thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Zero Down Was Really The Only Option, The Money Wasn’t There

A report from the Orlando Sentinel in Florida. “More Central Floridians are taking out zero-down loans to buy a home. ‘We didn’t have to put $30,000 down on a house, but you still get the house you want,’ said Christina Martinez, whose family bought a home in Kissimmee a few months ago with a zero-down loan through Veterans Affairs. ‘We could have put (something) down, but since we didn’t have to, we just didn’t.'”

“Economists said it’s a relatively safe time to use zero-down programs, as home values continue to rise and the labor market remains strong. But some urged caution, pointing out the programs usually have high interest rates and high monthly mortgage payments. ‘As people have recovered, now banks are becoming a little bit looser with their lending standards,’ said Jason Martin, a financial adviser with Allgen Financial.”

“Stacy Luna, a lender with Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, says buyers who don’t make much of a down payment are more likely to lose their homes to their lenders. ‘Unfortunately, what we do find with people with less skin in the game, those are the people who end up in foreclosure,’ Luna said. ‘Maybe they lose their job, or maybe they had a roommate and now the roommate’s gone, something breaks on the house. All they know is I only had $1,000 in it so why should I stay?'”

“For Dana Signore, a single mother who recently bought a house in Clermont, the only way she could afford to buy a home was if she didn’t put anything down. She qualified for a zero-down loan through the USDA for her $230,000 home.’That was really the only option,’ Signore said. ‘The money wasn’t there.'”

“If her clients qualify and are comfortable with the monthly mortgage payments, Annie Amalfitano, a loan originator for Motto Mortgage Exclusive, encourages them to utilize the VA and USDA programs. It’s better than renting, she says. ‘Why would you pay $1,200, $1,500, $1,600 a month … when you can get into a home for that much? Why would you?’ Amalfitano said. ‘You’re just lining somebody else’s pockets and you’re not building any equity yourself. Your rent is going out the window.'”

The Bradenton Herald in Florida. “The hottest part of the housing market in the Bradenton area is for houses priced $300,000 to $350,000, said Beth Barnett, a real estate sales associate for Coldwell Banker based at Lakewood Ranch. Conversely, the upward tier of the market is not selling well. ‘They are just sitting there. Many baby boomers are downsizing and don’t want the McMansions any more. It’s not that they can’t afford them. They just want to get out and enjoy life,’ Barnett said.”

The Los Angeles Times. “NBA free agent Arron Afflalo has finally sold his Las Vegas estate, but for a few million short of what he’d hoped. After listing last year for $5.675 million, the home sold for $3.469 million — or $331,000 less than he paid for it in 2017.”

The Denver Post in Colorado. “On a burning-hot July day, Tom and Cassandra Chavez stood outside the 1947 two-bedroom cottage they have nearly finished renovating. Their family bought the home in January for $250,000 as a fix-and-flip — joining a growing crew of new investors in East Colfax, a neighborhood at Denver’s far eastern edge. But things weren’t working out just yet.”

“Despite extensive renovations, the property wasn’t selling at their $325,000 list price. They got bites, until people looked down the block to Colfax — a screaming-fast stretch of pavement that is Denver’s most notorious, whether it’s for unsafe traffic or crime. ‘The feedback we’ve gotten from all the lookers is, ‘It’s just too close to Colfax,’ Tom Chavez said.”

“Now the family is considering a far different move: Tom and Cassandra might just live there.”

The Star Tribune in Minnesota. “Want to live like Twin Cities royalty? There’s a castle for sale, set on a secluded hilltop in Eagan that was once the kingdom of former Northwest Airlines CEO Steve Rothmeier. And it’s now back on the market, a relative bargain at $1.995 million after a magic-wand price drop of $1 million. Rothmeier died in 2014, not long after selling the home to the current owners, a couple who completely updated it for modern family living.”

“The grand house, which was on the market for $2.995 million in 2017, is now priced well below replacement value, according to Lakes Sotheby’s agent Julie Regan.”

From Jersey Digs in New Jersey. “If the $7 million price tag on a six-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion overlooking Weehawken’s waterfront has kept you from putting in a bid, there’s good news: The price was reduced late last month by $400,000. The 5,113-square-foot house was listed for nearly $12 million in 2016, which could have set a sales record for the county — but the price was slashed over the years. On June 25 it was cut again to $6.6 million.”

From KMOX in Missouri. “Going into its third year on the market, the St. Louis home of Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull is still looking for a buyer. Realtor.com recently updated the price of the 10,472-square-foot mansion, located just west of Forest Park and says it’s been reduced to $2,795,000. When the home was first listed in 2016, the asking price was $3,775,000. The Blues all-time leader in goals first purchased it in 2014 and began a $2 million renovation.”

From Community Impact in Texas. “After several years of both the number of closed sales and the costs of those homes rising, data shows the real estate market in San Marcos, Buda and Kyle is cooling off. ‘I really believe that it’s just stable—that it’s not a buyer’s or a seller’s market,’ said Peggy Jones, president of Four Rivers Association of Realtors, which does business in Caldwell, Comal, Gonzales, Guadalupe and Hays counties.”

From Mansion Global on New York. “The Upper East Side apartment belonging to Allen Simon, inventor of the Wee Wee Pad for dogs, saw a $7 million price cut on Monday. The full-floor spread, originally listed in April for $39.95 million, is now asking $33 million. Daniela Kunen from Douglas Elliman has the listing.”

“‘Tax laws hit New York very hard,’ Ms. Kunen said. ‘It’s not a secret that it’s a soft market right now.’ July 1 saw the integration of a progressive mansion tax in Manhattan, imposing a sales tax of up to 3.9% on homes of $25 million or more.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 206 Comments

  1. ‘Annie Amalfitano, a loan originator for Motto Mortgage Exclusive, encourages them to utilize the VA and USDA programs. It’s better than renting, she says. ‘Why would you pay $1,200, $1,500, $1,600 a month … when you can get into a home for that much? Why would you?’ Amalfitano said. ‘You’re just lining somebody else’s pockets and you’re not building any equity yourself. Your rent is going out the window’

    Example number something thousand of zero down subprime lending. Eat yer crowz jingle male.

    1. I will not repeat my comment in full I made in the previous thread but thanks to the government we have people who will rent to own furniture buying overpriced houses.

      1. Certainly the same gang of financial geniuses who also dropped $1K on the latest iphone they don’t need and just signed a lease for that high end BMW.

        Who cares if a large fraction of the US population doesn’t understand the concept of percent or know how to balance their checkbooks.

        What really counts is image, right?

        How did we [USA] all arrive at this spot?

        1. “Who cares if a large fraction of the US population doesn’t understand the concept of percent or know how to balance their checkbooks.”

          I care. These pukes are the ones who support my lavish and utterly decadent lifestyle.

          “What really counts is image, right?”

          Fashion, what really counts is fashion. Get the pukes to become fashion conscious and then continuously switch fashions. For example: A generation ago McMansions were fashionable, now McMansions are out and downsizing is in.

          “How did we [USA] all arrive at this spot?”

          No Child Left Behind.

          5. “What about signing on yer “dotted.lie$” _._._._._._._? 😉”

            1. Dumb ’em down.

            2 Profit.

            If these ignorant pukes weren’t so dumbed-down they would tell me “Hell no!” and then laugh in my face”.

            But they don’t say no and they don’t laugh; What they do is sign their name. And then they thank me.

          6. “If these ignorant pukes weren’t so dumbed-down they would tell me “Hell no!” and then laugh in my face”.

            Well, that makes total $ense:

            Mr.banker: “you’re $tupid, let me help you, to help me”

            A.k.a : Mr.Wonderfull!

        2. Instagram star racked up $10,000 in debt in search of the perfect social media life

          ““I wanted to tell my story about this young millennial living in New York,” Calveiro, who has more than 12,000 followers on Instagram, told the New York Post. “I was shopping . . . for clothes to take ‘the perfect ’gram.’ ””

          “Although her social media life looked glamorous, she was struggling financially, given that her internship only paid for a transportation stipend. Living off her savings, she also got a part-time retail job. Even after she moved back to Miami and landed a full-time publicist gig, Calveiro sank $10,000 into debt trying to live an Instagram-worthy life.”

        3. “How did we get here?” —Dubya

          It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group. The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money. Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., told him that to stave off disaster, he would have to sign off on the biggest government bailout in history. Mr. Bush, according to several people in the room, paused for a single, stunned moment to take it all in. “How,” he wondered aloud, “did we get here?”

          1. Good gawd, it’$ a true American U$A taxpayer$ $alvation that $hrub had the good $ense to li$ten & tru$t Mr. Paul$on!!!

      2. As Ben has pointed out innumerable times, the end of a bubble always sucks in the least credit-worthy debt-junkies.

        1. ‘‘Why would you pay $1,200, $1,500, $1,600 a month … when you can get into a home for that much? Why would you?…You’re just lining somebody else’s pockets and you’re not building any equity yourself. Your rent is going out the window’

          Such a compelling argument. Obviously intended for simple-minded borrowers. Envy, fear of missing out, the idea of “somebody else” taking advantage, throwing money away. Jeebus, this is straight out of 2005.

        2. Somebody has to keep prices rising. If standards have to be lowered for this to occur then so be it.

          1. A reminder: For each dollar of price increase on a house a dollar of equity wealth is magically created for the comps. If there are a hundred comps then one dollar of price increase on a house will magically create one hundred dollars for the comps.

            It doesn’t matter to the economy if the puke who pays up for a house cannot afford the house he has contracted to buy, it only matters to the economy that the price of the house has increased.

            Equity wealth is created when housing prices increase and equity wealth is destroyed when housing prices decrease so it is imperative in our current economic wonderland that housing prices increase by any means necessary.

      1. Mr Banker,

        In your above post you are saying in essence that it doesn’t matter If some puke buyer can afford the loan, and that it only matters that the value increased by that sale.

        Would you agree however that if a number of unqualified puke buyers purchased property without being qualified, that this would created a false market. That only a willing and able and qualified buyer would be a buyer that is arms length and not fraudulent,or not really qualified.

        Just kidding, I would rather you do your stand up act that i laugh my ass off over.

    5. Yeah, Zillow says my house dropped $30,000 in value this month.

      Luckily, the value is still $300,000 more than I paid in 2010, and my loan principal has been reduced by $80,000 since I bought the place. It’s almost like getting free housing for a decade.

      I think I’ll have a tender filet mignon for dinner tonight.

      1. “Yeah, Zillow says my house dropped $30,000 in value this month.

        Luckily, the value is still $300,000 more than I paid in 2010,…”

        You’d better sell fast. At that rate of decline, your equity could drop underwater within a year.

        1. We shall see in 2020 PB. Here is your prediction from December of 2015. There has not been much change in the Zillow value for the last 5 years, which is O.K., since I plan to live here until they put a toe tag on me. Meanwhile, rents in my area have gone up about 50% in the lasts 5-years.

          Comment by Professor Bear
          2015-12-18 08:08:37
          I predict your house will be worth less in five years than it is today, even according to Zillow.

        1. The lending today does not remotely approach the fraud levels of 2005-2006. The wall street subprime underwriting was much more pervasive and much looser than the Fannie/Freddie underwriting of today. I agree the zero down programs are not the best thing for insulation from a downturn. Also, the VA loan program is self sustaining and has never needed a bail out. God bless our veterans.

        2. Modern genius is winning a bad odds bet with borrowed money. You don’t have it though until the chips are off the table.

          As for the other issue, it is one of an hundred things wrong that will never be admitted.

  2. ‘NBA free agent Arron Afflalo has finally sold his Las Vegas estate, but for a few million short of what he’d hoped. After listing last year for $5.675 million, the home sold for $3.469 million — or $331,000 less than he paid for it in 2017’

    Sure a lot of dummies losing their ass in this post.

    1. It’s also interesting how many recently purchased properties are already back up for sale. If you’re not even going to be in a house 2 years, it makes no sense to sell. You don’t even get the tax free gains – assuming there are any.

    4. This article made me think of all the people who keep telling me that Las Vegas real estate will just keep going up! Simply because of the sports teams moving to town, lol.

  4. “On a burning-hot July day, Tom and Cassandra Chavez stood outside the 1947 two-bedroom cottage they have nearly finished renovating. Their family bought the home in January for $250,000 as a fix-and-flip — joining a growing crew of new investors in East Colfax, a neighborhood at Denver’s far eastern edge. But things weren’t working out just yet.”

    Oh man. And now they’re going to live in it. And find out why nobody else wants to be that close to Colfax. We’ve got to be past the top now…there’s no way they’ve ever seen East Colfax during a recession.

    1. ‘We’ve got to be past the top now’

      Yeah, even Larry acknowledges the stench of failure. An important point: subprime didn’t cause the bubble. It’s simply the REIC has run out of buyers. It’s a sign. Look at the recent HBB articles. The major markets are done. And here they are, out there scrapping the barrel for a few more suckers. The REIC is a real living thing, and they would sell their grandmothers for a couple more months commissions.

      1. Two decades worth of shelling out subprime mortgages, millions of defective appraisals, carrying costs that are double rental rates, concealing millions of defaults and foreclosures, etc.

        Now cratering prices.

      2. I agree subprime did not cause this bubble. However government seems to be determined to keep it going. One program after another seems to be geared to put people into houses they cannot afford. Right now we have the best of both worlds a deflating bubble with the IMF predicting a 2.6 percent growth rate for the year in the US. It will not hit that this quarter with inventory reduction, Floods and Boeing but over the entire year it is reasonable. Thus it is the perfect time to work off the excesses in the housing market. But no we need to extend access to no down payment loans to everyone etc.

        1. The GSE’s started this in late 2014. The mania was trying to die. Remember the LTV shenanigans? The FHA premium cut? Lending targeted at illegal aliens? This was all years ago. And the one lady mentions only having $1,000 in the game. I’ve mentioned several times that the loans I’ve personally seen in Arizona the past year and a half had the buyers not putting one penny down, even rolling closing costs into the gamble. That’s over 100% financing. And just yesterday I posted a no-doc, zero down loan huckster. If this is happening in Florida and Tennessee it’s happening everywhere.

          2. I think it’s pretty funny that yesterday you posted an article of a guy saying: “I tell clients they need to prepare to spend $1,000,” as if it were some big thing.

            And today we have a lady saying “they only had $1,000 in it,” as if it were NOT some big thing.

        2. does anyone have info on the next financial savior machines big gov will roll out as real estate gets stanky again?

          1. ” …financial $avior machine$ big gov will roll out”in

            Well, the gubermint$ is just like the Queen, figurehead$, … It’$ the NON gubermint entitie$, Thee Fed Fund$ & Wall $treet Mega.Wanker.Banker$ that are the Hero’$ & $avior’$!

            What where the Puni$hment$ & .01% $uffering’$ Thee last time?

    2. It’s a sign when you start seeing speculative activity in unlikely locations that were passed over earlier in the cycle. Slivers of land wedged between small businesses or other existing homes, across the street from industrial zoning, etc.

    3. At least when Tom and Cassandra are self-medicating with illicit drugs to dull the pain of their disastrous financial choices, Colfax Avenue and its plentiful drug dealers are just a hop, skip and a jump from their front porch.

  5. Just more evidence of a repeat performance of 06-10. Many of same reasons. Did lot of foreclosure/short sale appraisals in the day. FOMO was a big part of why young people stretched. It was very tangible since prices in Manatee and Sarasota counties were rising rapidly. Cant really blame them because home ownership would have appeared impossible in the future if they waited given the mood at time. Appears prevalent again.

    When RE starts going down and economy tanks, jobs and resultant ability to pay shrinks too. One of FHAs missions is to assist this group. Not surprisingly they have a fairly high rate of claims. Its built in. This base of RE food chain can destabilize the market when it crumbles, and this segment can crumble very badly. Saw houses which sold near 200k had value drop to near 70k at low trough. Much worse than the generally accepted overall market drop quoted at around 30 to 40% during that time.

    The recent big gains in silver/gold spot prices are a kind of quiet clue to where things might be headed. It tends to work than way. They do not move for no apparent reason

    1. As Mr Pinto at AEI has pointed out, FHA is supposed to be counter-cyclical. Meaning they lend more when the market heads down. (Fannie and Freddie are pro-cyclical). A few years ago FHA went the other way, so the entire government loan complex has been more aggressive, all at the same time. I wonder who came up with that horse-hockey idea?

      1. “I wonder who came up with that horse-hockey idea?”

        Whoever it was immediately became my personal hero.

      2. Re: horse-hockey
        – The gov’t is essentially the housing market since the GFC, as they (taxpayer) guarantee the loans that set lending limits and so price.
        – The Fed is now essentially the stock market. The Fed has been helping the housing market as well with ultra-low rates. The Fed is a proxy for the gov’t.
        – The gov’t. is now the student loan market, driving up tuition by guaranteeing loans and setting loan limits.
        – In every case, prices/costs have gone up. Bubbles one and all. Thanks for all the “help”. While higher stock prices are “good”, how can the same be said for wealth inequality? What happens when all of these mean revert? Welcome to our bizzaro, command and control economy.

        1. I posted yesterday how Obama was celebrating skyrocketing house prices and what the government was doing to encourage it. Nobody even commented. The government is working diligently to make the most expensive item in the household budget, as expensive as humanly possible. Now we have an explosion in homelessness. This is not a coincidence. The govt. is the enemy.

          2. Nobody even commented

            Nobody disagreed with you. It has been all too evident for a long time.

          3. Good $ummation Mike!

            (Eye would add in yer equation somewhere$: “debt.brick$” accumulation$)

    2. When RE starts going down and economy tanks, jobs and resultant ability to pay shrinks too.

      I remember when I had my first hospital job as an RN. I was in the ER. The guy who was my preceptor said, “The best thing about this hospital is that you can basically get OT whenever you want. I don’t take it right now, but I could if I wanted to.”

      In my observation, a lot of people make long-term commitments to a house or a vehicle based on current assumptions that are not always rock solid. When things turn south, suddenly everyone wants that extra OT, but it’s not available. But that was the what everyone was counting on, so the defaults start happening.

      1. “In my observation, a lot of people make long-term commitments to a house or a vehicle based on current assumptions that are not always rock solid.”

        Yep.

        “When things turn south, suddenly everyone wants that extra OT, but it’s not available.”

        Yep.

        “But that was the what everyone was counting on, so the defaults start happening.”

        Yep.

        I trotted this chart out some time ago but because the passage of time exceed 27 minutes I need to trot it out again so as to refresh some very short memories.

        Before Sputnik (launched by the Evil Soviets in October, 1957) there was no such thing as NASA. After Sputnik was launched NASA sprung into being. Springing into being meant funding.

        Check out the chart: Funding for NASA in 1957 was zero; This is because there was no such thing as NASA in 1957. Now place your finger on the chart move it over to the year 1966. Note the level of funding for 1966. This funding for NASA in 1966 represented about 4.6 percent of GDP. This huge chunk of funding for NASA in 1966 sent a signal to millions of children that the way to the future for them was Aerospace. Aerospace was a lock. NASA was a lock. Becoming an engineer was a lock.

        Then … something happened: Move your finger to the years that exceed the year 1966 and check out what happened to the funding that was set aside for NASA. These years were not fun for Aerospace. The “lock” morphed into “something else”. This something else was represented by aerospace careers being demolished.

        Engineers that had a lock on the future in aerospace painfully discovered that this career had a lifespan of something like fifteen years or so. Bust one’s ass in college to become an engineer and discover one’s career lasts only fifteen years? No thanks. But this is what happened.

        So, during those fifteen years, what did all these people do with all the huge amounts of money they earned?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA#/media/File:NASA-Budget-Federal.svg

        2. Golly, it sure was expensive to have Stanley Kubrick film all those moon landings in his studio.

          1. The “alternate.shasta” piling up on the “right” is gonna prove the earth is flat!

          2. The NASA budget was cover for other mic items.

            But they lost all of the original film footage and telemetry data. Sure.

          3. “But they lost all of the original film footage and telemetry data. Sure.”

            Anyone with federal government experience can relate to shifting budget priorities. It’s a good thing they didn’t do the moon landing during a change in administrations or else they might’ve left ’em up there.

        3. “…So, during those fifteen years, what did all these people do with all the huge amounts of money they earned?…”

          TGIF’s at the Rocket Room?

    3. I’m happy to see gold and silver finally moving up. At the same time, I’m puzzled by the continuing palladium bubble.

    1. Poor OAM had a tough day, Tesla lost even more money than expected and the US rebate has not even fully ended.

        1. Has anyone asked him about insurance on his car? I hear due to the high repair costs insurance is two to three times a comparably priced car.

          1. Not that I’ve seen here, but yes insurance companies are getting wise to the real costs.

          2. I pay $72.81/month on my model 3 via Geico. $1000 deductible + uninsured motorist bodily injury.

            My insurance is about 2x the 10-year-old Honda Civic it replaced. But of course it is apples vs. oranges since on the Honda civic we had collision only, it was 10 yo car, and even when it was brand new it was 1/3 the price of the Tesla.

            Tesla insurance is more expensive than a Honda Civic, Nissan Leaf, or Toyota Corolla. But it’s about the same with a comparably priced Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus.

          3. Tesla is an economic and ecological disaster. It will go down in history as a poster child of this manic age.

      2. I had a great day actually. Spent the entire day at the amusement park with wife and son (Lagoon). Really a beautiful day. I don’t own Tesla stock so I really don’t care where it goes. All I know is that I see more and more model 3s on the road everywhere I go and when I talk to owners at supercharger stations they love their cars just as much as I love mine.

    1. Difficult not to feel empathy for him, to be put on the hot seat by the angry left mob like that, with the expectation that he would somehow mollify their collective TDS with some 11th hour surprise revelation.

      1. I guess it also explains why Mueller wanted his second-in-command to testify under oath beside him. He wanted the second-in-command to do most of the talking.

        So far, nothing new. Many of the libbies are saying that they are satisfied, because they think Mueller “would have” indicted Trump if Justice Department rules had allowed it.

          3. He was only the figure head for the investigation. If you look at who really prepared the report they were a collection of unethical political hacks one of whom was actually rebuked by the Supreme Court for sending innocent people to jail related to the Enron case. He doesn’t try to get people to sing but to compose

          4. Google Andrew Weissman and unethical and see the numerous accounts on how unethical he is and he is really the person who is responsible for the report.

  9. “The 5,113-square-foot house was listed for nearly $12 million in 2016, which could have set a sales record for the county — but the price was slashed over the years. On June 25 it was cut again to $6.6 million.”

    45% off sale…

  11. Thee stench of deception:

    Obstruction?: Yes
    Collusion?: Yes

    Hoax!: No
    Witchhunt!: No

    Go Bob! … Go!

      1. Bugs: “eh, could bee!”

        Buying “Farmers.in.debt” vote$ is gettin’ clo$e to cau$e.a.$troke territorie$ too!

        Go $unny, Go!

        Minimum payment$ to U.$. farmers under trade aid will be $15/acre: Perdue

        WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.$. Agriculture $ecretary $onny Perdue said on Tuesday that the minimum payment to farmers under the next round of trade-related federal aid will be $15 per acre.

        Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters | July 23 2019

        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-farmers-payment/minimum-payment-to-u-s-farmers-under-trade-aid-will-be-15-acre-perdue-idUSKCN1UI2AD?il=0

      2. Enlightening for the American people to get this first-hand portal into the FBI leadership. It did not inspire trust and confidence. if you were falsely accused, would you want these agenda-driven Chekists handling the investigation?

      3. (-Bob) … Go Ben! Go

        Thee stench of deception:

        Obstruction?: Yes
        Collusion?: Yes

        Hoax!: No
        Witchhunt!: No

        1. Proof? Poof! Where is it? Maybe slobberin’ Bob can come back? Turn those machines back on!

          1. Wow Mr. Ben … You’re claimin’ “you know” Bob’s havin’ a “stroke” while he was testify this.day is that correct? Might bee good to reference to later on when you offer Nut.cracker Conway “alternative.facts” about what you really stated.

          2. “Maybe slobberin’ Bob”

            Eye don’t know him, but eye doubt that he would ever say that about you Mr. Ben, nor would eye.

            Good to bee the king of yer own blog! Eye reckon.

          4. ” let’s stick to the facts”: ( ya keep use “other folks” take! Why?)

            Bobby’s “under.oath” testimony:..

            Obstruction?: Yes
            Collusion?: Yes

            Hoax!: No
            Witchhunt!: No

            Why keep using “others” interpretation’s?

            Just quote “having.a.stroke” Bob … How tough is it?

        2. Obstruction?: Yes
          Collusion?: Yes

          Evidence of delusion. I suggested two remedies. Long-standing legal principles have been twisted to meet desired talking points.

          1. “Evidence of delusion.”

            Oh no redPILL, my Philosophy Professor demanded that we only use thee ACTUAL words spoken bye Thee hero’s of everyone!

            Obstruction?: Yes
            Collusion?: Yes

            Hoax!: No
            Witchhunt!: No

            Now yer task, as well as Mr.Ben, is to refute the very words of Mr. Bob!

            Eye’m confident that you both posses the cognitive abilities to express those evidences.

            Go! Provide evidences to Bob’s statements that are knot what he spoke! … Eye’m awatin’!

          3. Ben, you know better:

            Dad: did you take cookies from the jar?
            Kid: eye told Mom eye did knot!
            Dad: OK, she said you had crumbs on yer face.
            Kid: well, Billy had some left over cookies from lunch
            Dad: well, that was@ school, this was @ 5p.m. Just before dinner.
            Kid: geez, can crumbs can last that long?
            Dad: eye reckon so …

          5. Collusion, outside of antitrust law, is not a crime. Obstruction requires an underlying offense. Whatever perceived conclusion there may be was a setup. I provided you with link to extensive support. You can search through Mueller’s testimony today to find his response that his investigation was not impeded in any way. I have better things to do than assuage your cognitive dissonance.

          6. watch this: Thee stench of deception:

            Obstruction?: Yes
            Collusion?: Yes

            Hoax!: No
            Witchhunt!: No

          1. I can’t figure out if you’re being sarcastic or not.

            At this point, all we know for a fact is that Mueller found no collusion. However, Mueller laid out some evidence for obstruction and basically told Congress “Take this and run with it, I’m done.” And the Democratically-controlled house is refusing to run with it, at least for the moment. No amount of foot-stamping or screaming at the sky is going to change this. I think the most we’re going to hear after this Democrats shouting “Lock him up” at campaign rallies.

          2. I think the guy is guilty of not being a gold star member of the club that some of us wanted to be stopped. Others believed it could never be stopped and shouldn’t be. Reality is $u$pended for them.

      4. “I think he was having a stroke.”

        He was stammering like he was $hittin’ a basketball.

        1. Are you commenting on … Yer own/own commets?

          Certainly there over.thee.counter.jib.jab.drug$ for that $yndrome!

          2. “Hwy needs some Haldol.”I

            Sounds like you’re promoting the di$tribution of drug$ without seeing the patient, is that correct Dr.?

        2. Hwy – your Trump Derangement Syndrome is showing badly right now. Maybe sit back and relax with a cold one and think about something else for a while?

          1. Why do you feel compelled to make a judgement on myself? … Eye feel no such compulsion about you, just a free exchange of POV’s … Who has the “owning” i$$ue of discussing truth & ideas … or … You, who tells me what eye should do … show me where eye have ever suggested what YOU should do ( other than express a thought for/ against of what you think?)

            Peace.to all!

          2. I wasn’t telling you what to do, Hwy, it was just a friendly suggestion since you’re just littering this thread with your TDS.

    3. I really wish you’d stop changing the name you post under, hwy. You’re going to make me go implement regular expression matching….

      1. Oh accidental, eye found a kink in yer cen$or$hip, lucky.taoist.me!

        $orry Dave, eye cannot do that!

        1. It’s not censorship when individuals hit the ignore button, which I keep doing because of your ridiculous replacement of Ss with dollar signs. It regards my reading, o.e. wastes my time and I put up with that from no one because I understand scarcity. Use your words. You’re a big boy. Ostensibly.

  12. Logic would dictate get your act together, clean up your hood, help the police solve crimes, and your community will be too expensive to gentrify.
    ————-
    In fact, East Colfax is “one of the most vulnerable neighborhoods to gentrification in the region

    1. The Chinese money is by no means gone, and the bubble prices are still at peak levels in most areas.

      1. It is not gone but it is diminishing. A combination of currency controls by the Chinese government and decreased profits means less money can flow into overseas real estate.

  15. “For Dana Signore, a single mother who recently bought a house in Clermont, the only way she could afford to buy a home was if she didn’t put anything down. She qualified for a zero-down loan through the USDA for her $230,000 home.’That was really the only option,’ Signore said. ‘The money wasn’t there.’”

    The stupid, it burns. Not on the part of this future “victim,” but on the part of the loan officer who put her into a house she’s going to end up walking away from. As the percentage of “woke” Americans keeps growing, the banks are going to have a tougher time getting their congressional minions to ram through another banker bailout once the Everything Bubble goes pear-shaped.

    1. There won’t be a congressional vote on a bail out. There won’t even be a congressional debate on a bail out. They put the mechanisms in place for this after the last bail out, which in fact authorized a bail out in perpetuity. There won’t even be a single article in the WSJ or NYT discussing the bail out. They’ll just do it. No vote, no discussion, no press conference, no NYT editorial, no WSJ analysis.

      1. And then, eventually, outright economic collapse and GDIII. It’s the natural aftermath of too much hair-of-the-dog.

        1. Eventually, can be a long time. I was hoping for a Weimar Republic type crash instead of one that played out over hundreds of years like the economic collapse of the Roman Empire.

        2. Falling prices will do nothing but improve the economy. In fact that’s whats occurring right now as housing prices continue to slide.

      2. “They’ll just do it. No vote, no discussion, no press conference, no NYT editorial, no WSJ analysis.”

        FWIW, a banana republic.

    2. “She basically said she didn’t have any money.” That’s OK, here’s a free house!

  17. ” let’s stick to the facts”: ( ya keep use “other folks” take! Why?)

    Bobby’s “under.oath” testimony:..

    Obstruction?: Yes
    Collusion?: Yes

    Hoax!: No
    Witchhunt!: No

    Why keep using “others” interpretation’s?

    Just quote “having.a.stroke” Bob … How tough is it?

      1. Mafia Blocks:
        I think he was having a stroke.”
        He was stammering like he was $hittin’ a basketball.

        Eye knew a “republican.woman” … she had a epidural during birthing, … later, while the family was awaitin ‘ in the family room for x3hrs … her brother announced she left a turd the size of a NFL football.

        Eye reckon a NBA basketball is way worser, & reckon ye personally would know better.

    1. Adrian Peterson deep in debt despite earning $99m after ‘trusting wrong

      Dude, with $99m, invest in 30yr treasuries @3% and you’re bringing in $3m/yr without touching your principal. Rent everything and you can live an amazingly lavish life with that….

      1. To be fair, easily half of that was lost to income taxes.

        Every city and state that has a professional team has “visiting worker” taxes to get a slice of those high paid athletes.

        I think I told you guys a couple times about working for Disney (I usually refer to them as ‘the house of mouse’) – Whenever I would have to fly down to Glendale (to visit the imagineering labs for the projects I was working on), the California Franchise Tax Board taxed me for wages earned that day (and more sometimes) with the Source Rule and “Duty Days”. (linked article discusses it and how it’s handled with visiting Athletes)

        Fortunately Disney took care of the paperwork and extra taxes for me, because it was so common for them and they are so large, but it’s one reason I will decline remote work offers that have me coming on site to companies in the bay area (unless they pay nicely extra to cover it).

    1. Lots of theories on this one. Mainly, that people in high places don’t want him to testify. I leave it to you to speculate who those people would be.

      1. Yes I was thinking the same thing but I believe when they try it
        , It will be successful. Unless they were just sending him a warning that they can reach him so keep his mouth shut.

  21. “From Mansion Global on New York. “The Upper East Side apartment belonging to Allen Simon, inventor of the Wee Wee Pad for dogs, saw a $7 million price cut on Monday.”

    $7 million?

    That’s a lot of Wee Wee Pads.

    Of course I always used newspaper when I was house training my dogs so I wouldn’t know how much a Wee Wee Pad for dogs actually cost.

  22. “Economists said it’s a relatively safe time to use zero-down programs, as home values continue to rise and the labor market remains strong.”

    The worst vice is advice.

    1. fastFT German economy
      German manufacturing reports industry ‘in freefall’
      Key survey points to weakest sentiment in nine years
      Adam Samson in London
      4 hours ago

      German factory executives have reported that industry conditions are in “free fall”, according to a survey that comes just hours before the European Central Bank’s policy decision.

      The Ifo Institute’s manufacturing business climate index slumped to minus 4.3 in July from positive 1.3 the previous month. The reading was the lowest in more than nine years and echoes a separate survey released on Wednesday that pointed to mounting troubles in Europe’s powerhouse economy.

      The broader Ifo sentiment gauge, which also covers Germany’s services sector, declined as well, hitting the lowest level since 2013.
      …

      1. Germany is the economic engine of the EU, and Germany’s globalist leaders have been the driving force behind both the EU and the ECB. Any economic downturn is only going to increase domestic opposition to putting German taxpayers on the hook for non-performing loans to the PIIGS and Turkey and make it harder for the ECB to keep up its “extend and pretend” games.

      2. China buys a lot of German goods. With the US tariffs slowing the Chinese economy it is slowing their economy. Also, we are making our own steel and not allowing European countries to dump it.

      1. Meanwhile, in the US jobless claims falling and total claims back to seventies level when we had a total population around 200 million. I guess Trump’s cutting corporate tax rates and regulations is working. The world is suffering because we are now so competitive.

          1. No, not a zero sum game but not the everyone wins game that Globalists tell us. I have said for years that the reason Japan did not bounce back from it’s property crash is that China took over a lot of it’s markets. The rise of China was very negative for China and between those nations it was very much zero. Similarly the textile companies in America experienced zero sum as did much of Trump country in the Midwest

          2. “…not the everyone wins game that Globalists tell us.”

            Fair enough.

            But there are lots of balls in motion at the moment, and it’s way to early to judge how they will settle out.

      1. All Hallows eve is gonna be especially $pooky this year!

        Brexit will spell end for UK as Scotland, Northern Ireland, will depart
        Cahir O’Doherty | IrishCentral

        In the long term, it looks like Britain is eventually going to be partitioned. Yes, partitioned. Yes, I’m aware of the irony.
        But consider the facts, if Brexit happens Scotland will simply have to consider its options and the most effective one will be independence. And for the first time in our lifetimes, Northern Ireland is looking equally in play.

        Scotland made its view on Brexit plain in the referendum, voting 62% to 38% to remain within the European Union.

        Northern Ireland’s voters decided 56% to 44% to remain, yet they are now faced with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) the most one-eyed, recalcitrant political party in broader UK politics marching them all lockstep into the very outcome they dread.

        1. So would Northern Ireland simply join the Republic of Ireland?
          That will at least solve the problem of re-establishing the borders between Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland. And I guess they’ve gotten over their Troubles by now, where Catholics and Protestants can live together without beheading each other.

          1. 99 day$ will tell … (That’s close All Hallows eve right?)
            Blonde Bori$ says: “NO if’$, and$ or butt$!

    4. Why concern yer self with the Atlantic waters, yer closer to a “failed.$tate” then most folks on the HB.B ll & eye knot speakin’ ’bout Puerto Rico.

      Mexico’s President Keeps Score by the Pe$o as Economy Nos$edive$
      Bloomberg
      Nacha Cattan |Bloomberg|July 25, 2019

      About halfway through Lopez Obrador’s first year in office, Mexico is perilously close to recession. It may be there already. The economy contracted in the first quarter, and April-to-June figures are due next week. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are split almost evenly on whether it will shrink again.

      Either way, for an emerging market like Mexico, an economy expanding in line with the population hardly counts as growth at all. Worse, analysts can’t see where relief will come from. None of the engines are firing.

      Government spending has plunged as Lopez Obrador imposed his version of austerity. Companies have put investment on hold, disturbed by trade-war risks and the president’s decision to scrap a $13 billion airport. Industrial output has collapsed amid meager oil output, and consumer spending has weakened as shoppers worry about all of the above.

      “We don’t expect any of these four factors to go away soon,” said Bank of America’s Carlos Capistran. “We believe economic growth will continue to be weak.”

      A hawkish central bank isn’t helping. Banxico has kept its key interest rate at the highest in a decade. That’s bolstering the peso, one of the world’s strongest currencies this year, but it’s holding back economic growth. (Two of the rate-setting board’s five members now see room to ease.)

      Maybee all those pe$o deposit$ to the U$A for dtRumpsis “Wall” are having an impact.

    1. Lots of University of Colorado Boulder students paying more than $1,000/mo for a bedroom in a house with a shared bathroom are packed like sardines into area’s housing. It’s still a fun college town with ample bicycle infrastructure, but lots of minimum wage jobs.

      1. I have a friend that has gotten really into building that student style of housing in the downtown Boulder area in the last few years and made a lot of money doing it. He’s well aware that he needs to be careful going forward and not get overextended. After my separation from my ex and before moving my HQ to China I almost rented one of his places but I considered 1800 too extreme for a 2br no matter how good the location was. Now in California I have to laugh that I thought that was so expensive. But I make a lot more now…which is the only reason it can work.

  27. Los Angeles Times
    Tesla loses $408 million as technology chief J.B. Straubel
    departs
    Tesla’s share price dropped 11% in after-hours trading. Even more stunning than the loss, however, was the announcement that Chief Technology Officer J.B. …
    13 hours ago

      1. The price conveniently ran all the way up to $265 pre-earnings report, erasing all the losses after last quarter’s disaster. So, a little 14% boo-boo is nothing.

    3. Is Elon an anagram for leon?

      Elon Musk’s latest sales promises have analysts scratching their heads
      By Ciara Linnane
      Published: July 25, 2019 9:18 a.m. ET
      Analysts mostly skeptical that Tesla can deliver on Musk’s forecast with most trimming stock price targets
      MarketWatch photo illustration/Getty Images, iStockphoto
      Elon Musk has left the analyst community puzzled

      Elon Musk’s reiteration of full-year delivery forecasts for Tesla Inc. when reporting earnings Wednesday had a chilling effect on the company’s stock price and analysts weighing in on the results had this to say: They don’t believe him.

      “While demand showed an impressive bounce back this quarter and the company is seeing strong order activity for the third quarter, we continue to believe that the reiteration of 360,000 to 400,000 unit guidance for full-year 2019 was a head scratcher since the pure math and demand trajectory makes this an Everest-like uphill battle,” is how Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives summed it up on Thursday.
      …

  28. The flood of executives leaving quarter after quarter is amazing. It does have the appearance of rats fleeing a sinking ship.

    1. It might not even have anything to do with the failing company, it could be a miserable, toxic place to work.

      1. I would love to work for Tesla. I have worked a lot of really crummy jobs in my life and none of them are for things I believed in. I would love to be a part of something that is changing the automotive industry, but my skill set doesn’t match what is needed. There was a time when I was a CS major and I almost went to Carnegie Mellon to work on robotics and self-driving. But that was a long time ago. At Tesla, at best I would be an entry level employee though and couldn’t match my income with what I am doing now.

        I know an adult mentor to me when I was growing up. He’s worth probably $10-20M now and is retired. But he loves Harley’s and so he works as a Harley salesperson just because he is a brand enthusiast. Maybe that will be my path for Tesla.

        As a side note, many people do want to work at Tesla: They are #16 on the Linked-in Top 50 companies US workers want to work at:

        https://www.inc.com/larry-kim/linkedin-reveals-top-50-unicorn-companies-to-work-for-in-2019.html

        1. I remember being in the army with true believers who really wanted to be there. It was kind of funny watching their idealism crumble under the pressure of the daily grind coupled with the utter stupidity and/or evil of the leadership. I wouldn’t be shocked if your experience there was a little bit similar.

          1. I had that experience when I became an RN. I got out of IT/operations so I could work with people. I was amazed at how much mundane, non-value-add charting I had to do. It felt like I was taking care of electronic medical records instead of people. This is why I am on a hiatus from nursing at the moment. Still licensed, but haven’t taken a shift in almost 8 months!

        2. I would love to work for Tesla

          You have been for as long as we’ve known you. Enthusiasm is their biggest asset.

  30. The Mueller hearing yesterday was bizarre.

    Mueller was not competent and it’s shocking . He acted like he has had a 100 strokes . This explains why this was a drawn out witch Hunt that didn’t even investigate what it should of.

    It strikes me as a sham investigation to cover up
    something else. It was a effective slander machine for 21/2 years.

    Nobody with half a brain can conclude that this was a real investigation. If this was a real investigation, than God help us.

    What stands out for me is that forces are running this government that have nothing to do with the mandates from the population of people.

    At this point it might be advisable to fire all politicans and suspend the lobbying for 10 years in the interest of restoring the Nation and political system and the rule of law.

    This Nation is being highjacked by forces that don’t represent the will of people to have their best interest represented. This is a national emergency.

    The current bulk of politicans are not capable of representation of the people and to some extent this is treason. When a body of government strays so far from the intent of the Founding Fathers, and all the check and balance systems of the 3 Chambers have been corrupted, than extreme measures are in order.

    They must think the governed are dumb and that might be the case. The political class has the power to tax, power to take over industry, and power to take our freedoms one by one.

    Right now we’re being invaded by Mexico, while the California Governor has put into law that the people of California shall pay for the ilegals health care. This runs about 10 thousand a year per head. I don’t think the drafters of our Constitution had in mind that the Citizens would be taxed to pay for health care for ilegals that broke the law and refused to be vetted and come in the legal way
    I
    Do the real power brokers have to destroy this once great America and turn it into rubble ? This will happen given this same course, and it all started with the insane bail outs of the culprits of the housing bubble of 2008.

    1. “They must think the governed are dumb and that might be the case.”

      Bahahahahaha … MIGHT be the case? Is there really any doubt?

      Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

    2. “Nobody with half a brain can conclude that this was a real investigation. If this was a real investigation, than God help us.”

      The 9/11 investigation was “closed-door” when it got close to the pertinent facts. We gave Khashoggi his fifteen minutes. Anyway, best to leave God out of it.

    3. I wonder, he may not have helped the impeachment efforts but he may have established a defense if the efforts to expose the deep state continue to gain traction. Any decent defense attorney can use his testimony to show that he was oblivious to such efforts. He cannot even remember fusion. Laws were broken in the abuse of the FISA process and it goes right to the top of the previous administration

  31. “and it all started with the in$ane bail out$ of the culprit$ of the hou$ing bubble of 2008.”

    $hrub is now painting in Dalla$ …

    1. Hwy, both parties are responsible I think. But your right that the financial crash started under Bush.

      The moral hazard of bailing out the Banks is so apparent. Just 10 years later we live in crazy World.

      Now I’m called a racist cause I’m white. My people didn’t own slaves, they weren’t rich enough to own slaves.

      I just think about other Countries watching these bizarre characters on t.v.and they must think we have gone batshit crazy. It must be a movie, a bad movie.

      Does anyone remember the great movie “Seven Days in May,” that came out in the 50’s ? Great movie about a coo by a general with some congressmen to overthrow a President. If you get a chance watch it

  32. Absolutely both Partie$ are enabler$ … blame.matter$.knot … Protection of the.fruit$.of.yer.labor$ is paramount!

    #1. Refu$e to over.pay for a $helter.$hack
    #2. $tay healthy as.best.as.yer.able.too
    #3. Taxe$ can bee mitigated.

    2. Mr Banker,

      Interesting how JFK wanted SEVEN DAYS IN MAY made, but he was killed before he could see it .

      I think I might watch it again.

Comments are closed.