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Owners Have To Face Reality That Prices Might Not Be What They Thought They Were

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Many Southwest Florida condo owners are in trouble financially as they face thousands of dollars in special assessments. There is a rush of people putting their condos up for sale, and buyers are shying away. North Fort Myers residents in the Foxmoor Lakes neighborhood are seeing special assessments added to their already high-priced insurance. Kristen Moos and her husband are retired and face a special assessment of $2,450, which is due in August. She and many of her neighbors are scrambling to come up with the extra cash. ‘It’s very difficult because we didn’t budget for this. We just paid at the beginning of the year, $2,000 for flood insurance … and now we’re hit with this assessment,’ Moos said.”

“According to realtor listings, more than 6,500 condos are currently on the market in just Lee and Collier counties, and more are being added daily. ‘I hear from everybody. ‘I can’t afford it. I’m not going to be able to afford it in another year, and what happens if we get hit again,’ Moos said. A condo in her neighborhood has been on the market for more than six months, and the owner has been forced to lower the price to below $180,000. Real estate agent Sue Christiano of Engel & Volkers Realty in Fort Myers points out a lot of communities have had assessments. ‘People have become very nervous about the fact they’re buying a condo and getting hit with another assessment, and there are pending assessments, and sometimes they go to the new buyer,’” Christiano said. Potentially forcing more people to try and sell in a market that’s become overly saturated.”

“The owner of Le Penthouse, once the most expensive apartment listed in New York City, put it into bankruptcy this week. Yitzchak Tessler made the last-minute move to avoid foreclosure after failing to sell the unit and several others in his ambitious condominium project at 172 Madison Avenue. Tessler’s filing Tuesday came five minutes before a scheduled foreclosure sale. ‘These are good, valuable units, and we’re not just going to let them go in a fire sale,’ the lawyer said. It is clear, however, that Tessler greatly overestimated the market for luxury Midtown condos. The project at 172 Madison began in 2015, around the peak of a luxury condo boom in Manhattan, and sales launched that year. But the boom turned into a glut as the decade wound down, and selling overpriced, unfinished units in Midtown became increasingly difficult.”

“DeKalb County police say the new squatter law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp is still under review by their legal department and not being implemented. The Squatter Reform Act immediately became law when Kemp signed the bill in April, but many jurisdictions are not yet enforcing it. The alleged squatter in Michael Holmes’ DeKalb County home has filed more than 30 motions and counting in civil eviction court. ‘He didn’t pass the law exam, but he knows a lot about the law,’ Holmes said. The alleged squatter represented himself in a Dekalb County courtroom this week. The eviction battle has stretched on nearly a year now. ‘At this point, I am about to lose everything based on his shenanigans,’ Holmes said.”

“The co-owner of a Newport Beach-based investment firm who bilked investors out of nearly $14 million through bogus real estate deals will walk free without a day in prison. Louis Zimmerle, 64, a co-owner of BNZ Capital, was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty last fall of one count of wire fraud in connection to the real estate scheme, the Orange County Register reported. Federal investigators said Zimmerle’s $13.8 million scheme had promised investors returns of up to 10 percent for money they sank into what Zimmerle and co-conspirator Brett Barber, of Costa Mesa, said were real estate projects they bought and sold. Except the projects did not exist.”

“BNZ Capital ‘did not take any substantial steps to develop parcels, nor did BNZ flip real estate for a profit,’ according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. ‘Rather, BNZ primarily used investor funds to pay Barber, Zimmerle and others associated with the scheme, including purchasing residences where Barber and Zimmerle lived,’ officials said in a statement. ‘Some of the investors’ money was used to repay earlier investors.'”

“The long-delayed spring real estate market in Toronto saw sparks of life in late May as some buyers attempted to get in ahead of a potential summer revival. Pritesh Parekh, real estate agent with Century 21 Legacy Ltd., says the largest cadre of buyers remained in wait-and-see mode leading up to the Bank of Canada’s policy meeting this week. ‘We saw many, many houses that were set up for an offer date and just not selling,’ he says. But Mr. Parekh cautions that not all sellers are motivated to wrangle on price. Many hold out for a predetermined number that they won’t go below. ‘That’s not realistic,’ he says, under current market conditions, but some wait for an improvement. ‘They will sit on it until that happens.'”

“Elli Davis, real estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, works with many downsizers who are selling or considering selling larger homes. With a higher level of inventory, she says, buyers are feeling less urgency. Many are willing to move forward, she says, but not if they believe the price is inflated. ‘The owners have to face reality that the prices might not be what they thought they were,’ says Ms. Davis. ‘Usually price is the answer.'”

“John Lusink, president of Right at Home Realty and Property.ca, is closely watching the balance between supply and demand. At his firm, with branches in many Ontario cities, listings in the final week of May stood 67-per-cent higher than in May of 2022 and 50-per-cent higher than the same month last year. ‘There’s no arguing that we’ve seen a dramatic increase in supply,’ he says. Sales, meanwhile, are down sharply from this time last year. Prices have tumbled farther in the smaller markets that saw a strong run-up during the low-interest era of the pandemic. Cobourg, Port Hope, Cambridge and Peterborough are among the Ontario towns and cities that have seen average prices tumble from their peak in the first quarter of 2022. ‘They’re just coming back to reality,’ Mr. Lusink says.”

“As house prices plunge across much of Europe, Spain’s property market is experiencing a mini-boom. Property prices grew by a respectable 4.3pc in the final quarter of 2023, according to statistics body Eurostat. By contrast, residential property prices in the EU fell by 0.3pc in 2023 and 1.1pc in the eurozone. Northern Europe has been particularly hard-hit. In Germany and Luxembourg, house prices collapsed by 8.4pc and 9.1pc respectively. Prices in Denmark fell by 5.6pc, while Britain saw a modest 1.4pc dip. Mark Stücklin, head of data company Spanish Property Insight, said the market is experiencing a ‘mini-boom,’ despite an apparently hostile economic environment. He added: ‘Demand has been very strong. You look around at Germany or Sweden and it’s not the same story.'”

“Data from CoreLogic showed a slowdown in Auckland house prices for a second month. Over time, an oversupply in a relative sense would improve affordability, Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said. ‘Unless you’re someone who’s built a stackload of houses and wants to keep them so you can count them every morning, you want to get some pay off so you’ll eventually drop the price to generate a sale.’ He said the market had been through a lot of changes: ‘At one point you would have bought a cardboard box if it was on a decent bit of land and paid a couple of million for it. Now it’s competitive for even getting a sale. Interest rates are a big part of that.'”

“A top Aussie economist has warned the Reserve Bank (RBA) is risking the country falling into an ‘entrenched period of weakness’ and ‘entrenched higher employment’ by not cutting interest rates. The cash rate is currently at a 12-year high, with many mortgage holders desperate for some repayment relief. ‘What I’m talking about is the RBA trimming rates two, three, four times over the course of six, nine, 12 months to take some of the heat off the household sector, which is clearly under significant downward pressure,’ Economist Stephen Koukoulas said.”

“Earlier this week, RBA governor Michele Bullock issued a word of warning to Aussies hoping for an interest rate cut, saying nothing was being ruled out. Finance expert David Koch said Bullock was using a ‘carrot-and-stick strategy’ on Aussies and if ‘we don’t toe the line then the stick comes out.’ ‘It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Think the infamous soup nazi in the Seinfeld TV series: no rate cuts for you!’ Koch wrote in The Nightly. ‘Because that is what Ms Bullock is saying. No rate cuts for us for quite a while. Forget any cuts before the end of the year. There is now every likelihood of rate INCREASES.'”

“A modest uptick in residential home prices, driven by the special administrative region government’s move to give Hong Kong’s battered property market a new lease of life, seems to have allowed owners who had bought their homes in the past few years to breathe a sigh of relief. Many of them have seen the value of their apartments plummet by about 20 percent since 2021 as the COVID-19 outbreak approached its height, leaving many who have sunk their life savings into the world’s most expensive housing market in a quandary — bundled with negative equity.”

“‘I have seen the value of my apartment slump 10 percent since I bought it in late 2019,’ says a homeowner surnamed Zhang, who purchased a 760-square-foot (70.6 square meters) second-hand flat at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O, the New Territories, at below market prices. The 35-year-old says he isn’t hurting. ‘Since the depreciation hasn’t been realized in cash, the impact is not too severe.'”

“UBS analyst Mark Leung says some Hong Kong retirees or low-income people may consider relocating to the mainland cities of the GBA. ‘Hong Kong’s rental yields are around 2.3 percent but, in mainland cities like Guangzhou or Shenzhen, they are less than 2 percent, making them less attractive from an investment perspective,’ Leung says. ‘Besides, concerns about home oversupply and the risk of renminbi depreciation have dampened expectations of capital appreciation.'”

“As China’s property downturn grinds into a fourth year and house prices continue their downward march, an increasing number of mortgages are slipping underwater. Now, with income growth slowing and job losses increasing, people are questioning whether it’s worth the struggle to pay a loan on a property that’s in negative equity. Lucy Liu’s bank is threatening court action after she missed four instalments on a three million yuan mortgage for her Shanghai home. It’s an abrupt change from three years ago when she bought the property for 4.2 million yuan with a belief that house prices would only go up. Since then, the value of the house has sunk below what she owes, she’s lost her high-paying job and she’s settled for one with 80 per cent less salary.”

“‘I have lost hope,’ said the 32-year-old financial worker, explaining she fears the price will continue to fall, leading to a bigger loss. ‘If I stop repaying I may only lose the down payment, but if I continue paying I may lose more.'”

“Carl, a former property consultant in Hangzhou, had to sell two of his homes at a total loss of one million yuan to repay his mortgages, one of which went underwater. After the sale, he still had to pay another 110,000 yuan on the property to clear the debt. At one point in 2022, he was sitting on a monthly mortgage bill of over 30,000 yuan, almost triple his wage, forcing him to use consumer loans to cover the debt. ‘I still feel scared looking back,’ said the 28-year-old, who also had to postpone buying a car for his family. ‘I didn’t expect such a severe consequence nor the harsh lesson – I’m a living example of people getting burned. It feels like my life journey was delayed a few years due to the property cycle.'”

“He still considered himself lucky as compared with his friends – one couple had to sell their home with a two million yuan loss to pay off their mortgage. That’s equivalent to about seven years worth of their savings. Some of his former colleagues are still struggling with monthly mortgage payment of around 80,000 yuan, far outstripping their income, he said. Chenchen, who works at a private property firm in Shanghai, has no choice but to continue paying her mortgage so her child can enrol in the school nearby. The 38-year-old has not been paid for five months and her home value has fallen about 40 per cent to 4.5 million yuan.”

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This Post Has 82 Comments

  1. HBB warning to readers: bloomberg is globalist scum media that peddles conspiracy theories, election lies and mis, mal and dis-informations.

    1. true. Bloomberg, CNBC and WSJ used to be about the economy, companies, stock and bonds — with a little news spread in using matter of fact reporting

      Now, they all seem to include more traditional news, politics and opinion with a politically correct viewpoint.

  2. ‘These are good, valuable units, and we’re not just going to let them go in a fire sale’

    Hold yer ground lawyer, don’t give it away. This FB got an inventory loan!

    1. Mr. Market gets a vote. Let’s see what he (oops, Pride month, gotta say “he/him/his”) says these “good, valuable units” are worth.

  3. “Potentially forcing more people to try and sell in a market that’s become overly saturated.”

    I’m no economics major like AOC, but it looks to me like motivated sellers coupled with a lack of buyers due to the downside risk from buying into defect-ridden condo buildings means the express train to schlongville will be running 24/7.

  4. ‘BNZ Capital ‘did not take any substantial steps to develop parcels, nor did BNZ flip real estate for a profit,’ according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. ‘Rather, BNZ primarily used investor funds to pay Barber, Zimmerle and others associated with the scheme, including purchasing residences where Barber and Zimmerle lived,’ officials said in a statement. ‘Some of the investors’ money was used to repay earlier investors’

    I’ll say it again: if the SEC doesn’t start regulating ponzi schemes, this is going to keep serprising investors!

    1. Concur. But what happened to … “if its too good to be true …”

      Are lessons not being learnt any more. Or od the pleebes think that they will be bailed out like the bankers.

  5. ‘At one point you would have bought a cardboard box if it was on a decent bit of land and paid a couple of million for it. Now it’s competitive for even getting a sale’

    In a few years that cardboard box will be worth more than all the land under California Brad. You’ll see. Why? Cuz the lending on boxes is rock solid!

  6. Federal investigators said Zimmerle’s $13.8 million scheme had promised investors returns of up to 10 percent for money they sank into what Zimmerle and co-conspirator Brett Barber, of Costa Mesa, said were real estate projects they bought and sold. Except the projects did not exist.

    Ever time real estate speculators get fleeced, an angel gets its wings.

  7. ‘That’s not realistic,’ he says, under current market conditions, but some wait for an improvement. ‘They will sit on it until that happens.’”

    I’ve got all the time in the world, greedhead sellers. You don’t.

  9. 6,500 condos are currently on the market in just Lee and Collier counties, and more are being added daily. ‘I hear from everybody. ‘I can’t afford it. I’m not going to be able to afford it in another year, and what happens if we get hit again

    I suspect you will get “hit again.” It’s gonna take a few years for all this to work its way “through the snake.” I wouldn’t touch a Condo in any state near the ocean right now. Salt destroys infrastructure in NC or SC almost as bad as FL.

    1. I wouldn’t touch a Condo in any state near the ocean right now. Salt destroys infrastructure in NC or SC almost as bad as FL.

      “Right now”.
      The salt presence in these places has existed since continent was formed. How long before you would touch a condo here?

      1. How long before you would touch a condo here?

        Probably 2-3 years. I’d wait until most of the special assessment have been made and the reserves are at the legal required amount. In the article they mention someone selling a condo for $180K. I would hate to buy a Condo now and get hit with special assessments that large %’s of the retired people can’t afford and be stuck in a building doing fire sale condos.
        Again, risk/reward isn’t there to me, but to be fair, with RE I am pretty risk adverse.

  10. Will weak jobs report today lead the Fed to reduce interest rates in the near future?

      1. The US unemployment rate is no longer below 4%

        Were there that many fence sitters who decided to try to find a job? Are we counting the illegal invaders as job seekers?

        1. Were there that many fence sitters who decided to try to find a job?

          Not sure how they are included, but colleges graduated a new batch of students in May and June.

          I’ve read stories in WSJ and others about how many firms are decreasing the total number of entry employees in 2024.

        2. there is also stastical nonsense by govt agencies. I am not sure if you guys like or dislike zerohedge but …


          Bloomberg’s chief economist Anna Wong agreed, and not only that, but she also agreed with our recurring contention that the Household Survey is far more accurate…

          “May’s jobs report presented contradictory views of the labor market, as we expected. The establishment survey shows robust gains in nonfarm payrolls — yet the unemployment rate rose to 4.0%. We believe the latter currently offers a closer approximation of reality than payrolls, as BLS’ model for estimating business births and deaths – which added 231,000 jobs to the nonfarm-payrolls print in May – is lagging the reality of surging establishment closures and falling business formation. We think the underlying pace of current job gains is likely less than 100,000 per month.”

          … not least of all because it accounts for the grotesque data manipulation by the BLS in the form of the ridiculous monthly Birth/ Death adjustments, which even Bloomberg now admits are artificially inflating the monthly jobs print by about 100K. To get a sense of just how unprecedented this statistically manipulation is, consider that the birth-death model has added 1.9 million jobs since last April, or a whopping 56% of all payrolls added during this period. This means that more than half of all “job gains” in the past year are from an excel spreadsheet which assumes that 1.9 million new jobs were created from new businesses.

          But, as usual, there’s much more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of “new jobs” has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in May 2024, the US had 133.3 million full-time jobs and 28.0 million part-time jobs. Well, that’s great… until you look back one year and find that in May 2023 the US had 134.4 million full-time jobs, or more than a million jobs than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by more than 1.5 million since May 2023 (from 26.493 million to 28.004 million).

          2. ZH has gone down hill drastically. At one time many posters were quite readable.

    3. Live
      Updated 15 min ago
      Yahoo Finance
      Stock market today: Stocks slip after jobs report smashes expectations
      Karen Friar and Hamza Shaban
      Updated
      Fri, Jun 7, 2024, 7:15 AM PDT
      139
      In this article:

      US stocks moved lower Friday after a jobs report seen as pivotal to expectations for interest-rate cuts showed much stronger hiring growth than expected.

      The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 0.2%, coming off a lackluster session Thursday for the three major gauges. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dropped around 0.4%.

      Investors have lifted stocks on the expectation that further data would suggest an economic cooldown. But the Labor Department report offered more evidence that parts of the economy are too hot for the central bank’s fight against inflation, feeding into a narrative of keeping rates higher for longer.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-today-stocks-slip-after-jobs-report-smashes-expectations-133119441.html

    4. US Jobs Report:
      May Jobs Report
      Key Takeaways
      Employed But Unhappy
      Unemployed Americans Left Behind
      Markets
      Bond Traders Jolted as Data Crushes Latest Fed Rate-Cut Hopes
      Traders are no longer pricing in a rate cut before December
      US job growth surged in May, while the unemployment rate rose
      By Liz Capo McCormick
      June 7, 2024 at 5:39 AM PDT
      Updated on June 7, 2024 at 10:55 AM PDT

      Traders’ hopes for a bond rally were dashed by surprise strength in the US labor market that raised odds the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer.

      Treasury yields surged across the curve on Friday, while traders — as well as economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. — pushed out their expectations for the Fed’s first rate reduction. This comes after the Bank of Canada and European Central Bank this week became the first Group-of-Seven economies to begin to normalize interest rates, stoking optimism the tide is turning globally.
      …
      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-07/treasuries-yields-surge-as-hot-jobs-data-dim-fed-rate-cut-bets?embedded-checkout=true

  11. Speculators Lose Huge In Barrie Real Estate
    Diane Neto – Living in Barrie

    17 hours ago

    Barrie Realtor Diane Neto with Sutton Group Incentive Realty, is an experienced real estate salesperson specializing in the Simcoe County area including Barrie, Innisfil, Essa and Springwater. Residential real estate and investment real estate are both areas of her expertise. Toronto property buyers are best to use a local agent to get the best value.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvFt1OuqMII

    20 minutes. K-da.

    1. The market is going to go back up for sure!

      Little row houses with no yard and no parking. Lots of stairs. Neighbors can see into all your rooms. Nearly 10x income. Walk away or move in you Investors.

  12. Urban Dictionary “Bottomless Pit”

    Definition:

    An endless hole with no bottom. When you fall into a bottomless pit, you die of starvation.

    Alternate definition:

    “…If I stop repaying I may only lose the down payment, but if I continue paying I may lose more….”

  13. The owner of a freshly delivered Tesla Cybertruck claims that the company is refusing to allow him to return the vehicle or sell it on the used market after he discovered it was too large for his parking space.

    Blaine Raddon booked the Cybetruck when it was first unveiled in late 2019. At the time, he was married, but he’s since split from his partner and moved into a new apartment complex. When he took delivery of the electric pickup a few weeks ago, he discovered it wouldn’t fit comfortably in his parking space and claims he doesn’t have enough room to open the doors.

    As pickup trucks go, the Cybertruck isn’t particularly big and is significantly shorter (9 inches, to be precise) than the Ford F-150 Lightning. Nevertheless, Raddon tells Business Insider the new Tesla is too big for him and wants to sell it. The only issue is that he’s not allowed to.

    Those who placed an order for a new Cybertruck were required to sign a Motor Vehicle Order Agreement, which prevents buyers from reselling their vehicle for one year. Theoretically, if a Cybertruck owner does sell their car on the used market, Tesla can sue for up to $50,000 in damages or any profit generated by the seller exceeding $50,000. Additionally, Tesla will blacklist resellers from purchasing any new vehicles from them in the future.

    Cybertruck owners who wish to part ways with their truck without facing these repercussions can sell it back to Tesla for the purchase price, minus a deduction of 25 cents per mile driven and reasonable wear and tear costs. However, Raddon says that his local Tesla dealership manager told him his “unforeseen circumstance” doesn’t warrant a buyback from the carmaker.

    In an email to Tesla, Raddon said he wasn’t trying to profit by selling the truck.

    “I am trying to remedy an unfortunate circumstance that the Cybertruck is not manageable in my living situation,” he said. “Making me keep a truck that does not fit my circumstances appears to be unfair and not at all the spirit of the no sale language in the contract.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/other/cybertruck-remorse-buyer-stuck-after-tesla-blocks-resale-and-buyback/ar-BB1nGXVp

      1. Buy a vehicle, own it, and allow someone else to dictate what you can or can’t do with it. Yeah, no sympathy.

  14. Hertz is dumping Teslas onto the used car market. The rental car agency made a huge mis-step by ordering too many electric cars, and now it’s rushing to offload 30,000 EVs. Tesla makes up roughly one-third of all of Hertz’s global EV fleet.

    Since January, Hertz has been aggressively offloading teslas at the nationwide average price of roughly $25,000, according to CNBC. Earlier this year in a regulatory filing, Hertz said, “expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EV, remained high.” in the first quarter, Hertz took a $195 million write-down for depreciation of its EVS.

    Hertz’s shifting attitude towards tesla and evs in general comes amid a slump in demand for these energy-friendly models. The price tag for a used EV plunged nearly 32 percent in March compared to a year ago, according to iseecars, led by a 29 percent drop for a used Tesla. Compare that to a minor 3.6 percent drop for the average used car during the same period.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/hertz-sells-off-tesla-fleet-at-discounted-price-as-ev-sales-slump/ar-BB1nLr8O

  15. The race to the $25,000 EV in the U.S. car market has been won, but not in the way the auto industry wanted.

    Since January, Hertz Global Holdings has been in Tesla sales mode, with 20,000 electric vehicles from its global fleet, representing nearly a third of the rental-car company’s existing EV inventory, on the dealer lot. The move, viewed as a stumble in Hertz’s EV strategy — in 2021, it heralded plans to order hundreds of thousands of Teslas, Polestars and battery-electric GM models — also reflects a sobering up of the electrification hype within the U.S. auto industry, which has run into a consumer in 2024 spurning at least the expected pace of the transition away from gas-powered cars.

    In 2024, there’s one other major change in the car shopping experience: artificial intelligence brought into the mix as a sales assistant. Late last year, ChatGPT tools were launched by automotive research and shopping websites Edmunds and CarGurus. Accessing the chatbots does require a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, for $20 a month.

    Prompting the Edmunds bot with the following question — “I am thinking of purchasing a used Telsa Model 3 from Hertz Car Sales. Can you provide information and advice? — led to this response:

    “Can be a great decision,” ChatGPT said. It then listed features of the Model 3 and reiterated Hertz’s Certified and no-haggle pricing policies. It suggested checking battery condition, software updates and whether Tesla’s original warranty is still in effect. Like Hertz, the bot advised a test drive and independent inspection.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ev-slump-hertz-fire-sale-take-used-teslas-to-no-haggle-25-000-price/ar-BB1nKObt

  16. A woman says she her 2019 BMW X3 “ruined” her life. Now she’s issuing a warning to young, prospective buyers. She says she bought the vehicle from a now-closed down dealership and suspects it sold her a lemon, or a car that has manufacturing issues.

    TikToker Kourtlynn Faith (@kourtlynn_) says she went to a car dealership in the hopes of purchasing a Lexus NX.

    “If you are a young person looking to buy a new car, like in your 20s, I cannot stress enough how important it is to make the best decision you possibly can,” she starts in her video. “I do not want young people to end up in the same situation I have by buying a car that has literally ruined my … life

    The clip then shows the German crossover vehicle in question.

    “This [expletive] 2019 BMW X3 has ruined my life, and when I tell y’all what I have gone through with this car, you will think twice about what you purchase,” she says.

    Faith says she previously had a Lexus and “it was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with it.”

    She says she went to the dealership hoping to get another Lexus but that a worker “talked me into getting a BMW X3.”

    The problems, she says, started soon after she she got home with her new car.

    “The month after I brought this [expletive] home, my AC went out. And I was like, ‘OK, I’mma get the AC fixed, fine.’ A month after the AC went out, my brakes had to be replaced, and I was like, ‘This is mad weird. I’ve only had the car for two months, but I’mma get the brakes replaced. … It’s fine.”

    The issues with her new purchase, she says, unfortunately, didn’t end there.

    “Two weeks after I got the brakes replaced, my engine light came on,” she says. “That is when the cycle of my car either being at the dealership or at a certified BMW mechanic every single month started.”

    “Every single time I fixed one problem another problem [happened],” she continues. “For instance, in one month, I spent thousands of dollars fixing my engine light, and then there was a fuel situation, and then there was a leak in my car, like with the coolant and everything.”

    Faith says she believes she was sold a lemon. “I’ve contacted a lawyer but the dealership that I bought the car from has now closed down,” she says.

    Faith says that if she had gone with her initial plan of purchasing a Lexus NX, she probably could’ve avoided this mess. She also says she regrets not taking her time and doing more research. She says the deal looked good on paper.

    “Just because I was paying $0 down, and it was like a used car with 30,000 miles, did not mean that it was a good purchase,” she says before reiterating her warning.

    “That’s why I stress so much, buying a car just because of what it looks like is not as important as the longevity and the amount that it’s gonna cost you,” she says.

    She says she’s now driving another Lexus and is currently trying to get rid of the BMW.

    “Everybody doesn’t have that privilege. And you don’t want to be upside down in something that you did not have to get in in the first place,” she says.

    https://www.dailydot.com/news/woman-warns-against-bmw-x3/

    1. Wall Street Journal — No One Wants a New Car Now. Here’s Why (6/6/2024):

      “Last month a study by S&P Global Mobility reported the average age of vehicles in the U.S. was 12.6 years, up more than 14 months since 2014. Singling out passenger cars, the number jumps to a geriatric 14 years.

      In the past, the average-age statistic was taken as a sign of transportation’s burden on household budgets. Those burdens remain near all-time highs. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000. While inflation and interest rates are backing away from recent highs, insurance premiums have soared by double digits in the past year.

      Many buyers are now surfing on waves of vehicle depreciation, picking up used and off-lease cars and trucks still under warranty for thousands less than new. That’s smart. Your Dutch uncle approves. But lately another, stranger element is showing up in the numbers: a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing.

      In fact, new-car deniers form a broad coalition of the unpersuaded. Some fear that new, digitally connected vehicles could expose their personal information to the Chinese—or worse, to their insurance agencies. Other modern marvels people seem eager to avoid include stop/start cycling systems, which shut off engines to save fuel when vehicles are stationary, now all but mandatory in new vehicles; continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), commonly found in compact vehicles with small-displacement engines; and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), a post-combustion exhaust treatment that modern turbo diesel engines can’t live without.

      Others are just trying to hang on to the good things they’ve got, like three-pedal stick-shifted manual transmissions, virtually extinct in new cars. Or built-in CD players. What unites them is the conviction that older cars are not just cheaper, but better—and that touch screens suck.

      Change is hard, whether it’s under the hood or in the cabin. Used-car intenders reserve special loathing for the touch screen displays and capacitive switches that are now ubiquitous in new cars, regardless of price. The virtualization of once simple, reachable controls into phone-like menus has left many exasperated.”

      https://archive.ph/aJpwu

      I have to watch a YouTube video to manually set the clock in my Subaru.

      1. “…I have to watch a YouTube video to manually set the clock in my Subaru….”

        New job classification: Consultant. Understanding how your car works. $200/hr.

      2. a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing.

        Many new cars, which in the past came with either a larger displacement 4 banger, or maybe a small V6, now ship with a 3 cylinder turbo, some as small as 1 liter

        Buyers are right to be wary, most of 2024’s offerings will have a very hard time making it to 100K miles without very costly repairs. There are still are new cars that have larger, normally aspirated engines mated to an old school and durable slush box, but they are disappearing fast and many will have tiny turbos and CVTs next model year.

      3. Yeah that pretty much nails.

        Zero styling (they all look exactly alike)
        massively overpriced
        unreliable
        no new features worth having
        expensive to maintain and fix (esp after they get old, all those electronic geegaws are going to be unavailable)
        touch screens everywhere which suck.

      1. Person in their twenties driving a Lexus and/or BMW.

        Thought exactly the same thing. No tears for her from me.
        Get a 5 year old Honda civic.

    3. She says she went to the dealership hoping to get another Lexus but that a worker “talked me into getting a BMW X3.”

      No one has ever talked me into getting a certain/brand or model of car.

      I suspect her coworker is another poser who also can’t afford his BMW.

      Also, from what I have heard, Lexus ain’t what it used to be. Too many gadgets that can break. Probably just better to get a Toyota, but they too are going the tiny engine/CVT route so choose carefully.

    4. Sounds like every BMW ever.

      Also drives a Lexus cuz she deserves it. Toyota is beneath her.

    5. I’m amazed at some of the cars people drive. Fast food workers getting to work in their Infiniti’s. 🤷

  17. The real estate market has seen its fair share of ups and downs, and recent economic shifts have left many realtors grappling with uncertainty. As sales slow and competition intensifies, financial strain can become overwhelming. The Van Horn Law Group is here to offer legal assistance and strategic advice to help realtors navigate these challenging times.

    Recent economic changes have led to a slowdown in the housing market. High interest rates, increased property prices, and a decrease in buyer demand are contributing factors. This environment makes it difficult for realtors to close deals, maintain a steady income and manage operational costs.

    Realtors are facing a unique set of financial challenges. Commissions are shrinking as properties take longer to sell, and the cost of marketing and maintaining a real estate business remains high. This financial strain can lead to increased debt and difficulty covering everyday expenses.

    https://southfloridareporter.com/surviving-a-slumping-housing-market-support-for-struggling-realtors/

  18. A little late to report what we already knew, NYT.

    New York Times — Office Building Losses Start to Pile Up, and More Pain Is Expected (6/6/2024):

    “While the number of office buildings reaching critical stages of distress remains small, the figure has increased sharply this year. And investors, lawyers and bankers expect the pain to grow in the coming months because demand for office space remains weak and interest rates and other costs are higher than they have been in many years. The problems could be especially severe for older buildings with lots of vacant space and big loan repayments coming up.

    The repercussions could extend far beyond the owners of these buildings and their lenders. A sustained drop in the value of commercial real estate could sap property tax revenue that cities like New York and San Francisco rely on to pay salaries and provide public services. Empty and nearly empty office buildings also hurt restaurants and other businesses that served the companies and workers who occupied those spaces.

    “There is a lot more trouble coming,” said Mark Silverman, a partner and leader of the CMBS Special Servicer group at the law firm Locke Lord, who represents lenders in disputes with commercial mortgage borrowers. “If we think it’s bad now, it’s going to get a lot worse.”

    Assessing the scale of the problem has been challenging even for real estate professionals because of the different ways in which commercial buildings are financed and the varying rules about what must be disclosed publicly.

    Roughly $737 billion of office loans are spread across large and regional banks, insurance companies and other lenders, according to CoStar, a real estate research firm, and the Mortgage Bankers Association.”

    https://archive.ph/50ZEi

    $737 billion is that a lot?

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

    1. Since we’re already adding $1-Trillion to the national debt every 100-days another $1-Trillion won’t matter.

  19. Dr Brix, the sidekick of Dr Fauci during the Covid scam , is now coming out on mainstream news peddling some concepts.
    In summary, first she peddles the amazing technology of the PCR testing, and basically says all the poultry and livestock should be tested using this technology.
    Than, in summary, she peddled the idea of people carrying the Bird Flu virus, who show no symptoms.

    Than on same day articles came out in news about a 59 year old man in Mexico who died in April, and had a post death lab confirmed test that confirmed a strain of bird flu, being the first case of Bird flu death. The man had numerous underlying medical conditions, and had no connection with the poultry or livestock business.
    But the first glaring question is, in Mexico of all places ,is it customary for medical people to.do a post death bird flu test on a guy with many co morbidity diseases, who wasn’t associated with the poultry or livestock business.
    So, as I was saying yesterday, the basic fraud of all these virus scams is the PCR bogus false positive testing of the so called disease.
    So you got Dr Brix touting this amazing technology of the PCR testing, on they same day they reported
    the first case of death from Bird flu strain in Mexico, based on a post death lab confirmed test of bird flu on a 59 year old man not associated with livestock business.
    Also, apparently they have already been manufacturing the human bird flu vaccine.
    Interesting, they now call vaccines “containment methods “now. Have you got your containment method today?
    Also , yesterday I read a number of articles that claimed 40%, 50%, and up to 56% death rate in humans regarding the Bird flu. So, I read another article by WHO stating there has been 134 human deaths from bird flu globally in the last 27 years. They didn’t say or not if these deaths where confined to poultry or livestock workers.
    So, my point is, if they can widely get people to take the PCR test again regarding bird flu, that has a scary up to 56% death rate, than the new Panademic is off and running.
    And with all the excess deaths and injuries coming out that is suspected to be tied to Covid vaccines, I wouldn’t put it past them to claim these.deaths are tied to bird flu.
    Apparently the WHO Panademic treaty was delayed for 6 month according to Bret
    Weinstein on Dark horse podcast.
    So, what does all this tell you. In spite of countless articles that came out addressing that the PCR testing had a high false positive , and the creator of PCR test said it should never be used for diagnostic testing, this is what will be used, as it was used with Covid 19.

  22. Date Event Price
    5/29/2024 Price change $850,000 -5% $613/sqft

    4/22/2024 Price change $895,000 -10.5% $645/sqft

    5/4/2022 Price change $999,999 -9% $721/sqft

    12/22/2020 Price change $1,099,000 -8.3% $792/sqft

    12/11/2020 Listed for sale $1,199,000 +33.2% $864/sqft

    4/25/2019 Sold $900,000 $649/sqft

  23. ‘She and many of her neighbors are scrambling to come up with the extra cash. ‘It’s very difficult because we didn’t budget for this’

    via GIPHY

  24. ‘People have become very nervous about the fact they’re buying a condo and getting hit with another assessment, and there are pending assessments, and sometimes they go to the new buyer’

    So yer sitting there wanting to buy an airbox Sue, and now you have to perform a forensic examination of the building, it’s past including what was spent on maintenance, are the HOA people crooks, etc. This urban living concept might turn out to be an unsustainable side effect of the larger bubble.

  25. ‘He didn’t pass the law exam, but he knows a lot about the law…At this point, I am about to lose everything based on his shenanigans’

    It’s still cheaper than renting Mike.

  26. ‘The owners have to face reality that the prices might not be what they thought they were…Usually price is the answer’

    That’s the spirit Elli, talk em down outta that tree!

      2. But behind the chalet
        My holiday’s complete
        And I feel like William Tell
        Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet
        Pulling mussels from a shell
        Pulling mussels from a shell

    1. il Donaldo Trumpo
      @PapiTrumpo
      The Biggest Most Beautiful UNFILTERED Commentary, Straight from the Hearto of IL GREATEST PRESIDENTO THAT EVER LIVED!!! (And a little bit of parody…😂😂😂)

  29. ‘Prices have tumbled farther in the smaller markets that saw a strong run-up during the low-interest era of the pandemic. Cobourg, Port Hope, Cambridge and Peterborough are among the Ontario towns and cities that have seen average prices tumble from their peak in the first quarter of 2022. ‘They’re just coming back to reality’

    That may be John, but all the experts say it was done with sound K-dn lending!

  30. ‘It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Think the infamous soup nazi in the Seinfeld TV series: no rate cuts for you!’ Koch wrote in The Nightly. ‘Because that is what Ms Bullock is saying. No rate cuts for us for quite a while. Forget any cuts before the end of the year. There is now every likelihood of rate INCREASES’

    Big Mike broke it off in yer a$$ Dave.

  31. ‘I have seen the value of my apartment slump 10 percent since I bought it in late 2019’…who purchased a 760-square-foot (70.6 square meters) second-hand flat…The 35-year-old says he isn’t hurting. ‘Since the depreciation hasn’t been realized in cash, the impact is not too severe’

    That’s very sensible Zhang, you have the makings of a winnah!

  32. ‘I still feel scared looking back…I didn’t expect such a severe consequence nor the harsh lesson – I’m a living example of people getting burned. It feels like my life journey was delayed a few years due to the property cycle’

    That’s the key word Carl, cycle. It always comes back stronger than ever if you can survive for a few years. Unlike a bubble where you’d be fooked!

  33. ‘He still considered himself lucky as compared with his friends – one couple had to sell their home with a two million yuan loss to pay off their mortgage. That’s equivalent to about seven years worth of their savings…Some of his former colleagues are still struggling with monthly mortgage payment of around 80,000 yuan, far outstripping their income’

    That’s some sound lending right there.

    ‘Chenchen, who works at a private property firm in Shanghai, has no choice but to continue paying her mortgage so her child can enrol in the school nearby. The 38-year-old has not been paid for five months and her home value has fallen about 40 per cent to 4.5 million yuan’

    One of these days Chenchen, we’re all gonna look back on this dark period and laugh. All the way to the bank!

  34. Step #1: Read Before You Sign (Peel Region Real Estate Market Update)
    Team Sessa Real Estate

    1 hour ago MISSISSAUGA

    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 May 29, 2024. We also discuss how it can become problematic if you don’t read all the details listed in the agreement of purchase and sale.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khuwuwrkM8U

    11:26.

    1. Toronto is getting so dangerous…was almost shot! Moving to the GTA

      A redditor said: “Well, it finally happened. Twice. My closest friend and I were almost shot in Toronto (Brampton area). It was in broad daylight while at a drugstore. Second time – we were close to my home in Scarborough! Walking my dog when two men were running down the street and one of the bullets grazed my friends arm.”

      “I’ve been saying for months that the cost of everything is too much here. The commute is worth my safety, want to grow my own food – everything. Things have gotten so bad – this was the last straw. I announced to my family we are moving. They were also in agreement, surprising the kids were overjoyed.”

      FWIW, Toronto is not Brampton.

  35. With California housing persistently unaffordable and Texas prices dropping, are you tempted to follow the flood of people relocating from California to Texas?

    1. Texas Home Prices Drop as Housing Market Struggles
      Published Jun 06, 2024 at 4:47 PM EDT
      Updated Jun 06, 2024 at 6:53 PM EDT
      By Omar Mohammed
      Reporter, Economy & Finance
      Home prices in Texas are falling, a signal of challenges facing the housing market after the pandemic-era boom.

      Some markets in the state have seen prices decline the most out of any metro areas in the country. Austin’s market recorded a nearly 3 percent price drop for the week ending June 2 from the same time a year ago, followed by San Antonio’s fall of 1.2 percent, along with Fort Worth, which registered the same decline, according to data from Redfin.

      At the national level, prices were up more than 4 percent, an all-time high during the four weeks ending June 2.

      Austin was among parts of the country that experienced a significant influx of new residents, which helped push up competition for homes and contributed to a jump in prices. But the boom of the COVID years has slowed and the market is experiencing a downturn. The median price of a home in the area is down 2 percent in the first quarter to $436,000, according to Texas Realtors, from last year.
      …
      https://www.newsweek.com/texas-home-prices-drop-housing-market-struggles-1909240

  36. Do you know anyone who leveraged up to buy more than one investment house?

    What do expect will happen to these highly leveraged investing geniuses if prices CR8R?

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