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Buyers Did Not Ask What The Catch Was For All This Apparently Free Money

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Ceruzzi Properties snagged a $350 million condo inventory loan for its luxury condominium tower in Midtown East. The tower is more than 800 feet tall and has 124 condo units. Ceruzzi launched sales in the building in April 2019. New York’s luxury condo market is contending with an inventory overload. There is $5.7 billion in existing inventory on the market and $33 billion in shadow inventory, according to a 2019 report from Halstead Development Marketing.”

“New York’s shuttered Waldorf Astoria hotel will re-emerge this week as a condominium, testing whether nostalgia for a cherished landmark can spark high-dollar deals in a market glutted with luxury homes. The Park Avenue property has been getting primed for this moment since 2015. That is when China’s Anbang Insurance Group bought it for a record US$1.95 billion. Five years later, the Waldorf is still a construction zone, Manhattan is awash in ultra-luxury condos and the property’s once high-flying owner has had its wings clipped.”

“‘The data will tell you that this is not the time for another Midtown luxury condo,’ said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty. The area ‘is saturated with inventory that could take a decade to sell.'”

“A zoning change that could allow 100 age-restricted apartments for seniors in a single-family neighborhood was submitted for approval this week by a prominent Danbury developer. Danbury doesn’t have much choice, with the glut of single-family homes driving prices down and a need for affordable senior housing that doesn’t add students to the city’s swelling school system, developer Dan Bertram says.”

“For the past couple years, the luster seemed to have faded on Georgetown’s luxury housing market. Jamie Peva of Washington Fine Properties says the reason the two houses he listed sold quickly was because they were priced correctly. The sellers didn’t challenge the market by setting an aspirational list price. ‘There have been a lot of houses on the market at some very big prices,’ he said. ‘Purchasers haven’t seemed to be willing to pay them.'”

“Rachel Hunter has sold her home in Hollywood Hills West for $3.45 million — about $1.5 million less than the supermodel-actress was asking when she first listed it in 2016.”

“As Greene loses population, the people who remain are forced to deal with the properties left behind. More than 42 percent of all housing units in Greene County were vacant in 2018, according to the Census. That’s the highest rate in Alabama, a state that itself is near the top of the country in terms of vacancy rate. Alabama is fourth in the country for raw vacancy rate. More than 18 percent of all housing units in the state are empty.”

“Many areas of the country, included certain parts of Alabama, see their vacancy rates climb because they have lots of seasonal housing. Think of Alabama beaches in Baldwin County. There are lots of beach houses and condos that sit empty for most of the year, but are used throughout the summer. As a result, Baldwin’s raw vacancy rate is high – nearly 30 percent. And Baldwin is the fastest growing county in Alabama.”

“Two fires in vacant homes within 48 hours of each other last week has residents concerned. There are roughly 34,000 vacant homes in Honolulu, a vacancy rate of more than 10 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All those vacant houses are not only an eye sore to those who live near them, they pose health hazards and also invite the wrong element into neighborhoods.”

“While some have no doubt made money by condo investing (i.e., not purchasing a condo unit to live in themselves but to either rent it out or sell it in order to benefit from the condo’s price appreciation), I’m seeing too many people assume that this will always be the case – even though the data suggests that we need to be very cautious about the pre-con market in the Toronto area right now. But if you buy a pre-con condo and prices fall 20%, unless you have a lot of money saved up, you’ll be unable to even take possession of that unit to live in it or rent it out because banks only finance what the property is worth, not what you paid for it.”

“We saw this exact scenario unfold with pre-con detached homes in Oakville in Halton Region and in Durham Region in the Greater Toronto Area when buyers paid peak prices in 2017 only to find that when their house was completed, it was worth significantly less than what they paid for it. Many lost their life savings because they did not manage that downside risk.”

“Areas earmarked for the most development over the next five years include Blacktown (18,700 new dwellings), Parramatta (17,800), City of Sydney (13,650), Cumberland (12,650), Liverpool (12,750), the Hills (12,700), Camden (10,900) and Bayside (10,000). Liberal Minister Victor Dominello said he was pleased about the reduction in targets for his local area ‘given the explosive growth that we have had up until this point.’ ‘I’m not against development – I’m against over development,’ he said.”

“Help to Buy has faced criticism since its inception for hiking house prices and delivering pure profit to housebuilders. But back then, few worried about the structure of the deals themselves – and what problems may lie ahead. This was partly due to the fact that it was designed to help developers start building again in the doldrums after the financial crisis, but also buyers themselves did not ask what the catch was for all this apparently ‘free money’.”

“It’s now more than five years on, and the first people who took out Help to Buy equity loans are having to pay interest on what the government lent them. Now, new figures show that more than one in 20 recipients of Help to Buy loans had fallen into arrears at the end of November as their interest bills mounted.”

“It is well known that real estate is dead in the commercial capital of India. Builders priced their products at levels of a Mercedes but built a supply of the scale of Tata Motors. For projects like Oberoi Three Sixty West, the pool is smaller given their price point for their 256 flats. The challenge is: There are only 797 people in Mumbai boasting a wealth of more than $30 million/Rs 200 crore. Two, it may still have worked to a small extent if the city only had held up. But the absolute decay and collapse of Mumbai to such levels has ensured that the bright and rich find it neither a place to invest nor live in.”

“Chinese officials in Wuhan and other cities within Hubei Province, where the novel coronavirus outbreak is most severe, reported to their higher-ups in the provincial government that people are not able to secure treatment, running out of supplies amid restrictive lockdown measures, and feeling fearful and anxious about the spreading disease. Despite such observations, authorities prioritized how to ‘control the society’ and ‘manipulate public opinion’ to view China’s efforts to contain the virus positively, according to internal government reports that The Epoch Times obtained.”

“‘After the city was locked down, the majority of residents lost their income,’ the Shiyan PLAC said. ‘Overall, people have strong negative emotions, such as grief, panic, anxiety, and suspicion. The feeling of anger among society has increased.'”

“Such documents reflect Chinese bureaucrats’ mentality, ‘which has existed since the Party controlled China in 1949,’ said Tang Jingyuan, U.S.-based China affairs commentator in a Feb. 27 interview with The Epoch Times. ‘Officials from different levels want to keep their positions. In order to do so, Party members try their best to maintain social stability, which is treated as an achievement,’ Tang added. ‘As for people’s lives, that is not important in the officials’ eyes.'”

“The lack of space at Chinese ports is causing significant issues for New Zealand’s forestry industry. The Forest Owners Association president Peter Weir said in a statement that precautions in China against coronavirus had resulted in almost no off-loading of logs in China for processing. ‘In regions where there is no domestic sawmilling, many harvest contracting crews are being put on reduced hours or, worst case, stood down,’ Weir said. ‘Regrettably many of our contractors have little alternative but to lay-off skilled workers.'”

“Red Stag Timber chief executive Marty Verry said there were few short-term solutions available to the forestry industry. ‘This is bringing our third biggest export industry to a grinding halt,’ he said. China takes about 60 per cent of New Zealand’s logs, Verry said. ‘This really goes to show why we have to stop relying so much on China as a domestic market for our logs,’ he said.”

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This Post Has 164 Comments

  1. It was just a few days ago, stocks at record prices, we had more than one poster tell us, “stop talking about that virus!”

    We’ll talk about whatever the hell we want to. Oh and didn’t some say, “it’ll bounce up by the end of day” this week. The plunge protection team won’t let prices fall!

    DONG!

    ‘It is well known that real estate is dead in the commercial capital of India’

    The most expensive residential real estate on the planet last decade. How could the central bank allow this to happen? Aren’t they all powerful?

    1. ““it’ll bounce up by the end of day” this week. The plunge protection team won’t let prices fall!”

      I was one of them and still believe that they will bring it back up. Their whole narrative is at stake here.

      1. ‘I was one of them’

        Eat yer crowz:

        ‘Rents for commercial spaces in Ho Chi Minh City’s main streets have been decreasing in recent months due to lower demand, according to experts. Thin, a veteran housing broker in the city’s central area, said many landlords have recently sought his help to find tenants. But it has become very difficult, and they have to wait unless they slash rental by 10-30 percent, he said. Property owners on some major streets have in fact reduced rents by 10-20 percent since the end of last year, including some who have not been able to find tenants for a long time. Phan Cong Chanh, director of Phu Vinh Group, a real estate company, told Nguoi lao dong (Labourers) newspaper that there have never been so many vacant properties as now.’

        ‘For instance, on a short stretch on Tran Quang Khai street in District 1 there are more than 20 premises available for lease, 20-30 percent cheaper than before in some cases, he said. Leasing has become difficult due to disadvantages in the market and the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic, he said. Nguyen Hong Hai, chairman of Vina Office Company, said businesses that lease commercial space and offices have restructured themselves and cut prices to retain customers. “In my opinion, eateries and fast moving consumer goods shops, if they do not cut losses now, will continue to incur them for at least four to six months before the market gets better.”

        ‘Small businesses in the food and beverage and fashion industries can only sustain losses for a maximum of six months, and so if they do not see bright prospects soon, should close down, he said. Hoang, owner of a coffee shop on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street in District 3, said he opened just three months ago and now with the epidemic, he was worried about what was in store. “If I make losses for six to eight months, I will definitely go bankrupt, so I am thinking of returning the premises to the landlord or releasing it.”

        https://en.vietnamplus.vn/commercial-space-rents-in-hcm-city-decline/169355.vnp

        1. Virus Drives Office Vacancy in HK’s Central District to Highest Level Since 2014

          ‘The fresh evidence of a downturn comes after rents in the district that hosts the APAC headquarters of some of the world’s largest banks plunged more than six percent in the second half of 2019. The leasing slide prompted JLL to forecast at the end of last year that capital values and rents in Hong Kong’s traditional business district would fall by up to 20 percent this year – even before the COVID-19 scare.’

          https://www.mingtiandi.com/real-estate/china-real-estate-research-policy/office-vacancy-in-hong-kongs-central-reaches-5-year-high/

          1. ‘Even in an East Village littered with “For Rent” signs in store windows, East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Avenue A stands out.’

            ‘At the east end of the block sits a six-story brick edifice, freshly painted white, that was bought by the real estate firm Icon Realty in 2014. The following year, the businesses that had occupied the building’s seven adjoining storefronts for years—an antiques store, a vintage clothing store, a coffee shop—were either not offered lease renewals or presented with massive rent hikes, as the new owners prepared to renovate and revitalize the 127-year-old building.’

            ‘It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. Five years later, only one storefront is currently occupied, by a poke shop. Another two have papered-over windows. When people talk about the retail vacancy or “luxury blight” crisis in New York, they usually have in mind storefronts like these: small neighborhood shops cleared out for upscale stores that never came, or that closed as soon as they opened. The image of greedy landlords so eager to cash in on rising rents that they’re willing to destroy a thriving urban streetscape has launched entire websites, not to mention legislation like the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (first proposed in 1986) and City Council member Stephen Levin’s proposed Commercial Rent Stabilization Act, which would subject storefronts to residential-style rent regulations.’

            ‘But while there’s some germ of truth to that image—nobody would argue that landlords don’t want to maximize their profits—the reality is more complex. What data is available shows that retail vacancy rates do appear to be growing, especially in areas where rents are on the rise. But the reasons why rents stay high even in the face of a supply glut—why New York appears to be littered with neighborhoods nobody goes to because they’re too crowded—reveal some stubborn facts about the ways that retail landlords and tenants interact that new legislation may not be able to touch.’

            https://ny.curbed.com/2020/2/28/21145643/nyc-east-village-retail-blight-storefront-icon-realty

            Sure are a lotta gluts these days.

      2. “I was one of them and still believe that they will bring it back up. Their whole narrative is at stake here.”

        I have nearly the opposite point of view. If anything, they are using coronavirus to HIDE their weakness. Stock market drop due to debt? Whatever, just blame it on COVID-19. Retailers deliberately falsely blame “bad weather” for weak sales numbers all the time, so of course central banks will do the same thing. COVID is protecting their narrative.

        I did predict a equity bounce-back, but only at the end of the SUMMER, not the end of the week. But that’s only if the virus lets up with warm weather like other corona viruses. After that, we’ll limp past the election, a return of COVID causing a lackluster Christmas season, and then Katie bar the door.

        1. If they find a cure for the virus all will go back to moon, if they dont its a good time to grab some popcorn and watch the crater continue.

          1. “If they find a cure for the virus…”

            Industrialism has rendered many of Asia’s cities crowded and polluted, an ideal environment for a pulmonary disease to thrive.

          2. They have been saying a vaccine is eighteen months out from implementation. Now maybe someone could lie to deceive Wall Street traders that something will happen soon enough to stem the outbreak. Bovine brains are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

          3. I don’t anticipate a cure for this virus. It’s the same class of virus that causes colds and flu, and there’s no cure for those either; you just have to ride them out.

            But if the spread fades with warmer weather, then everything will still go back to the moon… for a little while. Until right after the election, at which point the systemic debt crisis will bring everything down again anyway. I’ve been saying this for a few weeks. If there is a fade, I boldly predict DOW 30,000 in late summer. That will be time* to “sell the effing hump.”**

            ——————-
            *Actually I would do the profit-taking at about 29,800. I suspect lots of auto sell orders would kick in at an even 30,000, so it’s better to sell a little sooner.
            ** Or whatever the opposite of “buy the effing dip” is.

          4. “I don’t anticipate a cure for this virus“

            But Dr 2% assured me that 4 tbsp of NyQuil, a pouch of theraflu, and a crushed up cough drop would cure this beer flu…

          5. cure

            That word makes me cringe. It gives people false hope by discounting the heterogeneity of many diseases.

      3. More anecdotal reporting…Chinese friend told me her friends in California are buying extra bags of rice and storing food and water. I found it strange to hear this kind of “prepper ” talk coming from people who have no connection to the “prepper” community. But these are people who are on the phone to relatives in China all the time.

        There also seems to be a narrative that the virus fears have a racist component but as far as I can tell the people who are most concerned are Chinese themselves who have family and friends in China who are telling them what is going on. In fact, I was ignoring the whole thing and still shopping at the asian grocery store and going to my favorite restaurants until my Chinese friends told me to stay away for awhile.

        1. More anecdotal reporting…Chinese friend told me her friends in California are buying extra bags of rice and storing food and water.

          Way too many Chinese people flooding into this country. Remember, these people are our enemy.

          1. Events and actions in and of China may pose a threat to us. That does not make everyone of Chinese descent or birth our “enemy”. IMO, the CCP is more of a threat to the Chinese people than anything.

    2. There’s no further need to worry about the coronavirus, as Fed officials are offering their assurances that it’s all contained.

          2. To paraphrase the economic definition of a recession vs depression, if your neighbor has it then it’s an epidemic, and if you have it it’s an pandemic.

          3. There’s a fantastic graphic on page A8 of today’s dead tree edition of The Wall Street Journal, documenting the timeline of spread to 46 countries, up from 8 a month ago. I was curious if there was some agreed definition of pandemic, or is it more or less arbitrary?

          10. Thanks for posting that WSJ graphic. According to the Internet, there are 195 countries in the world, including the Holy See and Palestine. The latter two seem to qualify on political rather than geographical considerations, and they aren’t on the UN list.

            So 46 is a pretty significant share of the total number of countries in the world.

      3. Fed officials are mulling over possible future rate cuts. It seems like bond traders slightly beat them to the punch.

        And there assurances seem oblivious to the problem of asymptomatic transmission, or that development and implementation of a vaccine is maybe eighteen months out. This time really is different.

        Fed’s Bullard says markets ‘overestimating’ likelihood of severe global coronavirus pandemic
        By Greg Robb
        Published: Feb 28, 2020 11:36 a.m. ET
        Base case remains that global health authorities bring virus under control, and markets ‘retrace’ losses, St. Louis Fed president says
        Reuters
        St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said he’s willing to cut the Fed’s benchmark rate further if the outlook darkens for the U.S. economy.

        St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said Friday investors might be “overestimating” the likelihood of a debilitating global pandemic resulting from the coronavirus.

        “They are certainly free to bet as they wish,” Bullard told reporters after a speech in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

        “I would encourage everyone to ask themselves — is that really the bet you want to make that this is going to be a global debilitating pandemic,” he said.

        Bullard said the data suggests the virus is coming under control in China. And even though there are new cases in other countries, “I think the virus will be put under control in those countries as well, including the U.S.,” the St. Louis Fed president said.

        “The baseline case is still that we’ll bring the virus under control and the market pricing will start to retrace,” he said.

        That’s what happened in the past four major outbreaks of new virus strains, he said.
        …

    3. It was just a few days ago, stocks at record prices, we had more than one poster tell us, “stop talking about that virus!”

      Meawhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been instructed to, “not say anything without prior approval.”

          1. Don’t know. But he was saying last week, we should trust the numbers coming out of China at least from the scientists as if they weren’t under pressure from the CCP. Laura Ingraham hammered him on it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good clip to share.

    5. It was just a few days ago, stocks at record prices…

      As a saver, I LOVE these stock market wipeouts. These are MY days to gloat and enjoy the fact that I saved my money. I just got a 15% return on my cash as opposed to the stock market. I’m walking on sunshine.

      2. Your gloating may be short lived. The central planners have ways of dealing with people who think they can escape the casino gulag.

        1. They’ve been punishing me for what essentially amounts to my entire life. The moment I was born into this world they have been working to destroy everything that was once good. At this point, there’s really nothing for me to worry about.

          1. They’ve been punishing me

            Not only the central planners. Their accomplices are the hordes of degenerate debt donkeys who have outconsumed their needs by promising to pay tomorrow for what they want now, forcing the price of all necessities through the roof.

  2. From the Epoch Times article:

    ‘Authorities also emphasized the importance of spreading positive propaganda about the virus response efforts. The provincial “disease control” agency listed among its “achievements” in its “propaganda work report” on Feb. 20: 215 positive stories on the app of Hubei Daily, a government-run newspaper; 25 positive stories on WeChat, a popular Facebook-like social media platform; 39 positive videos on the Tiktok app; 72 positive stories on the Toutiao news app; and 42 posts on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform. “Total page views reached 50 million,” according to the report.’

    ‘Another priority is censoring social media posts that portray the authorities in a negative light.’

    ‘In a Feb. 7 document, the Hubei provincial government gave orders to the provincial “disease control” agency: “Organizing a 24-hour internet monitoring team to surveil online posts from all websites… Remove all negative and harmful information.”

    ‘The document also noted that authorities removed “4,431 posts which severely damaged public opinion” and censored 3,066 types of negative comments from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8.’

    ‘Even within the central government’s “anti-epidemic leading group”—China’s top agency tasked to confront the outbreak—most of its senior officials are from the Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Public Security. There are no members from the National Health Commission.’

    These communists are scum-bags of the worst sort. We shouldn’t trade with them or even let them walk in this country in my opinion.

    ‘China’s Anbang Insurance Group bought it for a record US$1.95 billion. Five years later, the Waldorf is still a construction zone, Manhattan is awash in ultra-luxury condos and the property’s once high-flying owner has had its wings clipped’

    Yeah, clipped as in 18 years in Chinese prison. This idiot was the guy who walked around New York pointing to buildings saying “I want that one, and that one.”

    1. From the NZ comments:

      ‘Chinas economy is structured from the top down to make its entirety as efficient and competitive as possible.
      Ours is not. It would be no easy thing to change the deep structural damage done by neoliberalism to our entire economy.
      The amoral and deeply flawed ideology of neoliberalism has gifted China the opportunity to achieve global domination.’

      A reply

      ‘China’s economy is nowhere near as efficient and competitive as possible precisely because it is a command economy with the people controlling it having far from perfect knowledge of what’s going on in each area. What China has is a very large economy due to the large population, meaning even a very inefficient system can still get advantages from economies of scale that aren’t available to a country with a population hundreds of times smaller. Meanwhile we have focused the bulk of our exports at this one controlled market, leaving us almost entirely at the mercy of the Chinese government.’

      Another:

      ‘A somewhat predictable legacy of Helen Clark’s “historic” free trade agreement with China. What was that parable about eggs and baskets?’

      ‘BUGGER !!!
      All their eggs in ONE basket !!!
      How about sell the logs to NZ mills and lower the price of timber in NZ !!!!’

      1. From the foreclosure site I post, an email this morning:

        Reserve reduced by up to $10,000 on these properties

        Also got this from foreclosure.com:

        11 New Foreclosures in COCONINO County, AZ

    2. These communists are scum-bags of the worst sort. We shouldn’t trade with them or even let them walk in this country in my opinion.

      We threw the Chinese people (remember Tiananmen Square?) and our own values under the bus for $$$.

        1. Certain people seem to have made a lot of money. “We” does not refer to the US population at large.

        3. It wa$ a Mega.Indu$trial.Complex.$wap:

          Production facilitie$ + worker$.wage$ … In exchange for: … Warehouse building$ + < worker$.wage$

          Progre$$!

          Go Nike!, Go Ikea!, Go Amazon!

  3. Dow all over the place again this morning. Down 283 at this instant, but I saw it down more than 1000 points a little earlier.

    NASDAQ actually up a little right now.

    I guess the PPT is on the job?

      1. Considering that Tesla can only survive by selling more shares at extreme prices, Elon better invent a new dance move. Pronto.

          1. But, Tesla $6,000! Imagine the braindead azzwipes who bought at $900+ just a couple weeks ago. They’re getting slaughtered. The shorts are cleaning house now.

    3. 15 minutes later, NASDAQ is again red, and DOW down 769.

      Whatever the PPT is doing, it ain’t enough!

          1. “Stop talking about it and it will go away!!!!”

            That’$ exactly what Thee “Orange.jesus” spokesperson recommended!

      2. “Whatever the PPT is doing, it ain’t enough!”

        Wow, looks like they got a turkey baster full of adrenaline, and injected Wall street in the last seconds before the closing!

        2. Yeah, that was quite the moonshot in the last 2 minutes. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a 200+ point upshot in mere seconds. Trying to think if I ever have.

  4. ‘As for people’s lives, that is not important in the officials’ eyes.’

    ————
    Don’t be melodramatic. Look down there…

    (Long shot from Martins’ eye line of the fairground far below and the people now on it.)

    Would you feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?

    If I offered you £20,000 for every dot that stopped – would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money? Or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare?

    https://genius.com/Graham-greene-the-third-man-fairground-scene-annotated

  5. The article about unoccupied homes in Honolulu reminded me of something…

    A few weeks ago, I drove back into Las Vegas from the north on Hwy 95. It was about 6:30 PM so fully dark. And the time of day you’d expect some activity (and at least one light) in nearly every occupied home. Yet as I looked left and right at the expanse of cookie-cutter tract homes north of the 215, an awful lot of them were completely dark, inside and out.

  6. In trying to be positive about current events, prices were to damn high in every realm.

    A Black Swan event could reset everything. While it might not be a soft landing , it might bring everybody down to earth again, and break the spell of Globalism.

    2. One of the gold bugs finally explained why gold is dropping along with everything else: The drop in DOW is triggering margin calls… gold is the only thing that was profitable…so they are selling gold to get the cash to cover the margin calls.

      Makes sense I guess. I wonder if that explains BTc too.

      2. Treasurys are profitable, but you wouldn’t want to sell when the price is rising daily, and the Fed is threatening to lower interest rates, which would make them go up even more.

  7. ‘New York’s luxury condo market is contending with an inventory overload. There is $5.7 billion in existing inventory on the market and $33 billion in shadow inventory’

    Is $33B a lot?

    1. Pshaw, Ben “Alex” Jones. Shadow inventory is a conspiracy theory peddled by obscure citizen journalists on fringe websites. Please vet future HBB stories through real estate expert Diana Olick, lest your social credit score be jeopardized.

  8. ‘For the past couple years, the luster seemed to have faded on Georgetown’s luxury housing market. Jamie Peva of Washington Fine Properties says the reason the two houses he listed sold quickly was because they were priced correctly. The sellers didn’t challenge the market by setting an aspirational list price. ‘There have been a lot of houses on the market at some very big prices,’ he said. ‘Purchasers haven’t seemed to be willing to pay them’

    Where’s taxpayer?

    1. “Where’s taxpayer?”

      Maybe in Treasury’s basement, tied up and drugged, while Mnuchin, Powell and friends try to make a selfie worthy rosebud?

  9. Malden’s Most Expensive Listing Sees Price Drop

    The cost of this million-dollar home on Manley Terrace just went down $149,000.

    ‘This three-bedroom home is being sold with 119 Lebanon Street, and the price tag on the two parcels has gone down. The home has had $149,000 knocked off its price tag. At $1.3 million, it’s still Malden’s most expensive listing, according to realtor.com.’

    https://patch.com/massachusetts/malden/maldens-most-expensive-listing-sees-price-drop

    Look at this dump. I guess the window units make up a bulk of the million.

    1. ‘$20K Price Drop On 4-Bedroom Gloucester Township Home’

      ‘The asking price on this Cobblestone Farms home dropped by about $20,000 last week.’

      ‘SICKLERVILLE, NJ — The asking price on this Cobblestone Farms home dropped by about $20,000 last week. It went from $340,000 to $320,000 on Feb. 19. It comes with four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.’

      ‘Features: BANK APPROVED PRICE OF $320, 000’

      https://patch.com/new-jersey/gloucestertownship/20k-price-drop-4-bedroom-gloucester-township-home

    2. a bulk of the million

      Those turned porch posts scream turn of the century. I don’t mean the 21st century. Chances are good the stairway/landing to the bedrooms isn’t wide enough to get a whole piece of furniture upstairs. Any original wiring would be post and tube. What a gem!

    3. Year built: 1900. “1900” is code for “we don’t know when it was built.”

      The $1.3 million price tag includes 119 Lebanon street, an old flower shop. They say the lot size is 3100 sq ft, but I’m guessing that more adjoining land is included behind the flower building. Maybe 0.75 acre? Looks like they are trying to find a developer sucker to buy the land for nicer McMansion or a small apt building. Location Location Location, it’s 4 miles from Logan.

  10. My tech stock options have been getting killed (it didn’t help that we missed earnings). However, I was able to move all of the retirement accounts into cash before this week. Some accounts as late as last week. I am waiting for the bottom to move them back to all stocks again. The question is will we go into bear market or will the FED “save the day” again?

    Will rate cut even help? This is a supply problem. Like Peter Schiff said, cutting rate when there is demand and no supply is like pouring gasoline into the fire. Any thoughts?

    1. “Will rate cut even help?”

      Not unless there’s a debt jubilee for tapped-out consumers. Coincidentally, it’s almost fifty years too, the 1973 Yom Kippur war, that huge federal deficits have been rammed-up main street’s sphincter.

      1. Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971. That cleared the way for the Fed to start printing with wild abandon to fund the warfare/welfare state.

    2. dtRumpsis, should just walk in & shoot Powell in the head. The rest of the Fed$ merrymen will get his me$$age in $pade$.

    3. I am waiting for the bottom to move them back to all stocks

      Mind the ghost of the 1929 sucker’s rally. How old will you be in 20 years?

      1. I will still have time… but I will be hitting the big 4 0 soon. Not as young as I hope to be but not too old either.

        1. You’re just entering your peak earning years, and if your wife and mistress understand that there’s enough of you to spread around then you have a shot an adequate retirement.

  12. “‘The data will tell you that this is not the time for another Midtown luxury condo,’ said Donna Olshan, president of Olshan Realty. The area ‘is saturated with inventory that could take a decade to sell.’”

    Yes, Donna, but what do your FEELINGS tell you the market is going to do?

  13. ‘Overall, people have strong negative emotions, such as grief, panic, anxiety, and suspicion. The feeling of anger among society has increased.’”

    Well, you know who to blame: the CCP Comrades of Proven Worth. Maybe China is due for another revolution.

    1. You don’t $uppo$e the Iranian.vengeance.members would sacrifice some innocents to be let loose to roam in other countries with a chao$.viru$,?

      (seems cheaper than firing head.ache.mi$$les)

        1. Concealing the number of cases can backfire unless you have an effective means to hide the related deaths.

      2. You don’t $uppo$e the Iranian.vengeance.members would sacrifice some innocents to be let loose to roam in other countries with a chao$.viru$,?

        Now now…they’re not crazy like the South Koreans.

  14. Breaking news:

    “An federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts.

    A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump’s asylum crackdown.”

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/federal-court-temporarily-halts-trumps-remain-in-mexico-policy-2020-02-28

    Globalists gonna globe.

    Globalists gotta globe. It’s as if the erasure of any semblance of national sovereignty is their only reason for existence. Coronavirus be damned, open borders is like a religion to them.

  15. “Danbury doesn’t have much choice, with the glut of single-family homes driving prices down and a need for affordable senior housing that doesn’t add students to the city’s swelling school system, developer Dan Bertram says.”

    Connecticut is really determined to turn into a nursing home with no staff to operate it, isn’t it? If they don’t want families, who is going to pay all those legacy costs?

    Wait a few years and enrollment will be dropping. The opposition to two family homes, general multifamily, whatever is probably driven by seniors running the government, and only concerned with their own needs.

    Which reminds me. Is there some new rule against Presidential candidates under the age of 75?

    2. A presidential candidate under 75 may not have the interests of indebted olds in mind.

      A younger candidate may want to gut Social Security and allow people to opt-out, lower what Medicare gives so people can pull up by those bootstraps, etc.

      I’d vote for that because it wouldn’t affect me. I’m sure I’m not alone.

      1. gut Social Security

        LOL. It was gutted a long time ago. Otherwise my lifetime of forced savings would be just sitting there waiting for me and it wouldn’t be your expense at all.

  16. Longboat Key, FL Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY As Sarasota And Manatee County Housing Market Turns Radioactive

    https://www.zillow.com/longboat-key-fl/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    A distinguished economist quipped, “Why buy a house when you can rent one for half the monthly cost. Buy it later after prices crater for 70% less.”

  17. Fire up the (virtual) printing presses!

    ” “The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong,” Powell said in a mid-day statement. “However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy.” ”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/feds-powell-says-coronavirus-poses-evolving-risks-pledges-to-act-as-appropriate-for-economy.html

      1. I don’t know that he had that specific intention. But at this point, the central banks are on a runaway train. How do they stop creating money out of thin air now?

        They’re kicking the can down the road, because the alternative is too painful to contemplate. But the further down this road we go, the more painful the alternative will be. At least that’s how I see the overall situation.

    1. BTW, CNBC’s poor headline writer must be ready to tear his/her hair out after this week. By the time they write a short article & headline and post it, the numbers are way off from the current index value, LOLz.

        2. Yes, the PPT can go into the weekend patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

          After being down ~1000 points at times during the day, the Dow closed down only about 357 points. And the NASDAQ closed .01% in the green.

    2. It’s only down by a little over 500 pts on the Dow, which is good compared to the rest of the week.

  19. There are roughly 34,000 vacant homes in Honolulu, a vacancy rate of more than 10 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All those vacant houses are not only an eye sore to those who live near them, they pose health hazards and also invite the wrong element into neighborhoods.

    34,000 empty shacks? But..but.. it’s an island.. they’re not making anymore land.. what happened to my shortage!?!?!?

    1. There are vacant homes because there’s a shortage of affordable housing.

      At least 10% vacancy is in every town USA.

    2. On another island a house just came on the market – seller bought it middle of last year. Now they want 150K more than they paid. Not gonna happen!

        1. Just for fun you should offer free Corona 12 pack$ bottle$ @ $igning on the dotted line$! (+ Free lime$!)

      2. “Americans are really that stupid?”

        I was told by a Mexican that Americans put lime wedges in their Corona beer probably not realizing that lime wedges were originally used in Mexico to keep flies out of the beer.

        2. Beer drinking is down irrespective of the coronavirus. Hard seltzers are what’s trendy. I’ll stick with wine.

          @drumminj: What was the name of that WA winery that you really liked? Force Majeure?

          1. @drumminj: What was the name of that WA winery that you really liked? Force Majeure?

            Yeah, I had mentioned Force Majeure before. Wouldn’t characterize it as “really like” as I’ve not had a ton of their wine, but the Parabellum rhone blend is really tasty.

    2. They said in NY that Chinatown was hurting because of coronavirus fears. So my wife and I went out to eat at a restaurant there.

      Corona beer was on the menu. So I ordered one. They said they didn’t have any.

        1. Yes I did. They were bidding up prices far in excess of what achievable rents warranted, and this isn’t the first time.

          Recall that MetLife sold Stuytown and Peter Cooper Village, two post-war middle class housing developments, to Tishman Speyer just before the last bust. Lots of people who benefitted from rent regulations were illegally subletting their apartments and keeping the higher rents. MetLife managed to get them all out, and showed rent growth.

          Tishman bought in anticipation of being able to evict more rent regulated residents, legitimate ones. They organized, fought back, and Tishman lost. The property went under. I think Calpers lost big on that one.

    3. Well, Corona is Mexican chihuahua piss. No self-respecting human would be caught dead drinking that stuff.

  21. So long as testing inside the U.S. remains limited, not too many of these perplexing unexplained cases should come to light.

    2. From what I’ve read, the nucleic acid test isn’t sensitive enough resulting in false negatives.

    1. MSM has been studiously avoiding the very small number of COVID-19 tests the CDC has had done, and also the very small possible number of tests the CDC is able to do. FDA has rules & regs that greatly impinge on the ability of the CDC to quickly increase the supply of testing materials and number of tests done, unlike most if not all other countries faced with COVID-19.

      1. Seems like we are exposed to the risk of the appearance of an explosive growth in the number of cases…similar to what’s recently happened in several other countries.

  24. China Economy
    China factory activity shrank at its fastest rate on record in February
    Published Fri, Feb 28 2020 9:45 PM EST
    Updated Fri, Feb 28 2020 9:55 PM EST
    Reuters
    Key Points
    — China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to a record low of 35.7 in February from 50.0 in January.
    — The data highlight the damage from the coronavirus outbreak on the world’s second-largest economy.
    — The results suggest deepening cracks in an economy already hit by the trade war.
    …

  25. The Iran coronavirus situation is extremely worrisome. What does it mean if senior leaders are succumbing?

    1. The Wall Street Journal
      Middle East
      As Iran’s Leaders Contract Coronavirus, Doubts Emerge Over National Tally
      Some researchers suggest the rate of infection is far higher
      By Sune Engel Rasmussen and
      Aresu Eqbali
      Updated Feb. 28, 2020 4:30 pm ET

      TEHRAN—Coronavirus infections among Iran’s senior leaders are raising questions over the extent of an outbreak that has become a flashpoint in the world-wide spread of the virus.

      A week after Iranian authorities confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus in the country, at least 34 people have died among 388 confirmed cases.
      …

      1. I won’t bore you all with any more long division, but their case fatality rate looks alarmingly high.

      1. Have they been to China recently?

        Any chance they were there often working with China much more closely than we might have realized?

    3. What does it mean if senior leaders are succumbing? A vastly increased opportunity for quick promotion of “young Turks” – that is, younger Iranians to take their place. Maybe one of them is the 12th and final imam.

  26. The Financial Times
    Coronavirus
    How the coronavirus shattered market complacency
    Shrugging off risks at the start of the year has proven costly

    A medical worker wearing a protective face mask stands at a pre-triage center outside the emergency room in Molinette hospital in Turin, Italy, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. As the number of people infected by the coronavirus in Italy rises above 500 — mostly in the rich, industrial north — restrictions imposed to stem its spread are threatening deeper economic woes. Photographer: Federico Bernini/Bloomberg
    When Italy quarantined 10 towns in an effort to limit a breakout there, many traders started to consider for the first time that a heavy market sell-off could be just around the corner © Bloomberg
    …
    Over the week, the FTSE All-World lost almost 13 per cent, wiping out six months of gains, and lopping nearly $6tn off the value of global equities. In nominal dollar terms, that makes the last week the worst for stock market wealth destruction ever recorded. The Nasdaq lost $4.6tn in the entire post-dotcom bubble collapse in 2000-02.

    The flipside was a mighty rally in haven assets. The US government bond market — investors’ favoured retreat at times of distress — saw the yield of both 10-year and 30-year US government debt hit record lows.

    James Athey, a fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said the scale of the shake-out reflects both the severity of the virus’s economic impact and the lavish valuations that had become commonplace in key stock markets.

    Since January, he had been loading up on safer government bonds, fearing that equity markets were locked in a “mad utopian vision” of uninterrupted economic growth and low interest rates, and ignoring the dangers that the coronavirus posed.

    “Central banks have created this world. It had become a market where there was too much pointing in the same direction,” he said. “Everyone has had the same trades on, and they are all wrong.”
    …

    1. Over the week, the FTSE All-World lost almost 13 per cent

      Oh, poor dears.

      This “all-world” stuff is more fragile than it has ever been, an interlaced network of revenue/debt service balancing on a sharp edge. At the heart of it some of the wheels stopped turning and now weeks later a slight shudder of fear is rippling through the speculation community. At some point in the not too distant future, the tangible shock of default is going to be felt. JMO.

  27. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/29/coronavirus-live-updates-latest-news-china-wuhan-stock-markets-update

    A major real estate exhibition in Cannes has delayed for three months due to growing concern over the spread of the coronavirus.

    MIPIM, which describes itself as the world’s leading property market, was expected to take place between March 10-13 dates, but it has been pushed back to early June in the hope the threat posed by the coronavirus will have reduced.

    Paul Zilk, chief executive of Reed MIDEM which organises the event, said:

    The well-being of our clients and staff is our priority. Given the evolving context, the best course of action is to postpone MIPIM to June.

    This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We believe these new dates will provide the international MIPIM community with the opportunity to achieve their business objectives.

    We are grateful to our clients for their support and constructive input during this challenging period, and we look forward to talking with them in the coming days about MIPIM in June.

    Hope springs enternal, all those available hotels in Cannes in June. What could go right.

  28. Is it easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission?

    Chinese laboratory that first shared coronavirus genome with world ordered to close for ‘rectification’, hindering its Covid-19 research

    “The laboratory at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre was ordered to close for “rectification” on January 12, a day after Professor Zhang Yongzhen’s team published the genome sequence on open platforms. It closed temporarily the following day.”

    “The release of the data helped researchers develop test kits for the virus.”

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