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A Lot Of Buyers Are Becoming Disillusioned With The Market And Are Waiting For Prices To Fall

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The epic housing shortage that began before the pandemic and then was exacerbated by it may finally be starting to ease up. More supply is suddenly coming on the market. In June, new listings increased 5.5% year over year and 10.9% compared with May, according to Realtor.com. Among the nation’s larger cities, the 10 markets with the highest new listings increases posted gains of 20% or more from a year ago. The jump in inventory is surprising, because new listings historically fall between May and June.”

“The red-hot housing market in California is finally starting to cool. The cooling was more apparent in the Los Angeles Metro area, where the median home price — $725,000 — remained unchanged from last month; along the Central Coast, where the median sales price dipped 2.8% in May, and in California’s far north, where the median sales price slipped from $367,250 to $365,000. ‘Buyers are getting fed up at this point with submitting as many as eight to 12 offers and getting rejected,’ said John Graff, a Los Angeles-based broker. ‘They’re throwing up their hands at this point.'”

“Zillow economist Nancy Wu says that inventory in the Bay Area is up 6% and up 25.6% from last year. Wu says the fact that more properties are hitting the market now could be a good thing for buyers who have been frustrated by constantly being outbid by other people who are willing to go far above the asking price and pay with cash.”

“Singer Aaron Tveit is in contract to sell his Astoria penthouse — at a loss. Tveit bought the unit for $900,000 in 2016. Its last asking price was $875,000.”

“Exhausted from dealing with a homeless camp next to his Capitol Hill home last summer, Brendan McCormick says he and his wife brought their townhouse to market last August. They found potential buyers frightened by homeless camps in his neighborhood. McCormick said after half a dozen screenings that buyers generally liked his house but were ‘concerned about the homelessness in the city,’ he said. ‘We were told right away that you had a lovely home, but we’re worried about what’s going on in the city of Denver right now.'”

“McCormick said he took his house off the market and decided to stay. Like many other homeowners in central Denver, he is tired of navigating his neighborhood homeless camps and has lost patience and compassion. Although he says some politicians have listened to his complaints, not much has changed. ‘I’m afraid we’re at the point where we may see vigilante justice and that’s not where anyone wants to see this city.'”

“Last spring, in the midst of a construction boom, the cost of lumber skyrocketed to a 13-year high. North Carolina State University supply chain management expert Robert Handfield said what goes up, must come down. ‘I figured it would come down at some point,’ he said. ‘But, no one saw it coming this fast, I think.’ Handfield added that people in the middle of buying a home should not expect to see a discount due to current lower lumber prices. ‘A lot of that lumber was already purchased or was already paid for,’ he explained.”

“Contrary to many reports, rent of a one-bedroom apartment comes as cheap as Dh20,000 in certain neighbourhoods in Sharjah and Dh35,000 in Dubai. It might go down further – due to the abundance in supply. While landlords are used to increasing rents when the demand was high, they need to adjust their mindset to the low-demand scenario and the new norm. We are a lower part of the real estate market cycle. Until demand picks up, we need to accept the current market reality. From a landlords’ it has become a tenants’ market. This is the reality. Let’s face it.”

“Real estate statistics show more than 105,000 apartments lie vacant in various regions of the country, most of which are in the Hawalli Governorate, which means that about a third of the country’s apartments are uninhabited. The increase in the number of vacant apartments in Kuwait coincides with the actual application of the policy of adjusting the demographics, which began a few years ago and the situation worsened with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the departure of hundreds of families from Kuwait, which hit badly the real estate owners. At least one third of the apartments in the various governorates are empty, which has forced many residential property owners to reduce rents by 15 and 25 percent in some areas, especially since most of the owners have to commit to their obligations to the banks.”

“In the first six months, 7,040 new high-end housing units were launched in HCMC, up 123 percent year-on-year, accounting for 59 percent of new supply. Mid-range supply rose 295 percent to 4,908 units, accounting for 49 percent of new supply, while no new affordable unit was launched, according to a report by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction.”

“This shows an imbalance in the HCMC real estate market where developers focus on the high-profit, high-end and luxury market while ignoring the affordable segment, boasting strong demand. The HCMC Real Estate Association predicts the imbalance would cause negative consequences in housing security.”

“Despite the uptick in the property market, not all condos are doing well. Sometimes it’s due to oversaturation, like in Holland V, while other times it may be issues like unpopular unit layouts. It’s clear as day to see that price points are a massive, massive factor in how well a new launch performs. As in the case of new launches like Hyll on Holland or RV Altitude, a price reduction definitely was able to significantly move units. Depending on how the market moves, and whether the Covid-19 situation seriously improves, some of these may look to relaunch at more competitive prices in order to get sales going.”

“A slight drop in property values in New Plymouth could be the first sign that months of accelerating prices may be starting to ease, Taranaki realtors say. Nick Goodall, CoreLogic’s head of research, said the rate of growth in June slowed in 12 of New Zealand’s 18 largest markets. ‘The figures don’t lie, and I think we will see a levelling out,’ said Real Estate Institute of New Zealand New Plymouth ambassador Garry Malcolm. ‘I think a lot of buyers, particularly first-home buyers, are becoming disillusioned with the market. They have missed out a lot of times. We are finding that first-home buyers have taken a step back and are waiting for prices to fall following the new regulations for property investors introduced by the Government in March.'”

“Did you hear that household wealth has hit another record high? Australia’s households just keep getting wealthier, apparently. In December, wealth per person hit a new record, and in the March quarter it hit another record of $492,055 — up $19,494 in three months. Does that feel reasonable to you? Remember ‘wealth’ and ‘income’ are different things. ‘Wealth’ refers to the economic resources held by members of a household after all of their debts are theoretically paid off.”

“Surging property prices have been responsible for the bulk of the sharp increase in household wealth in the last year. However, economist and report author Anthony Shorrocks also made the point that global wealth creation in 2020 appeared to be ‘completely detached’ from the economic woes resulting from COVID-19. ‘If asset price increases are set aside, then global household wealth may well have fallen,’ he noted.”

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This Post Has 121 Comments

  1. Where did all these shacks come from? Harry Pottery is that you again! Look at em, thousands, all over the place:

    Markets seeing the biggest gains in inventory included:

    Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin (+44.7%)
    San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (+40.7%)
    Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio (+37.9%)
    Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia (+36.3%)
    Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona (+27.8%)
    Columbus, Ohio (+26.2%)
    Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Maryland (+26.1%)
    Richmond, Virginia (+25.6%)
    Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware-Maryland (+24.5%)
    Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington (+22.7%)

    https://dsnews.com/daily-dose/07-01-2021/housing-inventory-stages-a-comeback-in-june

    dis·il·lu·sioned
    /ˌdisəˈlo͞oZHənd/

    adjective

    -disappointed in someone or something that one discovers to be less good than one had believed.

    1. Is it a bad thing that buyers are disəˈlo͞oZHənd just as so many sellers have decided to rake in that sweet equity?

      Sacré bleu!

  2. Phoenix, AZ Housing Prices Crater 12% As US Housing Demand Plummets Like Hotcakes

    https://www.movoto.com/az/85016/market-trends/

    As a national land broker explained, “There is a globe full of land were fully 95% of it goes undeveloped. Land is essentially worthless dirt. If you paid more than $500 an acre, you got ripped off.”

  3. “Did you hear that household wealth has hit another record high?”

    Do tell.

    “Australia’s households just keep getting wealthier, apparently. In December, wealth per person hit a new record, and in the March quarter it hit another record of $492,055 — up $19,494 in three months.”

    It’s a freaking miracle!

    “Does that feel reasonable to you?”

    No, but nevertheless there it is.

    “Remember ‘wealth’ and ‘income’ are different things. ‘Wealth’ refers to the economic resources held by members of a household after all of their debts are theoretically paid off.”

    Hmmmmm … perhaps I should write this down,

    “Surging property prices have been responsible for the bulk of the sharp increase in household wealth in the last year.”

    Surging property prices driven by scads of dumb-asses who have somehow gotten access to huge gobs of money.

    “However, economist and report author Anthony Shorrocks also made the point that global wealth creation in 2020 appeared to be ‘completely detached’ from the economic woes resulting from COVID-19.”

    Wait for it …

    “‘If asset price increases are set aside, then global household wealth may well have fallen,’ he noted.”

    What a surprise!

    1. It seems completely unfair, but lots of the biggest winners in the Fed’s QE-fueled housing price reflation efforts are upper-middle class Californians who bought a place in the early 2000s and are now cashing out $1 million +/- in home equity gains as they leave the state. I don’t begrudge them; these people are doing what I would probably be doing if I had had the foresight to predict how far the Fed would go to support real estate. The lucky winners are the true believers in the California real estate investor tenet of faith: “Real estate always goes up.” The irony is how unaware they are of where their new-found money came from. It’s not worth trying to explain it to them that they are the beneficiaries of a poorly targeted government welfare program.

      1. The Economist
        On the simmer
        Does America’s hot housing market still need propping up?
        Fed officials debate whether and when to taper support
        Jul 1st 2021
        New York

        “TRULY EXTRAORDINARY.” That was how Craig Lazzara of S&P Global, the firm that compiles a widely watched measure of house prices in America, described its reading for the month of April, released on June 29th. House prices rose by 14.6% year over year, the fastest rate in the 34-year history of the index (see chart, top panel). Houses listed for sale are on average snapped up in just 17 days, a record low. On Reddit, a social-media site, would-be buyers bemoan missing out on house after house because they are unwilling to forgo inspecting the property on which they plan to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, something that most successful buyers are apparently doing.

        The Federal Reserve still has monetary policy on ultra-loose mode. Interest rates are anchored at zero and the central bank is buying $120bn-worth of assets each month—$80bn of Treasuries and $40bn of mortgage-backed securities—in order to depress long-term interest rates. This stance is in many ways still justified. There are 7.6m fewer jobs in America than there were before the pandemic. A large minority of adults remains unvaccinated. And yet consumer-price inflation has climbed to an annual rate of 4.9%, and commodities and labour are in short supply. A real-time estimate of economic output compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta puts annualised GDP growth in the second quarter at a heady 8.3%. If true, America has recovered all the output lost during the pandemic and even added more.
        …

      2. I know many upper-middle class California like the ones you referred to. None of them are cashing out their equity gains and leaving the state. Where exactly are they supposed to go? All of the people I know (friends and relatives) were born, raised and educated in California back in the “good ole days”. If they sold their homes now, where are they supposed to move, Bakersfield? Fresno? Doing that would accomplished nothing except for making their property tax bill go up enormously for a crappy house or condo in a worse neighborhood.

        Lots of middle and upper-middle class Californians are conservatives and hate the way this state is run. But moving to Idaho? Great, they’re 65 years old and never had to scrape ice off their windshields. Or Texas? Are you kidding me? Lots of people on this board are obviously nowhere near California much less are native Californians who have lived their entire lives here. I see so much B.S. about Californians–it’s not like being a native Ohioan. Or born and bred in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

        My brother’s house overlooks the entire L.A. Basin with a view that includes the Pacific. He lives in Palos Verdes. He’s also retired and the mortgage paid off ages ago. Do you think he’s going to move to Houston or Dallas? He spent a huge amount of time in Dallas on business. He said the weather was atrocious.

        Besides, he doesn’t need any money from his house–his retirement account is worth a whole lot more than his house. Same goes with all of the upper-middle class Californians that I know. Their fat 401ks came from 30 years of SAVING money–never going on fancy vacations or buying $70,000 trucks or BMWs.

        Jealous rage never gets you anywhere.

        1. But moving to Idaho? Great, they’re 65 years old and never had to scrape ice off their windshields.

          Not to mention shoveling snow, or learning to drive in it.

          1. My husband mentioned that he was just talking to a lifelong San Diegan who was thinking about moving to Montana. My husband suggested she visit in January before doing so.

        2. Here in Utah the constant refrain is everyone in California has a multi-million dollar house and they are itching to move to Utah. I grew up in CA, have family and friends there, and they are seldom interested in Utah outside a ski vacation.

          The bad weather 6 months a year, the pollution, the small home lots, the way the Church runs the state, etc.

          We recently got a new neighbor from California. He’s a 20 something, drives a 10+ year old truck. Doesn’t look like a millionaire to me.

          1. Utah is such a small state, It only takes a handful of CA residents to ruin it for everyone.

          2. It’s mostly empty desert. Down in Eagle Mountain it’s empty for miles and miles. No reason it cannot expand.

            Utah is a densely populated state along the Wasatch Front, but no reason it cannot expand.

          4. The lack of water?

            There are farms all over that area and the state in general that thrive due to cheap, tax-payer subsidized water to grow alfalfa for export. Maybe stop doing that for a handful of farmers?

          5. From KSL in 2015, article titled “82 percent of Utah water goes to farmers — here’s why”:

            On an old-fashioned pie-chart, residential use is just a small piece of the pie. Four percent of Utah’s water is used indoors at residences and 6 percent outdoors for a residential total of just 10 percent. Commercial, industrial and institutional users consume another 8 percent.

            The remaining 82 percent — more than four gallons out of every five — goes to farms and ranches.

          6. Yeah, you can purchase the water rights from the farmers, if they are willing to sell and you are willing to pay the price. You will find that the price is high and has to be folded into to the cost of new development.

          7. “Fresh, clean water cannot be taken for granted. And it is not – water is political, and litigious.” —Dr. Michael Burry, Scion Asset Management, LLC

        3. The people I personally know who have or are in the process of moving out are headed to Utah, Arizona, Indiana, or Texas, just off the top of my head. And my impression is that they are the tip of a very large iceberg that is melting away.

          And if your “jealous rage” comment was intended for me, you are misinterpreting my post. The people I know who cashed out equity and left are family friends. I’m happy for them that they were able to cash out equity and leave a state that is increasingly turning into a hell hole.

          2. I didn’t ask, but I am pretty sure that the majority of these people voted for Trump.

          4. Are they taking their voting habits – the ones that built the craphole they’re leaving – with them, by chance?
            My concern as well.
            And if they are young enough to have kids, the kids will be voting even more liberal/woke than the parents. In my network, 2 Liberals left the North and 6 Liberals vote in the south.
            One of them used to B##th about the Upscale scene (Bars/Spas/Coffee shops/ other boutiques) around his house up north and first thing he does when he moves south is complain about the rednecks and lack of “classy” establishments.

          5. If message boards on internet sites are any indication, there is definitely a lot of “jealous rage” targeted at the Baby Boomer generation, to which I belong. GenXers and millennials see the house prices back in the late Seventies and Eighties and just gasp at how low they were and how the Boomers must have made out like bandits. Life for the Boomers was SO easy and carefree, not like it is today for GenXers and millennials! Yeah right, I guess I must be remembering someone else’s memory, not mine.

            The people I’m referring to are Boomers and late Boomers many of whom are still working. Many of my relatives (who are older) are leaving or have left the state, but that has nothing to do with money. Some cousins are moving to a luxury retirement park in Hawaii which is the home state for one of them. They have a substantial retirement fund and sure, they’ll make a killing on selling their home in the San Diego area which they bought 40 years ago. But they don’t need the money.

            I don’t know any GenXers and millennials with young children, but if a person were in this age bracket, the housing prices in California have always been exorbitant. Sure, you could have bought at the bottom of the last crash in 2000 (like I did), when you couldn’t give a house away. But the economy was different then and I don’t know anyone who did buy low and are selling high now and leaving the state.

            One problem is the job market–most of the people I know have bachelor degrees or higher and work in research institutions or the aerospace industry. California has a lot of people working in these industries. Other states don’t–how many research and engineering jobs are there in Idaho?

            Sure there are companies like Toyota that just moved to Texas, but not everybody works for Toyota. So lots of people I know can’t afford to move someplace else without taking a severe hit in salary. Not everybody is writing code for apps and that segment of the economy is hardly dominant to the entire economy. If you work for Northrup-Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing or Lockheed you can’t just find another job in Texas or Arizona. Same goes for people with jobs in university based research labs of which California has probably more than any other State. California is a crappy place to live by many measures–crime, housing costs, taxes, illegal immigration, etc. But it also has a huge number of businesses especially in high tech. Until a significant number of these companies start leaving, many Californians are stuck here.

            Because the states that do offer similar employment, the costs of living aren’t that much less than California. And if you bought your house at 2000 prices, you’ve got low taxes and mortgage payments. Moving to other desirable states might end up costing you even more. High housing prices are goofing up everyone in the country.

          6. “If message boards on internet sites are any indication, there is definitely a lot of “jealous rage” targeted at the Baby Boomer generation”

            Which doesn’t make much sense considering the fading boomer demographic is the poorest demographic today.

          7. Indiana is popular for Chicago folks. I know a guy who lives in Gary and says it’s better than Chicago. And he doesn’t mean Miller Beach either.

        4. “Lots of people on this board are obviously nowhere near California”

          Long time in San Diego. From the circle of people I know and the people they know, I can attest that at least within that radius the exodus from CA is most definitely real. It would seem that the migration statistics also support the conclusion that large numbers of people are leaving CA. Life is more than weather. A close from of mine in her late 70s is moving to TX this month. Can’t stand living in CA anymore. No doubt there are many others in the same demographic. I also know an entire extended family that sold all their CA properties and moved to Idaho. A friend of a friend who took early retirement and bought a ranch in Wyoming and left CA…etc. I would have left CA myself a few years ago but I work in a highly specialized field. in 2019, 650K people left CA for other states. I’d wager the numbers for 2020 and 2021 will be closer to 1 million or more.

          https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/653000-people-leave-california/103-f3c88956-791a-43ca-bc8f-bcbaa76cf790

          “Jealous rage never gets you anywhere”

          When I first moved to CA a long time ago, some folks were jealous. I really don’t think that’s the case anymore. Rather, I see the life others have in less insane states and I am jealous of them. The tables have turned.

          1. “Which doesn’t make much sense considering the fading boomer demographic is the poorest demographic today.”

            I don’t what kind of boomers you know–all of them I know are very comfortably set for their retirement years. One relative passed away last year and after a career in government (not an overpaid civil servant or police officer), his estate was worth north of 1.5 million. The majority of that was cash, not home equity. Most boomers I know are much better off. You’d never know that from seeing them on the street or viewing their homes.

          2. all of them I know are very comfortably set for their retirement years

            I know plenty who are broke as a joke.

          3. This statement:

            “Most boomers I know are much better off.”

            Is related to this statement:

            “You’d never know that from seeing them on the street or viewing their homes.”

          4. The huge difference is the lack of fun jobs in sports like bicycling, parasailing, swimming, etc., outside of California. Many of the jobs my friends and I had in California were challenging roles with income and growth potential. The other states I’ve lived in had an abundance of dull repetitive task jobs in noisy unhealthy environments. I’m sure many of them have been off-shored by now. Seems like eating carbs and chugging 2-liter sodas are all that happens in my current area.

          5. The huge difference is the lack of fun jobs in sports like bicycling, parasailing, swimming, etc., outside of California.

            In all my years in San Diego I never met anyone who made a living doing that. On the other hand, I knew plenty of people who did “dull repetitive task jobs in noisy unhealthy environments”.

          6. “I don’t what kind of boomers you know”

            I wasn’t aware there are different kinds.

            The boomer demographic is insolvent.

          7. “I wasn’t aware there are different kinds.

            The boomer demographic is insolvent.”

            You’re making an ecological fallacy mistake.

          9. an ecological fallacy mistake

            I’m pretty sure those words have not been strung together like that ever before, and that they shouldn’t be.

  4. “‘Buyers are getting fed up at this point with submitting as many as eight to 12 offers and getting rejected,’ said John Graff, a Los Angeles-based broker. ‘They’re throwing up their hands at this point.’”

    These guys, at this point in time, do not know just how lucky they are. Down the road a bit they are destined to discover that there really is a benevolent God.

  5. “Zillow economist Nancy Wu says that inventory in the Bay Area is up 6% and up 25.6% from last year. Wu says the fact that more properties are hitting the market now could be a good thing for buyers who have been frustrated by constantly being outbid by other people who are willing to go far above the asking price and pay with cash.”

    This “fact that more properties are hitting the market now” should be a warning sign but it will not be seen as such. The next group of buyers destined to step into the fray will be the knifecatchers.

    It’s time to pop up some popcorn and watch as this oh-so-predictable and time-worn script unfolds.

    1. A personal observation:

      During a buying frenzy – a mania – a certain group of people are drawn into the fray because they equate the going price as an indication of the value. For these people price equals Value.

      After the mania has peaked and prices begin to decline this price-equals-value group withdraws from the market and is the replaced by the “buy the dip” crowd, the knifecatchers. To these knifecatchers price does not equal value; to them the value, having been established by the previous going price, remains intact and can be captured at a lower price. And this is the draw.

      There are two stages of a buying mania and each stage is dominated by a particular group of participants and each of these groups of participants have lost their minds.

  6. Bahahahahaha … when idealism clashes with real-world reality this is what you get …

    “Like many other homeowners in central Denver, he is tired of navigating his neighborhood homeless camps and has lost patience and compassion.”

    2. I was reading some article about bums in California, and one person mentioned having to worry about running one over when pulling into the parking lot because they sleep here and there. Lovely. “How was work Honey? OK, but I got a 50 year old stuck to my grill just now.”

      1. The bums are concentrated on the Westside and Downtown L.A. They aren’t near the central business district downtown so people working there don’t need to navigate around the homeless. However, on the Westside including Venice, Santa Monica and even Mar Vista and Culver City, the homeless are everywhere. The recent liberal transplants from other places are getting their California Dreams pissed on. Too bad…

          1. The bums haven’t reached the “nice” part of Downtown L.A. where the high rises are. Those are on the west end of Downtown next to the freeway. The homeless are already encroaching on the warehouse conversion and condo section built up more recently. It’s a real mess there.

        2. Where I currently live would be considered “upper middle” type of hood. Last year I was out for a walk in the evening and there was a homeless junkie sitting on the bench at the bus stop next to the local high school shooting up. I don’t think this is inspiring the kind of “jealous rage” in non Californians that zzy alludes to. In fairness, the drug problem is fairly ubiquitous these days. But how many people are going to be willing to pay 7-800k$ for an entry level house to send their kids to lousy CA public schools patrolled by homeless junkies?

          1. Over the last 30 years, I’ve seen many people from out of state move to L.A. and they end up buying houses in the “hood” or barrio. They fall for the propaganda of the “up and coming” neighborhood. When people starting living in converted warehouses in Downtown L.A., I said they were crazy. Those people can’t even walk down the sidewalk in front of their lofts. So lots of fools put down good money for foolish housing choices in L.A.

      2. I used to live in Pacific Beach in SD. That was years ago but the vagrant problem was clearly increasing. One day I was out for a walk and a homeless guy had just laid himself out in the entrance to a parking lot and passed out or fallen asleep. I called the cops and stood there till they came so he wouldn’t get run over.

        The vagrant problem where I live now is getting noticeably worse, A couple of moths ago I went to the little Vietnamese restaurant nearby I like and there was a homeless person passed out on the side walk in front of the door. You had to step over him to enter the place but I just left cuz it was too depressing looking at the situation.

        1. Wealthy liberals couldn’t give a rat’s a$$ about the loss of business to small family run restaurants like your Vietnamese place. I only eat at small family run Asian places these days–the quality of the food is always better than the chain joints and it’s disgusting how the Democrats in California have run the State into the ground.

          1. I had dinner yesterday at a family owned BBQ place, It was packed.

            The Centennial State is doomed, but we aren’t there yet.

      3. Caitlyn Jenner wants to move homeless people to ‘big open fields,’ saying they are ‘destroying Venice Beach’
        https://news.yahoo.com/caitlyn-jenner-wants-move-homeless-044501943.html

        (snip)

        Caitlyn Jenner wants to address California homelessness by having people camp in “big open fields.”

        She blamed homeless people for an uptick in crime and said they were “destroying Venice Beach.”

        Jenner is attempting to take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s seat in a special recall election in California.

        1. I can’t wait for the nasty political ads, i.e., “the gloves are off” campaign media strategies regarding transgender Bruce, oops…Caitlyn Jenner vs Gavin Newsom. It’ll be like Gene Kelly dancing on thin ice!

    3. The City / County of Denver voted 79.55% for pedophile groper Joe Biden, you are getting exactly what you voted for.

      Denver is a sh*thole.

    4. ** “They found potential buyers frightened by homeless camps in his neighborhood. McCormick said . . .
      he decided to take his house off the market & stay”

      oh, he “decided” to take his house off the market?
      “HE decided”?!?! hahaha riiiiiiight you decided nothing. just admit your trapped until you lower the price to whatever it fetches.

      have you decided this? realtors are liars. I have

  8. ‘Handfield added that people in the middle of buying a home should not expect to see a discount due to current lower lumber prices. ‘A lot of that lumber was already purchased or was already paid for’

    Yeah, if you already borrowed, yer fooked. Get to love that lumba! You overpaid for it.

  9. ‘We are finding that first-home buyers have taken a step back and are waiting for prices to fall’

    A key point. When things are red hotcakes, higher price validate speculation. Eventually you run out of greater fools.

    1. Eventually you run out of people who can afford to offer 25% above the latest uptick in bubble valuations. The faster prices rise, the sooner this point of no further returns is reached.

    2. and, just like the last bust in 2006+, buyers are going to wait even longer for fear of overpaying.
      get ready for the realtors now familiar litany of pleas, excuses, rage, etc. directed at those stingy fence-sitting insulting buyers. a 5-part play penned by Kubler-Ross

      realtors are liars

  10. ‘which hit badly the real estate owners’

    ‘Impossible to see, the future is’

    ‘forced many residential property owners to reduce rents by 15 and 25 percent in some areas, especially since most of the owners have to commit to their obligations to the banks’

    Oh that!

    1. “… most of the owners have to commit to their obligations to the banks’.”

      😁

      1. Is this a great world or what? A dumb-assed puke willingly comes into my bank, willingly signs some papers committing himself to paying me huge gobs of money spread out over several decades, and if there are any problems he may encounter in doing this he is the one who will have to solve them.

        He works, I reap.

        1. oh yeah, its a great world. I do like the free blue Citibank pen that found its way into my pocket last visit. just a bit more classy than the Cialis pen from the Dr. ofc. and I wondered why the school secretary was smirking as I signed my kids out.

  11. “Handfield added that people in the middle of buying a home should not expect to see a discount due to current lower lumber prices.”

    Isn’t it curious how REIC shills were immediately willing to attribute bubbly home prices to surging lumber prices, yet they claim the relationship breaks down when lumber prices crater? It’s like the law of supply and demand is a one-way stairway to to money heaven.

    1. “Isn’t it curious how REIC shills were immediately willing to attribute bubbly home prices to surging lumber prices …”

      That’s called using what works.

      “… yet they claim the relationship breaks down when lumber prices crater?”

      If it doesn’t work then don’t use it.

    3. should not expect to see a discount

      It’s not a “discount”. Nobody cares what your sunken costs are.

  12. Dumb question of the day: With so many Californians paying zero rent, thanks to the indefinite moratorium, does the rent paid by paying renters go up or down?

    1. LOL@ could you imagine actually paying property taxes (and income and sales taxes) to the City of Chicago?

      Will the last taxpayer leaving Chicago please turn out the lights.

    1. What’s going to stop a rigged recall vote? I have been suspicious of rigged in California for a long time because the public always votes against their own interest.
      And , oh sure a record breaking over 80 million voted for that old demented crook Biden, who didn’t even campaign that much without much of a showing when he did.
      So, I predict that the recall of Newson will be rigged. The criminal machine has big plans for the CA. Governor to rise to President .

      1. “I have been suspicious of rigged in California for a long time because the public always votes against their own interest.”

        The elections don’t have to rigged for this to happen; Simply sufficiently dumbing the voting public down will do the trick.

        1. Los Angeles County runs an efficient and fair election machine. None of the shenanigans seen in Arizona, Georgia etc. happen where they count the votes. There are too many volunteers from across the demographic spectrum to be able to cheat on the scale seen in those places.

          The biggest OBVIOUS factor in determining the outcomes of election in L.A. County is turnout. The same goes for the rest of California, too. Turnout generally is pathetic, it’s the biggest factor that determines elections there.

  18. I had a zoom meeting cancelled this morning because the host had a power failure and thus had no internet service.

    You can guess where he is located.

    I suspect that in a few years power outages will be common coast to coast. I need to start looking into solar panels.

    And in the utopia known as Dumver:

    It took Xcel Energy project manager Wade Cruser a little less than three minutes to pop the old electric meter off the side of a Littleton home and slap on the future of electricity use and billing for utility’s Colorado customers — a “smart meter.”

    These meters read household energy use in real-time and report it back to Xcel. They will give customers a clearer and more precise picture of their energy use and enable Xcel to implement time-of-use rates, charging more at peak demand times and less during low-use periods.

    Xcel crews will be installing meters at about 15,000 homes and businesses a week, starting in Denver, Aurora and the surrounding suburbs, with 395,000 slated to be in place by the end of the year. Almost all 1.6 million Colorado customers will have smart meters by the end of 2023.

    Fortunately, I don’t get my juice from Xcel. But the writing is on the wall. Like I said above, I need to start looking into solar panels.

    2. The downside of ‘smart meters’ (I happen to have one) is that it is a form of big brother weaving his way into your life.

      Yes, some technical advantages like load balancing, and (with additional software) to identify the ‘signature’ of every device used in your home and track usage patterns.

      I really don’t have a problem with the underlying technology per se, the problem I have is with who has access to my data.

      1. I won’t let them install one where I live. I pay good money for my electricity and I expect to get power when I want it and in the amount I need. The Globull Warming and Green extortion racket wants to have it both ways–“We can power our grid with 100% renewables, except when we can’t. In that case we’ll shut off your electricity.”

        When I hear them telling me to not use appliances or the AC, I crank up the washer and turn down the thermostat. The quicker we get the system to crash, the sooner the masses will rise up and start throwing rocks at the power companies and environmentalists.

          1. Cee Oh Too is your friend. I do my best to contribute generously to the Cee Oh Too bank. It does plants good.

        2. “We can power our grid with 100% renewables, except when we can’t. In that case we’ll shut off your electricity.”

          And they expect us to meekly accept this. The article about the “smart meters” did say that customers can opt out. For now.

          I’ve noticed that Corporate American is installing solar like there is no tomorrow.

          1. Of course they are. They’re in on the con game–in fact it seems like most of the world is in on the con game. The game is to con Americans out of our money and further trash and loot our economy. We’ve been allowing ourselves to be used for decades–GloBull Warming is just the latest con.

      2. Yep, the technology already exists. I was chatting with a couple of engineers from a startup in Cambridge ma at an ai group meetup a couple of years back and they’ve got constant learning algorithms running on household, commercial, and industrial feeds. Big data for the betterment of mankind 😉

  19. I think the Fed is “riding the tiger” with stimulus – you can’t get off because you get eaten.

    Summers Says House Prices Are ‘Scary,’ Questions Fed MBS Buying
    By Simon Kennedy
    July 2, 2021, 1:28 PM EDT
    Bloomberg

    • Former Treasury chief says house prices are inflationary
    • Summers says he ‘cannot understand’ why Fed still buys MBS

    Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said the surge in U.S. house prices is “scary” and questioned the wisdom of the Federal Reserve continuing to purchase mortgage-backed securities as part of its stimulus campaign.

    “This is scary,” said Summers, a paid contributor to Bloomberg. “Rising house prices in most people’s common sense of the world represents inflation.”

    He predicted property prices would continue to climb given a shortage of supply, but said the inflation risk “needs to be taken very, very seriously.”

    The Fed buys $40 billion of MBS each month as part of an asset-purchase program designed to help the economy heal from Covid-19 by keeping borrowing costs super-low. Some officials at the central bank have begun suggesting slowing such buying first when they begin to scale back their overall quantitative easing program.

    “I cannot understand why the Federal Reserve, in the face of this, continues to be every month a major buyer of mortgage backed securities,” said Summers “That is the ultimate in pro-cyclical behavior.”

    Summers said he was also concerned about valuations in equity markets and that they may reflect those investors with pessimistic outlooks being wrong-footed by past gains and so reluctant to keep betting against the bulls.

    “It’s precisely when all the pessimism has been beaten out of the system that markets are most vulnerable,” he said. “I see that as a concern right now with our markets.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-02/summers-says-house-prices-are-scary-questions-fed-mbs-buying

  20. White House mocked for pun-filled tweet claiming cheaper July 4 cookout

    https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/white-house-mocked-for-pun-filled-tweet-claiming-cheaper-july-4-cookout/

    The White House social media team set off some fireworks it didn’t want Thursday when it attempted to counter inflation fears by claiming Americans will enjoy cheaper Independence Day parties this year.

    “Planning a cookout this year?” the groan-worthy tweet began. “Ketchup on the news. According to the Farm Bureau, the cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year. It’s a fact you must-hear(d). Hot dog, the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish.”

    Twitter users of all political persuasions expressed outrage at the spin attempt.

    1. Pedo Joe’s spin doctors think we haven’t noticed that the price of beef has gone thru the roof.

      1. And sugar. And chicken legs ($1.99/ pound–they were 99 cents before the election). And gasoline–don’t even look at the pump price.

        1. If you can’t afford chicken you’ve got bigger problems.

          I picked up prime strip steaks @4.99 a pound last week. In Boston no less.

          1. I picked up my Delmonicos yesterday @ $18.99. It’s nice not to have debt obligations.

          2. I picked up T-Bones for $5/lb. But they were a 4th of July loss leader. They usually cost 4x more.

          3. Not really. Not 4x anyways. Tbones and strips are normally $10# at any of the big name supermarkets. $7 at places like Costco.

          4. I just saw a Smith’s (Kroger) coupon for $0.50 off on Simple Truth Organic Vegan Steak Sauce.

  21. Seems like one of the Democrats’ core constituencies, “the poor”, are about to get hammered by Democrat-sponsored inflation. As for myself, I’m trying to work out a hedging strategy that doesn’t involve gambling on stonks, lumber futures, overvalued real estate, or cryptocurrencies. Musical instruments are a useful part of my portfolio.

    2. Seems like one of the Democrats’ core constituencies, “the poor”, are about to get hammered by Democrat-sponsored inflation.

      Will they mail more checks? UBI, but only for the core constituents?

  22. “you may have been exposed to harmful extremist content recently.”

    July 1 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) is starting to warn some users they might have seen “extremist content” on the social media site, the company said on Thursday.

    https://youtu.be/OWwOJlOI1nU

  24. Tiny Dancer

    https://youtu.be/aqlGlaNlcWE

    What is the meaning of “Tiny Dancer”?

    The obvious answer seemed to be that the song was written about Maxine Feibelmann, Taupin’s first wife, who was indeed a “seamstress for the band.” After all, the credits for the song on the Madman Across The Water album end with the phrase “With love to Maxine.” But dedicating a song to someone and writing a song about that person are two different things, and Taupin clarified the confusion in an interview with Rolling Stone which he quotes on his website.

    “We came to California in the fall of 1970 and it seemed like sunshine just radiated from the populace,” Taupin says. “I guess I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met, especially at the clothes stores and restaurants and bars all up and down the Sunset Strip. They were these free spirits, sexy, all hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal the way they moved.”

    “They were just so different from what I’d been used to in England,” Taupin continues. “They had this thing about embroidering your clothes. They wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They mothered you and slept with you. It was the perfect Oedipal complex.”

    Taupin’s lyrics effortlessly bring these women to life by amalgamating them into a single “blue-jean baby” who captures the heart of the narrator. She floats among her surroundings seemingly unaffected, handling even the rougher aspects of it with a shrug: “The boulevard is not that bad.” Her charms are never more evident than in the immortal lines about her reaction to her favorite song: “The words she knows, the tune she hums.”

    What seems like an ephemeral relationship is anything but that, as is made clear when the chorus comes around and John belts out “Hold me closer, tiny dancer.” With the combination of the stirring music and Elton’s powerful vocal, it’s one of those cathartic moments that only the best rock ballads can produce.

    https://americansongwriter.com/behind-song-tiny-dancer-elton-john/

    1. “They mothered you and slept with you. It was the perfect Oedipal complex.”

      Creative writing! LMAO!!

  25. I’ve noticed that Corporate American is installing solar like there is no tomorrow.
    I wonder about the change UNDER the solar panels. MUCH cooler temperatures, much higher moisture content (sun did not evaporate it). Are we going to have species moving south and west because of the lower temperatures and higher moisture content? I have mentioned this to SJW’s before and they thought I was nuts and called me several “ists”. Maybe I am nuts, but I don’t think we have had enough time to prove or disprove global warming. Call me in 10,000 years as we should know by then. I went to grad school, with Richard Alley and had 4-5 classes with him (see Youtube as he presents in front of Congress) so my opinion is valid, as are my questions. My opinions disagree with Richard but they are still valid and he might be wrong. As an example, I recall he got a rock structure outcrop wrong at field camp in a1978-79 so he could be wrong here. With that said, Richard is MUCH much smarter than I am so he could be right.

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