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While Predicting A Slump Is A Guessing Game, There Are Some Telltale Signs

A report from National Mortgage News. “While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create financial uncertainty for all Americans, it’s not too early to ask how mortgage lenders can help put the nation’s economy back on track. One way is to address one of the traditionally largest hurdles to homeownership — the down payment. Down payments are a major barrier to home ownership, which is why our federal housing agencies and policymakers should be looking toward DPA programs like the Chenoa Fund as a model. Not only would expanding the DPA option help keep the fire under the housing market burning, but it can create a new generation of homebuyers who are able to pass on the same opportunity to their children for years to come.”

From WANE in Indiana. “So many buyers, not enough sellers. That’s the trend of the housing market in Fort Wayne. ‘People are going way over the asking price, I’ve seen people offer to cover any difference in the appraised price and the purchase price,’ said Sam Hartman, a broker at Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group. ‘Some people are even waving the inspection. Right now, interest rates are fluctuating between 3% and 4%, I have even had some lenders tell me they locked buyers in the 2% which is basically free money.'”

From Housing Wire. “In April 2020, 6.1% of mortgages were delinquent by at least 30 days or more, marking the nation’s highest overall delinquency rate since January 2016, according to CoreLogic. The rate for early stage delinquencies (30-59 days past due) reached its highest level in 21 years at 4.2%, according to the report.”

From CNBC Make It. “Nearly four months after banks and federal agencies started offering a number of assistance programs aimed at giving Americans a break on their mortgages, about 4.1 million homeowners remain in forbearance plans. At the end of the day, experts say getting in and out of forbearance will be a challenge for homeowners. ‘I’ve just seen many too many people spend enormous amounts of time and energy and get themselves into a worse position,’ says Lisa Sitkin, senior staff attorney with NHLP.”

From Bob Vila. “While predicting a future housing slump is a bit of a guessing game, there are some telltale signs, including a large number of homes on the market, sellers dropping their asking prices, and vacant homes in the neighborhood, all of which are early indications that home prices may be taking a downturn. At the top of GOBankingRate’s list of communities that have experienced pronounced drops in home prices is Peoria, Illinois, where as many as 21 percent of homeowners are underwater, or upside-down, in their mortgages, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth. In addition, the median price of a listed home today is $124,450, which is down 15.9 percent from two years ago.”

“With 106,300 residents, Lakewood is the most populous township in Ocean County, New Jersey, but it has seen more than its fair share of plummeting home prices. In the past two years, the median listed home price has dropped 12.3 percent to $252,000. Additionally, approximately 9.4 percent of homeowners are upside-down in their mortgages.”

“Home prices in Columbus, Georgia, have dropped an alarming 10.2 percent in the past couple of years, down to a median list price of $115,450, which explains why as many as 22.2 percent of homeowner mortgages are underwater. Miami Beach is treasured for its vast beaches, but even those aren’t enough to keep home values afloat. While the median price of a home in Miami Beach is much higher than it is in many other communities around the country, at $499,000 it’s fully 5 percent less than it was a couple of years ago. Approximately 14.5 percent of Miami Beach homeowners are underwater in their mortgages.”

“These days a home in Naples, Florida, will set you back about $407,990, which is a decrease of 8.8 percent over the past two years. Perhaps some of the blame for the sagging prices can be pinned on the long amount of time houses spend on the market—140 days, on average, which is twice the national average. As many as 6 percent of homeowners are upside-down in their mortgages.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “Bargain hunting? Here’s a look at price-reduced homes for around $900,000 in Mid-City, Cypress Park and La Crescenta-Montrose in L.A. County. A white picket fence and landscaped yard draw the eye outside this three-bedroom, two-bathroom home near the 110 Freeway. In the 90016 ZIP Code, based on 17 sales, the median price for single-family homes in May was $720,000, down 8.3% year over year, according to CoreLogic.”

“Mid-city: This corner-lot property with a grassy backyard is down $100,000 from its original asking price. Address: 3647 Virginia Road, Los Angeles, CA 90016. Listed for: $850,000 for three bedrooms, two bathrooms in 1,526 square feet (7,112-square-foot lot).”

From Socket Site in California. “With the weighted average asking price of renting an apartment in San Francisco already down over 10 percent on a year-over-year basis and continuing to drop, the average price for renting ‘a room’ in San Francisco has just slipped to under $1,600 month.”

“For the purposes of our analysis, we consider a studio to be a single room, a one-bedroom to have two, a two-bedroom to have three, and so on and so forth, as have plenty of roommates over the past couple of years. And as such, the average asking price per room is down 16 percent from a peak of nearly $1,900 a month in the fourth quarter of 2015. But as we’re working with asking rents, the current $1,600 a month figure doesn’t account for any additional concessions beyond a reduced rack rate (such as a couple months of free rent and/or a $2,000 gift card).”

From WCVB in Massachusetts. “A new report shows Boston rents have recently dropped by nearly 6% during the pandemic. The numbers show the asking price for rents dropped in Boston last month. But the rent on signed leases dropped even more, showing landlords are suddenly willing to negotiate. As recently as May, a four-bedroom apartment in Brighton was going for $3,400 a month. Now, the landlord has dropped the rent by nearly a quarter to $2,800 a month.”

“‘We’re seeing not just rents drop, but incentives being placed on different apartments: no fee, free month, free TV. People are being aggressive to get students or young professionals in their apartments,’ said Adam Mason of Preview Properties. Rents might drop even more when added unemployment payments run out at the end of the month and when a statewide moratorium on evictions runs out a couple weeks after that.”

From Mansion Global on New York. “All of New York City’s Central Park—plus the city skyline and Hudson River—is in full view from the floor-to-ceiling windows of a One57 condominium that hit the market Wednesday for $45 million. The unit was last purchased by a trust in 2015 for $47.4 million, according to public records.”

From Westfair Online. “Hudson Valley kitchen contractor Abraham Gandl has filed for bankruptcy, citing debts from a failed business. Gandl declared $431,000 in personal assets and nearly $4.2 million in liabilities in a Chapter 7 liquidation petitioned filed July 6 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Poughkeepsie. Most of the liabilities are business debts by co-debtor HNL Kitchens & Bath Inc. of Middletown.”

“Gandl founded HNL in 2015, as High N Low Kitchens & Bath Inc. The company concentrated on large projects, such as high-rise apartment buildings and hotels. It claims to have built or renovated more than 10,000 kitchens, according to its website. Last August, the bankruptcy petition states, the business ceased operating.”

“Gandl’s assets consist mostly of his house in Monroe, valued at $431,000. But the house secured more than $1 million for business loans, court judgments and IRS and state tax warrants. He owes $688,860 to PennyMac Loan Services, for instance, on a loan he defaulted on four months after it was taken out, according to a PennyMac foreclosure action filed in Orange County Supreme Court.”

“Around the same time, he personally guaranteed a $280,000 revenue purchase agreement with Syndimate 2017 LP. HNL was required to pay the merchant cash advance lender 15% of its deposits per day, estimated at $1,750. HNL defaulted and Syndimate won a court judgement. Gandl declared more than $3.1 million in unsecured claims, including nearly $1.1 million to FinWise Bank of Sandy, Utah; $654,885 to Abraham Landau, who guaranteed the FinWise loan; and $339,580 to HNL’s CFO, Richard Stone. All but 20 of the 59 unsecured debts were listed as disputed.”

“He has worked in a sales position for the past nine months, making about $397 a month. He declared income of $6,000 a month from an unspecified source and $700 a month in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. He listed personal income of $36,000 through July 6, $50,000 last year and $28,800 in 2018. is total monthly income of $7,097 is offset by $10,476 in expenses, according to the petition, including $5,506 in mortgage payments.”

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This Post Has 117 Comments

  1. ‘Gandl’s assets consist mostly of his house in Monroe, valued at $431,000…He owes $688,860 to PennyMac Loan Services, for instance, on a loan he defaulted on four months after it was taken out’

    But, tight lending?

    ‘People are going way over the asking price, I’ve seen people offer to cover any difference in the appraised price and the purchase price…Some people are even waving the inspection’

    OK Sam, how are they getting this free money without an inspection?

    1. OK Sam, how are they getting this free money without an inspection?

      Because lending’s “tight?”

    2. By the way, the FED, the banks and .gov know exactly what they’re doing. They realize that if they don’t keep shoveling cheap money out there to anybody with a pulse, then the whole Ponzi implodes. This is a fantastically massive bubble built on a foundation of sand. It’s like a game of Jenga where they’re cheating and holding the top while shoving anything they can into the structure to keep it from crumbling.

      1. I’m glad my daughter’s musician boyfriend is making bank day trading his Powell bux. I personally don’t roll that way, but I am happy someone in my circle is able to take advantage of the gambling opportunity that the Fed has created. It also reduces the parental subsidy draw on my household.

        1. The economy is a competition for resources. This is why one doesn’t see many 20 dollar bills laying on the sidewalk.

          Eventually the liquidity flood will recede. Retail traders will be blithely unaware, but their counterparties at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs will have seen it well in advance because they have lunch with senior government and central bank officials and we do not. Also their computer networks and trading programs are very robust.

          It probably would be worthwhile for the gentleman to develop a measure of respect for the ability and foresight of the counterparties, as well as for the power of unexpected events, and update his strategy accordingly.

          2. Why would the Fed ever allow your scenario to happen?

            Exactly. What part of “Unlimited QE” are people missing?

      2. Wall Street grifters and hedge funds like BlackRock and the Vampire Squid always seem to have uncannily accurate foreknowledge of what the Fed is about to do. But I’m sure that’s just luck on their part. They also have full visibility into the long and short positions taken by the retail investing herd, and can unerringly corral them into the slaughterhouse, then deploy their algos and massive FedBux capital when it’s time to separate the fools from their money.

        1. Wall Street grifters and hedge funds like BlackRock and the Vampire Squid always seem to have uncannily accurate foreknowledge of what the Fed is about to do. But I’m sure that’s just luck on their part.

          Thanks for that, I miss pro-level comedy shows sometimes.

  2. 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.”

  4. ‘a One57 condominium that hit the market Wednesday for $45 million. The unit was last purchased by a trust in 2015 for $47.4 million’

    The old safe deposit box in the sky. Notice how the REIC/media that played that myth to the hilt, never revisit the issue?

    1. Some fine day in the not too distant future, organized gangs of Gimme Dats will descend en masse on One57, quickly overwhelm security, then go on an orgy of looting that would do the Fed proud.

  5. ‘While predicting a future housing slump is a bit of a guessing game, there are some telltale signs’

    Like defaults?

    ‘In April 2020, 6.1% of mortgages were delinquent by at least 30 days or more, marking the nation’s highest overall delinquency rate since January 2016, according to CoreLogic. The rate for early stage delinquencies (30-59 days past due) reached its highest level in 21 years at 4.2%’

      1. Are you sure?

        Tampa, FL Housing Prices Crater 17% YOY As Guf Coast Housing Market Turns Toxic On Rampant Appraisal And Mortgage Fraud

        https://www.zillow.com/tampa-fl-33617/home-values/

        *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

        As a leading economist advises, “Mortgage debt is the most toxic and damaging debt of all. Avoid it at all costs.”

    1. Interesting study, looking at death count in Switzerland: stop HCQ, deaths go up, start HCQ up again, deaths go down. With consideration for appropriate time lag.

      We need this in the US. However, we need testing to return results faster than 7 days! With each day, HCQ loses effectiveness. We need some kind of regimen where someone is allowed to take HCQ before the test result comes back. One option is to test for influenza. If flu comes back negative, assume COVID only as a justification to prescribe HCQ (that is, don’t count is as a positive until the actual result comes back). At worst, someone takes HCQ for a week. Which they would have done anyway if they had RA or lupus or were going to an area with malaria.

      1. However, we need testing to return results faster than 7 days!

        Treatment should be at the doctor’s discretion, not strictly dependent on test results. If i were looking for a doctor, my preference would be for one with an aggressive stance towards the virus. Dr. Zelenko comes to mind.

    2. While I’ve been promoting HCQ, we might have better outcomes with Ivermectin. Without going into too much detail: the virus damages organ cells on the ACE-2 receptor and causes blood clotting on the CD-147 red blood cell receptor. It’s the blood clotting and oxygen starvation that causes the myriad of symptoms.

      The theory is that Ivermectin prevents the spike protein from latching to CD-147 and possibly to ACE-2. HCQ/Zn seems to prevent replication, but I don’t believe it can prevent clotting like Ivermectin may. So Ivermectin might be even more effective than HCQ, especially for the non-respiratory symptoms. Ivermectin is also given in a single dose, which could be done right at the test site, one and done. I’d certainly rather take these drugs than get a shot from Moderna.

      Medcram is on top of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk7KNBak-i0

      1. Yes, i’m on the Ivermectin train too. I have been for some time. But that wasn’t the point of my post. My point was that the corruption to discredit an effective treatment and damage the economy has cost lives and money. I want to see these criminals put behind bars for a long, long time. They intentionally hurt the economy just to hurt Trump.

        2. This is the secondary reason that I’m closely watching the Ivermectin story (besides the obvious potential cure). It’s not only Trump hate. Ivermectin is another old cheap drug. Heck you can buy IVM in a paste for livestock at Tractor Supply and on Amazon, OTC.

          [WARNING: don’t try to self-medicate with livestock Ivermectin! They are still working on the correct dosages based on weight, and those IVM pastes are formulated for thousand-pound horses. You’ll likely OD.]

          And so, of course we aren’t hearing ANYthing about IVM in the MSM. If they reported it, the stock market would rise 600 points overnight. Big Pharma is suppressing all of it because they want you in the hospital getting a Remdisivir drip.

          My guess is that by the end of the year, once the election is done with, the truth will out, and we’re going to have a drug cocktail to treat this dang disease, with several formulations based on symptoms. Ivermectin, zinc, HCQ (or quercetin), and Vitamin C and D. Some have even speculated that people could take HCQ or Ivermectin every week or whatever to achieve a sort of forced herd immunity, in lieu of a vaccine.

          1. we aren’t hearing ANYthing about IVM in the MSM

            Two words: pharmaceutical advertisements

        1. The article gives no information whatsoever about what they studied, except to say something about zinc and “early symptoms.” Nor is there a reference to any kind of written paper. But 43% side effects is suspicious. And we know that the author (Boulware) is biased. He’s the one who “definitively” claimed HCQ had no preventative effect, even though he only gave then HCQ after exposure and assumed COVID based only on symptoms.

        2. This is why I believe ZERO studies or “scientists.” They only provide the best data money can buy – the data their special interest bankrolls want.

          2. “Alyssa Milano demands national shutdown…”

            She was hot as all get out, but crazy as hell. Has she ever stopped to think that people need to work or they’ll be destitute and homeless? She’s got more money than she can ever spend, so a shutdown is of no consequence to her. These people live in a fantasy world.

          4. “David Rubenstein, the co-founder of the Carlyle Group and host of ‘Leadership Live,’ joins ‘Influencers with Andy Serwer’ to discuss whether the stock market can keep climbing, who will win the presidential election, and why private equity gets a bad rap.”

            Wikipedia (emphasis added):

            The Carlyle Group is an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation. It specializes in corporate private equity, real assets, and private credit. In 2015, Carlyle was the world’s largest private equity firm by capital raised over the last five years, according to the PEI 300 index.[3]

            Founded in 1987 in Washington, D.C., by William E. Conway Jr., Daniel A. D’Aniello, and David Rubenstein, the company today has more than 1,575 employees in 31 offices on six continents. On May 3, 2012, Carlyle completed a $700 million initial public offering and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

            Carlyle’s corporate private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyout transactions over the decade 2004–2014 (or perhaps 2000–2010),[citation needed] Carlyle has invested in Accolade Wines, Booz Allen Hamilton, PA Consulting, Dex Media, Dunkin’ Brands, Supreme, Freescale Semiconductor, Getty Images, HCR ManorCare, Hertz, Kinder Morgan, Nielsen, United Defense, and other companies.

            He looks like a globalist DC swamp rat.

          5. “David Rubenstein, the co-founder of the Carlyle Group…”

            He didn’t sound too excited, masks or not, but he was protecting himself regardless. It’s a fight not worth fighting, or as he puts it, just acknowledge 1,000 plus per day, and go on about your business. And he did mention that he was giving away the bulk of his fortune.

            Globalist? Yes, I agree with you. However, going all out Smoot–Hawley isn’t the way either. The trade talks need better representation, not just Wall street.

          6. just acknowledge 1,000 plus per day

            Excuse me, but that is absurd. Over 200,000 people die in the US every month. That’s 50,000 per week or 7,000+ every day. The overall death rate went up to 70,000 per week in May but is now back to normal.

            Why should we “accept” that what has already happened and is for all practical purposes over, as our new normal?

            Hysteria about an extra 10 people dying with having tested positive in Miami aside.

            Data from CDC Excess Deaths 2020.

          7. “He didn’t sound too excited…”

            I’m more excited (upset) about public pension funds buying real estate through his private equity firm because Treasury rates are in the proverbial toilet.

          9. a globalist and a “philanthropist.”

            Decimate the American working middle-class, avoid taxation, and funnel money to your cronies/causes, all while looking charitable.

  7. ‘the average asking price per room is down 16 percent from a peak of nearly $1,900 a month in the fourth quarter of 2015. But as we’re working with asking rents, the current $1,600 a month figure doesn’t account for any additional concessions beyond a reduced rack rate (such as a couple months of free rent and/or a $2,000 gift card)’

    An effective rate would also include vacancies. It’s pretty clear these guys are getting slaughtered.

  8. I suppose the coming eviction bomb will drive up demand. Unfortunately those people don’t have any money, so the demand will be for squares on the sidewalk… which is technically real estate?

    2. I suppose the coming eviction bomb

      Which is being deferred in many states and municipalities.

      Though I still haven’t heard anything about extending the extra $600 a week of unemployment or more stimulus checks.

      1. BREAKING NEWS

        COVID LOCKDOWNS TO TRIGGER MASSIVE WAVE OF EVICTIONS

        Tens of millions face eviction between now & September

        Michael Maharrey | Schiff Gold – JULY 16, 2020

        According to one expert on eviction, between 20 million and 28 million Americans could face eviction between now and September. That compares to about 10 million evictions over a much longer period of time following the foreclosure crisis in 2008.

        Emily Benfer chairs the American Bar Association’s Task Force Committee on Eviction and was co-creator of the COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard with the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. She told CNBC the number of evictions is unprecedented.

        “We have never seen this extent of eviction in such a truncated amount of time in our history. We can expect this to increase dramatically in the coming weeks and months, especially as the limited support and intervention measures that are in place start to expire.”

        One economist estimated the economic shockwaves from the government shutdowns could precipitate a 40% rise in homelessness this year alone.

        https://www.infowars.com/

        1. Citizen! Infowars is a non-Narrative Compliant media source! Your social credit score has been forwarded for automatic review and downgrade. Please proceed to an approved globalist media outlet like HuffPo, while genuflecting before a life-size portrait of St. Greta.

  9. Hollywood, SC Housing Prices Crater 24% YOY As Retirement Property Market Tanks

    https://www.zillow.com/hollywood-sc/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As one Central South Carolina broker put it, “We’ve got more retirees dying than we have people to replace them. What are we going to do with all these empty houses?”

  10. The pandemic is really gaining steam worldwide, with no vaccine in sight. Good luck to all!

    Coronavirus update: Global COVID-19 cases climb to 13.6 million after record one-day tally of 230,400 new infections
    Published: July 16, 2020 at 11:17 a.m. ET
    By Ciara Linnane
    Bank of America and Morgan Stanley beat earnings estimates despite pandemic, while Domino’s gets boost from at-home diners

    The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 world-wide rose to 13.6 million on Thursday, after a record of about 230,400 new infections were counted on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

    That was higher than the previous one-day record of roughly 229,000 counted last Friday, the data show. The U.S. recorded another 66,300 cases on Wednesday, just below the record of more than 67,000 cases reported on Tuesday.

    A full 43 states and territories have seen case numbers rise in the past 14 days, according to a New York Times tracker, showing Florida is the new hot spot in the U.S. Hospitals in parts of the South and West are straining to handle the case load. The cities of Houston, Miami and Phoenix are reporting dire shortages of intensive-care unit beds and staff.
    …

    2. We’re at a turning point. Once the CDC is out of the loop, and we get a handle on this rampant testing, the numbers will go down like magic, and we will transition to greatness.

      1. No need. Marching arm in arm with unmasked BLM/Antifa “protestors” confers instant immunity. St. Greta and the Globalist media assure me of this.

    3. No vaccine in sight….

      It’s getting tiring so this will be my last post on CV.

      Scenario 1: It’s a deadly pandemic and the vaccine is safe and effective. Bankers and hedge fund managers, the rich and powerful, clamor to be first in line and take the vaccine faster than they did CV bail out money. They pull every string they have to make sure everyone in their families gets the first dose available. Senators and congressional reps, judges, corporate CEOs, the same. Trump is on the presidential hotline to the CDC to make sure three doses are reserved for himself, Melania, and Baron.

      Scenario 2: The virus is a low risk for most people and the vaccine is questionable. Congress exempts itself from ever having to take the vaccine but you are required to get it every six months to be a cashier at Walmart. The first roll out of the vaccine targets helpless geriatrics in nursing homes, poor minorities, illiterate third world populations who have to sign the liability waiver with a thumbprint because they can’t sign their names, and grunts in the military.

      Which one of these scenarios do you think you will see unfold? You don’t need a PhD to figure this one out. Good luck to all in the new normal because, as far as I can tell, this is never going to end. The technocracy unfolded without a hitch.

      1. I would be happy to go to the back of the line for any vaccine. Actually, I’m not a vaccine taker at all.

        1. Would it be possible to get to the front of the line by temporarily identifying as a a transvestite black lesbian?

        3. are floating the idea that black and brown people should get the vaccine first

          And if the rushed out the door vaccine does more harm than good, will there be cries of Racism!?

      3. ISTM that with masks, there’s sufficient grounds to bring a lawsuit against a forced vaccine. If you want to work at Wal-Mart and don’t want the vaccine, you can simply sign a waiver that you promise to wear a mask at all times and that you take responsibility if you get it yourself.

  11. About 27 years ago my wife and I saw a segment on what to do if a baby was choking on the local news. Hold the kid face down and hit the baby’s back with firm open hand upward blows. About a month later we took our then only, now oldest kid back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. Son of a gun if my sister in law isn’t holding the kid Thanksgiving day and starts screaming she’s choking! My wife and I ran to her, I grabbed her and held her face down, my wife hit her back just like we had seen on the news and a piece of something came flying out of her mouth. Like twenty-five family members and friends stood there open mouthed and in shock and looked at us like we were some kind of super parents, which of course we were not, just two young parents who paid attention to a news segment that pertained to us.

    Having said all that, I don’t think ANTIFA, BLM or the rioting defund the police crowd would have had any idea what to do in this situation.

    Watch: Dashcam Video Shows Michigan Police Officer Save Choking Infant

    https://youtu.be/5D1ybUqkIHo

    1. Having said all that, I don’t think ANTIFA, BLM or the rioting defund the police crowd would have had any idea what to do in this situation.

      I wouldn’t describe them as results-based cultures. So unless you happen to be with one who is medically trained or a veteran…you’re more likely to get sympathy than help. When that guy was getting body slammed in the video the other day his friends standing in a circle around him were really sympathetic. It’s about feelings…not results.

  12. It’s quite the red numbers day on Wall Street, with all risk assets down, including stocks, oil and gold.

    Treasurys are the one exception to the selloff, as far as I can tell.

  13. National Association of Police Organizations endorses Trump

    MS-13 endorses Biden

    For the first time, Trump administration uses terrorism charges against an alleged MS-13 leader

    By Rachel Weiner
    July 15, 2020 at 7:16 p.m. EDT

    The Justice Department has charged an alleged leader in MS-13 as a terrorist, part of a string of new charges against members of the Salvadoran gang implicated in over a dozen murders.

    Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz, 30, oversaw 20 gang cliques in 13 states, including New York, California, Maryland and Virginia, according to prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia. He lived on and off in Virginia starting in 2003 but has stayed in El Salvador since 2016, according to prosecutors.

    “We’re using ‘terrorism,’ which gives us extra strength,” President Trump said in remarks at the White House on Wednesday. “We’ve done a great job with MS-13, but now we’re stepping it up even to a higher level.”

    Melgar Diaz is in custody facing criminal charges in El Salvador, with no indication he will soon be extradited. But the Justice Department simultaneously announced 21 arrests in New York and Nevada involving MS-13 and the decision to seek the death penalty against an alleged leader in the gang who was arrested in 2017.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/for-the-first-time-trump-administration-uses-terrorism-charges-against-ms-13/2020/07/15/7079dd70-c6d3-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html

    1. The Justice Department has charged an alleged leader in MS-13 as a terrorist, part of a string of new charges against members of the Salvadoran gang implicated in over a dozen murders.

      This is going down a slippery slope. After all, if you start designating MS-13 leaders as terrorists, how do you avoid charging Comrade Pelosi and the DNC with material support for terrorism for their role in aiding and abetting the influx of Central American gang members into the U.S.?

      1. Indeed, if they can trace the money that was paid to the MS-13 members who killed Seth Rich back to the DNC and John Podesta it could get very interesting.

        Nice that the feds have gotten executions back on track too. Gonna need a lot more of that in the future.

        1. if they can trace the money

          Better yet, get Melger Diaz to flip on bigger fish.

          Reminder: Jeff Sessions visited El Salvador in July 2017 to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against MS-13.

    1. Colorado Springs housing is ridiculously overpriced. As far as I can tell, inventory and price levels haven’t shifted much since COVID reared its ugly head. I expect the influx of Californians to accelerate as the takers overwhelm the makers there.

      1. I don’t think you have to worry about that with the way the prices are falling there.

  15. Oh dear. Speculators and greedy landlords won’t like this one bit.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-16/to-fill-vacant-units-barcelona-seizes-apartments?srnd=premium-middle-east&sref=5CqwjcI3

    Barcelona’s Latest Affordable Housing Tool: Seize Empty Apartments

    Fill vacant rental units with tenants or we will take over your properties, the city is warning landlords.

    Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power to force the sale of empty properties.

    This week, the city’s housing department wrote to 14 companies that collectively own 194 empty apartments, warning that if they haven’t found a tenant within the next month, the city could take possession of these properties, with compensation at half their market value. These units would then be rented out by the city as public housing to lower-income tenants, while the companies in question could also face possible fines of between €90,000 and €900,000 ($71,000 and $710,000), according to Spanish news outlets.

  18. Pocket worthy
    Economists on the Run
    Paul Krugman and other mainstream trade experts are now admitting that they were wrong about globalization: It hurt American workers far more than they thought it would.
    Foreign Policy
    Michael Hirsh
    …

    1. It should never be said that these Nobel Prize winning economists guys do not have a sense of humor …

      “In a series of books and articles beginning in the 1990s, Krugman branded just about everybody who questioned the rapid pace of globalization a fool who didn’t understand economics very well. `Silly` was a word Krugman used a lot to describe pundits who raised fears of economic competition from other nations, especially China. Don’t worry about it, he said: Free trade will have only minor impact on your prosperity.”

      😁

      1. I can overlook a lot but arrogance is difficult, my tendency is to want to rub their faces in it even decades later.

    2. How could they not of known that Globalism would not of hurt the USA. It’s just sounds like when the Bankers said “we didn’t see it coming”, when they were the masterminds of the leading fraud that crashed around 2008.

      1. I think these so called Experts end up somehow getting themselves tied up with special interest, and so goes their brain. Money is the root of all evil, and sometimes power for powers sake also.

      2. During the Clinton era, American exceptionalism was at its height. They had this idea that Americans were all smarter than the rest of the world, and the physical labor was beneath us. Let the third world do the labor while Americans all work knowledge jobs. We’ll be so rich we can buy what we need from whatever third-world factory or farm will make it cheapest that week. Yeah well, it didn’t work out that way. Turns out that Americans run the gamut from stupid to smart and poor to rich and lazy to industrious, and we needed occupations to match. We also need the products strategically. I still can’t find an N-95 mask anywhere. And what would happen if a large section of the grid went down? Do we even have the wires to fix it?

        1. oxide, who are the “they” you keep talking about that had all these thoughts about what Americans wanted?
          They certainly weren’t the people that would be affected by Globalism. Must be that group that wouldn’t be affected by Globalism that were thinking what you said. This was purely a power grab by the money people along with the removal of the Glass Steagal
          Act, as well as Agenda 21 without a vote.

        2. “They” was the globalists, Clinton and Bush era. I don’t think it was the same set of people who wanted to “secure the realm” in the Middle East.

          2. IMO these “They People” are the Davos crowd.

            Exactly. If only somebody could drop a Daisy Cutter on the whole group….

      3. Binyamin Appelbaum writes in his book, The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society, economists came to dominate policymaking in Washington in a way they never had before and, starting in the late 1960s, seriously misled the nation, helping to disrupt and divide it socially with a false sense of scientific certainty about the wonders of free markets. The economists pushed efficiency at all costs at the expense of social welfare and “subsumed the interests of Americans as producers to the interests of Americans as consumers, trading well-paid jobs for low-cost electronics.”

        A rebuke of Economics!

        1. The Economists’ Hour
          False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

          by Binyamin Appelbaum

          In this “lively and entertaining” history of ideas (Liaquat Ahamed, The New Yorker), New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum tells the story of the people who sparked four decades of economic revolution.

          Before the 1960s, American politicians had never paid much attention to economists. But as the post-World War II boom began to sputter, economists gained influence and power.

          In The Economists’ Hour, Binyamin Appelbaum traces the rise of the economists, first in the United States and then around the globe, as their ideas reshaped the modern world, curbing government, unleashing corporations and hastening globalization.

          Some leading figures are relatively well-known, such as Milton Friedman, the elfin libertarian who had a greater influence on American life than any other economist of his generation, and Arthur Laffer, who sketched a curve on a cocktail napkin that helped to make tax cuts a staple of conservative economic policy.

          Others stayed out of the limelight, but left a lasting impact on modern life: Walter Oi, a blind economist who dictated to his wife and assistants some of the calculations that persuaded President Nixon to end military conscription; Alfred Kahn, who deregulated air travel and rejoiced in the crowded cabins on commercial flights as the proof of his success; and Thomas Schelling, who put a dollar value on human life.

          Their fundamental belief? That government should stop trying to manage the economy.
          Their guiding principle? That markets would deliver steady growth, and ensure that all Americans shared in the benefits.

          But the Economists’ Hour failed to deliver on its promise of broad prosperity. And the single-minded embrace of markets has come at the expense of economic equality, the health of liberal democracy, and future generations.

          Timely, engaging and expertly researched, The Economists’ Hour is a reckoning — and a call for people to rewrite the rules of the market.

    4. Trade definitely works better than a closed economy under the simplifying assumptions of the textbook models which are near and dear to all economists. But given real world complications, it ain’t necessarily so.

      1. IMHO, there is a difference between trade between Countries and Globalism.
        To me Globalism was using the cheapest wage force World wide to produce a good or service with no regard to how that would destroy the bargaining power of the wage earner or what the cost of living was in different Countries.
        When Wal-Mart started buying the cheapest stuff World wide it eliminated competition and they became a Monopoly in terms of pricing.
        Globalism gives the Globalist the best of both worlds, control on labor price, and monopoly on competition. The Globàlist pick up the extra profit.
        And the National Security violation of places like China doing our manufacturing is obvious.

        So, we got crap that would end up in the landfills quicker, some of which was outright posionous , and needed jobs in USA were gutted for this.
        The insult of Biden wanting to bring in more cheap labor poor people by open borders, while saying that the USA Citizens have to pay all this welfare to them, including expensive health care, is outrageous. But they call it racism if you don’t want to be destroyed financially.
        I knew when they started this Globalism scam that it would lead to lost of our borders.
        What Country would betray their Citizens like this.. So now you got the direct result of this by all the false narratives of white people bad, USA bad, racism is the cause.
        And when the Globalist are controlling the Main Stream news , it’s brainwashing like I have never seen before by false narratives and spin.
        Free speech and other Constitutional protections have never been more at risk.

    1. ‘State officials predict commercial properties will lose significant value because of the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic, said Josh Fudge, the county’s budget director.’

      1. TABOR and the Gallagher amendment. What’s not to like?

        The Centennial state’s budget is already $4B in the hole. And now there will be a statewide property tax drop. It just keeps getting better.

  21. Georgetown, TX Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY As Austin Area Housing Market Turns Toxic On Rampant Mortgage Fraud

    https://www.zillow.com/georgetown-tx-78628/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    A noted economist stated, “A housing ‘recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.”

  22. Flames engulfed an apartment building under construction
    *sold that future zombie to the insurance company. Whew!

  23. The situation on the ground for healthcare workers around some parts of the U.S. is grim.

    The Financial Times
    Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
    Coronavirus pandemic
    Surge in Covid-19 cases leaves US carers hunting for shields again
    Failure to address shortages in protective equipment exposes healthcare professionals as infections rise
    A nurse protesting outside St Petersburg General Hospital in Florida over practices for dealing with the coronavirus outbreak
    © Reuters
    Hannah Kuchler in New York 4 hours ago

    Scared of being sent into battle without a shield, Candice Cordero has been clamouring for better personal protective equipment since coronavirus hit the US months ago.

    She and fellow nurses have protested on the kerb in front of their hospital, Blake Medical Center, just outside Tampa, Florida. Standing six feet apart in their scrubs and masks, some held homemade signs that read: “Safe nurses = safe patients”.

    Now, the virus is spreading rapidly in Florida, with more than 300,000 cases and more than 4,500 deaths — and it has taken Ms Cordero down with it.

    She is at home sick with Covid-19, after she had only a surgical mask when taking care of patients — who she was told did not have the disease — not a more protective N95 mask. “I just hope that there are no nurses that die at my hospital. There are no nurses who should have to die for their jobs,” said Ms Cordero.

    Surges in Covid-19 cases in swaths of the US have left many healthcare professionals once again hunting for PPE, and asking why hospitals, state and federal government did not secure supplies in the months since the virus emerged in the country.

    At least 300 healthcare workers have died from Covid-19, according to the official figures, but many believe it is undercounted.

    The virus doesn’t care how you feel, or if we’re Democrat or Republican . . . we have to be prepared for this
    — Kim Smith, nurse at Corpus Christi Medical Center in Texas

    Demand for PPE soared 176 per cent in Arizona in June, 224 per cent in California, 237 per cent in Texas and 240 per cent in Florida from the month before, according to volunteer organisation #GetUsPPE, which is helping healthcare providers source masks, respirators and gowns.

    Ali Raja, a co-founder of the group and a leader in the emergency medicine department of Massachusetts General Hospital, said people were “desperate” for PPE because of the wave of cases sweeping states in the south and west. The group has more than 13,000 active requests and has only been able to fill about 10 per cent of the demand, as overseas suppliers are more reluctant to export during the global crisis.

    “I’ve heard from my friends in hospitals in Houston, where they’re wearing raincoats and ponchos instead of hospital gowns, any plastic barrier to separate them,” he said. “We’re hearing a lot from folks who are telling us that they’re just making do without because they have patients who are ill and need to be cared for.”
    …

  24. This is what you wanted? This is what you voted for:

    “As gun mayhem soars across the city — taking the lives of innocent bystanders and injuring scores of people — cops have cut back on arrests and summonses of all kinds, NYPD data shows.

    Amid violence that recalls the crack era of the 1980s and early 1990s, cops made 6,337 arrests in the 28 days leading up to Monday — down 62% from the 16,676 arrests made in the same period of 2019.

    Arrests dropped off even more precipitously last week, when cops made 1,481 busts — down 68% from the same period in 2019.

    Sixty people were shot last week, police data show — an increase of 253% over the 17 shooting victims reported in the same week in 2019.

    But cops made just 21 arrests in gun cases — down 72% from the 74 arrests reported in the same week of 2019.”

    https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-shootings-soar-arrests-drop-nypd-20200716-zkzolmrixnehxaawp3ysijfxru-story.html

    And if you don’t get shot in New York, maybe you’ll just starve:

    “Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the line outside the COPO food pantry in Midwood, Brooklyn, has stretched down the block…then the next block…and the next. The food pantry went from serving about 200 New Yorkers a week to 6,500 — an almost unfathomable increase of more than 3,000% over just a few weeks.

    At City Harvest, we are seeing a similar surge in need throughout the network we serve of more than 400 food pantries, soup kitchens and community partners citywide. Since the beginning of March, we have rescued and delivered more than 33 million pounds of food to help feed New Yorkers, an increase of 53% over the same period last year. Many of the New Yorkers accessing food right now have never sought food assistance before COVID-19.

    The reality is that this is likely just the beginning of New York City’s hunger crisis.”

    https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-how-to-stop-new-yorkers-from-starving-20200717-5ye2glgjszhu7co7ovayek3a7q-story.html

    1. All is well unless the perpetrators are white cops and the victims are unarmed black men.

  25. The entire Midwest is out of Lumber…….not for a lack of trees , its that the mills were shut down so long… ……And on everyone’s mind is this huge pile of cash going to everyone …..buy a house, or build one now , get rid of your cash pile now ……

    2. And on everyone’s mind is this huge pile of cash going to everyone

      Mine must have got lost somewhere along the way.

  26. Financial Times
    Selling New York’s luxury residences — a supertall order
    Today New York’s skyline is peppered with empty prime and super-prime residences, with what brokers call “shadow inventory”: units in development properties …
    4 hours ago

  27. Any thoughts on the puzzling tension between the lowest real yield ever on 10-year Treasury bonds versus the ever-rising stock market?

    Somefing’$ gotta give…

  29. Another day, another record number of new U.S. COVID-19 cases…100,000 new cases a day, here we come.

    Health and Science
    U.S. reports 77,200 new coronavirus cases, shattering one-day record
    Published Fri, Jul 17 2020
    8:28 AM EDT
    Updated An Hour Ago
    Will Feuer
    Key Points
    – The United States reported 77,255 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, shattering its record single-day spike by nearly 10,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
    – The U.S. has reported more than 65,400 new cases on average over the past seven days, up nearly 22% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of the data from Hopkins.
    …

    1. Another day, another record

      Another day, another parroting of the PC narrative.

      Cases without illness, hospitals overflowing when they have plenty of excess ICU beds, 10 dead in Miami reported as 100. It is truly spectacular.

      Ironically, we knew in April that the test method returned 10% false positives. The positive tests are running 10% of total now pretty reliably. Statistically, nothing is happening besides manufactured Records, and falsified News articles.

  30. Ok, this Country was created to be a government by the people under a Constitutional Republic.

    They didn’t say Government by Globàlist/Money Changers/Monopolies. They didn’t say Government by Government, or Government by a one World Order.

    So, you have no control over you life anymore when Government is by these powers that aren’t the Citizens.

    So, these forces that would be contrary to your interest with right to pursuit of happiness, highacked the Gov.
    So everything is rigged and be happy they pass out food as they insure your loss of everything. And the biggest insult is they are going to tax you to pay for their winners and losers that they determine.
    And than what might be the biggest insult of them all , they are going to call you Racist if your White, and violate your constitutional protections to not be discriminated against. And free speech shall now be determined by them, and the Country torn down by a concept of white privilege ,that is suppose to be justification for some kind of revenge and reverse discrimination, and Commie highjacking. The mobs attacking Statues and people and police with demand to defund the Police.

    Very strange departure from
    Government by the people.

  31. I have gone back in history looking for every Act that took a piece of government by the people away.

    The Progressives where the greatest violators of Government by the people.

    Firstly, the Progressive never liked the Constitution. Way to much power to the individual. They are elitist that think they know best. The money people have always fought giving power to the individual.
    Almost 100 years ago , when the horrible 1918 flue was spreading, Woodrow Wilson set the stage for the United Nations, as well as passed the Federal income tax. These two acts alone by Wilson put more power in Government.

  32. In a response to a post way above me.

    Can’t we at least provide the necessary gear for the health care worker?

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