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It Remains Unclear Just How Many Joe Schmo Buyers Went Down With The Ship

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Some sellers are still getting multiple offers, but not to the point where potential buyers are making offers far in excess of the asking price, said Carla Farley, Greater San Diego Association of Realtors president. ‘You’re starting to see a little bit of negotiating going on,’ Farley said. ‘We’re not seeing people going 40 or 50 grand over (asking price). Maybe you’ll get 10.'”

“The Austin area‘s housing market continued its recent trends in November, as fewer homes changed hands. Wesley Steck, a broker associate, said the market might have found ‘a new floor,’ and that the growth in home sales prices might return to a more typical level. ‘There’s a sense the (pricing) wave has crested a bit for the first time all year,’ Steck said. ‘We might get back to healthy appreciation, compared to what we saw this past year, which was bonkers.'”

“Introducing the biggest losers in real estate’s bull market. Some investors are learning that even supposedly ironclad ‘Swiss bank vault’ Manhattan towers carry big risks. The XI, a massive $2 billion, 236-unit condo project with twisting twin towers is currently rotting along the High Line in Chelsea. Last year, the financial collapse of its developer, HFZ Capital Group, halted construction on the XI. It went into foreclosure, washing away tens of millions in investor capital with it.”

“Investors lost big on other HFZ developments, too. It remains unclear just how many Joe Schmo buyers went down with the ship, but multiple cases involving such deals are currently working their way through the New York court system, and there will likely be additional suits to come, said one source familiar with the dealings, who also requested anonymity.”

“‘They would delay as much as possible,’ said a condo investor, who requested anonymity, of the developer, whose entire portfolio of buildings is being gobbled up by rival real estate sharks who smell blood in the water. ‘They would blame the market or construction or the banks or whatever the reason might be to delay delivering [the units] for as long as humanly possible.’ The investor said that he waited more than five years. Ultimately, ‘We understood that HFZ had no intention of ever closing on our unit.'”

“New analysis shows 16 London neighbourhoods in the 20 top buyers’ markets, where asking prices have dropped and homes are slow to sell. The areasare traditionally among some of the capital’s most sought-after, meaning now could be a good time to bag a ‘bargain’ property while many people continue to abandon city centres during the pandemic. ‘We can’t deny that buyers have had a reasonable amount of choice of property and some of that property has been sensibly priced to make sure it sells so that’s a change in the market that’s definitely taking place,’ said Lee O’Neill, head of sales at Knight Frank Canary Wharf.”

“Real estate agents in Hamilton say sanity is returning to the housing market as banks pull preapprovals. Lodge Real Estate managing director Jeremy O’Rourke says things are changing. O’Rourke says at a recent auction four of the five bidders had their bank preapprovals removed on the day. He also says fewer homes are selling under the hammer, with prices instead being negotiated after failing to reach set reserves. Only one-third of homes at Lodge’s December 8 auction sold under the hammer.”

“It comes after a flurry of changes in recent months which are impacting Kiwis’ ability to get a mortgage. That includes higher interest rates and changes to loan-to-value restrictions meaning fewer buyers will be able to secure a mortgage with less than a 20 percent deposit. In response to the changes, some of the country’s biggest banks started pulling pre-approvals for borrowers with a deposit less than 20 percent. A preapproval is an acknowledgement from a bank someone can borrow an agreed amount.”

“‘There’s still plenty of confidence in the Hamilton real estate market but there is a definite change happening,’ O’Rourke says.”

“If any investor still had hopes then that Evergrande was too big to fail, those are far gone now. The developer’s debt and shares are trading near record lows after the firm failed to honour its obligations. The richest bosses behind the nation’s property firms have lost more than US$46 billion (S$62.7 billion) combined this year, according to Bloomberg. Mr Hui’s wealth alone has plunged by US$17.2 billion, one of the biggest slumps for 2021.”

“About 15 real estate companies have defaulted on their corporate bonds in 2021. Home buyers are left in limbo, without knowing when the houses they’ve already partly paid for will be finished. Some tycoons have even lost their billionaire status: The wealth of the Kwoks behind Kaisa Group Holdings, another defaulter, has slumped by almost 90 per cent this year to about US$160 million. Chairman Zhang Yuanlin of Sinic Holdings Group saw his 75 per cent stake lose almost all of its value in a single day.”

“The offer to take Chinese Estates Holdings private by Hong Kong magnate Joseph Lau Luen-hung’s family has collapsed because of opposition from minority shareholders. Before the meeting, a number of angry shareholders said the offer was too low to accept. ‘I bought these shares at higher prices, of around HK$13 each, a few years ago for collecting dividends,’ said an elderly shareholder who only gave his surname as Choi. Only ‘fools’ would accept the HK$4 offered in the privatisation deal, he added.”

“‘Its investment in China Evergrande was a wrong decision,’ said another elderly shareholder surnamed Au, who has owned the stock for decades after buying it at HK$2.4. He said he bought the shares because of the positive outlook for the company’s high asset value, and that the price offered by the Lau family was too low.”

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This Post Has 68 Comments

  1. ‘Introducing the biggest losers in real estate’s bull market’

    Yes, we still have to wade through the horsesh$t all these years later. NYC has been sinking like a turd in a well since 2016. London since 2014!

  2. ‘at a recent auction four of the five bidders had their bank preapprovals removed on the day’

    Oh dear…

  3. ‘the market might have found ‘a new floor,’ and that the growth in home sales prices might return to a more typical level. ‘There’s a sense the (pricing) wave has crested a bit for the first time all year…We might get back to healthy appreciation, compared to what we saw this past year, which was bonkers’

    Gosh, I hope no one overpaid in such an environment. BTW Wesley, Austin has been sinking like a turd in a well since March.

  4. ‘Chairman Zhang Yuanlin of Sinic Holdings Group saw his 75 per cent stake lose almost all of its value in a single day’

    DONG!

    Are we there yet?

  5. This was just posted on the last thread:

    ‘Jim Cramer
    Dec 15
    ‘government has a right to force you to obey and has always exercised it especially under GOP’

    https://twitter.com/Gatsby_Houston/status/1471116539218780164

    ‘So how should we feel about Jim Cramer’s assessment of our economy? Well, it may be a little bit early to apply for a foreign passport, but it’s not a good sign. Not at all. It was Jim Cramer you remember who told you to buy Bear Stearns a few days before it disappeared completely.’

    ‘JIM CRAMER: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? No! No! No! Bear Stearns is fine. Do not take your money out. If there’s one takeaway, Bear Stearns is not in trouble. I mean, if anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear. That’s just being silly. Don’t be silly.’

    ‘Bear Sterns not in trouble. No, no, no. Bear Stearns is fine. Do not take your money out.’

    ‘That’s what he said right before the crash. Now, in a normal country with a functioning meritocracy, anyone who says something like that would no longer be touting stocks on television, they’d be cleaning your pool, assuming he could muster the skills to do that.’

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/12/11/tucker_carlson_in_a_just_society_people_like_cnbcs_jim_cramer_would_be_cleaning_your_pool.html

    1. What kind of a world do we live in when this kind of statement can even be made? We don’t “obey”. It’s one thing to hear it from a mental pipsqueak like cramer. But we have lots of these tyrants now. Just keep feeding the bears.

      1. “We don’t ‘obey’.”

        Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha … millions of people “obey” every single day; This is what modern advertising and opinion shaping is all about.

    2. A little while after Cramer was on TV begging for a bailout . Soon every big well connected POS was being saved. Bank America had to buy Merrill Lynch , GNMA was bailed out, etc.

      Bear Stearns went down because Goldman sachs had a man high up in government , I guess they didn’t like each other

  6. ‘About 15 real estate companies have defaulted on their corporate bonds in 2021. Home buyers are left in limbo, without knowing when the houses they’ve already partly paid for will be finished. Some tycoons have even lost their billionaire status’

    Remember when China shills would say zero companies would fail cuz of pooh bear? The entire sh$tcart has fallen over. Globalism has failed miserably. Oh, what a surprise! A bunch of crap product manufacturers whose economy was based on slave labor and buying and selling each other airboxes that they don’t really own! What could go wrong?

  8. Several people reportedly fired after ‘F*ck Joe Biden’ flag hung at Moses Lake construction site

    https://www.ifiberone.com/columbia_basin/several-people-reportedly-fired-after-f-ck-joe-biden-flag-hung-at-moses-lake-construction/article_39ab85e8-5eba-11ec-9f70-c346a428db5f.html

    “MOSES LAKE – Four to five people are reportedly unemployed after an offensive political flag was hung at a construction site in Moses Lake this week.”

    School board members used to regularly lambast Trump, but apparently Biden’s luster may not be tarnished.

  9. People in the UK are so scared of Omicron that they are locking themselves down. From a CNN article:

    But for now — with coronavirus cases skyrocketing, and another holiday season spoiled by the pandemic — the mood is grim.

    “People are really scared,” said Redford, who had been planning to open two new locations in 2022. “Like really, really scared.”

    This one is being called the stealth lockdown, since it’s not being imposed by the government. But it is caused by the flames of a public panic that the British government is fanning.

    So, British subjects, go get your useless booster and then go hide under your bed from a virus whose lethalness is far below that of even a weak flu.

      1. To be clear, a leader leads from the front and would experience “bad” first. Managers on the other hand operate from the back of the pack ordering others to do that which the manager is unable or unwilling to do themselves.

    2. LOL@ I’m in Ohio now and except for being at the airport yesterday, there are no COVID freaks here so far.

      People in Denver will be wearing masks in their car while driving alone for the rest of their lives.

      Sigh, loosers…

    3. Meanwhile, in California the number of people hospitalized or dying of Covid-19 is almost off the chart (in a negative sense).
      https://covid19.ca.gov/state-dashboard/
      And the number of hospital and ICU beds is nowhere near panic level time.

      Ben Carson knows more than me and just about anyone else in the universe when it comes to human diseases and conditions. FYI, the mental capacity of a world renown neurosurgeon far surpasses the combined total of the doctors at the CDC. And he even knows more than our resident expert secretary who insists that the J&J “vaccine” is safe.
      shorturl.at/dgvO7

      1. our resident expert secretary

        You took one poke and got away with it. Typical of a playground bully, can’t resist repeating. Rather makes you look like a midget with some insecurity issues.

        2. You must be the secretary’s “administrative assistant”. If it’s too hot in the kitchen, leave. It’s one thing to pretend to be “experts” about real estate, it’s quite another to be experts about science, medicine and public health.

          Here, just like everywhere on the internet, there’s no shortage of “experts”.

          1. You can insult me too Dweeb. You’re still a dull uninteresting midget, spitting bile but not having understanding or curiosity. Less than a Secretary, which is an honorable profession.

        3. Let me put it to you bluntly, oxide doesn’t know what the hell she is talking about. How’s that for “bullying”. In fact the discussion here about this disaster called Covid-19 reads more like the funny pages than serious and informed discussion.

          It’s so bad that it’s not even worth commenting on the glaring idiotic technical errors because it would take ages to explain things to such ill informed laypeople. But take heart, the “experts” who are deciding actual policy are even more clueless. So it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s the blind leading the blind…..

          2. To paraphrase Richard Feynman wrote, “We’re living in a very unscientific era”. This Covid-19 debacle will go down in history as one of Mankind’s greatest and most evil blunders. It’s right up there with the atrocities of the Twentieth Century–The rise of Communism and Stalin, Germany’s descent into Hell with Hitler, and Madman Mao and his murderous purges.

            A simple and not very deadly virus (made by the Chinese) caused a Worldwide panic with the help of corrupt government officials and bureaucrats (e.g. UN, WHO) and pharmaceutical industrial complex. Entire nations turned into fascist states complete with concentration camps and mass detention without trials or due process.

            The entire World Economy was effectively shut down killing millions of small business but causing massive profits to be made by big business and the multinational corporations.

            And what did people do here in America to preserve their freedom and civil rights? They turned into vicious Karens and characters straight out of the Twilight Zone (See the episodes about “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”.)

            Couple this nightmare with the planned social unrest of the radical left, i.e. Democrats, BLM and Antifa. Mass riots, complete breakdown of law and order in many cities across the Nation, etc. Add to this the actions of the Deep State with their successful attempt at removing President Trump and the massive fraud and corruption at all levels of the Federal, State and Local governments.

            And what do we hear here from people like oxide and you? Complaints about “bullying”. It would be nice if bullying were the only problem being caused by Covid-19.

            We’re living in a nightmare straight out of “1984”. So put a sock in it and go read “1984” and watch that episode of the Twilight Zone.

  11. Just saw this as I was scanning the propaganda du jour:

    Full vaccination against COVID-19 and a breakthrough infection builds ‘super immunity,’ study finds

    I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that an infection gives you super immunity, vaxxed or not.

    2. an infection gives you super immunity, vaxxed or not

      You were probably already immune, a subtlety often overlooked.

  12. ‘“Some sellers are still getting multiple offers, but not to the point where potential buyers are making offers far in excess of the asking price, said Carla Farley, Greater San Diego Association of Realtors president.’

    San Diego is clearly in the parabolic blowout phase of the bubble, reaching ever higher price levels on shriveling inventories.

    Next up: Watch out below.

      1. I rented a house in Poway in 2009 on olive mill lane . A tiny old 1974 house which is now worth according to Zillow 935K

      2. To me, those are mansions. I shed no tears for someone complaining about the price of mansions. Every neighborhood can become “gentrified” and drive out the people who used to be able to afford the area.

    2. Orange County Register
      Housing News
      Southern California home prices set year’s 9th record
      This year’s housing market has been one of the hottest in more than three decades.

      The median price of a Southern California home hit $693,500 in November, up 15.6% to a record high, DQ News/CoreLogic reported Thursday, Dec. 16.
      (File photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
      By Jeff Collins | JeffCollins@scng.com | Orange County Register
      PUBLISHED: December 16, 2021 at 7:30 a.m. | UPDATED: December 16, 2021 at 4:01 p.m.

      Southern California home prices powered their way to another record high this year, with the median price tipping the scales at $693,500 for the six-county region in November, new housing data shows.

      It was the region’s ninth record home price this year, according to DQ News/CoreLogic figures released Thursday, Dec. 16. Four of the region’s six counties — Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego — also recorded new high prices.

      Last month’s median home price was up 15.6% from November 2020, or $93,000 in a year. That’s the fifth-biggest 12-month price jump in records dating back to 1988, surpassed only by four busier months earlier this year.

      At November’s pace, home prices rose an average of $1,800 a week during the past 12 months, pricing some buyers out of the market before they could get an offer accepted.

      It’s just the latest news in a year that had one of the hottest housing markets on record. Sales for 2021 through November totaled just under 258,000, the most for that 11-month period since 2006.

      November’s tally of 22,426 transactions was up 23%, the biggest one-year percentage gain in DQ News/CoreLogic records. Home prices have risen year-over-year in all but three of the past 116 months.

      “To me, it’s unexplainable how everything’s gotten so crazy this year,” said Michelle Bunyan, an agent with The Olson Agency in Porter Ranch. “I’ve been in real estate since 2008, and I’ve never seen anything like this year.”

      Some agents said bidding wars with three or four dozen offers were common during the height of the market frenzy last spring.

      The market cooled slightly over the summer as some buyers balked at higher prices. But bidding wars continued, only with fewer buyers.
      …

      1. “$93,000 in a year”

        It must be nice to be able to claim an extra year of labor market income due to having made the financially brilliant move of owning a home in SoCal during a speculative frenzy.

        And I guess it is safe to assume that in a couple of years from now, when housing price appreciation shifts into reverse, the financial geniuses who bought at the top of a bubble will dutifully accept their investment losses without clamoring for the government to bail them out?

  13. https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/top-5-imported-foods-from-china-you-should-avoid_231731.html

    ‘1) Tilapia Tilapia is the current fish of favor. Whole Foods Markets are promoting Tilapia with an onsite chef and free tasting. TV commercials promoting Tilapia are frequent. Yet 80 percent of the current tilapia supply—382.2 million pounds per year—comes from China.’

    ‘It is well known in China fish farmers won’t let their children eat the seafood they cultivate. There was a report in China a few years ago of a young girl living in a fish-farming village who started to get her period at age 7 because of the high levels of hormones used in fish cultivation. Farmers use strong antibiotics and growth hormones to keep fish alive in often overcrowded dirty conditions.’

    Understanding the Pollution Problem in China

    ‘According to the South China Morning Post, “As much as 70 percent of Chinese rivers and lakes are polluted from industrial facilities like chemical and textile plants.” Recently, residents in Zhejiang, one of the less polluted provinces in China, offered 300,000 Yuan ($50,000) if government officials would dare to swim in the local waterway.’

    2. I have long stopped buying farm raised shrimp for similar reasons. Also, ocean caught shrimp taste a lot better too. Yes, they cost more. Same with Salmon, non farm tastes much better.

      1. been a proponent of non-china food for a long time.
        of course the food sellers, as usual, with the govt blessing, are 2 steps ahead by selling the packages as “processed in the USA” to install fake confidence for those who bother to read the info.
        it’s gotten pretty sad & bad lately as almost all affordable food’s point of origin is disguised.

    3. My wife is Japanese and she watched a hidden camera documentary they did about chicken coming out of china. Film crew caught multiple instances of horrible conditions, people on the line dropping carcasses and putting them back on the assembly line, meat that was obviously way past due turning blue, yet getting packaged, etc. This was all around the time many Japanese people got very sick from it.

    5. Never eat Tilapia, Swai, of shrimp not American caught in the Gulf. Stick to deep ocean line caught fish.

      You’d be better off eating from the bait bucket on a fishing charter.

  14. China’s Evergrande Group founder Hui Ka Yan won’t be smiling when he’s forced to wear sandwich boards scrawled with his crimes against the state while doing the perp-walk to the firing squad.

  15. “‘I bought these shares at higher prices, of around HK$13 each, a few years ago for collecting dividends,’ said an elderly shareholder who only gave his surname as Choi. Only ‘fools’ would accept the HK$4 offered in the privatisation deal, he added.”

    Stocks and real estate only go up.

    1. First defang the police, because Black Lives Matter, then wonder why there aren’t enough police out and about to deter the smash and grabbers…

      1. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that drew violent protests to Charlottesville, Virginia, will be melted down and turned into a piece of public art by an African American heritage center.

    2. The Fox News comment section is full of joke memes like this. For example, none of the smash and grabs were for a Red Wing shoe store. (Red Wing sells work boots.) Or, the best way to disperse a riot is for the riot police to simply hold up job applications.

  20. Mercola: The Scheming of Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci

    by Dr. Joseph Mercola | Mercola.com
    December 17th 2021, 12:00 pm

    STORY AT-A-GLANCE

    Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci have created a formidable public-private partnership that wields incredible power over the American public, along with global health and food policies

    Inspired by Rockefeller’s business model, Bill and Melinda Gates donated $36 billion worth of Microsoft stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation between 1994 and 2018

    Gates also created Bill Gates Investments (BGI), which predominantly invests in multinational food, agriculture, pharmaceutical, energy, telecom and tech companies with global operations

    Gates strategically targets BMGF’s charitable gifts to give him control of the international health and agricultural agencies and the media, allowing him to dictate global health and food

    Fauci and Gates met in person, shaking hands in 2000 in an agreement to control and expand the global vaccine enterprise

    You can read all of the details in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s best-selling book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” which contains more than 2,200 footnotes of referenced data

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/mercola-the-scheming-of-bill-gates-and-anthony-fauci/

  21. ** “What these stores should be doing is putting pictures of books in the windows”

    Arthur Bach: ” I HATE it here ! ”
    Hobson: ” Of course you hate it. People work here “

  22. Can you spot the difference in the quotes? Both were purportedly said by the judge sentencing a Capitol riot participant:

    NBC News: “It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment,” said U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan.

    CNN: “Every day we are hearing about reports of antidemocratic factions, people plotting potential violence in 2024,” District Judge Tanya Chutkan said as she handed down the sentence. “It has to be made clear that trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, assaulting law enforcement, is going to be met with certain punishment.”

    I have not heard of anyone associated with the incident being convicted of treason or insurrection. If the judge actually said the “violent overthrow” part, I think CNN would have reported it too. If she didn’t say it, and it’s on multiple sites, they’re lying. One would expect more accuracy from NBC News.

  24. The keep pushing it out. From cnbc:

    Pfizer executives say Covid could become endemic by 2024

    So that’s what, at least four more “boosters”? Probably more like 6. By that point all the vaxxed’s immune systems should be trashed.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean that “it’s back to normal”:

    Endemic means the coronavirus will not disappear but rather will become a vaccinated-protected ailment like the flu.

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