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Nowhere To Go But Down

A report from Bloomberg. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator is confronting a fresh crisis for the U.S. housing market: The companies won’t buy recently issued loans that were made to borrowers who already can’t afford their monthly payments because of coronavirus. Industry executives have told the Federal Housing Finance Agency, that the issue is causing severe disruptions for the real estate sector because it’s keeping the mortgage giants from guaranteeing new loans in forbearance.”

“The dilemma is the latest to emerge from the fact that swaths of homeowners have stopped making mortgage payments because of lost jobs or income. Almost 6% of borrowers had delayed making their mortgage payments as of April 12, up from 3.7% a week earlier, according to the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association.”

From Mortgage Professional America. “Housing market potential fell as a result of the coronavirus-related economic slowdown, forcing lenders to tighten credit standards to ensure borrowers can still make mortgage payments during the crisis. In March, First American recorded a significant month-over-month drop in market potential for existing-home sales, down 9% to a 4.94 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR), its lowest level since 2016.”

“‘The pandemic’s impacts have also influenced our Potential Home Sales Model. Market potential fell in March, as lenders tightened credit due to concern that many economically impacted households will not be able to make their mortgage payments,’ said First American Chief Economist Mark Fleming. ‘Many potential first-time homebuyers no longer qualify for a mortgage when credit tightens. So, tighter lending standards reduce demand and, in turn, housing market potential.'”

From The Real Deal. “JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s fourth largest home loan provider, just raised its borrowing standards on home loans and suspended home equity line of credit offerings. JPMorgan’s decision to back away from mortgage lending — along with similar moves by other prominent banks — could have dire consequences for the hobbled housing market, industry pros said. Their actions also come at a time when nonbank lenders, which now provide a majority of home loans, don’t have access to Federal Reserve funds and may not be able to absorb a flood of defaults.”

“‘It is going to make a housing crunch that we have not had,’ said Ken Thomas, a South Florida independent banking analyst. More plainly,he said, ‘It is going to hurt the housing market.'”

“Other major loan providers have taken similar actions. US Bank increased its minimum credit score requirement to 680 and Wells Fargo said it was restricting its jumbo loan program. Wells will now only allow customers with at least $250,000 in liquid assets to refinance, according to the Wall Street Journal, a move designed to eliminate all but the wealthiest potential homebuyers.”

From CNBC. “There has been a slowdown in asking prices. In early March, median list prices were up 4.4% annually on average. In the first half of April they were up just under 1%. That’s the slowest growth in seven years.”

“‘Although prices are still rising compared to last year, slower gains are indicative of early market response to economic uncertainty and hurdles to completing a transaction, along with lower buyer and seller sentiment,”’ said Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com. ‘While asking prices do not normally react so quickly to market conditions, Fannie Mae’s recent housing market sentiment survey showed a bigger potential seller response to COVID-19 than the potential buyer response, which could help explain why asking prices are reacting rapidly.'”

“Prices will be under the most pressure in areas where the economies depend on leisure and hospitality, according to a new report from UBS. The report mentions Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando, Florida, which were some of the hardest-hit markets during the subprime crisis. In addition, UBS lists Houston as high risk, because of its exposure to energy companies.”

“Markets where affordability was already stretched, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle, are also at higher risk of price declines. In New York City, home prices had already been tanking, due to oversupply and changes to real estate tax laws that had benefited homeownership. Now the city is the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus crisis, and values have nowhere to go but down.”

“‘Uncertainty destroys value,’ said Ken Johnson an economist at Florida Atlantic University. ‘The more uncertainty there is, the more a potential buyer will discount the value of the home.'”

The Gainesville Sun in Florida. “The housing market in Alachua County is usually busiest in the spring. COVID-19 shifted the market rapidly in favor of buyers. Alissa Voils is trying to sell her family’s four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom home in Wilds Plantation. She and her husband, Stacy Voils, along with their three children, plan to move to St. Johns, a suburb of Jacksonville, but changes to the housing market due to the coronavirus outbreak are making that process more difficult. ‘It’s impacted how we’re looking (for a home), and probably how others are looking at ours,’ Alissa Voils said.”

“Whereas pre-pandemic conditions favored sellers, the market quickly turned into a buyer’s market. ‘Right now there’s more leverage for buyers, or it’s more likely they can get favorable terms,’ said Matt Thomas, co-owner of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Thomas Group in Gainesville.”

“Despite Voils’ 3,300-square-foot home being listed at $649,000, she said she is hopeful it will find its buyer. ‘We’re not particularly discouraged at this point,’ Voils said. ‘Even though things are at a standstill, we see it as more of a pause.'”

The Central Oregonian. “Changes are expected in the local housing market due to the coronavirus outbreak, but so far experts are unsure how severe of an impact to expect. According to Kim Gammond, communications and public affairs director for Central Oregon Association of Realtors (COAR), local agents have not seen an impact on prices at this point. A hit to the market is anticipated, but how big of a hit is hard to predict. Gammond said that since most current figures represent transactions before the Stay at Home order came down, they expect to see more dramatic impacts in the numbers later this spring. In Central Oregon, price reductions were up 15% in the second half of March compared to the first half.”

“The City of Prineville Planning Department issues planning permits for residential development. Planning Director Josh Smith has seen a ‘definite slowdown’ since the outbreak arrived in Oregon. ‘What will be interesting to see is the money side of things – not so much the builders, but the demand for building,’ Smith said. ‘Is the demand going to drop off? Is there going to be too much debt? Will people be cautious?'”

“He went on to point out that a small apartment complex is planned on Deer Street and another complex with more than 150 units is under construction. ‘There is a lot of building that is going to flood the market with new units,’ he said. ‘Is that going to bring prices down and help people out?'”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “Potential homebuyers are understandably skittish about making a move. Record job losses and a looming economic crash do not make a good environment for home buying. A North Texas builder is hoping to assuage consumers’ fears by offering a mortgage payment protection plan. Megatel Homes — which has projects throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area — is agreeing to pay up to six months of mortgage payments if a new homeowner loses his or her job after the purchase.”

“‘Most of the people coming into our model homes were evading buying a house now because they could lose their jobs,’ Megatel co-founder Zach Ipour said. ‘That’s a concern a lot of people have that currently have a job — what if they get laid off three months down the road?'”

“The program is available for houses in the company’s completed inventory. ‘When people buy the home from Megatel, if they lose their job, they receive 100% of six months mortgage payments until they find a job,’ Ipour said. He said the company had been selling 40 houses a week before the pandemic and purchases had slowed to 10 or 12 a week. ‘Last week we had 25 sold.'”

“The mortgage assurance offering has also kept some buyers from backing out of home purchases they had agreed to before the COVID-19 pandemic. Ipour said some builders have seen as high as 40% purchase cancellation rates. ‘We have been able to save the deals people were going to cancel,’ he said.”

“Homebuilders and real estate agents have reported huge declines in home shoppers and sales since the pandemic hit more than a month ago. Many D-FW homebuilders are now offering purchase incentives, especially on completed inventory, said Ted Wilson of Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies. ‘The incentives typically include discounts, upgrades, Realtor bonuses, rebates and satisfaction guarantees,’ he said.”

“Wilson said builders are also struggling with more restrictive mortgage credit standards that some lenders have enacted. ‘A concern that has arisen in recent weeks is the more restrictive environment for mortgage qualification,’ he said. ‘I think there is also some concern that buyers may have qualified for a loan pre-COVID 19 — but the current, more restrictive mortgage qualification standards may make it difficult to close with the newly required higher credit scores and down payments.'”

From Tap Into Mahopac in New York. “It’s official. Former New York Mets and Yankees manager Joe Torre is no longer a Lake Mahopac resident. The Hall of Famer and his wife sold their lakefront house earlier this month at a considerable loss. The couple bought the house in 2006 as a weekend getaway. It was put up for sale in 2018 for $1.39 million. In March 2019, the asking price dropped to $1.2 million. Last week, the 2,038-square-foot home, which was built in 1936, sold for $983,000, according to published reports.”

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This Post Has 73 Comments

  1. ‘Is the demand going to drop off? Is there going to be too much debt? Will people be cautious?’

    Yes, yes and yes!

    1. My landlord is giving 5% rent discounts for May (they already did this for April) to tenants who pay by the first.

      Not buying a used house in Denver was the best financial decision of my life. I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it.

      1. Probably even more important in some ways is that you have the flexibility to up and move on nearly a moment’s notice.

        There are periods of time in most people’s lives where having such ability is important.

    2. The braying of DebtDonkeys and clucking of helpless HousingHens is a sweet symphony of beautiful sounds.

  2. ‘Homebuilders and real estate agents have reported huge declines in home shoppers and sales since the pandemic hit more than a month ago. Many D-FW homebuilders are now offering purchase incentives, especially on completed inventory, said Ted Wilson of Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies. ‘The incentives typically include discounts, upgrades, Realtor bonuses, rebates and satisfaction guarantees’

    And recent buyers were just pushed underwater.

  3. ‘It’s impacted how we’re looking (for a home), and probably how others are looking at ours’

    ‘the market quickly turned into a buyer’s market’…Despite Voils’ 3,300-square-foot home being listed at $649,000’…

    Is that a lot?

    …’she said she is hopeful it will find its buyer. ‘We’re not particularly discouraged at this point,’ Voils said. ‘Even though things are at a standstill, we see it as more of a pause’

    You are fooked Alissa.

  4. ‘JPMorgan’s decision to back away from mortgage lending — along with similar moves by other prominent banks — could have dire consequences for the hobbled housing market, industry pros said. Their actions also come at a time when nonbank lenders, which now provide a majority of home loans, don’t have access to Federal Reserve funds and may not be able to absorb a flood of defaults’

    Flood of defaults? That was fast.

    1. It does make you wonder what it would have looked like had people behaved responsibly and bought what they actually could afford, not what they thought they could afford.

      When someone doesn’t have enough in savings to cover one single mortgage payment before hitting the panic button and begging for rescue.

      1. My greatest hope for this election is that Orange King looses the popular vote by ten million votes and wins the electoral college by a single vote so I can make popcorn and watch Portland burn itself to the ground on Youtube.

        It’s fun explaining to millennials how amending the Constitution to abolish the electoral college requires 3/4 of the state legislatures (that’s 38 states) to approve it. Tell these entitled snowflakes that and it’s like watching a sad child who dropped their ice cream cone on the sidewalk 🙁

        2. The Electoral college was Americas first Affirmative Action program so get rid of AA quotas minority set asides, most of the race and gender discrimination complaints, and judge everyone by the best scores ….would be fair! So if the next college class is 95% white and Asian well you have no recourse anymore.

      3. How many ice cream $andwiches can x1 per$on devoure$?

        Farmers to get up to $250,000 each in COVID-19 cash

        Monday, April 20th 2020

        Farmer$ will get ca$h payment$ of up to $250,000 each to help them $urvive an estimated 20% drop in farm income this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

        President Trump announced a $16 billion fund in for direct agricultural aid and said the additional money might be spent this summer to help the sector.

        In addition, the government plans to spend $3 billion to buy fruit, vegetables, dairy, and meat which will then be donated to charities and food banks.

        “I’m announcing … a $19 billion relief program for our great farmers and ranchers as they cope with the fallout of the global pandemic,” said Trump at the White House on Friday. The USDA will receive additional funding in July “to continue help” to producers, he said.

        Farmers and ranchers will be eligible for up to $125,000 per commodity with an overall limit of $250,000 per person according to the USDA. The only ineligible people would be those with more than $900,000 in adjusted gross income and those who get more than 25% of their income outside of agriculture.

        Earlier today the American Farm Bureau praised the $19 billion aid package provided to the farmers noting how helpful it will be.

        Cattle producers will get almost a third of the money, $5.1 billion according to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven. Row-crop farmers would get $3.9 billion, dairy farmers $2.1 billion, specialty crop growers $2.1 billion, hog farmers will receive $1.6 billion, and producers of other crops will get $500 million.

        More details on the program will be released at a later date.

    2. “…In the proverbial nutshell, then, the world has become addicted to borrowing money, spending it, and passing this off as “growth”….”

      Thanks for posting.

      A great read, well worth to study both Part 1 and Part 2.

      Here is a great takeaway quote with respect to R/E.

      “Property markets are a classic instance of this problem. If you multiply the average price of a nation’s properties by the number of those properties, you can come up with a very impressive asset value for the housing stock as a whole. The snag, of course, is that the only people to whom this housing stock could be sold are the people who already own it.”

  7. I’ve seen a huge uptick in the amount of pending sales go back on market in the past few weeks in SoCal. But new inventory has slowed to a crawl, so prices haven’t dipped as much as I’d hoped. Yet.

    1. “…I’ve seen a huge uptick in the amount of pending sales go back on market in the past few weeks in SoCal…”

      Noticed the same thing here in SoOC. (Newport-Irvine-Corona Del Mar).

      Couple of factors:

      1) Wealthier zips tend to have more cash reserves, to tough it out longer, and have more diversified financial portfolios.

      2) Wealthier zips tend to have more white collar jobs, majority are considered “essential”.

      3) R/E markets decline is in very early stages. At the moment, it seems to be more of a game of chicken, to see who jumps off the cliff first.

      But, who knows? FOMO works on the way up and on the way down.

      1. Very true. Wife and I work in ITS (at different companies), so we’re still employed for now. We’ve been renting the same place for over 10 years because we didn’t wanna over leverage. I’ve felt like a sucker for years as friends and co-workers have lived the “high life” on what presumably was cheap debt while we reduced our debt to almost zero. This past few weeks is the first time in years that I’ve felt justified in being fiscally restrained.

        So I’m hoping enough AirBnBers have to cut their losses and list to drive down prices. Then maybe that would give us a chance at buying a house closer to sustainable market value. We’ve been disappointed many times before though, so not gonna count the chicks before Powell hatches them.

        1. Those people who lucked out by buying with FHA 3.5 down and their house nearly double are (“were” some still are) walking around with a smirk on the face whistling and singing kumbaya! because… you know they are geniuses… and they pull 100K out of refi to buy teslas and go to Hawaii and Europe…

          All meanwhile some of us smart and prudent hard workers are getting our rents raised like clockwork… oh stinky renter!! the alternative was to get into a bidding WAR and write a letter to BEG to be picked the winner of the bidding war with no Inspection. GTFO

          I resent the smug faces that laugh and joke about others when they think they’re on top with their house and fancy Teslas… Get FKT, Uncle SAM and his Brother FED will surely try to save them.

          1. Yeah, I’ve seen this too. My neighbor next door resembles your remarks: bought his first house with a zero down, VA loan, made a killing on the appreciation, moved here and traded up to the current house with his out of state equity and bought a super duper Chevy Silverado with all the bells and whistles just a few months ago.

          3. He made a killing and proceeded to waste his windfall. Typical.

            He learned computer and network security while in the Army, and it’s worked out well for him in the civilian world. But as we know, what’s hot today in tech can be ice cold tomorrow.

        2. Sounds like a narrative… you know… That old worn out “have/have not” schtick.

          Are you sure?

        1. “…a lot of those cash reserves are in the stawk markets…”

          Very possible.

          Finding access to clean data of sufficient granularity from arbitrary households is a very difficult problem.

          But we are only inside the C-19 lock down for a bit over a month now.

          By the time we get thru some additional payment cycles, (30-60-90 day out), the R/E world may look very, very different.

          1. > By the time we get thru some additional payment cycles, (30-60-90 day out), the R/E world may look very, very different.

            Indeed. We already well know there is a lag between events and any impact on the RE markets that can be up to several months. That we’re already seeing the stress crack spreading (but not breaking yet) this quickly is saying something.

    2. But new inventory has slowed to a crawl, so prices haven’t dipped as much as I’d hoped. Yet.

      Well…let’s be realistic. Let’s say prices are destined to be cut in half due to the extreme nature of our problems (for example). The current owner probably owes far more than that. So even if that’s where prices are headed, first he has to lose the house. That’s going to take some time. And in the meantime those who own free and clear probably won’t be in any hurry to sell to you at that price.

      1. That’s going to take some time

        Some 30 million people recently out of work. That didn’t take long.

        The owner of one out of 100 houses will die this year. That doesn’t take time.

        One sale sets the market.

        1. Usually takes more than a month before they are on the market. He was implying that he expected to already see more drops. It’ll happen eventually…

  8. Some talking heads on the web yesterday brought up the point that inner City box living is going to go out of style because of C19.

    People will desire living away from the dense City. This would be a push back on Agenda 21 that wanted dense City sustainable earth idea with a.ir box living.

    Will people want to travel as much as they use to? Will people go back to normal, or will the virus change life forever, including big Government?

    1. Will people want to travel as much as they use to?

      Want? Probably. Will they be able to do so? Probably not.

      1. I’ll be taking some nice road trips this summer to burn cheap gas and not spend alot of money.

        Getting on a plane anytime soon, no thanks.

          1. I assume you’re not going to try to break the record?
            Otherwise maybe start with an S8 🙂 I think the record breaking guy are running 170+ in some sections now to make up for the slow sections.

          3. I don’t think anybody in recent history doing it has gotten caught at really crazy speeds. These days they are using 3 people, one with stabilized optics to watch for cops WAY out ahead any time they are not in traffic and trying to make up time. And these days it’s being done fast enough that nobody has to sleep.

  9. Heeheehee … New.Tool$!

    Coronaviru$ / Mortgage$

    Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac will only require servicer$ to advance 4 month$ of payments on loan$ in forbearance

    FHFA announces new policy to addre$$ $ervicer liquiditie$ concern$

    Here’s how the FHFA describes the change:

    “When a mortgage loan is in a Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS), Fannie Mae servicers with a scheduled payment remittance are responsible for advancing the principal and interest payment regardless of borrower payments. Freddie Mac servicers, who are generally responsible for advancing scheduled interest, are only obligated to advance four months of missed borrower interest payments. Today’s instruction establishes a four-month advance obligation limit for Fannie Mae scheduled servicing for loans and servicers which is consistent with the current policy at Freddie Mac.”

    Now, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is moving to help servicers who collect payments on loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but not in the exact way that servicers were expecting.

    Rather than setting up a liquidity facility, which would help servicers cover the principal and interest payments they are required to send investors on loans that are in forbearance, the FHFA is changing Fannie and Freddie’s policies to limit the number of payments servicers will be required to make.

    Under the new policy, servicers will only be required to advance four months of missed payments for loans in forbearance. After that, the servicer is under “no further obligation to advance scheduled payments.”

    According to the FHFA, this policy applies to all GSE servicers, whether they are banks or nonbanks.

    “The four-month servicer advance obligation limit for loans in forbearance provides stability and clarity to the $5 trillion Enterprise-backed housing finance market,” FHFA Director Mark Calabria said in a statement. “Mortgage servicers can now plan for exactly how long they will need to advance principal and interest payments on loans for which borrowers have not made their monthly payment.”

    Nearly 3 million borrower$ are already in forbearance

    FHFA Director Mark Calabria told HousingWire last week that his expectation was that approximately 1 million GSE mortgages will be in forbearance by May, but new data from Black Knight shows that the number of GSE mortgages in forbearance already far exceeds Calabria’s projection.

    HousingWire / April 21, 2020 / By Ben Lane

    1. This seems significant and important.

      Does this mean that after a donk defaults the servicer only has to make make 4 monthly interest payments to investors and after that the investors get no more gravy?

      Just want to make sure I understand this.

  10. cnbc is claiming that FHA/Freddie/Fannie that mortgage servicers are given some relief – need to make only 4 of 12 months payment.

    Did anyone see that – and what are the ramifications?

    —–

    Diana Olick CNBC – still talking up the market

    “Homes are still selling fast, we just don’t have enough inventory,” added Yun, saying that real estate agents do report some interest and have ramped up virtual tours as well as live virtual showings.

    2. ‘Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator is confronting a fresh crisis for the U.S. housing market: The companies won’t buy recently issued loans that were made to borrowers who already can’t afford their monthly payments because of coronavirus’

      1. “…it’s keeping the mortgage giants from guaranteeing new loans in forbearance.”

        On what planet does this make sense? How can you insure a loan that is 100% certainly already in default? Only people who work inside the Beltway can grasp such a notion of insurability.

  11. One of the big issues in recent decades have been growing in inequality. Those who seized control of businesses sat on each others’ boards and elected to pay each other more and more, while squeezing down other workers to less and less, generation by generation. Expecting rising debts to allow them to keep spending on the consumer side.

    Now consider this. If the federal government had stood aside and allowed the whole house of cards to collapsed, and THEN, post mass-Chapter 11, helped things to reboot, a lot of that income and wealth inequality would have disappeared. Instead the federal government is desperately trying to reflate asset prices, and keep everything out of bankruptcy.

    I don’t know what is scarier. The collapse if they fail? Or the further leap forward of inequality and desperation for more and more Americans if they once again succeed. We’re f__d either way, but at least in the first interest the executive/financial class, the political/union class and Generation Greed take the fall too.

    1. Consider those who have an inside track to make sure they are taken care of before the vast majority of ‘little people’. No matter how good and well intentioned and well designed any bailout or assistance is, it will be captured first and subverted by those with the most resources and access to do so.

  14. Virgin Australia just went into BK today, or in Brit speak they are in “administration”.

    Hong Kong (CNN Business) – Virgin Australia has collapsed into administration, one day after billionaire founder Richard Branson made a last-ditch appeal for government support for the country’s second biggest airline.
    …

    Virgin Australia is the first major airline in Asia Pacific to succumb to the loss of business from the pandemic, which has caused carriers to rip up their flight schedules, ground planes and put staff on unpaid leave.
    …
    For now, the Brisbane-based carrier plans to continue operating all scheduled flights, “which are helping to transport essential workers, maintain important freight corridors, and return Australians home,” the airline said in a filing posted on the Australian stock exchange.

    So, will it be liquidated, or will Aussie taxpayers bail it out?

    Vaughan Strawbridge, a partner at Deloitte in Australia who is serving as a voluntary administrator, said the company had started looking for new owners or investors to help recover the business.
    “The intent is to seek to sell the majority, if not all of the business, as one,” said Strawbridge.

    So far, more than 10 parties have already expressed an interest in taking a stake, and the company expects to have a better sense of its future over approximately the next two months, he added.

    Given how quickly the airline became insolvent after the groundings, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to invest in it.

  15. if they lose their job, they receive 100% of six months mortgage payments until they find a job,’ Ipour said. He said the company had been selling 40 houses a week before the pandemic and purchases had slowed to 10 or 12 a week. ‘Last week we had 25 sold.’”

    By the time they close and move in, They’ll be underwater and likely unemployed. But, they’ll pay 6 months of mortgage (PI) I would guess. (TI) and utilities are on the FB…. Idiots.

    Psychopaths, whatever it takes roast people up, they don’t want to go down alone.

  16. In mid-December 1944, Allied forces were surprised by a massive German offensive through the Ardennes Forrest that created a “bulge” in the Allied lines. Caught in what would become known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Armed Forces was holed up in Bastogne while German armored divisions encircled the town. Outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of food, ammunition, and medical supplies, the embattled assistant division commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, was sent a surrender ultimatum by the German commander. His one-word reply – “Nuts!” meant a battle for the town was inevitable, but reinforcements arrived and the Americans prevailed.

    Historians, however, are now calling this account revisionist history. What actually transpired is this: the German commander, who in the pre-war years had been a realtor, sent a real estate flier to Gen. McAuliffe listing local properties, with a handwritten note that said, “There’s never been a better time to buy a house in Bastogne.” McAuliffe, it is now known, replied, “Realtors are liars.”

    1. Nice :-). I didn’t earn the unit citation ribbon from that battle but I had to wear it for years.

  17. 20 years of boom wiped out in the oil market. What a world with $20 oil looks like may be hard to imagine, but we all lived it just two decades ago.

    Thinking that 99% of the real cost of producing anything is the cost of oil, I’m imagining what would things be like if the price of everything reverted to 1999.

    3. What I don’t see reported anywhere is China’s massive worldwide effort to buy up all the PPE they could and ship it back to China back at the beginning of the year, nor how they are restricting and commandeering supplies of newly manufactured PPE for themselves.

      Hopefully the huge lesson about offshoring critical item manufacturing and therefor losing control of it will be learned by our government… but I have strong doubts it will as I’m sure they’ll be bought and paid for once again to keep the status quo.

      1. What I don’t see reported anywhere is China’s massive worldwide effort to buy up all the PPE they could and ship it back to China back at the beginning of the year

        Peter Navarro has been doing it quite often on Fox Business and Fox News.

  19. Anyone who has ever seen the Jon Cusak movie “Better Off Dead” will recall the paperboy-from-hell and his “I want my two dollars!” as he pursued Jon’s character. Evidently that kid grew up to be a property manager.

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/884ypb/this-tenant-says-his-property-manager-stalked-his-coronavirus-stimulus-check-online-for-rent

    This Tenant Says His Property Manager Stalked His Coronavirus Stimulus Check Online for Rent

    Austin Goodrich received his coronavirus stimulus check last week. He also got an unsettling text from the property manager for his Forest Grove, Oregon, apartment building asking how he planned to spend it.

    Goodrich hadn’t told his property manager about the money. But the property manager — who Goodrich hasn’t named — explained that they’d used his Social Security number without permission to check a payment-tracking website set up by the Internal Revenue Service, ostensibly to see if Goodrich’s financial position had improved since he failed to make rent in April. Landlords often have information like a tenant’s Social Security number and their date of birth, since they run credit checks before a tenant can move in.

    “You got your stimulus just asking are you going to pay rent or part of rent with any. I am trying to close out the books for April,” the property manager wrote in a Wednesday text message to Goodrich, who screenshotted the exchange.

    “How do you know I got my check?” Goodrich responded.

    “Because I had to check several people today and checked yours also,” the property manager responded.

  21. “You got your $timulus ju$t a$king are you going to pay rent or part of rent with any.”

    “Naw, eye’m gonna delay as long po$$ible, accepting what.ever x6+ month$ delay$ thee.Federal.Re$erve & election.year politicians$ feel deeth.👾.xaoh $orry fer my plight$, then eye’m gonna rent a U-Haul & say: “$ee ya!”

  22. ‘USC and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Monday released preliminary results from a collaborative scientific study that suggests infections from the new coronavirus are far more widespread — and the fatality rate much lower — in L.A. County than previously thought.’

    ‘The results are from the first round of an ongoing study by USC researchers and county health officials. They will be conducting antibody testing over time on a series of representative samples of adults to determine the scope and spread of the pandemic across the county.’

    ‘Based on the results of the first round of testing, the research team estimates that approximately 4.1% of the county’s adult population has an antibody to the virus. Adjusting this estimate for the statistical margin of error implies about 2.8% to 5.6% of the county’s adult population has an antibody to the virus — which translates to approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have been infected. That estimate is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the county at the time of the study in early April. The number of COVID-related deaths in the county has now surpassed 600.’

    https://news.usc.edu/168987/antibody-testing-results-covid-19-infections-los-angeles-county/

    1. That’s still way too low. I’m hoping that when they test NY, they’ll find a third or more have had it, and most had a mild cold. Otherwise, we’re screwed.

      I also hope that someone is stratifying the samples into:

      1) Those “essential employees” who have been showing up to work in situations where they have to interact directly with strangers (police, grocery workers, etc).

      2) Those who share a household with essential workers.

      3) Those able to practice real social distancing, working at home or not at all, with everyone in the household.

      The rate of infection, serious illness and death for these three groups will let us know the consequences of everyone going back to work.

    2. ‘You can take off your mask’

      Infowars.com – APRIL 21, 2020

      A new study from the Los Angeles County Public Health suggests that approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults have already had COVID19.

      With just over 1,072 alleged confirmed deaths, this suggests that the actual morbidity rate for COVID19 is somewhere between 0.0048% and 0.0024%, far less deadly than projected.

      During the April 20th Coronavirus Task Force Press Briefing at the White House, there was a hot mic moment.

      Fox News’ John Roberts can be seen and heard discussing this new study openly with other members of the press.

      Shocked upon hearing these new coronavirus statistics, one voice can clearly be heard asking “so it was a hoax?”

  23. Checking in – haven’t had much time to spend online as my side-gig is coming to a close this month and needs wrapping up. Glad to see everyone keeping up the fight.

    Good friend of my wife was taken to the hospital just over a week ago. She was taken off life support and ventilation last night and passed before morning. Left behind a 4 and 6 year old.

    All the material s**t in the world doesn’t mean a thing sometimes.

    1. No words can do but:

      “Our wills and fates do so contrary run, That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.”

      – Shakespeare’s Hamlet A.3/S.2

      1. To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessing for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that is is the greatest of evil.
        The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.

        Socrates, “Apology”

        1. Socrates

          A victim of a over.zelous mob crowd in a $tadium.

          Eye’m goin’ nowhere’s near such an event.

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