thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

There Was A Shift Where People Stopped Thinking Prices Would Just Keep Rising

A report from the Herald Tribune in Florida. “‘Sellers are listening more to their agents and being more realistic with asking prices,’ noted Ellen O’Day, the managing broker for two of our Coldwell Banker Realty offices in Sarasota.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “Just weeks after Los Angeles voters backed a new measure that puts a one-time transfer tax on property sales above $5 million to generate money for affordable housing and homelessness prevention, the city’s affluent homeowners are exploring potential ways of avoiding the tax. It’s set to take effect April 1, and it’s already causing shock waves in the L.A. housing market. Agents say homeowners and developers are already rushing to sell before the deadline. ‘For owners who were on the fence about selling, this will speed up the process,’ Compass agent Bret Parsons said.”

“He said he had one client who was planning to slowly downsize and sell sometime in the next six months, but called Parsons right after the measure passed saying he’d clean the place up immediately so they could list it in the next few weeks. The new tax would take a chunk out of his retirement fund, and he needs to sell before April.”

The Charlotte Observer. “A cool residence that’s listed for $206,000 in Long Beach, California, has people on a popular real estate page talking. Or rather asking, is this three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence really a mobile home? ‘Wait!!! Is this a trailer???’ another asked.”

The New York Post. “A Queens state senator whose home has been in foreclosure for more than a decade could see relief from his creditors if legislation he proposed is signed by Gov. Hochul. Sen. James Sanders’ Foreclosure Process Abuse Prevention Act has already been passed by both chambers of the state legislature in Albany. The bill aims to ‘thwart and eliminate abusive and unlawful litigation tactics’ used by banks. The measure would institute a six-year statute of limitations for which lenders can initiate legal action in foreclosure suits, preventing banks from indefinitely bringing foreclosure lawsuits against borrowers.”

“‘Homeowners who are in foreclosure will be the biggest winners when this significant foreclosure bill becomes law,’ he added in an August press release. Those big winners would include Sanders himself — his Far Rockaway abode has been in foreclosure since 2009. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, purchased the 2,352-square-foot, single family home for $588,600 in August 2006, taking out a $470,880 mortgage. By 2019 his creditor, One West Bank, was demanding $961,685. James Sanders’ home has been in foreclosure for more than a decade.”

From Fox Business. “Confidence among builders in the U.S. housing market unexpectedly fell in December to the lowest level in a decade. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which measures the pulse of the single-family housing market, fell for the twelfth consecutive month to 31, marking the worst stretch for the housing market since the survey launched in 1985. Any reading above 50 is considered positive; prior to this year, the gauge has not entered negative territory since 2012, excluding a brief – but steep – drop in May 2020.”

“The index has fallen to half of what it was just six months ago, when it stood at 76. ‘In this high inflation, high mortgage rate environment, builders are struggling to keep housing affordable for home buyers,’ said NAHB Chairman Jerry Konter, a homebuilder and developer from Savannah, Georgia. ‘Our latest survey shows 62% of builders are using incentives to bolster sales, including providing mortgage rate buy-downs, paying points for buyers and offering price reductions.'”

The Financial Post in Canada. “Mortgage brokers are beginning to see more instances of default on privately financed loans and an increase in powers of sale as the central bank raises interest rates at an unprecedented clip. ‘We’re starting to see some power in sales in the marketplace in the GTA, and we are also starting to see some people defaulting on some private mortgages as well,’ said Leah Zlatkin, mortgage broker and expert at lowestrates.ca.”

“Home prices have fallen for nine consecutive months, dropping 11.5 per cent from February’s peak, the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Thursday. The benchmark price for a home in November sat at $744,000. Higher rates could bring home prices down even more, especially as speculators try to time the bottom of the market while those unable to qualify for mortgages also sit on the sidelines.”

The Canadian Press. “Mortgage stress test levels were left unchanged as the federal banking regulator and Department of Finance favoured a cautious approach over calls to relax tests to help a slowing housing market. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) kept the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages at the greater of the mortgage contract rate plus two percentage points, or 5.25 per cent, while the finance department followed suit with the same rate on insured mortgages.”

“The maintenance of the stress test levels, which at current interest rates force some borrowers to qualify for rates above eight per cent, comes as the Bank of Canada is widely expected to be at or near the end of its aggressive rate hike cycle. Cameron Levitt, a sales representative at the Richards Group at REMAX Hallmark, said he’s glad the stress tests were left unchanged as it’s helping protect against buyers rushing into the market as they did last year. ‘Homeowners and homebuyers forgot that risk exists, and this last year has been a big wake-up call.'”

The Dutch Review. “If you’re anything like us, your ears probably perked up at the recent news that Dutch house prices were starting to cool off. Well, actually, it’s quite promising, mortgage expert Henk Janson tells us. ‘What we’re seeing is that there are fewer people showing up for house viewings, and while there was a real bidding war in 2021, from what I have seen, overbidding is almost gone.'”

From Bloomberg. “Time is running short for Vietnam to prevent a worsening property-sector credit crunch from derailing one of the world’s fastest economic expansions. With about $4.6 billion of property developer notes tracked by Vietnam’s bond association coming due next year, the firms will struggle to meet obligations without government support, according to local real estate executives and analysts. Funding has all but dried up after an anti-graft campaign spooked investors and authorities froze new bond issuance across the industry.”

“The looming maturity wall risks triggering a wave of defaults that could turn the property woes into a wider crisis for the banking sector and the economy. Signs of stress are already spreading. A lack of cash has forced businesses to turn to shadow loans at very high interest rates and sell properties at discounts as deep as 40%.”

The South China Morning Post. “The supply of new homes on the market in Hong Kong next year could more than double compared with this year, driving developers to slash prices by 10 per cent or more in hopes of attracting buyers amid historically high interest rates, according to property agents. The potential supply of new homes in 2023, according to Centaline Property Agency, will be as high as 28,000 units. The swollen 2023 inventory will include 11,000 incomplete units already approved for sale but not yet launched, plus 17,000 units already on sale.”

“Poly Property and L’Avenue International sold just 10 out of 127 units at Chill Residence in Yau Tong on the first day of sales on December 4. The average selling price of HK$17,939 per square foot made it the cheapest project in Kowloon in the past two years, according to UOB Kay Hian. ‘There are more than 20,000 leftover completed homes and incomplete units,’ said Buggle Lau, chief analyst at Midland Realty. ‘Developers will still focus on selling leftover stock in the short term.'”

“Ricacorp Properties described 2022 as ‘the worst trough in history’ for new-home sales and ‘worse than the financial tsunami in 2008, reflecting the impact of the double whammy of the pandemic and interest-rate hikes.'”

The Daily Telegraph. “So-called ‘lifestyle’ suburbs in regional NSW that were popular during the early Covid pandemic have recorded some of the biggest property price falls this year. Over the past 18 months, house prices in regional NSW have fallen 38 per cent with the state seeing the sharpest drops across Australia. The PropTrack Regional Australia 2022 Report found that popular tree-change and sea-change markets that boomed during successive Covid lockdowns were the first to see prices fall.”

From ABC News. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the Australian property market. So what was it like to work in the real estate industry during this period of unprecedented national growth? Brisbane auctioneer Justin Nickerson talked of a crazy time when selling property required ‘no real skill.’ ‘Anyone could have sold property last year,’ he said. ‘They were fun days, but we knew they were never going to last.'”

“The boom was also nationwide, which was quite an unusual occurrence. ‘Generally capital cities and regional areas are at different stages on the property cycle clock,’ Brisbane real estate agent Stuart McCrea said. ‘During the boom, the whole country was stuck at 12 — I haven’t seen that before.’ Mr McCrea clearly remembered the first open home that made him realise something was happening with the market.”

“‘It was October 2020, and there was a crowd outside the door and down the street,’ he said. ‘I had several examples of clients selling their homes and telling me they were not turning up to work on Monday. They had made so much money on the sale they could retire early. If I sold a house and settlement was 30 to 60 days, I could often get more money for the property before it even settled. I could say to the new owner, ‘Do you want to sell it again and make $150,000?'”

“‘Not only were prices escalating, but we also started to see concerning behaviour. ‘People were making unconditional offers that were well above their budget.’ There was one open home in February this year that marked the start of the market cool-down, Mr McCrea recalled. ‘As I pulled up to the home, I actually thought I had the wrong time because there weren’t any people waiting for me,’ he said. ‘There was a shift where people stopped thinking prices would just keep rising.'”

From Reuters. “The post-pandemic slump in Australian housing is set to deepen next year as hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage debt fixed at record low rates in 2020 and 2021 mature, forcing borrowers to refinance at punishingly high interest rates. Repayments on an estimated A$370 billion ($245.79 billion) of home loans could spike by as much as two-thirds at a time when real incomes are already shrinking due to surging inflation, dealing a body blow to house prices and the economy’s main engine of growth – consumer spending.”

“Home values in Sydney have fallen 12% so far this year and Eliza Owen, head of Australian research at property consultant CoreLogic, expects further losses as more distressed properties are listed for sale. Homeowner Francesca Lemon knows the pain – repayments on her variable-rate mortgage have already risen by A$1,200 per month this year, forcing her back to work despite a long-term medical condition so that her family can keep up with debt.”

“‘It’s very frustrating and people are already struggling to survive. The cost of paying your mortgage is literally going up for everyone by thousands of dollars,’ said the 31-year-old Lemon. Leesa Gasparin, a 55-year old resident in Tasmania, now contributes a quarter of her income of about $4,000 a month to her rising mortgage. ‘I know it’s probably not a lot of money to some people, but it is to me. It’s like everything with groceries, power and all that. It is really bloody tough.'”

The Globe and Mail. “As revelations emerge about the vast scope of the FTX debacle, the inevitable comparisons are being made between its disgraced chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried and legendary Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. To be sure, both scoundrels were adept at parting fools and their money – lots of it. But Mr. Madoff’s victims might elicit some sympathy for being taken in by his carefully crafted façade of respectability. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s willing dupes should get no such leniency. They should have seen trouble coming.”

“Mr. Bankman-Fried’s venture had more red flags than a Beijing military parade, the biggest one being that head office in the Bahamas. There is perhaps no redder flag than a corporate headquarters in a sketchy tax haven with a long history of dirty dealing that has been called out by global watchdogs. History tells us this is nothing new for the island nation a few miles off the east coast of Florida. This is where piracy was a core business, and where Civil War smugglers and Prohibition-era bootleggers found safe haven. The Mafia laundered money through its casinos there, and drug lords followed suit.”

“This was home to the infamous Bay Street Boys, local business owners who exempted themselves from taxes, and set the stage for the evolution of shell companies with no visible commercial raison d’être but with the ability to make loans and book deductions. It is perhaps no coincidence FTX’s offices are on Bay Street in Nassau, the capital. And the allegations against Mr. Bankman-Fried align with the culture of loose regulatory control that is the Bahamian legacy.”

“The legendary showman P.T. Barnum said famously, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’ Investors should beware that no matter what their methods, there will be more Sam Bankman-Frieds and Bernie Madoffs eager to convince people of the healing power of their brands of snake oil.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 121 Comments

  1. ‘Wait!!! Is this a trailer???’

    Not only is it a trailer, it’s one of the ugliest trailers ever made.

    1. The Zillow pix are hilarious. Looks like the owners dressed up the front porch… while the rest of the place is pretty shabby and needs rehab.

      The trailer part of the place is vintage 1959, when they were meant to be more portable. Newer stuff looks better, more like very plain pre-fabs. Double-wide floor plan is basically just a 3/2/ ranch.

  2. ‘There was one open home in February this year that marked the start of the market cool-down, Mr McCrea recalled. ‘As I pulled up to the home, I actually thought I had the wrong time because there weren’t any people waiting for me’

    Was it like somebody flipped a switch?

  3. ‘Homeowner Francesca Lemon knows the pain – repayments on her variable-rate mortgage have already risen by A$1,200 per month this year, forcing her back to work despite a long-term medical condition so that her family can keep up with debt’

    ‘It’s very frustrating and people are already struggling to survive. The cost of paying your mortgage is literally going up for everyone by thousands of dollars’

    I’ve got a bright side fer ya Francesca. The central bank wants to snuff out any pay increases! Wait, that doesn’t really help you.

    Never mind.

    2. I smell decay, like the stench of dreams of effortless wealth from ever-appreciating shacks dying in the arse.

    3. ‘I’ve got a bright side fer ya Francesca. The central bank wants to snuff out any pay increases! Wait, that doesn’t really help you.’

      – Fact check: TRUE

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11437681/Fed-tells-employers-STOP-giving-pay-rises-order-bring-inflation-down.html

      Fed tells employers to STOP giving pay rises in order to bring inflation down: Warns wages are rising faster than they have in decades – and there are now almost two jobs for every person looking for work

      Christopher Waller, one of six members of the board of the Federal Reserve, on Wednesday addressed the Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon, held in Arizona

      Waller, a governor of the Fed since December 2020, used his speech to emphasize ‘the Federal Reserve’s ongoing fight to reduce inflation’

      “He urged employers not to give any pay rises, saying that it was pushing up inflation”

      ‘At any other time, I would be pretty unhappy about slowing growth, but not now,’ Waller said

      By HARRIET ALEXANDER and KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
      PUBLISHED: 23:49 EST, 16 November 2022 | UPDATED: 02:58 EST, 17 November 2022

      “Employers should stop giving pay rises to their staff, a member of the Federal Reserve’s board has said, in a bid to help bring down inflation.”

      “Christopher Waller, one of six members of the Fed’s board, used a speech in Phoenix, Arizona to urge bosses to take into account inflation when looking at their labor force.”

      – The Fed created this 40 year high inflation through their ridiculous $ printing, money supply expansion, balance sheet expansion, debt expansion and monetization, zero interest rate, easy $ policies.
      – Congress is also culpable via fiscal stimulus, but that was also enabled by the Fed’s balance sheet expansion via buying U.S. Treasuries and financing the fiscal spending (aka: debt monetization).
      – The Fed works for their masters: Capital = Banks and Corporations. They don’t represent Labor = workers, who are getting screwed big time via high inflation. Wage increases are the only weapon Labor has against this unlegisated taxation, but real (inflation-adjusted) wages are down, and have been for decades, per the plan.
      – The Fed has literally thousands of highly compensated employees. They screwed up (again). Fire all of them. F the Fed!
      – The Fed is an agent of the Government. Their true dual mandate is to destroy the middle class and to assist wherevever possible in ushering in a communist regime change. Seems to be working…
      – BTW, Congress does nothing to stop this unlegistated taxation. Taxation without representation. F Congress too!
      – Ever since the U.S. middle class has been getting the shaft, TPTB decided to blow massive asset bubbles to make everyone feel better about offshoring all of the good jobs to China. Well? Do you feel better? How’s that housing and stonk bubble workin’ out for ya?

    4. The cost of paying your mortgage is literally going up for everyone by thousands of dollars

      Which we saw coming to Oz from thousands of miles away. A variable rate mortgage means that it will eventually go up, a lot.

    5. I’ve got a bright side fer ya Francesca. The central bank wants to snuff out any pay increases! Wait, that doesn’t really help you.

      What the central banks did was not only criminal, it was grotesquely unethical. There is now no good path, no matter what they choose.

  4. ‘Sanders…purchased the 2,352-square-foot, single family home for $588,600 in August 2006, taking out a $470,880 mortgage. By 2019 his creditor, One West Bank, was demanding $961,685’

    What happened to the extra money Jim?

    1. “‘Homeowners who are in foreclosure will be the biggest winners when this significant foreclosure bill becomes law.” Those big winners would include Sanders himself ”
      —

      So wait, is this law going to be retroactive? Anyone who’s been squatting for more than 6 years suddenly gets a free house? I’m no fan of banks, but if I were a bank I’d sue. ISTM that the law should require banks to kick out current FBs and sell immediately for a loss.
      HBB legal eagles, do the banks have a case?

    2. “What happened to the extra money Jim?”

      Hey Jonesy I dropped a 30 yard rolloff long ways in front the shack. Tell the crew to heave hoe the junk straight out the second floor windows. No chute necessary.

      Burns, TN Housing Prices Crater 22% YOY As Rural Land Prices Plunge

      https://www.movoto.com/burns-tn/market-trends/

      As one Knoxville broker explained, “If you want to sell your land, you better price it under $800 and acre. And even then, there isn’t much interest.”

    3. What happened to the extra money Jim?

      Cars, trux, boats, motorcycles, jetskis, vacations and boob jobs?

      1. Last summer it was all still on bold display. Everybody is living large. Well, except for me. I look like a pauper around all of my friends and acquaintances. It’s like 2006 all over again, but on steroids. For some reason I am never a recipient of a free windfall.

        3. I am never a recipient of a free windfall

          I know people whose first wish would be not to be in debt. If you made this happen for yourself, you’re better off.

        4. This is what we are currently running out of:
          1. Pandemic funds: People who didn’t use stimmy money during lockdown are spending it now and it’s almost gone.
          2. Post-pandemic euphoria: People are close to done celebrating post-pandemic. They’ve gone on their vacays and bought their toys.
          3. Credit headroom: Household debt is rising as people use CCs either for lifestyle or for necessities.
          4. Home equity: high interest rates means no more cash-out HELOCs.
          5. Wealth effect: House values dropping, retirement account values dropping, crypto getting Joshua tree’d. People feel poor.
          6. Jobs: Macroeconomic youtubes tell me that the layoff contagion is not contained to mortgage companies and big tech and it’s just beginning.

          Short version: Americans are running out of money in all forms, even mental money. Economy is about to take a dive.

    4. “What happened to the extra money Jim?”

      Uptown got its hustlers
      The bowery got its bums
      Far Rockaway got Big Jim Sanders
      He’s a Deadbeatn’ son of a gun
      Yeah, he sits and stares Senate Banking he chairs
      So he lets them take the loss
      And when One West Bank get together at night
      You know they all call big Jim “Boss”, just because

      And they say

      “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
      You don’t spit into the wind
      You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
      And you don’t write a loan for Jim”

    5. his Far Rockaway abode has been in foreclosure since 2009

      In those days the banks weren’t taking houses back to keep their books from showing the truth. The place I bought in 2013 had been in default for six years. Still papering over the losses from nearly two decades ago!

      Why is such an irresponsible guy the head of the State Banking Committee?

      1. “Why is such an irresponsible guy the head of the State Banking Committee?”

        To ask the question is the answer. We are clearly in the steal everything stage of empire collapse

    7. Easy. He never made a mortgage payment. Everything rolled into the principal. When it comes to the grift, NYS politicos are king!

  5. ‘There are more than 20,000 leftover completed homes and incomplete units’

    That’s quite a shortage there Buggle. Well, it’s an island so they aren’t making any more of it.

  6. ‘Brisbane auctioneer Justin Nickerson talked of a crazy time when selling property required ‘no real skill.’ ‘Anyone could have sold property last year,’ he said. ‘They were fun days, but we knew they were never going to last’

    Justin, here in the US we’ve already agreed to forget about 2021. It was an anomaly, so quit mentioning it.

    1. Overall price, not realistic.
      $600K in upgrades, doubtful.

      As to your question asking what is a fair fee for flipping, IMO it depends on the house. People who can afford a $1.6 mil house are likely better off buying a fixer-upper and renting while they renovate the house themselves. Buyers in the $300-$500K range just want a place to live, quick.. Even then, they should expect to pay at least $50K flipper premium, or else it’s not worth the flip.

      This appears to what happened at a $200-$500K range zombie house on my block. Fixer needed $100K of work. Guy bought it, fixed it himself, asked $200K over buy price (too high), no bites. Dropped to $150K over buy price, no bites. He’s now renting it out. IMO if he would have dropped another $25K he would have sold. But I guess he wouldn’t have made enough profit.

    2. If they spent 600k, they got the cheapest “high end” range they could find. I would expect an 8 burner dual oven deal.

      But those white shelves in the 3d photo, those just scream big $$$

          2. Now that there are too many straws sipping from the Colorado I don’t see how those golf courses can remain. I figure they are irrigated with treated sewage, but even that now seems too valuable for watering a golf course.

    3. Difficult to fathom this house has close to $600,000 worth of interior upgrades

      It doesn’t. The labor to slap lipstick on a pig doesn’t add value to a house, it’s a sunk cost. Historically, any improvements to a house never returned even close to 100% of the cost. Things like bathroom and kitchen remodels were still money-losers. Anything else was an even worse loser.

      1. yeah, pepperidge farm remembers. You remodel because you are living there and want to enjoy it (or change it to your liking) not because it made money. Fixing a fatal flaw in a house to make it easier to sell didn’t really add value necessarily but made it easier to sell. Always better to remodel as you move in and live in it then as you move out so the next people can enjoy it (and you lose money)

  8. “‘Homeowners who are in foreclosure will be the biggest winners when this significant foreclosure bill becomes law,’ he added in an August press release.

    Deadbeats of the world, unite! The Democratic Party will enable and facilitate your financial irresponsibility as a matter of principle!

    1. Those big winners would include Sanders himself — his Far Rockaway abode has been in foreclosure since 2009.

      Words fail me.

  10. “He said he had one client who was planning to slowly downsize and sell sometime in the next six months, but called Parsons right after the measure passed saying he’d clean the place up immediately so they could list it in the next few weeks.

    Okay, but that’s just one individual. It’s not like we’ll see a mad rush of Boomers waiting to offload their shacks and exit Newsom’s Democratic People’s Republic of Klownifornia.

    Oh, wait….

  11. Over the past 18 months, house prices in regional NSW have fallen 38 per cent with the state seeing the sharpest drops across Australia.

    Is that a lot?

  12. “‘Not only were prices escalating, but we also started to see concerning behaviour.

    You don’t say….

  13. Repayments on an estimated A$370 billion ($245.79 billion) of home loans could spike by as much as two-thirds at a time when real incomes are already shrinking due to surging inflation, dealing a body blow to house prices and the economy’s main engine of growth – consumer spending.”

    Cutting back on the avocado toast should free up enough funds to mitigate the impact of surging mortgage payments.

  14. “‘It’s very frustrating and people are already struggling to survive. The cost of paying your mortgage is literally going up for everyone by thousands of dollars,’ said the 31-year-old Lemon.

    Nobody could’ve seen it coming, right, Lemon?

    2. That would be a great $500K house on, say, the shores of Lake Michigan. But I wouldn’t pay $10 million, even with the Malibu address. It’s less than 200 feet from the traffic on Route 1 PCH, which means noise. And there appears to be zero in the way of physical security — very easy to hop a fence or just drive up to the front door. And why isn’t there so much as a hot tub?

      1. Tom Petty didn’t pay $10 million either.

        “A trust tied to the late musician paid about $6.8 million for the roughly 2,200-square-foot home in 2010, property records show.”

      2. Looks like a nice place to die though.

        Tom Petty died of accidental drug overdose, medical examiner says

        By Ralph Ellis, CNN
        Updated 9:02 PM EST, Sun January 21, 2018

        Petty collapsed at his home in Malibu and was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he died. At the time, his manager attributed the death to cardiac arrest.

      3. That’s $500k in a neighborhood near Lake Michigan, in Gary, IN (there’s one nice area in Gary!). That’s a nice house for a lot more than $500k. That house is a lot of money on Lake Michigan from Door County, MI south all the way around to grand traverse MI. There’s a lot of $$$ second home money in Chicago, Milwaukee and beyond. A lot of air b and b too but Lake Michigan is expensive. A

    1. Outside of Arcata, CA, the region is rather unsophisticated similar to Oregon. More rain up that way means loose soil too. A strong earthquake likely feels much better to renters than owners.

    1. Most of the local news outlets get their programming from sources like AP. At 5-min past the hour you can flip through the channels, and they’re all covering the same piece. Ditto for 10-min too.

      In college, you and your girlfriend can entertain radical opinions. But later on, wearing rings, a corporate cubicle, a mortgage, sprogs in k12, etc., “You have no choice!” So we blindly watch the news “our betters” have selected for us privately completing suspect descriptions when none are offered.

      1. Beanie Boy (Tim Pool) was discussing this last night, how regular conservatives are so afraid of being sacked by the woke that they can’t even question anything, much less protest.

        It’s no coincidence that the only people with the courage to rise up and take real action were Musk and Trump. Billionaires, both.

        1. The woke in my town are all divorced, wealthy, tenured, and completely insane. Ive thought about going on the offense against them but I quite frankly would get my butt kicked as they directed their attention away from the school boards and at me personally. They’re insane and they have the local journalist on their side. I’m not looking to be a martyr here.

      2. So we blindly watch the news “our betters” have selected for us

        I was under the impression that only the olds watch the local evening news.

  19. A reader sent these in:

    Good thing Core PCE MoM is only 0.2%!
    “The property I’ve been staying at since pre-covid just notified residents here that those staying in our 2b1b apartments were having their rent hiked from $1350 total a month to $2300 overnight come February”

    https://twitter.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1604916274580135937

    $USDJPY through the 200 dma for the first time since March 2020. In a central bank coordinated meltdown.

    https://twitter.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1605041258862362624

    There it is…BOJ just shocked markets with the first steps towards tightening away from the zero bound. All it took was 40 year high inflation. Carry traders can’t believe the free money binge is over. SPX futures instantly monkey hammered. Worst case scenario for bulls.

    https://twitter.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1605038420954341376

    Who else feels like something’s about to pop? 🎈 Can’t taper a debt Ponzi …

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1605056729263345667

    How Many Cryptocurrencies have Failed? More than 3,000 crypto currencies that were listed on CoinGecko in 2021, have failed (categorized as a dead coin).

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1605040991869845505

    “The UK govt has announced it’ll be extending its programme that encourages lenders to offer 95% loan-to-value mortgages to first-time buyers.”
    They can’t help but pump the housing market, no matter the risks driven by a predicted recession and 11% inflation…

    https://twitter.com/AvidCommentator/status/1604983169081806849

    A whole bunch of assignment sales in Stouffville

    https://twitter.com/dima_nomad/status/1603217821693083648

    We’re living heloc to heloc

    https://twitter.com/jayvasdigital/status/1603736284937482240

    What’s the best real estate meme you’ve ever seen? Post in thread

    https://twitter.com/daniel_foch/status/1603803236497952769

    How much are homes selling for under list price in the GTA?

    https://twitter.com/daniel_foch/status/1604853217036185601

    Canadian house prices are 78% overvalued against rent – the most overvalued house prices in the world compared to rent, according to the Economist’s Global House Price tool
    New Zealand is a close second at 72% overvalued
    Sweden in 3rd place at 68%

    https://twitter.com/daniel_foch/status/1605010725700870145

    Canadian Real Estate Building Boom Hits Historic High, To “Be Tested”: BMO

    https://twitter.com/BetterDwelling/status/1603820298477903873

    So many questions, but let’s start with three.
    – in 🇨🇦, first-time buyers are buying $2 million homes on Uber driver salaries?
    – 🇨🇦’s news really thinks this is a sob story?
    – How much are y’all in Brampton tipping your Uber drivers? 🤔

    https://twitter.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1604901500870066176

    I will be organizing a protest in front of the TSX this weekend to protest some stocks I own that went down in value

    https://twitter.com/someguyKtown/status/1604904712092147712

    2/ You all can learn a lot about buying your first home from this young man. Legend has it Gurcharan has never even tasted avocado toast. context: this is the same development I mentioned last week that CBC is discussing.

    https://twitter.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1604903540744458268

    You can tell 🇨🇦’s real estate is a massive bubble by the share of people that think a $2 million home is normal. Just 0.5% of 🇨🇦’s top earning household can qualify for a mortgage at that price but cue the sob stories about first time buyers not being able to close. 🙄😂

    https://twitter.com/StephenPunwasi/status/1605008046706434048

    Owning even a small home is a lot of work. A properly maintained home takes a ton of time and effort. Most people who say otherwise either don’t properly maintain their home, or have someone else in their house who is doing the work.

    https://twitter.com/markallanbovair/status/1604844039362457600

    I didn’t mean to do it…$ABNB hit a new 52 week low today
    #Airbnbust

    https://twitter.com/texasrunnerDFW/status/1604987354158071808

    Greece plans to cover 10% of food expenses for most households over six months starting in February… 🔥🔥🔥 Next year 50% ??? More ?

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1604962308278702087

    The new CEO ?

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1604987365730181120

    This is a pretty big deal, people were waiting to buy a $TSLA due to the $7500 credit incentive in January but that is now delayed until March. Doesn’t help $TSLA, that’s for sure, why buy a $TSLA now when you can wait for March credit as well as collapse of car prices.

    https://twitter.com/eliant_capital/status/1604979656825896960

    So on Dec 6th we have $SI @silvergate
    CEO Alan Lane saying they can access the Fed’s Discount Window. Now today we have Bloomberg Reporter @tracyalloway
    noticing a spike in the Fed’s Discount Window. Just a coincidence? I’ll let you be the judge.

    https://twitter.com/StonkKing69/status/1604994431920537600

    FED officials now see a re-acceleration of inflation to end the year

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1604991553843462144

    Amazon

    https://twitter.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1604867317405474826

    The Fed’s policy of inflating wealth assets while imploding the middle class, has benefited the ultra wealthy in 2022. https://hotcars.com/why-americans-buy-more-luxury-exotic-cars-in-wake-of-pandemic/
    “Cars from superpremium automakers grew to 6,700 models sold in the first six months of 2022…35.6% growth compared to 2017”

    https://twitter.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1604871380990033920

    $TSLA down -64% since the ATH’s last November, when the Fed announced tapering.

    https://twitter.com/CalebFranzen/status/1604864908046503936

    Housing market index continues to collapse. Just 10 points higher than the 08 crisis, look at the speed of that drop.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1604903966902431744

    We lived in an era of near-zero interest rates where we could have borrowed virtually unlimited money to fund cool stuff like high-speed rail networks, cancer treatments, and nuclear reactors. Instead we got the metaverse and monkey JPEGs.

    https://twitter.com/Jack_Raines/status/1604850865394909185

    It doesn’t have to look like 2008 to be much uglier! I fear this attitude is pervasive and growing by the day.

    https://twitter.com/TheBondFreak/status/1604875094974947329

    Casino mogul Steve Wynn is unloading a huge swath of his personal real estate portfolio for close to $300 million. Next up: Two adjacent Idaho properties asking $27 million.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1604969903374553088

    For the first time in a long while, investors are now paid to be patient
    You are getting 4%+ returns to park your cash in short-term bonds and assess how macro and market opportunities evolve
    That hopefully removes the urgency to YOLO into something stupid right now?

    https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1604884515209547783

    This Homebuilders Index reading is consistent with US unemployment rate at 6-7% in early 2024. The Sahm rule says the US will be already in a recession if the jobless rate hits 4.1% in this cycle. The sudden halt in the housing market sure isn’t consistent with a soft landing.

    https://twitter.com/MacroAlf/status/1604901878952734721

    Home flipping is so easy…

    https://twitter.com/DimeOpinions/status/1604922756289613826

    Credit Suisse stock is down -20% today. They’re firing 9,000 workers. They’re trying to finance more debt to stay afloat. I can hear the European pension funds imploding from here after realizing all the CLO products CS sold them are worth nothing.

    https://twitter.com/FinanceLancelot/status/1585681295899754516

    John Wake

    Something weird is going on in Tempe. Median sale price, single-family, non-distressed
    July = $585,000 (73 sales)
    November = $475,000 (53 sales)

    https://twitter.com/JohnWake/status/1604929507055374336

    #Housing Looking for a scary chart? US Housing activity literally implodes, back to Covid lows

    https://twitter.com/fkronawitter1/status/1604933918100279296

    $TLT -2% Today

    https://twitter.com/AlessioUrban/status/1604881447034454016

    Soft landing is not really gonna be an option … 😲

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1604748367376130048

    Someone is using the Fed Discount Window. They can go years without that being touched. It is a sign of banking stress. Who is in trouble?

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1604920687969255424

    Danielle DiMartino Booth

    Repossession wave will become a tsunami if what @GuyDealership
    described occurs & PILE ON what @AutomotiveLife1
    laid out this summer wrt lenders AVOIDING losses which they’ve done all year
    Now lenders appear poised to INFLICT losses on lender competitors

    https://twitter.com/DiMartinoBooth/status/1604914724730273797

    If you’re a family with X income who happened to need to move in 2019 and took out a mortgage, you’re now wealthier
    If you’re a family with the same income who did so in 2022, you’re likely not
    I hate boom bust cycles for this reason

    https://twitter.com/texasrunnerDFW/status/1604847531820986368

    Went to HomeDepot yesterday
    Barn doors $225 when they used to be $500+
    Bought a new washing machine, they had 64 of the same unit in the warehouse
    Prices in general looked reasonable again and didn’t find anything out of stock
    These are economic indicators

    https://twitter.com/maxfisherRE/status/1604511926343589888

    Dec Homebuilder Sentiment fell further into “negative” territory, now at 31 vs the est of 34 (50 = neutral, so this is 19 below neutral). Weakening in the Present Sales component drove the decline.

    https://twitter.com/LizYoungStrat/status/1604857585412210695

    Every day on the RETwit I am reminded that there are some very successful and very vocal folks with deeply held convictions who have never seen a market downturn.

    https://twitter.com/Cribdilla/status/1604865970719395849

    RIP zestimates

    https://twitter.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1604872888921751559

    RIP zestimates. RIP low vacancy.

    https://twitter.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1604874570409943043

    Home sales were down 48% in California last month from a year ago (on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis)
    **The year-to-year sales decline was the biggest since 1980**

    https://twitter.com/NickTimiraos/status/1604875339838128128

    1. How Many Cryptocurrencies have Failed? More than 3,000 crypto currencies that were listed on CoinGecko in 2021, have failed (categorized as a dead coin).

      So, other than hype, what is the difference between a deadcoin and a livecoin?

    2. Greece plans to cover 10% of food expenses for most households over six months starting in February

      That’s gonna work out well. I wonder how long until Brandon proposes something like that? I wonder he will repeat Obama’s Social Security holiday?

    3. BOJ just shocked markets with the first steps towards tightening away from the zero bound

      They blinked. Bummer. I was hoping they’d hold out and go Weimar. These central bankers have a godlike complex, and think they are immune to market forces and the realities of money-printing.

    4. Greece plans to cover 10% of food expenses for most households over six months starting in February… 🔥🔥🔥 Next year 50% ??? More ?

      Greece is still around? Wow. Do they hold the Guiness record for can-kicking?

        1. I was being sarcastic. They’ve been living off of a fantasy economic model for what seems like forever. I remember many, many years ago they were completely insolvent and got bailed out by other countries, and they’re still going. It’s unbelievable.

    1. I heard they passed on that sitcom for next season.

      But they are working on a couple of prommising pilots…

      Kamala learns to speak in complete sentences

      and

      Dr. Jill dresses her age

      1. “Out of life’s school of war—what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”

        — Friedrich Nietzsche

    1. Yahoo
      Yahoo Finance
      Stock market news live updates: Stocks waver as selling pressure continues
      Alexandra Semenova
      Tue, December 20, 2022 at 8:24 AM PST·2 min read
      In this article:

      U.S. stocks seesawed in back-and-forth trading Tuesday as pessimism permeated Wall Street following four straight days of losses for the major equity indexes.

      A hawkish move by the Bank of Japan to adjust the cap on its 10-year government bond yield also rattled markets, as investors worry aggressive monetary tightening by central banks around the world may cause a global recession. Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and others raised interest rates.

      The S&P 500 (^GSPC) declined 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was roughly flat around 11:24 a.m. ET. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was off by 0.4%. On Monday, all three major averages sank to their lowest closes in six weeks, with the S&P 500 weighed down by declines of more than 1% for Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOG).
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-december-20-2022-112641416.html

  26. A group of residents and business owners placed a “Santa Monica is not safe” banner in one of the city’s most popular shopping areas.

    Video Tuesday morning showed the large banner posted next to the Adidas store at the 3rd Street Promenade where thousands of holiday shoppers and tourists are sure to see it.

    Just below the “Santa Monica is not safe” sign is a second message stating, “Crime… Depravity… Outdoor Mental Asylum.”

    A group called the Santa Monica Coalition claimed responsibility for the sign, which they hope will bring attention to the area’s homeless and crime issues.

    “Take a look around downtown Santa Monica or any of the main business thoroughfares and you will notice that more than 40% of all businesses are shut down … Our city has been taken over by the mentally ill and addicted who desperately need help,” a portion of the message posted on the group’s website reads.

      1. CA politicians completely don’t give a sh$t about the middle class.
        “They are immune to the consequences of their own ideology ” VDH
        Well until they get a hammer to the head. Its falling apart fast now.

        1. “They are immune to the consequences of their own ideology ” VDH

          It was that way in the USSR. Long lines for the masses, special shops and dachas for the Nomenklatura. It was great. for them, until it suddenly ended.

    2. “Our city has been taken over by the mentally ill and addicted who desperately need help.”

      Welcome to high priced coastal California cities.

  27. Markets
    Crypto Markets Today: More FTX Fallout as Traders Turn Defensive
    Top assets in the crypto market hold steady.
    By Jocelyn Yang
    AccessTimeIcon
    Dec 20, 2022 at 1:58 p.m. PST
    Updated Dec 20, 2022 at 2:21 p.m. PST
    Dominoes Falling
    (Charl Folscher/Unsplash)
    Crypto trading firm Auros is another firm hit by the FTX collapse.
    (Charl Folscher/Unsplash)

    Auros Global, the troubled crypto trading firm and market maker, disclosed Tuesday that it was granted a “Provisional Liquidation” request last month from a court in the British Virgin Islands, as part of efforts to restructure outstanding debt to lenders.
    …
    https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/12/20/crypto-markets-today-more-ftx-fallout-as-traders-turn-defensive/

  28. Kirsch: Celine Dion Was Disabled From a KNOWN SIDE EFFECT of the COVID Vaccine (99.6% Certainty)

    by Steve Kirsch | Substack.com
    December 20th 2022, 1:56 pm

    Celine Dion finally revealed she has stiff person syndrome, which is so rare, it’s only found in 1 in a million people. Did she just get unlucky? Nope. She got vaccinated.

    My calculations, shown below, estimate that there is 99.6% chance it was the COVID vaccine which caused her injury.

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwif-rbvp4n8AhWUQzABHQt5CnwQFnoECAsQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw2G25vOeObieCu_h8KRtBvo

  29. The Covid Redemption with Tim Robbins

    Russell Brand
    Dec 18, 2022

    Here is my conversation with Tim Robbins, who has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards during his career. He explains his awakening during the pandemic & how somethings didn’t seem right to him…

    https://youtu.be/uMdOesJo4h8

    1. Robbins misunderstands one thing: in the US, it is the left who is intolerant and tries to censor everyone who disagrees with them.

      1. Also, Robbins didn’t “get it” until it was impossible to hide the fact that was and still is a scam. Sure, like other idiots (I have a few in my extended family) he could have dug in his heels and claim that it wasn’t a scam.

  32. ‘I had several examples of clients selling their homes and telling me they were not turning up to work on Monday. They had made so much money on the sale they could retire early. If I sold a house and settlement was 30 to 60 days, I could often get more money for the property before it even settled. I could say to the new owner, ‘Do you want to sell it again and make $150,000?’

    Ennio Morricone – Ecstasy of Gold (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly)
    Jun 8, 2007

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNGe7iK1O-4

    3:38.

          1. No remorse, but I can still be frustrated and angry that the fruits of my labor are devalued/diluted by all the “free money” printed and given away to the deadbeats.

  35. We have a huge homeless population, and there is a move underway to open the floodgates to millions of immigrants from the south.

    Does this seem like a wise plan?

Comments are closed.