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Sliding Prices Can Create A Cycle Where Buyers Expecting The Downward Trend To Continue End Up Prolonging The Slump

A report from the Orange County Register. “When times get tough in homes sales, watch what the homebuilders are doing. Take Landsea Homes, a small builder that blossomed in California. It’s moving its headquarters to Texas as part of a nationwide growth plan. But the relocation also comes as builders like Landsea suffer the pains of a sales crash that not only curtailed house hunting last year but also scared want-to-be buyers to walk away from sales contracts. Landsea, for example, said its cancellation rate was running a mind-blowing 72% for its Arizona sales near year’s end. Builders realize the pandemic era’s homebuying bubble has burst and it will take major price cuts to get buyers interested again. Sellers of existing homes should note that.”

The Real Deal on California. “A developer with dreams of turning a blighted office building in West San Jose into 137 homes has defaulted on a loan, with the lender threatening to seize the property. Kochland, an affiliate controlled by Kenneth Ryan Koch of Grass Valley, has received notice of a $505,000 loan default for its five-story mixed-use apartment project at 826 North Winchester Boulevard, the San Jose Mercury News reported.“

“Emerson Vista, a San Jose-based lender, filed the notice saying its loan last December was in default and is threatening to try to seize ownership of the site. The vacant two-story office building, covered with graffiti and surrounded by a chain-link fence, has been cycling in and out of foreclosure for years. Since the start of the pandemic, the Winchester Professional Building has had three owners and faced two foreclosure proceedings.”

From WTOP News. “Modestly-falling home prices have shaved off the top of the D.C. region’s housing market, with the number of homes valued at $1 million or more falling. That matches a national trend. The median price of all homes sold in the D.C. region in January was 1.3% lower than December. Prices peaked in May 2022, with the median price now 15% below that peak level, according to Bright MLS.”

The Highlands Ranch Herald. “It’s a statistic that, not long ago, homebuyers could have only dreamed of: The median price of a single-family home in the Denver area dropped by more than $90,000. The drop from $660,000 in April to $569,800 this January represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in median sales price for single-family homes in the Denver metro area since the start of 2010. That’s according to the Colorado Association of Realtors, whose data goes back to that year. Statewide, the decline in the median price of a single-family home from April to January also represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in that same period.”

The Seattle Times in Washington. “King County home prices tumbled 7% in February, the first year-over-year drop since the once-sizzling housing market began to see cooling prices. Within King County, prices fell most on the Eastside, where the median single-family home sold for about $1.3 million, down 21% from a year ago. The median Snohomish County home sold for $690,560, down about 7%. The median Kitsap County home sold for $499,995, down 5%. The median Pierce County home sold for $529,900, down 1%. Condo prices are following a similar trend. The median King County condo sold for $468,500 in February, down 12% from last year.”

“‘It’s a total 180,’ said Seattle Redfin agent Sarah Rollinger. Sellers are ‘holding on to last year’s prices,’ Rollinger said. ‘They find out that they can’t necessarily get the price that their neighbor got last year. They think maybe it’s not the best time to sell.'”

Nevada Business. “Las Vegas REALTORS® reported that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service during February was $424,995. That’s nearly identical to the previous month, but down 5.6% from $450,000 in February of 2022. It’s also down from the all-time record price of $482,000 in May of 2022. The median price of local condos and townhomes sold in February was $255,000, the same as it was in January. That’s down 1.9% from $260,000 in February of 2022, and down from the all-time record price of $285,000 in May.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. “The number of home showings in the Philadelphia region has ticked up and so has the number of new listings of homes. ‘This is not 2021 or the beginning of 2022. You’re not gonna get outrageous prices for your house. That time is past,’ said Keith Chennault, owner of Chennault Real Estate, based in West Philadelphia. ‘I tell sellers all the time, ‘Understand the market that we’re in.'”

WKRN in Tennessee. “Take a look at greater Nashville year-over-year, according to new numbers in the RE/MAX National Housing Report: Home sales are down 29.7%. The average home sells in 42 days — 71% longer than last year. And for new listings, we are second highest in the country — up 45.2%. For sellers, Jeff Checko, relocation director with the Ashton Real Estate Group said to think carefully about selling and losing that historically low interest rate you might have — and don’t be afraid to cut your list price. ‘There are situations where sellers are getting bad advice from professionals that just want to earn their business, setting the wrong expectations, and then they have a problem because their house is sitting there and not selling,’ said Checko.”

The Wall Street Journal. “Some hotel owners that rode out the pandemic are finding the recent travel rebound might not be enough to persuade lenders to extend new credit when their debts mature in the coming months or years. Lenders are asking hotel owners to put up more capital before agreeing to refinance their loans — but cash-strapped borrowers saddled with lots of debt might not be able to meet the requirements. Tens of billions of loans backed by hotel properties as collateral are coming due in the next two years. Roughly $30.9 billion, or about 30% of the $101.63 billion securitized hotel loans in the U.S., are set to mature by 2024, according to commercial-real-estate brokerage firm Newmark Group Inc.”

“Lenders that had offered loan extensions or forbearances in the early days of the pandemic are less likely to lend to the same borrowers because of economic uncertainties facing those hotels, said Michelle Russo, chief executive of hotelAVE, a consulting firm focused on the hospitality industry that has provided services to roughly 1,000 hotels and currently manages more than 70 of them. Ms. Russo said one of hotelAVE’s client hotels ‘got a letter from the bank saying, ‘We just want you to know, nine months out, we are not renewing. Don’t come to us.'”

“A bigger surge in hotel bankruptcy filings is unlikely because of factors including high costs associated with the process, said David Neff, a lawyer specializing in hotel bankruptcy at Perkins Coie LLP. ‘If things go south, many of them will just hand the keys back [to the lenders],’ Mr. Neff said. In downtown Cincinnati, the value of the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza dropped 18% to $86 million in April 2021 from $105.5 million in 2019, when the loan was issued. This past fall, lenders on the hotel’s $72.4 million loan maturing in October 2024 moved to foreclose on the property.”

From Bloomberg. “In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, the number of homes whose owners had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, allowing them to be seized and sold by the lender, hit 35 in February. There were no such ‘power of sale’ listings three years ago, according to data compiled by Daniel Foch, a Toronto-based real estate broker and researcher. Foch said he’s handling some of these listings himself, and most seem to be cases where a variable-rate mortgage was used to finance an investment property whose interest payments are now greater than what can be charged in rent, forcing the borrower into default.”

“‘We’re just being a lot more frugal and on top of our finances,’ said Peter Esper, a mortgage broker in the Toronto area who was hit hard by interest-rate increases after relying on variable-rate mortgages to finance his own real estate investments. The payments on the home he shares with his wife and two kids went up by nearly C$3,000 a month, while the difference between mortgage costs and what he was charging in rent on the four condos he owned as investment properties ballooned to a collective C$4,000 a month in negative cash flow.”

“Now he’s sold two of those condos and plans to list the third, while also canceling his cable TV package and opting to brew coffee at home rather than buying it at Tim Hortons for the foreseeable future. ‘Everyone’s just cutting back, watching what they’re spending,’ Esper said. ‘People aren’t going away as much, they’re not eating out as much. I think it’s been a big shock, considering how quickly it happened.'”

The Niagara Record in Canada. “A woman and her grandson are struggling with finding a place to live after a private mortgage lender they used has refused to renew their mortgage. Karen Backshall and Greyson Backshall say they are at wits end after attempting to save their home, which could lead to being forced to sell or face foreclosure. During the pandemic, Karen said, they fell on hard times so they turned to a private lender for a loan. When they went to renew, the lender refused, saying it wanted its money back.”

“In 2019 Karen was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was hospitalized, which lead to the start of her money problems and having to retire from her job, she said. ‘(I was) only making $1,800 a month to pay the mortgage and household bills, so I remortgaged with a private lender,’ she said. ‘(They) now want the money back and I can’t pay them back. So, they are foreclosing on the house.'”

“She said the loan was for $510,000 to consolidate a previous mortgage and other bills, with an option to renew after a year. ‘The mortgage company I was dealing with told us two weeks before we were to renew, the investor was not willing to extend the mortgage past Dec. 21,’ she said. ‘He gave us roughly two weeks’ notice that we weren’t going to have a mortgage.'”

“She said she approached other mortgage companies and banks but has been unsuccessful, because and her grandson do not make enough money. ‘During the time period the mortgage holder gave us we received one (purchase) offer, and they were not able to come up to what we needed to pay off the mortgage and that’s when they (mortgage holder) decided they were foreclosing,’ Karen said.”

The Helsinki Times. “House pricesin Finland continued to slide in January. Statistics Finland released preliminary data indicating that the prices of old dwellings in housing companies dropped by 5.3 per cent year-on-year and 2.4 per cent month-on-month in January.  The year-on-year drop stood at 5.5 per cent in the six largest cities and at 4.8 per cent in other localities across the country.”

“Out of the largest cities in Finland, the prices fell the most in Oulu, Helsinki and Vantaa, and the least in Tampere and Turku. ‘The decline in house prices continued, as expected, in January. The decline has now wiped out the gains made during the coronavirus pandemic, and the decline is likely to continue in the coming months,’ tweeted Joona Widgrén, an economist at OP Financial Group.”

“Widgrén revealed in a blog entry that house prices fell slightly faster than expected by the largest mortgage lender in Finland. ‘This was the weakest month in both the capital region and entire country in terms of sales volume in statistics dating back to 2015. House sales have continued sluggishly. Of course you should bear in mind that January is typically the weakest month [of the year] for house sales,’ he wrote according to Helsingin Sanomat. Widgrén pointed out that the sliding prices can create a cycle where buyers expecting the downward trend to continue end up prolonging the slump.”

The Herald Sun in Australia. “A five-bedroom mansion on Brighton’s prestigious Golden Mile sold for a mega $7.3m at its auction on Saturday, after three people placed bids to push it $100,000 over the $7.2m reserve. The 26 Bay St pad was initially listed for $7.4m-$7.6m. Morrell and Koren buyer’s advocate Matthew Cleverdon was in attendance and noted the property was also listed off market last year for $9.5m-$10.2m, but the vendors ‘rode the market down.’ ‘As the Bayside market softened in the back half of last year…. the vendors had to ride the wave of the falling market,’ Mr Cleverdon said. ‘The prices they were originally looking at fell as the market softened.'”

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This Post Has 98 Comments

  1. ‘We just want you to know, nine months out, we are not renewing. Don’t come to us…If things go south, many of them will just hand the keys back [to the lenders]’

    Well, that’s a sticky situation.

    This reminds me: wa happened to frozen soup line Larry and his hotel empire?

  2. ‘The median price of a single-family home in the Denver area dropped by more than $90,000. The drop from $660,000 in April to $569,800 this January represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in median sales price for single-family homes in the Denver metro area since the start of 2010. That’s according to the Colorado Association of Realtors, whose data goes back to that year. Statewide, the decline in the median price of a single-family home from April to January also represented the steepest, longest sustained decline in that same period’

    The whole state is sinking like a turd in a well.

    1. Denver is where you can pay property taxes to the city and expect ZERO law enforcement. As the head of the RTD transit agency said “a lawless hellhole”

    2. Denver is a weird city crime and perception wise. 16th street mall, downtown, near Coor field now have a lot of crime.

      Yet the middle and upper middle class in Lowry, Centennial etc., feel very safe and secure in their neighbourhoods and dont seem to care about the warning signs.

      1. “feel very safe and secure in their neighbourhoods”

        They’re lying to themselves if they believe that.

        1. “They’re lying to themselves if they believe that.”

          Ya this is a very common belief amongst the loanowners. Ya the area 2 miles from here is a $hithole but it will never get here.

          1. I am still observing an exodus out of metro Dumver, mostly olds, who are moving to Larimer County. Some people are aware that their well manicured, but centric neighborhood, is no longer safe.

          2. I am still observing an exodus out of metro Dumver, mostly olds, who are moving to Larimer County.

            The whole state is sinking like a turd in a well.

  3. ‘In 2019 Karen was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was hospitalized, which lead to the start of her money problems and having to retire from her job, she said. ‘(I was) only making $1,800 a month to pay the mortgage and household bills, so I remortgaged with a private lender,’ she said. ‘(They) now want the money back and I can’t pay them back. So, they are foreclosing on the house’

    Sound lending!

    ‘‘During the time period the mortgage holder gave us we received one (purchase) offer, and they were not able to come up to what we needed to pay off the mortgage and that’s when they (mortgage holder) decided they were foreclosing’

    We’re all in this together Karen. Better get some boxes.

    1. “Karen was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was hospitalized, which lead to the start of her money problems”

      I thought this was Canada, with famous socialized health care? Maybe it’s not all free.

      That said, I’m still puzzled why so many people get into deeper trouble cause they want to “save their home.” She’s retired and doesn’t need to commute. Grandson is college-aged at best and doesn’t appear to be tied to a high-pay cubicle either. Why not just sell out and head to a trailer park in the sticks? All I can think is that they’re all underwater.

      1. Its about “stuff” they love their “stuff” Watch the show hoarders even whn threatened with condemnation by city inspectors, they still can’t get rid of their “stuff”.

        1. From what I have read, psychology cannot explain extreme hoarding and there is no treatment for it. Also read that hoarders know they are hoarders and feel shame over it, but can’t help it.

      2. Maybe it’s not all free.

        I expect free health care doesn’t mean they also pay your mortgage bill.

        A mobile home in a Canadian Trailer Park is a very expensive thing.

        1. I expect free health care doesn’t mean they also pay your mortgage bill.

          Exactly. She might qualify for some for disability, but it would likely be only a fraction of her old salary.

    3. her money problems and having to retire from her job, she said. ‘(I was) only making $1,800 a month to pay the mortgage and household bills, so I remortgaged with a private lender,’

      Eating your seed corn has never been a sustainable venture. You can’t fix stupid.

  4. ‘Sellers are ‘holding on to last year’s prices,’ Rollinger said. ‘They find out that they can’t necessarily get the price that their neighbor got last year. They think maybe it’s not the best time to sell’

    They’re right Sarah, and don’t you go giving them ideas about giving it away!

  5. “On a scale compared to something like 2008? Probably not, because of the place the Denver metro area is in right now,” Thayer said. “It is certainly one of the most desirable places to live in the country”

    Number one in the country for auto theft, and it will NEVER get better considering how Denver votes.

    “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

    1. “On a scale compared to something like 2008? Probably not, because of the place the Denver metro area is in right now,” Thayer said. “It is certainly one of the most desirable places to live in the country””

      – “It’s different this time.”

      – BTW, Denver is just another leftist, Socialist hell-hole. I wouldn’t live there if you paid me. No offense to those there now. Needles and feces and crime, oh my! You get the government you vote for. Good and hard!

      1. +1

        Read any /r/Denver Reddit thread about crime, and you will notice the near unanimous DENIAL of the root of the problem.

        The Denver mayor race this year (i.e. the race for the D nomination) will change nothing.

        It will only get worse, and then after that, it will get more worse.

        Property taxes in Denver get you NOTHING.

      2. Colorado is a lost cause. The fix is in. You don’t go from 50/50 votes to 70/30 in 5 years. Everyone I know who is productive and not totally blind has closed up their taxpaying business and left. (including me). And nobody is moving back, family/mtns/whatever or not. It’s just California East at this point. OH sure it’s desirable for blood sucking FSA leeches, but productive people? No, that ship has sailed.

        2. My state IL is 55D/45R but so gerrymandered and structurally messed up it cannot be saved. Too many good people have fled and the good people that remain are demoralized.

    2. “It is certainly one of the most desirable places to live in the country”

      Some suburbs like Broomfield, Westminster, Highlands Ranch, etc. look very pristine, clean, well manicured and even idyllic. But even in those places the rot is settling in: libraries being closed due to meth and fentanyl contamination, cars parked on the driveway being burglarized or stolen, etc. It’s only a matter of time before the homeless camps start popping up in their parks.

      1. I could drop anecdotes about crime and homeless in very specific locations around Denver & suburbs, but it would take me all day. Have two:

        Friend who works near 17th and Lincoln in downtown witnessed a mid-day shooting walking from his office to his car.

        I’m two degrees of separation from a homicide, female site super I worked with a year ago lost her fiance to a random road rage shooting on I-70.

  6. Landsea, for example, said its cancellation rate was running a mind-blowing 72% for its Arizona sales near year’s end.

    Is that a lot?

  8. ‘There are situations where sellers are getting bad advice from professionals that just want to earn their business, setting the wrong expectations, and then they have a problem because their house is sitting there and not selling,’ said Checko.”

    All that to say, realtors are liars.

  9. “In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, the number of homes whose owners had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, allowing them to be seized and sold by the lender, hit 35 in February.

    Die, speculator scum.

  10. I think it’s been a big shock, considering how quickly it happened.’”

    It’s only a big shock for the vegetables who trust globalist propaganda outlets for their news & information.

  11. A report from the Orange County Register. “Landsea, for example, said its cancellation rate was running a mind-blowing 72% for its Arizona sales near year’s end.”

    – Crater.

    “Builders realize the pandemic era’s homebuying bubble has burst and it will take major price cuts to get buyers interested again. Sellers of existing homes should note that.”

    – Housing Bubble 2.0 was intentionally blown by the Fed. It started in 2010 with their “wealth effect” policy to reignite housing and stonks after the GFC and Housing Bubble 1.0, which they also created with similar policies following the Dot Com Bubble bursting, also created by the Fed. It was only made worse by $5T of additional pandemic stimulus.

    – Apparently everyone is OK with inflating asset bubbles, but that’s delusional, since they always burst with painful outcomes. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t touch a hot stove. Time for another life lesson. Consequences are a great teacher, but people forget what happened last time, maybe also intentionally, since there’s a new opportunity to get rich quick with every new bubble. People ignore the final outcome of wealth transfer, impoverishment, BK, etc.

    “There’s a sucker born every minute.” – P. T. Barnum (and now the Fed)

    – Bubble-nomics: The new economy. 99%: poorer and poorer with each cycle. 1%: richer and richer. Am I wrong?

    1. 1%: richer and richer. Am I wrong?

      Would suggest that the 0.1% are super richer and richer.

      1. Not to disagree, but savers who aim to, accumulate more wealth day by day, while living beneath their means, even in these times. It’s mostly the spendthrift and debtor who enrich the higher ups.

        1. “…but savers who aim to…”

          Absolutely right.

          Example, most HBB readers most certainly fall into that category.

          But what additional percent is that, 2%?

          So we have 97% + 2% + 0.9% + 0.1%

          Interesting often quoted stat: 50%-60% of all households have less than $1000 cash available to meet an emergency.

  12. ‘(They) now want the money back and I can’t pay them back. So, they are foreclosing on the house.’”

    Right on cue, here comes the media with the FB victim chronicles. They will never call out these “victims” for their own culpability in financially overextending themselves for overpriced shacks they clearly couldn’t afford. Ben, please hand me a tissue.

  14. A reader sent these in:

    Warren be like “my donors are worried about their ponzi scheme.”

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1633146416775446529

    Powell: we may be seeing some price correction in the housing market!
    💥

    https://twitter.com/ssun5555/status/1633152039457894401

    Just like other housing bubbles 08′ & 80s Japan, once prices go down, the de-leveraging event begins. Real Estate is genuinely a textbook Ponzi scheme.

    https://twitter.com/goldenkazeburny/status/1633147154469384202

    Elizabeth would like the people to continue working 4 side hustles in perpetuity to afford rent so the valuation of her Cambridge Victorian can stay above 3 mil

    https://twitter.com/texasrunnerDFW/status/1633142393200418816

    Woman shot during “Project X party” w/ 500-1000 in attendance at Hidden Hills, CA short term rental rented out by party promoters. This is the 309th report I’ve found of a shooting at a STR since 5/2019.

    https://twitter.com/jjsheedy/status/1632827317184503810

    It’s hypocrisy for @SenWarren to scold #Powell for raising interest rates to fight #inflation, causing millions to lose jobs and creating a #recession, when its the policies she supports that created that inflation and are destroying the purchasing power of worker’s paychecks.

    https://twitter.com/PeterSchiff/status/1633142123234050050

    May they burn in bankruptcy hell

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1633292498323005440

    Deep pocketed teal estate investors are now backing out of dels because cap rates are in the 4% area whereas you can earn 5% just owning a t-bill risk free. So essentially it’s more profitable to own a t-bill versus owning real estate

    https://twitter.com/StealthQE4/status/1633281847231762433

    Canada’s national housing agency has now taken mortgage delinquency data covering the last 460 days offline. So now we have to rely on the for-profit banks for information. Prob nothing.

    https://twitter.com/Tablesalt13/status/1633265717356240896

    You can now earn a 5% yield in 3-Month Treasury Bills. First time since 2007. A year ago the yield was 0.38%.

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1633250884929875971

    ECB speak: We’re going to do four more 50 bps hikes

    https://twitter.com/Mayhem4Markets/status/1632951225200136193

    🗣️ Blackrock’s Rieder: There is a good chance that fed will need to increase to 6%.

    https://twitter.com/WallStJesus/status/1633208119332356096

    POV: you’ve just unbanked one of the largest Ponzi cartels in history

    https://twitter.com/concodanomics/status/1633253154027438082

    Construction employment has (so far) saved the economy from recession. This thread explains why this happened, why it won’t last much longer, and how this extra lag increased the risk of a hard landing.

    https://twitter.com/EPBResearch/status/1633103320079269890

    “It was the price of a car,” says Stuart Galbraith IV of the house in rural Japan he bought in 2016. It was one of the eight million akiya or “vacant homes” in Japan, mostly in the countryside, whose owners have died or moved away.

    https://twitter.com/TorontoStar/status/1632460984332738563

    “We need to attain a sufficiently restrictive stance of policy,” New York Fed President John Williams told a Wall Street Journal live event in New York. “We’re going to need to maintain that for a few years to make sure we get inflation to 2%.”

    https://twitter.com/TechQn/status/1633239295434846209

    Town Sues American Dream Mall for Refusing to Pay $8 Million
    A New Jersey town sued the American Dream mall and entertainment complex over its refusal to make about $7.5 million in property tax-like payments and $400,000 for sewer service.

    https://twitter.com/danjmcnamara/status/1632830446475116545

    The Kobeissi Letter

    SUMMARY OF POWELL TESTIMONY (3/7/23):
    1. Peak rate will be “higher than anticipated”
    2. Revisions show inflation “higher than expected”
    3. Minimal deflation in services
    4. Decisions to be made “by meeting”
    5. Inflation “to be bumpy”
    A pivot from hawkish to more hawkish.

    https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1633121711020298241

    Exclusive: RBA Governor Phil Lowe obtained a half-price home loan – from the Reserve Bank to purchase his 5-bedroom property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 1997. There are 11 current/former RBA employees still benefitting from the scheme.

    https://twitter.com/livcaisley/status/1633329716928352256

    Beyond Meat, Net Income…
    2022: -$366 million
    2021: -$182 mil.
    2020: -$53 mil.
    2019: -$12 mil.
    2018: -$30 mil.
    2017: -$30 mil.
    2016: -$25 mil.
    $BYND stock is 92% below its 2019 mania peak.
    IPO Price: $25/share
    All-Time High Price: $239/share
    Price Today: $18/share

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1632963544412037121

    DoorDash Revenue…
    2022: $6.6 billion
    2021 : $4.9 billion
    2020: $2.9 billion
    2019: $885 million
    2018: $291 million

    DoorDash Net Income…
    2022: -$1.37 billion
    2021: -$468 million
    2020: -$461 million
    2019: -$667 million
    2018: -$204 million

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1632889724867158018

    1. DoorDash revenue close to 7B? I will call a BS on that.

      Assuming $5 fees, that’s more than a billion food deliveries….I smell somet’ing.

    2. “ECB speak: We’re going to do four more 50 bps hikes”

      Euro subjects: “But energy prices, and the war isn’t over yet!”

    3. “It’s hypocrisy for @SenWarren to scold #Powell for raising interest rates to fight #inflation, causing millions to lose jobs and creating a #recession, when its the policies she supports that created that inflation and are destroying the purchasing power of worker’s paychecks.”

      I thought the same thing when I read about this

      1. “@SenWarren to scold”

        She is fighting for the little guy by making sure he can’t afford anything. Same goes for Bernie, too. What a fraud!

    4. Warren be like “my donors are worried about their ponzi scheme.”

      Why is Elizabeth Warren trying to destroy the poor with inflation?

    5. Blackrock’s Rieder: There is a good chance that fed will need to increase to 6%

      Pfffft. Way to go out on a limb. Change that to 8%+.

  15. Decriminalize EVERYTHING.

    Colorado lawmaker proposes bill to limit arrests for low-level offenses (3/6/2023):

    “A bill making it’s way through Colorado’s state legislature has some law enforcement agencies worried, while those behind the legislation believe it’s misunderstood.

    House Bill 23-1169, in its current form, would prohibit a police officer from arresting someone “solely on the alleged commission of a petty offense,” excluding petty theft, a drug petty offense, and a class 2 traffic misdemeanor.

    The bill has already experienced a number of revisions, but some petty offenses that would not qualify for an arrest under the bill are trespassing, abandoning a motor vehicle and disorderly conduct.

    The text in the legislation reports low-level offenses are commonly connected to behavioral health, substance use and homelessness issues, which are exacerbated by jail time.”

    https://www.denver7.com/news/politics/colorado-lawmaker-proposes-bill-to-limit-arrests-for-low-level-offenses

    Keep paying those property taxes, slaves.

    1. Colorado lawmaker proposes bill to limit arrests for low-level offenses (3/6/2023):”

      Like CA and we can see how well that turned out . And not just CA , Why are all the Walmarts closing in Portland ?

  17. Vote like California, become California:

    “Gun-related violence has doubled or even tripled in Colorado in the last decade, depending on the metric.

    Colorado Democrats are hoping a slew of firearm restrictions will pass this session. The bills include an assault weapons ban, a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases, additions to Colorado’s existing “red flag” laws and increasing the legal handgun purchase age to 21.

    Both the total number and the rate of firearm-related crimes have been climbing in Colorado for a decade, spiking especially high beginning in 2020.

    It isn’t attributable to Colorado’s explosion in population through the 2010s, either. Colorado had 82 firearm-related violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2012. In 2022, that had more than doubled to 187 per 100,000.”

    https://kdvr.com/news/data/what-to-know-about-growth-in-colorados-gun-violence/

  18. Low income housing what a scam

    “We got lucky there, because my best friend has a friend who at the time was working for the city. After a million dollars worth of grants to a developer, all he had to do was sell one home to a low-income family. My best friend had made sure all his contacts knew what we were trying to do, so his friend referred us, and they sold us the house for what we could afford.”

  20. I still see paying over asking for properties. Either this is a total lie by Realtor or people are really this dumb. Could this be a buy-down or rates by the sellers?

    https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/11795-Ranch-Elsie-Rd_Golden_CO_80403_M27168-74412
    02/27/2023 Sold $702,000
    01/19/2023 Listed $650,000

    https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7010-Alcott-St_Westminster_CO_80030_M21084-28662
    02/22/2023 Sold $497,000
    01/25/2023 Listed $475,000

    1. Lots of shenanigans happen to sweeten the closing. Don’t think they get reflected in the sold price.

    3. If you price anything low enough there will be multiple offers. In K-da, they simply way under price and voila! Mr Sessa pointed out one he knew about where the seller lost 300k K-dn pesos. But there was a bidding war! Same thing is happening in Kalifornia. But this was a standard bay aryan tactic going way back. However, during the cray cray, they were throwing out any number and getting 100k over. Now that’s some sound lending!

  21. Russia’s Wagner Group Claims Major Gains in Ukrainian Stronghold of Bakhmut

    BREITBART LONDON8 Mar 2023

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The owner of Russia’s Wagner Group military company claimed Wednesday that his troops have extended their gains in the key Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut as fierce fighting continues in the war’s longest battle.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/03/08/russias-wagner-group-claims-major-gains-in-ukrainian-stronghold-of-bakhmut/

    1. It appears that 10,000 troops are now surrounded and cut off there in what they call a Cauldron. Death or surrender their likely future.

      1. surrounded and cut off there in what they call a Cauldron

        It’s been almost a year since I learned from The Duran that this was the prototypical Russian military strategy.

        1. Meanwhile, everyone in the US expects the shock-and-awe bombing that the US prototypically engages in.

    2. Peace could have been negotiated months ago and these (and more to come) needless combat deaths prevented, but all The Right People are making Too Much Money to end the war.

      War pigs gonna pig.

      1. The Right People are making Too Much Money to end the war

        Tucker Carlson exposed the entire thing with his January 6th takedown. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer are on the same side. It’s the Uniparty, and they have been ripping off the American people.

    1. Joe Rogan Opens His Anti-Cancel Culture Club in Austin

      He’s in “the big club” now. Think “controlled opposition.”

  23. Sliding Prices Can Create A Cycle Where Buyers Expecting The Downward Trend To Continue End Up Prolonging The Slump

    ACCELERATING Prices Can Create A Cycle Where Buyers Expecting The UPWARD Trend To Continue End Up Prolonging The BUBBLE

    1. Sliding Prices Can Create A Cycle Where Buyers Expecting The Downward Trend To Continue End Up Prolonging The Slump

      House prices should be 2.5x median incomes.

        1. As a renown economist stated so eloquently, “It’s a shame these bubble jobs existed to begin with.”

          He’s right.

          Also… long term historic housing prices are 2x income for resale, 2.5x for new construction.

          Atlantic Beach, NC Housing Prices Crater 22% As Vacation And Retirement Property Demand Plummets

          https://www.movoto.com/atlantic-beach-nc/market-trends/

  24. Does it seem like crypto rises every time the Fed signals intent to take their foot off the brake pedal?

    1. Fed Chair Powell Calls Crypto a Mess, Lays out Concerns
      By PYMNTS March 8, 2023

      United States bank regulators’ posture on digital assets is increasingly one of “prove it” pressure.

      This, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Tuesday (March 7) re-emphasized his earlier stern warnings around cryptocurrencies during his agency’s semi-annual monetary report to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.

      In today’s post-FTX landscape, nearly all of the key federal bureaus are decidedly wary of giving the crypto industry any onramps to the traditional financial sector.

      Powell’s speech before Tuesday’s committee of lawmakers offered little in the way of a silver lining.

      “We’ve seen just a remarkable set of events in the crypto space,” he said. “…We’re watching what’s been happening, and what we see is quite a lot of turmoil, we see fraud, we see a lack of transparency, we see run risk.”

      Powell was asked to address cryptocurrency issues several times during his testimony, which primarily centered around employment, consumer spending, manufacturing production, and inflation.

      ‘We Don’t Want to Stifle Innovation’
      …
      https://www.pymnts.com/cryptocurrency/2023/federal-reserve-chair-powell-calls-crypto-mess-lays-out-concerns/

      1. ‘We Don’t Want to Stifle Innovation’

        But Powell has done a *great* job of stifling common sense.

      2. ‘We Don’t Want to Stifle Innovation’

        Oh really? Because that’s precisely what he’s done with this low rates and QE nonsense – stifled innovation and created zombie companies which produce nothing.

    2. A bunch of billionaires are sitting on massive losses, so they’re propping it up, hoping for one last bounce so they can all get out whole. How many of these hacks bought at $60k and above? They got rinsed.

  26. Forget the police and the judge, my father would have beaten my @ss for doing this.

    Yiatin Chu
    @ycinnewyork
    ·
    This video is going viral on WeChat. Fish Village, a restaurant in College Point, Qns was ransacked by a gang of masked kids in hoodies.

    We’ve fallen so low that there’s no expectation of consequences for this horrific attack on private property.

    https://twitter.com/ycinnewyork/status/1632952440650620928?s=20

    1. Asians need to realize that they have a huge bulls eye on their backs and that vibrants especially hate them. They don’t get to play the “I’m a minority” card.

    2. Vibrants gonna vibrant.

      How many of these kids stopped going to school in March 2020 because of CCP Flu and never went back? How many have a father in the home? Or in their life for that matter?

      “They’re not sending their best”

  27. Borrowing from The Charlie Daniels Band Uneasy Rider
    regarding the MSM response to the 9 pm Fox J6 coverage.

    Tuckers got them all out there steppin’ an’ a fetchin’
    like their heads are on fire and their @sses are catchin’

    PS

    China Mitch Mconell too.

    https://youtu.be/EJrRwTTqm0o

    2. I can’t wait to see what my man has ready for tonites episode. You know theirs much more….

  28. The currently available evidence supports the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory, former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield told members of Congress on March 8.

    “From the earliest days of the pandemic, my view was both theories about the origin of COVID-19 needed to be aggressively and thoroughly examined. Based on my initial analysis of the data, I came to believe—and I still believe today—that it indicates that COVID-19 more likely was the result of an accidental lab leak than a result of a natural spillover event,” Redfield, who directed the CDC during the Trump administration, said in his prepared opening remarks to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

    “This conclusion is based primarily on the biology of the virus itself, including the rapid high infectivity for human-to-human transmission, which would then predict rapid evolution of new variants as well as a number of other important factors, which also include the unusual actions in and around Wuhan in the fall of 2019, all of which I am happy to discuss today,” Redfield added.

    Redfield was one of four people set to testify Wednesday on to the new committee, which is controlled by Republicans and is seeking to pin down where COVID-19 came from.

    Some scientists still strongly support the natural origin theory, but more than two years after the pandemic started, no host animal has been identified. Additionally, the virus itself contains signs it was engineered, according to some experts.

    U.S. intelligence officials are divided over the origins. The FBI assesses that COVID-19 likely originated in the Wuhan lab, as does the Energy Department, but some other agencies lean towards the natural origin theory.

    Redfield was also prepared to tell the panel that researching the origins is important.

    “Even given the information that’s surfaced in the three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, some have contended that there is really no point in investigating the origins of this virus. I strongly disagree. There is a global need to know what we are dealing with in COVID-19 virus because it affects how we approach the problem to try to prevent the next pandemic,” he wrote in his opening statement.

    Because the current evidence supports the lab origin theory, and because the labs in China were conducting research that increased one or more functions of a virus—known as gain-of-function—there should be a halt to such experiments, Redfield asserted.

    “Gain-of-function research has long been controversial within the scientific community, and, in my own opinion, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a case study on the potential dangers of such research. While many believe that gain-of-function research is critical to get ahead of viruses by developing vaccines, in this case, I believe it was the exact opposite, unleashing a new virus on the world without any means of stopping it and resulting in the deaths of millions of people,” he said.

    “Because of this, it is my opinion that we should call for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we have a broader debate and we come to a consensus as a community about the value of gain-of-function research. This debate should not be limited to the scientific community. If the decision is to continue gain-of-function research then it must be determined how and where to conduct this research in a safe, responsible, and effective way.”

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who prompted the drafting of a 2020 paper that was meant to “disprove” the lab leak theory, was not called to testify. During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday night, he said it’s hard to know whether COVID-19 originated from nature or a lab.

    “Whether or not we ever will know, I’m not sure,” he said. “The one thing is that we have to keep an open mind about this until there’s definitive evidence.”

    If a lab leak is proven, then “you want to be very much more stringent in the controls of the experiments that you allow to be done,” Fauci said. If nature is determined to be the origin, then controls should be placed on animal-human interactions at places such as wet markets, he added.

    Fauci also said that he would testify before a panel if he is called, as he did multiple times during the previous Congress.

    Jamie Metzl, senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, another witness and a self-identified Democrat, told the congressional panel on Wednesday that an investigation into the origins was important because of the devastating impact of COVID-19, including a death toll in the millions.

    “It is inconceivable that over three years after this deadly pandemic began, no comprehensive and unfettered investigation into pandemic origins has been carried out nor is one currently planned. Twenty million dead and counting and no comprehensive investigation. This injustice is an insult to every victim of this crisis and a clear threat to future generations,” Metzl said in his opening remarks. “There’s a reason we leave no stone unturned when investigating a plane crash. We do it to make flying safer. Similarly, understanding how this pandemic began is essential to prioritizing our response. If, for example, we knew for certain the pandemic stems from a lab incident in Wuhan, I can assure you that efforts to regulate the rapid proliferation of high-containment, and all-too-often high risk, virology labs across the globe would get a massive boost.”

    Metzl noted that the Chinese Communist Party has blocked efforts to investigate the origins, including destroying evidence and imprisoning journalists.

    “This hearing must be only the beginning,” he said. “The most substantial work is ahead of us. We must fully investigate pandemic origins and begin building the national and international norms, systems, and structures to prevent this type of catastrophe from ever happening again.”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/covid-19-more-likely-originated-in-chinese-lab-than-nature-former-cdc-director_5108009.html

  30. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Kingston hit $1,615 this year – roughly 25% more expensive than three years ago.

    ‘It’s legal, there’s just no precedent’: the first US town to demand a rent decrease

    In Kingston, New York, tenants say their survival depends on the city ordering a rent reduction – something that’s never been done before
    Wilfred Chan in Kingston, New York
    Wed 8 Mar 2023 01.00 EST
    The Guardian

    It’s 2pm after an overnight shift, and Amanda Treasure is lying in bed unable to sleep. She can’t stop thinking about how most of what she brings home from her full-time job as a caretaker – two $900 checks a month – goes to rent for the two-bedroom apartment with a mold problem she shares with her disabled husband, teenage son and five pets.

    Treasure has lived her whole life in Kingston, New York, a quiet city about 90 miles north of Manhattan. She got her first job at 14 delivering papers, and by 16 she was paying for her first car and insurance. The skating rink and bowling alley Treasure frequented as a teen disappeared soon after the IBM factory that once employed thousands of residents closed in the early 1990s, devastating the town. “Now there’s nothing to do here, and the prices are through the roof,” Treasure says. “And I’m working my butt off, but there’s nothing to show. This world is just not what I expected being 52 years old.”

    Half of Kingston’s 24,000 residents are renters, but finding a vacant apartment has become nearly impossible. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Kingston hit $1,615 this year – roughly 25% more expensive than three years ago. That’s devastating in a city where the median per-capita income is just over $32,000, and nearly one-fifth of residents live under the federal poverty line.
    …

    1. “…the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Kingston hit $1,615 this year…”

      I recall recently reading that the median rent on a one bedroom apartment in San Diego is $2200.

    2. Spent a summer in Saugerties, NY (11 mi. from Kingston) as a kid. Longest summer of my life. Nothing to do, lots of mosquitoes. The house we rented had hundreds of old Readers Digests from the previous two decades and I read every one of them 🤓

    1. Yahoo
      Bitcoin crashes through US$22,000 floor as failure of Silvergate crypto bank hits market
      Tom Zuo
      Wed, March 8, 2023 at 7:07 PM PST·3 min read

      Bitcoin fell below the US$22,000 support line in Thursday morning trading in Asia, with Ether and most other leading cryptocurrencies losing ground after U.S. crypto bank Silvergate said it will voluntarily liquidate. The bank has teetered on the brink of insolvency for weeks, becoming another victim of the FTX exchange collapse last November. Solana led the losers among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and the total industry capitalization fell under US$1 trillion. XRP rose. U.S. equities closed mixed on Wednesday, unnerved by the prospect of interest rates moving higher than expected this year.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-crashes-us-22-000-030719654.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE72zqEgypNqS2q3YyDA_W4LUWZToQntrvtrb0c0Z43fOgAhCbnNN6ESS_ZPG5E_H-W40GdTfLyv1DI2m95dwx4cJZ-NQq_xHmSIKs9zXCIoqNTR7VLY4Jp6RFeUIS9op0BRTvGoasoydT4meeGIHEZ8TcFLbZe5t4ahyupwADtN

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