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A Lot Of Folks Put Their Life Savings Into Their Property, Is It A Gamble? Sure

A report from the American Statesman in Texas. “Last month, Central Texas housing market expert Charles Heimsath anticipated that sales could plummet by 30% over the next three months, in what typically are among the busiest months for residential real estate. ‘It is just too difficult to show property, obtain appraisals, make repairs and find an interested lender, particularly at the higher end of the market,’ Heimsath said in April.”

“Recent figures indicate his forecast was on the mark. Some real estate agents said they expect the report to show what they already know: that the virus brought an abrupt and merciless halt to Central Texas’ 10-year housing streak, one marked by ever-higher records in home sales and median home-sales prices. The luxury market has slowed, they said, while some potential buyers planning to move to Austin from elsewhere have pushed back their timelines, putting travel on hold for now.”

From Forbes. “The crush of business loss resulting from the pandemic is a difficult reality for an industry. The drop in usage and revenue is devastating. And then there is short-term rental market and its face to millions: Airbnb. ‘Our bookings in March all cancelled,’ said Shauna Mahoney, a co-owner with her husband Chris of two properties. One is a family cabin, fully paid for, near Zion National Park in Utah. The other, a house near the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area in Arizona, where Chris works for the National Park Service. They bought the latter property last August and then remodeled it as a family vacation spot that could more than pay for itself—until a pandemic stopped the business this year.”

“‘COVID-19 put a pause on travel,’ said Karen Xie, and associate professor of service analytics at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. She said that Airbnb saw cancellations of 85% of existing bookings. ‘Hosts on Airbnb are hit hard, especially those professional hosts who operate multiple Airbnb properties using leverage,’ according to Xie. ‘They are struggling to pay back mortgages to banks due to the halt of cash flow.'”

“Heather Bise, a long-time real estate professional, has a house in Cleveland where she had been renting out over Airbnb as a five-bedroom bed and breakfast. Her lease was $1,700 and she could see as much as $6,000 in monthly revenue. ‘Then Corona slowly started to infect my bookings in February, rapidly spreading throughout April,’ Bise said. ‘My business had been shattered, to say the least. I kept telling myself, ‘I survived the recession in NYC as a broker. I survived Hurricane Sandy in Jersey. If anyone can comeback from COVID-19, I know it can.’ And yet bringing in new business was a challenge.'”

“Price promotions might seem a potential solution, but they come with difficulties. The Mahoneys ‘slashed’ their rates from $259 to $129 a night. ‘We had three new bookings when we dropped our prices,’ Shauna Mahoney. Their business has moved to nearby ‘bargain hunters’ who are sometimes never satisfied rather than previous clientele who would come from all over the world. ‘We had someone who wanted to book and said can you come down on the price at all?’ she said.”

From KOLO TV in Nevada. “The housing crisis in the Reno-Sparks area is far from over, but because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, supply is now catching up with the high demand. ‘COVID was kind of a blessing for the market, you know giving it some time, you know letting inventory catch up to demand,’ Local Realtor Kayla Dalton said. Dalton explained that the sudden halt in demand is closing the gap in housing inventory. There are now at least 850 homes on the market, compared to 600 in March.”

“Dalton also added that because many buyers have put their search on hold, it’s now less competitive to get the home you want at a better price. ‘Before, buyers couldn’t really negotiate deals and they were just having to put their full price offer in and hope that nobody else was going to beat them so now is definitely a better time for them to negotiate a deal,’ she said.”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “A 7,630-square-foot unit at 7021 Fisher Island Drive on exclusive Fisher Island just sold for $12.2 million to an Ohio buyer looking for a vacation home, said listing agent Cyril Matz of Douglas Elliman. The buyer paid another $800,000 on the furnishings, bringing the total sale to $13 million. The condo sold at a 12% discount, down from $13.86 million after 92 days on the market. The selling price was $1,598.95 per square foot. Another Palazzo del Sol unit was sold by the developer in August 2019 for $2,200 per square foot. While sales do continue, Matz — like other agents — has seen a slowdown in South Florida’s luxury condo market due to over-supply.”

“Cindy Stumpo, founder of the Newton-based custom home builder firm C. Stumpo Development, said she predicts the decrease in local condo luxury sales to continue. ‘Condos are going to be hit hard, because there’s just so many of them,’ she said.”

The Real Deal on California. “Luxury home sale prices ticked up last week in Los Angeles. Two new-construction homes topped the current list; the three others are at least 20 years old. 1672 Clear View Drive | Beverly Hills | $10.4M: The market for new construction white-box moderns has been somewhat weak over the last couple of years, but the price tag on this five-bedroom, eight-bathroom property suggests there are still buyers. But those buyers aren’t willing to bite at the first price. The 8,800-square-foot property first hit the market in December, asking $15 million before that was dropped to $11 million in late March, which came out to $1,188 per square foot.”

The Orange County Register in California. “You know there’s trouble in the tourism business when nobody seems to want to own a luxury hotel. The Chinese government is trying to unload 15 U.S. luxury resorts – including six in California – after seizing a failed insurance company two years ago. Korean real estate investors last September were willing to pay $5.8 billion for the resort collection that includes Montage Laguna Beach, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, Loews Santa Monica, Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto and Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.”

“The deal was supposed to close mid-April as bizarre questions swirled about ownership technicalities of some of those resorts. Then Mirae Asset Global Investments, the proposed buyers, last week said they were walking away from the deal, claiming the sellers didn’t execute as promised.”

“The world’s hotel industry has been slammed by travel fears and business restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. And by one metric, Green Street Advisors commercial real estate indexes, hotel values are down 16% in three months.”

“But the seller insists a deal is a deal and went to federal court in Delaware to force the Koreans to buy. And Friday, according to Law360, a judge ruled the seller’s case is good enough that there should be a trial starting in August. I’m guessing the settlement chatter has begun in a squabble over an investment — luxury hotels — that is decidedly not for the risk-averse.”

“Not wanting luxury resorts is suddenly chic in 2020. The 15-hotel deal now in front of a Delaware judge ‘is just one of many deals that buyers have walked away from,’ says hotel analyst Alan Reay at Atlas Hospitality. The legal battle is now over the buyer’s huge deposit, reportedly in the $500 million ballpark, Reay says. Can the one-time suitor walk away from these resorts without losing that kind of money?”

From Spectrum News on California. “Tom Bannon, CEO of the California Apartment Association, estimated that more than 85% of renters in California would not be able to pay their rents in May. ‘There’s about six million rental units in the State of California. Approximately three million of those rental units are in buildings that are between one and five units, and clearly those particular landlords — we sort of call them mom and pops, which are really independent rental owners — are probably more impacted than anybody,’ he said.”

“If two residents in a four unit building cannot pay rent, that means 50% of the landlord’s monthly revenue is gone. That makes paying the mortgage, insurance, and other expenses difficult. Some landlords bought their properties as investments.”

“‘A number of your smaller independent rental owners, a lot of folks basically put their life savings into their property, and it is their retirement. Is it a gamble? Sure,’ Bannon said. ‘But the reality is, housing is an important component of our society, and if in fact it’s that important, we are hopeful that the state government will step in and do something about it and provide some sort of housing vouchers so that everybody wins, both the residents and landlords.'”

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This Post Has 100 Comments

  1. ‘Luxury home sale prices ticked up last week in Los Angeles’

    I don’t think any in this article went up

    1. Pshaw, Ben Jones. Real Journalists wouldn’t make such a claim if it wasn’t true.

  2. Wall Street hasn’t run out of gloomsters just yet who missed the memo on how Unlimited Quarantinive Easing would endlessly buoy the stock market from here on out.

      1. To be pedantic, the coronavirus cases are cumulative, and are never going to fall. But they are correct that *new* cases will rise when the economy is opened. Darnit, we really need universal masking and HCQ.

        (Gonna be fun when those double-blind HCQ studies are completed. If the results are good, will the shill media even report it?)

    2. Coronavirus update: U.S. death toll tops 80,000

      Key Words
      ‘First bonds, then stocks’ — Fund manager warns investors could get hit with two crashes by end of the year
      Published: May 12, 2020 at 10:35 a.m. ET
      By Shawn Langlois
      Can “Papa Powell” keep the stock market afloat? Getty

      This feels like a home construction project. It’s going to cost more money and take longer than any estimates.
      — Michael Gayed

      On Feb. 27, Michael Gayed called for a double-digit drop on the S&P 500. He followed that timely prediction in March with a forecast for a melt-up in stocks at the end of the month. He backed up that outlook in an interview with Bloomberg radio.

      Clearly, he’s had his finger on the pulse of this volatile market since the coronavirus began spreading in the United States — just look at the 34% rally in his ATAC Rotation Fund (ATACX, -1.34%) for proof that his methods, in this climate at least, are paying off nicely.

      If he’s got it right again, the pain is far from over for investors.

      “Risk-off is about to return in two waves — first bonds, then stocks. Two crashes,” Gayed, who also publishes the Lead-Lag Report, told MarketWatch over the weekend.

      He explained that he sees a “significant risk” that the yield curve steepens in a way that will shock markets and trigger a crash in Treasurys.

      “Reflation bets are increasing everywhere, and oil printing a negative price in the face of that suggests there is a very real feeling that global central banks and governments will stop at nothing to counter the deflationary forces of staying at home,” Gayed said. “Factually, inflation expectations have been rising alongside food prices due to supply-chain issues. Combined with unlimited QE, which in the past has caused yields to rise, it looks like bonds collapse first before stocks.”

      He also touched on a theme that has many investors, especially the mom-and-pop types, scratching their heads. How can stocks continue to rally against what’s shaping up to be a depression in the economy? “The greatest disconnect in history,” as Gayed describes it.
      …

      1. He explained that he sees a “significant risk” that the yield curve steepens in a way that will shock markets and trigger a crash in Treasurys.

        The yield curve can’t steepen because the Fed is buying both ends of it. The bond vigilantes used to be the ones who signaled trouble under the hood of the financial system. Now true price discovery mechanisms have all been manipulated by the Fed.

        1. So can we rest assured that any and all potential future trouble is henceforth contained?

          1. Sure. Even when you can no longer buy food with dollars, the “trouble” will still be contained.

          2. Be nice and generous with your friends in the coming months, in case barter becomes necessary to obtain food.

      2. The S&P 500 and long-term Treaury bonds are in a huge bubble still. If you look at long-term Treasuries, you will see that their average price is around 130. Intermediate Treauries are also high but not nearly as bad as long-term treasuries. Commodity prices are the only thing that is in the tubes. Most of S&P 500 price movement has been from the technology sector which has pulled up the index significantly.

        US Real Estate still needs to correct more but international developed market real estate has gone through a huge correction. US Real Estate needs some more correcting before prices return to normal.

    3. Precious metals are surging as retail investors are belatedly realizing the Keynesian fraudsters at the Fed are going to debase the currency into worthlessness with their deranged money-printing.

      1. I’m counting on news of a treatment, or vaccine, or heck, even the sunlight, to pause this virus by late summer. Watch the market shoot up for a little bit. That’s the time to sell stawx and get physical.

        1. Is there any scientific basis for your hope, or is it a matter of wishful thinking, kind of like how I am sitting here in my homemade coronamask hoping to not catch COVID-19 while waiting to get tested.

        2. news of a treatment

          We already have vitamins C & D, zinc, HCQ and azithromycin. What more do you want or think we need?

          1. You notice that the only solution as far as the CDC is concerned is long term lock down until a vaccine is created.

            What arrogance to think you can lock down the USA when they just should of targeted the part of the population that was at risk for death from the virus.

            A vaccine is a form of artificial herd immunity. If you don’t have a vaccine,
            than go for actual herd immunity the good old fashion way. This is especially true when the virus isn’t a big killer for the bulk of the population.

            The CDC isn’t going to talk about shoring up your immune system to prevent getting a life threating reaction to the disease.
            Sure, washing hands, social distancing and masks might cut down a certain percentage of infections. But, a airborne flu that has gone World wide is not containable. We can thank China for that. But, it’s not this big killer for most segments of the population. Actually we are lucky that C19 isn’t like the Black Plauge, the 1918 flu, or even the Ebola.
            Nobody wants to get this virus but fear has taken over. I’m older so they put me in the high risk slot just because of age.

            I’m at the point now where I’m thinking bring on this snarly virus so I can develope a immunity to it.

  3. ‘Hosts on Airbnb are hit hard, especially those professional hosts who operate multiple Airbnb properties using leverage…They are struggling to pay back mortgages to banks due to the halt of cash flow’

    I haven’t seen anyone in the media ask why on Earth were these people getting government backed loans.

    1. Yup – this is gonna end well…….

      Ben – I commented on yesterday’s article and meant to post here – this from Marketwatch this morning.

      A quote from the article……. ‘It used to be that working class folks could reasonably aspire to buy a house. And now I think buying a house has really become a privilege.’
      — Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin

      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/vacation-real-estate-markets-are-toast-because-of-the-pandemic-as-airbnb-owners-rush-to-offload-their-homes-redfin-ceo-says-2020-05-11?mod=home-page

  4. “If two residents in a four unit building cannot pay rent, that means 50% of the landlord’s monthly revenue is gone. That makes paying the mortgage, insurance, and other expenses difficult. Some landlords bought their properties as investments.”“If two residents in a four unit building cannot pay rent, that means 50% of the landlord’s monthly revenue is gone. That makes paying the mortgage, insurance, and other expenses difficult. Some landlords bought their properties as investments.”

    I paid my rent and bills. Slept good. I wish I stilll had the phishical gold but too late.

    1. Some landlords bought their properties as investments.

      That’s fine. But now I think I see why they thought everyone who wasn’t doing what they were doing was stupid or lazy. They honestly thought it was zero risk. Just do the admin work, get rich.

      1. Just do the admin work, get rich.

        The narrative is that an honest day’s work is for chumps.

    2. I recall all those landlords in 2013 lecturing us about the free market when rents were rising and jacking up the rents sky high and forcing out long-term good tenants.

      Well now you’re getting lectured about the rental market. I have no sympathy for any landlord. They are rent-seekers and pay the price when investments turn against them.

      As Ben Jones said: “You enjoyed the boom, now enjoy the bust.”

  5. ‘Dalton explained that the sudden halt in demand is closing the gap in housing inventory. There are now at least 850 homes on the market, compared to 600 in March’

    So where did 250 extra shacks come from?

    2. So where did 250 extra shacks come from?

      They rose spontaneously out of the ground. Happens all the time.

    1. My $1200 went to fill the freezer and buy a new bed…. yeah they limit you to 2 packages chicken beef pork. so you buy 2 then come back in and go to the self checkout lane, then come back again and use a different phone number to get the on sale price. Then do it again tomorrow.

    2. Heh, for I second I thought that you had bought onions as a treatment for COVID. (hot onion poultices were an early treatment for pneumonia.)

      1. I would’ve thought kimchee would kill that virus deader than dead, but evidently not, judging by the outbreak in Korea.

        1. Food only helps with stomach issues. This puppy goes through your nose, hits the lungs and then hitches a ride on the bloodstream. Kimchi never sees it. Stick with Vitamin C.

  9. “A Lot Of Folks Put Their Life Savings Into Their Property, Is It A Gamble? Sure”

    We saw how well this gamble paid off for real estate speculators when, following the 2007-2009 financial crisis, the Fed came in with QE3 specifically targeted at levitating housing prices.

    Certainly the Fed can be counted on to repeat this precedent in the wake of the coronacrisis?

    1. They will be buying houses outright…not just indirectly via primary dealers.
      Probably give them away to illegal aliens.

  10. But the reality is, housing is an important component of our society, and if in fact it’s that important, we are hopeful that the state government will step in and do something about it and provide some sort of housing vouchers so that everybody wins, both the residents and landlords.’”

    Go and F*** yourself Tom. Housing is expensive and enslaving in California and the US in general. When working people are paying 50%-60% of their take-home money on rent while living with friends and relatives to make it work you just think is business as usual and biz is good. you modamofo greedy head.

    how about the government gives investors a low interest rate and bans rent increases for the next 20 years on those people that took the loans????

    1. “…Tom Bannon, CEO of the California Apartment Association…

      “..we are hopeful that the state government will step in and do something about it and provide some sort of housing vouchers so that everybody wins..”

      So Tom Bannon, be straight with us.

      Did you get past 3rd grade arithmetic?

      How does “everybody” win and who pays for your Super Duper Section 8 for the middle class vouchers?

      1. When asked “Who should we screw over?” the answer is always “Not Me! Somebody else, please.”

      2. How does “everybody” win

        Everybody who matters. Surely, this should be more than obvious by now.

      3. They’re all shameless to beg for aid from taxpayers. But when the money is rolling in they’re all genius investors. bunch of sleazy disgusting people… ok Tom don’t get hit by a bus. It’d be hard not to hear from you again… yeah

    2. how about the government gives investors a low interest rate and bans rent increases for the next 20 years on those people that took the loans????

      You better write in Pelosi for President, she may go for that?

  11. With UQE, worser news for the real economy is good news for investors in risk assets, due to the prospect of even bigger bailouts ahead than previously anticipated.

    1. The Financial Times
      Global Economy
      Global economic outlook still worsening, says IMF
      Georgieva warns prospects are ‘worse than our already pessimistic projection’
      IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva had a message for the fund’s members: ‘Please, spend as much as you can and then a little bit more’
      © Getty Images
      Jonathan Wheatley in London an hour ago

      The global economic outlook has darkened further since the IMF forecast last month that it would suffer the worst blow since the 1930s as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to its managing director Kristalina Georgieva.

      The fund will next month publish downward revisions to its global economic forecasts, reflecting the fact that the virus had spread further and the economic impact had intensified in recent weeks, Ms Georgieva said on Tuesday.

      In mid-April the IMF forecast a contraction of 3 per cent in global output, with emerging and developing economies contracting 1 per cent and advanced economies 6.1 per cent over the course of this year.

      Speaking in an interview during the FT’s Global Boardroom online conference on Tuesday, she said: “With the crisis still spreading, the outlook is worse than our already pessimistic projection. Without medical solutions on a global scale, for many economies a more adverse development is likely.”

      Ms Georgieva said the IMF’s previous forecast that emerging and developing countries would need $2.5tn of financial assistance to see them through the crisis would also be revised upwards.

      “It is very important to concentrate on understanding clearly what protection measures we can offer to [emerging and developing] countries, so that a liquidity problem does not become a solvency problem,” she said.
      …

    2. More bullish news for stocks: As investors become more pessimistic, the market has a taller wall of worry to climb, which allows prices more room to go up. Bad news on the real economy just adds fuel to the stock market fire.

        1. “Most sentiment gauges are pessimistic, which is bullish for stock prices — to a point”

          “I abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” – George W. Bush, on CNN, December 16, 2008

          ‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” as reported by Peter Arnett, Tet Offensive, 1968

          – Bad news is good news and vice versa. Oh, the insanity!

          – We’re having a “relief” rally. This can continue for a while, but in spite of the Fed’s herculean efforts, at some point earnings will matter.

          “WAR IS PEACE
          FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
          IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”           – George Orwell, 1984 – Ingsoc party slogan, Part 1, Chapter 1.

          – The Fed and gov’t. have chosen equity price indices (no longer markets) to be the primary metric for the health of the U.S. economy for MSM reporting purposes (aka propaganda). We all know they’re completely disconnected at this point, but there will be a re-coupling soon. Recall that the stock bubbles of ’00 and ’08-’09 crashed spectacularly; the Fed didn’t stop it. Is it different this time? I doubt it. The Fed and current admin. own this. Humpty Dumpty.

          “What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest

          1. Recall that the stock bubbles of ’00 and ’08-’09 crashed spectacularly; the Fed didn’t stop it.

            The stock bubble of ’00 did crash spectacularly. The stock bubble of 08-09 was in the process of crashing spectacularly and the Fed did step in before it could complete the process. Now the Fed doesn’t even want to let the process really get going…because they know what will happen if they lose control of what they were never supposed to control in the first place.

          2. Fair is foul and foul is fair.
            Hover through the fog and filthy air.

            — Hecate, Shakespeare’s Macbeth

          4. – Losses > -50%. I would say that they stepped in (it)… 🙂

            Sure, that was a loss. Just imagine where it wanted to go if there had been no interference. It would have been bad. But we would be much better off now.

  12. “‘A number of your smaller independent rental owners, a lot of folks basically put their life savings into their property, and it is their retirement. Is it a gamble? Sure,’ Bannon said. ‘But the reality is, housing is an important component of our society, and if in fact it’s that important, we are hopeful that the state government will step in and do something about it and provide some sort of housing vouchers so that everybody wins, both the residents and landlords.’”

    So taking taxpayers money (now and future generations) to bailout idiot speculators who gamble and should lose is a win-win for everyone? Like someone said, Go FU*K yourself

      1. I just use the running water at my house. Once I tried putting some of my city tap water in bottles in the kitchen. A week later the stored water had turned green & smelled like sewage.

        1. Once I tried putting some of my city tap water in bottles in the kitchen. A week later the stored water had turned green & smelled like sewage.

          Add a few drops of chlorine bleach?

          2. That and store water in the dark. Storing it in the dark yielded cloudy water that smelled like sewage. If I bought reverse osmosis purified water, I could keep it in the sun for months, it stayed fresh, looked & tasted good.

          3. Sounds like quite an unfortunate water supply.

            I’m thinking about putting an RO unit on my boat.

    2. We used to buy bottled water until I bought a reverse osmosis system online, and installed it myself one afternoon; should have done that years earlier.

  16. Hosts on Airbnb are hit hard, especially those professional hosts who operate multiple Airbnb properties using leverage,’ according to Xie.

    Die, speculator scum. I can’t wait to see your debt-encumbered real estate empires crash and burn.

    1. This is what happens when you use a lever to magnify the force applied… and it smashes into your head.

  17. Nobody is in a panic, they have to see mansions deserted, German cars at Honda pricing, Botox out of favor, folks in every big city in line for a cup of Campbell Soup in 90 degree temps?

    All you see is they are back in the bars, parks and beaches, to most this is about the poor, minorities, and old people in rest homes?

    1. Give it two weeks. Case count is going to go way up. I wonder how many will be mild cases and how many will be in the hospital.

      2. “Give it two weeks.”

        We are waiting on the status of college classes next Fall. If they open the classrooms our two will NOT be attending; it’s online or nothing for our family. If the campuses stay closed the student rental housing industry will likely collapse.

  18. ‘COVID was kind of a blessing for the market, you know giving it some time, you know letting inventory catch up to demand,’ Local Realtor Kayla Dalton said.

    Kayla, needless to say, is lying. COVID was the pin that popped the Fed’s Everything Bubble.

  19. ‘Before, buyers couldn’t really negotiate deals and they were just having to put their full price offer in and hope that nobody else was going to beat them…

    Genius strategy, bagholders.

  20. ‘Condos are going to be hit hard, because there’s just so many of them,’ she said.”

    No, Cindy. They’re going to be hit hard because they’re way overpriced and debt donkeys in our oligarch-looted, COVID-ravaged economy can’t afford them. That is, until they go under the auctioneer’s hammer and emerge with a much lower cost basis.

  21. The legal battle is now over the buyer’s huge deposit, reportedly in the $500 million ballpark, Reay says. Can the one-time suitor walk away from these resorts without losing that kind of money?”

    It was only Yellen Bux.

  22. “Tom Bannon, CEO of the California Apartment Association, estimated that more than 85% of renters in California would not be able to pay their rents in May.

    Would not be able to pay their rents, or like Democrats in good standing, took the opportunity to be a deadbeat and parasite at someone else’s expense?

    1. Sounds about right.

      I renewed my lease for another year. When I got home today the floor of the elevator was wet from being freshly cleaned and disinfected. The long-term tenants are all on the top floor. Everybody’s cars leave every day for work, and are presumably still paying the rent on time.

  23. “If two residents in a four unit building cannot pay rent, that means 50% of the landlord’s monthly revenue is gone. That makes paying the mortgage, insurance, and other expenses difficult. Some landlords bought their properties as investments.”

    This reads like it was written for a 7-year-old.

    1. “This reads like it was written for a 7-year-old.”

      The concrete operational stage of cognitive development.

  24. ‘But the reality is, housing is an important component of our society, and if in fact it’s that important, we are hopeful that the state government will step in and do something about it and provide some sort of housing vouchers so that everybody wins, both the residents and landlords.’”

    Greedy landlords who overpaid, then gouged their tenants who needed a place to live have zero right to ask “the state” – meaning taxpayers – to bail them out. But this is Democrat-ruled California, so landlords will get their bailout as soon as the requisite checks are made out to the DNC and state party hacks.

    1. But this is Democrat-ruled California, so landlords will get their bailout as soon as the requisite checks are made out to the DNC and state party hacks.

      Does the state of Cal have pockets that deep?

      1. Don’t be silly. The CA state government wears yoga pants. They rely on our pockets to hold their phone and credit cards.

      2. “Yet, according to prominent Democrats in Congress, instead of smartly reopening the economy, we should double-down on Keynesian economics and just print more money than ever. In other words, Americans ought to stay home and get “paid” by the U.S. government.”

        https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/497244-universal-basic-income-and-the-end-of-the-republic

        To clear up any confusion about my support for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Colorado primary, this was political sabotage. I wanted to drag the primary race all the way to the convention, to shoot arrows in the back of any emerging front-runner, and ultimately, to splinter and divide the party going into their convention.

        Coronavirus and the coronation of hair-sniffer and child-groper and coochie-toucher Joe Biden evaporated all of that, as did Sanders’ collapse and unsurprising half-@ssed endorsement of the basement dwelling sexual predator.

        This country doesn’t have a future. Plan accordingly…

        1. Even the Cura Annonae at its peak only gave free bread to Rome’s poor. But it became so entrenched that it remained until the empire fell

          1. Wikipedia: A regular and predictable supply of grain and the grain dole were part of the Roman leadership’s strategy of maintaining tranquility among a restive urban population by providing them with what the poet Juvenal sarcastically called “bread and circuses.” In 22 AD, the emperor Tiberius said that the Cura Annonae if neglected would be “the utter ruin of the state.”

          3. No circuses for US over the foreseeable…

            MLB keeps saying they’ll be back, even if they have to play without fans in the stands. Last I heard it will be in July.

            If there’s no NFL this fall there will wailing and teeth gnashing in Denver, even though the Donkeys are a mediocre team.

    2. As soon as they started selling foreclosures in bulk to Hedge Funds after the 08′ crash, you’d have to be an idiot to not know where this was headed. The older one get’s the more one’s faith in humanity erodes.

      08′ crash was a picnic. This time, predatory, salivating Big-Monied Interests will gorge themselves on weakened assets like Sharks ripping through a school of helpless herring.

        1. Will they give you a loan before they shoot up 120%? Or just allow the primary dealers to bottom feed first?

          1. They’ll give you a loan. But you probably won’t see the same deals that they will get.

          2. But you probably won’t see the same deals that they will get.

            Yup, the hedge funds will buy the more desirable properties, the one that will be easier to rent out. The proles will get a crack at the leftovers.

  26. “Dalton also added that because many buyers have put their search on hold, it’s now less competitive to get the home you want at a better price. ‘Before, buyers couldn’t really negotiate deals and they were just having to put their full price offer in and hope that nobody else was going to beat them so now is definitely a better time for them to negotiate a deal,’ she said.”

    Translation:

    “Even though we’ll always try and convince them it’s ALWAYS A GOOD TIME TO BUY, sometimes the market can get so bad, even the most stupid people on the face of the earth can begin to wake up.”

    1. There’s a silver lining inside every dark cloud:

      “Of course, there is always a silver lining to housing market price drops. Short-term dips in the housing market shouldn’t be of great concern to long-term homeowners, as when the current recession inevitably passes, prices are likely to recover once again. If you are currently a renter, or in the process of shopping for homes, a drop in housing prices might actually prove beneficial, as you’ll be able to get into a good housing market on the cheap.

      Last updated: May 12, 2020”

    2. Here’s an eye-opener!

      17. Los Angeles Metro Area

      Population: 13,262,234

      Median home sale price: $676,600

      Estimated mortgage payment: $2,797

      Median income: $69,138

      Monthly income: $5,762

      Percentage of income going toward mortgage: 49%
      …

    1. ‘According to police, the debt collector poured red paint on the doorway of the flat in Sau Ching House, in Sau Mau Ping Estate, Kwun Tong, shortly before 8.30pm on Monday, when the 56-year-old man and his wife were having dinner.’

      “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

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