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They Feel It’s A Buyer’s Market And They Can Dictate The Pricing

A report from 8 News Now in Nevada. “8 News Now spoke with market experts who told us the public health crisis caused a lot of transactions to fall through, but buyers can now actually get a new home faster. Weekly sales dropped substantially as canceled transactions spiked from 28% to 79%. Those homes still had to be built, but now there are more move-in ready homes available.”

“‘The downside of that was the cancellations, as you can imagine, after the pandemic did hit,’ said Nat Hodgson of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. ‘You might be getting a premium because it is move-in ready, and someone needs a house.'”

The Bend Bulletin in Oregon. “From April to May, the median sales price for a single-family home dropped from $468,000 to $445,000, according to the Beacon Appraisal Group of Redmond. The median price for a single-family home in Redmond dropped $20,000 last month after hitting a record high of $358,000 in April, according to the report. In Sunriver, the median price dropped about $60,000 during the two-month span to $516,000.”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “The luxury-condo market was oversupplied even before this year. Once pandemic restrictions began, Realtors were forced to go virtual. To attract buyers, they added incentives and dropped prices. The sales team behind Armani/Casa is offering gift cards worth $25,000 for home buyers to purchase furniture from Armani/Casa, said Sebastian Tettamanti, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Dezer Development.”

“Since May, the tower is also allowing potential buyers to rent for a year, paying $9,000 to $25,000 per month and buy a year later, with their monthly payments going toward the purchase. Another incentive offered to potential luxury-condo buyers? Flooring. It’s one less thing for a buyer to worry about, said Miltiadis Kastanis, Douglas Elliman director of luxury sales. But the ultimate draw is discounting. Aware of the slowdown in sales activity and the oversupply, potential buyers are looking to negotiate prices.”

“‘They feel it’s a buyer’s market and they can dictate the pricing,’ Tettamanti said.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “David Geffen turned L.A.’s real estate market on its head once again last week when he entered escrow on a Beverly Hills estate owned by L.A. Olympics Organizing Committee president Casey Wasserman. Now details are starting to surface, and real estate sources say the media mogul is paying about $68 million for the ultra-modern mansion. It’s a staggering sum but still quite shy of the $82.5 million Wasserman was asking (and significantly less than his original price tag of $125 million).”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “Rents are down 9% from a year ago in San Francisco and over 15% in some tech hubs in the South Bay, according to a recent report by Zumper. That trend will likely accelerate as layoffs mount and workers, newly liberated by work-from-home options, flee the Bay Area for cheaper cities, according to housing experts. Owners are increasingly scrambling to get tenants to sign leases, offering months of free rent, signing bonuses, and other discounts.”

“‘The balance of power has shifted to the tenants — there is no question about it,’ said Joe Tobener, an attorney who represents tenants. Many landlords are proactively cutting rent — usually by 10% or 15% — as an incentive for tenants to stay, Tobener said. Other tenants are taking the matter into their own hands — reaching out to see if their current landlord will give them a better deal.”

“Oakland, which has been furiously producing housing over the last two years, has about 10,000 units either under construction or recently completed. This includes 2,600 units being built around the Broadway-Valdez neighborhood.”

“John Pawlowski, a senior analyst covering the apartment market for Green Street Advisors, said that Oakland housing — most of it targeting high-wage earners — could take a long time to fill up with renters. And competition will be fierce with continued free rent incentives. He said demand for new condos will be ‘very, very thin as the impact of job losses spreads across industries.'”

“Ken Rosen, an economist at UC Berkeley, said that very few market-rate projects will break ground in the foreseeable future. ‘New developments were not penciling anyway,’ Rosen said. He said the greater Civic Center area in San Francisco — where there are 2,000 units under construction — would likely see steeper declines than other parts of the city, largely because of the homeless encampments and drug dealing that have spread throughout the neighborhood during the health emergency.”

From Mansion Global on New York. “A top-floor condo along New York City’s Billionaires’ Row has sold for nearly $20 million less than it did five years ago—a stunning loss in one of the city’s most luxurious buildings. The five-bedroom apartment spans the entire 88th floor of One57, a supertall luxury condominium completed in 2013. It closed in the midst of the ongoing pandemic for $28 million—marking a 40% loss, according to newly filed property documents.”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “CoreLogic said that 3.7% of D-FW homeowners with loans had missed at least one mortgage payment in March — the same as in December and slightly less than in March 2019. Only 1.2% of D-FW mortgages were ‘seriously delinquent.’ Looking at major Texas metros, Houston had the largest percentage of home loans with late payments at 4.9%. And in Austin, only 2.4% of homeowners had missed at least one payment.”

From ABC 57 in Indiana. “Ryan Johnson and his family have lived in their house in Mishawaka for nearly 15 years but due to some unforeseen circumstances, he’s now being forced to sell his home during a pandemic. ‘We are selling because the house is being foreclosed on and we are trying to beat the foreclosure by quick-sale,’ Johnson said.”

“Like many families who have hit hard times, Johnson and his have been thrust into the real estate market. But he had no clue that now is actually the best time for him to sell his home. And although Johnson hasn’t sold his home just yet, he is hopeful. ‘I’m hoping to yes,’ Johnson said. ‘It’s very important to sell.'”

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This Post Has 125 Comments

  1. ‘Weekly sales dropped substantially as canceled transactions spiked from 28% to 79%’

    Is that a lot?

    ‘paying about $68 million for the ultra-modern mansion. It’s a staggering sum but still quite shy of the $82.5 million Wasserman was asking (and significantly less than his original price tag of $125 million’

    ‘sold for nearly $20 million less than it did five years ago…marking a 40% loss’

    A lot?

    2. canceled transactions spiked from 28% to 79%’

      so pending sales can depend on lots of things
      depends

  2. ‘New developments were not penciling anyway’

    That’s why they were all for sale a year and a half ago. The bubble popped way back.

    ‘He said the greater Civic Center area in San Francisco — where there are 2,000 units under construction — would likely see steeper declines than other parts of the city, largely because of the homeless encampments and drug dealing that have spread throughout the neighborhood’

    But, weather?

    1. One should pause at a statement like this. Not pencil means not profitable. But this is one of the most expensive cities on the planet? How could it not be profitable? They paid too much for the land. And there’s your bubble Ken. The whole sh$t-cart is coming down around them and they can’t bring themselves to admit it’s a mania.

      1. “Not pencil means not profitable.”

        That’s right. Always be alert to the “it doesn’t pencil out” BS. Other times it’s invoked by know-nothings who commonly talk like a man with a paper asshole.

  3. ‘We are selling because the house is being foreclosed on and we are trying to beat the foreclosure by quick-sale’

    ‘But he had no clue that now is actually the best time for him to sell his home. And although Johnson hasn’t sold his home just yet, he is hopeful. ‘I’m hoping to yes,’ Johnson said. ‘It’s very important to sell’

    Even with an FB, we get the REIC BS.

    1. If your house is going to be worth less tomorrow, I guess today is the best time to sell.

      1. Like the distinguished economist said, “Get what you can get for your house today because it’s going to be less tomorrow for decades to come.”

        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

    2. He makes it sound like the house is foreclosing by itself and he had nothing to do with it. I wonder if he refi’d not too long ago.

      1. “…He makes it sound like the house is foreclosing by itself…”

        You would think.

        Something else is going on.

        Maybe living beyond his means? Nah, that won’t happen. People these days just have too much common sense.

        After 15 years, ya’d think he paid down the mortgage a bit and a accumulated some rainy day savings.

        Wonder if that 4WD HELOC financed monster sitting in his driveway might of had something to do with it.

      2. “I wonder if he refi’d not too long ago.”

        Now that you mention it I have been deleting and throwing away cash out refi offers for at least the last several years. I hadn’t thought about but although I never took them up on turning the place I sleep into an ATM machine their offers seemed to stop right about the time the Death Cloud of Coronavirus covered the planet.

        1. I’ve heard that it’s very smart to borrow from your own house!

          Why, I saw it in my FB feed today.

  5. “From April to May, the median sales price for a single-family home dropped from $468,000 to $445,000, according to the Beacon Appraisal Group of Redmond. The median price for a single-family home in Redmond dropped $20,000 last month after hitting a record high of $358,000 in April, according to the report. In Sunriver, the median price dropped about $60,000 during the two-month span to $516,000.”

    Would this be a good time for real estate specuvestors to buy the dip?

    1. There’s never been a better time to invest in slumdog millionaire rental housing!

      Cleveland Is a House-Flipping Hot Spot, and Covid Adds Fuel
      Real-estate investors are moving away from the Sunbelt to lower-price markets inland, scooping up homes to turn into rentals
      By Ryan Dezember
      | Photographs by Andrew Spear for The Wall Street Journal
      Updated June 8, 2020 1:52 pm ET

      CLEVELAND—Economic upheaval has investors hunting for cheap houses. Many are finding them on the shores of Lake Erie.

      The pandemic has stoked demand among investors, who were already buying more than one of every 10 homes sold in the U.S. They started gorging on houses after the last recession served up millions of foreclosures, and they’ve kept buying despite rising home prices, wagering on a permanent suburban rental class.
      …

      1. That permanent suburban renter class doesn’t have the means to create positive cash flow. Without appreciation people buying single family homes as investments are doomed to lose money.

        2. Bye bye FIRE crowd. Their smug buzzwords are “passive income” and “I scraped up blah blah and bought my first rental property…” Hope they bite it hard.

    2. I live in Bend and these people are absolutely nuts. I heard someone say “Prices here will never go down as everyone from Portland will move here”. To do what? We have 19% unemployment in Central Oregon and you couldn’t find a job here paying more that $19 an hour if there were any available. This town was destroyed in 2008…..These folks have no memory

      1. WFH people. People that sold high in California and bought in Oregon cash money…

        Still, I don’t see how the average house is 450K there.

  6. “Since May, the tower is also allowing potential buyers to rent for a year, paying $9,000 to $25,000 per month and buy a year later, with their monthly payments going toward the purchase. ”

    How stupid? People may be willing to spend this much on mortgage IF they assume another sucker (greater fool) will buy for a higher price. However, no one is stupid enough to rent it at this price.

    1. It’s to politically unstable to buy anything other than a sandwich.

      The parasites will no doubt raise property taxes or anything they can to further the big nanny Government.

      If the radical Dems get in just kiss any America as we knew it goodbye.

      1. Is there meat in that sandwich? If so, you are murdering people for that sandwich via COVID infections. (yes, that was a real comment that I read)

  7. Denial ain’t a river in Egypt.

    The Financial Times
    Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
    Coronavirus
    China rejects Harvard study suggesting Covid-19 was circulating last summer
    Scientists used satellite images and online search data to indicate early arrival of virus in Wuhan
    A woman has her temperature checked in Wuhan, China, in January
    © Getty Images
    Clive Cookson, Science Editor 3 hours ago

    China has angrily rejected findings by scientists at Harvard University that coronavirus started circulating in the city of Wuhan at the end of last summer — months earlier than Chinese authorities have admitted.

    The researchers from Harvard and Boston universities came to that conclusion after analysing satellite images of hospital car parks in Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, and queries on China’s Baidu search engine about disease symptoms such as a cough and diarrhoea.

    “We observe an upward trend in hospital traffic and search volume beginning in late summer and early fall 2019,” the scientists wrote in a paper released online but not peer-reviewed.

    Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, dismissed the findings when she was asked about them at a daily press briefing on Tuesday. “To derive these conclusions from phenomena such as road vehicle traffic . . . is extremely preposterous,” she added.

    The Harvard scientists extracted data for Wuhan hospital parking volume between January 2018 and April 2020 and found a steep increase in traffic that began in August 2019 and peaked in December. Searches for cough and diarrhoea from Baidu users in Wuhan rose steeply over the same period.

    “This finding lines up with the recent recognition that gastrointestinal symptoms are a unique feature of Covid-19 disease and may be the chief complaint of a significant proportion of presenting patients,” the researchers said.
    …

    1. China is a liar and they have proven time and time again that they are out for themselves.
      Bring back all manufacturing to the USA , including millions of jobs that were loss to China. If USA Companies want to prop up Communist China than they can’t be considered a USA Company anymore. They should get a whopper tariff put on them so new USA Companies can spring up and those monopolies can just drive up or change their loyalty to the USA.. And how about a extra tax for every job that was outsourced that created more welfare in USA as well as less tax revenue from lost jobs.

        1. As long as you believe that nothing can be corrected than it won’t. It’s not about wanting a pony, t’s about going back to what was set up by the Founders to begin with.

          1. If the founders had foreseen this, they probably would have written something into the constitution to prevent it. Wasn’t really on the radar back before the industrial revolution.

            The Constitution was written for a world that no longer exists, with an amendment process that doesn’t work any more. It’s like we’re trying to run our civilization on Windows 3.0.

          2. It’s like we’re trying to run our civilization on

            timeless principles that were actually written on paper!

            In Script.

          3. Nothing fundamentally wrong with the Constitution or the amendment process. It’s all the other federal government bloat and overreach since then.

        3. The Constitution was written for a world that no longer exists,

          Human nature is constant.

        1. “Can’t wait for those $5000 IPhones.”

          Yeah, I agree. The Chinese probably don’t have diversity hiring “challenges”, or have to install a third restroom, or have a petting room so that you can visit your personal comfort animal. Bottom line, we phuc’d ourselves!

    2. Diarrhea is not a unique feature of anything. It’s one of the most common side effects of practically every ailment and drug out there.

      1. My family members and I frequently come down with coronavirus-caused illness* that present upper-respiratory symptoms but no diarrhea.

        * Aka “the common cold”

        1. Aka “the common cold”

          Which is caused by other corona viruses. However, not all corona viruses are created equal. The common cold is the toy poodle of the virus world — annoying AF but not actually dangerous. COVID-19 is mean as junkyard dog.

          1. “…not all corona viruses are created equal.”

            That was exactly my point of disagreement with Oxide’s claim:

            “It’s one of the most common side effects of practically every ailment and drug out there.”

        2. In my time I’ve treated a few 1000 people with upper respiratory viruses. It was quite common for the “upper respiratory” part to be preceded by diarrhea, which sometimes completely cleared hours before any upper respiratory symptoms began.

    3. The Financial Times
      Mamta Badkar 3 hours ago
      Emoticon
      WHO backtracks on claim asymptomatic transmission is ‘very rare’
      Anna Gross and Harry Dempsey in London

      The WHO on Tuesday backtracked on claims that it is “very rare” for asymptomatic sufferers of Covid-19 to transmit the virus.

      Current evidence suggests that between 6 and 41 per cent of the population could have Covid-19 without showing symptoms and that some of those individuals are able to pass on the disease, said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 lead at the WHO.

      “We do know that some people who are asymptomatic, or some people who don’t have symptoms, can transmit the virus on,” she said. “What we need to better understand is how many of the people in the population don’t have symptoms and, separately, how many of those individuals go on to transmit to others.”

      The statement came after Dr Van Kerkhove said during the WHO’s press briefing on Monday, “we have a number of reports from countries that are doing very detailed contact tracing. They’re following asymptomatic cases, they’re following contacts and they’re not finding secondary transmission, it’s very rare.”

      She added: “From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual”, citing a published study from Singapore and other unpublished studies.

      Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths, a researcher specialising in modeling from UCL’s institute of epidemiology and health, said she was surprised by the WHO’s earlier announcement and that it should not be interpreted as a “green card” to relax social distancing rules.

      Monica Gandhi, professor of medicine at UCSF, said that “a virus which has spread this crazily dictates that we have no way of distinguishing between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases at this stage.”

      She added that there is growing evidence the proportion of asymptomatic cases could be higher among populations that wear masks since the virus load that they are exposed to is reduced.

        1. “Even In A Pandemic, WHO Believes That Public Protests Are Important”

          In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization took time at its daily press conference to address another pressing issue: the wave of protests against police violence and racial injustice.”

          “WHO fully supports equality and the global movement against racism. We reject discrimination of all kinds,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on June 8.

          – Clearly, the World Health Organization (WHO?) is apolitical in their actions, philosophies, and views. It’s all about health, and only health. Absolutely no leanings or favoritism towards CCP, communism/socialism, globalism, leftist or liberal policies, dogma, or propaganda. /s

      2. Basically they don’t know squat, but will keep studying it and publishing studies contradicting previous studies ad infinitum.

        Masks good/bad
        HCL good/bad
        Young at risk/no risk
        Man made/natural
        Ventilators save lives/kill people faster
        8,792 experimental drugs show promise/are complete failures
        virus “lives” on surfaces for days/ok maybe minutes

  9. Ryan Johnson and his family have lived in their house in Mishawaka for nearly 15 years but due to some unforeseen circumstances, he’s now being forced to sell his home during a pandemic.

    Oh boy… if you’ve lived in a house for 15 years and now is being foreclosed you’ve have totally fawked up… why people do this? in Indiana, the house was probably 100K… though looks like he bought at peak around 2006 prices.

    1. It’s a whole new world now… rule of law is over. If you’re not grifting, you’re not trying.

          1. I disagree with your post above that the Constitution doesn’t apply to this new World.
            What you have today is incentive for being a parasite or a Global looter.

            You just change the incentives to reward good behavior, as was done in the good old days.
            It’s timeless that humans will exploit that which can be exploited or corrupted.

            Big Government was a big departure from the Founders vision. Communism theory wasn’t even invented yet by Karl Mark.
            Making everyone equal is a silly idea because that would take sway all human incentive as the welfare State shows it does.

          2. Global war and massive death, same as always.

            Except now we have excellent tools to make it happen fast. How many people could get out of Dodge in time once they learn that the missiles are coming? Probably only the ones on the very outskirts of the metro area. Everyone else would get nuked while sitting in a traffic jam in their SUV.

      2. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in his final book “200 Years Together,” tells how the Bolsheviks–funded wholly by New York banking Houses of Schiff and Loeb–started systematically assassinating Russian police in the lead-up to the “Russian” Revolution to throw Czarist Russia into turmoil. There’s a reason that book is the only one of his works that has never been translated into English.

        2. It isn’t hard to translate a book into a major international language and publish it. One can only speculate why this particular one still is not available in English…

        3. The Creature from Jekyll Island, Chapter 13, Masquerade in Moscow

          From Amazon where it has 4.7 out of 5.0 stars from 1,233 ratings: Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magicians’ secrets are unveiled. We get a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, their pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A dry and boring subject? Just wait! You’ll be hooked in five minutes. Reads like a detective story – which it really is. But it’s all true. This book is about the most blatant scam of all history. It’s all here: the cause of wars, boom-bust cycles, inflation, depression, prosperity. Creature from Jekyll Island is a “must read.” Your world view will definitely change. You’ll never trust a politician again – or a banker.

          1. Just a heads up. I won’t comment further on the book, but the author is a proven liar. He’s the financial world’s Erich Von Daniken. He’s a media darling though, and it’s hard to find real info on him. It might be worth your while to do a deep dive into his background, if he’s of any real interest to you.

          2. a proven liar

            Or someone who challenges official narratives. Let’s look at Wikipedia:
            “G. Edward Griffin (born November 7, 1931) is an American author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist. Griffin’s writings promote a number of views and conspiracy theories regarding various of his political, defense and health care interests. In his book World Without Cancer, he argued in favor of a pseudo-scientific theory that asserted cancer to be a nutritional deficiency curable by consuming amygdalin.[2][3][4] He is the author of The Creature from Jekyll Island (1994), which promotes false theories about the motives behind the creation of the Federal Reserve System.[2][5] He is an HIV/AIDS denialist, supports the 9/11 Truth movement, and supports a specific John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory.[2]” (emphasis added, ad hominem attacks)

            References [2] and [5] are Media Matters for America and The Daily Beast, respectively. It might be worth your while to do a deep dive on their credibility and motivations of those organizations. Who has strong ties to HRC and by extension the globalist agenda being outed in this book? Oh!

    1. “With no public bathrooms, the Big Apple is now ‘the Big Toilet’ “

      – This applies to any “Blue” city (or State): “Socialism is Western Civilization in retrograde.” Recall the recent “toilet troubles” in SF, CA, or LA, CA, or Denver, CO, or …., etc., etc., etc.
      – Reminds me of the Dark Ages, where streets were open sewers. Back to the future.

      1. During this pandemic some states re-opened their public parks while keeping the restrooms locked up. They all learned the unintended consequences of inviting members of the public to show up in a more remote location that lacks restrooms.

  12. 8 News Now spoke with market experts who told us the public health crisis caused a lot of transactions to fall through, but buyers can now actually get a new home faster

    Yeah, but why would you?

  13. The sales team behind Armani/Casa is offering gift cards worth $25,000 for home buyers to purchase furniture from Armani/Casa, said Sebastian Tettamanti, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Dezer Development.”

    High-end furniture will be on sale for a fraction of its retail purchase price on Craigslist once the FBs start their pre-foreclosure liquidation sales.

  14. And although Johnson hasn’t sold his home just yet, he is hopeful. ‘I’m hoping to yes,’ Johnson said. ‘It’s very important to sell.’”

    Johnson sounds a few IQ points short of moron.

    1. “ why I would ever buy a house in one of these municipalities.”
      It boggles the mind. How is the average housing value in large metros (200% , 300, or even 400%?!?) so much higher than the rest of the country?

        2. The bad news is that we just added $6 trillion to that debt wheelbarrow. Good luck in 2050 grandkids!

  18. Further proof that we are still we within a fiction economy:

    Nikola, which also makes semi trucks, is now worth about $26 billion based on Monday’s closing price, even though it’s not expected to generate any sales — let alone profits — until 2021.

    This makes the company more valuable than Ford (F) and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) and it is catching up fast to GM (GM) — a fact that Milton boasted about on Twitter on Monday, saying that “‘I’ve wanted to say this my whole adult life; $NKLA is now worth more than Ford and FCA. Nipping on the heels of GM.”

    Nikola already has announced sales to big customers, including an 800-truck order from Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) and a multimillion dollar order with freight shipper US Xpress Enterprises (USX).

    A company that hasn’t shipped a single product is “worth” $26B. There is definitely way too much money sloshing around.

    Is there even a real market for electric semi’s? InBev probably ordered some to virtue signal.

    1. Is there even a real market for electric semi’s?

      Semis are all about total cost of ownership. I haven’t heard any numbers for what one will cost and how it will get recharged in a timely way on the road. But as soon as fully automated operation is allowed I expect them to be a big deal. How many years away is that, though?

    2. “ Is there even a real market for electric semi’s? InBev probably ordered some to virtue signal.”
      Or most likely the InBev. exec that made the call got his wife’s holding company/charity a boatload of low cost options on shares in Nikola attached to the deal.

  19. The San Francisco Chronicle in California.

    “John Pawlowski, a senior analyst covering the apartment market for Green Street Advisors, said that Oakland housing — most of it targeting high-wage earners [read “luxury”] — could take a long time to fill up with renters. And competition will be fierce with continued free rent incentives. He said demand for new condos will be ‘very, very thin as the impact of job losses spreads across industries.’ ”

    – Housing prices were already insanely expensive before the pandemic.
    – Leftist city councils supporting public defecation and urination, open drug use, decriminalization of minor crimes, homeless encampments pretty much anywhere, etc.
    – Then add the pandemic, with lockdowns, and working from home (i.e. remotely, and an escape route to the hinterlands).
    – Now include widespread riots.
    – There was already a trend of moving out of major metros, esp. SF, CA and surrounding areas. Now becoming an exodus of high earners and others with critical thinking skills and common sense.
    – The retrograde evolution of the Blue city can easily be predicted. Just look at any of those already ahead on the timeline. Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL come to mind.
    – Who in their right mind, given the opportunity to live elsewhere, would want to stay in such a sh*t-hole?
    – But, as per usual, no socialist government apparatchik “could have seen this coming.” (Just like the collapse of housing bubble 2.0)

    1. “Every leftist movement, from Lenin’s to Castro’s, serves first an apparat that finds ways to avoid the real consequences of its own ideological agendas — consequences that fall on the far poorer, less glamorous, and less influential others.” — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, “Two Resistances,” 5 Sep. 2017

      1. an apparat that finds ways to avoid the real consequences of its own ideological agendas

        And as others here have pointed out, useful idiots think we will be part of the apparat.

        consequences that fall on the far poorer, less glamorous, and less influential others

        And the useful idiots never think they will be one of those “others”.

    2. – One more. Need to add “defunding” the police departments. This is totally new and reflects even more extreme crazy-ness. Yeah, that will draw new city residents like bees to honey. /s Good luck with that. Better take that concealed carry class ASAP! You’re gonna need it!

      1. Better take that concealed carry class ASAP!

        The permit won’t be needed soon enough if we defund the police. Who would check it?

    3. “ – The retrograde evolution of the Blue city can easily be predicted. Just look at any of those already ahead on the timeline. Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL come to mind.” I would certainly add Detroit here. Been going downward since the 90s.

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      US economy
      Fed faces tricky balancing act in recession response
      Central bank’s first forecasts in six months could unnerve investors expecting dovish policy
      The Federal Reserve declined to publish its macroeconomic projections in March because of rapidly changing circumstances
      © REUTERS
      James Politi in Washington and Colby Smith in New York yesterday

      Federal Reserve officials are facing a delicate transition to the next stage of their response to the pandemic-induced recession, as they prepare to release their first economic forecasts in six months at this week’s meeting.

      The Fed’s macroeconomic projections — which it declined to publish in March because the situation was shifting so rapidly — come after the US jobs report showed a surprising uptick in new hiring after two months of deep job losses, and in the middle of sharp rebound in stock prices.

      Many economists are expecting Fed officials to signal that output will shrink by a big margin this year, with interest rates remaining on hold at zero for the next few years, which would reinforce their dovish stance and determination to keep monetary policy very loose.

      “It will underscore that things are getting better but we are still miles away from full employment and price stability,” said Aneta Markowska, chief economist at Jefferies. “It’s probably going to take a long time before we get there so let’s not declare victory prematurely.”

      But the Fed and its chair Jay Powell face a tricky balancing act at their meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Any hesitation in terms of their willingness to support the economy could disrupt markets, which have seen equities rally and yields on government debt rise.

      “There is a real risk of a June 2013-type taper tantrum with rates and longer-term yields accelerating higher if the Fed is not resolutely dovish,” Krishna Guha and Ernie Tedeschi of Evercore ISI wrote in a note on Monday. “We think the Fed will signal that it remains . . . committed to using its full range of tools to promote the recovery.”
      …

    2. “Did the Fed fail to sufficiently reassure Wall Street today that all is well?”

      – The “markets” are ridiculously overvalued. That alone is a necessary and sufficient condition for lower stock prices. The Fed can encourage speculative behavior only until said speculators become risk-averse. I guess the Robinhood “investors” were all taking a coffee break into the close. 🙂 Bizzaro financial world live in we do.

      – However, the following quote is still applicable:

      “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” – John Maynard Keynes, (attributed), English economist (1883 – 1946)

    3. Did the Fed fail to sufficiently reassure Wall Street today that all is well?

      After a brief rally, there are always profit takers.

  22. US dollar dumped for 9th straight days. Zimbabwe R Us, thanks to the Fed and its deranged money printing.

  23. The old USA is not a shoe fits all. There is a serious disconnect. I was just reading a thread on Reddit personal finance about people making 3.5K house pmts each a every month like is peanuts, stating net income in the 10K-12K monthly….
    then I read here about that guy in Indiana podunk town who can’t make a pmt on a house he bought 15 years ago that was probably under 100K, his payment should be like 200 bucks…
    -America … what’s your dream?

    1. Let’s just say that the broke guy in Indiana is far more representative of the nation than the few people who clear 10-12K a month

    2. 10-12k net for a 2 income professional couple is nothing to get excited about. People still have this idea that 100k a year (ooooh 6 figure salary) is a lot of money. 20 or 30 years years ago maybe. Today, not really. In Seattle, teachers with 15 years on the job can make 100k alone. Marry a mid to senior level IT worker and you’re talking 250k HH income easy.

      $3500 isn’t peanuts but as a % of 250k a year it isn’t much.

        2. In Seattle A married professional couple earning 250k is not uncommon. And for that couple, not the population at large, $3500 for a mortgage is no big deal. That was my point.

          Remember too when you look at IRs data it is AGI. That 250k gross easily turns to 175k AGI.

          2. And for that couple, not the population at large, $3500 for a mortgage is no big deal.

            And for Larry Ellison owning an entire Hawaiian island is no big deal.

      3. I guess it’s hunky-dory, until that IT worker loses his/her 150K job. That would blow a rather large hole in the family budget.

    1. BTW speaking of Seattle, “Seattle Is Dying” is worth a look, a one hour piece on the out of control homeless situation there…from a Sinclair station so they have a Fox News like outlook however much has the ring of truth, in particular the contention that it is primarily a drug problem, not a housing issue. https://youtu.be/bpAi70WWBlw

  25. I posted here over the weekend about Missoula, It’s a feeding frenzy. I suspect much of it is people in Blue cities running away as far as they can from the looting and Wuhan disease. Same story in Bozeman from what I hear from friends. Problem is the more they move here the more Missoula and Bozeman turn into Seattle or San Francisco. Ugh.

    My parents own a 2500 sq home on 3 acres with some amazing views, 20 miles south of the city. They get at least 1 unsolicited offer a week from agents. Cash Buyer from Seattle, Denver, SF or LA, 30 day close just name your price. My parents will be buried in Montana so that offer will not be taken for a while to come. But it gives you an idea of what it’s like in the area.

    I’m tempted to sell into this frenzy myself. But then what? Where do I go? places where prices are falling are places I don’t want to live like Las Vegas or San Francisco. There’s a reason prices are falling there. So I’ll just stick around and watch the show around me.

  26. Watch what you say or the mob will show up.

    LA Galaxy release Serbian soccer star Aleksander Katai over wife’s racist social media posts

    June 6, 2020, 12:22 PM EDT
    By Phil McCausland

    The Major League Soccer club met with Katai on Thursday after it was made aware of two of his wife’s Instagram posts that she shared the day before. After fans protested outside the LA Galaxy stadium, the club announced in a one-sentence statement on Friday that it would drop Katai from its roster.

    Tea Katai deleted the Instagram posts in question, but the first showed a picture of New York Police Department officers’ driving into a crowd of protesters, with a line in Serbian that translates to “kill those s—s,” The Associated Press reported.

    The second post shows an alleged looter carrying a box of sneakers with the caption, “Black Nikes Matter.” A third post called protesters “disgusting cattle,” also in Serbian.

    Katai said in his own Instagram post that his wife’s posts were a mistake for which he took responsibility, and he apologized “for the pain these posts have caused the LA Galaxy family and all allies in the fight against racism.”

    “I strongly condemn white supremacy, racism and violence towards people of color,” Katai said. “Black lives matter.”

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/la-galaxy-release-serbian-soccer-star-aleksander-katai-over-wife-n1226601

    1. No one cares about soccer in this country anyway and with the fake pandemic whatever part of that sport wasn’t bleeding red ink is now on its last breath. He got himself a good woman, needs to move to east Europe where it seems they still have an upright culture instead of the wasteland that is the US.

      My dental hygienist today remarked about how sick she was with the media making out this career criminal scumbag into a saint. Shes a Japanese woman, they aren’t too prone to strong political statements.

      1. the media making out this career criminal scumbag into a saint.

        I like someone who tells it like it is.

        1. “I like someone who tells it like it is.”

          +1 Asians-Americans are the role model Blacks should emulate!

          1. In addition I am hoping some brave public figure will say plainly that the “defund the police” meme is B.S. is so many words.

          3. Unless of course, you call the Covid-19 Virus the Hunan Virus.

            A virus has no boundaries. Unless you are a racist.

      2. No one cares about soccer in this country anyway

        Major League Soccer is a niche league, but it has been growing steadily. Just read that the season is effectively cancelled and they will play a mini-season at Disneyworld in a World Cup format, with groups followed by knock out stages, over a month’s time with no spectators in the stands.

        While the league started out with teams playing in college stadiums many clubs now have dedicated stadiums, many of which are brand new and undoubtedly were financed with bonds. Not sure who the bag holders are, the teams or the cities where the new stadiums are; but someone is going to be hard pressed to pay the coupons on those bonds.

      3. My dental hygienist today remarked about how sick she was with the media making out this career criminal scumbag into a saint. Shes a Japanese woman, they aren’t too prone to strong political statements.

        She’s not the only one. In fact, pretty much everybody I talk to is sick to death of this whole charade. Like, every single person.

    1. How about “Don’t Tread on Me” flags.

      Speaking of flags, I see that even NASCAR is now plagued by national anthem protestors. Granted, only two people so far, but I never thought it would be tolerated at all. Is everyone caving in to the loudmouths and extremists?

      1. “Is everyone caving in to the loudmouths and extremists?”

        Not everyone but more than I ever thought.

        They are afraid of being called racist, being fired, assaulted, vandalized by the kind hearted Soros sponsored Leftist thugs.

        1. being fired

          I think that a lot of people as long as they have their corporate/.gov jobs, their overpriced shacks in the suburbs, their overpriced SUVs and a balance in the 401K (and maybe a .gov pension) will remain silent and shrug as long as the riots stay away from their neighborhoods, even if thy are appalled with the lawlessness in the cities.

          2. I think you never get a real revolution until that group loses everything. Which is why revolutionaries try so hard to destroy that part of the system. Killing the middle class jobs/security system is to us as killing the buffalo was to the Plains Indians.

          3. I think the upper middle class will go along with the revolution as long as they don’t have to lose the above. In many ways they already have and are going along. They accept any and all SJW nonsense at the office and sit obediently in the many sensitivity training sessions, never questioning anything , and tolerate all the leftist indoctrination at work so they can keep the lifestyle.

            Whether they can save themselves by licking boot remains to be seen.

          4. I think the upper middle class will go along with the revolution as long as they don’t have to lose the above.

            I think so far they’ve just been taking the path of least resistance and paying lip service to whatever HR says they should pay lip service to. As soon is it is seen as a real threat to their physical or economic security we’ll see a different side of them. The question is how long the Antifa types can hide the true cost/threat from them…

          5. As soon is it is seen as a real threat to their physical or economic security we’ll see a different side of them.

            Well, economic insecurity is already baked into the cake. Unless your employer’s business is growing by leaps and bounds the layoff monster is always lurking in the shadows.

            Physical danger is another ball of wax. Being able to telecommute many miles from the office helps. I have colleagues who have chosen to live in the “vibrant city”. I suppose that if a post trial (acquittal) mob burns their house down, they will go on camera and virtue signal their support for the rioters, while taking their insurance payout to a distant, lily white exurb.

          6. “…paying lip service to whatever HR says they should pay lip service to.”

            Today’s professional workplace.

        2. The DebtDonkeys will join in as they slip deeper underwater.

          Take a look at the DonkeyCart pile ups appearing everywhere as your gauge.

      2. Is everyone caving in to the loudmouths and extremists? Everyone is now on the lookout for lunatics who rejoice in deeds of violence and destruction, of whatever ilk.

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