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The Tide’s Receding And People Are Being Left Visible

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “‘Rising interest rates can affect what a borrower can qualify for and the maximum purchase price or loan amount. It would mean higher monthly mortgage payments,’ explained Alan Barbic, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtor. ‘Higher interest rates can also result in home sellers dropping their asking price in order to attract buyers, which helps stabilize home prices. This could be the direction our housing market is heading.'”

“Palm Beach County home sales plummeted in January to their lowest level since the Great Recession. ‘The spike in interest rates just cooled the number of buyers off,’ said Henry Kaplan, sales manager at Century 21 Tenace Realty in Boynton Beach. Now, Realtors say, buyers have more bargaining power — and sellers are being forced to cut prices.”

“Terry Story, an agent in Boca Raton, said she recently persuaded a dozen of her clients to reduce their asking prices. ‘They were overpriced,’ Story said. ‘A lot of sellers base their prices on what their neighbors were asking.’ Story sees a bright side to softer sale prices. ‘Our prices have been unsustainable increases, and it needed to roll back a little bit,’ she said.”

“Cedar Park saw a drop of 38.5 percent in residential sales. ‘In December 2018, new listings on the market returned to more normal levels compared to December 2017,’ ABoR President Kevin P. Scanlan said. ‘This resulted in a slight decrease in January sales this year. Scanlan said that ‘future homeowners are still buying’ so the Austin real estate market remains competitive.”

“My, how times have changed. New restrictions on foreign buyers combined with a perception that the United States is no longer a friendly market have caused a major shift in real estate buying in New York and across the country. Sellers have been cutting their asking prices at the top end of the market for a while, and now the trend is spreading.”

“‘We saw [price cuts] coming 18 to 24 months ago, but the impact is now beginning to trickle down to into Manhattan’s lower-end market,’ says James Morgan, an agent at Compass. ‘In Manhattan, what’s happening isn’t just impacting the luxury market.'”

“Almost 200 buyers of presale condominiums in a Scarborough project still don’t know what will become of their money or the homes they agreed to purchase from Forme Development Group Inc., which filed for creditor protection late last year. Yingguo Ai, of Brantford, Ont. is one of the dozens of unsecured creditors and he worries he and his fellow lenders will not be fully repaid in the process. ‘I put my RRSP and [my] wife’s together, $300,000, my wife and me together. That’s my retirement income, if lost I couldn’t get back that money for [the] rest of my life,’ he said.”

“Geeta Nanda, chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley, told Inside Housing: ‘In London, if you look at resales, shared ownership, staircasing, new build shared ownership, we’re seeing generally a slowdown. Market sale is that much worse. It’s an incredibly quiet market at the moment and again, people are not committing. We’re seeing a massive slowdown in terms of market sale.’ One finance director, who preferred not to be named, added: ‘The tide’s receding and people are being left visible.'”

“Liss Ard took the plunge this week when its asking price dropped online from €7.5 million to €5 million. The dramatic drop is an indicator of the challenge the country homes market faces at the moment given that the historic spread did not budge its price even once in the intervening period. Now it has clearly been priced to sell.”

“A property in East Melbourne is selling for more than 40 per cent less that what it was listed in the middle of last year. Martin North, principal of Digital Finance Analytics, said discounts of more than 40 per cent were also being made in Victoria’s Red Hill, and Sydney suburbs including Box Hill and Agnes Banks.”

“‘Typically, in a downturn it’s the top end of the market which dies first, and the decay in price spreads down the market like a canker,’ said Mr North. He estimated one-in-ten households were in negative equity, where the value of the mortgage is bigger than the expected realisable value of the property.”

“Sydney home owners are slashing prices at a rate not seen in a decade. Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said vendors were struggling to adjust price expectations quickly enough. ‘We’ve got people knocking back the first offer they get and then selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars less three or six months later,’ said Tim Fraser of Di Jones Real Estate North Shore.“

“Despite prices being in decline for nearly two years, Mr Fraser said, many home owners still expected prices from the 2017 peak. Sandra and Norm Cahill have been trying to sell their four-bedroom Epping house since October and thought they would have no problem selling within their previous agent’s suggested price range of $1.8 million to $2.1 million.”

“‘We said we wouldn’t drop the price below $1.8 million,’ Mrs Cahill laughed. ‘We didn’t have one offer for the [first] three months, even after we dropped the price [to $1.65 million] … We’re now sitting at $1.53 million, that’s a big drop.”

“It looks like there are still a lot of unsold houses in Malaysia! It was reported that residential property prices are expected to decline over the next few years due to the dumping of unsold homes, which are currently valued at RM29.97 billion. Now, that is a lot!”

“Rahim & Co International’s Director of Strategic Research and Planning, Sulaiman Saheh has stated that the trend is expected to continue until 2021, unless there is an increase in house purchasing rates. ‘I have mentioned this a few years ago – Malaysians, maybe we need to make more babies. Our population is insufficient to keep up with the supply of residential units in the market,’ he said.”

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This Post Has 116 Comments

  1. ‘Realtors say, buyers have more bargaining power — and sellers are being forced to cut prices…Terry Story, an agent in Boca Raton, said she recently persuaded a dozen of her clients to reduce their asking prices’

    Eeee-bola Palm Beach and Boca Raton!

    1. One month ago the median was 100,000 higher, higher than 12 months ago. So either prices dropped 100,000 in a month or perhaps your data doesn’t accurately reflect the market.

      2. MW is like the drunk uncle at thanksgiving. You just have to learn to love him in spite of his creepy hugs and garbage data.

  3. ‘I have mentioned this a few years ago – Malaysians, maybe we need to make more babies. Our population is insufficient to keep up with the supply of residential units in the market’

    This reminds me of the Tennessee developer the other day saying “we need more jobs to fill these half empty apartments!”

    2. Funny how they don’t suggest ignoring their own existing immigration laws, having open borders and see who floods in as a fix to this problem.

      They must be racists!

  4. ‘Powell said vendors were struggling to adjust price expectations quickly enough. ‘We’ve got people knocking back the first offer they get and then selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars less three or six months later’

    Once again, this is coming straight at California, Texas and Seattle. And Boston.

  5. Major American cities are going to get absolutely destroyed in the next 5-10 years. Is there anyway that NYC and LA aren’t going to take a 20% haircut from current valuation given all of the headwinds(higher rates, reduction of tax subsidies, clamping down on foreign money launderers/speculators, office work automation/outsourcing/remote work, and affordability)?

    Flyover real estate has been beat to death over the past 30 years to the point where big city residents are going to pack up and retire instead of dealing with the rat race. DC companies are increasingly making people work remotely because office space is too expensive. My wife went full time remote three years ago and I’m now allowed 60% remote. The cost of moving 2 hours from DC cuts cost of living by about 50% which effectively eliminates the need for one person to continue working.

    Cities are now too expensive to attract talent out of college AND retain young families. Can’t imagine any outcome other than a stampede for the exits as wealthy city residents flee the cities.

    1. a stampede for the exits

      I beat the rush in 2001.

      Major American cities are going to get absolutely destroyed in the next 5-10 years.

      Price reductions will be very beneficial for cities.

      1. “Price reductions will be very beneficial for cities.”

        Price reductions will destroy equity wealth for the comps. Destroyed equity wealth is wealth that cannot be cashed out and spent. Wealth that is not spent reduces sales tax income, thus causing cities to suffer.

        Many (most? all?) cities are heavily dependent upon consumers spending money. Jobs are created when consumers spend money. Sales taxes are collected when consumers spend money.

        And then there is the matter of property taxes. Property taxes are assessed and levied by the value of the properties. The value of properties are determined by the going prices of the comps. As the going prices of properties are reduced so does the assessed values get reduced thus so does the property tax revenue get reduced.

        1. consumers spending money

          When the rent is too high, consumers cut back on those other fun spending activities.

        2. And thanks to that Supreme Court ruling the other day, local governments can’t make up the difference by charging ridiculous fees and fines.

        1. and lost out

          Actually, I sold it for $200K and it was sold about a year ago again for $275K. Just looked it up. Still has the solid cherry kitchen I put in, and the same damned white carpet in the living room. Got out of debt and cut my cost of living $40K/yr by getting out. I made out just fine thank you.

          1. BlueSkye – Depends on the city I guess, but LA, NYC, DC, etc have gone up about 400% since then. Your $200K home would have sold for $800K last year in superstar cities.

            I find it difficult you saved on $40K in expenses if your home was only $200K. You may have saved $5K-$10K on housing and another $5K-$10K on childcare for a few years. You are discounting the costs you gained by driving a car everywhere you need to go which is easily $5K-$10K

          2. I don’t do super cities. Case Shiller 10 went up 100% during those years, not 400%. My cost of living went down in many ways, not just the mortgage. I was able to max my 401K rather than living paycheck to paycheck (tax savings). I stopped commuting to the office and if I did travel it was on an expense account (car savings). Family of six in Suburbia went to one guy living on a boat over the following years. Lost the family shopper and 4 kids grew up and moved on, so the number I mentioned is not all housing expense. I still think I made out just fine missing the bubble.

    2. You missed the big one.

      TAXES.

      Insane property taxes to pay for the public unions that keep democrats in power. Add in city and state income taxes.

      And these will never, ever go down and are schedule to increase dramatically.

      For example. A nothing special house in Queens will have around $20,000 in property/school taxes in addition to 13% in combined NYC and NYS income states.

      Move to Florida or fly-over states and this punishment tax of living in “deep blue” essentially drops 90%.

      (higher rates, reduction of tax subsidies, clamping down on foreign money launderers/speculators, office work automation/outsourcing/remote work, and affordability)?

      1. Might as well mention insurance rates.

        My homeowners insurance almost doubled in 2 years. [Irvine, Ca.]

        Never, in 40+ years at current address have I filed a claim.

        Others with similar experience?

          1. I was just in Irvine last week. As a white guy, I was definitely a minority where I was shopping at Trader Joe’s.

        3. Yes, my property insurance also jumped hugely this year. Turns out that insurance companies are typically a form of mutual company. All the natural disasters around the country over the last two years have resulted in massive claims. They recoup this outflow of their reserves, by jacking everybody’s rates.

      2. “For example. A nothing special house in Queens will have around $20,000 in property/school taxes in addition to 13% in combined NYC and NYS income states.”

        I wouldn’t even take the house for free. You’d have to PAY ME to assume that liability.

      3. I had to complete a 1 hour mandatory training course in Discrimination, harassment and Retaliation prevention at work, whole company did. At one point in the training I could hover around all 50 states to see what the law was CA had at least 5 times as many laws as say Indiana.

        1. Oh yeah, feminism and LGBTQ “acceptance and inclusion” training for all gubmnt contractors. Of course the feminist managers are among the worse abusers and harassers I’ve ever seen, and they get away with it because they have special protections granted during Obama’s administration.

      4. 2banana – I agree. NYC and California are going to get slaughtered. I couldn’t care less if NYC sunk into the ocean, but Cali has some nice areas that I am praying will go on fire sale.

      1. SF has a pretty bad homeless problem right now but NYC, DC and most other major cities are remarkably clean, nice places to live. Not clean and nice enough to pay $1M for a shack or $4.5K for a two bedroom appt, but damn nice. If I had an eight figure net worth I would definitely continue to live in a major city.

        1. …but the weather in NY, DC is miserable. Yes, they do have more Starbucks and movie theater choices.

          1. WestWorld5 – You are right, NYC and DC weather is horrible 9 months of the year. However, city people are more intelligent and are in better shape than suburbanites. There are pluses and minuses to every situation but in my opinion the financial incentive to move to a major city between 1995-2018 far outweighed some bad weather.

            When the market was rigged to enable homes to appreciate at 4%-5% annualized, moving to DC or NYC wasn’t a bad deal for the first 10-15 years after graduating college. You were pretty much guaranteed to walk away with a million in the bank by the time you turned 30-35 years old.

    4. Not to mention traffic congestion.

      No way around that one irregardless of which way prices go. [barring some sort of super Uber / Lyft technology]

      1. “Not to mention traffic congestion.”

        No worries, Elon will fix that with his Boring Company tunnels under the city!

      2. octal77 – I don’t own a car and haven’t driven one in the past 10 years of living in DC. Traffic doesn’t impact me because I choose to live close to my office. Cars are the biggest suck on our economy. Anyone who drives to work will always be poor. Cities are critical for economic growth, but unfortunately prices has risen too far too fast. When I bought 7 years ago, it made sense to live in a city. Now it doesn’t so I sold. Succeeding in life is all about adaptation and realizing when it’s time to pack up and move on. City living made me relatively rich in a short amount of time, but now it’s time to move on for new opportunities (flyover country).

        1. Damn, even the relatively rich can’t buy where They actually want to live. Ed if you buy in Ann Harbor at least be smart and get a decent deal so that you don’t inflate the comps so much.. us poor ignorant stiffs need to save our money up for getting out more 😉

        2. “Succeeding in life is all about adaptation and realizing when it’s time to pack up and move on.”

          Sounds like you don’t have any children?

          1. rms – We just had our second child which was the nail in the coffin for city living. We are currently paying $4K per month for child care. That cost escalates to $8K per month for private school.

            A shack home within 10 miles of any city costs about $1M at this point.

          2. “We are currently paying $4K per month for child care. That cost escalates to $8K per month for private school.”

            Your wife must be a real income earner. I have friends like you who “sub-contracted” the kids to pre-school and the grand parents while they were in search of that gawd almighty dollar. We moved from California so that my wife could be a stay at home during the kid’s formative years. She returned to work part-time and eventually full time. With two in college now we’re hemorrhaging savings, but they’ll be debt free.

          3. I have friends like you who “sub-contracted” the kids to pre-school and the grand parents while they were in search of that gawd almighty dollar.

            Same as the Chinese working class who aren’t even allowed to enroll their kids in public school in the high cost of living areas where the jobs are.

        3. well, somehow the hugely affordable and “beat up” (? I’m still trying to get that one…sure, it was more down than some because with subprime and Great Recession a lot of already poor people then lost their barely-gotten-into-homes) flyover midwest market is predicted by some to be among the first to go into “buyer’s market” territory. If it hasn’t yet done so, compared to the obscene coasts, it might be because the wealthy are headed for the coastal exits sooner rather than later. So if you want to wait a little bit, you might get a better deal even…

          https://www.marketwatch.com/story/want-to-buy-a-home-you-might-want-to-wait-2018-08-28

          also, apparently prices are going up in flyover due to that well-documented *shortage in housing throughout the US* right?!

          https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/u-s-housing-shortage-drives-prices-up-in-midwest-105901

        4. “Cars are the biggest suck on our economy.”

          I couldn’t agree more. I had an electric bike for 2 years and the wife and I shared one car. Finally we couldn’t do it though when my work situation changed. A co-worker of mine just bought a car he can’t afford despite me pleading for him not to. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

      3. Don’t discount traffic congestion in flyover country! It’s terrible here in MI and particularly in these little towns getting very popular with amazing bottlenecks in and out of tiny town centers and one lane bridges and too narrow highways etc. US 23 near me is a disaster and often fatalities are very high because the roads were never meant to accommodate so many. Read closely reports from some in cute little flyover towns complaining about it you’ll be shocked lol if you live in the big cities. And there are NO public transportation alternatives!

    5. “Is there anyway that NYC and LA aren’t going to take a 20% haircut from current valuation given all of the headwinds”

      QE5, QE6, QE7, Operation Twist 2? Helicopter money from AOC?

  6. ‘I put my RRSP and [my] wife’s together, $300,000, my wife and me together. That’s my retirement income, if lost I couldn’t get back that money for [the] rest of my life,’

    Grampa loved to bet the horses. He said you should never bet more than you can afford to lose.

    1. He gambled everything to be close to his mosque?

      Somehow – I think there was another reason….

      +++++

      “Mr. Haq, 61, came to Canada in 2006 and has scrimped and saved, working two jobs, to purchased contracts for two two-bedroom condominium apartments, 700 and 800 square feet.

      He was drawn to the projects because they are close to a mosque he attends.”

    2. What your annual household income? What I’m getting at is, how many years can you live off of 300K?

      1. how many years can you live off of 300K?

        If you retire at 65 that would probably be $1500/mo for life. This is significant if you have a modest lifestyle. I think it’s around the average SS payout in the US, although it’s CAD$. If this guy can do the math he’d likely want to work til he drops now. Canadians also get an old age pension, which isn’t so much.

  8. “‘We said we wouldn’t drop the price below $1.8 million,’ Mrs Cahill laughed. ‘We didn’t have one offer for the [first] three months, even after we dropped the price [to $1.65 million] … We’re now sitting at $1.53 million, that’s a big drop.”

    For that dump? Give me a break! That’s higher than SV. I bet the tech jobs there are paying $300k+ per year LOL

    1. Australia is so insanely overpriced, and they act like slicing a couple hundred thousands is a huge sacrifice.

    2. Not going to give it away…

      turns into

      Chasing the market down…

      turns into

      What the heck is a full recourse loan?!

    3. The real estate ad boasts a monthly payment of $5,648 for a 30 year interest only loan with 20% downpayment. I thought Australia had those 3 year crap shoot mortgages.

      1. Those ads are for you. They are based on locality. Anyway, I just talked with my uncle who own rental in Sacramento he is trying to unload now. The tenants are gone but he needs to spend time to fix it up. Its 2 hours drive from SV and hes not a young guy anymore.

        1. Just a data point, we are looking at rental houses in Folsom now and despite their attempts to incite FUD to get us to hurry and sign a lease I’m noticing that it appears we are the only ones seriously looking and doing the applications for each place. Over Christmas break there was some competition but now it seems dead, probably until around when the school year ends. But we’d prefer not to wait that long because the month to month fees at the place we’re at are crazy and the high end apt complex that’s being built that we signed up for a long time ago keeps pushing out our date every time it rains. Now they’re out to July.

  10. Just for those following my little saga in AnnArbor MI, my realtor is still MIA lol. I’m still looking at OHs and listings on realtor.com and things are still crazy overpriced here…a condo with a 550/mo fee for a little pool and some maintenance asking 450k after buying in 2018 for 225k. They apparently put in quartz countertops and refinished the floors and redid a shower stall though! It’s not even impressively done and like 1300 SF townhouse. Wow , affordable AF would be the desired reaction from the CA transplant, in the hopes of the “real estate service/sales “ outfit who owns the place now !

    2. Crazyhorse – You really need to get out more and travel the country. You are completely out of touch with what things cost. Two minimum wage workers can easily afford a median priced house in Michigan. A couple earning $350K per year can’t afford a median priced house in San Francisco and a couple earning $110K is considered “low-income”.

      See the difference between what you think is expensive and what is actually expensive?

      2. “See the difference between what you think is expensive and what is actually expensive?”

        Get rid of the gubmnt guarantees, and we’ll see what the “free market” thinks buyers can honestly afford.

      3. We’ve been through this before Ed, and I don’t need to travel to see what things cost lol . Do you have reason to believe that minimum wage workers aren’t living paycheck to paycheck in Michigan?! Like, the numbers we hear all the time about how most Americans don’t have 500 bucks to cover an emergency and have 6000 in credit card carry month to month and have no retirement savings etc and are 3 months behind in auto note and so on… that’s ONLY on the coasts?! Wow , so who knew that in Michigan everybody has overflowing bank accounts and/or TONs of disposable income they must be blowing on beer and boats or something? The numbers must show that wow people are spending tiny amounts of their income on housing wow around here, cuz minimum wage workers can buy the median priced house! Cool can’t wait til you come and buy 12 cause you really must given what you claim ! One for each toddler! Do I think it’s less obscene here than on the coasts?! Sure! The crash will be much much worse in your neck of the woods for sure…

        2. CrazyHouse – People are in stressful financial situations because they make bad lifestyle decisions. I can afford to buy my toddlers their own shacks in flyover because I worked hard and lived in tiny dwellings and walked to work for ten years. People that can’t cover a $500 unexpected expense are the same people that live 20 miles from where they work and drive gas guzzling SUV’s, have flat screen televisions with cable tv, and go to Applebee’s twice per week.

          I can do math, and I know two minimum wage workers can easily afford to live in a 500 sq foot basement studio without a car or cable tv in Michigan.

      4. And Ed the crash cannot come fast enough, for it to be that your well traveled ilk can afford houses in SF again so we don’t see more in Michigan;) we don’t know what to say to you we’re so awed by your knowledge and worldliness lol

        1. we’re so awed

          A wise old Indian once said that stress is the true test of good manners and generosity. Ed has a different window to look outa than CrazyHouseWoman.

    2. Trying to get votes from new young voters? Seems like its all the rage now to go after Boomers and their “hoards” of cash. Punish the ants for holding out on the grasshoppers yea this is going to work out just great.

    3. Amusing watching these corporate Democrats scrambling to rebrand themselves as “progressives” to appeal to the AOC supporters.

    5. Warren is truly one of the good ones fighting for the people vs being a corp puppet. But she is a woman and a lot of people dont like that. Better than more good ol boys and pork and debts!

      1. Elizabeth Warren Net Worth: $8M
        Elizabeth Warren’s (aka “Senator Running Deer”, “Fauxcahontas”, “She Will Sioux”, “Stands with a Writ”, “Hunts at Whole Foods”, “Chief Full-of-Lies”, “Senator Running Joke” etc.) net worth was estimated to be between $7.8 million, according to OpenSecrets, and $8.75 million, according to CNN, in 2015. Celebrity Net Worth currently pegs her in between those figures at $8 million.

        Some may say that she’s just another self-aggrandizing, self-serving, self-enriching politician, but who am I to say?

        The Onion retweeted: “Elizabeth Warren Disappointed After DNA Test Shows Zero Trace Of Presidential Material.”

        “Warren is truly one of the good ones…”

        That’s a “good one” 🙂

      1. demand repatriations

        This is an amusing concept to me. My parentage were Highlanders and Vikings. Sure we stole stuff but owning people wasn’t in our ken. We were unfortunately treated as property by the Roman exiles called the Englanders. Some of us were shipped here after they confiscated our homes and cattle to raise sheep. So we would have to pay this reparations? The British shipped a bunch of black people here as slaves, bought from Africans. They also have to no pay Reparations? Then we have a bunch of Chinese, who never had any reservations about slavery, but generally never had black slaves back home and were treated like animals over here back in the day. They have to pay Reparations? Hispanics too? Vietnamese and Jews that fled Russia or Germany? So black descendants working and paying taxes, and there’s a lot of those good folks, have to pay as well!

        Warren is so stupid or more likely unscrupulous, it’s ridiculous. One of the good guys my ass.

  13. “‘Rising interest rates can affect what a borrower can qualify for and the maximum purchase price or loan amount. It would mean higher monthly mortgage payments…”

    On a whim I ran the numbers on a listing similar to the townhome I’m renting; same complex, same floorplan, etc. With current rates, a potential buyer would need to put down 50% to end up with a monthly payment equivalent to the rent we pay.

    1. HB Reader – Lol. We are seeing the exact same thing in DC suburbs. $3K to rent a four bedroom house and the mortgage payment would be $6K on a similar house.

  14. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/22/new-zillow-ceo-could-make-the-home-flipping-gamble-work-rbcs-mahaney.html

    Talk about not putting your money where your mouth is

    “Zillow is making a big bet on flipping homes. Its new CEO could ‘make this gamble work’: RBC’s Mahaney”

    …

    “If anybody can make this gamble work, it’s Rich Barton,” Mahaney said.

    Still, he said he’s a bit “skeptical.” He said the firm is not a buyer of the stock at the moment.

    1. Uhh, I think these guys actually believe the Zestimate. And here I thought they were just trying to keep realtors happy.

      Bloomberg calls it a “Moonshot”. CNBC calls it a “Flipping gamble”. It’s interesting how falling revenue affects strategy of publicly traded companies. Good insight from the comments:

      “14 years I have been selling foreclosures. Went through the last round, we are heading for round 2. Despite the “lack of inventory” and “historically low mortgage rates” I am seeing days on market up, and homes going through price reductions. The market cannot go up forever, it’s a cyclical type of market and the 10-year boom period is over and now must come the bust.
      I also agree with several other commentors regarding contracting crews. Zillow will have to hire subs, and that means vetting in every state for licensing, insurance, and most importantly, verifying the work is actually being completed correctly. This leaves a HUGE open gap for fraud, waste, and illegal work being done. I speak from experience as several lenders with REO portfolios tried this last year. The “contractors” that were on the recommended list were in fact nothing more than shell companies that hired non-licensed individuals to do sub-par work without required local permits and inspections. I caught them, and they had to make it right, but how many of these is Zillow doing without any supervision or unqualified individuals that don’t know what to look for? This is a recipe for disaster.”

      1. “several lenders with REO portfolios tried this last year”

        This is interesting. Sounds like some lenders with long-time zombie foreclosures on their books tried to get out at the top, but the properties needed a lot of work after years of vacancy and neglect. I wonder how widespread this was across the country in 2017/18.

    2. I agree that it’s not a good time to buy inventory for flipping right now lol! You can see the attempts at flips in my flyover town, and I live in a premium bit of flyover save for the coastal level taxes and fees, and buyers balk .

  15. How many crash calls does one guy get?

    Bulletin Dow retakes 26,000 level, notches 9th consecutive winning week

    Home
    Markets
    U.S. & Canada
    ‘Father of Reaganomics’ says ‘get out of the market’ — bond and stock market — ‘and put your money in cash’
    Published: Feb 22, 2019 3:28 p.m. ET
    Fox News/YouTube
    By Mark DeCambre

    David Stockman, the so-called “Father of Reaganomics,” is at it again with his most recent prognostication of doom for Wall Street and the broader economy, even as the stock market tests fresh highs for the year.
    …

    2. put your money in cash

      That’s confusing. If it’s not cash, is it “money”?

      I have some real money. It’s heavy in the pocket.

    2. This one goes out to Robert Kraft
      Ha.
      Always feel bad when I see Robert Palmer’s videos. So handsome, talented. He had a full med exam shortly before he died of a heart attack at 54. Echh.
      Saw him interviewed by that jerk Regis Philbin and equally jerky Kathy Lee Gifford. I don’t think they knew who he was by the questions they asked him. He was extremely polite, more than he should have been.

  19. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft accused of soliciting sex, police say

    By Jason Hanna, Tina Burnside and Christina Maxouris, CNN
    Updated 6:59 PM ET, Fri February 22, 2019

    (CNN)New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is being charged with two counts of soliciting someone to commit prostitution, stemming from a major sting involving several day spas and massage parlors in Florida, police said.

    Kraft, 77, is among dozens of people linked to a sex trafficking operation in central Florida. During a monthslong investigation, the billionaire was seen twice visiting the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in the city of Jupiter, police Chief Daniel Kerr said Friday.

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/us/robert-kraft-solicitation/index.html

    2. This is no doubt a politically motivated prosecution of a Trump ally!

      J/K 🙂

      BTW, can’t a rich guy like Kraft find a girlfriend? LOL I know he’s old, but those gold diggers don’t care.

      1. BTW, can’t a rich guy like Kraft find a girlfriend? LOL I know he’s old, but those gold diggers don’t care.

        The older I get the more I understand why the “girlfriend” is the less desirable option for that guy in that situation. I do feel bad for the girls if they are there against their will, though.

  20. “We’re seeing a massive slowdown in terms of market sale.’ One finance director, who preferred not to be named, added:

    ‘The tide’s receding and people are being left visible.’ ”

    “You never know who’s swimming naked until the tide goes out.” – Warren Buffett

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