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Ground Zero For The Next Mortgage Meltdown

A report from Living Snoqualmie in Washington. “The Chief Economist for Windermere Real Estate, Matthew Gardner, made a stop in the Snoqualmie Valley. Gardner said the Puget Sound real estate market is ‘well and above’ many other U.S. markets, but the currently it is a ‘more rationale housing market.’ Gone are the years of 15-20% price increases. So are we in another bubble? Gardner says no, noting the credit worthiness of buyers. Gardner said, ‘Overpriced homes doesn’t mean we’re in a bubble. It just means overpriced.'”

The Daily Bulletin in California. “What’s up with mortgage rates? Jeff Lazerson of Mortgage Grader in Laguna Niguel gives us his take. Should predatory lending rules apply when consumers borrower against their homes to invest in their business or buy a rental property? Should lenders be able to skirt caps on interest rates, points and fees when a mortgage is for ‘a business purpose?'”

“Those are some of the issues hashed out before a Los Angeles administrative law judge earlier this year after the California Department of Real Estate, or DRE, fined an Irvine-based private loan broker and suspended his real estate license 90 days unless he met certain terms and conditions. Last week, the issue came to a head when the lender and DRE reached an out-of-court settlement overturning the fine and suspension.”

“The case touches on the rare issue of ‘business purpose’ loans, when borrowers use their own homes as collateral ‘to finance their dreams,’ as one of the law firms in the case put it. But this obscure case could have outsized implications by allowing ‘fog the mirror’ mortgages if the loan is for ‘a business purpose.'”

“So, now there is a bright line lifting consumer protections against unlimited points, high rates, balloon payments and prepayment penalties for every financially desperate borrower who can’t get a mortgage through institutional channels. Such loans now are possible so long as he or she provides a business purpose. Yes, it’s a free country and you should be able to take any risks you want, including tapping your equity to help your business or buy a rental.”

“But there is so much money to be made by every lender licensed in California (not just the private money lenders). Count California as ground zero for the next mortgage meltdown.”

From The Coloradoan. “According to the latest market update from the Colorado Association of Realtors, median home sales prices in Fort Collins dropped in August to $420,000 from a high of $438,500 in June. Sales in the coveted $400,000 and under market are down 20 percent year over year and on the other end, million-dollar homes are taking longer to sell, Fort Collins Realtor Chris Hardy of Elevations Real Estate said.”

“This year, a combination of things happened: interest rates clicked up in the spring then dropped unexpectedly and ‘we saw an uptick in inventory but buyers were still hanging back,’ Hardy said. ‘There’s still demand,’ he said. “Sellers are still seeing competing offers on highly desirable property under $400,000, but instead of seeing 15 offers like they did in April 2018, they’re now seeing three to four offers.”

“The ‘stall,’ as Hardy calls it, is giving buyers in the middle price points a little breathing room as they look at property. Prospective buyers ‘can go out on a Saturday morning and look at seven properties in the $350,000 range that aren’t already under contract,’ Hardy said. The slight market slowdown is forcing sellers to adjust their pricing expectations, Hardy said, as well as get their homes in top shape before putting them on the market.”

“Don Dunn of Dunn Real Estate Management manages 170 rental properties throughout the city. He expects to see rents level off in the coming year and is advising his clients not to expect large increases for the next year as the city absorbs the number of new units. ‘Currently, I think we are feeling some effects of the number of apartments that have been built in Fort Collins,’ Dunn said.”

From Inside Nova in Virginia. “A relatively flat month in August is not deterring optimism for the remainder of the year in the Northern Virginia real-estate industry. Prospective buyers are navigating the current environment carefully, trying to avoid pitfalls, NVAR officials said. And having learned the lessons of the real-estate bubble a decade ago, they are focused on not overspending.”

“High prices are forcing prospective buyers to get creative, particularly if they cannot tap previous equity to fund purchases. ‘We are seeing more first-time buyers investing with a friend or family member in order to be able to afford the purchase,’ said Christine Richardson, president of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. ‘I am currently working with several first-time buyers in their 30s who are looking for something with at least two bedrooms and two baths, so they can rent out a room to help cover their new mortgage payment.'”

“Alexandria saw a year-over-year inventory decline 64 percent, while Arlington saw a dip of 52 percent, as property owners are holding onto their homes in expectation – real or imagined – that prices will continue to rise and investors are snapping up homes while taking a hold-and-wait approach.”

The Real Deal on New York. “An estate on Gin Lane has only been on the market for about a month, but it’s already taken a ‘hefty’ price cut, Behind the Hedges reported. The property first listed at $59 million, but is now seeking $49 million, according to the outlet.”

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This Post Has 135 Comments

  1. ‘Sellers are still seeing competing offers on highly desirable property under $400,000, but instead of seeing 15 offers like they did in April 2018, they’re now seeing three to four offers’

    How many times have we seen this?

    1. Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver, Castle Rock, the whole Front Range are cratering. You posted an article just a few months ago quoting some REALTOR saying “the best way to make $100,000 is to buy a house in Denver and wait three years.”

      Those days are over now.

      1. I’m as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch at the prospect my landlord might sell my rental out from under me. I’m getting a sweet deal here, compared to the exorbidant rental prices being charged in Colorado Springs.

        1. So sorry to say – it’s coming. The estimate for my rental has dropped $3700 on Zillow in the last month (haven’t bothered to check the other sites) in the past month. I continue to pare down. I think more and more about moving out of here (LV) altogether. My daughter wants to move to the NW for the weather (!), but we can’t afford that.

        2. Boo – a couple things.

          1st – thanks for the link this morning – it was very good reading. There was a link inside that story that I felt added even more to the story and stuff that should be considered everywhere else, not just in HK>

          https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3025260/developers-cosy-ties-politics-may-explain-hong-kongs-biggest-woe-widening

          Secondly – I feel your pain – the anxiety of not knowing if a move will be forced upon you or not. When does your current lease end? i.e. by what date must they give you an answer regarding renewal? The waiting for an answer is so annoying.

          It was having exactly that situation – landlord not renewing so they could sell – that caused us to say ‘frak it- we’ll just buy it’.

          1. My lease is now month to month, and my landlord (a good guy) recently assured me he has no plans to sell, and that if he decides to, he’ll let me know ASAP. I believe him. If I was him I would sell, but a lot of people are convinced Colorado Springs real estate is only going to go up. So I’m not really anxious, but would hate to have to go through the hassle of moving. He could easily get $300 a month more than what I’m paying, but he knows with me the place is in good hands and the rent will be paid on time and in full on the 1st day of the month.

          2. Boo Randy
            No lease has been offered? Don’t believe him.

            We are month to month, too. I’m letting sleeping dogs lie. When our first lease ended and no extension was offered I kept calling. I wasn’t worried since he’s a casual type, never see or hear from him. After a few months I finally got a year, along with a 12% increase.

            Now I’m just getting ready. When I am, I’ll ask what’s up with the lease. If he won’t give me one, I’ll have my answer and start looking for a new place.

          3. Boo – ok – so you have every reason to believe things are stable.

            Are you needing the flexibility of month to month, or is he just not offering a regular term lease?

  2. ‘Gone are the years of 15-20% price increases. So are we in another bubble? Gardner says no, noting the credit worthiness of buyers’

    Shack prices should never, ever, go up this fast, even for one year much less year after year. These REIC “economists” are selling snake oil plain and simple.

    1. One can be easily compelled to say anything with she and he is payrolled by sordid and corrupt outfits like NAR, MBA, Redfin, Corelogic and NAHB.

  3. ‘this obscure case could have outsized implications by allowing ‘fog the mirror’ mortgages…there is so much money to be made by every lender licensed in California (not just the private money lenders)’

    So fog the mirror is back, and this is an old case, just recently resolved. Like the zero-down, no-doc loan I found recently. If it’s being offered in Tennessee, it’s everywhere. Subprime doesn’t cause the bubble. It’s a sign they are running out of borrowers.

    1. Subprime definitely helps keep the bubble going, by qualifying buyers to buy much more expensive shacks than they could afford to buy in the absence of subprime lending standards.

      1. At the very end, the least credit-worthy borrowers are buying the most expensive, least affordable properties. Seems sustainable, right?

    2. I happened to run across this …

      As more Californians borrow at shockingly high interest rates, will state crack down on ‘predatory lending’? | CalMatters
      https://calmatters.org/economy/2019/05/will-california-crack-down-predatory-lending-pink-slip-loans/

      (snip)

      “So she went online and found Wilshire Consumer Credit—a company willing to give her $2,510. The terms of the ‘pink slip’ loan: She would pay $244 every month for the next three years, or surrender her 2003 Ford Explorer. ‘I have a daughter, a young child. I just wanted to make sure we were good,’ she said, acknowledging ‘I wasn’t really focused on the interest.’

      Oh. And just what was the rate of this interest you weren’t focused on?

      “The annual rate on her loan: 112%.”

      Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. So how is your interest rate focus doing now?

      1. (another snip)

        “Angela Garcia, a 35-year-old single mother from South Gate in southeast Los Angeles, recalls the feeling of throwing hundreds of dollars, month after month, at a problem that never quite seemed to get smaller. She called it a ‘nightmare.’

        “Garcia, who now works as a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente, said she was unemployed when she took out her car title loan. She had six kids.”

        Gas prices were high. Christmas was coming. Credit seemed like the only option—and it was ubiquitous.

        “Everywhere you drive you see these freaking signs: ‘Get a loan,’ ‘Get a loan,’ ‘Get a loan,” she said. “It sounds great. It sounds like, ‘well, shoot, if they’re willing to help me, why not?’ But no. It’s not. They’re not helping you at all.”

        A single mother with six kids. Got it.

        “So in 2014, she borrowed $3,200 from LoanMart. She remembers sitting in her kitchen one morning when she heard the sound of jangling chains on the street. She said she raced outside to grab her toddler’s car seat before her Chevy Suburban was towed away.

        “Garcia said she remembers spending hundreds each month, but doesn’t recall the loan’s exact percentage rate.

        “That’s not uncommon, said Rosie Papazian, who manages the personal finance program at New Economics for Women, a Los Angeles non-profit. Many clients are reluctant to dig into the details of their own financial situation, either out of shame or a lack of understanding.

        “’They think, ‘gosh, it’s been three years and I’m still paying off this loan and I don’t really know why.’”

        A nation of dummys.

        1. I’m still paying off this loan

          At least she was building equity and could sell her car at any time, right?

        2. When we were a more Christian nation we used to have usury laws. Obviously, I believe in individuals taking responsibility for their actions but I find it appaling but not surprising that in the woke post Christian California you find so many predators. The nation was exceptional when it had internalized values and beliefs and few laws. Not it has abundant laws and diminished good values and beliefs.

          1. I do find is suspicious that these types of lenders do not have their maximum rates regulated… I wonder what beltway lobbyists they employ?

          3. I think they are regulated. Just set into triple digits.

            Well then, I know which lobbyists I will want to hire to get favorable laws passed…

          4. The default rate is high. Decades ago I applied for an accounting position with this type of firm. I didn’t know what they did when I applied. There was a stack of bad loans two inches thick on the table, in a small town. I didn’t go back.

          5. “When we were a more Christian nation we used to have usury laws.”

            Prior to the Reformation, it was illegal for Christians to change interest on a loan.

          6. it has abundant laws and diminished good values and beliefs ?

            All because of Obama, Clinton’s and Carter right Adan…

          7. To clarify: prior to the Reformation, charging any interest on a loan was considered “usury”. That word has been redefined to mean exorbitant interest, whatever that means.

          8. Eye know quite a few smart women that procreated with some really low iq men, their kids seemed to be ok.

        3. Gas prices were high. Christmas was coming. Credit seemed like the only option—and it was ubiquitous.

          Living within your means, not spawning six kids by men who can’t or won’t support them, or you; not spending money you don’t have…these seem like better options. This is not a victim. She’s a syndrome. And now her and her ilk have a political party pandering to them that can force the prudent and responsible to pay for their poor choices.

          1. I agree. I have supported the government paying for voluntary sterilizations on this blog. It is a horrible life for the children of the low IQ and a horrible burden on society. It is interesting Democrats will support infantcide and even taxpayers paying for the late term abortions but something that is humane and morally defensible is a third rail in politics. The Economist magazine before it became so PC used to call it Hitler’s revenge that rational eugenics could not be used to prevent human suffering. I think showing the movie Idiocracy is school will do far more good than showing the Inconvenient truth.

          2. rational eugenics…prevent human suffering

            Absurd and disturbing.

            If you were going to put everyone less smart than you on the list, you’d be left all alone.

          3. Living within your means, not spawning six kids by men who can’t or won’t support them, or you; not spending money you don’t have…these seem like better options.

            Don’t you know? She has every right to have as many kids as she wants by as many men as she wants and she should be applauded for her independence and the state should support her fully. And we are bad, bad people for daring to shame such a brave woman. /sic

          4. voluntary sterilizations

            With coercion or distress, voluntary becomes involuntary and forced is that more closer.

          5. After forced sterilizations comes euthanasia. A horrific slippery slope, particularly for parents of children with special needs.

          6. Hitler didn’t come up with that himself. It was around in the US and Sweden (IIFC) before him. Who could have guessed that the focus became eliminating certain inferior racial groups, involuntarily. Humans do not have the moral compass to have such authority.

          7. Selective breeding — of one form or another — has probably been around since humans figured out inheritance and the role of the male. The earliest widespread practice I can think of was Ancient Sparta, although I’m sure it was going on before then.

        4. “Everywhere you drive you see these freaking signs: ‘Get a loan,’ ‘Get a loan,’ ‘Get a loan,” she said. “It sounds great. It sounds like, ‘well, shoot, if they’re willing to help me, why not?’ But no. It’s not. They’re not helping you at all.”

          My illusions are shattered. And here I thought Mr. Banker was a phillantropist.

          1. “And here I thought Mr. Banker was a phillantropist.”

            “Thought.” I do not believe this word applies to what ever it was that occured in your brain.

          2. Touché, good sir. What I meant is that I “felt” you were a philanthropist. Cuz we should all make decisions based on emotions and feelings, not facts, logic, or common sense. You seemed so kindly and helpful in your ads, I just felt you had only my best interests at heart.

            And poor Ms. Garcia was vulnerable, so you vulnered her. Shame on you, Mr. Banker!

          3. Blue, is it more disturbing than millions of people living in abject poverty and then turning to crime to survive?

      1. Bill Maher

        Does wishing economic harm on the general population in hopes of his activities on Epstein’s island not coming to light make him a sociopath? Perhaps he shouldn’t have tweeted about visiting the island.

  6. “Gone are the years of 15-20% price increases. So are we in another bubble? Gardner says no, noting the credit worthiness of buyers. Gardner said, ‘Overpriced homes doesn’t mean we’re in a bubble. It just means overpriced.’”

    Black doesn’t mean black…it just means dark.

    1. So are we in another bubble? Gardner says no, noting the credit worthiness of buyers.

      Even for ClownWorld, that’s a surreal statement. Household and credit card debts are at all-time highs, TRIPLE 2009 levels, with subprime under various guises back in force for auto loans and housing. Delinquencies are rising inexorably. An Upton Sinclair quote comes to mind whenever I read “all is well” drek from the usual REIC “experts.”

      “This sucker could go down.” — The Smirking Chimp, aka G.W. Bush

      1. This past week we saw the people in charge of oversight of the GSE’s say lending is crappier than last decade. But the ankle-bitters persist, no matter how much proof you give. That’s why I’m not going to waste time on them anymore. I got up at 5 AM and I already have more material than I can post this weekend. You’ll want to check back through the day.

        1. Boo Randy sounds like he is a lion:

          A little google -fu for you:

          Credit card debt:
          2009: $5766
          2019: $5554

          https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-debt-statistics-1276.php

          Auto debt
          2009: ~$0.86 trillion
          2017: ~$1.1 trillion

          https://qz.com/913093/car-loans-in-the-us-have-hit-record-levels-and-delinquencies-are-rising-fast-too/

          Mortgage debt
          2009: ~$10 trillion
          2019: ~9.2 trillion

          https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/american-debt-mortgage-debt/

          1. Your numbers add up to somewhat less than the reported $14 trillion in consumer debt as of the first quarter of 2019.

            U.S. consumer debt is now above levels hit during the 2008 financial crisis
            By Mark DeCambre
            Published: June 25, 2019 9:12 p.m. ET
            U.S. consumer debt hit $14 trillion in the first quarter of 2019

            Consumer debt is growing to worrisome levels.

            Ben Mohr, senior research analyst of fixed income at investment consultant Marquette Associates, calculated that total U.S. consumer debt hit $14 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, surpassing the roughly $13 trillion of leverage accumulated in credit cards, auto loans and mortgages and other debt back in 2008, when those souring loans and securities pegged to them helped to send global markets into a tailspin (see attached chart).
            …

          2. $9.2 + $1.1 + $0.6 = $10.9. There’s $3 trillion or so missing from your summary, and one of your numbers is from 2017.

          3. Late to the thread, but what about student loans? I wonder how much of the delta can be attributed to student loan debt?

      3. “noting the credit worthiness of buyers.”

        That really seems to be the go-to excuse this go-round, no?

        1. “$9.2 + $1.1 + $0.6 = $10.9. There’s $3 trillion or so missing from your summary, and one of your numbers is from 2017.”

          Perhaps but Oxide’s main point is correct. It is not anywhere close to being three times and it ignores inflation and the fact that the US population has increased by around ten percent since 2008 thus less debt per capita in real terms, not three times the debt.

      1. Dealerships do what they need to do to survive. It’s the consumers fault for partaking. The salesman are just doing there job with the tools they are given. Watching this same methodology in RE is what disgusts me the most.

        As for JB, I think he has switched sides and has been out of RE for a few years. His views on security, PMs, and relationship with god is what he seems most focused on. Perhaps a little extreme at times but he seems to have an earnest concern for helping guide people for preparation. I often enjoy his videos even if I don’t agree with all of it.

        1. Dealerships do what they need to do to survive. It’s the consumers fault for partaking.

          I disagree. Only a fundamentally unsound financial system allows and enables non-creditworthy borrowers to buy big-ticket items like homes or vehicles on credit. Because when they can’t or won’t honor their financial obligations, it puts financial institutions, and ultimately the entire financial system, at risk. It is absolutely criminal that the Fed, Wall Street, and our captured, corrupt policymakers, regulators, and enforcers ever let things get to this point.

          1. “fundamentally unsound financial system”

            Ding! Nailed it. This falls back on our lending institutions, bankers, and government. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree that the dealerships (knowingly) allow these malpractice loaning schemes to happen, I just don’t offer any empathy to the consumer for taking part but eluding back to your comment, policy makers allow this to happen. It’s like a Halloween bucket of candy on the front door with a note stating “take one”

        1. Of course you would. We’re losing thigh gaps left and right.

          If you think obesity is bad now, just wait until all those sainted Central Americans — especially the women — pass the age of 45 or so.

    1. (snip)

      “Alf Seccombe, a San Francisco area-based director with $223,000 in student loans,…”

      Two-hundred and twenty-three thousand dollars in student loans.

      “… says those who blame students for the problem are ‘a little out of touch.’” “People don’t realize that everybody is living paycheck to paycheck and they are not doing that by choice,” said Seccombe, 36.

      1. (another snip)

        “On Friday, Loudermilk told MarketWatch that students’ ‘work and ability to generate income is an important part of this puzzle. But the root of the problem is that the federal government took over student lending in 2010, which caused student loan funds to basically become an entitlement available to anyone, which resulted in colleges and universities significantly increasing the cost of attendance.”

        Check. Colleges used The Willie Sutton approach; they encouraged their children students (who were at the critical age when they thought they knew everything) to go to where the money was.

        “He said there’s ‘also no evaluation as to whether the borrower can repay a federal student loan. I believe that’s why the default rate on federal student loans is 22%, and the default rate on private student loans is 2%. The federal government is now the largest consumer lender in the country. This is the fundamental problem.’”

        Bahahahahaha …some see the federal government as the fundamental solution.

      2. “Alf Seccombe, a San Francisco area-based director with $223,000 in student loans,…”

        Where did these people go to school? You can attend Cal State for $7000. Not chump change, but $28K is a fraction of $223K.

        1. Beyond a certain debt load the typical student borrower likely begins to get nervous as I did back in the day, but some borrowers are simply unfazed by debt.

    2. I blame the constant fake lies that are told by the monopolies that charge arm and leg and than don’t deliver. I can just see a number of politicans pumping education as the answer to all problems while these institutions raise prices to absurd levels knowing the loans were backed by the taxpayers.

      Same kind of scam going on with the medical monopoly.

      Whenever the government gets in bed with a so called industry than fake monopoly prices follow.

      Regular people don’t have any power to set prices anymore that are based on wages. It’s all about faulty extension of credit to make it possible for fake gouging prices that enrich the Coporate elite.

      Citizens don’t have any power anymore , while the special interest get whatever they want to fleece the working majority.
      These traitors and greedy Coporate monopolies along with casino Wall Street are only around to fleece the productive working class while they also want to control all information.

      Now it’s racism that’s the problem , not the takeover of the USA by the Coporate monopolies who are there to get in bed with the politicans to fleece the government also.
      The worse thing that ever happened was the enactment of the 16th amendment that paved the way for taxes to be used to create big government that sold out to the 10 %,

      For a brief time in history between 1945 and say 1975, the balance of power was such that the productive working class got ahead, only to be betrayed step by step by the politicans in favor of the current evil greed heads .

      None of the politicans talk about what the real solutions are, it’s all about either crazy communism or other ways to fleece the productive working class in favor of the monopolies.

      Total corruption like this can bring on a revolution which could bring on something even more crazy..

      As it stands now the stage is set for a financial crash down the road. How long will it take for the powers that be to simply destroy the once great economic opportunity Nation called America?

      Sorry, I’m on a rant.

      1. Nobody in power is willing to admit things like that we have too many people in many professions already, or that continual pushes for automation and efficiency has reached the point where we don’t have (real) jobs for everyone, or that not everyone is cut out for of should go to college, or that colleges and universities have exploited the system of student lending to maximize their own profits.

        They’ll keep coming up with new straw men to blame the results of their earlier actions on, and repeat until things finally fall apart.

          2. …and auto-makers, appliance-makers, housing and hard goods in general. Who tries to fix a toaster anymore?

            John Deere and Caterpillar are at the forefront of the anti-fixit fight. There was talk in industrial design mags (10 years ago) about “smart nuts” that required a certain digital handshake to remove, even.

            Seems like the unions got out-unioned by tech…

          3. Who tries to fix a toaster anymore?

            But that is part of a more generalized problem of opportunity cost. Who repairs holes in socks now when the time and energy to do so would purchase a 12-pack or more?

    3. How Obamacare blew up the student loan crisis

      by Tiana Lowe
      July 02, 2019 12:46 PM

      Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to cancel student loan debt for 95% of debtors. Fellow 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to cancel all of it. What they and every other statist and socialist eager to default on trillions owed to taxpayers forget that President Barack Obama nationalizing student loans brought us to this catastrophe in the first place.

      Lost in the kerfuffle and fuming of the Affordable Care Act’s passage in 2010 was the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, signed into law just seven days after Obamacare. Half of the act consisted of small and otherwise innocuous amendments to the ill-fated Affordable Care Act, but the other half, Title II, radically overhauled the country’s student loan industry, replacing federally backed bank loans with direct government lending.

      For decades, student loan debt had remained in the low hundreds of billions, but during Obama’s presidency, it exploded from $150 billion to more than $1 trillion, the overwhelming majority of which is owed to the government. As student loan debt continues to spiral upward, the federal government’s revenue streams for the programs are becoming more tenuous than ever.

      https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/how-obamacare-blew-up-the-student-loan-crisis

      1. What else boomed right after Title II replaced federally backed bank loans with direct government lending?

        College housing has never looked so nice

        By ROGER VINCENT
        SEP. 4, 2011 12 AM

        Those who remember college housing as spartan dormitories or crowded cracker-box apartments may be seized with envy — or the urge to give denizens of West 27th Place a sermon on how spoiled they are. Get over it. Students today expect more from their college experience, including all the comforts of Mom and Dad’s sumptuous home, according to developers who are rushing to fill the growing demand for deluxe digs.

        “It’s a national trend,” he said. “There is competition among schools, and USC has to provide a competitively attractive student environment.”

        The projects will cost $347 million, which will be paid for from student housing and dining fees, Angelis said.

        “Given what college costs today,” he said, “a lot of kids and parents are expecting more than a camp-out.”

        https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-sep-04-la-fi-luxury-student-housing-20110904-story.html

        1. These 2 were supposed to be below Boo Randy’s post…

          Some older Americans say millennials’ student debt is their own fault

          Which it is.

      2. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to cancel student loan debt for 95% of debtors.

        Will those who were responsible and paid back their student loans get a refund?

        What am I thinking? Of course they won’t.

    4. I never had any student debt. I went to school working 2 jobs and was on academic scholarship. Plus, I chose a school that was a good bargain. But people do make stupid decisions, like the handyman yesterday who admitted he made a really bad decision with his tattoo on his arm when he was 18. The question becomes how much responsibility are we going to lay at the feet of the borrowers and how much are we going to apportion to the enablers of this debt orgy? It takes two to tango after all.

    1. $100 a barrel oil was always one terrorist attack away. The question with this attack is how long production will be down. A few weeks the system can handle more than that will be a huge problem.

        1. 356 Billion$ In Revenue$ … poor, poor, MB$ his wallet thickne$$ is gonna show through his royal robe$, knot very fa$hionable.

          “predicting an outage of a couple of day$”

          $audi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company

          Va$t profit$

          In April, the company released its earnings figures for the first time in recent memory, showing Aramco to be the world’s most profitable company.

          It revealed net profits of $111bn and revenue close to $356bn for 2018.

          By contrast, Apple booked a net profit of about $60bn in its most recent full year, Royal Dutch Shell had net income of $23bn and Exxon Mobil $21bn.

          Meanwhile, an independent audit showed Saudi Arabia has 268.5 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves as of the end of 2017. Aramco produced about 10.3 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2018.

          1. It revealed net profits of $111bn and revenue close to $356bn for 2018.

            And if the current owners expected that to continue or get even better they wouldn’t IPO it.

    2. Major difference is the US was producing just less than 5 and half million barrels of oil in 2008 and now we are producing just less than 12.5 million, very little demand growth. similar story in NG except we are using much more but we are now exporting. Bottom line while higher prices were very negative in 2008, studies have shown that $100 plus oil is now positive. The Democrats who have called for the end of fracking may have to do some splaining now.

    3. Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output

      The linked article doesn’t say that at all. “impacted” is vague and doesn’t mean shut down.

  12. “I am currently working with several first-time buyers in their 30s who are looking for something with at least two bedrooms and two baths, so they can rent out a room to help cover their new mortgage payment.”
    Seriously!?! What’s the point? You might as well keep renting!

    1. Seriously!?! What’s the point? You might as well keep renting!

      Actually, it makes sense, but has some sad implications.

      Those millennials we keep hearing about – the ones that are screwed over by student loans and poor jobs – ages 23-38 roughly … they’ve been told over and over that if they don’t get on the property ladder, they’re going to be left behind. After all, most of their parents had ‘starter’ homes by the time they were 25 and they’re just slackin…

      So they’re getting into the housing game, the only way they can, and now they’re on their way to home ownership…

      ..except..

      now that they have a ‘nest’, the next step usually is having kids. But what woman wants to get pregnant and have a baby while sharing their tiny home with a tenant?? (who has all the legal protections due them) .. one that they need to pay the bills no less.. Oh, and what about the additional loss of income because mom is on Maternity leave, and would like to stay at home once baby is born? And where will the baby go, once all the rooms are rented out? Oh, and baby #2? And it’s not the same gender as baby #1? (boy vs girl, binary vs non-trinary, whatever the cool kids are identifying as these days) Guess we’ll need to get rid of tenant to make space… (what? they have an 18 month lease???)

      Yup… no way that could turn out disappointingly…

      1. During good economic times most suitors are able to marry their high school sweethearts. Those coming of age during a recession often see their high school sweethearts marry slightly older men who have already established themselves. Suck it up, gents!

        1. Only we don’t consider the last 6 years or so a ‘recession’, yet it was a period of time in which access to the starting rungs of the ‘American Dream’ became out of reach for what was probably a record number of people starting out.

          1. I agree. Someone out there who makes a living charting the economic gains of the various generations has already compared the area under the curve. The trick now is, what to do about it.

          2. what to do about it.

            Live an honest life. Get out of debt. Need little.

            The lender needs willing victims to get rich. The honest person is the lender’s destruction.

  13. “With coercion or distress, voluntary becomes involuntary and forced is that more closer.”

    Perhaps. However, the alternative is to watch as the growing number of people living in poverty leads to socialism and then when the OPM runs out communism. The rich and middle class of Venezuela did nothing while the shanty towns grew. Now, many of the middle class are eating out of dumpsters and the rich are living in Miami but not as opulently as they lived in Caracas.

  14. CNG vehicles are going to get quite a bump if oil does rise. RV too but the lack of cobalt limits their expansion until new batteries can be developed. CNG and LNG vehicles really do not have any limitations and there are already tens of millions on the road. NG will be abundant for decades:

    http://www.iangv.org/current-ngv-stats/

    1. Mexico has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, yet well-armed cartel gunmen kill, kidnap, rob, rape, and extort with impunity. Yet Beto and his fellow Democrats want to strip millions of law abiding U.S. gun owners of their Constitutional right to defend themselves and their families from criminals or government tyranny.

      Hey, I know: let’s make drugs illegal too, while we’re at it.

      1. One thing I’ve noticed is that since they’ve legalized marijuana, the debauchery is even worse. I’m not sure what the answer is, to be honest. A nation of broke-azz druggies.

  17. Got a little bored today and sent out an email to a realtor with a goofy priced listing. Don’t bother reading below unless your bored too:

    My email:

    “Hi there UHS,

    Im interested in this property. Do you have any open houses scheduled? Also, why is the price all 8’s and one 9? Does this mean something? I am very superstitious and am scared of 8’s, I would be more comfortable with 4’s and 9’s. “

    Reply:

    I had open house today from 1.00to 4,30 pm l may have another tomorrow depends on sellers schedule No 8 is luck number for chines people remember last Olympic in China? But that’s number and can be changed please cal me if you want to see the property

    1. sent out an email to a realtor

      Potentially dangerous move if you’re really interested in a property. The only thing worse than a realtor is a realtor with both sides of a deal. And that will be the assumption.

      1. The Democrats are bankrupt morally and financially. Here is the simple truth, most transgender women do not identify themselves as transgender to males they identify themselves as women. Most heterosexual males are going to be angry if they have sex with a transgender female and find out “she” was once a male whether or not the male parts are gone. A small minority will be so enraged they will kill. Trump has nothing to do with it and while the heterosexual response does not fully justify the homicide, if I was on a jury the circumstances in my opinion would justify reducing the crime to voluntary manslaughter.

        1. Most heterosexual males are going to be angry if they have sex with a transgender female and find out “she” was once a male whether or not the male parts are gone.

          The Crying Game

    3. “Black transgender woman…”

      Does this mean someone with XX chromosomes who now identifies as a man, or someone with XY chromosomes who now identifies as a woman?

      1. PS I can tell I would make a bad Democrat, due to not having politically correct LGBTTQQIAAP sensitivity.

          1. The whole cis trans terminology brings back bad memories of organic chemistry.

            Snowstorms at 7:15am are what bring it back for me… That and a TA with an accent so thick, you can’t understand more than 1 word in 10…

          5. the rearview mirror

            Organic Chemistry class is like a bad marriage or a mortgage. Only it doesn’t last as long.

  19. All the headlines are designed to insure that the real problems in America aren’t discussed, so that the thieves in power can rip off the majority.
    Even socialism scams are designed to enrich industry at the expense of powerless majority, as was evident with Obamacare, and government backed student loans.

    Reducing the majority to having no political power is not the definition of democracy. Using taxpayer funds to prop up fake monopoly prices has destroyed a sane economy.

    I’m sick of government picking the winners and losers because none of it is based on it being earned.
    It’s time that the productive working class gets it’s due, and enough of the one percent and the poor who are the parasites of the tax coffers. Yes , the poor should be helped, but not the way they are doing it.

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