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Overnight, The Bottom Dropped Out On Us

A report from the Idaho Statesman. “A one-bedroom apartment in downtown Boise costs about $350,000 to build, and one elsewhere in the Treasure Valley costs about $270,000, said Clay Carley, a developer. Outside of downtown, Jim Tomlinson, a developer with Tomlinson & Associates, estimates that it costs twice as much to build apartments as it did a dozen years ago. Carley said the cost of land alone has increased 250% in Boise over the last 10 years, and construction costs have risen by 40%.”

The Fresno Bee in California. “When you think about million-dollar homes in and around Fresno and Clovis, certain images come to mind. What you don’t picture are tract houses built on 7,700-square foot lots. Yet here we are. ‘In Fresno you would never see a tract home to be about a million dollars,’ said Danyelle Conner, a real estate agent for London Properties who specializes in the luxury market. ‘But we’re seeing it now, and they’re selling like hotcakes.'”

The Orange County Register. “Guess what else is soaring alongside 40-year high inflation rates? Credit card debt. Credit card balances increased $52 billion in Q4, 2021, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s the largest quarterly increase observed in 22 years of the data. At 5.11%, this week’s average Freddie Mac 30-year fixed mortgage rate is nearly double its 2.65% all-time low 14 short months ago. As mortgage rates climb toward 5.3%, this may become the fastest ever that rates have doubled in Freddie’s 51-year tracking history.”

“The number of consumers earning more than $100,000 per year who are living paycheck to paycheck was up 42% in January 2022 compared with December 2021, according to Lending Club. Qualified borrowers typically can cash out 75% to 80% of their equity on jumbo, conventional and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) financing. Veterans Affairs, or VA, loans allow up to 100% cash-out refinances in most cases. For example, 80% of a $1 million home value means a maximum loan amount of $800,000.”

“I’ve seen this movie too many times in my career. As household debt rises, the monthly payments can get so overwhelming for some, and those financial struggles can turn into late payments that show up on their credit reports. If you’ve recently tried to pull out cash and you were turned down, now may be a better time to revisit this. Mortgage lenders have gone from being red hot busy to cold as ice. The low hanging fruit is gone.”

From National Mortgage News. “Wells Fargo confirmed Friday it’s laying off an undisclosed number of home lending employees due to mortgage market conditions, one week after reporting a major decline in origination volume.”

From Housing Wire. “The mortgage market is facing a crisis today, and it’s being fueled by fast-rising interest rates. The rate escalation started at the beginning of this year and is continuing to play out. It’s a crisis that one industry executive describes as ‘a situation where we have to get the pig through the belly of the python.’ The lenders originating in the non-QM space make use of alternative-income documentation because borrowers cannot rely on conventional payroll records or otherwise fall outside agency credit guidelines.”

“Thomas Yoon, CEO of Excelerate Capital, another non-QM lender, offered this anecdote to illustrate what his company and his fellow non-QM lenders are facing: ‘On January 3 of this year, we put out a bulk loan offering of $150 million, and we found that that it was worth more than 50% less than what it was just a week or two earlier. …It was slightly above par [in early January] and just a few weeks earlier, I’m talking in the fourth quarter, we could have probably executed north of 103 [above par]. So, overnight, the bottom dropped out on us.'”

From CTV News in Canada. “In the community of Glace Bay, N.S., it’s hard to find a house for sale. Those who already own a home, particularly anyone holding a variable-rate mortgage, can expect to see a direct impact on how much they’re paying. ‘That will affect them because interest rates going up means higher mortgage payments and people will have to postpone those big purchases,’ said Cape Breton University business professor George Karaphillis.”

“He says paying down loans faster should be a priority for many right now. ‘People went out and bought a lot of assets because the interest rates were low. People borrowed a lot to buy houses and that’s one of the reasons the housing market is out of control, because the mortgage rates were so low for so long,’ he said.”

The Guardian on New Zealand. “‘Almost daily junk mail advertising houses for sale,’ said Greg, who lives in the central North Island city of New Plymouth. Then he noticed things changing on the street. ‘Every house on our road that has sold since we moved in three years ago has sold within a week,’ he said. ‘But now the house down the road has been on the market for about a month with no signs of moving.'”

“The same trickle of symptoms are becoming visible in many cities across New Zealand: for-sale signs staying up as the lawns grow around them, auctions passing by with no bids, listing pages mounting up on real estate websites. ‘Frankly, it’s a relief,’ said Will, a public servant in his late 20s, ‘I do worry for friends who have really stretched themselves to buy a house who will now face massively increased payments.'”

The Free Lance Star in Virginia. “On my daughter’s street in an upscale development outside of Lynchburg, houses are going up so fast it seems that one is finished every day. These homes are selling for $600,000-plus, and a new owner moves in within a few days after final inspection. In a subdivision near me there are eight houses in various stages of completion with prices in the mid-to-upper $500,000s. Adjacent to one of the golf courses I play, site work for a 400-home subdivision has been going on for six months. This project was first approved in 2003 amid much controversy but bit the dust when the real estate market tanked in 2008. Now, a new developer is racing against time to grow houses before the market slows again.”

“The housing market today is like the used vehicle market that John Steinbeck described in ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ Real estate agents could sell a million houses if they were available. Get me some listings! I’ve got the buyers! How long can this last? I have several friends who are high-profile agents and they seem to think—or hope—that the hot real estate market will go on forever.”

“That’s what they thought before the 1989 recession and before the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008.But like the used automobile market in the Dust Bowl during the 1930s, this market, like all others, will end. The only question is when. At this point, nothing seems to be slowing sales. Well, that’s not exactly true. One real estate agent said last week that now she is only getting 10 buyers bidding on a home, while six months ago she may have had 25.”

“Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has had little effect. Families with SUVs, large pickups and vans seem unfazed at spending $80 for a fill-up. They’re still fighting for houses 60 miles from their jobs. Rising interest rates? Nobody seems to care that the monthly mortgage payment on a $350,000 home (the national average) has jumped from $1,200 to about $1,800 as rates rose from 3 percent to 5 percent. Mortgage rates at 5 percent would make monthly payments on a 30-year loan for a $650,000 home about $3,000. That’s a hunk of change for many folks.”

“The strange thing, according to one of my real estate buddies who works primarily in Northern Virginia, is that most of his clients are not financing. They’re paying cash, presumably from the sale of their old house. Sound familiar? That’s what was happening before the 2008 crash. People in Northern Virginia were selling their homes in Fairfax and Arlington for $600,000 and buying a bigger and newer house in Fredericksburg, Culpeper and Front Royal (all an hour’s drive from work) for $400,000. But when the well dried up in Northern Virginia the housing market went bust in the 60-mile suburbs.”

“Between 2005 and 2008, I had a couple of friends who were buying the first houses in subdivisions (the first usually sell cheaper) and then reselling six months later at a higher price. When the market collapsed, they got caught with three or four investment homes they could not sell. They also couldn’t afford the monthly mortgage payments, so they were up the creek without a financial paddle.”

“I know people who are doing that right now, people who could not afford four $3,000-a-month mortgage payments if things hit the fan. If you recall, many houses went ‘under water’ following the crash in 2008. In other words, their value dropped below the price the owners paid for them. It could happen again.”

“But no one wants to exercise caution. Just gimme the contract and show me where to sign. I want that house before someone else gets it! Everyone wants to beat the clock and get the last great deal. Whenever a market crashes, some people always get caught with their pants down.”

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This Post Has 140 Comments

  1. ‘I know people who are doing that right now, people who could not afford four $3,000-a-month mortgage payments if things hit the fan’

    Oh dear…

      1. I don’t know who is behind the movoto website (maybe you?) but you should tell them that their “algorithms” or data entry people or whoever need a little improvement:

        “Median Days on Market
        51,836”

          1. I guess I have to spell it out for you. Your web site’s data is all bogus, and I’m actually surprised you’re allowed to post anything here that masquerades as fact.

          2. surprised you’re allowed to post anything here

            Ben doesn’t censor. Scroll down or add him to your Ignore List.

    2. Avg 30 year mortgage rate is now 5.39% as of this morning.

      This is according to mortgagenewsdaily.com

      That’s up from 5.25% the other day.

    3. I know we all have these stories, but for fun I looked up recently sold on a property in the neighborhood I bought my first house in 1980.
      It was not the address below, but identical.
      These are duplexes build in 1967, and each side is a seperate deed.
      So the sold price is for only one side of this duplex.
      I paid 47k in 1980.
      1752 E Grand Ave, Escondido, CA 92027
      More than $600 per foot for this and it is not in a good part of town.
      Imagine having a $3000 per month payment on this baby?
      STOP THE INSANITY !!!

    1. “Raleigh homes on average sell after 326 days on the market compared to 63 days last year.”

      326 DOM in Raleigh?! At the risk of sounding like a relitter, I think realtors are more accurate right now that anyone posting data from movoto.

      1. I have Relatives in the Raleigh area. From what they tell me it’s still bidding wars and cold calls of “we’d like to buy your house”

        1. Fake calls. Nothing fuels mania more than a couple of fake calls. Even more effective than Ze$timates.

  3. Housing.

    Housing –> property taxes –> public education.

    New York Post — What the left is so Tik’d off about: Uproar over Libs of TikTok exposes woke lunacy (4/22/2022):

    “If you haven’t heard of Libs of TikTok, you need to rectify that. It is a brilliant social-media account that finds the bats- -t-craziest videos on TikTok and puts them on Twitter and Instagram for us grown-ups to gnash our teeth over. You have no idea how far down the path of lunacy wokeness has gone until you peruse this account.

    It’s like a virtual Bedlam. We have recently been treated to the sight of a hyper-woke pastor explaining that God is queer, nonbinary and autistic. And a green-haired young woman saying she refuses to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because she’s a socialist witch. And a preschool teacher — also with green hair! — boasting that she has informed her pupils that she’s a nonbinary witch. There are a lot of witches on TikTok — and in schools, it seems.

    Libs of TikTok also features “throuples” who raise their kids gender-neutrally, men who identify as women complaining about period pain, and a trans-species activist who identifies as a werewolf. Then there are the pronouns. So many pronouns.

    The most alarming thing is the narcissism. Obsessive self-regard seems to be all the rage in youthful online cults. In videos highlighted by Libs of TikTok, people talk endlessly about themselves and their neurodivergency, their sexual inclinations, their gender orientation. And they bark at the faceless audience lapping up their vids, warning them to never use the wrong pronouns, or to question “my identification as a deminonbinary agender person,” or to step outside of one’s own cultural lane.”

    Housing –> property taxes –> public education.

    “The biggest talking point has been the schoolteachers featured on Libs of TikTok. There seem to be a fair few teachers in the US who see it as their job to infuse the next generation with woke nonsense and gender ideology. One teacher says she had her pupils pledge allegiance to the Pride flag rather than the Stars and Stripes. Another coos over the fact that her young charges correct anyone who refers to her as a woman and say, “No, she’s enby!” (That’s nonbinary.) Another — turquoise hair — describes himself as a “queer teacher” and says he’s worried about the way heterosexuality is “pushed on our kids.”

    https://nypost.com/2022/04/22/uproar-over-libs-of-tiktok-exposes-woke-lunacy/

    Housing –> property taxes –> public education.

    You’re paying for this…

    1. Townhall — The Way in Which Wars Start (4/22/2022):

      “American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said on a recent podcast that GOP-backed parental rights legislation could have alarming results and even suggested that such laws are how “wars start.”

      Stop grooming kids Randi.

      “This notion – we’ve been very lucky in America, and we in some ways live in a bubble for a long time,” she said. “This is propaganda. This is misinformation. This is the way in which wars start. This is the way in which hatred starts.”

      Stop grooming kids Randi.

      “We’re not indoctrinating,” she said. “We’re not grooming. … What we’re doing is making sure we educate kids. We keep them safe. We keep them welcome. And we teach them how to think, not what to think.”

      Stop grooming kids Randi.

      https://townhall.com/tipsheet/landonmion/2022/04/22/the-way-in-which-wars-start-randi-weingarten-warns-parental-rights-bills-could-have-severe-consequences-n2606253

      War doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

      Parents vs Kiddy Diddlers, because that’s what they are, and that’s who you’re defending, Randi.

      1. I posted this here the other day.

        Taxpayer dollars, specifically property taxes, pay these freaks’ salaries.

  4. ‘‘On January 3 of this year, we put out a bulk loan offering of $150 million, and we found that that it was worth more than 50% less than what it was just a week or two earlier…So, overnight, the bottom dropped out on us’

    Oh double dear! I don’t really care about REIC outfits. They gotta eat, like buzzards. But this site has some clown who is always going on about a housing bubble as a conspiracy theory, etc. Well eat yer crowz boys! You wake up one morning and there a big streaming pile of zillow on yer desk.

    1. What would you expect to blow up first? Subprime. But 95%+ of defaults last decade were prime. There’s way more subprime in the US today than ever in history.

      I remember one thing from probably fall 2005. An announcement that a subprime lender that had just been bought by a large investment bank for $100M went under. Gone. I had been following subprime (they actually called it that back then) trying to define it and watching the bonds behind it deteriorate. But it was still a surprise even to me how quickly things unfolded. These 40-60% increases in monthly payments are gonna crater these markets in no time IMO.

      1. “These 40-60% increases in monthly payments are gonna crater these markets in no time IMO.”

        That’s my view as well. But apparently the financial journalist community is deaf, dumb, and blind to the situation. Or perhaps sworn to silence by their corporate masters.

        Next up: ‘Nobody could have seen it coming!’

        2. Next up: ‘Nobody could have seen it coming!’

          I can envision a session in some college’s Journalism 101 class. The prof tells the class to repeat that phrase.

      2. “I remember one thing from probably fall 2005. An announcement that a subprime lender that had just been bought by a large investment bank for $100M went under.”

        And it was a good time to buy in about 2012. We’re in the 2005-06 phase right now. Maybe this one will deflate a little faster, but I don’t think by much.

        1. it was a good time to buy in about 2012

          Not. Prices dipped but were not allowed to “correct”. We were paying attention.

          1. I’ve shared about a former coworker who sold her house in Arvada (metro Denver) in 2012. She had a bidding war and accepted an offer over her asking price 2 days after listing. At that very time some on this blog were comparing the Denver housing market to a morgue. Needless to say, I was surprised at the ease with which she sold.

          2. If you can say that buying in 2012 at 500K, and selling in 2020 at 1 million, wasn’t a wise decision, well I guess I don’t know what to tell you.

    2. Fed tightening? Not so much. Fed still expanding MBS balance sheet at similar rate as of last week.

      https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WSHOMCB

      What happens to the Fed MBS portfolio when the yields on it are less than a ten year treasury? How can they sell any of it without a huge discount off the face value? Seems to me they can’t raise interest rates without simultaneously crashing the value of their own balance sheet.

  5. A reader sent this in:

    Ryan Lundquist
    @SacAppraiser

    ‘Price drops are starting to be more noticeable. Two weeks ago on my blog I talked about price reductions being barely up, but each week since they’ve grown. We are not at alarming levels by any stretch, but this is something to watch by the week.’

    ‘Two things: 1) You can overprice at any level; 2) There are slightly more price reductions at the top half of the price spectrum. Here is a Redfin image to show context for price reductions in the region.’

    ‘BONUS: Opendoor had 15% of the price reductions in the region over the past week.’

    https://mobile.twitter.com/SacAppraiser/status/1517156965557825536

  6. ‘The number of consumers earning more than $100,000 per year who are living paycheck to paycheck was up 42% in January 2022 compared with December 2021’

    Wa happened to my wealth effect?

    2. They should give the percentage of these people who are homeowners when citing these paycheck-to-paycheck statistics.

      1. I have so much money left after “throwing money away on rent” every month that I don’t know where to throw it.

        Debt is slavery.

        1. Isn’t paying rent a form of ‘debt’ and thus ‘slavery’ ? Many pay well over $10,000/mo.

  7. ‘When you think about million-dollar homes in and around Fresno and Clovis, certain images come to mind. What you don’t picture are tract houses built on 7,700-square foot lots. Yet here we are….’and they’re selling like hotcakes’

    No offense to people who live out there, but these aren’t just sh$tholes. This is a swath of sh$thole so big yer car has to gas up to drive through it. Enjoy yer crappy Lennar million peso shacks Fresno.

  8. Washington Examiner — CDC finds lockdown had a negative effect on youth mental health (4/21/2022):

    “data recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show it’s become increasingly difficult. New statistics reveal the troubled state of mental health for high school students during the pandemic. Surveys were collected online by the CDC from approximately 7,700 students during the first half of 2021.

    Preliminary data found mental health was getting worse and that the pandemic “created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental wellbeing,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s acting principal deputy director.

    More than a third of students reported poor mental health in 2021, 44% said they felt “persistently” sad or hopeless, and 29% said a parent or other adult in their home lost a job.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/cdc-finds-lockdown-had-a-negative-effect-on-youth-mental-health

    “We’re all in this together” right?

    Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab need to die.

  9. ‘Real estate agents could sell a million houses if they were available. Get me some listings! I’ve got the buyers! How long can this last? I have several friends who are high-profile agents and they seem to think—or hope—that the hot real estate market will go on forever’

    Well this is sort of the face of it. Veterans will say, ‘oh we had a good run, it was an illusion.’ And they hunker down on the beach while their former clients throw the keys on the table. It’s the same with builders. They know there’s an end, don’t care, will under cut previous buyers (New Zealand baby!) I mentioned before: I’ve heard builders say, ‘if you haven’t been bankrupt, you haven’t been in business very long.’

          1. If I’m a panicked seller in this market watching interest rates go up daily, I’m not letting my relitter take my house off the market.

  10. ‘Thursday marks the weekly release of the industry’s most widely cited mortgage rate survey. All manner of news outlets rely on the survey to generate once-a-week stories. Those have been especially popular recently, but only because bad news sells.’

    ‘The only problem with that news in this case is the fact that it’s no longer accurate. Due to the methodology of the survey, by the time the numbers are released on Thursday morning, things may have already changed quite a bit. That has been the case consistently in 2022 and today is no exception.’

    ‘At this point, the market is running scared from the Fed’s messaging–bracing for the worst and hoping for something that isn’t quite as bad. Traders fear an imminent normalization announcement and a potential for the Fed to be even more aggressive in removing rate-friendly policies. Those fears were reinforced by several Fed speakers today, and other major central bankers struck a similar tone. But again, that’s where things get tricky. It wasn’t so much today’s individual comments that pushed rates higher, but the comments definitely didn’t do anything to allay market fears.’

    https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/markets/mortgage-rates-04212022

    1. And this is the greatest hope, that people will just reject and not comply with the One World Order Dictorship that was pre planned by a group of anti humanity fraudsters and psychopaths .
      That people will reject being lockdowned, wearing useless masks , taking fake poisonous vaccines, having high crime, having their children assaulted by perverts, division by racism, war, and being forced into being deprived by Private Party Elites.
      Nobody voted for being hacked, no free will, and being enslaved and dictated to by people like Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab , and the psychopath Dr Harari.

      1. Tomorrow’s elections in France will be a harbinger of what is to come. I truly hope LePen wins, but I’m not holding my breath. If the French reelect Macron, then they will accept jab mandates and lock downs.

        1. most change is incremental. LePen has been nibbling at Macrons anemic lead for a while. To fast and there will be violent protests. There may be anyway though.

      1. Sophomoric tweet by a butthurt billionaire over Gates’ $500M $TSLA short position.

          1. Soda pop, donuts, and Oreo cookies, more likely. Gates looks pre-diabetic. He’s probably also taking a statin medication, which is known to cause muscle wasting and an increased risk of Parkinson’s.

          2. Bickering billionaires who both want us chipped. Like the bickering uniparty keeping your eyes off the globalist agenda.

      2. The sooner we start making jokes about the creepy Globalists and their creepy agendas, the better off we will be.

          1. I think the creepy Globalists will just laugh as they have another food processing center burned down.

      3. My favorite is when Bernie (never had a job) Sanders called Elon out on taxes, and Elon tweeted back “Bernie, I forgot you were still alive”

      1. There are photos available online that prove Elon has had hair plugs. 50 year old Elon somehow has more hair than 25 year old Elon.

        1. Money can ‘hide’ a lot of bad stuff. Money cured Magic Johnson’s Aids…many weren’t so lucky.

    3. Joe Rogan called out Bill Gates months ago, when he said this guy has no businesses lecturing the public about health.

      Bill Gates could afford the best personal trainers and nutritionists in the world, but he has a pot belly and man boobs.

      “They’re not sending their best”

      1. “Bill Gates could afford the best personal trainers and nutritionists in the world, but he has a pot belly and man boobs.”

        Priorities priorities

        Bill Gates hired Epstein for his workout needs.

      2. How anyone could take health advice from a man who wants your protein consumption to consist solely of lab grown meat….

        1. Seriously, they are all deranged weirdos , serial killers, very sadistic , perverted and demented, parasites and looters, a menace to society like any criminals are.
          Just listen to Klaus Schwab, Dr Harari, Bill Gates, or any of them talk. They are already talking like they rule the World..
          We need a great reset alright, and that would be the elimination of these soulless control freak devils.

    4. “Tesla founder Elon Musk dissed Bill Gates’ gut on Twitter today, posting a photo of the Microsoft mogul alongside Apple’s controversial pregnant man emoji ‘in case you need to kill a boner.’

      No doubt.

      It is amazing how some things affect our bodies. Makes me think of how my reflexes snap from those of a tired, beat up, creaky 62 year-old man back to those of a 20 year-old full scholarship college athlete when moving for the remote at the sight of an impending on screen TV man kiss.

      1. at the sight of an impending on screen TV man kiss

        Which is why I don’t watch anything newish, broadcast or streaming.

        I purchased the Jeremy Brett “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” on Blu Ray. A shame that Brett died before he could perform all of Conan Doyle’s stories.

      1. I’m also short TSLA indirectly by owning a few shares of SARK. Musk however seems to trigger the lefties almost as bad as Orange Julius, which is fun to watch. Kind of ironic considering I thought he was one of them at TSLA. I hope his purchase of Twitter is successful.

  13. From Housing Wire. “The mortgage market is facing a crisis today, and it’s being fueled by fast-rising interest rates.”

    Translation: Overnight, the bottom dropped out from under housing prices.

    1. I read an article today about the Mexican government detaining 300+ non Mexican “immigrants” being smuggled to the US border in semis. A drop in the bucket, to be sure.

      I expect the occupying regime/deep state will allow everyone into the US, with brand new SNAP and Medicare cards in hand, and a free apartment waiting for them in their red state destinations.

      1. “…and a free apartment waiting for them in their red state destinations.”

        That’s what Israel does too. They solicit eastern European Jews from the former Soviet satellite countries to live on welfare in the occupied territories at U.S. expense further encroaching on Palestinian lands under the guise that god deeded this land to his children.

    1. Re-post from the last thread.

      The Hill — US races clock to ship weapons to Ukraine (4/23/2022):

      “Having a continuous flow of just supplies and munitions, like ammunition, is critical,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

      “You know, it’s not very high visibility, it’s not very exciting, but that’s what keeps armies functioning”

      Mark Cancian do you have children or grandchildren? Are they in Ukraine now?

      “Eight to 10 flights a day are going into the theater, and not all of those flights are American flights, but most of them are. And every single day, including this day, there has been ground movement inside Ukraine. So we have seen no slowing down,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Thursday”

      John Kirby do you have children or grandchildren? Are they in Ukraine now?

      “Retired Army Lt. Gen. Terry Wolff will serve as the liaison between U.S. defense companies, the administration and allies and partners in making sure weapons and other military equipment are provided to Ukraine.

      But the fact remains that the U.S. doesn’t have a terribly reliable way to track what happens to arms shipments after they cross into Ukraine, including what units they go to and how they’re used.”

      Terry Wolff do you have children or grandchildren? Are they in Ukraine now?

      “Ret. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who worked with U.S. European Command to improve military relations between the U.S. and Ukraine, said Russia’s performance in the latest offensive will play a role in whether Washington is forced to switch tactics for getting weapons to Kyiv.

      “You know, do they try to remove repetitive logistics lanes? Now, if they see us repeatedly using the same logistics lanes? Do they first understand what we’re doing? And second, can they target it?” Montgomery said.

      “I think there’s a risk to our logistics lines. I assume that the United States has, and our allies and partners have developed backup plans”

      Mark Montgomery do you have children or grandchildren? Are they in Ukraine now?

      https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3460515-us-races-clock-to-ship-weapons-to-ukraine/

      “Having a continuous flow” of these globalists’ children and grandchildren into front line, boots on the ground combat in Ukraine is what we need.

      1. Here’s an idea.

        Let’s reinstate the draft, and the draft “lottery” will be specifically conducted by drafting the children whose parents have the highest percentile of net worth, starting with the 0.001% then the 0.01%, then the 0.1% et cetera.

        This draft scoring matrix will also be overlaid with the draft starting in the ZIP Codes with the highest percentage of 2020 Pedo Joe voters, and decreasing from there.

        Zero exceptions, and draft dodgers will face the firing squad.

        Draft bonus: anyone age 18-35 who has a Twitter Blue Checkmark, gets sent to Ukrainistan immediately, and dumped fifty miles behind Russian enemy lines.

        1. and the draft “lottery” will be specifically conducted by drafting the children whose parents have the highest percentile of net worth

          You might as well wish for a unicorn while you’re at it. All the globalists have multiple citizenships. Even if drafted, their kids would just whip out their EU passports and leave.

          Now the deplorables, on the other hand, would have nowhere to run if drafted.

  16. my father taught us to live close to your job, because in an emergency who will be called first? And any increase in rent will be more than made up by the overtime. Only once did i ever had to drive 35 miles to a job, but then i was close to the interstate and there was only 4 traffic lights from my apartment to the job, so 30 min drive.
    ————–
    They’re still fighting for houses 60 miles from their jobs.

    1. If you have to drive more than 10 miles to work, it’s time to stop and reevaluate your life choices.

  18. Something weird is happening in my nabe.

    I see more houses for sale while walking/driving around the hood, but MLS website don’t show them just yet.

    I will have to keep an eye on that….Wouldn’t surprise me at all if there’s some kind of manipulation….

    1. So, you think the owners of those houses are ok with not listing their homes on the MLS, and therefore missing out on about 97% of potential buyers? Is that your theory? Or that they’re too stupid to not know that their homes aren’t coming up on realtor.com or Zillow.com or Redfin.com or….?

  20. Can someone help me make sense of this mortgage history? Purchase price was $1,164,000 in 2002.
    03/13/2017 $100,000 Mission Federal Credit Union
    11/16/2016 $802,750 Guaranteed Rate
    07/06/2012 $540,000 American Internet Mortgage
    11/03/2009 $260,000 Mission Federal Credit Union
    09/18/2009 $620,000 American Internet Mortgage
    12/20/2005 $1,000,000 Jp Morgan Chase Bank
    05/28/2003 $250,000 Chase Manhattan Bank
    07/22/2002 $500,000 Chase Manhattan Bank

    $500K at purchase, cash-out refis to $1M, then I’m lost.

    1. At the very least, it looks like this 84yo widower/realtor is 6 years into $900K of mortgages with $17K/yr in property taxes.

      1. “At the very least, it looks like this 84yo widower/realtor is 6 years into $900K of mortgages with $17K/yr in property taxes.”

        For some reason, that post made me remember this classic 0:42 of American cinema that I have not thought of in decades. 🙂

        https://youtu.be/JUOGxePBs50

  21. Ok, so Talking Heads are predicting that food disruptions will be used as the next tactic by the Globalist Innsurrection to attack humans , combined with Covid 19.
    I could avoid the shots, , but food is just to essential. Will it be food rationing, if you dont take the shot, or what?
    Will Bill Gates monopolize food and push fake beef and bugs and gmo altered seeds , like vaccines were pushed on the World?
    Seems like this Globalists insurrection wants to take away every conceivable human enjoyment and implement a enslavement world of no choice.
    Fake vaccines, fake food, destruction of family and all prior systems for the One World Order Dictorship run by self serving anti humanity psychopaths, who think they are the new Gods.
    The depopulation, mass murder agenda by these enemies of the people seems more and more possible as time shows what they do.

    1. are predicting that food disruptions

      It will be interesting to see if more processing plants “spontaneously” burn down in the coming months.

    2. Hasn’t the WEF basically said they think people in the cities are controllable (you will own nothing and be happy), but the people in rural areas have too much freedom and therefore will be too hard to control, at least for a while? I’m pretty sure they’ve had conferences where they’ve basically said as much. I’m sure food “shortages” and rationing are part of the plan.

      I think the solution to all of this madness is pretty clear: become as self sufficient as possible, and that cannot be done in any city. Buy some land, guns, be in a community of likeminded people, and hope for the best. Staying in cities, especially in Democrat states, is willing acceptance of what is clearly coming.

    1. I just got promoted and got a company vehicle and company credit card to pay for gas.

      And as a strictly commercial electrician, I go to work every day knowing the risk of getting lit up on 277/480 volts.

      Sparkies gonna spark…

      1. Speaking of electrical work, in the UK they don’t have electrical outlets or wall switches in bathrooms. Sometimes they have a string hanging from the ceiling to turn the light on.

        2. I don’t know and don’t care about electricity in the Yoo Kay or in Yoorup, because I don’t work there.

          Fun fact: George Harrison was an apprentice electrician before he quit working to join the Beatles full time.

  24. Video: Pro-Ukraine Rally Attendees Cheer For Nazi Azov Battalion in NYC

    Infowars.com
    April 23rd 2022, 4:00 pm

    Attendees of a pro-Ukraine rally in Manhattan broke out into chants of support for the neo-Nazi paramilitary faction known as the Azov Battalion, video circulating social media shows.

    Footage from the event shows the crowd waving Ukraine flags as they chant, “Azov! Azov Azov!” in lower Manhattan.

    https://twitter.com/elaadeliahu/status/1517948443922255873?s=20&t=PrBiu4lY-Dky83qPEjZ7Ww

    The fanatatical Azov Battalion was formed in 2014 by a self-described Nazi amid the Maidan Uprising that led to the Soros-backed coup of Ukraine’s government.

    Their insignia is taken from the 2nd SS Das Reich Panzer Division, and they also proudly display the swastika and the Sonnenrad, another Nazi symbol.

    https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/status/1517497735234174978?s=20&t=yBcoz31ArtUrqXHbG_Xxzw

    Ken 🗽
    @eastriverrunner
    Replying to @elaadeliahu

    https://twitter.com/eastriverrunner/status/1517961883231399939?s=20&t=VXvj-jQxoxPKWdoHoDCHLQ

    The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International has accused Azov fighters and associated regiments of egregious human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, and extra-judicial executions.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried dismissing the Azov Battalion’s fascist roots, claiming that “they are who they are.”

    Charlotte, The Baroness of Burnley 👠
    @CharlotteEmmaUK
    This is now deleted footage by Fox News where host Bret Baier asks Zelensky about the Azov Battalion reportedly shooting POW’s

    “they are what they are“; where “they” is the Nazi Azov battalion that have been merged with the Ukraine regular military.

    https://twitter.com/CharlotteEmmaUK/status/1511263889677291524?s=20&t=nYQ-paWcOtUOd8TM1MdeSg

    The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International has accused Azov fighters and associated regiments of egregious human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, and extra-judicial executions.

    Like their support for Antifa, the left has no trouble backing an openly fascist group so long as they align with their political goals: in this case, waging war against Russia.

    Ralphie
    @Greensheet6
    Replying to @elaadeliahu

    https://twitter.com/Greensheet6/status/1517961478233591808?s=20&t=d7SUOpp9AyuuqOcHk9ssRQ

    1. White nationalists in Ukraine: Good
      White nationalists in Kansas: Boxcar them to the gulag!

      Does something about this confuse you, citizen? Perhaps you could benefit from a stint in a re-education camp.

    2. My husband, who is a much better student of history than me, told me earlier this week that I’ve “drunk the Kool-Aid if I believe Nazis are in Ukraine” and reminded me that Zelensky is Jewish. He must have missed Zelensky offending the Greek parliament by having a member of the Azov battalion speak. And last I knew, he thought Russia was losing. We’ll see who’s right in the end. I’m a quick study and realist. I suspect his time in ROTC in the 80s results in confirmation bias.

      1. I suspect his time in ROTC in the 80s results in confirmation bias.

        It’s probably hard to understand that the You-Ess-Eyy is part of globo-homo.

        1. He’s aware of that as well as the military industrial complex but AFAICT whatever he watches focuses on how bad the Russian military looks rather than the bigger picture.

      2. Ihor Kolomoyskyi is Zelensky’s puppet master. Kolomoyskyi is so corrupt that he and his family have been barred entry into the U.S.

        1. Ihor Kolomoyskyi is Zelensky’s puppet master.

          I’m aware of that. I’m not sure my husband is.

          1. The Western media has done its utmost to canonize St. Zelensky. Even Fox News fawns over him.

  26. “It Could Destroy Your Life” – Crypto Traders Seek Treatment For Compulsive Gambling | ZeroHedge
    https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/it-could-destroy-your-life-crypto-traders-seek-treatment-compulsive-gambling

    (snip)

    “It Could Destroy Your Life” – Crypto Traders Seek Treatment For Compulsive Gambling

    Since the start of last year, cryptocurrency prices have, for the most part, been ping-ponging lower in price. And as a result, many of the traders who enjoyed their first taste of trading victory last year began to experience something very different: Defeat.

    As a result, many have tried to chase that feeling of winning, often with the result of burying themselves further in debt. After a while, some have found themselves in treatment centers for compulsive gambling – or worse.

    Take the case of Fillipino Stevie Rojas, a tech entrepreneur who got “hooked” on crypto. He described the sensation of how trading “hijacked” his brain during an interview with Bloomberg.

    He says he spent hours a day hunting for digital treasure on his smartphone. The ups made his pulse quicken. The downs left him strung-out.

    He says he gave up morning prayers and time with his baby daughter. He scrolled Reddit and chased the action instead. If he wasn’t trading crypto, he was thinking about trading crypto.

    Rojas became – his word – an “addict.

    And so one day last year Rojas knelt in the darkened confessional of a Roman Catholic church in Manila, where he lives. He broke down and prayed for help.

    While the experts haven’t formally classified crypto trading as a type of dangerous gambling, some have started studying the effect that cryptocurrency trading has on nerve receptors.

    And now a growing number of mental-health professionals are adding an asterisk to the guides to designate cryptocurrencies as a trouble spot akin to gambling, and in some ways more insidious.

    Scientists have long suspected what Wall Street has always known: Our brains lust after money, cocaine, the thrill of buying Dogecoin: the same these activities light up the receptors, suggesting that the same parts of the brain govern all these activities. Researchers have even linked an elongated version of one neural receptor, dopamine receptor No. 4, to a tendency toward financial risk-taking and risk taking with street drugs.

    These qualities can introduce a dangerous element to crypto trading that can lead an individual to develop a serious gambling problem.

    “It’s very similar to being at a roulette table,” says Dylan Kerr, an online therapist in Thailand who has treated about 15 self-professed crypto addicts and accepts payment in cryptocurrency. “It’s seemingly never ending, and it demands your attention,” Kerr says of crypto-trading. “If you take your eyes off the prize, you could miss out on massive opportunities and incur massive penalties.”

    Says Lia Nower, director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University: “Excessive crypto trading and high-risk stock trading could be forms of gambling and lead to gambling disorder.”

    (click on the link to read the rest of the article)

    1. (more)

      Which is what brings us to the Paracelsus Recovery Clinic, a $90K/week treatment center for compulsive behaviors.

      (say what? 90K a week?)

      The $90,000-a-week view stretches across Lake Zurich to the snow-peaked Alps beyond. Here at the luxury Paracelsus Recovery clinic, a range of mental suffering is discretely treated in velvet-rope style. Amenities include butlers, personal chefs, chauffeured limousines and more.

      Behavioral “addictions” handled here include some that don’t appear in conventional diagnostic manuals: plastic surgery, pornography, exercise, work, shopping. Another problem that’s been coming up more lately: cryptocurrency.

      Clients here undergo therapy with a team of three psychotherapists. Personal trainers, nutritionists, yoga teachers, acupuncturists and the like help soothe troubled minds, says Jan Gerber, who runs the private clinic.

      Another patient at a different recovery clinic – “Castle Craig”, located in the UK, shared how he was simultaneously addicted to smoking crack and crypto.

      Steven Elphinstone came to Castle Craig for a variety of reasons. Elphinstone, 50, was working as a tunnel miner in London when he got into spread betting, a speculative derivatives strategy that’s banned in the United States. He started trading crypto early, around 2015, and promised himself he’d become a Bitcoin millionaire.

      Back then, Bitcoin was trading around $240, and he says he was buying four or five tokens a week. Elphinstone spent hours poring over charts at his home on the Shetland Islands, where he’d relocated while rebuilding his mother’s house.

      He says he loved the high of a trade gone right. But the losses were thrilling, too. He says he also struggled with other addictions. Cocaine was a big one. He sank all of his earnings into the crypto market or crack binges. He felt as if he could swap the two habits.

      “I was addicted to cocaine, and I was addicted to gambling,” he says. “If I didn’t have cocaine, I was fairly happy gambling.”

      “You’re always chasing the next high, and you’re never satisfied with the next high,” Elphinstone says.

      The BBG piece concluded with a quote from Rojas, describing crypto as “like any other addiction.”

      “It could destroy your life if you’re not careful.”

  30. This is the Democrat Party (Boston — 4/21/2022):

    “The broad daylight beatdown came as authorities continue to report soaring crime in the area, especially among juveniles. In fact, according to WCVB-TV, police were already responding to an assault and battery at a nearby Macy’s when they received calls about a huge street fight involving roughly 20 teenagers.”

    Teenagers?

    What does the Associated Press Style Guide say? Youths? Students? Spring Breakers?

    “Following the attack, the victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for further evaluation and is expected to fully recover.

    Police reportedly identified and arrested five suspects — four females and one male — using the video. All five of the suspects are under the age of 15, and one is as young as 12, according to police.”

    Remember when King Obama said “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon?” Yeah, we do remember.

    “In the police report, officers note that the Downtown Crossing area has been the scene of a “barrage of juvenile incidents” in recent weeks and months. Teenagers have reportedly been fighting on the streets, smashing store windows, and assaulting officers and other members of the public.

    Just last month, a group of four teenagers assaulted an 81-year-old man at a McDonald’s on Washington street. Other juveniles reportedly smashed windows along Silvertone Bar and Grill’s storefront.”

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/group-of-juveniles-assault-woman-in-boston-white-bitch-with-braids

    LOL@ you pay property taxes to live in a Democrat Party sh*thole city that tolerates this?

    “They’re not sending their best”

    1. Ok I watched the video of the son that would have looked like Trayvon and the four girls that looked like Malia Obama violently assaulting the woman in broad daylight but I am left with only one question.

      Will the children of the Smoke Shop owner where the assault took place have a Boston accent like the cop he was talking to or a Middle Eastern accent like he had?

  32. R.I. bill would impose fines and double the taxes of those who refuse COVID-19 vaccine

    It probably won’t pass, but it’s one more data point showing that the jabbing industrial complex isn’t waving any white flags.

    They still want a needle in your arm. And if it kills you, your survivors will be told that you signed on the dotted line, of your own free will, that you understood the risks and that no one other than yourself is to blame for your death or injuries, as you were not “forced” to take it. And they will keep trying to find ways to coerce you into getting jabbed.

  33. It seems Jerome Powell is doing a fine job of incentivizing punch drunk HODLers to sober up for the first time in over a decade of binging on easy money.

    1. The Financial Times
      Opinion
      The Long View
      Fed fallout spreads as shift to raise US rates starts to jolt markets
      The path back to tighter monetary policy is unavoidably messy
      Katie Martin
      Assets caught in this week’s market wobbles include Netflix stocks, the Chinese renminbi and the Japanese yen
      Katie Martin
      April 22 2022

      Are we there yet? It is a reasonable question for bond investors after a historic shift lower in government bond prices to reflect the increasingly hawkish tilt from the US Federal Reserve.

      Sadly for those left licking wounds, the short answer is ‘probably not’. In fact, judging from this week’s wobbles, the shake-out across markets is only just beginning.

      Central bankers are not sadists. Those of a mind to bump up rates to fight inflation want to try and do it without sparking undue financial market instability or, worse, economic recessions. But the path back to higher interest rates is unavoidably messy.

      As Joseph Amato, chief investment officer for equities at Neuberger Berman puts it: “When the Fed pushes the brakes, someone goes through the windshield.” Assets caught without a seatbelt this week include Netflix stocks, the Japanese yen and the Chinese renminbi. More will follow.

      The scale of the shift in government bond markets is something to behold. Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Bank Syz, said the opening three months of the year were “emotional and difficult for investors”. Long-term US government bonds were already on track for their biggest annual fall on records going back to 1973, even before Fed chair Jay Powell stirred expectations this week for a chunky half-percentage point rise in interest rates next month.

      Prices have dropped so fast that benchmark 10-year Treasury yields are sailing close to 3 per cent. At 2.9 per cent they are already at their highest point since 2018.
      …

    2. I’m curious whether the Fed’s moves have impacted the blockheads buying blockchain?

      1. Crypto & Blockchain
        Serious ‘Fast Evolving’ Global Crypto ‘Threat’ Warning After Huge Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Swings
        Billy Bambrough
        Senior Contributor
        I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.
        Apr 23, 2022, 08:15am EDT

        Bitcoin, ethereum and other “fast evolving” cryptocurrencies could soon become a threat to global financial stability, according to the chair of an international body tasked with shoring up the financial system.

        The bitcoin price has ballooned over the last two years, surging from around $10,000 per bitcoin to almost $70,000 late last year. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has likewise rocketed higher—boosted by the surging popularity of so-called decentralized finance (DeFi), a blockchain-based alternative financial system.

        The price of both bitcoin and ethereum have since crashed back, losing around 40%, and dragging down the wider crypto market that’s lost more than $1 trillion in value in less than six months as investors balk at the prospect of rapidly rising interest rates and an end to pandemic-era stimulus measures.
        …
        https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/04/23/fast-evolving-global-crypto-threat-warning-after-huge-bitcoin-and-ethereum-price-surge/?sh=75c33cc759cb

        1. “…cryptocurrencies could soon become a threat to global financial stability, according to the chair of an international body tasked with shoring up the financial system.”

          It seems pretty early for crypto HODLers to pander for too-big-to-fail bailouts. But I guess you either have to fish or cut bait, and those who start fishing earliest have the best chance to catch them.

          1. “…surging from around $10,000 per bitcoin to almost $70,000 late last year.”

            Can you recall the expressions of concern by any international body tasked with shoring up the financial system over the threat to global financial stability when the price of a single bitcoin increased from $0 to $70,000 over the last decade?

            Neither can I. So long as risk asset prices always go up and the HODLers keep getting richer, life is good!

        1. Crypto & Blockchain
          ‘Target The Bitcoin Price’—Internal Documents Reveal How The EU Could Crack Down On Bitcoin And ‘Protect’ Ethereum
          Billy Bambrough
          Senior Contributor
          I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.
          Apr 24, 2022, 06:30am EDT

          Bitcoin (BTC -0.1%), by far the largest and most widely known cryptocurrency, has come under pressure from environmental activists and regulators in recent months due to its sky-high energy use.

          As the bitcoin price has rocketed higher, so has the bitcoin network’s electricity demands with the process of securing the network, confirming transactions and minting new coins thought to use a similar amount of electricity annually as some small countries.

          Now, after an energy-reducing upgrade to ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, was pushed back to the end of the year, internal European Union documents have revealed the extent of anti-bitcoin talks among EU officials—and their desire to “protect” the likes of ethereum.
          …
          https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2022/04/24/target-the-bitcoin-price-internal-documents-reveal-how-the-eu-could-try-to-ban-bitcoin-and-protect-ethereum/?sh=370708937201

  35. In case Billy Bambrough is one of the blockheads buying blockchain, I humbly apologize for pointing out his financial folly.

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