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I Want To Be Done And Put it Behind Us!

A report from WBTV in North Carolina. “Potential Charlotte-area homebuyer Amelia Serrano is relocating from California with her family and the interest rates are on the top of her mind. ‘Now we have to look for homes in a much lower price range than what we were initially pre-qualified for because of the interest rates,’ she said. Experts told WBTV that to offset the higher interest rates, homes in the Charlotte market would need to drop $30-40K. ‘If we find something, we find something. If we don’t, I’m considering holding back and not purchasing a home,’ Serrano said.”

From The Atlantic. “Even some winners of the competition have buyer’s remorse. In a recent survey from Zillow, roughly one-third of respondents reported regretting how much work or maintenance their home required, and roughly one-fifth  concluded that they had paid too much. In addition to buying an assemblage of wood, glass, and other materials and committing to a host of unfamiliar chores, homeowners are also buying a psychological grab bag of new stressors, time sucks, comforts, perks, and trivial fixations—such as the neighbors’ comings and goings.”

“For starters, homeownership alters people’s relationship to the tangible stuff that makes up their house. ‘When I [rented] an apartment, I was like, ‘I’m hanging this photo on the wall. Whatever—not my wall!’ Maia Bittner, a 34-year-old in the Seattle area who works at a financial-technology company, told me. ‘Now I’m like, ‘Good God, I put every dollar I have into the down payment and this drywall is like a shrine.'”

From Market Watch. “My husband bought a nightmare flip house, and after legal battles with the contractor, the house is almost complete. However, we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home. I should add that the home is located on an island next to a major teaching university and in a beach town near Galveston, Texas. As we come to the end of this journey, he wants to turn the home into a short-term rental, and I want to be done and sell it. Put it behind us!”

“Dear Flipper, Don’t try this at home kids. That should be the tag line for every one of those shows on HGTV where married couples try their hands at flipping homes. I myself have sat there, after watching the latest iteration of a program like ‘Flip or Flop,’ and have though, ‘How hard can it be?’ Unfortunately, it seems like you and your husband have learned the answer to that question in the most unfortunate way possible.”

From Socket Site in California. “Purchased for $2,305,000 in February of 2019, the two-bedroom, two-bath unit #3G at 288 Pacific Avenue, across from The Battery in Jackson Square, returned to the market priced at $2,538,000 last June. And having been relisted anew for $2,350,000 two months ago, the asking price for 288 Pacific #3G has just been reduced to $2,285,000, a sale at which would be considered to be ‘at asking’ according to all industry stats, despite being 10 percent below last year’s asking price and expectations, and down $20,000 on an apples-to-apples basis.”

The New York Post. “Olivier Sarkozy re-listed his combined Turtle Bay townhouse for $10.5 million — $1 million below its August 2021 asking price — following a broker switch. Sarkozy — through a limited liability company — purchased the 38-foot-wide property at 226-228 E. 49th St. in April 2014 for $13.5 million.”

The Guardian in the UK. “Homebuyers wanting to take out a mortgage could soon struggle to get the size of loan they need, as banks begin taking into account the cost of living crisis when calculating how much they can lend. Santander is now updating its affordability models as households experience a surge in the cost of living. Mortgage brokers told the Guardian that they expect the other big lenders to follow suit.”

“Ray Boulger, a senior analyst at the broker John Charcol, said: ‘This is arguably the biggest tightening in mortgage lending since 2009 because interest rates are increasing, and we are experiencing the largest rise in the cost of living since the 1980s. The difference between now and back then is that banks had a huge shortage of funds then, whereas now the banks are looking at what their customers can afford.'”

From Mortgage Professional New Zealand. “Christchurch’s housing market has seen house values drop for the first time in two years. Quotable Value’s (QV) latest report said the trend is being seen in all of New Zealand’s main centres, with QV’s national house price index experiencing its largest quarterly drop in more than a decade. David Nagel, QV general manager, said that ‘with the massive rise in listings over the past couple of months the balance of power has shifted firmly into the hands of buyers, after such a prolonged period of it being a sellers’ market.'”

From News.com.au. “A Western Australian family have been left destitute after the construction company meant to be making their dream house went into liquidation. Tiarna Nouwland and her husband, in their mid-30s, are wondering how they are going to keep a roof over the heads of their four daughters, aged 16, 11, eight and five respectively.”

“They shelled out a total of $509,000 to buy land and build a sprawling home on a plot of land at Gabbadah, near Guilderton, north of Perth, but this week their plans came crumbling down. The building company they were with, Home Innovation Builders joins a growing list of construction companies to bite the dust in recent months.”

“‘We’d always wanted to build our dream home, then we found the perfect block and signed the contracts,’ Ms Nouwland told news.com.au. ‘Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Financially we are facing being ruined.’ The family stand to lose $300,000 and have been left with ‘just a shell of a house’ with brick walls but nothing else on the barren property.”

“‘We are facing an additional $300,000 on top of that to finish the house,’ she explained. ‘There’s no way we can come up with’ that kind of money, according to the mum. ‘We’re going to be nearly $300,000 out of pocket,’ she added, saying this made the family ‘absolutely crushed.’ If the Nouwlands can’t cover the cost of finishing their home themselves, they will have to sell it at a loss.”

“Another Western Australian company – New Sensation Homes – was placed in the hands of WA Insolvency Solutions the same day as Home Innovation Builders. Gold Coast firm Condev, Brisbane-based Probuild, and Hobart’s Hotondo Homes are among the other companies to collapse in 2022 as thousands of Australians find themselves in limbo and unsure when they will ever be able to move into their dream homes.”

From Bloomberg. “Chinese developer Sunac China Holdings Ltd. missed its first payment on a dollar bond since concerns about the firm’s financial health emerged late last year. Once viewed as one of the survivors of Beijing’s sweeping clampdown on the embattled real estate sector, Sunac is at a debt-payment crossroads. China’s fourth-largest developer by sales in the first quarter of this year faces $1.6 billion of other offshore and local bond payments due through June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of dollar bonds from Chinese issuers yielding more than 15% now totals $85.8 billion.”

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This Post Has 136 Comments

  1. ‘we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home. I should add that the home is located on an island next to a major teaching university and in a beach town near Galveston, Texas’

    So yer gonna hop on yer flying taxi and go to school? I’ve seen those reality shows in Galveston. They never mention the water there sux. There’s a reason this place was deserted for decades. (Hurricanes). But you can collect jelly fish, sting rays and tar.

    1. I seem to remember that place sinking about ten feet due to overpumping of the wells. That was decades ago.

    2. I recall an article about tar balls all over the beach, and I think it was Galveston. Go to the beach and get black sticky tar that doesn’t wash off all over your clothing and body? No thanks.

      1. First time we went to Galveston we turned around right after we got there. Got a hotel room for the night in I-10 and then drove to Corpus Christi the next morning. Galveston is the ghetto of Gulf Coast beaches.

  2. ‘If the Nouwlands can’t cover the cost of finishing their home themselves, they will have to sell it at a loss’

    Sounds like plenty of people there are taking an a$$pounding. It’s Perth people. Never learn.

    1. ‘Someone is being carried out this time, too, because this has every hallmark of forced selling.’

      I’ve been thinking about all the risk asset HODLers who bought on record margin within the past couple of years. If rates rise and asset prices drop concurrently, won’t forced sales ensue to cover underwater margin loans? It seems like a death spiral could result.

    2. I don’t understand what that chart is actually showing and I don’t have Twitter. Anybody care to explain?

  5. ‘The last few days of March offered some hope that 2022’s massive rate spike might be slowing down. The first few days of April crushed those hopes and things have only gotten worse as the new week begins. After breaking above 5% by the end of last week, Monday morning brought the average 30yr fixed rate up to 5.25%, a level not seen since 2009.’

    ‘To understand why, we have to revisit the general motivation for the rate spike. Before we do, let’s put “massive” in context. It’s not an overstatement considering this is the biggest, fastest jump in mortgage rates since at least 1994.’

    https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-04112022

    1. ‘…biggest, fastest jump in mortgage rates since at least 1994.’

      And 1996 was the last good time to buy in California…just before the onset of decades of housing bubble overvaluation to come.

      1. “And 1996 was the last good time to buy in California…”

        Agreed. But I wasn’t ready to buy until 1998. By then prudence had been tossed out with the used bath water.

        1. I’m sure 1998 was still a good time to get on the California property ladder. 2022, not so much…

      2. Agreed; I think prices here in NorCal have been in bubble or super bubble ever since 1996. Even during the dips (after 2001 and after 2007), prices were never allowed to fully correct. Maybe this time, if we get the combined hit of the housing bubble bursting AND money losing “tech” companies going under. Wife thinks houses only go up, I’m hoping we’ll see some downward action soon because it’s getting hard to hold her off (“you said three years ago prices were going to go down!!!!”)

        1. you said three years ago

          Prices are stupid. Doesn’t matter as much if they are going up or down.

        2. it’s getting hard to hold her off

          I’d get a divorce before I’d commit financial suicide. The decision is so easy I wouldn’t even have to think about it.

          1. How can you get a divorce without committing financial suicide? For some reason this is seldom talked about, but in my world a decision like that is a life sentence of apartment living. Or sometimes it comes to you, as it did to my poor dad. He was dead just a few years later, couldn’t take it.

          2. “decision is so easy”

            Not getting married in the first place solves all of these problems. Good luck with all that!

            “It’s better to be alone, than to wish you were” — Unknown

          3. He was dead just a few years later, couldn’t take it.

            Sorry for your dad.

            It came upon me too after 30+ years. After she took off I came back to life and am still taking full advantage of a second shot at life. It’s been almost two decades.

        3. “Wife thinks houses only go up,…”

          Does she have a convincing rational explanation why, or is she just recycling what the used home salespeople say?

          1. RE happy talk, plus the fact that we haven’t had a true correction here in > 25 years, plus “Zillow envy” (seeing her friends home’s estimated values go up), and none of her friends have had RE disasters.

            I’ll just add that yes, if we are going to stay (and CA politicians are making us have second thoughts), yes I’d like to buy, but when renting is <50% cost of buying an equivalent home, it's not smart to buy.

          3. Baygat, one thing to remember is that RE data lags a lot. Those over-asking numbers are for houses that closed before mortgage rates spiked (closed in March means bought in Jan or Feb).

            From what I’ve looked at (individual sold houses on Redfin in my local market), over/under asking depends a lot on the market segment (condo/townhouse/SFH and price range) and the individual home.

  6. ‘Sunac is at a debt-payment crossroads’

    Seems they went past the cross road to fook the gringos.

    I know bloomberg, just say they made a last minute payment!

  7. “My husband bought a nightmare flip house, and after legal battles with the contractor, the house is almost complete. However, we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home.”

    There are far more enjoyable ways to gamble with borrowed money. Perhaps Vegas more closely aligns with your constitution.

    Houses are an expense, always. DonkeyMath is for Debt Donkeys.

    Santa Rosa, CA Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY As Sonoma County Staggers On Soaring Crime And Mortgage Fraud

    https://www.movoto.com/ca/95404/market-trends/

    1. ** “My husband bought a nightmare flip house, and after legal battles with the contractor, the house is almost complete. However, we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home.”

      I would crack a few jokes but might get accused of “misogyny”. . .
      then again, GFY, as that’s all the idiot husband
      will get w/pissed0ff
      wife’s legs
      welded
      shut.

        1. My husband bought

          What are the odds that the woman insisted the guy buy a flip and make “her” some money?

          1. “What are the odds that the woman insisted the guy buy a flip and make “her” some money?”

            “God ain’t made a man that could stand up to the power that lays between a woman’s thighs. You see, the hold that little cooter has on a man’s life is unbreakable. It can bring a strong man to his knees.” —Prentice Ritter, about why he lives on the range.

        2. Sounds to me like the leg-welding is justified.

          On what grounds? Sounds like it’s time for him to get a side-piece.

          1. “Grounds?” Heh. No money, no cooter. Side pieces have a price too, even if the currency is different. HBB is about accounting, nothing else.

          2. “Grounds?” Heh. No money, no cooter.

            Haha, what are you talking about? From the article, the profit was anywhere between $40k and $100k. It sounds like a nagging wife.

            Are you one of those cat ladies who hates sex and men? Asking for a friend. 🙂

          3. I’m not a cat lady.
            If you’re going to use a strong word like “hate,” then, very well, men hate me, including the HBB men.

      2. My brother-in-law’s love of purchasing flip homes to renovate and sell them, only to never finish the renovation process, was likely a factor in his divorce from my sister.

  8. ‘Now we have to look for homes in a much lower price range than what we were initially pre-qualified for because of the interest rates,’

    Got demand shrinkage?

    1. The return of wattle and daub? Kevin McCloud says homes should be built with MUD WALLS to beat the cost of living crisis

      This isn’t the 21st century I was promised.

      I want a refund.

      1. refund? REFUND ?!?!?

        (Dave’s dad wakes up in hospital screaming “REFUND!!!?” )

        Breaking Away

        top 100 best.movie.scenes.

      2. Everyday the future only gets worse in this sick Clown World.

        Living without debt is one of the only things that make it bearable.

    2. I recommend a sod house, as built by the pioneers on the Great Plains. You might want to keep a couple Pit Bulls around to scare off the Injuns so they don’t try to scalp you.

      1. Daub isn’t just mud. It’s clay mud, soil mud, straw, and dung. Yeah, dung. Grow your own bugs and mushrooms…

    1. But all was not champagne and caviar — as of this writing, 73 of the glitterati who attended the bash have tested positive for the dread disease, COVID-19.

      Which is no worse than a flu, and most likely just a case of the sniffles.

      Meanwhile all of these “elites” will give glory and praise to the Jab god and its prophet Fauci.

      Meanwhile, my fully jabbed and boosted in-law is still in the hospital with an enlarged heart, something she is now being told she “will have to live with”. So while she didn’t die immediately, she has probably lost 10-20 years of her lifespan.

      Remember what our betters have told us: the vaccine is AMAZING.

      1. I note that all these folks are just “testing positive,” barely a whisper of symptoms. John Campbell joked that FDA should approve Omicron as vaccine. It protects you against Delta better than the formal vaccines did, with fewer side effects.

        [On a side note, I suspect that the CDC knows this, and I think they secretly WANT people to get Omicron. That’s why they set the bar for masks pretty high.]

        1. It protects you against Delta better than the formal vaccines did, with fewer side effects.

          I had Delta last year. I’ve had bugs that were far worse.

          1. Yes, you did, but hundreds of thousands of others were not so lucky. That seems to be the defining characteristic of this pandemic: severity was so hit-or-miss, with no good consistent predictors. Omicron is a lot more predictable, mainly because that variant doesn’t get near the bloodstream.

          2. hundreds of thousands of others were not so lucky

            How many of those died of Covid, vs. with Covid, or worse, from the jab itself?

            We were hoodwinked. A virus that most likely didn’t actually kill any more than a nasty flu strain does sent the whole world into a panic, with the message that the black death had returned.

            And the hookwinking continues. A city of 20+ million is completely locked down only because some people tested positive, people with symptoms are as rare as a nun in a brothel. It is absurd and ridiculous.

        2. CDC knows this, and I think they secretly WANT people to get Omicron

          The CDC is a vaccine empire and sits atop a river of money, much like the local barons with a toll castle on the Rhine did way back. The last thing they want is for you to be naturally healthy.

          1. The last thing they want is for you to be naturally healthy.

            Hence why they were threatening us with taking away our livelihoods unless we agreed to get jabbed.

            They can all go rot in Hell.

      2. Can’t find where I saw it. Short clip, may have originated from tic tok, doctor and colleagues reporting they retested tens of thousands of PCR test swabs and only found influenza A and B, no Covid. Gave them to another group to retest, same results, no Covid.

          1. I’m not. This thing is over with. Even Quack Fraudci is now saying it’s “up to the individual to assess their own personal risk.” Their scare-mongering is over with.

          2. We’ll get strong encouragement, and perhaps some masking, but lockdowns and mandates are over. The CDC’s 10% hospital capacity sealed the deal IMO. (Unless there is truly some new variant, which seems unlikely.)

          5. perhaps some masking

            I am done with that. I don’t care if the county or state mandates it, I will not wear a mask again.

    1. Published 2 hours ago

      Inflation surges 8.5% in March, hitting a new 40-year high

      Economists expected consumer prices to rise by 8.4%, the fastest since January 1982

      Published 2 hours from now

      Take Your Pick MSM Outlet
      By Any Real Journalist

      President Biden says the inflation report shows Americans are feeling the impacts of rising prices brought on by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

      2. Americans are feeling the impacts of rising prices brought on by President Biden’s equitable green energy plan.

  15. As we come to the end of this journey, he wants to turn the home into a short-term rental, and I want to be done and sell it. Put it behind us!”

    Die, speculator scum.

  16. David Nagel, QV general manager, said that ‘with the massive rise in listings over the past couple of months the balance of power has shifted firmly into the hands of buyers, after such a prolonged period of it being a sellers’ market.’”

    Just wait till the FBs start walking away from their underwater shacks in droves.

    1. Given the utter silence regarding the suspect’s race, I think the odds of him being a vibrant of some sort are very high.

      1. “Police have only released a bare-bones description of the mass shooter and said he is a roughly 5-foot-5 black man with a heavy build at around 170 pounds.”

        It’s better than they’ve been doing lately.

    1. The annual tax bill is close to 1 million. To live in a sh!thole. How much does his 24/7 security patrol cost per year.

      How many big buck movie contracts have the Hollywood elites been getting during the pandemic? Few, if any I would wager.

      Wahlberg is starring in a biopic that opens tomorrow about a boxer who became a Catholic priest in LA. Doesn’t sound like a blockbuster to me, plus he produced it. Maybe he’s selling his shack to cover his losses in the flick.

      1. According to CelebrityNetWorth, Wahlberg and his wife bought the land for $8.5 million in 2009, and spent $20 million in construction. I’m guessing that with upkeep and taxes, he’s got $50 million in the property. Even if he has to take a haircut on the price, he’ll likely break even. But any profit wouldn’t be enough to make up for losses in his acting career. Not that it matters. He’s worth $400 million from his other endeavors. I think he’ll be ok.

        1. What a nation. We pay men who play with a ball or who are entertainers/clowns enough wages to become a tycoon.

          Small wonder all those thugs on the street are “aspiring rappers”

          1. “We pay men who play with a ball or who are entertainers/clowns enough wages to become a tycoon.”

            I for one have always loved the discount I get with B!torrent studios

          2. I for one have always loved the discount I get with B!torrent studios

            The problem is that aren’t even worth watching for free.

          3. I know Vanna White has a much higher net worth than I do, and I’m certain I shouldered more education and higher responsibilities.

    2. I saw this mentioned a few times so I looked at the exterior pictures. It’s in a gulch. No wonder all that land was still available to build after all those years. It’s awful.

    1. How did he know?

      but sources told The Post cameras on the station’s platform and turnstiles hadn’t been working since Friday.

      1. but sources told The Post cameras on the station’s platform and turnstiles hadn’t been working since Friday.

        Even more reason to believe it was a vibrant.

        Just as one has to wonder why anyone would live in Batman’s Gotham, so too do I wonder why anyone lives in the bug rotten apple.

  21. Some students in Trumbull won’t have busing to school on Tuesday.
    Police say thieves stole catalytic converters off at least 16 buses parked on Spring Hill Road over the weekend. That’s over $40,000 in damage.
    The buses were used primarily for the special education programs throughout the town. Transportation officials say they will notify all families who are impacted.

    https://connecticut.news12.com/police-catalytic-converters-stolen-off-16-trumbull-buses-leaving-students-without-ride-to-school

    1. This could so easily be stopped that it’s laughable. These tweakers turn right around and carry these sawed-off, high-priced auto parts right to the scrap yard. NOBODY cuts off a brand new converter and brings it to the scrap yard except a thief. Start shutting down the scrap yards for promoting this and they will never accept these things again.

      1. The scrap yards in Denver will not accept catalytic converters unless they are from a licensed commercial dealer registered with the state, effective July 2021. I know because I take scrap copper in and they have signs about this.

        What happens in the underground economy is beyond those attempted controls.

      2. They advertise them (catalytic converters specifically) on craigslist “scrap metal wanted” ads here in Las Vegas. There was an outcry; lots of victims rightfully objected. Maybe they’ve stopped, too busy to look.

  22. Top Songs in 1981

    NO. TITLE ARTIST (S)
    1 ” Bette Davis Eyes ” Kim Carnes
    2 ” Endless Love ” Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
    3 ” Lady ” Kenny Rogers
    4 ” (Just Like) Starting Over ” John Lennon

    Prices that consumers pay for everyday items surged in March to their highest levels since the early days of the Reagan administration, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday.

    The consumer price index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, jumped 8.5% from a year ago on an unadjusted basis, above even the already elevated Dow Jones estimate for 8.4%.

    Excluding food and energy, the CPI increased 6.5%, in line with the expectation.

    The data reflected price rises not seen in the U.S. since the stagflation days of the late 1970s and early ’80s. March’s headline reading in fact was the highest since December 1981. Core inflation was the hottest since August 1982.

    However, core inflation appeared to be ebbing, rising 0.3% for the month, less than the 0.5% estimate.

    Despite the increases, markets reacted positively to the report. Stock market futures rose and government bond yields declined.

    “The big news in the March report was that core price pressures finally appear to be moderating,” wrote Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. Hunter said he thinks the March increase will “mark the peak” for inflation as year-over-year comparisons drive the numbers lower and energy prices subside.

    Still, due to the surge in inflation, real earnings, despite rising 5.6% from a year ago, weren’t keeping pace with the cost of living. Real average hourly earnings posted a seasonally adjusted 0.8% decline for the month, according to a separate Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

    The inability of wages to keep up with costs could add to inflation pressures.

    2. Maybe this time is different, but the economy was on the road to Craterton in 1981, with long-term interest rates topping 10% in Paul Volcker’s War on Inflation. I believe long-term Treasury yields reached 14%+/- before it was over. It’s a long way up to 14% from current levels!

      I was an undergraduate, living independently of my parents on a subsistence income from free lance music gigs and mat tutoring. It was a great lowkey lifestyle, with lots of girlfriends for cisgender males with cash in their wallets. I was in no hurry to graduate and face a defunct labor market with no job openings.

    3. Top Songs in 1981

      NO. TITLE ARTIST (S)
      1 ” Bette Davis Eyes ” Kim Carnes
      2 ” Endless Love ” Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
      3 ” Lady ” Kenny Rogers
      4 ” (Just Like) Starting Over ” John Lennon

      My Top Songs in 1981

      NO. TITLE ARTIST

      1 BACK IN BLACK –•– AC/DC
      2 FEEL LIKE A NUMBER –•– Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
      3 HEY NINETEEN –•– Steely Dan
      4 HOLD ON LOOSELY –•– 38 Special

      Runner up Putin’s song or…
      Winning –•– Santana

      1981 song that produced best video in early days of MTV

      CENTERFOLD –•– The J. Geils Band 🙂

      https://youtu.be/BqDjMZKf-wg

  23. . . . and the pharisee money lenders, hollywood pedos, corrupt politicos, and my ex flee out the back door!

    (except Mr. Banker. he’s cool. and that weird woman with the lap dogs, raccoon eyes & a ginourmas rack: she stays too)

  24. I got a Donk she ain’t go no equity,
    A cash out refi was her friend.
    I got a Donk she ain’t go no equity,
    A cash out refi was her friend.

    Stamping her feet in circles,
    Losses gonna rise like a bird up in the sky,
    Stamping her feet in circles,
    Losses gonna rise like a bird up in the sky.

    https://youtu.be/ghj5V5cUo1s
    Billy Preston – Will It Go Round in Circles

    La Mesa, CA Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY On Inventory Surge As Developers Slash Prices Across San Diego County

    https://www.movoto.com/la-mesa-ca/market-trends/

    1. “Billy Preston – Will It Go Round in Circles”

      You would need a neck brace, straight jacket and leg splints to keep yourself from moving to that song.

  26. The Financial Times
    US Inflation
    US inflation hits 8.5% after surge in energy and food prices
    Top Fed official warns of ‘upside’ risk to price growth due to war in Ukraine and Chinese lockdowns
    Apples on display at a grocery store in California
    The rise in consumer prices in March was marginally above Wall Street’s expectations
    © Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
    Colby Smith and Eric Platt in New York and Lauren Fedor in Washington an hour ago

    US consumer price growth surpassed 8 per cent in March, its fastest pace since 1981 following a surge in the cost of energy and food, maintaining pressure on the Federal Reserve to take aggressive action to tackle inflation.

    The Consumer Price Index was 8.5 per cent last month compared with a year ago, marginally above Wall Street’s expectations, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. The monthly rise was 1.2 per cent, the fastest jump since September 2005 and a sharp acceleration from the 0.8 per cent increase recorded in February.

    Once volatile items such as food and energy are stripped out, “core” CPI advanced 0.3 per cent in March. That was the slowest rise since September, but still translated to a 6.5 per cent annual increase.
    …

    1. Once volatile items such as food and energy are stripped out

      Sure. I can doctor any stat to get whatever result I want. WTF does that have to do with anything?

      “Oh, you’re perfectly healthy if we consider everything but that gunshot wound to your head which, unfortunately, is fatal.”

      1. Since food and energy are essential to life in America, and feed into the cost of producing everything else, I never understood the rationale for excluding those items from inflation, unless the goal is to artificially reduce the headline inflation rate.

  28. 17 L.A. gangs have sent out crews to follow and rob city’s wealthiest, LAPD says

    More than a dozen Los Angeles gangs are targeting some of the city’s wealthiest residents in a new and aggressive manner, sending out crews in multiple cars to find, follow and rob people driving high-end vehicles or wearing expensive jewelry, according to police.

    In many cases, they’re making off with designer handbags, diamond-studded watches and other items worth tens of thousands of dollars — if not more — and then peddling them to black-market buyers who are willing to turn a blind eye to the underlying violence, police said.

    In some cases, suspects have been arrested but then released from custody — only to commit additional robberies, police said.

    DemocRATS getting it good and hard.

    1. In some cases, suspects have been arrested but then released from custody

      California Dreamin’

  29. OK, this make me laugh:

    Seattle’s Link Light Rail is a freeloader’s paradise.

    There are no turnstiles, so passengers are supposed to either buy a ticket or tap their pre-paid card. But so few riders are paying, fares are currently covering just 5% of the system’s operating costs, a fraction of the 40% mark Sound Transit set as a requirement.

    Just 5% are paying.

    What’s the Dine & Ditch rate in Seattle?

    1. The Financial Times
      Markets Briefing Equities
      US stocks reverse course and end lower as oil price rise stirs inflation fears
      Treasury prices rise after high March consumer price index reading
      Traders sit in front of trading screens in London
      Investors are weighing up what the US inflation figures might mean for central bank interest rate policy
      © Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
      George Steer in London and Joe Rennison in New York
      2 hours ago

      Wall Street stocks gave up earlier gains after a sharp rise in oil prices helped reignite inflation concerns, even after a crucial element of US inflation data came out lower than expected.

      The S&P 500 ended the day 0.3 per cent lower, having moved as much as 1.3 per cent higher earlier on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also dipped 0.3 per cent.

      Oil prices surged by more than 6 per cent, undermining an initially positive reaction to fresh US inflation data released Tuesday morning.
      …

  32. My husband bought a nightmare flip house, and after legal battles with the contractor, the house is almost complete. However, we are out almost $130,000 in expenses related to this home. I should add that the home is located on an island next to a major teaching university and in a beach town near Galveston, Texas. As we come to the end of this journey, he wants to turn the home into a short-term rental, and I want to be done and sell it. Put it behind us!”

    Is this a lot? Die speculator die!

  33. Globalists gonna globe.

    Eerie Screams Heard Over Shanghai After Total Lockdown For A week (1m, 28 sec) published earlier today:

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/jIDm6Tk0mJUe/

    Have you ever considered ridding your society, your civilization, free of globalists?

    Globalists are blood sucking ticks, they are parasites, proud descendants of a long tradition of nation wrecking and parasitic behavior.

    Christianity is incompatible with globalism, time to choose a side and stick with it…

    1. Why continue to participate in a system / society / civilization that want to silence and / or exterminate all white males? “Replacement Theory” is not a theory.

      Stop paying taxes.

      Stop giving them money.

      Do this first, then we can better decide how to KILL ALL OF THEM LATER. F* you globlists, this isn’t your country, because America belongs to Americans.

    1. “Monthly mortgage repayments on the median priced Australian home would rise from $2599 in February 2022, to $3344 – an increase of $744. This would equal $8928 a year.”

      Ouch!

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