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Officials Continually Spout Unsubstantiated, Possibly Phony, Estimates Of Housing Need

A report from the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. Matt Wilson, President of the Mississippi Mortgage Bankers Association, believes the housing market’s current state is not something about which to be alarmed. ‘Mortgage rates are up, and they went up a little quicker than we all thought they would,’ he said. Wilson said 6% does not mean there is a recession on the way.”

“‘Everybody is saying this is an ’08-’09 situation when there was such a deep recession and economic downturn, and it’s just not. Nothing could be further from the truth,’ Wilson said. ‘Banks are lending money. Financial companies are lending money. We want to get people into houses,’ he said. “We have qualified clients who can buy houses. There just aren’t enough houses for everyone to buy. Back in ’08-’09, we couldn’t put people in houses because we couldn’t lend the money to them. That’s not the case here. We want to lend the money to people. I think that is the story.'”

From NPR on Washington DC. “The little house on First Street SE was supposed to fulfill a lifelong goal for Tasharn Richardson. The mother of 10 bought the three-bedroom bungalow in Congress Heights last summer — her first home purchase, after living in public housing her entire life. The excitement didn’t last. Richardson began to notice problems with the house weeks after her family moved in. The 100-year-old property sat vacant for seven years before Richardson purchased it, and her home inspection report revealed a long list of issues. But she says the seller and her realtor assured her that the problems had been fixed before she closed on the $475,000 property.”

“‘It took me months to talk about this,’ she says, wiping tears from her cheeks. ‘For me, it’s just the shame of bringing my family here.’ She may not need to fight on her own. A Wider Circle has found Richardson a lawyer. ‘My next step is, hopefully, to get compensated,’ Richardson says. ‘My family has been blaming each other for a lot of things that have gone on. But now we realize it’s not so much our fault.'”

From WMAR 2 on Maryland. “Talks of home ownership at the cost of a dollar was back on the table during a hearing at City Hall Tuesday. Baltimoreans and prospective property owners flooded City Hall with dreams of home ownership. Councilman Zeke Cohen told WMAR 2 News he’s concerned rehab of a vacant home would Baltimoreans underwater — owing more money than their new home would be worth. ‘In other words,’ said Cohen, ‘most of the stock that would be eligible to be a dollar home would require mass renovations. These are primarily shells in there surrounded by other vacants. It would leave people upside down.'”

From Bisnow New York. “Ashkenazy has amassed holdings that, five years ago, would have been the envy of the world. The company controls Union Station, owns a host of storefronts on Fifth and Madison avenues, as well as Bayside Marketplace in Miami and One Union Square in San Francisco and ground leases Fanueil Hall, the historic tourist-centric shopping hub at the heart of Boston. For a brief time before the pandemic, it co-owned the Plaza Hotel. The sheer number of legal actions against Ashkenazy and its affiliates in recent months has been dizzying.”

“‘There’s a bit of a mythical quality about Ashkenazy as it relates to the marketplace, the fact that they do it all themselves makes sense as to why everybody wouldn’t know them as well,’ Miller Walker Retail Real Estate principal Bill Miller, a D.C. retail specialist, told Bisnow. ‘Iconic real estate is expensive. If they can buy world-class assets regularly all over the East Coast, and to do that is not easy, so it’s interesting that they have given some back over the last 24 months, and I think generally people are wondering why they’ve had to pull out of so many projects.'”

From Calmatters. “In some parts of California, there is definitely a housing crunch. But a massive, multi-million-unit shortage? Maybe not. At least, so suggests a scathing springtime report from the non-partisan acting state auditor. ‘The (state) Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has made errors when completing its needs assessments because it does not sufficiently review and verify data it uses,’ the report deadpanned.”

“Maybe that’s why as he campaigned in 2018, Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted California would need 3.5 million new housing units within eight years just to keep up. Newsom’s administration now says California needs 1.8 million new homes by 2030, a huge drop in his needs assessment after less than four years. What happened to the other half of what Newsom said was needed? Maybe the need never existed.”

“Here’s a bit more of what Auditor Michael S. Tilden reported in a dramatic document so far studiously ignored by politicians: ‘HCD does not have adequate review processes to ensure that its staff members accurately enter data that it uses in the needs assessments.’ Which means leading state officials continually spout unsubstantiated, possibly phony, estimates of housing need.”

Independent American Communities. “This year, several states have considered new legislation to help — or force — condominium association and HOA-governed common interest developments (CID) to better manage and finance their long-term maintenance, using reserve studies as a tool. Let’s be honest. CID developers often don’t give a hoot about the long term viability of the CIDs they build. Their goal is short term profit on new construction sales — and perhaps slightly longer term revenue from holding onto a portion of units or amenities, generated by rental income. Most of the time, by the time multifamily buildings and private community infrastructure starts to wear out, the developer is long gone.”

“I want to emphasize: The HOA industry, local and state government, were never truly interested in a long-term future for condominiums and CIDs. And, for decades, the banking and finance industries didn’t care either. If long-term viability and safety had been the goal, these institutions would have required a 30-year reserve and asset depreciation plan to be in place at the time that construction was approved and permitted.”

“And, let’s not ignore the truth. The condo association that pushes for huge special assessments is almost always dominated by investors, not owner occupants. Essentially, any condo or HOA (residential or commercial) project is attractive to investors or developers, because the stakeholders can rely on a sizable portion of emotionally-attached (or economically trapped) owners to help finance their de facto rental apartment business or redevelopment project! When the investors eventually succeed at bleeding the owners dry, the HOA will either foreclose or force a buyout upon condominium termination.”

From Open Housing on Canada. “The pandemic may have been boom time for real estate speculators, but one home flipper has managed to make a serious loss with a failed property flip. The numbered company 1330138 B.C. LTD bought the condo at 1388-2088 Barclay Street, Vancouver, for $4,380,000 on Sep 23, 2021, according to BC Assessment. The owners put it back on the market on Jan 18, 2022, for $5,442,000 with John Kardos of Rennie & Associates Realty Ltd. as the listing agent.”

“The views, the location, and the amenities were clearly not enough to entice buyers willing to pay the hefty asking price, as the condo finally sold it last Friday for $3,500,000, according to records. The flip flop cost the flipper $880,000, or 20%, before selling costs. Deborah Paes-Braga is listed as the sole director of 1330138 B.C. LTD. This does not appear to be Deborah Paes-Braga’s first rodeo. Deborah Paes-Braga was listed as the sole director of 1141975 B.C. LTD, which once resold a property in West Vancouver for a $1.68 million dollar loss.”

From The Age in Australia. “A three-bedroom house in Yarraville that sold for $1.62 million in December, passed in at auction on Saturday on a bid of $1.405 million. The vendors were selling 76 Benbow Street, in inner-western Melbourne, after unforeseen circumstances in the family meant they were no longer able to move in. Bidding opened at $1.2 million and two parties made conservative offers before a vendor bid of $1.4 million was made. After one more bid, the property passed in for negotiation.”

“Ray White Seddon selling agent Mat Crothers said he was not surprised the home had passed in, with agents now negotiating with three to four interested buyers who had held back at the auction. ‘I think often what people will do is sit back and wait to see what happens,’ Crothers said. The vendors were also not surprised with the outcome but are hopeful the property will sell this week. They are also hopeful of getting a good price in the deal, Crothers said, even if it is below what they invested in the home.”

“‘They paid $1.62 million at Christmas … they knew what they paid and, in a perfect world, they would get it back,’ Crothers said. Agents said the frenzy of the market has slowed, with buyers shifting from FOMO (fear of missing out) to FOOP (fear of over-paying) at auctions over the Anzac Day long weekend.”

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This Post Has 75 Comments

  1. ‘Back in ’08-’09, we couldn’t put people in houses because we couldn’t lend the money to them. That’s not the case here. We want to lend the money to people’

    This is an interesting REIC tactic. You wanted to lend people money in 2000 to 2006 as well. How did that work out? With inflation over 7% and shack loans still much below that, yer losing money on every one.

  2. ‘They paid $1.62 million at Christmas … they knew what they paid and, in a perfect world, they would get it back’

    ‘‘Iconic real estate is expensive. If they can buy world-class assets regularly all over the East Coast, and to do that is not easy, so it’s interesting that they have given some back over the last 24 months, and I think generally people are wondering why they’ve had to pull out of so many projects’

    It’s simple Mat, good money after bad. Strategic default. Sort of like, if it’s red hotcakes, why is zillows steaming pile of losses growing every quarter? Did you notice the streaming pile reported this past week and the media isn’t saying boo?

  3. ‘I want to emphasize: The HOA industry, local and state government, were never truly interested in a long-term future for condominiums and CIDs. And, for decades, the banking and finance industries didn’t care either. If long-term viability and safety had been the goal, these institutions would have required a 30-year reserve and asset depreciation plan to be in place at the time that construction was approved and permitted’

    This article is worth reading in full. I know a lot of people will disagree, but I’ve long felt airboxes are a by-product of the housing bubble and there wouldn’t be near as many if people were acting rationally in a system not overrun by REIC corruption.

  4. ‘The 100-year-old property sat vacant for seven years before Richardson purchased it, and her home inspection report revealed a long list of issues. But she says the seller and her realtor assured her that the problems had been fixed before she closed on the $475,000 property’

    I’m curious how this dump got a loan. Sound lending! BTW putting plywood over mold doesn’t help.

    ‘The flip flop cost the flipper $880,000, or 20%, before selling costs…Paes-Braga was listed as the sole director of 1141975 B.C. LTD, which once resold a property in West Vancouver for a $1.68 million dollar loss’

    Another example: where’s my red hotcakes Vancouver?

    1. I was curious how the article made no mention of Richardson’s husband. Who is in charge of maintaining the house?

      1. Some hunches:
        1) Richardson doesn’t have a hisband.
        2) Some of my federal tax dollars go towards making up for the absence of a husband in her household.

  5. Would you willingly take all of your hard earned money and gamble it away at the casino?

      1. ‘We know this is about to drastically slow down but DAMN, all the houses sold in the last 3 weeks must have only been to investors’

        And so goes a speculative mania.

    2. The Financial Times
      Berkshire Hathaway Inc
      Buffett says market ‘almost totally a casino’ as it rallied in recent years
      Berkshire Hathaway head tells shareholders that Wall Street encouraged traders to treat shares like poker chips
      A Warren Buffett rubber duck on display at the Berkshire Hathaway 2022 Annual Shareholders Meeting
      © AP
      Eric Platt in Omaha April 30 2022

      Warren Buffett on Saturday said US financial markets had become “almost totally a casino” as millions of new traders flooded into the financial system during the pandemic.

      The billionaire and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, speaking in Omaha to thousands of shareholders gathered for the company’s annual meeting, added that “extraordinary” activity had been “encouraged by Wall Street because the money is in turning over stocks”.

      The comments follow a dramatic shift in how people across the globe are interacting with their finances. Americans have opened millions of brokerage accounts since the start of the pandemic, with many turning to options markets to bet on the quick rise or fall in companies such as Apple and Tesla.

      Buffett and his consigliere, Berkshire vice-chair Charlie Munger, credited the rapid pace of trading and the fact that many holders of some stocks were not long-term investors for the company’s ability to make their own large bets this year.

      In the first quarter, the company spent $51.1bn buying shares of companies, including large bets on oil majors Chevron and Occidental Petroleum. Buffett said it was “incredible” that Berkshire had been able to buy more than 14 per cent of Occidental in a matter of weeks.
      Line chart of Performance since the start of 2020 (%) showing Berkshire’s stock has taken the lead over the broad market

      “But overwhelmingly large companies in America, they became poker chips and people were buying and selling like three-day calls, two-day calls,” he said, referring to derivatives that became the choice instrument for many new day traders in the market. “Wall Street makes money one way or another, catching the crumbs that fall off the table of capitalism.”

      There are signs that much of the enthusiasm that pumped US stocks to records last year has evaporated. Trading in penny stocks has collapsed and the amount of borrowing investors are doing to trade has fallen, according to the US broker-dealer watchdog Finra.
      …

      1. Buffett is a greedy 90+ year old Globalist who still needs more money. He can GFH.

    4. 2022 Berkshire Annual Meeting
      Warren Buffett gives his most expansive explanation for why he doesn’t believe in bitcoin
      Published Sat, Apr 30 2022 4:10 PM EDT
      Updated Sat, Apr 30 2022 8:58 PM EDT
      Tanaya Macheel
      If you offered me all the bitcoin in the world for $25, I wouldn’t take it, says Warren Buffett

      Bitcoin has steadily been gaining acceptance from the traditional finance and investment world in recent years but Warren Buffett is sticking to his skeptical stance on bitcoin.

      He said at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder meeting Saturday that it’s not a productive asset and it doesn’t produce anything tangible. Despite a shift in public perception about the cryptocurrency, Buffett still wouldn’t buy it.

      “Whether it goes up or down in the next year, or five or 10 years, I don’t know. But the one thing I’m pretty sure of is that it doesn’t produce anything,” Buffett said. “It’s got a magic to it and people have attached magics to lots of things.”
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/30/warren-buffett-gives-his-most-expansive-explanation-for-why-he-doesnt-believe-in-bitcoin.html

  6. Denver Police — “This is the year of no consequences.”

    Westword — Are Cops Pushing Union Station Crime to Denver Skatepark? (4/29/2022):

    “The Denver Police Department is continuing to investigate the fatal shooting of sixteen-year-old Juan Herrera-Lozano on April 23 across from the Denver Skatepark, 2205 19th Street. The DPD has shared video and images of a vehicle from which detectives believe the fatal bullet was fired, but has not identified any suspects or announced an arrest.

    The tragedy doesn’t surprise Derek Cox, a resident of an apartment overlooking the skate park, as well as the victim of multiple crimes over the past two years, including two robberies in which he lost belongings worth thousands of dollars, as well as a pair of assaults. The second of the attacks took place while he was on the phone with a 911 operator to report what he describes as a “full-scale riot” at the Denver Skatepark just two weeks prior to Herrera-Lozano’s death.

    Since last year, Cox has been in contact with multiple city officials and DPD representatives regarding his concerns about a rise in open drug use and criminal behavior in the vicinity of the Skatepark and nearby apartment complexes. He says he’s frustrated by how the DPD has handled his calls for help. After the riot and assault, Cox was able to speak to an off-duty officer, who stayed with him for approximately an hour. But three on-duty motorcycle cops responding to his call didn’t turn up until more than two hours later, and instead of stopping and talking to him, he says, they simply drove past the Skatepark, which had largely cleared out by then, and kept moving.

    During the summer of 2021, however, “things started deteriorating fast,” Cox says. That Labor Day, he saw a non-resident slip into his building’s parking garage; fearful that the man intended to swipe items from cars parked there, Cox called 911, where he sat on hold for thirty minutes. Finally, he decided to act on his own, but when he spoke to the man, who was digging through a dumpster at the time, “he immediately started swinging at me,” Cox recalls. The situation deteriorated into a brawl that only ended after several other residents turned up and helped Cox hustle the man out of the garage.

    The end of last year saw another unnerving incident: A heavily intoxicated man managed to get into Cox’s secure complex and follow him to his apartment, where he seemed intent on staying. Cox escorted him out, but as they were taking the elevator down to the ground floor, the man muttered that he was going to kill him. Again, Cox called the police, and Denver officers searched the building but couldn’t find the man. Afterward, Cox says one of the officers told him: “This is the year of no consequences.”

    A few weeks later, on April 9, Cox was walking home when he saw a large crowd cheering and hollering at the Skatepark. Thinking some kind of skating exhibition was underway, he joined the gathering, only to discover that “about ten to fifteen guys had this sixteen-year-old kid in the street, and they were kicking the ever-living shit out of him,” Cox recalls. Meanwhile, the teen’s girlfriend was being shoved back and forth by several people who pushed her to the ground at least once.

    At that point, Cox moved out of the mob and dialed 911. “While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, three of these guys snuck up behind me and one of them sucker-punched me in the back of the head, causing my phone to go flying,” he says. After defending himself, he was able to retrieve his phone, and he and the girlfriend took shelter in the security area of his building. But the only cop he was able to speak with was an off-duty officer, who gave Cox his card and said that if the person who slugged him showed up at the Skatepark in the future, he could come over and write him a ticket.

    Cox says he told the officer he appreciated the offer but was also confused, since he felt the assault warranted an arrest, not a citation. To that, the off-duty officer repeated an observation that Cox had heard before: “This is the year of no consequences.” He believes the phrase is in common usage among DPD officers, because when he mentioned it at a recent public meeting at which Denver District Attorney Beth McCann was a guest speaker, another attendee said a cop had delivered it to him, too.

    https://www.westword.com/news/denver-skatepark-crime-wave-claims-update-13977293

    “This is the year of no consequences.”

    This is what your property taxes are not paying for.

      1. Denver voted 80% for Pedo Joe in 2020. Hancock, McCann, CdeBaca are all Marxist trash.

        I’m probably moving to Colorado Springs in the next few years.

      2. There’s a person with the same name living near Denver Skatepark that is affiliated with the Democrat party according to voterrecords.com. D-voter confirmed.

  7. I can’t find it but someone here had posted an overhead picture of a pissed off outgoing Obama administration group of Nazi looking soldiers just before Trump took office. The photo included Jen Psaki, Valerie Jarrett and others looking pretty damn mean and like they had just completed planting landmines for their enemy who was forcing them to flee.

    CDC Quietly Published New Rules for Quarantine & Isolation on Last Day of Obama’s Presidency

    Infowars.com
    April 30th 2022, 3:06 pm

    CDC and HHS “has been granted the authority by Congress to ‘apprehend and detain’ individuals for the purposes of preventing the introduction, transmission and spread of quarantinable communicable disease as specified in an Executive Order of the President,” document states.

    Despite public concern that the new rules would introduce forced vaccination practices, the CDC insisted it would not “compel vaccination or medical treatment.”

    As we’ve seen, the CDC left that part up to businesses, Democrat politicians, and the military.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/cdc-quietly-published-new-rules-for-quarantine-isolation-on-last-day-of-obamas-presidency/

    1. This isn’t the photo that was posted here but it has the same looks.

      So, What’s Happening in This Photo From the White House?

      BY ANDREW KATZ
      NOVEMBER 10, 2016 2:35 PM EST

      These are White House staffers and top members of the Obama administration in the Rose Garden this week. That’s Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, leaning cross-armed against the white column. In the center with red hair is Jennifer Psaki, the White House communications director. Behind Psaki, to her left, is National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

      Here’s how the image was shared on Twitter on Thursday morning, as Obama was due to meet President-elect Donald Trump.

      https://time.com/4566547/white-house-obama-staffers-donald-trump/

  8. “‘Everybody is saying this is an ’08-’09 situation when there was such a deep recession and economic downturn, and it’s just not. Nothing could be further from the truth,’ Wilson said. ‘

    Realtors are liars.

  9. “The little house on First Street SE was supposed to fulfill a lifelong goal for Tasharn Richardson. The mother of 10 bought the three-bedroom bungalow in Congress Heights last summer — her first home purchase, after living in public housing her entire life.

    We already know her political affiliation. I’m guessing all ten of her spawn are either in prison or on welfare.

  10. ‘My family has been blaming each other for a lot of things that have gone on. But now we realize it’s not so much our fault.’”

    Low IQ is a lifelong condition, Tasharn.

  11. Today is May 1st, 2022 and Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States.

    The 2020 election was stolen.

    1. Citizen! The Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board will shortly be issuing globalist-approved Narratives. Any deviations from these could adversely impact your social credit score, and flag you as a candidate for re-education once our CCP ideological comrades license the blueprints for their Uighur internment camps. Forward!

  12. Dies no one understand?
    These used houses have never increased in value.
    Ever.
    They increased in price due to devalued dollar.

    1. Due to cheap easy credit.

      You’ll find out how valuable dollars are if you have to repay one of these big house loans by earning dollars. Few people alive could do so.

  13. Which means leading state officials continually spout unsubstantiated, possibly phony, estimates of housing need.”

    Phony statistics and skewed “studies” are the stock-in-trade of the criminal enterprise known as the Democratic Party.

  14. Essentially, any condo or HOA (residential or commercial) project is attractive to investors or developers, because the stakeholders can rely on a sizable portion of emotionally-attached (or economically trapped) owners to help finance their de facto rental apartment business or redevelopment project!

    Our own Mr. Banker has cracked the code on monetizing stupidity.

  15. Deborah Paes-Braga is listed as the sole director of 1330138 B.C. LTD. This does not appear to be Deborah Paes-Braga’s first rodeo. Deborah Paes-Braga was listed as the sole director of 1141975 B.C. LTD, which once resold a property in West Vancouver for a $1.68 million dollar loss.”

    I’m seeing a pattern here, Deb.

  16. No Democrat should be allowed within 500 feet of a child.

    More proof that public schools are sexually grooming kids

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/more_proof_that_public_schools_are_sexually_grooming_kids.html

    City Journal’s Christopher F. Rufo reports that “Evanston-Skokie School District 65 has adopted a radical gender curriculum that teaches pre-kindergarten through third-grade students to celebrate the transgender flag, break the ‘gender binary’ established by white ‘colonizers,’ and experiment with neo-pronouns such as ‘ze,’ ‘zir,’ and ‘tree.'” (Tree?)

    In his piece, Rufo claimed that he had “obtained the full curriculum documents, which are part of the Chicago-area district’s ‘LGBTQ+ Equity Week,’ which administrators adopted last year.”

    This is yet another instance of an educational institution going all out to “groom” — meaning indoctrinate — young children into acting, behaving, and identifying in ways that please and favor those in control of that educational institution. It is the creepiest form of coercion imaginable. It is an abuse of power. It is child abuse. It is monstrous. And it must stop.

    1. The Democrat Party is the party of raping kids.

      This is their brand.

      This is their identity.

      This is their electoral platform for 2022 and 2024.

    2. Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, is an entire small town filled with crazy people.

      1. Given enough time poverty can do that, en-masse. There are some former mining towns out west that come to mind.

  17. Each day, the creepy Orwellian Brandon regime drops the mask a bit more.

    Oh God It’s Going To Get SO Much Worse

    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/04/30/oh-god-its-going-to-get-so-much-worse/

    Rightists have spent the last couple of days freaking out and invoking Orwell’s 1984 in response to something their political enemies are doing in America, and for once it’s for a pretty good reason. The Department of Homeland Security has secretly set up a “Disinformation Governance Board“, only informing the public about its plans for the institution after it had already been established.

    The disinformation board, which critics have understandably been calling a “Ministry of Truth“, purportedly exists to fight disinformation coming out of Russia as well as misleading messages about the US-Mexico border. We may be certain that the emphasis in the board’s establishment has been on the Russia angle, however.

    1. “It sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities,” Psaki said. “I’m not sure who opposes that effort.”

      ‘The answer to the question of “who opposes that effort” is of course “anyone with functioning gray matter between their ears.” No government entity has any business appointing itself the authority to sort information from disinformation on behalf of the public, because government entities are not impartial and omniscient deities who can be entrusted to serve the public as objective arbiters of absolute reality. They would with absolute certainty wind up drawing distinctions between information, misinformation and disinformation in whatever way serves their interests, regardless of what’s true, exactly as any authoritarian regime would do.’

      ‘I mean, is anyone honestly more afraid of Russian disinformation than they are of their own government appointing itself the authority to decide what counts as disinformation?’

      I was reading this morning about the twitter moderation policies going away. Boy they said, can we live without constant censoring? It’s moving the goal posts. Twitter only just started this stuff a few years ago and now we’ll all die if that is reinstated?

      1. I don’t want to live in the same country with these people any more.

        And we are running out of time for there to be a non violent solution…

        1. Let’s give them places like LA County, SF, Portland, Seattle, New York City, Baltimorgue and the like, then take everything else. They can have their sh!tholes, drive their electric vehicles and make everybody live lives of misery in those places, but we’ll happily continue with our ICE cars and life as usual in the rest of the US.

          1. “This is the year of no consequences.”

            That’s the new motto of the Denver Police.

            I don’t live in Denver. I live in Englewood, in Arapahoe County, and it’s almost as bad down there too.

            “Everything woke turns to sh*t” — DJT

            Yes, it does.

            “They’re not sending their best”

  20. – While the main focus of this article by John Hussman is on stonk market overvaluations, the Fed-induced speculative frenzy/mania behavior applies to all asset classes within the current “Everything Bubble.” This includes stonks, bonds, housing, and virtually every other asset class. I’m sure it will end well though…

    https://www.hussmanfunds.com/comment/mc220429/
    Repricing a Market Priced for Zero
    John P. Hussman, Ph.D.
    President, Hussman Investment Trust
    April 28, 2022

    – Apparently, not only Realtors are liars.

    “Having experienced the damage that asset price bubbles can cause, we must be especially vigilant in ensuring that the recent experiences are not repeated.” – Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chair, January 3, 2010

    “Buckle up, buttercup.”

    “The most challenging financial event for investors in the coming decade will be the repricing of securities to valuations that imply adequate long-term returns, following more than a decade of reckless and intentional Fed-induced yield-seeking speculation.”

    [“The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth.” – Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, 1994 on the PBS Nightly Business Report]

    [“There is no housing bubble” – Ben Bernanke 2006]

    “From the highs of the recent Fed-induced bubble, a 70% market loss would not even take the most reliable stock market valuation measures below their run- of-the-mill historical norms.”

    “The very nature of a bubble is that there’s an inside and an outside, an expanding reality-distortion field that assures people inside the bubble that they’re doing things that are rational and normal. But when the bubble bursts (and speculative bubbles always do), be prepared for reality to disagree.“ – Seth Godin, March 18, 2022

    “Every bubble progresses by recruiting a gleefully acrobatic squad of cheerleaders in the financial industry, readily available to offer “justification” for the speculative extremes.”

    “It’s a testament to the bald-faced recklessness of the Federal Reserve in recent years that the financial markets need to brace themselves in response to interest rates that are still among the lowest 20% of historical yields, and less than half the historical norm since 1970.”

    “Unfortunately, investors have embedded near-zero yields into asset prices, as if rates would remain at those levels forever. Consider mortgage debt. The chart below shows the mortgage loan that a homeowner could obtain in return for a $1000 monthly payment, based on 30-year mortgage rates at each point in recent decades. While home affordability changes over time based on incomes and home prices, the steep plunge in the chart in recent months shows the impact of rising mortgage rates on the purchase amount that can be financed with a given payment. The same $1000 mortgage payment currently affords a loan 30% smaller than at the beginning of 2021.”

    “Always when markets are in trouble, the phrases are the same: ‘The economic situation is fundamentally sound’ or simply ‘The fundamentals are good.’ All who hear these words should know that something is wrong.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

    “Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.” – Norm Franz, Money & Wealth in the New Millennium: A Prophetic Guide to the New World Economic Order

    “The rich rule over the poor,
    and the borrower is slave to the lender.”     – Proverbs 22:7

  21. Ray [REDACTED]
    @RayRedacted

    President Biden: “Republican seem to be supporting one fella. His name is BRANDON. He must be having a great year!”

    https://twitter.com/RayRedacted/status/1520589705926041602?s=20&t=WYGYwcJkPcNrdrgAAFd4UA

    Wittgenstein
    @backtolife_2022

    Joe Biden:”I am very glad to be in the company of the only group of Americans who have an approval rating even lower than mine,” the American leader said at a media reception at the White House.

    https://twitter.com/backtolife_2022/status/1520659482870796288?s=20&t=ZBx-wDrZAx5SFpoB6QR7bQ

    Acyn
    @Acyn

    Biden: It’s the first time a president attended this dinner in six years. It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of Covid

    https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1520589558877802497?s=20&t=gY5cT5d2f7_hn-kAsLKYnw

    1. You’d think the Dem leadership would preparing to eject sleepy Joe, but they don’t seem fazed by his senile antics.

      1. Globalists gonna globe.

        Everyone at that stupid dinner for Pedo Joe, and who attending King Obama’s Royal Birthday Party last summer, need to face a new round of Nuremburg Trials.

        The only good globalist is a dead globalist.

        No glowie, but somebody (somebody else wink wink) needs to turn in their homework early and start taking some of them out.

        Lone wolves gonna lone wolf, globalist scum. AND YOU’RE GONNA DIE 🙂

      2. Biden is a cardboard cutout for our real rulers. As long as he has a pulse, he’ll suffice.

    2. “Filmmaker David Furnish, husband to musician Elton John, was also expected to serve as an executive producer on the series.”

      What good is freedom of speech when words are being redefined into meaninglessness?

  24. $475K and thick bars on the windows????? And she didn’t think that was a problem?

    1. “Nobody watch this sh*t anyway”

      I hope Harry and Meghan’s “fifteen minutes” are behind us!

  28. Saw an open house sign today in an upper middle class subdivision. McMansion house for $850k. It was 13 years old.

    Two years ago they went for $600-650k.

    Wife and I went in for fun. Not a soul for the first 20-30 minutes. Until the neighbors came over to look.

    Realtor kept telling me everything was negotiable.

    Wife and I laughed.

    Tide is going out and they are freaking.

    1. The last time I went into an open house was at the peak of the last bubble. The house was asking $400k or something stupid. I told the UHS that it looked like a $100k house to me and he turned a bit red. Those houses actually fell under $100k.

      1. Great thought! Maybe it’s time to show up at a few open houses, to provide the Realtors with a little company and enjoy any free food on offer. The Good Lord knows the end-user buyers have vanished.

        And who knows…maybe six years from now will be a good opportunity to buy at the bottom of the CR8R?

    1. I can do without the marble kitchen countertop and porcelain sink unless you like paper plates and plastic cups; much prefer a Corian countertop and cheap stainless kitchen sink any day. The laminate flooring is great for a dusty place. Hey, that shower stall has some Silence of the Lambs possibilities. The soil mound likely elevates the house above the flood zone, which surrounds the property.

      1. I couldn’t get past the $1.7M for a dirt mound entry! I just went to look at the description and couldn’t get past the first sentence: “After a long day of meetings, errands, traffic, and practically tripping over people left and right, you turn onto Beeler Creek Trail and immediately begin to decompress.” That description is ridiculously long.

  32. Are you ready for another week of watching risk assets of all flavors (stocks, housing, government debt, cryptocurrency, etc.) slide deeper into the crater?

    1. The Financial Times
      The Big Read Global inflation
      The global stagflation shock of 2022: How bad could it get?
      The double blow of pandemic and war has caused inflation to surge and growth to slow around the world. But experts do not expect a return to the 1970s
      © Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images | A 1973 protest in New York
      Valentina Romei and Alan Smith in London yesterday

      Only last year, many economists were expecting 2022 to be a period of strong economic rebound. Businesses would return to full operation post-Covid. Consumers would be free to splash their accumulated savings on all the holidays and activities they had not been able to do during the pandemic. It would be a new “roaring twenties,” some said, in reference to the decade of consumerism that followed the 1918-21 influenza.

      Fast forward a few months and the more commonly cited parallel is the 1970s, when the Arab oil embargo helped create a prolonged period of economic hardship. Inflation surged to double-digit rates even as economies around the world stagnated — a painful mix of high prices and low growth known as “stagflation”.

      Now, stagflation is again on the cards. After the double shock of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation rates have exceeded expectations, surging to the highest levels in decades in many countries, while economic growth forecasts are rapidly deteriorating.
      …

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