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We Assumed Interest Rates Would Stay Low, Hindsight Is A Wonderful Thing

A report from CBS 5. “The Valley housing market is cooling down, experts said, correcting after what used to be one of the hottest markets in the country. Median home prices are down more than $50,000 from this time last year. ‘The prices went down anywhere from 8-10% depending on where you went in the Valley,’ said Sindy Ready, First Vice President of Arizona Realtors. ‘Sellers are going to have to get a little more realistic.'”

The Dallas Morning News. “May single-family home sales in Dallas-Fort Worth declined just 2% from a year before with 8,805 transactions, according to a new report from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. The median price of a single-family home last month was $412,500, down 5% from a year ago but up 2.5% from April. Collin County’s home sales were up 4%, while its median price was down 9% to $539,000. Single-family building permits in the area hit a record high in March 2022, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center. That gave buyers plenty of options to choose from when those homes wrapped up construction this spring.”

“‘You have all these units coming on the market to absorb the demand that we’re seeing this spring in housing,’ said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist for Zillow. ‘That’s a positive for homebuyers.'”

From KBOI Boise. “According to a report from Boise Regional Realtors, the housing market in Idaho has been fluctuating. In Ada County, the median sales price for a single-family home in May 2023 landed at $534,900, a $17,400 boost from last month. Existing homes faced the largest adjustment in median sales prices this month, bogging by $75,000.”

The Naples Daily News in Florida. “Collier County’s property values are up by more than 18.5% over last year. Taxable values grew by 10.7% in Naples, by 12.8% on Marco Island and by 6.4% in Everglades City. Jenny Blaje Plock, director of tax roll compliance/data management at the Collier County Property Appraiser’s office, said the hike in values from 2021 to 2022 is the largest one-year increase she’s seen in her 26-plus years on the job. ‘We saw something similar between 2004-2006 where values jumped 22% from ’04 to ’05, then another 30% from ’05 to ’06,’ she noted. ‘Then there was a steady stream of years of decreasing values up until 2011-2012 – before the market started to come back.'”

The Washington Post. “Like other commercial landlords and lenders in downtowns across the country, 555 California is staring down a major pandemic downturn in the commercial real estate market. Economists warn the situation could portend disaster, risking parts of the banking system, too. ‘It’s scary,” said a finance worker based out of 555 California, regarding plummeting office building valuations in the area. In the more than 20 years she has worked in the building, the woman — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because her employer doesn’t allow staff to comment publicly — said she has never seen it so empty.”

“Amazon has pulled back on developing major real estate projects — including its second headquarters known as HQ2 — in Virginia and Tennessee. Google pressed pause on plans to build an 80-acre campus in San Jose — the heart of Silicon Valley. Comcast, one of the biggest employers in Philadelphia, is pulling out of some office buildings there. Brookfield, a major office building landlord in Los Angeles, has defaulted on more than $1 billion of commercial real estate loans in recent months, according to Bloomberg. And in D.C., where real estate firm CBRE reports office vacancy has continued to increase to about 20 percent, some landlords struggling to find tenants are feeling ‘desperate.'”

“Few cities have attracted as much attention over ongoing distress as San Francisco. Rachel Leamy, who has run three shoeshine stands here called the Shoeshine Guild for more than 20 years, said she’s been through many booms and busts — including the tech bubble of the early 2000s and the 2008 financial crisis. But now, ‘it’s a damn ghost town,’ said Leamy.”

From Fox Business. “Shopping center giant Westfield is walking away from its San Francisco Centre mall, becoming the latest major company to leave the California city amid rampant crime problems. ‘The Westfield San Francisco Centre is arguable the heart of retail in San Francisco,’ John Dennis, chairman of the California Republican Party told Fox Business. ‘Another massive loss for the worst managed city in America. What’s scary is we’re nowhere near the bottom.'”

The San Francisco Chronicle. “The real story is that downtown San Francisco — and I mean this with absolute respect — sucks. Pre-pandemic, developers built a s—tload of pricey condos in this part of town, anticipating that interest rates would never go up and that wealthy young tech professionals working at Twitter, etc., would want to live right where the action was. Then the pandemic hit. There is no action here anymore; Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst for Compass in the San Francisco Bay Area, told me that downtown is the weakest market in not just the Bay Area but the entire country. ‘It’s a complete flip from five years ago,’ he said. ‘People, they just left.'”

“Most of the open houses I attended downtown were barren, but none of them had early birds taking advantage like in Walnut Creek. Between open houses, I saw some poop on the sidewalk and marked it down on my bingo card, but it wasn’t like I was strolling down Bourbon Street at 3 a.m. You know what I didn’t see? A f—king restaurant. There were long stretches of downtown San Francisco where I couldn’t find a single bite. Not a restaurant. Not a corner store. Not even a goddamn Panera. I toured a $5 million pied-a-terre that had been on the market for so long that the agent dejectedly told me, ‘I stopped counting,’ when I asked how many days it had been sitting empty.'”

Multi-Housing News. “While COVID-19 spurred a more rapid movement away from city centers than anyone could have imagined, many of the projects now benefiting from this exodus have been planned for years. Carol Enoch, CEO at real estate consultancy Enoch & Co noted that her firm was working with developers in what were then third-tier markets a decade ago. ‘We started looking at development and tertiary markets 10 years ago,’ said Enoch, who said that some of these projects delivered around 2020, just as demand in those places spiked. There were other projects that didn’t go online immediately, leading to a flurry of unveilings. ‘We’ve got a glut of supply that’s temporary right now due to the pressure that built up due to construction delays during COVID.'”

The Peterborough Examiner in Canada. “Home prices in Peterborough city and county are continuing to rebound after a plunge in values from the all-time high prices set in early 2022. After the average price dropped to a little more than $600,000 to start the year, May’s average price was $716,493, the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Association of Realtors reported. That’s down 14.3 per cent from a year ago. The overall MLS Home Price Index composite/single-family benchmark price was $656,600 in May, down 17.5 per cent compared to May 2022.”

BBC News in the UK. “Conversations about mortgage rates are no longer confined to the dinner party circuit or the golf course. People are talking about their mortgage shock with friends at the school gates or in the supermarket. Anil and Jessica Jhamat, from Solihull, are having to find an extra £550 a month. They bought their home during the stamp duty holiday, which allowed them to purchase ‘a house we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford.’ ‘We assumed interest rates would stay low, otherwise we’d have taken out a five-year fix,’ Mr Jhamat said. ‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’ The pharmacist and his wife, a digital manager, also have to find £1,000 a month in childcare fees for their one-year-old son. ‘Where we are now, we’ve lost what we saved [in stamp duty]. Essentially we’re back to square one,’ he said.”

Daily Mail Australia. “A couple battling cancer have been left devastated after a construction company went bust leaving their forever home unfinished. Victorian couple Bridget Schultz and her husband Bill were given the shock of their lives when builder Rawdon Hill went into liquidation on May 25. Mrs Schultz and her partner have now been left with an unfinished home in La Trobe Valley. The couple are renting and have issued a desperate plea for help as their development sits empty and incomplete. Rawdon Hill marketed itself as a low-volume builder with 46 years of experience. In April its general manager Peter Grant vowed to complete all homes it had started.”

“‘We will proudly finish every single home in our strong pipeline, while we continue to pay everyone on time, every time – guaranteed,’ Mr Grant said in an advertisement in Star News. According to one estimate 1753 construction companies have gone broke since July 1, 2022. Dr Angela Jackson from Impact Economics and Policy, said the pain is far from over for businesses and consumers. She warned there are ‘darker days’ still to come because of rising inflation and continual interest rate rises.”

The Voice of Vietnam. “‘Misery, unattractiveness, deficiency’ have been the three words used in a recent report by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) to describe the dire situation of realty firms amid the economic downturn. DKRA Group said the resort real estate was stuck in limbo as most of the products in the segment can’t sell. The global economic depression hit so hard that the demand for villas and shophouses fell by 98% and 99%, respectively, in April.”

“A VARS expert said financially-drained realty firms were ‘drowning’. Despite their attempt to trim ranks, few could keep their heads above water. ‘Problems in the sector remain unsolved for quite a while, driving firms into distress,’ said the expert. In the first five months of 2023, 554 realty firms went out of business, up 30.4% year-on-year. Others became worse off as their revenue and profit fell by nearly 7% and 40%, respectively. Six of the 20 largest had to shed staff to offset the fall in sales. A noteworthy one was Dat Xanh Group, which cut headcounts by 41% last year. Novaland Group followed suit with a cut of 20%.”

“But the bad news doesn’t stop there. Layoffs continued into 2023, with more employees losing their jobs here and there. Notably, Dat Xanh made additional 1,384 redundancies in Q1. ‘Firms have been stretched to their limit. If they are left drowning in hardship for longer, mass bankrupcies would be inevitable,’ he added.”

From Business Insider. “A Chinese property developer is offering free gold bars to homebuyers in a desperate bid to boost home sales in an ailing housing market. However, the campaign has since been suspended, with multiple buyers saying they’ve experienced monthslong waits for their promised gold. The property developer in question is Huafa Group, which is based in Hangzhou, a city in eastern China. The developer was trying to move units in a development called Huafa Hui Tianfu.”

“The giveaways come as developers find themselves in a struggling housing market. In May, the number of homes sold across 50 key Chinese cities dropped 17.7% as compared to April, per the China Index Academy. An oversupply of unsold flats in China means that it’s a buyer’s market right now, the Wall Street Journal reported in April. And that means even free gold bars may not be enough when it comes to coaxing Chinese home buyers.”

“‘The gold offer hasn’t yet helped people make up their minds,’ a local real estate agent told Sixth Tone. ‘And given how the market is, buyers are not in a hurry to make a final decision,’ the agent added.”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivU_34wgDmc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vj14F8LkoI

This Post Has 105 Comments

  1. ‘I toured a $5 million pied-a-terre that had been on the market for so long that the agent dejectedly told me, ‘I stopped counting,’ when I asked how many days it had been sitting empty’

    Wa happened to my red hotness California?

  2. ‘‘Misery, unattractiveness, deficiency’ have been the three words used in a recent report by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) to describe the dire situation of realty firms amid the economic downturn. DKRA Group said the resort real estate was stuck in limbo as most of the products in the segment can’t sell. The global economic depression hit so hard that the demand for villas and shophouses fell by 98% and 99%, respectively, in April’

    Vietnam screwed the pooch with the super luxury segment. Something like 99% of what they were building was so expensive no one could buy it except – Chinese investors!

    1. You have no idea how big the bubble was in Vietnam. It makes the US 2008 and 2022 bubble look like a pimple. Raw land in a third world country was going for several hundred thousand USD an acre. This in a country where most people make a few USD per day.

    1. —————–
      “10,000+ farms will be shut down forever to fall in line with the 2030 agenda of the European Union 🤡 🌍”

      [Image that reads] “Great Reset: Dutch Govt Launches Farmer Buyout Scheme as Thousands Face Shutdown.”

      https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1668423564725198852
      —————

      Bullsh@t. This has nothing to do with climate change. This is central govs buying farmland so they can control it themselves.

  4. ‘The prices went down anywhere from 8-10% depending on where you went in the Valley,’ said Sindy Ready, First Vice President of Arizona Realtors. ‘Sellers are going to have to get a little more realistic.’”

    Down in the valley, the valley so low….

  5. Existing homes faced the largest adjustment in median sales prices this month, bogging by $75,000.”

    You keep using that word “adjustment,” REIC shills. I don’t think that word means what you think it means. (H/T to “Princess Bride)

  6. More baby boomers are becoming homeless: ‘It takes just one crisis’ to push someone onto the streets (6/9/2023):

    “People aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of people who are homeless and their ranks will peak by 2030.

    This daunting forecast comes amid escalating rents nationally, stubborn inflation and a potential recession that compounds woes for baby boomers who have minimal savings for retirement. It also comes as traditional workplace pensions are increasingly rare and workers must rely on the savings they have accumulated through their working lives. About 27% of people who are 59 or older have no retirement savings, according to a survey from Credit Karma.

    According to a 2019 study by University of Pennsylvania and others that analyzed the populations of homeless shelters in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston that predicted by 2030, the number of people 65 and older who are unhoused will nearly triple compared with 2017.”

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-baby-boomers-are-becoming-homeless-it-takes-just-one-crisis-to-push-someone-onto-the-streets-bb98bf23?mod=home-page

    Canada has a “solution” for this. Yuval Harari approves.

    1. “The ordinary SSI payment in 2023, without any reductions for income or additions for a state supplement, is $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple.” [nolo . com]

      I think three Golden Girls could survive on $2700 by sharing a rural double wide. They’d have to be really frugal, but I don’t think they’d be homeless.

    2. “It also comes as traditional workplace pensions are increasingly rare and workers must rely on the savings they have accumulated through their working lives.”

      Too bad CDs and savings accounts have had poor interest rate returns…thanks to the fed’s ZIRP program.

      1. “Too bad CDs and savings accounts have had poor interest rate”

        That’s not really an excuse. 401K plans have been around for more than 35 years, which is almost the entire duration of a Boomer’s working life (my how time flies!). They had ample time to contribute to a 401K, probably in a typical 60/40. That alone would have given them *some* savings.

        No, I think those 27% of age 59+ who have no savings are just that. They have NO savings, and might never have saved at all, whether in a CD or a 401k. I’m guessing they mostly women (minorities?). Lifetime renter minimum wage workers, renter single moms who had to spend everything on the kids, or boomer “traditional” wives who never worked* and only have their late husband’s SS to fall back on.

        In late 2018, Raoul Pal of RealVisionFinance anticipated the coming greater recession (which still hasn’t arrived) and advised people to invest in fast food and trailer parks. Maybe he was on to something.

        ————–
        *Last week I posted about the different tracks women can take. The Traditional track is risky for the woman, at least financially, as it depends entirely on the man.

          1. What about a dollar-for-dollar company match in a 401k? Wouldn’t that be encouraging? No, I think these folks have no money to save at all.

    1. Nearly 300 million people meekly rolled up their sleeves for an experimental mRNA injection, according to the corporate presstitutes. Even if it’s half of that, this country is done for.

  8. “Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful industries. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.

    If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite. (fait accompli – Jesse) Such a society would be not only immoral but also eventually unstable, dangerously ripe for religious and political extremism.

    Thus far, both political parties have been remarkably clever and effective in concealing this new reality. In fact, the two parties have formed an innovative kind of cartel—an arrangement I have termed America’s political duopoly, which I analyze in detail below. Both parties lie about the fact that they have each sold out to the financial sector and the wealthy. So far both have largely gotten away with the lie, helped in part by the enormous amount of money now spent on deceptive, manipulative political advertising. But that can’t last indefinitely; Americans are getting angry, and even when they’re misguided or poorly informed, people have a deep, visceral sense that they’re being screwed.

    The real challenge is figuring out how the United States can regain control of its future from its new oligarchy and restore its position as a prosperous, fair, well-educated nation. For if we don’t, the current pattern of great concentration of wealth and power will worsen, and we may face the steady immiseration of most of the American population.”

    Charles Ferguson, Predator Nation

    1. If allowed to continue, this process will turn the United States into a declining, unfair society with an impoverished, angry, uneducated population under the control of a small, ultrawealthy elite.

      Already there. It’s all over but the shouting.

    2. Realistically this country is huge and has large uninhabited areas of prime ground. There is no shortage of cheap dirt. We could create new affordable cities if we wanted to but the problem is that everyone still wants to play the current game. I think the real question is how bad does it have to get before people stop talking about it and actually do it. We’ll see.

      1. We don’t even need to start from scratch on uninhabited prime ground. There are dozens of mid-size cities out there with existing infrastructure that could be resurrected or expanded. Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Knoxville, Richmond, DesMoines, Branson, Muncie, Bristol, you name it. Lots of older houses being vacated by elderly and boomers that could be easily fixed up, lots of unused roads, schools.. Heck companies could even set up smaller offices there.

        Distributing population over small cities *could* happen organically, but the barriers are high. Dying cities are in high-tax and high-union states, which is why the cities are dying. Companies want people back in the office at least part-time, and then insist on having huge campuses in unaffordable cities instead of building smaller division-level offices in small cities. However, the Hispanic immigrants seem to be fanning out fairly well.

        1. ‘There are dozens of mid-size cities out there with existing infrastructure that could be resurrected or expanded’

          It’s a lot more than dozens.

          2. “He’s right.”

            I was sure you got hooked on San Diego’s weather, bought a house you couldn’t afford, turned progressive, got on Newsom’s waiting list for a free transition, etc., free of the closet of shame.

          3. San Diego’s weather

            May gray and June gloom inland. I’m told it’s El Nino.

        2. As soon as something that has potential gets going in these cities, the moneyed interests will edge its way in and try to control the process.

          1. Nothing gets going until they already have everything in place. The local land use and planning depts. make sure of that.

    3. The real challenge is figuring out how the United States can regain control of its future from its new oligarchy and restore its position as a prosperous, fair, well-educated nation.

      Easy. Cut off Israel. Helen Thomas was right, i.e., let the jooz go back to Poland.

        1. I don’t know.

          I saw a YT clip a while back depicting Poland’s changing borders that was eye opening because usually people are losing everything or dying when borders change.

      2. Nuts to that obsessive “solution”. We need something that makes sense and can get mass acceptance such as the Bud Light situation.

        1. Nuts to that obsessive “solution”.

          The oligarchy needs to lose when their bets go wrong, not foist their losses on to the rest of us. We can’t afford the clannish and dominating jooz and their misery. Europe and the middle-east can solve their own military problems.

    1. Yahoo Finance
      Housing: It’s cheaper to buy than rent in only 4 major US cities, study shows
      Gabriella Cruz-Martinez
      Tue, June 6, 2023 at 10:57 AM PDT·5 min read

      It’s cheaper to rent than buy in most of the US, a new housing analysis found, unless you’re lucky enough to live in four select cities.

      The typical home’s monthly mortgage cost is lower than its monthly rent in Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Houston, according to the analysis of the 50 most popular metros by real estate brokerage Redfin. These were also the only places where more than 50% of homes in each respective market were more affordable to purchase than rent.

      In all other major cities — from San Jose, California to Pittsburgh — renting was more affordable than buying, the report found, a blow to potential homebuyers.

      Skyrocketing home prices, elevated rates, and still hot inflation have crushed buyer affordability across the US. Still, somehow those few markets have weathered the storm.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/housing-its-cheaper-to-buy-than-rent-in-only-4-major-us-cities-study-shows-175745890.html

      1. That must be certain sections of Philadelphia. I keep watch on my old area (Montgomery/Bucks County border) and I don’t know that I’d agree with this.

      2. I checked a rent vs. buy calculator. In my burg, for me, the breakeven is 16 years. I doubt I have many years left in me. 😁

    2. I’m in Collin County and it’s cheaper to buy right now. People from all over the world are flooding in now. Blue areas are emptying out into red areas. Decent one bedroom apartments are $1500 right now. Back in 2008 I rented a 2 bedroom for $750. The economy has been thrown into disarray

      1. “The economy has been thrown into disarray”

        We need a fed leader with Volcker sized stones in his pants!

    3. Where I live renting is cheaper but in 2012 buying was cheaper . Don’t under estimate the cost of maintenance on a home. A guy I worked with was renting between selling one mansion and buying and renovating another slightly smaller mansion and was paying 7k a month rent.

      1. My mortgage, taxes, and insurance on the house I sold in Collin County last year was under $1800 for a 5/3 2600sf house. I’m now renting a 2800sf house and paying $3200 rent. I’m looking to get out of the DFW metro area. Cost of living and population density are horrible now.

    4. The 3/3 down the way is under contract for 1.6M. We have the same unit, but with a way better view and a slip for our boat. Ours is a 2/3 because the 3rd bedroom is really a converted den, and the ‘closet’ has an interior height of 48″.

      Our rent is $3800.

      Carrying costs on the other unit, with 20% down, including HOA, etc. will be right around $10,500.

    1. Senator Chuck Grassley Announces On The Senate Floor That The Foreign National Who Allegedly Bribed Joe And Hunter Biden Allegedly Has Audio Recordings Of His Conversations With Them

      “17 such recordings.”

      “According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden.”

      “According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 2 audio recordings of phone calls between him and then VP Joe Biden.”

      “These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case that he got into a tight spot.”

      “The 1023 also indicates that then VP Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”

      “Getting a full and complete 1023 is critical for the American people to know and understand the true nature of the document and to hold the DOJ and the FBI accountable.”

      “Congress owes it to the American people and the brave and heroic whistleblowers to continue to fight for transparency in this matter and make this document public without unnecessary redactions.”

      https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1668374538885689346

      1. Congress members have to view the unclassified and redacted 1023 in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). Any notes taken in the SCIF cannot be taken outside of the SCIF so that they can tie the information to the suspicious activity reports (SARs) they view at Treasury.

      2. Total silence from the New York Times and Washington Post on this, because they are, as DJT correctly stated, “the enemy of the American people.”

      3. ‘WHERE’S THE MONEY?’ Biden jokes about bribery scheme claims when asked by reporter

        0:55

        Jun 9, 2023

        The Madison Firm lead attorney Jonathan Madison argues Biden is able to laugh about the bribery scheme claims because he’s ‘not subject to a witch hunt.’

        https://youtu.be/np3–_VcyhM

    2. The FBI Redacted And Hid The Existence Of 17 Audio Recordings

      The Deep State is not going to give up its power without a fight.

  11. “Home prices in Peterborough city and county are continuing to rebound after a plunge in values from the all-time high prices set in early 2022. After the average price dropped to a little more than $600,000 to start the year, May’s average price was $716,493…”

    Dead cat bounces galore in many markets.

    1. Dead cat bounces galore in many markets.

      The entire world’s economy is a giant orgy of speculation care of central bankers. Starting last fall, everything got a massive bounce. Stocks, cryptos, houses, etc. It all moves in tandem as the speculators keep buying the dip and selling the rip.

      1. It’s basically the same people on all assets. Kill one and kill all. It’s so easy, but Bowell has ignored it pretty much.

    2. Dead cat bounces galore in many markets.

      Gotta sucker in the last of the greatest-fool knife-catchers. Just goes to show just how stupid people are anymore. Basic math skills, critical thinking, etc, all dead and buried when it comes to chasing those sweet equity gainz.

      The music stops whenever rates rise from temporary ultra-lows, so anyone thinking permanently high plateaus (or temporary gullies at the worst) would be the norm are just too dumb to educate.

      1. Food inflation, just to pick one category, jumped starting in 2018. These central bankers got high on their own supply.

        1. Inflation and lifestyle creep combined with a drop in income has been destroying my household’s budget. It adds up fast too. I’m not struggling for cash but I’m watching my monthly paycheck budget surplus dwindling rapidly, as dinners out, kids’ expenses and other minor luxuries that used to fit easily into the budget are now being priced out. Even ordering pizza from the local non-franchise (aka) chemical factory pizza is over $50 for two large pizzas with taxes, fees and delivery.

          2. Eating out right now is stupid. I have no sympathy for people who complain about the prices.

          3. Eating out right now is stupid.

            High prices and mediocre food, especially at chains like Applebee’s, Chili’s, etc.

          4. Maybe you should have some sympathy for people trying to eat out, customers are what keep local restaurants in business, instead of having vacant store fronts that eventually turn into unsanitary low-rent taquerias. Restaurant owners hate the high prices too because it scares away customers. I used to be able to eat a sammich at my local BBQ joint for less than $20 with a tap beer. That’s impossible now. Every small business owner is lamenting high food prices, it’s putting a lot of small business owners on a path to financial ruin.

          5. Today’s grocery stores have a frozen pre-prepared version of almost anything these days. There really isn’t any reason to order out for anything, at least not families at home.

          6. “Even ordering pizza from the local non-franchise (aka) chemical factory pizza is over $50 for two large pizzas with taxes, fees and delivery.”

            Yesterday evening I paid $45.96 for a large Peperoni w/extra topping and a medium Vegetarian Delight w/sliced tomatoes added after being baked, and I had to pick it up, which is about a mile away. Not a franchise, a family business.

        2. “customers are what keep local restaurants in business”

          Very true, my neighbor owns a small resturaunt and I consider the owner and workers at Vinny’s Pizza (not a chain but a guy who moved here after growing up learning the business and how to make great pizza etc. from his Dad on Long Island at his resturaunt) friends not someone I do businesses with.

          1. If thats Vinnie’s in Cottonwood I like that joint. It was better when it used to be in Safeway center though. Where it is now is a sh*t show for parking. Giant craters litter the lot.

            The lunch special price went up a bit after last year. A nice place to go if you’re just looking for a good slice and a beer. Meatball sub tasty as well.

  13. SQUAWK ON THE STREET
    Harder for the Fed to restart rate hikes once they stop, says Dreyfus and Mellon’s Vincent Reinhart

    Vincent Reinhart, Dreyfus and Mellon chief economist and macro strategist, joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the Fed’s inflation fight, why it would be a mistake not to hike rates, and more.
    3 HOURS AGO
    …
    https://www.cnbc.com/video/2023/06/13/harder-for-the-fed-to-restart-rate-hikes-once-they-stop-says-dreyfus-and-mellons-vincent-reinhart.html

  14. BREAKING: World Economic Forum publishes plans to forcibly reduce the number of personal vehicles globally from 1.45 billion to 500 million by the year 2050.

    Note: not replace ICE cars with EV’s; but reduce the number by 1 billion. They don’t want you to have a car, period. Cars are for the people who matter.

    3. According to Peter Zeihan, the population of China will be cut in half by 2050, simply because their birth rate is HALF the replacement rate. Japan, South Korea, and most of Western Europe are on the same track. Add in a few famines and a couple wars, and by 2050 we could easily have half the people who can afford a car. WEF will win this one.

  15. How about some Amazon anecdotes from HBB readers? Here where I live Amazon tore down the ‘dark’ mall and built a massive distribution center in it’s place that they finished around the end of last year. It sticks out like a sore thumb because it doesn’t match anything around it and it has yet to open. Not sure if it ever will now. Overall it is a great example of horrible city planning and probably involved a bunch of payoffs.

    1. The large electrical contractor I used to work for has built a few Amazon warehouses around Denver and the metro Front Range. They also contract to provide an on site electrician 24/7 once complete and in operation.

      Former co-worker of mine filled in a few shifts at one. Told me it’s 7 hours in a chair, on his phone, and when a breaker trips, put on the hot suit and go reset the breaker. Maytag repairman level boredom.

      1. “Maytag repairman level boredom.”

        The employer doesn’t want someone too bright as they might start asking questions that are not in their best interest.

      2. That is interesting. The ones they did open must have been much bigger failures than they have admitted to.

  16. SQUAWK ON THE STREET
    Harder for the Fed to restart rate hikes once they stop, says Dreyfus and Mellon’s Vincent Reinhart

    Vincent Reinhart, Dreyfus and Mellon chief economist and macro strategist, joins ‘Squawk on the Street’ to discuss the Fed’s inflation fight, why it would be a mistake not to hike rates, and more.
    3 HOURS AGO
    …

  18. ‘You have all these units coming on the market to absorb the demand that we’re seeing this spring in housing…That’s a positive for homebuyers’

    ‘Firms have been stretched to their limit. If they are left drowning in hardship for longer, mass bankrupcies would be inevitable’

    That’s the spirit Orphe and Dat, keep up the good work!

  19. ‘The real story is that downtown San Francisco — and I mean this with absolute respect — sucks. Pre-pandemic, developers built a s—tload of pricey condos in this part of town, anticipating that interest rates would never go up and that wealthy young tech professionals working at Twitter, etc., would want to live right where the action was. Then the pandemic hit. There is no action here anymore…‘It’s a complete flip from five years ago,’ he said. ‘People, they just left’

    At least you got no mean tweets.

  21. This morning Peter Zeihan said: “…and T-rump is now at the point where he’s so ensconced as a leader of a cult of personality that he could live stream the abortion of his trans lover and he would still get the nomination.”

    LOL

      1. Yep. Clowns like Zeihan are just noise. They offer nothing to society except partisan blather.

      2. 10:42

        The Federal Government spent six and a half trillion dollars on roads last year?

        Hope Philly doesn’t hear about this.

    2. Yeah, Peter’s got a mild case of TDS. He also thinks that Tucker Carlson’s monologues are written for him by the Kremlin. He’s still worth listening to for his geopolitics.

    5. The TDS crowd would throw their own mother into a volcano to keep Trump out of the White House.

  25. I was just thinking today that I do not know of a single person who died of COVID. Not one. I had plenty of family and friends who contracted it, but I don’t even know of anybody hospitalized from it. I do, however, have a neighbor who had a heart attack after his 2nd jab – the Pfizer special.

    1. Same here except my wife and I know of 6 people who died in their sleep the past 2 years. We’re not old.

  26. Would you ditch your unaffordable life in California for a sane, affordable lifestyle elsewhere?

    1. HOME REAL ESTATE
      One family ditched California for an Indiana town that offered them $5,000 cash, an unlimited golf membership, and coffee with the mayor
      Lauren Steussy Jun 13, 2023, 10:06 PM ET
      Indiana
      Residents go for a stroll in the Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, Indiana, which is among several cities offering incentives for those willing to relocate from out-of-state. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

      – Americans are increasingly leaving big cities in states like California for affordable enclaves.

      – Indiana towns are offering cash and other incentives for those willing to leave city life behind.

      – One family shared with The Los Angeles Times the perks they cashed in on in Indiana.
      …
      https://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-people-moving-from-california-going-indiana-town-5000-2023-6

    2. Fox Business
      Economy
      Published June 13, 2023 9:40am EDT
      Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses California exodus, tells Americans ‘don’t count us out’
      Gov. Newsom says per capita, ‘more Floridians move to California’
      By Alicia Warren FOXBusiness
      Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., defends President Biden’s cognitive ability, addresses his state’s immigration policy and the mass exodus of residents in an exclusive interview on ‘Hannity.’ video
      Gavin Newsom: I have great confidence in Biden’s leadership

      Despite a dwindling population and a budget deficit of nearly $32 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom is telling Americans “not to count out” the state of California.

      During an exclusive interview on “Hannity” Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made his case for why the state saw a dramatic drop in its population during 2021 and 2022, and why it is underperforming compared to Florida.

      “Per capita, more Floridians move to California than California is moving to Florida,” Newsom said when challenged on his state’s declining population.

      The governor stated that 18 states across the country saw a dip in their population as California’s decline hovered over 0.3%, a first for the state.
      …
      https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/gov-gavin-newsom-addresses-california-exodus-tells-americans-dont-count-us-out

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