thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Price Cuts Are Becoming More Common As Some Sellers Try To Cut Short Their Losses

A report from CNBC on New York. “The number of real estate contracts signed for Manhattan apartments plunged 84% in May compared with last year. The pain in Manhattan real estate will be felt most at the top — where an oversupply of pricey new condo towers and penthouses were already weighing on prices. For apartments priced over $4 million, there were only 16 contracts signed in May for a total of $100 million — a nearly 90% decline from last May when 111 contracts were signed totaling $1.1 billion, according to the Olshan Report.”

The Real Deal on Florida. “An Ohio family of steel magnates who tried to flip their South Beach condo for a big profit ended up selling it at a loss. Property records show Majestic Steel Properties Inc., led by Todd Leebow, sold unit 1200 at Glass, at 120 Ocean Drive, $6.75 million. Majestic Steel Properties paid $7.9 million for the three-bedroom, 3,389-square-foot unit in 2015 when the building was completed. The company then tried to sell it in 2017 for $12.9 million.”

“It sold for 48 percent off the 2017 asking price and for 14 percent less than Leebow’s purchase price. It most recently was listed for $9 million. Price cuts are becoming more common during the pandemic as some sellers try to cut short their losses.”

From Business Den in Colorado. “The number of pending Denver home contracts skyrocketed in May. A surge of listings, 7,312, also flooded into the market and met the growing demand. Listings were up 56 percent month-over-month, according to the report. Despite the surge in new listings and contracts, only 3,152 homes sold in May, down 20 percent month-over-month and 49 percent year-over-year. The average home sale price dropped slightly to $495,925.”

“While it still largely remains a seller’s market, the luxury market, which includes homes priced at $1 million or more, continues to be in the buyer’s hands. In May, the pricey market had nine and a half months of single-family luxury home inventory and an abundance of condos for sale, with more than 25 months of inventory, according to the report. Anything over six months is considered a buyer’s market.”

“‘The buyers are in control because they have choices,’ said Jill Schafer, chair of the market trends committee at Denver Metro Association of Realtors. ‘Part of that could also be caused by the tightening of jumbo loans that occurred with the shutdown.'”

From Bisnow on California. “Residential rents in some Bay Area submarkets have fallen by double-digit percentages compared to the same period last year. Though the longer-term effects on the region’s multifamily market are unclear, it is possible that both lower-end Class-B and Class-C properties, as well as luxury units, end up faring worse than average, according to Strada Investment Group Vice President William Goodman.”

“As many of the Bay Area’s residents working in tech or other remote-friendly industries have carried on work from home, its service industries have been decimated with job losses. Farther down the Peninsula, developer Anton DevCo has seen leasing slow and some tenant departures that Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Trisha Malone said are tied to new remote work policies in the tech industry.”

“She said collection is nearly its normal rate, but that some of the company’s Menlo Park residents started leaving the day after Menlo Park-based Facebook announced its shift to remote work. ‘Right now, something we’re seeing in the Bay Area is the effects of Facebook’s work-from-home policy,’ she said. ‘We’re seeing an uptick in tenants who are paying the breakage to get out of leases and relocate. There’s a lot of them moving out of state.'”

From Variety on California. “Though coronavirus chaos has hit all sectors of the economy hard, the luxury real estate market has been especially affected. Jumbo mortgages have dried up, many would-be buyers backed out of escrow, and even Jeff Bezos decided to back out of a $90 million deal to buy one of the late Paul Allen’s Beverly Hills estates. And many for-sale properties have been price-chopped or sold with big discounts.”

“Apple’s Mike Markkula is hoping the exodus will finally sell his massive Carmel Valley estate. He’s listed the property, known locally as Rana Creek Ranch, for the third time. Now carrying an improved pricetag of $37.5 million, the estate was initially put on the market in 2013 with a sky-high and profoundly unrealistic ask of $59.95 million.”

From Las Vegas Weekly in Nevada. “With the coronavirus pandemic driving unemployment in Nevada to a record-high 28.2%, thousands are struggling to make ends meet—from buying groceries and paying utility bills to making car payments. But one of the biggest monthly expenses is a home mortgage. According to a national survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association, the delinquency rate for U.S. mortgage loans for the first three months of this year was about 4.3%, an increase of over a half-percent from the final three months of 2019. And that period represents only the leading edge of the pandemic.”

“Mike Querrey, Las Vegas-based vice president of strategic retail growth for Guild Mortgage’s Mountain West Division, said the first thing those facing financial peril should do is get in touch with their lender. ‘You should contact your loan servicer, whoever you make those monthly payments to,’ Querrey said. ‘Inquire with them about a forbearance. They will work with you on a forbearance, which usually comes in segments of three months at a time.'”

“A forbearance allows the homeowner to defer payments. It’s important to remember, however, that it doesn’t forgive that portion of the mortgage debt. ‘Let’s say you need three months … and your house payment is $2,000 per month,’ Querrey said. ‘That $6,000 at the end of the three months is now owed. Perhaps you would pay that back with an extra $500 per month for 12 months. That wouldn’t be reported as a negative credit issue because payments weren’t made, but you have to contact your lender to work it out.'”

Related Posts
This Post Has 139 Comments

      1. A whole bunch of long-held assumptions have been turned on their heads with regard to cities. Look at the reaction to rents in California. The one apartment guy said we’ve heard for years people were leaving. And that’s true. Now he says they actually are, apparently in significant numbers.

        This is all problematic enough. Throw in years of manias with regard to CRE and housing, how do they recover without defaults? I’ve had many conversations about why do “tech” firms stay in ridiculously expensive places? I also know people who do well working from home these days. Sometimes things come through that shake up the existing order.

        1. After New York

          ‘City dwellers tend to share a unique conceit that their city and lifestyle will last forever. The slightest knowledge of history should put that to rest. But the sheer speed of the collapse of New York State and New York City gives one pause. In a mere three months, both have been transformed, probably permanently, by pandemic and now insurrection.’

          https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/after-new-york/

          1. Insurrection. Let’s call it what it is. Stage-managed by the unholy trinity of the globalists, Democrats, and Deep State.

          2. Interesting piece. And BTW, I had no idea there was such a thing as the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

        2. ’ve had many conversations about why do “tech” firms stay in ridiculously expensive places?

          Perhaps because having a Silicon Valley address vs. a Kansas City address gives the firm more cred and cachet?

          You couldn’t pay me enough to live in the Bay Area, and that was before the riots.

          1. Perhaps because having a Silicon Valley address vs. a Kansas City address gives the firm more cred and cachet?

            It seems to me that both the employers and the engineer types in California both put a high value on having a lot of choice for who they want to hire/work for. It’s easy to create or join a team of people that are exactly the people you want. I get that, but I think as a result they overestimate themselves relative to the guys in places like Colorado.

          2. It seems to me that both the employers and the engineer types in California both put a high value on having a lot of choice for who they want to hire/work for.

            There is something to be said for that. When we had our monster layoff 3 years ago a lot of my bay aryan colleagues started their new jobs in just a few weeks, some had offers within just a few days. My Broomfield colleagues needed months to find a new job.

          3. There is something to be said for that. When we had our monster layoff 3 years ago a lot of my bay aryan colleagues started their new jobs in just a few weeks, some had offers within just a few days. My Broomfield colleagues needed months to find a new job.

            Yeah, my first 15+ years of my career in Colorado I didn’t understand that. I was just a redneck kid trying to work in tech and stay close to Wyoming. I assumed that the struggle to stay employed was the same everywhere. Despite the negatives of CA, if I had known the truth I would have moved to CA right after graduating college. I don’t work as well when always playing career defense.

          4. Santa Clara the mother ship. Young engineers go there to get ahead. We started in Thousand Oaks and I left for awhile to AZ to time the housing market and when I came back HQ was in Santa Clara because that’s how you attracted talent. Now we just buy talent one company at a time. working with the Vietnam crew these days and they wonder where all the good jobs went? ” Burning down the house ” sorry I have talking head on my brain all this protesting etc.

        3. Long time resident. Thought I had calculated the trajectory that would leave enough runway to stay here for a while. It’s disintegrating so fast now. The CV shutdown sham and now businesses looted and cars and buildings ablaze not far from my own business. Where I live businesses are boarding up their windows to protect from rioters and looters. The ideological arguments are over. I don’t think anyone or anything, barring divine intervention, can stop what’s coming.

          1. I don’t think anyone or anything, barring divine intervention, can stop what’s coming.

            Nope. And it’s being orchestrated by the elites. There’s a design at work here, but only the cabal calling the shots knows what it is.

  3. ‘A surge of listings, 7,312, also flooded into the market and met the growing demand. Listings were up 56 percent month-over-month, according to the report’

    Where did all these shacks come from? They weren’t just built.

    ‘Despite the surge in new listings and contracts, only 3,152 homes sold in May, down 20 percent month-over-month and 49 percent year-over-year. The average home sale price dropped slightly to $495,925’

    Why not give us the median?

  5. Now the talk has shifted fro. A rapid V-shaped recovery to a brutal 10-year slog to restore economic normalcy.

    But how about that stock market?

    1. Opinion: Getting back to normal just got a lot harder for the U.S. economy
      Published: June 4, 2020 at 6:45 a.m. ET
      By Caroline Baum
      Protests could curtail spending, slowing the fragile recovery
      Protesters in Minneapolis march in response to the police killing of George Floyd. Getty Images

      Just as states across the country were embarking on a phased-in reopening of their economies, along came sometimes violent protests to upend the hoped-for gradual return to normalcy.

      The U.S. economy doesn’t need another superlative in its cap. It already has several: the worst pandemic since 1918; the worst downturn since the Great Depression; the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.

      Add to the list the largest nationwide protests since 1968, which gives consumers another excuse to hunker down at home, and restaurants and stores a reason to stay closed or shut down early and board up the premises to avoid physical damage to their property from the violence that has been escalating at night.

      This is not what the doctor ordered for an economy already reeling from the Great Lockdown due to the coronavirus. The events of the past 10 days following the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, have introduced another challenge to the already fading hope for a rapid rebound.

      Economists were looking for a significant bounce back in economic growth in the third quarter following a projected 30%-40% annualized decline in second-quarter real gross domestic product growth.

      Even with large, double-digit gains in the third and fourth quarters, it would leave the U.S. economy deeply depressed, given what is expected to be a record second-quarter decline on top of the first quarter’s 5% annualized contraction in real GDP growth.
      …

      1. “Protests could curtail spending”

        Which on a personal level can lead to greatly increased savings. My checking account is fatter than its ever been.

        1. Same here with the fatter checking account… that is now seeing cuts to interest rates decreasing returns. Again. In 3 months the high-yield savings accounts have dropped from over 2% down to approximately 1% now. So it’s no wonder more capital is being re-invested back into the stock market.

          1. I just spend less and less and less. That’s how I take on the FED. You want to punish savers? Fine, I don’t buy jack sheet.

          2. “In 3 months the high-yield savings accounts have dropped from over 2% down to approximately 1% now.”

            So, 2% was high yield? You would have wet your pants in the early 80s.

    2. It may seem hard to believe, but we haven’t yet run out of stock market rally skeptics. And I refer to the smart money.

      The Financial Times
      Hedge funds
      Hedge funds braced for second stock market plunge
      Managers say asset prices have become too detached from bleak fundamentals
      New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street. There are fears investors may have become too complacent after the recent surge in share prices
      © AFP via Getty Images
      Laurence Fletcher in London yesterday

      Hedge funds are getting ready for another slump in stock markets after growing uneasy that surging prices do not reflect the economic problems ahead.

      Some managers fear that equity investors, used to buying the dips during the decade-long bull market that ended in March’s sharp sell-off, have become too complacent about how quickly economies can recover from the coronavirus crisis and how effective stimulus packages from central banks and governments can be.

      The S&P 500 index completed its best 50-day run in history on Wednesday, according to LPL Financial, closing within 8 per cent of its record high of mid-February.

      “The markets are priced to perfection,” said Danny Yong, founding partner at hedge fund Dymon Asia Capital in Singapore. “The stability in equity markets does not reflect the job losses and the insolvencies ahead of us globally.”

      Mr Yong has been buying put options — which protect against market falls by allowing their owner to sell at a pre-determined price — on stock indices and also on currencies sensitive to risk appetite such as the Australian dollar and the Korean won.

      “I believe we will see new lows in global equity markets later this year,” he added. “As March . . . has shown us, prices cannot diverge from fundamentals for too long.”
      …

      1. The Financial Times
        Equities
        Grantham’s GMO slashes exposure to ‘one-sided’ US stock market
        Veteran strategist notes huge mismatch between prices and the dire economic backdrop
        Jeremy Grantham says he has never seen a period where the outlook was so uncertain
        © Pascal Perich
        Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Richard Henderson 6 hours ago

        Stock markets are “lost in one-sided optimism”, according to Jeremy Grantham, the veteran strategist known for calling several of the biggest market turns of recent decades.

        GMO, the Boston fund manager Mr Grantham co-founded in 1977, has cut the net exposure to global equities in its biggest fund from 55 per cent to just 25 per cent — close to the low it hit during the global financial crisis.

        The decision slashed its Benchmark-Free Allocation Fund’s exposure to US equities from a net 3-4 per cent to a net short position worth about 5 per cent of the $7.5bn portfolio, said Ben Inker, GMO’s head of asset allocation.

        The Covid-19 pandemic “should have generated enhanced respect for risk and it hasn’t. It has caused quite the reverse,” Mr Grantham told the Financial Times. He noted that trailing price-earnings multiples in the US stock market were “in the top 10 per cent of its history” while the US economy “is in its worst 10 per cent, perhaps even the worst 1 per cent”.

        Underlying economic realities had been “temporarily overwhelmed” by central banks’ unprecedented stimulus efforts, he said, but “it’s hard to believe that will continue”.
        …

        1. Stock markets are “lost in one-sided optimism”, according to Jeremy Grantham

          Because the FED shot a $4 TRILLION wad into the marketplace, and signaled they have an unlimited balance sheet, are printing money, and haven’t even come close to running out of tools, ie. “we’re happy to destroy the dollar to blow the biggest stock bubble in the history of mankind.” The greedy pigs went “all-in” after that. The FED should be shut down.

    3. But how about that stock market?

      My employer announces quarterly numbers next in about 10 days, and many others will report this month.

      I’m sure many will say “Our numbers aren’t as bad as we thought they would be” and the market will probably react positively.

      1. “Better than expected” is one of the great scams going. You just set low expectations every time and there’s no downside.

        1. With Unlimited Quarantinive Easing, the market always goes up, independent of economic news. A rising tsunami tide of liquidity lifts all boats.

          And just in case the markets falter at any future point, an even bigger central bank stimulus is in the waiting.

          Unlimited QE is unlimited. It’s turtles all the way down from here on out.

          The Financial Times
          Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
          fastFT Eurozone economy
          ECB boosts bond-buying stimulus package by €600bn
          Central bank ratchets up efforts to prevent eurozone slipping into deflationary spiral
          Christine Lagarde, ECB president, during the central bank’s news conference on Thursday
          © Alessia di Padova/European Central Bank
          Martin Arnold in Frankfurt an hour ago

          The European Central Bank will buy an extra €600bn of bonds in a bid to revive the eurozone’s pandemic-stricken economy, it announced on Thursday, while slashing its forecasts for growth and inflation.

          ECB president Christine Lagarde said the region was “experiencing an unprecedented contraction”, adding that “severe job and income losses and exceptionally elevated uncertainty” had led to a “significant fall” in both consumer spending and investment.

          The move to increase the ECB’s pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) was larger than most economists’ expectations, taking it to €1.35tn in total. The ECB also extended the scheme until at least June 2021, leaving it on track to buy a record €1.4tn of assets this year across all its stimulus programmes. That would increase its asset portfolio to more than €4tn, about a third of eurozone gross domestic product.
          …

  6. It was still cheaper than renting

    “An Ohio family of steel magnates who tried to flip their South Beach condo for a big profit ended up selling it at a loss. Property records show Majestic Steel Properties Inc., led by Todd Leebow, sold unit 1200 at Glass, at 120 Ocean Drive, $6.75 million. Majestic Steel Properties paid $7.9 million for the three-bedroom, 3,389-square-foot unit in 2015 when the building was completed. The company then tried to sell it in 2017 for $12.9 million.”

      1. cash flow problems?

        Possibly. Larry Ellison isn’t dumping any of his many mansions.

        1. I didn’t know Larry Ellison has a cash-flow problem especially since he doesn’t marry his ladies these days.

  7. I thought there would be a flood of listings last week as covid lockdown ended
    nope
    not in N VA

  8. Carolina Beach, NC Housing Prices Crater 14% YOY As Coastal Property Market Turns Toxic On Rampant Mortgage Fraud

    https://www.zillow.com/carolina-beach-nc/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As a noted economist said, “I can ask $50k for my run down 10 year old Chevy truck but where is the buyer at that price? So it is with all depreciating asset like houses and cars.”

  9. ‘A political operative pleaded guilty to bribery Wednesday, admitting he helped a real estate developer pay off a Los Angeles City Council member for help with a major development project.’

    ‘The guilty plea by Justin Jangwoo Kim, 53, is the latest turn in an on-going investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office into pay-to-play schemes and other corruption in City Hall.’

    ‘At a hearing Wednesday, which U.S. District Judge John F. Walter conducted over videoconference, Kim listened as a prosecutor read a lengthy narrative detailing his role in the bribery scheme. When it was over, Walter asked whether Kim had done all the things the government claimed.’

    “Yes, I did, your honor,” Kim replied.’

    ‘Kim is one of four people now charged in the case. Former councilman Mitchell Englander has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he tried to obstruct an investigation into payments and other gifts he allegedly received from another developer. And a former aide to Huizar, George Esparza, and a real estate consultant, George Chiang, have agreed to plead guilty to charges stemming from allegations they conspired with the council member on plans to extract illicit payments from estate developers.’

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-03/fundraiser-justin-kim-pleads-guilty-l-a-city-hall-corruption-case

    1. Corruption everywhere and in every realm.

      This is when Society is the most vunerable to even more bizarre solutions happening.

      Alll you got to do is study history to see how this plays out.

    2. The mayor of LA reminds me of my old boss just talking and talking about some fool idea he wants designed out. Now hes cutting 100M from the police budget and giving it to ? protestors to go away and leave his city alone ? who knows . And wheres he getting the money from sales taxes ?

      1. He’s looking for 250$ million in budget cuts to redirect to programs for “communities of color”. Policy debates are pointless now because mob rule is the new paradigm.

        1. Money flows to those with power. Changing power dynamics always result in funding priority changes.

        2. Policy debates are pointless now because mob rule is the new paradigm.

          All the more reason to stay away from vibrant metro areas.

        3. The more this goes on its time to end MLK, day since judging all people by their content of character is forbidden

        4. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound health of government.” – Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Paris, January 30, 1787

    1. “California reports a rise in infections amid protests and reopening”

      Nobody could have seen it coming!

      1. Open houses could be a challenge to conduct under these circumstances.

        Breaking News
        Coronavirus: California nearing 120,000 cases
        News Health
        Coronavirus: New California cases set record, more than 115,000 infected
        The number of cases continues to grow, as the state ramps up testing, begins to reopen and been gripped by mass protests over the killing of George Floyd.
        Coronavirus Update: California statewide
        By Martha Ross | Bay Area News Group
        PUBLISHED: June 2, 2020 at 8:06 a.m. | UPDATED: June 3, 2020 at 7:01 a.m.

        The number of new daily COVID-19 cases climbed to a new high Monday, with the state reporting more than 3,000 positive tests for the second time in a week.

        With California reporting a total of 115,032 infections since the start of the pandemic, the state also recorded 3,131 new cases, according to data compiled by this news organization. That marks a seven-day average of 2,608 new cases, the highest seven-day average of new cases in California since Friday, when the state reported 3,073 new cases and a seven-day average of 2,475 new cases.
        …

        2. It is interesting how this story has evolved. At first we were told millions of people were going to die. Actual Death! In California 4,400 died, which is 0.01% of the population. Now at 50/day it’s a one in a million thing. Not so news worthy.

          So the narrative has shifted to “new cases”. You want more scary news? You need more tests! That gives you new “cases”. Cases are very scary, even if the death rate for cases is about the same as the everyday death rate for non-cases.

          With only 2 million tests performed on a population of 40 million, you can have as many “new cases” as you want for as long as you want. 6% of new test are new cases. It’s just a question of time and money.

          If the tests return up to 10% false positives, you don’t actually need real cases, just the statistical ones are fine.

          What a world!

          1. “Now at 50/day it’s a one in a million thing. Not so news worthy.”

            That many people dying from any new or unusual cause is very news worthy.

          2. At least some states (I think I read WA and WI, probably all the libtard states) are now counting positive antibody tests in their new case count to further justify their planned destruction of their economies.

          3. “At first we were told millions of people were going to die.”

            IIRC, that prediction was based on no quarantine. At this point we know that the death rate in Sweden is about ten times higher than its quarantined neighbors.

            Also it’s worth noting that we’re too early in the outbreak to have any idea of the eventual death toll. Last time I checked, it was approacing 110,000 and steadily rising. And this during a period when the sunlight was predicted to make it magically go away.

          4. prediction was based on no quarantine

            I’m not sure. We never had a quarantine anyway. We were supposed to stay at home to slow things down, not lower the total? Anyway, half the people stayed at home, mostly, sort of.

          6. Within a week, Real Journalists went from shrieking “You’re going to kill granny!” to anyone who defied stay-at-home orders, to applauding orgasmically as protestors and rioters marched arm in arm.

          7. a limited amount of economic activity permitted

            My point is that limiting economic activity is not a quarantine. Essential workers weren’t staying isolated, nor were grocery shoppers. Wearing a mask and staying 6 ft apart is not a quarantine at all.

          8. My point is that limiting economic activity is not a quarantine.

            Limiting human to human contact absolutely slows down transmission. There never was a full quarantine, and there never could be. People have to produce food and eat.

        3. Well last week you were a menace to society and potential murderer if you violated someone’s social distancing bubble but today it’s ok if you are climbing over someone’s back to smash windows at Target and steal TVs. Well at least we don’t need a vaccine anymore because we have a cure. Immunity is conferred by burning cop cars, looting Target, and chanting “f the police”. Who woulda thunk a completely novel immunological phenomenon would emerge from this. Can we fire Fauci now?

          1. There never was a quarantine. By definition you must be suck, diagnose, and isolated for it to.be a quarantine.

            Newspeak is dangerous.

            Precise language is necessary to truth.

      2. I’ve spent that much on my welders and other tools so I wouldn’t begrudge my lady if she wanted one. I’d get it for her, and enjoy using it myself!

    2. Cops need to be held accountable for their actions, but so do the scum who loot, burn, and destroy.

  15. Can somebody help me understand why white liberals and the MSM would want to foment a race war between whites and blacks?

        1. a mystery

          What’s the fun of knowing that people are easily manipulated if you don’t actually manipulate them?

    2. A thought:

      They are preparing for calls for Trump to resign, and that as the anarchy spreads that he will resign. Pence runs in November and loses to Nursing Home Joe, who will immediately resign after inauguration, promoting his female POC VP into the White House.

      1. Trump is not going to resign. He will run and he will win or lose. The rest of your thought is correct. The POC VP will preside over the worst economy since the Great Depression, and possibly over World War III with China.

      2. Not plausible. He withstood the impeachment onslaught, and he’s our President through November if not beyond.

      3. Instead of a high-testosterone Democrat female like Crooked Hillary or Kamala Harris, why not just have soy boy Beto undergo gender reassignment surgery? He’d be up for it if he got a VP gig out of the deal, in addition to being the Biden Administration’s Gun Czar.

        1. “undergo gender reassignment surgery”

          That’s another element of what “back to normal” will include. After corona virus is over and everybody has forgotten about the murder of George Floyd, and under a new Democrat Party administration and Congress, your betters will resume their campaign to put 10 year old children on hormones.

          It’s already happening in Canada and Western Europe. And any parents who resist will lose custody of their children.

    3. Can somebody help me understand why white liberals and the MSM would want to foment a race war between whites and blacks?

      I think they hope it’s an election winning strategy. And at a personal level I think many of them honestly believe conservatives are evil that needs to be vanquished. They seem completely oblivious to the evil coming from their side.

      1. All collectivist revolutions and takeovers are about one thing and one thing only: helping yourself to someone else’s shit.

    4. A divided country is distracted from identifying and uniting against the real enemy: the globalist elites who fund these organizations as well as a large number of our politicians. It’s not black vs. white, D vs. R. It’s globalists vs. anti-globalists. The globalist elites don’t like Trump’s MAGA agenda. They need and want him out.

      1. “The globalist elites don’t like Trump’s MAGA agenda. They need and want him out.”

        What has he actually done that undermines globalism? Just talking about doing things doesn’t count.

        Otherwise, I agree with your assessment of the quiet “divide and conquer” approach. But I don’t see Trump as an outsider or someone who’s derailing globalism.

        1. ‘What has he actually done that undermines globalism?’

          If one thinks about what globalism is, it can be seen in immigration (open borders), trade (“free” trade agreements), military alliances and treaties. The open borders aren’t open anymore. I live near one with Mexico and a lot has changed – even in Mexico. NAFTA is gone. The WTO has been neutered. The US refused to replace some tribunal judges and they can’t do much. Sanctions and tariffs, especially on China. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone in DC stand up to China for decades. We are now insisting that Germany, for instance, start paying their fair share for NATO. Others too, including protection agreements in Asia. Basically no more policeman of the world, and that’s huge. Just dumped the WHO. Scraped the Paris treaty, which punished the US and gave generous exemptions to China and India at our expense.

          2. Basically no more policeman of the world, and that’s huge.

            No more policeman of the world? Which country did Trump pull our military bases and forces out of.

          3. Syria and Afghanistan by the election. I forgot to mention: allying with the Brexit to stick a knife in the EU. The EU is the cornerstone of globalism. We’re renegotiating our trade with them as well, and not along WTO lines. So that’s China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Europe that’s seen “free” trade thrown out the window.

          5. Also, don’t forget the limitation on itemized deduction. It did not go all the way to parity but it reduced the deduction of mortgage interest for the buyers of million dollar homes in NY and CA. Next year, I wish that the mortgage amount for which interest can be deducted is same all over the country. i.e. no more jumbo loans.
            One hope is that CRE and non-bank lenders should be allowed to go under. No saving them. For banks I hope the government should ask for their pound of flesh if support is required. For starters, the existing executive management should be removed and barred from working in the financial field for 5 years.

        2. You miss the greater point: as long as we are the reserve currency, the common denominator foldin’ spendin’ money of the world, we ARE the police. Like it or not.

          The alternative would, for several billion people, be much worse.

          1. ‘we ARE the police. Like it or not’

            Not really a good time to emphasize that.

            ‘The alternative would, for several billion people, be much worse’

            That’s BS.

          2. At the risk of raising the ire of our gracious host, I’d like an amplification of why what I said was BS.

            Is it the fact that the USD as a common trade currency is the problem? The thing with all currency is that there has to be some force behind it to make it worth something.

            I’m just a dumb jack-of-all-trades and lack the higher-level grasp of the world but I sure see a lot of its effects down here at the worker-bee level…

          3. all currency is that there has to be some force behind it

            Not with actual specie. There only an assay is required. We’re living outside of our charter with fiat. Fiat requires force. Fiat was outlawed in the constitution for a reason, by men who were students of history.

      2. “A divided country is distracted from identifying and uniting against the real enemy: the globalist elites who fund these organizations as well as a large number of our politicians.”

        —

        “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” – Jesus, Mark 3:24-25

        “The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries, but between authoritarians and libertarians.” – George Orwell

        “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” – Thomas Paine

    5. Can somebody help me understand why white liberals and the MSM would want to foment a race war between whites and blacks?

      Good question. And so far, none of the answers I’ve seen make much sense IMHO.

    6. Thinking you have this backwards. Folks are angry at and fed up with conservative race baiting.

      1. “Thinking you have this backwards. Folks are angry at and fed up with conservative race baiting.”

        How did you get that dog up there?

      2. Folks are angry at and fed up with conservative race baiting.

        As I said, it’s not D vs. R. When you’re perennially distracted with left vs. right, you’re not looking up vs. down.

      3. Thinking you have this backwards. Folks are angry at and fed up with conservative race baiting.

        The only race-baiting I see going on is from blacks and the media.

    7. Can somebody help me understand why white liberals and the MSM would want to foment a race war between whites and blacks?”

      Get trump out of office ? IDK ?

    8. There’s two types of human categories that matter: those who are decent and those who aren’t. The decent folk of all races, colors, ethnicities, religions, genders, etc. better start linking up and drawing strength and courage from each other, because otherwise we’re headed for a new Dark Age. And I don’t mean that in a racial sense at all. I mean something like Communism that crushes and enslaves the human spirit, denies a divine spark in people, doesn’t allow people to worship their creator as they see fit, and stifles human potential.

    1. Dot gov already does this. Your locality pay is based on the location of your “work station,” that is, your laptop.

      I wonder if working from home is going to destroy rural areas the same way the California equity locusts destroyed Oregon and Idaho, and wealthy Chinese destroyed Vancouver and coastal Cali. All you need is a couple dozen Facebook employees to move to a desirable resort or beach town. Sure, they make $150K instead of $250K. That would still allow them to bid up a $120K house to $200K, pricing out the locals.

      1. Even my little 10k Wyoming hometown could absorb a couple dozen. It’s when you get hundreds that it’s a problem. And that’s the beauty of freedom, I think it’s unlikely that anywhere small is going to get very many. They’ll scatter to the 4 winds if given the opportunity. And while yes, they’ll probably vote left in their new locations, it won’t be enough to swing many elections. And then they’ll actually start to learn something about people who are different than them. I think work from anywhere is win/win for everyone.

        1. If there’s no SBUX or hot yoga joint in West Bumblefart, WY then I think they’re safe from the coder-bros.

          I once did some contract work for a company in Kalispell that supplies chip makers like Intel with certain manufacturing systems. Pretty modern mechatronics engineering in the middle of range country but not too many of the modern money-sucking “gotta have” chain store frippery to be found. It takes a certain kind of (independent, humble?) person to want to get up and go to work during those 4 miserable months of the year in a place like that. More so when your an experienced enginerd that could rake in VC-bro $$$ on the coast…

          1. If there’s no SBUX or hot yoga joint in West Bumblefart, WY then I think they’re safe from the coder-bros.

            Generally true. There is a subset of bros who like ice climbing or fly fishing or trophy hunting or even wind surfing in high winds who like being close to Yellowstone. I could see a couple dozen showing up, at least for a few years until they get sick of the cold and wind. Summers are beautiful. Which also brings up that there might be some people who like to summer in one place and winter in another who might love the new system. But they probably wouldn’t buy?

          2. Laramie and Cheyenne are fairly close to Fort Collins, though they are “big cities” in Wyoming. I’m sure they both have a few Starbucks. Heck, there’s one in every Safeway and King Soopers in my little burg.

          3. There is currently not even one hang gliding instructor in Washington state. California, at least sixty. The issue, winter means no training income. In Washington there’s roughly 22-weeks of nice weather per year, mid May to early Oct.

          4. You’re probably referring to Semitool, now part of Applied Materials.

            The story as I heard it a couple decades ago was that Semitool started in the Bay Area, but the founder got tired Silicon Valley (and its costs), so he moved the company to Kalispell.

            Typically, moves aren’t as far, to Nevada or Arizona, or within California (e.g. Bay Area to Sacramento, like Galil Motion Control did). US Digital went from SoCal to Vancouver, WA.

          5. BTW, besides US Digital there are some encoder companies in fun locations, like Encoder Products (they make REALLY nice encoders) in Sagle, ID. Quantum Devices is in Barneveld, WI. Gurley Precision is in Troy, NY.

    2. They might be disappointed when their pay is cut!

      Pretty much all Silly Valley companies pay their flyover employees quite a bit less.

    3. Funny how pay rates so often reflect the local cost of living. There isn’t one universal marketplace.

  17. “The number of real estate contracts signed for Manhattan apartments plunged 84% in May compared with last year.

    Is that a lot?

  18. The pain in Manhattan real estate will be felt most at the top — where an oversupply of pricey new condo towers and penthouses were already weighing on prices.

    With the Fed getting ready to escalate its swindles against the 99% by imposing negative interest rates, New York’s financier oligarchy will again be the sole beneficiaries of these fraudsters’ Keynesian monetary policies. That will likely put a floor under the price of uber-luxury skyboxes in Manhattan, at least.

  19. But one of the biggest monthly expenses is a home mortgage.

    Until you stop paying it, that is.

    1. I wonder if there’s still anyone living for free in a house that they haven’t paid on since ~2009? 🙂

  21. 🔬 Got a Blood.Type? 👾… munch, munch, munch …

    (Eye have NO evidence-based proof, but skeeters everywhere eye goes, have a delusional frenzy when it comes to ol’ Hwy50’s blood.)

    Blood group type may affect susceptibility to COVID-19 respiratory failure

    By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.Jun 3 2020

    A group of over 120 researchers from various institutions across Europe has performed the first genome-wide association study to reveal host genetic factors that may contribute to respiratory failure in cases of coronavirus disease 209 (COVID-19).

    The authors say the genetic variants they have identified could help guide further research into the pathophysiology of COVID-19 and aid the clinical risk profiling of patients.

    A total of 8,582,968 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed, and a meta-analysis of the Italian and Spanish cohorts was conducted.

    What did the study find?
    The team detected a cross-replicating association between SNPs on chromosome 3 and chromosome 9 that reached genome-wide significance.

    In the lungs, this protein, which is called Sodium/Imino-acid Transporter 1 (SIT1), is mainly expressed in pneumocytes, and the authors think these cells should be investigated for any involvement that SIT1 may have in viral entry.

    A lead SNP was also identified on chromosome 9 at the ABO blood group locus, and further analysis showed that A-positive participants were at a 45% increased for respiratory failure, while individuals with blood group O were at a 35% decreased risk for respiratory failure.

    The authors say that early clinical reports have suggested the ABO blood group system is involved in determining susceptibility to COVID-19 and has also been implicated in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-1.

    A pre-print version of the paper is available on the server medRxiv*, while the article undergoes peer review.
    *Important Notice
    medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

    Aw pshaw, 🎤📢 “it’s just a common cold folks!”

  22. ‘That $6,000 at the end of the three months is now owed. Perhaps you would pay that back with an extra $500 per month for 12 months.

    Ah, but there’s a fly in the ointment, Mike. Most of the speculators and FBs who bought those shacks did so in the expectation ever-rising home prices would offset their signing a mortgage for a house they couldn’t afford. Asking these FBs to come up with an extra $500 a month is a bridge too far. They gambled, and they lost. And now they have two choices: sell at a loss, or walk away. Or squat until they get evicted.

    1. A former high-level Obama administration intelligence official has guaranteed the $250,000 bail for the New York City lawyer who allegedly firebombed an unoccupied NYPD police cruiser early Saturday, calling the suspect her “best friend,” Fox News has confirmed.

      The Washington Free Beacon first reported that Salmah Rizvi, who served in the Defense Department and State Department during the Obama administration, went to bat for Urooj Rahman, who was arrested this weekend alongside Pryor Cashman associate Colinford Mattis.

      Rizvi, an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray, told the court: “Urooj Rahman is my best friend and I am an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C. … I earn $255,000 a year.”

      The Free Beacon noted that, according to her biography at the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Rizvi’s “high-value work would often inform the president’s daily briefs.” Rizvi’s biography on Ropes & Gray’s website states that she was an analyst “focusing primarily on sanctioned finance operations.”

      Rizvi additionally received scholarship funds from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, founded by the brother of left-wing megadonor George Soros.

      1. It’s obvious these people are anti-Trumpers trying to bring chaos and mayhem in an effort to undermine Trump. This has nothing to do with Floyd. It’s time for the right to stand up. Hanging out quietly in your living room with your guns isn’t going to do jack sh!t to stop these terrorists.

      2. Every once in awhile, we get to hear someone like that telling it like it is.

    3. Only $250k bail for throwing a Molotov cocktail into an occupied car?

      WTF

      That’s at least $750k shy.

    4. The Axis of Evil composed of the financier oligarchy, the Deep State, and the Democrats

      These entities together are far more dangerous than the original “axis of evil.”

Comments are closed.