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This Could Be A Serious Problem For Some Cash-Strapped Buyers

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “About one million homeowners have fallen through the safety net Congress set up early in the coronavirus pandemic to protect borrowers from losing their homes, according to industry data. About 1.06 million borrowers are past due by at least 30 days on their mortgages and not in a forbearance program, according to Black Knight. Susan Mclaren Shiflett got a forbearance this summer after her work hours were cut at a retailer in Wenatchee, Wash. But she was thrown for a loop when her servicer, Guild Mortgage Co., still sent her warnings that she was past due on her mortgage and that she was at risk of foreclosure.”

“She said a company representative told her the letters were required by law. Even so, she said: ‘It’s just scary every time they send a letter of being delinquent. I’m doing everything I’m supposed to do.'”

“‘Housing markets can run hot and cold, with a particular area seeing demand change over time,’ the GoBankingRates study’s author Joel Anderson explained. ‘[…] If you have to move for a job or your family, discovering that the housing market has gone down the tubes and you’re facing a long wait to sell at a lower price than you would like can seriously hurt your plans.'”

“Four out of the ten cities most likely to struggle in the near future are in California. An average home in Redwood, which is part of the pricy Bay Area, is worth a jaw-dropping $1,677,126, but home prices fell 1.04 percent in one year and 5.2 percent in two years. One in every 6,529 homes is foreclosed. ‘Like the other high-priced California entries, it’s hard to make the argument you’re treating that as an investment at that price as home values appear to be reversing direction after years of growth,’ wrote Anderson.”

“‘Even San Francisco can’t match the the median home price of San Mateo, north of $1.5 million,’ wrote Anderson. ‘But once again, this market appears to have reversed direction with home values losing over 6 percent in the last 24 months.’ While home values in the northern Californian city of Santa Rosa are high (an average of $608,752), the city is grappling with a serious foreclosure crisis — one in every 3,893 homes is foreclosed. Home values, meanwhile, fell 4.82 percent in two years. ‘Santa Rosa is experiencing unusually large issues with foreclosures right now,’ Anderson wrote.”

“Pacific Realty designated broker Leslie Brophy expects the number of homes on the market to be on the upswing again over the next year or so, due to an expected rise of foreclosed homes as a result of the economic downturn from the pandemic. She warned potential sellers that foreclosures, when they come, will drive market prices down from their current highs, and said now rather than later is the time to get your house on the market.”

“‘There’s nothing quite as nice as a well taken care of home, it doesn’t really compete with a foreclosure, but people always bargain hunt. I would say now is a better time than it’s probably going to be a year from now, for sure — if you’re selling,’ Brophy said.”

“‘The million-dollar question is, where is all this going? Will it stop or not,’ said Jeff Keehfuss, broker/owner at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Western Colorado Properties. ‘If median price outpaces what the average household income is, unless they have enough money, you’ll only have so many people that will move here that will pay the higher prices.’ Keehfuss is hopeful that this is a situation where the market doesn’t completely stall all at once and anticipates that ‘something has to give here pretty soon.'”

“Despite the industry’s steady rise since 2012 and the busy market, for Keehfuss, there’s concern that the recent trend and the industry could be headed in a different direction. ‘Like anything, what comes up must go down,’ Keehfuss said.”

“Welcome to the start of what could prove to be an urban exodus, in favor of the city’s picturesque hinterlands, including the outdoor sports meccas of Hood River and Skamania Counties. On the flip side, the hard-hit urban condo market—who wants to be in an elevator right now?—is in oversupply. Though things rebounded a little by July, in May there were only about 150 closed condo sales citywide for the entire month, roughly half the number in May 2019, against more than 700 active listings.”

“On July 30, Chesapeake Beach issued a notice to its residents, reminding them that short-term rentals were not permitted in the town. That notice caught resident Josh Johnson off guard. He has been renting out two homes on Airbnb for about a year-and-a-half and says a lot of neighbors are, too. Kelly Schaefer is a single mother of three children. She owns a cleaning company called Quality Clean and says she’s losing up to $2,000 a month in business without the short-term rentals. ‘I have to decide, do I take the cut in pay myself or do I release some of my employees?’ Schaefer said.”

“‘Well it’s going to put us in a situation where we’re going to have to sell our house,’ Johnson said. ‘And it’s ultimately going to put us in a situation where we’re going to have to understand if this is a place for us.'”

“Canada’s housing agency said there could be a ‘significant increase’ in mortgage delinquencies later this year as banks’ loan deferrals during the COVID-19 pandemic end and alternative lenders deal with more troubled borrowers. Mortgage Investment Corporations (MICs), which are alternative lenders that pool investor funds to provide loans, were already seeing a rise in delinquency rates before the pandemic struck in March. Among the 25 largest MICs, the share of second and third mortgages in their portfolios increased to 22 per cent last year from 12 per cent in 2017. Those loans are considered more vulnerable than first mortgages because if a borrower defaults, the original loan will get paid before the second and third.”

“At the same time, the MICs’ average loan-to-value ratio has increased incrementally, which means there is a greater chance of the property being worth less than loans if property prices decrease. Since mid-March, some MICs have dealt with more homeowners who have lost income and cannot make their mortgage payments, and more investors who want to take their money out of funds. Some MICs have prevented their investors from withdrawing.”

“Real estate in Singapore‘s central region was disproportionately affected during the height of the pandemic, as prices dropped by almost 14 per cent between February and July, compared to the overall market’s 7 per cent price decline. Raffles Place, Cecil and Marina ended up with a 12 per cent drop in price per square foot at the height of the circuit breaker measures in April 2020. However, Singapore wasn’t the only city whose real estate markets felt the impact of the Coronavirus. New York City, which was the epicentre of Covid-19 back in April, experienced similar real estate trends. Manhattan has seen a significant 10.20 per cent decline in pricing.”

“Centaline Property Agency recorded 14 secondary transactions at 10 blue-chip housing estates over the past weekend, down by 33 percent week-on-week.In Kwun Tong, a 517-sq-ft flat at Laguna City changed hands for HK$7.6 million, or HK$14,700 per sq ft, after HK$400,000 or 5 percent was cut from the original asking price while in Hung Hom, an 853-sq-ft flat at Whampoa Garden sold for HK$14.68 million, or HK$17,210 per sq ft, after HK$1.32 million was slashed from the asking price. And in Tin Shui Wai, a 635-sq-ft flat at Kingswood Villas fetched HK$6.38 million, or HK$10,047 per sq ft, after HK$610,000 was slashed from the asking price.”

“Parramatta, Mascot and Rouse Hill in the northwest have topped a list of Sydney suburbs ‘oversupplied’ with apartments. These suburbs each have more than 1500 units in the pipeline over the next two years, which will increase the current supply of apartments by 13 per cent or more. A similar situation was unfolding in Gosford on the Central Coast, where close to 1900 units were set to be built, which would increase unit supply by 73 per cent.”

“The oversupply in these areas has raised the risk of dangerous price reductions for buyers of units sold off the plan, according to RiskWise research. Buyer’s agent Rich Harvey said buying new apartments in outer suburban areas like Rouse Hill made no sense. As an example, Mr Harvey said someone who bought a unit for $650,000 but discovered it was only worth $585,000 when it came time to settle the property would have to stump up the difference – in this instance: $65,000. ‘This could be a serious problem for some cash-strapped buyers,’ he said.”

“A survey found most people who became homeowners during the coronavirus pandemic are regretting their purchase decision. LendEDU found that the biggest reason for pandemic home-buying regret was financial reasons. It says out of 1,000 new American homeowners, more than half regret the pandemic purchase. Thomas Blanchard, of Las Vegas Realtors, says there’s a domino effect that keeps the Las Vegas market successful. ‘They had to sell their house wherever they were, and somebody from somewhere else had to sell their house to be able to buy that house,’ Blanchard said.”

“The study also found 26% of those who regretted a home purchase have refinanced their mortgage.”

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This Post Has 98 Comments

  1. ‘Like the other high-priced California entries, it’s hard to make the argument you’re treating that as an investment at that price as home values appear to be reversing direction after years of growth’

    Oh dear…

    ‘Even San Francisco can’t match the the median home price of San Mateo, north of $1.5 million,’ wrote Anderson. ‘But once again, this market appears to have reversed direction with home values losing over 6 percent in the last 24 months’

    Double dear!

    ‘While home values in the northern Californian city of Santa Rosa are high (an average of $608,752), the city is grappling with a serious foreclosure crisis — one in every 3,893 homes is foreclosed. Home values, meanwhile, fell 4.82 percent in two years. ‘Santa rosa is experiencing unusually large issues with foreclosures right now’

    WA? Foreclosures in California? But Thornberg? Red-hotcakes!

    1. Would Chris “Crowbreath” Thornberg care to offer comment on the news that Bay Area prices began to crater before COVID-19 showed up to kick it into overdrive?

    2. Santa Rosa is an interesting case study. The October 2017 “Tubbs Fire” devastated parts of the city and much of the surrounding area. The fire created a housing crisis as people burned out of their homes looked for new accommodation. The displaced had to compete with the influx of workers that accompanied rebuilding efforts. No surprisingly rents and home prices spiked. Santa Rosa responded by fast tracking many new housing projects which are all now either complete or nearing completion. Thus home prices were moderating even before the virus. If anything people fleeing San Francisco have been preventing further erosion of Santa Rosa area home prices.

      1. I ate the biggest turkey leg I’d ever seen at a Santa Rosa street fair in 1996. Southern gateway to the Sonoma wine region. Good timez.

    3. Foreclosures…. OH THE HORROR!!!! Get on the dont work, stay at home quarantineed gravy train and buy stawks and houses with FREEEEEEEEEEEE gov cheese monies!!!

      I saw that thornburger fellow on a recent hike in the forest. He was shaking from hunger looking for food like a hungry realtor stalking his next squirrel meal. Trash can fires, malt liquor, and squirrel and/or crow meat for Mr thornburger.

      Hope all is well for all the hbb folk! i caught the beer flu last month after drinking a bit to much but recovered in a day with water and exercise. Was pretty worried considering the .000006
      % chance i could have died from covid!!!!

      Been silently stalking you all time to time (like a realtor) and now posting to let ya know im not one of the 1/6000000000 dead from beer flu.

      PS, realtors are liars/rapists/murderers/empty house squatters.

        1. Ya time flies when your living in clown world. I moved my family into a much bigger rental in a much better neighborhood in aptos ca. No junkies and riff raff here so far and the school is one of the better ones in the county. Kids are doing the distant learning likely for the awhile and now we have space and very close to the beach 🙂 Working more and trying to keep up with my kids and family challenges. Hope all is well with you and yours and all the other regulars here! Did you ever sell your san diego home and get your 1031 exchange poway dream home?

  2. ‘were already seeing a rise in delinquency rates before the pandemic struck in March’

    Ahem…

    ‘Among the 25 largest MICs, the share of second and third mortgages in their portfolios increased to 22 per cent last year from 12 per cent in 2017. Those loans are considered more vulnerable than first mortgages because if a borrower defaults, the original loan will get paid before the second and third’

    They’re already lining up to see who’s gonna take the a$$-pounding.

    ‘At the same time, the MICs’ average loan-to-value ratio has increased incrementally, which means there is a greater chance of the property being worth less than loans if property prices decrease. Since mid-March, some MICs have dealt with more homeowners who have lost income and cannot make their mortgage payments, and more investors who want to take their money out of funds. Some MICs have prevented their investors from withdrawing’

    I bet you haven’t heard this before. This is a credit event.

  3. Housing prices are cratering….. and I’m loving it. 🤣

    strong>Raymond, NH Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Demand From Boston Area Colllapses

    https://www.zillow.com/raymond-nh/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

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

  4. Housing prices are cratering….. and I’m loving it. 🤣

    Raymond, NH Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY As Demand From Boston Area Colllapses

    https://www.zillow.com/raymond-nh/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

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

    1. If only Raymond, NH was in Massachusetts… 🙂

      It’s not considered “Boston area”. Just sayin’ as I live next door to Boston. Hopefully in 2021 Boston/greater Boston prices will continue to crater in a meaningful way. Fingers crossed.

  5. Wall Street is looking to once again buy up all the homes of the foreclosed, probably with foreign dollars run up from our 40 year trade gap, and turn all of us into sharecroppers on its plantation. Hell of a party Generation Greed threw for itself, eh? The question is, who pays for it?

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/millions-are-house-rich-but-cash-poor-wall-street-landlords-are-ready-11600421401?mod=hp_lead_pos6

    “Americans with mortgages have accumulated nearly $10 trillion in home equity thanks to a decade of rising home prices. Yet millions of them have fallen behind on mortgage payments and risk losing their houses.”

    “It is a potential bonanza for rental-home investors. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, big single-family landlords have raised billions of dollars for homebuying sprees.”

    “Even if there isn’t a surge in repossessed homes to buy cheaply off the courthouse steps—which led to the emergence of Wall Street’s landlords during the foreclosure crisis a decade ago—there is likely to be a lot of forced sales and new renters.”

    “The most house-hungry of these investors are the rental companies formed a decade ago to gobble up foreclosed homes by the thousands. They were expanding before the pandemic, wagering on a permanent suburban rental class.”

    So The Donald is trying to scare white suburbanites into thinking the government is planning to allow non-whites to live in the suburbs. Reversing the good old days when FHA and VA loans were the only games in town, and they were whites only. Perhaps they ought to be afraid of something else.

    “The economic distress brought by the lockdown has only made investors more excited about such companies’ prospects. So far these companies have reported record occupancy, on-time rent collection on par with historical averages and rising rents.”

    Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. Along with falling wages, rising health care costs, public employee pensions and the interest on rising federal, state and local debts.

    1. “Wall Street is looking to once again buy up all the homes of the foreclosed, probably with foreign dollars run up from our 40 year trade gap, and turn all of us into sharecroppers on its plantation.”

      What does that mean?

      Did you know housing prices are cratering?

    2. Americans with mortgages have accumulated nearly $10 trillion in home equity thanks to a decade of rising home prices. Yet millions of them have fallen behind on mortgage payments and risk losing their houses

      If they can’t sell before being foreclosed, then that equity doesn’t exist.

  6. “‘…The million-dollar question is, where is all this going? Will it stop or not,’ said Jeff Keehfuss, broker/owner at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices…”

    “…something has to give here pretty soon….”

    No, Jeff Keehfuss, that ‘something’ gave years ago, you just weren’t paying attention.

    The real problem is you and others in the REIConplex were inhaling your own blue ‘it only goes higher and higher’ smoke and now your coming down from your own self induced drunken stupor.

    Jeff Keehfuss, do yourself a really big favor and take a good look in the mirror. It’s over, man.

      1. I’m considering Westcliffe or the Western Slope to relocate before things get spicy. Any on-the-ground observations or recommendations you’d care to share, Apt 401?

        1. If the Fed simply used some of its Unlimited Quantitative Easing to buy up all the defaulted mortgages on landlord-, investor- and owner-occupied housing, wouldn’t that solve everyone’s problems while harming none?

          Where’s the downside?

          1. Exactly. The majority will be begging them to buy up all the underwater assets using fresh printed money before this is over. They seem to have no imagination for where that leads…

  9. A good friend of mine, age 86, came down with COVID-19 ca. 5 Sept. It seemed more like a head cold for the first few days then progressed to cough, chest pain and shortness of breath. Family finally persuaded him to call his doctor ca 14th. He was told to go directly to the ER & from there he was admitted. He was treated with oxygen and convalescent plasma infusions and got better rapidly. He may have already been improving by the time he went to the hospital. No known source of infection. He has been drastically limiting his personal contacts since March, but does go to stores for food, wears his mask when he does, drives an electric scooter to get around stores. His sister-in-law lives most of the time with him and has tested negative for COVID-19 (recently & repeatedly this summer), along with all his family members who have visited in the last few weeks. He is high risk, very obese, coronary artery & peripheral artery disease, diabetic on insulin and hypertensive, former smoker. I called him last evening & he said his doctor indicated he might be sent home today to convalesce.

    2. “He is high risk, very obese, coronary artery & peripheral artery disease, diabetic on insulin and hypertensive, former smoker. I called him last evening & he said his doctor indicated he might be sent home today to convalesce.”

      That’s an incredible set of comorbidities for an 86-yr old person. He must have an Elephant sized heart. A much younger friend of mine in similar straights lost his toes, then feet, etc., before he passed away; you know the script.

  10. ‘China has started shutting down the popular internet finance platform P2P (peer-to-peer lending) since 2018. Just five years ago, P2P, with the backing and promotion of the Chinese regime, became the cutting-edge investment product in China, drawing trillions of funds from private investors. However, P2P has been plagued with collapse and scandal, robbed millions of Chinese of their life savings and even caused some victims to commit suicide.’

    ‘The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has started to see the P2P industry and its victims as threats to its political stability and is further cracking down on both of them this year, as shown in the leaked government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times. The documents and sources also disclosed the secrets behind the dramatic rise and fall of P2P in China and the CCP’s heavy involvement.’

    ‘A senior financial expert in mainland China, who goes by the name of Liu Yanlin, in an interview with the Chinese language Epoch Times earlier, revealed the reason behind the CCP regime’s strong support for P2P back then. In 2013, China was facing a financial crisis, state owned banks had a huge number of bad debts. The CCP needed to pass on the financial risks to someone else, so it began to foster P2P.’

    ‘Liu explained the key to the CCP’s P2P games: the CCP officially advocated P2P online finance, and at the same time, the bad assets that should have been written off as bad debts were repackaged into P2P wealth management products to sell to the Chinese people. Moreover, it loosened up financial supervision and even gave P2P platforms easy access to the fund pool so that the CCP can conveniently play the Ponzi scheme by borrowing the new debts to pay for the old.’

    ‘Liu pointed out that when the risk was passed on to the people who bought the P2P products, the CCP began to tighten its internet financial policy, preparing to puncture the P2P bubble and let it explode. The P2P platforms and the government that backed them just took away the money, while people who invested in the P2P suffer the loss.’

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/beijing-further-cracking-down-on-p2p-industry-and-its-victims-leaked-documents_3503809.html

      1. I don’t see these antifa types making good serial killers. That takes a lot of discipline and self control. They’re unstable enough to make great homeless people, though.

    3. “Mosher said she hopes Trump supporters die of Covid before the general election.

      “I’ve become the type of person where I hope they all get it and die. I’m sorry, but that’s so frustrating – just – I don’t know what else to do. You can’t argue with them, you can’t talk sense with them, um, I said to somebody yesterday I hope they all die before the election,” said Mosher in a video posted to Twitter.

      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/marshall-university-professor-put-administrative-leave-saying-hopes-trump-supporters-die-covid-election-video/

          3. I love gravy but not that much.

            Have you ever tried deep-fried butter sticks? Freeze a quarter stick of butter, eggwash then flour then eggwash again then deep fry it for 2 minutes then coat it with powdered sugar. It’s like deep fried ice cream.

    4. This scumbag would make a fine Peace Force officer candidate. Note that you won’t hear a peep of condemnation for the violent assaults on elderly Trump supporters from Joe Biden or any of the Comrades on the Democrat side of the isle. Using their BLM-Antifa street enforcers to attack and intimidate the political opposition is par for the course for these Bolsheviks.

  13. “Pacific Realty broker expects the number of homes on the market to be on the upswing again over the next year or so, due to an expected rise of foreclosed homes… warned potential sellers that foreclosures, when they come, will drive market prices down”

    Click on that article and the headline is ‘Peninsula in midst of ‘red-hot’ housing market.’ Lol. Red hot-cakes!

  14. Update on the West LA zipcodes I watch:

    – Inventory continues to climb, +5% in two weeks (+55% from pre-covid/bubble norm):

    Feb 13, 2020: 746 homes for sale
    Sep 5, 2020: 1,096 homes for sale (+47%)
    Sept 18, 2020: 1,154 (+5%)

    -I keep seeing new listings come up at the same price they sold for at the height of the last bubble. So a decade-and-a-half round trip just to hope to break even for these:

    Condo A
    Sept 16, 2020: listed $995,000
    March 6, 2006: listed $995,000

    Condo B:
    Sept 11, 2920: listed $1,695,000
    Feb 21, 2006: sold $1,700,000

    Condo C
    Aug 6, 2020 sold $1,125,000
    July 12, 2007 sold $1,150,000

    -Or price reductions for a lot less than the last bubble:

    Condo D (down -30% from 2007)
    9/17/2020 Price Reduced $680,000 -6.21%
    8/29/2020 Price Reduced $725,000 -9.26%
    7/17/2020 Price Reduced $799,000 -6%
    7/02/2020 Listed $850,000 -13.04%
    9/25/2007 Sold $977,500

  15. About 1.06 million borrowers are past due by at least 30 days on their mortgages and not in a forbearance program, according to Black Knight.

    When did it become taxpayers’ responsibility to bail out speculators and FBs who signed up to buy shacks they clearly couldn’t afford?

  16. Keehfuss is hopeful that this is a situation where the market doesn’t completely stall all at once and anticipates that ‘something has to give here pretty soon.’”

    Something is going to give, all right. In 2008 the Fed and Congress, instead of letting market forces flush the speculative excesses from the system, stepped in to bail out the speculators. Now public and private debt levels have tripled, and the speculative excesses dwarf those of 2008. The sooner the whole rotten edifice comes crashing down under the weight of its own fraud and make-believe valuations, the better.

  17. Since mid-March, some MICs have dealt with more homeowners who have lost income and cannot make their mortgage payments, and more investors who want to take their money out of funds. Some MICs have prevented their investors from withdrawing.”

    Don’t roach motels work off the same principle?

    1. The same FBI that refuses to investigate the really big criminals, while fabricating and falsifying evidence to railroad political opponents of the globalists

      Maybe fat brown envelopes are involved

    1. Guaranteed shes been on ice for a while – maybe months. Another weak attempt to rally the freaks.

      Nancy, Biden, Schumer, Soros and the rest of the cabal are on deck!

      2. Nah. If they were faking it, no announcement would have been forthcoming until early November at the earliest.

        1. The blue checkmarks on Twitter are already calling for insurrectionist violence. Cocaine Mitch is gonna deliver, and there’s nothing they can do to stop it 🙁

          America isn’t a country, it’s a game.

          1. The buzzards finally carrying off this anti-Constitutional Supreme Court justice fails to distress me. Sorry, never bought into the whole globalist-manufactured Cult of RGB.

        2. I remember John McCain joking along those lines in the early 2000s about keeping Alan Greenspan propped up in the Fed Chair even if he passed.

          Old jokes can come come back to haunt you, as over a decade later, McCain is no longer with us. By contrast, Sir Alan is still alive, well into his 90s, and living with his 20 years younger wife. Footnote: RBG performed their wedding ceremony back in 1997.

      1. The Left is already threatening more rioting if Trump tries to replace RBG before the election. It’s a familiar pattern now, sanctioned by the top echelons of the Democrat Party: cave in to the Left’s demands, or else violent insurrection will ensue. No wonder Biden’s globalist string pullers are so hard over on disarming potential resisters.

        https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/09/left-threatens-more-rioting-if-trump-tries-to-replace-rbg-before-election/#more-329198

      2. might bring out a few more Democratic votes

        Admission: As a naive 18yo, I fell for the Democrats’ “you need us to protect women’s rights” and voted for WJC so he could ultimately put RBG on the Supreme Court.

          2. “Are there real people who behave like that?”

            The federal government is hiring them…even pushing out qualified professionals with years of exemplary service to make positions available them.

      2. FYI: I went on her TikTok account before posting the video. She’s not a parody. She’s says she’s a lesbian with severe emotional problems and ADHD (no shit lol) She has a lot of looney videos, and some that calmly discuss her “disorders” – she also thinks houseplants have “feelz”

        LMFAO!

      3. “(“Ruth! You Just Had to Make it to 2021!”)”

        In honor of RBG’s death and the Social Justice Warriors of the professional sports leagues I propose a new word for sportscasters across the land.

        The home team was down by 28 points late in the 3rd quarter but rallied back furiously, unfortunately the rally turned out to be a Ginsburg when a 2 point conversion failed on the final play of the game.

  25. CR8R

    ‘Like the other high-priced California entries, it’s hard to make the argument you’re treating that as an investment at that price as home values appear to be reversing direction after years of growth,’

  26. ‘California cotton growers were hoping that the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) would provide some type of relief. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined that pima cotton is ineligible for CFAP payments. Isom noted that it was inexplicable that pima was not included in the program, considering how much growers are struggling due to conditions created by COVID-19.’

    “We think that cotton out of all commodities has probably been impacted the most because it wasn’t just a price reduction, it’s flat just not moving. So that’s been a problem for us,” said Isom.’

    https://agnetwest.com/struggles-of-california-cotton-growers-demonstrated-by-drop-in-acreage/

    1. ‘Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey says the chain and its parent company (Amazon.com) are serious about ridding the grocery chain of its “Whole Paycheck” image. Mr. Mackey said Whole Foods has gone through three rounds of price cuts since being acquired by Amazon in 2017 and is currently in the process of another round. “Cut our costs, lower prices, get more business, lower prices, cut costs, and so I think we’re in a virtuous circle right now,” he said.’

      ‘Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen pointed to meat as a key category where prices are leveling off. “There’s plenty of raw materials supply out there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of the plants being able to process it.”

      https://retailwire.com/discussion/have-multiple-rounds-of-price-cuts-changed-whole-foods-high-price-image/

      Plenty of raw materials? Wa am I gonna do with all these onions?

      1. “Cut our costs, lower prices, get more business, lower prices, cut costs, and so I think we’re in a virtuous circle right now,”

        We lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume.

      2. “Amazon’s brought new critical tools to Whole Foods to help us think it through — to cut down our shrink, cut down our spoilage, cut down our theft that’s occurring,” he said. “We’re just bringing a more critical eye to our costs at Whole Foods.”

        I was under the impression that Whole Foods was about fresh quality food, not discount food. Seems like the hordes are buying buckets of fried chicken and root beer to go with their reality television shows.

        1. I was under the impression that Whole Foods was about fresh quality food, not discount food

          This has been the tragedy of Amazon buying them. Quality is still better than Kroger, but not what it used to be IMO.

      4. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen pointed to meat as a key category where prices are leveling off

        I keep seeing USDA Prime streaks at Sams Club for less than what USDA Choice was priced before the pandemic.

        1. Restaurant demand for beef is way down. Supply is still there. Price down. I’ve got a freezer full of rib eye I bought for $4.77/lb.

          1. Nice…… There’s nothing like falling prices to accelerate the economy and create jobs. Nothing.

            Northbrook, IL Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY As The Steaming Rot Of Appraisal Fraud Permeates US Housing Market

            https://www.zillow.com/northbrook-il/home-values/

            *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

            As one national broker said, “Housing prices are cratering everywhere.”

  27. Black Lives Matter? Not to other blacks they don’t. Add an utterly incompetent Democrat mayor, a police department staffed by diversity hires, and a Soros-installed radical-left DA, and the results are predictable.

    ‘There’s not a comparable year’: Homicides are up 52% in Chicago amid COVID-19, with majority involving people of color

    CHICAGO – The nation’s second-largest county has recorded more homicides this year than in all of 2019, the majority of which – 95% – were people of color, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office announced this week.

    Chicago accounts for most of the deaths, with much of the violence occurring in a handful of neighborhoods on the city’s south and west sides.

    The Windy City – like others across the country – has seen an uptick in violent crimes this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic, mass layoffs and nationwide unrest. Murders and shootings are up 52% from the same time last year, according to police data, and dozens of children under 10 years old have been shot, some fatally.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/17/chicago-covid-shootings-homicides-surge-affecting-people-color/5804396002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories

  28. “About 1.06 million borrowers are past due by at least 30 days on their mortgages and not in a forbearance program, according to Black Knight. Susan Mclaren Shiflett got a forbearance this summer after her work hours were cut at a retailer in Wenatchee, Wash. But she was thrown for a loop when her servicer, Guild Mortgage Co., still sent her warnings that she was past due on her mortgage and that she was at risk of foreclosure.”

    I found this paragraph very confusing. It starts with a discussion of how many homeowners are not in forbearance programs, then throws in an example someone who is…I think!

    Is Susan in a forbearance program or no?

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