September 15, 2016

A Telltale Sign Of A Shift In The Market.

The Orange County Register reports from California. “The market for Orange County’s existing housing isn’t slowing down. Well, unless your selling a home for more than $2 million. ReportsOnHousing publishes an intriguing benchmark of the local market’s selling speed, a ‘market time’ barometer that tracks the number of new escrows in the past 30 days vs. the supply of homes for sale. Countywide, market time was 78 days on Sept. 8 vs. 80 days a year earlier (and 98 days two years ago.) Once homes get pricier, the speed picture changes significantly: $2 million to $4 million: 342 days vs. 229 days a year ago – or 112 extra days! Above $4 million: 507 days vs. 347 days a year ago – or 160 extra days!”

“The current luxury trend has been evolving with a dramatic slowdown in the higher price ranges, says ReportsOnHousing’s Steve Thomas. ‘The luxury end above $2 million has been profoundly slower with a lot more inventory and considerably less demand.’”

The Press Democrat. “Sonoma County’s housing market experienced its slowest summer in five years, with sales falling 9 percent from a year earlier. From June through August, buyers purchased 1,384 single-family homes in the county, including 461 last month, according to The Press Democrat’s monthly housing report, compiled by Pacific Union International senior vice president Rick Laws.”

“‘This summer was very busy until we hit the Fourth of July and then it seemed to change a little bit,’ said Brian Connell, managing broker at the Coldwell Banker office on Mission Boulevard in Santa Rosa. Since then, he said, ‘our buyer activity has just become a little less frantic than it was before.’”

“The median sales price in August rose to $590,000. That amounts to a 9 percent increase from a year earlier. The sales slowdown is the latest chapter in a tumultuous decade for a housing market where home prices soared, crashed and rebounded. The median price hit a record high of $619,000 in August 2005, then sank to a low of $305,000 in February 2009. Starting in 2012, median prices have risen each year by an annual rate of 8 percent or more.”

“Grace Lucero, director of investments for Vanguard Properties in Healdsburg, said it wasn’t that long ago that buyers who thought a home was overpriced would simply walk away without making an offer, partly because they thought someone else would still pay the price or even bid higher. But recently Lucero saw a change when she listed a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Cloverdale for $379,000, under its appraised estimate of $385,000. No buyer offered to pay full price.”

“‘I got three offers under asking price,’ she said, each one in the $350,000’s. For her, such a change in strategy by buyers ‘is a telltale sign of a little shift in the market.’”




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114 Comments »

Comment by Ben Jones
2016-09-15 06:16:02

‘The median sales price in August rose to $590,000…when she listed a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Cloverdale for $379,000, under its appraised estimate of $385,000. No buyer offered to pay full price.’

‘I got three offers under asking price,’ she said, each one in the $350,000’s’

At just above half the median, isn’t this the lower end stuff that is instantly snapped up?

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 06:51:02

The “lower-end” stuff was being instantly snapped up around here, but there does appear to be a bit of a frost setting in. In order to make it a true freeze, though, people have to get the message that it’s ridiculous pay $140,000 for something that’s worth $70.000 or less. And they’re not quite getting the message yet.

It’s an interesting phenomenon that did seem to be happening in disparate markets. You had a post on Greenwich, Ct. the other day. Indeed, for a while there, people were “snapping up” properties under $1.5 million. The $2-5 million properties, were moving sluggishly. Over $5 million, languishing. For the past couple of years or so.

What’s amusing about those $1-2 million properties is that similar properties in other, less desirable markets, would be valued at $250,000 or less. It’s like those high priced shacks in Vancouver, or Silly Valley.

Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 07:01:13

“You had a post on Greenwich, Ct. the other day. Indeed, for a while there, people were “snapping up” properties under $1.5 million.”

I saw that post on Greenwich, Ct. and almost said something but decided not to.

But what the hell, I don’t watch the Greenwich housing market but I do know of a house in Old Greenwich that was on the market for 1 week recently and sold for $1.3 million.

I am not saying that is the norm but it did just happen.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 07:20:47

Chris Fountain’s blog (For What It’s Worth) has done a pretty good job of chronicling the Greenwich market over the same time period as the HBB has chronicled the market as a whole.

From my perfunctory reading of his blog, what you’ve described is not at all unusual and has been happening over the last couple of years or so. Mostly it’s been happening in Riverside and Old Greenwich, with the occasional Cos-Cob property mixed in. Under $2 million, they’re being “snapped up”. The “back country” is seriously out of favor, though.

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Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 07:48:49

“I saw that post on Greenwich, Ct. and almost said something but decided not to.”

If you see something, say something. :-)

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Comment by the spider monkey
2016-09-15 07:58:42

I wonder how many bimbos are being dicked in those mansions.

 
Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 09:19:50

If you want to be mildly entertained, google the Stephanie Seymour-Peter Brant union. Apparently, the two sons popped out of the womb in full Liberace regalia. Be sure to note the infamous photo of Seymour and son on the beach in St. Bart’s.

It’s stuff like that makes a person realize how close the parallels are between Rome and the US at the end stages of empire.

 
Comment by the spider monkey
2016-09-15 09:41:15

More like ‘mildly revolting’.

Randomly clicking some of those mansions in zillow, there’s definitely some slashin’ going on, but nowhere near desperation yet. We have a ways to go.

Here is an article today about more of fraudulent Vancouver market.

“Students”.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/incomeless-students-spent-57-million-on-vancouver-homes-in-past-two-years/article31892652/

“Nine students with no apparent source of income bought $57-million worth of single-family homes in Vancouver’s tony Point Grey neighbourhood over the past two years, according to records compiled by British Columbia’s Opposition New Democrats.”

 
Comment by the spider monkey
2016-09-15 15:13:14

For all the music lovers out there, an oldie but a goodie.

http://imgur.com/RcZ2xgT

 
 
 
Comment by snake charmer
2016-09-15 10:00:41

I presume you read this today Palmetto. Third in the nation!

“One out of every 10 homes sold in the second quarter of this year was a flip, RealtyTrac reported today. That’s 13 percent more than a year earlier and enough to rank Tampa Bay third-highest nationally in flips — defined as any property bought and resold in an arms-length transaction in a 12-month period.

“There are loads and loads of (flippers) out there,” said Bruce Harris, a broker associate in St. Petersburg. “Most of them buy houses that Mr. Joe America can’t unless he has the cash.”

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/tampa-bay-now-ranks-third-in-the-nation-in-house-flipping/2293608

Comment by snake charmer
2016-09-15 10:09:35

There was another story last week about wealthy people buying $2 million mansions, tearing them down, and replacing them with a design more to their liking. I’m generally OK with that, as long as the money was earned honestly.

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Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 10:24:00

Hey, thanks for posting the above, snake. I did read tear-down article. Something tells me the folks who are doing that in South Tampa are going to be real sad panda boo-boo in a few years.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 10:25:41

The only way accumulate that much cash in the fake Obama economy is through crony capitalism.

 
Comment by The Crushin' Russian
2016-09-15 12:02:46

Irrelevant

 
 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 06:52:11

I watched this happen to a house in Jupiter Fl.

It was listed for 400k in late 2006 or early 2007, they turned down an offer of 350k in 2007.

It sold for 210k in 2008.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 07:01:07

It’s different this time. Everyone wants to live in Florida. All those retiring boomers and tax refugees from the People’s Republic of New England (New Hampshire excepted) are coming down here and buying everything in sight. Oh, wait…..

Comment by nhtransplant
2016-09-15 07:57:18

Thank you for the exception for New Hampshire. ;)

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Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 08:22:52

Heh, between Shaheen and Ayotte, ain’t gonna last.

You guys could have elected Scott Brown, but nooooooooo.

 
Comment by nhtransplant
2016-09-15 08:42:35

And Sununu is poised to win the governorship. Too many former Mazzholes up here. Of course I’m one of them but I’m different. lol

 
Comment by snake charmer
2016-09-15 10:13:15

The book “Leisureville” was inspired after a New Hampshire man saw his neighbors pack up and move to The Villages. He moved down there for months, and wrote about his experiences, which included a not insubstantial amount of partying.

 
 
 
Comment by jerzdebil
2016-09-15 10:12:22

Just had dinner with friends the other night, they were selling a house near the peak of the last bubble in central CA. Had great renters in it for a decade, market said it could sell for about 250K. Renters were willing to buy, but could only do 200. Friends sister said she’ll handle it and get 250.

It sold after the bubble unwound for a little above 100. His advice: dont ever let your sister “help” sell anything of yours. My advice was dont ever let your ego get involved with a possession, thinking you deserve some amount or that its worth some imaginary figure cooked up in your mind by your ego. Let the market tell you what its worth. Works 99 times out of 100.

 
 
Comment by scdave
2016-09-15 08:31:39

such a change in strategy by buyers ‘is a telltale sign of a little shift in the market.’” ??

If you have been around long enough you know that the buyers can chase the price upward and also chase it downward…The buyer sets the price…Not the seller….

Comment by The Crushin' Russian
2016-09-15 12:07:17

Incorrect.

And remember… I can ask $50k for my ten-year-old used up Chevy pickup but where is the buyer at that price?

So it is with all depreciating assets like houses.

 
 
Comment by Rental Watch
2016-09-15 09:17:58

I haven’t heard the word “Cloverdale” in a long time. I grew up in a city that was larger, but pretty “country” and we used to think Cloverdale was VERY country.

Pretty far away from major job centers…30 miles north of Santa Rosa, small town of about 9k people. I’m not sure you can draw any conclusion about any broad market trends from a single listing in any 9,000 person town.

Comment by The Crushin' Russian
2016-09-15 12:35:53

Rental rates and asking prices are falling from San Francisco to Manhattan.

Your point is?

 
 
Comment by Bluto
2016-09-15 14:17:14

Until Bubble 2.0 began Cloverdale was an inexpensive option in Sonoma Co. and that was the only reason many lived there…very little to do in town and extremely hot weather in the summer so low housing prices (to buy or rent) were the main appeal. That is no longer the case but looks like it will change right quick. The current median house price for the county of about $550K is ridiculous, median household income is only about $65K….

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-09-15 06:24:37

‘The luxury end above $2 million has been profoundly slower with a lot more inventory and considerably less demand.’

It’s as if the deep-pocketed all-cash Canadian and Chinese investors vanished overnight!

Comment by Ben Jones
2016-09-15 06:38:41

‘Once homes get pricier, the speed picture changes significantly: $2 million to $4 million: 342 days vs. 229 days a year ago – or 112 extra days! Above $4 million: 507 days vs. 347 days a year ago – or 160 extra days!’

Comment by patrick
2016-09-15 09:07:08

Ben

Is this “speed data” in a table format for Canada somewhere ?

Thank you.

 
 
 
Comment by oxide
2016-09-15 07:00:58

And to add to the furor over self driving cars, now Wal-Mart wants to add self-driving shopping carts:

http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-could-ditch-workers-for-patented-tech-2016-9

Customers can use a hand-held device to summon a cart. Carts could return themselves. Or, a more advanced cart could assist in stocking or fetching inventory.

Just what I need. Yet another app which tracks me and spams me with ads (as if we didn’t have enough throwaway crap or Minority Report-style surveillance).

Comment by Salinasron
2016-09-15 07:42:04

Walmart should be focusing on getting customers out the door. Made a quick run down the hill to Walmart Sunday morning. Most of the stuff is going to house brands. Several milk cases and had one small section of whole milk (most 0,1,2%). Wanted JD hot spicy or sage sausage,now only mild. Only two check outs running at 9 am and both were back by the garden area so a long walk to exit.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 07:45:05

WalMart is the perfect model for what could eventually become a state-run commie provisions store. It is definitely going in that direction.

 
Comment by Dutch Spikes
2016-09-15 08:35:56

WALMART = We Always Lack Merchandise And Require Training

 
Comment by oxide
2016-09-15 09:52:04

Stunning factoid:

“Almost three-quarters of all supermarket products languish on store shelves, selling less than one unit (a single package, can, or bottle) per week, according to Paul Weitzel, managing partner with industry adviser Willard Bishop Consulting. Just 20 percent of products account for 80 percent of total sales.”

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/03/too-many-product-choices-in-supermarkets/index.htm

No wonder Wal-Mart wants to cut down its selection.

Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 10:29:52

Walmart has been a “most of what you want all in one place” business for a long time. A computer printout tells the shelf stocker which slow movers to yank off the shelves.

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Comment by taxpayers
2016-09-15 13:09:20

In the se “miles from walmart” papers on listing forms

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by scdave
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 07:50:32

“Just so we don’t forget, this is what was handed off to Obama”

“Jan. 20, 2009, the date of Obama’s inauguration, the debt held by the public — as accrued by Obama’s predecessors — stood at roughly $6.307 trillion and the total debt was about $10.6 trillion”

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - -

 
Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 07:55:20

Richard Fuld (former Lehman CEO) never went to jail.

He may have lost alot of money, but he’s still richer than most people reading this blog. And he’s laughing at you. All of you.

Comment by Puggs
2016-09-15 09:15:33

And he still wants to take out our still beating hearts and eat them.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:33:35

95% of the sheeple bent over for Richard Fuld and the rest of the banksters by voting for their captured Republicrat water carriers in 2008 and 2012. So “Dick” isn’t just laughing at most of the people reading this blog, he’s a good deal more intelligent than 95% of them, statistically speaking.

 
Comment by FED Up
2016-09-15 13:01:12

‘The Veneer of Justice in a Kingdom of Crime’

“To date, the question of why the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to prosecute even one too-big-to-fail bank for the pervasive criminal frauds that drove the multi-trillion-dollar economic meltdown of 2008 has been answered pretty much with shrugs.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHgbRYgpGGs

 
 
Comment by scdave
2016-09-15 08:10:31

this is what was handed off to Obama” ??

Along with this;

Our number one (#1) priority is to make Obama a one term President

He is illegitimate…He was not even born in the USA

He’s a MUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSLUMMMMMMMMMM

Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 08:43:20

“He’s a MUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSLUMMMMMMMMMM”

I don’t know or for that matter care what he is but I do know as a president he has obviously been irresponsible and unpatriotic.

Obama says adding $4 trillion to debt is unpatriotic. - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kuTG19Cu_Q - 309k -

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - -

 
Comment by scdave
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 09:10:06

So you are saying Obama was wrong and it wasn’t Bush’s fault, OK I got it.

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Comment by Rental Watch
2016-09-15 09:21:22

Our number one (#1) priority is to make Obama a one term President

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/when-did-mcconnell-say-he-wanted-to-make-obama-a-one-term-president/2012/09/24/79fd5cd8-0696-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html

Two Pinocchios

That was said after Obama shoved the ACA and Dodd Frank down our throats, not at the beginning of Obama’s first term.

Comment by oxide
2016-09-15 09:39:59

You deserved to have Dodd-Frank shoved down your throats.

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Comment by Rental Watch
2016-09-15 17:29:12

Of course following the madness of the credit crisis, something needed to be done.

However, Dodd Frank included a lot of provisions that effected parts of the economy that were totally unrelated to the crisis. There was a political opening for Democrats to finally insert regulation into markets where they previously were unable to get political support.

We have fewer community banks than at any time since the Great Depression. Dodd Frank caused large financial institutions to gain even more market share–they are bigger than ever.

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2016-09-15 17:33:57

Oh, and at the same time, because Dodd Frank was so large, and politicians were so gutless (they left the actual rule writing up to the SEC later), the provisions that really mattered (risk retention rules, Volcker Rule, etc.) have been completely eviscerated through the process.

From an article a while back:

“Some liberals have criticized the bill for failing to more aggressively alter the structure of Wall Street and for leaving so many critical decisions to federal regulators, who missed many of the warning signs before the crisis.

“It’s the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard,” Dodd countered. “What do they expect me to write, a 100,000-page bill? This is far beyond the capacity, the expertise, the knowledge of a Congress” to detail every new regulation, he said.”

Exactly, Congress, because of the far reaching nature of the legislation, and their complete lack of expertise in the subject matter, left the actual rules to be left to the SEC, and were to be commented on by industry participants.

So we got a whole sh*t ton of watered down rules that are expensive to follow, and have loopholes large enough to drive a truck through.

They would have been better off passing stand-alone bills, focusing on one issue at a time…but instead they shoved through the whole steaming pile of sh*t at once, without actually detailing the rules.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 07:27:08

Incoming. More wikileaks, this time about the TPP and TTIP’s “secret brother”, TISA??

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/776367763870871552?s=09

Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 07:57:52

Globalists gonna globe.

The Donald made a nice speech in Canton, OH yesterday. The rust belt doesn’t get much rustier than that place. Thanks, NAFTA.

Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 09:04:53

Ross Perot

We have got to stop sending jobs overseas. It’s pretty simple: If you’re paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor,…have no health care—that’s the most expensive single element in making a car— have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don’t care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south…when [Mexico's] jobs come up from a dollar an hour to six dollars an hour, and ours go down to six dollars an hour, and then it’s leveled again. But in the meantime, you’ve wrecked the country with these kinds of deals.

1992 Presidential Debate, regarding the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Transcript

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ross_Perot - 63k -

Giant Sucking Sound - Ross Perot 1992 Presidential … - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgx1C_S6ls - 421k -

Comment by Panda Triste
2016-09-15 10:56:49

I’ll ask the question again: how the hell is it any of your business where I take my money to get a better return? Is it my private property or is it not?

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Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 11:00:46

Plenty of Americans took their money to Mexico and invested it there before NAFTA. That’s not the issue.

 
Comment by Panda Triste
2016-09-15 14:35:37

Maybe I don’t understand the issue. Ford can get a better return by manufacturing in Mexico. It sounds like some of you think that should be prevented.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 14:38:13

No, it’s not the manufacturing in Mexico that’s the issue. It’s shipping those cars into the USA that concerns people.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by SW
2016-09-15 08:59:16

This seems to line up with Mark Hansons recent analysis showing supply increasing dramatically in the higher end tiers. He posits that high end leads the low end down.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 09:47:37

Heh, spot on. This is what happens, especially in a “desirable” area like Greenwich, CT. (how much longer it will be “desirable” is a matter of debate, given the tax-crazy liberal governor Malloy).

You get an influx of reasonably prosperous people who work at the lower management rungs of finance (or in the case of Silly Valley, tech) or some other corporate enterprise. They are the remnants of the “upper middle class”, hanging on by their fingernails. I know this because that’s the position one of my family members are in. They used to be able to comfortably send their children to private schools, go skiing in the winter, or take a trip to the Caribbean for the “season”, join a club on the water, etc.

At all costs, they HAVE to be in Greenwich, but can’t afford the mid-country or back country anymore, so they choose one of its outlying, formerly middle class sections like Cos-Cob, Riverside or Old Greenwich. Personally, they might prefer a little better address with a little more land, but they justify this downgrade by saying how much better it is “for the children” living in a “neighborhood” with other families and not having to spend so much on gas to “get into town”, whereas back in the day they preferred a bit more separation from their neighbors.

They buy the housing stock of the former middle class that has been driven out, at ridiculous prices for what they get. One of the first things that goes out the window is that private school education, which used to be a “must”. “For the children”. Now, they talk about why spend the money sending their children to private school when you can get just as good an education at the public schools, because of course they’re in Greenwich and it’s great “for the children” to experience diversity. Cutting out the private school education allows the family to still belong to the club on the water, if they’re lucky, and maybe do one trip a year, as opposed to two.

Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 10:12:48

hanging on by their fingernails

It sounds like they’re hanging on to a standard of living that is significantly higher than that of the vast majority of the population.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 10:32:01

Yes, and they’re gradually being priced out.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 10:33:31

That’s OK. You can count on it being pancakes all the way down.

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Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 10:39:39

That’s good if they like pancakes. Of course, too many is unhealthy.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 11:17:34

Pancake is a process. Nobody likes to be pancaked.

 
Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 11:38:39

Sigh. Poor Mikey. He was actually attempting to make a joke, but it fell flat as a pancake because he takes things way too literally.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 13:27:30

I know that he wasn’t talking about breakfast. I also admit that I made a feeble attempt at a joke. If I was like you, I would tell you that it’s you who has no sense of humor for not appreciating my joke.

 
Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 15:46:29

A joke explained is failed.

 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 10:36:39

“They buy the housing stock of the former middle class that has been driven out,”

You know where I noticed that Palmy, when I saw the GHS Football team was scrimmaging Brunswick this year.

I had to read it twice. Brunswick?

It wasn’t that long ago that they would have needed ambulances and body bags at the field if Greenwich High’s Football team scrimmaged Brunswick.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 10:59:43

Seriously? Why, Brunswick would NEVER scrimmage GHS back in the day. It just wasn’t done.

We used to troll the Brunswick boyz unmercifully, stand in a line side by side, crook the right elbow with palms facing forward, pinkie fingers in the air, and then dip in unision, bending at the knee. It was supposed to be a commentary on their d*cking style. They were clueless what it was all about,

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Comment by Lurker
2016-09-15 14:49:45

Yes! This. Thanks for the anecdote palmetto, very informative. Everyone, whether in Greenwich or Flint, is struggling under Fed and gov’t policies, and it’s important to remember that. (Even if these people do sound a little bit insufferable with their “for the children” excuses. No offense! :)

<>

I don’t think it’s a standard of living issue, although this family’s standard of living has clearly gone down. In this instance it sounds like a cost of living issue, which affects every non-oligarch regardless of their personal level of comfort relative to each other. If this family was living beyond its means for years on credit and HELOCs, that would be different, but it doesn’t sound like it. It just sounds like everything has gotten exponentially more expensive proportionate to incomes than it used to be.

I mean, private school. What is a private elementary day school these days, $20-$30k per year? In the early 90s it was more like $5-$10k per year. Incomes haven’t increased 3-4x. Or elder care. The average cost of a shared room in a nursing home is $68k per year (says Google) or $17k MORE than the average income for someone who is working right now and earning today’s dollars - just imagine how unaffordable it is for someone retired, who never came close to $68k per year in their working life.

I’m just suggesting that in this case, comparisons are perhaps unhelpful. A family in Africa could afford only one meal a day, but if that’s one more meal than most other people, then they’re doing well and everything’s fine?

Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 15:36:28

Another term for this phenomenon is social mobility. Usually it’s thought of as the ability of kids from poor or working class families to move into the middle class or get rich as adults. But true social mobility will include situations where people who went to private schools won’t be able to afford to send their own kids to such schools. In other words, the children of the rich fall down into the middle class in this case.

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Comment by frankie
2016-09-15 09:42:15

Hillary Clinton will not be the only American who has gone to work this week with an illness that should have kept her at home.

By showing up for a 9/11 commemoration ceremony on Sunday, despite being diagnosed with pneumonia, the Democratic presidential hopeful was doing what millions of Americans do every day - ignoring her symptoms and attempting to “power through” a day’s work.

“No one’s allowed to be sick. Sickness is weakness,” says LeaAnne DeRigne, associate professor of social work at Florida Atlantic University.

“The attitude is ‘I’m irreplaceable - if I don’t show up, my job won’t get done.’ Some of it is also concern about how you are going to be viewed as an employee - whether you can be counted on or not. Whether by having too many sick days, too many absences, you are not seen as reliable.”

She adds: “At the very core of being American is the idea of being a hard worker.”

Not that most Americans have a choice in the matter.

America is one of the few developed industrial nations that does not guarantee paid sick leave by law.

Eligible workers are allowed to take up to 12 weeks off for illnesses or a new baby without fear of losing their job - under the Family and Medical Leave Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993 - and many companies will allow their staff a few days’ sick leave as part of their employee benefits package.

But for millions of low-paid workers, the rule is simple - if you don’t show up for work you lose a day’s pay.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37353742

This story depresses me I may have to call in sick tomorrow ;)

Comment by Justme
2016-09-15 09:56:28

>>“At the very core of being American is the idea of being a hard worker.”

At the very core of being American is the idea of APPEARING TO BE being a hard worker.

Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 10:20:04

“APPEARING TO BE being a hard worker.”

Ha-ha, what a load of baloney the “work hard” theme is. I mean, pure, unadulterated crap that’s been shoved down the gullets of ordinary Americans for years, and they bought it hook, line and stinker. I know I did, until I discovered co-workers who were friends of the boss getting a free ride. Hard work indeed, when you’re doing the work for two, sometimes three.

Back in the day it was also a real eye-opener taking that measly one or two week “vacation” with Europeans “on holiday”
for six weeks.

Kee-RAP!

 
 
Comment by snake charmer
2016-09-15 10:18:52

I have yet to see the Clinton campaign answer this question: what is the matter with telling the whole truth about this?

Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 10:46:57

For some people the truth is a last resort. It’s pathological.

 
 
Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 10:23:13

Apparently you have never worked as an employee or contractor to the U.S. federal government.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:35:48

Nothing like a sick colleague hacking and sneezing and maybe puking in the office to show gross inconsideration to fellow employees.

Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 12:04:26

And now that summer’s over and all the kidz are back at school, it’s let’s bring all the contagious illness to work season again!

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-09-15 12:55:04

In a lot of workplaces you have to use vacation days for sick days, which is why so many sick people come into the office.

Comment by Carl Morris
2016-09-15 13:33:52

I was a little frustrated my new employment in San Jose is that way. They were easy to work with on salary and all sorts of benefits. Except vacation/sick days. Regardless of my experience level that was non-negotiable. So I took money and an agreement to let me take unpaid days on occasion. Whatever.

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Comment by In Colorado
2016-09-15 14:35:17

And it doesn’t help that we get so few days off to begin with. Paid time off seems to be the biggest non negotiable. I suspect that it would require a contract to get more than the standard number of days for a new hire, and as we all know worker bees don’t get contracts. Speaking of which, we had a RIF at the Broomfield site today. My organization lost about 5% of its staff, though my team was unaffected.

My late MIL used to ask me about what kind of contract I was offered when I changed jobs. She always seemed bewildered when I explained to her that I was hired as an “at will” employee and thus had no contract. My FIL was an executive.

 
 
 
 
Comment by taxpayers
2016-09-15 13:00:25

If u r a gov worker u can t a key the sick days u want

Comment by Jesus Navas Is My Lord Savior
2016-09-15 14:26:20

Work is a vacation for them. :)

 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-15 10:01:20

“When asked what the parenthetical ‘C’ meant before a paragraph within the captioned email, [Clinton] stated”

[Now what starts with the letter C?
Cookie starts with C
Let's think of other things
That starts with C
Oh, who cares about the other things?]

C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me

Read more: Sesame Street - C Is For Cookie Lyrics | MetroLyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHsKYJhST8 - 237k -

Clinton to FBI: Didn’t know parenthetical ‘C’ stood for confidential

By Harper Neidig
September 02, 2016, 02:36 pm

“When asked what the parenthetical ‘C’ meant before a paragraph within the captioned email, [Clinton] stated she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order,” read the FBI’s notes from the interview.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/294323-clinton-thought-classified-markings-in-emails-were-meant - 228k -

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:44:35

A preview of coming attractions once the Fed debases the dollar into worthlessness.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-print-75m-bond-notes-160915150605660.html

 
Comment by jerzdebil
2016-09-15 10:46:25

Interesting video on aussie gold coast RE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Ic-BQrfa4&app=desktop

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:49:22

The German sheeple voted for a stooge of the globalists and banksters. Now they’re getting what they voted for. How are your new neighbors working out, Fritz and Helga?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3790605/Mob-100-neo-Nazis-vicious-street-fight-migrants-German-riot-police-pelted-bottles-asylum-seekers-protecting.html

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:52:45

Oldsters getting mugged by Hillary supporters in our Democrat-maladministered urban dystopias.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Thieves-Target-Elderly-Older-People-Punch-Attack-Robberies-Steal-393507811.html

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 10:54:06

“Zimbabwe Ben” Bernanke urges the Fed to escalating its swindles against savers and the prudent by introducing NIRP.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-15/bernanke-urges-use-negative-rates-when-next-recession-strikes

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 11:01:32

Always interesting to see how the Oligopoly media characterizes anyone who doesn’t want their country being turned into a Goldman Sachs looting colony and dysfunctional multicultural Tower of Babel.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-america-divided/milo-yiannopoulos/

Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 11:11:04

That guy’s a globalist! If he’s concerned about the problems in his country, he should stay there and attend to them!

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 11:50:58

Milo is a clown and a hedonistic, deeply immature and irresponsible twit, albeit one with a way with words. I don’t care about him. It’s more telling how Bloomberg characterizes the supposed followers of “alt-right” rabble rousers like Milo in deliberately simplistic, distorted terms:

“Their followers’ politics are almost exactly the same: They’re angry about globalization—culturally even more than economically. They’re angry about political correctness guilting them about insensitivity to women, minorities, gays, transgender people, the disabled, the sick—the everyone-but-them. They’re angry about feminism. They don’t like immigrants. They don’t like military intervention. They aren’t into free trade. They don’t like international groups such as the European Union, United Nations, or NATO—even the International Olympic Committee. They admire the bravado of authoritarians, especially Vladimir Putin. Some are white supremacists. Most enjoy a good conspiracy theory.”

Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 12:11:55

almost exactly the same

That’s quite a Southern Poverty Law Center narrative there buddy.

And regarding insensitivity to gays, follow the money trail from the Clinton Foundation to all the regimes that imprison, torture, and execute people for being gay.

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Comment by MightyMike
2016-09-15 13:25:32

I took a very quick look at his Wikipedia page. It says that he’s a Catholic and has been on TV talking about what’s it like to be gay and Catholic, or something like that. In other words, he’s a member of the oldest, largest globalist organization on the planet.

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Comment by The Crushin' Russian
2016-09-15 14:59:23

Irrelevant.

 
Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 14:59:33

I thought he was Jewish. I swear I heard him say that during some youtube interview with one of the guys who used to be on the Young Turks.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by taxpayers
2016-09-15 11:21:24

Sonoma down
Two buck Chuck is coming back

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 11:57:23

A preview of coming attractions once the Comrades of Proven Worth at the DNC get their permanent Democrat supermajority and can install their collectivist kleptocracy and regime of the takers. Forward!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-a-hungry-venezuela-buying-too-much-food-can-get-you-arrested/2016/09/14/b20276d6-755f-11e6-9781-49e591781754_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

Comment by Apartment 401
2016-09-15 12:54:04

During the 1932 famine in Ukraine, the Kulaks were executed for hoarding grain.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 13:17:08

You mean, the Kulaks were executed for refusing to sell their grain to the Comrades of Proven Worth for less than the cost of production. There, fixed it for you. The Kulaks should’ve resisted the Red Terror by force of arms. Oh wait, they’d let themselves be disarmed. For the children….

 
 
Comment by Blue Skye
2016-09-15 15:44:14

Actually, they starved because Stalin took all the food. He took the land and even the pots and pans. For the Kulaks, even to have any food was a crime. It was also a crime to help them. He reduced the population considerably.

Roosevelt bowed to Stalin, just like some more recent Presidents bowed to the Chinese, for money.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 15:58:08

Roosevelt was a New Deal Democrat, which isn’t that much different from a Soviet communist. All collectivists view producers as their natural enemies to be ground underfoot. Forward!

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 12:07:26

The oligarchy’s DNC stooges cannot impose their collectivist kleptocracy and redistribution of the wealth (i.e. expropriation of wealth and assets from the productive to bribe their oligarch donors and FSA dependency voters) as long as those bitter clingers refuse to give up their guns.

http://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2016/09/15/nancy-pelosi-suggests-gun-control-vote-could-save-90-lives/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-09-15 13:15:08

Fauxahontus pretends to be the champion of the middle class, but shows her true colors by rushing to defend the Fed, the biggest scam ever against the American middle class.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/warren-asks-fbi-to-find-out-why-there-were-no-criminal-prosecutions-from-crisis-probe-referrals-2016-09-15

 
Comment by traderjack
2016-09-15 14:00:15

OK, today I will tell you what the hell went wrong, in my humble opinion.
The appraisers stopped looking at the comps being used.

the rip and flip came in, spent 50k updating the home, and made 30 k profit when it sold for 250K rather than the 170k purchase price.

The appraiser coming in for a new buyer on a similar home looked at sale price of 250 k and used that as a comp for the appraisal of a similar home that as not updated.
and issued an appraisal based on update home, and did not properly discount and adjust for updated house, because the appraiser was taking the information from the sale and not looking at the updated home to make the necessary adjustment to the comps to arrive at a market price.
and that means that the error was in the appraisal that drove the prices up.

Feel free to disagree

Comment by Bluto
2016-09-15 14:20:56

Another factor that jacks up comps is all the 100% cash buys made by flippers and speculators in recent years…no appraiser was involved.

Comment by The Crushin' Russian
2016-09-15 14:57:04

Brown envelopes makes people change their mind quickly.

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2016-09-15 14:37:48

We used to have an appraiser here on the blog, around 2006-2008, I think, who worked in Central Florida. At that time, he had difficulty getting work because he wouldn’t “hit the numbers” for the realtors and banks. As I recall, he finally saw some demand for his services as a forensic appraiser.

He had very interesting tales to tell. Entire developments full of foreign owners from mostly UK and South America, who somehow got homestead exemptions, and then just disappeared when the bubble burst.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-09-22 08:47:59

Hillary is

 
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