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Hindsight Is An Amazing Thing

A report from Domain News in Australia. “Melbourne’s housing market has rebounded from its downturn in the months since the clear federal election result, boosted by cuts to official interest rates and a move by the bank regulator to let buyers borrow more money. The stiff competition at auction was tempering the enthusiasm slightly, and the prospect of more auctions to choose from next week would influence buyers’ choices.”

“‘I don’t think any buyer wants to be a part of that story that appears in the paper that says, ‘House exceeds reserve by $150,000,’ said. ‘It’s not uncommon for a buyer who has missed out on a property, and has been outperformed, to contact us a few days later with a sense of relief saying they’re glad they didn’t go as hard.'”

From Yahoo Finance. “In Sydney, median house rent prices are 4.5 per cent below where they were a year ago and median unit rent prices are down 4.6 per cent to $520, according to Domain’s rental report. And Sydney’s west, where investors purchase properties specifically for the purpose of renting them out, have seen the biggest drops.”

“Investors are losing now as rental prices in western suburbs continue to fall, Eliza Owen told Yahoo Finance. ‘Canterbury, Bankstown, the south-west and Western Sydney had the biggest year-on-year declines at almost 6 percent.'”

“And it’s due to new supply in the rental market: with more supply and more stock in the market and plenty of choice, landlord have had to put rents down to try and attract tenants. ‘It does present a problem for someone who maybe bought at the peak of the market and they’re finding it harder to get a tenant,’ said Owen.”

“Investors should not make any impulsive moves, she suggested. ‘Essentially, investors need to ride the wave at the moment.'”

From Domain News. “Blocks of residential land in Melbourne’s outer suburbs where new houses could be built are set to keep sitting empty into next year even amid the city’s housing affordability woes. Some buyers who have already paid a 10 per cent deposit for land are now struggling to get finance to settle their purchase and are desperate to sell to someone else, with their land remaining vacant in the meantime.”

“BIS Economics associate director of residential property, Angie Zigomanis, said it was an ‘unfortunate’ situation for buyers who were being ‘left out on a ledge’ by the banks.”

“First-home buyers Kirby Kieper and husband Jason have struggled to sell their block of land near Melton South since February, despite their ‘reasonable’ price. They bought near the peak of the market and settled in December, but as property prices dipped they decided to sell and instead buy an established home closer to the city.”

“‘We’d actually be in the house if we’d built it,’ Ms Kieper said. ‘Hindsight is an amazing thing.'”

“Agents are fielding calls from owners wanting to resell land they own or sell by nominee. ‘I get calls twice or three times a week from people trying to sell their block,’ Barry Plant Melton auctioneer Ned Nikolic said. ‘There’s a lot of land available which is keeping the prices down.'”

“Owner-occupier vendors are competing with speculators who bought during the boom. First National Westwood Werribee’s Rob Westwood said some speculators were pricing too high in the current market. ‘They’re asking for two-years-ago prices which are about 15 per cent to 20 per cent too high,’ Mr Westwood said.”

From ABC News. “Shaky confidence in the capital city apartment market is hitting off-the-plan buyers hard, with a significant rise in the number of newly constructed units now worth less at completion than the price they were originally purchased for. 60 per cent of off-the-plan apartments in Sydney, and 52.9 per cent in Melbourne, were valued lower than their contract price at the time of settlement.”

“The latest figures from CoreLogic for the month of August shows that nearly a third of off-the-plan buyers in Sydney were moving into new apartments worth at least 10 per cent less than the price they purchased them for. Just two years ago, less than 16 per cent of newly constructed NSW units were valued below contract price after they were completed.”

“In Queensland, 43.1 per cent of units were worth less at settlement than what they were purchased for, and in Western Australia it was 22.5 per cent of apartments. CoreLogic’s head of research, Tim Lawless, said when many of these newly completed apartments were originally sold off the plan back in 2016 and 2017, the market was very different.”

“‘We were seeing values rising at about 15 to 20 per cent per annum in Sydney and Melbourne,’ Mr Lawless said. ‘Now cast your mind forward to 2019 and we’ve seen prices come down in Sydney by 15 per cent. In Melbourne, they’re down by about 11 percent. A lot of those off-the-plan buyers have seen a very fundamental shift in the value of the project that they purchased a couple of years ago.'”

“Mr Lawless said there had been a significant oversupply in the high-rise sector, with supply substantially outpacing demand. But he said concerns around construction quality, remediation costs and flammable cladding had had a compounding effect. ‘That [is] probably also weighing on the minds of people in the marketplace and potentially affecting the resale value of those properties as well,’ he said.”

“Owners at the 10-storey Mascot Towers in Sydney have fared far worse than most. Not only have residents such as retiree Maree Peters watched their building garner major media coverage for its structural defects, they have still not been able to return to their homes.”

“‘We have an asset worth one and a half million dollars that right now is worth nothing,’ Ms Peters said. ‘It’s your home, it’s everything you worked for, that you think is safe, that you think is protected.'”

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This Post Has 154 Comments

  1. ‘We have an asset worth one and a half million dollars that right now is worth nothing…It’s your home, it’s everything you worked for, that you think is safe, that you think is protected’

    But “they” won’t let your airbox price fall.

    2. But “they” won’t let your airbox price fall.

      I guess their central bankers don’t love them as much as ours love us.

    1. “Nearly Half Of US Consumers Report Their Incomes Don’t Cover Their Expenses:”

      Yet daily on CNBC and Bloomberg, I hear about how incredibly robust and strong the US consumer is.

      2. Real Journalists are liars too.

        See also the many recent articles on MarketWatch that are anti-FIRE (financial independence and early retirement), either instructing people not to bother trying, or the alleged regrets of people who did.

        My goal for the rest of my life is to not pay interest. Ever.

        1. My goal for the rest of my life is to not pay interest.

          “Those who understand interest earn it, those who don’t, pay it.” – Einstein

          1. U.S. citizens are called “consumers”, since that’s all we’re considered useful for; keeping roughly 2/3 of GDP alive. This is financed largely by debt now for lower-tier “consumers”.

            We have a two-tier socioeconomic system. The wealth inequality has gotten worse since the GFC due to Fed/Gov’t. policies (mostly Fed monetary policies).

            Those that own stocks and housing are doing OK, but those that don’t are hurting financially due to stagnant/falling real wages + inflation (esp. asset inflation).

            Some day soon we’re going to learn (again) that debt isn’t wealth. Debt only borrows from the future; it pulls demand forward, leaving an “air pocket” upon debt saturation, which is where we are now.

          3. Children are the biggest consumers out there.

            Sure, but this kind of illustrates my point. Do children have incomes? Are children who spend more than their allowance in the “nearly half”, or do they fit in the other “more than half” because they aren’t afforded credit.

            Basically, my point is to illustrate this statement is horribly defined, and sways opinion without having a clear meaning.

          7. It depends on how you think about it. Children effectively spend their parents’ money. If the parents hadn’t had the child, would they have spent that money on something for themselves? If yes, then children aren’t consumers. If the parents had not had the child and instead saved the money, then children ARE consumers.

          8. U.S. citizens are called “consumers”, since that’s all we’re considered useful for

            So are non citizens, even illegals. We’re all consumers. The only difference is that some consumers qualify for a blue booklet that makes it easier to cross the border, while others have to resort to more drastic measures to accomplish that.

  3. OT.. Poor Adam Neumann will walk away from Wework with only 1.7 billion dollars to show for all his efforts.

    *eyeroll*

    “Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann will get about $1.7 billion to walk away from the company and give up his voting rights, The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday morning. SoftBank will pay Neumann $1 billion for his shares, a $185 million consulting fee and will offer him $500 million in credit, according to the report…”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/22/weworks-adam-neumann-to-get-200-million-to-leave-board-report-says.html

    1. If any one of us swindled investors like that, we’d go to prison.

      I’d like to think that this whole tech IPO fiasco has jumped the shark now, but I’m not holding my breath. Too much greed and gullibility in the world.

    2. 1/2 or more will go for taxes….then the other 1/2 will go for defending thousands of lawsuits against him…so in 10 years he can finally buy a 500K starter home.

      1. Even if he ends up keeping only 10% of it, that’s more money than 99.999% of people will ever see.

    4. Poor Adam Neumann will walk away from Wework with only 1.7 billion dollars to show for all his efforts.

      I’m gonna assume he’s not stupid enough to turn that down and try to hang on for more. But his type does tend toward extreme arrogance. It will be interesting to watch.

    5. “Former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann will get about $1.7 billion…”

      A smart law firm wrote the WeWork prospectus. The investors knew up front that Adam Neumann was royalty. “Neumann was born in Israel, the son of Avivit and Doron Neumann.” —wiki

  4. Ah yes, Mascot Towers in Sydney.

    Hot off the press; “Owners of apartments at Sydney’s problem-plagued Mascot Towers will enter into a $5 million loan after some were unable to meet the payments of a $7 million special levy.”

    Also, I see they’re trying to blame an adjacent construction project for causing or at least exacerbating the damage to Mascot Towers.

    https://www.9news.com.au/national/mascot-towers-owners-vote-on-repair-bill/eb84252b-02bc-49c3-95a1-724c3da0033f

  5. “Investors are losing now as rental prices in western suburbs continue to fall, Eliza Owen told Yahoo Finance. ‘Canterbury, Bankstown, the south-west and Western Sydney had the biggest year-on-year declines at almost 6 percent.’”

    Luckily for California landlords, rents over here always go up.

    However I did hear anecdotally from a friendly neighborhood used home seller that home prices in San Diego have recently come down a bit, mainly because they were going up at such a crazy fast rate earlier this year. The thought crossed my mind that it almost sounds like what happens when a bubble peaks and collapses, though I kept that to myself.

      1. Absolutely. Every trick in the book and every square peg into a round hole to make these little post-WWII bungalows appear to be bigger than they actually are, and something that they’re not.

        Walls were knocked out here to create an open floor plan — at least in this one they didn’t have to resort to adding one or two out of place plaster Greek columns where doing so compromised the house’s structural integrity. And then interior shots using the realtor’s super wide angle lens to boot.

        There more than likely could have been more storage had those walls not been removed. That was probably where half of the cabinets were.

        Check out the added master bath upstairs, complete with gravity-defying shower curtain, on this one — granted, so one wants to have to trudge back upstairs dripping wet to get dressed, from the real bathroom:

        https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2046-Bradford-Rd-Birmingham-MI-48009/24534013_zpid/

        1. Check out the added master bath upstairs

          It looks original to me. A friend of mine had a shower like that in Cambridge, MA.

          1. You’re right, that’s a mid-century modern door. This house needs a Craftsman door, or just a standard-style black door.

            That master bed/bath is almost certainly not original to the house. These are true starter homes. Many of them were two bedrooms. I guess by the time of baby #2 (or #3 if you did the bunk bed thing) hubby was expected to be promoted and move the family to a better home.

          1. Their valuations are not credibly objective, given their tendency to routinely concur with the owner’s wishing price.

          2. Overnight, Zillow bumped up their estimate to match the flipper’s ridiculous asking price.

            Yes, lately everything I’ve seen listed over the Zestimate was “corrected” by the next day.

      2. Obviously the kitchen walls were removed and the kitchen squashed into the corner so that the house would have one big room. Deleting the finished basement, laundry room and the finished attic, there must be only 500 ft2 of main living area which would include the stairways, the bath and two bedrooms. Maybe this includes the garage, I don’t know.

        As wonderful as that sounds, a young family should have an income of $200K minimum to afford it.

      1. Is it enough for anyone in Chicago? Between the taxes and the house prices in safe neighborhoods it seems like they might still be feeling pretty poor. Not that I sympathize much…seems like a good place to be from.

        2. Teachers usually aren’t primary breadwinners. They’re only one income of a two-income household — the lower income.

    1. This is getting to sound like a judges opinion confusing as heck…. …….. moments ago we got the latest indication that the dollar funding shortage is again getting worse – despite the market having priced in the Fed’s rollout of the “kitchen sink” to ease funding conditions

        1. In 2008, the liquidity freeze-up occurred because the banks knew the underlying collateral they were offering to secure inter-bank funding was toxic waste crap, and so refused to lend against it. I suspect the same thing is occurring now, forcing the Fed to step in with its massive, open-ended repo operation to try to forestall a new financial crisis. That might buy some time, but will only make the financial reckoning day that much worse when it finally arrives.

          1. You mean pledging $10 billion of WeWork and $10 billion of Uber as collateral isn’t going to fly?

      2. As the cratering of the housing bubble gains force, we are going to see a marked deterioration of the quality of the collateral banks are holding against those massive loans they made with such reckless abandon – especially once FBs with no skin in the game start mailing in the keys en masse and walking away from their underwater shacks, and the cascading defaults turn into a avalanche. The Fed can’t possibly print enough liquidity to cover the gargantuan losses that are going to be sustained by banks, corporations, and FBs once their assets start tumbling in value relative to their liabilities and debts. At that point it’s Game Over for the confidence game the Fed and its fellow central bankers have been running since 2008.

        1. The Fed can’t possibly print enough liquidity to cover the gargantuan losses that are going to be sustained by banks, corporations, and FBs once their assets start tumbling in value relative to their liabilities and debts.

          Sure about that? Yes it’s a gargantuan amount. But the prices are set on the margins, you don’t have to print nearly that much to set a floor and influence the price and bring out the speculators again. The precedent has already been set.

          2. At some point we’ll run out of debt lemming virgins.

            I don’t know. If you offer free money to a carefully targeted group it’s not hard to get as many volunteers as you need.

          4. Let’s have a look at the Fed’s balance sheet.

            I don’t think anyone cares any more. At this point the Fed could say “fine, here’s the honest books” and people would accept whatever they showed and assume that’s the cost of freedom.

    3. This summary captures the situation:

      The Fed Repeated All The BoJ’s Mistakes, Now It Has No Choice

      So what will the Fed do? What can it do? In the not do distant future, the Fed will become a clone of the BoJ. It will need to buy every financial asset class in sight, not just Treasuries, just to keep these rancid, rotten, bloated gas filled bubble markets from imploding.

      What the Fed has done is disgusting. It has created a monster, and it does not know how to control it. And so this spectacle of John Lawe-esque, bubble-inflating money printing holds a macabre fascination as we watch this horror story play out. Unfortunately, there’s no safe way out. The Fed must keep feeding the monster to keep it contained.

      1. The Fed must keep feeding the monster

        The Fed and its member banks are the monster and they are feeding upon us. Rent will be collected until the tenants are all ate up.

      2. If every time a child is moody or a little under the weather it results in getting to stay home from school and eat ice cream, pretty soon the child learns how to fake being sick to get the desired result. Every time the banks want to unload some of their junk debt at 100% face, they can just stop overnight lending for a few days and, voila, the Fed to the rescue. It’s the new normal.

      3. It will need to buy every financial asset class in sight, not just Treasuries, just to keep these rancid, rotten, bloated gas filled bubble markets from imploding.

        And after that it will need to start buying the houses themselves. I assume through some kind of proxy to maintain appearances. Unless they can take mortgage rates so low they can get us to buy them against our better judgement.

          1. When you have a printing press and using it more is seen by the system as a feature rather than a bug, what is “cost”?

    2. And here we go again with the supposed “shortage”, as luxury property continues to amass as far as the eye can see.

  12. I’m waiting on a connecting flight home in Dallas. Came across this:

    Everyone Is a Russian Asset

    America laughed at Hillary Clinton’s remarks about Tulsi Gabbard, but her ideas fit perfectly in the intellectual mainstream
    By Matt Taibbi

    ‘Rather than confront the devastating absurdity of defeat before an ad-libbing game show host who was seemingly trying to lose – a black comedy that is 100% in America’s rich stupidity tradition – Democrats have gone all-in on this theory of foreign infiltration. House speaker Nancy Pelosi even said as much in a White House meeting, pointing at Trump and proclaiming: “All roads lead to Putin.”

    ‘All? Seriously? Is this ever going to end?’

    https://rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/clinton-gabbard-russian-asset-jill-stein-901593/

    1. Crooked Hillary’s pathological inability to admit she lost because she was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign means she has to blame everyone and everything but herself, starting with Russia! Russia! Russia!
      Smearing Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian asset was a new low even for this vile sociopath, but is to be expected. What is really telling is to see which of the morally bankrupt Democratic presidential contenders maintain a cowardly silence in the face of such despicable tactics, and which ones will come to Gabbard’s defense.

      2. “Smearing Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian asset was a new low even for this vile sociopath, but is to be expected.”

        Yeah, well you use what works.

        The concept of dumb ’em down and profit isn’t limited just to the benefit of bankers.

      3. Like a bad spoof of Sixth Sense – ” I see Russians, they are everywhere, but they don’t know they are Russians..”

      4. Smearing Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian asset

        I would be surprised if a military officer in a non-intelligence field could keep their security clearance if they had issues with being too cozy with a potentially hostile foreign power. Although it is Hawaii :-).

        1. a Russian asset

          All this means today is that you don’t toe to the official Democrat Socialist party line. They don’t accuse dissenters of being Chinese Assets.

      5. pathological inability to admit she lost

        Sara Carter on Twitter: This is all about @HillaryClinton wanting so badly a rematch… because she thinks she can beat @realDonaldTrump “again.” In her mind she won.

        1. Did “dead-bedroom Hillary” ever cozy-up to Monica Lewinsky and accept her as a one of William J’s victims and offer to buy her a new dress?

          2. Hillary thinks she and Bill are the victims.

            Exactly. And in the end I think that’s what cost her the presidency. It bothered just a few too many people in a few critical locations.

      1. The painted wood-grain sheet metal patio cover, the melamine kitchen cabinets and no ventilation for the cooktop are just three reasons why that property is no longer being considered. Best of luck to them getting out at their $1.4M purchase price in July 2016.

  18. Seems like a lot of CR8R going on from stawks to housing to the world economy. 25 new listings popped up today in my neck of the woods, anout 25x normal. Everyone running to the exits? Fake meat stawk is tanking and expert cramer says it will continue to go down. WeScam headed to a zero evaluation with lawsuits on the horizon, expensive virtual exercise machine stawk tanking, buttcoin in the red. im losing my confidence in the markets… d00med!!!

      1. CR8R

        Regulator says government will ‘wipe out’ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders if needed
        By Jacob Passy
        Published: Oct 23, 2019 8:47 a.m. ET
        The comment came during a congressional hearing regarding the Trump administration’s housing finance reform plans

        Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria suggested that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders could lose out if the mortgage giants encountered financial difficulty again in the future.

        Shares of Fannie Mae (FNMA, -8.80%) and Freddie Mac (FMCC, -8.50%) have tripled in value this year as shareholders eagerly welcomed the Trump administration’s interest in ending the two mortgage firms’ conservatorship.

        But a side comment made by a regulator during a congressional hearing Tuesday shows how little is settled when it comes to the fates of the two companies that underpin much of the housing finance market in the United States.

        “If the circumstances present itself to where we have to wipe out the shareholders, we will,” Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mark Calabria said during a hearing before the House Financial Service Committee, referring to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s shareholders.
        …

        1. “Regulator says government will ‘wipe out’ Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders if needed”

          I would expect to see the virgin Mary wearing a short skirt and thong panties for a “girl’s night out” BEFORE fannie and freddie shareholders are cut loose to tough it out in Joe Sixpack’s free market.

      2. Have we reached the point yet where everything craters except the hot 100…or 50…or 10 still make the Dow look good? I recall that happening in the spring of 2000. Or was it 2008?

      3. Almost as if theres something keeping the sinking ship floating.. been around 27k for many months.

    2. Friendly reminder: you live in the tech bubble. Euphoria and doom are exaggerated relative to the rest of the country and world. 🙂

      1. True i am in the middle of it but it effects the global economy regardless of proximity to it 😉

  19. Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’

    Jonathan Martin 13 hrs ago

    “Since the last debate, just anecdotally, I’ve had five or six people ask me: ‘Is there anybody else?’” said Leah Daughtry, a longtime Democrat who has run two of the party’s recent conventions.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/anxious-democratic-establishment-asks-is-there-anybody-else/ar-AAJa37x

    “Is There No One Else ?”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N6W1Zm8P4A

    2. If there ever was an adult in the room who didn’t have TDS they could win…but the D’s have so much invested in TDS they have no choice but to go to the end.

      It would be totally out of character to admit its been a major time waster to continue on this path. So an outsider with a fresh healthy view, and who focuses strictly on the issues could do well

      1. If there ever was an adult in the room who didn’t have TDS

        Went to a musical over the weekend. While walking there (downtown Seattle) heard a woman telling the man with her (friends, coworkers, maybe a date?) that she didn’t just dislike DJT, she *HATED* him. She made a point to call that out/make that distinction.

        I really struggle to see how someone can “hate” our duly-elected sitting president, whom they’ve never met nor interacted with. Disagree with? Sure. Don’t respect? That’d be fair. But hate??

        1. A few weeks ago I was talking to a young Canadian friend, who also hates DJT very passionately. Eventually I told him he was saying a lot of things with conviction that seemed to have no basis in fact. I asked him if he was getting this off reddit threads. He said no, it’s from your MSN and CNN.

          1. CNN

            Your friend might want to watch the new Project Veritas videos with the CNN whistleblower. Employees say Jeff Zucker has a “personal vendetta” against Trump. That might color “news” coverage.

          2. Your friend might want to watch

            When raw emotion takes control, the conversation is pretty much over. That’s the dangerous power of propaganda.

        2. Don’t respect? That’d be fair. But hate??

          I know plenty of people who share that sentiment. I also know plenty of people who hated DJT’s predecessor.

          1. I don’t recall ever hearing people say in public that they hated Obama. Sure, I saw a lot of “keep the change” and “show me the birth certificate” bumper stickers.

          2. I don’t recall ever hearing people say in public that they hated Obama.

            You haven’t met my MIL or my grandma who sends me links that Michelle is actually a man.

          3. I also know plenty of people who hated DJT’s predecessor.

            Yeah. And some true derangement about the one before that.

    3. “Since the last debate, just anecdotally, I’ve had five or six people ask me: ‘Is there anybody else?’” said Leah Daughtry, a longtime Democrat who has run two of the party’s recent conventions.

      It’s amusing to me that they are frantically looking for someone less…Democrat-ey? While at the same time destroying anyone who doesn’t toe the line of unelectable pandering to the base.

      They have plenty of candidates. They just can’t agree on who they want to be. Same as last election. It’s not like a majority of people love Trump. Give them a reasonable alternative and they will probably take it. I expect them to lose.

      1. What I don’t get about the Gabbard incident is that she DOES toe the party line: higher taxes, climate change, free medical care for all (including illegals), open borders, amnesties for illegals, pro LGBTQXYZ, etc. I haven’t heard her gun policy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a gun grabber too. The only difference is that “she served”, so I guess maybe that means she doesn’t hate veterans.

        Or maybe Clinton hates her because she’s relatively young and moderately good looking?

        1. The critical difference seems to be that despite her service she opposes the military/industrial complex. When you threaten that gravy train people will come up with any excuse to hate you and to convince everyone they know to hate you.

    1. I heard from a local used home seller that current price weakness in San Diego is due to extreme overheating earlier this year. We have no current overheating with the approach of the ice cold holiday season.

  26. Could negative yielding sovereign bonds and skyrocketing rents be connected?

    Berlin puts five-year rent freeze in place
    By Associated Press
    Published: Oct 23, 2019 9:39 a.m. ET

    A minority of the German capital’s residents own their homes or apartments, and rent has been significantly increasing in recent years
    …

    1. “The city had been a low-rent mecca after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 opened the gates to the economically depressed and formerly communist eastern portion of the city.

      That gave rise to an influx of artists and others seeking a more bohemian way of life.”

      Well, Eye reckon the Billion$ that VW & Audi paid in fal$e emi$$ions payment$ might have been better used to $ub$idize artists $helter.$hack$. (did knot Sir Hitler desire to $ucceed @ just such an occupation?)

      1. That gave rise to an influx of artists and others seeking a more bohemian way of life.

        Berlin felt almost dangerous to me a couple of years ago. The parks were feeling like no fly zones after dark but you had to get uncomfortably close to get to the restaurants and such across the street. The local news story at the time was a recent sexual assault of a zoo animal in the park.

        1. I felt the same way about Munich. It did not feel good to be outside after dark. Budapest, on the other hand, felt safe, maybe, just maybe, because the people on the streets were either Hungarians or tourists. There were no angry, hostile, “New Hungarians” that I could discern.

      2. Let’s pause to remember Oakland’s housing bubble victims:

        Ghostship Warehouse Fire

        On December 2, 2016, at approximately 11:20 p.m. PST,[6] a fire broke out in a former warehouse that had been converted into an artist collective with living spaces known as Ghost Ship. At the time, the warehouse in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California,[7] was hosting a concert featuring artists from the house music record label 100% Silk.[8] The warehouse was only permitted for industrial purposes. Residential and entertainment uses were illegal.[9]

        Of the 80 to 100 people attending the concert, 36 were killed,[10] the deadliest in the history of Oakland.[11][12][13] It was also the deadliest building fire in the United States since The Station nightclub fire in 2003,[14] the deadliest in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake[9] and the deadliest mass-casualty event in Oakland since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[15]

        Local residents, including artists and tenants’ rights activists, have cited the fire as a symptom of the San Francisco Bay Area’s underlying housing crisis.[104][105]

  28. “The parks were feeling like no fly zones after dark …”

    Eye reckon with x10 Billion$ of Homo $apiens roamin’ ’round unchained, there’s bound to bee dangerous hot spots nearby, everywhere. (Bee careful out.there!)

    1. 10 billion don’t scare me if they are all gainfully employed and raising families. But when they are hanging out all evening with nowhere else to go, giving everyone walking by the predator look, it only takes a few to shift the mood.

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