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There Will Be More Product Built Than Is Needed, It Happens In Every Marketplace

A report from the Wall Street Journal on New York. “High-rise developers in Manhattan are coming under stress as tough market conditions are starting to undermine some of the city’s most prominent luxury condo projects. At a mixed-use project that includes luxury condos in Midtown Manhattan, Ceruzzi Properties and Shanghai Municipal Investment last week handed over much of the control to a new investor group. The money helped pay off a $200 million mortgage on the development site that had fallen into default when it expired in December, people familiar with the project said.”

“Struggling developers often have two options, said Dustin Stolly, co-head of brokerage Newmark Knight Frank’s capital markets group: ‘It’s either going to be a condo inventory loan to buy you more time, or it’s going to be distress.'”

From Greenville News in South Carolina. “Clemson is proposing to add 151,000 square feet and 430 beds of apartment-style housing at the Lightsey Bridge complex. Brent Little, president of Fountain Residential Partners of Dallas, Texas, is the developer working on the Dockside proposal. At a June 11 public input meeting, Little was asked whether more student housing was really needed. He said he would give the ‘ugly answer.'”

“‘This market will get overbuilt and there will be winners and losers,’ Little said. ‘There will be more product built here than is needed. It happens in every marketplace.'”

“Little estimates that the market will get over-saturated to the point where housing developments are around 80% occupancy before developers will ‘react’ and stop building.”

“Jeremy Tackett, co-owner of Carolina Real Estate believes there are already ‘far too many’ units in town, which is making it harder for him to rent properties. He manages some properties for people that are depending on their Clemson investments in retirement. ‘Due to the amount of approved student housing projects, there is no way to be 100% full,’ Tackett said.”

From KFGO in North Dakota. “Construction of new apartments in Fargo has been at or near all-time highs for several years, but not this year. The apartment vacancy rate is now 9%.  A city permit report shows there have been no permits issued for apartments since the first of the year. Last year at this time there were nine apartment permits, totaling more than $43-million.”

“‘The vacancy rate I think about 4 or 5 years ago had dropped to about 3% so you have a lot of people rush in and build apartments, I think in the last 4 or 5 years we have had over 6,000 apartments (units) built, you’re building at a rate of 1,000 a year when the typical rate is 500 a year, it just gets to be where it’s over built,’ said City Strategic Planning and Research Director Jim Gilmour.”

The Colorado Real Estate Journal. “Is Denver overbuilt, or are all of these new apartment communities making up for pentup demand from the past 15 years? Why is multifamily so expensive, and when are cap rates going to adjust for a rising interest rate environment?”

“Nearly 42,000 multifamily market rate units have been built since first-quarter 2014, increasing inventory by 21% in the past five years, according to CoStar. Factoring in a glut of new supply, the current lease-up concessions offered, a rising interest rate environment and the recent volatility in the stock market, investors have cause for some concern.”

From Globe St on California. “New supply has had a lot to do with the slow down. In the last year, thousands of new apartments have delivered into Los Angeles, and that has helped to temper rent growth. ‘The billions that have been invested into L.A. multifamily construction over the past decade are starting to materialize and lead to lower rents,’ says Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List.”

From KUT in Texas. “The Independent, at 301 West Ave. in downtown Austin, is the city’s newest tallest building. The 59-story luxury apartment tower is definitely attention-getting, and some eyes are drawn all the way to the top – to what looks from afar like a tennis court or one of those nets to stop golf balls at a driving range.”

“ATXplained listener Jonathan Murphy wanted to know why it looks like that – and why people are so upset about it. ‘People are very angry,’ Murphy says. ‘This is Austin – people are usually angry about something – but this building has definitely got people up in arms.'”

“He says he doesn’t know what’s at the top or why it looks that way, but he says it looks ‘unfinished.’ ‘It’s just such a strange choice that it’s visible. I think whatever’s up there, maybe we don’t need to see – and so it’s strange that they’ve left it so people can see it,’ he says. ‘There must be a reason behind it – I don’t know what it is – but there must be a reason.'”

From Richmond Biz Sense in Virginia. “In the midst of selling off some of his real estate holdings to satisfy a recent bankruptcy settlement, a notorious area landlord jailed since mid-March reached a plea deal last week that requires him to perform community service specific to combatting homelessness.”

“Oliver Lawrence was released from jail after a hearing in which he pleaded guilty to reduced charges stemming from an incident in Petersburg four months earlier. The Westover Hills property is valued at $524,000. Tranzon Fox’s Bill Londrey said Lawrence gave the go-ahead for that auction based on the result of the last one, adding that future auctions – if needed to meet the $900,000 bankruptcy payback amount – likely would involve one or more of Lawrence’s residential rental properties, which are said to total over 1,000.”

“‘I think he wants to see how each of them do financially and how the numbers come in before he determines what course of action he might take,’ Londrey said. ‘We don’t have any specific plans beyond this one, because he needs to react to how much he’s still in the hole once he knows the number on this one.'”

“Both properties were mentioned in Lawrence’s bankruptcy case as examples of what Peter Barrett, a Kutak Rock attorney serving as the trustee in the Chapter 7 case, alleged as a scheme by Lawrence and his wife Kim to defraud creditors by moving money and assets between them.”

From Reason Magazine. “Sydney, Australia, may not be New York or London or Los Angeles, but it’s a big city with a population approaching five million. It’s got more people than the San Francisco area. But unlike San Francisco (or Los Angeles, or several other major American cities), rental prices in some parts of Sydney are seeing a massive decline—as much as 100 Australian dollars a week in some places.”

“It is not some magical mystery as to why Sydney’s rental prices are declining. And it’s certainly not due to rent control. It’s because Sydney’s seeing a building boom. The size of Sydney’s apartment market has doubled in two years, and landlords have had to drop rents in order to get tenants.”

“The Sydney Morning Herald reported over the weekend that the city has seen more than 30,800 multi-unit dwellings built last year, a record for any Australian city. And there still are nearly 200,000 additional dwellings in various stages of development. The city is seeing a glut driven by investors. And those investors are now leasing out the apartments.”

“This overabundance in rental properties has spread across the economic spectrum. Median rents in some more expensive parts of the city range around $1,400–$1,700 a month (in U.S. dollars). But there are parts of town where the median rental price is $850 a month, thanks in part to the oversupply. The glut ranges from simple apartments to townhouses.”

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This Post Has 91 Comments

  1. ‘This market will get overbuilt and there will be winners and losers…There will be more product built here than is needed. It happens in every marketplace’

    If people were using their own hard earned money this wouldn’t be happening. The concept of Yellen bucks looking for a place to die is real.

    1. ‘This market will get overbuilt’

      Translation: “Wealth” will be created.

      “… and there will be winners and losers…”

      Yep. And guess who will be among the winners.

      “There will be more product built here than is needed. It happens in every marketplace’”.

      Now we are back to talking about wealth creation.

      “If people were using their own hard earned money this wouldn’t be happening.”

      And bankers, such as myself, wouldn’t enjoy a free ride.

      “The concept of Yellen bucks looking for a place to die is real.”

      Yep, and these Yellen bucks are what’s keeping the dream alive.

      I like it, I love it, I want some more of it.

  2. ‘People are very angry…This is Austin – people are usually angry about something’

    I lived there and it’s a bunch of angry little ants stuck in traffic.

    ‘He says he doesn’t know what’s at the top or why it looks that way, but he says it looks ‘unfinished.’ ‘It’s just such a strange choice that it’s visible. I think whatever’s up there, maybe we don’t need to see – and so it’s strange that they’ve left it so people can see it,’ he says. ‘There must be a reason behind it – I don’t know what it is – but there must be a reason’

    They are out of money Jon.

    1. It looks unfinished to me because someone stacked a bunch of boxes on top of each other and haven’t neatly aligned them.

  3. ‘alleged as a scheme by Lawrence and his wife Kim to defraud creditors by moving money and assets between them’

    Another day, another alleged 1,000 shack ponzi scheme.

  4. ‘Struggling developers often have two options, said Dustin Stolly, co-head of brokerage Newmark Knight Frank’s capital markets group: ‘It’s either going to be a condo inventory loan to buy you more time, or it’s going to be distress’

    As soon as this inventory loan thing came up, anyone could see these guys were fooked. Apply this reasoning to any market: cars, furniture, and quickly the realization that you had no idea what you were doing becomes clear. Much less with illiquid airboxes in Manhattan or Miami.

  6. ‘The billions that have been invested into L.A. multifamily construction over the past decade are starting to materialize and lead to lower rents,’

    Which poster was it who said to buy now, because tents always go up?

      1. “Tents always go up? In L.A.? Shirley, you jest. Or you misspoke. Or, perhaps not.”

        Q W E R T Y

    3. You might be thinking of me. I never said “buy now because rents always go up.” What I said was that *I* bought because *my* rents always went up. And in 2011, the first renewal in my rental, my rent rose 20%. It was a combination of the incentives running out, and high rent increases in this expensive area. I tried to negotiate the rent, but all of the apartments in the area were the same rent. The rent on my old townhouse has increased to where I probably couldn’t afford it now.

      1. Actually you said that rents WILL always go up. This was your argument for borrowing long to buy a house. Remember your spreadsheet? You were going to be rich! You also told us all relentlessly that Rent is Cash in the Trash. That’s my recollection anyway, and why you became the debt donkey poster child.

        1. Yeah, I probably did say rents will always go up… But I don’t recall saying I was going to be rich. Not from the house anyway. Financially comfy maybe, but that’s a wide range. Rent is still cash in the trash. At least some of the rent is cash in the trash.

          1. All the interest you pay after the tax reduction is also cash in the trash. I have to remind my wife of that every time we have this conversation. But hats off to everybody that can pay cash and just buys what they want to live in.

          2. Rent is still cash in the trash.

            Is Buying A Home A Bad Investment?
            NPR Planet Money
            Stacey Vanek Smith
            May 17, 2019

            VANEK SMITH: Yes. Like, maybe they hear from their, like, parents all the time, you’re just burning money every month…

            SCHLESINGER: Yeah, and…

            VANEK SMITH: …On your apartment in New York.

            SCHLESINGER: That’s – or San Francisco.

            VANEK SMITH: I wouldn’t – asking for a friend.

            SCHLESINGER: I know. And…

            VANEK SMITH: No, but I’ve heard this from my dad for years.

            SCHLESINGER: Of course, because he is of a certain generation.

            VANEK SMITH: He is of a certain generation, yeah.

            SCHLESINGER: And it worked for him. The real important issue is that if you lived in a place, and you looked at the numbers and you said, wow. You know, I could buy something for, essentially, the same price as my rent. And I really want to stick around here. And that would make me feel better. And it works – great. But I think too many people are plunging into buying without really thinking about, what is the effect long-term? There are times in your life where renting is so much more appealing, it’s almost a silly conversation.

            So when that voice in the back of your head of your parents or your grandparents says, you’re throwing money out the window, stop it. And here’s what you say to yourself. Rent is not throwing out the window – money out the window. Rent is buying opportunity. It’s buying flexibility.

    2. From the article:

      “Wage increases for drivers have increased double digits, insurance renewal rates have gone up and equipment is more expensive to maintain.”

      I seriously question how much of this is regulation vs. this company’s inability to compete. Plenty of other trucking companies are profitable and are doing just fine. Something doesn’t compute. I think the boogeyman of “regs” or “CARB” is convenient way of deflecting from the real issues, which may point closer to home. It’s hard to admit failure, easier to find a scapegoat.

      1. You should actually do some research on how much a new class 8 truck costs to replace those that don’t pass the new smog regs. It’s putting LOTS of people out of business.

        1. I don’t like to see businesses fail, but smog is no bueno either. I don’t mind seeing the most polluting trucks leaving the business. I have done tons of research and advocacy on PM 2.5 and PM 10 and its effects on cerebrovascular accidents, heart attacks, asthma, allergies, birth defects, pneumonia, etc. My mom and stepfather taught English in China where the air quality was horrendous. Life span is literally 10 years lower in some of the worst polluted cities.

  8. Will today’s tidal wave of ethnic minority homebuyers become tomorrow’s flood of race-based foreclosure victims?

    1. U.S.
      Wave of Hispanic Buyers Shores Up U.S. Housing Market
      Homeownership rate for Hispanics has increased more in recent years than any ethnic group
      Eyra Colindres closed on a $235,000 two-bedroom home in San Bernardino, Calif., last year. Hispanics accounted for nearly 63% of new U.S. homeowner gains over the past decade.
      Photo: Allison Zaucha for The Wall Street Journal
      By Laura Kusisto and
      Ben Eisen
      July 15, 2019 5:30 am ET
      …
      Down payments can also be a barrier to minority communities. A recent study by the Urban Institute found that 4.6 million Hispanic millennials earn enough to afford a home in their area but are blocked by a lack of down payment and inventory for sale. The Hispanic homeownership rate remains at 47.4%, well below the rate for non-Hispanic whites, which was over 73% in the first quarter.

      Local and national lenders have courted a Hispanic clientele, who represent an appealing growth market as overall loan volume has slowed. Lenders have added Spanish-speaking loan officers and devoted additional resources to underwriting loans to borrowers who are self-employed or where multiple generations in a family are buying a home together.

      NAHREP also said the median age in the Hispanic community is just under 29, compared with the median age for the U.S. overall of nearly 38 years old. That means Latinos are more weighted toward the age of first-time home buyers, who historically in the US. have been in their early 30s.

      Jason Madiedo, chief executive of Las Vegas-based Alterra Home Loans, said 80% of his company’s loans are to Hispanic buyers and 70% are to first-time buyers who are fearful that if they don’t buy a home now they won’t ever be able to afford one.

      “The FOMO—the fear of missing out—has sort of set in,” he said.

      Eyra Colindres, a 30-year-old Starbucks manager, began looking for a home last year after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ms. Colindres, who came to the Los Angeles area from Mexico when she was 5 years old, wanted to care for her parents by purchasing a home where they could live together.

      “Her biggest stress factor was how is she going to stay here,” Ms. Colindres said of her mother.

      Through a friend, Ms. Colindres met a loan officer at mortgage lender New American Funding. The loan officer helped her repair her credit so that she could get approved for a mortgage.

      In September 2018, she closed on a $235,000 two-bedroom in San Bernardino, Calif. She surprised her mother with the purchase, and they all moved in together. “It took her about a week to stop crying,” Ms. Colindres said.

      Hispanics and blacks saw significant gains in homeownership during the housing bubble, aided by lenders that targeted minority buyers with risky loans that eventually led to wide-scale foreclosures.

      The Hispanic homeownership rate hit a high of more than 50%, before plummeting 6 percentage points over the next eight years, according to census data.

      Houses in Hispanic communities were 2.5 times as likely to be foreclosed upon as homes in white communities between 2007 and 2015 while homes in black communities were twice as likely to be foreclosed on, according to an analysis by Zillow.
      …

      1. Amazing how the poorest of the poor can somehow “shore up” a foundering real estate market at its price peak. Weird math, huh?

        1. It’s not weird math, it’s weird $. It’s Yellen/Powell $ (FRNs) backed by the full faith and credit of U.S. Of course the taxpayer is the bag holder, so it’s Other People’s Money. Subprime buyers at 100%+ LTV have 0% skin in the game. Your tax $ at work. From bubble to bubble.

          1. It certainly is weird math. They still had to “qualify” for the loan, meaning prove the ability to repay. All of a sudden, at the apex of a housing bubble where prices have never been higher, the lowest income earners can “afford” houses and prop it up. Weird math indeed….

          2. I’m OK with this equation:

            “weird math = fraud”. (Eqn. 1)

            As Ben said at top of comments, this wouldn’t be happening if using their own $ (bankers or “buyers”). OPM (taxpayers) fueling moral hazard and outright fraud is enabling it.

            I’m sure Senator Running Deer and the CFPB are looking out for the best interests of taxpayers. /s

        2. “Shore up” = Maintain prices.

          Maintain prices = Maintain wealth.

          Maintained wealth = Equity cash-outs.

          Equity cash-outs are what drives a consumer-based economy that has had its high earning jobs shipped out to the rest of the world.

          And the best part: These equity cash-outs makes the lives of bankers so easy and so enjoyable.

          Like it, love it, want more of it.

          1. If you go the VA loans website, you’ll see that the average cash out loan amount is about the same in recent years as the average purchase loan amount and greater than the value of a median priced home in the US. VA loans up to 100% of a home’s value and makes up 12% of market. I infer from the cash out and purchase loans amounts being the same, that a significant number of these people are taking cash out loans to buy second properties with 0% down and the VA has become a conduit for real estate speculation using government guaranteed loans. Yes? No?

      2. “Down payments can also be a barrier to minority communities. A recent study by the Urban Institute found that 4.6 million Hispanic millennials earn enough to afford a home in their area but are blocked by a lack of down payment and inventory for sale.”

        Racis. Down payments are a barrier to EVERY community. EVERY millenial is blocked by a lack of inventory.

        2. How can you “afford” a home if you can’t save a down payment?

          Or does “afford” mean you can handle the debt load on a paycheck-by-paycheck basis? No room for error. What could go wrong?

          1. Especially considering renting a house is half the monthly cost of buying the same house. Depreciation at $4/square foot month after month.

            As one of our more eloquent contributors succinctly states, “If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, you can’t afford it nor is it affordable.”

            He’s right.

            Ormond Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 21% YOY As Florida Floods With Boomer Vacation Properties

            https://www.movoto.com/ormond-beach-fl/market-trends/

        3. Paoburn, basically the second one. It means that the person is already paying rent at the same amount that a monthly PITI would be. If they had the down payment, they could buy and pay the same monthly amount for a real house (and build equity etc).

          But you’re right, if you’re living so close paycheck to paycheck that you can’t save up a dp, you probably shouldn’t be buying a house. (For example, plan on at least another $5K for repairs after you move in.)

          3. Maintenance is a variable in the NYT calculator

            I suspect there is no entry in the calculator for one time catch-up on the previous owner’s deferred maintenance. It can leave a mark though, can’t it?

          4. It has an assumption for $2500 “first year” but I don’t know what to do with years after that. At least they know it’s a variable.

        1. She Won’t. That’d be racist.

          Some type of organization will get the money ( from tax payers) to keep her in her HOME. While the tax paying people are renting at 50% of income…
          god bless Amerika

  9. “Jeremy Tackett, co-owner of Carolina Real Estate believes there are already ‘far too many’ units in town, which is making it harder for him to rent properties. He manages some properties for people that are depending on their Clemson investments in retirement.”

    Drop the rent price Jer(k)emy… people don’t give a sh*t about their retirements or yours

    1. “He manages some properties for people that are depending on their Clemson investments in retirement.”

      Wasn’t the advice to buy college-adjacent properties a feature of the first housing bubble?

    1. This is going to be a repeat of housing crash 2008. Sub prime lending with low downs to get every knife catcher possible on the way down.

      Now even more the policy makers have a attitude that faulty lending is redistribute of wealth. I wouldn’t be surprised if a law is passed that minority defaulters get to stay in the house free for five years, or the default is forgiven.

      Welcome to the new world of redistribution of wealth at the taxpayers cost.

        1. We should be paying off the National debt , not talking about give-a-ways , Medicare for all, or the government backing faulty lending during a fake speculator driven housing bubble.

          As I said years ago on this blog, the first task is to bring back as many jobs and manufacturing back to USA by any means.

          Than whatever laws need to be enacted to rein in Wall Street and the faulty lending that has created a global speculation bubble based on debt.

          Whatever it takes to break the globalism game that only served to extract wealth and jobs from USA, while making big industry and the 1% richer.

          Big government shouldn’t take over any industry. The feds are in charge of a standing military. The government shouldn’t of even took over senior care by Medicare.

          The government shouldn’t be in the wealth transfer business. Fair taxes to all sectors , but tariffs to companies that want to operate outside USA in terms of outsourcing jobs or manufacturing.

          I’m going to stop here. When I see a ICE facility being attacked and the USA flag being taken down, while the Mexican Flag was raised by these protesters, while the media doesn’t want to talk about it, I’m fed up.

          1. “We should be paying off the National debt ,…”

            I don’t know what it is that you do for a living, but, seriously, you should try Stand Up.

          2. As I said years ago on this blog, the first task is to bring back as many jobs and manufacturing back to USA by any means.

            Well, the US is still a world-leader in manufacturing. The problem is that it takes a lot fewer jobs to make that stuff due to automation.

            The only made-in-America car in the top 10 by revenue in the US is Tesla. Here you have the most American car making company that is producing real manufacturing jobs in the US. Seems like we should be supporting more of that instead of these auto companies continually moving production to Mexico/Canada/Korea (I’m looking at you GM and Ford).

          3. “I’m going to stop here. When I see a ICE facility being attacked and the USA flag being taken down, while the Mexican Flag was raised by these protesters, ”

            OMG I had to look that up to make sure it was true. I hope Trump puts that in every campaign ad in 2020. If this is what “looking for a better life” is, then Germany was looking for a better life in France in 1940.

          4. I think the best idea, bring your billions stashed overseas tax free… But you have to spend it on Americans in America creating jobs….no bonuses unless everyone in your company gets the same amount, from the CEO to the janitor…. no stock buybacks,

            I guess we are so poorly trained that even Ikea doesn’t want to be here https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/16/business/ikea-us-factory-closing/index.html

            As I said years ago on this blog, the first task is to bring back as many jobs and manufacturing back to USA by any means.

          5. Tax cuts sure added a mess of debt to the USA. There are no fiscal conservatives anymore.
            Medicare should be a paid option like the post office vs fed ex.
            Competition is good.
            Farmers have been bailed out almost $30 billion now.
            Taxpayers losing billions a mo on the tariff war, with no end in sight.
            INfrasture is crumbling.

          6. “OMG I had to look that up to make sure it was true.”

            You are not going to find that kind of news on CNN, CBS, ABC or any of the propaganda networks.

    1. How else can you compenstae for losing 50 Grand on each car?

      Did Elon really cut Cobalt out of his batteries or just promise that he would? It’s hard to tell.

      1. The Cobalt is still there but in reduced quantities. Just read an article today that Tesla could not produce more than 7000 vehicles a week because it had an insufficient supply of Cobalt to make more batteries. China has locked up most of the supply. As far as Cobalt it’s primary function is to make the battery more stable. Since the reduction in Cobalt I have been reading about more fires. Is it a coincidence? I do not know but the trial attorneys suing Tesla on behalf of the victim s will figure it out

          1. As you reduce it, you reduce the life cycle of the cell.

            So does that mean the ecological impact and cost of these batteries is higher now, as they last a shorter amount of time?

          2. While you’re are at it, you might try Googling how many internal combustion fires there are in cars every year just to get a comparison.

            Hint: there are more than in EVs.

      2. At one time they were getting a $7500 credit from the US, money from other auto makers since they could use Their sales to offset CAFE requirements and were receiving state incentives. All of this when Tesla was just producing play things for the rich. At least the subsidies are dropping and the cars are getting closer to being middle class affordable. Still a very overpriced share price because of fan boys and girls but I support other people’s right to be stupid but just not with my tax money.

        1. And I still I see very few signs of a viable refueling infrastructure. A couple weekends ago on a whim drove to see a relative through some very unpopulated places. I wouldn’t do it in a Tesla.

          1. Jaguar Land Rover gets £500 million loan guarantee from UK to develop electric cars
            Electrek
            July 16, 2019
            Phil Dzikiy

            “Jaguar Land Rover’s push to develop new electric cars has earned the carmaker a loan guarantee of £500 million ($622 million) from the UK government.”

            “Prime Minister Theresa May said the guarantee would help Jaguar sell new EVs globally, according to The Guardian. A funding pot for the loan is said to include £500 million from UK Export Finance, and an additional £125 million comes from commercial lenders. May discussed the loan guarantee after a meeting with automakers including Aston Martin, BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall, and energy groups such as BP, Shell, and National Grid.”

            “The timing comes as Jaguar Land Rover recently announced its commitment to making electric cars in the UK, and as the UK looks to make bold moves to accelerate EV adoption.”

            “The UK government announced Monday that it looks to put electric charging points in all new homes in the future as a way to accelerate EV adoption. The government also proposed new regulations that will ensure non-residential buildings must meet chargepoint requirements, based on the number of parking spaces available.”

          2. Oxide,

            Have you checked out plugshare.com? I have 310 in my model 3 and I can go anywhere in the US with plenty of range. The supercharger network is very built out, plus more and more 3rd party charging stations are coming online all the time. Tesla charging plugs have new adapters to work with CHADMO (Nissan) standards too. It’s common to maybe have range anxiety when you make the transition. But as long as you have over 240 miles, it’s pretty easy to go anywhere you want to go in US/Canada.

          3. A couple weekends ago on a whim drove to see a relative through some very unpopulated places. I wouldn’t do it in a Tesla.

            That’s what I thought until I saw a supercharger in my hotel parking lot in Laramie, Wyoming in March. I’m sure there are plenty of no-go places, but there are a surprising number of places you can go.

            I’m as skeptical as anybody about how and why the govt may be helping/pushing Tesla. But they ARE doing a good job of building out the infrastructure at a rate I never would have though was possible.

  12. VA loans are being used to buy investments properties. I cannot put an exact number on it but it happens frequently when I was in the mortgage industry. Maybe 1 in 20 VA loans are for investment properties is my guess. There needs to be more auditing of the VA loan program.

      1. In 1960, world demand was 21.4 million barrels a day, this year demand is projected to increase by a 1.1 million barrels which is a lesser amount than was forecast due to sluggish world growth. Next year it is forecast to increase by 1.4 million to just short of 105 million barrels. I hope demand for housing does not plummet like oil demand because then the Realtors will be correct. Honestly do not see that happening otherwise the PTB would not be playing the race card to get sales from minorities.

        1. plummet like oil demand

          The bursting of the worldwide credit bubble will turn oil demand from a plummet to a freefall. All malinvestment increases energy usage: building highrises that no one will live in, Chinese ghost cities, ethanol in gasoline, solar panels, wind turbines, Teslas, 3,000 ft2 investment houses & etc.

          Every time one of these things is built, it makes the price of whatever you need go up. All enabled by cheap and easy credit.

          What were they thinking?

          1. You forgot to mention that Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, and Google are also going to collapse.

  14. “Is Denver overbuilt, or are all of these new apartment communities making up for pentup demand from the past 15 years?”

    Pentup demand, LOLZ. Denver = CRATER.

    “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

    1. Do you think all those people who bought at $13k and quickly lost over 25% are HOLDing?

    2. I’ll stick with cold hard cash. Mess with bitcoin and you’ve got a whole bunch of legal problems.

        1. I’d go for physical

          The best investment is always to get out of debt. There are some pretty big players though who have debt and have speculated in PMs. When their debts are difficult to service, the physical assets will be sold and prices will fall. Then might be a better time, not at peak global debt.

          1. “The best investment is always to get out of debt.”

            +1 This is the best strategy for Joe Sixpack.

          2. best investment is always to get out of debt

            I’m following this as well as other sage advice here and moving forward with a 1031 exchange. In order to avoid any boot, I anticipate making some comp killing offers.

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