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Leaving Many In A Vicious Cycle Of Growing Debt, Asking Where’s The Money?

A report from Cal Matters on California. “At the start of the pandemic, Brandon McCall’s two tenants ran into financial trouble. With a limited amount of cash coming in, McCall said the two of them stopped paying rent on his Van Nuys condo in Los Angeles. McCall looked into mortgage forbearance, but decided to pass when he learned it would impact his credit. He would also have to pay in full after his deferral period was up. Unsure when the tenants would start paying again, McCall and his wife dipped into savings to cover the mortgage on their condo even as they rent elsewhere for work.”

“‘Landlords rights and tenants rights are the same thing,’ McCall said. ‘They’re often pitted against each other, but they’re the same thing. … I want to stay housed. I want to keep my tenants housed. We’re all in this together.'”

“Noni Richen is the board president of the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, a nonprofit that aids small, local landlords. Most members are retired, and many live in a duplex, renting out the other apartment so they can make their mortgage payments or supplement their Social Security. In December, a San Francisco landlord wrote to Richen, begging for assistance. She had received certified letters from her lender threatening foreclosure.”

“The woman, who had owned and managed two properties for 20 years, skipped three mortgage payments to save up for property taxes when a tenant stopped paying rent and she couldn’t evict them due to the pandemic, Richen said. Other landlords have written to Richen with similar problems. ‘Do you know if it’s legal for banks to foreclose during this pandemic,’ she asked Richen. ‘Is there any relief that you know of for landlords?'”

From Bloomberg on California. “Many of the tech companies that turbocharged San Francisco’s economy are embracing permanent remote work, giving their highly-paid employees less incentive to lease pricey studios and one-bedrooms near the office. The result is that apartment owners have lost the pricing power they once had in a city known for its high housing costs and gaping inequality.”

“‘It’s going to take years for the average landlord’s revenue to get back to pre-Covid levels,’ said John Pawlowski, an analyst at real estate data and research firm Green Street. The drop in rents means that higher-end apartment buildings in the city are now worth at least 20% less than before the pandemic, he said.”

“Lindsay Albert left the city last April because she felt uncomfortable living with roommates in a pandemic. Albert returned at the end of last year and began renting a one-bedroom in the inner Richmond district for $2,000 a month in January. It’s more than she was paying to live in a group house at the start of the pandemic, but about $1,000 less than the one-bedroom units she was looking at a year ago.”

“‘I feel like I’ve won the lottery,’ she said as she rattled off the amenities, including a living area big enough to fit a six-foot table and a couch with a chaise, as well as proximity to Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. ‘I’m 34 years old and I haven’t ever been able to live alone.'”

From WCNC in North Carolina. “The moratorium banning evictions is set to expire at the end of March, and Americans owe an estimated $57 billion in back rent. And a growing number of landlords are going into foreclosure, unable able to pay their own bills. ‘It’s really impacting small landlords who cannot pay their mortgages,’ Josh Clelan, a realtor with Coldwell Bank, said. ‘I know several landlords are putting their houses on the market due to tenants that are not paying rent.'”

“An estimated 10 million homeowners are currently behind on mortgage payments. Neither forbearance nor the moratorium erases what you owe, they just delay the inevitable. Leaving many in a vicious cycle of growing debt, asking ‘where’s the money?'”

The New York Post. “A Brooklyn homeowner unable to evict an allegedly deadbeat tenant because of new state housing laws claims she has been forced to live in her car for weeks. Shawna Eccles, 30, says in court papers she sleeps on the couches of friends and relatives whenever she can, and in her four-door Toyota when she can’t, after fighting and failing for months to evict Sharita Patterson, 33, from the two-family home in Carnarsie.”

“‘There is no one I can stay with until I am able to evict, and all of my money covers the mortgage, water bill and property taxes,’ Eccles told The Post. ‘If anything gets cut off, it will be considered an illegal eviction. I have no additional funds to rent an apartment.'”

“Eccles bought the two-story, semi-detached home on East 91st Street for about $477,000 in February 2019, spending her savings to renovate it, turning the somewhat rundown, barely 1,500-square-foot structure into an updated, modern home. Patterson, who was supposed to pay $2,100 a month, was her first tenant.”

The Real Deal on New York. “Eight months since its owner sought pandemic-related loan relief, the landmark Beekman Tower has exited special servicing after securing a payment deferral. But the value of the corporate housing-centric property has taken a big hit. The 178-unit complex in Midtown East is now appraised at $79.9 million. That’s down 45 percent from the $146 million it was valued at in 2018.”

“The property’s finances appear to justify the drastic valuation cut. ‘The new valuations could be seen as a proxy for the return of NYC business travel and extended stay demand,’ the analysts wrote of the valuation change. ‘The fact that even by 2023, the valuation will be less than two-thirds of the 2018 value could be a hint as to how slow the market will be to recover.'”

“The 26-story Art Deco tower and adjoining 10-story apartment building received a $63 million CMBS refinancing in 2018. Last June, the loan was transferred to the special servicer ‘due to imminent default,’ according to servicer commentary. With a debt service coverage ratio of just 0.54 for the year, the property was barely generating enough income to cover half of its interest payments.”

The Dallas Morning News in Texas. “A New York-based lender has provided $45.5 million in financing for the purchase of a Denton apartment community. Square Mile Capital Management LLC made the loan for the purchase of the Village at Rayzor Ranch rental community near Interstate 35E. The 300-unit apartment property was bought by Plano-based Seven Seas Holdings.”

“Lender Square Mile Capital is the same company that in January took control of one of downtown Dallas’ largest skyscrapers. The institutional real estate finance and investment firm transferred ownership of the 56-story Renaissance Tower after threatening the high-rise with foreclosure.”

From Canada Apartment. “The average rent for all Canadian properties listed on Rentals.ca in February was $1,714 per month, down 6 per cent from $1,823 in February of last year. Vancouver and Toronto are also the top two priciest cities for condominium rentals and apartments, which didn’t fair so well compared to other housing types.”

“‘The condominium apartment market continues to weigh down the overall rental market in Canada, with huge year-over-year declines in average rental rates in BC, Quebec and Ontario, especially for tiny studio apartments,’ said Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research & Consulting. ‘Investors have been in a race to the bottom for several months, whereas the more institutional owners of the mostly cheaper rental apartments have been more patient in reducing rent, often using this opportunity to renovate vacated suites.'”

“All 20 of the Canadian neighbourhoods with the biggest declines in average rent levels over the last year for all property types were in the Greater Toronto Area. Condo apartments and single-family homes in Canada’s priciest cities — Toronto and Vancouver — both experienced steep declines in the average monthly rental rates year over year. Exacerbating the rental market decline in Toronto recently has been the addition of 2,254 new rental apartments completed over the final four months of 2020.”

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This Post Has 98 Comments

  1. ‘about $1,000 less than the one-bedroom units she was looking at a year ago…’I feel like I’ve won the lottery’

    That’s the spirit!

  2. ‘The drop in rents means that higher-end apartment buildings in the city are now worth at least 20% less than before the pandemic’

    Eat yer crowz Thornberg…

  3. ‘Landlords rights and tenants rights are the same thing…We’re all in this together’

    Yeah, go ahead and embrace this commie BS Brandon. Here’s the thing: the cavalry ain’t coming. One of these articles has a guy saying landlords want to be “made whole.” Good luck with that.

    1. ‘ landlords want to be “made whole.” ‘

      Landlords want me (and every other taxpayer) to make them whole. Am I going to get some of that ‘Sweet equity’ for my trouble?

      1. ‘Am I going to get some of that’

        Well, this is the slippery slope of communist like stuff. Oh, you want a bail out? The “taxpayer” should get a cut of yer profits. Except the taxpayer gets nada and the guberment keeps it all. Look at Fannie and Freddie. For something like $180 billions, the feds absorbed what were 2 of the 5 largest corporations in the world. Kept all of the profits for many years and have no interest in letting them go or reforming the shack finance system. Basically socialism or communism, depending on the definition.

        Problem is everything the guberment touches turns to sh$t. For instance: only in bizarro guberment sh$t world would two deeply corrupt corporations whose stated goal is affordable housing be the key element is making certain housing is unaffordable.

        See, guberment wants communism. They want to blow bubbles, watch it crash, bailout, take over, pretty much everything. So now we see they really do want to have the guberment give everybody a little check. Get rid of private property. Re-write laws to where centuries of common law go away. These people are evil, and I don’t use the word lightly. Capitalism gave us everything we have, and the globalists would be more than happy to take it away and make us like China. No one votes, can’t speak their mind. You go where the guberment tells you, when they tell you. If they want you to eat bugs, you eat bugs. If they want you to share a closet with 5 people, you do it.

        Fook that and fook the globalists. Cuz it ain’t gonna happen. And if they keep this up somebody is gonna get skint alive.

        1. BTW, further evidence of this is the student debt thing. Colleges are now over-priced indoctrination camps. Students can get a subprime loan backed by the guberment. It blows up and voila! we gotta bail it all out. Everything they touch turns to sh$t.

          You’ll notice it with various state schemes with back rents. You can “opt-in” and collect a portion of what’s owed. Isn’t that nice? See it’s not your money any more. The guberment will decide what percentage of rents you keep (after they tax it of course). Property taxes don’t go down – oh hell no.

        2. ‘Am I going to get some of that’
          “Well, this is the slippery slope of communist like stuff.”

          +1

          – How many of the ‘ten planks’ are being lived out in the USSA today?
          http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/TenPlanks.html

          The Ten Planks of the 
          Communist Manifesto
          1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx

          1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.
          2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
          3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
          4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
           5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
          6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state.
          7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
          8. Equal obligation of all to work.  Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
          9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
          10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.

          – This includes destruction of family and religion.
          – This stealth coup has been going on for decades. Most all important institutions have already been indoctrinated. They’re now working on police and law enforcement.
          – Keep stockpiling your 2A supplies. The founding fathers weren’t wrong.
          – Communist China is the goal. Not mine, theirs.
          – Only a very small minority understand what’s going on, but 74M voters voted for DJT in the stolen election, many/most of whom are avid 2A supporters. This is coming to a head soon, IMHO.

          1. Ben, red pill, excellent summary.

            Here’s my cut and paste :
            They’re now working on police and law enforcement
            many/most of whom are avid 2A supporters

            74M voters voted for DJT in the stolen election
            many/most of whom are avid 2A supporters

            And if they keep this up somebody is gonna get skint alive.
            This is coming to a head soon.

            ‘Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.’
            Aristotle

            A strong man is coming soon who will promise to fight the communists. He’ll be very popular, a savior even. Civil conflict will ensue. They’ll be digging college professors, celebrities, and minor government officials out of clandestine mass graves decades from now. The constitution will be gone. Victory will be complete, unless China and Russia strike first and strike hard to prevent it.

            ‘Peace and forbearance.’ Pray for them.

          2. “The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” —Plato, Republic

  4. ‘Investors have been in a race to the bottom for several months’

    Wa? But Canadia is red-hotcakes?

    ‘whereas the more institutional owners of the mostly cheaper rental apartments have been more patient in reducing rent, often using this opportunity to renovate vacated suites’

    Sitting on empty airboxes while pouring money into the black hole. Where do I sign up?

  6. ‘The 178-unit complex in Midtown East is now appraised at $79.9 million. That’s down 45 percent from the $146 million it was valued at in 2018’

    Is that a lot?

    ‘The property’s finances appear to justify the drastic valuation cut. ‘The new valuations could be seen as a proxy for the return of NYC business travel and extended stay demand,’ the analysts wrote of the valuation change. ‘The fact that even by 2023, the valuation will be less than two-thirds of the 2018 value could be a hint as to how slow the market will be to recover’

    This is how it works. The “value” is not from comps (which stink) but from returns. Wa happened to frozen soup line Larry?

    ‘The 26-story Art Deco tower and adjoining 10-story apartment building received a $63 million CMBS refinancing in 2018. Last June, the loan was transferred to the special servicer ‘due to imminent default,’ according to servicer commentary. With a debt service coverage ratio of just 0.54 for the year, the property was barely generating enough income to cover half of its interest payments’

    Are you saying making a profit matters? BTW this is luxury, again, and it looks like a unspecified “foreigner” is among those taking an a$$ pounding. How do those 5% cap rates look now?

  8. ‘An estimated 10 million homeowners are currently behind on mortgage payments’

    Oh, that!

    ‘Neither forbearance nor the moratorium erases what you owe, they just delay the inevitable. Leaving many in a vicious cycle of growing debt, asking ‘where’s the money?’

    If you read the globalist rags, they’ll tell you money is plentiful and free like leaves on trees. It’s one big game of pretend. Right Brandon?

    1. ‘Neither forbearance nor the moratorium erases what you owe, they just delay the inevitable. Leaving many in a vicious cycle of growing debt, asking ‘where’s the money?’

      Isn’t that where the debt jubilee concept comes into play?

      Like the proposed student loan debt forgiveness? Someone signs a piece of paper, and the money a whole class of borrowers expected they would have to repay is suddenly and retroactively transformed into welfare payments. Never mind that previous generations of debtors had to pay off their debts by the sweat of their brow. We’ve reached a new era of Democratic benevolence.

      1. The Financial Times
        Opinion Inside Business
        Time for a great reset of the financial system
        A 30-year debt supercycle that has fuelled inequality illustrates the need for a new regime
        Chris Watling yesterday
        The writer is founder and chief executive of Longview Economics

        On average international monetary systems last about 35 to 40 years before the tensions they create becomes too great and a new system is required.

        Prior to the first world war, major economies existed on a hard gold standard. Intra-wars, most economies returned to a “semi-hard” gold standard. At the end of the second world war, a new international system was designed — the Bretton Woods order — with the dollar tied to gold, and other key currencies tied to the dollar.

        When that broke down at the start of the 1970s, the world moved on to a fiat system where the dollar was not backed by a commodity, and was therefore not anchored. This system has now reached the end of its usefulness.

        An understanding of the drivers of the 30-year debt supercycle illustrates the system’s tiredness. These include the unending liquidity that has been created by the commercial and central banks under this anchorless international monetary system. That process has been aided and abetted by global regulators and central banks that have largely ignored monetary targets and money supply growth.

        The massive growth of mortgage debt across most of the world’s major economies is one key example of this. Rather than a shortage of housing supply, as is often postulated as the key reason for high house prices, it’s the abundant and rapid growth in mortgage debt that has been the key driver in recent decades.

        This is also, of course, one of the factors sitting at the heart of today’s inequality and generational divide. Solving it should contribute significantly to healing divisions in western societies.

        With a new US administration, and the end of the Covid battle in sight with the vaccination rollout under way, now is a good time for the major economies of the west (and ideally the world) to sit down and devise a new international monetary order.

        As part of that there should be widespread debt cancellation, especially the government debt held by central banks. We estimate that amounts to approximately $25tn of government debt in the major regions of the global economy.
        …

        1. What about Quantitative Easing used to purchase trillions of dollars worth of government bonds is not already “debt cancellation”?

          1. Way forward:
             
            Use the so far dormant power of a state, where their resources in a legal issue are necessary.  
             
            The Constitution requires states to tender gold or silver coin in payment of debts.  The US mints those coins, but then the US charges a capital gains tax on those coins.   Obviously, such a tax means those coins will never circulate as money.  

            How upside down is that? Consider this: a dollar is defined in the US Code as an ounce of silver (ref: 31 USC § 5112). Federal reserve notes are neither a dollar nor are they redeemable in dollars or anything else (perhaps they would be effectively redeemable in gold and silver coins without a capital gains tax levied upon those coins). However, there is no capital gains tax levied on federal reserve notes, but there is a tax levied on what is defined by statute as a dollar.
             
            How to rectify this bizarre state of monetary affairs?

            A state brings a claim in proper venue advantageous to it based on the holding from McCullough v. Maryland, where the court held that the power to tax is the power to destroy such that a state couldn’t lay a tax on US bank notes.   As applied to this issue of whether the US can tax what the states must use to pay their debts, based on the holding from McCullough, no the US may not.
             
            Get rid of the capital gains tax on monetary coins, and let the market decide the price and whether they circulate. Waiting for the US Congress to pass laws eliminating the capital gains tax on monetary coins shows a lack of understanding of human nature. It simply is not in the interest of any member of Congress to make their duties substantially more difficult because it would significantly reduce their ability to create infinite amounts of credit and currency. It is in the interest of a state to establish a means to eliminate debts without having to first acquire federal reserve notes.

      2. Never mind that previous generations of debtors had to pay off their debts by the sweat of their brow. We’ve reached a new era of Democratic benevolence.

        Um, IIRC, you voted for this.

        1. A BK won’t forgive a mortgage, car loan, or anything you owe the guberment. You still have to pay those or lose the house or car.

    2. “Neither forbearance nor the moratorium erases what you owe, they just delay the inevitable.”

      Talked to someone a couple of weeks ago who was shocked to find out the forbearance they received was tacked on to the end of their mortgage and reduced the amount of money they got on their cash out refi.

      It was obviously too late to offer any advice so I just said…

      Man that sucks.

      1. and reduced the amount of money they got on their cash out refi

        Digging the hole deeper.

      2. “…the forbearance they received was tacked on to the end of their mortgage and reduced the amount of money they got on their cash out refi.”

        Lotsa sweet equity just went poof. Clawing back missed payments from homeowners who had already paid off a goodly portion of their mortgage is like taking candy from a baby.

        The hard part will be for landlords to collect on postponed rental payments, which is more like squeezing blood out of a rock.

    1. Another 770,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims for week ended March 13

      Yahoo Finance
      Bloomberg
      Bonds Plunge With Nasdaq Futures on Inflation Risk: Markets Wrap
      Cecile Gutscher
      Thu, March 18, 2021, 5:40 AM·
      3 min read

      (Bloomberg) — Inflation concerns are rattling investors once again, fueling a selloff in U.S. bonds and sending Nasdaq futures sharply lower.

      Ten-year Treasury yields climbed above 1.7% for the first time since January 2020, while the 30-year breached 2.5% for the first time since August 2019. Contracts on the Nasdaq 100 Index, a benchmark for high-valuation stocks that are sensitive to rising yields, sank 1.6%. Tesla Inc. slumped in pre-market trading.

      U.S. equities look poised to reverse some of the gains from Wednesday, when markets hit an all-time high. The Federal Reserve’s apparent willingness to keep pumping support into the economy and let it run hotter has spurred bets on faster growth and inflation, sending market expectations of price pressures to multi-year highs.
      …

        1. The most telling stat there is days on market. No reduction yet, but agree coming. YOY days on market is up 140% and up 58% MOM. Starting to see price reductions and things sitting longer in OC Cal. In this climate mortgage rates could be 0.5 – 1.0% higher in a month. Then the fun begins!

          2. “…Starting to see price reductions and things sitting longer in OC Cal….”

            Price reductions very common in the OC zips I follow 92603,92604, 92612,92625.

            If 30yr starts climbing and if the rates stick, we are in for a very long, hot summer.

            To properly service a typical mortgage in any of these zips, then a minimum $250K household income is required.

            $250K+ household incomes only available to a top slice of the demographic (estimate top 10% in this area)

            Of course the REIConplex will tell you that boatloads of cash from China and elsewhere are begging to buy a overpriced [mostly] crapshack. What a complete croc. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but the sense I get talking to a lot of folks in a lot of different circles that most households are hanging on for dear life. The “K” shape recovery doesn’t count for much, its just that your hanging on with more fingernails. Way, way too much debt in the system, yet people are so concerned about their image that they sacrifice themselves to the altar of debt, just so they can have the next bigger house and a shiny new car.

      2. Dumb question for stonk HODLers: Do perpetually high stonk prices strike you as a Democratic party priority?

    1. Related topic, gas just hit $3 here.

      For the lower leg of the K economy it’s a stagflationary depression.

      1. In 8 short weeks we’re finally getting back to normal. Gas is up $1 a gallon, bombs are dropping in the mid-east again, tens of thousands of jobs lost (deliberately), borders are wide open, toy potatos are offensive, Coke needs their employees to be ‘less white’ and taxpayers have resumed paying for abortions.

        Thank God we got rid of the guy that wrote mean tweets but put America first.

      3. $2.75 at the local Sams Club. It was a dollar lower just a few months ago.

        There is no doubt in my mind. The illegitimate regime is out to destroy the middle class.

        1. That’s why they need to keep OrangeManBad in the news. They need to to keep the OMB boogeyman alive long enough to prevent those reasonable Dems from splitting off and spoiling the one-party rule elections.

          My taxes are sky-high, but at least it’s better than OMB. It costs twice as much to fill my tank, but at least it’s better than OMB. I have a social credit score and every penny I spend is tracked, but at least it’s better than OMB. [elections, one party rule] I’m in a camp now waiting for someone to need my liver, but at least it’s better than OMB!

        2. 4.00 dollars a gallon here CA

          I have bought a KIA NIRO for wife a few years ago gets pretty good mileage around town. Have to hunker down for 4 years of WOKEness.

    2. once selfdriving cars take over

      Tesla Tells California DMV that FSD Is Not Capable of Autonomous Driving
      After years of touting its long-awaited Full Self-Driving feature, Tesla is telling California regulators a different story about its capabilities.

      In a letter to the California DMV, Tesla admits that FSD is not full self-driving.

      The correspondence between Tesla and the California DMV notes that FSD and Autopilot are both SAE Level 2 automation.

      The automaker does say that it is working toward deploying autonomous features to its vehicles.

      1. “After years of touting its long-awaited Full Self-Driving feature, Tesla is telling California regulators a different story about its capabilities.”

        “In a letter to the California DMV, Tesla admits that FSD is not full self-driving.”

        – Elon M. = P.T. Barnum
        – In any normal world with a functioning and not captured regulatory body, the Tesla “self-driving” (self-crashing) feature would be banned.
        – There have been a LOT of self-driving Tesla crashes. I’m guessing dozens over the past few years.
        – Just more snake oil from the main huckster at Tesla.
        – “Free beer tomorrow.”
        – What a bunch of BS.
        – FSD = FUBAR

        1. a LOT of self-driving Tesla crashes

          They weren’t self-driving. They were being driven by EM’s gullible sycophants. Conveniently, autopilot disengages immediately before the crash.

      2. Tesla admits that FSD is not full self-driving

        So it’s like a COVID vaccine? It doesn’t really work, and it might kill you?

  13. You can see footage of Kensington Avenue at night right here. If you didn’t know better, you would probably be tempted to think that it was pulled right out of a post-apocalyptic horror film.

    On Kensington Avenue, addicts can purchase a bag of fentanyl-laced heroin for as little as five dollars…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOBoDT-3oM0&t=12s

  14. “‘Landlords rights and tenants rights are the same thing,’ McCall said. ‘They’re often pitted against each other, but they’re the same thing. … I want to stay housed. I want to keep my tenants housed. We’re all in this together.’”

    I don’t want to pay rent for some landlord’s tenant who stopped paying in order to make the landlord whole on the investment property for which he overpaid, which he thought was going to make him rich.

    I’m not in this.

        1. Funny how people in the entertainment biz want to unload their California shacks. As deluded as they are, they are uncomfortable with how close last summer’s mostly peaceful protestors came to their enclaves and realize that there will almost certainly be an encore this summer.

          Quick, find some clueless Chicom to buy it!

          1. “Funny how people in the entertainment biz want to unload their California shacks.”

            Tom’s place was in Telluride, CO.

            But these high net worth people are surrounded by advisors, so one wonders why their financial advisors suggest selling their mansions at a loss?

          2. Tom’s place was in Telluride, CO.

            True, but most of the stories are about shacks in LA.

          4. I just wonder what the wealthy know. Seems they always manage to find a seat in the proverbial lifeboat while the Sixpack families get to swim among the icebergs.

          5. I just wonder what the wealthy know.

            They sure aren’t going to sell the mansion to some six pack.

  15. Hey Jonesy…. have you considered ramping up your youtube presence once more? I could post the snot out of your comments section with falling housing prices…. then cross post to other youtube sites with your channel. That would really take the good news of falling housing prices global across the entire youtube site.

  16. Are you ready for Marxist Madness?

    But alas, it is yet another sporting event that I used to look forward to and watch that will no longer be seen on any screen large or small at Casa jeff.

    March Madness courts at Lucas Oil Stadium named to recognize NCAA’s commitment to inclusion and social justice

    March 5, 2021 11:30am

    The Equality court honors student-athletes from across the country who have used their voices and actions to make a difference advocating for social and racial justice.

    https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/march-madness-courts-lucas-oil-stadium-named-recognize-ncaa-s-commitment-inclusion-and-social

    1. that will no longer be seen on any screen large or small at Casa jeff

      I don’t miss sports at all. There are so many other more pleasant ways to waste time.

      1. I don’t miss sports at all.
        I don’t either. Only sports I watched all year was the 2nd half of the super bowl. I watched because Tampa Was winning big and I wanted to see Brady win #7. Other than that game NADA.

    1. “Sci-fi, 10% commission for citizen informers is a new twist.”

      Besides the fact that I am pretty sure that first old lady who took the picture of the bandana for the first fine was modeled on a “get off the grass! I’ll call your parents! I saw both of you!” lady from my neighborhood when I was a kid, the most bizarre thing about all of that from the cars shutting down do to unpaid fines to the camera in the house handing out fines for cursing etc. to hiding the only room with no cameras to get away from Big Brother was at this point, none of it seems that bizarre or truly far fetched at all.

      1. Old biddies. There’s a male version, too – backbiting blowhards (can be young or old, e.g. Creepy Joe). I had to deal with them all the time when we owned a pub. Good times /s.

    2. NSFW profanity, short film
      That was a great film. And the tech appears (at least to me a non-techie) to be available to make it happen. And with Google wanting to get into credit scoring using your Google search history as the driver, I could definitely see a “social credit score” that the man alludes to.

      1. The crazy thing is that people are actually paying to have spy devices, like Alexa, installed in their homes.

        I do have a hard time believing that the beach bum would have no idea of what things were like in “Utopia”. I’m sure that it would be common knowledge around the world.

        1. I thought that, too.

          I showed my husband (who is pretty much “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU”, though at this point it could be just me 🤣) how these devices are listening to everything we say in their presence, stuff you’ve mentioned in emails. I keep turning on/off all privacy settings – I’ve obviously missed one+. Videos magically turn up in YT suggestions, etc.
          Before the web there was Echelon – https://techcrunch.com/2015/08/03/uncovering-echelon-the-top-secret-nsa-program-that-has-been-watching-you-your-entire-life/ – heard about it on talk radio in the 80’s.

          1. It also crossed my mind regarding the beach bum, being that he’s a jobless “parasite”, that the guberment would be happy to let him leave. I recall that during the Iron Curtain days the Warsaw Pact nations were more than happy to let retired oldsters leave for the west. One less unproductive mouth to feed.

          2. (Spoiler) I liked that the punishment wasn’t all bad for the woman who paid his fines 🚬🍷

  18. Today is Thursday, March 18th and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    The 2020 election was stolen.

    And regarding our humble blog host’s comment above about skinning them alive, every one of these globalist, anti Constitution, anti American traitors, all of these people have names, and addresses where they live. The only good globalist is a dead globalist 🙂

        1. I just finished reading Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life by Jonathan Sperber (pub: W. W. Norton, 2013).

          He lived from 1818 to 1883, and never lived to see the fruit of his efforts: 100 million people exterminated in the 20th century, and hundreds of millions more enslaved under totalitarian regimes.

          This is not a game.

          3. I’m not sure why has many fanbois

            Someone had blundered.
            Theirs not to make reply,
            Theirs not to reason why,
            Theirs but to do and die.

          4. The New York Times published an open endorsement of Marx’s thought, “Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right!” in which a philosophy professor praises Marx’s “ruthless criticism of all that exists,” and congratulates activists for applying Marxist class theory to race and gender.

          5. I’m not sure why has many fanbois think mass extermination of humans in the name of a more equal society is a desirable end?

            Because you can only usher in Heaven on Earth with the right kind of people, so the others have to go. And of course as the utopia is refined, so will the definition of who is ideal will change. Today’s woke is tomorrow’s cancelled.

    1. Red area of a purple state: check.
      Idyllic rural but not primitive: check.
      High premium for Minimalist Millenial Gray Reno-flip: check.
      Acre of land for mini-homestead: check.
      3 hour drive from a buyer pool of middle-aged high-pay defense contractors who are sitting on $200K+ of equity in NoVa: check.

      In other words: red hotcakes. Please keep an eye on it, I want to see if those hotcakes are as red as the UHSs say.

  20. “‘It’s going to take years for the average landlord’s revenue to get back to pre-Covid levels,’ said John Pawlowski, an analyst at real estate data and research firm Green Street. The drop in rents means that higher-end apartment buildings in the city are now worth at least 20% less than before the pandemic, he said.”

    What makes the used home seller pimps think prices will ever again reach their all-time bubble peak? I guess they never heard of Tulipmania in 17th century Holland, the South Sea Bubble, the Beanie Baby Craze, or the Millennial Day Trader Stonk Bubble?

  21. Any thoughts on when the margin debt pyramid will collapse this go round?

    Margin Debt and the Market: Up Another 1.9% in February, Continues Record Trend
    by Jill Mislinski, 3/17/21
    Note: The NYSE suspended its NYSE Member Firm margin data as of December 2017. We have replaced our Margin Debt data with FINRA data, which includes data for all firms, not just NYSE member firms.

    The New York Stock Exchange previously published end-of-month data for margin debt on the NYX data website, including historical data going back to 1959. Because of NYSE’s suspension of publication, we have turned to FINRA to continue our analysis. The figures differ in their inclusion of firms. For data through January 2010, debit balances were derived by adding NYSE debit balances in margin accounts to FINRA debit balances in customers’ cash and margin accounts and credit balances were derived by adding NYSE free credit balances in cash and margin accounts to FINRA free and other credit balances in customers’ securities accounts. For data after January 2010, “As of February 2010, data are collected pursuant to FINRA Rule 4521 and are aggregated across all member firms, regardless of whether the firm was designated to NASD or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) before the consolidation of NASD and the member firm regulation operations of NYSE Regulation in July 2007 that created FINRA,” (FINRA statistics definition, FINRA website). As a result of this change, the debt data is higher than the NYSE data.
    …

  22. CR8R

    The Wall Street Journal
    Markets Credit Markets
    Treasury Yields Extend Surge
    Benchmark 10-year note trades up above 1.7% for the first time since Covid-19 pandemic began
    Yields on shorter-term government bonds are especially sensitive to the outlook for Federal Reserve policy.
    By Sam Goldfarb
    Updated March 18, 2021 5:09 pm ET

    Selling in U.S. government bonds accelerated on Thursday, sending yields soaring again as uncertainty over the pace of economic expansion continued to unsettle financial markets.

    The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which rises when bond prices fall, jumped above 1.7% for the first time since the pandemic in early trading Thursday. Declines spread to technology shares and other high-growth stocks including Amazon. com and Apple, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite losing 1.5% and 3%, respectively. Higher rates hit high-growth stocks in part by increasing the value of current cash flows relative to future ones.

    Adding to the tumult, oil prices tumbled 7.1% Thursday following the decision in France to expand Covid-19 restrictions on economic activity in the Paris region. Shares of energy companies led declines in the S&P 500, falling 4.7%.

    The latest yield surge in the 10-year yield, which settled at 1.730%—its highest level since January 2020—extended a monthslong climb spurred by expectations for a vaccine- and government-stimulus fueled economic recovery. Investors think that could lead to significantly higher inflation and eventually force the Federal Reserve to lift short-term interest rates.
    …

    1. The Fed has ‘lost control’, and the historic spike in bond yields points to a looming stock-market crash, Bank of America says
      Matthew Fox
      Mar. 1, 2021, 09:06 AM
      – The recent spike in interest rates has Bank of America warning of a potential stock market crash, according to a Friday note.
      – The bank sees 1987 as a potential roadmap for 2021, in which a continued spike in yields helped spark weakness in the market.
      – “Unless the Fed fights back very soon with more treasury/MBS purchases, a similar fate likely lies ahead,” BofA warned.

      Last week’s spike in interest rates has Bank of America analysts on edge about a potential stock market crash.

      In a note on Friday, the bank highlighted the historic yield spike in mortgage-backed securities and compared the current environment to 1987, when a continued jump in MBS yields preceded a stock market crash of more than 20%.

      In 1987, an interest rate shock in April was followed by further rate increases that ultimately led to the October stock market crash, BofA said.

      But this time around, the Fed may have “lost control,” as its options to combat rising yields dissipate due to rapidly improving COVID-19 cases and a swift economic reopening.
      …

  24. Risk off!

    The Financial Times
    Markets Briefing
    Asia-Pacific equities
    Asia stocks fall after rising Treasury yields hit Wall Street
    Higher inflation expectations hit shares in region while oil falls further
    A pedestrian walks past an electronic quotation board displaying Japanese share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
    The falls in Asia came after Wall Street’s technology-focused Nasdaq Composite stock index tumbled 3% on Thursday
    Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong an hour ago

    Shares across the Asia-Pacific region tumbled after stocks on Wall Street sold off in the face of rising US Treasury yields, which have been pushed higher by growing inflation expectations.

    In afternoon trading in the region on Friday, China’s CSI 300 index of Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed stocks fell 3 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 2.2 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.9 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6 per cent.

    The falls in Asia came after Wall Street’s technology-focused Nasdaq Composite stock index tumbled 3 per cent on Thursday. The broader S&P 500 dropped 1.5 per cent, coming off a record-high closing level from Wednesday.

    Those declines were spurred by increasing US Treasury yields, to which borrowing costs in many financial markets are benchmarked. Rising yields, which indicate falling demand for bonds, have forced investors to reprice the value of high-growth shares to reflect changes in interest-rate expectations.

    On Thursday, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.75 per cent, crossing above 1.7 per cent for the first time since the market tumult of early 2020 sparked by the emergence of Covid-19.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged 0.03 percentage points lower in Asian trading on Friday to 1.698 per cent.

    “This is spilling into wider markets,” said Robert Carnell, head of Asia-Pacific research at ING, of the sell-off in Treasuries, pointing to falls in prices for gold, oil and bitcoin.
    …

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