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Many Are Coming To The Same Conclusion — Real Estate Is Not A Worthwhile Expense

A report from The M Report. “The share of mortgage loans that became delinquent in April outpaces anything seen during the Great Recession and is the highest rate on record in 21 years, according to CoreLogic’s data. During the month of April, 3.4% of mortgages went from current to 30 days past due, outpacing the 2% high recorded in late 2008. The overall national delinquency rate in April stood at 6.1%.”

“New York had the highest loan delinquency rate of any state, at 10%. Louisiana, New Jersey, and Mississippi had the next-highest delinquency rates. Among metro areas, those that typically serve as tourist destinations are suffering high delinquency rates. For example, CoreLogic pointed out that Kahului, Hawaii; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Las Vegas all experienced a 5 percentage point or higher rises in delinquencies in April.”

“Miami charted the highest delinquency rate among the major metros across the nation with 11.5% of all properties in some stage of delinquency, which is 6.7 percentage points higher than a year ago.”

The Washington Post. “New mortgage delinquencies hit a record in April, well above anything seen during the Great Recession. If delinquencies lead to foreclosures, as the forbearance time period expires, we could see an increase in the number of properties on the market. It may be compounded by other stressed buyers, who need to cash out of their home to pay bills as the recession continues. The supply glut could increase further if shutdowns are lifted and homeowners who held off on selling during a pandemic suddenly flood the market.”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “The share of North Texas homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments is spiking with the pandemic. In April, 6.6% of D-FW-area residents with home loans had missed at least one mortgage payment. That’s almost twice the local home loan delinquency rate a year ago and is even higher than the nationwide rate, according to CoreLogic. In Texas’ major metro areas, the Houston area had the highest late loan rate in April at 8.2%. San Antonio was second with 7.5% of mortgages at least one payment behind. Austin had the lowest delinquency level at 4.9%.”

From Bisnow on Massachusetts. “Rents in executed leases in Boston were 5.8% lower in June than they were last year. The delta shows that landlords are being forced to discount market-rate units below their listed price, something that would have seemed unthinkable last year as Boston’s housing prices soared. ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Boston apartment market more severely than most other major markets in the U.S. as both rent change and occupancy continue to slip relative to pre-pandemic levels,’ according to RealPage.”

“The rent drops are reflective of more supply than demand in the Boston apartment market. One report found that Greater Boston’s multifamily inventory in May was 59% higher than it was in 2019.”

From WLOS in North Carolina. “In the early months of the pandemic, some real estate brokers reported the bottom dropped out of the Asheville market. One broker, who spoke on the condition News 13 not identify her, said she went four months without securing a home contract. But brokers report the sales market is trending up.”

“‘As landlords who had been renting out their properties sour on the idea of renting their properties because the rental market is softening, they’re looking to place those homes into the sales market,’ said Mike Figura a longtime Asheville broker. Figura said the the home rental market is softening because families working in hospitality and the restaurant business have lost their jobs and are being forced to leave rentals they can’t afford. Those homes he said are going back to the landlords who may decide to sell them rather than lower their rental asking price in the changing market.”

From Bloomberg. “Blackstone Group Inc. is closing a real estate fund that used leverage to load up on commercial mortgage backed securities, investments that have slumped during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Blackstone Real Estate Income Master Fund, with about $1.1 billion of total investments at year-end, including those purchased with leverage, will sell the assets and distribute the proceeds to shareholders, the company said in a regulatory filing this week. Its net assets have declined from almost $773 million at year-end to $553 million as of May 31.”

“The fund suffered a 24% decline in March as markets swooned. CMBS delinquencies in the U.S. surged to 3.59% in June from 1.46% in May, the largest month-over-month increase on record, according to Fitch Ratings. With consumers staying home and shopping online, hotels and mall-based retailers are missing mortgage and rent payments.”

The Real Deal on New York. “Deadbeat tenants on one side, demanding lenders on the other — it’s the classic landlord dilemma of the coronavirus era. The retail condominium at 170 Broadway in Lower Manhattan is among the latest properties to feel this double squeeze, as its CMBS lender has cancelled Covid-19 relief while the sole tenant, Gap Inc., refuses to pay rent — and is even demanding a refund.”

“The property, of which 25 percent is owned by Crown Acquisitions and 73 percent by the Morgan Stanley-managed Prime Property Fund, is now more than 60 days delinquent on $70 million in CMBS financing it received in 2015, according to Trepp.”

“Gap argues that the only reason it agreed to pay ‘enormous sums’ in rent at the property, currently about $5 million a year or $310 a foot, was because of its location in a ‘heavily trafficked and bustling tourist spot’ in the Financial District — an advantage that was wiped out by the coronavirus. It’s also an advantage unlikely to be restored in the near future, due to social distancing measures and even the possibility of a second wave of infections.”

“‘The Landlord is not able to restore the Premises or Lower Manhattan to its former state, and Tenant will never be in a position to operate the Premises in the way in which it was contemplated when it entered into the Lease,’ the suit says.”

From CNBC. “On a Saturday in April, several executives from SoundCommerce rented a U-Haul, drove it to their office in Seattle and loaded up the truck with stand-up desks, 48-inch monitors and various other gadgets and personal belongings. For two days, they traversed town, dropping the items off at employees’ houses and apartments. With the coronavirus forcing non-essential employees to shelter in place, it had been weeks since any the start-up’s 20 or so staffers had worked at the office. It was clear they wouldn’t be going back.”

“The lease expires July 31, and SoundCommerce CEO Eric Best said the company did not extend its contract. In the tech hubs of Seattle, Silicon Valley, New York and elsewhere, many CEOs are coming to the same conclusion — real estate is not a worthwhile expense.”

“In May, CBRE was predicting about a 7% drop in office rents per square foot from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. It expected vacancy rates to rise as high as 14.9% in the first quarter of 2021, up from 12.3% in first three months of 2020. Across the country, Ian White is making a similar calculation at his early-stage start-up ChartHop, which develops software for human resources departments. On Jan. 15, White signed a six-month lease at a WeWork in Brooklyn for an office with about 15 desks.”

“‘I asked WeWork for any kind of concession, but they offered nothing, not even the slightest price break,’ White said. ‘What they finally came back to me with was, if I was willing to enter another 12-month commitment, they’d give me a free month.’ Instead, White is letting the lease expire.”

“Scott Orn said he’s hearing these anecdotes from across his client base. His company, Kruze Consulting, helps about 250 start-ups with tax, accounting and HR services. Orn looked at the data of his clients and concluded that as of May, half of them had eliminated the amount they’re spending on WeWork, while 26% had reduced their WeWork expenses. Orn said his company, which was based at a WeWork location in downtown San Francisco, also let its lease expire.”

“‘Pretty much everyone is doing it, who can do it,’ Orn said. ‘It was actually hard getting dates from WeWork where the elevators were not in use from others moving out.'”

From SFist in California. “It isn’t the first utterly tone-deaf thing that Airbnb has done as a company, but amid a global pandemic and recession, it seems wildly inappropriate and dumb to be asking customers to pad the pockets of hosts — i.e. homeowners — who are suddenly out their side income.”

“When times are tough for broad swaths of the populace in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, it seems less than wise, politically, for Airbnb to start soliciting gifts for people who are essentially landlords. This feels especially egregious in communities like San Francisco and New Orleans where the existence of Airbnb has been directly blamed for taking full-time rental housing off the market and driving up rents for longtime residents.”

“‘I’m not sure I will be contributing to the mortgage for anyone’s second house at this time,’ writes Brianna Wu on Twitter, reacting to the company’s solicitation of ‘kindness cards’ for hosts. ‘Airbnb has lost its f-ing head,’ writes another on Twitter, ‘Why would I donate to my host? I can’t even afford one house.'”

“New York Times tech columnist Mike Isaac today reacted to Airbnb’s gaffe calling these mega-host empires like the ‘mortgage-backed securities of the sharing economy.’ The request for contributions is basically asking customers to ‘donate money to landlords… many of whom have overextended themselves by leveraging multiple properties which they rented out pre-covid, and are now going empty,’ he writes.”

“To be clear, they’ve created this because their hosts absolutely hate them right now, due to the fact that their homes are largely uninhabited and Airbnb won’t (can’t) pay the hosts for their empty houses,” Isaac continues. ‘Crazy situation where basically the entire platform has turned on them.'”

From Business Insider. “The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb properties are owned by hosts who manage at least 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA).”

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This Post Has 138 Comments

  1. ‘landlords are being forced to discount market-rate units below their listed price, something that would have seemed unthinkable last year as Boston’s housing prices soared’

    This is the horse-sh$t we have to put up with. Boston shacks have been sinking like a turd in a well like many if not most. I distinctly remember an approved Boston apartment tower being cancelled because of oversupply – in 2016!

  3. ‘The Landlord is not able to restore the Premises or Lower Manhattan to its former state, and Tenant will never be in a position to operate the Premises in the way in which it was contemplated when it entered into the Lease’

    Sure let’s destroy the economy of entire cities. Good luck with that tax base guvnah!

    ‘Orn said his company, which was based at a WeWork location in downtown San Francisco, also let its lease expire. ‘Pretty much everyone is doing it, who can do it,’ Orn said. ‘It was actually hard getting dates from WeWork where the elevators were not in use from others moving out’

    Think about that.

    1. It was over when WeWork allowed its own employees to work from home. Did they seriously think their tenants wouldn’t have the same idea?

  4. as the forbearance time period expires, we could see an increase in the number of properties on the market

    Then the forbearance simply must not expire.

    The AirBnB thing is kind of funny.

    1. Unfunded communism, basically. I’m really surprised nothing has blown up yet. Who will play the Bear Stearns role this time?

      1. I’m really surprised nothing has blown up yet.

        I’m not. The FED and .gov crammed almost $7 trillion into the eCONomy in a few short months.

        1. All that imaginary money is bound to break something. We’re not seeing inflation, so it must be building up somewhere else.

          1. All that imaginary money is bound to break something.

            Yeah, it’ll break records for asset prices.

          2. Lotsa Powell bux are eagerly seeking a toetag home.

            The Financial Times
            Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
            Tesla Inc
            ‘Wow’: Tesla’s share price rise stuns Musk and his fans
            Electric carmaker has added 1.2 Toyotas, or 27.5 Renaults, in market cap this year
            © REUTERS
            Richard Waters in San Francisco, Brooke Fox in New York and Camilla Hodgson in London yesterday

            Elon Musk summed up his reaction to Wall Street’s latest bout of euphoria over his electric car company in one word this week: “Wow.”

            The Tesla boss’s brief tweet came late on Monday in response to a new projection from analysts at Piper Sandler that Tesla was worth $2,332 a share. It was a massive reset from their previous estimate of $939 — but this year’s powerful rally has forced even some of Mr Musk’s biggest fans on Wall Street into a drastic re-evaluation to keep pace.

            Tesla’s shares hit an intraday high of more than $1,790 on Monday before falling back, or more than four times the low point they touched during the March sell-off. At its market capitalisation peak of $320bn, that valued the company — which was haunted by bankruptcy concerns little more than a year ago — at 50 per cent more than Toyota, only two weeks after overtaking the Japanese company to become the world’s most highly valued carmaker.
            …

  5. ‘The share of mortgage loans that became delinquent in April outpaces anything seen during the Great Recession and is the highest rate on record in 21 years…CMBS delinquencies in the U.S. surged to 3.59% in June from 1.46% in May, the largest month-over-month increase on record’

    Another day, more record defaults.

    1. Do all the forbearances count as delinquencies in these numbers? Or are the forbearances in addition to these delinquencies?

    2. Is there enough Unlimited QE to make up for all the losses due to everyone who stopped paying their mortgages, credit card bills, car loans, rents, student loans, taxes, and other miscellaneous payment obligations?

    1. You can thank the FED. They’ve destroyed the middle and lower classes with their asset price bubbles, enabling the free sh!t army to glean support and get a louder voice. The FED and its oligarch cronies would love to see a UBI which keeps people tethered to the system but not bloodthirsty so the FED can financially rape whatever’s left.

      1. They’ve already made most people into some kind of debt slave. Why re-enslave them?

      2. The FED and its oligarch cronies would love to see a UBI which keeps people tethered to the system but not bloodthirsty so the FED can financially rape whatever’s left.

        The USA (the world really) is a farm, and they are the farmers. They are just looking for the right balance to maximize farm productivity without any “incidents”. While that might seem a bit dystopian to us, they think it’s the way things ought to be. Which is the real dystopia…

        1. When you have 300 million people, governance is herd management by necessity. Making decisions on that scale based on anecdotes rather than statistics isn’t going to work very well.

          I still don’t get why they’d want to transform an army of debt slaves, that more or less takes care of its own existential needs while generating interest and tax revenue, into an army of people that sit around and collect checks.

          We’ve seen what people get up to when they’ve been idle only a couple months. I don’t think extending that indefinitely would end well. They might settle in after a while, but there would probably be a lot more rioting between now and then.

          1. I still don’t get why they’d want to transform an army of debt slaves, that more or less takes care of its own existential needs while generating interest and tax revenue, into an army of people that sit around and collect checks.

            The productive debt slaves are mostly not the same people who currently need UBI. The problem is how do you give UBI to the terminally unproductive without the productive wanting to join them? Like I said above, the big picture is about maximizing productivity for the entire farm. If the unproductive crowd is going to disrupt the productive and can’t be taken behind the barn and put out of their misery, then what?

  8. ‘During the month of April, 3.4% of mortgages went from current to 30 days past due, outpacing the 2% high recorded in late 2008…In April, 6.6% of D-FW-area residents with home loans had missed at least one mortgage payment…the Houston area had the highest late loan rate in April at 8.2%. San Antonio was second with 7.5% of mortgages at least one payment behind. Austin had the lowest delinquency level at 4.9%’

    The REIC has been telling us for years a 4% delinquency rate was “normal.” Now we see 2% was the high in 2008. So Austin, the lowest in Texas, is twice that. Pre-bubble it used to run 1% or under.

    1. LA and San Diego extended their eviction moratoriums until the end of September. A friend of mine in LA who worked at a business closed for the shutdown has no income and stopped paying rent a while back. One of who knows how many. They cancelled the Rose Parade in January 2021 because of CV19. Silly. All they needed to do was add a BLM float designed after a giant torched cop car and an Antifa marching band of purple haired transgenders and the COVID gods would have graced the parade with blanket immunity.

      1. I’m sure he’s getting that $1k+ per week, AND stiffing the landlord. These people are living better than they ever have, buying new RVs, trucks and things. They were gifted over $4k per month, and their bills were halted. Sickening.

  10. ‘All this bodes ill, especially for independent-minded young writers and editors paying close attention to what they’ll have to do to advance in their careers. Rule One: Speak your mind at your own peril. Rule Two: Never risk commissioning a story that goes against the narrative. Rule Three: Never believe an editor or publisher who urges you to go against the grain. Eventually, the publisher will cave to the mob, the editor will get fired or reassigned, and you’ll be hung out to dry.’

    https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter

    1. This goes all the way to the top. Say what the boss wants you to, or get run off. Fauci knows.

      1. Fauci knows.

        Last I knew Fauci’s still around and he’s not saying what Trump wants.

        1. Being ignored, undermined and called a liar by your boss isn’t a comfy situation though.

          1. If you’re ignoring, undermining and lying to your boss you shouldn’t be very “comfy”.

          3. He’s contradicted himself so many times he’s calling himself a liar. In fact, he openly admitted lying. He said masks were useless and later claimed he lied to the public to conserve masks for healthcare workers. So it’s actually Fauci whose calling Fauci a liar.

            HBB readers know that the Real estate/mortgage industry is rife with fraud and abuse but some are somehow convinced that the medical pharmaceutical establishment is full of authentic principled altruistic enlightened folk. I’ve got news for you. It’s just like every other industry and profession, frauds, psychopaths, narcissists, and con artists abound. And they are fast at work milking CV for everything it is worth. If even the priesthood is infiltrated with creeps and pedophiles, you think this would be any different? It’s the human race. Folly and farce is what we do. It’s been happening for millennia.

          5. There are three things you never want to see get made. Laws, sausages, and the author list on a scientific publication.

          6. Fauci and Birx are bureaucratic globalist swamp rats. It doesn’t take much independent research to reach that conclusion.

          7. Blue, what if your boss is scientifically wrong? He could add another hundred papers to his CV, and the stuff out in the lab is still not going to do what he wants. So what would you do? Do you agree with him and be blamed for a lab failure, or do you disagree and then be blamed for making the boss look bad?

          8. what if your boss is scientifically wrong

            I’ve disagreed with bosses plenty, over what was the right thing to do mostly. It causes a certain instability let’s say.

            Fauci isn’t running a lab. He’s running a money machine.

        2. Pinocchio is running the CDC and Trumpy knows it.

          All this…. CoronaScam, BLMScam will be dealt with promptly and efficiently after his re-election.

          Wager on it. 😉

    2. New York Daily News — September 13th, 2013:

      “A point of dispute was the definition of a journalist.

      The original bill would have extended protections to a “covered person” who investigates events and obtains material to disseminate news and information to the public. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a chief proponent of the medial shield legislation, worked with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., as well as representatives from news organizations, on a compromise.

      The protections would apply to “covered journalist,” defined as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have to have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years.

      It would apply to student journalists or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last five years. A federal judge also would have the discretion to declare an individual a “covered journalist,” who would be granted the privileges of the law.”

      This is the origin of the Real Journalists phrase often used on this blog. The past seven years since then has been the worst political and media climate for First Amendment freedom of speech in my lifetime (I wasn’t alive when McCarthy was a Senator).

      Ben Jones, it’s only gonna get worse…

    3. Sorry, Ms. Weiss, but you knew the rules of the game at that globalist mouthpiece, and you knew full well that the paper’s purpose was to influence, not inform. Now you’re acting like you just discovered that anyone who deviates from leftist political orthodoxy has no place at the NYT, when that has been the case from the days the “Grey Lady” was gushing over what a socialist paradise Lenin and Stalin had created in the Soviet Union, or fawning over Fidel Castro. Good riddance…meanwhile, hundreds of Real Journalists at VOX are getting pink slips as more and more subscribers are refusing to pay for globalist propaganda and DNC talking points.

    4. Joe Rogan made her look like an idiot. She called Tulsi Gabbard Assad’s toadie without knowing what it meant. From the few clips I saw thanks to a ZH comment, she clearly wasn’t used to defending her opinions/positions.

  11. And, in the COVID-19 drug wars… looks like we have very promising results with Ivermectin. For seriously ill patients, death rate cut by 40%. For mild-moderate cases, 100% symptom cure rate in 6 days. So far, these are very small studies, but a couple double-blind studies from Israel will report results in September/October. The advantage of Ivermectin is that it can be given in one dose (the trials also used doxycycline, but we don’t know if that’s necessary). Billions of doses worldwide, excellent safety profile, generic and cheap. Big Pharma is uninterested in the results. 🙄

    Probably the biggest advantage of Ivermectin is that Trump hasn’t heard of it yet.

    For an overview, see: https://www.trialsitenews.com/ivermectin-study-reveals-fantastic-results-100-of-60-patients-better-in-an-average-of-just-under-6-days/

    1. Probably the biggest advantage of Ivermectin is that Trump hasn’t heard of it yet.

      He’s heard of it. He’s just playing a smarter game these days. He doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

      1. Or he could be saving it for an October Surprise. That’s when some preliminary gold-standard results are expected to be published. Medcram posted a video on it today as well. It’s all looking very complex.

          1. He’s just the President of the United States with all the access to intelligence that comes with it. 🙄

          3. Pentagon: US will respond if Russia bounty reports are true

            Top Pentagon leaders told Congress on Thursday that reports of Russia offering Taliban militants bounties for killing Americans were not corroborated by defense intelligence agencies, but said they are looking into it and the U.S. will respond if necessary.

            Defense Secretary Mark Esper said his military commanders heard initial reports on the the bounty issue in January and he first saw an intelligence paper about it in February. While the threats were taken seriously, he said they have not yet been found credible.

            Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on the role of the military during recent protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd. Several House members asked about the Russian bounty reports. Milley said Russia and other nations have long worked against the U.S. in Afghanistan and provided support to the Taliban, but the specific notion of bounties hasn’t been proven.

            “In the case of the Russians, we do not have concrete, corroborating evidence, intelligence, to show ‘directing.’ That’s a big difference. If we did, it would be a different response, too,” he said, adding that the military is still digging into the matter and will get to the bottom of it.

            “If in fact there’s bounties directed by the government of Russia or any of their institutions to kill American soldiers, that’s a big deal,” Milley said. “I and the secretary and many others are taking it seriously, we’re going to get to the bottom of it, we’re going to find out if, in fact, it’s true. And if it is true we will take action.”

          4. Firm tests UV light treatment that Trump was mocked for mentioning

            “[T]he pharmaceutical firm Aytu BioScience announced on April 20, four days before the Trump remarks, that it has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The center has developed and is testing a UV-A “Healight” designed to be inserted via a catheter inside the trachea to kill pathogens, including the coronavirus.”

            “Aytu BioScience said: ‘The Healight technology employs proprietary methods of administering intermittent ultraviolet (UV) A light via a novel endotracheal medical device. Pre-clinical findings indicate the technology’s significant impact on eradicating a wide range of viruses and bacteria, inclusive of coronavirus. The data have been the basis of discussions with the FDA for a near-term path to enable human use for the potential treatment of coronavirus in intubated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU).’”

          5. From his Twitter feed:
            “The Russia Bounty story is just another made up by Fake News tale that is told only to damage me and the Republican Party. The secret source probably does not even exist, just like the story itself. If the discredited @nytimes has a source, reveal it. Just another HOAX!“

          6. just another made up by Fake News tale

            “not corroborated” “not yet been found credible” “hasn’t been proven” “if, in fact, it’s true”

          7. he could have no idea that it exists

            Especially if it doesn’t!

            I have a young friend who is caught in a cycle of hysteria revolving around the daily dose of make believe media psych ops. First there is the easily digested “fact”. Second there is the report that the President says it may not be quite true. Every time this young fellow becomes enraged at the President’s disconnect from obvious reality. How dare he be so stupid, evil, etc.

            Next day a different story, and so it goes. It really keeps this young friend all bunched up.

    1. Tricor? Good. The more the merrier. They could make a cocktail and hit the virus with everything at once.

  13. A headline from Crain’s New York:

    Manhattan saw biggest listings increase of 2020: report

  15. I consider it treason that Biden is bribing ilegals with expensive welfare to cross the border . I also think that Biden used his VP position to insure bribes for his Son from China and Ukraine.

    There has got to be some line that is being crossed that a Presidential Platform could be a promise to Citizens of another Country that they will get a benefit if they cross borders and break the law and the grant of citizenship will be granted if you come here.
    It’s a promise that if they break the law they wlll be rewarded, prior to the law being changed. It’s also promising Citizens taxes of welfare already proclaiming it is legal when no such law has been passed yet that we have legal open borders .
    Are you following me on this point.
    Like can you promise a bribe on breaking the law prior to the law being changed?

  16. “The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb properties are owned by hosts who manage at least 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA).”

    Die, speculator scum.

  17. During the month of April, 3.4% of mortgages went from current to 30 days past due, outpacing the 2% high recorded in late 2008. The overall national delinquency rate in April stood at 6.1%.”

    Is that a lot?

    1. I love watching globalist oligarchs losing control of their pet creatures on the left, who have no qualms about biting the hand that feeds them.

      1. I didn’t watch the video, but I recall that what’s her name is threatening all big biz nationwide and said “we’re coming for you”

  19. “‘The Landlord is not able to restore the Premises or Lower Manhattan to its former state, and Tenant will never be in a position to operate the Premises in the way in which it was contemplated when it entered into the Lease,’ the suit says.”

    Sounds like flawed assumptions all around.

  20. “To be clear, they’ve created this because their hosts absolutely hate them right now, due to the fact that their homes are largely uninhabited and Airbnb won’t (can’t) pay the hosts for their empty houses,” Isaac continues. ‘Crazy situation where basically the entire platform has turned on them.’”

    Gosh, I fear that in this situation, speculators who can’t cover their mortgages and housing-related expenses could end up losing “their” houses. That would be a cryin’ shame.

  21. Oh dear…Oligopoly media flagship The New York Times “loses” an editor who writes a letter lambasting the paper’s “woke” Red Guards for trying to force out the 40-something liberals who spawned them. I’m enjoying this so-faux victim narrative from a Real Journalist who as a college student was infamous for trying to silence Arab-American professors who didn’t toe the globalist line on Israel. The Left is now eating its own, and I for one am enjoying the spectacle as the “moderate” (corporate) left gets bilged by the mindless younger radical left.

    https://nypost.com/2020/07/14/twitter-weighs-in-on-bari-weiss-new-york-times-departure/

    1. I read a really interesting discussion board yesterday where the topic was dealing with covid depression. Most started off the lockdown in good shape, happy to get unemployment and do some home projects but the idleness and uncertainty about their jobs/futures is starting to affect a number of people. Working out and activities isnt cutting it as much anymore. People need to be engaged in the grind for whatever reason, otherwise those idle hands are the devils tools (lots of drugs and alcohol).

      1. “Most started off the lockdown in good shape, happy to get unemployment and do some home projects but the idleness and uncertainty about their jobs/futures is starting to affect a number of people.”

        Having a mortgage, a car payment (or two) and a family to support can really dampen a person’s cheerful outlook on life especially looking around at how things are unraveling.

    2. Add to that severe child abuse and homicide. On May 6, Rady Children’s Hospital hosted a webinar entitled “COVID-19 Update and Mental Health Implications.” I suggest every parent with school-age children view it: https://vimeo.com/416008861.

  23. Corrupt Democrat municipal officials will turn a blind eye to BLM/Antifa “protestors” burning down businesses, destroying people’s livelihoods, or setting up illegal, crime-ridden occupations of public spaces. But word to the scum: don’t you DARE bring that plague and pestilence to Democrat officials’ front lawns.

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akzj9k/dozens-of-breonna-taylor-protesters-were-charged-with-felonies-after-sitting-on-the-ags-lawn

    1. The Financial Times
      Matthew Rocco 3 hours ago
      US businesses remain uncertain about outlook after virus spikes
      James Politi in Washington

      The US economy remained dogged by uncertainty despite a partial rebound from the initial pandemic shock, businesses told the Federal Reserve in recent weeks, as they raised concerns about the impact of new infection surges across the country.

      The so-called Beige Book, a report produced by the Fed eight times a year based on its conversations with contacts across its 12 districts, will reinforce fears at the US central bank that America is at best headed for a lengthy and uneven recovery which will require hefty monetary and fiscal support.

      “Economic activity increased in almost all districts, but remained well below where it was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Beige Book, which was released on Wednesday, said. “Outlooks remained highly uncertain, as contacts grappled with how long the Covid-19 pandemic would continue and the magnitude of its economic implications,” it added.

      US central bankers have recently warned that the economic rebound, which was stronger than expected in May and the early part of June, was at risk of faltering owing to disease spikes across sunbelt states.

      Those worries were most apparent in the report from the Dallas Fed, which covers Texas, which said that “the resurgence of Covid-19 infections, and a pause in the reopening of the district economy were causing concern among contacts”.
      …

  26. North Carolina city approves reparations for Black residents, apologizing for slavery

    The vote was unanimous.

    By Anagha Srikanth
    July 15, 2020

    “Hundreds of years of black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today,” said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the City Council, during the meeting. “It is simply not enough to remove statues. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature.”

    The city council also called on the state and federal governments to provide funding for reparations, an issue that has stagnated at those levels for decades. But for the residents of Asheville, the resolution acknowledged the injustices they have suffered and continue to suffer.

    In addition to apologizing for slavery and segregation, the resolution specifically acknowledges more recent ways in which Black people have been discriminated against in schooling, business, health care, education, housing, transportation and law enforcement.

    “The City Council of the City of Asheville (1) apologizes and makes amends for its participation in and sanctioning of the Enslavement of Black People; (2) apologizes and makes amends for its enforcement of segregation and its accompanying discriminatory practices; (3) apologizes and makes amends for carrying out an urban renewal program that destroyed multiple successful black communities,” said the resolution, calling for other organizations and institutions in the community to do the same.

    https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/507467-north-carolina-city-approves-reparations-for-black

      2. I’m not interested in any drug being injected into me. Somebody else can have my “Bill Gates Special.”

      3. The goal is your submission not a safe and effective vaccine. To take an experimental vaccine technology, bypass almost all normal testing procedures, and inject billions of people with it is Dr. Mengele’s wet dream. It is impossible for a vaccine to be “ready” in the fall. Drug discovery timelines don’t work like that. But that won’t stop these people from injecting you with it.

        1. When vaccine pushers experts Paul Offit and Peter Hotez caution about coronavirus vaccines people should probably listen.

      4. I’ll look into it. IIRC, the Oxford vaccine is a more traditional vaccine, instead of Moderna’s risky RNA thingy.

    2. North Carolina city approves reparations for Black residents, apologizing for slavery

      The door has been cracked open. Expect more protests, riots and looting as demands for reparations escalate.

      1. Angela Davis endorsed Biden.
        What a blast to the past. As if a Commie radical like Davis is a good endorsement.
        These mob hell people that hold up their right arm are Commies. They should be shipped to Red China.

        1. They should be shipped to Red China.

          They don’t want any real communists there either. Been there done that, as far as they are concerned.

  27. Logan Dipshit doubled down on his half assed forecast.

    Hey Logan….. check it out. eet up numbnuts. 🤣

    Portland, OR Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY As Mortgage And Appraisal Fraud Envelops West Coast Cities

    https://www.zillow.com/portland-or-97209/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As one broker conceded, “If you bought a house in the last 15 years, you got burned.”

  28. For Professor Bear

    Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4 – 7/21/1970 –

    10,773 Comments

    Micro Tasker
    4 months ago
    Everytime you play this video, a guitarist gets his strings.

    https://youtu.be/7uAUoz7jimg

    I chose the video above because you can clearly see Peter Cetera singing as if his jaw had been wired shut.

    Songfacts

    25 Or 6 To 4
    by Chicago

    Peter Cetera sang lead on this track – despite his jaw being wired shut. A few months before the recording session, the band went to a baseball game at Dodger Stadium, where their hometown team, the Chicago Cubs, beat the Dodgers, leaving four marines angry and ready to take their aggression out on someone. That someone was Cetera, who was singled out by his long hair as much as his team loyalty. The ensuing brawl sent him to intensive care with a jaw broken in three places. When it came time to record the song, his jaw was still wired shut.

    “He had to learn to sing differently,” producer James Guercio told Mix magazine. “I told him, ‘I can’t wait, we’re gonna do this.'”

    Cetera did his vocal through clenched teeth, which he adopted as a trademark singing style.

    https://www.songfacts.com/facts/chicago/25-or-6-to-4

    1. I once played a gig with Cetera, many years after I attended a Chicago concert at the Mississippi River Festival. It was outdoors at one of the San Diego County casinos, and incredibly memorable, due both to his beautiful voice and his great personal warmth. He was very complimentary of the efforts of the local musicians who joined him on stage at the concert. I became a better person through watching how he conducted himself.

    2. Also of possible interest…reading this makes me realize that I didn’t get out to enough concerts when I was a kid!

      Looking back at the glory days of the Mississippi River Festival
      June 20, 2020

      It was back on June 20, 1969, that the first ever performance of the Mississippi River Festival was held at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra played on the opening of what would last for 12 seasons as an outdoor concert series that drew names like The Who, the Eagles and the Grateful Dead. Here’s a look back at some great festival moments.
      …

  29. Any thoughts on why China’s happy V-$haped recovery news was accompanied by a body slam to China stock market bull$?

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Chinese economy
      Chinese GDP grows 3.2% in second quarter
      Recovery from coronavirus boosted by industrial production but mainland stocks fall almost 5%
      A fall in coronavirus cases has helped China’s economy recover
      © REUTERS
      Thomas Hale in Hong Kong and Xinning Liu in Beijing 11 minutes ago

      China’s economy returned to growth in the second quarter, in one of the world’s earliest signs of recovery from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

      Gross domestic product grew 3.2 per cent in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year.

      The positive economic data follow the first annual decline in decades in the previous quarter, when China’s GDP fell 6.8 per cent as the country struggled to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

      Despite the return to growth, China’s stocks fell by the most in more than five months on Thursday after data showed a mixed recovery, with strength in the country’s industrial sector balanced against continued weakness in consumption.

      The CSI 300 of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks closed down 4.8 per cent in its biggest drop since early February, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 2 per cent.

      “Maybe today there’s some kind of realisation that while the industrial side of the economy is really being driven by fiscal stimulus, the consumer side of the economy is a bit more problematic,” said Tapas Strickland, an economist at National Australia Bank.

      Trinh Nguyen, senior economist for emerging Asia at Natixis, wrote on Twitter: “Markets DON’T like the unenthusiastic Chinese spenders.”
      …

  30. Pandemic puts inflation into reverse as prices plummet

    ‘Even some products in hot demand – like toilet paper – failed to go up in price, and rent freezes also put the brakes on.’

    ‘Stripped of international tourists – and for a time, domestic too – prices at motels and hotels slid 14 percent. Airlines had so little revenue however Statistics NZ chose not to publish data to “prevent disclosing confidential information” about Air New Zealand. It also excluded bus, taxi and rental car data – which falls in the same category as domestic airfares – so people couldn’t figure it out via subtraction.’

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2020/07/pandemic-puts-inflation-into-reverse-as-prices-plummet.html

      1. Iceland is another of those little island countries who are proud that they beat the coronavirus. Sure, as long as nobody goes in and nobody goes out.

      2. I once considered stopping on my way to Europe in Iceland for a few days, until I did my research and concluded that it would be utterly dull.

        1. You have to love volcanoes, fish, and exotic geologic landscapes to appreciate it. And forget about learning the language if you aren’t a native.

          1. As a nature lover and person fascinated by unique landscapes, Iceland would be wonderful! Plus amazing women.

      2. My grocery store is now pretty well stocked on everything. Canned meats and liquid kitchen/bathroom cleaners are sparse but not gone. The ONLY thing that’s been completely out of stock is rubbing alcohol. They’re probably using existing capacity for the increased demand in hand sanitizer.

  31. Hi everyone – I posted the below comment on the July 12 thread – I am reposting since I don’t think many saw the thread as I posted late in the day. Thanks to those who did respond, and mentioned Muggy, Palmetto, and Jeff.
    * * * * * * *

    I’m a long-time intermittent lurker who has posted maybe 3 times in the last 12+ years. I have lived overseas for the last 20 years but recently retired from FT work and want to come back to the USA.

    Does anyone have any thoughts on where the Fla condo market might be going over the next 12-18 months? I’m looking at the lower end of the market for a lock up and leave.

    It doesn’t look like Muggy or dimedropped are still around (unless they are under different names) – They were the only Floridians I can remember off the top of my head.

    You are all the smartest community I’ve ever found on the internet and would appreciate any insights. Thanks!

  33. Will white flight from BLM territory drive yet another home construction boom in building apartheid enclaves away from the multicultural zone?

      1. We are 10 years into this housing bubble and homebuilder sentiment is still rising? Unreal…

      2. buyers have rushed back into the housing market.

        Yeah, I’m getting disgusted even though I don’t think this will last long. Wife is seriously considering a nice used RV since neither daughter nor I have to be onsite anywhere for a while. We could just put our stuff in storage and head out to anywhere. There’s been a run on cheap RVs but there are ok deals on the more expensive ones right now as everybody decides to build a house instead.

        1. Wife is seriously considering a nice used RV since neither daughter nor I have to be onsite anywhere for a while.

          She and the rest of the entire country. Good luck finding a place to go with it.

          1. She and the rest of the entire country. Good luck finding a place to go with it.

            Well…I have relatives and army friends everywhere that I can park in front of their house and wave. Not sure anybody should go into anybody else’s house though. But yeah, the cheap RVs have been snapped up. There are still deals on nice ones that most of the people looking to live in one can’t/shouldn’t afford. But I’ll keep in mind that all the fee camping areas in nice places are probably full.

  34. Harbor Bluffs, FL Housing Prices Crater 14% YOY As Gulf Coast Housing Prices Drop Like A Rock

    https://www.zillow.com/harbor-bluffs-fl/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

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

  35. There isn’t any logic to this Defund the police nonsense.
    But, if you had a agenda of overtake of America, law and order would be standing in you way. Very effectivly used by Hilter to gain control with the Brown Shirts.

    Another issue would be how to fund your takeover. What better way but to make the Citizens fund their own takeover by using taxes by getting in bed with
    Government.
    You would also have to take over the educational system to put a end to free thought, as symbolized by the book burning by Hilter.
    And of course you have to have a contrived enemy such as the Jews, or anything as expressed in Eric Hopper’s famous book THE TRUE BELIEVER. Doesn’t matter how false the narrative is as long as you get people to believe it. As long as you can create a enemy and a perceived victim of the enemy. In this case it’s White people bad, racism narrative, the USA is Bad.
    You could contrived other false narratives also for fear mongering like we are going to die in 9 years by climate change. , with no basis in fact.
    And you could even use Foreign invasion by open borders to decrease the life style of the majority you are trying to overtake, and make them pay for it. And of course all the while go for taking away their guns.
    Just look at Bidens announced agenda so far. He is channeling Stalin,Mao, and Hiilter. Beto is the gun Zar to take away the guns and AOÇ is the Commie Zar of false narratives.

    It’s highly likely that Red China is in bed with these traitors also as it’s known that China wants to be number one in the World.

    We actually have a Presidential Candidate , being Biden, that the evidence shows his Son took bribes by China and the Ukraine, yet Trump got Impeached for even wanting a inquiry into it .
    Is there anything in the Biden agenda that has anything to do with improving or protecting the lives of current working class real Citizens.
    You actually have a candidate wanting to improve the lives of non Citizens with bribes.
    And now the senile corrupt Biden is channeling the Sanders and Warren radical Transforming of America that’s nothing more than the Commie agenda.
    But, we have left out the Globalist Money Changers that want a One World Order of looting by rigging the financial systems by monopolies and rigged Ponzi Schemes. The motive with that power is control and money gains , but the Commies have used them effectively to dewealth the majority working class who is no longer represented and hasn’t been for a while now.
    So yes a Trump election would of been a wrench in the massive take over and corruption and power grabs that had already taken place .
    The reaction to Trump’s platforms by the left was a little bizarre to say the least, and it brought out the true colors of just what the power were here.
    I suggest that this time we have history to tell us where the playbook is going if not stopped at this critical juncture.

  36. Another way of saying what I’m trying to express is the following.

    If you had the opportunity to stop Lenin/Stalin and Hilter before they reached critical mass of power, would you want to do that?

    One of the reasons these powers want to destroy history is to not learn from it.
    And think about all the false vififying of Trump voters in spite of them being about half the Country.
    Hilary saying they are the “deplorables”, Racist, the clan, climate deniers, religious right, angry white backlash, fascist, hicks and dumb ass suburban dwellers and farmers, uneducated jerks who don’t want to learn to code, protectionist, Patriots, Russian operatives, baby jailers , oppressors,oñ and on.
    Maxine Waters famous line”kick them”.
    Now is there any doubt of the vififying of Trump voters, which actually seem like the most obvious case of projection I have ever seen in my life. And these Trump voters need to be attacked with baseball bats and their free speech taken away.

    And I would like to know. what is so just about the social justice warriors. Racist, angry parasites who think they even know what justice is.
    I suppose at the time of Lenin or Hilter rise to power people were thinking that they were nuts , but the false narratives started to take over with suppression of everything else.

    It must be stopped.

    1. If you had the opportunity to stop Lenin/Stalin and Hilter before they reached critical mass of power, would you want to do that?

      I used to think so before I saw Antifa using that kind of thinking to justify treating wrong thoughts as equal to physical violence.

      1. You don’t take them out by violent means, by voting them out. If they break the law than arrest is the answer.
        There was a time when Hilter got thrown in jail. Carl Marx was kicked out of his native Country Germany, Lenin had a older brother killed. by the State for being a anarist.
        So, my point is that there is always signs ahead of time of the nature of these people. Just observe the nature of the current hell people mob, take by force method, no free speech allowed.

        But, one can’t resort to their methods because two wtongs don’t make a right unless it’s justified self defense.
        It becomes difficult to stop evil when you have a political party backing them or the Media trying to downplay their acts for political purpose.

      2. Antifa using that kind of thinking to justify treating wrong thoughts as equal to physical violence. Antifa “uses” all kinds of thinking and all kinds of methods in pursuit of their actual goal – power for their backers. Useful idiots have renounced their ability to distinguish thoughts from actions.

        1. I was talking to one of my distant relatives by phone yesterday. She mentioned the ridicule Trump is getting for his recent photo op with Goya products. I replied, “Do you know what eating those beans can lead to?” and then made a very rude noise into the phone’s mike.

          1. Vallejo police killed an unarmed 22yo Hispanic man in April. Apparently, NBLDM (non-black lives don’t matter). Instead, boycott an immigrant success story. Who do you think Hispanics will be voting for? Not some backing BLM.

          2. Who do you think Hispanics will be voting for?

            Depends on what flavor they are. Mexican Americans can be persuaded to ignore any killings as long as green cards for the relatives are promised.

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