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Forced To Sell Out Once-Grand Visions

A report from the Dallas Business Journal. “As of year’s end, the home price index for the Fort Worth and Arlington areas was about 215, up from about 177 in Q4 2020. Prior to last year, the index had never experienced double-digit percentage growth. Joshua Roberson, lead data analyst for the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University said this data reaffirms that home price growth will moderate this year. There has been a noticeable level of buyer fatigue in markets like Austin, which has seen its price growth decelerate. ‘It’s going to be on the horizon for Fort Worth,’ he said.”

The Martinsville Bulletin in Virginia. “Two hundred fourteen houses were sold in the Martinsville Henry & Patrick County Association of Realtors (MHPCAR) area during the fourth quarter, a 12% decrease from last year. The regional median sales price fell this quarter in the MHPCAR footprint, according to the association’s Home Sales Report. The fourth quarter median sales price in the area was $143,700, which is 28% lower than a year ago, a drop of about $56,300.”

The Sun Gazette. “The City of Williamsport has lost population, as have other cities in Pennsylvania, a crisis of societal changes and the economy. Since 1990, about 4,500 fewer residents live in Williamsport, and the trend does not seem to be reversing. Skip Memmi, director of the city Department of Community and Economic Development, whose previous work experience was in Dauphin County, said lost population and the negative financial impacts are not isolated to this city. ‘It is not just a Williamsport phenomena, but is happening across the state,’ Memmi said.”

From Northwest Georgia News. “I probably got more reaction to my column last week on the inventory of what I call ‘rent housing’ in the works than on any column since my first one, about my personal journey with weight control. (We’ll come back to that.) I got calls from city commissioners, developers, landlords and renters. One person explained that a typical two-income household today could make the $1,400-a-month rent that seems to be the common figure for some of the two-bedroom units that are in the works.”

“I guess I can buy that, if the two parties are equal contributors. A monthly rent payment of $700 from each party does in fact make it more tolerable. Another person explained that what was of more concern to him was the glut of housing that is on the books, and we are learning of more just this week. Townhomes in the old AT&T building space on Second Avenue? I guess that might be considered the height of midtown living. The thought of close to 30 townhomes in that area is difficult to imagine. Another big subdivision out Shannon way is also in the very preliminary stages. I am praying that Rome and Floyd County doesn’t get over-built.”

From WBTV in North Carolina. “A WBTV Investigation into a Charlotte homebuilder has found more foreclosure notices hanging over properties the contractor is trying to sell. The new court records raise questions about whether potential homebuyers are at risk of losing out on their deposits. Thursday a deputy served another notice of foreclosure for a property on Irwin St. owned by R-Cubed. What is supposed to be a large uptown house is still only a slab of concrete. Court records also show four units on Greenleaf Ave owned by R-cubed are entering the foreclosure process.”

The New York Post. “Venus and Serena Williams’ childhood home, where they trained with their father and coach Richard, has fallen into disrepair. A large section of the $1.1 million mansion’s exterior has rotted away, right above the front door, pictures show. The four-bedroom West Palm Beach home is vacant. Richard Williams purchased the property in 1995 for $355,000. The patriarch was forced to relinquish the property in 2017, after divorcing his third wife. Since then, the home has gone into foreclosure. It is scheduled to be auctioned at the end of February.”

The Marin Independent Journal in California. “Rising interest rates have pushed monthly payments for buyers up nearly 7% in the last month, and more increases could be on the way. Jodi Fischer, a loan officer at All California Mortgage in Novato, said lenders are predicting a more balanced housing market will soon arrive, ‘but it’s not necessarily going to be a buyer’s market, it’s just going to be less frenzy.'”

“Agents say the pandemic boom in Bay Area residential real estate has followed big stock market gains, boosting the incomes of tech professionals. The expected interest rate hike sent stocks reeling — and clouded the home-buying plans for professionals who were relying on company equity grants and programs to fund part of their purchases. In September, just one in five Bay Area families could afford to buy the median-priced single-family home in the region, according to the California Association of Realtors. A decade ago, about 45% of families could make a purchase.”

From Bisnow London. “One of the largest development schemes in London has gone into administration, the UK version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest in a string of schemes in which Chinese developers have been hit by debt issues, had rows over payments or were forced to sell out once-grand visions. Administrators were appointed to the 700K SF first phase of the Royal Albert Dock scheme in east London being built by developer ABP.”

“Big Chinese names, including R&F, Greenland Group, Shimao and Oceanwide, have also been in the news recently regarding schemes outside of their home market. Some of these troubles predate the liquidity crunch precipitated by the Evergrande crisis; in other cases, overseas sales were precipitated by trouble at home.”

“Construction workers on the One Nine Elms scheme being built by Chinese Giant R&F walked off the site this week, with work on the scheme having stopped for as long as three months. The Telegraph reported in November that R&F had sold fewer than 1 in 15 of the flats at another of its London schemes, Nine Elms Square. R&F said it sold 1 in 3 of the properties that had been marketed.”

“The travails of Chinese developers abroad are not limited to the UK. In January Oceanwide had defaulted on a $175M loan secured against a site in the South Street Seaport area of lower Manhattan earmarked for a mixed-use skyscraper. Oceanwide had been trying to sell the site for three years. In October, lenders took over a semi-completed but stalled project in San Francisco.”

From Bloomberg. “The end of easy money is upon us. Two years after the pandemic sent the global economy into a deep but short recession, central bankers are withdrawing their emergency support — and they’re moving faster than they or most investors had foreseen. As recently as a few months ago, most officials didn’t anticipate the situation they’re now in. They spent much of 2021 arguing that price pressures would prove ‘transitory.’ They welcomed the rapid rebound in employment and dismissed the inflation alarms that some commentators were already sounding.”

“Now, policy makers have decided that inflation has staying power — and that tolerating it risks setting off an upward spiral of prices and wages, which could prove impossible to halt without provoking a recession. By acting now to cool things off a bit, they hope to deliver a fabled ‘soft landing,’ instead of a crash.”

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This Post Has 90 Comments

  1. ‘Prior to last year, the index had never experienced double-digit percentage growth’

    That’s cuz the metroplex is a sh$thole Josh. This thing got away from them.

    1. Fortune
      Zillow: Our 2022 housing forecast is way off—home prices now set to spike 16%
      i wonder if they will go back to buying houses now that prices are going to go up 16%. They’d have to be stupid not to!
      It is Zillow so take with a grain of salt.

        1. SoUtah:
          SFH prices for 2021 were up around 34% (YOY) with sales down about 7%. It’s frustrating dealing with all the local development, traffic, dust, newly arrived horn-honkers, “doyouwantosell” real estate cards stuck in my front door, overcrowded hiking and rock climbing spots and all the other negative things that we now have after years of central bank shenanagins and mostly unregulated growth.

          The bubble here now is 20 times bigger than in 2007. I feel like I’m living back in Orange County in the 70s watching the decline.

          On related note, we’re already outstripping our water resources.

          1. On related note, we’re already outstripping our water resources.

            True in pretty much in all the southwest.

      2. I love Zillow. If Zillow says it is so then the house-buying pukes who follow Zillow will make it so.

        These house-buying pukes do not have the money to buy so they come to visit me at my bank. Some of these pukes at first hesitate to sign on the dotted line but then they remember what Zillow says about forever-rising home values and – presto! – a brand new indentured servant is created which means I get to immediately collect a hefty fee PLUS I get to extract huge chunks of his yet-to-be-earned wages for many, many years to come.

        Again, I love Zillow.

        😁

        1. I do not care if Zillow overpays for a house and I don’t know if Zillow cares that it overpays for a house.

          Think of this: Whatever amount of money goes into the overpayment for one house is instantly transformed into equity wealth for all the comps. If Zillow owns, say, a hundred comps then each dollar of overpayment for a house will magically create a hundred dollars spread out over Zillow’s comps. Also the illusion of forever-rising home prices is strengthened which lures in vast hoards of totally dumbed-down house buyers, a market that Zillow then can sell into.
          (Using borrowed money, of course, which is where I get to come into the picture. 😁)

  2. ‘The four-bedroom West Palm Beach home is vacant. Richard Williams purchased the property in 1995 for $355,000. The patriarch was forced to relinquish the property in 2017, after divorcing his third wife. Since then, the home has gone into foreclosure. It is scheduled to be auctioned at the end of February’

    But they can always sell? Everybody is moving to Florida!

  4. ‘Now, policy makers have decided that inflation has staying power — and that tolerating it risks setting off an upward spiral of prices and wages, which could prove impossible to halt without provoking a recession. By acting now to cool things off a bit, they hope to deliver a fabled ‘soft landing’

    You go girls. I’ve said it many times: recessions used to come and go, sometimes they were over in a couple months. In the Greenspan regime, they started trying to ‘prevent’ recessions. We’ve been on a mad money printing roller coaster ever since.

    1. “Now, policy makers have decided that inflation has staying power…”

      There goes that meme, “inflation is transitory.”

    2. In the Greenspan regime, they started trying to ‘prevent’ recessions.

      Why is this disgusting mushmouth still alive, yet people like John Lennon went to an early grave?

  5. ‘The surge in cryptocurrencies last year brought along with it one very positive real-world effect: A boom in jobs at startups and other companies trying to get in on the action. Now that many tokens have crashed as much as 50% or more in a few months, companies in the industry are being much more careful with their plans, according to Hany Rashwan, co-founder and chief executive officer of 21Shares, a provider of exchange-traded products that invest in cryptocurrencies. Still, Rashwan says that his company, which oversees about $2.5 billion in assets, is holding firm to its hiring plans.’

    ‘A: Of course it changes the scene. People are more careful. All of a sudden, companies that were more casually doing $1 million sponsorships for conferences of mostly crypto insiders are probably rethinking some of these; companies that were not on solid footing. Well, now we see who’s swimming without any swim trunks.’

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-winter-threatens-chill-red-191546647.html

    Don’t look down Hany.

  6. ‘Thursday a deputy served another notice of foreclosure for a property on Irwin St. owned by R-Cubed. What is supposed to be a large uptown house is still only a slab of concrete. Court records also show four units on Greenleaf Ave owned by R-cubed are entering the foreclosure process’

    How many is that now? And this is supposed to be some of the reddest hotcakes going.

  7. ‘The travails of Chinese developers abroad are not limited to the UK. In January Oceanwide had defaulted on a $175M loan secured against a site in the South Street Seaport area of lower Manhattan earmarked for a mixed-use skyscraper. Oceanwide had been trying to sell the site for three years. In October, lenders took over a semi-completed but stalled project in San Francisco’

    This is a CRE publication, and they do a pretty good job. But notice a lack of big picture with the China-ron thing. All these big high flying plans. London, Manhattan, Los Angeles, bay aryans. Fueled by phony money and drunk with greed. And you know what? It popped years ago.

  8. Frisco, TX Housing Prices Crater 29% YOY As Dallas Area Rental Rates Plummet And Inventory Balloons On Collapsing Housing Demand

    https://www.movoto.com/frisco-tx/market-trends/

    As one broker conceded, “If you’re a buyer, the broker is lying to you. I know liar when I hear one. I’ve been lying my entire life.”</em?

  10. The Telegraph reported in November that R&F had sold fewer than 1 in 15 of the flats at another of its London schemes.
    Is it just me, or does that sound like zero sales ?

    1. “Is it just me, or does that sound like zero sales ?”

      At least they’re not lying, not yet anyway. Nice word play though.

    2. Well no. Googling for “Nine Elms Square” turns up a ridiculous looking trio of towers which is supposed to house 1800+ “homes” i.e. flats. Less than 1 in 15 means they sold about 120 of the 1800.

  12. Speaking of Zillow….and I’m not certain this was a Zillow purchase, but it has all the signs. This house is in my neighborhood, I walk by it everyday. First of December the family abruptly leaves. No for sale sign or anything. I assumed they were in financial trouble. Well I look it up and they sold it for a stupid profit. It’s been over 2 months…nothing…no activities, no signs. It has my curiosity going in overdrive.

    The address: 158 Lake Point Dr., Fort mill sc 29708 sorry don’t know how to paste it up. I’ll be keeping a eye on it and will report up the sale….I’m sure it will be a big loss.

      2. From Redfin: “… we estimate the home’s value is $730,719.”

        My, what a precise figure. This preciseness:

        1. Offers to the dumbed-down credibility and authority to Redfin’s estimate, and

        2. It demonstrates to the rest of us that those folks that run Redfin do indeed have a sense of humor.

        1. Agree. Yea, it’s like a homeless person asking for $5.37. I do know the neighborhood beside us there was a Zillow home and the asking was less than the purchase price. Zillow is thick in our market place…hopefully it will crash harder this time around.

  13. “In September, just one in five Bay Area families could afford to buy the median-priced single-family home in the region, according to the California Association of Realtors. A decade ago, about 45% of families could make a purchase.”

    A decade ago was before the Fed’s housing price reflation program got rolling, in the form of Quantitative Easing measures targeted to suppress mortgage rates.

  14. “By acting now to cool things off a bit, they hope to deliver a fabled ‘soft landing,’ instead of a crash.”

    Much fabled…often heralded but seldom achieved…

    1. We were the number one oil producer in the world, what happened?

      Brandon wants you to ride the bus. Cars are for “people who matter”.

      2. They about killed the market with too much oil several years ago. There have been over 200 Bankruptcies in the oil and gas industries before covid. They don’t want to pull anymore out of the ground or they’ll be back to $35 a barrel oil. They are as greedy as anyone else.

  16. R u planning to follow Matt Damon’s advice in his Souper Bowl add and load up on cryptocurrency investments?

    3. Matt Damon.. Tom Brady… This has pump and dump written all over it. Meanwhile, a couple of the precious metals gurus have noticed something odd about the metal ETFs. Short version: banks are smashing the paper price to profit from shorts, but at the same time they are using that low price to lay their hands on the physical metal.

      But wait: If cryptos are the future and precious metals are just relics for OK-boomers, then why are banks taking steps to secure the actual metals? They seem to know something, eh. Like, silver is needed for the green economy and gold is needed to back the currency. And for that, you need the STUFF, not a bunch of dancing electrons.

        1. The “if” signals that I was taking the position of the opposition in order to challenge that position. Common tactic in debate. I’ll clarify:
          ———
          Crypto promoters like to say that cryptos are the future and precious metals are just relics for OK-boomers. If that is true, then why are big banks accumulating physical metals? Oh wait, big banks know that it’s NOT true. etc.
          ———

  17. Re: They spent much of 2021 arguing that price pressures would prove ‘transitory’ . . . and dismissed the inflation alarms . . . Now, policy makers have decided that inflation has staying power . . . they hope to deliver a fabled ‘soft landing,’ instead of a crash.

    Just replace the word policy with idiocy and all the buzzwords like Transitory, Soft Landing, etc. will make perfect sense . . .

  19. From yesterday:

    “In Colorado
    February 6, 2022 at 12:14 pm
    As some of you know I follow the Mexican media. And they are pretending that nothing is happening in Canada. I’m also seeing anti-Ivermectin editorials in the Mexican press.”

    There’s a huge anti-Ivermectin story on Marketwatch (of all places) today. And guess who is doing an ivermectin study right now? David Boulware.

      2. Pharma has captured our public health and regulatory agencies. It’s time to pull your head out the sand.

        1. As I mentioned the other, even the Mexican media is attacking Ivermectin, with the usual “horse dewormer” rhetoric.

        1. 💉💰💨

          Translation: Pharma profits poof. IVM is generic. Pharma stands to lose BIGLY if IVM is successfully repositioned.

          2. Well my Ivermectin (which worked great BTW) was a tad pricy at $175 from my independent pharmacist for a 5 day treatment. However, the batch just ordered from India was a lot less at $70 for sixty 6mg doses.

    2. There’s a huge anti-Ivermectin story on Marketwatch

      They want a needle in your arm. For a “vaccine” that does not protect and is increasingly shown to be deadly and dangerous.

    3. David Boulware

      From what I’ve read, “[t]he infamous Boulware study fraudulently used Folate as placebo to claim HCQ was ineffective, when they KNEW that folic acid/folate were as effective as HCQ!”

      1. The Real Anthony Fauci at p. 160 provides a similar tale of rigging AL721 studies to fail 30 years ago.

        1. Ran across these:

          Dr. Robert Willner Accused Anthony Fauci Of Genocide During The AIDS Epidemic (1980) https://rumble.com/vtv7wj-dr.-robert-willner-accused-anthony-fauci-of-genocide-during-the-aids-epidem.html

          “Deadly Deception” by Dr. Robert E. Willner (1994) – digital formats available on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/deadlydeception00will

          My aunt died of AIDS contracted from blood transfusion. Always felt bad that she wanted to see my infant daughter (b. 1992), but I never did bring her to see her before she died, afraid. So much fear spewed at the time. Fauci and company screwing people over for four decades with no end in sight.

      2. Silly question: folate is over-the-counter. Why not just load up on folate and folic acid if it’s just as good as HCQ?

        IIRC, Boulware made some specific political comments, of the “I hate Trump” variety. (Can’t find a reference.) He’s clearly compromised in conflict of interest, so why is he allowed to conduct these studies?

        1. He’s clearly compromised in conflict of interest, so why is he allowed to conduct these studies?

          Who do you call when you want to rig a study in favor of pharma?

          1. OK, I mean why does anyone believe him? No wonder people mistrust “science.” Can’t say I blame them.

          3. I put “science” in quotes, yup. These health officials are no longer scientists. They gave up their scientific morals long ago. Problem is, they still have that PhD, so they are free to pretend that they still care about real science.

  20. “Consumers are feeling far more negative about the housing market this winter, as home prices continue to rise and now mortgage rates move higher as well.

    A monthly survey from Fannie Mae showed home purchase sentiment in January fell to its lowest level since May 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Weaker affordability is clearly the problem.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/07/record-low-number-of-consumers-say-now-is-a-good-time-to-buy-a-home.html

    Realtors are liars.

  23. The homeless are camping out inside Dumver’s airport, even though it’s about 20 miles away from downtown. Arrests are being made.

      1. Of course you do have Sam sleeping in a car at the Denver airport but he did have clothes on. Not to mention he was on a first name basis with the police so he has to get bonus points for that.

    2. “The homeless are camping out inside Dumver’s airport,”

      Could be worse.

      Woman Discovers Naked Man Has Been Living In Her Car’s Trunk For 3 Days, Captures Bizarre Scene On TikTok
      #WTF

      BY DOUGLAS CHARLES
      FEBRUARY 4, 2022

      After filming herself cleaning up the mud (she does an amazing job, by the way), she said to the camera, “The only logical explanation is that a muddy-ass homeless man slept in my f—ing car last night.”

      Police were almost as stunned as she was when they arrived
      Naturally,

      Coker notified the police about the naked man in her car’s trunk.

      After they arrived, and asked the man to put on some pants, one of the police officers can be heard telling Coker, “I’ll tell you, in my whole career, I’ve never come across anything like that.”

      https://brobible.com/culture/article/naked-man-hiding-trunk-3-days-tiktok/

  25. CO school board defend ousting superintendent who backed mask mandates, equity policy

    Don’t you just love a happy ending?

    Of course, indoctrinated students boycotted class today. All upper middle class snowflakes from Highlands Ranch, no doubt.

  26. Smash grab and loot all you want but honkers will pay the price.

    “Offense to beep your horn” Ottawa Police Jones Arrests Old Man |

    Justin Hankins
    3 hours ago
    I thought rape and murder was bad but now honking!? What is the world coming to when people just go around honking.

    https://youtu.be/WUEPsuDLs0A

  28. If this doesn’t make you run out and get jabbed and boosted I don’t know what will.

    Insurance executive says death rates among working-age people up 40 percent

    BY PATRICK BEANE
    JANUARY 3, 2022

    “We’re seeing right now the highest death rates we’ve ever seen in the history of this business,” said Scott Davison, the CEO of OneAmerica, a $100 billion life insurance and retirement company headquartered in Indianapolis.

    “The data is consistent across every player in the business.”

    Davison said death rates among working age people – those 18 to 64-years-old – are up 40 percent in the third and fourth quarter of 2021 over pre-pandemic levels.

    “Just to give you an idea of how bad that is, a three sigma or 200-year catastrophe would be a 10 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels,” Davison said. “So, 40 percent is just unheard of.”

    https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/insurance-death-rates-working-age-people-up-40-percent

  29. And the Insurance Companies can’t see the cause of death on the death Certificates.
    Are the Insurance Companies playing dumb, or what.

    Hitler had the same issue when the Nazis started burning Jewish assets. The Jewish had Insurance policies on those assets and synagogues etc. What did Hitler do? Hitler stole the pay offs for the State and gave a bribe back to the Insurance Companies.

    Stealing from the Truckers is another form of this warfare. Lockdowns that destroyed small and medium business, or reduced business , to consolidate power with Monopolies and enrich their profits was done.

    I see nothing but Hitler tactics , including canceling and blacking out anything that wasn’t pro Nazi at the time.
    So, when Main Stream News starts hyping Covid camps, punishment and scapegoating of the unvaccinated, its just so Nazi tactics.
    The WEF under Klaus Schwab is a force that wants to take over. Its no different than Hitler.
    These Entities are using the knowledge of history against the populations with a goal of a One World order Dictorship.

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