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It’s Gut Wrenching To Think You Fork Out All This Money

A report from the Wall Street Journal. “More than a year into the pandemic, high-rise office buildings are largely empty. About one of every two hotel rooms is unoccupied. Malls are struggling to attract shoppers. And yet by most measures, the U.S. commercial real-estate market is in remarkably solid shape. The market’s resilience shows how the federal government’s aggressive efforts to support the economy kept landlords from suffering steep losses. Banks have also offered delinquent property owners some slack, rather than foreclosing aggressively.”

“Government and lender support for the market has masked deeper problems. The prices of malls and hotels are down significantly. Loan defaults and foreclosures are expected to increase as forbearance periods end and some lenders finally lose patience. Overall property returns would be worse without booming warehouses, up 25% over the past year. In a March report, Fitch Ratings said that if remote work lowers demand for office space by 10%, building valuations could fall by more than 40%.”

From Bisnow. “Real estate attorneys surveyed by Bloomberg Law are almost all predicting defaults in retail and hospitality properties in 2021, but they also predict that office properties will see a large share of defaults this year. Starwood Property Trust CEO Barry Sternlicht said during the company’s Q1 earnings call that office properties in gateway cities are going to be under enormous pressure going forward. Sternlicht singled out cities controlled by Democratic politicians for his ire, accusing them of putting landlords between a rock and a hard place, or between high taxes and rent controls.”

“‘We’re going to see some compression — significant compression in net rents, as rents fall, concessions go up,’ Sternlicht said, referring to the New York and San Francisco office markets, where Starwood has no loan exposure. ‘There’s such enormous shadow vacancy in both of those markets,’ Sternlicht said. ‘… You need gain, you need rents to go up. It’s not holding your own, and expenses going up is going to mean your net profits are going down. So on the margin, these big cities are in trouble.'”

From WFAE 90.7. “North Carolina has had an eviction moratorium since last fall. Deidre Wilson is board president of the Greater Charlotte Apartment Association and she joins us now as part of our series, Rebuilding Charlotte. Q: How has it affected small landlords? You know, mom-and-pop operations versus some of your larger landlords that are more like companies or corporations? Wilson: I believe the mom-and-pop, it’s been harder on them because they may have, let’s say, 10 rentals and five of them may be delinquent — and that could financially destroy them.”

The Real Deal on California. “Canfield Development has sold a newly built condominium-turned-luxury rental complex in Mid-Wilshire for $55 million. Canfield completed the four-story building last year and converted to rentals during the pandemic. The firm positioned it as a luxury property; units average 1,474 square feet, with rents topping out at around $7,000 a month. The property is so far 30 percent leased, according to the report.”

“Multifamily investment sales cratered in Los Angeles during the pandemic-filled year. The top five apartment sales countywide in 2020 totaled $646 million, less than half the total from 2019.”

The Napa Valley Register in California. “Fourteen months since the issuance of Napa County’s initial stay-at-home order, a number of local employers have no intent to return their employees to in-person work, a dynamic that has disrupted the city’s commercial real estate market. Commercial properties, especially office spaces, are sitting empty longer, said Randy Gularte, owner of Crown Realty Property Management, and many tenants are seeking to either end their leases or downsize.”

“Joe Fischer, senior vice president of real estate at the commercial real estate firm Strong & Hayden, said he’d seen a number of tenants attempt to sublease their commercial leases during the pandemic, but demand has been similarly muted. It will be difficult for some landlords to come to terms with, he said.”

“‘It’s just hard, emotionally, to think something that you bought that was a really great investment for a long period of time is now not going to have the demand it has had for the last 10 years,’ Fischer said. ‘There are a lot of landlords that have not come to grips with the fact that we have this very significant oversupply in the market, and relatively limited demand, which means their properties are going to be vacant longer, or they’re going to have to do deals at rent numbers that are less than they’ve been used to for the past five years.'”

The New York Times. “Adelaida Martinez was attracted by the opportunity to invest in Skyloft Austin, an upscale student housing complex near her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, and collect a monthly dividend check. James Parziale put money into the same deal because he was impressed by the shiny new high-rise with its sun-drenched rooftop pool and door-to-door garbage collection service.”

“Now Martinez and Parziale are among dozens of small investors who are suing, saying they were taken for a ride by a group of professional real estate investors who raised tens of millions of dollars from people like them to finance the purchase of the student dorm. The Skyloft investors say they don’t know where the money went, or who actually owns the building today, according to court filings in California, Texas and Delaware and interviews with a half-dozen investors and lawyers.”

“Some court filings said that they were victims of a ‘Ponzi-like’ scheme, in which the promoter, Patrick Nelson, used proceeds from the Skyloft deal to invest in other student housing projects and enrich himself by ‘transferring funds to offshore bank accounts.'”

“Parziale and his wife invested about $500,000 in the Skyloft deal. He said his brother-in-law invested another $500,000. Parziale said he faulted Nelson for not letting investors know what was going on and leaving them helpless. ‘The sponsors of these deals are like cowboys,’ Parziale said. ‘They can do what they want.'”

From Blog TO in Canada. “Toronto’s rental market took a big hit as a result of the pandemic, which drove rent prices down for 15 straight months in what was the country’s most expensive city pre-COVID. Things like new Airbnb regulations, a lack of international students, people moving out of the city amid work-from-home trends, lower immigration, and other factors led to excess condo supply and extremely high vacancy rates.”

“New data from liv.rent shows that downtown Toronto in particular, where condo prices have taken a bit of a hit so far this year despite the prices of all other housing types going up, saw rents for all units drop an average of around 18 per cent in the first three months of this year compared to the same time in 2020. Three-bedroom unfurnished apartments took the biggest hit in the city, down nearly 30 per cent in March specifically from an average of $3,861 last year to $2,803 this year, and down an average of 21.6 per cent over all three months compared to the same three in 2020.”

“One-bedroom furnished apartments, perhaps most popular with international students, also haven’t fared well lately, down 20.3 per cent year-over-year in March specifically, and 19.2 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter overall. The type that fared the best were two-bedroom unfurnished units, which were still down an average of 14.4 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter, and a staggering 21.7 per cent in March specifically.”

From News.com.au in Australia. “Glass shattering without warning, cracks growing up to the roof and plummeting property values. This is the reality of many homeowners living in a Sydney suburb that has begun sinking into the ground below. Many residents in Spring Farm, in Sydney’s west, have been left hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket as they deal with damaged and potentially worthless properties.”

“Sharon and Peter Luhr bought an investment property in Spring Farm in 2016 to help fund their retirement but instead of boosting their funds, the home has been slowly draining their savings. ‘Every window and every door at the architraves are all cracked straight to the roof,’ Mr Luhr told 10 News.”

“With glass smashing and multiple cracks appearing over the house, the couple have been forced to reduce rent dramatically just to keep tenants. ‘We have had doors in the house, glass doors, just smash with no one around,’ Ms Luhr said. ‘It’s gut wrenching to think you fork out all this money to buy something, whether it is your home that you live in or whether it is an investment home.'”

“It’s believed the issues at Spring Farm were triggered after the land was not filled and compacted properly, before building started. The soft land means brand new homes have begun to crack and fall apart as the earth shifts below. Spring Farm, which is situated between Camden and Campbelltown, was built on a former chicken farm and large swathes of industrial estate.”

“Lead plaintiff Danny Moussa, who paid $560,000 for a house and land package at Spring Farm, told the Daily Telegraph he was losing sleep at night due to lying in bed and hearing the tiles and gyprock cracking. ‘There’s this stress of not knowing if the house is going to come down on you one day,’ he said.”

“NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed sympathy for Spring Farm residents when asked about the situation during a press conference on Tuesday. ‘I think it would be horrific for anyone who’s invested in their family home, in their forever home, to have to find themselves in those circumstances,’ she said. ‘I wish them well.'”

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This Post Has 145 Comments

  1. ‘It’s just hard, emotionally, to think something that you bought that was a really great investment for a long period of time is now not going to have the demand it has had for the last 10 years,’ Fischer said. ‘There are a lot of landlords that have not come to grips with the fact that we have this very significant oversupply in the market, and relatively limited demand, which means their properties are going to be vacant longer, or they’re going to have to do deals at rent numbers that are less than they’ve been used to for the past five years’

    How do those 5% cap rates look now?

  2. ‘I believe the mom-and-pop, it’s been harder on them because they may have, let’s say, 10 rentals and five of them may be delinquent — and that could financially destroy them’

    Now that’s some red hotcakes right there…

  4. ‘I wish them well’

    As do I Gladys. This is guberment speak for yer fooked.

    Oh guberment won’t let shack prices fall!

    ‘Glass shattering without warning, cracks growing up to the roof and plummeting property values’

    Did they mention – worthless? Oh dear…

  5. ‘Government and lender support for the market has masked deeper problems. The prices of malls and hotels are down significantly. Loan defaults and foreclosures are expected to increase as forbearance periods end and some lenders finally lose patience…In a March report, Fitch Ratings said that if remote work lowers demand for office space by 10%, building valuations could fall by more than 40%’

    Good thing everybody put 20% down.

  6. ‘Parziale put money into the same deal because he was impressed by the shiny new high-rise with its sun-drenched rooftop pool and door-to-door garbage collection service’

    Wa, no bocce ball Jim? Long time readers know student housing has been a disaster for many years.

      1. SHUFFLEBOARD!? that’s for the oldsters. this is student housing which mean they want free wifi, starbucks / dutchbros / peets nearby, electric car chargers & video game hookups.

        shuffleboard . . . gadzooks! pshaw!!

        (there is a shuffleboard lane in our HOA pool common area. in the 16 years of living here I’ve never, EVER seen it used. its been there since 1974ish)

        2. “…electric car chargers…”

          There’s also ZipCar near student housing at WWU in Bellingham, WA.

    1. “…Now what….”

      There are fundamentally no technical or [at this time] regulatory barriers to starting your very own crypto currency.

      If not Dogecoin, how about McDuckCoin? (Has a nice ring to it)

      Get some celebrity/quack to endorse, and presto! Enjoy those billions!

      1. I pointed out the “no barriers to entry” drawback of Bitcoin years ago. The shiny onject of the blockchain technology along with
        celebrity endorsements and a massive flood of Powell bux channeled in from Millennials were sufficient to offset this drawback for a while. But eventually, Bitcoin is doomed to drown in an ever growing, unlimited sea of alternative imaginary coinages.

          1. Sure didn’t last long. Way too much “buy the focking dip” going on, still. Until this pig crashes down and stays down, suckers continue to pour in.

        1. ‘Large mines have huge investments, usually concentrated in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, where electricity is cheap and the climate is cold enough.’

          ‘Not only does China dominate digital currency mining globally, but their mining machine manufacturing is also developing rapidly. Two Bitcoin mining giants, Canaan Technology and Yibang International, were listed on the U.S. stock market in 2019 and 2020.’

          ‘In other words, the majority of Bitcoin mining occurs in China. Globally, the most electricity used for Bitcoin is in China, the most machines used for mining are in China, the most advanced mining machines are made in China, and the largest number of bitcoins are controlled in China. Yet, Bitcoin transactions are illegal in China.’

          https://www.theepochtimes.com/ccp-cracks-down-on-virtual-currency-to-prevent-money-fleeing-the-country_3816361.html

        2. The Financial Times
          Cryptocurrencies
          Never miss a story on Cryptocurrencies. Get the latest headlines in a Daily Digest email.
          Bitcoin plunges on fears of regulatory crackdown
          Digital asset market under intense pressure after China warns on use of cryptocurrencies
          A depiction of bitcoin against a Chinese flag
          The Chinese government, including its central bank, has sought to limit the use of cryptocurrencies in recent years
          Thomas Hale and Tabby Kinder in Hong Kong and Philip Stafford in London
          5 minutes ago

          Cryptocurrency markets tumbled in chaotic trading, and related stocks were hit, after Chinese regulators signalled a crackdown on the use of digital currencies that have soared in price this year.

          Bitcoin tumbled as much as 30 per cent, with frequent rapid lurches lower, before recovering half its losses to trade at $37,000.

          Other digital coins were also hit by heavy selling, with ethereum, one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in the past month, losing a quarter of its value. More than $8.6bn of positions have been liquidated over the past 24 hours, according to data from bybt.com, a cryptocurrency data provider.
          …

      4. how about McDuckCoin? (Has a nice ring to it)

        Scrooge McDuckcoin, now that’s a crypto you can believe in!

  9. “If California education officials have their way…”

    5 Strides on the Path to Math Equity
    https://equitablemath.org/

    ***

    What about family topics like “mortgage compound interest” rather than “How much a month?”

      1. If California education officials have their way…”
        Found a 2015 OECD high school math ranking. US #35 out of #72.
        US math ranking dropped from #28 in 2012 so currently ranking maybe (probably is) worse. US education should be doubling the amount of time and effort spend on Math not reducing it!

      2. Enjoy your Haiti tier civilization after you cancel math and whitey takes all the math away when he leaves.

      3. ‘The framework recommends eight times that teachers use a troubling document, “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction.” This manual claims that teachers addressing students’ mistakes forthrightly is a form of white supremacy. It sets forth indicators of “white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom,” including a focus on “getting the right answer,” teaching math in a “linear fashion,” requiring students to “show their work” and grading them on demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter. “The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false,” the manual explains. “Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuates ‘objectivity.’ ” Apparently, that’s also racist.’

        Sounds like a great recipe for systemic failure in mathematics education.

        1. Sounds like a great recipe for systemic failure in mathematics education.

          I suppose the plan is for them to all have six figure make work guberment jobs while the Asians keep the infrastructure working, unless they too bail out and leave.

          2. why did so many of them buy Bitcoin?

            Greed can easily a lot of human failings.

            Do you really expect the “maff be raycis” vibrants to keep the lights on?

          3. The Chinese I knew that were interested in Bitcoin were also interested in anyway to get RMB out of Mainland China.

    2. “mortgage compound interest”

      The hike will proceed no faster than the fat kid at the back.

    3. My suggested pathway to math equity:

      1) Eliminate mathematics textbooks from our schools
      2) Eliminate math education requirements for elementary and secondary schools
      3) Everyone gets a math equity sticker
      4) Eliminate standardized math testing qualification for college admissions
      5) Ensure cheating is a readily available option when taking college mathematics exams

      Everyone is certain to come out a winner in my program, regardless of race, creed, gender, or national origin!

    4. I’ve been tutoring a kid throughout his high school years. He’s a senior in a local public school, of Asian descent, and lives with his divorced mom in modest circumstances. We’ve covered college level mathematics in one-hour weekly chunks, all online since the onset of pandemic restrictions. Besides his getting 5s on both AP calculus tests and completing AP statistics this year as a senior, he’s learned the equivalent of a college level course in linear algebra out of an MIT professor’s textbook as an extra curricular activity. He’s hands down the most gifted math student I have ever taught in four decades of tutoring, which includes some fellow graduate students I tutored along the way.

      Yet all of his UC applications have fallen flat. Another rather mediocre student I tutor got admitted to Cal. She happens to be a white female. The situation makes me wonder what’s going on with UC admissions in this age of “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

      1. Discrimination against ethnically-Asian people is alive and well, especially in California. You can’t have equity when one group continually knocks it out the park. They make everyone else look bad!

      2. Discrimination against Asians in college admissions is a very real problem. Students for Fair Admissions filed a petition for writ of certiorari on Feb. 25, asking the Supreme Court to determine the future of race-conscious admissions, not only for Harvard but for all institutions of higher education.

        I graduated from UCLA in 1996. Back then it was called the University of Caucasians Lost among Asians.

        1. the rivalry between UCLA & USC was pretty intense in the 80’s. at the risk of landing on a no-fly list, I’ll say the Tusk video was cool.

          1. My parents graduated from UCLA in the early seventies. The rivalry has been intense as long as I can remember.

            IIRC, my sister-in-law was in USC’s band when that song was recorded. Her daughter and one of our nephews are also USC grads.

          2. USC grads

            Neither has a real job, surprisingly. I thought the alumni connections justified the tuition. Guess not.

          4. I thought the alumni connections justified the tuition. Guess not.

            That only works if you have the right lineage.

        3. Seems like tossing out standardized tests from admissions decisions while prioritizing “diversity and inclusion” are great steps towards instituting systematic racial and gender discrimination in college admissions. Once standardized, objective criteria are dumped, admissions become discretionary and subjective.

      3. Eventually companies will figure out a degree from a UC is not all that great anymore if they keep this up. Engineering companies who knows about government hires ?

        1. a degree from a UC is not all that great anymore if they keep this up

          My first thought too.

        2. It will take a while, but yeah, at some point all their goodwill and reputation will be expended.

      4. Yet all of his UC applications have fallen flat.

        I guess he’ll have to be content with attending SDSU. It’s only fair, right?

        1. It’s not a terrible outcome for him to go there. The campus is beautiful, and he can live at home in Poway and commute. But he will miss out on the opportunity to join a competitive cohort of similarly gifted students early on. It’s fun to be the smartest kid in the room, but he likely won’t learn as much as if he studied math at CalTech or Berkeley.

          1. In that case San Marcos State U should be closer to Poway. No idea of how good SMSU is.

  10. How soon until the U.S. launches a ground war in Iran?

    The Deep State Uniparty wants war. U.S. taxpayers need to borrow another few trillion dollars to pay for it.

    1. “The Deep State Uniparty wants war.”

      It’s well past wanting war, it’s now deeply into needing war.

    2. Correction: Israel wants a U.S. war with Iran. The Uniparty is controlled by Israel, and has been since at least the Baby Bush administration. This is where things get interesting: a U.S. ground war with Iran will not happen unless conscription is reinstated. It is simply too formidable an enemy.

      1. If you consider Israel a US colony, and Gaza an Iran colony, they already have the war.

        1. If you consider Israel a US colony, and Gaza an Iran colony, they already have the war.

          You’ve got it backward. The Israeli tail wags the American dog. The neocons are unregistered foreign agents for the state of Israel.

      2. will not happen unless conscription is reinstated

        Unless there are some ways for the elite’s kids to legally dodge the draft, I don’t see how it could work.

        Note to self: remind son to get off his butt and apply for an EU passport (via his mother).

  11. The whole “but lumber!” thing was truly a financial media driven creation. In heavy and highway construction biz, my biz, we throw away more dim lumber and ply than the entire resi construction biz uses to assemble their shacks. Right now(or as this place gets built) I could salvage enough 2x out of rolloffs to frame 2 maybe 3 houses or large garages.

    The amount of BS shoveled in the media is incredulous…. and it gets lapped up with zero examination.

    1. “The amount of BS shoveled in the media is incredulous…. and it gets lapped up with zero examination.”

      Ah, yes! The smell of victory.

      Dumb ’em down, and profit.

      😁

      1. Mark Twain had it right:

        “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”

        1. Mark Twain again:

          “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know.
          It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

          (Note: We don’t even know for sure that Mark Twain actually said this.)

  12. “…small investors who are suing, saying they were taken for a ride by a group of professional real estate investors who raised tens of millions of dollars from people like them to finance the purchase of the student dorm..”

    Had these ‘small investors’ been readers of the HBB, they would have discovered years ago that ‘luxury student housing’ is the biggest scam short of WeWork.

    We constantly read of stories like this one. Doesn’t *anybody* do basic research and due diligence before handing over the big bucks?

    Apparently not.

    2. Doesn’t *anybody* do basic research and due diligence before handing over the big bucks?

      Of course not, they follow the herd.

  13. What’s are ya’ll expecting to happen when mortgage forebearance/Eviction moratorium ends?
    1) it doesn’t end and Biden extends it again?
    2) not much happens in the short term?
    3) sudden flood of new inventory hits the market across the country- both rentals and home sales?
    4) markets crash (starting to happen now in anticipation?)?
    5) does mass-migration continue out of the cities or do people move back into CA and New York to get the real-estate deals and great jobs? (Seems like LA and San Bernadino Counties could be ground zero for foreclosures, NY too)
    6) what else could happen?

    I was looking at a rental and was talking to the landlord about how I was torn between renting and buying. The landlord shoved his finger right up to my face and snapped, “do not buy now! Prices are too high! When the market turns, it will be sudden and prices will drop hard and fast! Just wait.” The landlord is a patent lawyer – 77 years old. He owns 1 home in Utah (he stays there to come visit his kids). He lives full-timr in his home in Boston. Then he owns another rental in New Hampshire in a small town where he raised his family before moving to Boston.

    My friend that lives in Bluffdale, Utah hasn’t paid his mortgage since Spring 2020. Wells Fargo told him he has until September to catch up. Seems like the 90 day clock starts July 1st for those in default to actually be foreclosed on… could it be just a Wells Fargo policy? Will we see the foreclosures rise later into the fall?? My friend was in foreclosure 3 years ago and went through a modification then – he learned how to work the system…

    1. You are asking in May 2021. It is a terrible time to buy. Not even close. It isn’t a guess. That doesn’t tell you how fast resolve.

    2. There is no way they can prop up the economy indefinitely. This is much bigger than the housing market, but the housing market will be impacted earlier than usual because of this artificial run-up due to the covid.

      I am very eager to buy when prices hit fair value, which I think will be around the range of 2013-2015. That is, assuming I can keep my job as this flushes out.

      1. assuming I can keep my job

        If you don’t you’ll be glad you’re not underwater on a house.

    3. 6) what else could happen?

      A gooberment sponsored refi, where all the overdue payments and penalties are rolled back into the loan?

      1. A gooberment sponsored refi, where all the overdue payments and penalties are rolled back into the loan forgiven?

        FIFY

  14. “… he learned how to work the system…”

    Much more profitable than working a job.

  15. interesting – i did not think the China news was major – but who the heck knows.


    Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, had already been under pressure from a series of tweets from Tesla boss Elon Musk, but the news from China sent it as low as $36,250, a 15% drop in the trading session.

    The cryptocurrency has tumbled 40% from a record high of $64,895 hit on April 14. It is also heading for its first monthly decline since November 2018.
    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/bitcoin-slides-below-40-000-ether-tumbles/ar-BB1gTgsX

  16. SPACs raised $100B so far in 2021 – what could go wrong taking money and then deciding on the companies to acquire later.

    “It’s nothing short of a slaughter,” said Garrick Tong, a 42-year-old physician in Southern California who has more than half of his six-figure portfolio tied to SPACs. Its value has fallen about 30% from a February peak. Some of his biggest holdings include blank-check companies that are taking Lucid, SoFi and Rocket Lab USA public.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/spac-selloff-bruises-individual-investors-11621396808?mod=hp_lead_pos5

    1. All that money sloshing around, looking for returns. When you are exhausted searching because you can’t find any ‘good values’ you might just stick it anywhere.

  17. Oh dear….

    People flee in panic as skyscraper wobbles in China, despite no earthquake and fine weather

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/china/china-shenzhen-skyscraper-intl-hnk/index.html

    Hong Kong (CNN)Thousands of shoppers in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen fled the vicinity of a 957-foot (291-meter) skyscraper Tuesday, after it inexplicably began swaying.

    Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed crowds running from the wobbling building, with some screaming and looking back over their shoulders.

    1. Anywhere else and you’d see videos of coffee cups sloshing, things falling off shelves, etc., but the Chinese have dropped a bag over this story.

    2. Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed crowds running from the wobbling building, with some screaming and looking back over their shoulders.

      Godzilla!

    1. For those interested, Youtube channel ‘Uneducated Economist’ is a guy who sells lumber in the PNW – he’s been making regular reports on prices, supply, futures, etc.

  20. Standards are rayciss, yo. With the Democrat-Bolsheviks escalating their War on Merit, it should surprise no one that inspectors for critical infrastructure or housing for that matter are doing a half-assed job.

    Inspector who failed to catch Mississippi River bridge crack is fired

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/inspector-who-failed-catch-mississippi-river-bridge-crack-fired-n1267723

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An inspector who failed to discover a crack in the Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee that prompted the span’s closure has been fired, Arkansas transportation officials said Monday.

    Arkansas Department of Transportation Director Lorie Tudor said the inspector was fired after drone video showed the crackon the bridge spanning the Mississippi River in May 2019. Tudor said the crack was not noted by the inspector in his reports that fall or the following year.

  22. “Progressive” cities that install and re-elect Soros-plant DAs are going to reap exactly what they voted. Anyone who would buy an overpriced shack in one of these corrupt Democrat-malgoverned cesspools is clinically insane.

    Philly Cops Just Got Crushed at the Ballot Box

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kvbg9/larry-krasner-philadelphia-da-primary-victory

    Philadelphia arguably set off a wave of electing progressive prosecutors when the city chose defense attorney Larry Krasner as its district attorney four years ago.

    On Tuesday, voters overwhelmingly agreed to send him back for another term, handing a humiliating defeat to Philly’s cop union, disgruntled prosecutors, and conservatives who wanted to bring a “tough on crime” approach back to the DA’s office.

  23. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed sympathy for Spring Farm residents when asked about the situation during a press conference on Tuesday. ‘I think it would be horrific for anyone who’s invested in their family home, in their forever home, to have to find themselves in those circumstances,’ she said. ‘I wish them well.’”

    all that’s missing from that statement is: “let them eat cake”

  24. “Glass shattering without warning, cracks growing up to the roof and plummeting property values.”

    Bet it didn’t say that in the brochure they handed Sharon and Peter Luhr when they were shopping for an investment property to fund their retirement.

    “With glass smashing and multiple cracks appearing over the house, the couple have been forced to reduce rent dramatically just to keep tenants.”

  25. Orange County Register
    Opinion
    There’s no denying the reality of the California exodus
    By Steven Greenhut | Orange County Register
    PUBLISHED: May 14, 2021 at 9:56 a.m. | UPDATED: May 14, 2021 at 9:56 a.m.

    SACRAMENTO – From a real-world perspective, last week’s news from the California Department of Finance isn’t really a big deal. The state’s population, which has for years been inching ever so slowly toward the 40-million mark, actually dipped by 182,083 people last year. It won’t mean anything for the budget, public policy or our individual lives.

    Yet, as CalMatters columnist Dan Walters wrote, “national news organizations went a little berserk” after seeing that statistic. “For the first time in more than a century, California recorded a net loss in population last year, a demographic reversal caused by the deadly toll of the coronavirus and declining immigration and birthrates,” the New York Times reported.

    Of course, these trends have long been obvious, as Walters and others have noted. But the news was a gut check for state officials – and for Californians’ self-esteem. The Golden State has long beckoned people from across America and the globe. That concept is in our DNA – the idea of leaving behind encrusted communities and coming here to start anew. No wonder so many people were shocked by this reversal of fortunes.
    …

    1. With median home sale prices now exceeding $800K, I will be pretty surprised if the CalExodus doesn’t gain force this year.

      1. I’ll be joining the list of those decent income earners leaving. The replacements are a drain on the states finances.

        1. It serves them right for taxing the crap out of every form of productive activity in order to pour the funds down a rat hole.

      2. “I will be pretty surprised if the CalExodus doesn’t gain force this year.”

        With mortgage forbearance ending CalExodus will increase.

        1. What makes you think they will ever end forbearance? For instance, wouldn’t that potentially hurt the special people the government especially wants to help?

  26. Ah, the blessings of open borders and multiculturalism!

    Violent clashes break out between pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Jewish supporters outside the Israeli consulate in NYC

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9594101/Violence-breaks-pro-Palestine-protesters-NYPD-outside-Israeli-consulate-NYC.html

    Violence erupted at pro-Palestinian protest outside the Israeli consulate in New York City amid Israel’s latest offensive in the Gaza Strip.

    Multiple arrests were made on Tuesday as protesters clashed with police and pro-Israel demonstrators as clashes continue between Israel and the Palestinian people.

  27. Cal Exodus doesn’t gain force this year.
    I was amazed that CA reported a budget SURPLUS in 2020. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2021 if the market continues to crater especially after CA increased free bees.

    2. I was amazed that CA reported a budget SURPLUS in 2020.

      I’m gonna guess it was driven by stock market capital gains. It’s happened before. Then, when the easy money is gone, it’s back to deficits.

      2. Don’t forget the $740 billion ish in COVID shimmy money. This state is forked. Looking to leave my cush teaching job and nobody cares if I go bc all teachers are equally good. The teachers are the reason for math equity, btw. Most of the ones i know don’t know wtf they’re doing. But this equity crap is about to make the job for the ethical ones 1000 times harder. So, as usual, it will make more sense to drop your ethics if you use the law of diminishing marginal returns in your thinking, which all humans do. California schools are already ranked 35th. They’re gonna take a nosedive if testing still counts in ranking. If its only grad rates? We’ll be #1

        1. I was wondering if this will be a further incentive to Silly Valley firms to leave. Of course, they have been importing their skilled workforce from Asia, and their unskilled workforce from Central America for decades, so maybe they don’t care.

    1. The crypto meltdown is happening too fast for sleepy MSM journalists to report it in real time.

      Come on boyz, wake up!

      2. Do you find the CryptoCrater is forcing you to liquidate the margin loans you used to fund your Bitcoin purchases?

        2. The Financial Times
          The Big Read Bitcoin
          Bitcoin’s growing energy problem: ‘It’s a dirty currency’
          Elon Musk has highlighted the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact and governments are starting to take notice
          Katie Martin in London and Billy Nauman in New York
          3 hours ago

          On the shores of Seneca Lake in upstate New York, a private equity company has bought a decommissioned coal power plant and converted it to burn natural gas. It then switched it back on to become what it describes as a “power plant-cryptocurrency mining hybrid”.

          Greenidge Generation Holdings, the company behind the plant, plans to go public later this year, saying it expects to become “the only US publicly listed bitcoin mining operation with its own power source”.

          In a presentation to investors, it says its direct line in to the Empire Pipeline system for gas allows it to produce coins for just $3,000 a pop — a hefty margin considering that even after a heavy recent drop on a possible crackdown from Chinese regulators, they sell for about $40,000.
          …

    2. I f Ouchie says he’s not sure, probably a little more than half or about 60% my guess would be less than half or using a Faucci WAG (wild @ss guess) about 40%.

    1. My ex-BIL and SIL’s marriage went up in smoke during the 2007-2009 financial collapse. They had traded up maybe three times in ten years — no home they occupied was ever quite large or fancy enough to suit them — and were settled into a lovely new McMansion in the American Fork community when subprime imploded. He lost his highly paid professional position during the Great Recession and his ability to pay the monthly along with it. Things got progressively uglier for their family from there. They eventually defaulted on their mortgage and lost the home in foreclosure proceedings, and ended their marriage in a bitter divorce that screwed up their kids’ childhoods.

      I always used to politely smile at my SIL back in the day when she would try to convince us to invest in California real estate.

    1. I would let Joe Biden drive the Silverado I bought last year but it only has one steering wheel, one accelerator and one brake pedal.

    2. These people – all of them – are anti-American traitor filth. This reeks of the Pete Buttigieg phony bicycle stunt where they delivered him by vehicle a hundred yards away where he pulled out the bike and rode the rest of the way in, to support a fake narrative. There is nothing ok about any of this propaganda.

  34. “JUST SOLD! 123456 Avenida De La Luna , Unit X. Are you ready to take advantage of today’s HOT real estate market? Call me today to get started: Mr Realtor, XXX.XXX.XXXX”

    Just received the above text out of the blue, which I edited slightly to remove Mr Realtor’s PII.

    Where did Mr Realtor get my cell phone number?

    1. Where did Mr Realtor get my cell phone number?

      Possibly just a blastogram to everyone with the same 3 digit prefix you have

  35. Another ass pounding coming up?

    https://www.9news.com/article/money/markets/real-estate/nathan-mackinnon-denver-penthouse-3-million/73-68213cc1-ffbb-4c41-ba79-e820673b72de

    DENVER — Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon may be busy with the playoffs, but he’s also trying to score another goal: selling his Denver penthouse.

    The two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom condo at the top of The Coloradan overlooks Union Station and also offers panoramic views featuring Pikes Peak and Longs Peak, listing agent Tamara Cooper told Denver Business Journal. Its asking price is $3.5 million.

  36. Listening to C-SPAN Radio now, Congress is sh*tting their pants about the January 6th “insurrection” and comparing it to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Deep state globalists, please understand that this isn’t over.

    The 2020 election was stolen, and your heads belong in a noose or on a guillotine. There are 80 million of us, and we are not going away…

    1. Joe Biden is not and will never be the legitimately elected president of the United States.

      Globalists are not Americans. They are shape shifting parasites who only exist to loot the treasury and destroy this country. In the Old Testament of the Bible, usury is a sin. And in the New Testament, Jesus kicked the moneychangers out of the temple for a reason.

      Bloodsucking leeches have no business in the governing of this country, and your days are numbered…

  37. Hopefully the gentleman in his cell block will know what he’s in for.

    Shock Video: Scumbag School Bus Driver Slaps 10-Year-Old Girl In Face Over Mask Dispute

    by Kelen McBreen
    May 19th 2021, 5:29 pm

    https://cbsloc.al/3ymhdsH

  38. This article contains two videos, one from Joe Biden speaking to Coast Guard Academy graduates today and the other of Ronald Reagan speaking to Coast Guard Academy graduates I believe in 1988.

    They both deliver the same line but the reaction to the line is quite telling about the man who currently holds the office and supposedly received more votes than any other presidential candidate, ever.

    Biden Calls Coast Guard Grads “A Really Dull Class” After No One Claps for Him

    Infowars.com
    May 19th 2021, 3:23 pm

    Biden suffers humiliating ‘please clap’ debacle.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/biden-calls-coast-guard-grads-a-really-dull-class-after-no-one-claps-for-him/

    2. Ann-Margret performed at a USO show in Da Nang wearing a skin tight leotard and hosiery. Asked about the feeble applause a smirking Marine said, “It’s tough to clap with one hand!”

  40. What was that buffoons name that used to post here that went on about downhill skiing in Atlanta GA?

  41. Losing control of the value of the Dollar:

    https://www.revolver.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021.05.13-10.45-revolvernews-609dac1656ad9-1536×928.png

    It’s a Globalist thing. They want you to suffer. They know no nation, know no borders, they only know the looting and destruction of your assets and your country.

    Globalists can’t stop globing. They are blood engorged ticks, always hungry for more. The United States is just a used up, bones gnawed on, decrepit carcass they are trying to scrape a few last scraps from.

    We can stop giving money to Globalists. We can just STOP.

    1. I share your dislike for the Globalist , and your description of them is spot on.

      They aren’t loyal to anything but their own power, as you say, and they have been messing up the USA for a while now and corrupted Government to be a enemy of the people at this point. Its not enough that they loot and rig economies, they also loot the tax coffers by any means .

      These kind of forces have been messing with humanity for centuries, and they will to anything to subjugate mankind to their psychopathic will.

      They are really out in the open now , and their spokespersons like Gates, Soros and Klaus Schwab are not likable, but obvious psychopaths.

      Think of how sadistic it was to make adults and children wear useless masks, sometimes for 8 to twelve hours at a time. Trying to take humans breath away is the symbolic act of this outrage. Lock downs to destroy small business and any alternative to their Monopolies. They donated to terrorist goons to attack , pillage and burn and create lawlessness against civil society.

      Their methods are so Hitler or Stalin like and fraudulent to take over using fear and fraud as the weapon to subjugate the sheep. They criminally rigged the election and put in their treasonous Puppets to assert their will against humanity. They want to alter humans with experimental vaccines, regardless of long or short term conquences.

      They are deranged and anti human and are the biggest threat facing humans, not a virus, not racism , not Co2. They in fact project their traits onto the humans they want to defeat.

      I don’t have enough bad things to say about them .

  42. The Marmalade – Reflections Of My Life (
    https://youtu.be/jUcSBoSE6JU

    US Top 40 Singles Week Ending 23rd May, 1970
    the-guess-who-american-woman-rca-victor

    TW LW TITLE –•– Artist (Label)-Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date)

    1 1 AMERICAN WOMAN / NO SUGAR TONIGHT –•– The Guess Who (RCA)-10 (3 weeks at #1) (1)
    2 3 VEHICLE –•– The Ides Of March (Warner Brothers)-9 (2)
    3 8 TURN BACK THE HANDS OF TIME –•– Tyrone Davis (Dakar)-10 (3)
    4 7 EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL –•– Ray Stevens (Barnaby)-8 (4)
    5 5 CECILIA –•– Simon and Garfunkel (Columbia)-7 (5)
    6 4 LET IT BE –•– The Beatles (Apple)-10 (1)
    7 12 LOVE ON A TWO-WAY STREET –•– The Moments (Stang)-7 (7)
    8 9 UP AROUND THE BEND / RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE –•– Creedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy)-5 (8)
    9 2 ABC –•– Jackson 5 (Motown)-11 (1)
    10 10 REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE –•– Marmalade (London)-11 (10)

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