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You Have To Discharge The Flood Somewhere

Two reports from the Wall Street Journal. “A flock of vulture investors is circling China: large money managers including Blackstone Group, Lone Star Funds and Oaktree Capital as well as Bain Capital. In the past few years global investment firms have invested more than $3 billion in nonperforming Chinese commercial loans, estimates PricewaterhouseCoopers. These investors are sifting through mounds of distressed debt for corporate loans they can buy at deep discounts to their face value—often 30 to 60 cents on the dollar.”

“China has dealt with waves of debt defaults in the past, but ‘what’s different about this cycle is that the amount is very, very large,’ said Zhang Xiaolin, chief investment officer at Lakeshore Capital, a private-equity firm that has been an active investor in nonperforming loans. ‘You have to discharge the flood somewhere.'”

“Last year, China’s four largest asset-management companies resolved roughly $70 billion in nonperforming loans, according to James Dilley, a Hong Kong-based PwC partner. The vultures are betting that China’s economy won’t go completely off the rails, and real-estate values will hold up even as growth continues to slow. They are also counting on Chinese banks not to flood the market with defaulted loans.”

“‘Because China has a long way to work out all its bad debt, authorities can’t just rip off the Band-Aid,’ said Kei Chua, a managing director at Bain Capital Credit. ‘There’s just not enough investors (in the country) to deal with it.'”

“Roughly 40 miles north of the refurbished apartment building in Suzhou sits a four-story commercial building that used to be a food and beverage establishment. After the loan went bad, it became part of a portfolio of more than 100 defaulted loans that Bain bought from a state-owned asset-management firm in 2017. After Bain took over the property, it broke the building’s leases, sourced potential buyers and sold it on Taobao early last year for 14.6 million yuan. That exceeded the loan’s unpaid principal balance and interest claims, which totaled 13.8 million yuan. The building has since been gutted, but has sat empty for months without any construction activity, according to nearby residents.”

“Brooklyn’s decadelong real-estate investment boom is over. The borough once attracted developers and speculators from across the globe looking to profit from an influx of high-income residents. But amid stricter rent regulations on some apartments and a glut in new construction, buyers are starting to look elsewhere.”

“The dollar volume of commercial property sales fell by 30% last year to $5.1 billion, according to brokerage firm TerraCRG, the steepest drop since the financial crisis. The decline was driven by a slump in the market for rental-apartment buildings, which tend to account for the largest portion of real-estate sales in Brooklyn.”

“‘We are going to see a lot of distress in the rent-regulated multifamily market,’ said David Schwartz, a principal at real-estate developer Slate Property Group. Slower rent growth offers a reprieve for thousands of people whose living standards were squeezed by years of surging housing prices but is likely to hurt debt-burdened builders. The dollar volume of apartment-building sales fell by 56% last year to $1.1 billion, according to TerraCRG.”

The Washington Post. “Millennials’ share of the U.S. housing market: small and shrinking. Because homeownership is the chief builder of wealth, the trend is ‘bad news for the economy overall.’ In 1990, baby boomers, whose median age was 35, owned nearly one-third of American real estate by value. In 2019, the millennial generation, with a median age of 31, owned just 4 percent. They’re not likely to reach 30 percent of the housing market — or even the 20 percent attained by the smaller Generation X at the same point in their lives.”

“Because homeownership is the chief builder of wealth for middle class families, if this trend continues ‘we’re looking at a generation that will have lower lifetime wealth,’ said Jenny Schuetz, a housing policy expert at the Brookings Institution. In many of America’s most desirable cities, the median price of a home is well beyond the reach of a typical salary. For the past several decades, developers in major metro areas like New York City have built a glut of luxury condos while ignoring the needs of the middle class.”

From Curbed Boston in Massachusetts. “Unit 2 in the two-unit 32 Temple Street in Beacon Hill runs to just 630 square feet. The condo is on the market now through EXP Realty for $669,900, or $1,063 a square foot. As high as that is, that tag could be considered a bit of a steal for historic Beacon Hill, especially considering the outdoor space. A recent report covering closed condo deals in the neighborhood pegged the median Beacon Hill sales price at the end of 2019 at $861,000 and the average sales price per square foot at $1,433.”

From Curbed San Francisco in California. “Is luxury relative? Surely the soaring asking price for the penthouse 41A at Lumina—more than $9.99 million—has to be considered the acme of excess, being among San Francisco’s most expensive homes for sale. And yet, that price represents a significant stumble for the unit, which this time last year asked more than $11.4 million. While prices sometimes fall, this price cut is deceptively larger than it seems.”

“Once upon a time, the city marveled at the grandeur and audacity of Lumina’s most expensive home, a penthouse that sprawled over two stories asking the borderline plutonic price of $49 million in 2015. Even before it was built, headlines called Lumina the priciest building in San Francisco. But as SFGate points out, this now $9.99 million penthouse is essentially the same one that dropped jaws back then. No, the unit hasn’t cut $40 million off its price in five years. Instead, the sellers divided it into two homes.”

“The result, however, was not one but two high-end East Cut condos that haven’t sold yet. Last year’s $11.4 million listing for penthouse 41A was itself a price drop from previous years, and now it’s down again, as is neighboring 41B, which nows asks $7.49 million. If both penthouses sell at the current asking, the combined price of roughly $17.5 million would represents a decline of more than 64 percent from the original ambitions.”

From The Real Deal. “Bank of New York Mellon faces a reckoning from residential foreclosure cases in New York that date back to the subprime mortgage crisis. The bank — along with its debt-collector partners Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing and law firm McCabe, Weisberg & Conway — are accused by a class-action lawsuit of systematically trying to foreclose on mortgages after the state’s six-year statute of limitations had passed.”

“Mark Anderson, an attorney at the Queens-based law firm Shiryak, Bowman, Anderson, Gill and Kadochnikov, which filed the case, said his firm noticed an uptick in foreclosure cases initially filed in the wake of the subprime crisis more than a decade ago and now being revived, despite the statute of limitations expiring. ‘I have over 500 cases that are dealing with this issue — and that’s just my firm,’ said Anderson. He believes thousands of homeowners could qualify to be part of the suit if it gets class-action status.”

“Bruce Bergman, a partner at Berkman Henoch who specializes in representing lenders and servicers in mortgage foreclosures, described a statute-of-limitations response to debt collectors as ‘deadly to lenders.’ In a November alert to potential clients, Bergman lamented the state of affairs: ‘How many ways can borrowers vanquish lenders with a statute-of-limitations defense?’ he wrote.”

“Anderson said that while he’s won several cases for borrowers by arguing that the statute of limitations had expired, the lender and servicing firms usually succeed because borrows don’t know about the statute of limitations. ‘Nine times out of 10, no one’s going to say a thing,’ he said. ‘One time out of 10, a person like me comes in and says this is beyond the statute of limitations.'”

From DS News. “Daren Blomquist, VP of Market Economics at Auction.com, said in an article this week, ‘With so much focus on monitoring for the launch of another economic recession, an emerging home price correction could be taking flight under the radar.’ Home price correction is already transpiring, and the industry is beginning to see some weakening of the housing market.”

“Blomquist emphasized that ‘these local market declines won’t be driven by an economic recession or by destined-to-fail mortgage products, but by migration patterns triggered in large part by buyers chasing affordability—a trend that was already evident in 2019.’ Already 13% of local markets posted annual price declines in Q3 2019, according to Auction.com’s analysis of data from ATTOM Data Solutions. Several higher-priced markets were among those that posted price declines.”

“For example, prices in Bridgeport, Connecticut, dropped 4.8% over the year in Q3 2019, while prices in San Jose, California, dropped 3.2%. While slowing and depreciating home prices may help bring affordability to some markets, Blomquist also pointed out some negative effects, including lower home equity and a potential for an uptick in home loan defaults.”

“He pointed out that homeowners often rely on home equity as a ‘safety net’ in the case of a loan default. Particularly, recent homebuyers with loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration may be vulnerable as they have little or no equity at their disposal. Another recent market development that can make the market vulnerable is the large sales of non-performing loans. About 42% of former GSE loans sold in NPL sales have fallen into foreclosure, and another 24% remain unresolved.”

The Aspen Times in Colorado. “The note-holder on a Snowmass spec home that went bankrupt last year has taken ownership of the property through a foreclosure sale. Okean Investments of Florida Inc.’s sole bid of $6.99 million at Wednesday’s foreclosure auction at the Pitkin County Courthouse gave it possession of the home at 999 Brush Creek Road, which had been developed and owned through a limited liability corporation controlled by Peter Droste.”

“Droste could not be reached, but his counsel in the bankruptcy proceedings said he’s cutting his losses. The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom home at one time had been advertised for $16 million. Construction on the home was completed in 2015. ‘He’s gone through this battle with Pitkin County … and I think he’s resolved himself to move on,’ said attorney John LaSalle of Carbondale.”

From North Jersey in New Jersey. “Mary J. Blige has had her Saddle River mansion on and off the market since 2015, when it was originally listed for $13 million. The price on the mansion has dropped multiple times in the past several years. Blige’s mansion was pulled from the market in 2018 and put back on in 2019 for $6.8 million. It has since been pulled off the market again, according to the Zillow listing. Russell Simmons listed his 17,874-square-foot Saddle River mansion for sale for a cool $18.9 million in 2018 but the price has continually dropped. The eight-bedroom, 15-bath mansion was taken off the market after its price dropped to $4.9 million, well below Simmons’ original asking price, according to the Trulia listing.”

“Former Knicks star Patrick Ewing briefly rented out his seven-bedroom Cresskill home for $25,000 a month before listing it for sale. The house was originally put up for sale in 2015 for $6.9 million before Ewing offered it for rent. The price on the 1.8-acre estate dropped to $3.9 million in 2019.”

From Crain’s Chicago Business in Illinois. “A house in Elmhurst designed by Frank Lloyd Wright came back on the market Jan.10 with its price reduced to $850,000, which is about what the half-acre of land it’s on is worth. Built in 1901 and owned since 1994 by the sellers, the well-maintained Prairie-style house has original stained glass, a hefty brick fireplace, wood banding and other hallmarks of Wright’s design. It first came on the market in September 2007 at just under $2 million, and the price steadily dropped in the dozen years before September 2019, when it went off the market unsold at a little under $950,000.”

“At the new-for-2020 price, the sellers are asking approximately what its half-acre would be worth to a builder of new homes, Crain’s analysis of recent years’ teardown prices in Elmhurst found. The house can’t be destroyed—the owners gave an easement to the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy in September that would prevent that—but the low price is emblematic of the deep trough that the market for Chicago-area Wright homes is in.”

“It’s long been established that the architect’s homes don’t sell for a premium over more conventional homes, but in recent years a new reality has emerged: Wright homes generally sell for less than the rest of the market. On a per-square-foot basis, the Elmhurst house is priced about 20 percent below the average for similarly sized homes in the town, Crain’s research shows. In late December, a Wright design in Glencoe sold for about 52 percent of the going price for same-size houses there. (The house needs updating, but so do some of the comparables.) In Riverside, a lavishly restored condominium section of a large mansion that Wright designed in 1910 sold in February after eight years on the market for about $192 a square foot, compared to an average of about $250 a square foot for million-dollar sales in that suburb.”

From KJRH in Texas. “If you’re looking for a deal, the price tag of the massive estate of the late T. Boone Pickens was just reduced. The huge Texas panhandle ranch named ‘Mesa Vista Ranch’ is now going for $220 million! That’s actually down $30 million since it went on the market in 2017.”

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This Post Has 103 Comments

  1. ‘his firm noticed an uptick in foreclosure cases initially filed in the wake of the subprime crisis more than a decade ago and now being revived, despite the statute of limitations expiring. ‘I have over 500 cases that are dealing with this issue — and that’s just my firm’

    Note they are foreclosing on loans that went into default in 2005, etc. But shadow inventory is a conspiracy theory.

    1. 2005 is 15 years ago. A foreclosed house from back then could have been bought by a whole new family with a 15-year mortgage and paid off by now. Instead it’s languishing in legal limbo all this time.

      “the millennial generation, with a median age of 31, owned just 4 percent [of American real estate by value]”

      Hmm, maybe these two things are related…

    2. Maybe in the future the landscape will be littered with empty foreclosed homes and people living in their cars because the banks will have infinite access to Fed funny money and never auction the homes off at a price anyone is willing to or able to pay.

      2. This is exactly why our forefathers included the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution, not to shoot something for dinner.

      3. That’s kind of what I’m expecting. They and their friends will own everything and will rent it out at whatever the monopolized market will bear. Effectively enslaving everyone who tries to stay within the system but fails to avoid the trap.

  2. ‘The condo is on the market now through EXP Realty for $669,900, or $1,063 a square foot. A recent report covering closed condo deals in the neighborhood pegged the median Beacon Hill sales price at the end of 2019 at $861,000 and the average sales price per square foot at $1,433’

    ‘Last year’s $11.4 million listing for penthouse 41A was itself a price drop from previous years, and now it’s down again, as is neighboring 41B, which nows asks $7.49 million. If both penthouses sell at the current asking, the combined price of roughly $17.5 million would represents a decline of more than 64 percent from the original ambitions’

    Still no bubble pop?

    1. I’d like to see that bubble pop in the PNW, because there’s still a major land grab going on. Small acreage goes pending almost immediately. A rambler on 10 acres just went pending after less than 10 days on the market for almost $500k – in a backwater town with a median household income of $35k.

        1. Raise price $50k, get immediate offer.

          Dec 5, 2019 Price Changed $475,000 12% +$50,100
          Nov 8, 2019 Original Price $424,900

  3. ‘‘We are going to see a lot of distress in the rent-regulated multifamily market,’ said David Schwartz, a principal at real-estate developer Slate Property Group. Slower rent growth offers a reprieve for thousands of people whose living standards were squeezed by years of surging housing prices but is likely to hurt debt-burdened builders. The dollar volume of apartment-building sales fell by 56% last year to $1.1 billion’

    No bubble WSJ?

  5. I realize this post is long but I am swamped with crater and I’m trying to catch up.

    ‘These investors are sifting through mounds of distressed debt for corporate loans they can buy at deep discounts to their face value—often 30 to 60 cents on the dolla…‘what’s different about this cycle is that the amount is very, very large…You have to discharge the flood somewhere’

    ‘Last year, China’s four largest asset-management companies resolved roughly $70 billion in nonperforming loans, according to James Dilley, a Hong Kong-based PwC partner…They are also counting on Chinese banks not to flood the market with defaulted loans’

    ‘Because China has a long way to work out all its bad debt, authorities can’t just rip off the Band-Aid…There’s just not enough investors (in the country) to deal with it’

    How can anyone deny the bubble has popped?

    1. After Bain took over the property, it broke the building’s leases, sourced potential buyers and sold it on Taobao early last year for 14.6 million yuan.

      This one was my favorite. “Sold it on Taobao”. That would be like some Chinese investment company putting distressed real estate on Amazon or Ebay here.

      1. Lol, I guess “flipped it” might be a better description. This is a whole new level of knife catching, and probably explains a lot of why the bubble has lasted this long. After all, the default on that portfolio was 2017 or before.

        “The vultures are betting that China’s economy won’t go completely off the rails”

        Like the CRE vulture funds active in the US right now, I contend they’re overpaying even at 30-60% face value, and this is all still part of the bubble. The object of these vulture funds (Knife Catcher A) is STILL not to hold the asset long term and enjoy positive cash flow, but to fob it off on a greater fool (Knife Catcher B) before the music stops for good. Speculating, speculating, speculating. These funds obviously don’t intend to be caught out holding any of this junk long-term.

    2. “Denial is a river in Egypt.”

      5 Stages of grief:
      1) Denial
      2) Anger
      3) Bargaining
      4) Depression
      5) Acceptance

      Stage (2) is the foot stamping stage. If all the FB Chinese stamp their feet at the same time, it could knock the Earth out of orbit. 😉

  7. “Because homeownership is the chief builder of wealth for middle class families, if this trend continues ‘we’re looking at a generation that will have lower lifetime wealth,’ said Jenny Schuetz, a housing policy expert at the Brookings Institution. In many of America’s most desirable cities, the median price of a home is well beyond the reach of a typical salary. For the past several decades, developers in major metro areas like New York City have built a glut of luxury condos while ignoring the needs of the middle class.”

    You tell them Jenny!

    “Unit 2 in the two-unit 32 Temple Street in Beacon Hill runs to just 630 square feet. The condo is on the market now through EXP Realty for $669,900, or $1,063 a square foot. As high as that is, that tag could be considered a bit of a steal for historic Beacon Hill, especially considering the outdoor space. A recent report covering closed condo deals in the neighborhood pegged the median Beacon Hill sales price at the end of 2019 at $861,000 and the average sales price per square foot at $1,433.”

    Grab that wealth effects by the P**sy!

    1. How come we don’t have actually Scientists being the spokepeople of Climate Change. I suspect because it’s not really proveable science. It’s just a theory.

      I have not read anything that actually proves this theory.

      1. I’m all for reducing pollution. If you really thought “we’re all gonna die”, the first thing would be to eliminate factories in China and India. They pollute way more than anywhere on the planet. Why produce more consumer junk that’s going to sit in garages across the US? Pretty much nothing has been done because it never is going to be done, nobody takes this stuff seriously.

        1. I’m all in for pollution control and the need for population control measures. But, this Climate Change theory and we are all going to die in 10 years seems so fake to me.

        2. “Pretty much nothing has been done because it never is going to be done, nobody takes this stuff seriously.”

          TPTB definitely don’t take it seriously, though they pay lip service to it. I’m still trying to figure out how encouraging climate change hysteria among the masses benefits TPTB.

          After all, globalism and consumerism is what makes them rich and powerful. Maybe it’s all just a distraction so no one pays attention to the ongoing looting of the first world?

          1. It all about distraction from the real issues. Just keep people talking about fake issues while you screw them royal.

          2. “I’m still trying to figure out how encouraging climate change hysteria among the masses benefits TPTB.”

            If you look at some of the other posts here perhaps you will learn the answer.

            Oh look! Here’s a post with the answer, and look, it’s your very own post.

            “After all, globalism and consumerism is what makes them rich and powerful.”

          3. I’m still trying to figure out how encouraging climate change hysteria among the masses benefits TPTB.

            One world government. Scare the masses into asking for it.

          4. ““I’m still trying to figure out how encouraging climate change hysteria among the masses benefits TPTB.””

            A more ground level answer: Such hysteria results in setting up “programs. ” Programs such as cap and trade. [who trades ANYthing better than TPTB?] And said programs need administration, accounting, inspections, procedures, lobbying, money-raising and general party hobnobbing to “raise awareness.” Who’s gonna do those high-paying jobs? Oh right, friends, relatives, and offspring of the Davos crowd.

          5. TPTB definitely don’t take it seriously, though they pay lip service to it. I’m still trying to figure out how encouraging climate change hysteria among the masses benefits TPTB. ‘

            raise rates on electric power see CPA (clean power alliance)
            this extra cost is somebodies income and whether they actually do anything but power points IDK ?

          6. Focusing political attention and capital on scary looming problems that won’t take effect for decades frees politicians’ hands for today’s power grab by draining political capital and weakening the force of any potential opposition.

            The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

            — H. L. Mencken

        3. If you really thought “we’re all gonna die”, the first thing would be to eliminate factories in China and India.

          Nah, we’ll save the world by banning plastic straws. Anyone remember when the huge fuss was made to ban styrofoam packaging at fast food places? So now if you take your burger to go, it’ll probably be cold by the time you get home.

          Or my favorite: how many are forced to pay a monthly fee to have their “recyclables” collected (often in those ubiquitous rollaway blue bins), only to find out later that there is no market for those materials and most of them end up in the landfill anyway.

          1. No market for recyclables

            So true, I don’t think half the people in my apt complex know what is and is not recyclable.
            In fact, I don’t know what is actually marketable and what will just be thrown away due to it having no value. I guess And recycle/throw away as I deem appropriate but I don’t know for sure.

          2. From what I have heard only aluminum has a market, and that most paper and plastics wind up in the landfill.

      2. And would we ever see Greta and her compadres get behind nuclear power or population control in Africa and India? Eh, probably not.

        1. Greta doesn’t need to lecture the Davos crowd. She needs to lecture the Pope. Because without some form of birth control, this is what you get:

          “U.S.-bound migrants clash with Mexican forces at Guatemala border”
          By Kevin Sieff
          Jan. 20, 2020 at 3:05 p.m. EST

          “Roughly 4,000 Central American migrants waited at the Mexico-Guatemala border on Monday morning, seeking permission to cross through Mexico to the United States, and threatening to enter by force if their request was denied.”

          https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-bound-migrants-clash-with-mexican-forces-at-guatemala-border/2020/01/20/e7872a14-3b99-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html

          The pictures show the story pretty well. Even the ultra-liberals on the WaPo comment board are against this type of immigration.

          1. Preventing 4,000 Democrat-on-Arrival dependency voters from being resettled in the red states is just plain wrong. Comrade Pelosi and the DNC will be livid at such voter suppression.

          3. The Russian Comrade is the one sitting in the White house dude…

            These Russians…are they in the room with us now, scdave?

    2. Nothing has changed, huh? So higher EPA mpg CAFE averages are “nothing”. Transitioning away from incandescent bulbs to LEDs is “nothing”.

      Sorry Greta, but cars, airliners, heated homes and other accoutrements of modern civilization are not going away.

    3. LOLZ. They’re still trotting her out after her dad was busted Tweeting on her account, pretending to be her?

  9. “He pointed out that homeowners often rely on home equity as a ‘safety net’ in the case of a loan default. Particularly, recent homebuyers with loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration may be vulnerable as they have little or no equity at their disposal. Another recent market development that can make the market vulnerable is the large sales of non-performing loans. About 42% of former GSE loans sold in NPL sales have fallen into foreclosure, and another 24% remain unresolved.”

    Earlier stated

    “Blomquist emphasized that ‘these local market declines won’t be driven by an economic recession or by destined-to-fail mortgage products, but by migration patterns triggered in large part by buyers chasing affordability—a trend that was already evident in 2019.’ Already 13% of local markets posted annual price declines in Q3 2019, according to Auction.com’s analysis of data from ATTOM Data Solutions. Several higher-priced markets were among those that posted price declines.”

    Airtight lending standards! No “subprime” here!!!

  10. Hillary Clinton Claims ‘Nobody Likes’ Bernie Sanders, Declines to Endorse Him
    By Zachary Stieber

    January 21, 2020
    ‘Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has denigrated Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her primary rival in 2016, and declined to endorse him in the 2020 race. Clinton, who lost in 2016 to Donald Trump, said in the upcoming Hulu docuseries “Hillary” that Sanders struggles to get support.’

    “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it,” Clinton said.’

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/hillary-clinton-claims-nobody-likes-bernie-sanders-declines-to-endorse-him_3210958.html

    3. The current move to take Bernie out of the race makes me think that Sanders makes Mr. Banker nervous. Leftists are fine as long as they are puppets. They can yammer about alphabet people abortion rights and raise taxes on the middle class all they want, just don’t interfere with Mr. Banker’s biz. I suspect that after Sanders has been thrown under the bus and is officially out of the race that they will go after Senator Running Deer, and that creepy Joe will get the nomination; though Bloomberg could be a dark horse.

      1. Bloomberg could be a dark horse ??

        He’s the best shot to win combined with either Amy or Stacy…I suspect if he got the nomination, the fund raising for Trump would evaporate…

      2. “The current move to take Bernie out of the race”

        The DNC has two Trump cards to play, one literal, one figurative.

        Literal: They can convince Dems that Bernie probably won’t beat Trump. They didn’t play this card in 2016 because they never thought Trump would win. But now Trump is the incumbent. They need a candidate who will win.

        Figurative: Bernie had a heart attack, and they will never let anyone forget that. I’m surprised we haven’t seen ads on this already. Suddenly people will want to know who his running mate will be, possibly even during the primaries. Would he choose another socialist, maybe more radical than he is?

      3. “The current move to take Bernie out of the race makes me think that Sanders makes Mr. Banker nervous.”

        Bahahahaha … pay very close attention to what I am about to say:

        Nothing makes Mr. Banker nervous.

        The only thing that would come close to making Mr. Banker nervous would be the sudden shift in the current downward trend of the intelligence of the average American voter. THAT would cause a Mr. Banker to suffer a bit of nervousness.

        But as it now stands there is no evidence of this happening thus the mood of Mr. Banker remains serene.

      1. “This from a woman who regularly places orders on the suicide hotline…”

        That’s good, and worth stealing.

    5. Some people will do anything to get themselves into the news.

      Hillary Clinton Suggests She Would Back Bernie Sanders After Scathing Interview
      Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wave from the stage during a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., July 12, 2016, in which Sanders endorsed Clinton.
      Keith Bedford–The Boston Globe/Getty Images
      By Will Weissert / AP
      9:50 PM EST

      (WASHINGTON) — In an abrupt about-face, Hillary Clinton said Tuesday night that she would endorse her 2016 rival Bernie Sanders if he wins the Democratic nomination to face President Donald Trump in November.
      …

  11. Whoa Denver! You have outdone everyone!

    Was in Denver last weekend. The last time might have been 8 or 9 years ago soon after the financial crisis.

    Took the light rail to southern and northern burbs….all I could see is nothing but apartments, hometowns, condos…. Everywhere, all I saw was an eye sore of a building waiting to be inhabited by Midwestern 20-somethings. WTF! Is the whole midwest moving to Denver?

    1. Is the whole midwest moving to Denver?

      There are a ton of households in my nabe who fly their alma mater flags during college football season, and most of them are from out of state, from midwestern colleges. And those are the people who moved here ~20 years ago.

      Not sure where the current crop of skinny jean brogrammers are from, but it sounds like many get up and leave after a few years.

      1. I expect it’s folks priced out of coastal California.

        Bad news for folks who don’t like Californians. The coastal California economy doesn’t fit in coastal California anymore, and it’s spreading across the country.

        1. I found this:

          https://www.westword.com/news/colorado-transplants-and-their-original-states-2019-update-11362900

          Now this article breaks down all transplants over the years, as opposed to the previous year.

          The figures show that fewer than half of the folks currently living in Colorado have original roots. Of the total population, 5,695,564 (an increase of 88,410 from 2017), only 2,388,284 million started out here.

          Which explains how Colorado has quickly transitioned from red to blue state. Though it is definitely blue now, voters have not been keen on repealing TABOR, as prop CC, which would have allowed the state to keep TABOR mandated refunds, went down in flames a few months ago.

        2. The coastal California economy doesn’t fit in coastal California anymore ??

          Huh ?? Thats like saying High Rise building don’t fit in New York anymore…

    2. A couple months ago I visited Nashville. Cranes as far as the eye can see. I guess that’s where the Southeast is moving to.

      2. Cities have been buying water rights from farmers, which is now becoming far more valuable than the land. But at some point there won’t be any more to buy.

        First thing to go will be all those Kentucky bluegrass lawns so loved in the suburbs.

  13. So WAPO is simultaneously saying if you don’t buy a house you are unlikely to build wealth, but that houses in many markets are “beyond the reach of a typical salary.”

    But prices are perfectly justified and all that wealth is real!

    1. Gambling is defacto, the US policy for the masses.

      Of course a handful will make it ‘big’ at the expense of the rest.

      Amerikka, what a fukushima!

      1. “Of course a handful will make it ‘big’ at the expense of the rest.”

        Yep, they are called lenders.

  15. Central banks are all in on ‘climate change.’

    “it’s summer, Sun is shining, it’s hot…..let’s print some today.”

    1. “Central banks are all in on ‘climate change.’”

      You use what works. There are two steps to this process of using what works:

      Step 1: Dumb ’em down.

      Step 2: Profit.

      Repeat as necessary.

  16. For God sakes we have to return to being a productive Nation based on job wealth that is in sink with the price of things.

      1. A remiinder: Wealth that is in synch with the price of things is not based on labor but is instead based on credit, and this priced-based credit is powered by rising prices – which means credit allows for the increase of prices and this increase in prices translates to an increase of wealth.

        1. A puke who pays a higher price for a house by using credit is able to do so because of the credit he is using. And by paying this higher price he creates wealth for everyone else that “owns” (choke) a comparable house. (I choked at using the word “owns” because it is unlikely that many of these homeowners are in fact homeowners).

          This entire situation is quite amazing to behold if one cares to step aside and take a good look at it.

    1. Wow there are dozens of vacant homes within a mile of my apartment. Some have been empty over two years
      I could use the upgrade…

  20. Well, a return to sustainable sanity would also mean proper lending. The government shouldn’t be backing any loans currently.

  22. Well Mr Banker when a revolution takes place and the Communist take over the Bank Buildings , than you will be wondering why you didn’t want a return to sanity when there was a chance.

      1. Intelligence as a necessary quality for a banker to become successful is vastly overridden by the requirement of astounding demonstrations of stupidity by his clients.

        It is indeed a marvel to place a contract loaded with outrageously absurd provisions before a client and then sit back and watch him sign it.

        And, yes, I live for today because tomorrow is promised to no one.

        1. Mr Banker, you give me a laugh everytime you make a post. You understand Bankers so well that sometimes I think you might really be a Banker.

  23. “It’s long been established that the architect’s homes don’t sell for a premium over more conventional homes, but in recent years a new reality has emerged: Wright homes generally sell for less than the rest of the market.”

    Interesting. The art world has been trying to push 20th century starchitect houses as a whole new asset class for years, going back to Christie’s selling Neutra’s Kaufmann house as part of its Postwar and Contemporary art auction in 2008 for $19mil (sale fell through). But it turns out the holding costs for a crumbling 20th century masterpiece house are higher than, say, a Rothko. Imo, it was one of the origins of the “safety deposit boxes in the sky” myth sold to wealthy speculators.

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