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The Greatest Real Estate Crisis Since The Financial Crisis

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Housing sales in Hampton Roads increased slightly during November and December 2023, leading to about 3,500 residential listings being active in December. ‘Most people qualify for more than they want to take on for a mortgage payment,’ Southern Trust Mortgage Loan Officer Pat Miller said.”

“The Federal Reserve‘s pursuit of lower inflation has proven to be an obstacle for the American housing market. The consequence of that pursuit, which pushed up borrowing costs on U.S. households, is a 16 percent year-over-year surge in mortgage delinquencies (60 days past due), according to TransUnion’s fourth-quarter report. With roughly 84 million mortgages active in the U.S., according to data from LendingTree, that would mean about 1,092,000 Americans are more than 60 days past due on their mortgages. ‘We don’t have anything like that systemic problem today,’ said Michele Raneri, head of U.S. research at TransUnion. Indeed, the amount of mortgages that are 60 days past due are ebbing at historically low levels long term, dating to 2005.”

“The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has sued Colony Ridge, a Texas based lender and developer, for allegedly operating an illegal land sales scheme and targeting tens of thousands of Hispanic borrowers with false statements and predatory loans. The complaint also claims the company sold unsuspecting families flood-prone land without water, sewer or electrical infrastructure, and set them up to fail with loans they can’t afford. ‘That’s essentially the message that this lawsuit is putting out into the world,’ said Nicole Cabañez with the National Consumer Law Center. ‘That you cannot, you cannot target a population that you consider to be vulnerable with expensive products that are built to fail.'”

“In December 2022, Gen Zers McCall and Cole Porter jumped at the chance to buy a home in a market that was difficult for many people their age. The Porters found their $415,000 two-story townhome in a relatively new development area of Saratoga Springs. Cole Porter said they chose the Saratoga Springs home because it was the best deal and was seller-financed. ‘We heard from a friend of a friend who knows a lady that was selling this house,’ Porter said. ‘She moved into it brand new, but her job at the last second had to move her to Logan, so she needed to sell it quickly.’ Porter said the seller would have lost money selling it the traditional route, ‘So, instead, we just took over her payments.'”

“New York Community Bancorp boosted its lost-loss reserves by 790% or $490 million in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, more than any other bank in its class, as it faces potential challenges in its office and multi-family loan portfolio. Matthew Cypher, director of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate at Georgetown University, ‘Banks have made real-estate loans that they’ll have to take their lumps on.’ The rapid rise in interest rates has also taken a toll on portfolios by making debt more expensive for potential refinancings, at a time when office space pricing has yet to find a bottom in many markets, Cypher said. ‘We drank a lot of cheap debt for a long time and the reckoning is painful,’ Cypher said.”

“Sales in the Greater Toronto Area jumped 37 per cent in January compared with January of last year. The data show early signs of life in the housing market, but Andre Kutyan, broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate, said that while it means homeowners are able to sell, many were forced to reduce the asking prices they set last summer and fall. For example, Mr. Kutyan points to a two-plus-one bedroom unit at the Four Seasons Private Residences in Toronto that he recently sold for $5.93-million – which was still half a million below the asking price set last summer – and less than the current owners paid more than two years ago. The sellers purchased the unit, located at 50 Yorkville Ave., in late 2021 for $6.25-million. They listed it last July for $6.495-million before Mr. Kutyan lowered the asking price – first to $6.395-million in the fall, and then to $6.250-million, where it sat for the rest of the year. ‘As long as everyone’s acting reasonably, we can get to a result,’ he says.”

“As his real estate empire showed signs of trouble, a robed Robby Clark appeared in a promotional video, standing at the bow of a yacht, arms raised to the sky as a camera circled overhead. ‘You can stick me in the desert with nothing and I’m going to come out owning the desert,’ Clark is heard saying at another point in the three-minute video. Maps of Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury appear — they’re among the Ontario communities where he owned an estimated 800 properties and thousands of tenants lived. ‘I’m going to have a billion dollars in holdings,’ Clark says.”

“But behind the scenes, Clark’s business, SID Developments, and 11 connected corporations had taken on millions of dollars in debt and were struggling to keep up with payments to lenders, according to documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Meanwhile, rundown properties sat vacant, and utility bills, property taxes and contractors went unpaid. In Sault Ste. Marie, a northern Ontario city of about 73,000, the corporations own about 200 homes, or one per cent of the housing stock, Mayor Matthew Shoemaker told CBC Hamilton. The impact has been overwhelmingly negative. ‘I would be happy never to deal with these companies again,’ he said. Almost half the homes they own in Sault Ste Marie are in an ‘unsalvageable’ state of disrepair and sit vacant, Shoemaker said.”

“Fed-up residents and landlords in Colwyn Bay say their lives are being made a misery by unfinished work carried out at their privately owned properties on behalf of Conwy County Council. The situation was created when Conwy received around £3m of funding from Welsh Government in February 2021 to upgrade and modernise homes in the Colwyn Bay area. Steve Patient has lived at his maisonette on Abergele Road since 1986 and was promised around £40,000 of work, which he also says has been left incomplete, damaging his property. ‘You are like a prisoner in your own home because you have to wait three years after all this work is signed off to sell; otherwise, you have to pay a load of the money back,’ said Steve. ‘I’m seventy-four. I’m getting too old to move. I’m going to be a lot older when I’m 77 if we decided to sell then.'”

“Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, or PBB, a German lender focused on real estate, has set aside more money for bad debts as it braces for what it says is the worst decline in commercial property values in 15 years. PBB increased its provisions for losses on loans in the fourth quarter of 2023, taking the total set aside for the year to as much as €215 million ($231.7 million), it said. ‘Despite these expenses, PBB remains profitable thanks to its financial strength — even in the greatest real estate crisis since the financial crisis,’ it added.”

“As some of the biggest players in Western Australia’s critical minerals sector ask for urgent government support, analysts say the mineral’s deflated sector does not deserve a taxpayer-funded lifeline. Nickel prices have plummeted in recent months due to a glut in the market. Analyst Peter Strachan said the past 12 to 18 months had seen the nickel industry balloon to an unsustainable level. ‘It’s like tulip mania, really,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen so much [corporate] money just being chucked at the industry.'”

“Homeowners in Hong Kong are grappling with substantial losses at the beginning of the year as the city’s property prices have experienced a decline for eight consecutive months. The real estate market has been smothered under a softening economy and high interest rates. The recent stock market slump has further dampened market sentiment, leading flat owners who want to cash in to slash prices to secure sales, property agents say. One example is Mantin Heights in Ho Man Tin, where a three-bedroom, 865 sq ft flat recently sold for HK$15.85 million (US$2 million), equivalent to HK$18,324 per square foot. This price represents a significant drop of 38 per cent, or HK$9.62 million, from what the seller paid in September 2018.”

“Additionally, 89 loss-making cases have been recorded so far this month, or 32.48 per cent of total secondary-market sales, according to Derek Chan, the head of research at property agent Ricacorp Properties. ‘The Hang Seng Index once fell to below 15,000, and that hit market sentiment,’ he said.”

“From afar, China Evergrande Group had all the makings of a killer distressed-debt trade: $19 billion in defaulted offshore bonds; $242 billion in assets; and a government that appeared determined to prop up the country’s faltering property market. So US and European hedge funds piled into the debt, envisioning big payouts to juice their returns. What they got instead over the course of the next two years is a harsh lesson in the dangers of trying to bargain with the Communist Party. The talks are now dead — a Hong Kong court has ordered Evergrande’s liquidation, and the bonds are nearly worthless, trading in secondary markets at just 1 cent on the dollar.”

“‘Investors probably did not fully appreciate the risk of state intervention,’ said David Knutson, chair of The Credit Roundtable, an organization of investors that works to respond to corporate actions averse to bondholders. ‘Apportioning losses between domestic creditors and foreign creditors will be political.’ Of course, it’s more than just Beijing’s involvement that caused Evergrande’s bonds to crater. One Evergrande adviser said that while they’re relieved the negotiations are over, how they ended has left them feeling like they wasted two years of their life. It’s a sentiment shared by many.”

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  2. ‘Most people qualify for more than they want to take on for a mortgage payment’

    That’s some sound lending Pat.

    ‘We don’t have anything like that systemic problem today,’ said Michele Raneri, head of U.S. research at TransUnion. Indeed, the amount of mortgages that are 60 days past due are ebbing at historically low levels long term, dating to 2005’

    Wa happened after 2005 Michele?

    1. When Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagal act, he became an instant multi-millionaire. After that, banks were able to gamble fast and loose, actually causing the 2008 financial crisis. Nothing was learnt, no changes were made. Banks got a bailout. Now, the big banks are allowed to gamble with over a quadrillion dollars in derivatives.

      When JFK was assassinated, there was a Bill on his desk awaiting signature to end the Federal Reserve.

      And here we are. I guess things aren’t bad enough yet to make the changes we need…or are too lazy. Oh BTW, only eight people were hanged at the Nuremberg trials. Hermann Göring was scheduled to be hanged on that day, but committed suicide using a potassium cyanide capsule the night before.

      Not many people can qualify for a home loan where I live, so most people pay cash. Just imagine a world without banks and paying cash for a shack?Maybe house prices would come down a bit, ya think?

      Wifey got a green card and worked one year in the US, saving every penny.
      She bought a house back home.

      Our housing costs: Mtg- $0 Prop tax- 9 cents a month, Insurance- $0, water- $5/mo, power- 24/7 ac- $50, cable/internet $9.90/mo. Trash- $3/mo.
      Total- $67.99/mo.

      Healthcare $4.25/mo.

      I don’t like banks.

      2. “Not many people can qualify for a home loan where I live, so most people pay cash. Just imagine a world without banks and paying cash for a shack? Maybe house prices would come down a bit, ya think?”

        Or insurance. Same could be said about doctors. Imagine the quality of care if all appointments were cash only.

    2. “‘Most people qualify for more than they want to take on for a mortgage payment”

      Which may explain…
      Assests per citizen $561,661
      Liability per citizen $632,638
      Source: usdebtclock.org

  3. ‘As his real estate empire showed signs of trouble, a robed Robby Clark appeared in a promotional video, standing at the bow of a yacht, arms raised to the sky as a camera circled overhead. ‘You can stick me in the desert with nothing and I’m going to come out owning the desert’…‘I’m going to have a billion dollars in holdings’

    This article is a hoot. He was sort of running a ponzi scheme except with no money coming in.

    2. “As his real estate empire showed signs of trouble, a robed Robby Clark appeared in a promotional video . . . ”

      all hat. no cattle

  4. NPR — Tucker Carlson, the fired Fox News star, makes bid for relevance with Putin interview (2/8/2024):

    “The right-wing television provocateur Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin in Moscow in an exchange fueling both the Russian president’s anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and Carlson’s drive for renewed relevance in his post-Fox career.

    In a video taped after the interview, Carlson told viewers that he found Putin to be sincere, if not adept at making his case to an American audience. “He denied it, but it’s obvious he’s very wounded by the rejection of the West,” Carlson said. “Like a lot of Russians he expected the end of the Cold War would be Russia’s invitation into Europe.”

    It is the first interview Putin has granted to an American since the Russian invasion two years ago.

    The pairing should not come as a surprise. Carlson has routinely been lionized by Kremlin propaganda outlets; his clips attacking the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine have been routinely rebroadcast, for example.”

    https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/1230024588/tucker-carlson-putin-interview-video

    A bid for relevance?

    NPR wouldn’t exist without taxpayer money, or their endless beggar bowl donation drives.

    See also: thousands of layoffs of Real Journalists whose publications are losing subscribers, viewers, and revenue, yet still consider only themselves to be “relevant.”

    FAIL

        3. And clearly out of his depth.

          Not according to me and millions of his followers.
          On what is that opinion based?

          4. Exactly. The one and only truth seeking journalist and petty cheesy minds go after a perceived petulant complaint.

        4. Putin is near genius level intelligence and a master propagandist. I’m not sure there’s any journalist who would not be out of his depth.

    2. Related article, with The Atlantic’s latest episode of the Urine Soaked Mattress Chronicles.

      If Russia Wins (2/8/2024):

      “The Republicans in Congress, however, remain fixated both on their hatred of Ukraine and on their affection for Russia. Their relentless criticism of assistance to Kyiv has had its intended effect, taking a bite out of the American public’s support for continuing aid, especially as the war has been crowded out by the torrent of more recent news, including Donald Trump’s endless legal troubles and Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

      And so it’s time to think more seriously about what might happen if the Republicans succeed in this irresponsible effort to blockade any further assistance to Ukraine. The collapse and dismemberment of a nation of millions is immediately at stake, and that should be enough for any American to be appalled at the GOP’s obstructionism. But the peace of the world itself could rest on what Congress does—or does not do—next.

      The world, should Russia win, will face remarkable new dangers—and for what? Because in 2024 some astonishingly venal and ambitious politicians wanted to hedge their bets and kiss Trump’s ring one more time? Perhaps enough Republicans will come to their senses in time to avert these possible outcomes. If they do not, future historians—that is, if anyone is left to record what happened—will be perplexed at how a small coterie of American politicians were so willing to trade the safety of the planet for a few more years of power.”

      https://archive.is/0CF9w

      Russia is winning.

      Nobody outside the Beltway supports Ukraine. Nobody.

      Another $60 billion to keep Zelensky’s beak full of cocaine, his skank wife’s Paris shopping trips, paying off his corrupt cabal of cronies (don’t forget 10% for the Big Guy), American taxpayers you’re being robbed blind for an endless war that can never be won.

    3. On the subject of “relevance” LOLZ.

      Salon (via Archive, of course) — Hillary Clinton drags “useful idiot” Tucker Carlson for Putin interview (2/8/2024):

      “Well, it shows me what I think we’ve all known,” Clinton said. “He’s what is called a ‘useful idiot.’ I mean, if you actually read translations of what’s being said on Russian media, they make fun of him. I mean, he’s like a puppy dog. You know, somehow, after having been fired from so many outlets and the United States, he– I would not be surprised if he emerges with a contract with a Russian outlet because he is a useful idiot.”

      Carlson has been a vocal critic of the United States’ military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. The right-wing media personality has promoted conspiracy theories about Ukraine building bioweapons to use against Russia and disregarded Putin’s track record of authoritarianism while painting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator.”

      The interview is “really quite sad,” Clinton continued, because it’s a sign that some Americans at this moment “are like a fifth column from Vladimir Putin.”

      https://archive.ph/XcPzJ

      Remember on 9/11/2016 when this nasty skank almost collapsed on the sidewalk in NYC and was tossed into a van like a SIDE OF BEEF?

  5. So, the Porters became responsible for making the mortgage payments of $ 2,200 a month even though the mortgage remained in the seller’s name.

    SO who pays when the water heater leaks……uh hmmm

  6. Is ESG investing counterproductive?

    It wasn’t long ago that every other investor I talked to wanted to know how to take the environmental, social and governance characteristics of companies into account in their portfolio. ESG investment products that exclude stocks with the worst ESG characteristics enjoyed years of interest, and dollars, on the premise of “doing well by doing good.”

    But cracks are beginning to show. Morningstar data for U.S. fund flows show that the fourth quarter of 2023 was the fifth consecutive where the appetite for sustainable funds was weaker than for conventional funds. Globally, the quarter was the first since tracking began in 2018 that sustainable funds saw net outflows.

    Alongside waning investor interest, new research suggests that ESG investing may not be doing as much good as had been hoped. The theory behind the practice is that divesting from the least sustainable companies will increase their cost of capital, pushing them to be greener.

    In the 2023 paper, Counterproductive Sustainable Investing: The Impact Elasticity of Brown and Green Firms, the authors show empirically that reducing the cost of capital for “green” firms (firms with positive environmental impact) leads to, at best, small improvements in their environmental impact, while increasing the cost of capital for “brown” firms (firms with negative environmental impact) makes their environmental impact even worse.

    This means that if sustainable investing successfully shifts capital away from brown firms and toward green firms, it may be making brown firms browner without making green firms greener. The reason is simple when you think about it.

    Take an insurance company as an example. It may rank well on sustainability metrics, but it can’t really get much greener. On the other hand, when a brown firm like a heavy construction materials supplier is backed into a corner by an increased cost of capital, it might lean further into its existing high-pollution operations, or it may even cut corners on pollution mitigation.

    Many ESG-minded investors just want to carry the ESG banner, which is fine, but as BlackRock’s former chief investment officer for sustainable investing, Tariq Fancy, has explained, this could be like selling wheatgrass to a cancer patient. There is limited evidence to support its efficacy, and it might detract attention from more effective activities.

    Hedging ESG risks and feeling good about your portfolio are valid reasons to consider the ESG characteristics of the companies that you own. When it comes to making the world a better place, I don’t have the solution, but ESG investing probably isn’t it.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/household-finances/article-is-esg-investing-counterproductive/

  7. Warmists gonna warm.

    Washington Post — Earth crossed 1.5C of warming this year. Here’s what to know (2/8/2024):

    “According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the past 12 months clocked in at a scorching 1.52 degrees Celsius (2.74 degrees Fahrenheit) higher on average compared with between 1850 and 1900.

    At some level, that’s not surprising — the past 12 months have been scorching, as a warm El Niño cycle combined with the signal of human-caused warming generated heat waves and extreme weather events around the globe.

    Here’s what you need to know:”

    What you need to know.

    “1.5C isn’t a magic threshold; it’s not as though as soon as we pass that number, Antarctic ice sheets will collapse and ocean circulations will grind to a halt. But one thing is certain: For every tenth of a degree of warming, tipping points are more likely. Two degrees is worse than 1.9 degrees, which is worse than 1.8 degrees, and so on.

    And at each tenth of a degree, the infrastructure and systems that the world has built — electric grids, homes, livelihoods — will become more strained. Our modern world simply was not designed for temperatures this high. At some level, the final temperature of the planet isn’t what matters most. It’s where countries can actually get carbon emissions to zero — and stop contributing to future warming altogether.”

    https://archive.is/HrWqo

    Carbon emissions to zero, but that’s only for the Little People.

    Lifestyles of the Parasite Class won’t ever change, because Parasite Class.

  8. Leaders of a Seattle preschool sent a scathing letter to city hall this week, condemning the lack of action to address issues from nearby homeless encampments.

    Gloria Hodge, the center director of the Hoa Mai Vietnamese Bilingual Preschool near 2900 Rainier Avenue South, wrote in the letter that the school has dealt with “persistent harassment” from people in the encampments.

    The letter cites violent crimes near the school, including a stabbing at 27th Ave South and South Winthrop Street on Feb. 1. There were two homicides near encampments in the area in last fall, including a man who was beaten to death on a sidewalk and a fatal shooting at an encampment that was later closed and removed.

    “This isn’t all one camp, it’s split up with different mayors or elders of the camps. Neighbors just started to get tired with it and asked if there was anything we could do to help,” said Timothy Emerson with homeless outreach group We Heart Seattle.

    Emerson acknowledged the drug use going on in the encampments around the Mount Baker Transit Center.

    “The use of fentanyl and methamphetamine is a mind altering thing and I wouldn’t want it near my child’s school,” Emerson said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/seattle-preschool-condemns-citys-woeful-inaction-to-deal-with-nearby-encampments/ar-BB1i0b3h

  9. The mayor of an Ontario city that declared a state of emergency after nearly two dozen people overdosed in just two days is calling for help from the federal and provincial governments.

    None of the overdoses this week in Belleville, a roughly two-hour drive east of Toronto, were fatal, but the situation became so severe on Tuesday, when 14 overdoses were reported in just two hours, that police redirected traffic from downtown to ensure emergency services could get through to the flood of calls. That number had climbed to 23 by Thursday.

    Mayor Neil Ellis urged Ottawa and the provincial government to provide assistance to the southeastern Ontario city of roughly 55,000 people.

    “The past two days have exemplified just how critical the addiction, mental-health and homelessness crisis has become in our community,” Mr. Ellis said in a statement Thursday.

    “We, as a city, know that we are at the point where doing our best doesn’t cut it anymore. Our emergency services, health care system and municipal resources are being stretched to the very limits and we are close to a breaking point.”

    Belleville is among the many cities across the country grappling with converging crises of housing, homelessness, mental health and addictions. Toxic opioids have killed 40,000 people in Canada since 2016 and the annual death toll has worsened every year, while also becoming an increasing problem in smaller communities.

    The city did not say what specific drug is believed to be behind this most recent spike of overdoses, though public-health officials had flagged concerns to frontline workers last week about a batch of laced drugs circulating in the community that seemed resistant to naloxone, a medication that is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

    The Belleville area reported 371 opioid-related calls last year, including a week in November when Fire Chief Dan Smith said there were 90 overdoses.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-belleville-state-of-emergency-overdoses/

  10. WARMINGTON: Canada keeps shampoo off planes but not stolen SUVs off ships

    How do 4,000-pound stolen cars, luxury SUVs and pickups get shipped across the ocean without detection?

    You can’t get a bottle of shampoo larger than 100 ml past security on a commercial flight, so how is it that 4,000-pound stolen cars, luxury SUVs or pickup trucks can be shipped across the ocean without detection?

    Is it okay for media to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that question? Or should we just blame Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre for daring to do so?

    Article content

    Is it okay for media to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that question? Or should we just blame Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre for daring to do so?
    Start the conversation
    Have your say Leave a comment and share your thoughts with our community.
    Be the First to Comment
    Article content

    We’re not talking about a tube of toothpaste here or there sneaking by.

    Canada has between 90,000 and 105,000 vehicles stolen each year – many of which now on roads in Europe or Africa through the stolen vehicle cartels. None of it has ever added up.

    “Vehicle theft is an epidemic in this country,” Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw told them.

    https://calgarysun.com/news/local-news/warmington-canada-keeps-shampoo-off-planes-but-not-stolen-suvs-off-ships

      1. Of course it’s corruption. K-da is one of the most crooked countries on the planet. They still have massive money laundering despite ‘clamping down’ over 10 years ago. That money largely belongs to Chinese mafia, who are actually the police in China! I learned all this watching K-dn real estate. They had a fentanyl problem years before everybody else – also cuz of Chinese mafia.

        What’s funny about it is the self perception in that giant empty sh$thole is that they are morally and ethically superior to everyone.

    2. “Vehicle theft is an epidemic in this country,”

      Dumver says: hold my beer.

      The current firestorm topic on NextDoor is everyone in Colorado screeching that their auto insurance renewal rates rose 30%+.

      Those Soros DAs in metro Dumver and even in places like Larimer county (thanks for nothing, Fort Collins) are really working out.

      But 99% percent of complainers on Next Door refuse to make the connection between sky high thefts and higher premiums, instead blaming the higher rates on greed. Someone did point out that Colorado’s per capita theft rate is four times Wisconsin’s, but the shrieking masses were not convinced.

  11. An angry, emotional US President Joe Biden defended his mental competence Thursday in a rare evening address to Americans to respond to biting comments in a report released hours earlier on his mishandling of classified documents.Appearing on live television from the White House, Biden was furious over the report’s claim that he was unable to remember even the date of his son Beau’s death in 2015, as well as other key moments in his life. “My memory is fine,” he said. “There’s even reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?” Biden said, visibly fighting to rein in his emotions.

    Asked about that comment by reporters in the White House after his formal remarks, Biden said: “I am well meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing.” “I’m president and I put this country back on its feet,” he said. “Take a look at what I’ve done since I’ve become president.” Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republican leaders of the House of Representatives called Hur’s report “deeply disturbing” and said it showed Biden was “unfit” for the presidency. “A man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office,” they said in a statement.

    https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/my-memory-is-fine-bidens-age-back-under-scrutiny-after-classified-documents-probe/ar-BB1i0Q9X

    1. Biden’s train wreck press conference is the clearest indication yet that his globalist handlers are preparing to swap him out for a less unpopular and discredited stooge.

  12. See also: thousands of layoffs of Real Journalists whose publications are losing subscribers, viewers, and revenue, yet still consider only themselves to be “relevant.”

    FAIL totally

    1. And Joe Rogan is reportedly inking a new contract with Spotify for $250 million.

      Talent in demand gets rewarded, and the failed legacy media get all the layoffs they rightly deserve.

    1. ‘This is exactly why the 25th Amendment exists,’ wrote Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) on X. ‘But even Democrats know the only thing worse than a Biden presidency is a Kamala Harris presidency.’

      Gee, maybe they should have chosen a different VP. Yeah, I know, who? All the possible choices were abysmal.

    1. That the Dems are so far saying he is their candidate is them giving the country the finger. They are telling us “We are in control and there is nothing you can do about it. Vote all you want”

      1. Well since they count the votes and can steal however they want, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

    2. Revolver News — Watch: citizen reporter discovers that illegals are excited to vote for Biden in 2024 (2/9/2024):

      “Illegal Migrants Talk About 2024 Election:

      They believe they entered legally because they made a claim for asylum (fake claim) so they think they can vote.

      Reporter:
      “Who are you going to vote for?”
      Illegal Migrant:
      “Joe Biden”
      “Joe Biden is helping us here”
      “Of course for Biden”

      https://revolver.news/2024/02/watch-citizen-reporter-discovers-that-illegals-are-excited-to-vote-for-biden-in-2024/

  17. Porter said the seller would have lost money selling it the traditional route, ‘So, instead, we just took over her payments.’”

    Like lambs to the slaughter.

  18. This price represents a significant drop of 38 per cent, or HK$9.62 million, from what the seller paid in September 2018.”

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

  19. A reader sent these in:

    This is why you are seeing these ripple through effects making the headlines from Japan to Korea and Germany.
    Latest being Korea’s Shinhan Bank
    US CRE collapse is unprecedented

    https://twitter.com/INArteCarloDoss/status/1755533799499186564

    ❖ YELLEN: CONCERN IN MARKET STRESS, COULD SEE A NONBANK FAILURE

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1755613305581007308

    *CHINA FALLS DEEPER INTO DEFLATION, WITH CPI SUFFERING BIGGEST FALL SINCE 2009 AMID WORSENING ECONOMIC TURMOIL

    https://twitter.com/Investingcom/status/1755520329311543491

    “A multitude of indicators are now flashing red, signaling a perilous period ahead for China’s economy & financial markets…As deflation becomes entrenched in China, an increasingly heavy policy lift will be needed to rebuild confidence:” Cornell’s Prasad https://ft.com/content/14b056

    https://twitter.com/lisaabramowicz1/status/1755526386205237572

    ❖ Pending Sales Post Biggest Decline in 4 Months, Dampened By Rising Mortgage Rates

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1755579320657957053

    Pending sales are down 8%, the biggest decline in four months, according to a new report from Redfin

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1755579320657957053

    Report: 80 Percent of CMBS Office Loans Due This Year At Risk of Default or Workout in 2024, per Moody’s

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1755686405726953617

    It was interesting there were several people under 30 at a dinner I attended this evening and I asked them what their life goals or plans were. Not a single one of them had at an answer other than ‘be rich’ or have a lot of money.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1755783708966056280

    People don’t understand that some companies want to go bankrupt
    They’re not trying to “save” the company
    Their options get re-priced
    The debt gets wiped out
    It’s better for the executives
    They prefer it 😉

    https://twitter.com/4Awesometweet/status/1755676764934918511

    With current mortgage rates higher than rents in major German cities is anybody surprised that the epic real estate bubble is bursting?

    https://twitter.com/MichaelAArouet/status/1755495475241722164

    1. “80 Percent of CMBS Office Loans Due This Year At Risk of Default or Workout in 2024”

      Almost FOUR YEARS now since we were told “two weeks to flatten the curve” LOLZ.

      We’re all in this together.

      Stand on the circles on the floor 6 feet apart.

      Wear the mask walking through the restaurant but it’s ok to take it off at your table.

      100% safe and effective.

      Et cetera…

  20. It has begun:

    Denver recreation centers, DMV offices are first to cut back hours to help pay for migrant crisis
    Mayor Mike Johnston outlines plan to shave $5 million from city budget after border deal’s collapse

    And when that 5 million runs out, they will keep cutting other budgets, until the lack of city services becomes painfully obvious.

  21. Brampton, Mississauga & Durham Real Estate Update – Buyer Walks Away From $300K Deposit
    Team Sessa Real Estate
    3 hours 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 Jan 31, 2024. We also discuss an unfortunate scenario a buyer found themselves in while purchasing two pre-construction properties.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTsSud7VAQY

    15:15.

  22. ‘sued Colony Ridge, a Texas based lender and developer, for allegedly operating an illegal land sales scheme and targeting tens of thousands of Hispanic borrowers with false statements and predatory loans. The complaint also claims the company sold unsuspecting families flood-prone land without water, sewer or electrical infrastructure, and set them up to fail with loans they can’t afford. ‘That’s essentially the message that this lawsuit is putting out into the world…That you cannot, you cannot target a population that you consider to be vulnerable with expensive products that are built to fail’

    You can say ‘they cannot’ Nicole but that’s just what they did. Sound lending, this went on fer years! Rumor is it’s a cartel deal.

    1. targeting tens of thousands of Hispanic borrowers

      They meant illegal aliens. Colony Ridge is community that caters to illegal aliens.

    2. So who cares?

      Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez of Venezuela was charged in a crash that killed his girlfriend, Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, and her daughter.

      He was charged with homicide in a crash that killed his girlfriend, Anjelica Guadalupe Amaya Briceno, 20, and her 3-year-old daughter in Upper Merion Township in January.

  23. ‘they chose the Saratoga Springs home because it was the best deal and was seller-financed. ‘We heard from a friend of a friend who knows a lady that was selling this house,’ Porter said. ‘She moved into it brand new, but her job at the last second had to move her to Logan, so she needed to sell it quickly.’ Porter said the seller would have lost money selling it the traditional route, ‘So, instead, we just took over her payments’

    Way to take one for the team McCall and Cole, the market needs knife catchers. Spreads out the pain.

  24. ‘while it means homeowners are able to sell, many were forced to reduce the asking prices they set last summer and fall. For example, Mr. Kutyan points to a two-plus-one bedroom unit at the Four Seasons Private Residences in Toronto that he recently sold for $5.93-million – which was still half a million below the asking price set last summer – and less than the current owners paid more than two years ago…The sellers purchased the unit, located at 50 Yorkville Ave., in late 2021 for $6.25-million’

    It was still cheaper than renting Andre.

  25. ‘was promised around £40,000 of work, which he also says has been left incomplete, damaging his property. ‘You are like a prisoner in your own home because you have to wait three years after all this work is signed off to sell; otherwise, you have to pay a load of the money back,’ said Steve. ‘I’m seventy-four. I’m getting too old to move. I’m going to be a lot older when I’m 77 if we decided to sell then’

    Complicated arrangements with real estate and commie guberments aren’t a good idea Steve. One the bright side, when you sell you’ll be rolling in pesos so paying that load back shouldn’t be a problem.

  26. ‘It’s like tulip mania, really,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen so much [corporate] money just being chucked at the industry’

    For how many years have we seen huge amounts of money thrown away on any number of harebrained schemes? This is the same money you and I rely on for our lives. It’s an election year and I see no discussion about these globalist scum being able to print as much as they want, then buy and distort which ever market they please. Robber barons would blush at the money grab. Like so many things, globalist scum media work the so-called ‘narrative.’

    1. A related point:

      ‘From afar, China Evergrande Group had all the makings of a killer distressed-debt trade: $19 billion in defaulted offshore bonds; $242 billion in assets; and a government that appeared determined to prop up the country’s faltering property market. So US and European hedge funds piled into the debt, envisioning big payouts to juice their returns. What they got instead over the course of the next two years is a harsh lesson in the dangers of trying to bargain with the Communist Party. The talks are now dead — a Hong Kong court has ordered Evergrande’s liquidation, and the bonds are nearly worthless, trading in secondary markets at just 1 cent on the dollar’

      The globalist scum on wall street created this system of loaning money to the communist builders in China and now they are snapping up the bonds that aren’t worth the rice paper they are printed on, and taking yuuge a$$ poundings yet again.

      Golly, where would the world be without all this central bank inspired financial innovation? Look at how all that minor respiratory illness spending cured cancer!

  27. How did you lose yer shack Derek?

    The Hang Seng Index once fell to below 15,000, and that hit market sentiment.

  28. This is INSANITY | Mortgage Fraud At HSBC Bank
    Angry Mortgage Podcast
    3 hours ago

    Fake Income From China gets people mortgages in Canada?

    Sam Cooper Canada’s Premier Investigative Journalist on Money Laundering has discovered a Whistleblower inside HSBC who revealed numerous instances of improper treatment of Foreign Income documents to qualify for mortgages in Canada. Ridiculous $538K Salaries from a Shanghai company to a woman living Full time in Canada where she worked as a Part -Time Hair Stylist? That fake Shanghai income allowed for the purchase of several Multi-Million dollar homes in Canada.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Zd5vGUWGc

    6:50. Biggest crooks on the planet.

  30. The Epoch Times
    @EpochTimes

    · Feb 9, 2024
    ·
    Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won in 2020

    A new study of mail-in ballot fraud challenges the official results of the 2020 presidential election.

    https://x.com/EpochTimes/status/1756078520315662366?s=20

    Mail-In Ballot Fraud Study Finds Trump ‘Almost Certainly’ Won in 2020

    By Tom Ozimek
    2/9/2024

    A new study examining the likely impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots had in the 2020 election concludes that the outcome would “almost certainly” have been different without the massive expansion of voting by mail.

    The Heartland Institute study tried to gauge the probable impact that fraudulent mail-in ballots cast for both then-candidate Joe Biden and his opponent, President Donald Trump, would have had on the overall 2020 election results.

    The study was based on data obtained from a Heartland/Rasmussen survey in December that revealed that roughly one in five mail-in voters admitted to potentially fraudulent actions in the presidential election.

    After the researchers carried out additional analyses of the data, they concluded that mail-in ballot fraud “significantly” impacted the 2020 presidential election.

    They also found that, absent the huge expansion of mail-in ballots during the pandemic, which was often done without legislative approval, President Trump would most likely have won.

    “Had the 2020 election been conducted like every national election has been over the past two centuries, wherein the vast majority of voters cast ballots in-person rather than by mail, Donald Trump would have almost certainly been re-elected,” the report’s authors wrote.

    Over 43 percent of 2020 votes were cast by mail, the highest percentage in U.S. history.

    The new study examined raw data from the December survey carried out jointly between Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, which tried to assess the level of fraudulent voting that took place in 2020.

    The December survey, which President Trump called “the biggest story of the year,” suggested that roughly 20 percent of mail-in voters engaged in at least one potentially fraudulent action in the 2020 election, such as voting in a state where they’re no longer permanent residents.

  33. Steve Keeley
    @KeeleyFox29

    22 year old man who “entered the United States illegally from Mexico on May 5th, 2023”charged with two counts Homicide by Vehicle in Upper Merion crash January 13th that killed 20yr old woman& her 3 year old daughter. Brayan Alejandro Gonzalez-Paez was living in Norristown. 1/2

    10:31 AM · Feb 7, 2024

    https://x.com/KeeleyFox29/status/1755252846822346868?s=20

  34. RINO Fest 2024

    America Last: 12 Senate Republicans Vote to Send Ukraine Another $60B After Vowing to Put U.S. Border First

    JOHN BINDER
    9 Feb 2024

    This week, 17 Senate Republicans joined Democrats to approve sending Ukraine another $60 billion. Twelve of those Republicans previously suggested they would not help send Ukraine any more American taxpayer money until the United States’s border was secure from illegal immigration.

    On Thursday, Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN) joined every Senate Democrat excluding Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to send billions more in taxpayer dollars to Ukraine

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/02/09/america-last-12-senate-republicans-vote-to-send-ukraine-another-60b-after-vowing-to-put-u-s-border-first/

  35. No one is above the law, oh wait.
    Joe Biden broke the law with classified documents, but he’s to old to face charges.
    But, he’s ok being Commander in Chief, holding the codes that could launch a war that could destroy the earth.He ok sending 200 billion to Ukraine. He’s Ok to allow invasion of border. He’s ok by executive order transferring US Sovereignty to the World Health Organization. He is ok protecting the US democracy and attacking enemy of state combatants , like half the Country.
    Rigged elections have consequences.

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