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They’re Having To Reduce Prices In An Attempt To Garner The Remaining Demand

A report from The Real Deal on New York. “Exactly one year ago, New York’s real estate industry was facing a crisis. The legislature had just agreed to a tenant-friendly upheaval of rent regulation. ‘It used to be that investors clamored for the rent-stabilized units in a building because of the upside they offered,’ said Daniel Parker, managing director at brokerage Hodges Ward Elliott, referring to the potential to significantly raise rents under the old system. ‘Now, most investors look at those units as no upside and no opportunity. It’s a big change.'”

“Timothy King, managing partner of brokerage SVN CPEX Real Estate, offered a more withering assessment of the impact on the multifamily market. ‘This wasn’t just killing the golden goose,’ said King. ‘This was stomping the poor goose to death and scattering the ashes across the five boroughs.'”

“‘Loan-to-value ratios are shifting, and now the borrower can borrow less,’ said King. ‘For those looking to refinance who don’t have enough equity, there may not be any for them to take out of the property.'”

From Forbes. “Apartment operators are concerned about the slow leasing activity, which, in a normal year, picks up in the spring, and growing rent cuts and concessions. ‘The issue at hand right now is not so much collections, but more that there is a general roll down in rent,’ said Jeff Adler, vice president of multifamily asset information firm Yardi Matrix. ‘We are seeing an ongoing reduction in asking rents, so these are rents for new leases. That reduction is fairly meaningful.'”

“Adler said that rent prices dropped as much as 12% on an annual basis in cities such as San Jose, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and Seattle, among others. ‘That means that operators are responding to market conditions, which shows weakness in demand,’ he said. ‘They’re having to reduce prices in an attempt to garner the remaining demand.'”

From KHOU in Texas. “If you’re shopping for a new place to live, St. Andrie at Buffalo Heights, which is perched atop an H-E-B, is among many complexes currently sweetening deals. ‘You can get two months free rent on a two-bedroom apartment,’ said general manager Veronika Jackson. She said showings and new leases went way down during the last few months.”

“According to ApartmentData, Houston rents went down 1.2 percent in a generally busy time of year. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s the lowest point in a while. ‘We’ve got a lot of demand pressure on rents, on occupancy levels,’ said Houston Apartment Association board president-elect John Boriack. Boriack said, in a normal year, 2,000 to 4,000 units would lease across the city in the month of May.”

“Negative 200 were leased this May, according to the new data. That means, for the first time in over a decade, more people left apartments than signed new leases.”

From Bisnow on California. “The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of its 10,000 members. ‘The eviction ban is being challenged now because there’s no apparent end in sight on if or when the city, mayor or the city council will lift the local emergency declaration,’ Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles Executive Director Dan Yukelson said to Bisnow. ‘The moratorium allows residents to not pay rent for an entire year after the emergency ban is lifted and waives interest and late fees without any documentation requirements evidencing need for these interest-free loans.'”

“Yukelson said while tenants are protected, many apartment owners in the city are also suffering from financial hardships but see no reprieve from lenders. Yukelson said many apartment owners may soon face foreclosure. ‘The city’s housing providers are predominantly smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ owners who, like renters, already struggled financially and lived month-to-month before the onset of the pandemic,’ Yukelson said.”

The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report in Louisiana. “In yet another sign that the Baton Rouge economy is beginning to resume activity after the six-week pandemic shutdown, the Downtown Development District today announced the ground breaking of a new multifamily complex on one side of downtown. Though the Baton Rouge multifamily sector currently has a glut of inventory that has driven up marketwide vacancy rates to nearly 10%, there’s still a lot of demand for quality affordable housing and very little supply, says Wesley Moore, an appraiser with Cook, Moore, Davenport & Associates. “

“‘There’s an oversupply of apartments on the macro level,’ he says. ‘But when you’re talking about affordable housing it’s a different question and the first two phases of the Elysian have done quite well.'”

From The Day. “A majority of home builders offered incentives during the month of May in an effort to improve sales or forestall cancellations during the economic slowdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey. However, NAHB says this share was less pronounced than in the previous year or during the 2007-2008 housing crash.”

“Fifty-two percent of builders said they were offering some sort of incentive. The most common incentives were paying closing costs and fees or offering options and upgrades for reduced or no cost. Nineteen percent of respondents said they were offering these incentives in an effort to shore up sales of their newly constructed homes.”

“Builders offering incentives were also likely to reduce their home prices or margins. Eighteen percent said they were doing so.”

The Herald Tribune in Florida. “New residential construction slumped in the Sarasota-Manatee region as the economic shutdown took hold, but not as badly as nationwide. Employment in the construction sector fell by 7% from March to April across Southwest Florida, one of the highest rates of job losses in a state hammered by the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic.”

“‘It appears that the first quarter of 2020 will be the high water mark for economic growth and housing activity in the U.S., including the Sarasota market,’ said David Cobb, regional director with Metrostudy. ‘The economy falls fast, as it has, but the recovery will be gradual, and not a quick bounce back. It could be very similar to what we saw in the housing market between the years 2009 and 2019 — a big crash with a slow, steady recovery.'”

From Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii.”Greg Kugle, a Honolulu lawyer who frequently represents vacation rental owners, has sent letters to the mayors of four counties threatening to sue if the officials don’t let owners of legal vacation rentals rent their properties to tourists. ‘The result of preventing these rentals statewide equates to damages of approximately $100 million per month, and the collective impact on property values is easily $1 billion,’ Kugle wrote.”

“For property owners like Ted Vivatson, the orders shutting down tourism and vacation rentals have been devastating. A brewery owner from California, Vivatson acquired a beachfront property near Hilo in the hopes of retiring there some day. In the meantime, he was renting the place to cover his mortgage, taxes, maintenance and other costs. But that’s not happening any more. Instead, he’s paying for two homes.”

“‘It’s devastating,’ he said, citing the long list of costs and fees, especially the maintenance costs for a house near the ocean. ‘It’s like living on a boat,’ he said. ‘Things just rot away.'”

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This Post Has 100 Comments

  1. ‘It used to be that investors clamored for the rent-stabilized units in a building because of the upside they offered,’ said Daniel Parker,

    The purpose of housing isn’t really to provide gains (“upside”) for investors, Daniel.

    1. ‘This wasn’t just killing the golden goose…This was stomping the poor goose to death and scattering the ashes across the five boroughs’

      Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

      1. “Timothy King, managing partner of brokerage SVN CPEX Real Estate, offered a more withering assessment of the impact on the multifamily market. ‘This wasn’t just killing the golden goose,’ said King. ‘This was stomping the poor goose to death and scattering the ashes across the five boroughs.’”

        The United States could have a manufacturing sector that would put China’s to shame, if it weren’t for so many investors being brain dead rent-seeking idiots like this who have no concept of putting money into business ventures that actually add value.

        1. manufacturing sector

          At this point I’d be happy with the US manufacturing N-95 masks. I recommend that Trump use the Defense Authorization Act to force Elon Musk to convert his TSLA plants into mask factories.

          1. Those masks are mostly a security blanket. Case in point: I had a chat two weekends ago with an ophthalmologist whose brother is a doc in the tribal areas of New Mexico. Despite all of the precautions under the sun, including mandatory wearing of N95 masks, the case rate among the medical workers in that community is around 10%.

            Take home: Virus load and duration of exposure are what matter the most to COVID-19 risk.

  2. ‘he was renting the place to cover his mortgage, taxes, maintenance and other costs. But that’s not happening any more. Instead, he’s paying for two homes. ‘It’s devastating,’ he said, citing the long list of costs and fees, especially the maintenance costs for a house near the ocean. ‘It’s like living on a boat,’ he said. ‘Things just rot away’

    You are fooked Ted.

    ‘The result of preventing these rentals statewide equates to damages of approximately $100 million per month, and the collective impact on property values is easily $1 billion’

    Gosh, that doesn’t sound like a 100% return to me griz. Is a billion a lot?

    2. ‘he was renting the place to cover his mortgage, taxes, maintenance and other costs. But that’s not happening any more. Instead, he’s paying for two homes. ‘It’s devastating,’ he said, citing the long list of costs and fees, especially the maintenance costs for a house near the ocean. ‘It’s like living on a boat,’ he said. ‘Things just rot away’

      Stories like these give me the warm fuzzies inside. These are the people who destroyed housing. Now he’s getting financially crucified. Good. Oh, and fook you, Ted.

  4. ‘A majority of home builders offered incentives during the month of May in an effort to improve sales or forestall cancellations during the economic slowdown’

    But shortage? And what about the people who bought 6 months ago?

    ‘rent prices dropped as much as 12% on an annual basis in cities such as San Jose, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and Seattle, among others’

    How are those 5% cap rates looking now?

  5. ‘while tenants are protected, many apartment owners in the city are also suffering from financial hardships but see no reprieve from lenders. Yukelson said many apartment owners may soon face foreclosure. ‘The city’s housing providers are predominantly smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ owners who, like renters, already struggled financially and lived month-to-month before the onset of the pandemic’

    But Dan, the weather!

      1. The main reason I concluded multi-family was a bubble was most weren’t making money – in 2014. Anybody could have figured that out as cap rates don’t factor in financing. The luxury angle, everything pointed to a speculative market. As we’ve seen, in Canada and Australia many LTR and STR were cash flow negative prior to the CCP virus.

    2. But Dan, the weather!

      You’ll never get a Californian to admit that the weather doesn’t justify putting up with all the negatives. Years ago when we announced to our social circle that we were leaving we often were told “but what about the weather?”

      1. You’ll never get a Californian to admit that the weather doesn’t justify putting up with all the negatives.

        I’m the first to admit that there’s more to life than weather. I’ve lived in Boston and NYC. At the end of the day, it’s about future job prospects and extended family nearby.

    1. Related article:

      “An estimated 450 Big Apple businesses were looted or damaged during recent protests over the police-involved death of George Floyd, city officials estimate.

      Those merchants saw looting and other “storefront damage” from May 29 to June 9 as mostly peaceful but sometimes violent demonstrations swept the five boroughs, according to the Department of Small Business Services.”

      https://nypost.com/2020/06/12/450-nyc-businesses-damaged-during-george-floyd-protests/

  7. I thought it was interesting to read the reaction to the anonymous letter yesterday in light of the editorial I posted:

    ‘In 2006, the movie “The Lives of Others” dramatized how the Stasi, the omnipresent East German surveillance apparatus, pursued a nonconforming writer, whose friends were intimidated into abandoning him. To survive this kind of enforced thought-concurrence in the Soviet Union or Communist Eastern Europe, writers resorted to circulating their uncensored ideas as underground literature called samizdat. Others conveyed their ideas as political satire. In Vaclav Havel’s 1965 play, “The Memorandum,” a Czech office worker is demoted to “staff watcher,” whose job is to monitor his colleagues. You won’t see Havel’s anticensorship plays staged in the U.S. anytime soon.’

    ‘Other writers during those years of thought suppression sometimes wrote in allegory or fables. In Russia, writers called it “Aesopian language.” We’re not there yet. Instead many writers and media personalities here have chosen to participate in keeping opinion and even vocabulary inside restricted limits.’

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-medias-self-censors-11591829694

    1. Buy paper books, and don’t buy them from Amazon. Buy them from your local independently owned bookstore, new or used.

      Cancel culture is only accelerating. Gone With The Wind has been cancelled. The Dukes of Hazzard is about to be cancelled. Within five years, Mark Twain will not be on the shelves of any library or available to read on any electronic device.

      My favorite period of American literature is 1865 to 1945, it’s only a matter of time until all of these books are banned and made illegal to sell or distribute…

      1. The HBO Thought Police lost big time on this one.

        We have a copy of the movie on tape, and I’m going to obtain a copy of the book before the Democrats take power and ban books they deem racist.

        ‘Gone With the Wind’ Hits No. 1 on Amazon Best-Sellers Chart After HBO Max Drops Movie
        Gone With the Wind Screening
        Selznick/MGM/Kobal/REX/Shutterst

        “Gone With the Wind” zipped to the top of Amazon’s best-sellers sales chart for TV and movies, a day after WarnerMedia’s HBO Max pulled the movie for “racist depictions.”

        Amazon bases its rankings on sales data. The site currently offers the 70th anniversary two-disc DVD edition of “Gone With the Wind” starting at $29.55, while Amazon Video offers the movie as a digital HD rental at $3.99 and for purchase at $9.99.

        Meanwhile, on Apple’s iTunes movie chart for the U.S., “Gone With the Wind” on Wednesday was in the No. 5 spot (after “The Hunt,” “Birds of Prey,” “Bad Boys for Life,” and “The Invisible Man”).

        Oscar-winning film “Gone With the Wind” was removed Tuesday from the HBO Max streaming service temporarily. WarnerMedia said it plans to return to the movie to the library, along with a discussion about the historical context for the 1939 movie and a “denouncement” of the movie’s racist stereotypes.

        “’Gone With The Wind’ is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society,” an HBO Max spokesperson told Variety. “These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”

        “Gone With the Wind” stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie McDaniel and Olivia de Havilland. The film, adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell, is described on Amazon.com’s website as “a classic epic of the American South,” set during the Civil War and the Reconstruction era.
        …

        1. Self-governance in Seattle:

          “Edit 1: After receiving feedback about inclusiveness we shall include in the council one Black man, one Black woman, one trans Black person, one non-binary Black person, and one white woman (5 4 people).

          Edit 2: On more feedback we will add to the Council 1 Asian non-male, 1 Native American non-male, and 1 Latinx non-male, and then 4 additional Black men and women to balance it out. In total there are 3 + 4 + 4 = 11 members.

          Edit 3: We’ve received some feedback about including disabledpersons (mental and physical) and homelesspersons on the Council. 20% or 40% of the Council should be persons with lived experience of disability. At least 10% should be experiencing involuntary homelessness.

          Edit 4: We realize LGBTQIA communities are being under-represented in the Council so far and are working on proposals to rectify this. The final composition of the balanced Council will likely include 10-50% people who identify as LGBTQIA.

          Edit 5: We have agreed to add 3 more seats, two of which are to give a voice to the disadvantaged LGBTQIA community, and one to give children equal representation and fairness. The new seats include one for a LGBTQI-identifying Black disabledperson, one for a LGBTQI-identifying Black homelessperson, and one for a non-white or mixed race child between the ages of 8 and 15.

          Edit 6: There have been further concerns raised over the efficacy of the Council to deal with disputes between children, as children are currently not adequately represented. In light of the feedback, we will add child safety training programs to the onboarding session and add one additional seat for another non-white or mixed race child between the ages of 8 and 15 (preferably disabled).”

          https://www.reddit.com/r/CapHillAutonomousZone/comments/h7vov1/clearing_up_the_raz_disinformation_introducing/

        2. I read that an episode of Fawlty Towers has been cancelled. The one that mocks the Germans.

      3. May I ask who are these banners of books, words, etc. Somehow I think someone’s Constitutional rights are being violated. Isn’t the threat of losing you job a violation of right to free speech without penalty.
        What is going on today seem to be the opposite of Civil Rights and First Amendment.

        1. I guess there’s no law against HBO banning Gone With the Wind internally and handing record sales to rival Amazon. Stupid is as stupid does.

        2. And there is no law that forces MGM to keep selling the movie.

          Disney sent Song of the South to the memory hole, though they have a theme park ride based on the stories of Br’er Rabbit, though there is no sign of Uncle Remus anywhere on Splash Mountain.

          1. Don’t tell the Thought Police, but it’s out there on the internet, replete with authentic antebellum slavery era dialect.

            The Thought Police are gonna have to burn my copies of works of Mark Twain as well, since they contain racist slave-era dialect.

            Song of the South (1946) — Briar Patch
            Ginger Anderson
            Published on Apr 6, 2015
            Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Fox by begging him to do anything but throw him in the briar patch. Brer Rabbit escapes once again.
            I claim no rights to any content of this clip. It was made for personal use.

  10. Now that we have almost three months of lockdown, business shutdowns, and BLM riots behind us, its back to normal here in San Diego. Come on in, tourists, the water is fine!

    1. Business
      San Diego welcomes back tourists, fitness buffs and wine lovers as economy reopens
      Paradise Point resort reopens
      Guests at the Paradise Point resort on Mission Bay enjoy the main pool on the hotel’s first day of reopening.
      (Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
      Amid continued COVID infections, businesses, from gyms to hotels and wineries, take precautions as they gradually reopen their businesses following a months-long lockdown
      By Lori Weisberg, Brittany Meiling, Pam Kragen, Jonathan Wosen, Rob Nikolewski, Morgan Cook
      June 12, 2020
      6:26 PM

      Stressed-out parents desperate for a weekend getaway, fitness buffs eager for an intense cardio workout and wine connoisseurs hankering for a bold cabernet or complex pinot noir, broke free of their coronavirus isolation and hit local hotels, gyms, wineries and bars as San Diego’s local economy continued its phased reopening on Friday.

      While restaurants and shops — and more recently hair salons — have already been testing the reopening waters, Friday marked the first day for a whole slew of other businesses and gathering spots, from neighborhood bars that don’t sell food to museums, galleries and movie theaters.

      And even as so much reopened Friday, there was word that even more was on the way. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration released a fresh set of guidelines that will allow a range of personal care businesses, including nail salons, tattoo and piercing parlors and massage therapy providers outside of heath care facilities to reopen as early as June 19.

      Friday’s return to semi-normalcy comes with a pretty long list of strict conditions handed down by the state, led by social distancing requirements, the wearing of facial coverings and regular, heavy sanitation of places of business. But as vacationers lounged poolside amid the palm trees at the Paradise Point resort, gym rats lifted weights, and restless parents opted to catch a recent film release inside a luxury movie theater, Friday almost felt like: What pandemic?
      …

    2. There’s only one slight problem: COVID-19 hasn’t gone away with the advent of summer, as some had predicted.

      Covid-19
      4 ‘Community Outbreaks’ of COVID-19 in San Diego in 7 Days: Fletcher
      The latest community outbreaks of COVID-19 in San Diego County stem from a local restaurant and an office building, health officials said
      By Monica Garske • Published June 12, 2020 • Updated on June 12, 2020 at 3:51 pm
      NBC 5 News

      San Diego County public health officials have identified four new “community outbreaks” of COVID-19 over the past seven days, including one in a local restaurant.

      San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said two outbreaks had been identified by public health officials Friday, as well as three on Wednesday. The outbreaks were traced to places where people have “congregated” with others who are not members of their households.

      Fletcher said these community settings include a local restaurant, an office building, dinner parties, backyard barbecues, and unauthorized weddings.
      …

      1. From what I gathered listening to the radio yesterday, the Arizona guberment has concluded “we can’t stop it, and we have to get on with our lives.”

        Translation = we’re gonna run out of money if we don’t get back to work.

        1. My entire family is working outside of the home today. You can’t live life hiding under your bed forever.

          1. We still haven’t been recalled to the office, not that it would affect me as I’m a permanent WFH.

          2. I suspect it’s going to be a long time before I spend significant time in the office. Sure, cases in Maryland are decreasing, but once people start getting on elevators and passing in hallways, I think we’re going to see enough new cases to send us back home. Not to mention when school starts back up.

          3. “Not to mention when school starts back up.”

            The student housing CRE folks will be wiped-out if a second shutdown happens.

          4. enough new cases to send us back home

            Maybe you’re right. Here in NY it’s been long enough since we started mingling again that there should have been a tick up if there was going to be one. Nothing. Really less than nothing. Even Memorial Day gatherings are long in the rear view mirror.

          5. Nothing. Really less than nothing. Even Memorial Day gatherings are long in the rear view mirror.

            Same here in the Centennial State, it’s been a month since we started reopening and new cases keep going down.

    3. COVID-19 Cases Rebound Across the South and West
      By Brenda Goodman, MA
      photo of woman using phone
      June 12, 2020 — Almost a month after many states began to roll back lockdowns and nearly 3 weeks after Memorial Day celebrations drew more Americans out of their homes to celebrate with friends and family, COVID-19 cases are rising in more than a dozen states across the southern and western regions of the U.S.

      In some areas, those increases may be linked to increased testing, but in others, states are seeing spikes even though their testing numbers have been relatively flat, indicating true increases. Some states are also reporting growing numbers of COVID-19 patients needing time in a hospital and intensive care.
      …

  11. Hawaii is still on full lockdown until July. Of course that guy is hurting. This is what happens when you invest money in blue states. This isn’t a real estate story it’s a socialist Democrat destroying his state story. Dumb enough to vote Democrat? Prepare to lose money eventually. No sympathy from me.

    1. Maybe there is a way forward for their tourism industry. I’d be happy to take a COVID-19 test to avoid two weeks in quarantine upon arrival in the state.

      1. Hawaii
        Experts: Test Passengers To Reopen Hawaii Tourism
        People traveling to Hawaii could get a COVID-19 test before boarding the plane at a national pharmacy chain under a deal in the works with state officials.
        By Stewart Yerton
        June 10, 2020
        Reading time: 5 minutes.

        As Hawaii waits to reopen its largest industry, economists and medical experts increasingly view testing passengers before they board planes to Hawaii as a key to safely bringing visitors back to the state and resurrecting the state’s economy.

        Even with a fraction of the visitors it had before the COVID-19 crisis shut down the tourism industry, Hawaii could expect several hundred cases of the virus to be brought into the state each month by travelers, the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization reported in a paper released Tuesday.

        But the numbers could be significantly reduced if visitors were tested at their point of departure before coming to Hawaii, UHERO reports in a paper titled, “Prevention of Travel-related Reintroduction of COVID-19 Infection in the State of Hawaii.”
        …

    2. Indeed, as the governor continued to increase the lockdown as cases declined it became obvious that they are using this flu bug to kill off businesses, many owned by mainlanders. I just heard the lieutenant governor say the other day they have plenty of test kits, but they refuse to test tourists, mandating they quarantine for two weeks knowing few will fly here and do so.

      And the story of the guy who bought a place planning to retire there, lots of people do that but it rarely works out. Pro tip: just buy it when you retire. Life happens when you’re making other plans.

      1. but they refuse to test “…tourists, mandating they quarantine for two weeks knowing few will fly here and do so.”

        Having them tested elsewhere before boarding a plane solves that problem, doesn’t it?

        1. Having them tested elsewhere before boarding a plane solves that problem, doesn’t it?

          You’re assuming that the Hawaiian authorities are going to use logic, or that they don’t have a reason for wrecking their economy.

        2. Except that tests still have to be sent to a lab and and processed. There are no on-the-spot results, at least not accurate ones. Is Hawai’i going to pay LAX to isolate passengers for an entire day while they way for test results?

  12. Ahem…

    ‘Walmart spent years fighting local politicians to build new stores in Chicago, and it finally won approval in 2010 after paying off unions and liberal groups with a “community benefits agreement.” It now ranks among the largest employers in Chicago’s heavily minority south and west sides and throws off hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for state and city politicians to spend. But after last week’s riots, Walmart seems to be having second thoughts about business in Chicago.’

    ‘Many large retailers including Walmart, Walgreens and Target had their stores heavily damaged and looted in the riots. During a conference call last week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot begged them not to bail on the city. Walmart wouldn’t commit to reopening damaged stores. “We are assessing each location to understand our ability to do that,” a Walmart representative said.’

    “I got a resounding, ‘Mayor, this is our city, this is our home,’ from a lot of other retailers and I would hope that Walmart would follow suit,” Ms. Lightfoot later said. Politicians are worried about the harm to low-income and minority communities from lost jobs and a dearth of fresh food if Walmart closes stores. “It’s a much-needed resource and invaluable store for our community,” Alderman Howard Brookins told Crain’s Chicago.’

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/chicagos-walmart-plea-11592003199

    2. Perhaps a new style of architecture will emerge for inner city retail. Something like 21st Century Riot Proof, Gold Coast Fortress or Amazon Pickup Bunker.

      1. ! foot thick concrete walls, no windows and heavy steel doors, with armed, TSA style security to enter and exit when its open.

        But that would be racis. Easier to say “we’ll think about it” while dragging your feet for years, until it’s forgotten.

  13. ‘The moratorium allows residents to not pay rent for an entire year after the emergency ban is lifted and waives interest and late fees without any documentation requirements evidencing need for these interest-free loans.’

    Is the LA City government planning to make its landlords whole on the rent they are prohibited from collecting?

    “Yukelson said while tenants are protected, many apartment owners in the city are also suffering from financial hardships but see no reprieve from lenders. Yukelson said many apartment owners may soon face foreclosure. ‘The city’s housing providers are predominantly smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ owners who, like renters, already struggled financially and lived month-to-month before the onset of the pandemic,’ Yukelson said.”

    They told me that rents always go up!

    1. “The moratorium allows residents to not pay rent for an entire year after the emergency ban is lifted and waives interest and late fees without any documentation requirements”

      Does it also wave the property taxes owed on the rental property the residents don’t have to pay rent for an entire year?

      1. The landlord probably has to pay that in a lump sum after collecting the lump sum back payment of rent.

        1. “The landlord probably has to pay that in a lump sum after collecting the lump sum back payment of rent.”

          So on the 4th of never.

  14. I heard last night that some Cities that opened are thinking of closing again.

    Of course I’m assuming this has no bearing on the peaceful looters who have right to protest. The health mandates don’t apply to them and they won’t be fined.

    1. As long as they are acting under the banner of BLM authority, the looters are above the law, including COVID-19 social distancing measures that apply to other residents and businesses in Democrat-controlled states.

    2. Without systematic testing and contact tracing, these reopening plans are doomed to failure.

      1. Breaking News
        Coronavirus: Case total in state rises by nearly 4,000

        NewsNation & WorldNews
        Some states hit the pause button as other rush to reopen
        Infection spikes in Utah, Oregon lead to delays in relaxing restrictions
        Gregory Bull/Associated Press
        California’s tourism industry is gearing back up with the state giving counties the green light to allow hotels, zoos, aquariums, wine tasting rooms and museums to reopen Friday.
        By The Associated Press |
        PUBLISHED: June 12, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. | UPDATED: June 13, 2020 at 5:04 a.m.
        By Paul J. Webber and Andrew DeMillo | Associated Press

        AUSTIN, Texas — Utah and Oregon put any further reopenings of their economies on hold amid a spike in coronavirus cases, but there was no turning back Friday in such states as Texas, California, Arkansas and Arizona despite flashing warning signs there, too.

        One by one, states are weighing the health risks from the virus against the economic damage from the stay-at-home orders that have thrown millions out of work over the past three months.

        And many governors are coming down on the side of jobs, even though an Associated Press analysis this week found that cases are rising in nearly half the states — a trend experts attributed in part to the gradual reopening of businesses over the past few weeks.

        Texas, which set single-day highs for hospitalizations and new COVID-19 cases this week, gave the go-ahead for restaurants on Friday to expand eat-in dining to 75% capacity, up from 50%.

        Arkansas, where the number of cases has nearly doubled since Memorial Day and the number of people hospitalized is up more than 88%, will let restaurants seat more customers on Monday.

        “Regardless of what we see in the next week, we made the right decision to go ahead and lift some of these restrictions so we don’t cause more damage to people’s lives and their livelihood,” Republican Gov. Asa Hutchison said.

        Arizona has become one of the most troubling hot spots in the U.S. as new cases have surged to more than 1,000 a day, up from fewer than 400 before stay-at-home orders expired in mid-May. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey gave assurances the health care system can handle it.

        Even California, the site nearly three months ago of the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order, entered the most expansive phase of its gradual reopening Friday, even though its daily average of new cases is up by more than 600 from a week ago.
        …

        1. ‘Infection spikes in Utah’.

          Minimum spike in Covid cases in SoUtah currently.

          Like hardly noticeable.

          The majority of cases, over the last couple of months, were Navajos that were transferred to our Hospital from an out of state location.

          Evidently, they thought it would be a good idea to get together in mass (hundreds) and have some sort of ceremony to fight the “evil spirit” known as Covid-19.

          Many of them died but the numbers weren’t added to the local Covid-19 fatalities since they weren’t locals.

      2. Coronavirus: free to read
        FT Magazine
        Coronavirus pandemic
        How Germany got coronavirus right
        From extensive testing to early track and trace, Germany is a model for tackling the disease
        © Manuel Nieberle
        Guy Chazan
        June 3 2020

        This April, Walther Leonhard got an unusual call from the authorities in Rosenheim, his hometown in southern Germany. He was being given a new job, in a new field, with a title that had just been invented, “containment scout”.

        Leonhard, 33, who had been working as a court officer in Munich, was soon back home and hitting the phones. He was the latest recruit into Germany’s army of Kontaktmanagers (tracers) — the foot soldiers of its strategy for containing coronavirus.

        Leonhard’s job is to call people who have tested positive — and all those they have recently come into contact with — to tell them to self-isolate for a fortnight. It’s not much fun. A lot of people are scared and confused when he breaks the news.
        …

      3. CORONAVIRUS
        Reopening From Coro­n­avirus: Lessons From South Korea
        By Rob Wu North Carolina
        PUBLISHED 6:47 PM ET Jun. 12, 2020
        What You Need To Know
        – Life in South Korea has largely returned to normal
        – Vast majority of population wears masks
        – Expansive tracing via cell phone GPS, CCTV cameras plays a big role, but privacy concerns make that harder in America
        – South Korea has seen recent spikes, in the ballpark of 50 cases a day

        NORTH CAROLINA – The United States and South Korea announced its first case of coronavirus on the same day. In the following months South Korea has been widely praised for its response as life has largely returned to normal.

        “It’s as if right now in South Korea there is no global pandemic,” says David Robbins, an English teacher in South Korea.

        With cases doubling every few days in February, he was on the verge of flying back home to America. He’s thankful he didn’t.

        People stand shoulder to shoulder again on subways, and restaurants and clubs are often packed too.

        “Just last week I was in Seoul on a rooftop bar, sipping on wine while in the distance watching kids skateboarding in a park,” Robbins says.

        The rate of coronavirus deaths in the United States is about 35 per 100,000 people. In South Korea it’s about 0.5 per 100,000 people.

        One clear difference, most of the population wears masks. Robbins estimates over 90 percent do.

        “If you walk into an establishment and you’re the one not wearing a mask, people will frown upon that,” he says.
        …

      4. Opinion
        Are Nations Safer When Women Lead?
        Rates of coronavirus deaths are far lower in many female-led countries.
        By Nicholas Kristof
        Opinion Columnist
        June 13, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET
        President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan at a military base this spring amid the coronavirus pandemic.
        Credit…Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA, via Shutterstock

        Are female leaders better at fighting a pandemic?

        I compiled death rates from the coronavirus for 21 countries around the world, 13 led by men and eight by women. The male-led countries suffered an average of 214 coronavirus-related deaths per million inhabitants. Those led by women lost only one-fifth as many, 36 per million.

        If the United States had the coronavirus death rate of the average female-led country, 102,000 American lives would have been saved out of the 114,000 lost.

        “Countries led by women do seem to be particularly successful in fighting the coronavirus,” noted Anne W. Rimoin, an epidemiologist at U.C.L.A. “New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway have done so well perhaps due to the leadership and management styles attributed to their female leaders.”
        …

  15. This is what the gig is. The rich Globalist, who do a lot of business with China,, fund the Dems for election. The Dems than do their biding.

    But in order to get votes the Dems bribe the welfare class, the ilegals, while they always have the deep State in their pockets., and
    commie Universities and the elite.

    So, this leaves the working class, the productive worker, maybe the police and military that night vote more for Trump, as well as the religious right and the small business owner.

    So, the left wing nut jobs are almost gleeful over the hardship that has been put on the groups that were propped up by Trump prior to C19 and peaceful looting.

    The Dems party promotes supporting the Victimizer and the victim. Reverse discrimation to Whites is woke now along with the banning of words, books and movies. This is no different than the Book burning in Nazi Germany.

  17. Hello! I hope everyone is well.

    Finally got around to getting certified in another state so in two weeks we are moving to Vermont. Excited for the next chapter. The FL house had multiple offers over ask on the first day. We didn’t accept the highest offer, but accepted a mid-offer from the most qualified buyer (putting 30% down). Inspection and appraisal came in fine and we’re in the home stretch for closing. TS Cristobal almost delayed us. We’ve been working from home since mid-March so packing and selling/donating/trashing have been steady and easy.

    We’re going from the most densely populated county in the third most populous state to a tiny mountain village… it’s wayyy overdue. Not excited about having to drive 1,300 miles with my life in a truck during unrest and the pandemic, but hey, it’s a unique challenge. Going up through 77 to avoid the I-95 Corridor.

    We’ve rented a temp summer home to assess the situation after we arrive. No way am I buying a house site unseen. May rent if we can find something big enough to fit the fam in. Inventory appears high with lots of VRBO ski homes being sold.

    Still the same bubble from 2008 IMHO.

    Anyhoo, hope you’re chillin’!

        1. Yes I am. There is still an invite during boating season if you’re visiting Rochester sometime.

    3. “The FL house had multiple offers over ask on the first day.”

      Did you ever put the lining in that drain?

      1. Nah, no need. I appreciate your help with that though. We did all new mechanical and impact windows and doors.

    4. The FL house had multiple offers over ask on the first day.

      Angelo Christian must still be pimpin’ those subprime loans!

    1. Market Extra
      It’s like the Wild West with the ‘get-rich-crowd’ vs Wall St. pros, but it’s too easy to blame retail investors for ‘rampant speculation’
      Published: June 13, 2020 at 12:23 p.m. ET
      By Mark DeCambre and
      Sunny Oh
      Are retail investors at the root of this?
      Getty Images

      Tales of out-of-work 20 and 30-somethings using coronavirus-stimulus checks to scoop up stocks on Wall Street with reckless abandon are emerging fast and furiously, but the reasons behind the recent fervor for investing is, perhaps, far simpler.

      MarketWatch has written a bit about the rise of rise of retail investors of late, including in an article by Mark Hulbert here, and one by columnist Howard R. Gold.

      The New York Post wrote an article, citing Deutsche Bank analyst Parag Thatte, who attributed much of the nearly 40% surge in the U.S. stock market since its late-March nadir to unexperienced small investors with a voracious appetite for risk. The analyst suggested that Wall Street professionals are being forced to chase amateurs who have bid up equities.

      Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup’s chief U.S. equity strategist, in a research report last Friday titled “Are We Getting Bubblicious”, similarly surmised that investors were starting to chase performance, as Citi’s closely followed Panic/Euphoria index reached its most euphoric level since 2002, Barron’s Ben Levinsohn noted.

      “There’s definitely a fear of missing out. That’s why people are chasing the market,” said Nick Maroutsos, co-head of global bonds at Janus Henderson Investors, in an interview with MarketWatch.
      …

      1. It goes above and beyond young, inexperienced investors scooping up worthless penny stocks — it’s an absolutely stupid human tendency to refuse to accept what something is truly worth, in favor of convincing one’s self that they bought it for less than that, and it’s now worth more than that.

    2. Take it from one of the most bullish bulls in the history of human speech. Lolz!

      CNBC TV
      Mad Money
      Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET
      Cramer’s week ahead: This is the ‘most overbought market in history’
      Published Fri, Jun 12 2020
      7:53 PM EDT
      Updated Fri, Jun 12 2020
      8:03 PM EDT
      Tyler Clifford
      Key Points
      – “It got too easy and now we all have to suffer as the get-rich-quick crowd gets blown out,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said about Friday’s volatile market.
      – “As long as you think we aren’t going into a second lockdown, even as Covid cases spike, then you want to buy your favorite stocks into weakness here,” the “Mad Money” host said.
      …

      1. Jeebus…not another waterfall deep drop down to bounce off a lower hard bottom than the last one, I hope!

        Come to think of it, that last hard bottom bounce was due to the sychronized announcements of Unlimited Quarantinive Easing by the Fed, ECB and other central bank cartel members. Will even more unlimited market support measures be needed to arrest the next market plunge?

      2. I love how quickly these gains can be vaporized. It’s a beautiful thing, and how many people get torched before they can even think of getting out. This whole reckless gambling sh!tshow can’t end soon enough. Bring back some fundamentals.

    4. Is your FOMO driving you to gamble recklessly in stocks?

      No. I gotta say, though, I’m tired of hearing the stories about how much money my friends are making on all of their speculative gambles, both stocks and houses. Meanwhile, my boring old self has no house, no stocks but a savings account. I’m getting crucified by Jerome Powell and Co.

      One of my friends has paid for over half of his $600,000 house with his recent stock gains – namely Tesla. Here I was telling him they were probably going bankrupt when their stock was at $267. Silly me was focusing on the company’s financials, not Robinhood speculators.

      1. Just before noon on Jan. 29, news reports emerged on social media that Mr. Smollett, an actor on the TV show “Empire,” had been attacked by two men yelling racial and homophobic slurs. He claimed the men said something about “MAGA country,” suggesting they were Trump supporters.

        Mr. Smollett said the two men put a rope around his neck.

        Five hours after the initial report, Ms. Harris, a former California attorney general, pronounced the attack genuine and called it “an attempted modern-day lynching.”

        https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/19/jussie-smollett-apparent-hoax-burns-democrats-kama/

        1. A Cook County judge on Friday shot down actor Jussie Smollett’s attempt have the criminal charges against him dropped, telling the actor that the new charges against him do not violate his right against double jeopardy.

          Smollett’s attorneys made the double jeopardy argument after a special prosecutor secured a six-count indictment on charges alleging that he lied to police about a racist and anti-gay attack that police say he staged himself. The new case came months after the county’s state’s attorney’s office abruptly announced it was dropping charges against the actor, angering police and City Hall.

          https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-tosses-jussie-smolletts-double-200457107.html

    1. United Kingdom
      Published 1 day ago
      Nigel Farage to leave radio job after comparing Black Lives Matter movement to Taliban
      By Louis Casiano | Fox News

      Conservative British politician and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has left his talk show at LBC radio after he made comments comparing the Black Lives Matter supporters to the Taliban.

      Farage faced a storm of backlash after tweeting about protesters demonstrating against police brutality and racial discrimination. Protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while police custody, have spread around the world, including England.

      “A new form of the Taliban was born in the UK today,” Farage tweeted Sunday. “Unless we get moral leadership quickly our cities won’t be worth living in.”

      On Tuesday, Farage called Black Lives Matter a “far left Marxist organisation that wants to abolish the police and dismantle capitalism.”
      …

    3. Dumb question of the day:

      Will the BLM marauders be permitted to tear down the statues of slaveowners George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, if they choose to do so?

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