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The Bubble Deflated, Liquidity Fell Freely And Many Investors Face The Risk Of Heavy Losses

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “After two years of elevated home prices in Houston, prices began to decrease for the first time in February, according to a report from the Houston Association of Realtors. Local real estate agent Rose Miller said low inventory has resulted in a buyer’s market. ‘When [the market] was competitive and you’re in a bidding war, you’re going to take what you can get,’ she said. ‘Buyers are not playing that game anymore.'”

“Home prices in Jacksonville are beginning to decline, dropping 4.7 percent in June compared to June of the previous year, and once homes go on the market they are taking considerably longer to sell. So if you’re thinking of selling a property here, it’s all the more important to understand just how much your home is worth. You want to price it correctly for the market so that you don’t wind up having to drop your price to seal a deal, as 31.2 percent of homes that sold in June did.”

“House prices in Boise are looking a lot friendlier than they did this time last year. The median sale price for a house in Ada County in June 2023 was $545,000, an 8% reduction from June 2022, according to Boise Regional Realtors. According to Zillow, ZIP code 83669 — which encompasses Star — saw the most significant yearly decrease, at 11.9%. But the median price for the ZIP code is $567,480, which remains higher than the Treasure Valley’s average home value. ZIP code 83607 in Caldwell saw a minor decrease at 4.1%.”

“Year-over-year home prices have fallen in every large city in Washington state in 2023, but nowhere as sharply as in the Eastside, according to SmartAsset. Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond and Sammamish posted decreases in home prices ranging from 11% to 12%. The price plunge in the Eastside cities surpassed the 8.1% decline in Seattle. It’s far greater than the state average decline in home prices of 4.2%. Across the country, Kirkland had the fifth-largest drop in home prices. The top 15 on the report were made up of cities solely from the San Francisco metro area and Eastside. The average home in the Eastside cities can cost over $1 million, compared to the about $570,000 cost of an average home in Washington.”

“A historic Lake Forest estate that’s been on the market since fall of last year has found a buyer after a series of price cuts. The property, at 255 North Green Bay Road, went under contract this week after a $1 million chop earlier this month brought its ask down to $7.9 million. The Green Bay Road home is currently the most expensive listing in Lake Forest, which only has four other properties for sale at or above $4 million, the traditional marker for Chicagoland luxury listings. Originally listed in September for $10.1 million, the sellers lowered their price to $8.9 million, then again to $7.9 million this month before finding a buyer. It’s unclear when the property will close, or if it will close at or near its asking price. The home is one of several luxury properties to take additional price cuts this year, showing sellers’ willingness to make concessions as interest rates continue to rise and the overall real estate market slows.”

“Kim Clark and her family spent 12 years together building lives and memories inside their Independence home. But now Clark is not sure what will happen to her home. The home was under contract to be sold just days ago. But then the buyer found out Jackson County’s property assessment on Clark’s home is $666,000. ‘Jackson County has torpedoed that contract by assessing my home way more than it was listed,’ Clark said. Closing the deal was a step toward financial freedom for Clark, a recently divorced single mom working to provide for her family. ‘We need this to survive,’ Clark said. ‘To get to the end and I’m ready to sign with a date to close on the loan and then in a moment it’s stripped away.'”

“One prominent local development firm claims rising interest rates and restrictions on building and demolition in Lancaster city’s historic district – not internal financial issues – have led it to indefinitely shelve its plans in the city and Columbia. Lancaster County-based Eberly Myers, which once proposed high-end apartments for young residents, has sold most of its real estate portfolio in the county after losing two properties to foreclosure by lenders. Benjamin Myers said recent increases in interest rates are ‘sucking the life’ out of real estate development in general, which has led the group to indefinitely shelve its plans to develop apartments in Lancaster County. ‘It is not the right time for very many developers to bring new products to the market,’ said Myers. ‘The perfect storm culminated and prevented us from being able to get the type of debt we needed, or raise the equity we needed in this uncertain time.'”

“The Hudson’s tower and its massive, window-clad facade are nearing completion. The largest new construction in the city in decades. The biggest question looming over what is arguably the city’s marquee project is, who is going to rent all its office space? Metro Detroit may not be faring as badly as New York or San Francisco, but it’s hardly been immune from the downturn. It can get pretty quiet downtown during the week, says one downtown employee, Jake, who’s worked out of the same office since 2018. His office has a capacity for around 60 people, but some days he’ll be the only one there. ‘It’s a bit of a bummer to see the city so quiet, especially in the winter,’ he said. ‘People really don’t like coming down here if they don’t have to. That’s when it seems most sad to me.'”

“In April and May, the Canadian housing market looked like it was poised for a comeback. As expected, the Bank of Canada increased rates another 25bps, bringing the overnight rate to 5% – its highest level since 2001. Stats show inventory that has been steadily climbing over the last couple of years: we had 1,800 listings in June 2021, 2,141 in June 2022, and are up to 2,396 as of July 14, 2023. Our realtors have commented that days on market have been increasing, and they are needing to resort to price reductions as well. The writing is on the wall: the momentum we were seeing in April and May simply isn’t sustainable with current conditions.”

“At least one more large construction company and many smaller companies are behind in paying workers and at risk of collapsing within weeks, a Luxembourg labour leader said. The warning by LCGB Deputy General Secretary Christophe Knebeler came a day after the Manuel Cardoso construction company disclosed that it was bound for bankruptcy. ‘We have echoes of a handful of firms where problems are already showing up (with late) salary payments,’ Knebeler said in an interview on broadcaster RTL. ‘They could be the next candidates (for bankruptcy) we will see in autumn.’ Construction has seen 102 bankruptcies in the first six months of this year, more than double the same period in 2022, national statistics agency Statec said earlier this month. Manuel Cardoso is the biggest construction firm facing bankruptcy, but another company with more than 100 employees could soon follow, Knebeler said.”

“Long before Europe faced its debt crisis, Sweden struggled through its own 1990s property crash. Now the country is preparing to use an old playbook to contain its problems. Sales have ground to a halt and Swedes are looking with trepidation to the future. ‘The market is almost at a standstill,’ said Jens Henriksson, chief executive of one of the country’s biggest banks, Swedbank. The banks are closely watching the country’s mid-sized property firms, several of whom are lumbered with a debt mountain built during a decade of rock-bottom interest rates and virtually free money.”

“At the centre of the fallout is a $13 billion property group, SBB, which borrowed to buy public property including social housing, government offices, schools, hospitals and police stations. It is now fast running through cash. Property is the lynchpin of the Swedish economy, making up 80% of household debt. Weighed down by home loans, Swedes are twice as heavily indebted as Germans or Italians. Prices are unravelling after the central bank started to hike the cost of borrowing. House prices are also down by around one-fifth since their March 2022 peak. Price have potentially a long way to fall. While property doubled in value in the five years leading up to the 1990s crash, prices have since risen five-fold. ‘If we were to get problems of course, we would take over the collateral,’ said Swedbank’s Henriksson. ‘We would take over the real estate. We could sell it to the market.'”

“It is easy to rattle off numbers that can turn most homeowners into on-paper millionaires, and convince those who do not yet own a property that they will need to win the lottery to do so. In the first quarter of 2023, the ‘average price’ for a property in Tel Aviv was NIS 2.9 million ($786,000); NIS 2.4 million in Jerusalem ($650,000). In the central Israel town of Kfar Saba, a couple who separated more than a year ago is struggling to find a buyer for their family home. Selling it is critical to the ex-spouses. But more than six months on, they have taken on a number of realtors to market the property more widely, and are still waiting for a serious buyer. Joint owner Lia says, ‘People come and look at it and find fault, even though there is nothing wrong with it. We know the price is right for this area and for this time. Of course we would take a serious offer, but we can’t afford to sell for less than the house is worth.'”

“After the prolonged fever, the housing market in the suburbs and neighboring Ho Chi Minh City provinces has witnessed a sharp drop in liquidity. Land plots, the segment that recorded strong price fluctuations in recent years, are no longer as easy to ‘eat at the same time’ as before. At the end of 2022, due to the influence of tight monetary policy and ‘wounds’ accumulated after nearly half a decade due to speculative bubbles, the real estate market, in general, and land plots, in particular, fell into difficulties. Specifically, in 2016-2020, especially from 2021 to early 2022, family members flocked to ‘hunt for land,’ causing prices to increase continuously. As a result, the bubble deflated, liquidity fell freely, and many investors borrowed money not in time to ‘return to the shore,’ facing the risk of heavy losses. The market report for the first 6 months of 2023 of the Ministry of Construction recently noted that real estate transactions over the past time have mainly focused on the land plot segment. However, these transactions all reduced prices compared to the first period of 2022 from 10-30%.”

“When Jen* checked her emails last week and saw one unread message from her builder waiting in her inbox, she opened it with dread. She hadn’t heard from her builder for weeks, despite multiple calls and emails, leaving her with no explanation on why the build on her four-bedroom, two-bathroom home had been stalled for months. ‘The harsh reality is on the 2nd of August we will be put into liquidation,’ Joestarr Group wrote. ‘We apologies (sic) for the inconvenience this will cause, there just isn’t any way out.’ Melbourne-based Joestarr Group is due in the Victorian Supreme Court on August 2, which is next Wednesday, after an excavation company called Saliba Excavations Pty Ltd initiated winding up proceedings over an unpaid debt.”

“The email has devastated customers like Jen and at least 30 other homeowners that news.com.au knows of. ‘It’s soul destroying,’ Jen, a healthcare worker, told news.com.au. ‘I’ve had a week off work, I’ve cried every single day, it’s our dreams, we’ve done everything right. We’re financially and mentally ruined.’ This is the sixth building company this week revealed to be heading towards the chopping block amid an industry-wide crisis. Jen and her partner Damien* signed a $370,000 building contract with Joestarr Group in 2021 and nearly two years later, the house is still unfinished.”

“‘We’re currently paying $450 a week rent and also paying a $500,000 mortgage for this property we can’t live in. It’s financially destroying us,’ Jen said. The couple, in their late 20s and early 30s, who are based near Geelong, live in a rental a five-minute drive away from their building site. ‘We don’t like to drive past it, it’s too upsetting. There’s no end in sight,’ Jen added. What has left them even more frustrated is the fact they recently paid a $126,000 invoice for the lockup stage of their build. Just four days later, Joestarr Group warned them of the impending liquidation. They also visited the site and realised it was not complete. There are no doors or cladding, according to the customers, and there’s also no tap, no stormwater drain and no sewage system.”

“‘It’s arguably (been) the worst experience of our lives,’ Damian told news.com.au. He added that ‘It was just so obvious that they had no intention of starting our house within the time frame’ stipulated in the contract. Another customer who preferred to remain anonymous said their building site had not been touched since December last year. ‘Trying to get responses to emails or return phone calls has been impossible,’ he told news.com.au. ‘This is an absolute nightmare for all of us, but sadly we know there are so many like us out there.'”

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This Post Has 69 Comments

  1. ‘Year-over-year home prices have fallen in every large city in Washington state in 2023, but nowhere as sharply as in the Eastside’

    Larry told us real estate is local, but this entire sh$thole of a state is sinking like a turd in a well. Matt, the UHS economist has some crow to eat.

  2. ‘People come and look at it and find fault, even though there is nothing wrong with it. We know the price is right for this area and for this time. Of course we would take a serious offer, but we can’t afford to sell for less than the house is worth’

    Hold yer ground Lia, don’t give it away!

      1. Kinda reminds me of Gene Hackman’s line in “Unforgiven” when he says, “I don’t deserve this..”…….”Deserve has got nothing to do with it.”

      2. i always heard it as “what you paid for it has nothing to do with what it’s worth”

        and yeah, if it was priced correctly it would have been sold.

        No serious offers in 6 months? yeah it’s massively overpriced.

    2. “Over the time they have been looking, Jamie and her husband have put in an offer on one apartment, stretching their budget to the max. But they were turned down as the owner preferred to hold out for a higher price and has now upped the asking price by a further 20%. “

      Jooz phuc’n over jooz! LOL

  3. ‘Metro Detroit may not be faring as badly as New York or San Francisco’

    How the mighty have fallen.

    ‘but it’s hardly been immune from the downturn. It can get pretty quiet downtown during the week, says one downtown employee, Jake, who’s worked out of the same office since 2018. His office has a capacity for around 60 people, but some days he’ll be the only one there’

    How do those 5% cap rates look now?

  4. ‘We’re currently paying $450 a week rent and also paying a $500,000 mortgage for this property we can’t live in. It’s financially destroying us,’ Jen said…What has left them even more frustrated is the fact they recently paid a $126,000 invoice for the lockup stage of their build’

    You really got schlonged Jen*.

    1. we keep seeing these (here), does anyone know how Australia law works? Why can’t they just walk away? Mortgage on the house, there’s no house, why should i pay? let them foreclose on air. But maybe it doesn’t work that way in upsidedownland.

      1. and yes I get they would lose what they have paid out so far, but they wouldn’t lose anymore and the endless monthly payments would be gone.

        1. No such thing as a fixed mortgage and full recourse? Does ANYone in the UK or Australia or Canada or New Zealand ever succeed in paying off a mortgage and owning the house outright? Doesn’t seem so.

          1. Buying a house you can’t actually pay for without decades of debt payments, especially with the expectation of increasing your “wealth” in the process, is a foolish and risky thing to do. Wouldn’t you agree?

  6. Weak, low-effort journalism.

    KDVR — Coloradans cash in on home values with lines of credit (7/27/2023):

    “The Centennial State has one of the highest levels of interest in home equity lines of credit, according to a new analysis from luxury real estate platform RubyHome. The firm commissioned data on the online search history of a home equity line of credit.

    HELOCs have become all the rage in the last few years. Home values across the country soared to record highs following the COVID pandemic, especially in Colorado and the western U.S. in general, so homeowners have a bigger value to draw credit against.”

    All the rage?

    “RubyHome’s data saw national searches for the term “HELOC” more than double from 2022 to the present. Colorado has the third-highest number, just behind Hawaii and Utah. Western states, including Washington, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada, are on the top 10 list as well.

    Colorado is also among the states whose HELOC balances have risen most in the 2020s, according to Experian.

    Between 2021 and 2022, Colorado’s average HELOC balance rose 11%”

    https://kdvr.com/news/data/coloradans-cashing-in-on-home-values-with-heloc-lines-of-credit/

    The article does not mention that these borrowers are now using their HELOC funny money to buy gas, groceries, and even to pay the 1st mortgage itself.

    Related example of such weak, sad journalism was an article a few years ago that said “the easiest way to make $100,000 is to buy a house in Denver and wait three years.”

    These loanowners don’t have two actual nickels to rub together. They are BROKE, overextended, and have never actually had the budget to maintain their phony lifestyles of the last few years.

    1. For decades the expression “cashing in” has been used when it comes to cash-out refi’s and HELOC’s. So idiotic. The only time you cash it in is when you sell. Well…..that’s not entirely true. There were the crafty ones right at the beginning of the last bust who refi-ed and HELOC-ed to the max and then just mailed in the keys. But it’s a risky game. Some get caught up with, but most didn’t. Kinda like all the PPP fraud of the last several years.

  7. Dan Haar: A property owner returns to CT, finds a new $1.5M house on his land. Now police are involved

    Hearst CTInsider Columnist
    July 28, 2023

    Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg grew up in a house his parents bought on the semicircular street in 1953, when he was a 1-year-old. After medical school in New York and residency in Maryland, he and his wife raised their two children on Long Island, across the Sound from Fairfield.

    Kenigsberg never lost his fondness for the town. For decades, he held on to a vacant parcel of just under a half-acre next door to his childhood home. His father had bought that land, also in 1953, directly from Eleazar Parmly Jr. — the family that settled the area in 1716.

    He hoped to pass it on to a future generation of Kenigsbergs. “Certainly if one of my children wanted to live in Fairfield, Connecticut, I’d be very happy about that,” Kenigsberg told me this week from Long Island.

    (Yada – yada – yada)

    A dream becomes a nightmare

    The lawsuit, citing Connecticut trade laws, names as defendants Sky Top Partners, which it says is owned by Gina Leto and Greg Bugaj; and Monelli. It claims Kenigsberg “is suffering irreparable damage” and that he “never authorized the sale of his Property to anyone.”

    It seeks a voiding of the 2022 sale and a jury trial with damages and compensation to Kenigsberg that could reach $2 million, court documents show.

    Today the house, 4,000 square feet with five bathrooms and spectacular amenities, is shown in a “contingent” offer for $1,475,000 as “Lot 2, Sky Top Terrace,” according to at least two websites, complete with a computer-generated interior tour of the open-floor layout.

    https://www.registercitizen.com/business/

    1. WTF? LOL

      I have 18 acres of rural land I better start keeping an eye one. If anyone tried that on my land, their house would probably be burned to the ground in an accident.

  9. Lake forest my forever home when i win powerball….yeah

    Other amenities include nine fireplaces, an elevator, several formal sitting rooms, a butler’s pantry, silver vault, flower arranging room, two 1,000-square-foot staff apartments, a cedar closet, a gift-wrapping room, a home gym, wine cellar, carriage house, spa and four-car garage.

  10. CNBC — As interest rates, inventory issues keep car costs high, what drivers are doing to make ownership possible (7/28/2023):

    “The average monthly auto payment reached $733, a new record, in the second quarter of the year, according to a report by auto site Edmunds.

    Seventy-eight percent of middle-income households earning between $47,000 to $142,000 rely on a vehicle to get to work, Santander Bank found in a new survey, and 74% are willing to make financial tradeoffs to maintain access to cars. For instance, 61% would give up dining out, while 48% would pass on vacations and 48%, entertainment.

    The average duration of car loans is stretching ever longer — before the pandemic, the average length was 5 years, Yoon said. Consumers are now more apt to sign 72 to 84 month loans, equating to 6 or 7 years in repayment.

    “If you have to have a car and your budget is limited, what people are doing is just pushing out the loan terms,” which reduces the monthly payment, he said.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/28/what-american-drivers-are-doing-to-make-car-ownership-possible.html

    Never mind dining out and entertainment. The key sacrifice that the article fails to mention is too obvious: give up housing and LIVE IN YOUR CAR.

    1. plus you must have full coverage on that new car loan…even full glass….so you’d better have zero points on your license and safe drivers insurance discounts.

  11. Of course we would take a serious offer, but we can’t afford to sell for less than the house is worth.’”

    The house is worth what a creditworthy buyer is willing to pay for it, Greedhead Lia. Better get to sawin’ and slashin’ like you’re in a Jamie Lee Curtis movie.

  12. ‘I’ve had a week off work, I’ve cried every single day, it’s our dreams, we’ve done everything right. We’re financially and mentally ruined.’

    When housing losses we must eat
    Let us stamp our little feet!

  13. They also visited the site and realised it was not complete. There are no doors or cladding, according to the customers, and there’s also no tap, no stormwater drain and no sewage system.”

    Yet the builder got yer money, bagholders. File this under “cautionary tale.”

    1. The only tale I’m hearing is to never buy a new house. Used houses might be money pits, but at least there’s something to live in.

        1. Years ago a coworker put a down payment on a condo under construction in north San Jose near the 237. Then he discovered that his wife was also riding another pony, so he sold the still unfinished condo making money on the deal.

  16. “But then the buyer found out Jackson County’s property assessment on Clark’s home is $666,000”

    I would request a re-assessment to 667K. I’m not overly superstitious, but the 666K assessment would spook me.

  18. MarketWatch — Main Street is struggling while Wall Street celebrates, and that spells trouble for stocks (7/27/2023):

    “Wall Street is deluding itself that this week’s U.S. consumer confidence reading is great news. It actually is flashing warning signals.

    You have to look hard to detect those signals, since on the surface the latest news seems to be exceedingly good.”

    On the surface?

    Let them eat cake, obviously.

    “Right now, for example, consumers are being fed a constant diet of upbeat news about the overall economy: inflation is coming down, and an economic “soft landing” is becoming increasingly probable, we’re told. And yet the typical consumer is still struggling on a personal level.”

    Constant diet of upbeat news?

    Phony Bidenomics propaganda, repeated in unwavering lockstep from the globalist scum media.

    “This widening spread is related to what I call the “Wall Street-Main Street disconnect”: Wall Street is celebrating while the economy in Anytown, USA is struggling. The Nasdaq Composite Index is nearly 40% higher than where it stood at its October low. The S&P 500 is less than 5% away from an all-time high, for example.

    In contrast, median pay has risen less than 1%, in inflation-adjusted terms, over the last 9 months.”

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/main-street-is-struggling-while-wall-street-celebrates-and-that-spells-trouble-for-stocks-5b99fe53?mod=home-page

    Less than 1% have a few crumbs, peasants.

  19. A reader sent these in:

    2021 home buyers are stuck…

    https://twitter.com/realmatt_re/status/1684350679199150080

    Realtor Surplus: 600k more Realtors than 🏡 for Sale

    https://twitter.com/DisruptorStocks/status/1684372450291728385

    Since the start of 2023, the city of Atlanta has reported 72,600 evictions in 7 months. This is already 10,000 evictions more than the 2022 calendar year.

    https://twitter.com/GAFollowers/status/1684319155892150274

    Americans are a hair away from a trillion dollars in credit card debt. At the same time, credit card interest rates are at the highest since the Fed started recording them in 1994. Better hope we don’t have job losses.

    https://twitter.com/JeffWeniger/status/1684321139428847617

    What’s the best predictor of a recession? Widespread certainty that it can’t and won’t happen any time soon.

    https://twitter.com/Peter_Atwater/status/1684272337833664512

    Main takeaway from today is Powell just told you he’s holding rates here until 2025. Lots of things will break before then.

    https://twitter.com/RJRCapital/status/1684286146656731139

    Soft landing is now 100% consensus from corporate folks, to the Fed economists, to the CNBC talking heads, to retail, to the housing bots……..

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1684279469442301959

    “I See A Wave Coming”: Assessed Value Of Baltimore City Office Tower Nearly Halved Amid CRE Panic

    https://twitter.com/danjmcnamara/status/1684260270913224712

    Gasoline prices are surging in the past few days. “Higher energy costs may push up consumer prices and lead to renewed goods inflation — a sector where price increases have slowed.”

    https://twitter.com/lisaabramowicz1/status/1684249650562203663

    This explains the current state of San Fran

    https://twitter.com/EnronChairman/status/1684251290010779663

  20. ** “The home was under contract to be sold just days ago. But then the buyer found out Jackson County’s property assessment on Clark’s home is $666,000. ‘Jackson County has torpedoed that contract by assessing my home way more than it was listed,’ Clark said. Closing the deal was a step toward financial freedom for Clark, a recently divorced single mom working to provide for her family. ”

    maybe the ex made a few calls . . .
    a little suggestion here & there to local govt friends . .
    and Bam!

    (so you won the house in the divorce? good luck keeping or selling it!)

  21. HuffPaint (7/28/2023):

    “Unless you’ve been living underground or have a vested interest in turning a blind eye to reality, you know that climate change has sent temperatures soaring to dangerous levels around the planet this summer.”

    You know. Note the word choice.

    “Two global climate organizations on Thursday confirmed that July is on track to be the single hottest month on record. It is also likely the hottest monthlong stretch in 120,000 years.”

    Climate organization = nothing more than a money grab. Any alleged organization that disputes the globalist narrative doesn’t get grant money. The money only flows in one ideological direction.

    “But as usual, Republican climate deniers are quick to dismiss the dire impacts.

    “There is a very scientific word for this: It’s called summer,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told HuffPost when asked about the heat on Thursday.

    During a speech Thursday about the extreme heat gripping the U.S., President * said the impacts of global climate change are undeniable.

    “I don’t know anybody who honestly believes climate change is not a serious problem,” he said.

    “There’s plenty of no-nothingism in this town now,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said. “It’s perfectly acceptable in certain circles to ignore the reality of the world as it is, and I just think that’s really dangerous.”

    “We’re a country that’s flourished because for a long time, we’ve believed in science and we’ve followed facts,” Heinrich continued. “Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”

    No link provided.

    Hillary Clinton tweeted the other day blaming evil MAGA Orange Man for all the warmist warmism, and one of the best replies said “it’s much hotter where you’re going.”

    Go eat your bug salad, NPC soy-cucks. I’m having steak for lunch.

    1. So this whole “Declare a climate emergency” thing. What’s that supposed to look like? Are we gearing up for the next lockdown? I mean why not, right? Because the last one worked so well!

      1. Are we gearing up for the next lockdown?

        15 minute cities, where you will need permission to leave.

      2. Yup.

        It is all about forcing suffering and deprivation on the little people. The lifestyles of the pigmen won’t change (pigmen gonna pig).

        When the commies overthrew the Czar, they moved into the royal palace and dined on the Czar’s fine china. Nothing ever changes, except the structure of the #Narrative they’re forcing on you…

    1. That house looks like it was abandoned in 1986. I’m surprised there isn’t more damage. I almost looks like it had been a small business that went bust. But yeah, I see about $150K there.

      The neighborhood is very run down, but not yet horribly trashed. However, I wouldn’t put any money into curb appeal — it would make me a target.

  23. ‘People come and look at it and find fault, even though there is nothing wrong with it’

    That’s the spirit!

    ‘Buyers are not playing that game anymore’

    You too Rose, keep up the good work!

  24. ‘Specifically, in 2016-2020, especially from 2021 to early 2022, family members flocked to ‘hunt for land,’ causing prices to increase continuously’

    A minor respiratory illness will do that.

  25. ‘At the centre of the fallout is a $13 billion property group, SBB, which borrowed to buy public property including social housing, government offices, schools, hospitals and police stations. It is now fast running through cash. Property is the lynchpin of the Swedish economy, making up 80% of household debt. Weighed down by home loans, Swedes are twice as heavily indebted as Germans or Italians. Prices are unravelling after the central bank started to hike the cost of borrowing. House prices are also down by around one-fifth since their March 2022 peak. Price have potentially a long way to fall. While property doubled in value in the five years leading up to the 1990s crash, prices have since risen five-fold’

    ‘If we were to get problems of course, we would take over the collateral…We would take over the real estate. We could sell it to the market’

    You can always sell REO’s Henriksson. It screws up the comps.

    1. “I think the central bank has made a grave mistake.”

      The central bank has said it long warned of the risks.

      The Devil made us do it?

  26. ‘People really don’t like coming down here if they don’t have to’

    You can spend a fortune to turn it into luxury apartments Jake.

  27. ‘recent increases in interest rates are ‘sucking the life’ out of real estate development in general, which has led the group to indefinitely shelve its plans to develop apartments in Lancaster County. ‘It is not the right time for very many developers to bring new products to the market’

    Wa happened to my shortage Pennsylvania?

  28. ‘The top 15 on the report were made up of cities solely from the San Francisco metro area and Eastside’

  29. Once Upon a Time in the West – The Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Tuva Semmingsen (Live)
    DR Koncerthuset
    Jan 26, 2018

    Man with a Harmonica & Cheyenne & Main Titles
    Composed by Ennio Morricone
    Harmonica: Hans Ulrik
    Vocals: Tuva Semmingsen
    Conducted by Sarah Hicks

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

    8:48.

  30. The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Chicago Man Charged in Years Long $6M Home Depot Scam

    AMY FURR
    28 Jul 2023

    Officials have charged a fourth suspect in a fraud scam that caused Home Depot stores in Chicago to lose a massive chunk of money.

    In an article published Thursday, CWB Chicago said it reported in May the stores were defrauded by several individuals who racked up $900 credits over 6,000 times for one purchase a few years prior:

    He is accused of making $900 gift cards for the 2020 purchase over 900 times, an act that allegedly drained the company of $873,900.

    Now, the charges against him are continuing financial crimes enterprise and theft of $500,000 to $1 million. However, he was released on his own recognizance Thursday, per Judge David Kelly.

    Authorities initially estimated the company was drained of $5.5 million in the scam, however, the number has since been updated to approximately $6 million, the CWB Chicago report said.

    https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2023/07/28/the-gift-keeps-giving-chicago-man-charged-years-long-6m-home-depot-scam/

    CWBChicago
    @CWBChicago

    A Home Depot employee issued $873,900 worth of fraudulent gift cards in a three-year scheme that has cost the company more than $6 million, prosecutors said today.

    https://twitter.com/CWBChicago/status/1684725355901231105?s=20

    1. Business
      First-time buyers need 13 percent more in earnings to afford today’s high-priced starter homes
      by Adam Barnes 07/28/23 11:59 AM ET
      MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 30: A ‘for sale’ sign is seen in front of a home on May 30, 2019 in Miami, Florida. The National Association of Realtors announced that its pending home sales index fell 1.5% for the month of April.(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

      High home prices are straining the budgets of first-time homebuyers as the ongoing housing shortage pushed the cost of starter homes to a record high, according to a report.

      The sale price of a typical starter home reached $243,000 in June, up 2.1 percent from a year ago and 45 percent above pre-pandemic levels, the report from real estate brokerage Redfin showed.

      A first-time buyer needs to earn $64,500 annually to afford a home at this price point, a 13 percent increase from last year. San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix are the only metros analyzed by Redfin where buyers can earn less than last year and afford a starter home.

      But buyers in Miami need 25 percent more income than last year to afford starter homes priced at $300,000.

      “Buyers searching for starter homes in today’s market are on a wild goose chase because in many parts of the country, there’s no such thing as a starter home anymore,” Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a statement, adding that high housing costs and stubbornly high mortgage rates continue to push potential buyers to the sidelines.
      …
      https://thehill.com/business/4124844-first-time-buyers-need-13-more-in-earnings-to-afford-todays-high-priced-starter-homes/amp/

      1. “San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix are the only metros analyzed by Redfin where buyers can earn less than last year and afford a starter home.”

        That is quite remarkable, given that interest rates have more than doubled from 2022 levels.

  33. Beware the serial bottom callers:
    Man who pick bottom often wake up with smelly finger.

    Maybe this time is different, but the last two U.S. real estate busts, it took over five years for housing prices to reach bottom (1990-1996, 2006-2012).

    1. Finance ·Housing
      Zillow is so sure that U.S. home prices have bottomed that it just issued bullish calls for these 48 housing markets
      BY Lance Lambert
      July 28, 2023 at 4:28 PM PDT

      In February, Zillow economists made a bold call that U.S. home prices had bottomed and would proceed to climb 0.5% over the next 12 months.

      In the months that have followed, U.S. home prices as tracked by the Zillow Home Value Index have stopped falling, and between February and June rose 4.8%. That rebound coincided with Zillow repeatedly revising its home price forecast upward. Its latest revision predicts that U.S. home prices will rise 6.3% between June 2022 and June 2023, above the 5.5% annual increase that national home prices have averaged since 1975.

      “The second quarter is traditionally the hottest time of year for the for-sale housing market, and that rule proved true in 2023. What comes next is less certain, as buyer demand typically begins to wane in the summer. But this year—like a test of the classic unstoppable force meets an immovable object paradox—that trend will be set against incredibly scarce new listings,” wrote Zillow economist Jeff Tucker in his latest report.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2023/07/28/housing-market-bottomed-says-zillow-regional-home-price-forecasts-2024/

    2. History will prove someone was wrong…though nothing which relitter revisionist history can’t erase from memory.

      1. Finance ·Housing
        Robert Shiller—who called the 2008 housing bubble—thinks he knows how the housing market will exit its latest period of exuberance
        BY Lance Lambert
        July 24, 2023 at 5:28 AM PDT
        Robert Shiller thinks the decade-long home price bull market could be ending soon.
        Getty Images

        Yale University economist Robert Shiller released a book back in March 2000 titled Irrational Exuberance, which proclaimed that the stock market was a bubble. Soon afterward, the tech bubble burst. Then, in 2004, the Yale economics professor called attention to spiking house prices with a paper titled “Is There a Bubble in the Housing Market?” Finally, in 2007—just before U.S. home prices crashed—Shiller correctly predicted that house prices would soon crash.

        Fast-forward to 2023, and Shiller is once again closely watching the U.S. housing market after its period of exuberance during the pandemic, which included a 43% jump in U.S. home prices measured by the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index—a single-family index that Shiller helped to build many decades ago.

        Only this time around Shiller isn’t predicting a national home price crash—or a sustained boom. Instead, Shiller went on CNBC last week and seemed to suggest that national house prices would go sideways for a bit.

        “The housing market is different than the stock market, it’s normally forecastable. It has been growing since 2012, it has been about 10 years of steady growth in home prices. But it may be coming to an end with this interest rate rising cycle,” Shiller said.

        Throughout the course of the boom, Shiller thinks some exuberance entered into the housing market as homebuyers rushed to lock in 2% and 3% mortgage rates, which they knew wouldn’t last long.

        “I think the fear of interest rate increases has influenced people’s thinking. It is not just the homeowners, it’s new buyers who wanted to get in before the interest rates went up even more. They wanted to lock in, so that’s been a positive influence on the market, but it’s coming to an end,” Shiller said.
        …
        https://fortune.com/2023/07/24/housing-market-robert-shiller-home-price-prediction-outlook/

        1. “It has been growing since 2012, it has been about 10 years of steady growth in home prices.”

          What about the pandemic’s parabolic 40% bubble price blowout was steady? I’m missing it.

  34. “dropping 4.7 percent in June compared to June of the previous year” isn’t deflation or bubble burst in my book. Let me know if and when the decimal point shifts one place to the right . . .

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