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The Unexpected Has Come Up – Your Property Is Not Worth What You Paid For It

A report from Realtor.com. “The Austin, TX, housing market boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, Ben Brajtbord, 38, and his girlfriend, Emily Sawyer, 34, started house hunting in Austin when the local market was still on fire. The first-time homebuyers figured it wouldn’t get any easier to buy a home. They finally had an offer accepted in August 2022. In the 78748 ZIP code where Brajtbord and Sawyer purchased their home, median list prices dropped 20.4% from the maximum price in the second quarter of 2022 to February 2024. ‘It’s always a bit unnerving that you see that you’re not underwater, but [your home] is worth less than you bought it for,’ says Brajtbord. ‘But Austin is still a desirable location. We still love the house. It’s not something that we spend too much time worrying about.'”

The New York Times on Colorado. “Marleen Gamble had already taken out a reverse mortgage on her town house in 2018 to keep up with the steady increase in expenses eating into the Social Security checks that are her only source of income. Then this year, Gamble, a retired X-ray technician, faced a 20% spike in her property tax bill. With no other way to pay it, she began to empty her home of 34 years in the Denver suburb of Littleton, one memento at a time. Her dining room set, sold. Her jewelry, now someone else’s. ‘Every knickknack I have, everything I don’t use, I’m selling,’ said Gamble, 84, who has asked officials in neighboring Douglas County about applying for subsidized housing. ‘What I owe now is $962.62. I think I need to use two credit cards to do it. And I’m going to have to pay interest on those.'”

“Mike DeGuire, a retired school principal who owns a second home in Silverthorne, closer to Denver, also criticizes the bill as misguided and unfair. ‘Maybe we’re not thinking the way we should with property taxes,’ DeGuire said. ‘It’s almost a psychological thing — people are used to getting their refunds, and they’re used to their taxes not being so high, so we’re in a real bind.'”

From WINK News. “Something scary is coming to Southwest Florida this October, and no, it’s not Halloween. Flood insurance is increasing another 25% on October 1, 2024. More than 100,000 homeowners in Lee County and Cape Coral are considering transforming into a bat and flying away! ‘I know that being in Florida is an area where elderly people flourish. And now having to leave that dream and go back,’ said Susan Lewis. ‘I know that I might be cutting my husband’s life short, but financially, we don’t really have a choice.'”

“Susan and Bob Lewis are now looking at places in the bible belt where they’ll once again face harsher winters. But harsh winters are easier to face than the harsher financial free-for-all coming this fall from FEMA. ‘I’m beyond disappointed in FEMA. With the limited income that we have and the damage that we had here. We didn’t get one dime from FEMA,’ said Susan. ‘We didn’t get a dime for food or anything else, so I don’t really feel like they have my back.'”

Dorchester Reporter in Massachusetts. “Faced with a sharp downturn in office property values in Boston, Mayor Wu is trying to cushion the blow of rising tax bills expected for owners of residential property. Among Boston’s residential properties, some of the sharpest increases in value in recent years, with resulting jumps in tax bills, have been at the lower end of the housing market, including much of Dorchester and Mattapan. Veronica Barros, who owns a three-decker in the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood with her father, told The Reporter that her tax bills have already been rising, with the property assessed at $1.2 million. ‘We’ve gotten a surprise with taxes already this year,’ she said. ‘When I got that bill, I froze. I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach. You sit down and have to take a breath. It’s hard to swallow and infuriating.We came from Cape Verde and everyone owns their own house here. They bought their houses at a good time. Today, it’s hard for us to all get by.'”

“Another way to ease the tax burden would be to reduce overall revenue to less than the ceiling allowed under Proposition Two-and-a-half. Since the measure was approved in 1980, the city has never collected less than the maximum amount. And Wu said it was ‘just not realistic’ to solve the budget problem through cuts in spending. ‘We would not be able to deliver city services at a basic level that we know our constituents and residents deserve,’ she said.”

The Wall Street Journal. “East of Los Angeles in California’s secluded desert, the Joshua Tree area was the state’s hottest real-estate market during the pandemic. Now higher interest rates, a bloated short-term rental market and the return to pre-Covid normalcy have brought the market back down to earth. According to the Zillow Home Value Index, the typical home value in the community of Joshua Tree was $217,007 in July 2020. That figure rose to $467,348 in July 2022, and by February 2024 had fallen to $385,941. Values in nearby communities saw similar trajectories: In Twentynine Palms, the typical home value has dropped 12.2% from its pandemic high, and in Yucca Valley it has fallen 6.5%, according to the index.”

“‘During the pandemic, we saw the biggest real-estate boom in recent history and some home values jumped to unsustainable highs,’ said Bryan Wynwood, a real-estate agent who works in the Joshua Tree area. And last year for the first time since 2008, banks started reaching out to Wynwood to list homes that buyers had defaulted on. ‘I’ve sold five foreclosed homes in the last six months or so,’ he said. ‘One was a short-term rental and another was remodeled specifically to sell to short-term rental investors, but they couldn’t find a buyer and let it go into foreclosure instead.’ As of early April, roughly 40% of the 199 homes on the market in Joshua Tree had price reductions, Wynwood said. Another one of Wynwood’s clients bought a house in Joshua Tree in early 2022 for $450,000, then spent around $130,000 to remodel it, he said, only to sell it this past February for $430,000.”

Silicon Valley in California. “The decision by two tenants to exit downtown San Jose might worsen the maladies that already afflict the economy of the city’s urban core. PwC, a professional services titan, and its recently purchased tech company, Surfaceink, are poised to leave downtown after PwC signed a lease for a big chunk of space in a new office building at Santana Row in West San Jose. As further evidence of a feeble real estate market in downtown San Jose, within the last four months, two large office properties were sold at a big loss compared with their prior sales. In December 2023, an office tower at 303 Almaden Blvd. was bought for slightly under $23.8 million — which was 70% below the price paid for the high-rise at the time of its prior sale in 2017 for $80.2 million. In February 2024, a two-tower office complex at North Market Street and West St. John Street was bought for $34.2 million — a nosedive of 77% compared with the $141.4 million paid in 2019 for the high-rises.”

Bisnow New York. “Wells Fargo is poised to take over a six-story Herald Square building owned by one of New York’s most prominent retail landlords. A partnership of Jeff Sutton’s Wharton Properties has failed to make its mortgage payments at 11 W. 34th St., prompting the bank to initiate foreclosure proceedings, according to court records first reported by Crain’s New York Business. Wharton told its lender it wouldn’t be able to pay off the loan at maturity, triggering ‘optional default,’ according to Wells Fargo’s foreclosure complaint. The foreclosure shows that even the most successful investors aren’t immune from distress caused by maturing loans in a high-interest-rate environment.”

From Barron‘s. “As bond yields turned higher in the first quarter and the trend continued in the first sessions in April, Bank of America’s unrealized losses on a key portion of its bond portfolio have likely surpassed $100 billion. At the end of 2023, the bank was sitting on $98 billion of paper losses on a $595 billion portfolio of bonds, mostly U.S. agency mortgage securities, that were classified as held to maturity for accounting purposes. That means the bank doesn’t plan to sell these assets before they mature, which leaves these losses only on paper, or, in other words, unrealized. Barron’s estimates the bank’s unrealized losses on this bond portfolio have extended to about $110 billion as of March 31, by far the largest for any company in the banking industry. The portfolio is down about 13% from its peak of $683 billion in the third quarter of 2021.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “For many buyers of preconstruction real estate, extravagant launch parties in downtown Toronto or bus tours to charming villages in rural Ontario are a distant memory. Some are home buyers who struggle to line up the financing they need, while others are investors who are reluctant to take ownership of a property only to sell it at a significant loss. In Toronto, Andre Kutyan, broker with Harvey Kalles Real Estate, says new condo buildings are nearing completion in neighbourhoods from Jarvis and Carlton streets in the core to Lawrence Avenue and Avenue Road in North York. ‘People like this are losing their shirts,’ says Mr. Kutyan. ‘They try to play real estate mogul when they really shouldn’t.'”

“Leah Zlatkin, mortgage broker with Mortgage Outlet, says investors who buy condos with the intention of selling in the assignment market typically ensure that a clause in the contract allows them to do so. Many exit before the building is complete. She’s seeing an influx of buyers who intended to live in the unit but now find the appraised value is coming up short. ‘The real risk is in trying to close,’ she says. ‘The unexpected has come up – and that is that your property is not worth what you paid for it.'”

“At the market’s peak, Faisal Susiwala, broker at Re/Max Twin City Faisal Susiwala Realty says, high demand from buyers and little inventory in Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo prompted people to expand their search. Agents from Brampton, Mississauga and Milton led the bus tours to such small towns as Ayr, New Hamburg, Baden and Woodstock. Investors in bucolic Perth County were told that they would be able to make money by selling the properties or renting them out. There was no scope to ever be able to do that, Mr. Susiwala says, because the rural area has no industry and therefore few workers looking for homes. ‘There are no buyers. There are no renters.'”

The Irish Independent. “House buyers have been left in limbo two years after paying deposits as their developer enters Receivership. A director of the building company Alder Homes has said he no longer plans to develop new homes as the system has ‘become too tied up in bureaucracy.’ Eugene Finn told Irish Independent’s Amy Molloy that the housing crisis will worsen as ‘there are many issues bubbling under the surface in the construction sector.'”

“‘The most disappointing part is not being able to finish those houses for these people that I had personal contact with for the last two years,’ Mr Finn said. ‘It’s a very disappointing situation and the most frustrating. It’s the buyers who are suffering.’ While dozens of houses were built in Cluain Dara, 15 properties are unfinished and buyers are now left in limbo about whether they will get to move into their new homes. Some paid deposits for their houses nearly two years ago.”

From ABC News. “Alyssa Luc and her partner Xuan Tri Mai are among many Australians who wish they hadn’t rushed into building a home. It was the end of 2020 when the couple purchased a block of land in Catherine Field, a growth area suburb south-west of Sydney. Their block cost about $500,000, and they spent another $700,000 to enter a contract with what they thought was a reputable volume builder. The couple moved into their new home in July 2023 and, just days in, Ms Luc says they started finding alleged defects, starting with a blockage in their toilet. ‘Think about the economy … think about the builders at the moment. I mean, they [people] can see that so many builders [have] collapsed in the past few years. They should know now that the industry is vulnerable.'”

“IT worker Patrick Quintal says his life has been destroyed by buying into one of Toplace’s troubled developments – Vicinity Apartments in Canterbury, in Sydney’s inner south-west. When asked if people should buy off-the-plan or newly-built apartments, he says: ‘Don’t. Just don’t do it, you are playing Russian roulette with your life basically. In fact, I think you might actually have better odds playing Russian roulette than this. It is crazy how poorly the government is ensuring people can actually safely buy property. You’re expected to be a lawyer, the building engineer, all of that on top of your nine-to-five job. It’s draining.'”

“Mr Quintal purchased a unit with his wife in May 2021 for $685,000 but now may be up for hundreds of thousands of dollars more to fix serious defects. Within months of moving in Mr Quintal had an engineer do an expert report, which he says described the entire building as a ‘death trap.’ ‘It’s not really safe,’ Mr Quintal says. ‘The building as it stands, could not support any kind of movement that was similar to a seismic activity. [It could mean] catastrophic failure … resulting in the building basically collapsing.’ With 276 units, that means owners like Mr Quintal are looking at a cost of at least $180,000 each, but possibly more as construction costs remain elevated and time drags on. At the same time, he says quarterly strata levies have jumped from $900 a month to about $4,000. ‘For me, the financials are quite, quite dire,’ Mr Quintal says.”

Related Posts

Is Buyer’s Remorse The New Normal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGY57OEyXIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3_o15QOf3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-9rSiXO2iI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mEuqxcMlYI

This Post Has 108 Comments

  3. Denver7 — Is it really harder for millennials to buy their first home? (4/3/2024):

    “In 1970, the national median household income was $9,500 a year and the median price of a single-family house was $17,000, making the housing multiple 1.77. In 2022, the housing multiple was 3.04 — a 72% increase.

    Colorado saw one of the biggest increases in the housing multiple between 1970 and 2022, up 137%. In 1970, the housing multiple was 1.8 compared to 4.49 in 2022. Early data for 2023 show it’s catapulted to 5.84 …

    maybe it’s time to ask the question: Should home ownership still be the American dream?

    Consider Switzerland. Only 36% of Swiss own their own homes, the lowest rate in the West and well below the 67% in the U.S. Yet, the Swiss have the sixth best quality of life in the world, are among the top-5 happiest people in the world, and some of the wealthiest. Homeownership isn’t the only path to joy and money.

    You may have more in common with the Swiss than you realize. They have a popular activity called beer hiking — hikes through the mountains that end at breweries. Then they go home to their rentals. Sound familiar?”

    https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/is-it-really-harder-for-millennials-to-buy-their-first-home

    You will own nothing.

    And you will be happy.

    1. So are we renaming it the Swiss dream? This is America, we are supposed to have an American dream. Or were.

    3. Meanwhile Ben Brajtbord, 38, and his girlfriend, Emily Sawyer, 34,* bought a house in the frenzy, price dropped 20% and they’re still not underwater or even bothering to worry? This has “Bank of Daddy” down payment written all over it.

      When I bought my house, they gave me a financial reaming and searched all my accounts to make sure there were no unexplained big deposits in the months before the close. At the time, big down payment gifts were not allowed, or least they were frowned upon, by the mortgage bankers.

      —————-
      *Jesus H, get married and have kids already. You’re not getting any younger.

      1. “When I bought my house, they gave me a financial reaming…”

        With an ample down payment, no reaming.

    5. that’s because you can get very affordable government housing payed from your taxes. if you wish luxury, you can buy your own. it’s a choice, but surely swiss people don’t live in tents under bridges, don’t go bankrupt over medical bills, and surely don’t borrow huge amount of money to buy nonsense.
      They make it sound like being serf forever in US or simply homeless should be some sort of dream because the swiss are doing it without mentioning any of hundreds of benefits the swiss enjoy from their taxes, that aren’t any higher than the US.

  5. ‘One was a short-term rental and another was remodeled specifically to sell to short-term rental investors, but they couldn’t find a buyer and let it go into foreclosure instead.’

    Die, speculator scum.

    2. At the age of 24, she admits to sponging off of her “single mother” who cannot afford heating bills, and that she cannot afford food, but I can tell that she is not depriving herself of nose rings and make up.

      At that age, Klog had woman, baby klog, dog, and cave payments.

      But Klog also had job, manufacturing things that were needed.

      I wonder what her study major is….
      Environmental Science?
      Pronoun Correctness ?
      Social Sensitivity Studies?

      And what is funny, is that she is suprised (watch the eye rolling) when the MPs give themselves a raise, and reject some policy that I am sure takes money from tax payers to distribute to her.

  7. Westword — Coloradans Unhappy with Cost of Living (4/3/2024):

    “A large part of what’s driving the change here is a shift among Republicans,” Kevin Ingham, Democrat pollster with Aspect Strategic, said at an April 2 media briefing describing the findings. “Last year, a little over two-thirds of Republicans said that Colorado was heading in the wrong direction. In this survey, that number has spiked up to 83 percent.”

    Democrats and unaffiliated voters showed no change in their feelings about Colorado’s direction, he added.

    Behind that lack of faith in the state’s direction is a concern with cost of living, the pollsters found. In fact, a slight majority of those surveyed said they have considered moving or have moved due to cost concerns.

    Nearly four in ten respondents said they’ve thought about moving to a different state, while 13 percent said they considered moving to a different part of the state. Of those surveyed, 10 percent had actually made the leap of moving to parts of the state with a lower cost of living than the area they’d lived in previously.

    Another sign of shifting times: 58 percent of people reported that Colorado has changed so much that they sometimes feel like a stranger in the state. That’s the case for 85 percent of Republicans, 50 percent of unaffiliated voters and 35 percent of Democrats. Those who have lived in Colorado longer are more likely to report feeling distanced than newer arrivals do, according to the poll.”

    https://www.westword.com/news/poll-coloradans-dislike-cost-of-living-lauren-boebert-and-wolves-20274652

    “Colorado has changed so much that they sometimes feel like a stranger in the state”

    Sounds about right.

    1. “Colorado has changed so much that they sometimes feel like a stranger in the state”

      You can say that again, especially in Dumver.

        1. When the state of Texas did this it was called evil. BTW, this website was one of the many ‘conservatives’ that said we should accept the election results last time. A$$hats.

    2. Some of us weren’t freaking blind and left 3 and 4 years ago. (native coloradoan).

      I didn’t leave colorado, it left me. Can’t tell you how glad I am to be gone.

  8. “East of Los Angeles in California’s secluded desert, the Joshua Tree area was the state’s hottest real-estate market during the pandemic.”

    The RE industry topped PT Barnum with this one. I’ve been out at Twentynine Palms with the military, and there is no reason for anyone to buy out there.

    2. When the delusion that homeownership is the only way to true happiness becomes firmly entrenched it’s amazing where people will buy homes.

  9. And Wu said it was ‘just not realistic’ to solve the budget problem through cuts in spending. ‘We would not be able to deliver city services at a basic level that we know our constituents and residents deserve,’ she said.”
    So you raise taxes and chase people out which leads to less taxes collected and bigger deficits which leads to higher taxes and…. (See CA for an example)
    If this issue in Boston it’s gotta be in most of the large cities. I wonder how they plan to prevent the cities from getting even worse. It will be interesting to watch, and, as a slimy loser renter, hopefully be able to avoid.

    1. Remember the prediction some years ago that we would all move into the big cities and abandon the suburbs, because walk scores or something?

      1. That was not a prediction.. that was telegraphing the grand plan.

        The same way that the media “predicted” that Biden was going to win South Carolina the South Carolina primary in 2020.

  10. “The first-time homebuyers figured it wouldn’t get any easier to buy a home.”

    Why assume this? Evidently Austin real estate does not always go up. So why would buyers believe otherwise?

    2. Updated Thu, Apr 4 2024
      6:05 PM EDT
      Dow closes 500 points lower, its 4th straight losing session and worst day since March 2023: Live updates
      Pia Singh
      Hakyung Kim

      Stocks tumbled on Thursday in a bout of volatile trading ahead of the March jobs report. A spike in oil prices and fears the Federal Reserve could hold off on interest rate cuts also dented investors’ sentiment.

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average
      lost 530.16 points, or 1.35%, to close at 38,596.98. The 30-stock Dow suffered its worst session since March 2023, and it logged its fourth consecutive losing day. The S&P 500 dropped 1.23% to end at 5,147.21. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
      dipped 1.40% to close at 16,049.08.

      The three major averages took a sharp downturn late in the session, falling more than 2% off their intraday highs. Between its highs and lows of the day, the Dow swung more than 860 points.

      Crude oil jumped midday, which coincided with the rollover in stocks Thursday. WTI oil topped $86 a barrel to reach its highest level since October, raising concerns about energy prices helping to reaccelerate inflation.

      Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari also commented Thursday afternoon that he wondered if the central bank should cut rates at all if inflation remained sticky, adding to a recent chorus of Fed speakers talking conservatively about policy. The 10-year Treasury yield rose off the lows of the session on the Kashkari’s comments. It was last trading at 4.305%. The benchmark Treasury yield had briefly touched 4.429% on Wednesday, a new high for the year.

      “Investors right now are sort of taking a wait-and-see attitude,” said Sam Stovall, CFRA Research chief investment strategist. “The 10-year yield is the key driving force because of the concern of the Fed implying that they’re in no hurry to cut rates, and therefore confirming the adage that the Fed will be slower to lower interest rates.”

      The market remains expensive, given that the S&P 500 is trading at a 33% premium to its long-term average, Stovall added.

      “I find that to be a bit disconcerting,” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of time, before we end up digesting some of these gains.”
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/03/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

    3. Financial Times
      Private equity stakes unloaded at a discount as investors seek exits
      Pensions and endowments turn to secondary market to cut exposure and raise needed cash
      Montage of people shaking hands and a sale tag
      Big investors sold 99% of their private equity holdings at or below their net asset value on the secondary market last year
      Sun Yu in New York yesterday

      US institutional investors are selling more of their private equity holdings at a discount as they cut exposure to the illiquid asset class.

      Led by pension funds and endowments, big investors sold 99 per cent of their private equity holdings at or below their net asset value on the secondary market last year, according to Jefferies, the most since the investment bank began tracking the figure in 2017. The figures were 95 per cent in 2022 and 73 per cent in 2021.

      Investors have been forced to increase their use of the secondary market as stock listings and mergers and acquisitions — traditional avenues for private equity investors to exit businesses — have recently been subdued.

      Many pension plans are also obliged to make payouts to their beneficiaries, forcing them to resort to the secondary market to raise cash more quickly.

      “Public pension funds have for many years poured money into private equity on the premise that it was high-return and low-risk while illiquidity was deemed not to be an issue,” said Richard Ennis, co-founder of EnnisKnupp, a consultancy that works with pension plans. “They are now discovering that PE is no magic bullet and liquidity does matter for investors with a sizeable payout requirement.”
      …

    4. Financial Times
      Markets
      Oil tops $90 and stocks tumble as Middle East tensions jolt markets
      S&P 500 closes down 1.2% in worst finish since mid-February and investors rush into Treasuries
      Pumpjacks in Calgary, Alberta
      Brent crude settled at its highest level since October
      Myles McCormick in Houston and George Steer and Kate Duguid in New York yesterday

      Oil prices rose above $90 a barrel and US stocks tumbled as flaring tensions in the Middle East sent tremors through markets.

      Brent crude oil futures rose 1.5 per cent on Thursday to settle at $90.65 a barrel — the highest closing price since October — as traders weighed the potential for Iran’s backlash after a suspected Israeli attack on its consulate in Damascus.

      Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 stock index closed 1.2 per cent lower, its sharpest daily decline since the middle of February, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1.4 per cent.

      Fears that the war between Israel and Hamas might descend into a broader conflagration had simultaneously sparked a rush for assets considered less risky than stocks, according to Steve Englander, head of macro strategy at Standard Chartered in New York.

      “It’s a classic rush for safe-haven assets,” he said, noting that prices for US Treasuries, which are widely considered risk-free, had climbed as stocks sold off.

      “Even the Japanese yen is doing OK, and it takes a lot for the yen to do well these days,” Englander added, referring to the country’s under-pressure currency.

      His thoughts were echoed by Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities. “There was a flight to safety after headlines about an escalation in the Middle East. Crude spiked and investors rushed into Treasury bonds.”
      …

  12. Would you consider buying a home at 40% off the peak bubble price? Or would it be prudent to wait a couple more years to get it for over 50% off peak?

    1. California House Prices Plunge By as Much as 40% in Some Areas
      Published Apr 04, 2024 at 5:52 AM EDT
      By Giulia Carbonaro
      US News Reporter

      Homeowners in parts of California are slashing the price of their properties by as much as 40 percent as they leave behind the explosive home appreciation that characterized the pandemic years.

      A five-bedroom home in Oakland, California, that was listed for sale for $4.1 million in March 2022 is now once again available on real-estate marketplace Redfin for $2,550,000 after experiencing a price cut of more than 40 percent.

      “Oof,” wrote San Francisco Bay Area realtor Matt Castillo, who first spotted the listing, on X, formerly known as Twitter. “This house was sold in Oakland in March 2022 for 4.1M. Now it has been on the market [for] over 60 days and just had a price cut from 3M to 2.55M.”

      The property’s listing says the Oakland home had been listed in February 2022 for $2,995,000 before being sold for more than $4 million, less than a month later. Castillo thinks the buyer “got caught up in the hype of the red hot market (pre-interest rate hike) and paid 1.1 million over asking [price],” he wrote on X. “Now Oakland is having a moment and interest rates are high.”

      The “moment” that Oakland is living through is a difficult one. The city has seen several major retailers shutting down their stores in the city. They mentioned a rise in retail theft and other crime, which they said threatens the safety of both their customers and staff members.
      …
      https://www.newsweek.com/california-house-prices-plunge-40-percent-some-areas-1886763

      1. 2 megabucks to buy an ordinary home in Orcland? How far away is the nearest supermarket?

        1. Orcland? 😂 I guess Oakland = Mordor is about right. Or is California Mordor and Gavin = Sauron?

          2. Wasn’t the gooberment talking about opening their own stores so there would be no deserts? They could call it “Saruman’s”

          3. Wasn’t the gooberment talking about opening their own stores so there would be no deserts?
            Yeah, it was Chicago, I am sure that’s gonna work great.

          4. Yes, HBB posted an article of a Whole Paycheck closing and a Sav-a-Lot opening in the same building. The locals were livid because they thought they were better than a Sav-a-Lot. The government food store was in the same neighborhood I believe.

            Actually, a gov food store might not be all that bad. Then you can stock the store with only EBT-eligible food, so there’s no question what’s allowed on the EBT. No cash handled, all card. At least there’s not much incentive to rob the place.

  13. A reader sent these in:

    “Day of reckoning”: Investors that swooped in on South Florida’s multifamily boom now face elevated interest rates, high insurance costs and plateauing rents.

    https://twitter.com/FCNightingale/status/1774909935404356084

    Embarking on a 6-hour car ride with someone who takes zero COVID precautions. Chilling in the back seat with this respirator and trying to keep the CO2 under 1,000 ppm. Wish me luck!

    https://twitter.com/AirborneAware/status/1774873369319510330

    So many companies doing this…$INTC#CRE #CMBS

    https://twitter.com/BankerWeimar/status/1774899741236605095

    Wells Fargo reportedly eliminated 300 employees in its Home Lending Servicing division today

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775207802220249283

    Fitch estimates that three out of four (75%) of U.S. conduit office loans maturing this year are likely to default

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775204039107432520

    Universal Logistics is planning to lay off almost 700 workers in Detroit

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775260073188549071

    70-year-old California trucking company, Tony’s Express, has abruptly ceased operations – resulting in about 200 job cuts

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775272225119301896

    Lots of bankruptcies (small and large) to start April – I keep hearing TV economists talk about economic recovery? Recovery from what? Apparently 6% GDP growth you all were parading around warrants usage of ‘recovery’.

    The risks for the economy remain entrenched the longer rates stay elevated (particularly w unprofitable companies & those with high-debt loads) and labor risks follow the Fed cutting in anticipation of said labor risks. Unemployment rate risk and claims risk is post-cut:

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1775287386865352860

    The 84 and 95 ‘soft landings’ enjoyed much higher baseline unemployment rates than the current U3 rate, 2019 remains a tale of pixie dust and masks.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1775287889321951483

    What’s bizarre about the rust belt/American industry being hollowed out over the last 30 years is that ‘hollowing out’ trend is arriving on the shore of the white collar labor force now at a much faster face.

    Both former factory towns and now many formerly bustling downtowns sit empty. Americans and America are for sale for parts. If an H1B doesn’t take your job here (corps love H1B slaves), then someone in Bombay or San José will.

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1775210569236193564

    “When people couldn’t afford housing during the Great Depression, they built shantytowns… and named them ‘Hoovervilles’… Today, Americans increasingly live out of their cars… Will parking lots full of Americans soon be known as ‘Bidenvilles’?…”(Article linked in reply)

    https://twitter.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1775269575850078462

    BOOM: federal debt explodes $41 billion higher yesterday, breaching $34.6 trillion for first time ever; we’re on track to borrow $2.9 trillion this fiscal year – how long before the bond vigilantes have to remind everyone just how much power they have?

    https://twitter.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1775254565740335290

    Tell me you’re in a debt spiral without telling me you’re in a debt spiral:
    35% of YOUR income taxes go just to pay interest on the debt! AND 95% of all taxes go just to pay for autopilot spending 😳!

    https://twitter.com/RichAStern/status/1775221674004152414

    Not only have 16 of the last 21 months seen new orders for manufactured goods revised down, but adjusting for inflation shows how bad things really are: the nominal increase since Jan ’21 is 17.8% but the real (inflation-adjusted) change is -0.1%, meaning no progress in 3 years:

    https://twitter.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1775242786121416746

    If you don’t count the prices that are going up, then prices aren’t going up – good thing no one needs food, energy, housing, etc.
    Not surprising from the “you’ll-own-nothing-and-be-happy” crowd, who were also the lead cheerleaders of Team Transitory™️…

    https://twitter.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1775145003079078048

    FED’S DALY: IT’S NOT ON THE TABLE NOW TO CHANGE THE INFLATION TARGET
    FED’S DALY: WHEN WE SAY 2% IS INFLATION GOAL, WE MEAN 2%

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1775229624382890381

    Tesla’s Q1 deliveries ‘an unmitigated disaster,’ says Wedbush

    Tesla’s Q1 deliveries negatively shocked the Street with 386.8K vehicles vs. expectations of 443K, while Model 3/Y deliveries were 369.7K in Q1, with volume declines partially due to early phases of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 and factory shutdowns from the Red Sea conflict and the Berlin shutdown, Wedbush tells investors in a research note. While the firm expected a bad quarter, Wedbush calls Tesla’s Q1 an “unmitigated disaster that is hard to explain away,” and views this as a “seminal moment” in the story for CEO Elon Musk to turn the story around or face darker days that could disrupt the long-term narrative. The firm, which made no change to its Outperform rating or $300 price target, says Street criticism is warranted as growth has been sluggish and margins showing compression.

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1775192812998304135

    ❖ Many Americans are skeptical of electric cars

    A majority of U.S. adult citizens say they don’t own — and would not consider buying — an electric car, and many doubt electric cars are more efficient or better for the environment than traditional gas cars.

    https://twitter.com/DeItaone/status/1775179978486747253

    Bull markets end when they “start shooting the generals”

    Tesla, once the do-no-wrong market darling, just disappointed bigly today on Q1 deliveries & dropped 5%
    Apple is struggling
    Regulators have many of the Mag 7 in their crosshairs
    Are the generals indeed in danger now?

    https://twitter.com/menlobear/status/1775312419231060045

    “If something is not done with the prices that keep going up in Canada”
    “I will be on the streets”
    “I will be on the streets next week panhandling for some change”
    “It’s comical how our wages aren’t going up, but the PRICE of everything around us is SKYROCKETING”
    “Groceries are now like triple the price”
    “We have the most expensive gas prices in the world”
    “We have the most expensive car insurance in the world”

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1775243972266406342

    One True Thing: Young Canadians Want To Own Their Own Homes
    Not as an investment
    Not to flip
    Not as a source of leverage
    Just to live in & raise a family
    And if they see that idea as hopeless they will be pissed off & no one should wonder why they’re mad

    https://twitter.com/ronmortgageguy/status/1775512776170967149

    Apparently according to this bloke immigration into Canada has “grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb”.
    Oh wait….he’s the Prime Minister of Canada, the bloke who sets the policy….

    https://twitter.com/AvidCommentator/status/1775345060068147372

    One of the only investment managers to somehow torch 70% of their fund’s capital with the stock market at all time highs just bought more $TSLA
    I couldn’t be more excited for these puts

    https://twitter.com/Ross__Hendricks/status/1775636934473474405

    Subway sold $5 Footlongs in 2012. Today, it’s over $10
    According to the Govt, inflation only went from $5 in 2012 to $6.85 in 2024
    Subways inflation meter is far more accurate towards real inflation than the CPI formula we currently use and everything Meteorologist Paul Krugman has ever said

    https://twitter.com/MichaelKudrna/status/1775656779164061719

    The world hates realtors

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1775358171919622636

    This is because price inflation wasn’t caused just by transitory supply chain issues. The money supply permanently expanded, and that money is circulating and diffusing itself throughout the economy over time, elevating prices along the way.

    https://twitter.com/LynAldenContact/status/1775575838085255467

    Anyone remember what happen to home prices the last time existing home sales began to collapse in 2006?

    https://twitter.com/GRomePow/status/1734655205453840884

    Zero rates are like alcohol – it makes some very ugly things look hot and flashy for a bit until the fun wears off and the lag of a hangover begins to hit… #lag

    https://twitter.com/DonMiami3/status/1775569078414885181

    Quaker Oats is shutting down a factory in Illinois and eliminating 510 employees

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775564663465328768

    LOL! 🤣🤣🤣

    It’s beyond amusing to see the Dallas Fed come clean after the Federal Reserve gobbled up $2.7 trillion in mortgage-backed securities to drive mortgage rates into the basement, ramped the balance sheet to $8.9 trillion and fueled all manner of reckless speculation with a decade of ZIRP (zero interest rate policy)

    “Lower interest rates don’t necessarily improve housing affordability”

    This is the kind of genius insight you get from a horde of useless economic arsonists.

    https://twitter.com/dfwaaronlayman/status/1775524135562600697

    THIS is not just a TESLA problem…Demand is gone for the whole car market. Tesla is going to show it first because of the direct to consumer model. Other auto manufacturers to follow as dealers turn down allocations due to lack of demand for all vehicles.

    https://twitter.com/CQA_Brandon/status/1775505677458268481

    Straight from the MLS- well the homebuying season is off to a stronnggg start in Nashville/Davidson county 🙃
    March Sales Y/Y%
    Single Family: – 17%
    All properties: -21%
    This built in tool is absolutely terrible, but I’ll show it anyways

    https://twitter.com/KennyCap_Phd/status/1775241836409295203

    Amazon Web Services is eliminating around 800 jobs in sales, marketing and technology

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775511481838162403

    AMN Healthcare is reportedly eliminating around ~1,410 positions

    https://twitter.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1775721912133365877

    Brooo

    https://twitter.com/NoCapFights/status/1774509583744319758

    1. Tesla’s Q1 deliveries negatively shocked the Street with 386.8K vehicles vs. expectations of 443K

      I expect we will also see a drop in sales for $50K+ ICE vehicles too. Will they discount (rebate) or will they just shut down production until the inventory clears out. Local dealers here are bursting at the seams with new pickups that won’t sell.

      2. Getting close again to that time when it pays to walk into a car dealership and offer cash. Last time I did so was 2012. Been making due with used cars ever since…

    2. “We have the most expensive car insurance in the world”

      Not surprising when Canadian car thieves can load stolen cars into ships on the St. Lawrence and ship them to Africa, in broad daylight. And I thought car theft was bad in Dumver.

      2. And when the government advises you to leave your front door open so thieves can steal your car fob without hurting you.

    3. Amazon Web Services is eliminating around 800 jobs in sales, marketing and technology

      So the cloud bubble is bursting. The death of on prem was highly exaggerated.

      1. In some use cases that I am familiar with, customers have not found AWS or AZURE to be particularly cost effective, which was/is a major cloud pitch.

          1. A big issue is that management, who often are not technically astute, think of the ‘cloud’ as some sort of magic wand that instantly will solve their problems, where in fact all that is accomplished is to move a poorly architected application/database from point “A” (on prem) to point “B” (the cloud).

            Same issues, same problems, now with an additional layer of cloud IT admins.

    4. Wells Fargo reportedly eliminated 300 employees in its Home Lending Servicing division today

      I am really surprised to see cuts in servicing. Servicing handles the DQ’s and foreclosures, which from what I hear are starting to increase substantially.

      1. Well just like last time (08) if they don’t foreclose they don’t have to recognize the loss.

      2. Wells Fargo reportedly eliminated 300 employees in its Home Lending Servicing division today

        I spoke with my buddy who works there and he got let go. At least he got a very good severance package. I think based on expected DQ and Foreclosures he should be ok.

  14. CDC Releases Hidden Trove Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Reports

    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/cdc-releases-hidden-trove-covid-19-vaccine-injury-reports

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released previously hidden reports of facial paralysis and other adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.

    The 780,000 reports were received shortly after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, and show people experienced a wide range of post-vaccination problems, including heart inflammation, miscarriages, and seizures.

    “Loss of consciousness and seizure immediately following injection. Went to ER by ambulance,” one person reported.

    “Diagnosed with Bells Palsy today due to left-sided facial numbness and paralysis,” another said.

    People lodged the reports with V-safe, a text-message system created by the CDC to monitor for possible side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

    The CDC, for years, declined to make the V-safe data public, instead publishing studies that described the reports as providing reassurance about the safety of the shots. However, according to data released in 2022, nearly 8 percent of the 10 million users required medical attention or hospital care after vaccination, and many others reported missing school, work, or other normal activities.

    That topline data came from check-the-box surveys.

    The same judge who ordered the release of that data ordered the agency in January to disclose free-text entries from a different section where individuals could describe their experiences. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, dismissed the government’s arguments that processing the responses and redacting sensitive information would require too much work.

    The first two tranches, comprising 780,000 reports from some 523,000 people, include dozens of reports of heart inflammation, hundreds of reports of facial paralysis, and thousands of reports of tinnitus.

    Multiple people said things were so bad that they were struggling with suicidal thoughts.

    “For 24 hrs after [the] shot I was so fatigued I could not stay awake. I also have some very strong suicidal thoughts. Zero appetite,” one individual wrote.

    Another person said they experienced symptoms of an allergic reaction. “I read where [sic] this vaccine should not be administered to anyone allergic to PEG and I am allergic to PEG. It would be incredibly reassuring if someone would call me as all I run into is dead ends,” the individual said.

    The free-text portion of the surveys was the only place for people to report adverse events, including heart inflammation, even though the CDC knew the shots might cause those events, previously released documents showed. Other documents showed the CDC became aware of the vaccines possibly causing myocarditis, or heart inflammation, and a related condition called pericarditis early in 2021 but hid the knowledge from the public.

    Judge Kacsmaryk’s order came in litigation brought by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit that has compelled the release of a number of government files since the COVID-19 pandemic started.

    “ICAN had to sue the Centers for Disease Control in order to gain access to the COVID-19 shot V-safe adverse event data, which is yet another shameful chapter in the decades-long history of federal health officials trying to cover up vaccine risks by ignoring patterns of vaccine reaction symptoms in reports made to the government,” Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times after reviewing the new data.

    “When people report the same symptoms over and over again after getting a biological product—in this case ’shortness of breath‘ and ’heart palpitations,’ which are both symptoms of myocarditis that has been causally linked to mRNA COVID shots—the public should be warned, not kept in the dark. It raises questions about what else government health officials are hiding,” she added.

    The free-text entries are not dated. Elizabeth Brehm, an attorney representing ICAN, said the group is seeking the dates of the reports from the CDC. The group does know that the entries are the earliest ones received by the CDC. V-safe was launched as the vaccines were rolled out in late 2020. The rest of the entries are expected to be produced on a rolling basis.

    A CDC spokesperson declined to answer many questions, including those related to the dates of entries.

    “V-safe participants who reported that they received medical care after vaccination were called and encouraged to submit a VAERS report. If they submitted a VAERS report and the adverse events were classified as serious (as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations), CDC attempted to obtain additional information (medical records, hospital records, etc.) about the reported adverse event,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “All data collected from VAERS is processed and analyzed for unusual patterns or unusually high numbers of rare and serious adverse events after vaccination.”

    She said the information from VAERS helped detect problems the agency now acknowledges are caused by the vaccines, including myocarditis.

    1. nearly 8 percent of the 10 million users required medical attention or hospital care after vaccination

      Safe and effective. And the government did everything it could to coerce us into getting jabbed.

      In the past, vaccines were pulled for having 1/10000 the number of adverse effects. There is no doubt in my mind: they were trying to hurt as many people as possible. If it was an experiment, they knew that it failed early on and they could have backed off, but no, they kept pushing it, and still do.

      1. Wife was one of them. Got one shot and her reaction was so bad that doctors told her not to get anymore. Including trouble walking with numbness.

  15. [This is a fun read but it is long thus I am offering up snips.]

    Squatting trend at tipping point as migrants coach others how to exploit laws; experts warn, ‘Damage is done’

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/squatting-trend-tipping-point-migrants-080010579.html

    Squatting laws have become a frequent target of exploitation by savvy criminals who fraudulently move into vacant homes across the nation. Experts warn that the problem could be compounded by the ongoing immigration crisis, with migrants catching wind of the laws and taking advantage of them.

    “I have thought about invading a house in the United States,” migrant Leonel Moreno said in Spanish in a TikTok video that went viral last month. “I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it.”

    Moreno, dubbed the “migrant influencer,” is a Venezuelan national who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week after bolting from a border patrol program. He is being detained in Ohio. But prior to his capture, he managed to draw a million followers on TikTok and claimed he was pulling in $1,000 a day as an influencer on the app on top of receiving $350 a month in government handouts.

    His TikTok account is now inactive, but his messages urging fellow migrants to take over homes continue circulating online.

    Squatter laws vary from state to state and even city to city. New York City has some of the most lenient laws toward squatters, allowing people to claim squatters’ rights after living on a property just 30 days. Under New York state law, people can claim squatters’ rights after living on a property for at least 10 years.

    The Big Apple’s law has had monumental consequences for a handful of New Yorkers in the last few weeks alone, with one Queens homeowner put in handcuffs last month after trying to force alleged squatters from her home, Fox News Digital previously reported. Another woman was allegedly killed by squatters last month in her mother’s New York City apartment. Another pair of squatters were found fraudulently living in an abandoned home on Long Island earlier this year after forging the dead owner’s name on a lease.

    Fox News Digital spoke with Republican New York state Sen. Mario Mattera, who introduced a bill package last month that would allow police to immediately remove suspected squatters based on a homeowner’s sworn complaint. He warned that the migrant crisis would fan the flames of squatting trends, pointing to Moreno’s viral TikTok as proof the “damage is already done.”

    “Look at what just happened with the illegal migrant going on TikTok … and saying to everybody, ‘This is what you need to do. You could go do this. Go find vacant homes. Go do what you could do.’ … Yes, he got arrested, but the damage is done already,” Mattera said.

    Mattera pinned blame on Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams for not rescinding sanctuary city and state policies in their respective jurisdictions, saying the Democratic leaders have “enabled” migrants.

    “The [migrants] don’t want to go to work. They’re like, ‘You brought me here. Now you take care of me.’ The governor and the mayor could have signed an executive order … rescinding the sanctuary state and the sanctuary city [policies]. Please, all New Yorkers understand that, and call the governor, call the mayor of New York, and ask them: What are you doing to fix this disaster that they both created?” he said.

    Last week, the NYPD busted eight migrant squatters who allegedly took over a Bronx property, and they found guns and drugs. The New York Post reported six of the eight migrant squatters had been released without bail.

    James Burling, vice president of legal affairs at the Pacific Legal Foundation, said there are three critical factors that have brought the U.S. to a tipping point regarding squatting issues: the pandemic era’s eviction moratoriums, housing shortages in certain states and immigration.

    “It’s the culmination of years and years of the inability to build enough housing to meet demand. And you combine those three things together, and it’s an impetus to squat,” Burling said. “And it’s a governmental, if you will, acquiescence to squatting. That, combined with the publicity that – now immigrants are talking about how to do it – these are three things I think are tipping in the favor of more squatting and more problems for landowners.”

    At least 7.2 million illegal migrants have entered the U.S. since President Biden took office in 2021, which is more than the population of 36 individual states.

    More than a thousand migrants awaiting entry into the United States from Juarez, Mexico.
    Burling pointed to Alex Vasudevan’s 2017 book, “The Autonomous City: A History of Urban Squatting,” which explains how squatting has increased in Europe in recent years, most notably in France, Greece, Italy and Spain. This, he claims, is a result of migrants and refugees from outside Europe flocking to the continent for housing.

    “If I was going to think, ‘I want to squat. I don’t want to pay for it. And maybe I can believe this guy on the internet, the TikToker,’ I’m going to, of course, go to a city that’s going to make it very difficult to evict me. And my first choice might be New York, second might be Los Angeles or San Francisco or a city like that, where the hard left seems to hold squatting in some kind of esteem,” Burling said.

    Atlanta has also seen a massive increase of squatters. A report earlier this year found squatters have taken over 1,200 homes in Atlanta, the National Rental Home Council trade group reported. Some have become hotbeds for drug use and prostitution.

    “Every day we are hearing of stories of homeowners in states across the country who have been victim to this nationwide crisis. We are grateful for our legislative partners in the General Assembly who have kept this issue front of mind and have passed legislation designed to tackle this issue head on,” Kemp spokesman Garrison Douglas told Fox Digital.

    The bill would give suspected squatters three days to provide documentation proving they can legally live in a house. If they fail to provide the documents, they are booted from the home and could face misdemeanor trespassing charges.

    Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law last month “eliminating squatters’ rights.” It allows property owners to call on the sheriff’s office to immediately remove squatters from their homes if the suspects are unable to produce documents authorizing their residency by the property owner.

    “You are not going to be able to commandeer somebody’s private property and expect to get away with it. We are in the state of Florida ending the squatter scam once and for all,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Orlando.

    “They’re siding with the squatters,” DeSantis said of Democrat-led states. “In fact, we have seen squatters move in and claim residence. This forces a massive, long, drawn-out judicial review before they can even be removed from the property. These are people that never had a right to be in the property to begin with.

    “Earlier this month in New York, a woman returned to a property she inherited to find squatters living there. She changed the locks to get them out, and the state of New York arrested her instead of the squatters.”

    Mattera’s bill in New York to strengthen laws protecting legal homeowners from squatters is styled after Florida’s new law.

    “Squatters know when a house is vacant or vacant for sale. They watch your house. A day before they ‘squat,’ they order an Amazon, UPS or other delivery package with their name and the property address of the home they are going to take over,” Weitzel said of the squatting trend.

    “You then find out someone is in your house. You call the police. They show the package with their name and the property address and tell the police they rented the house, and the police now say it’s a civil matter. You now must file eviction paperwork. Six to 18 months is typical for the eviction process or you settle a ‘cash for keys’, usually $2,000 to $5,000 to get possession of your property back. Extortion. This must be addressed by Congress now.”

    When discussing the viral TikTok video, Weitzel said it’s likely Moreno was coached on how to spread the information to fellow migrants on how to take over a home.

    “I think he was coached on information online because it is complicated. In fact, it’s so complicated, that it’s different from state to state. It’s not a universal statute throughout the United States. So, I think he was coached. I think he had a platform, already had a large following on TikTok. So, he had a platform to be put out there,” Weitzel said, adding migrants looking to squat will “without a doubt” target cities and states with lax laws on squatting.

    Weitzel has previously spoken to Fox News Digital about other crime trends in the U.S. and how the immigration crisis is adding to the stats, including how migrants are “coached” on how to conduct shoplifting crimes in quiet, suburban malls miles away from cities such as Chicago.

    “They don’t come over from Venezuela, for example, knowing the ins and outs of the federal statutes here in the United States. They’re being told, they’re being coached. They’re being told where to go look for, where to go research on Google or what phrases to use. And then they’re going out, and they’re executing it. And now they’re being encouraged to put it out on their social media platforms,” the retired police chief said.

    Weitzel noted that police have their hands tied during squatting disputes and must follow state or city laws, even in situations such as the one in Queens where a legal homeowner was arrested after changing the locks on her property in a bid to keep squatters out. Under New York law, it’s illegal to turn off any utilities or change the locks of a home where someone says they are a tenant.

    Squatter cases have cropped up in Illinois in recent years, most notably in the Chicago area, though the state has tight laws requiring suspected squatters continuously live on a property for 20 years to claim rights to the home.

    Burling explained to Fox News Digital that squatting trends stretch back decades in the U.S., including in the late 1960s in New York City as part of a social movement known as “Operation Move-In.” The movement included people taking over buildings that sat abandoned or weren’t properly looked after by the city housing authorities.

    Two policewoman lead the way as they are assisted in forcibly removing a Columbia University student from a besieged campus building April 30, 1968. Acting at the request of the university’s board of trustees, police began evicting some 500 rebellious students who occupied campus buildings for seven days in a protest against university policy.More
    “It was a cause celebre … in favor of the squatting, as the book talks about similar places in Europe, where squatting has a cache of acceptance and a cache of being socially progressive and forward,” Burling said. “In some places like New York, there are people who celebrate squatting. In other [cities, it] is just people in the city government have a great antipathy towards landlords and have made it increasingly difficult to have a landlord evict a tenant for non-payment or for being a nuisance to the neighbors, or whatever the reasons why a landlord might want to evict somebody.

    “It’s very difficult in some of these cities, and squatters are able to take advantage of it. Now, squatters aren’t tenants per se, but they’re able to take advantage of the same laws and the same lack of enforcement of laws that landlords face in trying to get rid of problem tenants.”

    Mattera is hoping New York will address its squatter issues head-on by passing his bill to help stop “the bleeding” from squatter issues.

    “We need to fix this now so we can stop the bleeding,” Mattera said. “The bleeding needs to stop. People are getting hurt. People are getting killed. And what are we doing? Guess what, my bill gives the tools to all law enforcement to do their job.”

  16. You vill eat ze bugs (from the Colorado Sun)

    Cherish that hamburger. It cost a quarter of the Colorado River, according to researchers.

    The Colorado River has been overused for decades, but no one has known exactly how the water was used — until a team of researchers compiled the most complete accounting of the river’s water

    Next time you take a bite out of a juicy hamburger or chunk of cheese made in the western U.S., say thank you to the Colorado River.

    Researchers released the most complete accounting so far of how the river’s water is used. They found that alfalfa — used as feed for beef and dairy cows — sucks up more water than all the cities and industries in the enormous Colorado River Basin.

    They will not relent until the masses cannot afford to eat meat.

  17. When does the REIT executives and insurance companies start to blow the whistle and fire some Investment officers and senior MBA.

    I cannot believe that you can take losses like this and no-one answers for it.

    Aside – are they still not renting out office space at the going rate so that it looks better for the buyer?

    As further evidence of a feeble real estate market in downtown San Jose, within the last four months, two large office properties were sold at a big loss compared with their prior sales. In December 2023, an office tower at 303 Almaden Blvd. was bought for slightly under $23.8 million — which was 70% below the price paid for the high-rise at the time of its prior sale in 2017 for $80.2 million. In February 2024, a two-tower office complex at North Market Street and West St. John Street was bought for $34.2 million — a nosedive of 77% compared with the $141.4 million paid in 2019 for the high-rises.”

    1. Downtown San Jose is a schitt-hole these days, a victim of progressive wokeness. The city really needs a mayor with stones in his pants, but that won’t happen until King Newsom is defrocked or voted out of Sacramento.

  18. “Day of reckoning”: Investors that swooped in on South Florida’s multifamily boom now face elevated interest rates, high insurance costs and plateauing rents.

    Die, speculator scum.

  20. So, they won’t take the failure gene therapy Covid vaccines off the market, because they are planning to use that failed technology in everything.
    The UK just announced they are going into clinical trial on a lung cancer vaccine using the failure gene therapy used with Covid vaccines.Other news of other trials for other cancers.
    But, 72 % of lung cancers are caused by long term smoking, exposure to toxin, or working in a coal mine for example.
    So, I think most people associated vaccines with giving you immunity to a contagious virus, or bite from a contagious mosquito for instance. And lung cancer wasn’t labeled a virus or a contagious disease, but now they are going to have a vaccine for everything.
    Firstly, if you label it a vaccine, than Big Pharmacy has immunity to paying for any damage they cause.
    Second, I can just see them recommending 15 to 20 vaccines a year to give immunity to cancer, heart disease, and all known diseases.
    And what would be their proof of giving immunity to lung cancer for instance, when young people usually don’t get it and it takes years to form by exposure to toxins , like smoking.
    To me this is a total fraud that they are calling this proposed “lung cancer vaccine” using the MnRa technology a vaccine. But, they are going to call every disease treatable by a vaccines with booster after booster.
    And while they fraudulently say that Covid vaccines saves 14 million lives, the real evidence shows that it killed at least 17 million, and many more with serious injuries and disabilities.
    And with turbo cancers being a side effect of the fake Covid vaccines, hitting younger people , which usually doesn’t happen, not surprising they are going to introduce in warp speed “Cancer vaccines.”

  21. Fake food and bugs.

    Everything that is good for humans to eat is going to be withdrawn or to expensive, so you can eat their fake food and bugs.
    Thousands of years of humans eating meat, eggs, dairy , cheese, rice and other crops, and now its creating Climate Change Doomsday they say.

    Humans, plants, animals, and fuels emit Co2, but they say they want zero policy co2 by 2050.
    Such policy would cause a disaster of epic scale, but you can’t question their fraudulent narratives.
    Their Great Narratives were a scheme to take over the world, and subject humans to enslavement and
    a deprived existence.
    Add to this the Panademic manufactured emergencies, and the AI/ Robot takeover planned, and humans not owning anything, eating bugs, etc.
    and it would be a dismal existence. They want 24/7 surveillance on you, they want to hack you, with everyone tied to a technological control grid.
    They want to even know you every biological function to monitor.
    Isn’t it weird that they want to control you down to your basic biological functions. No more freedoms or choice for humans , just obsessed psychopaths wanting to control everything , own everything , while humans own nothing and eat bugs.
    But, don’t let them kid you about saving lives, because their end game is to kill billions of people world wide , while they treat the rest like slaves.

  22. ‘With no other way to pay it, she began to empty her home of 34 years in the Denver suburb of Littleton, one memento at a time. Her dining room set, sold. Her jewelry, now someone else’s. ‘Every knickknack I have, everything I don’t use, I’m selling…What I owe now is $962.62. I think I need to use two credit cards to do it. And I’m going to have to pay interest on those’

    Marleen, you are the definition of a winnah!

    1. Her mistake was taking out a reverse mortgage. She should have sold out and moved to a trailer park in Oil City or something.

  23. ‘I’ve sold five foreclosed homes in the last six months or so,’ he said. ‘One was a short-term rental and another was remodeled specifically to sell to short-term rental investors, but they couldn’t find a buyer and let it go into foreclosure instead’

    Every time STR pop up they end this way, unless it’s an area where they are built for that purpose. Which is a minuscule percentage of the market.

  24. ‘Wharton told its lender it wouldn’t be able to pay off the loan at maturity, triggering ‘optional default,’ according to Wells Fargo’s foreclosure complaint. The foreclosure shows that even the most successful investors aren’t immune from distress caused by maturing loans in a high-interest-rate environment’

    Jeff has the money. The loan just didn’t put enough of his skin in the game. Sound lending!

  25. ‘At the market’s peak, Faisal Susiwala, broker at Re/Max Twin City Faisal Susiwala Realty says, high demand from buyers and little inventory in Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo prompted people to expand their search. Agents from Brampton, Mississauga and Milton led the bus tours to such small towns as Ayr, New Hamburg, Baden and Woodstock’

    Buses full of winnahs! Faisal? I’ve heard of such things before.

    ‘Investors in bucolic Perth County were told that they would be able to make money by selling the properties or renting them out. There was no scope to ever be able to do that, Mr. Susiwala says, because the rural area has no industry and therefore few workers looking for homes. ‘There are no buyers. There are no renters’

    So they are really fooked, huh?

  26. ‘The most disappointing part is not being able to finish those houses for these people that I had personal contact with for the last two years,’ Mr Finn said. ‘It’s a very disappointing situation and the most frustrating. It’s the buyers who are suffering.’ While dozens of houses were built in Cluain Dara, 15 properties are unfinished and buyers are now left in limbo about whether they will get to move into their new homes. Some paid deposits for their houses nearly two years ago’

    Yeah, it sux to be them Eugene. Good interview though. Why didn’t you have any of the winnahs! on?

  27. ‘Their block cost about $500,000, and they spent another $700,000 to enter a contract with what they thought was a reputable volume builder. The couple moved into their new home in July 2023 and, just days in, Ms Luc says they started finding alleged defects, starting with a blockage in their toilet. ‘Think about the economy … think about the builders at the moment. I mean, they [people] can see that so many builders [have] collapsed in the past few years. They should know now that the industry is vulnerable’

    That didn’t stop you and Xuan from getting fooked not that long ago Alyssa.

    ‘‘Don’t. Just don’t do it, you are playing Russian roulette with your life basically. In fact, I think you might actually have better odds playing Russian roulette than this. It is crazy how poorly the government is ensuring people can actually safely buy property. You’re expected to be a lawyer, the building engineer, all of that on top of your nine-to-five job. It’s draining’

    I know Pat, they never had any business giving you that loan.

  28. ‘More than 100,000 homeowners in Lee County and Cape Coral are considering transforming into a bat and flying away! ‘I know that being in Florida is an area where elderly people flourish. And now having to leave that dream and go back…I know that I might be cutting my husband’s life short, but financially, we don’t really have a choice’

    You do have to sort out priorities in life Susan.

    ‘I’m beyond disappointed in FEMA. With the limited income that we have and the damage that we had here. We didn’t get one dime from FEMA…We didn’t get a dime for food or anything else, so I don’t really feel like they have my back’

    The thing about insurance is, it doesn’t work if they have to pay much. But you guys have 70% of the paid claims for the whole US. I ask when my insurance goes up: ‘yer in a pool’ they say. Thanks, that’s good to know.

  30. Heifetz Institute – SoHyun Ko, 12 | Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20
    Heifetz International Music Institute
    5 years ago FRANCIS AUDITORIUM

    12-year violinist SoHyun Ko, joined by pianist Allison Freeman, makes her Heifetz Institute debut with a sensational performance of Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen,” Op. 20.

    Captured in concert July 17, 2018 at a Heifetz Institute “Stars of Tomorrow” concert at Mary Baldwin University’s Francis Auditorium in Staunton, VA.

    00:00 Introduction
    00:48 Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmV2hj-I7Xo

    9:45.

  31. DOJ Pursues Prison Time for Ashley Biden Diary Thief — Effectively Proves Joe Biden a PEDO

    Infowars.com
    April 4th 2024, 6:01 pm

    The Department of Justice is seeking nearly a year-long sentence for the woman who stole the diary belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley, in effect proving the veracity of the diary, in which she wrote her father took “probably inappropriate” showers with her at a young age.

    The New York Post reported Tuesday:

    ​​Prosecutors for the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had initially sought a sentence of six months of home confinement, followed by three years of supervised release, for Aimee Harris, who pleaded guilty in August of 2022 to conspiring to commit interstate transportation of stolen property in connection with the diary theft.

    Harris and Robert Kurlander admitted involvement in a “conspiracy” to move stolen items from Florida, where Ashley Biden had resided, to New York, after which they sold the diary to Project Veritas ahead of the 2020 election.

    While Project Veritas did not publish the diary’s contents (but got raided anyway), National File did publish incendiary excerpts.

    Now, the prosecution of Harris appears to be vindictive and effectively re-affirms the diary was indeed real, in addition to corroborating accusations Joe Biden is a pedophile.

    Gunther Eagleman™
    @GuntherEagleman

    BREAKING: DOJ confirms Ashley Biden’s diary is real by prosecuting the person who stole it…

    FACT: Joe Biden inappropriately showered with his underage daughter Ashley.

    Sick fck.
    8:35 AM · Apr 4, 2024

    https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1775864767485301235

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/doj-pursues-prison-time-for-ashley-biden-diary-thief-effectively-proves-joe-biden-a-pedo

  32. ‘We’re F’d,’ Says ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Author Robert Kiyosaki Because Fed Chair Powell ‘Finally Admitted Inflation Is Winning’
    by Shanthi Rexaline
    April 4, 2024 5:30 AM | 2 min read |

    Following Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish inflation commentary on Wednesday, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki sounded out an alarm to the American public.

    What Happened: “Powell finally told the truth,” Kiyosaki said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The businessman and best-selling author noted that the Fed Chair finally admitted last week that inflation is winning.

    The dot-plot chart released along with the “Summary of Economic Projections” following the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting hinted at two to three rate cuts this year. Powell’s comments at the press conference that followed were dovish.

    Powell has changed tracks since then. Last week the central bank chief said the Fed is in no hurry to cut rates, and on Wednesday while speaking to the Stanford Business, Government and Society forum, he said it wouldn’t be appropriate for the central bank to lower policy rate until it has more confidence in inflation moving sustainably toward the 2% target.

    Kiyosaki said, “The Fed can no longer promise inflation at 2% or that inflation is ‘transitory.’” “Again he finally stopped lying. Congratulations.”
    …
    https://www.benzinga.com/amp/content/38085675

    1. TheHill.com
      Business
      Fed officials consider leaving rates higher for longer
      by Tobias Burns
      04/03/24 02:28 PM ET
      Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell smiles at a hearing.
      Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appears at a House Financial Services Committee hearing for the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress at the Capitol March 6, 2024.

      Following higher than expected inflation and labor market readings in January and February on the tail wind of a booming U.S. economy, Federal Reserve officials are suggesting they may keep interest rates higher for longer.

      “It is too soon to say whether the recent readings represent more than just a bump,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at an event Wednesday. “We do not expect that it will be appropriate to lower our policy rate until we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2 percent.”

      The consumer price index (CPI) topped expectations for the second straight month in February, coming in at a 0.4-percent monthly increase to hit a 3.2-percent annual increase. Prices without the more unpredictable categories of food and energy increased 3.8 percent annually.

      Nonfarm payrolls increased by 275,000 in February, which was another upside surprise, even as the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent.

      “Recent readings on both job gains and inflation have come in higher than expected,” Powell said. “The economy added an average of 265,000 jobs per month in the three [months] through February, a faster pace than we have seen since last June. And the higher inflation data over January and February were above the low readings in the second half of last year.”

      Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic delivered a similar sentiment Wednesday, suggesting the central bank would only make one rate cut this year in the fourth quarter.

      “If the economy evolves as I expect, and that’s going to be seeing continued robustness in GDP [gross domestic product], unemployment and a slow decline of inflation through the course of the year, I think it would be appropriate for us to do start moving down at the end of this year — the fourth quarter,” he said on CNBC. “We’ll just have to see where the data come in.”

      The Fed influences price levels mainly through the labor market, lessening demand for goods by increasing borrowing costs, which can lead to diminished wage growth, hiring freezes and layoffs.

      While the labor market is still robust in absolute terms, it has weakened over the course of the Fed’s monetary tightening, with unemployment rising from 3.4 percent in January 2023 to 3.9 percent in February. The quits rate has also dropped to 2.2 percent from 3 percent in 2022, and the ratio of open jobs to unemployed people has slacked to 1.4 from 2 over roughly the same time period.

      This is substantial progress from the Fed’s point of view.

      “Labor market rebalancing is evident in data on quits, job openings, surveys of employers and workers, and the continued gradual decline in wage growth,” Powell said Wednesday.
      …
      https://thehill.com/business/4572776-fed-officials-consider-leaving-rates-higher-for-longer/amp/

  33. “Garcia-Gutierrez has been deported seven times and he has been in our jail 11 times using seven different names and three different date of births,” Sheriff Jones said.

    Sheriff: ‘Illegal alien’ charged with murder after man’s body found in Hamilton alley

    By Jennifer Edwards Baker and Ken Brown
    Published: Apr. 3, 2024 at 10:32 AM EDT

    HAMILTON, Ohio (WXIX) – The death of a man whose body was found in a Hamilton alley on Monday is a homicide and a suspect is under arrest on a murder charge, Hamilton police announced Wednesday.

    Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez, 46, is held at the Butler County Jail on charges of aggravated murder (premeditated), using weapons while intoxicated, carrying concealed weapons, possession of drugs and obstructing official business, jail records show.

    Officers found the victim’s body in the 1100 block of S. 13th Street at 2:35 p.m. Monday in response to a 911 call.

    When discussing Garcia-Gutierrez’s case, the sheriff brought up concerns about illegal immigrants and border security.

    Sheriff Jones said they have seen nearly 1,000 “illegal aliens” facing state charges in their jail since July 2021.

    The Ohio Immigration Alliance said in response to the sheriff’s concerns that “immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than people born in the United States. That is the finding of every study conducted by credible institutions, not an advocacy group like the Center for Immigration Studies.”

    https://www.fox19.com/2024/04/03/murder-arrest-after-mans-body-found-hamilton-alley/

    1. “The Ohio Immigration Alliance said in response to the sheriff’s concerns that “immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than people born in the United States”

      So the ten million invaders commit fewer crimes than the three-hundred and forty million people who were already here.

      What a shock.

  34. My Old School · Steely Dan

    https://youtu.be/rFnwczuvb74?si=4g9zjXs0wSkrtahO

    My Old School
    by Steely Dan

    The “Old School” referred to in this song is Bard College in Annendale, New York, where Donald Fagen and Walter Becker met. The song is at least partially inspired by an event that occurred at Bard, where both Becker and Fagen, along with their girlfriends, were arrested in a pot raid on a party that was orchestrated by an ambitious young District Attorney named G. Gordon Liddy (hence the line “Tried to warn ya about Geno and Daddy G”). Despite the fact that California has not (yet) tumbled into the sea, both Fagen and Becker have returned to Bard.

    Donald Fagen did, in fact, go back to his old school, returning to Bard in 1985 to receive an honorary degree. While there, he granted an interview with the school newspaper, The Bard Observer, where he said this song is “A personal story combining different experiences we both had at Bard. Also there were some fantasy sequences in there as well.”

    https://www.songfacts.com/facts/steely-dan/my-old-school

    1. Illustration: Hanneke Rozemuller for Bloomberg Businessweek
      Businessweek
      Wealth
      China’s Real Estate Tycoons Lost $100 Billion in the Housing Collapse

      The runup in mainland property prices minted dozens of billionaires. The sector’s collapse has erased most of that wealth.
      By Venus Feng
      April 4, 2024 at 3:00 PM PDT

      The rise of China’s housing market over the past few decades was responsible for one of the greatest waves of wealth accumulation in history, minting dozens of billionaires and landing at least 10 of them in the ranks of the planet’s 500 richest people. The collapse in Chinese real estate in recent years has been equally efficient—at wealth destruction, erasing more than $100 billion from the fortunes of those tycoons. Here’s where some of them have landed.

      China Evergrande Group
      …
      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-04/china-real-estate-rich-lost-100-billion-plus-in-housing-bust

    1. Stock market today: US indexes fall as Fed President tempers rate-cut hopes, oil tops $90
      Yuheng Zhan
      Apr 4, 2024, 1:05 PM PDT
      Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

      – US stocks turned lower on Thursday after earlier gains, with concerns lingering over the Federal Reserve’s less optimistic outlook on rate cuts.

      – Brent crude surged past $90 a barrel, driven by OPEC+ cuts for the first time since October, driven by high demand and geopolitical tensions.

      – Investors eagerly anticipate Friday’s release of non-farm payroll and unemployment data for a better understanding of the current job market.
      …
      https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-today-neel-kashkari-rate-cut-guidance-dow-sp500-2024-4

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