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These Are Insolvent Firms Running Ponzi Schemes Of Titanic Proportions

A report from Reuters. “New home sales dropped 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 697,000 units last month, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. May’s sales pace was revised lower to 715,000 units from the previously reported 763,000 units. The median new house price in June was $415,400, a 4.0% drop from a year ago. There were 432,000 new homes on the market at the end of last month, up from 429,000 in May. At June’s sales pace it would take 7.4 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 7.2 months in May.”

Mansion Global. “Joan Dangerfield, wife of the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, is trying to sell her Los Angeles home—and finding that would-be buyers aren’t as eager as she once was. ‘I figured it would sell in a week, but didn’t quite work out that way,’ she said of the house, which is comparably priced with other homes in the area. ‘It was a shock for me to just watch it sit there on the market.’ Dangerfield said she didn’t foresee how detrimental the mansion tax would be for her home’s prospects. ‘We were flooded with shoppers in March. Then, things just came to a screeching halt. It was such a change in the amount of people coming to view the home that it felt like it wasn’t even on the market,’ she said.”

“Luxury sellers across the country are finding themselves in similar circumstances. Even with a limited supply of inventory in Miami, Dina Goldentayer of Douglas Elliman said buyers have more leverage than they did last year for things like home inspections and closing credits. ‘I’m no longer taking the position of, ‘Take it or leave it,’ she said. ‘There are clear shifts that are making it seem like a normal market.’ In the New York, the slower pace of sales has allowed some opportunistic buyers to ink great deals. Daniel Parker, co-head of Compass New Development Marketing, said some recent condo closings reflect deals struck during the more robust market in 2021 and 2022. In pockets of the city, such as Billionaires’ Row and Hudson Yards, developers have offered significant discounts. ‘They are embracing the market we have rather than the market they wish we had,’ he said.”

“In Los Angeles, real-estate agent Juliette Hohnen of Douglas Elliman estimated that her business is down roughly 50% in that market from this time last year. At the height of the pandemic-fueled market, she said, she had signed as many as 10 deals in a month. This July, she has only one so far. ‘Anyone who bought in the last few years has got these crazy low interest rates, usually between two and three percent,’ Hohnen said. If those buyers sell now, they’ll be incurring rates that are almost double and potentially taking a loss on the sale.”

“Agents in New York reported a recent pickup in big-ticket deals this summer. Sylvia Hughes said she and her husband saw several apartments before making an offer on their new four-bedroom on the Upper West Side. ‘I think the seller was motivated. This apartment had languished,’ she said. By the time they saw it, the original $7.495 million asking price had been reduced to $6.195 million and their offer of $6 million was accepted. ‘I was beginning to wonder if we should have offered less.'”

A press release. “Luxury home prices in San Francisco are falling faster than anywhere else in the nation, according to Redfin. The median sale price of luxury homes in San Francisco fell a record 12.7% year over year to $4.8 million in the second quarter—the largest decline among the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. While $4.8 million may not sound like a bargain, it is compared with the $5.5 million record high hit a year earlier.”

“Three other pricey West Coast tech hubs also saw double-digit declines. In Seattle, luxury sale prices decreased a record 12.3% to $2.5 million—the second biggest drop in the country. Next came Oakland, CA (-11.1% to $2.8 million) and San Jose, CA (-10.3% to $4.3 million). ‘Buyers are getting big discounts on high-end condos in San Francisco right now—especially those under 1,000 square feet,’ said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Ali Mafi. ‘Those homes are having trouble selling, and some sellers are losing a lot of money.'”

Bloomberg on New York. “Bidding wars for luxury homes in the Hamptons hit a record high in the second quarter, even as sales and prices declined in the broader market across the Long Island beach towns. The median sale price of all Hamptons single-family homes and condos was $1.45 million, a 9.4% decline from the second quarter of 2022. Closings totaled 259, down 41%, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said. In the luxury tier, the median sale price in the quarter was just shy of $6.4 million, down 25% from a year earlier but still 6.6% higher than before the pandemic.”

The Globe and Mail. “The spring buying spurt in Canada’s real estate market has likely run its course. Faisal Susiwala, broker at Re/Max Twin City, says buyers in the Ontario cities of Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge are hesitant. ‘Right now people have retracted. They’re on the sidelines waiting to see what happens.’ Mr. Susiwala says sellers are disappointed when showings and sales slow to a trickle but he advises against signalling desperation by cutting the price after two weeks. In Guelph, Ont., the action feels less chaotic as supply rises and days on market stretch out, says Aimee Puthon, real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Neumann Real Estate. Ms. Puthon is urging sellers to remain patient. ‘When a property doesn’t sell in three days with five offers, people tend to freak out a bit,’ she says.”

“Mr. Susiwala is seeing homeowners increasingly stretched by the higher rates and strongly advises people who are struggling to pay their mortgage to work with the lender before the sheriff arrives and locks are changed. ‘Ultimately they show up and you’re out.’ Mr. Susiwa has sold three properties under power of sale in the past four months. ‘We’ve seen some really nasty things happening.'”

“Mr. Susiwala is seeing distressed homeowners now that the interest rate on a HELOC is 7.5 per cent instead of the 1.25 to 1.5 per cent they were paying in 2021. If they need to renew or refinance, they grapple with mortgage rates around 6 per cent today and may not be financially stable enough to pass the stress test at a rate 2-per-cent higher. Mr. Susiwala expects to see more such cases and an increase in listings as a result. ‘That is the sad reality of what we are going to face going into September.’ Mr. Susiwala urges homeowners to try to weather the storm if they can, including borrowing money from family members if possible. ‘This is not a time to panic and sell at a loss,’ he says.”

I News in the UK. “Reluctantly, I am starting to accept that I entering what I call ‘early middle age.’ The oldest members of my generation – the millennials – are now in their early forties. My student loan repayments which just hit £500 a month, my mortgage which went up last year because my fixed rate ended, my government Help to Buy loan which just kicked in with repayments at around £350 per month, rising living costs across the board, and the fact that I have to give my ex-partner most of my savings because we have separated and I am buying him out of the flat we bought together seven years ago.”

“In my vision I would hit retirement age, clock off from work, cash in on the house I bought as a younger person, having made a small fortune on it, enjoy long lunches with ‘the girls’ (who were hopefully still alive) and go on holidays. As the years roll on it’s dawning on me that this is less and less likely to happen. My flat is currently in negative equity which means it’s worth less than I paid for it.”

ABC News in Australia. “Pat and Peter McQuhae were on their way to owning a ‘forever home’ to see out their retirement until the biggest home builder in the country gave them an ultimatum: Cough up an extra quarter of a million dollars or your build will be cancelled. The grandparents are among dozens of Metricon customers on fixed-price contracts now forced to choose between paying painfully higher prices or losing their new homes and deposits. ‘It was just an incredible punch,’ Mr McQuhae said. ‘We’ve done everything Metricon asked, and we did it on time.’ The couple has taken legal action against Metricon, but negotiations have stalled. ‘I don’t think we’ve got a decent night’s sleep since this debacle began, we’ve been put through the wringer,’ Mr McQuahe said.”

“Frank Feyen, from the NSW Central Coast, received a termination letter in March – three weeks before construction was due to begin on the investment home he wanted to build to supplement his retirement income. Mr Feyen said Metricon demanded an extra $53,000 and he was also accused of breaching his fixed price contract by not providing details of finance. ‘It came as a huge shock,’ he said. ‘It’s drained me financially, it’s drained me emotionally. No one should have to go through this,’ he said.'”

From News.com.au. “In 2007, Premier Wen Jiabao cautioned that ‘the biggest problem with China’s economy is that the growth is unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.’ He was referring to China’s penchant for over-investment, which was, in turn, driven by the unique Chinese urbanisation and its build-out of hundreds of millions of apartments. Sadly for China, Wen’s warning went unheeded for another 15 years, in which time the construction rates of apartments tripled. If 600 square meters of real estate was too much investment in 2007, then how would we describe 1750 square metres in 2021? As is often the case in Chinese statistics, words fail.”

“Making matters more bizarre, Chinese property statistics indicate that roughly 75 million apartments sold and started since 2007 were never completed. This is enough to house 225 million people – at current rates, about ten years’ worth of urbanisation. If that is anywhere near accurate, then Chinese property buyers have loaned developers about $16 trillion, for which they have not received anything. These are insolvent firms running apartment Ponzi schemes of titanic proportions.”

From The Print. “Greater Noida, with its grand towers and sprawling apartment complexes, is also a graveyard of the great Indian middle-class dream gone horribly wrong. Parmita Banerjee is a homeowner without a home. Every day, the 45-year-old single mother posts videos and messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram demanding what she’s owed: ‘Give us our apartments – we deserve what we paid for!’ In the six years since she booked a flat in a yet-to-be-constructed tower at Greater Noida’s Supertech Sports Village, she survived the pandemic, buried her husband, enrolled her now eight-year-old daughter in school, met with MPs and MLAs, and consulted lawyers. But there is no building on the site—no brick, no scaffolding.”

“Homebuyers like Banerjee, who put all their savings into owning a flat and securing their future, are now trapped in a web of deceit spun by unscrupulous builders. The drama is playing out in courts. Builders have been arrested—some are declared insolvent—but owners are yet to get their flats. Now they are banding together on WhatsApp, mobilising Twitter storms for media attention, knocking on the doors of consumer courts, and forming forums to fight for their flats.”

“On WhatsApp groups teeming with disgruntled and disillusioned buyers, the arrests bring momentary hope. But cynicism quickly sets in. ‘Builder has been arrested but what about us? Our apartments are still non-existent,’ reads a message by Banerjee in a WhatsApp group called ECO V2 owners society, which has over 500 members. ‘Lets tweet and tag Yogi baba,’ said another homeowner. A third wants to mobilise the group. ‘Lets create a hashtag #Cheatedhomebuyers and tweet and retweet for next two hours.'”

“Debi booked a 2BHK flat in 2013 after selling off her 1BHK apartment in Delhi. The first time that Debi and her husband went to Greater Noida to check the location, they saw a queue of homebuyers, which made them desperate to book a flat quickly. ‘Looking at how quickly the flats were being sold off, that same evening, my husband and I booked a flat and applied for the loan the next day,’ Debi said. Her apartment was supposed to be on the 16th floor. Debi dreamt of fresh air entering her house through the balcony and how she could look at the world from the top of her apartment. It has been ten years, and Debi is still waiting for the 16th floor to be constructed. ‘I hope I am alive to see my flat. We don’t have a house now,’ she said, breaking into sobs.”

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  1. ‘I think the seller was motivated. This apartment had languished,’ she said. By the time they saw it, the original $7.495 million asking price had been reduced to $6.195 million and their offer of $6 million was accepted. ‘I was beginning to wonder if we should have offered less’

    You got schlonged Sylvia.

  2. ‘The first time that Debi and her husband went to Greater Noida to check the location, they saw a queue of homebuyers, which made them desperate to book a flat quickly. ‘Looking at how quickly the flats were being sold off, that same evening, my husband and I booked a flat and applied for the loan the next day’

    You had to act fast to be a winnah! Debi.

    ‘Debi dreamt of fresh air entering her house through the balcony and how she could look at the world from the top of her apartment. It has been ten years, and Debi is still waiting for the 16th floor to be constructed. ‘I hope I am alive to see my flat. We don’t have a house now,’ she said, breaking into sobs’

    It’s still cheaper than renting!

    1. “Every day, the 45-year-old single mother posts videos and messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram demanding what she’s owed: ‘Give us our apartments – we deserve what we paid for!’”

      am providing link to the “Green Hat Sky Screamer ” group to these dumbazzes

    2. “…they saw a queue of homebuyers…”

      They could have been actors hired to stage the place.

      Anyone remember the piece years ago depicting the staged red carpet and photographers to make the suckers feel like celebrity winners?

  3. ‘Mr. Susiwa has sold three properties under power of sale in the past four months. ‘We’ve seen some really nasty things happening’ Mr. Susiwala urges homeowners to try to weather the storm if they can, including borrowing money from family members if possible. ‘This is not a time to panic and sell at a loss’

    You tell em Faisal, sell yer dog sled, borrow from granny, and stop eating – DON”T GIVE IT AWAY!

    1. Worst advice ever. It may indeed be a time to sell at a loss. Again, pull the pencil out. Selling at a loss now may make you money in the long run.

      1. “‘I don’t think we’ve got a decent night’s sleep since this debacle began, we’ve been put through the wringer,’ Mr McQuahe said.”

        am providing link to the “Green Hat Sky Screamer ” group to this dumbazz

  4. ‘Buyers are getting big discounts on high-end condos in San Francisco right now—especially those under 1,000 square feet,’ said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Ali Mafi. ‘Those homes are having trouble selling, and some sellers are losing a lot of money’

    Thornberg:

    via GIPHY

    1. Many buyers in the next year or two will also be losing a lot of money. Unless it drops back to 2020 prices

  5. ‘It came as a huge shock,’ he said. ‘It’s drained me financially, it’s drained me emotionally. No one should have to go through this’

    You gotta roll with it Frank.

    1. I was so hoping this treasonous RINO scumbag would stroke out and drop into hell where he belongs.

      1. I dunno there a lot of deserving scumbags. I’m not sure he even makes the top 10. Top 100 for sure.

  7. Will Hunter Biden’s 4 year old daughter visit her daddy in prison?

    The one that the First Family and the White House refuses to acknowledge the existence of?

  8. Mr. Susiwala says sellers are disappointed when showings and sales slow to a trickle but he advises against signalling desperation by cutting the price after two weeks.

    Signaling stupidity is so much more preferable.

    1. “It has been ten years, and Debi is still waiting for the 16th floor to be constructed. ‘I hope I am alive to see my flat. We don’t have a house now,’ she said, breaking into sobs.”

      am providing link to the “Green Hat Sky Screamer ” group to . . oh hell. . why bother.

      TEN YEARS !? yer efffed!

  9. Mr. Susiwala urges homeowners to try to weather the storm if they can, including borrowing money from family members if possible. ‘This is not a time to panic and sell at a loss,’ he says.”

    Worst “advice” ever. Family members of mine who bought into the Fed’s Housing Bubble 2.0 know better than to ever expect me to subsidize their bad financial decisions.

    1. Exactly. I had this happen with a family member in the last bust. And initially it didn’t go well when we refused to loan them money to save their home. But the thanks came later. It’s hard to tell someone to let it burn and move on.

    2. “…including borrowing money from family members if possible.”

      Don’t forget their 401k accounts, Mr. Susiwala.

  10. Concerned About Your Variable Rate Mortgage | What Should You Do?
    Angry Mortgage Podcast
    Jul 26, 2023
    In this short video, mortgage broker and industry giant Ron Butler sheds light on the challenges faced by individuals with variable rate mortgages. With recent and significant changes in interest rates, many are struggling to cope with fluctuating monthly payments. Ron highlights the importance of understanding the implications of variable rates and offers valuable insights to help viewers navigate this unpredictable landscape. If you have a variable rate mortgage or are considering one, this video provides essential advice to make informed financial decisions.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWnWbPkfNg8

    7 minutes. This is K-da. I heard there are some amortizations up to 135 years now.

  11. ‘It came as a huge shock,’ he said. ‘It’s drained me financially, it’s drained me emotionally. No one should have to go through this,’ he said.’”

    Cry me a river, speculator scum.

  12. Every day, the 45-year-old single mother posts videos and messages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram demanding what she’s owed: ‘Give us our apartments – we deserve what we paid for!’

    Get off social media, go outside, and stamp yer little feet!

  13. “Homebuyers like Banerjee, who put all their savings into owning a flat and securing their future, are now trapped in a web of deceit spun by unscrupulous builders.

    So you put all your savings into buying something that didn’t exist. I see a basic flaw in your plan to secure your future, Banerjee.

    3. Wait just one minute! Who cares what doctors in Switzerland found? WAPO and other news outlets reported two days ago “Vaccine politics may be to blame for GOP excess deaths” and “Republicans excess death rate spiked after Covid vaccines became available”. Clearly the miracle shots are more than safe and effective, they saved millions of non-Republican lives! /sarc

  16. It doesn’t sound like homes are getting instantaneously snapped up any more like they were previously.

    “At June’s sales pace it would take 7.4 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, up from 7.2 months in May.”

    That’s presumably if no additional homes went on the market, right?

    If additional homes come on the market, then I suppose the ‘months to clear the supply’ would have to increase, given the slow absorption rate…like it just did.

    3. Russia Today — Almost 20% of NATO supplies to Ukraine already lost (7/27/2023):

      “The Ukrainian military is changing its tactics in an attempt to avoid the significant casualties that have so far blighted its counteroffensive against Russian forces, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing officials in Kiev and the West.

      The outlet’s sources claimed that Ukrainian losses had been “heavy” in the first weeks of its much-anticipated operation, with attempts to penetrate Russian defensive lines so far costing Kiev “almost a fifth of NATO kit” provided for the effort.

      The FT report follows a similar article by the New York Times earlier this month, which claimed that Kiev had lost almost 20% of the weapons it sent to the battlefield in just the first two weeks of the counteroffensive. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has also confirmed that Ukraine has lost a “significant” number of troops, but claimed it still had “substantial” reserves.

      https://www.rt.com/russia/580402-ukraine-nato-weapon-losses/

      How much more U.S. taxpayer money is going to be thrown into this?

      That’s “not your concern” cattle tax slaves.

      1. The Medical Industrial Complex got their money. Now the Military Industrial Complex wants theirs.

    1. London Breed is learning first hand that it is much, much easier to destroy than to build, and that she has lost any confidence and trust the business community might have had in her and the the city. It’s easy to get into a Doom Loop, and very hard to break out of one.

      I suspect she is watching the city’s tax receipts go into free fall and is panicking. She of course was expecting businesses and taxpayers in general to grin and bear it, instead she has created an exodus.

      1. Sounds like she’s in for a sure promotion to national level politics. Congress or Senate?

        1. Perhaps she will replace Newsom as governor when he is installed as Joetato’s replacement.

      2. She sounds like she is still running for mayor. Has anyone told her she has a sanitation department yet?

        It’s going to be interesting to see if SF is iconic enough to push through and recover. I think they have probably already crossed the line and the numbers just aren’t going to work. I am on record back before covid saying that the bay area would decline into a rust belt scenario but I have been impressed at the speed it is happening. I thought these changes would take a lot longer.

        Is there another bounce left in the can? Not if they keep putting people like Ms. Breed in charge. This is such a pivotal period for that city and they chose a useless twat to oversee it. She is much more suited to a supervisory role at a Burger King or similar. I can see it now…”If it was up to me the fries would be fresh and the floors would be clean, know what I’m sayin’?”

        1. It’s going to be interesting to see if SF is iconic enough to push through and recover.

          They’ll need to elect someone like say Giuliani, which will never happen. They are stuck in the Doom Loop.

      3. Most people are too stupid to understand that it takes decades or centuries to build a city, and a few years to destroy it. They don’t understand economics and the fragile supply chain that keeps the water and electricity running, food on the grocery store shelves, and deliveries to their homes. To them, it just magically happens. There are people who believe farms are causing climate change and need to be shut down. There are people who believe we can end oil production and continue to live in a modern world.

        1. There was a sudden rise in the MBA types in all fields including low-level science such as the ones depending on government grants. To some extent engineering was spared, but these types got a foothold in management (HR, PR, corporate governance). It was easy for these people with worthless PhDs to get into government, sales, marketing, finance, real estate jobs. Proper debate and discussion was given the boot simply by saying “you don’t get it” to imply that the person professing some doubts and putting a solid counter argument is stupid.
          Common sense and logic was thrown out the window. Never to be discussed. This is what we see on a daily basis.
          I could have never imagined that group think can be so prevalent, to the detriment of decency, common sense and well being of society.
          As pointed out here, IMHO, the root cause the blowing of bubbles by the government and their accomplice the federal reserve. If there was no easy money (grants, bailouts) a lot of these people that have infiltrated government and corporate ranks would have to do real work. Society would be much better off.

          1. As pointed out here, IMHO, the root cause the blowing of bubbles by the government and their accomplice the federal reserve. If there was no easy money (grants, bailouts) a lot of these people that have infiltrated government and corporate ranks would have to do real work. Society would be much better off.

            You talk as if the only place in the World with our current economic situation is America. No. The entire global economy is going through this perfect storm. Things didn’t happen because any single entity, bank or government messed up.

            What we’re seeing here, IMHO, is a once in human history economic phenomena. The primary factor of everything is China. Once they opened up their economy to the outside world and started a somewhat market economy within, the world economy took off like gang busters.

            Couple that with the technological revolution at the end of the 20th Century that occurred here and around the developed world, and you have a massively expanding economy where everybody became rich or wealthier.

            Just look in my very average house. First of all it is bigger and better than the house I grew up in. It has central air and heat. I have one landline phone, but have my cellphone and internet. I own 4 pretty good computers, a fancy Canon photo print, and a laser printer for regular things. I own two very good Panasonic mirrorless cameras (I use for video mainly). I also own a prosumer Panasonic video camcorder. Plus a nice newer Toyota RAV4 which is a better car than anything you could buy in 1966 (or even 1976). Ect., Ect….

            Now what was in my childhood home next to my three siblings and parents? Onc Packard Bell black and white TV which was a POS. One record player (mono) and FM tuner. No A/C (didn’t really need it in WLA), crappy plumbing which took 25 minutes to fill the washing machine on Saturday. Two transistor radios (desktop size).

            My nieces and nephews think that they are suffering if they only get to fly to one vacation a year. My parents never ever went on a vacation until their 40th anniversary. Us kids flew them up to San Francisco to see the opera. One stickin vacation….And of course my parents and their families lived through the Depression and WW II–my dad seeing a lot of combat coming home with two Purple Hearts and permanent disability.

            Where did all the wealth come from to allow me to buy all of this crap? Most people are very near-sighted when they think about where the world is now and where it’s going.

          3. My upbringing was a lot like zzy’s. A lot of the poor people in America (not the homeless) live better than most kings did throughout history: indoor plumbing, heating, antibiotics, cell phones, etc…

          4. Where it came from? US National debt = $32 trillion

            I didn’t get my check from the Government yet–I’ll check the mail. Those free bucks really helped me out over the last 35 years.

  19. ‘In my vision I would hit retirement age, clock off from work, cash in on the house I bought as a younger person, having made a small fortune on it,’

    It would never occur to any of these greedheads to ask where exactly this ‘small fortune’ is supposed to come from.

    1. For boomers, the answer was “from every generation that came after them.” Maya Millennial just assumed it was her turn at the ponzi money tree. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Ayn Rand, when people live by looting, there is little to loot.

      1. The ponzi scheme is coming to an end. It used to be that the older generations would try to make sure those who came after them had a better life. All of that changed with social security, medicare, and pensions. Everyone now wants more out of the system than they put into it. That is the definition of a ponzi scheme. They forced all of us into the ponzi by passing laws.

        2. All of that changed with social security, medicare, and pensions. Everyone now wants more out of the system than they put into it. That is the definition of a ponzi scheme.

          You sound like those whining blacks that are demanding their reparation checks. If you continue to think that way, you’ll end up a bitter failure in old age.

          FYI, with my modest SS check and even more modest pension that I get from time working for the government, I can cover all of my living expenses (property tax/insurance, utilities, food, gas, etc). I almost maxed out my 401k deductions (my employer matched 3.5%) for a long time. So that now, I have more than enough money to carry me through retirement. In fact, I haven’t had to touch any of it for the last 7 years. I bought my house in 2000 when you couldn’t give a new house away. It was in my price range and I never intended to make money from it. But it was a 70 mile commute to work.

          Everybody I know, most are retired now, has a very sizable retirement fund, probably in the 1-2 million range. They all bought their houses 30-40 years ago with the intention of living in them for a long time. A few cousins have already died–one cousin passed away with an estate around 1.5 million. He wasn’t a big spender and only had his shotgun hobby. Nobody is relying on selling their homes to fund their retirements. In fact, the parents of two cousins just passed, one at 102 and the other in the mid-nineties. So they sold the two family homes for over a million each (in WLA). Those were houses that sold for about $15,000 in the mid-fifties.

          So my baby-boomer relatives and friends have more cash than they’ll ever need. And even their kids are already settled in their own homes and careers. So ultimately it’s going to go to the grandkids of my cousins, most of which are school age.

          How did everyone do this? Well, they never played the game of “Get Rich” with real estate even though they had plenty of funds through the years to invest. It’s no good making sweeping generalizations of an entire group of people because you think that they robbed you blind.

          Kids today have it almost better in every way compared to past generations. With the possible exception of buying a home in the big cities. But even this is deceiving. When my grandfather stepped off the boat in San Pedro Harbor (LA) in the early 1900s from Japan, he had no money, job or anything. He got a bed in a rooming house in downtown L.A. He got a wheelbarrow and bought fruits and veggies at the produce market–then he walked around LA selling his wares to restaurants and anyone he could find.

          He eventually got enough saved to buy 10 acres in what is now Venice, California. The reason he bought there is that nobody wanted that land–it was just a swamp and was the cheapest land around. They improved the land and through back breaking work, ended up doing fairly well until the War broke out. They sold the farm after the War–today that piece of land is worth 20-30 million (who knows, it’s prime real estate right next to the Marina del Rey). Nobody had a clue that land in Venice would ever be worth anything.

          But this story was repeated all over California by Japanese Americans. They bought cheap land because that’s all they could afford. Their kids (my mom and dad) were able to get much better jobs, and my generation is full of engineers, doctors and Toyota executives.

          Moral of the story? If people can’t afford to buy a house in Los Angeles, then move somewhere else and make a life there. That’s the way all Americans made it in the old days. People today have the unrealistic expectation that they deserve to have a nice house by the beach in L.A. or California. Sorry, life doesn’t work that way.

          1. then move somewhere else and make a life there

            That is precisely why my grandparents left Europe and came to the USA

          2. “I bought my house in 2000 when you couldn’t give a new house away.”

            Yep, bought my 1,550-sqft, 3/2 rancher in 2003 just past the bottom of the trough during the dotcom recovery.

  20. I read earlier that MasterCard is instructing it’s member banks to not allow marijuana purchases. This doesn’t affect me directly, but in my imagination is another step toward controlling the individual via electronic currency.

    1. I also find it ominous that banks in the UK are removing ATMs. You don’t need cash, just use your card. What, you want to buy some steak with your card? No can do, because it’s problematic.

  21. ‘Making matters more bizarre, Chinese property statistics indicate that roughly 75 million apartments sold and started since 2007 were never completed. This is enough to house 225 million people – at current rates, about ten years’ worth of urbanisation. If that is anywhere near accurate, then Chinese property buyers have loaned developers about $16 trillion, for which they have not received anything. These are insolvent firms running apartment Ponzi schemes of titanic proportions’

    Urbanisation in China has shifted into full reverse.

    1. never completed

      Years ago we discussed 85 million units built but unoccupied in Ghost Cities. As Dan would say, “That’s how China grows.”

  22. Shanghai Is Finished: No Foreigners at Shanghai Trade Fair or Foreigner Street, Rent Plummets 60%
    China Observer
    Premiered 67 minutes ago
    As China’s largest economic and financial center, Shanghai was consecutively ranked as the most attractive city for foreign talents in China for eight years. People from all over the world used to live, work, and even get married and raise families here. Early 2022 data indicated that approximately 460,000 foreigners from 47 countries lived in Shanghai. The city welcomed over 2 million temporary foreign visitors each year, and the number of work permits issued to foreign elites exceeded 50,000. According to the Bureau of Statistics, by the end of August 2021, Shanghai had attracted more than $270 billion in foreign investment, housing 61,090 foreign enterprises.
    But this situation was first disrupted by the three-year COVID-19 pandemic. Especially in March of last year, the humanitarian disaster caused by the lockdown of Shanghai led to a significant number of foreigners choosing to flee and expressing their reluctance to return. Subsequent geopolitical tensions and the uncertainty arising from such events followed. Especially when China’s newly revised “Counter-Espionage Law” came into effect on July 1st, expanding its scope to include broader interpretations of violating national security standards and granting the government more power in conducting searches, detentions, and implementing personal travel bans. This has left foreign residents in China feeling even more unsafe.

    Many foreign investors now feel that the conditions for long-term investment in China are no longer as favorable as before and have chosen to withdraw. This, in turn, has affected the willingness of foreigners to live in Shanghai. As a result, the city’s foreign population is visibly decreasing. The following video shares a Shanghai resident’s true feelings.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhude8zA7c

    17:32.

    1. Many foreign investors now feel that the conditions for long-term investment in China are no longer as favorable

      I needed a new bathroom faucet–my 23 year old Delta just wore out. I picked up a nice new Delta at Home Depot for $50. Guess where it was made? Vietnam. Not so long ago things like faucets were all made in China. Not so much now. Companies are moving production facilities to places like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

      Unlike Japan, China built its economic miracle by selling its cheap labor. Their weren’t any homegrown Chinese products unlike the Japanese. I remember when “Made in Japan” was a pejorative term and just meant cheap junk.

      Japan started building cameras (Nikon) and transistor radios in the 1950s. Then TVs–remember when American TVs were the best and ruled the market? Then came the Japanese cars and the rest is history.

      South Korea followed Japan–companies like Samsung make everything from supertankers to stoves.

      The CCP killed any innovation and creativity and they are clamping down even harder now. China was never Japan–the standard of living for the average Japanese is a quantum leap better than the average Chinese. China doesn’t even have basic infrastructure for half of its population.

      China has Jack Ma Japan had Soichiro Honda. Enough said.

      1. ‘remember when American TVs were the best and ruled the market?’

        Yep, Texas made some of the best.

        1. This is a short history of the once famous Curtis Mathes Electronics Company. In 1957, Curtis Mathes & Associates purchased a major interest in the Olive-Myers-Spalti Manufacturing Co. The new firm, called Curtis Mathes Manufacturing Company, combined its decades of furniture building and electronics experience, first to enter the hi-fi business and, in 1959, the television industry. With these changes, Curtis Mathes started its tradition of combining top quality video and audio products housed in fine furniture. Just four years later, the Company entered the world of color television, beginning the era in which the Company became a household name. Below is a photograph of one the wonderful consoles the company was making in 1960, and yes she still is working as well.
          Image
          It was in 1972 that Curtis Mathes was the first manufacturer to offer a completely solid-state product line, with an unprecedented four-year warranty. In 1975 Curtis Mathes, Jr. purchased the company from the shareholders. In 1978 Curtis Jr. began demonstrating what would become another hallmark of the Company: heavy use of advertising to position and promote products. That year, an $18 million advertising investment yielded sales of more than $152 million. Millions of Americans came to know that Curtis Mathes was…”The most expensive television in America, and darn well worth it!” Below is a photograph of the Curtis Mathes plant in Athens Texas. The huge plant is now empty and has not been used in years, very tragic.
          Image
          In the year 1979 Curtis Mathes established ColorTyme, a home entertainment rental company, to meet the increasing demands for quality home entertainment equipment. In the years 1982 the Company began franchising its name across the country, the corporate headquarters were moved from Athens to Dallas and the Company’s manufacturing plant in Athens, Texas was sold. Then in 1988 the entire Company was sold and relocated back in Athens. During the period I worked for the company the Athens plant became the center of television and stereo production for the entire company. This was a awesome time in the history of our nation, back before our once proud and powerful electronics industries were sold out to the slave markets of Asia in a horrible unfair free trade agreement. Now because of the greed and stupidity of a few men not one television is made in North America.

          https://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=128758

          1. My FIL was the last man at RCA vacuum tubes. Their radio, back in the day, was also in a fine Mahogany case. A beautiful piece of furniture. I have one and it still works.

  23. ‘In my vision I would hit retirement age, clock off from work, cash in on the house I bought as a younger person, having made a small fortune on it…My flat is currently in negative equity which means it’s worth less than I paid for it’

    Ennio Morricone – L’estasi dell’Oro (In Concerto – Venezia 10.11.07)
    SelfDistribuzione
    Dec 20, 2011
    Song taken from “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly”, performed in the magical setting of San Marco’s square in Venice and directed by Ennio Morricone himself.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3IlqY1CbI0

    4 minutes.

  25. “Joan Dangerfield, wife of the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield, is trying to sell her Los Angeles home—and finding that would-be buyers aren’t as eager as she once was. ‘I figured it would sell in a week, but didn’t quite work out that way,’

    Home sellers….They get no respect!

  26. ‘I’m no longer taking the position of, ‘Take it or leave it’

    Now Dina, yer getting closer to giving it away.

    ‘If 600 square meters of real estate was too much investment in 2007, then how would we describe 1750 square metres in 2021?’

    It’s a shortage, silly!

  27. “Golden Brown” – Mariachi Mexteca (now known as The Mariachis) feat. Hugh Cornwell
    The Mariachis
    Jul 18, 2012
    A great honour and great fun to meet and play with one of our favourite legends of music and being able to perform a “Golden Brown” remake with legend Hugh Cornwell.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy8Y3R4dXyc

    3:28.

  28. Jill Biden’s ex-husband claims ‘Biden crime family’ has targeted him for years

    By Olivia Land
    July 27, 2023

    “Frankie Biden of the Biden crime family comes up to me and he goes, ‘Give her the house or you’re going to have serious problems,’” Bill Stevenson told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Wednesday night of the moment President Biden’s brother Frank allegedly approached him when he and Jill divorced in the mid-1970s.

    “I looked at Frankie and I said, ‘Are you threatening me?’ and needless to say, about two months later, my brother and I were indicted for that tax charge for $8,200.”

    Stevenson — who married the future first lady in 1970, when she was still a college student — claims that Joe Biden, who was then a young senator in Delaware, sicced the charges on him.

    “[I] could not believe the power of Joe Biden and the Department of Justice. I couldn’t believe it,” he lamented to Kelly.

    Kelly then noted that Stevenson and his brother were reportedly charged with two felonies for less than $10,000 in unpaid taxes, while his ex-wife’s stepson, Hunter Biden, has so far only been slapped with two misdemeanors for a staggering $2.2 million unpaid tax bill.

    https://nypost.com/2023/07/27/jill-bidens-ex-husband-slams-biden-crime-family/

    1. Jill Biden’s Ex-Husband: Biden Crime Family Has Come After Me For 35 Years Just Like They’re Coming For Trump

      by Kelen McBreen
      July 27th 2023, 5:48 pm

      leepy Joe Biden’s wife Jill used to be married to Bill Stevenson, a man who spoke with Newsmax earlier this week to describe some of the ways the Biden Crime Family has tried to ruin his life.

      Stevenson detailed his divorce court hearings with Jill and explained that at one point, Joe’s brother “Frankie Biden of the Biden Crime Family” approached him and said he’d have “serious problems” if he didn’t give Jill a house that was being disputed in court at the time.

      https://www.infowars.com/

      Disclose.tv
      @disclosetv
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      Follow
      NOW – Biden says “no one f***s with a Biden.”

      https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1577742477414612994?s=20

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