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Now We Help Them With Selling, Selling, Selling

A report from WVUE. “Many Louisianans are feeling the pain of soaring homeowners insurance premiums, and there are projections things could worsen. Cheron Brylski has had enough. When Brylski and her husband moved into their 3,400-square foot home on Coliseum Street in Uptown New Orleans nearly 30 years ago, they poured everything they had into it. For two decades, they made many memories in their home, until Cheron’s husband Harold died in 2015. Recently and reluctantly, she decided she had to sell her home of almost 30 years because of the insurance cost. ‘It’s, basically, making living in a house that I own — and I own outright — impossible to stay here,’ she said. ‘And I’m not the only one in New Orleans experiencing that. You can drive around this neighborhood and others and see a ton of ‘For Sale’ signs.’ Brylski has listed her four-bedroom, 2½-bath home at $1.1 million, but finding someone who can afford to buy and insure it is another matter. So far, she’s only shown it to one prospective buyer.”

From Moneywise. “‘Affordability was always a problem — an increasing problem in the last three or four years — but now it’s truly an availability problem,’ Michael McCarron, owner of Lakeside Insurance in Arvada, Colorado, told WSJ. McCarron said many of his clients’ home insurance bills are ballooning by 20% to 40% a year. While price growth could slow down in 2025, he doesn’t expect insurance premiums to return to what they were before the 2021 Marshall Fire, which blazed through neighborhoods between Denver and Boulder. ‘This is the new normal,’ he said.”

From Fox 4. “Condo living has been a popular lifestyle in Florida for decades, but with rising insurance costs and HOA fees could this lifestyle be coming to an end? At the Dolphin Way of Hickory Point condo complex on Little Hickory Island, Jim Boehme says residents have paid more than $50,000 a piece in assessments to get the complex back open. ‘Very frustrated,’ Boehme said, describing the situation. ‘If we had the insurance money we would be done.’ In Cape Coral, the neighbors who live at the Somerville at Sandoval condo complex told Fox 4 they’re currently in a legal battle with their insurance provider. ‘It’s been a hardship on a lot of residents here,’ Anthony Marchese told Fox 4.”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “For sale at $875,000, the Hollywood listing boasted that the house was featured in the 1970s classic film ‘Chinatown’ and was minutes away from the studios. But despite being one of the cheaper options in the area, it drew no offers. In May, the seller cut the asking price by $50,000. ‘Some people felt the neighborhood was an issue,’ explained Bobby Duarte, the listing agent. At $994,522, the average Hollywood home price is 8% below the peak in the neighborhood. Other places experiencing price declines are the central L.A. neighborhoods of Arlington Heights, downtown and the area surrounding MacArthur Park, where apartment blocks are overcrowded and crime is high. Firefighters this month found a man lying face down, dead in the park’s lake.”

“Duarte said some people felt the nearby area wasn’t that safe, but he didn’t know why. Recently, the editor of an organized labor publication said, a couple parked their old Hyundai Elantra on his street and left piles of garbage on it. Alex Weber, 39, lives nearby and said he’s never been the victim of a crime, but he noted that sex workers are a common sight on Western Avenue at night and he’s seen an increase in homeless encampments in the last few years. ‘They were cool,’ Weber said. ‘But I can’t imagine it creates a good impression when you go in to see a unit that just hit the market and … what’s happening in front of you is an unpleasant scene of chaos and human desperation.'”

From Boston 25 in Massachusetts. “The warmer weather is bringing the crowds back to Boston’s open-air drug market, and neighbors say it’s fanning out deeper into neighborhoods. Some South End residents said their quality of life issues are already proving to be worse this year because the activity isn’t concentrated in one place. Boston 25 News observed the new reality of more scattered activity firsthand while driving through parts of the South End, Roxbury, South Boston and Dorchester. ‘We have a real estate market that’s booming across the state, but it’s dead right here in our neighborhood,’ said John Stillwaggon with the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association. ‘Neighbors on the other side of the South End are certainly disconnected from the reality of what we’re facing over here.'”

From CBS News. “The housing market is finally balancing out, according to some North Texas realtors. ‘I would say now’s the time to buy. It’s more balanced. It’s not a seller’s market anymore,’ says Williams Trew Real Estate realtor Debbie Petty. Petty sells homes in Fort Worth and says the housing market has reached pre-pandemic levels. ‘So, it’s not a seller’s market. It’s not a buyer’s market. It’s getting very balanced, there’s more inventory, and for us, we really like to see that what you want in real estate is a win-win for the buyer in the seller,’ Petty explains.”

“Petty thinks the feds could cut interest rates more in the fall, but her biggest piece of advice to potential buyers: ‘Don’t wait.’ ‘We like we say, ‘marry the house, date the rate,’ says Petty, ‘if you’re sitting on the fence waiting for interest rates to come down, you’re going to miss the boat. Because as they do start to take down, more and more buyers are coming to the market.'”

The Real Deal. “There’s another victim in the mortgage lending industry bloodbath. Dallas-based mortgage originator TexasLending.com filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 13 after downsizing last year. The lender is part of Aspire Financial. In the filing, the lender estimated it had assets valued at between $50,001 and $100,000, and liabilities between $1 million and $10 million. TexasLending.com was among lenders accused of unethical behavior as layoffs ravaged the industry in late 2022, National Mortgage News reported. The plunge in mortgage originations has hurt the mortgage lending industry hard. Residential lending activity plunged 68 percent between the first quarter of 2021 and the fourth quarter of 2023, according to ATTOM data. With less work to do, residential lenders are struggling; layoffs and bankruptcies among this sector are on the rise.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Alan Kats felt the justice system failed him by not prosecuting a group of alleged mortgage fraudsters he blamed for scamming his family out of their life savings in an elaborate mortgage scheme. His widow has identified the 46-year-old father of two as the third fatality in a triple shooting in Toronto that left two of the alleged fraudsters dead. Alisa Pogorelovsky, said ‘fear and depression’ engulfed Mr. Kats after the couple lost $1.37-million to a scheme organized by Arash Missaghi, repeatedly identified in court documents as a mortgage fraudster, and a mortgage broker named Samira Yousefi.”

“‘My husband and my family are the victims of a carefully planned scam,’ she told The Globe and Mail. ‘More than half a year ago we made an official report to the police. We hired lawyers, went to court, but no justice was served. As a result, our lives are forever changed, depriving me of a husband and our kids from their father. I need to bury his body and say goodbye now,’ said Ms. Pogorelovsky, who says she will continue with litigation against Mr. Missaghi’s alleged associates. ‘I have two kids to raise on my own with no work, no income, no house, no money.'”

“‘You will almost never find a final judgment or decision against Mr. Missaghi – this was a very sophisticated litigant who knew how to manipulate the courts to his advantage,’ said Peter Smiley, a lawyer who says he represents five to 10 people allegedly victimized by Mr. Missaghi. ‘What happened at Missaghi’s offices at Mallard Road yesterday is the culmination of many years of systematic failures by our court system, police forces and bankruptcy system,’ Mr. Smiley said, adding that his schemes targeted vulnerable communities, particularly in the Persian diaspora.”

From The I. “A story unfolding across Europe deserves attention: the rise of populist far-right politics. The latest European country to be hit is France. President Emmanuel Macron has called a high-risk national election after the far-right National Rally, a party headed by Eurosceptic and Nato-sceptic firebrands, smashed his party – the liberal Renaissance – along with all other rivals, in the European elections earlier this month. The role that high housing costs, a growing problem across most of western Europe, has played in fuelling populism is not given enough attention. Housing was a key concern for voters in last year’s Dutch elections. These were won by the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) headed by Geert Wilders, who is openly anti-Islam. Similarly, in Portugal, where there have also been protests about housing costs, right-wing populist party Chega trebled its vote share in March this year.”

“The Labour Party may currently be leading in the polls, but experts warn that unaffordable housing could yet become a political tool for populist politicians in Britain too. Links were also drawn between housing costs and alleged shortages by Vote Leave during their campaign for Brexit. More recently, the Conservative Party has coined the phrase ‘British homes for British people’ and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has pledged to ‘reform social housing law’ by prioritising ‘local people and those who have paid into the system.’ Reform’s manifesto says: ‘Foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue. Not the front.'”

From News.com.au. “Australians overwhelmingly support a crackdown on Chinese investors buying real estate amid growing concerns over housing affordability, a new survey has found. Eighty-three per cent of Australians believe the government ‘should restrict the amount of investment in residential real estate that is permitted from Chinese investors,’ according to the poll published last week by the University of Technology Sydney. That was the highest number in the four years the survey has been running. A ‘clear majority’ of 80 per cent of Australians agreed with the statement that ‘foreign buyers from China drive up Australian housing prices,’ a seven-point increase from 73 per cent in 2023, and almost back to the 82 per cent high recorded in 2021.”

“China-focused real estate agents told The Australian last month that many mum-and-dad investors who purchased one or two-bedroom off-the-plan apartments were now desperate to offload their properties and bring the money back home to rescue struggling businesses. The implosion of China’s real estate bubble, which has sparked a wider economic crisis and a frantic rescue mission by Beijing to use public financing to buy up unsold properties, had already seen billions of dollars worth of Australian apartment projects by giants like Greenland, Wanda, Country Garden and Poly abandoned in recent years.”

“Plus Agency managing director Peter Li told The Australian that prior to Covid his Sydney-based agency kept ‘buying, buying, buying’ for Chinese clients. ‘We still service a lot of our Chinese clients,’ he said. ‘Now we help them with selling, selling, selling.'”

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This Post Has 77 Comments

  1. Recently, the editor of an organized labor publication said, a couple parked their old Hyundai Elantra on his street and left piles of garbage on it. ‘They were cool,’ Weber said. ‘But I can’t imagine it creates a good impression when you go in to see a unit that just hit the market and … what’s happening in front of you is an unpleasant scene of chaos and human desperation’

    There will always be bitter renters who nit-pick and can’t see the potential gold mine right in front of them Alex.

  2. ‘You will almost never find a final judgment or decision against Mr. Missaghi – this was a very sophisticated litigant who knew how to manipulate the courts to his advantage,’ said Peter Smiley, a lawyer who says he represents five to 10 people allegedly victimized by Mr. Missaghi. ‘What happened at Missaghi’s offices at Mallard Road yesterday is the culmination of many years of systematic failures by our court system, police forces and bankruptcy system’

    You guys are running a real mickey mouse operation there Pete.

    1. Sadly, nothing has changed, we will always have individuals who have their eyes in the sky, staring at the stars, while not noticing the raising water in the leaky boat. And then they proclaim that somebody-anybody should have been looking out for their best interest. Unfortunately, they find out that fast and easy money comes with dire consequences. We have too many sheeple in the world, always following the crowd as they stampede over the cliff.

  3. ‘China-focused real estate agents told The Australian last month that many mum-and-dad investors who purchased one or two-bedroom off-the-plan apartments were now desperate to offload their properties and bring the money back home to rescue struggling businesses. The implosion of China’s real estate bubble, which has sparked a wider economic crisis and a frantic rescue mission by Beijing to use public financing to buy up unsold properties, had already seen billions of dollars worth of Australian apartment projects by giants like Greenland, Wanda, Country Garden and Poly abandoned in recent years’

    That may be but it’s still a red hotcakes sellers market in Australia! Everybody says that.

  4. Brylski has listed her four-bedroom, 2½-bath home at $1.1 million, but finding someone who can afford to buy and insure it is another matter. So far, she’s only shown it to one prospective buyer.

    Greedhead Boomers seeking to offload their alligators in the current economic environment need to remind themselves: the key to happiness is low expectations.

  5. Some South End residents said their quality of life issues are already proving to be worse this year because the activity isn’t concentrated in one place.

    Sow, reap, Bitchez!!

    2. You never see a word mentioned about whether a potential buyer can actually AFFORD buying a home as being a factor in the decision making process. Ask a realturd about affordability and you’re likely to get a Biden dementia look.

    3. ‘I would say now’s the time to buy.’

      Try not to catch yourself a falling knife.

  7. Paul Krugman guest column for CNBC?

    CNBC — American households have seen their purchasing power increase (6/18/2024):

    “Americans have seen their buying power rise for a year amid falling inflation and a strong job market, which might be welcome news for households struggling to afford everyday purchases.

    The average worker in the private sector saw their real hourly earnings grow 0.8% from May 2023 to May 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.”

    Continues on with the following narrative:

    “dynamics in the pandemic-era U.S. economy …

    as the U.S. economy reopened from its pandemic-induced lull …

    after the disruptive forces of the Covid pandemic waned”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/18/wages-have-outstripped-cpi-inflation-for-a-year.html

    CCP Flu didn’t destroy the economy. Government destroyed the economy.

    1. CNBC — American households have seen their purchasing power increase (6/18/2024):

      Holy Gaslighting, Batman!

    2. real hourly earnings grow 0.8%

      Even the most manipulated numbers for consumer inflation rate are much higher than 0.8%. We’re still losing our purchasing power. And there is NO way that our Nobel laureate doesn’t know this. Someone is paying him to lie. Question is, who? Probably Klaus.

    3. they aren’t even trying to pretend to have their words match reality anymore. that’s just ridiculous

  8. Residential lending activity plunged 68 percent between the first quarter of 2021 and the fourth quarter of 2023, according to ATTOM data.

    Is that a lot?

  9. “‘My husband and my family are the victims of a carefully planned scam,’ she told The Globe and Mail. ‘More than half a year ago we made an official report to the police. We hired lawyers, went to court, but no justice was served.

    “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
    ― Frédéric Bastiat

  10. So 9 years and no other prospects even for a live in boyfriend to pay half the bills?

    ——— until Cheron’s husband Harold died in 2015.

  11. Scripting the narrative.

    New York Times — How Scared Should You Be of Bird Flu? (6/19/2024):

    “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described the current H5N1 risk to the general public as low. The risk that the virus poses is tempered by the fact that it doesn’t spread easily among people — yet.”

    Translation: yet = we’re working on the gain of function to make it more contagious.

    “Right now public-health experts have the difficult task of urging authorities who can do something about H5N1 to take action, while maintaining public trust.”

    Maintaining public trust?

    “Americans have just been through a pandemic that resulted in over one million U.S. lives lost.”

    ^ like the murder suicide in Steamboat Springs? Or the motorcycle crash in Florida? PCR “tests” are magical, trust The Science™

    “They may feel weary of more bad news or fear-based messaging. Communicating that while the threat level for most people is low, but if nothing is done it could become quite high, is not easy but is important.

    Of great concern is that surveillance and response to infections on dairy farms is largely voluntary. Testing on farms is not systematic or fast enough to protect workers before they are exposed to infected cattle.”

    https://archive.ph/ARRS8

    Big Government has a solution for that: cull all the herds pre-emptively, and probably safer to kill off the chickens too.

    No beef for you. No dairy for you. No poultry for you. No eggs for you. Declare a “climate emergency.”

    1. From Salon (no link provided) more narrative scripting.

      Experts say bird flu is a Pandora’s box. Are we about to open it? (6/19/2024):

      “On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, a different virus threatens to cause widespread illness and death, bring the global economy to its knees and throw us back into the chaos that we seemingly just emerged from with the virus SARS-CoV-2. That pathogen is, of course, bird flu or avian influenza, especially the H5N1 strain.”

      Reminder: CCP Flu didn’t destroy the economy. Government destroyed the economy.

      “And now things in the U.S. have seemingly reached a crescendo, in which dairy cows are harboring the virus, spreading it amongst each other and even killing cows in some instances. So far, outbreaks in more than 100 dairy farms in 12 states have been reported, but experts have said that cases are likely flying under the radar. So far this year, three Americans have been infected by H5N1 viruses that started in cows, and all of them recovered, but some experts say that patients may be avoiding doctors or refusing tests.”

      Avoiding doctors or refusing tests? The “tests” are meaningless, and if you “test” positive they’ll boxcar you off to the camp and murder you with ventilators.

  12. “Alan Kats felt the justice system failed him by not prosecuting a group of alleged mortgage fraudsters he blamed for scamming his family out of their life savings in an elaborate mortgage scheme. His widow has identified the 46-year-old father of two as the third fatality in a triple shooting in Toronto that left two of the alleged fraudsters dead.

    “Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim – when he defends himself – as a criminal.”
    — Frédéric Bastiat

  15. Politico (6/18/2024):

    “Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper on Tuesday significantly increased its estimate of the U.S. budget gap, predicting that the nation will run a $2 trillion deficit this year.

    The latest forecast from the Congressional Budget Office is up from its estimate of $1.6 trillion earlier this year. Four main things are driving that $400 billion increase, CBO said — citing President Joe Biden’s student loan relief policies as the No. 1 cause of the bigger gap between the amount of money flowing into federal coffers and cash going out this year.

    New student loan policies will cost about $145 billion during the current fiscal year, which runs through September, CBO predicted. That includes higher subsidies for student loans and the Biden administration’s plan to reduce balances for many borrowers.

    The budget office also increased its longer-term deficit forecast, predicting that the budget gap will be $24 trillion over the next decade. That’s an increase of $2.1 trillion from its estimate earlier this year. Bills enacted in recent months — including the $95 billion foreign aid package Congress cleared in April for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan — are the single largest driver of that multi-year growth in the budget gap, adding $1.6 trillion in projected deficits.”

    So I’ll be getting a refund check for the student loans I paid off, right?

    1. “Four main things are driving that $400 billion increase…”

      Buying votes, buying votes, buying votes and buying votes.

  16. HuffPaint — More Immigrants Boost Economy, Reduce Budget Deficit, Congress’ Nonpartisan Scorekeeper Says (6/18/2024):

    “A “surge” of immigrants has boosted the U.S. economy recently and is projected to add almost $9 trillion to it through 2034, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a new report Tuesday.

    The CBO, in an update to budget and economic forecasts made in February, said the current level of immigration of “other foreign nationals” was well above historical patterns and would continue to add to the overall size of the U.S. population, providing more workers for the labor force and thus boosting the economy.

    The CBO said the net immigration rate of “other foreign nationals,” a category including undocumented migrants, had risen from around 200,000 annually to 1.9 million in 2022, and is now projected to hit about 2.4 million this year.

    A bigger economy would also help the federal budget picture slightly, CBO said. State and local governments, on the other hand, could see more pressure on their bottom lines.

    “Research has generally found that increases in immigration tend to raise federal revenues more than federal costs but tend to increase the costs of state and local governments more than their revenues,” CBO said.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/immigrants-boost-economy-cut-deficit-cbo-says_n_66720800e4b0a1f905ba993d

    The reluctant admission of those last two quoted paragraphs.

    Every sanctuary city is, by definition, a failed city.

    The Cloward-Piven Strategy:

    “full enrollment of those eligible for welfare “would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments” that would: “…deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor. To avoid a further weakening of that historic coalition, a national Democratic administration would be constrained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dilemmas.

    Cloward and Piven “proposed to create a crisis in the current welfare system – by exploiting the gap between welfare law and practice – that would ultimately bring about its collapse and replace it with a system of guaranteed annual income. They hoped to accomplish this end by informing the poor of their rights to welfare assistance, encouraging them to apply for benefits and, in effect, overloading an already overburdened bureaucracy.”

    Sounds about right.

    1. add almost $9 trillion to it through 2034

      In other words, they’re going to give them $9 trillion in debit cards and freebies, which will be promptly spent on Modelo. That’s your economic activity.

      1. Not sure Venezuelans drink Modelo, or have even heard of it. But yeah, these people have come to join the Free Sh!t Army, all the yammering about them wanting “work permits” is pure BS.

        1. Doctors and astronauts, every single one of them, your betters assure.

          With the issuance of the magical “work permit” they will all put down the squeegee, and exit the corners of Colfax, Federal, Sheridan to assume their rightly place wielding a scalpel to conduct brain surgery, or take their deserved job at NASA.

  17. the Conservative Party has coined the phrase ‘British homes for British people’ and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has pledged to ‘reform social housing law’ by prioritising ‘local people and those who have paid into the system.’ Reform’s manifesto says: ‘Foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue. Not the front.

    So the even Britain’s “far right” supports “socialized housing”, the main difference being that they want it only for British people. I suspect the same is true in other European countries. In “ultra far right” Hungary the government gives free housing money to couples with three or more kids. Sounds rather socialist to me.

  18. A reader sent these in:

    Elon Musk says Tesla could be worth up to $30 trillion one day amid advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics.

    https://x.com/spectatorindex/status/1801372038118220240

    McKinsey: 46% of U.S. EV owners want to switch to ICE vehicles

    https://x.com/anasalhajji/status/1802899028952150147

    Electric vehicle startup Fisker Inc. has filed for bankruptcy after discussions with a major automaker about an investment ended without a deal.

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1802923971177824426

    Where in cycle?

    The absolute ‘bs’ headline mania phase. LLMs aren’t changing the world at all for 95% of the population.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1803167703890280527

    It marks the financial power of financial engineering and mania, NOT artificial intelligence. The average retail ‘AI’ investor couldn’t even tell you what products are sold.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1803168117557711092

    Dust off your BlackBerry’s for this one

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1803125378170438022

    California now has 1.6 unemployed persons for every 1 job opening

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1803082049919521265

    Business cycle be cycling in Canada

    Tiff didn’t cut the rate just for fun

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1802856935689170950

    We’ve never seen anything like this before.

    Once again, a new high in the Nasdaq. Once again, more stocks falling to 52-week lows than rising to 52-week highs on that exchange.

    That’s 9 days out of the past 20. It blows away any other time period.

    https://x.com/jasongoepfert/status/1803157816288375031

    There it is…

    Nvidia is now officially the largest stock in human history by market cap.

    Up 1200% in less than two years.

    https://x.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1803132097315606727

    A new level of moral hazard has been achieved.

    https://x.com/SuburbanDrone/status/1802815105480224896

    San Jose, California earlier today. “No one is above the law” amirite?

    https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1802217141413859542

    The number of mortgages taken out in Canada falls to the lowest number since the Bank of Canada began recording
    Under 100,000 mortgages were issued in Q1 2024

    https://x.com/Tablesalt13/status/1802766854307422220

    One of the largest residential solar installers in the nation, Titan Solar, has abruptly shut down and filed for bankruptcy in the latest blow to a troubled industry.

    This will impact around 2,100 employees.

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1803236999496683983

    The Cape Coral – Ft. Myers disaster is now being reported by MSM.

    How soon until this moves upmarket to Naples @TrishaFLsun?

    https://x.com/GayBearRes/status/1803140092816662644

    Companies are cutting middle-management roles, and millennials are likely to be most affected, per BI.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1803050531017105545

    The Music Just Stopped: Japan Banking Giant Norinchukin To Liquidate $63 Billion In Treasuries & European Bonds To Plug Massive Unrealized Losses

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1803251387096039580

    Geography lesson for those interested .🌎

    According to mechanical properties of the earths layers ,Nvidia has entered space.🌌

    The reentry is going to be something to behold .

    https://x.com/great_martis/status/1803213513328103850

    Translation : We sold 10 vision pro 1 headsets.

    https://x.com/great_martis/status/1803230789469176309

    1. “Nvidia is now officially the largest stock in human history by market cap.

      Up 1200% in less than two years.”

      And trees grow into the sky.

    2. “San Jose, California earlier today.”

      Given a progressive Mayor this cop is doing the right thing.

  20. “…she had to sell her home of almost 30 years because of the insurance cost. ‘It’s, basically, making living in a house that I own — and I own outright — impossible to stay here,’ she said…”

    Another Wednesday, another out-of-control holding costs story.

    1. Our landlord has figured out the remedy for out-of-control holding costs: They don’t invest much in maintenance and upkeep. There’s something ironic about slumlordship in one of the most upscale markets on the planet.

      1. Our landlord has figured out the remedy for out-of-control holding costs: They don’t invest much in maintenance and upkeep.

        My understanding is that is standard operating procedure everywhere. A relative told me that after a roof damaging hail storm it was easy to tell the rentals vs. owner occupieds on his street. The rentals did not get new roofs.

        He also found out that a renter on his street flooded the house after receiving an eviction notice. Said he saw all sorts of repairs being done after the deadbeats were kicked out.

        1. In 2017, following an epic hailstorm, our rental shack needed a new roof, siding, and windows. My landlord arranged to have all of that taken care of pronto, and didn’t raise my rent until two years later.

        3. that makes no sense.
          Insurance covers hail damage and roof’s. and having a good working roof is pretty important in keeping the house working without damage. (which is your main asset if you are a landlord). Why wouldn’t you get the insurance to cover most of the cost of the new roof??????????

          unless they made a claim and just pocketed the money.

          1. From what I heard, they typically have minimal repairs done, since they are self insured (I’m talking about corporate landlords, not mom n pops), whereas a solvent homeowner will probably replace the whole shebang, especially if insurance covers some of the expense.

      2. Same. If we submit three repair requests, only the most urgent one will be done. Our rental’s estimate (FWIW) has reached $560K, bought at $275K. Prop taxes are less than $2K. No clue what the insurance (Las Vegas) might be. The LL refinanced when rates were at rock bottom. Our rent is $2,100 (now considered to be low.)

        Not looking forward to making nice with her if we have no alternative lined up at the end of the lease. Her reaction to my balking at the last increase was childish and vindictive.

    2. She could go bare – no insurance. Though it is probably best to sell and get out of hurricane alley.

      1. the lady’s house is in New Orelans. i.e. below sea level. Of course insurance is expensive, the risk is insanely high.

        1. Do we know for a fact that her house is below sea level? I’m sure the flooding risk is very high if the city is directly hit by a hurricane.

        2. “…house is in New Orleans. i.e. below sea level. Of course insurance is expensive, the risk is insanely high….”

          True, but did this ladies house sink even farther below sea level to justify an increase in insurance premium? – Asking for a friend…

  21. Americans Are Leaving California and New York for This Southern U.S. State Instead
    Pack your bags and head south.
    By Stacey Leasca Published on June 18, 2024
    Modern apartment buildings surrounded by palm trees, South Beach, Miami, USA
    PHOTO: ALEXANDER SPATARI/GETTY IMAGES
    Americans are on the move, and it appears there’s one state in particular we all want to be in.

    ConsumerAffairs released a study analyzing data from more than 143,000 of its users who said they were looking to move between January 2023 and March 2024. It then used those numbers to calculate the net migration change between states to determine its rankings for which states people are looking to move to most. And it turns out, like in years past, everyone wants to move south.

    “According to our analysis, 8 out of the 10 states with the largest net gain of people are in the South,” ConsumerAffairs wrote in its findings. It added that while they can’t definitively say this is why, however, it added that the mass migration south “could coincide with a cheaper cost of living — 8 of the 10 cities that are cheapest to live in are also in the South.”

    But Michael Basch, the founder of Oklahoma-based venture capital firm Atento Capital, added that it’s likely much deeper than just the cost of living for most people — especially if you want to start a business.

    “If you weren’t in Oklahoma, and you want to work at a startup or raise capital, you couldn’t do so here so easily, let’s say a decade ago — that’s changed,” Basch said. “Also, if you’re on the coast and wanted to build a company but don’t want to move to San Francisco, there weren’t a lot of options. That’s changed as well.”

    As for where, specifically, people are flocking to, the ever-popular snowbird state of Florida came in third place, which scored a net migration of 3,080 new citizens. It was topped by South Carolina in second, with a net migration of 3,094 people, and North Carolina in first, with a net migration of 3,529.

    The rest of the top 10 list includes Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, and Oklahoma.

    And, as for where people are flying out of, California came in as the No. 1 state that people are moving out of, losing 10,453 people during this timeframe. It was followed by New York state, which lost 2,190, and New Jersey, which lost 1,849. Once again, ConsumerAffairs chalks up these losses to the extreme cost of living.

    “California’s whopping net loss of 10,453 people may be due to its steep cost of living; cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco ranked near the bottom of our 2024 Cheapest Places to Live list,” it reported. “New York City ranked at the very bottom of our Cheapest Places to Live list as the most expensive city to live in.”
    …
    https://www.travelandleisure.com/these-states-americans-are-moving-to-en-masse-8662887

    1. $2500 per month in holdings costs, in “chocolate Nawlins”. I think some serious sawing and slashing will be required to unload that white elephant.

      It must be party time at city halls across the country, with revenue gushers spewing taxpayers hard earned cash. I am surprised that there aren’t more Prop 13 like ballot initiatives, though I suppose that the cow already got out of the barn.

    2. “New Orleans woman says soaring insurance forcing her to sell her Uptown home”

      Soaring insurance?

      Soaring HOA fees?

      Being forced to sell Uptown homes?

      Don’t let it get me, don’t let it get me, oh
      Don’t let it get me, don’t let it get me, oh
      Don’t let it get me, oh, don’t let it get me

      https://youtu.be/NIpQB3W2Zaw?si=AbgO69TBfz9GLoVf

      1. Label this video Exhibit “A” – Destruction of the middle class.

        Exactly. Who can afford holding costs like that? And local governments are more than happy to be complicit with onerous property taxes. Of course, any politician who proposes capping property taxes is “raycis” and “far right”. I don’t know what this lady’s political leaning is, but at some point even the woke will have top understand that the choice will be between putting a stop to this or becoming homeless.

        1. Regarding local governments…Our county administrator makes $367K.

          I’ve made it a point to write everywhere and placed a full rear window see thru letting my fellow commuters know of this travesty.

  23. Illegal Immigrants Being Housed and Trained at American Universities

    Greg Reese
    June 19th 2024, 10:46 am

    In her recent article, ‘University Migrant Smart Hubs, Private Equity and The Leveraged Buyout of America,’ Corey Digs reports that illegal immigrants are being housed and trained at American universities in a decade old scheme that provides the ruling class a foreign unregistered work force.

    Under the banner of “Affordable Housing,” people have been forced out of home ownership while Blackrock offshoots have been buying up the spoils. Mostly through the Blackstone Group, whose top three shareholders are Vanguard, BlackRock, and Capital World Investors. Blackstone has become the world’s largest landlord after acquiring rental companies, including the largest student housing company, and converting care homes, offices, hotels, and warehouses into over three-hundred-thousand rental units. Blackstone partners with over a hundred Colleges and Universities who run programs where illegal immigrant students are taught mindset, critical thinking and leadership skills. They are being trained in ESGs, fully immersed into woke culture, and used to manage whatever their bureaucrat masters choose.

    Universities who run programs where illegal immigrant students are taught mindset, critical thinking and leadership skills. They are being trained in ESGs, fully immersed into woke culture, and used to manage whatever their bureaucrat masters choose.

    Starting in 2016, several colleges and universities have become Sanctuary Campuses. Sanctuary Campuses oppose and hinder the enforcement of immigration law on campus, and they provide funding to illegal immigrants.

    Working under the United Nations, ECAR, Every Campus A Refuge, say they would like to see every college and university in the world partner with local refugee resettlement agencies to house refugees on campus grounds and provide them with food, care, and training.

    Launched by the U.S. Department of State in January 2023, The Welcome Corps allows colleges and universities to provide U.S. citizenship to illegal immigrants by enrolling them in degree programs that will foster more ‘diverse and inclusive campuses.’ Funds are provided to give them free education, housing, healthcare, and social services. The Biden administration has allocated $258 billion dollars towards building two million rental properties. A new congressional bill guides local governments to acquire and convert shuttered buildings into affordable housing rentals.

    This is also being heavily funded through private endowments. Between 1990 and 2021, the average endowment value grew by 423%. Within the past ten years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted over $11.6 billion dollars to 471 higher education institutions. Colleges and universities have spent the majority of this money acquiring hotels, office buildings and other real estate in billion dollar deals with private housing developers, while outsourcing student housing to Blackstone.

    https://www.infowars.com/

    1. Colleges and universities have spent the majority of this money acquiring hotels, office buildings and other real estate in billion dollar deals with private housing developers, while outsourcing student housing to Blackstone.

      Aren’t thousands of smaller schools on the verge of insolvency? Someone has to be paying for all this.

      1. More likely they are sponsoring them and the Biden regime is fast tracking their citizenship applications.

      2. “Universities are now granting US citizenship? I find this hard to believe.”

        Perhaps a typo, this is from their site.

        THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2023

        More than 145 diverse institutions and organizations with expertise in higher education, resettlement and refugee rights expressed support for the program, which provides an education pathway to citizenship for refugee students. For a full list, click here.

        https://welcomecorps.org/become-a-sponsor/campus/the-welcome-corps-expands-campuses/

  25. MATT GOODWIN: BREAKING News REFORM UK Polling at 24%

    23 minutes ago

    Today, we’re diving into the latest People Polling results, which have sent shockwaves through British politics. The poll suggests a historic shift with the Reform Party surging to unprecedented levels, now polling at 24%.

    Meanwhile, the Conservative vote is imploding, dropping to just 15%.

    What’s driving this seismic change? Join me as I break down the numbers, analyse the trends, and discuss what this means for Nigel Farage, the Reform Party, and the future of British politics.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm0oMNQdpmc

    2:49.

  26. ‘Condo living has been a popular lifestyle in Florida for decades, but with rising insurance costs and HOA fees could this lifestyle be coming to an end? At the Dolphin Way of Hickory Point condo complex on Little Hickory Island, Jim Boehme says residents have paid more than $50,000 a piece in assessments to get the complex back open. ‘Very frustrated,’ Boehme said, describing the situation. ‘If we had the insurance money we would be done.’ In Cape Coral, the neighbors who live at the Somerville at Sandoval condo complex told Fox 4 they’re currently in a legal battle with their insurance provider. ‘It’s been a hardship on a lot of residents here’

    This is actually a new wrinkle in this story as I’ve been understanding it. From the article:

    Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute says master condo association insurance premiums have skyrocketed between 100-500% in recent years.

    “While we’re seeing great improvements in the single-family home market. The condo market still has some hurdles to overcome, certainly,” said Friedlander.

    A recent report from the real estate company Redfin found Florida condo prices are falling as cost of insurance and HOA fees have skyrocketed.

    A new law, signed after the tragic condo building collapse in Surfside, FL, requires HOAs to perform more rigorous inspections and collect more money from residents for maintenance and repairs.

    “We’re starting to see that with other condo structures as well after the hurricanes, particularly Ian, where these master association policies don’t have enough coverage to cover the losses,” said Friedlander.

    Friedlander recommends condo residents speak with their insurance agent to make sure they have enough coverage.

    1. This part:

      ‘A new law, signed after the tragic condo building collapse in Surfside, FL, requires HOAs to perform more rigorous inspections and collect more money from residents for maintenance and repairs.’

      “We’re starting to see that with other condo structures as well after the hurricanes, particularly Ian, where these master association policies don’t have enough coverage to cover the losses,” said Friedlander.’

      So the insurance payouts are getting denied or slow walked. And what they do pay is less than the damage, in some cases. Whatever is going on, it’s more holes in the condo bucket.

  27. ‘he’s never been the victim of a crime, but he noted that sex workers are a common sight on Western Avenue at night and he’s seen an increase in homeless encampments in the last few years. ‘They were cool,’ Weber said. ‘But I can’t imagine it creates a good impression when you go in to see a unit that just hit the market and … what’s happening in front of you is an unpleasant scene of chaos and human desperation’

    That’s good to know Alex, I think I’ll skip that bidding war.

  28. ‘I would say now’s the time to buy. It’s more balanced. It’s not a seller’s market anymore,’ says Williams Trew Real Estate realtor Debbie Petty. Petty sells homes in Fort Worth and says the housing market has reached pre-pandemic levels. ‘So, it’s not a seller’s market. It’s not a buyer’s market. It’s getting very balanced, there’s more inventory, and for us, we really like to see that what you want in real estate is a win-win for the buyer in the seller’

    And some wonder why no one trusts them.

  29. ‘There’s another victim in the mortgage lending industry bloodbath…the lender estimated it had assets valued at between $50,001 and $100,000, and liabilities between $1 million and $10 million…among lenders accused of unethical behavior as layoffs ravaged the industry in late 2022…The plunge in mortgage originations has hurt the mortgage lending industry hard…With less work to do, residential lenders are struggling; layoffs and bankruptcies among this sector are on the rise’

    The punch line is they have been losing money on every single loan for well over a year, maybe two. Whatever yer selling, at least make a peso on it!

  30. ‘Eighty-three per cent of Australians believe the government ‘should restrict the amount of investment in residential real estate that is permitted from Chinese investors,’ according to the poll’

    This sh$thole Canada, and the UK, all have a queen on their peso. And they, with the help of the media (especially you, Van all silenced any talk of money foreign laundering going on crying about racists. This was developers doing this, brokers. They don’t say boo about it anymore.

  34. If You Don’t Use It, Someone Else Will (GTA Condo Real Estate Market Update)
    Team Sessa Real Estate

    1 hour ago

    In this episode we take a look at the current GTA Condo Markets – Toronto, York Region & Peel Region for week ending June 12, 2024. We also discuss the headaches that come when an unused parking spot or locker gets claimed by a stranger.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDmL9plc_z4

    19:19.

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