A Tough Year For Sellers
A report from the Calgary Herald in Canada. “Like many ends of the Calgary area residential market, the home ownership program through Attainable Homes Calgary Corp. recorded a dip in activity in 2016. The program offers homes for down payment of $2,000. Applicants must qualify for a mortgage and not earn more than $80,000 annually. People with dependent children can earn up to $90,000. Attainable purchases housing inventory at reduced prices from builders interested in giving back to middle-income Calgarians. There were 92 sales between Jan. 1 and Dec. 19 this year, down from 155 during the same period in 2015. Possessions eased to 96 from 208.”
“‘I’d say it’s the economy,’ says John Harrop, Attainable’s CEO. ‘I think, fundamentally, consumer confidence is down, so people are taking longer to make home ownership decisions.’ Moreover, vacancies in the city are up and rents are down, he adds. ‘On top of that, although it only affected the last quarter, the new mortgage rules have significantly made it harder for our purchasers to buy,’ Harrop says. ‘It affects their buying power by about 20 per cent.’”
The Aberdeen Journal in the UK. “Aberdeen is the biggest faller in a leading lender’s review of UK house prices in 2016. Aberdeen’s average house prices are down by 6.9% on a year ago, at £203,425, according to Halifax. The city’s weaker market was highlighted by Church of Scotland officials recently knocking thousands of pounds off the asking price of a mansion in Rubislaw Den South that was expected to become Scotland’s first £1million-plus manse.”
“Bob Fraser, senior property partner at Aberdeen-based law firm Aberdein Considine, said the figures reflected a ‘tough year’ for sellers in the north-east. ‘As with any market, 2016 has been about supply and demand,’ Mr Fraser said, adding: ‘There is a lot of supply because a number of people leaving the area because of work commitments elsewhere. As a result, demand has been suffering.’”
The Gold Coast Bulletin in Australia. “The first cracks leading to the collapse of Wayne Cullen’s building company which threatens to wipe out some Gold Coast subbies began appearing on Brisbane sites 12 months ago. As liquidators begin the voluntary winding up of Cullen Group Australia, subbies working on a $100 million Boheme development just south of the Robina Town Centre want to know what went wrong. Some of the 300 subbies estimate they are owed up to $130,000, others predict millions of dollars will be lost, comparing the financial crash to the Titan’s Centre of Excellence dispute which left construction players bankrupt.”
“‘This hasn’t happened overnight,’ An industry insider close to the company said. ‘The only reason they haven’t been held to task is developers (on other sites) haven’t wanted anyone to say anything.’”
The New York Times. “Aruba, one of the few Caribbean islands generally considered outside the hurricane belt, has struggled to recover from the global real estate crisis of 2008, when home prices fell anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent, though there have been some gains in recent years, agents said. ‘The market was doing very well until this year,’ said Garrick Hasham, an agent with Aruba Sotheby’s International Realty. ‘The real estate market has slowed down in 2016, and we’ve noticed it at all the real estate offices on the islands,’ which also include nearby Bonaire and Curaçao.”
“Compounding problems have been an ongoing recession in neighboring Venezuela; a loss of value in the Canadian dollar; and the recent presidential election in the United States, which has prompted potential home buyers to hesitate, agents said. Those three countries supply the bulk of foreign home buyers in Aruba, they said. Aruba is ‘very much a buyers’ market now,’ said Walter Zephirin of Seventh Heaven Properties. The average price per square foot in Aruba is roughly half that of luxury destinations such as Anguilla or Turks and Caicos, he said.”
car lease-
not everyone is a broke. life is good, spend some $$
in 10 yrs your Ford Focus depreciates to nothing. then you have a money pit. do the math.
U need a new shtick too. Low energy.
‘Ford Motor Co said Tuesday it will cancel a planned $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and will invest $700 million at a Michigan factory, after it had come under harsh criticism from President-elect Donald Trump for its Mexican investment plans. Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields said the decision to cancel the new plant in Mexico was in part related to the need to “fully utilize capacity at existing facilities” amid declining sales of small and medium sized cars such as the Focus and Fusion.’
‘Fields also endorsed “pro growth” tax and regulatory policies advocated by Trump and the Republican led Congress.’
‘President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked General Motors in a tweet, claiming the auto giant is making a Chevy Cruze model in Mexico and then sending them to U.S. dealers tax free. ‘General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!’ Trump said.’
Isn’t this moneytalk?
Nope.
in 10 yrs your Ford Focus depreciates to nothing. then you have a money pit. do the math.
Then you get another one.
Leased cars are for posers.
Do the money Math, you lose money either way. Might as well drive a bitchn new one, get more, with all the new features and 12 airbags.
only a fiscal conservative gets it.
Rubbish, cars depreciate the most in the first few years. In the long run, you pay more to lease. The only advantage leasing has is cash flow, but the takeoff is that it gets you stuck on the never ending payment tread mill.
Ten years of $400 a month = $48000
Buy a nice new Honda or Toyota for $25000, drive it for ten years, then sell it for $8000. Net cost: $17,000. Budget another $2000 for brake jobs and new tires along the way and it’s still less than half the price of an entry level luxury car lease.
That’s money math.
Now if you just want to impress people with your leased BMW, go knock yourself out.
Spot on.
Don’t do business like that. The cost is $/operating hour or $/driven mile in this case. If looks are important, by all means get that glorified Volkswagen to prove how effeminate you are.
Cuomo Announces ‘First-of-Its-Kind’ Plan to Offer Free College Tuition for Low- and Middle-Income New Yorkers
Anyone with a family income under $125,000 would qualify under the plan, which Bernie Sanders called “revolutionary”
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Cuomo-to-Offer-Free-College-Tuition-for-Low–and-Middle-Income-New-Yorkers-Report-409503965.html
looks like not a dime for auto mechanics which i need one now my thermostat stopped working on the way home last night good thing it was cold or i’d be a bubblin antifreeze in da middle of no where,
“Cuomo Announces ‘First-of-Its-Kind’ Plan to Offer Free College Tuition for Low- and Middle-Income New Yorkers”
Why is Cuomo discriminating? Make college free for any legal citizen able to maintain a 3.0-GPA or some other merit based plan.
its called grade inflation everyone will get a 3.0 minimum, a better way is to make attendance mandatory, 100% attendance free classes…..then a sliding scale
2012 Data for NYS
New York
Total Debt - $387,465,667,000
Debt per Capita - $19,799
https://ballotpedia.org/New_York_state_budget_and_finances
As long as the voters approve in NY go ahead. DO not impose one size fits all to the Federal Government.
$15.5k cash for 2016 ford focus I’ll drive 6k miles per year. I do my own oil changes and tire rotations, so annual maintenance will be about $40 for full synthetic oil. $600 for tires in 8 years. Get 30mpg city driving, so $450 annual fuel cost at $2.25/gal.
10 year ownership cost — 60k miles. $15.5k+$400 maintenance+$4500 gas == $20k. Car worth $2-3k resale. Net $17k cost and only 60k miles on the dial. Could go another 10 years, easily.
Lease same car - $175 month x 120 months == $21k. That excludes the transaction costs every 3 years. Also excludes $5k in gas and maintenance costs I was counting above.
Tell me again why leasing is a good idea?
Leasing is good for one thing: Allowing people into cars they could otherwise not afford.
That’s all a mortgage is. It’s a glorified lease.
Yep. Just like subprime mortgages.
Kind of makes you wonder why Uncle Sam doesn’t enter the business of federally-guaranteed subprime auto loans…
‘Attainable purchases housing inventory at reduced prices from builders interested in giving back to middle-income Calgarians. There were 92 sales between Jan. 1 and Dec. 19 this year, down from 155 during the same period in 2015.’
Giving back is way down.
from builders interested in giving back to middle-income Calgarians.
Uh-huh, yeah, got it—the builders are doing that out of the goodness of their hearts, as opposed to a desire to reap those subsidies so generously offered by the government…
gotta love this headline:
Interest rate hike could trigger tri-county homebuying spree
Jesse Colombo @TheBubbleBubble 3m3 minutes ago
Jesse Colombo Retweeted Jesse Colombo
This apartment construction boom (really a bubble) is a major driver of U.S. economic activity. Unsustainable.Jesse Colombo added,
Jesse Colombo Retweeted
ralph silver @hardassettimes 7m7 minutes ago
@TheBubbleBubble
Go to the Hamptons. Every street has 10 houses for sale, yet they keep building. For who? Biggest bubble I’ve ever seen
hey macho men time to get re=educated
Male college students to undergo ‘critical self-reflection’ of masculinity
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/30561/
Colleges are beta bux factories
Crab People south park
“NO significant economic reforms have happened since the start of the Great Recession. There has been no significant improvement in corporate earnings, just a lot of expanded debt to buy back shares in order to improve Price-Earning ratios, which still look terrible. The entire market is but a poof of speculative hot air.”
U got to be a good gambler cause thats all it is.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Bitcoin
Bitcoin passes $1,000 but only number that matters is zero
Cryptocurrency trading not even a rounding error in the world of modern finance
The Short View
4 hours ago
by: Dan McCrum
In case bitcoin crept into your consciousness during a quiet first week of the year, because the price of the so-called cryptocurrency has passed a notable round number in dollars — $1,000 — most questions about the technological curiosity can be answered with another easy to remember figure: zero.
For instance, the Bank for International Settlements estimates the amount traded daily for the world’s 180 or so recognised currencies. Last year this ranged from $4.4tn in dollars, down to $1bn for the 37th most actively traded, the Bulgarian lev. In this context, the sum of bitcoin transactions rounds to zero.
Another measure might be the collective value of bitcoins, which stood at $16bn on Tuesday according to Bitcoin Info. Currencies aren’t normally discussed in terms of their overall worth, as they are supposed to be mediums of exchange rather than some absolute store of value. Still, for context, the Central Intelligence Agency put the planet’s stock of broad money — notes, coins, and various forms of bank account — at $82tn as of the end of 2014.
On the CIA figures, the value of bitcoins hashed into existence is similar to the broad money total for Uzbekistani soms. With apologies to Tashkent, the value of soms and bitcoins, and the number of people for whom they are relevant pieces of information in the world of modern finance, both round to zero.
…
Jeff Lee @JeffLee2020 26m26 minutes ago
U.S. Quietly Drops Bombshell: Wall Street Banks Have $2 Trillion European Exposure http://wallstreetonparade.com/2017/01/u-s-quietly-drops-bombshell-wall-street-banks-have-2-trillion-european-exposure/ … @TheBubbleBubble
Wall St. banks are bigger and more vulnerable than ever. Put these pigs down…
“$2 Trillion European Exposure”
Yawn…
Sounds like some good buying opportunities in Euroland await those with cash to invest.
I’d love to take a European vacation making bologna sandwiches.
Then do your own oil changes so you can save up.
People make sandwiches on Europe vacation when they are over their head, as you allude.
People do their own oil changes when the value of their time and labor is less than the 20 dollar/20 minute oil change by a business.
They drive a base model car in hopes it will save them enough money to become equal with those folks who have a better debt ratio and have a forced a bit of luxury throughout their life.
Austerity is either to survive because you’re broke, or to catch up with the average over time.
Make the sandwich, change the oil.
It’s all a percentage of income game.
You do what you have to.
If percentage of income allows a leased jag but not a lead Bentley, lease the jag, not the Bentley.
If percentage of income requires a stripped car and manual labor of the lowest type to justify the expense of even the most base car… By all means, find pride in this if it is the only pride available.
Unless that prepared sandwich or qwikstop oil change nets a gain.
In other words, get out of debt quickly and hold onto every dollar you can….. You’ll be glad you did.
Austerity is either to survive because you’re broke, or to catch up with the average over time.
BS, Fang nu; I choose to be frugal for multiple reasons, none of which you have identified.
Controlling your spending makes FI dramatically easier, because it affects both sides of the equation: how much you can save, as well as how much you need to have saved to generate the income to support your chosen standard of living.
Jesse Colombo @TheBubbleBubble 4h4 hours ago
Fears of a ‘massive’ global property price fall amid ‘dangerous’ conditions: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/02/fears-massive-global-property-price-crash-amid-dangerous-conditions/ … $IYR $RWX
Good luck to sellers trying to cash out at Echo Bubble peak prices!
This city had the biggest increase in house prices in 2016
Published: Jan 3, 2017 1:03 p.m. ET
The total value of U.S. housing stock has reached a new record
By Quentin Fottrell
News editor
House prices in Portland, Ore. rose over 13% during 2016.
The U.S. housing market recovery continues apace — nowhere more so than the Pacific Northwest.
The total value of the U.S. housing stock grew to a $29.6 trillion in 2016, an increase of nearly 6% and $1.6 trillion over the previous year and a new record, according to an analysis of the 35 largest metro areas by real-estate website Zillow. Portland, Ore. had the biggest increase in value among the largest housing markets, growing more than 13% in 2016, followed by Seattle (up 12.7%) and Dallas (up 11%). Los Angeles is the most valuable metro, worth a cumulative $2.5 trillion. “The U.S. housing market has regained all the value lost during the housing crisis,” it found. “The cumulative value of all homes in the U.S. declined by $6.4 trillion between 2006 and 2012.”
…
What it doesn’t account for is the FB’s who are sheeting their pants, desperately trying to make their mortgage payments as their shelter falls apart, bit by bit…
zerohedge @zerohedge 1m1 minute ago
Morgan Stanley: “We are worried that there is an arrogance in telling people that they should be worried, but to stay bullish for now”
“Watch out for the black ice ahead, but definitely floor the accelerator pedal.”
Green Subsidy Scandal Will Cost Taxpayers $1.4 Billion
ANDREW FOLLETT
Energy and Science Reporter
11:39 AM 01/03/2017
A botched green energy subsidy scheme will cost U.K. taxpayers more than $1.4 billion, or more than 45 times its initial cost projections, according to a whistleblower.
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was initially projected to cost $30 million by requiring farmers and businesses in Northern Ireland to use green power.
But a whistleblower claims they were able to manipulate the program to receive about $200 dollars in subsidies for every $120 they spent on green fuel, according to The Times.
Once it became obvious people could make money off the program, there was a massive influx of new applications that increased the program’s costs. The program has only been in place since 2012, and has benefited roughly 2,000 people.
Some who manipulated the subsidy scheme were able to reap about $1.8 million in profits, according to the whistleblower. A report by Northern Ireland’s auditor-general acknowledged that some individuals may have reaped about $1.1 million in profits though RHI.
This isn’t the first time the British government wasted millions of dollars on global warming projects.
In October, the U.K. government gave $11 million to the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) in exchange for research that the organization reportedly never actually did. Much of the research CCCEP claimed to have published to get government money either weren’t about global warming, was written before the organization was even founded, or written by researchers unaffiliated with CCCEP.
The government never checked CCCEP’s supposed publication lists, saying they were “taken on trust.” CCCEP tried to falsely claim credit for research it never did while attempting to get another $5.4 million of government cash.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/03/green-subsidy-scandal-will-cost-taxpayers-1-4-billion/#ixzz4UjL1Qgmo
kill a green for mommy
same kill a commie for mommy
visit their site
Jill’s platform was 9 parts socialism and oh yea, one part eco bs
MarketWatch @MarketWatch 8m8 minutes ago
U.S. stocks are riding a bull market… in corruption, writes @TimMullaney: http://on.mktw.net/2j50Xcx
‘Financial stocks are responsible for much of the U.S. market’s recent move, and the rally in financials is rooted in hopes for government deregulation of the industry.’
‘There’s the hope that higher interest rates will finally boost banks’ interest income. There’s even some fantasy belief that higher interest rates will spur loan volumes — except dramatically higher rates for business means less investment, not more. But financial stocks represent about a third of the S&P and are up 17% since the election. Take them out and there is no rally, Trump or otherwise.’
‘Much of the rest of the rally is due to energy stocks. The money on oil now is a bet that recent OPEC production quotas will hold up. That bet has failed repeatedly — crude prices only keep up with inflation, since 1973, during brief fits of effective manipulation. Eventually, kleptocrats always choose stable home fronts over stable prices, and cheat on quotas to achieve it. They will again. Soon. Energy stocks are about 8% of the S&P 500 and are up 9.4% since the election.’
It’s interesting we stand around and quietly watch OPEC try to rig prices. Everything Trump is saying points to more supply of oil. The frackers haven’t gone away. They are find more oil every day.
The more OPEC succeeds to rig prices, the more supply the frackers will add to the epic glut.
Sounds like we might have another good bottom fishing opportunity in oil shares some time soon!
‘threatens to wipe out some Gold Coast subbies began appearing on Brisbane sites 12 months ago. As liquidators begin the voluntary winding up of Cullen Group Australia, subbies working on a $100 million Boheme development…want to know what went wrong. Some of the 300 subbies estimate they are owed up to $130,000, others predict millions of dollars will be lost’
The Australian press is full of gee whiz articles on how house prices just keep going up. Median prices are still going up in Houston too, and no one there would say prices are really up. What went wrong in Brisbane was you are building air boxes for Chinese investors.
All goes back to my thesis that this entire echo bubble has as its primary driver China. It drove Canada and Aust bubbles, as well as select parts of the US, and those bubbles spread elsewhere. China was a dead man walking several years ago but the band played on. There were a few other factors including the inevitable bounce from the great recession plus the hype machine pumping up the social media bs story, but China and all that money out of thin air is what really drove this, and now Trump has them in his sights, locked and loaded. Gonna be interesting to see it play out.
How long do Chinese people like to hold on to empty airboxes and such? Do they still feel like it’s a store of value even when prices crater 75%+? What makes them blink?
‘China Gets Strict on Forex Transactions to Stop Money Exiting Abroad’
‘The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the currency regulator, said in a statement Dec. 31 that it wanted to close loopholes exploited for purposes such as money laundering and illegally channeling money into overseas property.’
‘While the regulator left unchanged quotas of $50,000 of foreign currency per person a year, citizens faced extra disclosure requirements from Jan. 1.’
‘An estimated $762 billion flowed out of the country in the first 11 months of last year, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence gauge, pumping up residential property markets from Vancouver to Sydney. Some money also spilled across the border into Hong Kong insurance products.’
2016 BMW 528i Sedan
$369 a mo
live the good life.
You forgot to mention the $5000 down payment/”capital reduction”.
And the huge ($1000+ in Calif) registration fees.
And that it costs a lot more to insure.
Not to mention that you’ll have to be taking it in constantly for warranty repair work.
I am jealous of guys in Porsches too.
it’s only money, what are you saving it for?
You’re always jealous of someone elses wealth Lola. Go earn your own.
‘I am jealous of guys in Porsches too’
Why don’t you lease one? It’s only money. What are you saving it for? Note the “too”. The jealousy is strong in this one Luke.
I am jealous of guys in Porsches too.
I’m not. If I were, I’d buy one (used, for cash), rather than lease like a poser.
“You forgot to mention the $5000 down payment/”capital reduction”.
And the huge ($1000+ in Calif) registration fees.
And that it costs a lot more to insure.
Not to mention that you’ll have to be taking it in constantly for warranty repair work.”
Also the lease mileage cap which can lead to huge overage charges.
Son just bought 2013 Sonata. 28k miles. Still under warranty.
Nice car. $11k.
You don’t have a pot to piss in…… or a window to throw it out.
I wonder which country has more good gov housing agencies /programs
DJT- r u listening
there may be north of 2000 fed agencies now
no one knows
Schumer called on Trump to reveal his healthcare plan amid his promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
“It’s not acceptable to repeal the law, throw our healthcare system into chaos, and then leave the hard work for another day,” he said.
Schumer said that through the transition, he believes Trump “seems to have forgotten” what got him elected president.
“The bottom line is, the president-elect ran as a change agent,” he said. “He ran against the establishments of both parties. He promised to change the way America operates, to oppose elites, drain the swamp, and pay attention to working families.”
The biggest sign of his forgetting, Schumer said, have been his Cabinet selections.
“Looking at the Cabinet — which is stacked with billionaires, corporate executives, titans of Wall Street, and those deeply embedded in Washington’s corridors of power — it seems that many of his campaign themes are quickly being abandoned,” he said. “He said he was going to un-rig the system. So far, it still looks rigged. Too many of his Cabinet picks support the same hard-right, doctrinaire positions that many in the Republican Party have held for years — policies that the American people have repeatedly rejected.”
Trump’s presidency “will not succeed” if he adopts “hard-right” policies, Schumer said.
Schumer then took aim at Trump’s persistent use of Twitter, saying that “making America great again requires more than 140 characters per issue,” and that “America cannot afford a Twitter presidency.”
“There’s nothing wrong with using Twitter to speak to the American people,” he said. “It’s a good use of modern media. But these issues are complex and demand both careful consideration and action. We cannot tweet them away.”
“Tweeting ‘very smart’ to Vladimir Putin for ignoring American sanctions is no foreign policy,” Schumer added later. “America does not conduct foreign policy by tweet, least of all by flattering Putin after our intelligence agencies have confirmed that Russia interfered in our election.”
Trump recently told Schumer, according to The New York Post, that he was a bigger fan of the New York Democrat than he was of Republican leadership including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump and his family had donated more money to Schumer than to any other sitting senator.
Link
You…you mean he lied to us? Buh but…. Crooked Hillary!
Who wrote this slop?
Just quotes from Schumer to the wounded snowflakes.
You’re so hopey changey…
I got a spring in my step, a song in my heart and I’m smilin’, stylin’ and profilin’.
Join us, Russ! You know you want to…yes, you do, yes, you do…
I can hate Hillary with the rest of you, but I can’t buy the Trump snake oil .
‘I can’t buy the Trump snake oil’
Uh, Trump is going to throw the election to Screech. Come on, make a video. Stamp your little feet! Give joy to the world.
BTW, your IP addresses give away your multiple screen names.
Well at least you’ve stopped deleting my posts under my preferred handle.
‘I can’t buy the Trump snake oil’
Aw, c’mon. Don’t be a party pooper. He just basically let the world know he thinks the CIA is full of beans. He Melvined them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cBRpW2GGlc
‘at least you’ve stopped deleting my posts under my preferred handle’
I delete dozens of comments every day for a variety of reasons. Sometimes more than that. How about this: you start a blog, manage it for 12 years, day after day, and see how you handle the comments? I’d bet you might delete a comment or two yourself.
I could have just nuked you.
Holee jeebus, “Schumer clowns”. Ouch!
Snake oil? More like nectar of the gods. I’ll take a coupla cases and throw in some Trump steaks, please.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases……
8:55 AM - 4 Jan 2017
2,164 2,164 Retweets 7,527 7,527 likes
Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web…
9:01 AM - 4 Jan 2017
More bed-wetting real journalism. Say, what happened to that theory that Trump was going to throw the election to Screech?
That went up in a big cloud of second hand California pot smoke along with the notion that a house is an investment.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The “Intelligence” briefing on so-called “Russian hacking” was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!
8:14 PM - 3 Jan 2017
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-03/trump-reveals-very-strange-delay-russian-intelligence-briefing
Lolly-lol, he just pantsed the “intelligence” service (whichever one was supposed to brief him).
and just to add (not reply to) my post, I can’t help thinking about all the recent cries of “They’re trying to de-legitimize his presidency!”
he-he, two can play at that game. Who is getting de-legitimized?
We got Ferris Bueller for president!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQFTq2FIdY
Donald Trump FUNNY Moments AS President Elect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyxm5Ettb5A
Donald Trump’s Funniest Insults and Comebacks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-n3AMxdgsY
Hc
How about u pay fir yours and I pay fir mine
1950s
No one hitching
Now everyone bitches
Forget about that. It’s too expensive.
During a Tuesday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” incoming Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway pledged to craft a plan that allows the millions of people insured under Obamacare to keep their insurance. She did not specify how any existing Republican plans would allow everyone who purchased a plan through Obamacare would keep their insurance,
got popcorn?
From the Fake News file: This morning, DC news radio reported the gutting of the Ethics Committee as being supported by Trump. That’s not quite the reality: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gop-to-start-on-ambitious-conservative-agenda-as-congress-convenes-today/2017/01/03/6117cbe2-d1a1-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html
Reposting a question I got in the rental bubble thread:
‘Ben Jones:
“Some of you reading this today believe you are going to retire and you won’t as a result. That’s how serious this is.”
‘Thanks for this post. I live in the Boston area, have been watching the luxury building boom that is also happening in the surrounding area and wondering WTF is going on. Can you please elaborate on your above statement?’
My answer:
‘Like most large construction projects, much of the financing is done by institutions like pensions and life insurance companies. I’ve documented that a lot of this has been going on willy-nilly. Pretty much everyone involved has considered it a sure thing.’
‘IMO, there will be a large number of defaults. They paid so much for the land and misjudged the market in the euphoria. These loans needs rents way above what the market can provide. They have also misjudged the size of it, and are oversupplied. Rents are falling at a time when their margins were low to begin with. Throw in the inevitable recession and many will fail. Pensions will be damaged like the one in Dallas (also a real estate gambler that lost).’
And the middleman between these pension and insurance outfits and actual construction is? Let me guess…… REITS
That’s sobering. BTW thanks for the thrillist articles on restaurant bubbles. I was thinking about opening a restaurant. Guess that’s going on hold for a couple years.
Marblehead, MA Housing Prices Crater 10% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/marblehead-ma/home-values/
Luxury apartment bust comes to Main Street.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-03/luxury-apartments
This article today has some more good stories about how California sucks. The author compares it as more of a feudalistic society now, which I think is pretty accurate. Then he gives descriptions of the criminality and filth in one of the rural areas.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443466/california-madness-hypocritical-coastal-elites-soak-middle-class
GREAT ARTICLE.
Especially the last paragraph.
—-
What makes the law-abiding leave California is not just the sanctimoniousness, the high taxes, or the criminality. It is always the insult added to injury. We suffer not only from the highest basket of income, sales, and gas taxes in the nation, but also from nearly the worst schools and infrastructure. We have the costliest entitlements and the most entitled. We have the largest number of billionaires and the largest number of impoverished, both in real numbers and as a percentage of the state population.
California crime likewise reflects the California paradox of two states: a coastal elite and everyone else. California is the most contentious, overregulated, and postmodern state in the Union, and also the most feral and 19th-century.
In feral California, we suffer not just from too many and too few applications of the law, but from the unequal enforcement of it. When the state has one-fourth of its population born in another country, dozens of sanctuary cities exempt from federal law, and millions residing here illegally, it makes politicized cost-benefit choices.
The rich on the coast tune out. From her nest in Rancho Mirage, a desert oasis created by costly water transfers, outgoing senator Barbara Boxer rails about water transfers. When Jerry Brown leaves his governorship, he will not live in Bakersfield but probably in hip Grass Valley. High crime, the flight of small businesses, and water shortages cannot bound the fences of Nancy Pelosi’s Palladian villa or the security barriers and walls of Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley billionaires — who press for more regulation, and for more compassion for the oppressed, but always from a distance and always from the medieval assumption that their money and privilege exempt them from the consequences of their idealism. There is no such thing as an open border for a neighbor of Mr. Zuckerberg or of Ms. Pelosi.
A final window into the California pathology: Most of the most strident Californians who decry Trump’s various proposed walls insist on them for their own residences.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443466/california-madness-hypocritical-coastal-elites-soak-middle-class
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443466/california-madness-hypocritical-coastal-elites-soak-middle-class
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443466/california-madness-hypocritical-coastal-elites-soak-middle-class
That guy writes the rant about California every few months. It’s full of nonsense every time.
What exactly about it is nonsense?
He nails it as far as I am concerned.
How many undocumented dreamers does Nancy Pelosi have living in her mansion?
I read the article and the comments. Having lived 30 miles from Mexico for 5 years, I know what he’s talking about. As a result I did a 180 on my open borders position. There’s a reason thousands of people are trying to get into the US. Question is, should we allow it?’
It’s all very vague.
There’s this, for example.
The American progressive elite relies on its influence, education, money, and cultural privilege to exempt itself from the bad schools, unassimilated immigrant communities, dangerous neighborhoods, crime waves, and general impoverishment that are so often the logical consequences of its own policies — consequences for others, that is.
Who are these elites, exactly and what policies is he talking about? Rich people are more likely to vote Republican than Democrat. This has been well documented for a very long time. Yet he writes as if he’s completely unaware of that fact.
Then there’s this.
The state’s economy and housing are moribund in places like Stockton and Tulare, the stagnation being the logical result of the policies of the governing class that would never live there.
If moribund housing means cheap house prices, those towns have something going well for them that coastal CA doesn’t have. If there’s a lot of poverty in those areas, that’s probably been the case for a long time, including decades when the governor was a Republican.
Also, if the coastal part of the state includes a lot of rich people and the interior has a lot of poverty, that must mean that non-coastal Californians benefit from a lot of “redistribution”.
Then he mentions a Proposition 47 that he doesn’t like. It must have passed with a majority of all votes, meaning that a large majority of all people who voted for it were not wealthy.
It goes on and on. The next section is about low level crime and littering in Fresno County. Surely that’s a local issue, not a state one.
I grew up in California in a solidly middle class family where Dad was able to support a family of 5 in a new house in Orange County with good schools.
I bought a house in a rural/ex-urban type place (High Desert) because it was what I could afford in 2003.
In the two years I lived there, I watched it go from a middle class community of young families and retirees in to a gang-infested, trash, graffiti hell-hole like the one described in the article. I saw this happening and (thanks to this blog) dumped out of the market before the crash.
Now, there really isn’t a place for middle class. They can’t buy in the nice costal areas, and the affordable inland areas are just overrun by illegals and gang-members.
Why bother. Every year it’s more taxes, more regulation, more expensive energy, less services - except for illegals.
Oh - and I’m single, have no debt and make close to six-figures.
I’m looking to get out. Sure, I might not make as much money but then again, I wouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to do it and the cost-of-living would be far more reasonable.
“We have the largest number of billionaires and the largest number of impoverished, both in real numbers and as a percentage of the state population.”
Sounds like a Third World waste land. Why would anyone want to live there?
Oh wait…
I honestly have lived in far worse places than California. Case in point: I grew up four miles due east of the Ferguson, MO City Hall. My sisters and I helped our parents move away from there during the immediate aftermath of the Ferguson riots. It turns out that race riots are not good for property values.
California is like the Land of Oz by comparison to Ferguson.
It is -6 windchill this morning… probably a daytime high of 5 windchill a little after lunch. The wind is howling in the mid twenties carrying a white powdery snow that fell a few days before, but the sky is blue and sunny. The Columbia Basin… too hot or too cold. Heck of a place.
I suppose you guys missed the oil bull market too?
you should have listened to dan.
Yeah, he did tell us oil would be at 80 bucks by December 2015.
Epic misses on oil and China…
And then he was heard no more.
crushing_housing_losses
Got silver?
http://wolfstreet.com/2017/01/03/2017-silver-outlook-and-stocks-to-watch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up8siWU92yI
for all those nyc peeps, a small dilapidated area known as long island city 15 years ago now all luxury, just amazing the billions poured into such a small area….already the local 7 train is at 110% capacity
http://liccourtsquare.com/page/3/
even more before/after photos
http://ny.curbed.com/2016/8/31/12732412/long-island-city-development-before-after-photos
Whatever happened to Garden City? That used to be da place!
I randomly looked at a house in Long Island City
A crack shack next to the rail road tracks
17819 90th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101
$749,000
No idea what property taxes are. Not listed.
https://www.trulia.com/property/3246834238-17819-90th-Ave-Long-Island-City-NY-11101
never heard of that address in LIC the numbers are very low like 11th ave 10th st…..that address in in jahmakah man blunt territory
Takin’ out the trash.
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2017/01/01/and-this-is-why-i-carry-guns-when-i-walk-my-dog/
We have all seen this before.
It is why socialists build walls to keep people IN.
And where to they move?
Red states. Low taxes. Freedom.
—-
People moving from New York outnumber arrivals by nearly two-to-one, report says
Eric Anderson - January 3, 2017 - timesunion
United Van Lines reported Tuesday that nearly two-thirds of the moves involving New York households were outbound, a higher proportion than any other state except New Jersey and Illinois.
The 2016 National Movers Study by Fenton, Mo.- based United also found that almost 59 percent of the moves within the eastern United States were outbound.
Where were people moving? Mostly to western states and the Carolinas, with one exception. That exception was Vermont, which ranked second on the list of states with the highest proportion — 67 percent — of inbound moves.
South Dakota had the highest share of inbound moves, at 68 percent.
New Jersey and Illinois, like New York, saw outbound moves making up 63 percent of all moves.
God bless our tireless comedians.
Globe Magazine
Dave Barry’s year in review: The train wreck that was 2016
Olympics embarrassment, exploding phones, and (maybe you noticed) a little thing called the presidential election.
The Boston Globe
By Dave Barry
January 01, 2017
IN THE FUTURE, Americans — assuming there are any left — will look back at 2016 and remark: “What the HELL?”
…
Do you get the impression that Wall Street is entirely convinced that the Fed is lying about, or at least exaggerating, its rate hike plans?
Things could get pretty interesting if the Fed changed course and actually stuck to its forward guidance this year.
3 Reasons To Dump Forward Guidance
Dec. 31, 2016 5:55 PM
Summary
- Forward guidance, the FOMC’s interest rate forecast, has reached its use-by date.
- Forward guidance encourages excess monetary policy expansion in these three ways.
- Faced with a change from conservative to expansionary fiscal policy, more monetary expansion is a mistake.
Expect another policy-created era of stagflation near the end of President-elect Trump’s first term.
Forward guidance, a Fed description of its public plan for future values of the policy rate, introduced by the Bernanke Fed during the Crisis, was a necessary idea at the time. The reason for forward guidance was that the Fed’s single policy instrument, the fed funds rate, had reached its zero lower bound. The Fed thus found it necessary, in extremus, to add two new arrows to the policy quiver.
But the Crisis has ended, and with it, the desirability of more than one weapon. There are three unnecessary, undesirable problems created by forward guidance.
1. Forward guidance allows the Fed to obfuscate.
2. Forward guidance places an upper bound on the policy rate.
3. Forward guidance creates an unintended sort-run stimulus.
Let’s lay it to rest.
…
Whatever else happens during the Trump era, he certainly is owed a debt of gratitude from the American people for suggesting to keep an eye on criminal behavior in Congress.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN14N0TG
‘On top of that, although it only affected the last quarter, the new mortgage rules have significantly made it harder for our purchasers to buy,’ Harrop says. ‘It affects their buying power by about 20 per cent.’
Sounds like prices might drop by about 20 percent.
The renter nation! Debt and leverage.
Most folks dont really own anything. They rent from the banks.
I saw an add for a chevy truck this morning at 259/ month for a lease.
They cant unload these overpriced trucks so they rent then to your for awhile and try to sell them as used.Market is flooded with used cars.
Biggest problem is the mileage constraints. If you dont drive much I guess it works.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-03/trump-takes-aim-gm-tweet-make-usa-or-pay-big-border-tax
best post
NoDebt Looney Jan 3, 2017 8:24 AM
Trump is such a wrecking ball, I can’t help but enjoy the crap outta this. One thing for sure- none of us is going to die of boredom the next 4-8 years.
CBS Morning Fake News 1/4/2017
New World Order Norah O’donnell
How will Climate Change affect us Doctor?
Whatever Paid Hack Doctor (didn’t catch his name)
Blah blah blah Climate Change will change the make up of mosquitoes blah blah blah so Climate Change will affect our health (with raised eyebrows because that is a tell tale sign of lying)
New World Order Norah O’donnell
Thank you Doctor
Climate change= https://youtu.be/q_BU5hR9gXE
How did you get a CBS Morning Fake News recording of Dr. Paidhack so quickly?
Will 2017 be the year that the central bankers’ asset bubbles and Ponzi markets implode under the weight of their own fraud and ficticious valuations?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/01/02/fears-massive-global-property-price-crash-amid-dangerous-conditions/
Do you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome?
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-raimondo-trump-derangement-syndrome-20161226-story.html
Oh dear. Mortgage refi boom just crashed to Lehman lows.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-04/mortgage-refi-boom-crashes-lehman-lows