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Many Bought With Their Hearts Not Heads, And Got It Horribly Wrong

A report from Newsweek on California. “A San Francisco home has been sold at half its original listing price, crystallizing the stark real estate climate in the city and in the U.S. The home in the Russian Hill neighborhood sold for $9,990,000 on November 9, after being listed in October 2022 at $19,995,000. The house sat on the market for almost a year before selling. While the $10 million loss is significant, it is representative of the wider distress in the San Francisco housing market. Leslie Stretch, chief executive officer of software company Medallia, and his wife purchased the home for $20 million in January 2020 but listed it for sale just two years later after their youngest child went off to college, according to a 2022 report from the Sacramento Bee.”

From CalMatters. “California lawmakers created Housing Is Key with billions of dollars in federal relief money, initially guaranteeing everyone who applied in time and was approved would get paid. The ultimate goal of the program was to stem a flood of evictions, as state and local emergency eviction bans came to an end. But a sizable, unlucky minority of applicants — tenants and landlords alike — have had to wait…and wait and wait. Many of the applicants fed up with the program’s hotline or web portal have wound up in a Facebook group created by Bella Allen. The owner of a property management company in Long Beach, Allen set up the private group in 2021 to help a friend who was trying to navigate the new state program. Two years later the Facebook group’s membership has swelled to more than 3,000.”

“As the months have dragged on, the tenor of the posts have grown more desperate and irate. ‘I don’t know what to tell these people,’ she said. ‘And I’m gutted.’ Cindy, who lives near Yuba City north of Sacramento and who asked that her surname not be published so as not to jeopardize her pending payment, said she bought her three-bedroom home in early 2020 and took on two tenants to help her with the mortgage. In late 2021, one of her tenants was unable to pay his rent, so she encouraged him to apply to Housing Is Key. Without his payments, she said she used credit cards to pay her mortgage. Housing Is Key has a policy of not reimbursing so-called shadow debt, loans taken out to pay down rental debt. Cindy now says she has $20,000 in credit card debt. Last month, she said she unexpectedly lost her job of eight years.”

From KUTV. “Many people took advantage of lowered interest rates during the pandemic and bought a home. According to the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, 2020 and 2021 were two of the best years on record for home sales in Utah. Now, some of those homeowners facing divorce are discovering they will need to either refinance their mortgage at nearly double the rate or sell their home. When Whitney Asay and her ex-husband went through a divorce, part of their division of assets was for Asay to receive a family vacation home in St. George the former couple shared with Asay’s side of the family. The family took out a mortgage to build the vacation home during the pandemic, working with a builder to customize the development. ‘If I’d known it was going to be like this, maybe I’d have done something different throughout the whole mediation,’ said Asay, ‘but because I was told loans were so easily assumable I just kind of trusted [the bank].'”

“Now Asay and her family find themselves in a dilemma, as her ex-husband’s name was on the original mortgage loan, along with her brother Joshua Scott and father Richard. ‘If we were to refinance today it would increase our monthly payment by almost 1,000,’ said Joshua. ‘They had no problem giving us the loan, right? That’s where I can’t help but feel we’re the victims in this situation.’ ‘We can’t afford to keep the house with the new interest rates,’ said Asay, ‘so it’s coming down to selling it, or figure out a way to muster up the money to make those payments.'”

The Columbian. “At first, the ads seemed like a pandemic-era curiosity, a niche political pitch playing on the red state, blue state divide. ‘Escape liberal hell,’ counseled one sales video from a Boise real estate agent. ‘Here are seven reasons conservatives flock to Idaho.’ ‘Time is not on your side, flee the city NOW before the coming collapse!’ read another ad for 5 acres in Moyie Springs, Idaho, listed for $259,000 by a company called Black Rifle Real Estate. (Motto: ‘Ready. Aim. Move.’) Now, there’s solid evidence that some people really are migrating over partisanship. Sixty-two percent of Washingtonians who moved to Idaho registered as Republicans, the data shows. Only 12 percent were Democrats. Ours is a 60-40 blue state, roughly, so this means Republicans are preferentially sorting themselves out of Washington at high rates. You can now even choose your real estate agent by their politics. The company GOP Agent ‘is here to help you connect with a Real Estate Agent who shares your Republican ideals and values,’ their website says.”

CBS Colorado. “‘Very interesting times. High-interest rates, real estate issues,’ said Richard Wobbekind, senior economist with the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business. ‘That piece of the economy nationally and in Colorado is probably only about fourth or fifth inning in a nine-inning game at this point. There’s a lot more to be reckoned with in the months ahead,’ said Wobbekind of commercial real estate. ‘So we project that the vacancy goes up to 25 or 30% for the next couple of years. And office is already in the tank,’ said Marcel Arsenault, CEO of real estate investment firm Real Capital Solutions.”

“Arsenault, who says he’s more on the pessimistic side about the economy points to problems ahead for investors in an oversupply of apartments. The metro area, he says, ‘probably needs on average 8 to 10,000 units a year. And we’ve been producing about 15,000 for the last several years.’ His company sold apartments in recent years. ‘I wouldn’t build an apartment unless you put a gun to my head,’ he said. ‘If you’re a renter, I’ve got great news. In about a year from now, you’re going to be able to get two months free rent, maybe even three months free rent on your apartment.'”

The Canadian Press. “Greater Toronto home sales fell six per cent last month compared with November 2022 despite an influx in new listings. ‘Not many people are moving,’ Toronto realtor Nasma Ali said. ‘The only kind of desperation that we’re seeing right now are from people who really need to sell, usually from investors. For the past few years, minus a few months during COVID, condos were selling immediately, within one day or within a week. Now they’re just sitting there waiting for any takers and there’s barely any showings. We used to have 100 showings maybe in a week. Now we’re lucky if we have two to three showings a week.'”

“Ali said some neighbourhoods are taking a big hit, especially for homes where potential buyers see red flags like nearby construction. ‘Buyers have no urgency because if anything, prices will be maybe down next month,’ she said. ‘When you look at urban neighbourhoods, like High Park, Roncesvalles, Leslieville, obviously it’s not like what it was at the peak and the price has also come down from the peak.'”

The Telegraph in the UK.”Home repossessions are rising among properties worth more than £5m as even the wealthiest are hammered by a jump in mortgage rates, experts have said. Estate agents said there has been a rise in high-end property listings because of repossessions in the last six months, with examples seen across the country including the Cotswolds and the South Coast. Jonathan Hopper, chief executive of estate agency Garrington Property Finders, said many have been reaching the end of lower fixed-rate deals after having made ’emotional decisions during the pandemic, bought with their hearts not heads, and got it horribly wrong.’ At the same time, he said it can be difficult to sell quickly because the ‘market has shifted and there is just no demand for certain types of property and certain price brackets.'”

“Philip Harvey, of buying agents Property Vision, said there has also been an increase in second homes being repossessed from international buyers in London. Typically these properties are worth £10m to £20m, he said. Mr Harvey said wealthy overseas individuals were ‘walking away’ because it is cheaper than refixing in the current mortgage market. He added: ‘It’s strategic. People borrow heavily when they’re buying those assets for all sorts of tax reasons. Because money’s cheap and they can do other things with their money that makes them more money, so they don’t need to use their own cash, they borrow it instead. But when the market turns and the capital value has gone down, why hold on to it?’ Mr Harvey said it can be ‘easier for owners to walk away than refinance expensively'”

The Herald Sun in Australia. “Thousands of homeowners across the state are now carrying the weight of million-dollar mortgage stress. Jess Underwood, her husband and two young children are under significant financial stress after their mortgage repayments doubled following consecutive interest rate rises. They have also been living on a single income since Ms Underwood took time off work to protest a proposed heritage overlay on her property by the Maroondah Council that would ‘significantly reduce its value.’ ‘Our mortgage is our biggest expense and it’s non negotiable, everything else shuffles around the mortgage repayments,’ she said. ‘We don’t go on date nights or get takeaway or go to the movies … our spending on leisure has reduced to nothing.'”

“Mortgage Choice broker David Thurmond said that a 14th rate rise would see homeowners across Melbourne looking for ways to ‘alleviate the pain.’ ‘I’m starting to speak to a lot of clients who are already in mortgage strife and are being laid off from jobs,’ Mr Thurmond said. ‘The vast majority of clients are not saving what they once were and are just making ends meet or surviving off their savings.’ It comes as new data from research group Digital Finance Analytics has revealed the Melbourne areas with the largest mortgage debts for owner-occupied homes, including 16 suburbs with an average home loan in excess of $1m.”

Sky News Australia. “Sky News host Liz Storer says RBA employees are getting a ‘sweet deal’ with half-price mortgages. ‘To add to the list of the pain the elites inflict on us that they themselves aren’t actually suffering as a result of. Today we received the revelation that RBA governor has paid off her fourth house in Sydney, the most expensive of the four that she owns, in under ten years. Michele was able to do that due to a wonderful, wonderful, half-price mortgage deal for RBA employees. How do you like that, the people who sit around deciding how hard to squeeze you … they’re all getting this sweet deal.'”

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This Post Has 141 Comments

    1. You will own nothing, you will eat bugs and like them, you will be warned to not make eye contact with your WOK masters.

  3. ‘If you’re a renter, I’ve got great news. In about a year from now, you’re going to be able to get two months free rent, maybe even three months free rent on your apartment’

    That’s the spirit Marcel!

  4. “A San Francisco home has been sold at half its original listing price, crystallizing the stark real estate climate in the city and in the U.S.

    But…but…I had it on good authority from a long-vanished housing permabull that shack prices dropping 50% was an HBB pipe dream.

    1. “…shack prices dropping 50% was an HBB pipe dream…”

      Remember that post.

      Something to the effect that “50% was un-possible”

        1. No, of course not. I’m just saying that a single instance of a high-luxury wish price being justifiably chopped in half does not translate into 50% drops for everything. That $400K livable house wouldn’t go below $360K without being snapped up by some stupid renoflipper.

          1. Kudos to you, Oxide. Great comment and observation. I am seeing plenty of these “RenoFlippers” still operating in Reno, NV. The Calif locusts flooding in three years post-WuFlu, will pay anything. I also see NV locals willing to overpay ridiculously as well.

  5. ‘Our mortgage is our biggest expense and it’s non negotiable, everything else shuffles around the mortgage repayments,’ she said. ‘We don’t go on date nights or get takeaway or go to the movies … our spending on leisure has reduced to nothing’

    Jess I’d bet all four of you are sticking expensive food in yer pie holes every day. Probably more than once a day! Do you have what it takes to be a winnah!?

  6. Cindy, who lives near Yuba City north of Sacramento and who asked that her surname not be published so as not to jeopardize her pending payment, said she bought her three-bedroom home in early 2020 and took on two tenants to help her with the mortgage.

    Sound lending strikes again. But Shirley this is a one-off, isolated example that in no way reflects unsound financial fundamentals.

    1. “Cindy, who lives near Yuba City north of Sacramento…”

      Yuba City is a floodplain sh!thole, and she’s outside the city limits?

    2. How did Cindy qualify for the mortgage? Apparently she couldn’t pay it (even before she lost her job) without two tenants helping out.

      1. Well, it’s one thing to “qualify” and be approved for a loan, and quite another to actually be able to afford it.

        I’m sure I could get a loan for one of those $80K super trucks, but I won’t buy one.

  7. Cindy now says she has $20,000 in credit card debt. Last month, she said she unexpectedly lost her job of eight years.”

    The important thing is, no more mean tweets.

  8. From the CalMatters link:

    ‘Later, in the summer of 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom himself had touted the program, Housing Is Key, as the largest of its kind in the nation. “We’re laser-focused on getting this assistance out the door as quickly as possible,” he said at the time.’

    This clown couldn’t run a hot dog cart.

    1. This clown couldn’t run a hot dog cart.

      The thought that he could be the next president sends chills down my spine.

  9. ‘The only kind of desperation that we’re seeing right now are from people who really need to sell, usually from investors. For the past few years, minus a few months during COVID, condos were selling immediately, within one day or within a week. Now they’re just sitting there waiting for any takers and there’s barely any showings. We used to have 100 showings maybe in a week. Now we’re lucky if we have two to three showings a week’

    Plus they are seriously cash flow negative Nasma. Who is going to sign up for that?

  10. ‘If I’d known it was going to be like this, maybe I’d have done something different throughout the whole mediation,’ said Asay, ‘but because I was told loans were so easily assumable I just kind of trusted [the bank].’”

    Millions of indescribably stupid sheeple are going to come out of the housing bubble bust much poorer, but permanently inoculated against ever again trusting the globalist scum media, lying realtors, or our corrupt-to-the-core financial system.

      1. “much poorer, but permanently inoculated”

        I disagree, not with the much poorer part but with the permanent inoculated part; Some people just cannot learn from their mistakes.

        Q. Which group of people are targeted by the purveyors of such wonderful and profitable things as payday loans? Are they the ones who get burned once and “have learned their lessons” or are they the dummies who keep on coming back week-after-week, month-after-month for their heavy doses of financial pain?

        For some people there is no learning curve. None whatsoever. Nada. Zip.

        1. For some people there is no learning curve.
          Years ago, I had an employee who I couldn’t get a hold of, phone dead. She finally showed up, and chiding her, I told her last week I had had a bunch of shifts available, but none now. She explained she was down to her last $60 and said it was either pay her phone bill or get a massage (or her nails done, I forget which.)

  11. there has also been an increase in second homes being repossessed ‘from international buyers in London. Typically these properties are worth £10m to £20m, he said. Mr Harvey said wealthy overseas individuals were ‘walking away’ because it is cheaper than refixing in the current mortgage market. He added: ‘It’s strategic. People borrow heavily when they’re buying those assets for all sorts of tax reasons. Because money’s cheap and they can do other things with their money that makes them more money, so they don’t need to use their own cash, they borrow it instead. But when the market turns and the capital value has gone down, why hold on to it?’

    Rich people walking away from loans – check!

  13. That’s where I can’t help but feel we’re the victims in this situation.’</em

    Wrong, Joshua. You're a victim of your own stupidity.

  14. ‘We can’t afford to keep the house with the new interest rates,’ said Asay, ‘so it’s coming down to selling it, or figure out a way to muster up the money to make those payments.’”

    Joshua, the Brits have a great word – buggered – that perfectly describes your situation.

  15. Japanese researchers have uncovered the earliest known haiku poem carved on a cave wall:

    The wind blows
    The snow flies
    Realtors lie

  16. ‘The only kind of desperation that we’re seeing right now are from people who really need to sell, usually from investors.

    Stop lying, Nasma. The desperation is palpable, even though it’s mostly percolating under the surface for now.

    1. “As the bankruptcy proceedings wind through the process, many of the communities that own the buses, which cost about $1 million each, are struggling to keep them running.”

      Nuff said

      1. Per google a diesel bus costs about $500,000 and I’ll bet they break less and a re easy to fix.

  19. ‘They had no problem giving us the loan, right? That’s where I can’t help but feel we’re the victims in this situation.’

    And here comes the victim thing again. One of the most infuriating things of the last bust was that everyone was a victim. I can only imagine how bad it’s gonna be this time.

    1. “And here comes the victim thing again.”

      FWIW, their debt included “fiduciary fees,” so someone should have had their client’s interest in mind.

  20. Ginger or Mary Ann?

    We have one Ginger vote from yesterday, I will even that up with one Mary Ann vote.

  21. Biden Gives California $6 Billion for High-speed Rail to Vegas, Central Valley

    JOEL B. POLLAK
    6 Dec 2023

    President Joe Biden’s administration has awarded $6 billion in federal infrastructure spending to California for two high-speed rail projects — one, a failing public-sector effort by the state; the other, a private rail line from Southern California to Las Vegas.

    COMMENTS

    Boris Badenov Brenda Chan
    17 minutes ago
    And Newsom dumped multiple BILLIONS more into the choo-choo to nowhere, it was another money laundering scheme that couldn’t stand up to the light of simple quesitons. Zero accountability and questioning is shut down.

    Jonney Quest Boris Badenov
    11 minutes ago
    Do you actually believe there will be any accountability for where this funding goes either. The House is supposed to approve of the funding or does Biden have the ability to pull this money out of his ass? Considering California politics is about as anti-US as you can get and Nevada has democrat vote rigging as an art form, this is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

    El Kabong
    an hour ago
    Right into the pockets of biden’s biggest socialist supporters.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/12/06/biden-gives-california-6-billion-for-high-speed-rail-to-vegas-central-valley/

    1. Biden Gives California $6 Billion for High-speed Rail to Vegas, Central Valley

      Might as well delete everything after $6B.

      1. Makes me think of the old Simpson’s episode when they had a monorail that doesn’t work installed in their town.

    2. Gov. Newsome is very proud of all the programs he votes for too bad nothing ever gets done with the money they cost .

      1. “…he votes for too bad nothing…”

        …he votes for; too bad nothing…
        or
        …he votes for. Too bad nothing…

  22. Watch: VAXXED Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante COLLAPSES Mid-Speech

    by Adan Salazar
    December 6th 2023, 4:05 am

    DiedSuddenly
    @DiedSuddenly_

    You can be sure that when world leaders publicly get their Covid vaccines and boosters that it’s just a placebo and theatrics to convince YOU to take the real thing.

    Because when it’s not….this is what happens.

    They stopped making this mistake long ago.

    https://x.com/DiedSuddenly_/status/1732161477174325397?s=20

      1. “This is the 54th year in Dr. Hunt’s career. He served as a Senior Economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. When he entered the Fed, William Martin was chair and was grappling with severe inflation and when Dr. Hunt left the Fed, Arthur Burns was chair and also trying to contain rampant price increases.”

      2. 16:40

        “The country is now paying the price and the highest price is being paid by those that are least able to afford it”

        17:10

        I take it you are in the hard landing camp?

        Yes.

    2. Danielle is a great source. Melody Wright another. There’s truth out there, it’s just hard to come by.

      1. Todd Sachs’ recent interviews in Puerto Rico are also good for those with some time to spare.

        1. And Melody Wright is not the speaker that Danielle is. She can be tough to listen to at times. But knowledgeable as all get out when it comes to the secondary market and mortgages. And provides irrefutable evidence that the market is toast.

          1. She can be tough to listen to at times.

            Agreed. She’s not particularly articulate and forgets her audience doesn’t speak her language.

        2. Danielle speaks to kitchen table issues in her interviews, but her Twitter is clearly aimed toward paying clients who can understand her fluent Greenspanish.

    3. I’m tired of it too. The financial pundits are a-swarming with — “yeah I know I predicted a recession 1 2 3 4 years ago, but look at this chart!!! Wahh, how come no one believes me any more? 😭”

      A couple of them even make fun of themselves as the Boy Who Cried Wolf, just before reminding us that the Wolf really does show up at the end.

      Charts don’t matter if you can print to high heaven.

  24. Paul Krugman kvetches about the ungrateful poors not thanking Dear Leader for the chocolate ration being increased from 20g to 15g.

    New York Times — Inflation, Disinflation and Vibeflation (12/5/2023);

    “As I can tell you from personal experience, anyone suggesting that inflation is more or less under control can expect an avalanche of hate mail and hostile commentary on social media. In fact, I believe that the vehemence with which some Americans insist that inflation is still running wild distorts coverage in conventional media, too, because journalists are deterred from saying anything positive. And the Fed has to be especially careful, because it would lose credibility if inflation went back up after sounding too optimistic.

    What’s remarkable isn’t just the fact that we’ve made so much progress against inflation, but also the fact that this progress has seemed to come without any visible cost …

    what struck me in 2022 was that the arguments that leading pessimists were making for persistent high inflation had no logical connection to the arguments they had made for a surge in inflation back in 2021. They were predicting the same thing but for completely different reasons. There was nothing linking the inflationist views of 2022 to those of 2021 except a shared pessimistic vibe.

    And vibes are a poor basis for economic analysis. Indeed, vibe-based predictions of stagflation — vibeflation? — turn out to have been completely, you might say epically, wrong.”

    https://archive.is/YW9Tr

    1. They want interest rates lowered before the election, and you can’t do that if you publicly admit that we have double digit inflation.

      I wonder if there might be stimmie chex coming. Last year our state gov sent out part of the TABOR refund early just a month before the election.

        1. I believe that congress has to approve any stimmies. But if they don’t, then the Dems can accuse them of being mean and not caring about people who still haven’t recovered from the economic ravages of the minor respiratory illness. They will say this while at the same time claiming that the economy is doing fantastically well.

          Here in the bluer than ever Centennial state it was easy for Gov. Polis to get those TABOR refunds sent out early. Normally you get them as a tax credit when filing your state income taxes, and normally the size of your credit varies, depending on your taxable income. But the Dems control everything here now, so they not only sent out the refunds early (See! We care about you! Here’s $700!) but they made the refund the same for everyone. In other words, they bribed people with money that was already theirs. They are a clever bunch.

          They even got the IRS to categorize the refund as non taxable, even if you claimed that amount as a SALT tax deduction. Actually, I was fine with that.

    1. Yahoo
      Yahoo Finance
      Market bets on 2024 Fed rate cuts ‘overdone,’ BlackRock strategist says
      Josh Schafer
      Tue, December 5, 2023 at 1:27 PM PST·2 min read

      Markets are pricing in at least 100 basis points of interest rate cuts next year, starting in the second quarter. One strategist thinks those bets are “overdone.”

      “That is really aggressive,” BlackRock Investment Institute global chief investment strategist Wei Li said at a media roundtable on Tuesday. “Something will have to go seriously wrong for that to come through. So we do think that the Fed will cut rates, probably in the second half of next year, but how many cuts they will deliver will be quite a bit less compared with the old economic cycles, old recessions.”

      As of Tuesday, markets have priced in a 68% chance of at least 100 basis points in cuts over the next year. A month ago, investors had priced in just a 37% chance, per the CME FedWatch tool.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/market-bets-on-2024-fed-rate-cuts-overdone-blackrock-strategist-says-212708779.html

    2. Financial Times
      FT-Booth Survey Federal Reserve
      Economists see Fed keeping rates at 22-year high until at least July
      FT-Booth survey respondents think US central bank will remain more hawkish than market expects
      The Federal Reserve building in Washington
      Three-quarters of economists polled expect the US Federal Reserve to lower the federal funds rate from its current 22-year high by just half a percentage point or less next year
      Colby Smith in Washington and Eva Xiao in New York yesterday

      The US central bank will hold off on interest rate cuts until at least July 2024 and deliver less relief than financial markets expect, according to leading academic economists polled by the Financial Times.

      While most of those surveyed thought the rate-raising phase of the Federal Reserve’s historic monetary tightening campaign was now over, almost two-thirds of the respondents thought the central bank would only begin to cut its benchmark rate in the third quarter of 2024 or later.

      Three-quarters of the economists, polled between December 1 and December 4, also expect the Fed to lower the federal funds rate from its current 22-year high of 5.25-5.5 per cent by just half a percentage point or less next year.
      …

    1. Consider this chart in view of Danielle’s comments in the video above. It’s unlikely to happen.

    2. image of previous tweet

      Reminder, homes are CURRENTLY PRICED at 3% mortgage rates.

      A drop to 7%, 6%, 4% mortgage rate does nothing.

      In fact according to history, it will take a mortgage rate of 1.5% to spark a recovery in the housing market.

    3. rates 1.5% BELOW previous lows AND a collapse in prices

      One of these things goes with a credit bubble collapse, not both.

  28. https:// nitter.poast.org /GRomePow/ status/ 1732124726846423186#m:

    The more I think about crypto, the deeper I dig, the more it seems like literally the perfect scam.

    Centralized anonymous majority ownership affording limitless manipulation of price.

    All under some bullshit mysterious immaculate conception story to cause cult following.

    2. Much appreciation for your insightful comments always, RPRH. If you really want to understand the absolute fraud of bitcoin, you need look no further than Tether. Researching Tether was what convinced me. It has had a fantastic runup for many years, but the entire financial system has been a huge fraud for over twenty years now.

    3. True. Payment systems should be perfectly boring when competing against SWIFT, ISO 20022, NACHA, etc.

  29. Relators are liars and two-trick ponies (and this particularly one ellipsis happy).

    https:// nitter.poast.org /norriegche07 /status /1732216658368848243#m:

    Good morning… Breaking news!

    The government has announced 6 drops in interest rates in 2024! Wow… this is huge! We are about to have happy buyers and sellers again!

    Historically when interest rates go down… home values go up. We will most likely enter into another year of multiple offers on homes since we still don’t have enough inventory.

    So, what plan of action should you take? Well… buying sooner than later WILL save you money because you can refi later on and lower your payment. You also won’t be up against multiple offers.

    If you are planning selling next year… let’s have a chat on how we can start getting your home ready for the market and maximize all of our efforts.

    1. There must be a script circulating out there…

      I’ve been hearing the mortgage people on the radio tell people to go ahead and buy the house because when rates drop prices will start zooming up again and then they can refinance yadayadayada…. I think I’ve heard at least three different mortagage “professionals” pretty much say the same thing in their commercials.

    2. The Impending Recession With Dr. Lacy Hunt

      Dr. Hunt says the dollar is too strong relative to other currencies…

        1. I appreciate that he cited wide-ranging economic data (not just unemployment) in support of his hard landing conclusion.

  30. The UK Parliament testimony on Dec 4, 2023 has conclusions about Covid Panademic and fake vaccines by the Expert Scientist and Dr’s that testified. I will put in summary the total of testimony.
    1. There was no Global Covid Panademic, and first year of Covid did not show excess mortality caused by that.
    2. The PCR tests had a 80 to 90 % false positive rate of Covid.
    3. That it’s likely that flu and pneumonia was Covid and millions were denied proper treatment in Hospitals that resulted in a high death rate. VIABLE MED treatments were suppressed, censored and obstructed and resulted in needless death.
    4. That it was impossible to produce a safe and effective vaccine in warp speed, to be consistent in manufacturing for billions of shot, and to create a safe and effecient expermental new vaccine technology in that timespan. IMPOSSIBLE and Big Pharma would of known that.
    5. The creators of the vaccines would have to of known the toxic potential of body manufacturing a toxic spike protein , that could go to all parts of body, that would kill and injure, and produce the whole spectrum of adverse
    Side effects including death.
    6. Dr McCullough said heart problems are vaccine related as well as other adverse side affects like strokes, blood clots, neurology disease , etc and.should be pulled off market immediately.
    7. Testimony they created a bio weapon, with the countermeasure vaccine being a injurious and deadly technology, not fit for human consumption.
    8. Dr Yerdon expressed that no way they could not of known that design of vaccines would not be toxic and lethal. Impossible to be a mistake, no doubt deliberate and lethal with 17 million already dead.
    8. Prediction of more panademics coming with prediction of mandated fake toxic vaccine countermeasures.
    Also, 2023 Climate Submit taking place right now, with the usual suspects POWERS
    THAT BE that Climate emergency is “dire”, calling for a speeding up of their solutions. A opposing Climate Scientist calls their solutions ” preposterous. ”
    The submit predicts in 2024
    we will have the hottest Temps on record. John Kerry calls for banning of all coal production.
    This fraud of the Climate Change emergency is very similar to the Covid fraud that was unleashed on world, all pre planned, in which the solutions are lethal for humanity, and would be a disaster of epic scale if their Climate solutions were implemented, As the Covid shots were a crime of deliberate genocide, in which the evidence is showing.
    But they won’t stop the toxic vaccines, and they won’t stop Climate Change emergency fraud, to justify One World Order.dictorship take over, control of all resources, and enslavement of human of globe.
    Your not allowed to dispute their Great Narratives of doomsday emergencies, they concocted over a half century ago.

  31. From Marketwatch today

    “…Biden administration to cancel nearly $5 billion in student debt for 80,000…”

    Hey everybody, its free money Wednesday!

    Step right up.

    Lots of free goodies for everyone, unless you happen to have a real job and pay taxes.

    2. Lots of free goodies for everyone, unless you happen to have a real job and pay taxes.

      Well, someone has to pay for it. Though the way things are going there are fewer and fewer “someones” to milk.

  32. Shooting at UNLV. Shooter dead, daughter there is fine, in a building pretty far away. Sent her police scanner site and/or app to install (Broadcastify). Texting back and forth.

      1. She seemed unfazed because she was far away from that building. One more day – that’s where and when her math class is 😬

  34. Two years later the Facebook group’s membership has swelled to more than 3,000. As the months have dragged on, the tenor of the posts have grown more desperate and irate. ‘I don’t know what to tell these people,’ she said. ‘And I’m gutted’

    I’d stick with the tried and true Bella. The good old, put yer head between yer knees and kiss yer a$$ goodbye!

  35. ‘So we project that the vacancy goes up to 25 or 30% for the next couple of years. And office is already in the tank’

    We’ve seen demolitions mentioned a few times, but IMO it should be a more serious proposition. The writing is on the wall, floor and ceiling for a bunch of this CRE. The article the other day about how Texas metros have been oversupplied since the 80’s and 90’s is a perfect example. A couple of years ago somebody made a list of all the vacant buildings in downtown Dallas and there were some towers that had been completely empty for up to 12 years. That’s a lot of maintenance money flushed for good. Just blow it up, make it a park and hope some real use appears.

      1. Above 5 or 6 floors usually means a steel structure, think union; scabs don’t erect steel, so a big investment worth much more than the parcel value. These sit empty until a fresh investor buys ’em. I’ve washed the windows on a few of these empty high rise buildings back in the 80s.

  37. ‘many have been reaching the end of lower fixed-rate deals after having made ’emotional decisions during the pandemic, bought with their hearts not heads, and got it horribly wrong.’ At the same time, he said it can be difficult to sell quickly because the ‘market has shifted and there is just no demand for certain types of property and certain price brackets’

    So they could sell it but would have to write a check or they could keep paying but are choosing not to. Good money after bad mentality means speculators.

  38. ‘If we were to refinance today it would increase our monthly payment by almost 1,000,’ said Joshua. ‘They had no problem giving us the loan, right? That’s where I can’t help but feel we’re the victims in this situation.’ ‘We can’t afford to keep the house with the new interest rates,’ said Asay, ‘so it’s coming down to selling it, or figure out a way to muster up the money to make those payments.’”

    Joshua, I’ve heard on a popular housing website that, if you’re still eating, you’re not trying!

  39. Brampton, Mississauga & Durham Real Estate Update – Fake Income Won’t Help Real Payments (Nov 2023)
    Team Sessa Real Estate
    20 minutes ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current Brampton, Mississauga, Ajax, Whitby, Pickering Real Estate home prices and market trends for week ending Nov 29, 2023. We also discuss how some of the people feeling the effects of the current economy are those who falsified documents in order to obtain mortgages. Dream homes they could not qualify for legitimately are now becoming their nightmare.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_4rZej8LW8

    19:16.

  41. From politico:

    Congress provided $7.5B for electric vehicle chargers. Built so far: Zero.

    It’s embezzlers and crooks all the way down.

    Congress at the urging of the Biden administration agreed in 2021 to spend $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers across the country, aiming to appease anxious drivers while tackling climate change.

    Two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger.

    We have become the can’t do nation.

    I predict that not a single rail will ever be laid for the proposed LA-Vegas bullet train, train, though lots of consultants and lawyers will rake in the bucks.

    2. Prof: yes and no. Congress can shut down Bitcoin as a currency per the Constitution, but probably not as an asset.

        1. Assets are not tangible. Patented ideas aren’t tangible but they have value. Mental images of, say, Mickey Mouse, aren’t tangible but they have value. If people want to pass around fiat currency in exchange for the rights to the “original” version of a .jpeg file, they are monumentally stupid but Congress has no right to stop them. However, if the same people wanted to use an invented currency without converting through dollars, then they are effectively coining money, which is a power delineated only to Congress per Article 1 Section 8.

          1. Patented ideas aren’t tangible but they have value. Mental images of, say, Mickey Mouse, aren’t tangible but they have value.

            Although intangible, intellectual property assets are legally protected by different legal instruments (e.g., patent certificate, trademark registration, copyright registration) that are enforceable in a court of law. Those legal instruments confer value.

            Goodwill and brand equity are probably better examples of intangible assets with value.

          3. Via Wikipeida: The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act – also known as the Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or (derisively) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act – extended copyright terms in the United States in 1998. It is one of several acts extending the terms of copyright.

    1. Yahoo
      Yahoo Finance
      Stock market news today: Stocks slide, oil hits 5-month lows
      Josh Schafer, Alexandra Canal and Karen Friar
      Wed, December 6, 2023 at 1:36 PM PST·1 min read
      In this article:

      US stocks slipped on Wednesday amid fresh signs of economic malaise, as oil prices hit lows not seen since June and investors looked to data that signaled more cooling in the labor market.

      The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell about 0.4% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped more nearly 0.2% or about 70 points. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) shed roughly 0.6%.

      Wednesday brought fresh signs of softening in the labor market, as the ADP gauge on private payrolls missed expectations, finding that 103,000 jobs were added in November.

      That came after Tuesday’s soft reading on jobs openings bolstered optimism for a Fed pivot to cutting interest rates. Markets are pricing in at least 100 basis points of cuts next year. But doubts about policy remain, with strategists warning those bets look “overdone.”

      Oil prices hit a five-month low on Wednesday as new data showed further signs of weak demand. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) fell 4%, settling at $69.38 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) crude, the international benchmark price, was down more than 3.6%, closing at $74.30 per barrel level.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-today-stocks-slide-oil-hits-5-month-lows-210733465.html

      1. Lest I be considered anti-Semitic, I have family members and many good friends who are Jewish. I also worked in Lower Manhattan at One Broadway, not too far from Wall Street.

      3. The ones that created most of the modern story along with shows we watched as kids certainly did.

        You could say they were a key part to the creation of the commercial franchise that is now Christmas.

        1. Traditionally in LatAm and Spain the Magi bring children gifts on Jan 6, that is until Santa hustled his way in.

  45. The Economist
    Graphic detail | Chasing the American dream
    Is it cheaper to rent or buy property?
    We crunch the house-price data across every American county—and make a surprising finding
    Nov 28th 2023
    To read more of The Economist’s data journalism visit our Graphic detail page.

    FOR YEARS new home-buyers in America have enjoyed lower housing payments than renters. Between 2011 and 2020 the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home was 12% lower than the rental cost of a similar property (assuming a deposit of 13%, the current national average). A steady rise in home values, worth roughly 7% per year over the past decade, also ensured buyers built equity in their homes. But, as our maps below show, today the choice between buying and renting looks very different.

    Blame high house prices and soaring mortgage rates. Since 2020 nominal house prices have climbed by roughly 40%. In the same period the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose from 3.1% to 7.3%, lifting the mortgage repayments on a typical house by more than 50%. All this means nominal mortgage payments have more than doubled since 2020; rents, by contrast, have risen by roughly 20%. By our calculations, for 89% of Americans renting a two-bedroom dwelling is now cheaper than buying a comparable property. Three years ago the figure was 16%.

    Our calculations do not cover long-term potential costs and benefits, such as outlays on maintenance, the asset value of a home once a mortgage has been paid off, or the opportunity cost of investing in a deposit for a house rather than, say, the stock market. But they do show how the relative costs of buying and renting have been upended throughout much of America. To restore the ownership advantage that prevailed in the 2010s would require dramatic shifts in market conditions. By our reckoning, house prices would have to tumble by one-third, average mortgage rates would have to fall to 3.2%, or rental costs would have to rise by at least 50%.
    …
    https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/28/is-it-cheaper-to-rent-or-buy-property

          1. CABIN FEVER. It’s going to be a tough winter once we have permanent ice and/or snow on the ground. The recent pineapple express ushered a brief return of mid 40s temps, but freezing is back in the forecast. I wish I had an indoor swimming pool to help her get some exercise.

    2. — An illegal immigrant after crossing the southern border

      Teacher says that every time a bell rings, an illegal joins the Free Sh!t Army

  47. We are experiencing a form of insanity in the housing market. It almost warrants clinical diagnosis. People are just gripped by a mixture of ‘must have’, fear of missing out, and detachment from reality. I feel so fortunate to be immune to it, but it’s lonely. Even those nearest and dearest need constant reminding that things are not normal.

    A little story helps illustrates this. A home was recently listed for $860k in a non-descript city in soCal, few have even heard of. At the open house everyone was greeted with the news the square footage had been wrongly calculated. An extra 400 square foot of un-permitted space had just been …well, seemingly permitted, at least as far as hiking the price was concerned. A sane person would view all this with disdain and walk away. But, no. Offers came in fast and furious, and well over the new list price, and not by a meagre amount.

    So, you’ve gone from $860 to over a $1m and under contract with back up offers in one week. The home was nothing special. Now, it’s possible the original list prices was deliberately pitched low to create conditions for a bidding war. The sudden appearance of un-permitted living space may have a ruse to that end. You can be forgiven for asking the question of why do people smart enough to have $1m cash lying not realize they’ve just been fleeced. Most people under normal conditions find the act of being ripped off abhorrent and to be avoided at all costs. With housing, the opposite is true. People relish the idea of paying for the ‘must-have’ and at any cost. Therein lies the insanity. A complete reversal of normal behavior, values, and rationale.

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