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What Was Once A Dream Has Turned Into A Nightmare For Many

A report from the Arizona Republic. “Metro Phoenix home sales are slowing, so sellers brace yourselves. ‘This is not a good time to test a price higher than market value for your home,’ said Tina Tamboer, senior housing analyst with The Cromford Report. ‘The seller’s market weakens on a daily basis.'”

The Beat of Hawaii. “Vacation rentals throughout Hawaii are out of wack, with high supply and pricing, and low demand and occupancy. This was reported by the State’s Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism in their Hawaii Vacation Rental Performance Report for October. If this trend continues, we expect a softening of nightly rates and more deals ahead for vacation rentals. The number of vacation rental nights available last month 761,000. But of those, just 387,400 nights were rented. That comes to an occupancy rate of 50.89%. Hawaii hotels, by comparison, are excelling in occupancy, reaching 74.5% last month.”

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “Clover’s story is a microcosm of how the commercial rental market in downtown Boston operates today, approaching four years since the COVID-19 pandemic upended foot traffic and business patterns. Restaurants and retailers still struggling to meet the terms of leases they signed before COVID are approaching landlords with creative proposals to restructure their monthly rent check. The answers often determine the fate of the business. Absent flexibility from building owners, businesses worry that downtown will see even more vacancies and that tourists and office workers slowly returning to the neighborhood will have less reason to make the trip. Consider the worst-case scenario: Downtown falls further into post-pandemic disarray or a long-feared ‘doom loop.'”

“Bessie King of downtown lunch mainstay Villa Mexico, for example, plans to send a proposal to her landlord on Water Street to not increase the rent this coming year. If the rent goes up, she said, they may be forced to close. ‘In our current scenario, we have zero profits,’ King said. ‘We will go under.'”

The Washington Examiner on California. “A combination antique shop, printmaker, and event venue in San Francisco is expected to be auctioned off next year. The business, known as BoxSF and owned by Mark Sackett, is hosted in a building that currently has a broken window and its address, 1069 Howard St., is next door to a drug sobering center. Sackett told the San Francisco Chronicle he purchased the building at $1.575 million in 2004, but now cannot be refinanced because as many as 30 lenders have refused to help the existing $2.5 million mortgage. Sackett expects the building will be sold ‘at a massive loss’ due to six lenders telling him they ‘are not making commercial real estate loans in San Francisco due to the state of the city.'”

“‘[San Francisco city officials] don’t even return my calls,’ Sackett said. ‘They care about bike lanes, nonprofits, safe injection sites. … They have just ignored small business . . . I’m just done with San Francisco and the bullsh** here. It’s out of control.’ San Francisco’s real estate market has suffered, with the latest example being when the apartment complex for NEMA San Francisco’s commercial mortgage-backed securities loan decreased for the second time. While the 2018 value was $543.6 million, the current loan is down 48% to $279 million.”

The Ventura County Star in California. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, home prices in Ventura County have shot up as if out of a cannon, dipped slightly, and now appear to be leveling off at a modest annual growth rate. Our annual decline in sales volume of 33% was significantly more than the declines in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino or San Diego Counties. Home sales in Los Angeles County, for example, dropped by 23% from September 2022 to September 2023, and sales in Orange County were down 18%. The first two years of the pandemic, prices in Ventura County rose by as much as 20% per year. Home prices early in the pandemic ‘went up unrealistically, they went crazy,’ said Carolyn Triebold, an agent with Real Broker in Camarillo. She said we’re now seeing a ‘soft landing’ from those highs, with prices staying flat or growing slowly for most of 2023.”

“The last time home prices rose by more than 10% per year was in the early 2000s, and that ended with a massive crash in values starting in 2007, when the bubble burst. Triebold said she doesn’t see that happening again because homeowners don’t have nearly the same debt levels that they had during the early 2000s boom.”

Business Insider. “Nearly a third of all outstanding US government debt is set to mature in the next 12 months, according to an analysis from asset management firm Apollo. A chart shared by Chief Economist Torsten Sløk in September showed that the share of US public debt set to mature in a year or less has steadily risen toward pandemic-era levels and is now at 31%. In terms of dollar amount, that’s $7.6 trillion, a high not seen since early 2021, and is a source of upward pressure on US rates, he added. In addition, public debt maturing in the near term accounts for more than a quarter of US GDP.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “What kind of person would sell you a newly built home for less than fair value, and give you free cash to boot? The kind of person who can’t qualify for a mortgage on that property and is about to lose all their deposit – and potentially be sued. It’s happening as we speak. With borrowing costs near multidecade highs, most lenders require borrowers to prove they can afford payments at rates above 8 per cent. That makes it too hard for some to get final approval for regular financing, even if they already had a preapproval. In other cases, buyers have got divorced, lost income, racked up too much debt or lack enough provable self-employed earnings. Or their new-build no longer appraises for a high-enough value to get fully financed, and they have limited down payment funds.”

“As a result, a small but growing number of preconstruction buyers are compelled to sell – assign – their contracts to others before their home is completed. And they’re sometimes selling for whatever they can get, to recoup get some of their deposit and reduce legal risk to the builder. ‘There may be opportunities in distressed assignments next year,’ said Ben Rabidoux, an analyst at Edge Realty Analytics. ‘You’re starting to see some pretty wild assignments coming online – people effectively giving up their deposits, selling for 2019 pricing.'”

The Daily Hive in Canada. “Adam Cantor has just listed his two-bedroom condo in a suburb south of Vancouver for sale. It’s not what he wanted to do — after all, he’s called the South Surrey unit at Morgan Crossing home for 14 years. But he decided it was the only viable option when he learned his monthly mortgage payments would double at renewal in January. Cantor is going through a divorce, and hanging onto the condo after paying out his ex was just barely tenable. But renewing his five-year fixed-term mortgage when Canada’s prime rate sits at 7.2% is pushing him over the edge.”

“He pays roughly $1,900 per month toward his mortgage, but as of January, he would be looking at about $4,000 monthly, renewing at a higher interest rate. With strata maintenance fees rolled in, his total monthly housing costs would approach $5,000. He’s looking for somewhere he can rent for about what he was paying for his mortgage. ‘[I’m] frustrated, I guess,’ he said. ‘It’s like I have to downgrade my lifestyle for the same cost. I don’t know if it’s actually sunk in yet because I’ve just literally listed it. But owning a property right now, for me, is not necessarily a need. You’ve got to do what’s best for you.'”

From I News. “The owners of more than 11,500 rental properties were behind on their mortgage payments over the last three months as rising mortgage rates continue to cripple landlords’ finances. Data from UK Finance, the banking trade body, found that there were 11,540 buy-to-let mortgages in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more of their overall loan in the third quarter of 2023, up 29 per cent on the three months before. Experts have said the rising costs are having a drastic effect on landlords’ personal finances and resulting in an exodus from the rental market.”

“‘This is a staggering rise in arrears and sadly unsurprising. Worryingly, we have not seen the worst of this. Landlords rely on rent to cover their mortgage payments, and many will not have the personal resources to cope,’ said Ranald Mitchell from Charwin Private Clients. ‘Falling into arrears like this has a huge impact on their ability to remortgage for years to come, and it will have far-reaching consequences for their credit profiles. What was once a dream has turned into a nightmare for many.'”

“‘The buy-to-let sector has been hit harder than any of late. As if the taxation changes weren’t bad enough, we now have higher interest rates causing untold pain,’ said Craig Fish, director at Lodestone Mortgages and Protection. ‘Historically, landlords would have had surplus funds to weather this storm, but those reserves are now depleted and so mortgages go unpaid. The worst is yet to come, and it seems there is no solution. I predict a horrible ending.'”

From News.com.au. “Just about everywhere you look, there are worsening signs that Australia is no longer the lucky country. From record-high rents to skyrocketing mortgages, a cost-of-living crisis to the alarming emergence of a ‘working poor’ population, the country faces an unprecedented storm of factors putting pressure on millions of people. And very few Aussies are immune. An estimated 3.7 million households are battling serious levels of food insecurity, not-for-profit Food Bank revealed in its 2023 Hunger Report. Food insecurity describes the need to make ‘unenviable choices about what and when they eat’ such as skipping meals or going whole days without eating.”

“Martin North is the principal of economic research firm Digital Finance Analytics and tracks household cash flows, with data indicating more than half of mortgage holders are in cash-flow deficit each month. That is, half of all mortgage households are now spending more than they earn every month. ‘Looking in detail, we find that recent purchasers, especially young growing families, are most exposed,’ Mr North said. Many bought when mortgage rates were sitting around two per cent, and when then-RBA Governor Philip Lowe assured people the official cash rate would likely remain on hold until 2024. It didn’t. Home loan rates are now sitting at about six per cent.”

From Bloomberg. “As China’s embattled shadow banking giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co. faces a criminal probe, lawyers and analysts are assessing the damage to investors. One estimate puts that at about $56 billion. More than three quarters of investor cash would be lost, with just 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) being recovered from debt of as much as 460 billion yuan, according to one scenario outlined by Ying Yue, a lawyer at Leaqual Law Firm in Shanghai. He expects a slow and drawn out court process, based on the experience of other cases.”

“Sun Jianbo, founder of Beijing-based asset manager China Vision Capital, said soured assets are typically sold with a 70% discount. That means investors may recoup about 13% of their money, based on Bloomberg calculations. Authorities over the weekend said they’ve opened criminal investigations into the money management business of Zhongzhi, days after it warned of severe insolvency and revealed a shortfall of $36.4 billion in its balance sheet. Investors were urged to report leads and file their complaints online. The case is a wake-up call for wealthy Chinese investors who have often sought high returns in products sold by loosely regulated firms like Zhongzhi. Ying noted investment recovery ratios in similar cases are well below 23%.”

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This Post Has 102 Comments

  1. Our friend in Hawaii sent in that link. Here’s a comment:

    Gloria S
    November 25, 2023 at 1:25 pm

    I do not believe these numbers regarding vacation rentals. The Hotel Lobby has gotten into lawmakers pockets, as such, most hosts are not allowed to short term rent anymore. Big business was able to put many little mom and pop shops out of business, not only here in Hawai’i, but across the country. Making hay on their win, the hotels have jacked up their prices and are adding on fees that are not disclosed until the guest arrives on site. And yet with no vacation rentals to book, travelers have no other choice but to comply. I have been a STVR host for 10 years. A 65 year old woman who was making enough money to travel for the first time in my life. I can tell you, this is a very terrible situation for me, and for many other hosts like me.

    2. I can tell you, this is a very terrible situation for me, and for many other hosts like me.

      Cry me a river, speculator scum. It’s even more terrible that young couples and families are priced out of decent housing. Homes are for living in, not serving as unregistered hotels in residential neighborhoods.

      1. Is it true that hotels are allowed to surprise guests with last-minute fees? If so, it seems this “registration” system leaves something to be desired.

    3. “Hawaii hotels, by comparison, are excelling in occupancy, reaching 74.5% last month.”

      Is 25.5% vacancy considered low?

      1. “By comparison,” it’s not low. But by normal tourism standards I don’t think it’s enough to keep a hotel operating, especially in a place like Hawaii.

  2. The Beijing Stock Exchange has de facto implemented a new policy that prevents major shareholders of companies listed on its bourse from selling stock, worried that such sales could douse a market rally, three people familiar with the matter said.

    A “major shareholder” is one with a stake of 5% or more, and to sell shares in a company they own, they need to make a public filing with the relevant stock exchange, according to rules for the country’s bourses.

    The Beijing exchange has been rejecting those filings, said the people who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. It was not immediately clear how long this new policy would remain in place, they added.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/exclusive-beijing-stock-exchange-tells-major-shareholders-to-refrain-from-selling-sources/ar-AA1kzOFf

    1. “…new policy that prevents major shareholders of companies listed on its bourse from selling stock…”

      Is killing liquidity by government intervention considered to be a good way to promote market efficiency?

      ‘Buy now, and get priced in forever.’

      1. “Sackett told the San Francisco Chronicle he purchased the building at $1.575 million in 2004, but now cannot be refinanced because as many as 30 lenders have refused to help the existing $2.5 million mortgage.”

        Poor guy. He has had 20 years to pay down the original mortgage and instead of doing that decided to refi for at least a million more. Shame on the 30 lenders for refusing to bail this fine man out.

        1. This story seems to sync up with stories we read just pre-pandemic: stories about high-end retail stores pulling out of upscale shopping districts, leaving empty storefronts. I mean mucky-mucks like Hermes or Armani pulling out of 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive (or whatever).

          At the time, I wondered how the building owners could afford to leave the pricey storefronts empty, instead of lowering the rent or allowing another retailer to lease space. It was only recently that I learned that CRE owners were just rolling over the debt and raising other funds to pay the 1% minimum. At 1% interest, they could do that almost indefinitely. Now it’s time to roll over the loan again.. but this time at ~6-8% interest. Yeah, speculators, now it’s time to provide some actual goods and services, make a profit, and pay your damn debt, like everybody else. Pony up, zombies!

  3. ‘A chart shared by Chief Economist Torsten Sløk in September showed that the share of US public debt set to mature in a year or less has steadily risen toward pandemic-era levels and is now at 31%. In terms of dollar amount, that’s $7.6 trillion, a high not seen since early 2021, and is a source of upward pressure on US rates’

    Wa happened to my pivot Torsten?

    1. The United States is a bankrupt empire in terminal decline.

      “This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

    2. “The share of US public debt set to mature in a year or less…is now at 31%.”

      That is absolutely stunning. And not in a good way. Bankrupt empire, indeed.

  4. ‘There may be opportunities in distressed assignments next year…You’re starting to see some pretty wild assignments coming online – people effectively giving up their deposits, selling for 2019 pricing’

    I think they are mainly talking about Toronto, where they gamble on non-existent airboxes. The whole minor respiratory illness has gone poof.

    1. It was still cheaper than renting… wait maybe they were renting while gambling on shacks.

      Or even better, lets hope these “homeowners” didn’t pull equity out of their homes to speculate on a second home or vacation places! We wouldn’t want that do we???? LOL

  5. ‘[I’m] frustrated, I guess,’ he said. ‘It’s like I have to downgrade my lifestyle for the same cost. I don’t know if it’s actually sunk in yet because I’ve just literally listed it. But owning a property right now, for me, is not necessarily a need. You’ve got to do what’s best for you’

    Wait til you find out no one wants it Adam.

  6. ‘San Francisco’s real estate market has suffered, with the latest example being when the apartment complex for NEMA San Francisco’s commercial mortgage-backed securities loan decreased for the second time. While the 2018 value was $543.6 million, the current loan is down 48% to $279 million’

    How do those 3% cap rates look now bay aryans?

  7. ‘An estimated 3.7 million households are battling serious levels of food insecurity, not-for-profit Food Bank revealed in its 2023 Hunger Report. Food insecurity describes the need to make ‘unenviable choices about what and when they eat’ such as skipping meals or going whole days without eating’

    For a country that wants to be winnahs! so bad, you sure act like you can eat too.

    ‘half of all mortgage households are now spending more than they earn every month. ‘Looking in detail, we find that recent purchasers, especially young growing families, are most exposed,’ Mr North said. Many bought when mortgage rates were sitting around two per cent, and when then-RBA Governor Philip Lowe assured people the official cash rate would likely remain on hold until 2024. It didn’t. Home loan rates are now sitting at about six per cent’

    Phil broke it off in yer a$$ Martin.

  8. “Metro Phoenix home sales are slowing, so sellers brace yourselves. ‘This is not a good time to test a price higher than market value for your home,’ said Tina Tamboer, senior housing analyst with The Cromford Report. ‘The seller’s market weakens on a daily basis’

    When the cheerleaders are on the bus the game is over.

    Tina:

    via GIPHY

  9. ‘The seller’s market weakens on a daily basis.’”

    Comments like that aren’t conducive to Always Be Closing.

  10. The number of vacation rental nights available last month 761,000. But of those, just 387,400 nights were rented. That comes to an occupancy rate of 50.89%.

    Die, speculator scum.

  11. The holiday is over, peasants.

    Get back to work and generate some federal income tax revenue so they can send all of your money to Israel and Ukraine, cattle tax slaves!

  12. Home prices early in the pandemic ‘went up unrealistically, they went crazy,’ said Carolyn Triebold, an agent with Real Broker in Camarillo.

    Carolyn’s phone must be ringing off the hook with calls of gratitude from the prospective buyers she talked out of making the worst financial decision of their life during the scamdemic, at the cost of her own commissions. Cuz fiduciary duty required nothing less from UHSs.

  13. We need more articles from economists kvetching about how the rabble don’t know how good they have it and how they should be grateful just to exist in an economy where the cost of living has increased by 50% in the last three years while incomes have flat lined.

    Washington Post?
    New York Times?

    1. Citizen! You could be happy, if only you’d unplug from those subversive, non-Narrative Compliant news sources you seem to rely on, and instead let award-winning economist & globalist mouthpiece Paul Krugman tell you just how good you really have it.

      Altered Images – I Could Be Happy

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfqPJp7Q7qE

    2. Sackett told the San Francisco Chronicle he purchased the building at $1.575 million in 2004, but now cannot be refinanced because as many as 30 lenders have refused to help the existing $2.5 million mortgage. Sackett expects the building will be sold ‘at a massive loss’ due to six lenders telling him they ‘are not making commercial real estate loans in San Francisco due to the state of the city.’”

      “‘[San Francisco city officials] don’t even return my calls,’ Sackett said. ‘They care about bike lanes, nonprofits, safe injection sites. … They have just ignored small business . . . I’m just done with San Francisco and the bullsh** here. It’s out of control.’

      Wasn’t the chocolate ration raised from 20 to 15g?

    3. They have a different idea of “good times.” Even if their credit cards burst into flames, it’s considered good times if there are no mean tweets. That is, until they lose their jobs. Then things are going to get interesting.

    2. bidness & govt. atones w/“apology “. hoi polloi must pay financial penalty.
      or even worse, do jail time.

      same as it ever was
      same as it
      ever
      was

  15. “Triebold said she doesn’t see that happening again because homeowners don’t have nearly the same debt levels that they had during the early 2000s boom.”

    What the….😳😳😳. How could they even print that quote?!!!

  16. Re-post from the last thread. Image file photo taken yesterday of a bunch of homeless sleeping under the awning of the former Kaufmann’s store near the King Soopers in downtown Englewood:

    https://imgbb.com/HGPBmWJ

    Paul Krugman, I can’t drive five minutes in any direction from home without seeing an encampment or homeless sleeping on the sidewalk.

    This is the Joe Biden economy.

    1. “…I can’t drive five minutes in any direction from home without seeing an encampment or homeless sleeping on the sidewalk.”

      Sounds like some mighty tall cotton!

    2. I’m starting to see them even in my area too. No real encampments yet, but there’s a small cohort of shopping-cart pushers and the occasional tent. So far I think the local govs have been able to keep on top of it.

      1. What I’m seeing are scraggly types at the King Soopers parking lot exits with their “Please Help” signs.

        1. We’ve median walkers for years now. A couple of immigrants have gotten bolder. They now walk around Wal-mart with a little shopping list and ask people to buy things for them. A couple times I gave them pretty harsh “NO!” and they looked very offended that I spoke so impolitely.

          1. This happened to my wife. I wrote the Sheriff and the City Chief of Police. Repeatedly. They actually showed up at the store to speak to the management. I would suggest being a very squeaky wheel.

          2. I live in a suburb bordering Chicago and the illegals are everywhere now. The median walkers are new to the Chicago suburbs. I saw a mom, dad and kid the other day in front of a suburban wal-mart which is something I’ve never seen in my nearly 5 decades on this planet. The illegals aren’t just in the migrant refugee tent camps we’re building. They’re literally f**king everywhere now. Especially the Venezuelans. They’re the worst of the worst.

          4. The Venezuelans are the poorest of the poor from South America and generally don’t have any family connections when they arrive. They’ve been trained for decades to live off handouts or commit crimes to get by and now in the US they’re doing all know they: begging and committing crimes. They’re like a country of gypsies and cheats. They Venezuelan crime in Chicago is skyrocketing as they get into the shoplifting and vice rackets. The famous Ann Coulter opinion piece about Venezuela descrbies them perfectly.

            https://anncoulter.com/2022/09/29/venezuelas-welfare-has-run-out-now-they-want-ours/

          6. Please expand on that; skool me! TIA

            A relative teaches ESL in North Carolina and there is a tsunami of illegals in her class, mostly Central and South American . Even though they are just kids they are highly entitled and brag about being refugees and joining the Free Sh!t Army as if it is their right. Don’t believe for a second that they want a job.

          7. and generally don’t have any family connections when they arrive

            From what I have heard, the non Venezuelan hispanics shun them.

  17. [I ran across this …]

    Telosa [you will need to access the link.]

    https://cityoftelosa.com/

    Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Telosa …

    Telosa is a proposed utopian planned US city conceived by American billionaire Marc Lore and announced in September 2021.[1][2] The project has a target population of 5 million people by 2050, with the first phase of construction expected to house 50,000. The location had initially not been chosen, with the project’s planners intending for the city to be built on cheap land in Appalachia or the American West desert.[1][3]

    The name Telosa is derived from the Ancient Greek word telos, in this case meaning “purpose”.[4]

    Telosa was conceived by former Walmart U.S. eCommerce president and billionaire Marc Lore.[5] In a statement announcing his resignation from Walmart, Lore expressed his desire to construct a “city of the future” based on a “reformed version of capitalism”.[2] Lore refers to his design philosophy for the city as “equitism”, described as “a new model for society, where wealth is created in a fair way… It’s not burdening the wealthy; it’s not increasing taxes. It is simply giving back to the citizens and the people the wealth that they helped create”.[6]

    Lore has hired the architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, owned by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, to handle the proposed city’s master planning.[3]

    Telosa is planned to be a 15-minute city, with workplaces, schools, and basic goods and services being within a 15-minute commute from residents’ homes. Vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels will not be permitted within the city, with an emphasis instead being placed upon walkability and the use of scooters, bicycles, and autonomous electric vehicles.[1][5]

    A massive skyscraper, dubbed “Equitism Tower”, is conceived to serve as a “beacon for the city”. The skyscraper’s projected features include space for water storage, aeroponic farms, and a photovoltaic roof.[1]

    The proposed land ownership in the city is based on Georgist principles, as advocated by political economist Henry George in his 1879 book Progress and Poverty.[6] Under the proposed rules, anyone would be licensed to build, keep or sell a home, building or any other structure, and residents would share ownership of the land under a community endowment.[1] [7]

    The project’s planners intend the city to be built on cheap desert land in a location not yet decided as of 2021, with Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Appalachia proposed as potential locations.[1][3]

    Writing in Timeout.com in September 2021, Ed Cunningham stated that “the blueprint designs are, depending on your taste, either dazzlingly utopian or unsettlingly dystopian. There’s plenty of innovative architecture on display, alongside futuristic visions of public transport and spaces filled with greenery and nature.”[8] It has been criticized as being an unrealistic vanity project which would be less sustainable than building upon existing urban areas.[9]

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telosa

    1. “Vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels will not be permitted within the city…” Does that include the construction vehicles to build it?

    2. Most cities prior to the Model T were 15 minute cities. The concept of a 15 minute city in and of itself isn’t a bad idea. other than work, I live no more than about 10 minutes from everything in my life. but It’s the authoritarian control that the globalists want to impose with their 15 minute city concept.

    3. It has been criticized as being an unrealistic vanity project

      Walt Disney wanted to try such a boondoggle, he called it the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) and it was to be built in Florida. After he died of cancer the project was scaled down into a theme park.

  18. Migrants in Denver brace for colder temps as they wait for a chance to work (11/26/2023):

    “The number of migrants arriving in Denver remains steady. The city’s migrant support dashboard reported 22 arriving Saturday and 97 arriving Sunday.

    The total number sent to Denver since last December has exceeded 28,000.

    Miguel Eduardo Alvarez-Lugo is staying at the encampment in north Denver.

    “The truth is we aren’t asking for money or a handout,” Alvarez-Lugo said. “We are only hoping for support from the U.S. government for work permits because we want to improve our lives.”

    “Unfortunately the cold weather is very harsh,” Alvarez-Lugo said. “And we’ve never experienced these cold temperatures before but we’re here now and hoping to get work permits very soon.”

    https://kdvr.com/news/local/migrants-in-denver-brace-for-colder-temps-as-they-wait-for-a-chance-to-work/

    Why don’t you improve your lives in the country you left instead of coming here illegally and stealing jobs from Americans?

    Jonathan Greenblatt hand rubbing intensifies…

    1. What sort of jobs are they expecting? Anything they could possibly do has been taken by previous waves of illegals long ago.

      Interesting the the same government that waived them across the border won’t give them a work visa.

      The lows over the holiday weekend got down as low as 10F. Not sure how people who are used to living in the tropics can camp out in such cold. Are they given emergency shelter overnight in school gyms?

      1. “What sort of jobs are they expecting?”

        On a recent jobsite the GC hired four of them out of a Home Depot parking lot to backfill a trench by hand.

        No OSHA, no insurance, no taxes, no problem!

        1. speaking of illegals in Home Depot parking lots, I’ve always wondered why Lowes has none?

          at least in N. CA, where I live.

          1. I’ve made the same observation in metro Las Vegas, NV: No day workers (prob all illegals) hanging around Lowes parking lots. I’ve never bothered to find out why.

      2. Venezuelans consider ‘petty crime’ to be work. Those clothes at Macy’s aren’t going to steal themself!

    3. “The truth is we aren’t asking for money or a handout,” Alvarez-Lugo said. “We are only hoping for support from the U.S. government for work permits

      Are they in the country legally? If not, why are they concerned with work permits?

      1. Probably because they are expecting to land a high paying job, even though they have no marketable skills, are semi-illiterate in their native tongue and speak no English at all.

        Ths reality that they have nothing to offer beyond menial labor, and the arrival of old man winter, is shocking them. I’ll bet they also had no idea of what the cost of living is here, starting with rent. I’m sure all the activists who encouraged them to come forgot to mention that. They were probably told they would get green cards upon arrival and would soon have a spacious house with a luxury SUV in the driveway.

        Something not reported in the US media is that many are staying in Mexico, and the Mexicans are getting fed up with them. They are also camping out in Mexico City parks and being a nuisance there as well.

        1. Something not reported in the US media is that many are staying in Mexico, and the Mexicans are getting fed up with them. They are also camping out in Mexico City parks and being a nuisance there as well.

          Mexico had no problem dumping their poverty into America for years. What goes around comes around.

        2. Peter Zeihan says that Mexico is fast running out of Mexican labor to make all the things that we don’t want to make in China anymore. I guess because even those jobs in Mexico are semi-skilled, which the immigrants can’t do either? It’s mind-boggling. What the heck do they do all day if they’re not working or not learning or not practicing some skill?

          (drinking and banging, I guess)

          1. South American illegitimacy rates are comparable to inner-city blacks, upwards of 75% of all births are to unwed mothers.

            The bigger issue that no one seems to address anywhere that I read, is that millions of men, full of energy and testosterone, have shown up in America and are all looking for mates. But the number of females has remained the same. So the native men in the hispanic communities are now suddenly competing with tens of thousands of new men in every major city looking for love. This is manifesting itself in many ways One thing I’ve noticed is that the pimped out cars for young men are EVERYWHERE now. They used to be around, it was a subculture, but now it’s THE culture, as any 20 something hispanic with means pimps out his car to attract the ladies – Look at me, I have a legal job, I have a license, I have citizenship or a green card, these are all things that they need to compete for mates with the invasion. Over the summer I was fishing with my kids at a local forest preserve and it was teeming with Mexicans. I saw one fully tattoo’d young 20 something on the dock near me just staring at me with open eyes and amazement at me and my little blonde girls catching fish and taking them off the hook. Dude probably never seen actual white people in his life. This guy looked like it he just got off the boat, like this was the first time he’s ever been to Busse Woods. I spoke to him with the limited spanish I spoke and he said he was from Vera Cruz and just got here recently. I imagine he was with a family party, the hispanics take over the forest preserves on weekends around here now.

          2. “I saw one fully tattoo’d young 20 something on the dock near me just staring at me with open eyes and amazement at me and my little blonde girls catching fish and taking them off the hook.”

            This is why Glock, H&K and Sig Sauer are thriving.

        3. I think maybe it was you not too long ago who commented that the earlier arriving immigrants have the newer cars in the church parking lot, and the newer immigrants see this, and want that too.

          Which is true, most of the immigrants who come here end up assimilating into pockets of their own culture and displace the blacks and poor whites who used to live there. Most immigrants coming here already have some sort of family or friends network here and don’t resort to the migrant tent camps, hotels or begging on the street corners. That’s only the poorest of the poor and the dirty Venezuelans.

  19. TREASON.

    Russia Today — US Senate announces vote on Ukraine aid (11/27/2023):

    “US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Sunday that he will hold a vote on President Joe Biden’s request for billions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine and Israel during the first week of December.

    The Biden administration has so far failed to push through its supplementary “national security” proposal of roughly $106 billion for combined aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

    According to Schumer , “the biggest holdup” to passing the package is Republican insistence on US border security policy changes, which they have set as a condition for sending any additional funds to Ukraine.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/588020-us-senate-vote-ukraine-aid/

    These globalists do not care about the United States border, because Replacement Theory is not a theory.

    The biggest “holdup” is the armed robbery being conducted against U.S. taxpayers by the Congress and the unelected, illegitimate regime in the White House.

    We don’t need another election, we need 1776.

  20. Clutch those pearls harder.

    The Hill — Election denialism nearly shattered our democracy. Meta’s allowing it anyway (11/27/2023):

    “Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on a quiet policy change that Meta, Facebook’s parent company, made last year that allows for election denial content in paid political ads. The report cited free speech as a major basis for Meta updating its political ad policy in August 2022 to allow advertisements on Facebook and Instagram that question the legitimacy of past elections, including the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

    This means advertisers can now claim past elections were “rigged” or “stolen,” though they’re still prohibited from questioning the legitimacy of ongoing and future elections. Put simply, this new ad policy enables Meta to profit directly off of a lie that nearly destroyed American democracy.

    To allow a tech company to capitalize on the delegitimization of the American electoral process at a time when our democracy is arguably the most fragile it’s ever been is naive at best — and dangerous at worst.

    The “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen not only caused a historic riot in our nation’s capital but has now become central to the 2024 campaigns of numerous Republican candidates, including former President Trump. The effects of this policy are already being felt, including when Trump ran a Facebook ad in August where he said on video: “We won in 2016. We had a rigged election in 2020 but got more votes than any sitting president. We’re going to win like never before.”

    https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4327639-election-denialism-nearly-shattered-our-democracy-metas-allowing-it-anyway/

    The Day Of The Rope is coming for all of you vermin ☠️

  22. Was chatting with an Irish colleague. His electric bill, for his tiny home, is 500 Euros a month in the winter. He has a heat pump.

      1. I think most Irish housing is masonry. I suppose the interior could be framed (like a basement in the US or Canada) and and have insulation added.

    2. “by an elite group”

      They’re not elite. Let’s call them what they are: the Parasite Class.

      Mosquitos
      Ticks
      Tapeworms

      They are literally blood sucking parasites, and we’re not gonna let the phony Language Police™ tell us what words we’re “allowed” to describe them with.

      Vermin will be duly exterminated ☠️

      1. I am concerned that these creeps will launch the nukes before they get the Marie Antoinette treatment.

        I wonder what some of the zillionaires have done to fortify their strongholds, especially their private islands. I don’t hear much about New Zealand bunkers these days.

        1. “launch the nukes”

          If Klaus Schwab or Bill Gates had their finger on the button, they already would have.

          1. They haven’t lost control yet. When angry mobs start forming during their pow wows in Davos and Jackson, then they might be tempted to obliterate us.

            Remember, as far as they are concerned, Earth is theirs, and we are just trespassers. They won’t nuke their property unless they believe it has been lost.

  27. ‘hosted in a building that currently has a broken window and its address, 1069 Howard St., is next door to a drug sobering center’

    Is this sobering center a for profit thing or non-profit?

    1. Probably non-profit, but hey, you just raise your expenses *cough**salaries**cough* so that you don’t make any profit.

  28. ‘As a result, a small but growing number of preconstruction buyers are compelled to sell – assign – their contracts to others before their home is completed. And they’re sometimes selling for whatever they can get, to recoup get some of their deposit and reduce legal risk to the builder. ‘There may be opportunities in distressed assignments next year,’ said Ben Rabidoux, an analyst at Edge Realty Analytics. ‘You’re starting to see some pretty wild assignments coming online – people effectively giving up their deposits, selling for 2019 pricing’

    This exact same thing happened in Florida years ago.

  29. ‘very few Aussies are immune. An estimated 3.7 million households are battling serious levels of food insecurity, not-for-profit Food Bank revealed in its 2023 Hunger Report. Food insecurity describes the need to make ‘unenviable choices about what and when they eat’ such as skipping meals or going whole days without eating’

    Housing bubbles make you poor and then they pop.

    1. If you scroll down in that Australia article, you’ll see a pic of a white guy reclining on the sidewalk begging. Then another pic of an apparently homeless person who is probably Aboriginal. Both are fat (very fat in the latter case).

      1. These homeless are probably well-fed, but with the worst and most fattening food imaginable: wheat, sugar, and soybean/canola/sunflower oil. And if you’re not sleeping well, you’re stressed out and that contributes to obesity too.

  32. In 2007 the first one of these born 1 second after midnight January 1, 1946, filed for social security.

  34. I don’t buy the ‘soft landing’ narrative for home prices. Possibly slow, but damaging in ‘real’ terms. The Covid effect on prices was steroidal. Priorly, prices were already conspicuously dislocated from the fundamentals of affordability, at least in many conurbations, neighborhoods, and cities. And this wasn’t restricted to just the US. Most people don’t seem to make the connection between monetary policy and asset values. Increasing the cost to borrow places downward pressure on prices. It hasn’t played out yet for a few obvious reasons. One less obvious reason is the proverbial penny is yet to drop.

    1. “Increasing the cost to borrow places downward pressure on prices.”

      Ending “fog a mirror” mortgage approvals has the same effect.

  35. Would you freak out if home prices dropped to 2017 levels?

    Not to worry. This is ‘Murica, where real estate always goes up.

    1. Financial Times
      2 hours ago
      Hong Kong home prices drop to lowest level since March 2017
      William Langley in Hong Kong

      Hong Kong private home prices declined to their lowest level in more than five years in October, as a weak economy and elevated interest rates dented demand for property.

      Prices fell 2.2 per cent month on month, official data showed on Tuesday, bringing the year-to-date decline to almost 4 per cent. Prices are at their lowest since March 2017.

      Hong Kong’s property market has been hit by an exodus of residents spurred by Beijing’s crackdown on political dissent in the city and strict coronavirus pandemic controls.

      The territory has also increased lending costs in tandem with the US Federal Reserve to maintain its currency’s peg to the dollar, despite a dimmer economic outlook.
      …

  36. Are you feeling confident that a soft landing is on the way and stocks can only go up from current levels?

    1. Market Extra
      Stock-market ‘fear gauge’ tumbles to nearly 4-year low. That makes some traders extremely nervous.
      Last Updated: Nov. 27, 2023 at 1:48 p.m. ET
      First Published: Nov. 27, 2023 at 12:58 p.m. ET
      By Joseph Adinolfi
      Markets are looking dangerously complacent, strategists say. And there is data to back this up.
      A historically low reading for the VIX may be a cause for concern in itself, some traders say.
      Agence France-Presse/Getty Image

      Wall Street’s favorite “fear gauge” has hit its most subdued level since before the pandemic after investors threw caution to the wind and bid up stocks at the fastest pace in years.

      But rather than signaling that stocks are set to keep marching higher into the end of 2023, some analysts fear that the Cboe Volatility Index VIX, better known as the VIX, is sending an alarming message: Wall Street has become dangerously complacent in its assessment of looming threats, meaning any negative near-term shocks could send markets…

      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-market-fear-gauge-tumbles-to-nearly-4-year-low-that-makes-some-traders-extremely-nervous-5b0c18b0

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