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I Just Never Dreamt I Wouldn’t Be Able To Sell It

A report from Deseret News. “More than a month after the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded 11 investors. Moody’s research released on Friday suggests that the industry is experiencing greater instability from several bank failures and high inflation, calling ‘into question whether some banks’ assumed high stability of deposits and their operational nature, should be reevaluated,’ The Wall Street Journal reported. Six U.S. banks were placed on Moody’s review list in March, per Reuters.”

“All six banks put for review failed and were downgraded with the new study, including Comerica Inc., First Republic Bank, Intrust Financial Corporation, UMB Financial Corp, Western Alliance Bancorp and Zions Bancorporation. The other downgraded banks include Associated Banc-Corp., First Hawaiian Inc., Washington Federal Inc. and U.S. Bank, reported WSJ. U.S. Bancorp lost $682 billion in assets, Zions Bancorp lost $89 billion, and finally, Bank of Hawaii Corp. lost $24 million.”

The Express News in Texas. “The fever is breaking. San Antonio-area home prices, which got superheated through the pandemic, finally notched an annual decline in March. ‘Now the buyer actually has time to think about the decision,’ said Sara Gerrish, the Realtors’ board chair. ‘Before, when things were really hectic, you would see buyers make offers sight unseen, thousands above list price, and compete in multiple-offer situations.’ In San Antonio, the housing market’s temperature began falling last spring as higher rates and prices put the notion of homeownership out of reach for many prospective buyers. For 12 months, that’s been slowing the number of homes sold in the area.”

“The same patterns being seen in San Antonio are playing out in the state’s other large cities. Sales fell 18.3 percent and the median price dipped 3 percent to $325,000 year-over-year in Houston, sales dropped 14 percent and the median price declined 13 percent to $450,000 in Austin, and sales dipped 1.3 percent and the median price slid 0.8 percent to $390,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, according to those areas’ Realtors’ groups.”

The Bradenton Herald in Florida. “Existing single-family home sales increased in Manatee County for March in comparison to the same month a year ago, while prices decreased by 6.3% to $491,988. The amount of single-family homes on the market rose significantly with 1,706 listings compared to 431 a year ago in the Bradenton area and 1,911 listings compared to 690 a year ago in Sarasota.”

WFAE in North Carolina. “Are you seeing fewer cranes out there? Well, it turns out that construction in Charlotte is stagnant. That’s according to new figures from CoStar looking at the first quarter of 2023. The numbers also show apartments and the industrial sector, which ncludes warehouses and distribution centers, saw their weakest periods in almost two years. So what’s going on? We turn now to Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter. Mecia: ‘In Charlotte, we’ve become accustomed to seeing things being built all the time — apartment complexes, office towers, industrial buildings, retail shops. But if you look at the numbers, they’ve been down for the last couple of quarters, the last half a year or so. There’s a lot of economic uncertainty. Financing costs are getting more expensive. Banks are getting a little more reluctant to lend money for construction projects. And so, you know, a lot of this boom that we’ve seen over the last few years is really slowing down.'”

“‘I think it’s really sort of a continuation of a trend that’s gone on for a few months in that you’re seeing that the year over year median sales prices of homes in the Charlotte region has gone down. Now, it’s not significant. It’s 0.4% in March compared with March of 2022. But for a region that’s been accustomed to ever-increasing home prices, it is a little bit different.'”

NBC Bay Area in California. “The Bay Area has the worst performing housing market in the nation, according to a new report. Parcl Labs, which tracks the housing market, said that prices in the Bay have dropped a staggering 24% from their peak last summer — more than double the national average of 10%. Analysts say that’s partly because people have been moving away, meaning there’s more supply than demand.”

The Real Deal on New York. “Two Upper East multifamily apartment buildings are heading to a bankruptcy auction next month, more than a year after a lender moved to foreclose. Aulder Capital initiated a UCC foreclosure on the 37-unit multifamily properties at 162-164 East 82nd Street in late 2021. The apartments, which are mostly free-market rentals, are largely controlled by apparel entrepreneur Ruben Azrak. Azrak hired bankruptcy specialist David Goldwasser to put the properties into bankruptcy in September of last year, halting the foreclosure.”

“Bankruptcy gave the owners one last chance to refinance, but the lending environment has been brutal. The property is the latest example of the distress in New York’s multifamily market. Rent-stabilized buildings have faced headwinds since the 2019 rent law, which severely limited rent increases at stabilized units. But free-market rentals are also facing challenges. Last month, Moody’s downgraded the CMBS debt secured by 11 Manhattan multifamily buildings owned by Blackstone, claiming that the cash flow wouldn’t cover the debt service. The portfolio is 96 percent free-market.”

The Financial Times. “US banks are becoming increasingly worried about falling commercial property valuations and the risk they pose to lenders’ balance sheets, senior executives said.Office valuations in particular have been pummelled. Last week, Wells Fargo reported that its non-performing commercial real estate loans had jumped nearly 50 per cent since December to $US1.5 billion. Morgan Stanley cited commercial property and a deteriorating economic outlook as reasons for a sharp rise in its provisioning compared with last year. ‘In my view we are not in a banking crisis, but we have had, and may still have, a crisis among some banks,’ chief executive James Gorman told analysts on a call.”

“This week Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer of the $US306 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, told the Financial Times he estimated office values had fallen by about 20 per cent and that he was bracing for steep losses on the fund’s $US52 billion real estate portfolio. ‘If you have maturing debt, you can’t carry the existing debt load and you’re not willing to put more money in, then it’s foreclosure,’ said Tony Natsis, head of the real estate group at law firm Allen Matkins. He added, however, that lenders would prefer to modify existing loans: ‘They’re asking themselves ‘do I really want to take this back in a bad market?'”

The Edmonton Journal in Canada. “It’s not quite the deluge of buyers seen last spring when Edmonton’s resale real estate market saw record-high sales. Melanie Boles, a realtor and chair of RAE, points to March resale market data, showing sales had fallen nearly 45 per cent from March 2022, an all-time record for any month when 3,311 homes changed hands. ‘When we take out the anomaly years of the pandemic, we’re seeing fairly strong activity in the city.'”

“Of course, most buyers are local, Boles says. But they have shifted their sights to lower priced segments. With an average price of a condo at the end of March falling five per cent year over year to $170,000, and townhome prices dropping nearly 13 per cent to about $248,000, Edmonton remains among the most affordable markets for price-sensitive buyers. ‘It’s not that the buyers have left the market,’ Boles says. ‘It is more they have changed what they’re looking to purchase given the higher rates.'”

From I News in the UK. “In 2018, Victoria Lowe put her three-bedroom flat in southeast London on the market for £525,000, some £50,000 less than she bought it for, but with the hope it would sell quickly. Five years later, no one has bought the flat, and she’s now dropped the price by £80,000. It has become a weight around her neck that has left her unable to move on with life. One tiny consolation is she knows she is not alone.“

“Lowe, 40, is one of a growing number of people who bought a home through the Government’s shared ownership scheme and now regrets it. Like many stuck in a similar situation, she is finding it impossible to sell her property. Her last attempt in 2020, when she tried to sell at a £80,000 loss, resulted in her agreeing the sale with a buyer, only for them to later pull out. For Lowe, the experience has been one she did not think would ever happen. ‘When I went into this thing, I just never dreamt I wouldn’t be able to sell it, I knew the price might go up or down, but to not be able to sell it at all didn’t even cross my mind,’ she said.”

Stuff New Zealand. “Residential properties are selling for on average $39,500 less than asking price, according to data from CoreLogic.CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said the difference between what sellers wanted, and what they got, was greater in the most expensive areas of the country, where house price falls have also been greatest. In Auckland, the median selling price was $69,000 below the median asking price, and in Wellington, median selling price was $55,000 below. ‘It may be that those people are just taking longer to adjust their expectations on what they will have to accept,’ Goodall said.”

“Homeowners in the country’s most expensive regions tended to overestimate the value of their properties the most, with Queenstown topping the list, followed by Auckland. REINZ recorded that in March the median national house price was $775,000, down from $890,000 at the same time the year before. ‘I think we’ve definitely been through a significant adjustment phase in the last 15 to 16 months, where vendors have started to come back into the market, and had to adjust their expectations, and asking prices will have come down off the back of that,’ Goodall said.”

The Age in Australia. “For months, Anthony Morgan and his partner have driven their five young children past the block where their new family home is being built. Their kids, aged between two and 11 and who all have disabilities, were excited as the concrete foundations were laid at the block in Lara, outside Geelong, and when the timber arrived last week for the next stage of the build. But the future of their dream home is now unclear after they received an email on Friday night informing them that construction company Mahercorp, which includes housing construction brands Urbanedge Homes and Eight Homes, had gone into voluntary administration.”

“Work on more than 700 Victorian homes has been halted for five weeks while administrators consider restructuring the business. On Saturday, Cameron Redmond, whose home was also being built through Eight Homes, tried to call Mahercorp seven times. He left voicemails and sent emails.The father of two said a number of delays in recent weeks had started to ring alarm bells, but Friday’s news was still a shock.”

“‘It absolutely gutted me. My wife rang me, she was crying for hours. We don’t know what it means, whether we have lost thousands of dollars. We wanted to be in by Christmas,’ the 30-year-old said. The family has been living with relatives while waiting for their first home to be built. ‘This was our first family home,’ Redmond said. ‘It was all exciting and we were pumped, and now it’s like someone punched me in the gut.'”

From CNN. “Wearing surgical masks to cover their faces, dozens of people demonstrated outside a branch office of China’s central bank in the landlocked province of Henan early this month to demand their savings back. They’re among thousands of depositors in China that protesters say are still campaigning for compensation after last year’s rural banking scandal saw their accounts frozen. China’s latest banking scandal started last April, when five rural banks, four in Henan and one in the eastern province of Anhui, froze depositor funds. Sanlian Lifeweek, a state-owned magazine, estimated that 400,000 customers were affected.”

“One of them, who asked to be identified only by the surname Du, says he put his entire family’s savings, worth about 5 million yuan or $726,000, into one of the banks. CNN is not revealing the identities of the bank victims in order to protect their safety. They say all they want is their money back but their requests have been ignored. Some say they’re being tracked, harassed or physically attacked by local officials. ‘I live by begging from others or receiving donations,’ he told CNN. ‘If I can’t get the money soon, then my children and I can only live on the streets, without a house or a home. People like us have been robbed of money, yet we are treated like criminals.'”

“Experts say small banks in other parts of China could face the same crisis, as the world’s second largest economy faces a longer term structural slowdown. ‘It’s just the tip of the iceberg, and there are similar situations in other provinces,’ said Frank Xie, a professor at University of South Carolina Aiken. ‘I would say at least one-third or one-quarter of the small banks in China are in trouble.'”

“About a quarter of the Chinese banking industry’s total assets are held by around 4,000 small lenders, which often have opaque ownership and governance structures and are more vulnerable to corruption, say experts, as well as the sharp economic slowdown the country faced during the pandemic. But the government has learned its lesson and has likely clamped down to conceal information about other troubled banks, according to Xie. ‘They’re sitting on a volcano, but they have put a big lid on it and are sitting tight on it,’ he said.”

“Many small banks also relied on financial products tied to the real estate sector for higher returns, so when the property bubble burst and the economy slowed, funds dried up. ‘The government’s attitude is that as long as they’ve suppressed the people with problems, there is no need to pay back the money,’ said Zhang, another bank victim and lawyer in Beijing. Zhang says many lawyers in China have been told not to represent bank victims, but since he’s a lawyer himself, he has halted his regular legal work and is pouring all of his energy into trying to recover the depositors’ funds.”

“Zhang has been in touch with many of the depositors, as he tries to mount various legal cases. He says many of them are dealing with anxiety or depression and are struggling to continue their previous jobs. ‘Some depositors, myself included, can no longer survive,’ Zhang said. ‘Because all of our money is stored there, some people may commit suicide, some depositors may hurt others. Everyone has a tipping point.'”

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This Post Has 48 Comments

  1. ‘He added, however, that lenders would prefer to modify existing loans: ‘They’re asking themselves ‘do I really want to take this back in a bad market?’

    Bargaining <- lenders you are here. Here's the problem Tony. You got some of the biggest moneeey baaaags tossing the keys back. No bankruptcy needed, they just fold the entity and back to the Hamptons, drinks are on me!

    1. PE fund managers have little incentive to save properties with negative equity. It’s easier to wipe out the investors and hand the keys back to the lenders. That’s how the deals work.

  2. ‘Her last attempt in 2020, when she tried to sell at a £80,000 loss, resulted in her agreeing the sale with a buyer, only for them to later pull out. For Lowe, the experience has been one she did not think would ever happen. ‘When I went into this thing, I just never dreamt I wouldn’t be able to sell it, I knew the price might go up or down, but to not be able to sell it at all didn’t even cross my mind’

    Vicky is the proud loanowner of an airbox that has commons problems, looks like crap and can’t get financing. But she can paint the walls any color she likes!

  3. all of our money is stored there, some people may commit suicide

    Apparently, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is not a familiar Chinese proverb.

  4. “U.S. Bancorp lost $682 billion in assets, Zions Bancorp lost $89 billion, and finally, Bank of Hawaii Corp. lost $24 million.”

    Is that alot?

    By contrast, FTX went from $32 billion to something like -$8 billion, which also seems like alot, especially given the speed.

    1. The Financial Times
      Credit Suisse Group AG
      Credit Suisse suffered $69bn in outflows during first-quarter crisis
      Results expose scale of task facing UBS after state-orchestrated rescue to take over 167-year-old lender
      A picture of a woman walking in front of a Credit Suisse logo
      Credit Suisse crumbled after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March
      Owen Walker in London 7 minutes ago

      Credit Suisse suffered SFr61.2bn ($68.6bn) of outflows in the first quarter as clients fled the stricken bank, exposing the scale of the task now facing UBS after taking over its Swiss rival.

      The client exodus was most acute in the days before Swiss regulators orchestrated the rescue by UBS last month, Credit Suisse said on Monday, adding that while outflows have stabilised, they have not reversed.

      The revelations of the scale at which customers fled the bank are the first since the takeover deal was struck, underlining the damage inflicted on the business that forced Swiss regulators to step in.
      …

  5. Headwinds?

    What bank, in their right mind and without government guarantees, would lend them a dime?

    “Rent-stabilized buildings have faced headwinds since the 2019 rent law, which severely limited rent increases at stabilized units.”

    1. I think what most people don’t realized in rent controlled stabilized buildings, its what you always talk about cap rates ROI, buildings sell for a lot less when rents are limited, and the big $$$ are made when the old people move to floriidah and the owner can do a luxury upgrade and get the rent over $2000 and decontrolled, and the price of the building goes up too.

      You cant harass people to move out, but you can sneakily rent to the worst people who wont stay long , students divorced women etc who will live there a year or two not 20+ because you used to get a 20% vacancy increase for a new tenant plus renovations….so a $600 a month apt. can go to $850, then $1250 then $1700 then $2100 and skyward.

      1. A partner at my former law firm had a big apartment and was paying $350 per month. Gotta love socialism.

        1. Yeah, bet he still had an un-renovated apartment with 15 amp screw in Glass fuses my friend on Bleeker st has a corner bathroom with tub and toilet sink so close to a radiator if you sat wrong on the toilet in winter you can easily burn part of you thigh his was $600 . You can take over your parents lease if you live there for at least 2 years before they die or move…………it actually is the best 401K retirement you can have but then again if you don’t like the terms the landlord should never have bought the building.

          1. My friend in NYC is moving out of her apartment this week after 65 years. I have to ask her again what the rent is. She didn’t live there the whole time, but people play the game with these apartments. Her parents passed away in the 90s and her many siblings had moved in and out of the place over the years. All eventually settled elsewhere, so she’s the last of them. I used to joke about the LL hating her guts.

            She tells me that she thinks she’s the only one still paying the fare on the subway and buses. From what she’s seen, no one else is. Last time she got on a bus and paid, the driver thanked her.

          2. NYC

            I read an op-ed, I think it was in the Takimag website, where the writer said that it seemed like everyone in NYC wore a hoodie and smelled like weed.

  6. WTF? What are the odds?

    “For months, Anthony Morgan and his partner have driven their five young children past the block where their new family home is being built. Their kids, aged between two and 11 and who all have disabilities,”

    1. What are the odds the government gives them a subsidy for each child “with a disability”?

      And…the mother is single.

    2. Their kids, aged between two and 11 and who all have disabilitie

      I was expecting these kids to be in crutches or in wheelchairs.

      1. was expecting these kids to be in crutches or in wheelchairs.
        Not today in the west. Today everyone has a disability of some sorts, things that would be ignored, not even noticed or at the worst made fun of 40-50 years ago is now a “disability.” He$$. a friend noticed that every woman I have dated in the past 20 years has been on anti-depressants. His comment, Were they on them before you met them, or did you drive them to depression.

  7. “The Bay Area has the worst performing housing market in the nation, according to a new report. Parcl Labs, which tracks the housing market, said that prices in the Bay have dropped a staggering 24% from their peak last summer — more than double the national average of 10%. Analysts say that’s partly because people have been moving away, meaning there’s more supply than demand.”

    Would Chris ‘Bayarea Real Estate Always Goes Up’ Thornberg care to comment?

    1. Silicon Valley
      Business
      Could the Silicon Valley Bank collapse be a good thing for Bay Area homebuyers?
      The economic instability is bringing some relief in the form of falling interest rates

      A customer stands outside of a shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California.
      (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
      By Ethan Varian | evarian@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
      PUBLISHED: March 26, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: March 27, 2023 at 12:59 a.m.

      The Silicon Valley Bank meltdown has roiled the banking system, financial markets, the tech sector and even the Napa Valley wine industry. But the economic instability is also bringing a measure of relief to homebuyers struggling to afford a Bay Area real estate market where prices are starting to rebound after months of declines: lower mortgage rates.

      And with the Federal Reserve’s decision this week to scale back raising its benchmark interest rate in response to the financial turmoil, mortgage rates will likely stay lower and could even dip through the rest of the year, according to some real estate experts and economists.

      While recent headlines may be giving buyers unease, a rate break could mean hundreds of dollars in savings on monthly home payments.

      “Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse is good for real estate,” said Chris Thornberg, an economist and founder of Beacon Economics. “I mean it.”
      …
      https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/03/26/could-the-silicon-valley-bank-collapse-be-a-good-thing-for-bay-area-homebuyers/

  8. 1. You couldn’t afford it
    2. You trusted us
    3. You fooked up

    “Lowe, 40, is one of a growing number of people who bought a home through the Government’s shared ownership scheme and now regrets it. Like many stuck in a similar situation, she is finding it impossible to sell her property.”

  9. ‘If I can’t get the money soon, then my children and I can only live on the streets, without a house or a home. People like us have been robbed of money, yet we are treated like criminals.’

    What a lovely country Winnie the Pooh is running across the Pacific Ocean!

    1. The Financial Times
      Chinese employment
      China urges jobless graduates to ‘roll up their sleeves’ and try manual work
      State media says university-leavers should put their professional ambitions on hold and consider lower-skilled roles
      Sun Yu in Beijing April 22 2023

      China is shifting the blame for soaring youth unemployment on to jobless university graduates, accusing them of refusing to put aside their professional ambitions and take on manual labour.

      In recent weeks, state broadcasters and news agencies have published more than a dozen profiles of recent university graduates who allegedly made a fortune in low-skilled jobs such as selling street food or growing fruit, rather than pursuing a career in their area of study.

      The Communist Youth League last month criticised young graduates for holding on to their professional aspirations, accusing them of refusing to “tighten screws in factories” and exhorting the current generation to “take off their suits, roll up their sleeves and go to the farmland”.
      …

      1. go to the farmland

        Like they did in the 50s.

        Will they still be liable for their fang nu debts?

  10. Key Democrat fears only a market crash will resolve debt limit impasse
    by Mike Lillis – 04/23/23 6:03 AM ET

    A key Democrat is warning this week that only a stock market collapse will break the partisan stalemate over raising the debt ceiling and preventing a government default over the summer.

    Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Goldman Sachs executive and senior member of the Financial Services Committee, said the Republicans’ opposition to a debt limit hike without steep spending cuts is so entrenched that only an economy-rattling market tumble — like the crash that accompanied the financial crisis of 2008 — will shake GOP leaders to accept a bipartisan compromise.

    “I fear that this ends the way the famous TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, got passed in 2008. And that is when the markets finally say, ‘You guys have got to stop screwing around,’” Himes said Thursday during a wide-ranging interview in his Capitol Hill office.

    TARP was Congress’s controversial response to the global financial crisis 15 years ago, providing $700 billion to stabilize teetering banks and restore faith in reeling credit markets. Championed by then-President George W. Bush and his treasury secretary — former Goldman CEO Hank Paulson, who warned of a global economic collapse if the funding was denied — the bill was killed in the House the first time it hit the floor in late September 2008.

    The surprise vote sent the stock market into a freefall, pulling the Dow down 7 percent — the steepest decline since the attacks of 9/11 — and the Nasdaq down more than 9 percent. All told, the U.S. equity market lost $1.2 trillion in a day. Four days later, after making minor changes, spooked House lawmakers passed the bill and sent it to Bush’s desk.

    Himes, who was first elected to Congress a month later, predicted it will require a similar scare to convince the Republicans who control the House to pass a debt ceiling increase that can also win President Biden’s signature.

    “Sadly, I think it’s going to take that kind of market signal to wake my ideologically frenzied friends up and just say, ‘Let’s move on and do some real stuff,’” Himes said.
    …
    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3963642-key-democrat-fears-only-a-market-crash-will-resolve-debt-limit-impasse/

    1. “fears only a market crash will resolve”

      Why does he fear this so much? Is he worried that he will not get re-elected if Market crashes or he will lose his gollum money?

      We should know.

  11. The Financial Times
    US politics & policy
    At least 9 members of US Congress sold bank stocks amid turmoil last month
    Disclosures show one representative on the House financial services committee sold SVB shares a day before it collapsed
    The dome of the US Capitol
    Public advocacy groups have questioned whether allowing government officials to own or trade stocks creates a conflict of interest
    Madison Darbyshire April 22 2023

    At least nine members of Congress sold banking stocks before and during market turmoil last month, including a member of the House financial services committee who sold Silicon Valley Bank stock before it failed.

    Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat and a member of the financial services committee since 2019, disclosed the sale of shares in the California bank made on March 9, valued between $1,000 and $15,000, according to analysis of public disclosures of stock sales by Quiver Quantitative. SVB collapsed the next day, sending US banking stocks into a massive downward spiral.

    He also reported sales made on March 6 and March 14 of shares in Charles Schwab worth a similar amount. Schwab’s stock is down nearly 30 per cent since March 7.
    …

    1. pare a thought for all those speculators who bid up shacks in locations where Google, Amazon, etc. were building out their infrastructure
      Yeah, that thought provides me with a laugh or two as well.

  13. Yahoo
    Yahoo Finance
    Homebuyers have lost their short-lived edge as spring buying conditions worsen
    Gabriella Cruz-Martinez
    Sat, April 22, 2023 at 6:40 AM PDT·4 min read

    Real estate agent Sean Dycus says one of his clients, a 67-year-old postal worker, is looking this spring to buy her very first home after renting her entire life. But the market is unrelenting.

    “She’s …offering almost her entire nest egg of cash and she’s still looking at $2,200 a month for a $350,000 home,” the real estate agent at Mainstreet Properties in Charleston, S.C., told Yahoo Finance.

    “We’ve been going back and forth for weeks with different builders and sellers trying to get her something nice,” he said, “something she likes.”
    …
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/homebuyers-have-lost-their-short-lived-edge-as-spring-buying-conditions-worsen-134020566.html

      1. The widower up the hill got $902,750 in loans in 2016/2017 at age 79. MLS doesn’t give the duration.

      2. I knew a 75 yo who got a 30 yr and this was > 40 yrs ago.

        Worked out well, kept refinancing and his kids inherited house and mortgage.

      3. What sort of fixed loan term would a 67 be eligible for, maybe 5 years?
        Illegal to discriminate based on age. 30 years.

  14. “Rent-stabilized buildings have faced headwinds since the 2019 rent law, which severely limited rent increases at stabilized units. But free-market rentals are also facing challenges.”

    Funny, the MSM told me that rents in Manhattan are at all-time highs and everyone wants to live there.

  15. ‘When we take out the anomaly years of the pandemic, we’re seeing fairly strong activity in the city.’”

    How can you tell when a relitter is lying?

  16. The Financial Times
    Opinion Global Economy
    What strong gold says about the weak dollar
    The US has been weaponising its currency — but that comes with a cost
    Ruchir Sharma
    Gold bars sit stacked
    The oldest and most traditional of assets, gold, is now a vehicle of central bank revolt against the dollar
    Ruchir Sharma 5 hours ago
    The writer is chair of Rockefeller International

    Today commentators overwhelmingly agree that a weakening US dollar cannot possibly lose its status as the world’s dominant currency because there is “no alternative” on the visible horizon. Perhaps, but don’t tell that to the many countries racing to find an alternative, and such complacency will only accelerate their search.

    The prime example right now is gold, up 20 per cent in six months. Surging demand is not led by the usual suspects — investors large and small, seeking a hedge against inflation and low real interest rates. Instead, the heavy buyers are central banks, which are sharply reducing their dollar holdings and seeking a safe alternative. Central banks are buying more tons of gold now than at any time since data begins in 1950 and currently account for a record 33 per cent of monthly global demand for gold.

    This buying boom has helped push the price of gold to near-record levels and more than 50 per cent higher than what models based on real interest rates would suggest. Clearly, something new is driving gold prices.

    Look closer at the central bank buyers, and nine of the top 10 are in the developing world, including Russia, India and China. Not coincidentally, these three countries are in talks with Brazil and South Africa about creating a new currency to challenge the dollar. Their immediate goal: to trade with one another directly, in their own coin. “Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar,” Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said recently on a visit to China, arguing that an alternative would help “balance world geopolitics”.
    …

    1. “Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar,” Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said recently on a visit to China, arguing that an alternative would help “balance world geopolitics”.

      So go trade in Off-shore Renminbi. No one is stopping you do. Do it.

      1. go trade in Off-shore Renminbi

        Media stories are not intended to educate us. They are intended to manipulate us.

    1. “Sucks to be left holding the bag by deadbeat roommates”

      Gave it to him inarrears eh.

  20. Yahoo
    Business Insider
    The commercial real estate market is wobbling, and 2 of the largest players are feeling the pain of higher rates and tighter credit
    Jennifer Sor
    Sun, April 23, 2023 at 1:45 PM PDT·2 min read
    A billboard announces office space and parking for sale in San Juan, August 31, 2013.
    REUTERS/Alvin Baez

    – Commercial real estate is feeling the pain of higher rates and tighter credit conditions.

    – Blackstone reported big losses in the past quarter, and Brookfield reportedly defaulted on some office loans.

    – Experts have warned that commercial property is the next shoe to drop after March’s bank failures.

    The commercial real estate market is showing signs of weakening, demonstrated by the pressures being felt by two of the market’s largest players amid higher rates and tighter financial conditions.
    …
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/commercial-real-estate-market-wobbling-204500832.html

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