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There’s No Law Of Supply And Demand

A weekend topic starting with the Charlotte Agenda in North Carolina. “Jonathan Osman points to a one-story, brick house in Camp Greene. A little more than a decade ago, the home sold for $38,500. Now, it’s listed by another Realtor for $369,000. Osman shakes his head, then pulls up a nearby listing on Morton Street: $335,000 for a similar house, one-story, brick, renovated. ‘I get it, it’s close to Uptown,’ he says. ‘But two-bedroom, one-bathroom?'”

“Buyers and sellers can feel the difference. It’s looking at a house in Madison Park that sold in 2016 for $220,000 now listed for almost $630,000. It’s constant house-flipping ads on the radio, promising seminars that teach you how to make money without spending your own. ‘Everybody is scared of buying at the top of the market,’ Osman says. ‘The hard thing is, you don’t know when the top is gonna be.'”

From Cambridge Day in Massachusetts. “A friend and I were talking about Cambridge’s housing problem. Like me, he’s a proponent of increasing affordable housing. But as our conversation went on, he became increasingly frustrated with my comments about the impacts of density and growth. Finally, he blurted out, ‘Haven’t you ever heard of the law of supply and demand?'”

“‘I hate to tell you this,’ I replied, ‘but any marketing professional will tell you that in reality, there’s no law of supply and demand.'”

“Realtors and developers are ecstatic. It’s like a gold rush; any real estate agent who can get a seller to sign with them is guaranteed a minimum of $30,000 to 50,000 per home sale. Competent agents are making $500,000 a year and more. Developers are also experiencing happy days … just one luxury home can bring in $200,000 profit.”

From Crested Butte News in Colorado. “The conversation can be heard everywhere—Crested Butte is changing fast. Many of the concerns revolve around the dark neighborhoods of part-time second homeowners who are driving up property taxes and contributing to the housing shortage, rising business fees, unsustainable rents for both business and residential tenants, different ‘cultural values’ seeping in, and long time community-invested businesses closing their doors.”

“A year ago last spring, after nine years in business in Crested Butte, Mountain Oven packed up their baking operation and moved to Paonia, where owner Chris Sullivan was able to purchase a home on five acres with a small orchard for considerably less than the price of buying a small condo on the mountain. Sullivan also rented an affordable large space in downtown Paonia where he built a kitchen facility for his baking production.”

“Sullivan didn’t want to leave Crested Butte, even though there’s been a noticeable migration of Buttians to Paonia. ‘Crested Butte is a really special place and the exceptional community of long-term residents, who are committed to each other, are trying to protect this place. But I see the people who are moving here, buying property here, and they’re not my people.'”

The San Jose Spotlight in California. “All throughout California, everyone is talking about how we need to create cheaper housing for people who are homeless. As homelessness increases throughout the state, and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars have been invested in homeless services and housing, the people who paid those taxes are losing their patience.”

“The media has picked up on what most of us are seeing. Earlier this month, USA Today published a story titled ‘Some of Los Angeles’ homeless could get apartments that cost more than private homes.’ The story was written after an L.A. City Controller audited the city’s investment in building housing for people who are homeless. He found that the average cost of a supportive housing unit was $531,373, while the median price of a market-rate condo was $546,000.”

“Years ago, after we had finished building a supportive housing development in downtown San Diego, I opened my Redfin real estate app on my iPhone only to find that market-rate condos were selling for cheaper than the cost of our apartments.”

“You want cheaper housing? Build it forty years ago. In 1980, the average price of a home was $47,200. In 2000, it was $119,600.”

From NBC Bay Area in California. “A strong economy, low unemployment, and a booming stock market. So this next statement may surprise you: There is new evidence that the demand for Bay Area homes is cooling and prices keep falling. The median sales price for new homes dropped 7.1% In addition, previously sold homes saw a price drop of 4.7% compared to last year.”

“San Jose-based realtor Holly Barr said she has seen prices sliding for more than a year now. ‘If you look at the trend over the last two years, it’s definitely come down,’ Barr said. In her market of Willow Glen, Holly’s gotten less ‘all cash’ buyers and seen clients’ homes sit on the market for an average of 25 days before a sale. A couple years ago your home would likely sell in less than 10 days and you would get several hundred-thousand dollars over asking price.”

“In September this year, CoreLogic reports the median sale price for all homes in the Bay Area was about $778,000 — down from $815,000 last year. Another study may offer another reason why prices are sliding. A San Francisco city survey reports that 35% of residents want to leave the city in the next three years.”

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This Post Has 109 Comments

  1. ‘If you look at the trend over the last two years, it’s definitely come down’ …In her market of Willow Glen, Holly’s gotten less ‘all cash’ buyers and seen clients’ homes sit on the market for an average of 25 days before a sale. A couple years ago your home would likely sell in less than 10 days and you would get several hundred-thousand dollars over asking price’

    Gosh, I hope no one overpaid in such an environment.

    2. Developers are also experiencing happy days … just one luxury home can bring in $200,000 profit.

      A Real Estate professional told me recently that’s the cost of building. Let’s not call it profit.

  2. ‘Realtors and developers are ecstatic. It’s like a gold rush; any real estate agent who can get a seller to sign with them is guaranteed a minimum of $30,000 to 50,000 per home sale. Competent agents are making $500,000 a year and more. Developers are also experiencing happy days … just one luxury home can bring in $200,000 profit’

    ‘A little more than a decade ago, the home sold for $38,500. Now, it’s listed by another Realtor for $369,000. Osman shakes his head, then pulls up a nearby listing on Morton Street: $335,000 for a similar house, one-story, brick, renovated…a house in Madison Park that sold in 2016 for $220,000 now listed for almost $630,000. It’s constant house-flipping ads on the radio, promising seminars that teach you how to make money without spending your own’

    Yeah, spotting a housing bubble is soooo difficult.

    1. “any real estate agent who can get a seller to sign with them is guaranteed a minimum of $30,000 to 50,000 per home sale. Competent agents are making $500,000 a year and more.”

      Gonna be a lot of trash can fire stories of them good ole days

      1. The Cambridge editorial is interesting. Lot’s of gee whiz, fancy talk and trees just gonna grow to the sky. So what happens when people who sell shacks don’t make $500k a year? Boston already has the ebola.

        1. I’m a MA native and long term renter in Cambridge. Due to my long tenure my rent is currently way below market, and I live in one of the more desirable neighborhoods in the city. I “shoulda coulda woulda” bought property years ago and will admit it now feels like a big mistake to not have, if indeed I want to continue to live here. For various reasons – admittedly cheap rent, fear and inertia – I kept kicking the can down the road. The situation around here now feels rather dire and being a single, aging person with decrepit body parts on the top floor of a walk up, I likely need to move within the next 6 months to a year.

          Yes, I hear the violins!

          While out for a walk two weeks ago I wandered into an open house, a 2 BR 2 BA condo, middle floor in a triple decker with street parking – on a narrow one way street. 30 Magnolia Ave. #2. Asking price was 828K, two price “improvements” later it is now at 789K. No access to the back yard/garden which is owned by the first floor but you can access on a 3 foot wide paved walkway for “grilling”! House built in 1903, wood exterior. Sandwiched in the middle you get to hear your neighbors walking above and you have to tip toe around to avoid annoying your neighbor below. Small closets. Nice little back deck that looks onto a big hospital parking lot, realtor advises you of the daily noise during shift changes.

          Sold for 450K in 2010 and for 375K in 2000, when it was renovated. I’m watching this one.

          Looked at Zillow yesterday and interestingly, re: Market Temperature, Cambridge is considered “cool” and a buyer’s market. Hmmm….

          And Eureka! The Universe – or Google – is listening. I literally – and I’m not making this up – just this second got an email that this unit is now “Pending Sale”. Shaking my head.

          3. Fed Reserve is actively buying properties and sitting on them

            I wasn’t expecting that yet. What makes you think so?

    2. “It’s constant house-flipping ads on the radio, promising seminars that teach you how to make money without spending your own.”

      This is the tell for me that we’ve peaked. The radio ads and that “Rich Dad Poor Dad” guy offering seminars in my area for the same thing.

  3. ‘Many of the concerns revolve around the dark neighborhoods of part-time second homeowners who are driving up property taxes and contributing to the housing shortage, rising business fees, unsustainable rents for both business and residential tenants, different ‘cultural values’ seeping in, and long time community-invested businesses closing their doors’

    Sedona.

  4. ‘Everybody is scared of buying at the top of the market,’ Osman says. ‘The hard thing is, you don’t know when the top is gonna be.’”

    With Janet Powell panicking and pumping more than $120 billion a day into the repo markets (because banks won’t accept each others’ toxic-waste collateral in exchange for overnight loans), it’s probably safe to say the top is already in. However, the implosion of the Everything Bubble could be weeks or months away, depending on how long the central banks can keep their asset bubbles and Ponzi markets levitated with a tsunami of printing press liquidity.

  5. ‘In 1980, the average price of a home was $47,200. In 2000, it was $119,600’

    There’s no reason for these shacks to be selling for 10 or 20 times these numbers. We get the “compassionate” build more so shacks prices sink like a turd in a well. Then when they do, it’s “baby Jeebus save me from falling prices!”

    Cut the lending gravy, down they come. Let it go on long enough, and you get a housing crash like the bay aryans got now.

    ‘The median sales price for new homes dropped 7.1% In addition, previously sold homes saw a price drop of 4.7% compared to last year’

    New? I thought bay aryans couldn’t build shacks? And what’s gonna happen to the suckers, I mean homeowners who bought new last year?

    DONG!

    1. “New? I thought bay aryans couldn’t build shacks“

      The amount of building going on now greatly surpasses what i saw back in the last building boom. Shortage my arse. Anyone who can get their eyes off all this msm bs and look around them could spot this.

    2. “Cut the lending gravy,”

      That’s it.

      If the lending standards were what they were in the 80s they wouldn’t sell any houses, cars or trucks not to mention the fact that tuition to college would be substantially lower.

    3. ‘In 1980, the average price of a home was $47,200. In 2000, it was $119,600’

      It may be 20 years ago, but millennial buyers can remember 2000 clearly. And what’s different from then to now? Not much. Anyone aware of average prices then vs. now would have to be insane to buy any time in the last few years. It’s like a house some people I know bought for $750k when the price history showed it sold for $8000.00 back in 1980. You can’t ask for a bigger red flag. Up almost 10,000% in 40 years is not normal, and definitely not sustainable, and counting on a few more percentage points of gain after such a run up is not a good plan.

    1. Something goofy on the price history for sure. Home depot flip written all over it. Guaranteed cheap 6 panel hollow doors, bottom of the barrel 4” mdf baseboard, clearance tile, it screams cheap flip

      1. They cleaned the carpet instead of replacing it. Nothing says $1.58 million like gray walls and tan carpet. 🙄

        1. Thanks to your post, I am presently cleaning my carpets. I do it twice a year but honestly I spend more time away from my home than I do at home.

    3. Plenty of California McMansions built in the last two decades were painted exactly that shade of gray.

    4. “Zillow listing”

      A friend’s place a bit south in Kent looks just like that and is valued at a third of that Bellevue place, but that commute…

    5. What is it about Bellevue, WA that makes shack worth $860,000?

      Is Bellevue, WA like Greenwich Ct. or something?

      $860,000
      4 bd 3 ba
      2,440 sqft
      17007 NE 21st St, Bellevue, WA 98008

    6. That is so hideous. People think this is so on trend, and maybe it is… but it’s going to look dated quicker than green countertops from the 70s.

    7. So they’ve dumped griege and evolved to “cell block” gray.

      Walls in all the places we’ve lived in here have been a medium beige, except for where we are now – light blue.

    8. Yup, that’s Minimalist Millenial Gray. Almost every flip is now this color scheme. Even the home decor stores now carry gray-themed knicknacks to match the paint.

      It’s always easy to tell what’s been renovated by the flooring. Flip flooring is gray, non-renovated stuff is almost always tan, like the carpet in this house. Even worse, they leave the warm hardwood flooring to clash with the gray walls.

      Yes, this style will definitely look dated. But even now it doesn’t look as hideous as the avocado/gold did. And really I do like the cleaner lines. When the gray is out of style I hope the clean lines stick around.

      1. non-renovated stuff is almost always tan, like the carpet in this house

        I noticed that too.

      2. Non-renovateds will also sport kitchen cabinets with wood trim and no hardware, stained baseboards, casings and doors, ceramic tile, antique brass hardware on lighting fixtures, pile carpeting in deep colors (and lots and lots of mauve).

        I’m not a millennial and I’m clearly the ignorant outlier here, but I do like the new, more neutral decor schemes, as I think they lend themselves better to traditional, historic styling elements and actually think that they will stay in style longer.

        But for crying out loud, an entire house in that one shade of grey is dreadfully boring.

        2. Not only is it dreadfully boring, when you consider the 9 months of overcast skies and low cloud cover in the area, it could potentially exacerbate depression in a person. There’s no warmth at all. I personally like wood because it gives off that warm and inviting vibe.

        3. 4-5 years ago, Home Depot sold pre-mixed 5-gallon buckets of “Swiss Coffee” paint. Which is why we saw it on almost every flip — cheap and quick. Now they sell a 5-gal bucket of Light French Gray matte for $116, which is pretty cheap.

      3. Ah yes, millenial gray – it’s ubiquitous! A friend sent me this listing, 73 Park St. #B in Brookline, MA. So, 650K to live in the basement – woo hoo – but it’s all about the walkability factor since millenials no longer own cars (from what I’ve heard). You can walk to public transportation and to Trader Joe’s. Just for fun I may attend the open house today…

        In my misspent youth, I worked in a hospital for many years. If you check out the listing, I’m struck that it resembles a high end clinical setting. “Hello, please be seated, the doctor will be with you shortly! Please wait here, the surgeon will be out of the O.R. and will give you an update.” The millenial gray decor makes this unit appear downright institutional. The good lord willin’, and if the creek don’t rise, I may have 25 years left on this spinning orb. Thus I hope to avoid an institutional setting as long as possible, thank you very much!

    1. I have a couple of friends in my circle who are feeling desperate to transition from renting to owning. One guy is a new professor who eager to move his young family (wife and baby) out of his parents’ place. Not wanting to move twice with an infant underfoot, they are going straight into the purchase market.

      I thought about trying to explain how patience could save them a couple of hundred thousand dollars over a few years of waiting to buy, which would free up the money necessary to pay the most high end mover on the planet to reduce the headache of a second move. But I didn’t bother, as I could tell his wife’s mind was already made up, and also, given that he grew up in SoCal, he was a true believer that California housing always goes up.

          1. He has a good job, and provided he keeps it, foreclosure shouldn’t be a concern. It’s more a matter of potentially leaving a couple of hundred thousand dollars on the table due to impatience. That said, many posters here predicted the housing market would bottom out around the time the Bernanke-Obama-Geithner President’s Working Group on Financial Markets decided to step in with hair-of-the-dog mortgage bond purchases to prop up prices, circa 2013. Anyone who tried to time the trough was wrong-footed.

      2. “…he was a true believer that California housing always goes up.”

        Where was he less than 10 years ago?!

        Wasn’t there also a mini housing crash in SoCal in the early 90s? Due to defense contractors consolidating/downsizing & military base closures?

        1. Yes the late 80’s and early 90’s when the end of the cold war allowed for cuts in the defense budget.

        2. “Where was he less than 10 years ago?!”

          – College or graduate school
          – Before the onset of marriage, fatherhood, and related case of housing market amnesia
          – The part of ten years ago that he remembers well is how strongly housing came back from the dip, thanks to Fed assistance
          – He’s a Millennial, so lacks a firsthand recollection of the Japanese real estate crash of the 1990s that refused to reflate (but I was dialed into it!)

          1. – The part of ten years ago that he remembers well is how strongly housing came back from the dip, thanks to Fed assistance

            Yup, that’s what I’m talking about. We’re being trained.

          2. “Yup, that’s what I’m talking about. We’re being trained.”

            And the more habituated the masses become to the Fed’s predictable hair-of-the-dog stimulus measures to circumvent a crisis, the more dumb money gets invested on the blind faith that real estate, stocks. Bonds, and even bitcoin always go up.

            Pretty soon markets reach a stimulus saturation point where extreme measures, such as massive central bank balance sheet expansion or even negative soverign bond yields are required to prop up asset prices further.

    1. Statements like that don’t seem likely to resonate with Republicans or conservatives that she would need to get elected.

        1. “It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavor to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him.”

          HRC… dont think so

    3. Aside from LGBTQ types, what kind of man would go for Warren? Her platform seems based on open gender discrimination against the traditional (non-rainbow) male half of the population. A man using similar openly discriminatory tactics against women would not stand a chance of being elected president.

      2. Aside from LGBTQ types, what kind of man would go for Warren?

        Simp – “A man that puts himself in a subservient/submissive position under women in hopes of winning them over, without the female bringing anything to the table.” —urban dictionary

      1. Then explain to me how black trans are the backbone of our democracy? If pointing out idiotic statements concerning unimportant issues instead of addressing real issues with some other answer than we will spend trillions is trolling then I am trolling.

    5. To be fair, 15-20 years ago Warren was what Democrats used to be. She was an expert on how banks swindled the working man — especially the working man on the financial edge — and she tried to fight against the dishonesty of banks. She has written books on how the original increases in house prices (late 80s) was cause by women entering the workforce and searching for good school districts, which has made families poorer, not richer.

      As early as 10 years ago, she was the one who grilled Tim Geithner on foaming the runway for banks, and she set up the CFPB to rein in toxic loans. She is one reason we have seen almost NO ARM/IO/Neg-am mortgages since the big bubble pop.

      There is a lot of merit in Warren’s past work in finance. But recently she has gone full SJW/identity politics, and she has pledged health care to illegal immigrants. That alone is probably enough to lose her my vote.

      I believe she will be the nominee. Biden is unstable and Bernie is a cardiac patient. The others are hoping they are enough of a minority to land the VP slot.

      1. ‘she was the one who grilled Tim Geithner on foaming the runway for banks’

        Her and Bernie. Then they both didn’t do or say a damn thing about it. It was the other guy in the room who wrote about it a book.

      2. To be fair, 15-20 years ago Warren was what Democrats used to be. She was an expert on how banks swindled the working man — especially the working man on the financial edge — and she tried to fight against the dishonesty of banks.

        Fauxahontus is indeed what the Democrats used to be and still are – bloviating for the cameras about how the banks are swindling the proles, while pocketing corporate lobbyist payola for ensuring those self-same banks and corporations continue their unfettered looting of the 99% with impunity. She’s a fraud, in other words.

      3. But recently she has gone full SJW/identity politics, and she has pledged health care to illegal immigrants. That alone is probably enough to lose her my vote.

        For me it’s guns…I hoped she wouldn’t jump onto that bandwagon with both feet. But yeah…

        1. to me its illegal guns but no dem will touch that issue, they had a story last year 70 people got shot in Chicago, and not one was by a legal gun and not 1 the shooter or the victim belonged to the NRA…….that is a taboo subject

  10. ” ‘I hate to tell you this,’ I replied, ‘but any marketing professional will tell you that in reality, there’s no law of supply and demand.’”

    This reminds me of the 2005-2006 housing bubble hay days. Whenever you talked to a real estate shill about overvalued housing relative to rents and incomes, the reply would be that value of anything is what any given person is willing to pay for it. Funny how the different stages of these bubbles recycles the same BS from the previous ones.

  12. This is related to the California power story. When the green energy lobby says that wind is competitive with coal, the studies they cite assume the life of a wind turbine is thirty years and a coal plant thirty years. A 50 year lifespan for a coal plant is common and it is doubtful that many turbines will make it past their twentieth birthday:

    https://stopthesethings.com/2016/11/29/mortal-danger-wind-turbines-throw-blades-disintegrate-collapse-with-alarming-regularity/

    1. It is almost pointless to resort to science to address this question. If it is not intrinsically obvious to someone that coal is a more efficient source of energy than wind, then they can be convinced of anything. Including that the world will soon end if everyone in the US doesn’t stop using fossil fuels. Most people will not understand enough of the science to be able to critically evaluate it.

      1. “If it is not intrinsically obvious to someone that coal is a more efficient source of energy than wind, then they can be convinced of anything.”

        It’s not simply that we haven’t run out of stupid people yet. There are plenty of smart sheep out and about who would prefer to agree with the political religion of Green Energy, rather than play the role of the little boy who pointed out the emperor was naked and get attacked for it.

        1. Sometimes people simply want something to be true really really badly. And have been trained that by acting as if it’s true maybe it will become true.

          1. “Sometimes people simply want something to be true really really badly. And have been trained that by acting as if it’s true maybe it will become true.”

            Send them to me. Send to me any clones as well.

          2. Send them to me. Send to me any clones as well.

            I think you’ve already met them all at least once. At least the ones of legal age.

  13. Saw this in the last post and thought it worthy of carrying over, thanks to aNYCdj. It’s an eye-opening account of how and why vehicle prices have been able to hyperinflate. It used to be you went to a car dealership to buy a car. They’re not selling cars anymore, they’re selling loans. As if a car wasn’t a big enough purchase to begin with… It’s all due to the FED’s liquidity orgy and subprime financing shenanigans, just like all bubbles. There are some real gems of quotes in the article, including pictures of these braying debt-donkeys who have ruined things for the prudent. The WSJ has free articles for two days, so there’s no paywall.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-45-000-loan-for-a-27-000-ride-more-borrowers-are-going-underwater-on-car-loans-11573295400

    1. “…how and why vehicle prices have been able to hyperinflate.”

      Subprime auto loans…’nuff said.

    2. “The WSJ has free articles for two days, so there’s no paywall.”

      Yeah, I was wondering…where’s their paywall.

    1. ‘Longtime television host Regis Philbin and his wife Joy Philbin are listing their Greenwich, Conn., home for $4.595 million, or 36% less than they paid for the English Manor-inspired property about a decade ago.’

      Ouch!

    1. I knew when they shut down our local nuclear plants electricity costs were going to rise, but the shortage has me surprised. Everyone said the renewals would cover what the San Onofre Nuclear Generator used to produce. WHOOPS.

    2. If I lived in CA, I would definitely be getting rooftop solar and enough home battery storage to hedge against CA wildfires and intermittent power.

      1. Or you could get a gasoline fired generator at a small fraction of the price, which you could take with you when you finally can leave California.

        1. BTW One, how well do those solar panels work when smoke has filled the air? Hard to recharge those batteries during the day when smoke is blocking the sun. I remember even in Coronado during a big fire the sun was just a red circle in the smoke, the fire was tens of miles away.

          1. Solar panels charge even on overcast days, albeit with reduced efficiency. There is a guy in NY named Anthony Sicari who has been running on solar for 33 days straight with 3 power walls. This is despite many cloudy and overcast days. The trick is having enough battery, which believes he does.

            Li-ion though is still way expensive. By the time I actually do buy a house (which I don’t think will be soon), I am going to bypass the utilities altogether and just make sure I have enough solar + battery to function.

    3. I am really not trying to be anachronistic here — if a transition to a future of renewable energy recognized realistically the current technological hurdles involved, and was pragmatic about the timetable, I would be fully on board.

      But when you get wet behind the ears nutjobs like AOC hyperventilating about how we’re in imminent danger of certain global catastrophic destruction if that gas-fired plant down the street doesn’t shut down tomorrow, I’m going to remain suspicious of ulterior motives.

      I think we’re on the right track; I just want the adults to be in charge of it.

      2. we’re on the right track

        Why would you think such a thing? If the goal is to use less energy, we aren’t even going in that direction. The popular things; windmills, solar arrays and 5,000 pound energy hog go carts take us in the direction of using ever more energy, and creating mountains of toxic waste without improving our lives much at all.

        How is that a “right direction”?

          2. So what’s your solution, then? Back to bureaucrat-controlled mud huts for all of us? Genocide? Involuntary euthanasia for everyone at a designated age?

            Not going to argue any further. You win.

          3. mud huts for all of us?

            No, I’m not trying to be ridiculous, and I have already seen a very practical solution in my youth. Life in the USA wasn’t designed then around driving cars several hours a day. Most people could walk to work, school and shopping where we lived. I can where I live now, for 95% of what I actually need.

            Saying that doing windmills is stupid doesn’t mean I want you to live in a mud hut.

        1. They’ve been desperately trying to unload this white elephant for a couple of years now. At one point they had a for sale sign out front before the final grade had been completed, and there were a couple of studs at an angle propping up the porch roof.

          A day late and a dollar short; the market in this zip code peaked a year and a half ago. They’re probably have to come down a couple of hundred thousand to close on it, if they’re lucky enough to find a taker.

  18. I went for a long run today in an area I haven’t been to in a while. There is tons of building going on and it seemed like there was a huge increase in the number of higher-end houses for sale.

    Came across this listing:

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/22-N-Silver-Feather-Cir-Washington-UT-84780/2086830728_zpid/?

    $136k price drop. In my nabe, there is nothing really decent between $100k and $300k. But once you get above $500k, then there is a huge glut of properties.

  19. Breaking news, straight out of Mom’s basement …

    “53 Million Americans Drowning In Cycle Of Low-Wage Work”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/53-million-americans-drowning-cycle-low-wage-work

    (snip)

    “It’s the ‘Greatest Economy Ever,’ right? Well, it depends on who you ask.

    “For instance, a new report sheds light on 53 million Americans, or about 44% of all US workers, aged 18 to 64, are considered low-wage and low-skilled.

    “Many of these folks are stuck in the gig economy, making approximately $10.22 per hour, and they bring home less than $20,000 per year, according to a Brookings Institution report.

    “An overwhelmingly large percentage of these folks have insurmountable debts if that are student loans, auto loans, and or credit card debt. Their wages don’t cover their debt servicing payments as their lives will be left in financial ruin after the next recession.”

    It’s not quite a perfect world yet but we bankers are getting there.

    My many thanks go out to our wonderful educational system, a gift that keeps on giving.

    1. As per the plan, America morphs into another Socialist State.

      “The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.”- Karl Marx

      https://pjmedia.com/trending/results-are-in-common-core-is-making-american-kids-dumber/
      Results Are In: Common Core Is Making American Kids Dumber
      By Stephen Kruiser October 31, 2019
      “For the third time in a row since Common Core was fully phased in nationwide, U.S. student test scores on the nation’s broadest and most respected test have dropped, a reversal of an upward trend between 1990 and 2015. Further, the class of 2019, the first to experience all four high school years under Common Core, is the worst-prepared for college in 15 years, according to a new report.”

      And this doesn’t address the disaster we call our institutions of higher learning.

      https://humanevents.com/2019/06/11/schools-purpose-is-indoctrination/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2F
      CULTURE
      School’s Purpose is Indoctrination.
      It is time to hold the left and academia accountable for their blatant propaganda. Not just teachers and schools, but the creators of course materials.
      By Sofia Carbone | June 11, 2019

      The near sole purpose of present-day academia is indoctrination. “This is a fairly bold thesis, but the evidence is in its favor.”
      “The increasingly progressive leftist agenda is sweeping through academia and conservatives are passively watching it happen.”

      General guidelines for the “Progressive” agenda:

      http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/TenPlanks.html
      The Ten Planks of the 
      Communist Manifesto
      1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx

      1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.
      2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
      3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
      4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
      5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
      6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.
      7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
      8. Equal obligation of all to work.  Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
      9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
      10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.

    2. And the Democrats answered to their plight is to bring into the country tens of million of low skilled workers to drive down wages even more. Yes, that is the solution. Not.

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