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There Are Investors That Are Trying To Dump Their Real Estate, But The Buyers Think It’s Armageddon

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. San Francisco saw the biggest year-over-year drop in rental costs in September, but Boston wasn’t far behind, according to Zumper. The median price for a one-bedroom apartment in the City by the Bay was $2,830 in September, a 20.3 percent decrease compared with the same month in 2019. In Boston, the median price of a one-bedroom unit, $2,300, reflects a decrease of 8.4 percent. ‘Expensive cities continued to decrease in rental prices last month, with yearly drops largely led by the nation’s seven most expensive cities: San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.,’ according to the report.”

“There are now about 10,000 apartments for sale in Manhattan, which would be a record, according to Compass. With so many new listings pouring onto the market and so few buyers, the inventory of unsold apartments continues to rise in a city that already had a glut of high-end apartments before the pandemic. The current supply of luxury apartments for sale would take nearly three years to sell, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman.”

“‘There is no shortage of apartments for sale, but there is a shortage of buyers,’ said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel.”

“Related Companies’ sale of a penthouse at its Zaha Hadid-designed condominium in West Chelsea may become the poster child for Manhattan’s strong buyers’ market. The developer first listed the top-floor unit at 520 West 28th Street in 2016 for $50 million, or $7,296 per square foot. Four years later, amid a global pandemic, the 6,853-square-foot condo has sold for $20.2 million, 60 percent less than Related was initially seeking, public records show.”

“Pharrell Williams’ ultramodern mansion in the Beverly Hills Post Office area just sold for $14 million. The huge sale still chalks up as a loss for the Grammy-winning artist, who bought the striking home for $15.6 million two years ago.”

“Businesses and communities around American Airlines Fort Worth headquarters and DFW Airport could be hit hard by the loss of spending power from furloughed employees. Euless Mayor Linda Martin worries that current American Airlines workers could have trouble keeping their homes without paychecks. ‘We’re already feeding a great amount of our community through our mission network and other local charities. And so the food needs, the housing needs, they’ll all trickle down,’ she said.”

“The moratorium blocks landlords from evicting tenants from their homes, over concern of further spreading COVID-19. Now, landlords are pushing back on the mandate. ‘My lender wants to get paid,’ said Florida landlord Andy Orfitelli. For Orfitelli in Florida to landlord Rebecca Welsh in Kentucky, many landlords have said they cannot afford the financial burden the moratorium is now putting on them. ‘Literally, right now, I am supporting three homes, households, not just mine,’ said Welsh, who is currently expecting a child.”

“Residents of an apartment complex in Baton Rouge are angry after they received notices from the Sheriff’s Office informing them that their apartment complex is up for sale. ‘The Sheriff just came and gave them a notice they have to move because these apartments have been seized and they are up for sale,’ says Ophiliea Gray in the viral video.”

“John Pasalis, president of Realosophy Realty Inc. says the market for single-family homes in the Greater Toronto Area is still hectic, but the downtown condo market is one segment where inventory is soaring and prices are beginning to soften. ‘I think we’re starting to see some sellers sell for a little bit less than they would have even three months ago.'”

“The unease is prompting some owners of units that are less attractive as rental properties to take money off the table. ‘There are investors that are trying to dump their real estate,’ says real estate agent Cameron Miller. ‘The sellers think it’s February, but the buyers think it’s Armageddon – they’re looking for a deal.'”

“They might be feeling it hardest now, but some of us have been here before. The Celtic Tiger housing bubble peaked in March 2007. I purchased and got the keys to my first – and current – home on March 15th of that year, bang in the middle of the month when things went south. When economic historians rake over the remains of the collapse that began more than 13 years ago, there is a fair chance that they will discover a fossilised image of me, standing on the literal peak of the madness and crying like a baby. Barely three years after I bought it, the house was worth less than half of what I paid for it.”

“When people of my age could no longer afford to buy homes back then, society’s solution was to pump prime everything with dubious credit, funny money that eventually blew up in everybody’s faces with terrible consequences. That cannot be the solution to the problem this time round. And be in no doubt that a huge problem is coming. Research released this week shows that it is metastasizing and getting ready to explode all over again.”

“Shareholders of United Arab Emirates-based Arabtec Holding PJSC, which helped build the world’s tallest skyscraper, voted to dissolve the debt-laden firm in a move likely to threaten thousands of jobs and scores of suppliers and sub-contractors in the Persian Gulf. Construction companies that sprang up more than a decade ago as a building bonanza swept Dubai and much of the Gulf are facing a reckoning as governments pull back on spending.”

“Melbourne’s rental vacancy rate has more than doubled since this time last year, while Sydney’s figure has also blown out. ‘We’ve got properties there that are advertised and no one’s applied for them for six months,’ said Melbourne Asset Management’s Cameron Osborne. ‘We have some that were advertised for $650 down to $400 and we still can’t find anybody for them. You wouldn’t want to own an investment in the city at the moment. They’ve been building all these extra properties and no one to move into them. The only thing is to meet the market. Get somebody into your property at whatever cost. The city is just shot. There’s nobody inquiring.'”

“In 2020, Hong Kong topped the global rankings of the world’s most expensive property markets, according to StockApps. A residential property in the city, for example, costs a staggering $1.23 million on average. Influenced by the public health and sociopolitical crises, housing foreclosures in Hong Kong rose by 54 percent in the first seven months of 2020 to 675, as reported by property auctioneer Century 21 Surveyors. Hong Kong’s commercial property market, alternatively, has seen a 30 percent drop in building values in the past 12 months.”

“An average price of land in Japan this year fell 0.6 percent from last year for the first decline in three years, government data showed. Among 21,519 sites surveyed across the country, 60.1 percent saw their prices fall as of July 1, according to the data released by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. ‘Standard land prices are determined based not so much on actual prices at which transactions were made, but more on expectations for a deterioration in profitability resulting from lowering of rents and other factors,’ added Shigeo Hirayama, director of a private think tank Urban Research Institute.”

“The steepest fall in commercial land prices was logged in the central Japan city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, known for its hot spring resorts, where prices dropped 9.3 percent due to a plunge in the number of tourists. Tokyo’s Hino saw the sharpest residential land price drop of 18.4 percent, continuing to fall after the Tokyo metropolitan government designated parts of the city as natural disaster-prone areas.”

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This Post Has 148 Comments

  1. ‘just sold for $14 million. The huge sale still chalks up as a loss for the Grammy-winning artist, who bought the striking home for $15.6 million two years ago’

    Well, it was cheaper than renting.

    1. “…chalks up as a loss for the Grammy-winning artist..”

      Here on the HBB, I have lost count of the number of Hollywood Show Biz types that have made incredibly bad/lame RE decisions.

      Always fascinated why the motivation to sell at a loss?

      Maybe they realize holding costs are not insignificant?

      Just the property tax bill on this monster is going to be north of $160K/yr.

      Start adding in maintenance, insurance, utilities, and perhaps these folks have an epiphany moment and realize all the glitz and tinsel just isn’t worth it?

      1. Always fascinated why the motivation to sell at a loss?

        Maybe the BLM mob got a little too close for comfort. Time to retreat to Tahoe, Durango, Ouray or maybe Jackson Hole?

        Plus maybe his cash flow has taken a big hit with all the concert cancellations and he decided to unload it at a loss rather than deal with all the carrying costs.

      2. It’s only worth the HODLing costs if you can find a greater fool willing to pay over a million more than you did after a short HODLing period.

    2. If I understand this article correctly, Tyler Perry paid $14.5 million for the place in August 2017 before offloading on Pharrell Williams in May 2018.
      And Williams could only get back $14 million of the 2017 price, even before considering the eroding effects of inflation.

      It almost seems like we can read the contours of the collapsing LA luxury property collapse in these sales prices, with Perry enjoying the last stage of the parabolic price blowout, and Williams holding the bag and selling at $2.95 million below what he expected to get.

      Why anyone buys a multimillion dollar home for only a few months or a couple of years is an interesting question, especially when you incur over a million dollars loss by doing so.

      1. And that’s what I wonder… why are these stars changing out houses every couple of years the way mere mortals change out cars? Are the stars being high-end flippers? Or maybe their party friends got bored with the layout? The moving truck business in LA must be hopping.

        1. why are these stars changing out houses every couple of years the way mere mortals change out cars? Are the stars being high-end flippers? Or maybe their party friends got bored with the layout?

          All that and more, apparently. I don’t know if anyone else here listens to Tom Leykis, but in one of his podcasts earlier this year he talked in depth about his house in Hollywood Hills, and how they were not only changing hands very frequently, but that many were hardly lived in. It was quite interesting.

          1. It’s probably the equivalent of having an exotic supercar. You don’t actually drive them regularly (that’s what the Benz or the Audi is for). They’re for show, to signal that you’ve made it.

  3. ‘We’ve got properties there that are advertised and no one’s applied for them for six months…We have some that were advertised for $650 down to $400 and we still can’t find anybody for them. You wouldn’t want to own an investment in the city at the moment. They’ve been building all these extra properties and no one to move into them. The only thing is to meet the market. Get somebody into your property at whatever cost. The city is just shot. There’s nobody inquiring’

    Good thing the guberment and central bank stampeded thousands of fools into the FOMO campaign.

    1. I was watching something online and a Biden commercial came on. He was promising something like $15,000 down payment assistance for first time house buyers.

      2. I saw one where he promised to “protect” Americans.

        Nice country you have there. it’d be a shame if something happened to it.

        2. I saw one where [Biden] promised to “protect” Americans.

          “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

          — H. L. Mencken

        3. The BLM-Antifa violent protesters know they can force their fellow collectivists in weak, incompetent Democrat administrations to do their bid and cave to their extortion demands. How is Biden, whose soon-to-be replacement is among BLM’s biggest cheerleader, going to “protect” Americas? Oh, right, he’s going to disarm us…for the children.

        1. $15K would cover the down payment and closing costs on most FHA loans, which in effect would make them zero down.

          The real problem is the monthly nut.

          1. That’s what I don’t get. Everyone is always focused on the down payment. With a zero or low down payment, that just drives the monthly nut higher.

            I even *have* a down payment and I can’t comfortably take on the monthly nut. How can these no downpayment yahoos do it?

    2. Good thing the guberment and central bank stampeded thousands of fools into the FOMO campaign.

      They all thought they were shooting fish in a barrel.

  5. ‘Martin worries that current American Airlines workers could have trouble keeping their homes without paychecks’

    19,000 layoffs. But it’s a great time to borrow money – interest rates!

    1. From what I can tell, losing your job means running out and buying a new house, a brand new RV, and a brand new diesel truck.

      1. May turn out to be a smart play. If you’re already broke, the worst they can do is take all that back eventually.

        1. Perhaps. Once credit score destruction reaches critical mass, credit scores no longer matter. So a 150 FICO is meh.

    2. There’s also never been a better time to buy a house, as house prices never stopped going up like stock prices did.

      1. Step right up, folks, and get your hotcakes right here!

        News | Sep 30 2020 12:46 EDT
        New record high for pending home sales in August
        By Arnie Aurellano,
        Website content editor, Scotsman Guide
        “Sale Pending” sign in front of house

        August marked the fourth straight month of positive movement for pending home sales, increasing 8.8% from July, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

        The monthly gain brought the NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index to a reading of 132.8, a new record high. Year to year, contract activity was also strong, logging an increase of 24.2% from August 2019. Sub-indices for the nation’s four regions all posted month-over-month jumps, ranging from 4.3% in the Northeast to 13.1% in the West.

        “Tremendously low mortgage rates – below 3% – have again helped pending home sales climb in August,” said chief economist Lawrence Yun of the NAR. “Additionally, the [Federal Reserve] intends to hold short-term fed funds rates near 0% for the foreseeable future, which should in the absence of inflationary pressure keep mortgage rates low, and that will undoubtably aid homebuyers continuing to enter the marketplace.

        “While I did very much expect the housing sector to be stable during the pandemic-induced economic shutdowns, I am pleasantly surprised to see the industry bounce back so strongly and so quickly.”
        …

        1. Houses in my nabe have been selling. No bidding wars and it takes a few weeks to get an offer, but they are selling. Some say it’s Denver refugees buying, but who really knows?

          1. Most of the Poway single-story homes in the $1-1.5M range have been selling above asking price. A $2M listing just went pending after 2 day on the market.

          2. and the market for upper middle class in Denver is flying off the shelves. my inlaws (real-estate) have had their strongest selling streak in years. Lowry and Highlands Ranch and others are having sales.

            Who the hell is buying – is it CA transplants? Is it people deciding to move up houses? I am so confused.

          3. ” Some say it’s Denver refugees buying, but who really knows?”

            Government or central bank somehow setting bid of last resort, either directly or through their FB proxies?

            Who really does now?

    3. I know a guy who flies 737’s for United. Don’t know if he’ll be laid off, but he and the missus bought a million buck house here, and in my little burg a million still buys an impressive house.

      He was laid off from United shortly after 9/11, so he went back to the air force and stayed there until United rehired him about 10 years later. I think he has an air force pension, though I don’t know if he can collect it yet. The missus has a guberment job in Fort Collins and drives a Tesla.

      It will be interesting to see how this turns out for them. Being a veteran he might be able to get a guberment job, but it won’t pay what he was getting at United.

      1. I image they are probably thinking themselves as ‘very secure’ economically and that can always count on next month’s check, so it’s ok to buy things on credit and have a bunch of monthly payments to cover and sees less need for savings and investment.

        I see people my age who have pensions that they believe are secure – They often approach their financial decision making a bit (often quite a bit) differently than someone like me, who while earning well in tech, has zero pension and isn’t counting on even having the same job 5 years from now.

    4. Well AA maybe you shouldn’t treat your customers like criminals by tossing them off of flights if their mask slips off or they don’t want to wear one. Maybe change your company name to Che Airlines or something a little more fitting.

  6. I just checked the Vanguard REIT Index fund. It is down less than 10 percent YTD.

    I wouldn’t call a one-third decrease in rents, and a one-half decrease in real estate values, armageddon. I’d call it a buying opportunity. There is no such opportunity now.

    Inflation-adjusted decreases of that much, and much more, took place in many places in the 1990s, including New York. Of course much higher inflation, and spreading the decrease over six years, disguised some of the nominal hit.

    The biggest decreases were in the value of one-bedroom apartments, because the whole Baby Boom was moving out of the singles and couples phase and into the parenting phase, shifting the value of different sized units. One bedrooms got so cheap that in some buildings two were purchased and merged into larger units. Now the children of the Baby Boomers, the similarly large Millennial generation, is getting older. No one saw that coming?

      1. Bahahaha … a recipie for success: Mix up a batch of fraud and serve it to a select group of members of our gullible and totally dumbed-down public.

        Don’t knock it, it makes for a good and easy living.

        😁

    3. With so much real estate crater every direction you look, how come that fund is only down by 10%?

      1. TINO? (There is no alternative).

        I don’t think people understand just how out of hand real estate prices got in many places. Stock prices too. Their mind is anchored to bubble prices, and they can’t comprehend how far down they could go and still not really be low. Down 10 percent is “armageddon?” Really?

        As I said, down 50 percent — that might we worth investing in.

        1. People in Utah say things like “$400,000 is the new starter home.” They are very anchored to bubble prices. Meanwhile, median household income is around $70,000 here, completely unsustainable.

          1. Until enough properties trade at market rates, how would REITs be valued? That’s where we are — extend and pretend.

            Any investors in real estate are buying someone else’s losses. And anyone buying a home or renting a commercial space ends up overpaying, as property stays vacant while asking high prices. This could go on for several years.

          2. New “starter” homes here go for 400K. But you can get an older shack for less. Still, prices are way too high.

          1. What does politics have to do with this? There just aren’t as many Italian-Americans only a generation or two from the old country in Brooklyn anymore. Their kids moved to the suburbs.

            That area is home to a wide range or recent immigrant groups now, from Eastern European to Chinese, with even some in-migrants from other parts of the county moving that far from Manhattan.

          2. What does politics have to do with this?

            EVERYTHING. When you have Dems shutting down their local economies, you get this:

            The owner closed the restaurant citing financial difficulties

          3. There just aren’t as many Italian-Americans only a generation or two from the old country in Brooklyn anymore.

            Using that logic most Asian eateries should go out of business.

            If you get locked down and can only sell to go, you’re gonna have a hard time staying open.

          4. You are talking about a restaurant the closed in 2016. The owner died, his wife and son kept it going for a year and then decided to retire.

  7. ‘My lender wants to get paid’ said Florida landlord Andy Orfitelli. …‘Literally, right now, I am supporting three homes, households, not just mine,’ said Welsh, who is currently expecting a child’

    Nice bit of pathos at the end.

    pa·thos
    /ˈpāˌTHäs/
    noun
    – a quality that evokes pity or sadness.

    I’ve had a suspicion that the fallout was just ramping up. I still see plenty of businesses with hardly any customers. Unemployment not really going down. How can there not be millions of foreclosures?

    Lots more this weekend.

    2. How can there not be millions of foreclosures?

      There already are, they’re just desperately trying to hide them. I consider this a deep state operation by the REIC and vested interests, not unlike the impeachment sham.

      1. “ There already are, they’re just desperately trying to hide them.”
        Absolutely. Any American press that shows the truth about negative housing market will be muzzled.

    3. …‘Literally, right now, I am supporting three homes, households, not just mine,’ said Welsh, who is currently expecting a child’

      Wha? When you first set out to be a real estate mogul, you didn’t factor a pandemic and gub’mint-imposed enabling of freeloading into your cost projections? Gosh, that means any wanna-be real estate investor is going to have a whole different set of variables to consider before taking the plunge.

  8. DOW is falling, but not by much. -159 to me is no worse than the vol over the past month anyway. I think they’re just writing off Trump’s COVID.

    As for me, I’m just waiting for the FDA to approve Ivermectin. Oh, doctors are already using it off-label, but FDA blessing will give it the publicity it needs, hopefully for home use. Then we will be in a much better position. Have a symptom? Get a test and Ivermectin at any clinic within an hour. Stay home for a week. Move on with life. I’d probably continue to wear a mask until the vaccine is ready.

    1. I think they’re just writing off Trump’s COVID.

      Any betting man would. The odds of dying are extremely low.

    2. DOW is falling, but not by much.

      It was just down over 300, then did a super V-shaped recovery to -160.

    1. From Wikipedia …

      “A thirst trap is type of social media post that is intended to entice viewers sexually. It refers to a user’s ‘thirst’, a colloquialism that likens sexual frustration to dehydration, implying desperation. Originating around the early 2010s, the meaning has changed over time.”

      Wikipedia also has this to say …2

      “There can be several motivations behind thirst trapping. People can seek ‘likes’ and comments on social media which can provide a temporary boost in self-esteem and validation. Posting a thirst trap can also be a way to express sexuality. Thirst traps can contribute to personal branding as well. Sometimes, there can be a financial benefit for sharing thirst traps. Some post thirst traps as a way to cope with emotional distress, such as after a breakup. Furthermore, these images can be used to spite a former lover. Sharing a thirst trap has also been used as a way to connect in times of social isolation (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic).

      “From a physiologic standpoint, endorphins and neurotransmitters like oxytocin and dopamine can be released with the process of sharing thirst traps, leading to a sense of pleasure and an alternative for physical sexual contact.”

      IMO we currently live at a very weird time.

      1. We may well have chosen the internet as the instrument of our destruction. As ever-more powerful AI is brought to bear on our behavioral quirks, I think it’ll stumble on manipulation techniques we never imagined.

        Then we have deepfakes. There will soon be a time when you can’t believe anything you see on a screen… but people will.

        1. “As ever-more powerful AI is brought to bear on our behavioral quirks, I think it’ll stumble on manipulation techniques we never imagined.”

          I find this most interesting in that I am well into manipulation techniques.

      2. I need to re-visit part of the last post …

        “People can seek ‘likes’ and comments on social media which can provide a temporary boost in self-esteem and validation.”

        This implies that someone, perhaps a total stranger, could destroy a person’s self esteem and validation simply by providing dislikes to their posts, or derogatory comments to their posts.

        I have read of stories of people being driven to suicide due to negative social media posts so perhaps this thirst trapping phenom is at the root of it all.

        Such power, power over a one’s life willingly granted to somebody else, possibly a stranger.

        I like it.

        2. power over a one’s life willingly granted to somebody else, possibly a stranger People will do virtually anything once they have been persuaded that the proposed action is in their own selfish interest. The less selfish a person is, the more difficult it will be to manipulate them this way

        3. Doesn’t even have to be a person. An AI can easily handle this, and track their habits, rewarding them for desired behavior, withholding it otherwise.

  10. ” ‘Literally, right now, I am supporting three homes, households, not just mine,’ said Welsh, who is currently expecting a child.”

    Socialism without the middleman!

  11. Perhaps Newsome isn’t completely insane. He vetoed a bill that would have forced employers to rehire laid off employees after the pandemic is over. Of course it is questionable whether such a law is even constitutional

      1. That is one component (deadwood) to layoffs. It’s easier to give them severance (which they have to sign for, promising to not sue for wrongful termination) and show them the door than fire them for cause.

        Off shoring is another. And sometimes, it is because business is down.

  12. “When people of my age could no longer afford to buy homes back then, society’s solution was to pump prime everything with dubious credit, funny money that eventually blew up in everybody’s faces with terrible consequences. That cannot be the solution to the problem this time round.”

    Is this guy crazy? Allow home prices to deflate to their historical norm for a century and make households able to afford things other than housing and rebuild the middle class, NEVER /s

  13. Shoot need time to update my username while I’m renting during COVID. Now is the worst time to sign up for a 30 year loan. Why don’t people understand high home prices = bad for society, leads to exactly what we are starting to see.

    Spoke with my 96 year old grandmother, immigrated to the US after WWII from Poland after being a farm slave to the Nazi’s. She loved this country. She can’t leave the house during COVID and I asked if she watches TV a lot now. She said “Oh no I can’t watch it anymore, they ruined America, this country is ruined” Expect the downfall that started on Sept 11, 2001 to slowly continue as more and more policies undermine its foundation.

        1. I was relying of streaming services to watch old shows, but even that it has problems. I said buh-bye to Netflix last month. I do have a lot of movies on DVD and will occasionally watch one.

          I do have an indoor antenna, which I mostly used to watch some National Felons League games. but that has also been dropped.

          1. Was Cuties a bit to far? I should cancel Netflix as well. We have not had cable in over 20 years and rely only on an Nvidia Shield to stream content and d-load from torrent sites. One could do much the same with an Amazon FireStick (use Kodi).

  14. The median price for a one-bedroom apartment in the City by the Bay was $2,830 in September, a 20.3 percent decrease compared with the same month in 2019.

    Is that a lot?

  15. With so many new listings pouring onto the market and so few buyers, the inventory of unsold apartments continues to rise in a city that already had a glut of high-end apartments before the pandemic.

    In this scenario, I fear there is a real possibility that speculators who overpaid could end up facing financial ruin, while forced sales could drive prices and rents even lower.

    This is my faux-sorrowful face.

  16. Euless Mayor Linda Martin worries that current American Airlines workers could have trouble keeping their homes without paychecks.

    It’s a good thing everyone put 20% down and maintained a rainy day fund to tide them over. And drove beaters so they wouldn’t be overstretched keeping up with monthly payments.

    1. and maintained a rainy day fund to tide them over

      A lot of those people will never be getting their airline jobs back. A 6, 12 or 24 month rainy day fund won’t make a difference.

      1. rainy day fund won’t make a difference

        It could be a life raft to get you to a whole new arrangement.

        1. Depends. If you’re young, you can start over with a new “career”. If you’re older it can be a lot harder, especially if you lost a six figure salary. It is said that now in addition to saving for retirement, you have to save up for being laid off before retirement.

          But yeah, it always makes sense to have a rainy day fund. It also makes sense to live well below your means, that way if you lose your job and have to accept a huge pay cut at the next job, you’ll survive.

          1. Family is the ultimate safety net, which is why the globalists and their Democrat minions are going all-out to destroy the nuclear family. Solid, close-knit families are there for each other and also try to prevent their members from making poor life choices that could negatively impact the rest of the family.

  17. Now, landlords are pushing back on the mandate. ‘My lender wants to get paid,’ said Florida landlord Andy Orfitelli.

    Guess your lender is just going to have to stamp their little feet, Andy.

  18. ‘There are investors that are trying to dump their real estate,’ says real estate agent Cameron Miller. ‘The sellers think it’s February, but the buyers think it’s Armageddon – they’re looking for a deal.’”

    As a patient renter, I’ve got all the time in the world, greedheads. You don’t.

  20. And be in no doubt that a huge problem is coming. Research released this week shows that it is metastasizing and getting ready to explode all over again.”

    Yep. And the sheeple who rushed to sign on Mr. Banker’s dotted line based on the FOMO pushed by the REIC shills and the Fed are going to pay a terrible price for their misplaced trust.

  21. “Melbourne’s rental vacancy rate has more than doubled since this time last year, while Sydney’s figure has also blown out. ‘We’ve got properties there that are advertised and no one’s applied for them for six months,’ said Melbourne Asset Management’s Cameron Osborne. ‘We have some that were advertised for $650 down to $400 and we still can’t find anybody for them. You wouldn’t want to own an investment in the city at the moment.

    Coming soon to a bubble market near you.

  23. https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1312122950133272576/photo/1:
    “Following PCR-confirmation of the President’s diagnosis, as a precautionary measure he received a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail. He complete the infusion without incident. In addition to the polyclonal antibodies, the President has been taking zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and a daily aspirin.”

        1. “If we lose DJT, we could lose the country.”

          I’m going the other way;

          I look forward to one and a half to two weeks from now when Donald Trump stands in front of the cameras and the country and lets it rip.

          1. Mr. Jeff sir I agree.

            I have two family members in their 70’s infected with corona since two weeks ago. It’s a non-linear recovery, both have pre-existing conditions.

            The dog is retired now but I’ll climb a mountain for DJT and our beautiful FLOTUS this weekend.

          2. “The dog is retired now but I’ll climb a mountain for DJT and our beautiful FLOTUS this weekend.”

            God Bless the retired mountain climbing HBB Dog

            God Bless Donald Trump

            and God bless the United States of America

            and if you have any time left after all that God,

            slap a muzzle on Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the rest of those leftist repeat a line douchebags would ya.

        2. We carry in our hearts the true country
          And that cannot be stolen
          We follow in the steps of our ancestry
          And that cannot be broken.

          — Midnight Oil, “True Country”

        4. I haven’t seen anything to indicate that it’s other than as a precaution and for monitoring although the moods on CNN and FOX are equally morose.

          1. They might be sending him to Walter Reed more as a quarantine strategy than anything else. Get him out of the White House.

            I have a suspicion there’s some hydroxychloroquine in there somewhere. They said the President is taking Zinc and Vitamin D and famotidine and melatonin. Famotidine and meltonin are suspected to help but nothing definitive. There is no reason to take zinc without HCQ.

          2. Jeebus you are clueless. HCQ is an ionophore for zinc, which does the work against the ‘rona. You can take zinc with other things to increase your bodies assimilation of it, HCQ is but one.

            Keep that mask taped to your face, it hasnt cut all the oxygen off – yet.

          3. Yes, HCQ is one zinc ionophore. Quercetin — an antioxidant found in apples and blueberries and sold as a supplement, is another. Looks like they took him to Reed to put the stupid Remdesivir in him by IV. Somebody is making DJT a walking advert for worthless Big Pharma drugs. Just put him on 50 cents of Ivermectin already!

    3. The vitamin D (hopefully megadoses) will help more than anything. I wonder why he’s not taking HCQ? The time window for that is quickly running out. And I wonder if his doctors have Ivermectin in the wings should the President need it. IVM has a longer effectiveness window.

      Oh, and I just returned from a trip to a semi-rural Wal-Mart … with two tubes of apple-flavored Ivermectin paste. For 10 bux I have enough IVM for 10 Oxides. Yeah, from the pet section of WAL MART.

  24. WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP PLC, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore seeking damages for the impact of global climate change.

    The justices will weigh whether the lawsuit must be heard in state court as the city would prefer or in federal court, which corporate defendants generally view as a more favorable venue. The suit targets 21 U.S. and foreign energy companies that extract, produce, distribute or sell fossil fuels.

    The outcome could affect around a dozen similar lawsuits by U.S. states, cities and counties including Rhode Island and New York City seeking to hold such companies liable for the impact of climate change.

    Baltimore and the other jurisdictions are seeking damages under state law for the harms they said they have sustained due to climate change, which they attribute in part to the companies’ role in producing fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.”

    I guess they wrung out big Tobacco and are looking for another golden goose

    2. sell fossil fuels.

      Those places should set an example for everyone by making it illegal to sell fossil fuels, or anything produced using them in any way.

    4. It would be rather fitting if no company sold any fuel products in Baltimore this winter. All this green non-sense really hits people in the lower economic strata hard. It’s a religion for the Gaia Commies.

    5. Doesn’t the city government regulate (and thus explicitly facilitate) the sales of said fossil fuels? Wouldn’t that make them a party of the defense? Not sure how you can be both plaintiff and defense here unless its the “citizens of Baltimore” that are the plaintiffs and the city is just facilitating the filing.

    2. God bless our President, and grant him a speedy recovery so that he may resume his fight against corruption and Socialism that threatens our country.

      1. He seemed pretty “OK” Via his last tweeter. I think this will work in his favor for his re-election

    3. If he gets the correct drugs, it might be exactly that — a case of the flu. But you huffpo minions insist on burying any drugs just to spite him.

      1. Biden is already taking advantage by a ad in Calif out already saying what Biden will do for Covid-19. .

        I look at it this way. All the people that kept working to keep things going have been at higher risk, including the President. Trump didn’t hang out in his basement with the Joe Biden show mask while the creep Biden claimed Trump killed 200 thousand people.
        I think people will rally behind Trump more rather than what the Dems envision is a lucky break for them, along with the ongoing harm they have inflicted on this President.

        1. people that kept working to keep things going have been at higher risk

          In my little burg, they put signs in front of houses that say “A Hero Lives Here.”

        2. Biden is already taking advantage by a ad in Calif

          I thought Clownifornia is a one party state. He already has those electoral votes in the bag. Why is he wasting money campaigning there?

          1. From what I’ve seen, a sizeable number of Southern Californians are fed up with Newssolini and the Democrats.

          2. From what I’ve seen, a sizeable number of Southern Californians are fed up with Newssolini and the Democrats.

            That’s a little like a revolutionary being fed up with being lined up against the wall. It’s a bit too late.

          3. like a revolutionary being fed up

            It’s Getty money and voter fraud (see Judicial Watch cases cleaning out our voter rolls).

    2. Trump needs to catch the cold … and live his life with his beautiful wife away from the American people, what’s left of the America people.

      America deserves Biden.

      3. I think I will write a ad for Trump .

        Our great leader just took a bullet from the virus unleashed by China. He never stopped working to keep this Country going or hang out in his basement like a coward. Do you want a coward or a fighter .

        It’s all in how you spin things.
        Based on the low death rate, closing down the Country Isn’t logical.

  30. An observation and opinion that I believe has merit …

    From Lockdowns to “The Great Reset” | Mises Wire
    https://mises.org/wire/lockdowns-great-reset

    (snip)

    “In recent decades, the consensus has emerged at the annual Davos meetings that the world needs a revolution, and that reforms have taken too long. The members of the WEF envision a profound upheaval at short notice. The time span should be so brief that most people will hardly realize that a revolution is going on. The change must be so swift and dramatic that those who recognize that a revolution is happening do not have the time to mobilize against it.

    “The basic idea of the Great Reset is the same principle that guided the radical transformations from the French to the Russian and Chinese Revolutions. It is the idea of constructivist rationalism incorporated in the state. But projects like the Great Reset leave unanswered the question of who rules the state. The state itself does not rule. It is an instrument of power. It is not the abstract state that decides, but the leaders of specific political parties and of certain social groups.

    “Earlier totalitarian regimes needed mass executions and concentration camps to maintain their power. Now, with the help of new technologies, it is believed, dissenters can easily be identified and marginalized. The nonconformists will be silenced by disqualifying divergent opinions as morally despicable.

    “The 2020 lockdowns possibly offer a preview of how this system works. The lockdown worked as if it had been orchestrated—and perhaps it was. As if following a single command, the leaders of big and small nations—and of different stages of economic development—implemented almost identical measures. Not only did many governments act in unison, they also applied these measures with little regard for the horrific consequences of a global lockdown.”

    1. Or, the people can stop the Great Reset and go back to having a Government for the people by not accepting the Power grab by these evil power mongers.

  31. “‘Expensive cities continued to decrease in rental prices last month, with yearly drops largely led by the nation’s seven most expensive cities: San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.,’ according to the report.”

    Aren’t a bunch of those cities places where real estate experts insisted that rents could never fall? For instance, in Washington, D.C.?

    I feel a Shakespeare quote coming…

    1. Messenger

      Gracious my lord,
      I should report that which I say I saw,
      But know not how to do it.

      MACBETH

      Well, say, sir.

      Messenger

      As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
      I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
      The wood began to move.

      MACBETH

      Liar and slave!

      Messenger

      Let me endure your wrath, if’t be not so:
      Within this three mile may you see it coming;
      I say, a moving grove.

      MACBETH

      If thou speak’st false,
      Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
      Till famine cling thee: if thy speech be sooth,
      I care not if thou dost for me as much.
      I pull in resolution, and begin
      To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
      That lies like truth: ‘Fear not, till Birnam wood
      Do come to Dunsinane:’ and now a wood
      Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
      If this which he avouches does appear,
      There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
      I gin to be aweary of the sun,
      And wish the estate o’ the world were now undone.
      Ring the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack!
      At least we’ll die with harness on our back.

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