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Sellers Want Yesterday’s Pricing

A report from the Wall Street Journal. “Some sellers say they are hanging tough because they believe their homes aren’t moving because buyers haven’t viewed them in person or are reluctant to make offers right now, not because the asking price is too high. They are waiting for stay-at-home orders to ease before deciding whether to lower the price. ‘People really aren’t leaving their homes’ to go house-hunting, said Sarah McMurdy, who listed her Bethesda, Md., house in late March and then opted to temporarily take it off the market in April due to the pandemic. ‘We’re not looking to fire-sale the house. We’re in no rush. We would rather wait this out.'”

“Still, some buyers are hoping for bargains. Haas El Farra and his wife were under contract to buy a house in Southern California in early March. As the coronavirus epidemic worsened, they worried they were buying at the top of the market and asked the seller to lower the price. When the seller refused, they pulled their bid and decided to keep looking for a better deal. ‘Hopefully something nicer than what we were looking at will come up at an affordable price,’ said Mr. El Farra, a portfolio manager.”

“A major uncertainty is whether mortgage-forbearance policies will prevent a wave of distressed sales. More than 7% of mortgages were in forbearance in the week ended April 30, according to mortgage-data company Black Knight Inc., and some homeowners can get forbearance for up to a year. But homeowners could struggle to make payments after the forbearance period ends.”

“‘In the next 12 months it’s hard to anticipate price declines because of the mortgage forbearance in place,’ said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. ‘You would have to see continuing job losses for a prolonged period leading to foreclosures, and even then we may not have oversupply.'”

The Powell Tribune in Wyoming. “John Parsons, co-owner of 307 Real Estate, said while the market is slower, it’s still a good time to sell a home. ‘Is it going to go on the market and sell in one day? Probably not,’ he said, but when the health crisis passes, a lot of people could be putting their homes on the market. ‘Doing it now, as opposed to waiting for things to be OK, you’re going to face a glut,’ Paul warned.”

The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report in Louisiana. “Like other sectors of the hospitality industry, the short-term rentals market has been decimated by the coronavirus crisis. ‘I’m empty into September,’ says Melissa Parmelee, who owns two short-term rental properties in Beauregard Town. Parmelee has decided to convert one of her short-term rentals to a long-term rental and will begin marketing it in June. ‘Converting it will give it stability, which is something I don’t have right now,’ says Parmelee. ‘This is my side hustle that is costing me money right now.'”

“Parmelee says it’s too soon to say what might happen, especially given that the market already has an oversupply of apartments—and more likely to come.”

The Colorado Real Estate Journal. “Over the past few years, workforce rentals became increasingly undersupplied, as vacancy was near 20-year lows ending 2019. Survey responses suggest that we’ll see a short-term decline in investor demand for assets; those responses also highlighted the long-term positive outlook for investing in multifamily properties once the crisis subsides. Craig Lessard, director of acquisitions at WoodSpear Properties, said that his firm remains interested in acquisitions but is struggling to appropriately price assets in the current environment.”

“‘Sellers want yesterday’s pricing, which reflects tight vacancy and 3% or 4% rent growth,’ he said. ‘In the short term, it looks like the vacancy will be slightly higher, and rent growth will be zero.'”

From ABC 10 in California. “The Governor has put a stop to evictions for now, and the courts won’t hear any eviction cases until 90 days after the state of emergency ends. But what happens after that? Sid Lakireddy, President of the California Rental Housing Association or CalRHA, is against the idea of canceling rents and mortgages. ‘This isn’t going to work. We still have to make payments and whatnot,’ said Lakireddy.”

The Observer on California. “It took more than two years and a major price cut, but Eva Longoria has finally found a buyer for her celeb-pedigreed Hollywood Hills compound. The actress has been attempting to sell the Los Angeles estate since November 2017, when she listed the home for a hefty $14 million. That would have given her a nice profit from the $11.4 million she paid. Alas, Longoria wasn’t able to find a buyer, and by June 2018, discounted the price to $11 million, which already meant she would be accepting a loss.”

“Unfortunately for Longoria, she had to lower her expectations even more, as the final sales price comes to just $8.25 million. That’s a serious loss from what Longoria paid for the home, without even factoring in the amount spent on transaction and brokerage fees. It’s also even less than the most recent $9.5 million asking price.”

From 8 News Now in Nevada. “The housing market has a cycle. A real estate expert told 8 News Now that southern Nevada was overdue for a slow down, and the pandemic just accelerated that. Vivek Sah, Director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV, says we need to look at the effects of COVID-19 in the short term and long term. In the short term, housing prices are going to dip. People selling to upgrade their home will need to adjust their expectations in terms of price, and how many offers they’ll get.”

“Sah told 8 News Now we’ll be moving from a sellers market to a buyers market. ‘They will not only be able to negotiate a decrease in price, but they were also able to get all the concessions such as seller-paid closing costs,’ Sah said. ‘Those days will be back.'”

From Bloomberg. “Amherst Holdings terminated its $2.3 billion deal to buy Front Yard Residential, sending shares of the single-family rental sliding the most in more than a year. Amherst, which agreed to acquire Front Yard in February, will pay a $25 million termination fee and purchase shares of Front Yard common stock at an aggregate price of $55 million, according to a statement on Monday.”

“Front Yard put itself on the block last year after settling with an activist investor. The landlord owned more than 15,000 homes, making it an attractive target in an industry where efficiencies of scale are key. The deal fell apart as the coronavirus outbreak roils real estate markets and increases the difficulty of doing diligence on an acquisition. ‘The unprecedented global health crisis has made the integration of the organizations too operationally complex and uncertain at this time,’ Amherst Chief Executive Officer Sean Dobson said.”

“Front Yard’s stock plunged as much as 23% to $8.33, the biggest intraday drop since March 2020. It had agreed to be acquired for $12.50 per share.”

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  2. ‘from the $11.4 million she paid…by June 2018, discounted the price to $11 million, which already meant she would be accepting a loss…Unfortunately for Longoria, she had to lower her expectations even more, as the final sales price comes to just $8.25 million’

    This was a 2015 purchase. By 2018 she was already taking a loss. How many UHS have admitted this market has been sinking like a turd in a well for over 2 years?

    1. Oh the horror Ben! It was still cheaper than renting! BTW, I’m rooting for you and all your loser renter readers here. But I’m sick and tired of eating turkey dinner every night as you are scaring away my clients. Stop looking for Bubble! There is no housing bubble. Lending standard was air tight. End of Story

        1. Why not a real estate-themed reality show simply titled, “Hollywood Haircuts”?

  3. ‘The landlord owned more than 15,000 homes…Front Yard’s stock plunged as much as 23% to $8.33, the biggest intraday drop since March 2020. It had agreed to be acquired for $12.50 per share’

    DONG!

  4. I’m going to have to speed up some posts today. I’ve got lot’s of CRE/SF crater and an international crater galore.

    1. I’m sure it’s not Irvine, as we have too much pent up demand here. Job market is strong, and wages are rising
      /s

      1. Plus you guys have busloads of wealthy all-cash Chinese investors snapping up real estate deals left and right!

  5. But do you need to rent at the luxury multi-family complexes that was built in the last 3 years.

    I clearly remember last year going to a restaurant near the old Stapleton airport. For miles on MLK there were a ton of new luxury rental apartment and townhouses. Same in Lowry

    cable and hvac installers, store managers, car salespeople … … if they get their jobs, they will probably get 10-35% less total compensation. Who is going to get the great rent prices

    —–
    “Despite the next hurdle investors face, multifamily remains a secure commercial real estate investment. Several factors support an optimistic viewpoint. The underlying trends that have supported apartments throughout this cycle continue to be in place and will sustain robust demand for rentals in the long term. One of the fundamental principles of driving multifamily housing is that people always will need a place to live. The global pandemic will not push prospective renters toward single-family house purchases as an alternative as the rent to home payment gap remains significant.

    1. I clearly remember last year going to a restaurant near the old Stapleton airport. For miles on MLK there were a ton of new luxury rental apartment and townhouses. Same in Lowry

      There just aren’t that many brogrammers in Denver. Who is supposed to rent all those luxury apartments?

  6. The following is going to make comps a little more difficult from new housing perspective.

    When we bought our condo in downtown Seattle in 2010 (after the big 2007-2009 price drops, we were negotiating with the builder’s agents.
    We wanted more of a discount – they would not do it officially. We got 18 months of HOA fees prepaid to our account and a 2nd parking spot.

    They would not officially reduce the selling price beyond what was all ready done (little less than 30% from the original 2007 wishlist prices). We were convinced that the workaround were for comp reasons or builder reasons. Our normally decent real estate agent refused to put forward a hypothesis.

    It didnt matter to us – since we were getting some additional value – but did seem less than upfront by the builder.
    —-
    ‘They will not only be able to negotiate a decrease in price, but they were also able to get all the concessions such as seller-paid closing costs,’ Sah said. ‘Those days will be back.’”

    1. So you decided to pay property taxes on HOA fees and parking spaces in addition to the dwelling? Interesting.

  7. He should call the place Bleeding Palms

    Los Angeles Angels Outfielder Justin Upton Purchases $4.7M Home in Newport Beach

    Angels outfielder Justin Upton has bought a new home in Newport Beach for $4,726,500. The All-Star closed on the luxe farmhouse-style home in March.

    Randy White
    Published 10:00 am EDT, Tuesday, May 5, 2020

    The five-bedroom home landed on the market last summer with a list price of $5,765,000. The price was reduced to $5,365,000 in December 2019, in hopes of enticing a buyer.

    The reduced price coaxed Upton to make a winning offer on the 5,604-square-foot residence.

  8. ‘In the next 12 months it’s hard to anticipate price declines because of the mortgage forbearance in place,’ said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

    But it’s easy to anticipate that an awful lot of those folks in forbearance aren’t going to be able to cover that balloon payment at the end of it.

    1. Even so, who will be lending their money to buy MBS or REITs? What kind of sucker do they take them for? So you get to live rent free or mortgage free while not paying for a year? What happen if investors were relying on that incomes? Yes, we’ll pay you back in lump sum in 12 months *wink* *wink*

      1. Yeah, people living on the edge definitely need to take this as their giant hint to bank what they can and prepare to move later. Unless you can pay the full tab every month, any dollar you give them from now on is wasted.

    2. Do we know the relative proportions of the mortgages in forbearance – i.e.

      1. Have to pay the balloon at the end of the forbearance
      — vs —
      2. Being able to attach the 3 or 4 months at the end of the mortgage

      #1 is going to be impossible for most middle and upper middle class folks to live with.

      #2 could really help

      #
      —
      “More than 7% of mortgages were in forbearance in the week ended April 30, according to mortgage-data company Black Knight Inc., and some homeowners can get forbearance for up to a year. But homeowners could struggle to make payments after the forbearance period ends.”

      1. Some kind of “kick the can further down the road” will be proposed and implemented when the balloons are set to collectively pop. We already know that when systematically important financial events are scheduled to play out, the Fed stands ready to help. You can count on them to anticipate this predictable financial catastrophe and defuse it before the implosion happens.

        1. The only thing you can count on the Fed to do is to further enrich its oligarch accomplices at the expense of everyone else.

      2. is going to be impossible for most middle and upper middle class folks to live with

        I suppose they could raid their 401Ks, assuming they have one. Wasn’t there something in the CARE bill to forgive the 10% early withdrawal penalty up to a 100K withdrawal?

        1. Wasn’t there something in the CARE bill to forgive the 10% early withdrawal penalty up to a 100K withdrawal?

          Yeah I forgot about that. Also important because a bunch of people have 401k loans and if they get laid off the next tax cycle is a nightmare when they have to treat the loan as a withdrawal due to no job.

        2. “I suppose they could raid their 401Ks, assuming they have one. Wasn’t there something in the CARE bill to forgive the 10% early withdrawal penalty up to a 100K withdrawal?”

          Yes, there is, and I like to think of it as the No Dollar Escapes Plan.

    3. Perhaps the hope is that some kind of equity cash out second (or third) mortgage will be available at that time.

  10. I saw on Drudge that the WSJ is saying housing is going up right now due to so few houses being listed. I don’t have a subscription so I don’t know where they are talking about. Seems like a very temporary thing if true at all.

    3. They used that line here in Missoula just yesterday. It is a halfway honest admission, instead of saying houses were selling like hotcakes.

    4. That Wall Street journal story came up free on my stock app. Prices going up must be regional. Because I don’t see this happening in my area. I see homes going up for sale Every day and many cutting prices – though modestly. And only a handful of sales the past month. With the stimulus checks still going out, but more companies announcing layoffs, it could take a few months before we really start to see the real pain. I recall during the last recession, stocks crashed early in the year in 2008. And everyone knew we were headed for job losses and a deep recession, but it took months before people really felt it. Probably the same here. I’m mean we’re seeing sudden job losses. But Money printing seems always be the magic solution to all our problems. But at some point it has to hit a wall.

      Here are copy and pastes from the wsj article. Sorry not all in order. I’m doing this on my phone.

      “Demand absolutely just got a kick in the gut, but at the same exact time, so did supply,” said Skylar Olsen, senior principal economist at Zillow Group Inc.
      Homes typically go under contract a month or two before the contract closes, so the March NAR data largely reflects purchase decisions made in February or January.
      Even by the end of last month, many sellers were reluctant to cut prices. Only about 4% of sellers cut their prices in the week ended April 25, down from 5.7% during the same week last year, according to Realtor.com. (News Corp, parent of The Wall Street Journal, operates Realtor.com.)
      Some sellers say they are hanging tough because they believe their homes aren’t moving because buyers haven’t viewed them in person or are reluctant to make offers right now, not because the asking price is too high. They are waiting for stay-at-home orders to ease before deciding whether to lower the price.
      “People really aren’t leaving their homes” to go house-hunting, said Sarah McMurdy, who listed her Bethesda, Md., house in late March and then opted to temporarily take it off the market in April due to the pandemic. “We’re not looking to fire-sale the house. We’re in no rush. We would rather wait this out.”
      Real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. said its measure of homebuying demand, which tracks buyer inquiries, was down 15% in the week ended April 26 compared with before the pandemic struck. Mortgage applications for home purchases around the same time were down 20% from a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
      Total listings of homes for sale, meanwhile, have hit a five-year low, while the median listing price was up 1% from last year at $308,000, Redfin said.
      The housing market has been undersupplied for years. During the pandemic it may get worse. There were 1.5 million units for sale at the end of March, NAR said, down 10.2% from a year earlier. Homeowners are waiting to list their houses, real-estate agents say, because they have decided not to move or they are worried about letting buyers into their homes during a pandemic.
      Still, some buyers are hoping for bargains. Haas El Farra and his wife were under contract to buy a house in Southern California in early March. As the coronavirus epidemic worsened, they worried they were buying at the top of the market and asked the seller to lower the price. When the seller refused, they pulled their bid and decided to keep looking for a better deal.
      “Hopefully something nicer than what we were looking at will come up at an affordable price,” said Mr. El Farra, a portfolio manager.
      Prices in the Midwest showed the strongest annual growth at 9.7% in March. In the Cincinnati area, homes are selling for higher than listing price, said Donna Deaton, vice president at Re/Max Victory in Liberty Township, Ohio. Large companies in the area are still hiring, she said.
      “For the most part, we’re still [competing against] multiple offers just about on every single thing,” she said.

      While many economists expect home sales to tumble this year, many forecasts call for prices to climb slightly or hold flat. Mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae said in April that it expects the median existing-home price to tick up to $275,000 this year from $272,000 last year. Capital Economics forecasts average home prices this year will fall 3% compared with last year. Zillow said Monday that home prices are likely to drop 2% to 3% from previous levels by the end of the year and recover in 2021.
      In a forecast released Tuesday, housing-data provider CoreLogic called for nationwide home prices to rise 0.5% between March 2020 and March 2021. CoreLogic forecast annual price declines in some cities including Houston, Miami and Las Vegas.

      A major uncertainty is whether mortgage-forbearance policies will prevent a wave of distressed sales. More than 7% of mortgages were in forbearance in the week ended April 30, according to mortgage-data company Black Knight Inc., and some homeowners can get forbearance for up to a year. But homeowners could struggle to make payments after the forbearance period ends.
      “In the next 12 months it’s hard to anticipate price declines because of the mortgage forbearance in place,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “You would have to see continuing job losses for a prolonged period leading to foreclosures, and even then we may not have oversupply.”

      1. That made me think about one Airbnb factor that hadn’t occurred to me. I do expect there to eventually be a LOT of houses foreclosed/on the market due to Airbnb crashing even if everything else is fairly stable. BUT, I hadn’t thought about how these people with a bunch of houses might take advantage of forbearance and keep renting them out for as long as possible without making any payments. IF enough people are willing to use Airbnb in the next year they might be able to avoid getting crushed by the steamroller with that tactic…build up some cash before the sheriff changes the locks.

        1. You can always count on people gaming the system. The cheapest and easiest way out of this entire mess would have been zero bailouts and just to allow the market and the laws we have in place to work. Instead, we have massive government and central bank overreach exacerbating the problems.

          I am of the opinion that the FED’s kitchen sink policy of hammering rates to zero and throwing trillions into the market will indeed have an effect, and postpone the inevitable. For how long remains to be seen. But they have put a floor under the stock market for the time being. I fully expect more financing shenanigans and loan programs to prop up housing. The FED and the politicians are “all in” on this everything bubble.

          1. and postpone the inevitable

            These postponements and injections will for sure make the consequences worser.

    5. It does seem like it is going hot in several markets between reduced supply and people jumping off the sidelines… however, I think it’s a final burning out before the market breaks. just 60 days ago, things were quite different – Italy had not yet gone into lockdown, much less the US. and 60 days is almost no time it terms of the RE pipeline.

      Lets check back in around July/August after the Virus extends its world tour… my bet is that we are still a couple months out from seeing the weirdness “hit the streets” in large amounts in the RE sector. But it will hit.

        2. 30-50 million job losses has to have an effect on demand. It just has to.

          Someone pointed out the other day the people who have lost their jobs are disproportionately in the group of people that weren’t in a position to attempt to buy a house anyway.

          This country has been ripping apart down the middle for the last 25 years, with a divide growing between those able to own a home as opposed to rent, especially on the coasts/HCOL areas.

          Demand is being weakened, no doubt about it, but for the moment, the group(s) the demand is coming from hasn’t been hit as hard as other groups. In addition, there seems to be a dead-cat-bounce of sorts with people jumping off the sidelines in some markets.

          As I said above, just give it time, and we should see a rube-goldbergesque chain of events unfold.

          Don’t get

          1. those able to own a home as opposed to rent

            You must mean those able and willing to borrow astronomical sums to allow them to pretend that they can afford to own a house. The modest renter is much wealthier than the debtor.

          2. The modest renter is much wealthier than the debtor.

            What’s the percentage who couldn’t pay May’s rent? 40%?

          3. 40%?

            I have no idea. Being broke is richer than being half a million in debt anyway.

  13. It looks like things are not as bad as I thought they’d be. I Guess the FEDs presses are BIG and operating 24/7.

    I ain’t no economist, but this thing is political, and will we see housing go down 20%? they already know these prices as NOT sustainable? Why insist on making it stay bubbly? Unless we decide to have to pay Not pay rent and mortgages for 1 year or two years and have uncle Sam….cough cough…( taxpayers) I don’t see how this bubble will continue.

    500K – 700K averages shacks in towns like Stockton, CA – Modesto, CA – Salinas, CA and the usual suspects that have been damaged by Silly Valley, are Stoopid and moronic.

      1. Yeah. Right before the bubble 1 peak ( 2005)? I think. At least you’re not paying crazy prices $400K + for that area.

        I visited Stockton last year. Ghetto.

  14. “Doing it now, as opposed to waiting for things to be OK, you’re going to face a glut,’ Paul warned.”

    First time I have heard a realtor actually use the g-word.

  15. Keep prices high long enough for the Boomers to sell to poorer Millennials. Thats’ the policy. Can they do it?

    The 1980s housing bubble in the Northeast and California took seven years to deflate. The 2000s housing bubble? Did it ever deflate?

  17. ‘We’re not looking to fire-sale the house. We’re in no rush. We would rather wait this out.’”

    Wait as long as you want, greedhead. I’m in no rush either, but unlike you, I know what’s about to happen.

  18. ‘Hopefully something nicer than what we were looking at will come up at an affordable price,’ said Mr. El Farra, a portfolio manager.”

    I’m glad this knife-catcher isn’t managing my portfolio.

  19. “A major uncertainty is whether mortgage-forbearance policies will prevent a wave of distressed sales.

    Let me clear up the uncertainty: in our oligarch-pillaged, COVID-ravaged, debt-drowning economy, a tidal wave of foreclosures are coming regardless of forbearance extend-and-pretend games.

  20. ‘I’m empty into September,’ says Melissa Parmelee, who owns two short-term rental properties in Beauregard Town.

    Melissa doesn’t own them – the bank does. Therein lies the problem.

  21. **Airbnb is good when Granny needs to rent a room to supplement income, or some single mother, or a struggling family… BUT

    I hate Airbnb when it comes those investor wannabees trying to create a bed and breakfast mini-empire… (these I hope they get burned)

    1. In hindsight it’s surprising that the big hotel chains didn’t lobby to get that unlicensed competition shut down. You would think they would have pull in Congress.

      2. “…it’s surprising that the big hotel chains didn’t lobby to get that unlicensed competition shut down…”

        Was thinking along same lines.

        Usually the answer is “follow the money”.

        Perhaps the Marriott’s, Hilton’s have stakes in Airbnb to use as hedge and/or are secretly developing their own “Hilton/Airbnb” technology so travelers could use same website to book rooms in a real hotel or a private granny shack and get the flow-thru discounts, points, etc. Kinda like the way major airlines will book flights on small carriers for you using their own reservation systems.

          1. The behind-the-scenes global wealth transfer/concentration mechanism continues unabated…

      2. I think we’re going to see the return of the boarding house run by a crack team of USMC reservists to keep order with the boarders.

  22. “Unfortunately for Longoria, she had to lower her expectations even more, as the final sales price comes to just $8.25 million. That’s a serious loss from what Longoria paid for the home, without even factoring in the amount spent on transaction and brokerage fees.

    Suck it, greedhead.

  23. Talked to friends of mine (a couple) over the weekend. They took a look at some of the “luxury” buildings along Wilshire Blvd in the Miracle Mile area on Saturday. Offers like price drops of up to $1000 off what they used to be, 6 weeks free plus the ability to get out of your lease for a year if you lose your job due to COVID.

    They’re holding out to see if they can get even better deals. They also hear a lot of the neighbors in their current building are not paying rent.

    Just a couple months ago they went to try to negotiate with landlord for a reduction. Bet he’s upset he didn’t take it now.

    In my building in West Hollywood, the management is trying to entice tenants to pay by entering us in a drawing every month. Last month, everyone who paid their rent in full on time was entered to win a $150 gift card. This month there are 2 first prizes of $300 gift cards and a second prize of a $150.

    1. Are these offers in person or advertised? Because the advertised rent prices I am seeing everywhere are still pie-in-the-sky. Sure, there will be a token “first month free” or whatever, but that scam has been going for 2 years now.

    2. “…“luxury” buildings along Wilshire Blvd in the Miracle Mile area on Saturday….”

      One of the scariest places in LA.

      Personally, you couldn’t pay me to live there. Wilshire/Miracle Mile is got to be some of the densest in all of California (Maybe downtown S/F is an exception).

      When the ‘big one’ hits, (which it will), you do not want to be within a radius of 10 miles of Wilshire. It’s going to be a nightmare, that no Hollywood disaster movie could do justice to.

    3. is this a sick joke?? So, yeah pay the 2.5K-3K monthly rent and “maybe’ you win 150 bucks. This is Lala land. When your’re struggling with no Job, a stooopid giftcard won’t make it better.

    4. “They also hear a lot of the neighbors in their current building are not paying rent.”

      I’m seeing the same thing here. That’s even after rents have been slash 20%-30% before CoronaScam. This is in Fairfax, VA.

    5. You mean the buildings like the one in this story?
      https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/firefighters-battle-flames-at-high-rise-building-in-west-la/2300502/

      Many of these 50s/60 “skyrise tinderboxes” haven’t been retrofitted with fire suppression systems. It’s horribly expensive to do in these steel-frame, concrete-slab buildings. They were built to be “fireproof” but someone always seems to build a bigger fire.

      That section of Wilshire reminds me of Chicago’s “Gold Coast”, with plenty of Van der Rohe-style buildings crowding LSD. At least Chicago has had some pretty strong fire codes in place for a looong time. It’s good to be a FPSE in Chicago, or a pipefitter. Or almost any technical building trade…

    6. Interesting, thanks for the update. I need to reach out to some people in my old weho building. I wonder how many are paying their HOA fees? Half the board was realtors, wonder how they’re doing right now. How will building employees be paid with no condo fees? Brings many worrying questions.

  25. A goat and a fruit test positive?! 🤔

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tanzania/tanzania-suspends-laboratory-head-after-president-questions-coronavirus-tests-idUSKBN22G295

    “Tanzania has suspended the head of its national health laboratory in charge of testing for the coronavirus and ordered an investigation, a day after President John Magufuli questioned the tests’ accuracy.”

    “Magufuli said on Sunday the imported test kits were faulty as they had returned positive results on a goat and a pawpaw — among several non-human samples submitted for testing, with technicians left deliberately unaware of their origins.”

  26. “rent growth will be zero”

    No increase on my lease renewal for June 1st.

    1. Tell them your feet are itchy because you’re getting bombarded with cheaper offers from nicer properties. Make ’em sweat.

    2. it should go down at a minimum of 5%. just saying they raise it like clock work.

    1. An unfair jab IMHO. China has been majorly funding their space program for a couple decades now, and does more launches a year than we do, counting SpaceX. They very much intend to knock everyone else out of the sky at some point.

      1. Exclusive: Tesla to take new $1.4 billion loan from Chinese banks for Shanghai factory – sources

        U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and a group of China banks have agreed a new 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), five-year loan facility for the automaker’s Shanghai car plant, three sources familiar with the matter said, part of which will be used to roll over an existing loan.

        China Construction Bank (0939.HK) (601939.SS) (CCB), Agricultural Bank of China (1288.HK) (601288.SS) (AgBank), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SS) (1398.HK) (ICBC) and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (600000.SS) (SPDB) are among the banks which have agreed to give Tesla the financial support, one source with direct knowledge said.

        The Chinese banks earlier this year already offered Tesla a 12-month facility of up to 3.5 billion yuan, which is due to be repaid on March 4, 2020, according to a filing the automaker made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

        That new loan will be partially used to roll over the previous 3.5 billion yuan debt, according to the first source. The second source said the rest will be used on the factory and Tesla’s China operations.

        The new loan’s interest rate will be pegged at 90% of China’s one-year benchmark interest rate, the same as the 3.5 billion yuan loan, the first source said. This is a rate that China banks offer to their best clients.

        Tesla, CCB, AgBank, ICBC and SPDB did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

        https://twitter.com/JCOviedo6/status/1184884637648199680:

        Let’s be perfectly clear. A near broke American with a securities clearance and access to important U.S. defense secrets regarding rocket technology has received ~$1 billion in subsidies from the Chinese government in the past year alone. This should be a gigantic scandal!

        https://twitter.com/evdefender/status/1184931730819633152:

        This is what a national security crisis looks like. But it isn’t like we haven’t thought about it. There are in fact laws in place.

        There are also laws in place governing security clearances, yet
        @JimBridenstine feels that @elonmusk should be paid for violating his Exploding head

        https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1196687245983399936:

        The China space industry is very impressive.

        https://twitter.com/evdefender/status/1196755268132048897:

        Super rare to see a national security crisis of these dimensions formulating in real time.

        What was @JimBridenstine’s response?: To pay @elonmusk $5 million for smoking weed.

        1. Is there any proof that there is any SpaceX tech in the ChiComs rockets? Do their boosters turn around, land and get reused?

  29. Fact check: Hospitals get paid more if patients listed as COVID-19, on ventilators

    Michelle Roger
    sUSA TODAY Network

    Jensen said, “Hospital administrators might well want to see COVID-19 attached to a discharge summary or a death certificate. Why? Because if it’s a straightforward, garden-variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for – if they’re Medicare – typically, the diagnosis-related group lump sum payment would be $5,000. But if it’s COVID-19 pneumonia, then it’s $13,000, and if that COVID-19 pneumonia patient ends up on a ventilator, it goes up to $39,000.”

    Our ruling: True
    We rate the claim that hospitals get paid more if patients are listed as COVID-19 and on ventilators as TRUE.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/04/24/fact-check-medicare-hospitals-paid-more-covid-19-patients-coronavirus/3000638001/

    1. Hospitalizations are way down all over the country. I suspect that by the end of the month this will be almost over.

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