’ Oakley said. ‘Job growth is incredible here. The economy is great here. So even if there was a bubble here and even if the bubble crashed on a national scale, I think we’d be sheltered here.’”
‘I’m not worried about it. No. Will there be a pullback, absolutely. Does that mean you’re going to lose money – no, it doesn’t,’ Oakley said. ‘Job growth is incredible here. The economy is great here. So even if there was a bubble here and even if the bubble crashed on a national scale, I think we’d be sheltered here.’
This is some amazing stuff here, and we have some posters that share it. I am reminded of Australia. The US bubble pops (theirs actually started first, but no matter), credit markets are hit all over the world and Australia house prices went down for a time.
Now, if a US national bubble collapses as this guy suggests, and it can ripple out to Europe, Asia and even Australia, what are the chances little Austin Texas will escape it? Especially since Austin is one of the most vulnerable bubbles anywhere!
What everybody forgets is the credit. Remember when those credit card offers stopped coming? What if we didn’t hear Rocket Mortgage ads every 5 minutes on the TV and radio? Mel Watts is already talking about the next GSE bail-out. What if the government has to pull in it’s 90% lending horns?
‘Job growth is incredible here. The economy is great here. So even if there was a bubble here and even if the bubble crashed on a national scale, I think we’d be sheltered here.’
In short, it’s different here.
I should add that in Australia, it’s so universally accepted that they refer to it simply as the GFC for great financial crisis. Canada has it’s version. Those were the days. Remember when European banks faltered because banks wouldn’t lend to one another? And I posted an article recently with one US lender saying “like everyone on the planet, we’re doing every multi-family loan we can.” What if that were to stop? Credit is already contracting in commercial real estate. Heck, there’s Manhattan towers going into foreclosure because they can’t refinance.
“…there’s Manhattan towers going into foreclosure…”
Makes you wonder if the Echo Bubble is destined to collapse from the top down, especially given the related recent stories of real estate market turmoil in financial capital London and bubble ground zero Vancouver…
Vancouver home sales plunge for second straight month in wake of new foreign-buyer tax
Garry Marr
Friday, Sept. 2, 2016
From just July to August, sales in Canada’s most expensive city for housing dropped 22.8 per cent — a period that coincides with a provincial announcement on July 25 to slap a 15 per cent additional tax on transaction involving foreign buyers.
Gerry Kahrmann / PNG staff photo
It’s too early to say for sure what long-term impact a new tax on foreign buyers has had on Canada’s most expensive city for housing.
That seemed to be the general consensus after August sales figures, released Friday by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, showed sales had dropped 22.8 per cent from July alone.
“Sales have been waning from record levels on a seasonally-adjusted basis since February. We’ve been on a moderating trend and it’s been accelerated by the 15 per cent foreign-buyer tax,” said Cameron Muir, chief economist with the British Columbia Real Estate Association. “We’re going to need a few months to see what impact this will have on the market.”
But the numbers do show existing home sales in the metro area dropped to 2,489 last month from 3,362 a year earlier, a 26 per cent decline. August sales were 10.2 per cent below levels from two years ago and down one per cent from three years ago.
…
FINANCIAL TIMES
UK house prices
The challenges facing Britain’s housing market after Brexit
A crash may be avoided but serious structural problems remain
August 29, 2016
Of all the potential shocks to the UK economy that loomed in the aftermath of Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the EU, few seemed as dramatic as the impact on the housing market.
Estate agents reported a sharp drop in buyer interest, while real-estate funds, facing collapse, had to freeze withdrawals. Following a surge in property prices since the end of the global financial crisis, it was easy to conclude that the pin had arrived to prick the housing market bubble. Two months on, apocalypse seems at least to have been deferred. Yet, even without shocks from that quarter, British housing displays serious structural problems that have yet to be addressed.
A fall in house prices was one of the risks of a Leave vote cited by George Osborne, the then chancellor, during the referendum campaign. That was not surprising. Housing has traditionally been a source of instability for Britain. Busts following booms were instrumental in creating the recession of the early 1990s, when high interest rates hammered highly leveraged homeowners, and the UK’s experience of the financial crisis, when over-aggressive mortgage lending brought institutions such as Northern Rock and RBS to their knees.
The housing market at the time of the referendum was vulnerable to a repeat performance. Since the financial crisis, house prices relative to incomes have surged, particularly in London and the south-east of England. And while the influence of international property owners on the London market is often overstated, there can be little doubt that an outward surge of foreign money could inflict serious damage on prices in the capital.
…
W/o brexit they’re worth 6? Times income
6× income or more is a transient artifact of the bubble coupled with NIRP.
Hear hear!
“Does that mean you’re going to lose money – no, it doesn’t,
Of course it does, Mike. If you buy high and have to sell low…it means losing money.
Miami Association of Realtors partners with Chinese website
Property portal has more than 2.4 million listings from 58 countries
September 02, 2016 10:30A
The Miami Association of Realtors is bullish about bringing Chinese buyers to South Florida, and now has a new partnership that it says will put Miami properties on the screens of thousands of prospective buyers.
The association partnered with Juwai, which it says is China’s No. 1 website for international property searches, according to a press release.
Juwai.com has more than 2.4 million property listings from 58 countries. Its main audience is wealthy investors from more than 315 Chinese cities, and Chinese communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia an Singapore, according to the release.
Miami’s port expansion, schools and universities, and even clean air are appealing to Chinese buyers, industry insiders have told The Real Deal.
http://therealdeal.com/miami/2016/09/02/miami-association-of-realtors-partners-with-chinese-website/
Ha-ha, little altercation on the tarmac in Beijing between Obama’s contingent and the Chinese. Could it have a dampening effect on wewestate?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-03/tarmac-altercation-erupts-upon-obamas-arrival-china-after-official-shouts-out-countr
I guess it didn’t go quite as smoothly as the Bill Clinton-Loretta Lynch tarmac confab.
Just wait till they own our airports too.
They have enough problems brewing at home.
The Clinton Foundation prolly led the Chinese to believe when they bought the Clintons, Air Force One got thrown in with the deal.
Sheltered by $44 oil
Yep
It’s different with oil
“….Trulia recently found that homes in the highest-priced cities have appreciated far more than homes in lower-priced cities during the last 30 years…..”
This explains HA’s forever pessimistic outlook on housing. His rust belt home falls apart a little more every winter and there is no appreciation…..no one is moving there and incomes are stagnant.
location, location, location
just look at the difference between rio linda and folsom.
people seem to get separated by incomes.
Poor regions can’t get enough water to grow anything while wealthy arid regions somehow manage to keep their golf courses lush and green.
“His rust belt home falls apart a little more every winter and there is no appreciation”
Well you just wait till Hillary has the Rust Belt churning out tens of millions of Solar Panels like Obama did with Solyndra (Solyndra misled government to get $535M solar project loan: report …
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/26/solyndra-misled-government-get-535-million-solar-p/ - 131k -), there will be bidding wars for all those Rust Belt homes
Hillary Clinton Pledges to Install 500 Million Solar Panels if Voted President
Helen Regan @hcregan
July 26, 2015
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday made tackling climate change one of her key goals were she to enter the White House, pledging to have more than half a billion solar panels installed nationwide by the end of her first term in office.
http://time.com/3972710/hillary-clinton-presidential-election-climate-change/ - 125k -
Clinton and Sanders’ Plan to Destroy 10 Million Jobs
Stephen Moore
Posted: Jun 07, 2016 12:01 AM
Here is how Lena Moffitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Dirty Fuels campaign, recently explained the grand, green vision:
“We are doing everything we can to bring the same expertise that we brought to taking down the coal industry and coal-fired power in this country to taking on gas in the same way … to ensure that we’re moving to a 100 percent clean energy future.”
Wow! This is the agenda of lunatics. Scarier still is that the three most prominent democrats in America today aren’t far behind in this maniacal mindset of killing off America’s fossil fuels. President Obama says we have to shift to a “keep it in the ground” strategy when it comes to all fossil fuels. Bernie Sanders is the sponsor of a Senate bill that would effectively ban all oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
Hillary Clinton isn’t far behind in the mania. Right off her promise to kill off all remaining coal jobs, she declared global warming “the defining challenge of our time” and hopes for a future when there is no drilling for oil and gas. This would end America’s access to an estimated $50 trillion of energy resources.
http://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2016/06/07/clinton-and-sanders-plan-to-destroy-10-million-jobs-n2174543 - 104k -
Hillaryous is unelectable.
You sadly underestimate the stupidity and fecklessness of the ‘Murican electorate.
Sacramento Foothills Report:
Renting: SFR rents continue slide lower as the availability of single family homes pushes inventory higher. I estimate a house that rented for $1,500/month in 2006 is now renting for $1,200/month today. That is a 20% decrease in 10-years. That is a 2.2% annual decrease.
Sales: The lower and middle markets are average, with most houses sitting for 90 days or more if they are priced under $400,000. Anything from $400,000 to $750,000 doesn’t sell. The upper end is very problematical. I see houses over $1,000,000 that have been on the market for 1-2 years with no activity. All sellers evidently have no clue they need to lower their price, but many of them are still stuck from buying 2007-2015 and are unwilling to take a loss.
Bank Owned: I still see vacant houses (probably 8% of inventory) owned by banks with no resolution in sight. It is almost like the house is in no man’s land and maybe dropped of the radar and is lost in the paperwork shuffle! I know an HOA that foreclosed for lack of dues, rented the house out to a savvy tenant (contractor), who fixed it up and is renting it from the HOA for 1/2 price. All the while some loan servicer seems to have misplaced the file for the $950,000 loan which has been in default since 2006! The HOA gets the rent, the tenant gets a break, the servicer probably gets their special fees and the insurance company/pension fund takes a prolonged financial hit! It is really goofy that we are still unwinding deals from a decade old bubble with more added daily from this even larger bubble.
Luxury Manhattan Housing Market Plunges 21% YTD
by Bloomberg Business • September 2, 2016
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/luxury-manhattan-housing-market-plunges-21-ytd/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost
Gonna be pretty hard to be a Hillary supporter this weekend after the pre 3 day, Labor Day, College Football openers Document Dump.
“(C)” is for cookie! I do not recall x38.
Laptops getting lost in the mail, blackberries being smashed with hammers, concussions and blood clots, Five! Lawyers for her in the room, oh and Bleach Bit.
I just stopped for a burrito at some place I’ve never been and this is hanging behind the counter:
http://imgur.com/a/95Tqm
Trump is a nazi!
If they put cabbage on your burrito, that place is owned by white folk.
Burritos are Gringo food. You’d be hard pressed to find one in Mexico City.
Extreme liberal agenda or a ride on the psychotic horse into the burning forest? The choice is yours.
Being against illegal immigration is not racist.
Hasn’t Ben Jones posted something here before to the effect of every time the immigration question comes up for an actual vote by the people, the people overwhelmingly reject the open borders crowd and spurious claims of racism and vote for the hard line on immigration?
I’m against ALL immigration. We have too many people here already. I’m pro emigration for all races. All of you need to get out of my country.
The only people we should let in are those who are going to be value-added and self-sustaining, which eliminates every Democrat dependency voter.
the people overwhelmingly reject the open borders crowd and spurious claims of racism
These things have never been voted on.
This sponsored message provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
And that’s why they’ve never been voted on, MightyMite. Once in a while, someone floats the idea of comprehensive immigration and the Congressional office are flooded with calls against it from the public and $$$ in favor of it from big business. The only way to slide out of it is to kick the can.
https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Taxpayer_and_Citizen_Protection,_Proposition_200_(2004)
Yes 1,041,741 55.6%
No 830,467 44.4%
https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Public_Program_Eligibility,_Proposition_300_(2006)
Arizona Proposition 300, also known as the Public Program Eligibility Act was on the November 7, 2006 election ballot in Arizona as a legislatively referred state statute. It was approved.[1] The enacted measure requires verification of immigration status of persons who are applying for state-funded services such as child care and adult education. This also includes in-state tuition and financial aid for college student.
Yes 1,060,444 71.4%
No 423,994 28.6%
There are problems with those links, but I doubt that there was anything in the either proposition about the open borders crowd or spurious claims of racism.
Mikey are you autistic? Any time any ballot measure or referendum or proposition comes up for a vote of the people there are two sides, one making spurious charges of racism and the other for strict enforcement.
Given a choice, people vote to end all this lax enforcement nonsense that has gotten us where we are.
These days, the spurious claims of racism are coming from the ultra-liberals. Undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be working, and that includes Trump’s Polish construction workers.
I still haven’t got an answer as to how “I have a black doctor” translates into “I’m a secret racist.”
“Being against illegal immigration is not racist.”
I’m relieved to know that I am not a racist.
Something’s gotta happen between now and the first debate. It’s been obvious for a while now, the reason she hasn’t had any unscripted press questions in almost a year is because she can’t. Like, she literally cannot do it, or else she will incriminate herself. Everyone knows it.
After yesterday’s debacle, are they really going to put her on a stage next to Trump?
I have to admit, it would be great fun to watch, but I am starting to doubt if it will happen at all. I’m wondering if the DNC is spending their weekend figuring out another candidate to put up instead.
Oh yeah she will give up that easily. She wants to go in the history book and with Trump she’s convinced (wrongly IMO) she already has it.
Trump wouldn’t agree to that, why would he? He’d get HUUUUUUUUGE mileage out of her ducking him, especially when she hasn’t done any press conferences.
I don’t think he’d agree either. Naturally they won’t bring up the lack of press conferences, and say it’s him ducking her.
ANOTHER CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!! My god, they’re everywhere!
“ANOTHER CONSPIRACY!!!!!!!! My god, they’re everywhere!”
Ironically, Hillary came up with that while talking to Matt Lauer a long time ago.
1998 HILLARY CLINTON INTERVIEW GAVE LAUER CREDIBILITY
“This was without question the biggest interview of Matt Lauer’s life,” recalls former Today executive producer Jeff Zucker of Lauer’s meeting with the then first lady. Bill Clinton had issued his finger-wagging “I did not have sex with that woman” denial over Monica Lewinsky the night before. Hillary Clinton then infamously told Lauer that she and her husband were the targets of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Says Zucker: “Matt did an incredible job with exactly the right tone and all the right questions. Nobody ever questioned Matt’s ability after that.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/matt-lauer-today-salary-katie-couric-gma-ratings-ann-curry-310203 - 200k -
She transmitted the idea to me via that mind control satellite the lizard people put up for her.
“I’m wondering if the DNC is spending their weekend figuring out another candidate to put up instead.”
I kind of agree with you. I don’t think she’s gonna make it. All it would take is another lightning storm in the brain. Lots of deep internet chatter about withdrawal and replacement. Some speculate that’s why Joe Biden is out and about these days.
Can we please STOP electing septuagenarians? Any of them could keel over at any moment.
Concussive Septuagenarian. She’ll open our borders but not her health records.
Lets see his tax returns first…
For reference:
The winner of the election is not considered the President-Elect until they votes are cast by the Electoral College; this year it’s December 19.
If the President-Elect dies between the election by the electoral college and the inauguration, the Vice-President elect becomes President.
Hey palmetto,
You see this today? Trump’s speech at the black church today. Apparently it was very good, standing ovation. Near the end, the church leaders were giving him a gift, and the camera people for CNN or Reuters got the commandment to shut it down. You can hear the camera people try to rebel and even say, “I’ll take a demotion for this”, but they shut it down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM7oPN2g1ig
Spooky.
Spooky? Yes.
But also to be expected.
Leftists in this country have long shown us that they will do anything to attain power. Some on this board have even admitted it.
Lies, shout-downs, censorship, false accusation, criminality.
Nothing is beyond the pale.
We have a Zuckerberg censoring free speech, political criminality going unpunished, paid-for trolls scouting numerous message boards, paid-for protestors at public events (who later are mad because they didn’t get paid as promised).
We even have people in High Office who willingly ignore The Constitution to achieve their ends.
ObamaCare is ruining the health care industry.
Government has taken over much of the real estate and housing industry.
Wealth is being pooled geographically and among those who are deliberately undermining you.
There are those who openly state that national borders - in other words, your national sovereignty - should be relegated to the dustbin of history.
Open your eyes. Look around. Really look. Who is doing what to whom? Why are you accepting it?
Wow…so there truly is a vast liberal conspiracy out to derail Trump. Even the RNC has joined in.
Michigan is in play. Black Churches matter. Liberals hate Christians (but oddly love Muslims).
Here’s the “build your way out of the bubble” logic:
‘In the past decade, Mankato developed a big problem when it came to rental properties. There wasn’t enough. A vacancy rate hovering around zero. So developers began to build. And build big.’
‘Now a new assessment of the city’s housing situation says that once all those new units come on line, the vacancy rate could get as high as 8%. Though those extra units are on the pricier side of things.’
‘Mankato Housing Coordinator Patti Ziegler says, “We might have enough housing units, but whether people can afford those units is another question. We do have a lot of construction being built. A lot of it is targeted toward students or to young professionals. We still see a need for affordable housing for working families.”
‘The hope is that once there’s a glut of housing available, prices will have to go down on the lower end to compete with the newer units.’
And those too expensive units? No problem. The glut will cause foreclosures and they’ll be cheaper. I can’t help but think it would be better and more straight forward to just build market rate stuff from the get go.
Oh, the land costs too much, right.
Ben, you’ve done a solid, consistent job of highlighting this phenomenon across the planet. Bravo.
Houses are rapidly depreciating assets that never put a dollar in your pocket.
August Jobs Report: Mortgage Rates Move Lower
http://themortgagereports.com/21999/non-farm-payrolls-jobs-report-august-2016-mortgage
Because I am a renter, this weekend I am climbing the last 3 of Colorado’s 54 mountains above 14,000 feet.
People with mortgages can’t do that.
People with mortgages can’t really do much of anything. Sad…
Watch out for the goats.
And the dogs…
No dog on this trip, stuck with the woman for the next 3 days:
http://imgur.com/a/NVQtf
OK, life can get worse.
You reminded me of a cellist I used to work with. He once indicated that if he ever had to eventually part with either his wife or his dog, it would be a very tough choice. (He eventually chose to leave his wife; the dog stayed).
“Real-estate research firm Trulia recently found that homes in the highest-priced cities have appreciated far more than homes in lower-priced cities during the last 30 years. That means people who can afford to buy homes in the costliest cities earn a far higher return on their investment than people who buy in cheaper cities.”
Does it make sense to generalize theories of wealth creation from analyzing data which is representative of a historic mania?
I think not.
Considering it’s different this time and there is no bubble, there sure are an increasing number of MSM references to the nonexistent bubble.
This is a basic search the past few days:
Op-Ed: Stop it! There is no national housing bubble
CNBC-Aug 31, 2016
But this is not an “all in” moment on the housing front. … In a market bubble, price increases appear slowly at first, gaining momentum over time, …
We’re in a new housing bubble: Why it’s less scary this time
CNBC-Aug 29, 2016
A decade ago, the U.S. housing market swelled to a bubble of epic proportions. Too many homes were built, and too many people were willing …
Check out this map where the housing bubble is biggest
Yahoo News-Aug 29, 2016
We’re not in a housing bubble, Redfin economist says
CNBC-Aug 29, 2016
Despite sky-high real estate prices, there is no housing bubble, … Richardson said a bubble is usually marked by speculative building and …
CNBC
[video] MBA President: We’re not in a housing bubble
HousingWire-Aug 31, 2016
Home prices continue to increase towards its 2006 peak, however that does not mean that the U.S. is headed into a new housing bubble, …
7 Of 20 Cities Now Above Housing Bubble Highs
Seeking Alpha-Aug 31, 2016
We’re now more than 10 years removed from the peak of the housing bubble, and as shown below, seven of twenty cities tracked have now …
CNBC: We’re in a new housing bubble
(CNBC) — A decade ago, the U.S. housing market swelled to a bubble of epic proportions. Too many homes were built, and too many people …
China Might Be Blowing a Gigantic Global Housing Bubble
TheStreet.com-Aug 25, 2016
And what is one of the main reasons for the housing crisis? Very likely, it’s the Chinese government’s stimulus for its own economy. Chinese …
These porcine beauticians must realize they are whistling a happy tune while strolling past the graveyard.
Housing bubble ?? No Bubble where my daughter & SIL live in Kentucky…He purchased his house about 11 years ago…Last visit he told me that he probably could only get what he paid for it if they were to put it up for sale…So, really it needs to be stated that any housing bubbles are likely just isolated to a few area’s atlas this time around…
Ben…Do you see the Arizona housing market as being in a bubble ??
IMO, we do have a bubble in mortgage rates…Someday they are going up and maybe up significantly…When that happens, you may see inventory decline further…If given the choice, nobody is leaving their 30 year 3.5% loan and the entire country is sitting on sub 4% mortgages right now…
There’s a raging bubble in Nashville.
Yes there’s a bubble in Arizona, IMO. An apartment bubble in Phoenix. It might be worse in Tucson. Tucson has over 18 months of high end inventory and a student housing bubble downtown.
I hear on the RE radio shows high end Phoenix shacks are getting cut in half price wise. Yet they won’t build much under 250k. Land bubble. Now they are grading off thousands of acres west where they plan 40,000 houses around Loop 303. Flagstaff is nuts. I don’t know much about Sedona. Mohave county shack prices have roughly doubled since 2011.
Bubbles are for bathtubs!
‘casual observers’ initial reaction to the asking price leaves some scratching their head. The townhomes on the corner of Perry and Madison Streets are offered for $495,000. According to Zillow, the median price of homes currently listed in Newnan is $229,900, which puts the homes almost $300,000 above average.’
‘These have a one- year builder warranty, and the buyer gets a beautiful home, walking distance to restaurants, nightlife, and the shops of downtown Newnan.’
300k extra is a lot to pay for a stumble home from the bars. Better make it 299k.
“Better make it 299k.”
LOL!
But that POS, and you won’t have any money to go to restaurants, nightlife, and the shops of downtown Newnan.
Per Wikipedia, median family income in Newnan = $43,243
Maybe they are trying to attract buyers from the PRC, now that Vancouver has hit the brakes on sales to PRC residents.
If the locals are pizzed off about immigrants now, just wait until they get a gander at the 19 year old “college students” with million dollar homes, and Lamborghinis in the garage.
It looks like a slum. What’s with the front windows being mere inches from the sidewalk? Going after the exhibitionist buyers? And what a nice view of the drooping fiber optic cable from the upper floor. It just screams luxury all around.
“…there’s a shaft for anyone who decides to add an elevator.”
There’s definitely a shaft but it has nothing to do with an elevator.
Yeah, what would an elevator cost? “Honey, I’m sick of thumping up and down these stairs all day.”
What’s with the multilevel condos these days? I thought seniors want something with one level, not 3 or 4.
It’s not the initial cost of the elevator; it’s the annual state inspection that really adds up. The 3-story ’skinny homes’ down the street from me could all really use one - who wants to shlep groceries up a tiny winding staircase from the first-level garage to the 2nd-floor kitchen every week?
I seem to recall that older houses had “dumb waiters” to move items between floors.
Dumb Waiters were/are commonplace among 1900-era mansions in the Midwest. One of my good friend’s family had one in their house - was using it in the 1980s.
Create way to move laundry between floors, as well as books, food and medicine. I was there helping when they cleaned a bunch of stored stuff out of their attic via dumb waiter. Why carry something down two or three flights of stairs?
Dunno if they ever moved their cocker spaniel via dumb waiter. Never asked.
They had a full intercom system and vacuum system as well.
We had one in our apartment building (NYC). We used to take a broom handle and knock on the ceiling, then talk to my grandparents in the apartment above us through the dumbwaiter shaft. If we were out milk or whatever, we’d knock - pull on the ropes and down it came.
These have a one- year builder warranty ??
California has a 10 year statute on defective construction…
And for today’s “Privatize the gains, and socialize the losses” File……
“The Intercontinental, a premier Kansas City hotel, seeks “Blight” designation.”
http://tinyurl.com/hozct9u
By being “blighted”, they can set up a “Community Improvement District”, and tax the guests to pay for repairs/upgrades/remodeling.
And for those unfamiliar with KC, this “blighted” hotel is on the Country Club Plaza.
http://tinyurl.com/heatg3z
I’m sure there is another scam in here somewhere, besides pocketing the money they were supposed to be setting aside to pay for these repairs/improvements. Just guessing, but I’m betting somewhere that there is a tax writeoff for fixing/repairing “Blighted” properties. ey
“Privatize the goons, and socialize the losers…”
‘Elon Musk sent an e-mail to employees at Tesla Motors Inc. urging them to cut costs and deliver “every car we possibly can” in a push to show positive cash flow in the third quarter. “The simple reality of it is that we will be in a far better position to convince potential investors to bet on us if the headline is not ‘Tesla Loses Money Again,’ but rather ‘Tesla Defies All Expectations and Achieves Profitability.’” Musk wrote.’
‘Musk also reaffirmed Tesla’s need for cash, writing that “we will need to raise additional cash in Q4 to complete the Model 3 vehicle and the Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada, which will produce battery cells.’
‘Tesla burned through $611 million in cash in the first half of this year and $2.2 billion last year, according to Bloomberg data. The company also lost $568 million on an adjusted bases in the first half of this year and lost $889 million last year.
“It would be awesome to throw a pie in the face of all naysayers on Wall Street who keep insisting that Tesla will always be a money loser!” Musk said.’
If one read that e-mail aloud in a canyon, the echo would be:
‘Tesla will always be a money loser!’
‘Tesla will always be a money loser!’
‘Tesla will always be a money loser!’
Not to worry, there’s always Space-X! And that solar venture.
I actually feel a bit badly dissing Musk. Truth is, his Space-X venture is bold and visionary and even though I won’t be around to see it, it’s exciting to think that mankind may actually reach the stars and other planets, because of people like him. It was a shame that the rocket and its payload exploded on the launching pad the other day, although since it was a Facebook satellite, I don’t mind too much.
However, before we reach the stars, mankind is going to have to learn a thing or two about spiritual/inner advancement. I’m not a trekkie as such, but I always enjoyed Star Trek, The Next Generation. My favorite series of that franchise. Roddenberry had his own vision, one of cooperation and understanding between peoples and life forms, as illustrated in the various episodes. That will be the most important component and without it, it will be difficult to expand to the stars.
I see it more as Yellen bucks looking for a place to die. I don’t need a can of almonds delivered by drone. Yet companies are spending vast sums to try and make it work. I saw a photo of a driver-less cab the other day: looked pretty expensive to me. How about some Joe in a Prius instead?
I listened to a long program on colonizing Mars. The main point was, if you go you ain’t coming back. I was told, “this will be like the pioneers in covered wagons, headed across the plains”. See, your bones will deteriorate so much by the time you get there you wouldn’t survive a trip back. Sign me up for a one way trip to an early death Scotty!
IMO, a lot of this is printed up monopoly money trying to solve problems that don’t exist.
This is similar:
‘If you’re afraid of heights, you should stop reading. An apartment tower planned in downtown Des Moines would include a swimming pool that hangs over the edge of the 26-story building — giving swimmers a view straight down, according to plans for the project released Friday.’
‘In engineering terms, it’s called a cantilevered pool. Like a visor on a baseball cap, it would stick out about 11 feet from the top floor. Blackbird Investments, a Des Moines real estate development firm, is building the $85 million apartment tower at the corner of Seventh and Walnut streets.The pool will add roughly $250,000 to the project cost, said Justin Doyle, a partner in Blackbird Investments.’
“It’s worth it for the interest” it will create, he said. “It will be an icon.”
One of these already exists on a luxury apartment tower in Houston. As I said the other day, I don’t know how I have done without one all my life.
I guess we should be happy the Yellon bucks are finally finding their places in flyover countries. LOL
‘The pool will add roughly $250,000 to the project cost, said Justin Doyle, a partner in Blackbird Investments.’ “It’s worth it for the interest”
And a quarter of a million goes poof. Worthless from the day they write the check, never to be seen again.
I’ve never understood the term, “fear or heights”. A rational person, if a step or two away from his death, will surely look to step back a bit.
A person who doesn’t have a fear of heights might hike in the Glacier Point area of Yosemite, but will most likely walk at least several feet away from the side of the trail with the 1000 foot sheer drop.
A person with a fear of heights probably won’t go on that hike.
I agree about the can of almonds, driverless cars, the Yellen bucks and that sort of thing.
Space travel is something different, though. There will always be people who have nothing to lose by going and not coming back, and they will be the ones who go first, risk their lives and in many cases, die trying. There may not be warp drives and teleporters, but completely different methods that accomplish the same things. Besides, space travel is the only chance mankind has for freedom. If humanity is scattered to the four winds of space, the New World Order is reduced to the status of trying in vain to herd cats, and I like the idea of that.
Why not send them to the bottom of the ocean?
I understand that space travel is a touchy subject for some. These days it costs $100 million just to make a movie about space travel. It gets down to what money is. For instance I still see ads saying, “if you donate $20 a month some child can eat.” Yet any number of trillions can be created to buy Japanese REITs and the like. I listened to another “futurist” the other day saying artificial intelligence will eliminate all jobs and we better get ready for it with government guaranteed incomes. And I’ve wondered here before; why are we even paying taxes? We aren’t ever going to pay all this debt off. This is why the guy saying “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” freaks me out. What he means is money is an abstract thing the “reality based community” deals with while “they” plot the next true reality.
Oh were it so! Incomes have been falling for decades. Inequality gets worse year after year, and the globalists only solution is more of what they’ve been doing for decades. From the first article above:
‘Wealth generates wealth, especially now, in an economy that has been rewarding people who own stocks and other financial assets a lot more than people whose income comes primarily from working. And new research shows that wealth inequality is growing in the housing market, just as it has been growing in the broader economy’
But let’s spend several fortunes and bend laws so we can put many millions of drivers out of work, brilliant! Personally, I think it’s Jetson’s cartoon hooey. If it is or isn’t, why is this the best we can do with what are ultimately limited resources?
Citizens United “persons” do not want war because they understand the broken window fallacy.
“I understand that space travel is a touchy subject for some.”
It’s not a “touchy” subject for me. It was/is touchy for the poverty pimps/military/industrial complex. No, we can’t have a space program because war/the poor/the children or whatever all the right people thought that money should go to.
Fair enough. And here we are, today.
That’s silly. NASA is part of the military industrial complex.
I never said it wasn’t. Some potentially good things have come out of the MIC, like the Internet. What’s beyond silly is how resources are allocated and deployed. The planet would probably be way better off today had the $$ allocated to the war machine been allocated to space travel and exploration.
The planet would probably be way better off today had the $$ allocated to the war machine been allocated to space travel and exploration.
That’s a reasonable statement. Fewer people would have died in war.
“The main point was, if you go you ain’t coming back. I was told, “this will be like the pioneers in covered wagons, headed across the plains”. See, your bones will deteriorate so much by the time you get there you wouldn’t survive a trip back.”
Evolution will continue on for those permanently on Mars. After a few generations, they may no longer be called homo-sapiens but a different (but similar) branch of humans entirely.
‘Evolution will continue on for those permanently on Mars’
I don’t even like being snowed in for a few days.
Let’s connect some dots:
‘San Francisco is the nation’s most expensive market, and the median home price rose from $161,000 in 1986 to $1.06 million today. That’s a gain of $898,000, or 558%. A theoretical family that bought such a home 30 years ago and sold today would have added nearly $900,000 in wealth’
‘In Dayton, Ohio, at the other end of the scale, a median-priced home appreciated from $51,000 in 1986 to $103,000 today.’
‘if you’re there and you can muster the wallet to buy a home, you’ll have a leg up on building wealth (assuming the trend of the past 30 years continues)’
And in 30 more years, that little shack in Dayton will be ready for tear down. The fact is ‘a theoretical family that bought such a home 30 years ago and sold today’ has to get this “wealth” from the buyer. Nothing has been created, except a big debt to some lender.
What has happened in these past 30 years? From 1986 to 1989, the GSE’s went from around 25% of backed mortgages to about half. Now with FHA, government backed loans are 90% plus. What’s the biggest feature of these loans? 30 year pay back periods, coupled with single digit down-payments. Even more debt and that’s without the price increases.
What’s emerging here is less market based economy to what’s basically central planned economy. Is it surprising that since these central planners think wealth can be created by expensive houses that expensive houses is what we’ve gotten?
What other pieces of the puzzle have we seen in the past 30 years? Falling interest rates and declining incomes. If expensive houses created wealth, we should have seen it by now and it’s been the opposite. And the dominate economic feature of the past 30 years? Globalism. Which just might be the problem we keep cooking these bubbles to cover up for in the first place.
So we went from affordable, market based housing in San Francisco that you could pay off in 15 years to the insanity of today with a 30 year loan. As I asked last weekend; were those really the bad old days?
USA
Usa
Cra
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What ever gov touches fcks up
Cra
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Crater…
Hi Ben,
I wasn’t sure if you were asking me directly, but I let this and some of your other posts roll around in my head this afternoon. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, and this may not be a very good answer, but here’s what I got with some personal examples.
Sometime in my teens, I realized that being in debt is a form of “slavery” (I know that is a loaded word, but I don’t have anything better). Nobody taught me that, it just seemed self-evident. Ever since, I’ve had a natural reluctance and avoidance of debt, but at the same time, there have been instances where it was impossible to not take on some debt. For example, when I began my career, I needed a car, so that I could work and get food to eat. I was young and barely had any money, so I was forced to take on debt to purchase a car. I paid it off as soon as I could, of course, and drove it for many many years. I continued to avoid debt as much as possible. Everything I wanted, I saved and paid cash for.
The more debt you have, the less freedom you have. I don’t know much about the globalist or leftist final goals, but it seems much of it is about control over people. Debt is the perfect way to achieve that.
You mentioned before, “We can never repay these levels of debts”, and I think you are correct — both on an individual level and a collective/country level. There is no repaying all this debt. More and more I am starting to think that is by design.
I think the asset price bubbles, while providing the illusion of wealth, may be intended to snare in ever-growing numbers of people into impossible debt loads, so that “the powers that be” have control over you. I hate to quote that movie, but it is true — the things you own, they own you.
When I was younger and starting out in the world, it was still possible to live a fairly normal life without much or any debt. These days, however, I think it is much more difficult. College debt. Car debt. House debt. Credit card debt. By the time you’re 25, you’re so debt-laden, you are effectively a slave to the creditors, which is increasingly the government itself, either directly or indirectly.
Today, you can still walk away from some of this debt and declare bankruptcy — for now. Or, isn’t college debt non-defaultable? I wonder how long they will allow people to walk away from other forms of debt.
It’s like, successive generations are being forced to go into ever increasing levels of debt, simply to live.
Perhaps once the population is so hopelessly far into debt that can never be repaid, and if they nullify the rules about walking away from it — and as incomes have been declining, incomes may just go to zero, and instead, the government gives you money in another form of debt. Maybe the final goal is to make it absolutely impossible for anyone to live their life without being completely in debt and servitude.
I want to be a free man. Free to succeed, and free to fail. I do not want to be beholden to anyone.
Maybe I have completely missed the point though.
And free to live life without being in debt.
spmk:
Yours is an excellent post. You seemingly are way ahead of the game already. I’m going to respond tomorrow, if I may, with some ideas that you may or may not find useful. Keep what you want, trash the rest.
You can be the free man that you want to be, provided you strive to be sufficiently nimble to roll with changing times and conditions. Being debt free is a major contributor toward being nimble. Keep your powder dry.
I’m curious - how old are you? 27-30ish?
I just turned 43 on August 29th.
I converted all my paper savings to actual physical gold in 2001 at $320/ounce. I used to have several kilogram bars of gold, and do not let anyone convince you otherwise — it is as satisfying as can be. I sold it off in increments as necessary for other purposes over time for my particulars. But I’m not beating myself up over it. I wish I still had my stacks of kilo’s and Krugs though. I am going to replenish.
Half sold at $600 (doubled).
The rest sold at $1300.
But, you don’t buy gold for the intent of making money, that’s not the point. I just happened to get lucky. Lucky? Maybe.
“I just happened to get lucky.”
It sounds like you bought low and sold high. It takes good judgment, self-discipline and perhaps some luck to know what low is and to have cash available at such points to exploit the opportunity.
I put my money where my mouth is. I have a long track record of it.
Do you? (generically speaking)
Actually sorry, I didn’t put any money where my mouth is. I kept my mouth shut.
sorry sorry…
Drank too much tonight. :-0
btw…
in 2012, when I went for it and got a loan for a house — it was really difficult to convince loan underwriters that my downpayment was from the sale of… of all things… physical gold…
That flipped ‘em out good.
I had to provide all sorts of documentation and stuff about it.
“Roddenberry had his own vision, one of cooperation and understanding between peoples and life forms, as illustrated in the various episodes.”
It is a nice utopia vision, and it might be possible in a “post-scarcity” world. Even still, the hard reality is that pretty much all life on this planet evolved and adapted to a world where resources are scarce. We evolved to fight to survive. Aggression, violence, deception — it’s in our genes.
Even after we invent the magic technology to create unlimited food and energy and all the leisure time and toys we could ever want or need — we still have those genes. It might take a while to breed all that out of us.
‘Roddenberry had his own vision, one of cooperation and understanding between peoples and life forms, as illustrated in the various episodes.”’
In your interactions so far today, in what percent did you not voluntarily cooperate and understand? On most days do you not voluntarily cooperate?
Voluntary association and cooperation is not utopian - you practice voluntaryism every day unless you are a uniformed order follower.
Please tell me how many times you denied a neighbor, colleague, a stranger to live peacefully and with free will this last year. Maybe you are a badged order follower?
Selfish,
Cooperation is a very effective survival strategy for biological living things. Until it isn’t.
I’m not sure why that bothered you so much, but it’s OK.
The main point was not really about cooperation among fellow human beings, but that as a whole, humans possess many traits and behaviors that can’t just be ’switched off’ given infinite resources.
You can give all the food and everything to a pack of monkeys in the forest and they will still fling poo at each other.
This makes me recall the episode where they find 3 terminally ill people frozen in cryonics on a spaceship. They are a Wall St. tycoon, a country singer and a housewife whose husband spends their nest egg to have her frozen before she died. After thawing them Dr. Crusher cures them.
The billionaire learns about what life is like in the Federation, and is disgusted when he learns that the UFP is not a capitalist society. He demands a copy of the current Wall St. Journal, only to learn that it is no more.
The singer thinks his songs will be a hit again and is optimistic.
The housewife is dismayed to learn that everyone she knew is now dead. Troi helps her find distant relatives on Earth.
Hah, I seem to remember that one vaguely, although what stands out is the part about finding distant relatives on Earth.
I thought it was one of the greatest ensemble casts ever. I especially enjoyed Data, Brent Spiner did a heckuva job. They all did. What came across was the warmth, the camaraderie, the willingness to work together to overcome obstacles, the appreciation of competence and skill.
What do we have today? Three Broke Girls? The Big Bang Theory? Criminal Minds? I had some hope for Wayward Pines, but that faded fast. Although one can see, looking at the viciousness of some of today’s society, how humanity could easily degenerate into a species like the Abbies.
Yeah. It is more like a voluntaryist society where there are very few shortages of anything. James P. Hogan wrote a fiction novel called “Voyage From Yesteryear.” It was a technologically advanced society which had unlimited energy, unlimited food, and on a distant planet around another star system. Hogan left out one crucial item: there is a shortage of view real estate. Think of a Hawaii-like island that has a one-of-a-kind beach with an awesome view. Perfect place for a beach bungalow. But suppose 100,000 others thought it is perfect. Instant shortage.
Picard’s brother owns a vineyard. So it contradicted the communist dream.
The comment about shortage and aggression and no cooperation is ridiculous. It’s not the people living free that have done the most killings. It’s the order followers of the rulers that the people hallucinate to powerful elected positions. No anarchists ever killed even 1% of the numbers of people killed by governments in our history. In the 20th century alone, governments murdered 262 MILLION people. The U.S. government is estimated to have killed between ten and twenty million people since WWII, and that does not count the Tokyo Napalm bombs, the nuclear bombs, the bombing of Dresden, or WWI.
It is a bullshit statement to say that the average person outside of government does not cooperate. Particularly when the person saying the statement will certainly say “me? I always allow my family, neighbors and colleagues free will as long as they let me live peacefully! At type of nonsense is like saying if the government dissolved overnight all of a sudden everyone will become violent!
Next Gen had its moments, but I find it painful to watch the reruns on Netflix. The show just drips with political correctness. I’ll watch reruns from the original series, DS9, Enterprise and the latter seasons of Voyager. But I just can’t stomach rewatching Next Gen.
I’m with you, Colorado.
The Next Generation was passable the first time out; watching them now is stomach turning. TNG has not aged well. Way too self-conscious.
For me, it’s the original series. Give me Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly and I’m good to go, cheesy effects and all.
–> ‘The singer thinks his songs will be a hit again and is optimistic.’
–
“We are the music makers,
and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
i’ve been following this 14 year old….smart and seriously way above his peers
https://www.facebook.com/TheCJPearson/videos/vb.834027803299371/1101729936529155/?type=2&theater¬if_t=live_video¬if_id=1472769440351885
He is his little African American…
hillarie will never have the likes of him on stage or even talk to him.
Vancouver Home Sales Crash 23% In One Month As Prices Tumble
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-03/vancouver-home-sales-crash-23-one-month-prices-tumble
Do you think a foreign buyer tax or moratorium could work similarly well in the U.S.?
running around my neighborhood, I have been seeing “we’ll buy your home, full price.” Looks like flippers are running out of inventory and bidding against one another.
Still, for this bubble to pop, I believe there needs to be a catalyst. In 2007, people started defaulting on their mortgages and that started the cascade. I just don’t see a catalyst near term. With so much funny money around and more being printed, even zombie corps can restructure/refinance.
I just don’t see a probable catalyst anywhere in the near term…
running around my neighborhood, I have been seeing ??
What zip code ??
Southern Maryland
lolz
In my part of Phoenix I lived in you would see those little yellow signs with black letters (hmm. Ancap colors!) offering to buy your house with cash. That was in maybe 2009 through 2012. Saw one sign like that in Laguna Hills off the exit ramp of I-5 by a corner. When you see them all over the place, it’s a sign of distress.
Lending squeeze to be catalyst for apartment market correction: CLSA
The Australian-Sep 1, 2016
As stockmarket investors express increasing concerns about the nation’s apartment glut, broker CLSA today told clients that there continued to be a “squeeze …
‘Almost overnight, vacant fields are turning into apartments, row houses, and duplexes that seem to bump into each other along Soquel Canyon Parkway and Butterfield Ranch Road. Almost 1,670 dwelling units will be included in the Trumark, Lewis, KB Homes, Avalon, Capriana, and Vila Borba developments, all in southern Chino Hills.’
‘This figure adds to the existing Heights Apartments with 332 units on both sides of Butterfield Ranch Road, and the 200-plus condominium developments at the farthest end of Butterfield near the 71 Freeway.’
“Much is being said about the massive development in south Chino Hills,” said Mayor Art Bennett. “The reality is these projects were approved many years ago and sitting dormant until the economy picked up.”
‘He added, “The fact that they are all being built at the same time shows that we reached that point in time where the economy has allowed developers to go forward.”
I wonder if that never-completed high rise loft structure put up next to Chandler Mall (Chandler, Arizona) and standing with scaffolding for many years since 2006 is going to be completed now that “we are running out of real estate?”
A bubble takes only the tiniest bit of doubt to pop it. Like the dutch tulip bubble which supposedly burst when someone was shown an extremely pricey tulip and decided to eat it on the spot to expose the folly of all the participants. In this case the least bit of doubt by people that cause them to pull back on that bid will lead others to question the very foundations underpinning the market. Lets face it, the vast majority participating wouldnt touch the market with a 10 foot pole if they thought prices were going down - prices MUST be constantly increasing to justify the insane prices and once they stop rising, the musics over and theres not an empty chair to be found.
lol
Ripped from the front page of msn.com:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/6-states-with-the-biggest-real-estate-bubbles/ar-BBw4Mmc?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=wispr
Far too many homeowners now have the mindset that their houses will continue to escalate in value into the stratosphere! The owners of an $800,000 today dream daily of seeing the value climb past the $2 million mark in the not-too-distant future. THAT is one major hallmark of a BUBBLE!
You’d wonder if those nuts would be worrying about the lack of affordability of starter homes for young people.
I met some old people years ago, friends of a lady I know. They bought a house in the 1950s in the Palos Verdes area, on the hill. IMO, one of the best parts of Los Angeles. They were only engineers. But their engineer salaries could afford them a nice house in an incredible climate. They were young in the 1950s.
Top notch engineers these days are not paid like that. It’s why young married couples who are white collar professionals rent small inexpensive places to be near their jobs. But that is difficult if they are not in the same industry. They could afford to buy 60 miles away, but they would have to be on permanently low calorie diets to make up for lack of exercise while commuting two hours each way to work.
Remember….. I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where is the buyer that price?
So it with all depreciating assets like houses.
The only winner here is me.
Why is always winning even petty little disputes that matter not at all in the big scheme of things so important to you?
Seems most un-presidential.
….. and I’m living in your head rent-free.
I’ll have to share with you a great quote the current dead tree edition of The Economist:
Is Donald Trump Crazy Like a Fox? No, Just Crazy.
August 1, 2016
Dear Fellow Republicans,
There has been a great deal of pressure to unify behind Donald Trump because the alternative is Hillary Clinton. Now, I am no fan of Sec. Clinton. I have written op-eds calling for her prosecution. But if Hillary Clinton really is the only alternative to Donald Trump, I will have to vote for her. As a life-long Republican, I owe you an explanation.
…
Have you seen this web site?
http://holdingournosesforhillary.com/