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Some Vocal Real Estate Advisors Are Whistling Past The Graveyard

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Founded in 2017 by CEO Yifan Zhang and cofounder Adam Stelle after she realized she could cover her mortgage by renting a room in her Seattle house on Airbnb, Loftium was expanding rapidly in the months before the pandemic. It leased roughly 700 rental units — mostly in Seattle, but also in Atlanta, the Bay Area, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland and San Diego. But as the pandemic worsened, sending Airbnb bookings plunging by 50% or more in some cities — with nightly rates following suit — the company acted fast to cut costs. It laid off 60% of its employees in late March, and slashed the number of homes it leased to just 465 by terminating early-stage contracts, Zhang said.”

“For the business to try to take advantage of protections for households feels like ‘a free lunch on the shoulders of the landlord,’ said Rosario Bevilacqua, who rents a four-bedroom home in West Seattle’s Highland Park neighborhood to Loftium. ‘Loftium is a business that profits from my home,’ he said. Bevilacqua, an insurance agent, said he makes less than minimum wage; his wife owns a coworking space that’s been closed since the state closed nonessential businesses in late March. The rental income from the Highland Park property covered the mortgage, property tax and insurance and paid for things like swim lessons for Bevilacqua’s four children, he said.”

“Now that the tourism industry is flat on its back, local residents with their $1,200 government checks are looking like acceptable occupants of various rattan-and-Ross bedspread rooms and cottages across Hawaii. Who can blame folks for trying to survive the economic destruction, right? Hustlers gotta hustle. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a bit of delight in the irony, though. The rental ads for the empty transient vacation rental units stick out in the ‘home for rent’ listings like dog-show dogs at a poi dog convention.”

“It may seem like a ton of tourists are flying in and staying in illegal vacation rentals right now (all vacation rentals are illegal right now as they have been deemed nonessential, whether permitted or not) with the express intention of breaking curfew, but clearly, many are sitting empty, Ross bedspreads untouched, French presses not pressing, fake starfish all sad and lonely.”

“D-FW area median home sales list prices were down 2.8% last week from where they were at the same time in 2019. And more than 29% of homes sold by real estate agents had price reductions, according to Realtor.com. Looking at other major metro areas, home asking prices are also down in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Miami and Seattle.”

“Looking for a deal? The prices have been trimmed for these homes in the $300,000 range in Riverside, Hemet and Idyllwild. RIVERSIDE: It could use a remodel, but this single-story home with yards in front and back recently got a price cut of nearly 10%.”

“Apple co-founder Mike Markkula’s 14,000-acre California ranch has returned to the market for $37.5 million. The largest landholding in the Carmel Valley, known as Rana Creek Ranch, was first listed in 2013 for $59.95 million and again in 2016 for $45 million. Now, it’s back on the market for $22 million less than the original asking price. The ranch is massive, its land largely untouched and pristine. To get an idea of the size, consider that at 22 square miles, it’s only a little under half the size of the city of San Francisco.”

“As the pandemic hit New York City, many would-be home sellers avoided the market altogether, likely opting to wait for buyer demand to return. However, the 2.1% of sellers that were making price cuts in April were determined to make a sale. The median price cut in Manhattan was a record high 5.9% off the asking price, or a median of $100,241. ‘There are still highly motivated sellers on the market right now. Those that bought a new home just prior to the pandemic, or need to move for employment opportunities or growing families, are doing whatever they can to get their existing homes off the market – including offering higher discounts,’ says StreetEasy Economist Nancy Wu.”

“Malahide, north Dublin’s chichi-est coastal town, has its own ecosystem. The Brambles is a detached four-bed on the outskirts of the village that first came to market in 2018 seeking €1.75 million. The price dropped to €1.6 million last year and, having had a change of selling agent, is now back on the market seeking €1.495 million.”

“Chen Lirong, 32, who rents out eight rooms near Tokyo’s Asakusa tourist area through Airbnb, which lists private properties where guests can stay, said the occupancy rate has recently hovered at under 10 percent, down from nearly 100 percent before the pandemic. Taking out a loan to purchase relatively new apartments, she started her rental business in 2016, eventually becoming an Airbnb ‘superhost.’. But since the coronavirus outbreak her family is now barely breaking even, even with the income that her husband earns from his office job, she said.”

“Where bidding wars and long lineups greeted renters looking for a new home, more options and sinking rates are now the norm — with some landlords and property managers offering hefty incentives for tenants to sign leases. The website for the posh Vancouver House encourages prospective tenants to ‘ask about moving bonus!’ ‘It seems these Airbnb hosts who were making a lot of money before and of course now aren’t making any are just trying to fill those gaps in and they just want to have their cake and eat it, too,’ realtor and licensed property manager David Hutchinson, who credits the collapse of the short-term rental market with much of the surge in rental supply.”

“Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation boss doesn’t mince his words when it comes to hitting back at realtors who’ve been critical of the national housing agency’s dire real estate market forecast. ‘Some vocal real estate advisors have labelled us ‘panic-inducing and irresponsible,’ saying essentially that house prices don’t go down,’ Evan Siddall said as the agency released its latest market outlook. ‘They’re whistling past the graveyard and offering no analysis. Here’s ours.'”

“CMHC’s Housing Market Outlook for Spring 2020 sees the home prices shrinking by up to 18%. ‘Please question the motivation of anyone who wants you to believe prices will go up (yes, up) with our economy in slow motion, oil being given away, millions of Canadians on income support and a greater % of mortgages not being paid than we’ve seen since the Great Depression,’ Siddall said.”

“Houses in one Australian town typically sell less than $42,000 following a 70 per cent price slump in just one year. In Cobar, a home with a backyard was typically worth $41,957 in April 2020, after a 70.3 per cent annual price fall in a town almost 700km north-west of Sydney. In the neighbouring Central Darling Shire, which takes in the town of Wilcannia, median house prices stand at just $43,839, following a 26.3 per cent annual slump. Bourke, also in the NSW north-west, saw its median house prices dive by 15.8 per cent to $93,900.”

“The coronavirus pandemic has left millions of workers across the country unemployed, with many businesses temporarily or even permanently shut down. Abilene real estate, however, is one industry that’s bucking the national trend, said Ken Hogan, association executive with the Abilene Association of Realtors. According to the association’s housing reports, home sales in April were up more than 10 percent in Taylor County over the previous year, with a median price up 3 percent.”

“Shay Senter, Senter Realtors vice president, said the price increase was a case of ‘typical supply and demand,’ but also noted the local market had shifted more toward higher-priced homes. In February, more than 17 percent of the homes sold in Taylor County were priced at less than $100,000 but by April, that had fallen to below 8 percent. In contrast, the share of homes between $100,000 and $200,000 rose from about 44 percent in February to more than 52 percent in April.”

“‘I think it’s a reasonable assumption to say that higher income earners are less impacted by some of the effects of the pandemic than lower income earners,’ Senter said, ‘Which would allow them to still purchase some of those more expensive homes.'”

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This Post Has 141 Comments

  1. ‘In February, more than 17 percent of the homes sold in Taylor County were priced at less than $100,000 but by April, that had fallen to below 8 percent. In contrast, the share of homes between $100,000 and $200,000 rose from about 44 percent in February to more than 52 percent in April’

    ‘I think it’s a reasonable assumption to say that higher income earners are less impacted by some of the effects of the pandemic than lower income earners…Which would allow them to still purchase some of those more expensive homes’

    This is all you need to know. These UHS know prices aren’t up. But they would sell their grandmothers for one more months commission.

    ‘Please question the motivation of anyone who wants you to believe prices will go up (yes, up) with our economy in slow motion, oil being given away, millions of Canadians on income support and a greater % of mortgages not being paid than we’ve seen since the Great Depression’

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      US economy
      US spending falls by most on record in April
      Savings rate soars as households squirrel away stimulus cheques and extra unemployment benefits
      With lockdowns keeping businesses closed and unemployment soaring, JPMorgan estimates US consumption may be down at an annualised 45% in the second quarter
      © AFP via Getty Images
      Mamta Badkar in New York an hour ago

      US household spending posted a record decline in April as coronavirus lockdowns stayed in place, even as incomes unexpectedly jumped thanks to jobless benefits.

      Consumer spending fell 13.6 per cent from March, the commerce department said on Friday — the steepest decline on records going back to 1959.

      Spending accounts for a majority of US GDP. Economists had forecast a 12.6 per cent drop, according to a Reuters survey.
      …

      1. Iffin’ “Thee.Con$umer” = 70% of U$ eCONomic $pending, this i$ Awe$ome growth new$ looking: Forward$! … right?

          1. Why thanks you dear Professor, eye been wilderness bound on purpose. Eye’ve truly mi$$ed the HB.B ll collective banter. All of it!

        2. “Forward$! … right?”

          It can only get better from here. And given the stock market’s infinite wisdom, all the bad news so far this year is already fully reflected in current prices.

          Therefore the stock market can only go up from here on out to the end times.

  4. The coronavirus didn’t cause the real estate implosion, it just push it out into the sunlight.

    “The median price cut in Manhattan was a record high 5.9% off the asking price, or a median of $100,241.”

  5. Hey, anyone notice that not a single bookstore has been looted?

    Might be a selling point.

        1. As a “writing implement” manufacturer, in this digital.knot.analog age, he also bee without a job.

          ( however, he’d have really accurate surveying equipment to get a different job!)

  7. ‘Nearly every coronavirus-related death in Massachusetts has been a patient with an underlying health condition or previous hospitalization, Massachusetts health data shows.’

    ‘Data from deaths following completed investigations indicate 98.1 percent (1,289) of people who died after contracting the disease had an underlying condition, such as chronic lung disease, serious heart ailments, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or liver disease.’

    https://whdh.com/news/nearly-every-mass-coronavirus-death-was-patient-with-underlying-medical-condition-data-shows/

    1. Might.bees, there won’t bees any need for “Moscow.Mitch’$” Old Kentucky hemp rope in thee deep South after all.

      Virus taking hold in rural, old plantation region of Alabama

      AP Newd / By JAY REEVES and KIM CHANDLER

      HAYNEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Sparsely populated Lowndes County, deep in Alabama’s old plantation country, has the sad distinction of having both the state’s highest rate of COVID-19 cases and its worst unemployment rate.

      Initially spared as the disease ravaged cities, the county and other rural areas in the state are now facing a “perfect storm:” a lack of access to medical care combined with poverty and the attendant health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease and diabetes, that can worsen the outcomes for those who become sick with the coronavirus, said Dr. Ellen Eaton.

      “I think a lot of people fell into this idea that we were immune because we’re not in tight spaces like in New York and New Jersey, and we’re in wide-open areas,” said Eaton, who specializes in infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
      The surge in Lowndes and neighboring counties may be inextricably linked to their demographics — and thus their history as home to plantations where slaves grew the cotton that fueled the Confederacy. About 75% of Lowndes’ population is African American, and nearly 30% live in poverty. Its jobless rate has surged to 26% as area manufacturing plants closed during the pandemic.

      The problem can also be seen elsewhere in the rural Deep South, where a tally by John Hopkins University shows a heavy concentration of cases.

      Black people have suffered disproportionately in the pandemic.

      An Associated Press analysis in April of available state and local data shows that nearly one-third of those who have died are African American, with black people representing about 14% of the population in the areas covered in the analysis.

      1. “Initially spared as the disease ravaged cities, the county and other rural areas in the state are now facing a ‘perfect storm:’ a lack of access to medical care combined with poverty and the attendant health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease and diabetes, that can worsen the outcomes for those who become sick with the coronavirus, said Dr. Ellen Eaton.”

        So this “a lack of access to medical care combined with poverty and the attendant health problems, including hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease and diabetes” is what lead to the death of these people.

        These pre-existing conditions took these people to the very edge of The Abyss and then the coronavirus came along and pushed them over. But the deaths are tallied up to being caused by the coronavirus because there are incentives in place to make this so.

        During the “body count” days of the Vietnam War the saying was “If he was Vietnamese and he was dead then he was Vietcong”. There were incentives in place to make this happen. Similar incentives are in place today regarding the coronavirus body count.

        2. “Similar incentives are in place …”

          Ya reckon back during “Reconstructions” there were any deeth certificates signed:

          “Deeth bye thick hemp rope”

          maybee there was “incentives” knot to list that as a ” … cause.of.deeth”

    2. Most of the middle age and older American population has some sort of health problem so this isn’t very comforting.

    5. In my area there’s social distancing among strangers but not friends. An amazing number of people go on evening walks in the neighborhood, and we all cross the street to avoid each other.
      But my neighbors have been partying like normal. Last week they fired up the barbie and I’m pretty sure they weren’t grilling beans and rice. Their recycle bin was full of cans and bottles of fire water. The ice cream truck is still running the streets, so obviously someone is buying fudgcicles. I thought we were supposed to be in an economic depression?

      1. I thought we were supposed to be in an economic depression?

        Not even close. The FED’s trillions in Monopoly money is flowing freely, along with the double wages all the laid off folks are earning. It’s like a zoo around here lately.

  8. ‘Bevilacqua, an insurance agent, said he makes less than minimum wage; his wife owns a coworking space that’s been closed since the state closed nonessential businesses in late March. The rental income from the Highland Park property covered the mortgage, property tax and insurance and paid for things like swim lessons for Bevilacqua’s four children’

    1. 1. Pools are essential?

      2. Lose most income. Keep paying for extras. Complain you have no money for the essentials.

  9. I have not posted in a very long time, but I still read your comments.

    I have lived in Austin for a very, very long time, and the housing market here is beyond nuts.

    My best friend has decided to buy a home in the Central Austin area, so I have been helping him. His budget is $750k and he wants a single family home with 2 bedrooms+, 2 bathrooms+ and 1500 sq ft+.

    There aren’t any single family home in any of the Central Austin zip codes under $750k:

    78701
    78702
    78703
    78704
    78705
    78730
    78731
    78746
    78751
    78756

    For those familiar, this is mostly the area bounded by I-35, Mopac, Ben White and 183 + East Austin + Westlake.

    This area is HUGE. You basically need to spend close to 1M to live in ‘Central’ Austin these days.

    1. I wonder if anyone living in a “central” part of any city is unconcerned about a riot breaking out in their neighborhood and having their overpriced shack looted and maybe torched.

    2. “My best friend has decided to buy a home in the Central Au$tin area”

      My condolence$. … + “beginning$.of.bad.time$” is knot conducive to $mart embrace$ of enormou$ debt$ … + $helter.$hack “patience” really is knot such a horrible per$onal concept to accept. (Imhto)

      Be$t wi$hes to yer effort$!

    6. Aren’t you the Brett that inherited a substantial sum? I hope you didn’t buy a house with it.

    7. $750K for a 2 bed house/condo? I hope the job justifies staying in Austin. I only bought because I knew I had a well-paid stable 15+ year job. If I were less secure, I would have chosen a lower-pay job in a much lower cost area.

    8. “There aren’t any single family home in any of the Central Austin zip codes under $750k:”

      And Texas property taxes are unreal.

    1. George Floyd was murdered.

      *ALL* of the violence and destruction of property in the aftermath of that is sponsored, funded, promoted by the DNC and implemented by their Antifa brownshirts.

      The Sons of Obama doing the looting aren’t organized.

      The buses are unloading in front of the Colorado State Capitol building right now, courtesy of the Democrat Party.

      1. The buses are unloading in front of the Colorado State Capitol building right now, courtesy of the Democrat Party.

        Last night a truck belonging to Colorado Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo was vandalized by protestors, who didn’t seem to care that the state senate, assembly, the governor and mayor are all Democrat controlled. I won’t be surprised if they storm the capitol building a trash it.

        I watched live footage from the 9 News helicopter last night. It ain’t Minneapolis but I’m glad I don’t live in Dumver.

        1. East Colfax and Capitol Hill are where most of the Antifa are concentrated. Try blocking traffic here in Arapahoe County and you’re likely to get shot.

          1. Try blocking traffic here in Arapahoe County and you’re likely to get shot.

            Ditto in Larimer County. Heck, they probably wouldn’t even have to block traffic.

      2. The mayor is giving a big speech promising to not let protesters become violent. Tonight will be interesting,

        1. The “protesters” in Denver are the product of a public education system that has programmed them their entire lifetimes to hate themselves for being white.

          See also:

          reddit dot com / r / LateStageCapitalism
          reddit dot com / r / ChapoTrapHouse

          I don’t participate in social media but I do browse it anonymously. The posters on these sub-reddits sincerely believe that they are minutes away from launching a successful revolution.

          And every single one of them believes that after the revolution they’ll be the ones working in an air conditioned office making Very Important Decisions about production quotas and not working under the hot sun with a pick and shovel.

          History doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes…

          2. The posters on these sub-reddits sincerely believe that they are minutes away from launching a successful revolution.

            Wait until they find out that the people who control the food supply are armed to the teeth.

          3. Oh don’t worry, they’re growing arugula in pots on the balcony. They’re fine. Plenty food to go around. 🍃🥬🥦

        2. Will VP kiddie sniffer tell the masses “if you don’t loot, you aint black”?

          All this smells of the commie-seiu-soros machine.

      4. Dude…You need to move from Colorado to Alabama…Your feelings will be much better accepted there and you will make a lot of friends…

        2. Wow – taking gratuitous pot shots at entire states, painting millions of people with one broad brush. Can you say “intolerant bigot?” Because that’s what you sound like.

          1. It’s just scdave being scdave. Here on the HBB most of us don’t take things personally in disagreements among the long-term posters.

            He is likely upset that the HBB is not Facebook, is not Twitter, is not Reddit, and that our gracious host Senor Jones allows civil discussion of topics that are censored on corporate social media platforms.

          2. I recognize some of dave’s posts as pure cut-and-paste from similar left sources. I’m not gonna worry about it. 10 years ago I was quoting some lib websites myself. Politics is such a mixed bag anyway.

            And yes, I too would like to thank Senor Jones for allowing talk of hydroxychloroquine. FYI, that “study” in The Lancet is receiving massive criticism. The data was compiled by a tiny unknown company and contains massive statistical flaws. Nor will they allow anyone to access the raw data. Suspicious to say the least.

            [Quick primer: HCQ — with zinc — basically prevents the virus from replicating. Therefore treatment needs to start early on while the virus count is relatively low. If someone is sick enough to be in the hospital, the virus has already replicated too much and HCQ isn’t as effective. (Think of it like birth control. If she’s already knocked up, it’s too late for the pill.) Any paper that studies patients who take HCQ in, say, the first week show good success. Any paper that studies hospital patients shows HCQ to fail.

            The Lancet paper was a hospital study, so of course it HCQ didn’t show great results. People following this saga are convinced that this a deliberate manipulation on the part of both the anti-Trump people and Big Pharma. They are instead pushing $$$ Remdisivir $$$ and a rushed vaccine.

          3. If she’s already knocked up

            Just a little pregnant?

            By the way, I don’t think a vaccine is possible. Can’t do trials with extremely low infection rate in the population especially when the test has a high error rate.

            Entering Phase II here in NY. I got an appointment with my barber first thing Monday.

          4. You don’t need a high infection rate to do trials. They don’t expose the test subjects to an infected person. They expose them to the virus (which they can grow in a dish, I think) and look to see if the antibodies do their job.

            If a test has a high error rate, you simply test the same subject several times to rack up your n data points. As we would say: kill it with statistics.

          3. “liberate” has been used as a substitute before. Just depends on which side of history you’re on.

      2. If they’d just charged him in the first place, all that stuff wouldn’t be burning.

        1. Or at least arrested the officer on suspicion of murder. The DA then has a couple of days to file the official complaint.

  11. Georgetown, TX Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY As Austin Area Housing Market Turns Toxic On Rampant Mortgage Fraud

    https://www.zillow.com/georgetown-tx-78628/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    A noted economist stated, “A housing ‘recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.”

  12. Thee poor, poor Corpooration$ are gonna $uffer, again!
    Please, let the U$ Taxpayer$ of near.future generation$ help ’em, hurry, hurry their financial pain$ are in a word: UNBEARABLE!

    Is Corporate America a going concern? This one chart $uggests otherwi$e

    MarketWatch / Published: May 29, 2020 / By Andrea Riquier

    Policymakers keep intere$t rates$ low to $timulate borrowing for thing$ that boo$t the economy, not the $hare price.

    In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, with interest rates near all-time lows, corporations loaded up on debt and used it to buy back their own stock. In an analysis out Tuesday, economist David Rosenberg shows the sheer scale of what that’s looked like over the past decade: a $4 trillion swap of debt for equity.

    Share buybacks have been extremely controversial — so much so that many in Congress have worked to make sure any companies who take coronavirus stimulus money can’t use it to repurchase their stock.

    Critics say it’s a perver$ion of the intent of public $timulus: monetary policymakers lower interest rates to entice corporation$ to borrow money for things that will spark economic activity, like capital spending — not to boo$t the value of $tock. At best, many analysts say, it’s a form of crony capitalism. At worst, it deepens wealth inequality.

    But when things got ugly in the financial markets this spring, the Federal Reserve once again stepped in with a blank check to cushion the blow for corporations. This time, the central bank isn’t just lowering interest rates, it’s buying debt outright, including from companies that have less-than-investment grade ratings.

    In that sense, Rosenberg’s insinuation that Corporate America made a $4 trillion$ $wap of one type of (now-fungible) a$$et for another is $pot on.

  13. “Founded in 2017 by CEO Yifan Zhang and cofounder Adam Stelle after she realized she could cover her mortgage by renting a room in her Seattle house on Airbnb, Loftium was expanding rapidly in the months before the pandemic. It leased roughly 700 rental units — mostly in Seattle, but also in Atlanta, the Bay Area, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland and San Diego.”

    Here it is again, yet another company with massive amounts of Airbnb units. You can’t tell me Airbnb is that lucrative. I don’t believe it. This whole thing is a sham. Most were banking on appreciation. Once that stops, the whole thing implodes.

    And this is 100% the reason why rents were able to hyperinflate – the STR business. And still, I do not hear even the slightest whisper from public officials about this housing crisis and the cause of it. Speculation in housing is bad, yet they promote it.

    1. “Speculation in housing is bad, yet they promote it.”

      Anything that raises the tax base is awesome!

  14. Prediction i$ for a “doubling” in June? … oh my.

    Bankruptcy case$, store closing$ pile up as coronaviru$ wreak$ havoc for J.C. Penney, Hertz, other$

    NATHAN BOMEY | USA TODAY | May 27, 2020

    Companies are rushing to U.S. Bankruptcy Court during the coronavirus pandemic, seeking refuge from their creditors as they grapple with the fallout from temporary store closures and the travel industry shutdown.

    So far, most of the bankruptcy filings have been companies that were already in rough shape, including J.C. Penney, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus and Hertz.

    Off-price retailer Tuesday Morning and restaurant chain Le Pain Quotidien joined them in Chapter 11 on Wednesday, while Advantage Rent A Car filed on Tuesday.

    Taken together, these cases illustrate how the nation’s weakest companies are desperately trying to avoid outright liquidation.

    Coresight Research, which tracks retail openings and closings, has upped its projected store closures for 2020 from 8,000 at the beginning of the year to 15,000 at the beginning of March to about 25,000 now.

    “That’s unlike anything the industry has ever seen,” Coresight CEO and founder Deborah Weinswig said. “It’s the speed with which it’s all happening which has been a little surprising.”

    But there’s no stopping the bankruptcies now, she said. She predicted that retail the number of June bankruptcies will double May bankruptcies.

    2. I’ll be glad to the end of Tuesday Morning. They’re like a smaller version of Big Lots. Gave me bad vibes. Any word on Sears/KMart? I COVID does the world a favor and caps them like Old Yeller.

  15. Reckon aq.dannyboy is still counting the passing empty coal train loads rumbling across the New Mexico countryside. $ad.

    MARKET PUL$E:

    Boeing to lay off nearly 7,000 worker$, resume$ 737 Max production
    MARKETWATCH / By Claudia Assis / Published: May 27, 2020

    … the jet maker announced the layoffs of 6,770 U.S. workers, with the first employees affected being notified this week. International locations also are planning layoffs that will be announced on their own timelines, Boeing said. “The COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating impact on the airline industry means a deep cut in the number of commercial jets and services our customers will need over the next few years, which in turn means fewer jobs on our lines and in our offices,” Boeing said. Boeing said it is seeing “green shoots” after the devastation wrought by the virtual halt on air travel, but the industry will take “some years to return to what it was just two months ago.” Some of its airline customers report that “reservations are outpacing cancellations on their flights for the first time since the pandemic started,”

    (One might wonder$ what further damage$ Boeing $tock could $ustain if:
    1. Another 737 max crashes
    2. Thee xaoh.deeth virus 👾 kills another 100,000+ starting Oct-Dec.)

    1. Reckon aq.dannyboy is still counting the passing empty coal train loads rumbling across the New Mexico countryside. $ad.

      Or more likely, he’s leaning back in a recliner listening to music and enjoying the acoustics of your empty skull 😉

      1. Maybee you can help him find tho$e mi$$ing Dec 2019 Boeing “Trade.wind$” … please help him he need$ all the $upport he can mu$ter. Hurry.

  16. The FED’s balance sheet is now more than $7 TRILLION, with no end in sight. These economic terrorists promised that the extraordinary measures taken during the 2008/09 debacle were temporary, yet they never unwound their balance sheet and instead have increased it to this eye-popping level. And now they sit at 0% rates. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING these guys/gals said turned out to be lies.

    1. Been through 3 presidents since it started, democrats and republicans flipping control of congress, and it’s just kept accelerating.

      No one in government is on our side. There is no WE in that context.

      1. “It’s the same debacle”
        +
        Go Munchin! Print More$!, More$!, More$! & even More$!

        Don’t.$top! Don’t … $top! … Don’t!
        🌊🙏💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵💰💲💵 …

        But, bee afraid, because “bernie.eye.only.have.x3.pairsofunderwear” & x1 vote in the US Senate, will de$troy Amerika, will my $ocialist.agenda! Bee afraid, very, very, afraid!

    3. Big questions:
      1) How long can they expand at the recent rate before inflicting irreversible economic damage?
      2) What’s worse: The treatment or the disease?
      3) Is the (financial) disease caused by the treatment?
      4) Will markets crash if UQE is curtailed?

  17. “Looking for a deal? The prices have been trimmed for these homes in the $300,000 range in Riverside, Hemet and Idyllwild. ”

    Idlyllwild sits atop a mountain of dead, dry brush and manzanita. I saw two burned spots within 10 miles of there. If you look on zillow, every third house is for sale. I’d guess fire insurance is getting expensive….

    2. “I’d gue$$ fire in$urance is getting expen$ive….”

      & just like up the road North 50 miles, @ Wrightwood, CA it has a San Andreas earthquake fault line$ that run$ through.it

      (Talk about a $haky.$helter.$hack.$peculation$, wow$ers!)

    3. I’d guess fire insurance is getting expensive….

      Might be one of those areas where it is unobtainable.

  18. “The company has used the CARES Act, a $3 trillion federal coronavirus relief package signed in late March, to justify not paying rent on time or in full. The legislation protects tenants in properties with federally backed mortgages from eviction until July 23 and expands mortgage forbearance for those property owners.

    Loftium has said it qualifies as a tenant under that legislation and can’t be evicted.”

    Get a real job LOL

    1. After a decade living here, I might be leaving the Front Range soon. Currently negotiating the terms of a job offer. My landlord has surprisingly allowed me to cancel my lease renewal without penalty and go month to month.

      No more city life. I’m sick of it all…

        1. I would reply with “and back to Reddit you go” but this is the HBB, not Reddit.

          There isn’t a downvote button for comments on this blog, you have to put in the effort to type out a response.

          That thirty seconds of your life it took to type out your well wishes for my move to Alabama are thirty seconds of your life that you will never have back again.

          GOD BLESS AMERICA AND GOD BLESS PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP <3 <3 <3

      4. “Currently negotiating the terms of a job offer”

        Good luck bro, I hope it works out well for you.

        When and if you leave give HBB Dog a scratch behind the ears for me.

  22. – Occasional lapses of truthfulness about the Canadian RE market seeping into the narrative.

    – Note that there are many parallels and similarities to the U.S. RE market, but the U.S. MSM has, so far, done better damage control of the dissenting voices in protecting the narrative.

    – BTW, lower RE prices are a good thing for the economy, but of course, adversely impact on the “value” of commissions. 🙂

    http://housingbubble.blog/?p=3431
    In Many Cities Around The World, Owners Are Feeling Pressure To Somehow Off-Load Their Homes
    May 27, 2020 | Ben Jones

    -This article behind firewall, but selected excerpts posted by Ben:

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-cover-your-ears-canadas-real-estate-market-wont-shrug-off-this/
    Opinion
    Cover your ears: Canada’s real estate market won’t shrug off this crisis like the last one
    Konrad Yakabuski | Published May 26, 2020 | Updated 2 days ago

    The Globe and Mail in Canada. “As Canada’s manufacturing and resource industries declined, governments looked to the real estate sector as an engine of economic growth. That made the Bank of Canada deathly afraid of removing the punch bowl of abnormally low interest rates, creating a property price bubble. The coronavirus pandemic looks like the pin.”

    http://thinkpol.ca/2020/05/28/question-motivation-anyone-wants-believe-prices-will-go-cmhc-boss-slams-realtors/
    “Question the motivation of anyone who wants you to believe prices will go up” – CMHC boss slams realtors
    May 28, 2020

    “Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation boss doesn’t mince his words when it comes to hitting back at realtors who’ve been critical of the national housing agency’s dire real estate market forecast.”

    ” ‘Some vocal real estate advisors have labelled us ‘panic-inducing and irresponsible,’ saying essentially that house prices don’t go down,’ “

    “Earlier, real estate agency RE/MAX put out a press release accusing CMHC of creating “panic”.“

    “Siddall pulled no punches when responding to the real estate industry’s accusations.”

    “Please question the motivation of anyone who wants you to believe prices will go up (yes, up) with our economy in slow motion, oil being given away, millions of Canadians on income support and a greater % of mortgages not being paid than we’ve seen since the Great Depression,” Siddall said.

    – Somehow these quotes seem apropos (chilling, isn’t it?):

    “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Joseph Goebbels

    “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over” – Joseph Goebbels

    “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” – Abraham Lincoln, (attributed) 16th president of US (1809 – 1865)

    “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

    3. “If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will” -Abraham Lincoln

  23. The horrible housing blunder
    Home ownership is the West’s biggest economic-policy mistake
    It is an obsession that undermines growth, fairness and public faith in capitalism
    Leaders
    Jan 16th 2020

    ECONOMIES CAN suffer both sudden crashes and chronic diseases. Housing markets in the rich world have caused both types of problem. A trillion dollars of dud mortgages blew up the financial system in 2007-08. But just as pernicious is the creeping dysfunction that housing has created over decades: vibrant cities without space to grow; ageing homeowners sitting in half-empty homes who are keen to protect their view; and a generation of young people who cannot easily afford to rent or buy and think capitalism has let them down. As our special report this week explains, much of the blame lies with warped housing policies that date back to the second world war and which are intertwined with an infatuation with home ownership. They have caused one of the rich world’s most serious and longest-running economic failures. A fresh architecture is urgently needed.

    At the root of that failure is a lack of building, especially near the thriving cities in which jobs are plentiful. From Sydney to Sydenham, fiddly regulations protect an elite of existing homeowners and prevent developers from building the skyscrapers and flats that the modern economy demands. The resulting high rents and house prices make it hard for workers to move to where the most productive jobs are, and have slowed growth. Overall housing costs in America absorb 11% of GDP, up from 8% in the 1970s. If just three big cities—New York, San Francisco and San Jose—relaxed planning rules, America’s GDP could be 4% higher. That is an enormous prize.
    …

    1. fiddly regulations protect an elite of existing homeowners and prevent developers from building the skyscrapers and flats that the modern economy demands.’

      Because there just isn’t enough housing…

    2. People have wanted to own land for thousands of years. Heck, even the animals fight for their caves. But this is the Economist, of course. They don’t want us serfs to OWN anything, do they? They want us to rent everything, from housing to music to farmland to gaming to word-processing software. From THEM, of course.

    3. Another difference between American and Canada. They’ve been building housing units like crazy in Vancouver and Toronto for at least the last twenty years. Tens of thousands of them every year.

    4. I thought densely populated areas (and mass transit) were falling out of favor in these days of pandemic.

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      US equities
      How investors learnt to love the rally in stocks
      ‘Fear of missing out’ dominates in sweeping ascent as doubters turn into believers
      The S&P 500 index of US blue-chip stocks is up more than a third from its low two months ago
      © Getty Images/EyeEm
      Richard Henderson in Melbourne yesterday

      The bumper run in the US stock market is beginning to turn its doubters into believers, adding fresh thrust to a rally that has wrongfooted veteran investors, lured in retail traders, and defied the dire economic outlook caused by the global pandemic.

      The S&P 500 index of US blue-chip stocks is up more than a third from its low two months ago, in the depths of the virus sell-off. On Wednesday, the benchmark closed above 3,000 points for the first time since early March, bringing the index to just 10 per cent below the record high reached in February.

      The rally has built a legion of sceptics who worry the market is being driven entirely by Federal Reserve stimulus and that bullish investors are too confident a vaccine will emerge to rekindle corporate profits. But now, even detractors are reluctantly joining the buying.

      “There’s an element of fear of missing out — FOMO — as investors start to look at the momentum,” said Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist for John Hancock Investment Management in Boston. She likened the recent buying by the new believers to crossing a busy highway. “They are looking for an opening, they know it’s possible to get hurt, but they are just going for it.”
      …

    3. How I Learned to Stop My Fear of Missing Out and Love the Debt Bomb

      Nice one! 🙂

  25. The neverending everything bubble…

    “NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah (KUTV) — RV retailers are struggling to keep up with demand as people are canceling flights and hitting the road instead.

    Access RV in North Salt Lake said it cannot keep trailers on its lot.

    “We’ve been in business for 25 years and this is the busiest we’ve ever seen it,” Scott Jones, owner at Access RV said.

    https://kutv.com/news/coronavirus/rv-sales-at-a-record-high-amid-pandemic

    1. Do you think all of these people are paying cash? Of course not. It’s the subprime RV bubble, brought to you by the FED.

      1. Bingo. My neighbor, who doesn’t work for .gov, just bought a $30K RV, financed of course. And he has to pay $80 a month to store it. He must be very confident that he won’t lose his job.

          1. I wonder just how often that RV will get used. I supposed they could head out every weekend, but even that costs money: fuel, campground fees, wear and tear on the truck. And for what? To sit around your RV?

          2. campground fees
            There are many places where an RV can be used without a fee. One of my favorites was the driveway of an elderly cousin in the Denver area. Super hot that weekend. Children & grands all came by for a mini-reunion that I hadn’t anticipated. I parked my truck camper in her driveway, plugged it in and ran my A/C full blast to meat locker coolness. Cousin’s house, she kept it at her age, which was 85. Younger relatives were suffering. I kept excusing myself to go back out and cool off in my own place. Plus there are places like BLM land in Arizona where large numbers of RVers stay during the coldest parts of winter, have to obey minimal rules, but no site fees at some of these places.

          3. Most people are not imaginative enough to go “boondocking.” I have trouble explaining to people that, no, I don’t camp in campgrounds when I go on my hiking trips. There’s plenty of public land where one can legally camp for free.

            Which leads to this observation: with all these new RV’s hitting the road, imagine how packed out campgrounds and RV parks are going to be! At least until those shiny new RV’s are repossessed.

  29. ‘Ballyporeen near, Mitchelstown, Cork. Price €14,950 down from €15,000 (Drop of €50).’

    ‘Ok, yes this place is more of a shed than a house but we had to bring it to your attention for the MASSIVE price drop alone. That’s right folks, they haven taken a massive 50 quid off the asking price for this place.’

    ‘So you can now purchase this derelict dwelling for €14,950 instead of €15,000. Bargain.’

    https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/property/here-five-great-properties-cork-18333958

    1. Nothing left to offer to Americans but division and hatred.

      So, will swing voters cast their vote for the riot and loot party?

      1. “…riot and loot party.”

        Don’t forget the party of,
        Russian hoax
        Scam impeachment
        Bogus investigations
        Alliance with China
        Alliance with Globalist
        Deep State treason
        Lockdown insanity
        Promoting racism
        Party of open borders
        Party that wants criminals free.
        Party that wants 16 year olds and convicts to vote
        Party of the breakdown of cities.
        Framing innocent
        people, while protecting quilty people.

        The list is much longer

        1. I should add the party of poop. The homeless should have the right to poop in the streets. The looters and rioters should have the right to burn down the cities.

          In everyway this party has desended into madness.

          1. In everyway this party has desended into madness.

            I was thinking this morning about how the Ds seem to see themselves. You know, educated, reasoning, optimistic, forward looking, sympathetic, fair…etc.

            And then I was thinking about how if they were actually those things, Bernie would have registered D long ago and they would have allowed him to represent them. The right has certain principles that you might like or might not like, and the left does as well. But the DNC? Or the RNC for that matter? I’m not seeing it. We gotta overthrow the uniparty permanently. Trump is at least making an effort, and Bernie would have as well I think.

  31. Onces I had canyons in the palms of my hands
    And rivers that ran thru everyday

    But I must of been mad,
    I never knew what I had till I threw it all away, till I threw it all away.

    The above is just a memory of a Bob Dylan song, that might not even be accurate.
    But, it applies to current events because it does.

      1. They both have very valid answers for why you shouldn’t vote for the other side. Both are weak on why you should vote for them. So the one thing they can agree on is to avoid giving the voters any other choices.

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