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They Are Distressed And They’re Prepared To Sell At A Loss, If They Can Find A Buyer

A report from Patch New York. “New Yorkers on the hunt for deals on one-bedroom apartments might want to start looking near the closest subway stop. Rents fell around 418 out of 473 stops across the city during the coronavirus pandemic, according to RentHop. All told, 88 percent of subway stops had rents fall for nearby one-bedrooms, the study found. And landlords, fearing losses, have kept about half of unrented apartments off the market in hopes prices will rebound.”

From Bloomberg. “After office construction in New York City ground to a virtual halt in the second and third quarters of last year, developers began work on $2.7 billion worth of projects in the final three months of 2020, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. That was down roughly one-third from the fourth quarter of 2019, but large enough to show builders and lenders haven’t lost their appetite for risk.”

“Still, New York City landlords are digging out of a deep hole. The city has estimated that the value of Manhattan office buildings will drop 25%, with hotels worth 31% less. Apartment rents have slid amid a flood of vacancies, while key retail corridors are plagued by empty storefronts. New York commercial mortgage-backed securities saw a surge in delinquent loans over the past year, reaching a total balance of $5.8 billion in March, according to data firm Trepp. That equates to an overall delinquency rate of 5.77%.”

“Office availability, meanwhile, is at the highest level in at least 30 years, worse than it was after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the financial crisis.”

The Washington Post. “Downtown Washington has long been known as a hub for lobbyists and lawyers commuting to and from the office like clockwork each weekday. But experts say that may change. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the vacancy rate in the central business district, forcing city leaders to consider drastic alternatives to fill unused office space. ‘We have all this space to fill, and there are not enough lawyers and probably not enough nonprofits to move here and fill it up,’ said Gerry Widdicombe, director of economic development for the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.”

“Authorities also fear drops in sales tax revenue without workers supporting coffee shops, restaurants, bars and other businesses downtown. ‘We get half a million people a day commuting into the city,’ said David Umansky, public affairs officer for the office of the chief financial officer. ‘If that number drops a whole lot, there will be a lot of pain.'”

“Between 2014 and 2017, the vacancy rate in D.C.’s central business district hovered around 9 percent, according to data from real estate brokerage firm Colliers International. It climbed to nearly 11 percent in 2018 before surging in 2020 and reaching almost 17 percent in the first quarter of this year. Local leaders and real estate brokers attribute much of the vacancy trend to an explosion of construction in NoMa, the Wharf and Navy Yard neighborhoods over the past five years.”

“‘This has been occurring for the greater part of a decade or so,’ said Neil Albert, CEO of the DowntownDC BID.”

From Blog TO in Canada. “A new report from Urbanation Inc., which has been tracking the GTA’s condo and apartment market for 40 years, shows that vacancy rates among newer purpose-built rental apartments in the region reached 6.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2021. The estimates for buildings in the City of Toronto are even higher, with adjusted vacancy rates of 8.8 percent at residential projects completed since 2005. This is up from just 1.1 per cent for the same period last year.”

“This posted decline in rents at the buildings surveyed by Urbanation was in addition to what the firm calls ‘widespread incentives being offered in the market.’ ‘About two-thirds of buildings were offering free rent periods of one to three months to attract new tenants,’ reads the report. ‘Urbanation calculated that these free rent periods were equal to a rent reduction of approximately $255 per month when averaged over the course of the initial lease term.'”

From My London in the UK. “Rents have plummeted buy up to a quarter in some London postcodes as tenants flee the capital in the wake of Covid-19 lockdowns. According to renting giant SpareRoom, rent prices fell by as much as 8 per cent in London in the first financial quarter of 2021 due to Covid, with some postcodes falling as much as 26 per cent individually. Instead of sitting out the restrictions though, SpareRoom reports that 27 per cent of London renters plan to give the city a French exit once restrictions are lifted, kissing goodbye to the city just as everything reopens.”

“Matt Hutchinson, the director of Spareroom, said: ‘London rents continue to fall and, as has been the case throughout the past year, it’s the expensive areas where they fall the fastest. We’re now seeing the biggest drop in London room rents since spring, and there’s no immediate sign of a recovery.'”

From IOL on South Africa. “Nobody can deny the devastating impact that Covid-19 has and will continue to have on the global economy. Our personal finances are threatened from all ends, as the lockdown has left millions of South Africans desperately seeking additional sources of income. CEO of Momentum Investments Jeanette Marais says that South Africa is now in what the industry is calling an unprecedented buyers’ market. ‘Banks are actually quite willing to offer 100% home loans, and with the recent reduction in interest rates, the market is well positioned for recovery.'”

The South China Morning Post. “The number of homes standing empty in Hong Kong may climb to an 18-year high in 2021 as thousands of families flee to the UK, according to a Bloomberg estimate. The forecast exodus would take the number of empty homes in Hong Kong to 66,683, up from 52,370 last year. For an idea of scale, that is more than five times the number of units in the gigantic Taikoo Shing housing estate in the east of Hong Kong Island.”

“Rents may slide by another 10 per cent in 2021 as the shrinking population threatens to stifle residential leasing, following a 6 per cent drop last year, according to Bloomberg’s research report. ‘Landlords may struggle to find tenants for their vacant rental units amid Hong Kong’s sputtering economy, possibly hurting their bargaining power in rental negotiations,’ said the report.”

“Charlotte So, who recently quit her job in Hong Kong and will fly next Monday with her husband and 11 year-old son to start a new life in Kingston, an hour’s ride from central London. ‘The possibility of coming back to Hong Kong is small, so we just sold our home even though it was some HK$500,000 below our asking prices,’ said So.”

From Nikkei Asia on China. “Kangbashi, a town in the middle of barren Inner Mongolia deserts, once found itself stuck with rows of newly built-but-vacant apartment buildings, earning a nationwide reputation as a guicheng, or ghost town. Now the district in the city of Ordos is back. Having sold previously empty apartments, Kangbashihe town is building more high-rise complexes. When the bubble burst, condos that went for more than 8,000 yuan per sq. meter, or about $1,200, at the peak tumbled to between 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan.”

“Yet ‘now prices in central Kangbashi are up to 15,000 yuan’ per sq. meter, the salesperson said. This is even as the city’s economy shrank in 2019 and 2020. Comments arguing that real estate is ‘holding China hostage’ are a common sight online. Property investment directly boosts gross domestic product and stokes demand in related industries such as steel and cement.”

“‘In normal countries, condominiums are built because there’s demand,’ said an economist under China’s State Council. ‘In China, condominiums are built to increase steel and cement production. It’s backward.'”

“The development that helped power China’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak has left lower-tier cities with a buildup of excess homes. New condominium inventories reached a four-and-a-half-year high by square footage around the end of last year, according to E-House China R&D Institute. On top of this, population growth has stalled. The number of people in their 20s and 30s — the prime homebuying age — is already shrinking. In Ordos specifically, the population grew nearly 5% annually on average in the six years through 2012, but the growth rate has plunged to an average of 0.6% since the bubble ended.”

“Tianjin and Inner Mongolia still languish near the bottom of China’s 31 provinces and provincial-level cities in terms of economic growth. ‘We can’t shake the fear that if new development picks up steam, we’ll create a new ghost town,’ an Ordos real estate developer said.”

From Domain News in Australia. “Melbourne apartment owners have offloaded inner-city units at losses of up to 40 per cent in recent months, as some apartments continue to sit empty. John Sdregas from JMRE Real Estate in North Melbourne recently sold a one-bedroom apartment in Swanston Street for $180,000 – 30 per cent less than the owners paid for it 15 years earlier.”

“‘It had been sitting vacant for nine months, and they simply couldn’t afford to keep it,’ Mr Sdregas said. ‘We are seeing this a lot,’ he said. ‘Vendors can’t find renters. They are distressed, and they’re prepared to sell at a loss. That’s if they can find a buyer. Some apartments are sitting on the market for three to six months. The investor market in the inner city has diminished. No one wants to buy an investment property at the moment.'”

“‘We don’t know how long it’s going to be until international students can come back. It could still be another six, 12, 24 months away,’ he says. ‘You won’t be able to give them away if you’ve got no students to rent them.'”

“Public records reveal dozens of examples of inner-city apartments that have been sold in recent months at a substantial loss. In November last year, a studio apartment in Carlton sold for $141,000, 38 per cent less than the $227,500 it was purchased for in 2007. In January, a studio apartment in a high-rise building in Collins Street sold for $145,000 – 36 per cent less than the $228,000 the owners paid for it in 2004.”

“And there are dozens more examples. The agent who sold the Collins Street apartment, Annamaria Stella from Twigg Real Estate, says ’99 per cent’ of the apartments she currently sells in the CBD sell at a loss. ‘Occasionally, we sell one or two that break-even, or even sell for $10,000 more than they were purchased for off-the-plan. But that is very rare,’ she says.”

“However, Ms Stella is quick to point out that she regularly sold CBD apartments at a loss even before the pandemic hit. ‘Even before COVID hit, we were seeing a major oversupply of apartments in the city … from about early 2017 onwards, we were starting to re-sell some of these apartments that had been bought off the plan for less than what they were purchased for,’ Ms Stella says.”

“‘So, before COVID, I’d get calls from vendors who were thinking about selling for various reasons, and when I’d tell them what their property was worth, they’d say, ‘oh, no way, I’ll hold on to it’, she explained. ‘Now they call and say they don’t want to sell, but it’s empty, and they need to sell, even though in most instances it will be at a loss.'”

“Ms Stella says many of the CBD apartments she has sold recently have sold for ’25 to 30 per cent less than the original purchase price.’ Angie Zigomanis, director, research and strategy at Charter Keck Cramer, says there are still a significant number of new developments due for completion this year that will continue to put downward pressure on inner-city apartment prices for some time to come.”

“A report last month revealed that 16,400 apartments were forecast for completion across Melbourne in 2021, while from 2022. ‘There are still a number of big projects reaching completion stage, and a significant proportion of those will be in the central Melbourne area,’ Mr Zigomanis says. ‘These new completions are just going to add to the stock of vacant apartments on the market … making it even more challenging for sellers to achieve the prices that they initially paid for them, especially when you consider they will be competing against owners who are in a position where they need to sell.'”

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This Post Has 102 Comments

      2. Hotcakes cooling here? The house we looked at last Friday and the other house with supposedly 4 offers are both still active.

        1. In my nabe the hotcakes are cooling… a little. More like, we’ve reached the limit of the wishing prices; i.e. “I’m not payin’ THAT for THAT, even if the interest rate is 0.”
          But price a property even slightly fairly, and the bidding wars will suddenly reappear like a mutating virus.

          1. I suspect that’s what’s going on here as well. The supposed 4 offers were all below the listing/wishing price but well above the listing price 18 months ago. Their realtor mentioned something about countering but I can’t see how buyers don’t look at the last price and say f@#$ that.

  2. ‘However, Ms Stella is quick to point out that she regularly sold CBD apartments at a loss even before the pandemic hit. ‘Even before COVID hit, we were seeing a major oversupply of apartments in the city … from about early 2017 onwards, we were starting to re-sell some of these apartments that had been bought off the plan for less than what they were purchased for’

    OK, here’s a lesson in bubble propaganda. These airboxes have sold for a loss for years. It never changed. Oh but the media swore it was all red hotcakes! And they were a lion the whole time. Like Toronto, it was completely swamped with oversupply (built for the Chinese investors, doncha know), and like Toronto there are many thousands on the way.

    Did you know that even today, 49% of the cranes operating in North America are in Toronto?

    1. govt has no choice but to extend and pretend until it stops working – and then watch out. see lines 1, 4 & 5.

      GDP in 2020 (but in baseline 2012 $ value)
      – real estate rental and leasing – $264B
      – manufacturing – $186B
      – mining, oil and gas – $ 146B
      – finance and insurance – $145B
      – construction – $140B

      1. [the above was for Canada] . the Central bank just came out with its statement – overnight lending rate is still 0.25% – but it might increase next year.

        So 5yr mortgage rates will still stay at 2% – so free money.


        The Bank of Canada announced that it will pare back asset purchases by one-quarter and indicated that it’s moving up its expected timeline for interest-rate hikes, citing a stronger-than-expected rebound from the pandemic.

        The Ottawa-based central bank will reduce its purchases of federal government bonds to $3 billion (US$2.4 billion) a week, from the current pace of $4 billion, policy makers led by Governor Tiff Macklem said Wednesday in a written statement. They also said the economy would fully heal from the pandemic more quickly than expected, a track that could prompt them to raise their key benchmark interest rate as early as next year versus previous guidance pointing to no move before 2023.

        The statement was more hawkish than expected, suggesting that the central bank is keen to quickly start a process of policy normalization that could take years to finish. The move is one of the biggest steps yet by a developed country to reduce emergency levels of monetary stimulus.

        “We remain committed to holding the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2 per cent inflation target is sustainably achieved,” the bank said in its Monetary Policy Report. “Based on the Bank’s latest projection, this is now expected to happen some time in the second half of 2022.”

  3. ‘landlords, fearing losses, have kept about half of unrented apartments off the market in hopes prices will rebound’

    We see these myths created and perpetuated all the time. If it’s sitting empty, it’s a total loss and you ain’t gonna make it up – evah!

    ‘large enough to show builders and lenders haven’t lost their appetite for risk’

    QE is ultimately deflationary. NYC has been sinking like a turd in a well since 2016! and these idiots have been building like crazy the entire time.

  5. ‘Comments arguing that real estate is ‘holding China hostage’ are a common sight online…‘In normal countries, condominiums are built because there’s demand…In China, condominiums are built to increase steel and cement production. It’s backward’

    I used to have a post on China once or twice a week. Then the dictator said no more unhappy news and it was slim pickins. But I said many years ago that it was a bad sign that the guberment keeps ginning up bubbles (stocks, bonds, commodities, back to housing) because it means they don’t have any other ideas.

    When they had a garlic bubble I gave up on the whole country as just being too silly.

  6. ‘What is a French exit?’

    ‘A French leave is a departure from a location or event without informing others or without seeking approval. … In French, the equivalent phrase is filer à l’anglaise (“to leave English style”) and seems to date from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.’

    1. “But as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the enclosure, my only plan was to take French leave, and slip out when no one was watching.”
      — Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883)

  7. ‘If that number drops a whole lot, there will be a lot of pain’

    Already happened Dave and yer fooked. DC dies in darkness, right Jeff? A$$hat.

  9. ‘Between 2014 and 2017, the vacancy rate in D.C.’s central business district hovered around 9 percent, according to data from real estate brokerage firm Colliers International. It climbed to nearly 11 percent in 2018 before surging in 2020 and reaching almost 17 percent in the first quarter of this year. Local leaders and real estate brokers attribute much of the vacancy trend to an explosion of construction in NoMa, the Wharf and Navy Yard neighborhoods over the past five years’

    ‘This has been occurring for the greater part of a decade or so’

    And the article mentions it’s happened everywhere.

    1. “fear drops in sales tax revenue”

      And may all your fears come true.

      No property tax revenue, no sales tax revenue, no business revenue and no job creation for sh*thole cities.

    2. All of that new construction in NoMa was A+ luxe. Studios are $1600/mo, 2-bed are at least $2500/mo. You can buy a $400,000 3/2 house (including yard and garage) + taxes + insurance for $2500. Millenials have finally outgrown the vibrant lifestyle to fly to the burbs, just like their grandparents did in the early 60s. And 3-day w@h makes it a lot easier.

        1. Yeah, and that’s $2,500 [net]. And there’s always something else breaking-down while raising a family, and it always boils-down to writing another $1,000 check, or more.

        2. That’s why prices are falling.

          Falls Church, VA Housing Prices Crater 27% YOY As Foreclosures And Mortgage Defaults Saturate Northern Viriginia

          As one national builder advised, “If you paid more than $50 a square foot for your house, you got burned.”

  11. BLM and their globalist financiers will never run out of hood rats who manage to get themselves shot for not complying with LEO instructions.

    Columbus police try to avert a new wave of BLM anger over the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old girl by releasing bodycam that shows her attempting to stab two women just minutes before Derek Chauvin was convicted, as protesters gather

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9493535/Cop-filmed-standing-body-15-year-old-girl-just-shot-dead.html

    2. Funny how NPR systematically supresses news of the sequence of events that culminates in these racis’ incidents.

      I guess that information wouldn’t interest their Democratic constituents.

      1. No one in power wants a discussion about how families and schools are abject failures in many parts of the country. Blaming bad parents is verboten in American society; everything is the so-called system’s fault.

        1. The police are also subject to nonstop blame games for systemic societal issues that make their jobs difficult.

        2. This is why I keep posting the phrase “low investment parenting” when discussing this topic.

          Nobody asks where were the parents about the 13 year old shot by police in Chicago (in the company of a 21 year old gang banger) at 2:45am.

          Frankfurt School –> Cloward Piven –> LBJ’s Great Society, add them up and this is what you get.

    3. why bother showing police bodycam? facts do not matter.
      most people are emotional meatsacks motivated by basics such as lust, envy & fear. logic is for losers.
      realtors should be issued butterfly nets & lipstick upon certification.

      1. Most people = 90% of wahmen and mudskins and anyone with an IQ under 90.

        Third world country in so many respects, but quite nice when avoiding the aforementioned populations.

    4. White cop “kills” black person in D-held city.
      DOJ “investigates” D-held city leading to consent decree.
      D-held city implements “reforms” and funnels $ to D organizations.
      Change society without consent of governed.

      1. consent decree

        Impeccable timing! No link intended.

        NYT on 4/16/2021:

        Justice Dept. Restores Use of Consent Decrees for Police Abuses

        Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinded a Trump administration policy curbing use of the decrees, which provide a way to force changes in police departments.

        1. the destruction of America

          Don’t get hysterical. Don’t give in or give up. We have faced worse enemies and kept our liberty. It ain’t free.

      3. consent decree

        Possibly a double post.

        Impeccable timing! No link intended.

        NYT on 4/16/2021:

        Justice Dept. Restores Use of Consent Decrees for Police Abuses

        Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinded a Trump administration policy curbing use of the decrees, which provide a way to force changes in police departments.

  12. 1) From Bloomberg. “After office construction in New York City ground to a virtual halt in the second and third quarters of last year, developers began work on $2.7 billion worth of projects in the final three months of 2020, according to data from Real Capital Analytics. That was down roughly one-third from the fourth quarter of 2019, but large enough to show builders and lenders haven’t lost their appetite for risk.”

    – “…builders and lenders haven’t lost their appetite for risk.” False economic signals of ultra-low interest rates and easy $ for years from the Fed and other Central Banks, and esp. since the GFC have led to massive malinvestment, including CRE overbuilding in many/most metros.

    “Office availability, meanwhile, is at the highest level in at least 30 years, worse than it was after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the financial crisis.”

    – Combine the overbuilding with Socialist politics in most blue cities (Antifa, BLM, “peaceful protests,” “defund the police,” and related “Progressive” agenda actions), and an exodus from these MSAs to the hinterlands for safety, peace of mind, and WFH, and what’s left, but a major crater in CRE in these Socialist “utopias.”

    “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H L Mencken

    – “Socialism is Western Civilization in retrograde.” – Me

    2) The Washington Post. “Downtown Washington has long been known as a hub for lobbyists and lawyers commuting to and from the office like clockwork each weekday. But experts say that may change. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the vacancy rate in the central business district, forcing city leaders to consider drastic alternatives to fill unused office space. ‘We have all this space to fill, and there are not enough lawyers and probably not enough nonprofits to move here and fill it up,’ said Gerry Widdicombe, director of economic development for the DowntownDC Business Improvement District.”

    “‘This has been occurring for the greater part of a decade or so,’ said Neil Albert, CEO of the DowntownDC BID.”

    – So, even before the CCP virus pandemic, which only accelerated the existing trends, the CRE market was in trouble? Impossible! As Ben says, what about the “red hotcakes?” I thought “everything was awesome?”
    – TPTB can “extend and pretend” for so long until they run out of runway.

    “The popularity of inflation and credit expansion, the ultimate source of the repeated attempts to render people prosperous by credit expansion, and thus the cause of the cyclical fluctuations of business, manifests itself clearly in the customary terminology. The boom is called good business, prosperity, and upswing. Its unavoidable aftermath, the readjustment of conditions to the real data of the market, is called crisis, slump, bad business, depression. People rebel against the insight that the disturbing element is to be seen in the malinvestment and the overconsumption of the boom period and that such an artificially induced boom is doomed. They are looking for the philosophers’ stone to make it last.” — Ludwig von Mises (1940)

    “Panics do not destroy capital, they merely reveal the extent to which it has been destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works.” — John Mills (1867)

    “Participants in the speculative situation are programmed for sudden efforts at escape. Thus the rule, supported by the experience of centuries: the speculative episode always ends not with a whimper but with a bang. There will be occasion to see the operation of this rule frequently repeated.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

  13. Meanwhile, last night in Portland:

    “At 8:15p.m., approximately 100 people were gathered near the Justice Center and blocked vehicular traffic in the intersection of Southwest 3rd Avenue / Southwest Main Street. A dumpster fire was started near the area. The fire was ultimately extinguished by a community member. Out of an abundance of caution, the doors of the Justice Center were locked to prevent unlawful entry into the building.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/right-cue-portland-rioters-go-destructive-rampage-chauvin-verdict-police-actually-intervene/

    Note to self: do not buy house in or pay property taxes to sh*thole city.

    3. Did you buy the dip in lumber futures? They are shooting up again like a rocket now. If you snooze, you lose in this hotcakes market!

    5. The Financial Times
      Commodities
      Lumber party: economic bounce fuels US wood price rally
      Prices soar on booming house sales, beetles and bottlenecks in the sawmills
      Lumber futures have jumped by more than 50 per cent this year as housebuilders and DIY stores scramble for increasingly scarce supplies
      Neil Hume, Natural Resources Editor yesterday

      US wood prices are racing higher amid a vigorous economic recovery from the pandemic, blasting through previous records as sawmills struggle to keep pace with demand in the run-up to peak homebuilding season.

      Lumber futures have soared by more than 50 per cent this year to more than $1,327 per 1,000 board feet length as housebuilders and DIY stores scramble for increasingly scarce supplies. That has taken gains since the depths of the Covid-19 crisis to 400 per cent, significantly above the contract’s previous high of $650 set in 2018.

      The physical market is also red hot, with the price of the preferred product for wooden framing — 2×4 lengths of Western Spruce-pine-fir — rising 30 per cent since the turn of the year to $1,205, according to lumber pricing company Fastmarkets Random Lengths. That is almost $900 above the average price since 2005.

      Market veterans are stunned by the scale of the rally and say it underlines the inflationary challenge facing the US economy as it springs back from pandemic lockdowns that have crushed inventories and production.

      “I’ve followed these markets for 37 years and I have never seen it go more gangbusters,” said Mark Wilde, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.
      …

  15. Because the situation is this:

    “‘Our personal finances are threatened from all ends, as the lockdown has left millions of South Africans desperately seeking additional sources of income.'”

    The policy becomes this:

    “Banks are actually quite willing to offer 100% home loans, and with the recent reduction in interest rates, the market is well positioned for recovery.”

  17. Surprise – Euro banks under reporting risky assets – wait till the check on the negative mortgage rates in the Netherlands …


    FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Large euro zone banks have been underreporting their risky assets by 275 billion euros by using their own models to quantify potential losses, the European Central Bank said on Monday.

    Since the 2008 financial crisis, regulators around the world have been picking apart the internal models that large banks use to calculate how much risk is on their balance sheet and, in turn, how much capital they need.

    A five-year review by the ECB found that the euro zone’s top banks had undercounted their risk-weighted assets by 275 billion euros, or 12%, for example by underestimating losses in cases where a borrower goes bust.

    This lowered the ratio between those banks’ capital and their risky assets, a key gauge of a lender’s solidity, by 70 basis points on average between 2018 and 2021.

  18. “Melbourne apartment owners have offloaded inner-city units at losses of up to 40 per cent in recent months, as some apartments continue to sit empty. John Sdregas from JMRE Real Estate in North Melbourne recently sold a one-bedroom apartment in Swanston Street for $180,000 – 30 per cent less than the owners paid for it 15 years earlier.”

    Don’t just give it away… wait

  19. Dumb question of the day: Have markets never before been as wild as today, with people pouring their COVID-19 stimulus monies into cryptocurrency, overpriced real estate and unicorn stonks, or is this appearance merely an artifact of living in a social media fishbowl?

    1. The tweet claims to show “leaked” documents about lesson plans for elementary school teachers to discuss with kindergarten through 2nd grade, regarding the George Floyd verdict and the “pyramid of hate.” Two points:

      1. Can’t find a source for the leaked documents, so until there’s confirmation, we can’t take it seriously.
      2. The verdict is 12 hours old. Either someone stayed up all night writing this lesson plan, or it was developed well in advance. Makes me wonder what the lesson would say if there had been acquittals.

  22. Ok, so now Bill Gates is going to be a key speaker at a big Summit on Climate Change, with all the big Monopolies I guess coming up.

    So, than no doubt this narrative gets advanced, than back to Covid, than to Racism. Its like three themes to keep the public in a never ending state of fear or conflict or threat.

    And none of those theme songs are based on anything but hype or fraud. And all these theme songs continue to distract the public from real issues . Oh and than they go to the gun issue, than cancel free speech, than mob justice.

    Seriously, how much can people take of this constant assault on sanity.

    You can tell how stressed out people are, and all this gaslighting is taking its toll. Its just non stop, and I think that’s deliberate. Don’t ever give people enough time to reflect and keep hitting them with one so called crisis after another. Keep people in a state of adnormal and don’t let up. Kind of a weird psychological type of warfare.

    Oh, and on top of everything else threaten their means to make a living or survival, or you might be cancelled if you say the wrong thing.

    Just unbelievable.

    1. Seriously, how much can people take of this constant assault on sanity.

      We had an all hands today (on zoom) with our VP the other day. More than once he told us to take time off if we felt we needed it. We have “unlimited vacation days” so it wasn’t a question of getting accrued vacation days off the books.

    2. Seriously, how much can people take of this constant assault on sanity.

      I think I’ve reached my limit. I’m looking for ways to decorate my anticipated leg cast.

      2. Result of accident? Run of the mill knee replacement (not so much if you’re young)? Just being curious, naturally you don’t have to say.

        I’d go for neon as far as a design goes. That sh!t hurts, some want extra attention, not that it’s not warranted. Me, when I get sick, I curl into a ball and tell everyone to leave me the hell alone, which is it’s own special stupidity. One of my friends in NYC just got a bilateral knee replacement; seems to be doing well.

        1. I suspect I tore my right ATFL. I tore my left ATFL four years ago and it required surgery. MRI this Friday. Orthopedic surgeon next Tuesday to discuss.

          I had a purple cast last time. I’m thinking about a henna design this time around. If I’m laid up with my foot elevated for a few weeks again, I want something somewhat pretty to look at.

    3. “Its like three themes to keep the public in a never ending state of fear or conflict or threat.”

      Indeed. It used to be appeasement with Bread and Circuses. Now it’s fear with Climate Change, Covid-19 and Racism.

        1. Well, it goes without saying that whatever are the Entities behind this insane assault on humanity aren’t good or elected , just by the methods used.

          You don’t have to be elected if you control Government Agencies and Politicians. And if you corrupt Governmental Agencies to carry out your agendas , they just become Pawns for agendas by these insurrectionist. Its obvious these Entities have monopolized Fake News with censorship of any dispute.
          And than the Media and their talking points and Experts and Politicians saying the same exact lines .
          And than no challenge or proof of the absurd narratives. Than they switch to the next narrative all saying the exact same lines. I have never seen anything like it in my life.
          And maybe it was a fluke that Trump got elected , so the 24/7 attack on this Guy that had a counter narrative to take him out by any means .
          And the bizarre 2020 Election, that looked so rigged.
          False Projections of deaths from a virus, using faulty tests and incentives to declare Covid deaths to get a emergency Pandemic declared , when they never ever isolated Covid under a microscope as the proven virus causing the so called Pandemic.

          So, how can you make a vaccine when you don’t have the proven isolated virus. Very good question that a lot of Doctors are asking.
          There isn’t even a independent entity that has analyzed the vaccines, and its all based on what the vaccine makers are saying. And because its a new type of vaccine, the vaccine makers have no liability over the short or long term results because of the declaration of a emergency Pandemic.
          Has Government now become just a pawn to advance agendas from Entities like Big Pharmacy, and other big Monopolies, and Government no longer is protecting the Public from these assaults by powerful Entities?

          Its got to be rejected as not legitimate . whoever or whatever these forces are , they are up to no good just by the methods they use.

  23. Have you recently found yourself searching on Google for information on when the housing market is going to crash?

    Not to worry! Housing experts universally agree that another crash, like the one from 2006 through 2013, is unpossible. Plus the Fed, Treasury, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Uncle Sam himself, collectively have your back. Thus housing is the best and safest investment. It’s crash proof, and only goes up in value.

    Or so I’ve been told.

    1. Real Estate
      ‘When is the housing market going to crash?’ is a red-hot search on Google – here’s why
      Published Tue, Apr 13 2021 10:59 AM EDT
      Updated Tue, Apr 13 2021 1:24 PM EDT
      Diana Olick

      Key Points
      – Google reported last week that the search “When is the housing market going to crash?” had spiked 2,450% in the past month.
      – At the start of this month, 42% of homes were selling for more than their list price, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. This was 16 percentage points higher than the same period a year earlier.
      – “I have to admit I’m worried when I hear that. It does make me concerned,” said Frank Nothaft, CoreLogic’s chief economist.
      …

  24. Man, birds are hittin’ my truck this week like it was a Japanese aircraft carrier at the battle of Midway.

      1. “jeff. Supposed to be good luck.”

        If that’s the case, for the first time in over a decade I’m going to buy some lottery tickets tomorrow.

        I’ll let you know how I do.

          1. Ha! I hadn’t really looked at the other stories on the cover. I think Ghislaine Maxwell stinks, too.

    2. “at the battle of Midway”

      Growing up in Northeast Ohio, one of my friends dads who worked as a union tool and die machinist at GM Lordstown had a bumper sticker on his faux wood panel Chevrolet Caprice station wagon that said “Toyota: the same nice folks who gave you Pearl Harbor.”

      If we drove up in a Toyota or Volkswagen he would tell us not to park that sh*t in his driveway.

    3. Some years ago, as we were leaving the Grand Canyon, a large bird hit the windshield, and stayed there with its wings spread, blocking a lot of my view. I used the wipers to push it out of the way, and it worked, it fell off. But it left a huge grease mark on the windshield. I had some Windex and paper towels in the trunk, so I pulled over and cleaned the windshield, which wasn’t an easy task.

      1. Some years ago

        …a hawk flew into and through the little window under the eaves in the shower. It was tragic.

    1. ‘woke’ private school

      It probably has a huge endowment and wouldn’t care if half the families left.

  26. A few more years and I should be able to slow down, spend some time sitting on the front porch watching the neighborhood kids play while the Moms walk by with their babies in the stroller and their dogs on leash as I fill the air with music from a simpler time.

    https://youtu.be/v2AC41dglnM

    2. I pray your dream comes true. No kids outside in our mabe. Tragic mix of gaming, the internet, and baseless parental fear. Surrounded by b*these. Where have all the real women gone? Moms whod tell you don’t come inside unless you’re bleeding and wrestled their fear down in order to help you become an adult?

      Thanks to all of you for being a bastion of sanity. And sweet 70s rock. “Guitar Man” by Bread is my contribution to the ongoing sharing of great tunes from talented humans.

      https://youtu.be/CpOjQvADLG4

    2. “The Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, said in a headline: “Australia faces serious consequences for unreasonable provocation against China.”

      Trump was right about China being a threat.

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