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If You Bought In 2021, Or Early 2022, Those People All Got Hurt

A report from the Arizona Republic. “When Phoenix leaders set a goal to create or save 50,000 houses in a decade to improve home affordability, the Housing Director at the time questioned if it could be done. Four years later, the city is 80% of the way to its target and likely to surpass its goal this year or next. But as the city nears completion of its housing goal far ahead of schedule, and a housing affordability crisis still plagues the region, the question becomes: What does the city do next to solve the problem? ‘Because we have so much growth in the Phoenix region, it really doesn’t matter how many housing units we’re building. The growth exceeds the number of housing units, so rents keep going up,’ said David King, an urban planning professor at Arizona State University. ‘If Phoenix says that they’re 80% of the way to their goals for affordable housing, what’s the big goal that they haven’t achieved yet? Affordability. Phoenix is less affordable now than it was five years ago,’ he added. ‘So, there’s something missing in these plans.'”

The Scottsdale Progress in Arizona. “Home sellers’ position at bargaining tables in the Valley may be slipping as inventory rises and demand remains in low gear, according to a leading analyst of the Phoenix Metro housing market. The Cromford Report said last week said that while sellers’ advantage at the bargaining table has been gaining in five of the 17 Valley submarkets, 12 others are slipping – including in Scottsdale. ‘The re-sale market is cooling as supply continues to climb while demand remains subdued,’ it said, adding that the number of listings without a contract ‘represents a balanced market with buyers finding plenty of supply to choose from and sellers experiencing more competition from each other than they have for most of the last decade.'”

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time for sellers to hit the panic button, although it noted, ‘Sellers are nervous and buyers are unenthusiastic. We are not in a buyer’s market overall, but some significant markets are. If current trends continue then more areas could join them.’ ‘This weakness is not encouraging,’ the Cromford Report added, noting that re-sale homes are facing increasing pressure from the new-home market. ‘Supply continues to rise, although slowly and the current trends are suggesting continued deterioration for sellers,’ it warned. ‘It would not be a surprise if demand were to fall enough to match the supply of active listings over the next several weeks.'”

KFSN in California. “In May, it took an average of 28 days to sell a home in Fresno. JP Shamshoian, the CEO of Realty Concepts, says the industry environment is a little more buyer friendly now than it has been in years past – when many people lost out in a very competitive market. Shamshoian believes you shouldn’t pass on a property if you come across your dream home which fits all your needs. ‘I know a lot of people out there, a lot of my friends, a lot of my family members – both on the investment side and and on the residents side, who say, ‘golly, four years ago I wanted to buy but I was waiting for prices to come down and now they’re kicking themselves because they didn’t buy and they missed that opportunity,’ said Shamshoian.”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “When Bryan Wynwood got his start as a real estate agent in Joshua Tree 20 years ago, it was just ‘a rural, dusty little town.’ In the past decade, word spread, but nothing compared to the boom the area saw during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, homebuyers knew they could turn their purchase into an Airbnb if they didn’t want to settle in the desert full time. ‘It was not realistic,’ Wynwood said. ‘The pandemic created a stampede from the city, bidding homes up to unsustainable highs. Frenzied buyers rushed in and that itself pushed the prices up.’ The problem was, Wynwood said, very few of the new purchasers had experience running a vacation rental and were just ‘buying the dream of the Airbnb.'”

“Madalaine LaVoie, a real estate agent who has been working in the area for 30 years, said most tourists are only visiting the desert on the weekend, leaving vacation rentals sitting empty and not earning revenue during the week. If they bought a home for too high a price, the numbers simply don’t work. ‘If you bought in 2021, or early 2022, those people all got hurt,’ she said. Wynwood said he hasn’t seen a huge uptick in foreclosures yet, but he does expect to see more coming. This year he’s sold five — getting outreach from banks is not something he was used to.”

“It might feel like 2019 in terms of sales volume, but prices are nothing like they were five years ago. In Joshua Tree, the median sale price in April 2024 was $326,000, more than 50% higher than the April 2019 median price of $213,000, according to Redfin data. In Yucca Valley, it’s up 106%. Still, prices have come down from pandemic heights, bidding wars are much less common, and some properties are sitting on the market much longer. ‘Now we have limited buyer demand because that rush to flee the city has subsided, work from home has subsided. Demand for rural real estate has subsided,’ Wynwood said, adding that it’s definitely a buyer’s market. ‘There is still too much inventory and not enough buyer demand,’ he said. ‘There are lots of good deals out there.'”

Bisnow on California. “The heavy fog over San Francisco’s commercial real estate market may be slowly dissipating. The cautiously optimistic CRE community knows structural headwinds like inflation and its large remote workforce are still challenges to overcome. But in the words of Prado Group CEO Dan Safier, ‘It’s a good time to be investing right now, given how far things have fallen.’ Office landlords are still offering concessions and tenant improvement allowances in light of the city’s 35% vacancy rate. ‘We are seeing pockets of strength, but you have to be selective,’ Safier said. ‘It needs to be walkable, safe and clean.'”

“Yet while leasing has gained momentum, stubbornly high interest rates have shut down virtually all San Francisco property sales involving equity. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it, and I worked in commercial real estate in the ’90s,’ said Arden Hearing, executive general manager of development for Lendlease’s West region. ‘The capital markets are just not looking at San Francisco right now.'”

The Miami Herald in Florida. “The eight story Courthouse Place office building in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a couple blocks from the Broward County courthouse, which makes it an attractive home for the dozens of lawyers and legal services companies that rent space in the building. It even houses a few offices for prosecutors in Broward’s Drug Trafficking and Economic Crimes units. That would seem to make it an unlikely destination for money launderers to invest drug trafficking proceeds, but federal prosecutors say it was purchased as part of a real estate buying spree fueled by drug proceeds.”

“Sefira Capital, a Miami-based real estate investment firm, was accused by federal prosecutors in a 2021 civil forfeiture complaint of accepting millions of dollars worth of drug trafficking proceeds to fund its investments in commercial real estate in Florida and several other states between 2016 and 2019. It bought Courthouse Place in April 2017. The fact that the company didn’t face any criminal consequences shows how the current legal framework, which doesn’t require firms like Sefira to vet the source of their funds, limits the penalties for those who enable these money laundering transactions. In the civil forfeiture complaint, prosecutors alleged that money invested by Sefira had been laundered through the Black Market Peso Exchange, a shadow financial system used by drug traffickers in Mexico and other countries to convert tainted U.S. dollars obtained from drug sales into clean currency in their native countries.”

The Vancouver Sun in Canada. “It pained Emi Herawati to cut back on the money she regularly sent to her family back in Indonesia, including her seven-year-old grandson, but she was left with no choice after she lost her retirement savings. The notary public who worked with her on the property sale told her he could help her invest the money from the transaction, according to an investigation by the B.C. Society of Notaries Public. That notary, Jitendra Desai, then ‘brokered a deal’ for Herawati to take the net proceeds from the sale of her home — totalling $200,000 — and invest it as a mortgage loan on a residential property in Vancouver, the regulator has alleged in a continuing disciplinary matter against Desai. Desai told Herawati that ‘the borrowers were ‘solid’ borrowers, but failed to advise the total amount of mortgages exceeded the value of the property on which (she) was lending.”

“When Herawati wasn’t repaid on time as per their agreement, she raised concerns with Desai over several months in 2023. The paperwork said the borrower was Surinder Gill, but the point of contact was always Surinder’s husband, Tarsem Singh Gill, Herawati said. At the time, she didn’t realize he was the man accused, 16 years earlier, of orchestrating one of the largest real estate frauds in Canadian history. When Herawati wasn’t repaid on time as per their agreement, she raised concerns with Desai over several months in 2023.”

“Eventually, in response to her concerns, Desai arranged a meeting last September in his Vancouver office with Gill and Herawati as well as her friend, Mike Brown, who was helping her through the process. By that time, Brown had researched Gill’s background, and when he raised the five outstanding criminal charges at the meeting, Gill calmly replied with something like: ‘They’ve been trying to get me for years. And I’m still standing,’ said Brown. ‘When he said that, I wanted to jump across the desk and strangle him,’ Brown said recently. Herawati took her case to the police. After the file was forwarded to the Vancouver Police Department’s financial crime unit for review, an officer emailed her offering sympathy, but urging her to contact a civil lawyer instead.”

Guelph Today in Canada.”It’s been nearly a year since Ryan Bedrosian bought his first home – a three-bedroom backsplit in the city’s west end – with dreams of fixing it up and moving in with his fiance, to whom he proposed days after the purchase was finalized. The plan was to tear the interior down to the studs and essentially rebuild the living space before moving in by the end of 2023. That didn’t happen. Instead, Bedrosian continues to live with his parents as he tries to get a group of alleged squatters removed from the Elmira Road home he bought through a bank sale – all the while making loan payments and watching as the house’s water and electricity bills climb. Bedrosian says he is out about $50,000 and counting.”

“‘I feel betrayed,” Bedrosian said, referring to what he perceives as indifference from the City of Guelph and local police, as well as by the legal system he feels has left his life in limbo. ‘You’re helpless. You have zero control of what’s happening to you.'”

The Age in Australia. “Landlords in the city’s inner north could have their rates doubled, while owner-occupiers and local businesses get a 50 per cent reduction, under a contentious plan to address the housing crisis to be debated by a Melbourne council this week. Merri-bek Council is being asked by independent councillor James Conlan to investigate how it could introduce a new ‘differential rate’ for residential property investors aimed at pushing them to sell, making more homes available to first home buyers. ‘Anyone owning two or more properties may in the vast majority of cases have a greater capacity to pay,’ Conlan outlined in his motion,. ‘Unlike owner-occupiers and renters, investors can sell at least one residential property without making themselves homeless.'”

“But Australian Landlords Association president Andrew Kent said it was ‘oversimplistic’ to assume the sale of a current rental property would mean it would be affordable for a first home buyer. ‘People should be asking why investors are leaving the market and rents are going up,’ he said.”

From Newshub. “Caleb Paterson, of Paterson Luxury, has just sold a 440-square-metre, five-bedroom, four-bathroom luxury home in the north Auckland suburb of Dairy Flat. He won’t reveal the exact sale price, except to say it was between $4 million and $5 million and the owners are selling to retire across the ditch. ‘They have sold their whole portfolio of properties because they feel retirement in Australia is going to be better than what it would be here,’ he told Newshub. New Zealand doesn’t record occupations or net assets when people leave, so there is no data to support Paterson’s experience.”

“The housing market is reflecting the tough times and the luxury segment is no different. Estate agents also say there are more listings and properties are taking longer to sell. Ollie Wall works for Wall Estate Agents, an agency which sells the very top end of the luxury market in suburbs like Auckland’s Herne Bay. ‘I don’t think the demand is less, but I think people are a little bit more discerning and they’re taking their time to make a decision,’ Wall told Newshub. ‘There’s just less pressure on buyers at the moment because there’s that sort-of fear of missing out that has disappeared.'”

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This Post Has 83 Comments

  1. ‘But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time for sellers to hit the panic button, although it noted, ‘Sellers are nervous and buyers are unenthusiastic’

    Oh dear, Tina is on the bus. When the cheerleaders are on the bus the game is over!

    1. ‘advantage at the bargaining table has been gaining in five of the 17 Valley submarkets, 12 others are slipping – including in Scottsdale. ‘The re-sale market is cooling as supply continues to climb while demand remains subdued,’ it said, adding that the number of listings without a contract ‘represents a balanced market with buyers finding plenty of supply to choose from and sellers experiencing more competition from each other than they have for most of the last decade’

      A decade? Tina and the girls have made a stark turnaround here.

      ‘This weakness is not encouraging,’ the Cromford Report added, noting that re-sale homes are facing increasing pressure from the new-home market. ‘Supply continues to rise, although slowly and the current trends are suggesting continued deterioration for sellers,’ it warned. ‘It would not be a surprise if demand were to fall enough to match the supply of active listings over the next several weeks’

      But you wanted new supply Tina, to lower shack price cuz that’s virtuous! And now you are saying we can build too many shacks?

      Sacré bleu! Zut alors! Mon Dieu!

  2. ‘People should be asking why investors are leaving the market and rents are going up’

    It’s a conundrum Andy we see here at HBB all the time. For instance, how can shacks be red hotcakes when the clowns that build them are dropping like flies and FBs with half built defective shacks have tales of woe?

    1. One of these things is not like the other. A frequent observation here on the brain trust that is the HBB.

  6. “When Phoenix leaders set a goal to create or save 50,000 houses in a decade to improve home affordability, the Housing Director at the time questioned if it could be done.

    Wait until “heat domes” intersect with power grid blackouts and brownouts. I suspect housing will get VERY affordable in the sweltering heat of the SouthWest as the Olds head to cooler climes.

  7. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time for sellers to hit the panic button, although it noted, ‘Sellers are nervous and buyers are unenthusiastic.

    If sellers knew the real picture, they’d be as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch.

  8. Shamshoian believes you shouldn’t pass on a property if you come across your dream home which fits all your needs.

    Shamshoian’s livelihood depends on Always Be Closing. Shamshoian has no qualms about lying and dissembling to get “clients” (marks) to sign on Mr. Banker’s line which is dotted. To Shamshoian and his ilk, now will always be the best time to buy, even if Putin’s nukes are inbound.

  9. If they bought a home for too high a price, the numbers simply don’t work. ‘If you bought in 2021, or early 2022, those people all got hurt,’ she said.

    Die, speculator scum. Just die already.

  10. But in the words of Prado Group CEO Dan Safier, ‘It’s a good time to be investing right now, given how far things have fallen.’

    Methinks Dan is trying to hive off his cratering CRE portfolio onto the retail investor muppets, just as Goldman Sachs unloaded its toxic-waste MBSs (AAA-rated by complicit ratings agency officials) onto unsuspecting “investors” when Housing Bubble 1.0 was imploding.

    1. I actually feel very sorry for this dude that’s having problems paying his Property tax. Went from $900 to $8000. What BS. They need to have some exclusion in place….age, or how long you’ve lived there are something.

      1. My county offers a paltry $100,000 off assessed value to senior 65 and older. About $500 off the tax bill. I guess that’s better than than nothing.

      2. They’ll never do that. The consensus is that seniors who are aging in place are taking up valuable housing, and it’s time for Grandma to shunt herself off to a sub-par nursing home so that Blackrock can buy the house and rent it out — using gov monies — to an illegal immigrant family and their 5 future Democrat voters. Not to mention bringing in more property tax.

      4. “In Kurt’s case, he claims to have bought his property in 1995. In the 29 years since then, the family home (he does not share where in Montana the property is located) has undoubtedly increased in value.”

        Bozeman area?

  13. If you want a preview of coming attractions as the Fed & Biden regime hurtle us down the road to Venezuela del Norte, pick up a copy of “When Money Dies.”

    https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/8567383

    When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nation’s currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany’s finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

    Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, “quantitative easing,” that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country’s deficit necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.

    1. “waiving the inspection is risky and not something to do lightly. An inspection is an important safeguard that can help you go into the purchase understanding some of the maintenance tasks and repairs that may be on the horizon”

      Unpossible.

      You can do ALL of your own plumbing and electrical from watching YouTube videos.

      1. Out here in SoCal, cracked slabs and foundations are common due to ground settling (often due to falling groundwater tables) and seismic activity.

        While many foundation cracks can be repaired, it is *very* expensive.

        In some cases (i.e. San Pedro and Laguna Beach) landslides render structures uninhabitable and must be torn down / rebuilt. Hence, the ever increasing costs of H/O insurance, (assuming such a policy is obtainable)

        1. Rancho Palos Verdes has many gaudy Garage Mahals that look like replicas of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Rumor has it their occupants are retired union goons who became very wealthy thanks to their close symbiotic ties to LA’s Democrat Party apparatchiks and criminal syndicates (very blurred lines between those two entities, or so I’ve heard). If true, I would love to see their ill-gotten gaudy mansions slide into the Pacific Ocean.

    2. That hasn’t been my experience. We been here 24 years… I did just spend $15,000 on a roof…insurance didn’t cover it like they did for many neighbors.

      Roof $625 per year
      New A.C. X2 500 per year.
      Hot water heater $25 per year
      So $1150 per year.
      Or $96 per month. I know I’m leaving out something but those are the ones that come to mind. I painted the house myself but it’s all brick so Not a huge cost.

      1. I couldn’t get to the article, but maybe they’re including taxes and insurance on top of the mortgage, along with maintenance. Even then that leaves $12K or so. It’s easy to spend $12K on a big-ticket item, but it’s not easy to spend $12K every single year.

        1. Correct.

          Here is a cut from article to help clarify how costs were calculated:

          “…according to Bankrate’s new Hidden Costs of Homeownership Study. Bankratecalculated the average costs of property taxes, homeowners insurance, homemaintenance costs and electricity, internet and cable bills and found that they add up to$18,118 a year for a typical single-family home (valued at $436,291 per Redfin) in all 50
          states, not including the District of Columbia..”

          2. “don’t pay internet, electricity, or cable?”

            Starry Internet is $30 a month. My electric is about $30 a month October to May and $75-100 a month June to September from running the AC.

            Pay for cable TeeVee? It’s been 15+ years since I paid for that.

            The demo house is shaping up nicely, BTW. I hired someone to cut the grass for the next few months.

  15. ‘a real estate agent who has been working in the area for 30 years, said most tourists are only visiting the desert on the weekend, leaving vacation rentals sitting empty and not earning revenue during the week. If they bought a home for too high a price, the numbers simply don’t work. ‘If you bought in 2021, or early 2022, those people all got hurt’

    So what happened in that time period Madalaine? We had the minor respiratory illness, but what does that have to do with desert shacks?

    ‘Wynwood said he hasn’t seen a huge uptick in foreclosures yet, but he does expect to see more coming. This year he’s sold five — getting outreach from banks is not something he was used to’

    Sound lending!

    1. 06-11-2024
      NEWS
      How bad is the housing market recession? Existing home sales are back to 1978 levels

      While U.S. home prices have held stable since mortgage rates spiked, existing home sales are a very different story. Here’s why.
      How bad is the housing market recession? Existing home sales are back to 1978 levels

      BY Lance Lambert
      1 minute read

      The recession in the U.S. market for existing homes has been so deep that April sales were back to late-’70s levels—despite the population growth since that time, according to recent data from the National Association of Realtors:

      April 1978: 4.09 million U.S. existing home sales

      April 2024: 4.14 million U.S. existing home sales

      1978: 223 million U.S. population

      2024: 341 million U.S. population

      The reason, of course, is that housing affordability has deteriorated so much that many buyers and sellers alike have pulled back from the market. Many homeowners who would otherwise like to sell and buy something else are staying put rather than trading in their 3% mortgage rate for a 7% mortgage rate.

      In addition, according to a forecast published this week by Goldman Sachs, the recovery for existing home sales could be a slog.

      Goldman Sachs projects that existing home sales will slowly drift up from 4.1 million in 2024 to 4.5 million in 2027. Not only is that far below the 6.1 million during the height of the pandemic housing boom in 2021, it’s also well below the 5.3 million U.S. existing home sales during “normal” times in 2019.

      While this recession for existing home sales has coincided with pricing corrections in some pandemic boomtowns in parts of Texas and Colorado, many housing markets in the Northeast and Midwest where inventory has remained tight have continued to see rising home prices.

      Additionally, the U.S. market for new homes has fared much better than the market for existing homes. There are two reasons for this:

      – Single-family homebuilders don’t have a “lock-in effect”—they can continue to develop and build new homes.

      – Homebuilders, where needed, have introduced affordability adjustments like outright home price cuts or mortgage rate buydowns to move product. Many sellers in the existing market have resisted coming down on price.
      …
      https://www.fastcompany.com/91137064/housing-market-recession-hit-so-hard-existing-home-sales-fall-to-1978-levels

    2. Maybe I should check the local Lexus dealer and see if realtors are still buying? 🤔

  17. Hunter Biden is GUILTY of three felonies.

    How’s that new Drumpf Felon DNC talking point working out?

    1. I dunno, this is just a non-starter. The case was pretty clear cut, I don’t see any meaningful appeal. Equal justice, etc… Hunter’s sentence will either be very light, or commuted by his dad, so he’ll be back to his free-wheeling days in no time. I don’t see Hunter ever working a regular job either — assuming they don’t run out of money — so the felony record won’t hurt him much either.

      1. Apparently felony convictions carry little weight if your last name happens to be Trump or Biden.

  18. To be clear, the One World Order Entities, has announce a intent to form a One World Order dictorship of private/public facism partnerships between world governments and Private Party Entities, such as Monopoly Corporation that are under the WEF.
    John Kerry said recently that no Government can stop the “market forces” he is aligned with.
    Klaus Schwab in WEF meeting has discussed the private /public partnerships which is a declaration of Facism he calls “stakeholder capitalism” the great reset, whatever you want to call it.
    Joe Biden announced “The US should lead in the One World Order”, while he allows non vetted invasion of our borders in the millions, while taxpayer funds are diverted to fund the invasion.

    In addition Biden is attempting to transfer unlimited power to the WHO by a Treaty that would supersede constitutional protections of US Citizens
    In spite of this hijacking of global governments to partner in a facism power grab for these Entities to form a One World Order dictorship, the US Senate/Congress isn’t addressing this insurrection and treason taking place by US government and a Sitting President.
    And you have private parties like Bill Gates, acting like he’s the Administer of Health for Panademic vaccine response and Climate Change counter measures. Bill Gates, a major funder to the c.
    corrupt WHO, that China also donates to.

    So, basically you have this blueprint of the UN 2030 Sustainable Earth agenda, that’s suppose to be the end game program for the world. The program that would cause massive death, genocide, unsustainable energy needs, and epic disaster for humanity if it was ever implemented. And its all promoted under the pretext of Global emergencies like Climate Change, Global Panademics, and entirely false narratives they are making up to justify their genocide and take over of World.

    The evidence shows this was all pre- planned by these Entities that want to subject global populations to enslavement, genocide ,no rights, mandated vaccines, no cars, 15 minute cities, you will own nothing and eat bugs and be happy.
    A UN Sustainable Earth Agenda that purports that a fraudulent zero carbon emission policy will save the earth from doomsday Climate Change , when it would turn earth into a uninhabitable place. A agenda to reduce agriculture production by 30% or more, that would result in mass famine globally. A agenda to force mandated vaccines on 8 billion people, as the counter measure to declare Panademics by the corrupt WHO.
    And the PCR fake test is being used to slaughter the food supply, as it was used to establish the Covid 19 global Panademic that was pre planned and launched upon the globe.
    The scheme is clear to use manufactured and faked global emergencies to justify a take over by Entities that want to control all resources and consumption of earth’s resources.
    Its all based on fraudulent Science, and fraudulent solutions to the fraudulent emergencies. Its based on censorship of any dispute to the fraudulent narratives.
    And they talk about gain of function bio weapons and nuclear warfare as if these threats are sane or acceptable threats to the World.
    They have gone operational in this warfare against humanity, and they have exposed their psychopathic evil intent to harm and genocide world populations by fake lethal vaccines, famine, deprivation,and possible nuke warfare, as they induce World War 3.
    And they won’t let up because its one assault after another , designed to break down prior systems so they can implement their One World Order.They want to accomplish their goals by 2030 apparently.
    They claim that AI /robots will take over 40 % of global jobs within the next 10 years. Klaus Schwab claims that” who controls technology will control the world..” John Kerry stated that no government can stop the “market forces” he aligns with being the WEF.
    Just saying do you want to comply with this take over of world, by this insurrection by these Entities and their co conspirators, or government partners?

    1. We the people can’t even agree on the alcohol % on the same beer for liquor store vrs convenience stores. I don’t see the world getting together to form one party. We can’t agree on the basic stuff. Mayor Bloomberg In the interest of health tried To get New York city to reduce the amount Size of soft drinks And people lost their minds. Lol.

      1. I think the same is going to happen with the BRICS countries. Oh sure, they would love to unite in their hatred of the US petrodollar, but their cultures and religions are far too disparate. I think that any BRICS coalition will dissolve into infighting by 2030.

        [and my challenge to BIRCS: if you’re so interested in integrating, then why don’t you take in each other’s immigrants. Come on China, I’m sure you have the space to take in some Indians, and Russia could take in some poor from Rio.]

        1. I am certain they would like to be free from Uncle Buck. However, the fear of getting stuck with a new currency that could end up being worthless has to be a major concern.

          1. The scuttlebutt is that their currency will be backed by a basket of commodities, including gold.

  19. A reader sent these in:

    Good thing Canada has spent the past 2 decades encouraging investment in productive assets to help us get through these tougher times…

    Oh wait, we encouraged people to over leverage themselves to a single asset class (housing) and now will see the repercussions of that… 🤷‍♂️

    https://x.com/mortimer_1/status/1799969549993062832

    Amusing that every housing investor, speculator and hoarder on this platform points to more construction as THE solution to America’s affordable housing shortage.

    “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” 🤑🤑🤑

    https://x.com/dfwaaronlayman/status/1800125502067528016

    Debt/pension obligations are throwing Chicago into doom loop of poor services -> higher taxes -> loss of tax base, with 6 companies having relocated in past 2 yrs:
    Boeing -> VA
    Tyson -> AR
    Citadel -> FL
    Catepillar -> TX
    TTX -> NC
    Guggenheim Partners -> FL

    https://x.com/JohnArnoldFndtn/status/1799917422763552902

    ❖ MORGAN STANLEY CEO PICK SAYS HIGHER-FOR-LONGER INTEREST RATES ARE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

    https://x.com/DeItaone/status/1800202835109322880

    🏙️Office Building In Philadelphia’s Popular Old City Section Sells For 38% Discount To Assessed Value

    https://x.com/dailyjobcuts/status/1800240276121813055

    RBA’S CFR SAYS BORROWERS FALLING BEHIND ON MORTGAGE PAYMENTS RISING

    https://x.com/FirstSquawk/status/1800295403965030861

    Governments falling faster than interest rates.

    https://x.com/NorthmanTrader/status/1799902757609975875

    I’ve said for a while, this is a bigger, more concentrated bubble than we saw in 2000. We also have a real estate crisis brewing up comparable to 2007.

    You can argue with me all you want, but we’ve got bigger asset bubbles in tech and real estate than the last two recessions they caused, plus 1970’s inflation waves to boot.

    I’m not a doomer – I am just a data-dependent watchdog, barking to tell you to protect your assets right now.

    https://x.com/his_eminence_j/status/1800142851205919205

    Colorado Weed Industry In Free-Fall As Sales Plunge By $700 Million

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1800125791503634658

    This will add fuel to the debate about how much of the CRE reckoning has already happened, & how much has yet to come. A NYC office building at 321 W. 44th St. is set to be sold for less than $50 million, a 67% discount from where it was sold in 2018.

    https://x.com/lisaabramowicz1/status/1800280955359506727

    Lisitings in Toronto are mooning guys. It was the SELLERS that were waiting for a rate cut.

    https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1800289525945774550

    Can you believe this whole area is completely empty and unsold… looks like only the exteriors being finished up 🥹

    https://x.com/DarioCpx/status/1799980160340615545

    1. “Colorado Weed Industry In Free-Fall As Sales Plunge By $700 Million”

      “Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.” —Gilbert Shelton, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

  20. The man who fled a New York City day care center where a 1-year-old died and three others were hospitalized with suspected fentanyl poisoning pleaded guilty Monday, the day his trial was scheduled to start.

    Felix Herrera Garcia, 35, had been on the run for almost two weeks before he was detained by authorities in Mexico. He was the fourth person arrested — following his fife and two other men — in connection to the alleged drub lab being run out of the day care his wife operated.

    According to prosecutors, Herrera Garcia pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including conspiracy to distribute narcotics, possession with intent to distribute resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute resulting in serious harm. He could be sentenced to at least two decades behind bars.

    His guilty plea comes two weeks after a co-conspirator, 38-year-old Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, also pleaded guilty in connection to the day care death, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

    The manhunt for Herrera Garcia began not long after a 1-year-old boy, Nicholas Dominici, suddenly died at the Bronx day care center. He was 22 months old and had spent only a few days at the Divino Niño day care center when he died on Sept. 15, 2023.

    During nap time, other children at the center experienced symptoms of opioid poisoning and needed to be revived with the drug Narcan.

    https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/bronx-day-care-overdose-plea/5493779/

  24. Ok, so some narratives are building on the Mainstream news, as well as alternative news.

    The narrative is bio weapon gain of function Bird Flu in US labs.

    Another narrative is the MSN rolling out Dr BRIX, who was peddling that the PCR test is amazing technology that should be employed in testing every poultry , cow,livestock animals in food supply.
    The other narrative was a 59 year old died in Mexico, was tested post death for Bird Flu, and a Bird flu strain was detected. They claim this is first death case from bird flu, in spite of the 59 year old man not connected or exposed to the livestock business.
    The other narrative is that they have manufactured
    a human mNRA Bird flu vaccine, and they are stockpiling such vaccine . Amazing how quickly they produced that one.
    IMHO, this is a effort to start Disease x more scary Panademic , using same fake PCR testing, and rumors of US bio weapon labs creating a gain of function human Bird flu, that might of leaked no doubt.
    This is Panademic 2.0 more scary disease, predicted by guys like Bill Gates.
    The Bird flu was first detected about 30 years ago, and one wonders what was used to detect such pathogen for all those years prior to the fantastic PCR test.
    There was never a slaughter of all the poultry, cows and livestock in regard to prior Bird flu outbreaks, that generally occurred in third world countries.
    They claim either 134 deaths or 455 deaths ,( depending on source your looking at) in 30 years. Most the alleged deaths took place in third world poor countries with limited access to medical care by people in contact with infected animals.

    So, first how can they already produce a mNRA Bird flu vaccine before the first human death case different strain case of bird flu from Mexico was announced. Wouldn’t that be putting the chart before the horse on determining the gene sequence of the human Bird flu strain?
    Isn’t it laughable that that Dr BRiX is touting the PCR testing, that studies have come out it has up to 95% false positive rate .
    Isn’t it refreshing to hear that we have gain of function bio weapon labs in US currently working on creating a Bird Flu pathogen that will attack humans.
    Actually I think this is all BS, and its just fear porn to explain new novel virus narrative. They probably deliver poison by some deliver system, and you know the vaccines are delivery of toxic lethal ingredients.
    Seriously, it must be that they really can’t create a global panademic novel virus pathogen, so they have to use fake PCR test, etc ,to fake the world out.
    Why would a number of Scientists and Doctors say that there was no 2020 Covid 19 global Panademic?
    It was faked, simple as that, just like this Bird flu is being faked.
    Than why is poultry and cows getting sick? Probably because a certain percentage of chickens and cows always get sick, or older humans with numerous diseases.
    So, you can see the building of the narrative of Bird Flu Panademic , with them already manufacturing and stockpiling the counter measure human mNRA vaccine.
    Also with mounting evidence that the Covid 19 vaccines are causing excess mortality and injury on a massive scale, this would be the time to distract to bird flu, and even claim that bird flu is what’s causing this massive death and injury, we know the Covid vaccines caused.
    So unbelievable, so evil.

  25. If you plan to buy a house, when a new pandemic might be in the works , you might have second thoughts.
    We have evidence that Global Panademics tend to destroy businesses and jobs, destroy traveling and education, ability to engage in commerce, and a host of other freedoms.
    And why buy a house when you might be ordered to go to a camp because you won’t take a vaccine, assuming the WHO gets their health dictorship treaty with 194 sell out Countries.

  26. The Five Stages Of Denial When Skeptics Are Faced With Economic Collapse

    June 11, 2024

    This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group

    In light of the recent resurgence of inflation on top of increasingly rigged employments stats, declining manufacturing and stagnant wages I think it’s important to revisit a fundamental question: What does an economic collapse look like?

    As I have said for years an economic collapse is NOT an event, it’s a process. When people think of a historic crisis they usually imagine something like the stock market crash of 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression. However, there were numerous indicators and warning signs leading up to that crash that should have tipped people off. There were even a handful of economists that voiced concerns about impending instability, yet they were ignored.

    Our present day predicament has not reached Great Depression levels yet. We are currently in a stagflationary phase similar to what happened in the 1970s. For those that think we have it bad now, the 70s were actually far worse.

    House prices nearly TRIPLED from 1970 to 1980 (the median house price was $17,000 in 1970 compared to almost $50,000 in 1980). Annual inflation on most goods and services was in the double digits and the minimum wage was only $1.45 an hour. Unemployment was high and interest rates were eventually hiked to around 20% by 1981.

    The point is that these breakdowns in financial structures happen slowly, and then all at once. Much like the build up of an avalanche. For those that know history the signs are easy to see. For those that don’t, they’ll assume that all is well even when the house is burning down around them.

    Stage 1: “I Don’t Know What The Conspiracy Theorists Are Talking About – I’m Doing Fine”

    Stage 2: “They’ve Been Talking About Collapse For Years And We’re Still Here”

    Stage 3: “Maybe Things Are Bad Now But The Crisis Is Transitory, It Will Be Over Soon”

    Stage 4: “No One Saw The Crisis Coming”

    Stage 5: “Everyone Saw The Crisis Coming”

    Ah yes, the final stage of denial. This one is my favorite. It is the inevitable moment when skeptics fully concede that the economic collapse is a fact of life and then they claim they “saw it coming all along.” The inability for these people to admit they were wrong debases their ability to make informed decisions about the future.

    They know a crisis is upon them and they’ll now pretend as if they knew it was going to happen. Therefore, all the “conspiracy theorists” that tried to warn them are not special or better informed than they are.

    https://alt-market.us/the-five-stages-of-denial-when-skeptics-are-faced-with-economic-collapse/

    1. I’m on Stage 2. Day after day I see these pundits on YouTube or writing fear articles that OMG This Is Not Sustainable!!

      And yet here we are, sustaining. To be fair, trillions in Covid money is the only thing sustaining us. It won’t be long now.

      1. “I’m on Stage 2”

        Fair enough.

        I remember selling my shack in late 2005 thinking the bottom of the housing market would be dropping out pretty soon. I rented from late 2005 – 2012 before buying another shack.

        The meat grinder turns slowly.

    2. they’ll now pretend as if they knew it was going to happen

      I thought it already had happened 20 years ago and got out of the casino.

  27. Disgusting: Woman Accused of Stabbing 3-Year-Old to Death in Grocery Store Parking Lot Smirks, Giggles in Court

    Infowars.com
    June 11th 2024, 2:27 pm

    Bond set at $5 million for suspect, who could face death penalty if convicted.

    A female suspect accused of stabbing a toddler to death in an Ohio supermarket parking lot sparked outrage after she was seen smiling and smirking in court.

    Footage showed murder suspect Bionca Ellis, 33, giggling and unable to contain smiles as charges against her were read by a judge during an arraignment Monday.

    Breaking911
    @Breaking911

    PURE EVIL: Bionca Ellis, woman accused of stabbing 3-year-old Ohio boy to death in grocery store parking lot, smirks and giggles as the charges are read to her

    (Video via WEWS)

    https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1800259779916337500

    batu
    @qtomris

    only one of them was called pure evil and labelled racist by CNN and the rest of the Big Media.

    guess which one?

    https://x.com/qtomris/status/1800287242402824379

    Breaking911
    @Breaking911

    R.I.P. Julian Wood 🙏

    https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1800260045432648160

      1. Good tune.

        As I said a week ago this song reminds me of a summer when I was 15 only in the States and not the UK.

    1. Well, please pardon my French but that woman certainly Bitch-slapped Jerry Nadler in to submission.

  30. ‘Because we have so much growth in the Phoenix region, it really doesn’t matter how many housing units we’re building. The growth exceeds the number of housing units, so rents keep going up…If Phoenix says that they’re 80% of the way to their goals for affordable housing, what’s the big goal that they haven’t achieved yet? Affordability. Phoenix is less affordable now than it was five years ago,’ he added. ‘So, there’s something missing in these plans’

    I guess the supply and demanders are at a dead end Dave. So you built thousands of shacks, and prices went up. What also happened? Central banks buying trillion$ in MBS. Artificially low interest rates for 15 years. We went from 90+% of the foreclosures being subprime loans in the 2000’s to today where it’s probably a slim portion of the loan market that is really prime at all.

  31. ‘‘I know a lot of people out there, a lot of my friends, a lot of my family members – both on the investment side and and on the residents side, who say, ‘golly, four years ago I wanted to buy but I was waiting for prices to come down and now they’re kicking themselves because they didn’t buy and they missed that opportunity’

    Yer right JP, Fresno is the red hotcakes of the future, even at these lofty prices!

  32. ‘It’s a good time to be investing right now, given how far things have fallen.’ Office landlords are still offering concessions and tenant improvement allowances in light of the city’s 35% vacancy rate. ‘We are seeing pockets of strength, but you have to be selective,’ Safier said. ‘It needs to be walkable, safe and clean’

    I’ve got an idea for a start up Dan. I raise a bunch of money from people like you. Start a company with an app and an algorithm. And advise people to invest in areas with bum urine resistant lamp posts. At their finger tips, on their phone! It will use Taylor Swift/AI somehow too but just think of the possibilities!

  33. ‘That would seem to make it an unlikely destination for money launderers to invest drug trafficking proceeds, but federal prosecutors say it was purchased as part of a real estate buying spree fueled by drug proceeds…Desai told Herawati that ‘the borrowers were ‘solid’ borrowers, but failed to advise the total amount of mortgages exceeded the value of the property on which (she) was lending’

    South Florida or Vancouver, which is most corrupted by money laundering and mortgage fraud? That’s a classy title they are chasing.

  34. ‘It might feel like 2019 in terms of sales volume, but prices are nothing like they were five years ago. In Joshua Tree, the median sale price in April 2024 was $326,000, more than 50% higher than the April 2019 median price of $213,000…In Yucca Valley, it’s up 106%. Still, prices have come down from pandemic heights, bidding wars are much less common, and some properties are sitting on the market much longer. ‘Now we have limited buyer demand because that rush to flee the city has subsided, work from home has subsided. Demand for rural real estate has subsided,’ Wynwood said, adding that it’s definitely a buyer’s market. ‘There is still too much inventory and not enough buyer demand’

    You really fooked up this time Jerry.

  35. ‘Bedrosian says he is out about $50,000 and counting…’I feel betrayed,” Bedrosian said, referring to what he perceives as indifference from the City of Guelph and local police, as well as by the legal system he feels has left his life in limbo. ‘You’re helpless. You have zero control of what’s happening to you’

    It’s still way cheaper than renting Ryan.

  36. ‘The housing market is reflecting the tough times and the luxury segment is no different. Estate agents also say there are more listings and properties are taking longer to sell…‘I don’t think the demand is less, but I think people are a little bit more discerning and they’re taking their time to make a decision,’ Wall told Newshub. ‘There’s just less pressure on buyers at the moment because there’s that sort-of fear of missing out that has disappeared’

    Gosh Ollie, I hope no one overpaid in such an environment!

  37. I learned that my UK relatives can’t afford to run the oven in the kitchen, because the price of electricity has skyrocketed.

    This is what the watermelons want to do to us.

  39. Chopin Nocturne No. 20 perf. by Wladyslaw Szpilman – “The Pianist” – Original Recording

    profslump20078

    13 years ago

    Wladyslaw Szpilman plays F. Chopin: Nocturne C sharp-minor Op. posth. Recorded in Warsaw at home in 1997. Cameraman Jaroslaw Mazur. Copyright 1998 by Andrzej Szpilman
    Wladyslaw Szpilman (Wladek) played this music in the last live broadcast for the Polish Radio on 23.9.1939 . An hour later German bombs destroyed its power supply and the Warsaw Radio closed for long 6 years.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9oQEa-d5rU

    3:39.

  41. Do you worry about what might happen to stock prices when the current protracted risk-on euphoria comes to an end.

    1. Yahoo
      Benzinga
      JPMorgan’s Top Strategist Sticks To Bearish S&P 500 Forecast, Warns Of 2008-Like Crash: ‘Equities Continue To Price In Little Downside Risk’
      Piero Cingari
      Tue, Jun 11, 2024, 10:56 AM PDT
      3 min read
      In this article:
      JPMorgan’s Top Strategist Sticks To Bearish S&P 500 Forecast, Warns Of 2008-Like Crash: ‘Equities Continue To Price In Little Downside Risk’

      JPMorgan Chase & Co. continues to hold one of the most pessimistic views on Wall Street regarding the U.S. stock market, expecting a decline in the coming months despite the S&P 500 reaching new all-time highs in June.

      In a note shared on Monday, JPMorgan’s chief market strategist and co-head of global research, Marko Kolanovic, reiterated his bearish view on equities, advising investors to maintain an underweight position in stocks.

      Kolanovic’s Bearish Outlook

      “We still see a high 50% probability of the macro picture deviating from the soft landing thesis either because there is a near-term break in the U.S. economy or because persistent inflation induces the Fed and other major central banks to keep rates high for a prolonged time period or to raise them further, thus raising fears of an eventual hard landing in 2025/2026.”

      Kolanovic added, “Equities continue to price in little downside risk.”
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgans-top-strategist-sticks-bearish-175647563.html

    2. Robert Kiyosaki Believes ‘Crash Has Begun’ — His 6 Ways To Use It to Your Advantage
      Chris Ozarowski
      Tue 11 June 2024 at 5:01 am GMT-7·3-min read

      Robert Kiyosaki, financial influencer best known for his “Rich Dad Poor Dad” franchise, recently posted on X that he believes a significant economic downturn, or “crash,” has started. Such periods, he said, are challenging but present unique opportunities to acquire wealth.
      …
      https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/robert-kiyosaki-believes-crash-begun-120134289.html

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