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Every Time I Drive By I See A Big Hole, I Just See My Money Is In The Hole

A report from AFP. “‘There’s such a lack of inventory that it has driven the prices up. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, I’ve never seen the prices like they are right now,’ said Joan George, a New Jersey-based real estate agent. In the Philadelphia suburbs, a four-bedroom single family home would have probably sold in the mid-$400,000s before the pandemic, added realtor Kim Rock. But now, on average, such a home would go for $600,000 or more.”

The Arizona Republic. “Question: We signed a lease for a home six months ago for $2,400 monthly rent, plus an option to purchase the home for $420,000. We paid a $2,500 down payment, plus our lease said that $200 per month of our $2,400 monthly rent could be used as an additional down payment when we exercised our option to purchase. Last week we learned that our landlord is far behind on the monthly mortgage payments and that there is a foreclosure sale of our home scheduled in two months. Will we have to move out in two months? If we have to move out in two months, will our landlord have to pay us back our $2,500 down payment and the $200 per month payments that were to be the additional down payment to purchase the home?”

“Answer: First, after the foreclosure sale, you should try to negotiate a new lease with the purchaser of the home. Otherwise, you will probably have to move out of the home within 90 days. Second, you should be able to get a judgment in justice court against your landlord for your $2,500 down payment, plus the $200 per month payments to be used for your additional down payment. Unfortunately, any judgment against your landlord is probably not collectible.”

From WISH TV. “According to a report from ‘Talk to Tucker Realtors,’ interest rate increases have cooled the housing market, as expected, but it is holding steady in central Indiana. The average August 2023 home sale price for the 16-county central Indiana region was $292,062, a decrease of 9.4% compared to August 2022. Pended home sales decreased, down 20.6% compared to this time last year. No counties experienced an increase in pended home sales. According to F.C. Tucker Realtor, Dan Brown, the days-on-market rate has significantly increased on average and has doubled since last year, but great homes that are correctly priced and prepared are still selling in a day or two.”

The Colorado Springs Business Journal. “Multiple area agents say historic pricing and days on market data are not as reliable in today’s market. ‘When I talk with sellers, I tell them we’re not battling what the house is worth, but what a buyer can afford,’ says Amy Kunce-Martinez, broker owner of The Cutting Edge Realtors. ‘We can have all the comps in the world to support a price, but people have to be able to pay it.’ She and others say sellers are becoming more accommodating. They’re providing concessions to help buyers buy down interest rates or cover closing costs. ‘There is opportunity in this market for buyers,’ Kunce-Martinez says. ‘For the first time in years, buyers can offer less than the asking price, get concessions or buy with a contingent sale.'”

The Daily News in Washington. “Home prices in Cowlitz County are reaching record highs while the market is pulled in different directions. Jerrod Strong, a RE/MAX realtor broker in Longview, has been selling homes for the last five years. He said the current market was different from the last few years in ways that often aided homebuyers. ‘There’s not enough housing for everybody so there’s always going to be high demand. It’s just different for the concessions. You did not see sellers cover the closing costs a year or two ago,’ Strong said. Strong doesn’t expect the housing market to burst, but said there could be lower prices on the horizon.”

NBC 2 in Florida. “A new forecast from CoreLogic identifies Fort Myers and Cape Coral as one of the top housing markets in the country at risk of price declines over the next year. Marcus Larrea of Palm Paradise Real Estate said adding more context to the forecast is key. ‘You’ve got to take the words for what it says. Decline does not mean crash,’ he explained. ‘At the peak, we saw year-over-year price increases of up to 40 percent. Which was insane. And this is now, we’re coming back to a more normal market.'”

Mansion Global on California. “Actress Andie MacDowell has launched her 1920s Tudor-style Los Angeles home onto the market for just shy of $4 million, and she’s set to take a loss. The home’s listing comes less than two years after MacDowell, 65, purchased the property for $4.137 million in November 2021, records with PropertyShark show.”

Bisnow San Francisco in California. “Bridgeton Holdings decided it is done paying for a mostly vacant San Francisco office building, even though its loan still has a balance due. Manhattan-based Bridgeton Holdings is more than 30 days delinquent on a $45M loan tied to 995 Market St., according to The Real Deal, citing data from Morningstar. ‘The borrower has stated they will not be making any more payments,’ special servicer Hudson Advisors said in an August note. As of late last year, the building’s income wasn’t sufficient to pay its debts. WeWork had been the dominant tenant in the building, occupying 75% of the space until its departure in August 2021, terminating its lease about 10 years early. Roughly 92% of the building is up for lease, TRD reported.”

CTV Vancouver in Canada. “Three years after construction suddenly stopped on a large Richmond development, pre-sale buyers are demanding the developer return their deposits. ‘Every time I drive by No. 3 road, I see a big hole. I just see my money is in the hole,’ says Joshua Chang. Four years ago, his family bought a 3-bedroom pre-sale condo in the Atmosphere Development on No. 3 road and Alderbridge. They put down a $250,000 deposit on what was billed as a grand scale neighbourhood. The Atmosphere plan was for seven towers of residential, commercial and retail units. Then in the spring of 2020, after the developer excavated a massive hole, construction ground to a halt. The developer blames Romspen, the construction lender, for suspending funding, citing COVID-19.”

The Dorset Echo in the UK. “A Dorset pensioner says he has been left £200,000 out of pocket by ‘rogue traders’ he paid to carry out works at his home. Keith Gipp, of Milton Abbas, says the situation has left him ‘depressed’, adding he has been forced to take out a loan to pay other builders to finish the work. The 75-year-old employed Blandford-based company Transform Dorset to carry out work on an extension in April 2022 following a recommendation from a neighbour. However, he says the extension has been left ‘unfinished’ and features such as skylights fitted incorrectly – posing a health and safety hazard. Drainage and other parts of the job were also not completed to an adequate standard, he said. Mr Gipp said that there was a lack of consistency with workers failing to turn up to carry out the job.”

“He also claimed that another company – Blandford Plastics – has since been set up which has the same address and directors as Transform Dorset on Companies House after the latter reportedly went into liquidation. ‘I cannot afford to take them to court,’ Mr Gipp said. ‘They have taken all of my money. I felt like I let my wife and my two children down. I feel terrible, it has been destroying for me – I don’t deserve this. It has just been a nightmare.'”

News.com.au in Australia. “Stephanie Webb thought she was setting herself up for the future when she managed to achieve the Great Australian Dream of owning a home at the age of just 24. Her father Darren agreed to act as guarantor on the loan and she managed to nab a one-bed apartment in West Footscray, in Melbourne’s inner west, for $310,000 in 2019. But unbeknown to her, the four-storey apartment block was riddled with defects. Residents had begun a lawsuit against Shangri-La Construction when the building company went into liquidation at the end of March. This has left the 77 apartment owners, including Ms Webb, with no way to recover the money needed to carry out the rectification works, leaving them to foot the $4.5 million bill themselves.”

“Now 28, Ms Webb is paying more than $10,000 yearly in strata fees, on top of her mortgage. ‘I’m realising I’m kind of screwed,’ Ms Webb told news.com.au. ‘My loan is split into two. The majority is on a fixed rate which ends in October. I’m also sh*tting myself about that. As far as I knew at the time, I was buying a reasonable place. A few years later I realised I purchased a bit of a lemon. All my savings from the age of 17 went into this property,’ Ms Webb added. ‘You work hard for something like this, it’s really upsetting.’ It does not appear the building was inspected by any regulatory body prior to allowing residents to move in.”

“Andrew John, 32, told news.com.au he felt like ‘one of the last suckers’ who moved into the block through his $415,000 purchase. ‘I feel like we’re 77 families of suckers, bent over every possible corner,’ he said. ‘Our properties have gone down $50,000. We were originally excited (but now) everyone hates it here. We’re victims of the VBA’s decisions. We’ve been swept under the rug.'”

From Dezeen. “Chinese architects have told Dezeen they are regularly working through the night while their pay plummets as the country’s property industry deals with a severe crisis. Dezeen has spoken to more than 10 architects based in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen who reported widespread layoffs, pay cuts and wage arrears in the industry in the past year. ‘You are having a good day if you leave work before 10pm,’ said Shuchun Yi (not her real name), a young architect and a former employee of state-owned firm Shenzhen General Institute of Architecture Design & Research (SZAD). ‘I know some of my colleagues have worked until 3:00am consecutively for three months,’ she added. Yi no longer works at SZAD but was too scared to reveal her identity when speaking with Dezeen for fear of consequences when trying to find another job.”

“After a long period of booming urban development, China’s property industry is in turmoil, with developers struggling under spiralling debt and construction projects grinding to a halt. The crisis is having a major impact on architecture firms, with once-reliable clients no longer commissioning projects. Founded in 1982, SZAD has offices across the country, including in Shenzhen, Beijing, Chongqing and Wuhan. Known for designing supertall buildings, it employed almost 3,700 people at its peak five years ago following a strong period of growth driven by China’s real-estate boom.”

“Having expected to earn a good living at SZAD, Yi claims she ended up taking home pay equivalent to Shenzhen’s minimum wage. ‘HR promised I’d get paid bonuses quarterly and annually but it never happened,’ she said. On 6 July, 44-year-old Hui Jin fell to his death from the window of the 21st floor of Design Tower in Shenzhen, where SZAD’s offices are located and where he had previously worked as a senior structural engineer. A police investigation ruled out homicide. Chinese publication The Paper reported that Jin had been repeatedly chasing wages that SZAD owed him since his departure from the company, according to text communications between Jin and SZAD’s finance department revealed by Jin’s surviving family. SZAD has denied any financial dispute in a statement. Jin’s bank account reportedly received a payment of more than 40,000 yuan the day after his death, accompanied with the description ‘bonus for 2021.'”

“The problems are not unique to SZAD. Chinese website Jiemian News reported that architects at a local firm in Shenzhen have seen their wages half since 2019 as a result of evaporating bonus pay. And there is currently no end in sight for the industry’s troubles, with architecture firms now struggling to compete for a dwindling number of projects at lower fees. ‘Previously you normally saw three to five companies in the competition, but now there are over 20 companies in one competition,’ one architect told Jiemian News. ‘But that’s common in the industry, because there are too many people and not enough projects.'”

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This Post Has 111 Comments

  1. According to F.C. Tucker Realtor, Dan Brown, the days-on-market rate has significantly increased on average and has doubled since last year, but great homes that are correctly priced and prepared are still selling in a day or two.”

    Realtors are liars.

    1. There is a house on my block that recently went up for sale, went Pending within 3 days, and then closed within 3 weeks. I figured it was a cash sale. Sure enough, it is now on listed on Zillow as For Rent, for $2500+/mo. In my area, houses are usually rented by two immigrant families. But this house has only a one-lane driveway and NO basement, meaning there’s no room to house a second family downstairs. So I’m not sure who’s going to pay that kind of rent.

      2. How much did it sell for? Because they’re not investors….they’re idiots. I’m guessing that house went 400k to 500k….maybe more? That “investor” could’ve parked his/her cash in a CD, or the like, and made over $2000 a month with minimal risk. But you take their $2500 rent, then subtract $150 insurance, subtract at least $250 taxes (likely more), and at least a $1000 per year maintenance, let’s just call that another $100 per month. Now your at $2000. But now that doesn’t factor in vacancy. Only an idiot assumes 100% occupancy. You see where this is going? There was a time when this made sense when everything else was zero to little yield. Not anymore. So yeah, that “investor” is a moron.

      3. I’m seeing lots of homes in Texas sit on the market for months, take a big price cut, then taken off the market. Some rental houses are sitting empty for months and rents being slashed up to 25% from the initial asking. Apartments are starting to offer free months.

        The dam is cracking and about to burst. I think next year will be our 2008 when SHTF. Prepare for a hard landing

  2. ‘There is opportunity in this market for buyers,’ Kunce-Martinez says. ‘For the first time in years, buyers can offer less than the asking price, get concessions or buy with a contingent sale.’”

    There’s a better opportunity for buyers: sit tight & wait for the carnage to finish playing out as Housing Bubble 2.0 goes the way of its predecessor.

    1. And start researching and negotiating rents. Rental supply is jumping and prices are dropping. Find your place to hunker down and weather the storm. It’s gonna be a while.

  3. Strong doesn’t expect the housing market to burst, but said there could be lower prices on the horizon.”

    “You’d be insane to buy into a bursting housing bubble,” said no realtor ever.

  4. ‘In the Philadelphia suburbs, a four-bedroom single family home would have probably sold in the mid-$400,000s before the pandemic, added realtor Kim Rock. But now, on average, such a home would go for $600,000 or more’

    Globalist scum and the GS media won’t say it, but this is batsh$t crazy. And it was everywhere:

    ‘The average August 2023 home sale price for the 16-county central Indiana region was $292,062, a decrease of 9.4% compared to August 2022’

    Shack prices didn’t used to fall 9% in one go, unless a factory closed, etc. Now you see it all the time. You know what that means for mortgage backed securities? You have to tack on a risk premium. Oh, but guberment guarantees. I read some comments about “if I see tan man rise from the grave and offer negative am blah blah loans, it’s like last time!”

    There is no skin in the game. They have made trillions in subprime loans and there’s no skin in the game. You think congress has it? They have to borrow billions every day to keep the lights on.

    1. This focus on subprime ignores the fact that 95%+ of loan defaults in the 2000’s were prime. Real deal, 20% down, great credit scores, fully documented jobs and pay history. Most of them just walked away when they were underwater.

      1. Most of them just walked away when they were underwater.

        True dat, but since the 2008 financial crash, we’ve seen a revival of traditional morality in America, such that “homeowners” and other debtors will honor their financial obligations no matter what.

        I slay me….

      2. “Real deal, 20% down, great credit scores, fully documented jobs and pay history.”

        … but at a price that was 10x income. You could have an 850 FICO and a $250K job and still default with that kind of payment. I remember seeing a ~2005 map where 40% of the refi’s in Cali were neg-am.

    2. You think congress has it? They have to borrow billions every day to keep the lights on.

      China, Japan, and the Gulf Arabs are all dumping their US Treasuries as the Biden Regime & Fed hurtle us down the road to Zimbabwe 2.0 and our “woke” feminized military no longer commands respect from friends or foes alike. Begs the question: who is going to fund our insane deficits?

    3. “There is no skin in the game. They have made trillions in subprime loans and there’s no skin in the game. You think congress has it? They have to borrow billions every day to keep the lights on.”

      – Exactly. This is correct on both counts: 1) There’s subprime everywhere, meaning very high DTI + LTV with sketchy FICO “buyers”, as you say “no skin in the game, and 2) Congress’ feckless spending is out of control. Note high “transitory” inflation report today.

      – What do both of these have in common? Other people’s money. Read U.S. taxpayer $. A nation can’t borrow or print its way out of debt. It’s been tried before and never end well. $T debt and deficits matter.

      – Taxation without representation all over again. I didn’t vote for this sh*t. Gooberment is off the rails crazy.

      1. 2) Congress’ feckless spending is out of contro

        $2T deficit. It’s like the whole country is on meth and fentanyl. It’s killing us but we can’t stop.

        And there bogus inflation numbers aren’t fooling anyone. Everyone I talk with is utterly dismayed over prices. 6% inflation? Yeah, right.

  5. “Strong doesn’t expect the housing market to burst, but said there could be lower prices on the horizon.”

    Jerrod has been selling homes for all of five years yet he’s got a handle on what’s gonna happen. 🙄

  8. “They have taken all of my money. I felt like I let my wife and my two children down. I feel terrible, it has been destroying for me – I don’t deserve this. It has just been a nightmare.’”

    In the words of William Munny, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Unforgiven (1992)

  10. Worst inflation of my adult lifetime.

    Remember 2019 when we had relatively modest inflation and a mostly functioning economy?

    CCP Flu by and far the greatest financial FRAUD of my life.

    They did this to you on purpose. And they’ll do it again if they think they can get away with it…

    1. I’d agree with you with what has amounted to a massive scam over the last 4 years. But no way we’re we fine in 2019, or over the last several decades. The financial system has been flawed and corrupt for decades. The whole thing is rigged not matter who you put in office.

    2. We were already in an insane asset price bubble in 2019, then they decided to go absolutely apesh!t on top of that. Central bankers are the scvm of the earth.

      1. Yep! A lot of us thought we’d be well into the crash by 2020. But throw in a pandemic and zillions in stimi money and presto-bingo it’s to the moon with the most massive bubble in human history.

  12. ‘The borrower has stated they will not be making any more payments’

    Non-recourse loans were very popular when trees were growing to the sky.

  13. ‘Last week we learned that our landlord is far behind on the monthly mortgage payments and that there is a foreclosure sale of our home scheduled in two months’

    Eat yer crowz Arizona Republic, you REIC dogs.

    1. Gotta give some credit to the Arizona Republic, who answered the question with a kinder gentler version of “get some boxes.”

      1. The ‘rent-to-own’ home buyer is always a fool who will be scammed. It’s for dummies who want to get in on the action but haven’t the cash nor the credit to get a real mortgage.

  15. ‘On 6 July, 44-year-old Hui Jin fell to his death from the window of the 21st floor of Design Tower in Shenzhen, where SZAD’s offices are located and where he had previously worked as a senior structural engineer. A police investigation ruled out homicide’

    Must have been global warming.

      1. Mortgage Application Volume at Lowest Levels Since 1996
        By: Jann Swanson
        20 Min, 24 Secs ago

        The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said the volume of mortgage applications dipped slightly during the week ended September 8. MBA said its Market Composite Index, a measure of that volume, decreased 0.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index dropped 12 percent during the week, which was shortened by the Labor Day holiday.

        The Refinance Index declined 5 percent week-over-week and was 31 percent lower than the same week in 2022. The refinance share of mortgage activity was 29.1 percent compared to 30.0 percent the previous week.
        …
        https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/news/09132023-mortgage-application-volume

  17. ‘I’m realising I’m kind of screwed…My loan is split into two. The majority is on a fixed rate which ends in October. I’m also sh*tting myself about that’

    That last part wouldn’t be a problem except you insist on eating Steph.

  18. ‘Founded in 1982, SZAD has offices across the country, including in Shenzhen, Beijing, Chongqing and Wuhan. Known for designing supertall buildings, it employed almost 3,700 people at its peak five years ago following a strong period of growth driven by China’s real-estate boom. Having expected to earn a good living at SZAD, Yi claims she ended up taking home pay equivalent to Shenzhen’s minimum wage’

    This is the country globalist scum said were going to rule the world.

  19. ‘has launched her 1920s Tudor-style Los Angeles home onto the market for just shy of $4 million, and she’s set to take a loss. The home’s listing comes less than two years after MacDowell, 65, purchased the property for $4.137 million in November 2021’

    Just like that Andie, yer giving it away.

    1. That house literally looks like a working-class house from 1925 that had a giant addition added off the back. Cute little plunge pool tho.

  20. ‘I’m realising I’m kind of screwed,’ Ms Webb told news.com.au. ‘My loan is split into two. The majority is on a fixed rate which ends in October. I’m also sh*tting myself about that. As far as I knew at the time, I was buying a reasonable place.

    Stupid should hurt, Ms. Webb. Otherwise fools would never learn.

  22. I’m somewhat famailar with Canada, have relatives there, it’s nothing but a vastly overblown housing market ,with a wimpy economy tied to it , and an unbelievably shallow leader-boy……wonder how that’s going to affect us when it blows ? I meant their housing market….not him……
    .And now it’s coming out ,that almost all that news about all those “Missing children’s graves ” , from last year , is almost all faked news, completely made up , the news media must be the same corrupt the world over ,

    2. all those “Missing children’s graves ” , from last year

      It’s amazing. Not one of those graves ever found. Nobody up there talks about it.

      1. From an article I just saw:

        COVID cases are on the rise, but only 3% of Texans are up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, per the latest CDC estimates.

        People are wising up. They got jabbed and got sick anyway, so why bother?

      1. The spike protein glues red blood cells together to form microclots. This was documented and described long before there was a vaccine of any kind. Medcram YT had several videos on it.

  25. A reader sent these in:

    INSTACART AIMS FOR $8.6 BILLION TO $9.3 BILLION, DOWN FROM $39 BILLION IN 2021 – WSJ

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1700946042315804850

    The spike in mortgage rates combined with falling home prices/rents has led to a collapse in investor demand for houses in the US. Investor purchases fell 45% over the last year, outpacing the 31% decline in overall home sales.

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1701337780054319534

    AMC shares are now down 99% from their peak in 2021, completely erasing the 2,850% gain during the meme stock mania. The weighing machine always wins out in the end.

    https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1701241997523112437

    Large French Reit having liquidity issues and limiting outflows

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1701532756377755896

    Not sure who needs to integrate this, but never before have cost of servicing the debt hit 14% of all tax proceeds without Washington opting for more fiscal orthodoxy. I know that no one believes they will or can show responsibility, but they will creatively tax their way, and cut some. Trust not the politicians but their interest to protect the system that enables them.

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1701554486290813169

    lol… good morning wsj… thanks for waking-up!

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1701554799236219107

    Speaking of affordability…
    Percentage of car payments above $1,000 in 2023:
    29% higher than 2022
    127% higher than 2021

    https://twitter.com/GuyDealership/status/1701578859148157104

    With August revised down, payroll data has been revised DOWN every f@cking month in 2023… This is a major turn in data that precedes a significant cycle turn, and a far cry from last year when all the H2 releases were revised UP (which was a key tell for me to stay the course on no recession and short rates).

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1701658817681821768

    The housing freeze is an activity freeze. 1/8

    https://twitter.com/JeffWeniger/status/1701701780680376601

      1. “Percentage of car payments above $1,000”

        Add in registration, insurance, fuel and maintenance and the numbers have got to be unholy. Most of these svckers cannot even remotely afford what they signed up for.

        1. Add in registration

          I just registered the older car: $59. Imagine paying $1000+.

          I don’t even want to think about how much a full year’s of insurance would cost.

          1. You might not need a new bathroom remodel today, but when you get into and your car is a total loss, you will need a new vehicle. And you’ll be out there paying $40k for a car like everyone else. Or your car will become so old it’s barely drivable. I drove my GFC era Chevy into the ground, literally into the ground, where every day another component broke, and it was nearly rusted out. I chose to spend $50k on a new car. This car will likely last me until I retire in 20 years.

          2. I’m only putting about 2000 miles a year on each of my cars. Unless they are wrecked or stolen, and the probability of that is extremely low, then I will be driving them for a very long time. In fact, there is a very decent chance they will outlast me, or at least my competence to drive.

            And FWIW, there are still new vehicles under $30K, even close to $20K. Yeah, they are small.

      2. One of the 2023 VW Golf R on my watch list has finally sold. It was at Mossy VW near San Diego, and they were asking $5k over MSRP.

      1. It never ceases to amaze me what some people get away with. I wish I was better at this whole new economy thing.

  26. CNBC (9/13/2023):

    “A new round of Covid vaccines is finally here in the U.S.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared single-strain shots from Pfizer and Moderna for all Americans six months and up on Tuesday, following approvals from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday. Those mRNA vaccines are designed to target a relatively new omicron subvariant called XBB.1.5.

    The first doses of the new shots will be available at some pharmacies and other vaccine distribution locations within 48 hours of the CDC’s recommendation, agency staff said Tuesday during a meeting of independent advisors to the CDC. That means jabs could reach Americans as soon as Thursday.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/new-covid-vaccines-from-pfizer-and-moderna-what-you-need-to-know.html

    1. As long a they’re not forced on me let the sheep line up. The way I see it it’s an excellent way to cull the herd.

        1. Chances are that it is your herd they are culling. Will you still feel the same way when most of your herd has been replaced with something else?

        2. You don’t have the media, government, universities, and doctors telling people 24/7 that fentanyl is safe and effective. A lot of younger people don’t have the experience to know any better.

      2. A relative who once cajoled over and over me to get jabbed has quietly admitted to me that he won’t be getting any more boosters. He finally recognizes that the jab is dangerous and ineffective, especially since the wimpy Omicron variant messed him up big time.

  27. “Actress Andie MacDowell has launched her 1920s Tudor-style Los Angeles home onto the market for just shy of $4 million, and she’s set to take a loss. The home’s listing comes less than two years after MacDowell, 65, purchased the property for $4.137 million in November 2021, records with PropertyShark show.”

    Good news Andie, it was still cheaper than renting. Don’t sell cause the realtor told me that you will miss out on 5-10% equity appreciation next year. HOLD YER GROUND!

    1. This is a rich person’s market. “The mix” is slanted towards the higher end, which is why many areas actually saw rapid price increases over the past 6 months or so. But it has nothing to do with prices actually rising, it’s an illusion.

      2. Agreed. Investment funds or individuals who don’t need mortgages are driving market demand.

        People who need mortgages to buy are mostly priced out by high interest rates and seller expectations for 2022 prices.

        1. People who need mortgages to buy are mostly priced out by high interest rates and seller expectations for 2022 prices.

          I would need a mortgage and I’ve decided to drop out. I’ll pay in cash after another decade of saving if I want to own. Throwing my money away on rent is just a part of life.

  28. “…great homes that are correctly priced and prepared are still selling in a day or two.”

    Selling? Or Contingent? Methinks the latter.

  29. Business U.S. & World Utah
    When will housing market crash? Investor says ‘Black Swan’ event imminent
    Federal Reserve trying for ‘soft landing’ while expected to continue rate hikes
    By Katie McKellar
    Sept 11, 2023, 4:42pm PDT
    A “Sold” sign is pictured in North Salt Lake on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.
    Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

    A real estate investor thinks the housing market will experience a “Black Swan” event within the next year due to affordability pressures.

    Sean Terry, a former U.S. Marine and founder of the real estate investing company Flip2Freedom, recently said on the podcast “Real Estate Disruptors” that the U.S. housing market’s high interest rates combined with still high housing prices is posing an affordability conundrum that could eventually force something in the market to break.

    “How do you make housing affordable? If you have to raise interest rates, the prices have to come down. So something will crack,” Terry said on the podcast, Newsweek reported. “I think we’re going to have a Black Swan event (that’s) going to come here probably in the next six to eight months. Some sort of Black Swan something.”
    …
    https://www.deseret.com/2023/9/11/23868779/housing-market-crash-real-estate-bubble-black-swan

    1. “How do you make housing affordable? If you have to raise interest rates, the prices have to come down. So something will crack,”

      Omg!!! Is that common sense I’m hearing?

    2. The black swan will be related to commercial estate. My guess is that some insurance company, or pension fund, will go bust due to bad CRE investments. That will be the event that causes the market to finally recognize the dumpster fire that is commercial real estate. After this collapses, the tax burden placed upon commercial real estate by municipalities will become an issue, and a couple of major cities will become functionally insolvent. Red states will try to fix their cities, blue states will stick their head in the sand and ignore the problems and chaos will ensue…for example, “So today Chicago just stopped paying all of it’s streets and sans workers, says it ran out of money, will call them back to work when cash flow gets better” type of stuff. “Oh, yeah, sorry, that major thoroughfare has pot holes that haven’t been fixed in two years. And yes, there are 60 children in one school classroom” type of stuff.

  30. “Jerrod Strong, a RE/MAX realtor broker in Longview, has been selling homes for the last five years….Strong doesn’t expect the housing market to burst, but said there could be lower prices on the horizon.”

    Five years? He’s been in the biz since 2018? Since when is he an expert, he’s not lived through any dark ages.

    1. he’s not lived through any dark ages

      That’s about to change. Soon the lack of closings will force him to find a real job, like stocking shelves at a WalMart during the wee hours of the morning. He can also kiss his $1000 a month Lexus goodbye.

    1. Investors dumped a record $12 billion of Chinese stocks last month as the country’s economy wobbled
      Jennifer Sor
      Sep 13, 2023, 9:21 AM PDT
      A net 0% of money managers polled by Bank of America believe China’s economy will improve over the next year.
      Reuters

      – Investors dumped a record $12 billion in Chinese stocks last month, according to JPMorgan.

      – Meanwhile, a survey of money managers shows that many are flocking to US equities.

      – A net 0% of polled money managers think China’s economy will improve in the next year.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/china-economy-investors-stock-market-selloff-property-crisis-debt-deflation-2023-9

      1. RINO sellouts Lindsey Graham & Mitch McConnnell both got booed during recent public appearances. Let’s hope the Republican base is finally ready to bilge every one of these “controlled opposition” Establishment GOP turncoats.

  36. The Seattle-based company built out offices for more than 2,000 employees at 424 Fifth Ave., unveiling the new space at a ribbon-cutting event Tuesday. Amazon bought the property for about $1 billion in March 2020, right as Covid hit and shuttered offices across the city. Previously, WeWork owned the building and had planned to use it as its headquarters before the company scrapped an initial public offering.

    https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/amazon-opens-new-manhattan-offices-former-lord-taylor-site

  38. ‘I cannot afford to take them to court…They have taken all of my money. I felt like I let my wife and my two children down. I feel terrible, it has been destroying for me – I don’t deserve this. It has just been a nightmare’

    via GIPHY

    1. “We would strongly advise that consumers do not pay large amounts of money up front for building work and they should be suspicious if asked to do so.”

      Mr. Gipp, you haven’t managed your affairs very well at all. BTW, you’re 75. How old are these kiddos you mention.

  41. (A long but worthwhile read.)

    How Deep Is The Deep State?

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/how-deep-deep-state

    We received some seemingly excellent news over the weekend. The appellate court of the 5th Circuit has reimposed the restrictions on the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI to stop bullying social media companies to censor content.

    This has taken place ahead of the actual trial because two judges found that the practice was so egregious that it needed to be stopped right now before more damage is done to the First Amendment.

    “The officials have engaged in a broad pressure campaign designed to coerce social-media companies into suppressing speakers, viewpoints, and content disfavored by the government,” a three-judge panel wrote in Missouri v. Biden.

    “The harms that radiate from such conduct extend far beyond just the Plaintiffs; it impacts every social-media user.”

    That’s all excellent news so far.

    But there’s a fly in this ointment.

    The lower court’s injunction included restrictions on a whole host of agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (and its sub-unit, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA), and the State Department and its relationships with other third-party agencies.

    I was personally disappointed that the initial injunction didn’t name the CIA and all of its thousands of proxies, to say nothing of the other 400-plus agencies in the administrative state of the federal government.

    What’s strange and disappointing is that the appeals court stripped all of this out of its ruling.

    It vacated the most devastating parts of the injunction, including that which hit the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. It specifically stripped out the list of defendants.

    I’m not a lawyer or an expert in administrative law, but the decision is packed with hints and suggestions that this injunction might be mostly cosmetic. It stops the most aggressive and overt censorship but also offers a road map for how they can do this in other ways, simply by burying the mechanisms of control one layer more deeply.

    In short, the initial injunction didn’t go nearly far enough. The renewed injunction, with its careful carve-outs, is far more toothless still.

    What are the next steps? There will eventually be a trial and decision. That’s likely to be settled for the plaintiffs in some measure and will imply certain policies. That could be appealed to the Supreme Court, which might take years to unfold. In the meantime, it’s unclear as to whether and to what extent the true Deep State does face much of a restriction on its activities.

    One way that we will know could come in a matter of days.

    If the White House appeals this injunction to the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling, it would suggest that some people at the top are very worried, even to the point of panic.

    If they do nothing, which is very possible, it means that they can live with the current ruling. That would be a very bad sign.

    There’s very little public knowledge of the extent of the problem here. Over the weekend, at a scholars and fellows retreat for Brownstone Institute, we heard a presentation by Andrew Lowenthal, one of the journalists who was given access to the Twitter files after Elon Musk took over. Mr. Lowenthal and his colleagues found vast evidence of an extensive and complex network of censorship that reaches every part of mainstream social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Reddit, Wikipedia, and beyond.

    The controlling parties are the Department of Homeland Security and all of its agencies, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, all of their contractors in universities and state and local governments, media organs including The New York Times and The Washington Post, and all major technology companies, especially Google and Microsoft. Looking at what he calls the “Censorship Industrial Complex” on the screen during his presentation was truly ominous.

    Talking with Mr. Lowenthal afterward, I pointed out to him that CISA wasn’t just censoring. This agency on March 19, 2020, issued an edict to the country that defined every U.S. worker as either essential or nonessential. It created a techno-feudal structure that gave rights to the elites and those who serve them, while excluding the vast middle layer of the U.S. workforce as unessential.

    CISA issued the kind of edict that no free and civilized society would or should ever tolerate. It was incredibly egregious. And yet there has been little to no public discussion of this outrage, and hence no awareness of how this came to be. Exactly who decided to do this? What was its impetus? Keep in mind that there are deep links between CISA and Big Tech, which suggests that this central plan was hatched in cooperation with the companies that benefited from it.

    Mr. Lowenthal naively asked why the Department of Labor wasn’t consulted. I explained that the department is an old-time civilian bureaucracy packed with old-fashioned public servants with no interest in high-tech hijinx. They’re there just to assemble data. What happened in March 2020 was a coup d’état by a new generation of techno-despots from the intelligence community. They have their own agencies and methods of control—all suited toward the 21st century.

    As I further pointed out to him, this isn’t only about censorship. The censors do what they do for a bigger purpose. What they’re really seeking is complete control of society itself; that is, human beings. And they don’t just work on a national basis but an international one, which is why most countries on the planet Earth had exactly the same policies. The intelligence community that’s ruling this machinery is truly global at this point.

    In other words, this isn’t just a Censorship Industrial Complex. It’s a totalitarian hegemon that wants total control of our bodies, lives, and communities. The purpose of the censorship is to keep this from being debated and protested by the public. The censorship is bad, but its purpose points to something far worse than merely controlling the flow of information.

    And there’s another layer of control that wasn’t even on the chart: the money-laundering machinery of, for example, FTX. There’s little doubt that this crypto-exchange was set up to launder funding from venture capitalists to nonprofits and political candidates. That was the whole point. It was a ruling-class pump and dump. There’s no political or legal process ongoing that will prevent something such as this from happening again.

    It’s easy to look at such realities, realize the depth of the Deep State, and get discouraged. Sometimes, it feels as if we’re just a tiny band of writers and podcasters with zero influence or power. But Mr. Lowenthal was careful to point out that this isn’t true. The bad guys in this story feel very much outgunned and under vast pressure from all sides. They’re right now under the impression that they’re losing badly. That’s because public opinion keeps shifting in the direction of freedom and democracy and against control and compulsion from the centralized despots.

    I hope that he’s right because it’s hard to think of a struggle more important than this one.

    “There can be little doubt that man owes some of his greatest successes in the past to the fact that he has not been able to control social life,” economist F.A. Hayek wrote more than 60 years ago in “The Constitution of Liberty.”

    “His continued advance may well depend on his deliberately refraining from exercising controls which are now in his power.

    “In the past, the spontaneous forces of growth, however much restricted, could usually still assert themselves against the organized coercion of the state. With the technological means of control now at the disposal of government, it is not certain that such an assertion is still possible; at any rate, it may soon become impossible. We are not far from the point where the deliberately organized forces of society may destroy those spontaneous forces which have made advance possible.”

    We can’t have freedom and democracy with a deep state run by the intelligence community, in league with all the major universities and corporations, running our lives, elections, and communications. Something has to give. And without public understanding of the problem, there will never be a fix.

  42. Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: A Deep Dive into the Academic Publishing Business

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/09/13/dont-hate-the-player-hate-the-game-a-deep-dive-into-the-academic-publishing-business/

    (A snip from the article.)

    The Business of Academic Publishing

    Academic publishing, once a noble endeavor, has transformed into a lucrative business, with global revenues estimated to exceed $23 billion. The drive for sensationalism, as highlighted by Mark Zuckerberg’s insights into online content, has influenced academic journals to prioritize research that can generate attention-grabbing headlines.

    “Mark Zuckerberg, King of Clicks, explains that what gets attention online is sensational information. In debating the line between allowable online content and that which is forbidden, no matter where we draw the lines for what is allowed, as a piece of content gets close to that line, people will engage with it more on average.”

    1. Finance ·Real estate
      ‘We’re in the first inning of the commercial real estate correction,’ billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene says
      BY Sydney Lake
      September 12, 2023 at 9:07 AM PDT
      Photo illustration of office buildings being shredded from the bottom
      “I think we’re just in the first inning of this correction,” Jeff Greene told CNBC. “I hate to say it.”

      By 2030, there could be 1 billion square feet of unused office space in the U.S., according to a report released in early 2023 by global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. And that’s just one piece of the struggling commercial real estate market, which some analysts, research firms, and industry experts are worried will crash this year.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2023/09/12/commercial-real-estate-correction-crash-to-pick-up-steam/

  45. You Will Build Nothing & Be Happy

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/09/14/you-will-build-nothing-be-happy/

    UN report urges ‘massive emission cuts in construction sector’ by using ‘gov’t regs & enforcement’ to achieve ‘Net Zero’ – Replace ‘concrete & steel’ with ‘stone, timber, & bamboo’

    UN Environment Program Press Release of new study with Yale Center for Ecosystems & Agriculture: “Rapid urbanization worldwide means every five days, the world adds buildings equivalent to the size of Paris, with the built environment sector already responsible for 37 percent of global emissions. A report published today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture (Yale CEA), under the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), offers solutions to decarbonize the buildings and construction sector and reduce the waste it generates.” …

    “Until recently, most buildings were constructed using locally sourced earth, stone, timber, and bamboo. Yet modern materials such as concrete and steel often give only the illusion of durability, usually ending up in landfills and contributing to the growing climate crisis,” said Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, Director of UNEP’s Industry and Economy Division. “Net zero in the building and construction sector is achievable by 2050, as long as governments put in place the right policy, incentives and regulation to bring a shift the industry action,” UNEP’s Aggarwal-Khan added.

    Government regulation and enforcement is also required across all phases of the building life cycle – from extraction through end-of-use – to ensure transparency in labeling, effective international building codes, and certification schemes…“The decarbonization of the buildings and construction sector is essential for the achievement of the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

    1. Government regulation and enforcement is also required across all phases of the building life cycle – from extraction through end-of-use – to ensure transparency in labeling, effective international building codes, and certification schemes…“The decarbonization of the buildings and construction sector is essential for the achievement of the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

      So who says that the UN doesn’t want to rule the Earth and all of its inhabitants? Next thing you know is that the UN will outlaw toilet paper saying that for hundreds of thousands of years since the Dawn of Man, humans managed just fine without toilet paper.

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