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Everything On-Market Right Now Is Overpriced

A report from 27 East in New York. “The off-market sale of an oceanfront Southampton Village property just closed for near its $35 million asking price, making it one of the top sales of the year across the Hamptons. James Giugliano of Nest Seekers represented the seller and had a hand in bringing the unnamed buyer. Mr. Giugliano said off-market deals are an answer to overpriced properties. ‘Everything on-market right now is overpriced,’ he said. ‘You’re seeing oceanfronts sitting on the market for two, three, four years now.'”

“He said real estate agents are overpromising to get a listing, using ‘ridiculous numbers that would never happen.’ ‘The data backs it up,’ he added. ‘If you had something listed for over two years and you had price reduction after price reduction, you clearly priced the property wrong.'”

“He points to the brokers, not the sellers who demand top dollar, as the ones who are responsible for overpricing. ‘The reason why it’s so hard is not because of the seller themselves,’ he said. ‘It’s because of everybody else trying to get a listing. Nowadays, the only way to get a listing is to overprice it.'”

The East Hampton Star in New York. “The East End real estate market continued its nearly yearlong slump, according to a third-quarter report from Town and Country that found overall home sales were down 14 percent compared to the same period in 2018. The decline in sales was steep on both ends of the price spectrum, with homes under $500,000 dropping by 39 percent, and those between $5 million and $9.99 million falling by 60 percent.”

“Despite the soft third-quarter numbers, Judi Desiderio, the C.E.O. of Town and Country and the author of the report, found one big reason to be optimistic: the sale of a $20.6 million house on the corner of Lily Pond and Hedges Lanes in East Hampton Village. ‘There was one sale over $20 million in 2019, and zero in 2018,’ she said.”

From Curbed Boston in Massachusetts. “Boston condo prices dropped at the end of the summer, though that did not necessarily translate into more sales. The median sales price of Boston condos dropped 4.4 percent in September, to $645,000, compared with the same month in 2018. It was also down year to date 3 percent, to $649,000, compared with the same point in 2018.”

“Why the price drops? It most likely has to do with what drove such drops across the wider region at the end of summer: a rise in available homes to buy. Simply put, prospective buyers had more condos to choose from in Boston, and that helped draw down prices.”

“The number of active listings was up annually 10 percent and 24.3 percent from August. The number of new condo listings was up 18.5 percent annually and 137.4 percent monthly. And the months of inventory—that is, the time it would take to buy everything that’s out there—stood at 4.1 months by the end of September, a 17.1 percent annual increase and an 86.4 percent one from August.”

“The drops in condo prices in Boston proper did not necessarily translate into more sales—rather the opposite. The number of sales was down 7.7 percent annually and 34.9 percent monthly, and is trending sharply downward for the year. This could all just be the calm before the buying storm, however, given the rises in inventory. Sales were up slightly region-wide in September, and it seems prices will not creep back up, according to the realtors association.”

“‘With sale prices having begun to stabilize, more homes and condos available for sale, and properties sitting on the market longer, home values have most likely peaked in many areas,’ said Jim Major, president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.”

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This Post Has 141 Comments

  1. ‘The reason why it’s so hard is not because of the seller themselves…It’s because of everybody else trying to get a listing. Nowadays, the only way to get a listing is to overprice it’

    Sounds like the sellers are greedy Jim.

  2. ‘Why the price drops? It most likely has to do with what drove such drops across the wider region at the end of summer: a rise in available homes to buy. Simply put, prospective buyers had more condos to choose from in Boston, and that helped draw down prices’

    Curbed Boston’s writer probably had a hard time typing that up.

      1. ‘The number of new condo listings was up 18.5 percent annually and 137.4 percent monthly. And the months of inventory—that is, the time it would take to buy everything that’s out there—stood at 4.1 months by the end of September, a 17.1 percent annual increase and an 86.4 percent one from August’

        ‘The drops in condo prices in Boston proper did not necessarily translate into more sales—rather the opposite. The number of sales was down 7.7 percent annually and 34.9 percent monthly, and is trending sharply downward for the year’

        More inventory, lower prices and buyers flee. More like a bubble collapse than how supply and demand works. As we’ve seen repeatedly, the most expensive area – downtown – fell first, fastest and furthest.

    1. I just listened to the AEI monthly conference call. Banks are pulling way back and non-banks are pulling back a bit. Everybody is dialing down risk.

      2. “Bank$ are pulling way back and non-bank$ are pulling back a bit. Everybody is dialing down ri$k.”

        When ya lo$e the farm, ya lo$e the $helter.$hack too. …

        “Wor$er & wor$er …” Ben Jones

        Wall $treet bank$ bailing on troubled U.S. farm sector
        Reuters | by P.J. Huffstutter and Jason Lange

        “My phone is ringing constantly. It’s all farmers,” said Minneapolis-St. Paul area bankruptcy attorney Barbara May. “Their banks are calling in the loans and cutting them off.”

        Fewer loan options can threaten a farm’s survival, particularly in an era when farm incomes have been cut nearly in half since 2013.

        Gordon Giese, a 66-year-old dairy and corn farmer in Mayville, Wisconsin, last year was forced to sell most of his cows, his farmhouse and about one-third of his land to clear his farm’s debt. Now, his wife works 16-hour shifts at a local nursing home to help pay bills.

        Giese and two of his sons tried and failed to get a line of credit for the farm.

        “If you have any signs of trouble, the banks don’t want to work with you,” said Giese, whose experience echoes dozens of other farmers interviewed by Reuters. “I don’t want to get out of farming, but we might be forced to.”

        Michelle Bowman, a governor at the U.S. Federal Reserve, told an agricultural banking conference in March that the sharp decline in farm income$ was a “troubling echo” of the 1980s farm cri$is, when falling crop$ and land price$, amid ri$ing debt, lead to ma$$ loan default$ and foreclo$ure$.

        PMorgan Chase’s FDIC-insured units pared $245 million, or 22%, of their farm-loan holdings between the end of 2015 and March 31 of this year.

        FEDERAL BACKING FOR $MALLER BANK$

        The decline in farm lending by the big banks has come despite ongoing growth in the farm-loan portfolios of the wider banking industry and in the government-sponsored Farm Credit System. But overall growth has slowed considerably, which banking experts called a sign that all lenders are growing more cautious about the sector.

        The four-quarter growth rate for farm loans at all FDIC-insured banks, which supply about half of all farm credit, slowed from 6.4% in December 2015 to 3.9% in March 2019. Growth in holdings of comparable farm loans in the Farm Credit System has also slowed.

        Many smaller, rural banks are more dependent on their farm lending portfolios than the national banks because they have few other options for lending in their communities. As farming towns have seen populations shrink, so have the number of businesses, said Curt Everson, president of the South Dakota Bankers Association.

        “All you have are farmers and companies that work with, sell to or buy from farmers,” Everson said.

        As the perils have grown, some smaller banks have turned to the federal government for protection, tapping a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that guarantees up to 95% of a loan as a way to help rural and community banks lend to higher-risk farmers.

        Big Wall Street banks have steadily trimmed their farm portfolios since 2015 after boosting their lending in the sector in the wake of the financial crisis.

        1. I don’t feel sorry for these farmers in the least. They are some of the biggest debt-junkies the country has ever seen, and they were speculating on land for years. Let them all reap what they have sown.

        2. This could all just be the calm before the buying storm

          Ironic how record profits lead immediately to record debt. Old farmers acting like they just fell off the turnip truck.

          1. No doubt driven by FOMO. They see other farmers expanding their land and having unrealized profit via temporary appreciation. Not jumping on the bandwagon means you’ll get left behind.

            Like shooting fish in a barrel, until it isn’t.

    2. “The IMF’s biannual Global Financial Stability Report, with its dense and detailed analysis of systemic developments, is not exactly bedtime reading. Yet there was enough in the latest issue to provoke nightmares for those who cared to read what it had to say about multiple risks facing the system.

      There were repeated references to similarities between the current state of financial markets and that in the run-up to the 2008 global financial crisis. And, this time, the threats extend not only to banks and other lenders, but also to pension funds and insurance companies, as well as corporations.”

      I thunk the Fed put in enough safeguards to ensure that we won’t have another financial crisis, ever.

      Whuh happened!?

        2. Lovely chart$, eye e$pecially like #3! … 86% wowser$!

          “House price$ and commercial real e$tate price$ are closely related. As shown in Graph 3, they made an obviou$ double bubble, a double collapse and a double big rebound. The $tatistical correlation between the two since 2001 is 86 percent.”

      2. The Fed, and all the ivory tower hacks, seem to have some twisted logic where they believe they can inflate the prices of all assets and commodities well beyond what wages can afford and somehow “park” them there at a permanently high plateau. Have you ever heard of a successful business which sells a product that nobody can afford?

        1. Have you ever heard of a successful business which sells a product that nobody can afford?

          Luxury car makers come to mind. Was at the local outdoor mall a few months ago, and they had a few Benzes on display. The prices were mind boggling, especially since I thought some of them were kind of ugly. Yet I see these things, as well as BMW’s, Audi’s and Lexus cars all over the roads. Sure most of them are leased, but it’s crazy.

          I suppose that once Great Recession 2 hits that the sales of these monstrosities will shrivel up. I will be driving my low mileage, paid for non luxury car, which is luxurious enough for me. When I see the huge touch screens in new cars, I just see a gadget that’s going to break out of warranty and which will be expensive to fix. When I see all the gadgetry they’re putting into cars now it isn’t surprising that the average car price is approaching $40K. And when all those electronics, senors, turbos, 10 speed transmissions, etc. start to break, hold on to your wallet.

          1. “average car price is approaching $40K.”

            Much like the deceptive rental rate parrotted by the media, once incentives are stacked, the avg price falls well under $30k.

            Falling housing and auto prices=desperation.

            The desperation is ramping up nicely.

          2. I see these things, as well as BMW’s, Audi’s and Lexus cars all over the roads. Sure most of them are leased, but it’s crazy.

            I saw a recent new story about how Teslas are disproportionately sold to people who traditionally buy entry/mid level European luxury and the trend is increasing fast. These are cars that already depreciate mind-bogglingly quickly, and the fact that so many of the current owners don’t plan to buy another one is starting to crush them and the used ones are being crushed even harder. This is where the real action will be in the next few years, I think, for those willing to continue to deal with all the issues associated with gasoline while the government coerces everyone else into switching to electric.

          3. Maybe if you buy a Chevy or a Dodge. The discounts on desirable brands like Toyota and Honda are much smaller

          5. “the average car price is approaching $40K”

            LOL I have never bought a car for more than $12K.

            And REALTOR, in case you forgot, I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it.

            The Debt Donkey ads all over Denver radio for American Financing dot net are deplorable, i.e. it’s cheaper to buy than to come up with first and last month of rent and deposit.

            Debt donkeys gonna donk.

          6. Used European luxury cars are not going to be crushed. Older Beemers and Benz are the wheels of choice for up-and-coming immigrants — who evidently are making a fair amount of money doing jobs Americans won’t do — looking to show off. That’s what I see in my nabe.

          7. Makes sense considering Toyotas and Hondas are cheaper

            Not really. But they are a better value because they don’t break and last much longer.

          8. Older Beemers and Benz are the wheels of choice for up-and-coming immigrants

            I haven’t lived in places to see that but I can see how it might be true. However that means prices have to fall to where the car can be considered disposable. There’s no way those are ever going back to the dealer for 5-figure repairs and hacking your way around the computers cheaply is becoming almost impossible unless you’re really comfortable with the tech and part of online communities that make the hacking tools for them. Although I forget that if you’re willing to drive it around with the entire dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree the car may still run for quite a while that way. The trick at that point is dealing with emissions tests.

          10. The VW shop may be able to help.

            Hahah :-). Actually I don’t mind the VW diesels. I think if the govt wants to set unrealistic standards they shouldn’t be surprised when people come up with creative solutions. If I wanted a small diesel car I’d buy one of those in a heartbeat.

        2. Have you ever heard of a successful business which sells a product that nobody can afford?”

          Medical care , it bankrupts the unlucky

          1. Medical care , it bankrupts the unlucky

            In only bankrupts Americans. Other western countries don’t have to worry about going bankrupt if they have serious medical issues.

          3. Other western countries don’t have to worry about going bankrupt if they have serious medical issues.

            They only have to worry about how long they will have to wait to be treated. My UK relatives have private insurance for this reason.

        3. Asian cars are considerably cheaper than domestic, likely due to quality issues or at the perception of poor quality.

    3. Stable market, balanced market realtor speak translation=Our story of infinite wealth gains through perennially levitating home prices is no longer viable. We are one short news cycle away from the jig being up and everyone knowing real estate is in a tail spin. We need to sell as many houses as possible before that happens.

      1. All we need is Warren’s 42percent sales tax and none of us will have to worry about being bankrupted by medical bills. Of course with that tax and her green energy taxes virtually all of us will be bankrupted anyway.

  5. “He said real estate agents are overpromising to get a listing, using ‘ridiculous numbers that would never happen.’

    This insinuates that realtors are liars.

    1. Kinda goes without saying. My wife has a friend who is an agent that was holding an open house yesterday so we popped by. Her broker was there too and I noticed that the aggression level continues to ramp up whenever they find out I have a CA license that I don’t use. They trip over themselves explaining to me why I still need an experienced agent to help me right away due to my lack of experience. And I’m not even looking…and I didn’t even bring it up, my wife just mentioned it in passing to her friend. It seems to hit a nerve with them that everybody has one.

      1. “It seems to hit a nerve with them that everybody has one.”

        Heh. I guess if everybody is special, then no one is special.

      2. I dont recall reading your story of how and why you came about obtaining a license and am intrigued as you like I, work in tech not RE. I have considered getting a license just for the the mere satisfaction of taunting realtor at open houses and reminding them how anyone can be REALTOR. I may just go ahead and start the process as it will save me money when i catch my next falling knife.

        1. Yeah, I picked it up a couple of years ago because my wife has friends in China that were interested in buying at some point and wanted to deal with people they know. I wasn’t going to encourage anybody to buy at the peak and now money is harder to move so I haven’t used it for anything so far. Maybe never will. I haven’t even started a relationship with a broker yet but I do keep my eye out for one that would be good to work with if the time ever comes.

    1. Just crazy.

      Here’s an idea: build a simple building. And use all that money not spent on fancy architecture to buy books and stuff!

      1. but but but you cant have a plain ol’ functional building next to $1,000 sq ft luxury condozes…….Long Island City is the new mini Manhattan dunt cha noe?

      1. THIS!!!!

        “At the top of the list was a 50% pay-cut for current and former ministers. Ministers in Lebanon receive salaries for life, which are among the highest in the world compared to the minimum wage, while their children receive monthly legacy benefits even after they die.”

        Holy moly, and you thought the public Union pensions in this country were gold-plated!

        But, the people there are pushing back, hopefully someday we will do the same.

        1. You think a bunch of mouth-breathing corn syrup fatties with their faces shoved into their iPhones, ogling the latest Instagram gender reveal party, are going to push back? Don’t hold your breath.

          2. Ya can’t fix stoopid.

            ‘Family members inadvertently created a pipe bomb with gunpowder.

            “Instead of the gunpowder shooting the powder out the top of the stand, the stand exploded, sending metal pieces flying,” said the sheriff’s office.’

    2. “On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, flanked by only the Lebanese flag, gave a televised address imploring the protesters to open the roads.

      “A vacuum, in light of current economic situation … will lead to chaos and collapse,” he warned.”

      !!! This is coming from the leader of a terrorist organization!

      1. Well, he obviou$ly $tand$ to lo$e $something $should chao$ break out.

        Funny, how the attitude changes when you have some skin in the game. Suddenly the idea of blowing things up isn’t appealing any more.

      2. ” … will lead to chao$ and collap$e,”

        Actually, economic pain$ might bee the lea$t of one’$ concern$, especially as it relates to one’s “skin”.

  8. Ben and HBB posters have been documenting the role of hot-money flows out of China in creating the Vancouver housing bubble for years, yet Canadian authorities are just now getting around to convening hearings to looking into it? Gosh, those are some zealous and dedicated public servants, right there.

    https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/10/article/canadian-money-laundering-probe-will-rock-beijing/

    On Wednesday a public inquiry chaired by Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen began its hearings into money laundering in Canada. This will lead to a report and recommendations for legislation early in 2021.

    The target of this inquiry is the billions upon billions of dollars that have been smuggled into British Columbia and other regions of Canada over the last two decades.

    Most of this money has been illegally taken out of the People’s Republic of China in defiance of currency restrictions, though some has come from Russia and Iran.

    A two-volume report produced earlier this year by former Royal Canadian Mounted Police deputy commissioner Peter German set out the corruption and economic instability that accompanied the torrents of PRC money.

    1. ‘One of Britain’s biggest accountancy firms aided the laundering of drug money, an investigation has claimed. An EY auditor said that bosses repeatedly played down reported suspicions and told him not to inform the authorities. An investigation by the BBC and Premières Lignes, a French media agency, alleges in Panorama tonight that EY — formerly Ernst & Young — failed to report evidence of a criminal gang using black market gold to launder money. It claims that the gang collected cash from drug dealers across Europe then laundered it by buying and selling black market gold. Documents seen by the BBC and Premières Lignes purport to show that in 2012 Renade International, a company owned by a gang member, sold 3.6 tonnes of gold to Kaloti, a precious metals refinery and trader in Dubai.’

      ‘EY was asked to review compliance with regulations in Kaloti’s supply chain. The programme claims that although EY discovered that Kaloti made cash payments of $5.2 billion in 2012, it failed to report the suspicious activity. The investigation claims that $146 million of that cash went to Renade International.’

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/top-auditor-helped-launder-drug-cash-l033drlk0

      2. Our TBTF banks are as hooked on liquidity from drug money as our addicts are hooked on meth or heroin. This is why you will never, ever see criminal prosecutions of bank officials involved in laundering drug money for cartels. You will only see tax-deductible, slap-on-the-wrist fines, so-faux mea culpas from bank CEOs, then right back to laundering dirty money again with impunity. In our two-tiered “justice” system, the corrupt DoJ and FBI don’t even pretend to go after the really big criminals, like those at HSBC and Wachovia who laundered billions for the Sinaloa drug cartel while regulators and enforcers turned a blind eye.

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

      3. If you think about the scale of the international drug trade objectively for more than ten minutes, you realize that it would be impossible for it to operate without the complicity and active participation of governments and banks.

        1. It struck me the other day that the stuff that the CIA makes their money off of all over the world absolutely must not be legalized or the whole system falls apart. I realized that as I read yet another news story on how we were pressuring some country…HARD…to not legalize something. American drug consumers are the “taxpayers” that fund our government’s real black budget.

          1. Do you have a link? I’m genuinely curious, because I’ve never heard of the US telling a country not to legalize a drug. (unless you mean prescription drugs?)

            On a similar note, researchers analyzed sewage from 140 countries over 7 years to identify which countries used which drugs:

            Coke is on the rise in Europe
            Meth is most common in North America and Australia
            Ecstasy has a high incidence in the Netherlands.
            https://wtop.com/health-fitness/2019/10/sewage-analysis-sheds-additional-light-on-most-prevalent-illegal-drugs-used-worldwide/

          2. Do you have a link? I’m genuinely curious, because I’ve never heard of the US telling a country not to legalize a drug. (unless you mean prescription drugs?)

            I’m having a hard time finding the recent link that got me thinking about this stuff in the first place. But a quick google of foreign policy and war on drugs gets you lots of links. I’ll reply with the best one I found so far. But the CIA admitted to it in 1986…how likely is it that they actually stopped raising money that way?

    1. “….can only be recouped by jacking up rates…”

      Assuming there are any underwriters left.

      At what point does the fire insurance industry just throw in the towel and refuse to write any new/renew policies or have an exclusion list so long that effectively any policy is worthless unless the fire was started by laser beams from space invaders?

      Supposedly they are all in business to make a profit.

      1. Which will essentially make those houses almost worthless because no financial institution will lend on them without insurance. It’s cash only, then, and the owner goes naked.

      1. “…I wonder if the rates will get jacked up everywhere…”

        Good question.

        I think probably so because re-insurance is (to the best of my knowledge) allowed to straddle state lines.

    4. jacking up rates

      Before the fires, I inquired from State Farm ballpark estimates to insure three different properties. $2,500/yr

        1. A thoughtful ten year old could figure out why California is having so many fires caused by power lines and neighboring states are not. Just look at the pictures of power lines and you see trees growing right under them. You never saw that when I was ten years old. Green is the new religion of millennials. They even argue against common sense measures like no vegetation under powelines because it is against their religion. If there was little or no vegetation around power lines it could not dry out and be fuel when a power line sparked. That is why it was not allowed to grow in previous generations. Add to that other maintenance which was deferred to buy expensive green power and you have the present situation. Arizona, Utah and Idaho are not having anything like this, is AGW just in California?

    5. Update on California wildfires. Insurance losses are going to be astronomical and can only be recouped by jacking up rates, hastening the housing market’s downward spiral.

      One of my coworkers just received notice that his house insurance would not be renewed (El Dorado Hills area). He was still using the same insurance that they put him in years ago when he bought the house. His car insurance provider was happy to take the business for now.

      1. Do you think landlords will not pass the cost to renters? . In the aggregate it is another reason to leave California putting pressure on housing costs there. However it does not change the rent or own equation very much.

  11. I’ve received three emails from Zillow with the subject heading “10 Homes We Think You’ll Love” for Birmingham, Michigan, presumably from checking out Chino’s eye candy.

          1. The reconfigurable shed in Eindhoven, Netherlands is cool! Spiffy would probably like the Woodstock “Willow Treehouse.”

    2. I would probably be getting these from your neck of the woods, and a few other places as well, if it were not for me browsing Zillow anonymously…

      We’re getting data mined every which way we turn.

      1. Sometimes that data mining and such leads to some amusing results. 😀

        I returned from Australia over 3 weeks ago. But yesterday I was on Facebook using my laptop. And they were still showing me Australian ads, LOL.

      3. I just read today that Google has put in an offer to buy FitBit. Evidently FitBit is losing its battle against Apple’s IWatch for fitness tracking.

        My prediction is that Google will eventually offer you a FitBit for free in exchange for a graph of your pulse rate, HIPPA be darned.

  12. At least some people get it, and their quotes are making it into the lamestream media:

    ‘When this thing implodes, we are all screwed. On a global scale, we have never before created such a magnificent bubble. These central bankers are clueless, and they have proven that beyond a doubt. All they can do is to try to keep the bubble going.’

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/qe-on-steroids-could-lead-to-a-depression-warns-money-manager-who-compares-the-us-to-a-banana-republic-2019-10-28?mod=mw_latestnews

    1. These central bankers are clueless, and they have proven that beyond a doubt.

      Clueless? How about complicit?

      2. “Complicit”, why ye$ of cour$e! … & ab$olutely ab$olved with gloriou$ly $hielded indemnification’$!

  13. I’ve been watching an abandoned zombie house in my nabe. It was in terrible condition. Finally some Chinese outfit bought it and did an el cheapo reno. Didn’t touch the roof or the yard. It’s not on sale for IMO $80K over what it should sell for.

    Looking for an $80K profit (after cost of reno) in a nabe of $350K houses. of course the price is going to drop.

      1. You mean $120K? These houses, yes you probably can. They have a rectangular footprint <1000 sq ft, under a one-gable pitch roof. But it doesn't include the land, sorry hon.

        I believe the old saw: Houses never appreciate. Land is the only thing that appreciates.

        Condos? Forget it. At least not until I retire with with enough money that I don't need to care.

        1. In the most bizarre paradox in the Universe, land is most expensive in the least desirable locations.

    2. But would you really want to live there? Then again, do we have a choice, as the jobs that are left seem to congregate in these megaplexes?

    1. I’m sure a “whiff” will be good for a 10%-20% stock bump. You know, because “next quarter” and stuff…

  17. The natives (UK) are getting restless:
    generationrent.org/we_need_a_national_register_of_landlords_here_s_why

    We need a national register of landlords – here’s why
    Posted by Georgie Laming 163sc on October 22, 2019
    Right now, the private rented sector is a wild west which at best costs a fortune for somewhere you can’t call a home and at its worst is dangerously unsafe. In fact, it’s so unregulated that right now the government doesn’t actually know how many landlords are out there.
    It means that for renters, there’s little guarantee that your home meets safety standards, or that your landlord won’t rip you off. There’s no guarantee that you can find a suitable home at a fair, affordable rent or that you will be able to live there as long as you want it.
    Every day we hear from renters who’ve suffered from rogue landlords…

      1. Musk also claims to be financially illiquid so, if true, settling this defamation suit isn’t so simple.

      1. Jeff: and here is the kicker, 99% chance its with illegal guns, and none of the shooters are a NRA member. Yet not 1 “D” running for prez will talk abut it.

        1. Used to be able to find a good article that had the gang violence statistics that spelled this out “America has a gang problem not a gun problem”.

          But now it just turns up some similarly titled Hufpo article that does a half @ss Soros / Snopes debunk job.

          FBI: More people killed with knives, hammers, clubs and even feet than rifles in 2018

          Posted by LET Staff | Oct 2, 2019

          It’s the data that the mainstream media tends to bury when it doesn’t fit their agenda.

          According to the FBI, more than five times as many people were killed in 2018 by knives, clubs and other cutting instruments than with rifles.

          The metrics show that there were a total of 1,515 deaths by knives or other cutting instruments last year. Compare that against 297 people killed by rifles.

          https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/fbi-more-people-killed-with-knives-hammers-clubs-and-even-feet-than-rifles-in-2018/

          1. I was trying to type…

            You won’t see this on the CBS Evening News

            Above the “FBI: More people killed with knives” article.

  22. We haven’t run out of stock market worriers, just yet.

    ‘We are all screwed!’ The U.S. is like a banana republic and a depression could be on the way, warns money manager
    By Shawn Langlois
    Published: Oct 28, 2019 2:54 p.m. ET

    When this thing implodes, we are all screwed. On a global scale, we have never before created such a magnificent bubble. These central bankers are clueless, and they have proven that beyond a doubt. All they can do is to try to keep the bubble going.

    That’s Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies giving his timely Halloween-week assessment of the current climate in an interview on USAWatchdog.com.

    At this point, if the Federal Reserve stops juicing the economy, Pento argues, we could be looking at another depression.

    “That’s why the Fed’s panicking,” he said. “If anybody still believes they’re omniscient or omnipotent or know their butt from their elbow, that’s over.”

    The Federal Reserve is expected to lower its benchmark interest rate this week by 25 basis points, the third such cut in three months. According to the minutes from the Sept. 17-18 meeting, “downside risks had become more pronounced since July,” yet “several participants” wanted the Fed to provide more clarity on when the response to those risks, including “trade uncertainty,” would end.

    Pento, whose holdings lean heavily on Treasurys (TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.72%) and gold (GC00, -0.08%), expects the interest-rate cuts to keep coming in the face of record household and corporate debt.

    “It’s not that it’s QE. It’s QE on steroids,” he said. “Everybody knows that this QE is permanent just like any banana republic would do, or has done.”
    …

    1. “The Federal Reserve is expected to lower its benchmark interest rate this week by 25 basis points, the third such cut in three months“

      Greatest economy ever, lowest unemployment, stawks to the moon, but yet the fed needs to further cut rates… i am amazed how blind the masses are to these hair if the dog cures that are happening. I suppose living in the moment rather than acknowledging the upcoming doom and gloom is preferable for most. Guess i am cursed with reason

    2. Opinion: U.S. stocks are getting a run for the money from some unlikely parts of the world
      By Mark Hulbert
      Published: Oct 29, 2019 5:18 a.m. ET
      Investors are making a mistake to ignore international markets
      AFP/Getty Images

      Pigs may not fly, but it appears as though the PIIGS are doing just that.

      I am referring to the countries in Europe whose economies several years ago looked like such basket cases that they might be forced out of the European Union and/or lead to the EU’s dissolution: Portugal; Italy; Ireland; Greece, and Spain (PIIGS). Over the past 12 months, their stock markets on average have outperformed the S&P 500 (SPX, +0.56%) — as you can see from the accompanying chart.
      …

    3. The stock market is at a record high and it’s unbelievable
      Brian Sozzi
      Yahoo Finance
      October 28, 2019, 11:28 AM PDT

      And here we are again folks, the stock market is at record highs. It all feels rather bizarro, no?

      A year of wild Trump tweets on his trade war with China. Stocks have shrugged them off. It’s been a year of decelerating global economic growth — thanks to that Trump trade war — and gloomy predictions from the likes of the IMF, and stocks could seemingly care less. Earnings growth in Corporate America has slowed noticeably through the first three quarters of the year. Mr. Market says who gives a damn, brighter days lay ahead in 2020.
      …

        1. “Globali$m was very bad for this country”

          Obviously aqdan, you is knot a American Walton family relative.

          IN ONE CHART:

          The Walton family gets $100 million richer every $ingle day
          By Nicole Lyn Pesce| MarketWatch

          In the hour that it takes a new Walmart employee to earn the $11 starting wage, the family that owns the retail giant has banked $4 million.

          In fact, the third-generation heirs of Walmart WMT-0.91% founder Sam Walton have amassed a $191 billion fortune to top Bloomberg’s list of the richest families in the world. And that has grown by $39 billion since the Waltons topped the list last year.

          The report breaks that out to the Walton fortune increasing by an eye-watering $70,000 per minute, $4 million per hour or $100 million per day.

          Walmart rang up $514 billion in sales from more than 11,000 stores across the globe, Bloomberg added. And the family holding company Walton Enterprises owns a 50% stake in Walmart, which paid out $3 billion in dividends last year.

          And American dyna$ties took the top three places on the elite$ list. The candy-making clan behind Mar$ Inc. is in second place with $127 billion in wealth that was sweetened by $37 billion since last year. And the indu$trialists/politicians$ behind Koch Industrie$ take third with $125 billion.

          1. All the billionaires made vast amounts of money on globalization including Bezos, Bloomberg and Gates. Your post just proves my point. Trump is trying to stop them hence the attempted coup since he took office. The Globalists protected Obama, the Bushes and the Clintons. If TDS was not impacting you it would be clear that you are fighting the one president who is trying the help the middle class in decades.

          2. Aqdan, $pit out that dtRumpsis “True.Believer” hairball: Koch Globali$t Elitist$

            “And the indu$trialists/politicians$ behind Koch Industrie$ take third with $125 billion.”

      1. The MSM quotes whomever advances their agenda. Orangeman bad and his economy is going to crash are the messages it wants out there. Meanwhile investments are made based on what people really believe. They could be wrong but people only risk money when they see profit. I trust what people do far more than they say. The GM strike is over, Boeing should have the super max back in the air soon. Finally we continue to frac more Wells than we drill. That cannot continue for long. Thus all the headwinds to manufacturing growth will soon be tailwinds.

        1. Trump dig$ coal!

          “Meanwhile inve$tments are made ba$ed on what people really believe” aqdan

          INVE$TING
          Murray Energy join$ growing li$t of coal companie$ to declare bankruptcy

          CNBC | Pippa Stevens | Oct 29th 2019

          Murray Energy, once the nation’s largest privately held coal company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

          It’s the latest bankruptcy in the coal industry as consumers shift to cheaper and cleaner sources of power.

          Founder and former CEO Robert Murray was a vocal supporter of President Trump,

          At a campaign rally in West Virginia last year Trump declared that “the coal industry is back.” But more than 50 coal plants have closed since the 2016 election. And this past April, for the first time ever, renewable energy sources like solar and wind farms provided more of the US’ electricity than coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration

          Last year, demand for coal fell to its lowest level in 40 years, according to the US Energy Information Administration, with coal production dropping to its second lowest level since 1978.

          1. The plant closures were in the pipeline prior to Trump taking office. The EIA recent projections have coal production stabilizing and staying level right out to 2050.

          2. “Meanwhile inve$tments are made ba$ed on what people really believe” aqdan

            What’$ the name of yer “Coal ETF” aqdan?

          3. I traveled through formerly eastern Europe years ago, and the coal smoke and soot hung in the air everywhere. I couldn’t wait to get back to the California coast and a McDonald’s double quarter pounder w/o cheese and medium coffee!

    5. “True.Believer$” $pring Eternal!, dear Professor.

      Market bull Jeff $aut’s $hort-term indicator fla$hes ‘$ell $ignal’

      CNBC |By Stephanie Landsman

      Saut still believes there’s at least $even year$ left in the bull market. He expects low interest rates coupled with stronger quarterly earnings to push the S&P 500 to at least 3,400 next year. That’s a 13% increase from current levels.

      “I do not see a downturn coming. I do not see a rece$$ion coming,” Saut said. “Earnings are going to come in better than people think.”

      Saut’s not sure what could ultimately spark the decline, but he contends the bearish reading isn’t interfering with his long-term secular bull case.

  25. That 0.006% price reduction is certain to get someone off the fence:

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/496-Irvin-St-Plymouth-MI-48170/88412243_zpid/

    It was also FSBO for $599,000 earlier this year, which Zillow does not appear to archive.

    I’m not seeing over 1,500 square feet in this house — is the seller including the finished basement?

    Also a shame that you have to prop pictures up on tables when hanging them facing downward from a pitched ceiling is not an option.

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