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What We’re Talking About Is Almost 70% Discount, It’s Almost Like A Sample Sale

A report from National Mortgage Professional. “Close to 70% of home sellers are willing to accept a lower purchase price just to reach the closing point, according to a new LendingTree survey. This comes as the coronavirus has made it difficult for folks to sell their homes and those who are most willing to take a cut happens to be millennials. When asked what their biggest fears were when it comes to selling during the pandemic period, 33% said they were afraid they would have to accept a lower offer price. Another 33% are fearful that they won’t be able to sell their home within the time frame they hoped.”

“‘Although it may seem like the housing market has shrugged off COVID-19, as home sales show signs of recovering, it may prove a false dawn,’ said Tendayi Kapfidze, LendingTree’s chief economist. ‘The detrimental impact on jobs and, by extension, wages, will be significant and long-lasting. Demand will soften in the housing market, and sellers will likely need to make some concessions to reach the signing table.'”

From Realtor.com on Florida. “Each year, tens of millions of people arrive from all over the world to visit Orlando, FL. But this year, of course, is very different. Tourism in the Orlando region, America’s top tourism and vacation spot, ground to a standstill. ‘The biggest Impact I see when it comes to the tourism and economy is unemployment,’ says Joe Johnson, president of the Osceola County Association of Realtors. The loss of jobs portends far-reaching economic impacts on the Orlando area, including the real estate market.”

“Johnson says one of the biggest problems plaguing the Orlando area housing market is inventory. ‘We’re in a seller’s market—there’s a major shortage of inventory in Central Florida,’ he says. However, one segment of the housing market has struggled: The luxury market is in retreat, faring much worse than average homes. The $1 million-plus housing market has seen the steepest decline in sales, Johnson says. ‘There’s a major oversupply’ in that part of the market.”

The Wall Street Journal on New York. “In 2014 a nearly 6,000-square-foot penthouse spanning the top floor of the luxury Manhattan condominium Walker Tower sold for $50.9 million, making it the priciest apartment ever sold downtown at the time. A few weeks ago, the same unit went into contract for just $18.25 million, according to people familiar with the situation.”

“Now a battle is brewing over the property, which the U.S. Department of Justice is selling after seizing it as part of a civil forfeiture action related to the Malaysian 1MDB corruption scandal. ‘We’re all scratching our heads saying, ‘How did this happen?’ said Vickey Barron, a resident of the building and a real-estate agent with Compass. ‘What we’re talking about is almost 70% discount. It’s almost like a sample sale. Walker Tower is not a sample sale.'”

The Chicago Tribune in Illinois. “After $11 million in price cuts, a 10-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot French chateau-inspired mansion in the Gold Coast has a buyer. The International College of Surgeons long has been trying to sell its prominent four-story mansion at 1516 N. Lake Shore Drive. The college first had sought $17 million for the mansion in 2015, but over the past five years has become increasingly aggressive in its pricing, making its final price cut to its current $6 million asking price in August 2019.”

“On Monday, the mansion went under contract, according to real estate listing information. The amount the buyer will pay is not yet known, as the deal still needs to close.”

The San Francisco Public Press in California. “Construction sites are coming back to life throughout San Francisco, but the surge in activity may not last long. While older projects are being revived, new projects could struggle to break ground this year due to the uncertainty the pandemic has brought to the real estate market. Residential property owners may delay construction because of concerns they won’t be able to afford it if tenants don’t pay rent.”

“Banks face similar uncertainty, which could stall larger construction projects, said David Garcia, policy director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. ‘They’re dubious because they don’t know that the project is going to meet the financial assumptions that were in place pre-COVID,’ he said.”

“Garcia is skeptical the recent decline in rents will change market dynamics. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be enough to solve our affordability issues,’ he said. ‘We were so far out of balance from what is considered a healthy housing market that a temporary dip in prices is not going to make housing affordable to the vast majority of people who were struggling.'”

The Wall Street Journal on California. “Rents in San Francisco, the most expensive apartment market in the U.S., are tumbling as the city’s vaunted tech sector sheds jobs and more tenants leave the city. The apartment vacancy rate in San Francisco rose to 6.2% in May, according to RealPage. That’s up from 3.9% only three months ago.”

“San Francisco’s median rent in May for a one-bedroom apartment was also down 9.2% compared with a year ago at $3,360 a month, according to listings platform Zumper. The pandemic is upending San Francisco’s workforce more than in most cities, remaking part of its corporate landscape. Several large, high-paying companies, including Yelp Inc., and Lyft Inc., have begun laying off workers in the city. LendingClub reported to the California Employment Development Department earlier this month that it was permanently laying off 306 San Francisco employees.”

“San Francisco-based startup Stitch Fix Inc., meanwhile, is looking to save costs by hiring or relocating staff to cheaper cities outside of California like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. PG&E Corp. said this month it plans to move to Oakland, ending more than 100 years in San Francisco. Other Bay Area businesses are allowing their employees to work from home indefinitely, making some San Franciscans question whether it still makes sense to pay exorbitant rents when they no longer have to live in the same city as their office.”

“‘This is a very unusual market,’ said local real-estate agent Joanne Fazzino. ‘Landlords can’t expect the same kind of rents they were expecting.'”

“San Francisco isn’t the only high-rent city brought back to earth. In Manhattan, the rental apartment vacancy rate is now at its highest point in at least 14 years, according to a report by real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller and brokerage Douglas Elliman. And RealPage found that for all of New York City, renters are signing leases at more than 8% off asking price on average.”

“But Northern California is among the hardest hit. Rent cuts on new leases are 8% or more on average in both San Francisco and San Jose, RealPage said.”

From Socket Site in California. “While the number of homes newly listed for sale in San Francisco having outpaced the number of purchase contracts that were inked for the ninth week in a row, there are now 1,050 homes listed for sale across the city. That’s not only a 9-year seasonal high but a new 9-year high in the absolute and 50 percent more inventory than at the same time last year, despite the fact that inventory levels typically don’t peak until October.”

“And the percentage of listings which have undergone at least one official price reduction has been ticked up another two percentage points to 22 percent, which is five (5) percentage points higher than at the same time last year, for twice as many reduced listings on the market in the absolute on account of the jump in inventory levels.”

From KXLY in Washington. “If you’re a homeowner struggling to pay your mortgage during this pandemic, a local non-profit is ready to help. SNAP Spokane received a $50,000 grant from Bank of America to go directly into its housing counseling program that helps hundreds of homeowners in our community. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many homeowners hard. Some had to take forbearance on their mortgages to just get by. But when the forbearance period is up, what then?”

“‘Foreclosures. Nationally, were down pre-pandemic. But they certainly never went down here in Spokane County. Trying to figure out how to get federal or HUD money to serve those clients was always a challenge,’ said Karen Campbell, financial stability program coordinator at SNAP Spokane.”

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This Post Has 102 Comments

  1. ‘We’re in a seller’s market—there’s a major shortage of inventory in Central Florida’ …‘There’s a major oversupply’

  2. ‘Garcia is skeptical the recent decline in rents will change market dynamics. ‘I don’t think it’s going to be enough to solve our affordability issues,’ he said. ‘We were so far out of balance from what is considered a healthy housing market that a temporary dip in prices is not going to make housing affordable’

    You’re right David, a temporary dip ain’t gonna cut it.

  3. ‘How did this happen?…What we’re talking about is almost 70% discount. It’s almost like a sample sale’

    But half off is unrealistic.

  4. ‘Foreclosures. Nationally, were down pre-pandemic. But they certainly never went down here in Spokane County’

    Wa?

  5. This was posted in the comments last night:

    ‘A Washington state mayor was fine with the Black Lives Matter protests that followed George Floyd’s death in police custody. But that was until vandals damaged her home, according to reports.’

    ‘Now, Mayor Cheryl Selby of Olympia refers to the protests as “domestic terrorism,” according to The Olympian. “I’m really trying to process this,” Selby told the newspaper Saturday, after the rioters’ Friday night spree left her front door and porch covered with spray-painted messages. “It’s like domestic terrorism. It’s unfair.”

    “It hurts when you’re giving so much to your community,” she added.’

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/washington-state-mayor-now-calls-blm-protests-domestic-terrorism-after-her-home-vandalized

    100% peaceful!

    1. This in From Crain’s New York:

      Big drop in Manhattan office values causes heartburn for banks

      Also:

      • Landlords, stiffed for third consecutive month, risk tax default

      • Jay-Z’s Roc Nation sues landlord for stalling subleases over unpaid rent

    3. “I’m really trying to process this,” Selby told the newspaper Saturday

      It wasn’t supposed to happen there. I’ll bet she even has a “hate is not welcome here” sign on her front lawn, with the letters colored in a rainbow.

      1. That used to convert some into at least a moderate. Now they act shocked, but still pull the D lever on election day.

        1. With their heads firmly shoved where the sun never shines.

          You’d think that, of all people, they’d be the ones who would understand people that are incapable of being reasoned with, given that they just need to look in a mirror for an example.

          1. I don’t think people get the psychosis of the left, many are professional victims. Everything that goes wrong in their lives needs to be blamed on someone else (many Father issues). Getting mugged is just another opportunity to blame a media manufactured enemy like Trump or wypipo. Go to any library and check out the picks of the month – 90% written by women dealing with severe mental issues. The other 10% are children’s books pushing trans stuff and more wypipo evil stuff.

        2. A mugging is no longer strong enough to cause a conversion because the political parties have separated so far. Even a mugging isn’t strong enough to jump the increasingly wider gap.

          1. A mugging is no longer strong enough to cause a conversion

            Maybe. Perhaps as people grow more and more averse to the biggest parties it will push people toward third parties? I don’t see how you can willingly stay with a party who wants you to submit to regular muggings.

            Maybe that’s it…maybe the conversion will be on the second one instead of the first going forward.

          2. I don’t know. Last weekend we had a gig (in person, sans masks) with a musician friend who seemed quite aghast over recent social developments. He explained his upbringing in a white liberal household, but it was quite clear that he was questioning all that he was taught growing up in light of recent signs of societal breakdown in the name of liberty and justice for all.

          3. Maybe that’s it…maybe the conversion will be on the second one instead of the first going forward.

            Or after you get beat up.

    5. Now I finally get it!

      Peaceful protests = somebody else’s property was destroyed

      Domestic terrorism = my property was destroyed

      1. Seems to sum it up quite nicely. But perhaps our new friend will have an opinion on this.

    6. From that article: “Another BLM supporter, ESPN writer Chris Martin Palmer, who commented “Burn it all down,” when retweeting a photo of a Minneapolis building in flames in late May, had a different reaction when rioters came close to his house, The Sporting News reported.

      “Get these animals TF out of my neighborhood,” Palmer wrote. “Go back to where you live.””

  6. So much crater:

    ‘San Francisco’s reign as the tech capital of the Bay Area suddenly looks in doubt. For the past decade, San Francisco has outshined Silicon Valley in attracting new technology firms, entrepreneurs and younger employees, who tend to prefer the city’s lifestyle and attractions to the suburbs.’

    ‘Now, that trend shows signs of reversing. Office demand has been falling in both markets, as the coronavirus pandemic, slowing economy and the early success of work from home have caused firms to reconsider office use.’

    ‘Commercial real-estate firm CBRE Group Inc. said the volume of tenants looking for space has fallen about 56% in San Francisco, compared with about 32% in Silicon Valley, between the end of February and the end of May. San Francisco has also suffered more from companies leaving the Bay Area for cheaper rents and other costs elsewhere.’

    ‘As the Bay Area takes early steps to reopen its economy after three months of lockdown, San Francisco also has a growing glut of sublease space as tech companies lay off workers, throttle back expansion plans or relocate jobs to less-expensive markets. San Francisco now has the highest sublease availability in the country, with about 30% of the available space in the city being listed by tenants, according to data firm CoStar Inc.’

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-tech-firms-rethink-san-francisco-silicon-valley-stands-to-gain-11592308801

    Shortage, shortage…GLUT!

    1. ‘Although it may seem like the housing market has shrugged off COVID-19, as home sales show signs of recovering’……………………

      Not too much “shrugging” going on in California and as we all know sales fall first and then the prices follow.

      Here’s how home sales and prices broke down by county in May:

      In Los Angeles County, sales fell 49.5% from a year earlier, while the median sales price rose 1.6% to $620,000.

      In Orange County, sales fell 50.6%, while prices rose 4.2% to $750,000.

      In Riverside County, sales fell 43.7%, while prices rose 6.5% to $415,000.

      In San Bernardino County, sales fell 33.9%, while prices rose 6.7% to $368,000.

      In San Diego County, sales fell 40.7%, while prices rose 3.5% to $590,000.

      In Ventura County, sales fell 49.4%, while prices fell 1.7% to $580,000.

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/southern-california-home-sales-plunged-in-may-while-median-price-inched-up/ar-BB15G6Ii

      1. “sales fell XX% from a year earlier, while the median sales price rose Y%…”

        – Median price is a lagging indicator. Yes, generally sales volume declines, then price.

  8. For the past 3 months only top management plus a couple of technicians have been allowed into our ~100 person office. Yesterday about half of us got letters authorizing re-entry into the facility for critical tasks as needed. So far management is emphasizing they still don’t want us to go onsite unless there really is a critical need that the two technicians can’t handle themselves. But the letters feel like a significant change.

      1. Without endless meetings, what will management do to fill their day?

        Schedule another zoom meeting? I have two of them tomorrow.

      2. Managers are worried about tracking “work” and want to be able to stroll down the rat maze of cubes, is all. My employer just announced a “phased” reopening. Since I’m IT-ish I’ve been in and out a lot over the past few months. Nice to have a quiet office, but no more.

        We’re also getting salary cuts. COVID-19 is the ultimate deflationary tool.

      3. “Without endless meetings…”

        Managers need numerous meetings because they don’t have any idea of what or how things actually function. Leaders know what’s happening, and they can look at their employee’s work and recognize talent or the thousand-yard stare.

  9. From Realtor.com on Florida Yes there are numerous areas of the country that are a mess but Florida is no longer a paradise (I know some will say it never was) and in my opinion its a mess. Why anyone would want to re-locate to Florida is beyond me.

    1. Why anyone would want to re-locate to Florida is beyond me.

      It has to be the sweltering heat and the bugs. Who can resist that?

      1. +1

        I hate humidity and bugs. Guess that’s why I live in the Southwest. 🙂

  11. “If you’re a homeowner struggling to pay your mortgage during this pandemic, a local non-profit is ready to help. SNAP Spokane received a $50,000 grant from Bank of America to go directly into its housing counseling program that helps hundreds of homeowners in our community.”

    See? Bankers are your friends.

    “‘Trying to figure out how to get federal or HUD money to serve those clients was always a challenge,’ said Karen Campbell, financial stability program coordinator at SNAP Spokane.”

    B of A gave a grant of $50,000 to SNAP in order for SNAP to help struggling homebuyers get federal or HUD money.

    (And this federal or HUD money is then immediately paid out by the homebuyers to the bank.)

    Like it , love it, want more of it.

    1. struggling homebuyers

      They’re debt donkeys, or they wouldn’t be struggling. How much will a hundred bucks help these doomed debtors?

  12. From Realtor.com on Florida. “Each year, tens of millions of people arrive from all over the world to visit Orlando, FL. But this year, of course, is very different. ”

    – Just stating the obvious…

    “Johnson says one of the biggest problems plaguing the Orlando area housing market is inventory. ‘We’re in a seller’s market—there’s a major shortage of inventory in Central Florida,’ he says. However, one segment of the housing market has struggled: The luxury market is in retreat, faring much worse than average homes. The $1 million-plus housing market has seen the steepest decline in sales, Johnson says. ‘There’s a major oversupply’ in that part of the market.”

    – “Joe Johnson, president of the Osceola County Association of Realtors.”
    – “We’re in a seller’s market—there’s a major shortage of inventory in Central Florida,’ he says.”
    – Except in $1M+ houses, according to Joe.

    – Fact check. From realtor.com website for Orlando, FL:
    1) 5,342 (existing + new) houses for sale (all houses, all price)
    775 houses with price reduced
    775/5342=14.5%

    2) 4,665 (existing) houses for sale (existing only, all price)
    754 houses with price reduced
    754/4665=16.2%
    – New houses only 3% price reduced, but builders can add freebies, special financing, incentives, etc. to effectively reduce price without actually reducing it in the MLS.

    – Approx. 15% price reduced houses in Orlando, FL doesn’t sound like a seller’s market to me. It sounds more like an emerging buyer’s market. Keep an eye on that price reduced number going forward. I’ve got to believe that there’s a major pandemic impact to Orlando businesses, since not so many flocking to Disney World and other theme parks there now. Employment = salaries = ability to get a mortgage and purchase a house.

    1. Remember when we would get price reduced reports for the whole country, monthly? The REIC just stopped putting it out.

      1. “Remember when we would get price reduced reports for the whole country, monthly? The REIC just stopped putting it out.”

        – Cherry-picking the data won’t help in the longer-term as this financial conflagration works it’s way through the economy, but it does help to support the narrative in the short-term. We’ll have a better picture of what’s really happening as stimuli, forbearance, delays, etc. start running out in July/August. There will likely be a second round of extend and pretend tactics until after the November 3rd election. Then we’ll see who’s really swimming naked. Al joking aside, I don’t see this being a mild, or run-of-the mill recession. Too much easy $ over the last 10+ years. I hope I’m wrong, but history says otherwise.

        “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Mark Twain

          1. Alternately, fudge the data if it doesn’t align with the lies to the public. If you get caught, it’s a “computational error”.

            State, regional and local realtor associations do this monthly as a matter of course.

  13. “‘Although it may seem like the housing market has shrugged off COVID-19, as home sales show signs of recovering, it may prove a false dawn,’ said Tendayi Kapfidze, LendingTree’s chief economist.

    Note that none of these REIC turds are even acknowledging the 800-lb gorilla in the room: now that BLM and its fellow travelers have the Democrats cravenly bowing to their wishes, the shakedown demands – backed up by the ever-present threat of riots and looting – are going to get more and more extortionate. Cities are going to burn. As the Democrats move even more towards outright Communism, taxpayers and the productive are going to flee to the rural areas and red states, and will seek to divorce themselves from their corrupt collectivist overlords and their globalist string-pullers. The implications for housing prices are enormous, and mostly unacknowledged.

    1. Who wants to own property knowing that BLM looters have free rein to stop by and destroy it without legal consequences?

      1. Or operate a business! No way is anyone going to deal with a commie Democrat controlled city who will let people steal and burn your business down and order the cops to arrest you or any cops that would defend it.

        Insurance rates will skyrocket, if those companies don’t go out of business.

        1. Next up: Charges of redlining and racism from underserved communities where rampant looting occurred…

        2. I expect that virtue signalers like Target will rebuild. Others will drag their feet, saying that they’re committed to coming back, plans and studies are being made, blah, blah, blah. No mass retailer will flat out say: “we’re not coming back.”

          1. They will construct their future stores in underserved communities to look more like a fortress and less like a traditional display storefront with windows for looters to break in order to gain access to free merchandise.

  14. “In 2014 a nearly 6,000-square-foot penthouse spanning the top floor of the luxury Manhattan condominium Walker Tower sold for $50.9 million, making it the priciest apartment ever sold downtown at the time. A few weeks ago, the same unit went into contract for just $18.25 million, according to people familiar with the situation.”

    $32 million Yellen Bux screamed out their last in a single transaction. Now calculate, if it’s even possible, how many trillions of Yellen Bux have already perished, soon to be joined by trillions of Powell Bux. How long can the central bankers keep up this 11-year charade of debt-fueled “prosperity”?

  15. ‘What we’re talking about is almost 70% discount. It’s almost like a sample sale. Walker Tower is not a sample sale.’”

    Guess again, Vickey.

  16. SNAP Spokane received a $50,000 grant from Bank of America to go directly into its housing counseling program that helps hundreds of homeowners in our community.

    Instead of funding these scam Democrat “non profit” rackets that provide no help whatsoever in helping FBs escape the consequences of their own stupidity, Skank of America should just direct FBs to the HBB and the tough love we can dispense for free.

  17. I just got this email:

    7052 DUME DRIVE, MALIBU, CA | $5,995,000

    ‘PRICED TO SELL! LEAST EXPENSIVE PRICE PER SQUARE FOOT ON POINT DUME!’

    ‘Just reduced $1,000,000 and back on the market.’

      1. “Capitalism…is no longer the progressive force described by Marx’; the free market era ‘has been followed by a new one in which production is concentrated in vast syndicates and trusts which aim at monopoly control’. Giant multinational technology companies ‘freeze out other competition to forestall independent technological innovation’. Financial control ‘has passed from the industrialists themselves to a handful of banking conglomerates – the creation of a banking oligarch”

        Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
        Lenin

  19. “In 2014 a nearly 6,000-square-foot penthouse spanning the top floor of the luxury Manhattan condominium Walker Tower sold for $50.9 million, making it the priciest apartment ever sold downtown at the time. A few weeks ago, the same unit went into contract for just $18.25 million, according to people familiar with the situation.”

    Still cheaper than renting…

    3. If they replace them with white people (Uncle Bill’s Rice, Aunt Jane’s Pancakes, etc.) the left will still lose its mind.

      1. If they replace them with white people (Uncle Bill’s Rice, Aunt Jane’s Pancakes, etc.) the left will still lose its mind.

        The weaponization of shame inevitably resulted in shameless opposition. The weaponization of crazy will inevitably result in a society that no longer cares if you lose your mind. We can’t afford to let crazies hold us hostage to their whims for long. There are more important things to worry about…

      2. For good measure, how about Uncle Bill’s White Rice, Aunt Jane’s White Flour Pancakes, etc.? Political correctness exceeds the bounds of ridiculousness at some point…

      3. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben lost their jobs, but white guys like Mr. Clean, Quaker Man, and the Lucky Charms leprechaun got to keep theirs. That’s totally racist if you ask me.

          1. No, he’s clearly a gay sailor from the Bay Area so he gets a pass. The earring gives it away.

          2. Nope not gay. The earring is in his left ear. The convention is:

            Left ear = straight
            Right ear = gay
            Both ears = bi.

            George Michael taught us this in 1983.

    1. “Wall Street banks have been handed $16 trillion in bailouts and other subsidies by the Federal Reserve and Congress at nearly zero percent interest since the 2008 financial collapse. They have used this money, as well as the money saved through the huge tax cuts imposed last year, to buy back their own stock, raising the compensation and bonuses of their managers and thrusting the society deeper into untenable debt peonage. Sheldon Adelson’s casino operations alone got a $670 million tax break under the 2017 legislation. The ratio of CEO to worker pay now averages 339 to 1, with the highest gap approaching 5,000 to 1. This circular use of money to make and hoard money is what Karl Marx called “fictitious capital.” The steady increase in public debt, corporate debt, credit card debt and student loan debt will ultimately lead, as Nomi Prins writes, to “a tipping point—when money coming in to furnish that debt, or available to borrow, simply won’t cover the interest payments. Then debt bubbles will pop, beginning with higher yielding bonds.”

    1. What happens when the sheepdogs decide the sheep are no longer worth protecting?

      I don’t know…but wool is what buys dog food.

  23. CR8R

    Hertz ends plan to sell stocks
    Published: June 18, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. ET
    By Claudia Assis

    Bankrupt Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ, -9.00%) said in a filing Thursday its board’s finance committee determined that it was “in the best interests” of the company to end the plan to sell stocks. Shares of Hertz were halted ahead of the announcement, which follows news on Wednesday that plan was put on hold pending a review by regulators. Hertz filed Monday to sell up to $500 million in shares that would potentially be worthless during the company’s restructuring. Hertz filed for bankruptcy on May 22. Earlier Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hertz was in talks withlenders to get a loan to fund its bankruptcy reorganization. The stock resumed trading late in the session, as was most recently down 6%.
    …

    1. Who in their right mind would buy shares in a bankrupt company that has no hope of returning to profitability? Oh wait … that would be the same people who invest in money losing unicorns.

    1. I’ll bet that will do wonders for his business.

      “Where’d all my customers go?”

  25. It’s all fun and games until someone kills himself…

    “A 20-year-old trader who said he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the free trading app took his own life, according to his family.
    In a note, Alex Kearns blamed Robinhood for allowing him to take on the risk.
    But Alex may have misunderstood the Robinhood financial statement, according to a relative.
    The events underscore the risk that comes with complicated financial instruments like options trading.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/18/young-trader-dies-by-suicide-after-thinking-he-racked-up-big-losses-on-robinhood.html

  26. First major 1031 exchange hurdle: Citibank won’t lend to an irrevocable trust. And just for the added excitement, my realtor tripped chasing after her cat a couple weeks ago and broke her pelvis. She’s out of the hospital and rehab now but her transaction coordinator is bedridden with a possible miscarriage of a surrogate pregnancy.

    1. her transaction coordinator is bedridden with a possible miscarriage of a surrogate pregnancy

      Now that’s what I call a side hustle. Life in Clown World.

  27. Coeur d’Alene, ID Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY As Sellers Flood Market And Slash Prices Double Digits

    http://www.zillow.com/coeur-dalene-id-83814/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As a noted economist said so eloquently, “liquidate whatever you’ve got to eliminate all debt and hold onto every dollar you’ve got…. You’re going to need every last one of them.”

    1. I’ve always wanted to get a tour of the silver mines up there. A lot of fascinating mining history there. Silver mines there are still productive after all these years.

        1. I believe that all STEM majors should be required to spend a summer interning at an industrial facility, just to teach them how the world really works, instead of hunching over their computers.

          1. “just to teach them how the world really works”

            The irony for me is that doing exactly this during my HS and early college summers is what pushed me to STEM.

          2. how the world really works

            I was a swing shift operator in a horrid Chlorine Bleach plant when I decided to go to Engineering School.

          3. “horrid Chlorine Bleach plant”

            Horrid lead extrusion plant for me. Though, the early 20th century automation it did have fascinated me. Negative/positive reinforcement, I suppose.

      2. I’m in Boise now after 20yrs in the SF Bay Area. Sooo glad I made the move. People up here actually smile, say hello, and wave like they know you.

        Haven’t been that far north yet, but it looks absolutely beautiful. Amazon has some nice documentaries about the state too. At some point once I’m settled in I’ll get la familia out and about to see all the grand sites up here.

        And of course, I’ll bide my time before jumping into real estate up here, as prices have soared over 100% in the last 8 years, which is just nuts.

        2. “wave like they know you”

          They probably do; they likely lived down the block from you in the Bay Area.

          I remember the good ole days of flying into Boise in the mid 90s. Nampa to Boise was all small farms. There’s a reason it’s soared in the last 8 (or 28) years.

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