People Are Not Concerned About Getting In Too Deep
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Aaron and Micaela LaJoie are frustrated. The newlyweds have been searching since February for a home to buy in Amherst, but with no success amid the red-hot housing market in Western New York. They’ve made offers on five houses, always in excess of the asking price. Yet they’ve lost out all five times, sometimes by more than $30,000. Hordes of buyers converge on the same homes as soon as they hit the market - like shoppers flocking to doorbuster deals on Black Friday - creating frenetic competition and driving prices skyrocketing. The result has been record levels of home sales in Western New York and near-record prices”
“Meanwhile, other houses languish on the market, because they’re not in the desirable areas, they weren’t kept up, or they’re overpriced for their condition and location. ‘There is really literally nothing my clients like on the market,’ said said broker Greg Straus, the LaJoies’ real estate agent.”
“Bay Area credit unions hit record highs in the second quarter for membership, deposits, loans and home equity lines of credit, according to a report from the California Credit Union League. Home equity loans and lines of credit, also known as second-mortgages, increased by 11 percent from the second quarter of 2015 to reach $3.9 billion. Other loans also hit record highs for the amount of outstanding amounts. First-mortgages reached $19.1 billion in the second quarter, a 16 percent year-over-year increase, while loans for new and used cars hit $3.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively. Those represent increases of 33 percent and 20 percent.”
“‘People feel good about things,’ said League Chief Economist Dwight Johnston. ‘They feel their jobs are stable, incomes are rising. They’re not concerned about being able to pay back (the loan) or getting in too deep.’”
“Two new reports out from the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division show both the depth of the state’s current economic downturn and its impact on the cost of living here. In her report, economist Amy Bittner said that housing costs in particular have taken a dive in central and northeast Wyoming. Where the state average cost-of-living is indexed to the number 100, the housing cost-of-living indices for counties like Big Horn, Niobrara, Washakie and Hot Springs are in the low 80s or upper 70s. ‘We’ve seen a change in those communities that have mining associated with them,’ economist Amy Bittner said. ‘We’ve had some rental rate declines, and for areas that have a lot of mining and were hit by the downturn, it’s not surprising.’”
“The Downtown Miami condo owned by former Miami Heat guard Mario Chalmers received another price reduction recently, notes Miami Condo Investments, with the 5,475-square-foot residence comprised of two units at the Marquis now asking $2.99 million. It originally listed in August 2014 for $4 million. Chalmers purchased the pad for $2.4 million in 2012. This marks its third reduction.”
“Price cuts are still the order of the day in the sagging luxury residential market. Manhattan luxury listings in the third quarter averaged a 2.9 percent discount, so it’s no surprise that data provided to The Real Deal by StreetEasy for the period between Sept. 27 and Oct. 2 shows significant price reductions on a handful of eight-digit pads. The biggest cut last week was a 25 percent discount on the ‘Kate Spade’ townhouse in the East Village.”
“The penthouse at the Grand Millennium building on the Upper West Side has been steadily discounted since debuting on the market in September 2014 for $42 million. Last week it was dropped to $27.5 million, the third price chop in two years.”
“Dennis Township Committee quickly and unanimously approved two ordinances which residents and committee members had long sought to have on the books. One ordinance addresses abandoned and nuisance properties and notes that recent events in the local housing market have led to a drastic rise in foreclosed homes and notes ‘these homes are frequently repossessed by banks, financial institutions and large real estate conglomerates that have little or no connection with the municipality in which they own property.’”
“During public comment, Albert DiCicco, a former Committee member, speaking as a private citizen and township resident said, ‘This is a great ordinance, since last year we’ve been trying to make this happen, especially since the banks frequently don’t pay attention.’”
“The price of a home in Calgary took a bit of a dip year over year but it wasn’t as sharp a decline as many had feared, says Royal LePage. Corrine Lyall, broker/owner with Royal LePage Benchmark in Calgary, says that no one is surprised to see a drop in prices because of the current situation. ‘We’re getting pressure from people that are obviously in positions where they’re becoming unemployed. Some people are in a position where they can’t purchase a property at this point in time. We’ve got more supply than we do demand.’”
“Rent in Nairobi’s affluent neighbourhoods dropped by about eight per cent on average in June compared to December last year, a periodic property report shows, citing increased supply amid slowdown in demand, consultancy firm Knight Frank says in its Market Update report for the first half of the year. ‘The decline was occasioned by increased supply, giving tenants choice and room to negotiate with landlords,’ the report says.”
“Pramod Varshney shifted to a rented 2-BHK flat in Noida a couple of years back, at a rental of Rs 13,500 per month. The lease agreement specified a 10% hike in rentals, every year. By that commitment, Varshney’s should now pay a rent of over Rs 16,000. However, the amount that he pays today, is Rs 12,500 per month. However, the amount that he pays today, is Rs 12,500 per month.”
“‘Initially, I felt that my rent was reasonable, as I used to shell out Rs 22,000 for a 2-BHK flat in Delhi. Later, I came to know that the neighbours were paying even lesser. Moreover, with the kind of unoccupied flats in the vicinity and the owners looking for tenants, Noida has turned out to be a renters’ paradise,’ says Varshney.”
“There are many tenants like Varshney, in Noida, who are either renegotiating with their landlords for a lower rental amount, or shifting to another flat in the neighbourhood at a lesser rent. Oversupply in a short span of time, has created a unique opportunity for tenants in Noida’s property market. However, this is not good news for the investors, who are stuck with their projects owing to a stagnant resale market and the lack of returns on investment in terms of rental yields.”
“Federal Reserve head Janet Yellen is keeping alive the tradition of her predecessors, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, by showing she is equally as blind-sighted to the bubbles central banks are blowing in the bond and equity markets. During her September press conference, Yellen stubbornly clung to the misconception that it is only possible to tell if a bubble exists after it bursts. And because of this delusion, in Yellen’s eyes, 96 months of a virtual Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) is merely, and I quote, ‘a modest degree of accommodation.’”
“Her blinders are so opaque that she claims to see, ‘no signs of leverage building up.’ And her feckless ability to spot market imbalances even resulted in this doozy of a Yellen quote: ‘In general, I would not say that asset valuations are out of line with historical norms.’”
“The consequences of these actions has produced, for the first time ever, record bond, stock and home prices that all exist concurrently. Household debt is surging in the U.S. — up to a record $14.3 trillion, according to the New York Federal Reserve. And this impulse to take on debt at record low interest rates has spread across the globe. China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Korea led the way with the largest build-up in household debt per adult since 2010, according to Institute for International Finance.”
“The problem this creates is that you can’t escape these bubbles without destroying the phony economic recovery, which has been predicated on the Fed’s wealth effect.”
“Why should I even think of buying a house in Noida today, when I can live in an apartment worth Rs 1 crore, by paying just Rs 16,000 as monthly rent?”
$160,000 to buy, $240 a month to rent. 666:1. Rents falling.
Why buy indeed.
Average take home pay in Noida $650.
Didn’t one poster here insist that landlords will always force rents to go up?
Yeah, some guy in Kansas or somewhere. “I’ve lived here 30 years and I’ve never seen rents go down!” Whatever.
I lived in apartments for 18 years in four different states. Yes, rents may decrease on average, but not for existing tenants in the same commercial complex. At best, a tenant’s rent will stay the same for a few years, especially if there is a housing bubble going on. The only way for an individual tenant to get a rent decrease is to move to another complex to take advantage of dropping rents.
Sure, tenants can negotiate for a rent decrease, but in general commercial ll’s don’t give in, knowing that the cost and hassle of moving is generally higher than what would be saved at a lower rent. If a few tenants do move, the complex can afford to let them go, attract new tenants at a price with free months, and try to raise the rent later.
Even in new Grade A complexes, I think the LL’s would increase the amenities rather than drop the rent. It’s a lot less of a loss to spend a few bucks on a yoga room and double the size of the gym, than it is to lower the rent on hundreds of units.
It’s a timing issue. Will this new inventory stay empty longer than LL’s can stay solvent, so to speak? These LL’s don’t seem to realize that not only are there not that many rich Millenials… there aren’t that many Millenials left at all. The younger wave is mostly out of college and already in apartments, or stuck in mom’s basement. If this goes on long enough, maybe we will see decreases, but not yet.
I will never live in an apartment “complex” again. I live in a small building owned by a local LLC that owns a dozen buildings around Denver.
Enjoy your weekend of depreciation and maintenance, you own it…
there was a story last year about how landlords were giving away rent stabilized apartments at ground zero after the wtc collapse…and one person rented a 2 bedroom , and his rent today is still less then 1000 a month and the ll offered close to $400k for him to surrender the lease….and he said no he works 2 blocks away doesn’t need to have a high paying job or deal with a sardine commute and he has a backyard in manhattan…how rare is that?
“There has to be, I think, some sort of way in which we can sort through information that passes some basic truthiness tests and those that we have to discard, because they just don’t have any basis in anything that’s actually happening in the world”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-decries-wild-west-media-landscape-214642552.html
I’m so glad Mr Pretty Good at Killing People is almost gone.
I used to think that the concept of “real journalists” was funny.
It’s not funny anymore.
And I’m so glad I don’t have and never will have children who will live in a future America controlled by the totalitarian left.
Alexander Solzhenitsin was a non-fiction writer, in case you forgot.
U.S. Enters Yemen War Directly for the First Time With Attack on Houthis
‘The U.S. military directly attacked Houthi rebels in Yemen for the first time on Wednesday — firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at three rebel-held radar stations on the Red Sea coast. The attack, which was in retaliation for a failed missile attack on a U.S. Navy destroyer on Sunday, risks drawing the U.S. further into the 18-month war.’
‘In March 2015, a coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia began a U.S.-backed bombing campaign against the Houthi forces, which four months earlier had seized Yemen’s capital and deposed the country’s U.S.- and Saudi-backed dictator. Since then, the U.S. has flown refueling missions for Saudi aircraft, supplied targeting intelligence, and resupplied the Saudi effort with tens of billions of dollars of weapons.’
‘While the U.S. has previously conducted direct attacks in Yemen against al Qaeda — which controls vast territory in central and eastern Yemen — it had not directly engaged Houthi forces before.’
‘The escalation began last week when the U.S. dispatched warships to the Bab al-Mandab Strait — which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden — after the Houthis fired on and nearly sank a ship from the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a part of the Saudi-led bombing coalition, which has maintained a strict naval blockade of the country since the war began.’
‘Schultz said the strike was approved by President Obama on the recommendation of the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pentagon officials told NPR that they had “no sense of any civilians being killed,” but it is unclear how they know, and what type of review was undertaken.’
‘Houthi forces denied having launched the missiles at a U.S. destroyer, and promised to respond to kind to the display of military force.’
‘The attack came just after the first sign that the Obama administration might be having second thoughts about the massacres committed by the Saudi coalition with U.S. weapons.’
‘Just four days ago, the Saudi coalition bombed the funeral of a rebel-appointed government minister’s father, killing 125 and wounding 525 in one of the worst massacres of the war. Fragments of what appeared to be U.S.-made bombs were photographed at the scene.’
So many things about this: one of the worlds richest countries bombing one of the poorest. Indiscriminately. The funeral they bombed was a “double tap” where they bomb a second time to kill ambulance drivers, etc. The US dictator was in power for 35 years. When he was run off he was receiving over $1 billion a year. He’s a billionaire now; lives in NYC. These people had the nerve to shoot back! I’m reminded of the bumper sticker about the President: he’s launched more Tomahawk missiles than all the previous Nobel Peace winners: combined!
The irony of all this war and destruction is that the tech moguls, the financiers with dreams of world domination don’t seem to realize that what this all leads to is no world to dominate.
Poor Jeff Bezos. No one left to deliver toilet paper to by drone.
Yippee! A big war on our doorstep, courtesy of the NeoCon-Progressive Party.
Well done, fans of Clinton, Rove, Soros and Bush. Well done.
“U.S. Enters Yemen War Directly for the First Time…”
The Saudis needed the U.S. to eliminate those radar sites making it easier to conduct airstrikes.
Sticky Note: “Jon Corzine needs a pardon.”
“I’m so glad Mr Pretty Good at Killing People is almost gone.”
I hope that’s true, but it looks like he wants to stick around to have the pleasure of flapping his gums and wagging his finger at people, in the guise of “Moral Authority”.
It is possible, however, that he will be frozen out. I thought he had more smarts than to let the Clintons survive politically, because I thought surely he realized that in the end, it would be him or Hillary. I really thought he’d pull the plug on her. I guess it will be the other way around.
Maybe Hillary can return the favor and make Obama Secretary of State. Or better yet, she could return another favor and put Bill in charge of health care.
My expectation would be for them to look forward instead of back. Maybe consider Barack for supreme court, but give Secretary of State to someone on the way up. Like maybe Michelle? I think Bill is finished “helping”.
You should’ve stayed in China.
Why is that?
I’m so glad Mr Pretty Good at Killing People is almost gone.
I fear that he might be replaced by Ms. Even Better At Killing People.
And then cackling hysterically about it.
Well, here’s another dose of Truthiness for President I’llbombya. Wikileaks: The Podesta Files, Part VII, just dropped this morning:
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/786909945350328320
This leak is, shall we say, enlightening:
If Clinton supporters believe she will do anything about government’s war on cannabis, they should think again.
The good people at Marijuana.com have been studying the leaked emails, and during one of those Wall St. speeches, Clinton expressed a clear opposition to cannabis legalization.
During an on-stage Q & A session with Xerox’s chairman and CEO in March 2014, Clinton used Wall Street terminology to express her opposition to ending cannabis prohibition “in all senses of the word”:URSULA BURNS: So long means thumbs up, short means thumbs down; or long means I support, short means I don’t. I’m going to start with — I’m going to give you about ten long-shorts.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Even if you could make money on a short, you can’t answer short.
URSULA BURNS: You can answer short, but you got to be careful about letting anybody else know that. They will bet against you. So legalization of pot?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Short in all senses of the word.
And thats the sound of your freedom being flushed. I could care less about pot, never smoked a thing in my life but why should government care about a fairly innocuous plant? There arent thousands of people dying in car wrecks every year caused by people under the influence of this plant. Yes, I believe it impairs cognitive function - basically makes people stupid. More pot = more stupid. Isnt that the goal of democrats? Another wikileak seems to indicate that with a de-emphasis on civics courses in school as backfiring on them due to “noncompliance” by the masses.
For the normal person whose job depends on keeping their wits about them, weed sucks.
If it relieves any sort of pain for terminally ill or disabled people who aren’t on the road or in the workplace, let ‘em have it.
Obama, Hillary and progressives are tyrants.
They want everything every other tyrant in history has wanted to keep and maintain power.
No dissent
An unarmed population
Jail for voicing your opinion
Using the government to destroy political enemies
Rewriting history time suit them
Unfettered spying on citizens
Group think.
Etc.
A socialists dream date.
And yet here we are openly discussing their failings at length and in detail. While we all have our independence and the ability to take action it might make sense to focus on housing policy.
If we could agree on some basics like essential building codes for access and safety and then limit local control of zoning and the permit process then making housing units available as needed through open markets would be much smoother.
Unfortunately Macroeconomics and currency policy are also involved. Allowing community level small currencies might be beneficial. Exactly what moves are best is not clear, but sitting back with casual and comfortable generalizations might not be highest and best use of this crisis.
You spout gobbledy-gook just like a politician.
Sky-high rents may be hitting their affordability ceiling in the UK, at least.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/renting/are-sky-high-rents-finally-running-out-of-steam/
Houses represent large, illiquid assets that are irresistable to the tax man.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20161013/homeowners-in-france-hit-by-jump-in-property-taxes
What seems odd is that the vast majority of American households are convinced that going deeply into debt to purchase an overpriced house is a winning strategy.
The majority of American households also were convinced that a candidate backed by George Soros and Goldman Sachs was going to bring “hope and change we can believe in.” Most of the rest voted for the even worse Establishment GOP “alternatives.” So, PB, we’ve already established that sheeple comprise roughly 95% of the ‘Murican population.
“Houses represent large, illiquid assets that are irresistable to the tax man.”
This is a very good point you bring up. It’s one that I read about a few years ago, as a result of this blog making me very conscious of housing.
The popular “think” is that it is better to live in a state with no state income tax. And then I read an article, which I frankly can’t provide a link, it was so long ago, about how states with no income tax make it up in property taxes, thereby making a house a sort of ball and chain. The guy went so far as to recommend just buying an RV to live in, on the basis that it is not subject to real property liens and can be moved from one location to another when the going gets tough.
Totally changed my mind about the “advantages” of living in a no-income-tax state.
And then there are the states with high income taxes and high real estate taxes. NJ, NY, CT, RI. IL and Mass come immediately to mind.
Better to stay away from states with democrats in power and that have powerful public unions.
I live in Mass (for now) and people here think the fall foliage, freezing cold beaches, and historical decrepit houses justify the $400,000 median home price in my town 25 mi north of Boston. Lol. “But there s good jobs”. Uhm for every successful business person here making $150-250k, theres a bunch of people that have blue collar jobs like electricians, HVAC, contractors, retail, etc…heck even as a mechanical engineer theres no way I could ever afford to live here. I’m trying to move back south where quality of life is vastly superior.
You’re just a few towns away. Let’s call a hbbfest.
One of the more interesting websites out there, which was posted here quite some time ago. Time for a re-look, banana and palmy…any anyone else….
http://www.freedominthe50states.org/
Great info-graphic, Mac. Thanks. I’m in region 6-15. Unfortunately I don’t find much about 1-5 appealing in terms of things like weather and such.
That whole site is “customizable”. You can choose how to rank the different parameters based on what is important to you and yours.
Designed with individual in mind.
Interesting that liberal California and New York rank at the bottom.
A massive welfare state plus unlimited immigration from 3rd world moochers who will stay on the dole for generations = massive tax increases
Works everywhere it is tried.
What would you rather do? Spend trillions on wars & bank bailouts or spend billions on welfare.
I think we all know that stupid party made the wrong choice.
Paybackisbeyotch!
I finally asked myself that same question lately. I am surprised cannot argue against completely cutting offense spending and spend some of it on infrastructure and improving people’s health.
Military Spending - 17%
Entitlements - 60%
Of the Federal Budget
Your move
Now Bill wants to steal our money to interfere with people’s infrastructure and health habits?
It’s hard to keep up.
Just another tax and spend socialist.
“Military Spending - 17%
Entitlements - 60%”
Okay then just entirely cut off military spending.
. . . and SS, medicare, fannie, freddie, fha, hud,
‘Hordes of buyers converge on the same homes as soon as they hit the market - like shoppers flocking to doorbuster deals on Black Friday - creating frenetic competition and driving prices skyrocketing. The result has been record levels of home sales in Western New York and near-record prices’
This article is really something. It reminds me that a mania is entirely in the minds of people. It doesn’t exist otherwise. No physical manifestation. BTW, this same city is begging for money to tear down abandoned houses. And the husband mentions houses are as expensive as Washington DC.
Amherst, NY is a suburb of Buffalo. I haven’t been in Buffalo since the early 1980’s, but back then Amherst was one of the most desirable parts of the metro area, and I imagine it still is.
Amherst is a different municipality than Buffalo, but I get your point.
Amherst isn’t in or quite like the City of Buffalo. It is where the Expats from downtown Buffalo moved to when it was open farmland and built small houses with driveway space between. I don’t think there are many abandoned houses in Amherst/Williamsville. We have this thing in NY where the town is called a village and the township it is in is called a town. Williamsville is definitely in a bubble. Most of the McMansions were built over 1000 ft2 teardowns on tiny lots in the past decade.
I thought the couple in the article were kind of nuts, looking for a 4 bedroom shack and they don’t even have kids. Also the thing about the house by a pond. Most of Williamsville is marsh, and it is all built out anyway. Pond indeed.
When the husband said that housing was as expensive as it was in DC, he’s probably thinking of that round $300K figure. Yeah, *maybe* you could find something for $300K in 2009. But the $300K houses in the Amherst pictures would be at least $450K in the DC area. In DC proper they would be $600K.
And if the realtor figured he could go $300K, that would be all he would be shown.
Ding ding ding!! This guy already owns a house in Tonawanda, another burb. Houses there are a lot cheaper. They should just stay in the small house until the future kids are old enough to need a good school.
(hmmm, that invokes that “Suzanne” commercial: Harpy wife: “The house has great schools.” P-whipped hubby: “But the kids are 1 and 3…” )
Almost sounds like you’re bragging.
‘no signs of leverage building up.’
Check out some of the charts on this piece.
“Home equity loans and lines of credit, also known as second-mortgages, increased by 11 percent from the second quarter of 2015 to reach $3.9 billion. Other loans also hit record highs for the amount of outstanding amounts. First-mortgages reached $19.1 billion in the second quarter, a 16 percent year-over-year increase, while loans for new and used cars hit $3.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively. Those represent increases of 33 percent and 20 percent.”
And we were just informed earlier this week that most people don’t even have a $1000 dollars in the bank. Pure insanity !! It is like a bad dream.
I just became approved for $100k LOC w WFB. Just wanted to see if I could, since it didn’t cost anything and the interest rate (if I use it) is 2% the first year (and that is tax deductible!).
Since I bought the house as a foreclosure from BofA in 2010 using an FHA loan w $15,000 down, we’ve paid down the loan about $50,000 and the value is up $300,000.
So the LOC loan ceiling is technically about $35k over the purchase price, although we’ve done $20k in improvements and $8k (net) for solar.
It all works for me, there just isn’t anything to invest in today with $100,000.
““Meanwhile, other houses languish on the market, because they’re not in the desirable areas, they weren’t kept up, or they’re overpriced for their condition and location.”
Gee, Where is HA to tell us that location doesn’t matter!
My friend,
Materials and labor don’t vary more than 5% irrespective of location.
You paid too much.
Labor does vary more than 5% from location to location. Check out the difference between a union carpenter in the northeast or midwest and compare it to labor costs in the sunbelt.
Incorrect.
SFR’s aren’t subject to project labor agreements or prevailing wage conditions.
Incorrect, housing analyst.
Even though SFRs aren’t subject to those agreements, they set the wage floor for the entire area, especially in boom times when it is hard to get workers.
Incorrect my friend nor do prevailing wages establish a price floor for any trade. Otherwise DavisBacon wouldn’t exist.
Next.
Even though SFRs aren’t subject to those agreements, they set the wage floor for the entire area, especially in boom times when it is hard to get workers.
Agreed, during the building booms here the skilled construction workers do quite well, at least where I live. Have overhead many brag about how they clear well into six figures. Sure, the unskilled work is done by illegals, though this time around, at least in my little burg, they aren’t as prevalent as they were during bubble 1.0. I’ve seen houses getting roofs replaced and the crews were not illegals, or Hispanics of any stripe. That never happened 10 years ago.
Doubtful considering the labor force participation rate is at record lows and falling.
No it doesn’t. If the city some miles from you is burning, you will take the hit…no questions about it. Locations in the end doesn’t matter, but people convince themselves to justify the high prices they paid.
Well, well, well, what have we here? Turns out, the whole “Hispanic Judge Curiel” vs Trump thing was an inside job after all:
https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/10205
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-curiel-trump-remarks-st-0602-20160601-story.html
We don’t have a functioning justice dept, Congress or Supreme Court. All of it, just as corrupt as a third world country and frankly, that’s being insulting to third world countries.
Swallow your panties whole, Carolyn.
Western NY=hot?
I thought homes there were free and you just paid taxes and utilities
=sky high
The bubble is global.
I thought so too, taxpayers. In fact Buffalo was one of my original Oil City-type towns. $60K houses all over. But I guess $60K is just for the inner city and the far outskirts. Amherst must be a Special Place.
2banana’s Rule:
Long term democrat rule + public unions + free sh*t army = misery, ruin and bankruptcy
————
Face it: Property taxes are forcing Illinoisans out of their homes
Illinois Policy | October 13, 2016 | Austin Berg
She and her husband have lived in Lake County for 16 years. They pay more in property taxes than they do on their mortgage. The tax bill is $15,000 a year on a house they bought for $227,000 in 2013.
“They’re taxing us out of the neighborhood. They’re pushing us out. They’re pushing us out of our homes and communities,” she said. “If it continues this way we’ll have to leave.”
A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll released Oct. 10 revealed nearly half of registered Illinois voters said they would leave the state if they could. Many have left already.
Take Alex Schmidt. He was born and raised in Illinois. He never thought his first child would be born a Texan.
But in May, Schmidt and his wife left Illinois for Houston. He said taxes drove them out. He couldn’t take another hike in his property tax bill: It was $12,000 on a Highland Park home.
“As soon as I had to get a property tax attorney a light bulb went off,” he said. “What am I doing?”
Outside Houston, the Schmidts live in a house 50 percent larger with a smaller property tax bill than their Illinois home. The schools are even better than what they left behind. And Texas doesn’t have an income tax. So Alex got a raise.
Illinois has a massive problem with residents leaving the state for greener pastures.
Over the last decade, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show Illinois has experienced a net loss of 290,000 working-age adults to out-migration. But many Illinois politicians refuse to acknowledge it’s a problem.
…
Illinoisans pay among the highest property taxes in the country. It’s not surprising that some are deciding to move as a result.
A Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll released Oct. 10 revealed nearly half of registered Illinois voters said they would leave the state if they could.
Translation: They’ve looked into moving to a low tax state and discovered that the pay cut they would have to accept would dwarf the property tax bill they pay now. And those are the ones who are serious. They others just can’t be bothered to even try.
Reminds me of when I left California. Before announcing I was leaving all acquaintances would say that they would love to leave, that California had gone to the dogs. Then when I announced I was leaving all I heard was if I was serious. “Why are you leaving?” “Are you crazy?” “But what about the weather?” Cavet: these were natives. I invariably found that those who ended up leaving usually came from somewhere else.
The thing about “leaving” is that you often leave family behind, and that’s a deal breaker for many. I mentioned a colleague not too long ago who is heading back to Illinois because of family. Curiously, he thinks that TABOR is a terrible thing.
Yep…..we just left IL. My taxes were 7400 when we bought on 05 and we thought they seemed high but we did have a acre and a nice 4 car garage custome home. Then the housing tanked and my taxes kept increasing. We sold in August and the taxes were almost 11,000. Sold house for almost 100,000 less than what I bought it for. Thank god I found a buyer and I still can’t believe someone took it off my hands. All my competitors are still listed and growing stale…6 months and counting.
The Comrades of Proven Worth (D) are going to see houses as cash cows for their wealth extraction schemes. To keep the patronage and graft flowing to both their billionaire donors/owners and their FSA entitlement voting bloc, each corrupt, incompetent municipal Democrat administration is going to have to have to squeeze ever more funds out of the shrinking tax base. Property tax rises are going to be brutal…but remember, it’s for the children.
Any thoughts on why Janet Yellen is making contingency plans at this point on what to do in the next recession?
Financial Times
Federal Reserve
Yellen says swift action needed during periods of upheaval
Fed chair says monetary and fiscal policymakers must act quickly when a recession hits
49 minutes ago
by: Sam Fleming in Washington
The danger that serious downturns do lasting damage to an economy means policymakers need to act “aggressively” when responding to a major setback, the Federal Reserve chair said as she called for more research into a host of economic conundrums dogging central bankers around the world.
…
Sounds like it’s game-over for the invisible hand.
It’s been chopped off.
You’ve been warned. Enjoy picking up those nickels in front of the advancing steam roller.
The stock market is building a wall, and you’re going to pay for it
Published: Oct 14, 2016 2:37 p.m. ET
By Rob Isbitts
Consider the following from August’s monthly commentary by Leuthold Group, the outstanding Minneapolis-based quantitative-research firm, referring to their “Major Trend Indicator” MTI and the section of it called Intrinsic Value which gauges the market’s current price vs. its estimated value:
“We’re not going to try to make any sort of a contorted valuation case for U.S. equities; the Intrinsic Value category has now surpassed the negative extremes recorded in June and July 2015. Based on our multi-factor work, stocks trade higher today than at any market top other than July 1998 and March 2000. The rest of the MTI evidence, however, suggests that valuations will go higher before they inevitably fall.”
…
bears have been slaughtered for 8 years. Do you dare try it again? some day you will be right.
Labor Force Participation Rate Plummets To 37 Year Low
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Hillary undressed me with her eyes when I was a teenager 20 years ago. I felt so violated. Any lawyer here to take my case pro bono?
I wonder how much hillary pays these people to make bogus claims? Dirty politics
Less than she makes per speech.
It occurred to me this morning after the past week of relentless email leaks how much she is similar in policy to George Dubya Bush. She preaches the opposite, but she is for big mic, big oil, big pharma, big state and perpetual wars. In reality, she’s even more of a rabid neocon than Dubya - like Dick Cheney with a wig. Has anyone seen the two together at the same time? You have to wonder.
That just now occurred to you? It’s been obvious for years. Neocon crony capitalists and corporate statists tend to be “similar” in their policies.
Tune to kick off your weekend, the Grateful Dead — Brown Eyed Women (Europe ‘72):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PekdeINQco
Some fine looking Mexican women on the jobsite that ended today.
They dance and sing while they work
Yo Ben Jones. I’m the blackest white person that will ever post on your blog. There’s some white people here who have never seen or interacted with a Black American or a Mexican American, and they are all on the payroll for Correct The Record and the Hillary campaign. They hate hate hate minority people. They live in the whitest whitest whitest suburbs, and they are so out of touch and clueless.
Wu-Tang Clan — 7th Chamber (Part II, 1993):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMDGsxSEbOE
And yeah, your daughters and grandaughters are gonna get raped by Syrian refugees. Take one for the team, loosers. I’ll be dead in a few decades.
#CheckingTheF*OutOfThis Place
Ehh your Too $hort, Ice T - OG , Ice Cube and other old school hip hop references were better. I mean, some Wu-Tang stuff is okay (C.R.E.A.M., etc) but eh.
Used to live in Virginia Beach, where ODB stole the Sneakers. Home of a number of 90s/00s hiphop stars.
Hope n’ change comes to HP.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/13/the-associated-press-hp-inc-will-cut-3000-to-4000-jobs-over-next-3-years.html
Richland WA. Beware of Zillow sold prices.
Thought I would share this experience with the group. I have been looking at homes in South Richland area and have used Zillow to see what’s for sale and what has sold, so I could do my own comps. Yes, I know their Zestimates are pure B.S. One house, that I went and looked at, sold for $385k on 7/22/16 and the correct sold date and price was stated on it’s Zillow page. The end of August, I saw the sold price jump to $447,908 with the 7/22/16 sold date. I looked at a couple other homes on Zillow that were on adjacent streets and sold this year and saw that their sold prices had also been altered. One house sold for $350K on 1/11/16 was now $407,189 and another that sold for $409,071 on 9/24/15 was now $475,915. I checked the Benton County Assessors records to confirm the fraudulent data.
I notified Zillow about the first two homes and they corrected the $385K house but on the $350K home, removed the $407,189 and put ” Off the market” I emailed them back and told them this was still deceptive, that since the house was sold this year they should post the correct sold price again. They did not.
I looked on Zillow at homes in a nearby development “Cherrywood Estates” and found on one street ” Cherry Blossom Loop”, which has about 30 homes, that ALL 5 homes that sold this year and one home that was pending had altered prices on Zillow from approx $50 - 76K over the actual sold price.
I notified the local Board of Realty and was told that’s not their problem.
I also talked to 2 local TV stations that this would be a good consumer awareness story, no interest. I called the city, they said it wasn’t a crime, nothing they could do. So, I’m posting it here. Now, I feel better.
Spain, which is too big to be bailed out, is in a death spiral.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/10/14/worst-labor-market-on-earth-spains-jobs-recovery-could-hit-rocks/
Obama calls for “truthiness tests” aka compliance with The Narrative, for media. Just when you thought his administration couldn’t get any more creepy or Orwellian.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/14/obama-calls-truthiness-tests-media-companies/
Thanks to Wikileaks, Team Hillary is being caught in one lie after the other.
http://nypost.com/2016/10/12/the-most-damning-clinton-foundation-story-yet/
The Keynesian fraudsters and “former” Goldmanites at the Fed and central banks are enriching the already super wealthy at the expense of everyone else. But this is what the overwhelming majority of the sheeple voted for.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-14/land-with-longest-stretch-of-negative-rates-finds-rich-are-getting-richer-faster
Even the Fed’s faked Soviet-style data can’t hide the precipitous decline in the real economy, despite the Fed and its corporate media lapdogs rhapsodizing about our mythical “recovery.”
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/10/14/atlanta-fed-q3-gdpnow-forecast-drops-to-1-9-percent-downward-spiral/
Stop being a sheeple. Turn off your TeeVee.
https://www.facebook.com/EndTheFed.Org/photos/a.1531309527129080.1073741828.1523101734616526/1743006422626055/?type=3&theater
Globalists and status quo elites vs. nationalists and populists. Pick a side (Sweet William abstains, which is to say, he supports the crony capitalist status quo).
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/14/cnn-donald-trump-breitbart-election-redefine-left-right-dichotomy-global-elites-vs-populist-nationalists/
A repost that can’t be reposted often enough.
Ice T — New Jack Hustler — New Jack Hustler (1993):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XPvxXSjn0
Have any of you actually worked with the kidz out there today?
Do you even have a clue? Because I don’t think you don’t.
Baby Boomers, I want to shovel your grave, and push you into it.
We don’t need you alive, we want you dead. So die sooner and do us all a favor.
You’re the worst thing that ever happened to this country, please die…
+1000
Thank you ladies and gentleman for keeping the Trump and Hillary chatter to a minimum! I noticed that when the partisan babble was interjected persons returned volley with a comment on HOUSING! Thank you!
I banned some people. That always helps. I’ve banned thousands of posters over the years and I’ve never regretted a single one.