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If I Put This House On The Market And It Really Doesn’t Sell, I Will Know That I Have Nowhere To Go, It’s Despair Here

A report from NPR. “As home prices nationwide have gone up dramatically since the start of the pandemic, the amount of equity that people have in their homes is rising, and many homeowners want to access that increased value. But for people with bad credit or low incomes, loans are often inaccessible. EasyKnock, as well as other companies with similar products, offer sale-leaseback deals as an alternative that doesn’t have to follow the regulations that apply to lenders. Lester Shreffler retired this June, but it’s a stretch. His house was integral to his retirement plan. He intended to pay off the mortgage by the time he left his job, so he could sell the house and use the equity to purchase the marina. It has been about four years since Shreffler, a single father, last lived in the house in Hurst, Texas, northeast of Fort Worth. ‘I was always counting on that income from a house sale. That’s why people buy houses. For retirement. It just didn’t work out that way with this deal,’ he said.”

From El Pais. When Mohammed Syed bought his 3,600-square-foot home in Pinecrest, Miami-Dade County, Florida, in 2017, he didn’t realize it was located in a flood zone. Until then, he had lived 10 minutes from his new residence and had never considered whether it was on land that was above or below the sea level. In a short time, he came face to face with reality. The mortgage required him to take out a flood insurance policy. ‘Now I have to pay $4,000 a year in insurance for that,’ Syed laments. The problem is that he has to pay for two other policies: one to cover the risk of wind damage and a general one for the home, which raised his home insurance budget last year to $16,000. That amount is double what he paid when you bought the home in 2017, but less than what you will pay this year. This week he was notified that the general home insurance premium has risen from $6,791 to $8,198. ‘Insurance is so out of control that people are leaving,’ he says.”

From USA Today. “Michelle Gradnigo is a homeowner in the fire-scarred foothill town of Paradise north of Sacramento. In 2018, the Camp Fire − the deadliest wildfire in California history − destroyed more than 90% of the homes there. Her annual tab for homeowner’s insurance was already high – $3,531 a year – but she budgeted for it. Then in January she got her renewal in the mail. Her premium jumped 500% to $19,310. Her monthly mortgage payment doubled overnight to $8,000. She had to pull money out of her retirement account and take on credit card debt for a couple of months just to make the higher payments.”

“Now she says she feels stuck. With runaway premiums and insurance companies dropping coverage for homeowners in high-risk areas, she has watched neighbors slash the asking price to sell their homes. ‘If I put this house on the market and it really doesn’t sell, I will know that I have nowhere to go,’ Gradnigo said. ‘It’s despair here. No one is helping us and no one is talking about it.’ Her out-of-pocket expense is now about $12,000 a year, three times what she used to pay. In addition to the higher bill, she says she no longer has the feeling of safety she once had. ‘I know it’s just an insurance company. But when you’ve grown up believing your insurance agents are the people you can trust and hearing the commercials and the jingles and then they just do that to you …’ she said, trailing off.”

Ahwatukee Foothills News in Arizona. “Phoenix Realtors said new listings continued to climb across the Valley in May. Homes for sale in the first five months of this year 17% over the same period of 2023. The two Ahwatukee ZIP codes tracked similarly in inventory growth but 85044 homes stayed on the market longer. There were 64 homes for sale last month in 85044 – a 120% increase over the previous May – and 77 sale homes in 85048 – nearly 114% above May 2023, according to Phoenix Realtors. Pending sales dropped in both Ahwatukee ZIP codes as well. In 85044, the 21 pending sales dropped 54% below the May 2023 number while the 15 pending sales in 85048 represented a 46% drop from the previous May.”

“The Cromford Report, one of the Valley housing market’s leading analysts, said, ‘Buyer enthusiasm for re-sale homes is still very low indeed.’ he Cromford Report also said last week that conditions in most of the Valley’s 17 submarkets were quickly turning in favor of buyers and that ‘price reductions are again increasing in both size and frequency.'”

The Texas Tribune. “More Texas homeowners and renters than ever are struggling with high housing costs, according to a new report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Still, in some parts of the state, the cost of housing is on the decline. Home prices in Austin, where the typical home fetched more than half a million dollars at the height of the state’s pandemic-era housing market, have fallen for 16 straight months, according to Zillow data. San Antonio has also seen months’ long decline in home prices. ‘Buyers are still very much contending with elevated home prices, and of course, mortgage rates,’ said Clare Knapp, housing economist for the Austin Board of Realtors. ‘But with that uptick in active listings, they do have more negotiating power.'”

“Asking rents have fallen over the last year in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio regions, figures from the firm MRI ApartmentData show, as new apartments open their doors and force existing landlords to compete to keep new tenants.”

The Real Deal. “New Jersey title insurance company Riverside Abstract is linked to yet another deal involving mortgage fraud, this time in Eureka, Illinois. Riverside Abstract, one of the largest title insurers in the tri-state area, has faced scrutiny from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for its involvement in a deal in which the Department of Justice alleges the owner committed fraud. Fannie Mae has halted closing loans involving Riverside. The Department of Justice previously alleged Riverside provided a real closing and fake closing for an office complex in Troy, Michigan. The agency alleged that the owners, Boruch Drillman and Aron Puretz, used the fake closing to obtain a larger loan than they otherwise would have been able to receive.”

“Now, the Department of Justice alleges Riverside provided the closings for another fraudulent multifamily deal, in Eureka. The Illinois deal involved a similar illegal flip in which Riverside allegedly provided a real closing and a fake one. Riverside has not been charged with wrongdoing. Puretz recently pleaded guilty for his role in a $55 million mortgage scheme. Puretz also hid his ownership interests in the property because he knew he would not have secured a loan had his stake been disclosed, according to federal prosecutors. Puretz faces up to five years in jail.”

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “Boston enjoys an outsize reputation thanks to its rich history, elite universities and hospitals, life-saving biotechs, and storied sports teams. (Celtics!) We are not, however, exceptional. Not the ‘Hub of the Universe.’ Not even the hub of the Northeast Corridor. So let’s put aside the fanciful notion — particularly popular among fiscal progressives — that Boston’s many strengths and charms ensure we will remain economically competitive. I wrote last week that our paramount progressive, Mayor Michelle Wu, says that Boston’s business districts have held up better than those in other cities. Call it the ‘At Least We’re Not San Francisco Syndrome.’ It’s unhelpfully optimistic. San Fran is certainly an outlier. The value of its office real estate tumbled nearly 60 percent from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, according to estimates in a 2023 academic research paper. But the average drop for the 20 largest US office markets was a painful 47 percent.”

The Ottawa Citizen in Canada. “Ashcroft Homes has defaulted on a $6.5-million loan, sending three of its Richmond Road condominium properties into receivership. Tenants of the three properties were issued letters earlier this week indicating that their landlord had gone into receivership. The letter, from the receiver BDO Canada Ltd., came with a court order attached. Earlier this month, Ashcroft made headlines when it was revealed the company was suing the City of Ottawa for $30 million for failing to build stormwater sewers in its new Eastboro development in Orléans. Buyers have been waiting more than a year to move into completed homes in the development as Ashcroft and the city have fought over who should pay for the sewers.”

CBC News in Canada. “A husband-and-wife law firm in Toronto has been shut down, lenders have moved to seize their family homes, and they’re facing 15 lawsuits and a police investigation after millions of dollars in client money went missing from the firm’s trust accounts. The saga of Nicholas Cartel and his wife, Singa Bui, has plenty of twists and turns, not the least of which is what happened to the huge sums of money allegedly embezzled from Cartel & Bui LLP. But it also reveals a part of the homebuying process that’s vulnerable to financial manipulation but isn’t closely scrutinized, and the inadequacy of the compensation for homebuyers or sellers who do fall victim.”

“One of the plaintiffs, Anthony Ingarra, a Toronto-area mortgage agent whose family says it lost more than $310,000 in their dealings with Cartel & Bui, said the experience has shaken him. ‘I’m almost afraid now to make another real estate transaction,’ he said. ‘The general public needs to know that their money isn’t safe in a lawyer’s trust account.’ Starting in September, in a half-dozen southern Ontario home sales — from Milton to Cobourg — handled by Cartel & Bui, the law firm didn’t pay off the sellers’ mortgages as it was supposed to do, according to lawsuits by seven homebuyers. It took the buyers’ money, paid out the home equity to its client sellers, but held on to the rest, the buyers allege.”

“When Cartel argued he shouldn’t be found in civil contempt because his wife handled all their business and family finances, the judge pointedly summed up the matter. ‘Six million dollars goes missing. Goes into her account. Did she pay for nice gifts for you? Did you buy a car that she paid for? Did she pay mortgage payments? How can you not know, when you’re living with her and you’ve got a home together and you’ve got children together, where $6 million went?'”

Interest New Zealand. “At the time I wrote my previews for 2024 (in late November), it was in the belief that we had managed to completely avoid a recession last year. How wrong that was. House prices are going backwards again, with the median price falling 2.5% in May, according to the Real Estate Institute of NZ (REINZ), and dropping 1.2% after seasonal adjustment. And there’s a glut of available houses. The house price news will hurt. I don’t think you can overstate how much of a psychological impact the housing market has on Kiwis. We are hugely invested in the housing market both financially and emotionally. When house prices go up, the mood of the nation goes up. When they go down, or are even just in the doldrums, the mood goes down. And I think that’s about where we are now as we get to the halfway point in the year. House prices starting to fall again are the over-ripe cherry on top of an increasingly soggy cake.”

“New Zealanders are a phlegmatic bunch, who mind their own business and get on with things. It was never going to be apparent on the face of things when savings buffers were starting to run out and when the leeway that had been established on the mortgage payments was starting to be used up. Until suddenly. Here we go. And once the struggles start to become apparent, this mood becomes contagious. People who don’t have a mortgage and to all intents and purposes are doing ‘fine’ suddenly decide they too should stop spending money, well, because, it’s grim out there. Better save. And the economy grinds to a halt. Halfway through 2024, this is where we appear to be – in grimace-and bear-it mode.”

Yahoo Finance. “A young Aussie worker has opened up about the difficulties and sacrifices she has endured after buying her first home in her mid-20s. So many people around the country are desperate to get their foot onto the property ladder and Danielle Anstey managed to achieve that feat last year. She and her partner bought a property in Melbourne that was too good to pass up and while she doesn’t regret their decision, she admits it’s been ‘pretty intense’ since they got the keys. The 26-year-old told Yahoo Finance homeownership is fantastic because it’s an appreciating asset, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with tough downsides.”

“‘The first six months were extremely hard,’ she said. ‘We were used to renting and having a bit more of our income that we could play around with. Now, pretty much the majority of our wage goes to the mortgage, so we’ve really had to sacrifice a lot.’ She said if it wasn’t for her partner’s parents living close by and the odd free dinner here and there thanks to her side hustle of content creation, there wouldn’t be ‘any joy in life.'”

“The 26-year-old, who works in marketing, told Yahoo Finance it’s difficult watching her friends and loved ones around the same age enjoy their 20s. It’s particularly frustrating at the moment as Aussies head over to Europe to enjoy a few weeks or months off, while Anstey and her partner endure a Melbourne winter and are forced to save every cent. ‘Seeing everyone be able to jet off and kind of escape reality for a couple of months of the year is extremely hard,’ she said. ‘Especially when you work all year long. And you know that every step you make is just going to the house you don’t really get a chance to enjoy the money that you’ve made. People don’t understand how hard it is right now and the Boomers are still saying, ‘You need to stop complaining, stop whinging, make some sacrifices,’ she said. ‘But the sacrifice is our entire wage.'”

“‘The worst thing is, at the moment, we’re only paying off interest,’ she explained to Yahoo Finance. ‘Our home loan in the last year has only gone down I think maybe like $3,000 out of the tens of thousands of dollars that have been paid towards it. Our home loan is essentially the same as what we paid for it. It hasn’t gone down.'”

“Reading this might make anyone rip up their home loan application and run for the hills. But Anstey said in the year that she’s owned her property, it’s already gone up $100,000 in value from the purchase price. ‘I really want to travel but the equity on our house already has just spoken major volumes to me that I’ve made the right decision,’ she said. ‘And in a couple of years, I could potentially use the equity to buy an investment property. I would have loved to have been able to not use every single cent of my savings or not use up every single cent that the bank had given me. But like that’s just the reality of it. If I didn’t do that, I would never be able to purchase a home.'”

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This Post Has 78 Comments

  1. ‘Her out-of-pocket expense is now about $12,000 a year, three times what she used to pay. In addition to the higher bill, she says she no longer has the feeling of safety she once had. ‘I know it’s just an insurance company. But when you’ve grown up believing your insurance agents are the people you can trust and hearing the commercials and the jingles and then they just do that to you …’

    They never mention that the money only goes into insurance Michelle. If they have to pay out, insurance doesn’t work!

      1. “believing commercials .. . ”

        I always excitedly waited for the giant Kool Aid pitcher to come crashing into my presence to quench my thirst.

        Nope. garden-hose time again.

    2. No one is helping us and no one is talking about it.’ Her out-of-pocket expense is now about $12,000 a year, three times what she used to pay.
      Every time I read a story about someone complaining that “no one is helping” I start SMH. It’s no ones job to take care of you, it’s yours, STFU and get it done.

  2. ‘The Cromford Report, one of the Valley housing market’s leading analysts, said, ‘Buyer enthusiasm for re-sale homes is still very low indeed.’ he Cromford Report also said last week that conditions in most of the Valley’s 17 submarkets were quickly turning in favor of buyers and that ‘price reductions are again increasing in both size and frequency’

    Wa happened to my shortage Tina?

  3. ‘Riverside Abstract, one of the largest title insurers in the tri-state area, has faced scrutiny from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for its involvement in a deal in which the Department of Justice alleges the owner committed fraud. Fannie Mae has halted closing loans involving Riverside. The Department of Justice previously alleged Riverside provided a real closing and fake closing for an office complex in Troy, Michigan. The agency alleged that the owners, Boruch Drillman and Aron Puretz, used the fake closing to obtain a larger loan than they otherwise would have been able to receive’

    ‘Now, the Department of Justice alleges Riverside provided the closings for another fraudulent multifamily deal, in Eureka. The Illinois deal involved a similar illegal flip in which Riverside allegedly provided a real closing and a fake one. Riverside has not been charged with wrongdoing’

    That’s some sound lending right there.

  4. “…This week he [Mohammed Syed] was notified that the general home insurance premium has risen from $6,791 to $8,198. ‘Insurance is so out of control that people are leaving,’…”

    Another early Monday morning, another out-of-control holding costs story.

      1. “…govt stats and MSM said inflation only 3%…”

        [sarcasm / on]
        Maybe the gov’ and MSM are thinking 3%/month?
        [sarcasm / off]

        Seriously, have any of these stat wizard folks visited a grocery store lately or bought a gallon of gas (now well over $5 and pushing $6 in some locations here in Southern Calif).?

        1. Addendum

          Or bought a Big Mac lately. (Calif Gov Newsom pushed minimum wage for fast food workers to $20/hour. IIRC $20/hour minimum wage took affect this past 01-Jun)

    2. i truly believe no one should buy a property in FL for at least 2
      or so years. There are just too many unknowns out there to make an accurate risk assessment.

  5. ‘Six million dollars goes missing. Goes into her account. Did she pay for nice gifts for you? Did you buy a car that she paid for? Did she pay mortgage payments? How can you not know, when you’re living with her and you’ve got a home together and you’ve got children together, where $6 million went?’

    Look judge, it’s K-da. This kind of thing happens every day.

  6. “Only 3 states have laws that require proof of citizenship”

    “if they get a social security number and a drivers licence they”re going to vote.”

    Texas AG Ken Paxton on Impact of Biden’s Illegal Aliens: “The Plan From the Beginning, Get These People Here As Fast as Possible and Get Them Voting” (VIDEO)

    By David Greyson
    Jun. 23, 2024 6:40 pm
    140 Comments

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/texas-ag-ken-paxton-discusses-impact-bidens-illegal/

  7. ‘I was always counting on that income from a house sale. That’s why people buy houses. For retirement.’

    Banking on home appreciation to fund retirement is an idiots game. Paying off a home is what it should be about. It’s mind blowing how many are counting on escalating values to fund their retirement.

    1. Lots of Boomers who used this strategy to fund their retirements all trying to cash out about the same time could be a problem. Hopefully for them, there will be plenty of wealthy all-cash Chinese investors waiting in the wings to snap up US investment properties at top dollar.

      1. U.S.-China Relations
        When Buying a Home Is Treated as a National Security Threat

        A new Florida law prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying homes because of national security concerns. Critics say it has fueled discrimination and chilled the local property market.

        A group of protesters hold signs that say “Say No to The New Chinese Exclusion Act!” and “Say No to Discrimination!” among other slogans.
        More than three dozen states have enacted or are considering laws restricting property purchases by Chinese citizens and companies.
        Credit…Martina Tuaty for The New York Times
        By Amy Qin and Patricia Mazzei
        Amy Qin reported from Miami and Orlando, Fla., and Patricia Mazzei from Miami.
        May 6, 2024
        阅读简体中文版

        After years of living in dorms and subpar apartments, Lisa Li could not wait to close on her new home.

        The one-bedroom condo in Miami’s financial district had a view of the river, was in a safe neighborhood and, Ms. Li heard, had neighbors who were much like her — less party, more chill. So Ms. Li, a 28-year-old who came to the United States 11 years ago as a college student from China, put in an offer, had her bid accepted and began ordering furniture.

        Then things took a sharp turn. At the last minute, the title company raised concerns about a small United States Coast Guard outpost near South Beach a few miles away. Her purchase, the company said, might run afoul of a new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying property in the state, especially near military installations, airports or refineries.

        Under the law, Ms. Li could face prison time, and the sellers and real estate agents could be held liable. The deal collapsed.

        “The whole experience was very hurtful and tiring,” Ms. Li said in a recent interview at a cafe in Miami, where she is still renting. “I just feel that, as someone who has lived and worked in this country for many years, and as a legal taxpayer, at the very least I should have the ability to buy a home that I can live in.”

        More than three dozen states have enacted or are considering similar laws restricting land purchases by Chinese citizens and companies, arguing that such transactions are a growing threat to national security and that the federal government has failed to stop Chinese Communist Party influence in America.

        Florida’s law, which went into effect in July, is among the furthest reaching. In addition to barring Chinese entities from buying agricultural land, it effectively prohibits most Chinese individuals without a green card from purchasing residential property. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure just before launching his Republican presidential campaign, warning voters that China represented the biggest threat to the United States.

        “Today, Florida makes it very clear: We don’t want the C.C.P. in the Sunshine State,” Mr. DeSantis said last year.
        …
        https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/us/florida-land-law-chinese-homes.html

      2. Except that a lot of those boomer houses are in areas where the boom boomed 50+ years in the past. Illinois, New York, frigid upper Midwest, New England. The kids left for college and found jobs in the South and West and never came back to the family homestead. Mom and Dad are now moving to “be near grandchildren,” and they’re going to find out that nobody wants an 80+ y.o. raised ranch in Lansing or Pittsburgh, not for the price they need.

    2. Red flags everywhere Lester owed $112K on his $250K house. If he had just sold the house he would have walked away with $100K+ clean. Instead, he got sentimental about staying in the house and locked into a too-high rent payment. This EasyKnock outfit looks predatory but they’re probably legal.

  8. “San Fran is certainly an outlier. The value of its office real estate tumbled nearly 60 percent from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, according to estimates in a 2023 academic research paper. But the average drop for the 20 largest US office markets was a painful 47 percent.”

    I don’t suppose that any leverage was used in purchasing this office market real estate? Because if it was used, the actual losses could be a lot bigger than 47 percent.

    1. San Fran is certainly an outlier. The value of its office real estate tumbled nearly 60 percent from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022
      I don’t think the cities have any clue how they are going to pay their bills going forward. Gonna be interesting. CA still talking about reparations from what i saw recently.

      1. The only people in California who might be deserving of reparations are the Indian tribes.

        This whole business of putting blacks on pedestals has but one objective: to divide the country.

      2. “CA still talking about reparations…”

        It’ll never happen, but it will induce vigor and vim when the vibrants go polar bear hunting.

    1. Crypto World
      Bitcoin tumbles back to $60,000 to start the week
      Published Mon, Jun 24 2024 8:36 AM EDT
      Updated 17 Min Ago
      Tanaya Macheel

      In this article

      BTC.CM=-2,624.59 (-4.10%)

      A photo illustration depicting the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
      Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto via Getty Images

      Bitcoin continued its descent to $60,000 on Monday.

      The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last down by more than 4% at $61,211.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it fell to $60,666.30, its lowest level in more than a month. In the past week, it’s fallen more than 8%.

      Digital asset investment products notched a second consecutive week of outflows, according to CoinShares. Last week, crypto investment products saw their lowest trading volumes globally since the U.S. bitcoin ETFs launched in January.

      “We have now seen $1.2 billion of outflows from crypto ETFs over the last two weeks which all began after the FOMC meeting. Our belief is that continued pessimism over the number of rate cuts is weighing on sentiment for crypto,” James Butterfill, head of research at the crypto-focused asset manager, told CNBC. “The Fed have indicated they need to see further evidence of inflation falling before they become more dovish, so any macro say that highlights inflation continues to fall will likely support prices, and conversely, an inflationary date will weigh on prices.”
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/24/crypto-market-today.html

      2. “…any macro say that highlights inflation continues to fall will likely support prices, and conversely, an inflationary date will weigh on prices.”

        If crypto investment is a bet on out-of-control inflation, how does news of falling inflation support prices?

        1. And why would a “currency” that purports to be outside the central banking system be such a servant to interest rates, which are determined by the central banks?

          Bitcoin is the Betamax of currencies. Right idea, wrong one.

    1. Trump Campaign Slams CNN for Cutting Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Microphone Off Mid-Interview

      WENDELL HUSEBØ
      24 Jun 2024

      The Trump campaign ripped CNN on Monday for abruptly ending its interview with Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

      CNN’s Kasie Hunt, a former MSNBC host, suddenly ended the interview when Leavitt highlighted CNN’s Jake Tapper’s long history of criticizing former President Donald Trump. Tapper is co-hosting Thursday’s first presidential debate.

      Below are 11 times Tapper attacked Trump with nasty claims:

      1. Suggested Trump was a nightmare: “For tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over.”

      2. Claimed Trump “continues to lie to the American people” about coronavirus testing.

      3. Retweeted a post that called Trump “100% insane.”

      4. Shamed Trump upon being hospitalized for the coronavirus.

      5. Described Trump’s presidency as a “disaster.”

      6. Reported twice on Trump’s penis.

      7. Questioned the 2016 election by perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax.

      8. Suggested Trump tried to kill democracy.

      9. Ordered CNN’s control room not to cover Trump live.

      10. Claimed Trump was a “rather angry defendant, saying there’s no case here.”

      11. Refused to cover Trump live due to “potentially dangerous” content.

      “CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate,” Leavitt said in a statement obtained by Breitbart News.

      “Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3-1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win,” she added.

      https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/06/24/trump-campaign-slams-cnn-cutting-press-secretary-karoline-leavitts-microphone-mid-interview/

  12. “The house price news will hurt. I don’t think you can overstate how much of a psychological impact the housing market has on Kiwis. We are hugely invested in the housing market both financially and emotionally. When house prices go up, the mood of the nation goes up. When they go down, or are even just in the doldrums, the mood goes down. And I think that’s about where we are now as we get to the halfway point in the year. House prices starting to fall again are the over-ripe cherry on top of an increasingly soggy cake.”

    Can you imagine the consternation if US home prices ever began to fall en masse?

    But not to worry…it can happen in China and New Zealand, but not here in the good old USA.

  13. Leslie Church seemed to know exactly what was coming as she sat down for an interview in a Toronto park Friday, three days before the byelection that could complete her journey from longtime political staffer to Liberal member of Parliament.

    Seated on a bench under a small shelter a few blocks from her campaign office, Church braced herself and then laughed as she was asked whether this vote is really a referendum on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

    “I think there’s people tempted to call it that,” she said. “But ultimately on Monday it’s a local election and Trudeau is not on the ballot. (Conservative Leader Pierre) Poilievre is not on the ballot.”

    Still there is little doubt Trudeau has a part to play in the fact that this riding, which has voted Liberal with ease over the last 10 elections, is considered a close battle with the Conservatives.

    There are seven dozen people on the ballot, which is almost a metre long. A protest group calling itself the Longest Ballot Committee stacked it with names to make a point about the first-past-the-post system being unfair. They did similar protests in byelections in Winnipeg a year ago and Mississauga in 2022.

    Since 2015, the Liberals have restored their fortress in Toronto, winning every seat in the country’s largest city in each of the last three elections.

    This byelection could be a sign of that fortress being breached. If the Liberals lose, the pressure for Trudeau to resign will mount.

    On Friday, the anti-Trudeau sentiment was clear in some corners of the riding. More than one person responded to queries with an expletive about the prime minister.

    https://www.cp24.com/news/eyes-pinned-to-toronto-byelection-as-safe-liberal-seat-teeters-under-trudeau-1.6938070?cache=%3FclipId%3D740676

  14. For the first time, used EVs are less expensive than their traditional gas counterparts. Not only are prices lower, they’re also plummeting at a much steeper clip, a recent report from iSeeCars said.

    According to the study, the average used EV fell $265 below the typical gas car in February, marking the trend’s start. As of May, that difference has ballooned to $2,657.

    “It’s clear used car shoppers will no longer pay a premium for electric vehicles and, in fact, consider electric powertrains a detractor, making them less desirable — and less valuable — than traditional models,” executive analyst Karl Brauer said in the report.

    By another measure, the average price of an EV fell 29.5% between May 2023 and 2024, compared to a 6.1% slide for combustion engine cars.

    For industry players that wagered on a coming wave of EV consumption, faltering demand has not done any favors for production, Bank of America said this month.

    “The unprecedented EV head-fake over the last three years has wreaked havoc on product planning. The prior acceleration in EV launches is doing a U-turn in favor of extending [internal combustion engine] programs and new hybrids,” analysts wrote. “However, while there is a lot of talk about hybrids, there isn’t much action.”

    Vanishing EV consumers have tugged on the sector in other ways. For instance, below-estimate deliveries have dented the performance of Tesla and Rivian stocks, and these companies have been among many to enact workforce cuts due to strained demand.

    Elsewhere, Fisker has filed for bankruptcy, citing market issues in a statement this week. And earlier this year, the rental firm Hertz sold 20,000 of its Tesla rentals. Among a handful of reasons, requests for the vehicles were not as high as expected.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/used-ev-prices-are-crashing-as-buyers-shift-back-towards-hybrid-vehicles/ar-BB1oJfj5

    1. If you buy say a used Toyota or Honda ICE, it’s usually safe to assume how many miles it has left and how much will it cost to keep it running until it finally gives up the ghost.

      With EVs there is no such track record. Instead, potential buyers hear horror stories of battery packs that quickly degrade and can cost $20,000 or more to replace. and that’s assuming they are available. And on top of all that there is the hassle of finding a place to recharge them and waiting patiently for that recharge.

  15. Many people shop for used cars to save money, but more and more buyers are bypassing used electric vehicles as they shop.

    “You used to pay around $40,000 for a 1-5-year-old electric vehicle, now you’re paying around $28,000,” said Karl Brauer, Executive Analyst at iSeeCars.

    The drop is even bigger in Seattle. An iSeeCars study looked at 2.2 million cars over a 12-month period to track trends in prices.

    In Seattle, the average used electric vehicle price dropped more than 25%, or about $8,700.

    Topping the list with the biggest drops are the Chevy Blazer and the Chevy Bolt.

    “For the first time in our tracking, we noticed in February and just kept going, they fell below the price of traditional cars,” said Brauer.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/used-electric-vehicle-prices-plummet-in-seattle-falling-below-gas-cars/ar-BB1oKpfv

  16. I took some heat from viewers that same week after I predicted on a podcast that every one of the U.S. pure-play EV makers besides Tesla would be either in bankruptcy or teetering on the brink by the end of 2024. As things are turning out, my only regret there is that I did not predict they would all be in that state by the middle of 2024 instead of the end of the year.

    This week, Fisker filed for bankruptcy, becoming the latest in a series of casualties in the growing falling-out in the EV sector. As The New York Times noted in its story on the matter, Fisker was one of a number of pure-play EV makers who were able to raise billions in startup funds from investors who got caught up in the EV frenzy during 2020 and 2021.

    Several of those firms, like Proterra, Arrival, and Lordstown Motors already preceded Fisker down the bankruptcy path. Others, like Rivian, are right on the verge of taking the same plunge.

    Lucid makes just one model, a luxury sedan, and is struggling to find buyers. It boasted about setting a new delivery “record” in the first quarter of this year, but a closer search reveals that was for only 1,967 units. The carmaker followed that announcement with another in May that it would lay off 400 employees in an apparent effort to conserve cash.

    Oof.

    EV truck maker Nikola, meanwhile, saw its stock price hit a record low this week amid ongoing softening in the US EV market. At the close of June 20 trading, Nikola’s price had dropped to just 33 cents per share. The stock collapse comes months after the company had delivered its first hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck during Q1, but that amounted to sales of just 42 units.

    These and other pure-play EV makers are not in any way serious competition for Tesla.

    Note also that Tesla is having major struggles of its own as the pace of EV adoption growth slows to a snail’s pace. The company laid off 10% of its workforce in May amid the ongoing slowing of the EV market. Tesla’s rollout of its radically designed Cybertruck has been plagued by recalls, technical issues and customer complaints, and the company’s overall Q1 2024 sales numbers fell dramatically from both Q4’s numbers and year-over-year.

    But its decade-long head start on the competition, vertical integration of supply chains and diversification into other ventures give Tesla advantages these other pure-play EV companies do not and cannot enjoy. It remains uniquely situated among its peer group to survive the market contraction.

    Traditional automakers like Ford and GM have been able to placate investors about their stunning losses in EV ventures (Ford somehow managed to lose $132,000 per unit sold in Q1 2024) by offsetting them against major profits from their traditional gas and diesel-powered car divisions. But even those companies have invoked an array of strategic shifts over the past six months in which they have delayed or cancelled planned new investments in their EV dreams.

    What we are seeing here is a rapid shifting back to reality in the US auto industry. EVs always have been, are today, and will remain a niche product that can fill specific needs for a limited segment of our population, mainly the wealthy. The reason why the traditional, gas-and-diesel-powered auto segments at companies like Ford and GM remain wildly profitable is because that is where the real auto market remains.

    No amount of Soviet-style central planning, industrial policy and command-and-control edicts and regulations coming down from Washington, D.C., are going to change that reality.

    https://www.newstalkflorida.com/featured/david-blackmon-us-ev-industry-shifts-back-into-reality-gear/

    1. This week, Fisker filed for bankruptcy

      Imagine having one of those white elephants. Will you be able to get it serviced? Or will it be the junkyard after something major fails?

    2. Lucid makes just one model, a luxury sedan

      There is a Lucid dealership at Tyson’s Galleria in Northern Virginia. Tyson’s Galleria is a high-end mall — and I mean really high-end, Balenciaga and Gucci and Dior and YSL and Versace, with guarded and closed doors to prevent smash-n-grabs.

      The Lucid salespeople, DEIs and otherwise, were all straight out of modeling school and dressed to the nines. It’s clear who Lucid is catering to. Clients don’t care about the battery crapping out at 2 years, because they’ve already traded it in by then.

  17. You wouldn’t expect that the battle road to recapturing the House of Representatives would run through a tiny Mexican restaurant next to a desolate Hudson Valley highway in an area Donald Trump won by double digits in 2020. But here’s Mondaire Jones anyway, tall and in a herringbone blazer, trying to get a regiment of voters to go out and recruit their neighbors to vote for Democrats.

    Perhaps it was a lack of imagination that caused the New York Dems to fall down on the job in 2022, when a handful of surprising losses helped Republicans to barely take control of the House despite being thwarted elsewhere. The much-hyped red wave that materialized almost nowhere else in the country did come ashore in New York. New York! A state that hasn’t gone red since Ronald Reagan. Sean Patrick Maloney, then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lost to Republican Michael Lawler in New York’s 17th District in the Lower Hudson Valley. In the 3rd District on Long Island’s western edge, Democrats failed to defend a seat from George Santos. In all, Democrats lost four congressional seats in districts that Biden won by double digits in 2020.

    New York. If you can blow it there, you can blow it anywhere.

    “Hell, the f—ing leader of the Democrats in both chambers of Congress are from New York,” says Jones, a former congressman who is vying to unseat Lawler, referring to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “It’s embarrassing what happened in this state in 2022.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-battle-for-new-york/ar-BB1oM3Nf

    1. “It’s embarrassing what happened in this state …..”

      He is correct that it is embarrassing what has happened to the state but not for the reasons he thinks.

  18. If the polling is accurate, Rep. Jamaal Bowman is the heavy underdog in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for New York’s 16th Congressional District.

    The topline story of the race is, understandably, pro-Israel groups’ record-breaking spending against Bowman, a passionate pro-Palestinian advocate who has dubbed Israel’s invasion of Gaza a “genocide.” Super PACs backing Bowman’s challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, have outspent pro-Bowman super PACs on the airwaves by a 9-to-1 margin, helping make it the most expensive House primary in history. The independent spending arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee alone has spent $14.6 million on television, digital and direct-mail advertisements.

    “They are so afraid of us — those who oppose the working class, multiracial, multieconomic, multicultural democracy that we are trying to build,” Bowman told volunteers getting ready to canvas the Bronx’s Co-Op City neighborhood on May 26. “They’re spending more money in this race than they have ever spent in the history of any race. That’s how afraid AIPAC is.”

    It is impossible to predict the results of a counterfactual scenario where Bowman did not face this kind of spending. But while he would have undoubtedly fared better if he were not up against an avalanche of super PAC money, his problems predate the lopsided advertising blitz.

    Bowman, 48, was trailing Latimer, 70, by 17 percentage points in early April, before advertising began, according to a poll commissioned by the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, which is supporting Latimer. The mid-April internal poll released by Bowman’s campaign, by contrast, had him up by one percentage point.

    Bowman’s support in the district, which includes a sliver of the northeastern Bronx and all of lower Westchester County — a mix of diverse working-class cities and leafy, affluent suburbs — has been tenuous from the moment he won in 2020. His vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill in 2021 and his pulling of the fire alarm in Congress this past September further undermined his standing with many moderate-to-liberal Democrats. Following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, his shift away from an even-handed posture on Israel-Palestine toward a hard left-wing stance cost him some progressive Jewish support and motivated existing Jewish detractors to get more active in politics.

    “I was always having to be his defender. And I could no longer defend his behavior.” Danielle Tagger-Epstein, former Bowman supporter and donor

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/it-s-not-just-aipac-how-jamaal-bowman-alienated-voters-who-once-supported-him/ar-BB1oKbXe

  19. The Israel-Hamas war took center stage at a rally in the Bronx for embattled Rep. Jamaal Bowman, as speakers called for a ceasefire in Gaza and lashed AIPAC’s spending for Bowman’s centrist opponent, George Latimer.

    The rally — which featured fellow progressives Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — drew a counterprotest from Within Our Lifetime, the hardline pro-Palestinian group that objects to Bowman’s endorsement of US President Joe Biden. A contingent of Bowman’s Jewish supporters were among the hundreds who gathered at the rally.

    “My opponent supports genocide,” Bowman told the crowd. “My opponent and AIPAC are the ones destroying our democracy and it is on us, it is on all of us, to save our democracy.”

    Ocasio-Cortez said the “establishment” was targeting Bowman because he “dared to speak up for Palestinians” and “Because he dared to join us and become one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire.”

    The rally in the sweltering heat was part of a last-ditch effort by Bowman to keep his seat in what has become one of the country’s most-watched primary races. Bowman is behind in the polls against Latimer in the overwhelmingly blue district, and the race is seen as a bellwether in the national debate between the progressive and centrist wings of the Democratic party, which are split over the Israel-Hamas war.

    Latimer, the Westchester County executive, has staked out a staunchly pro-Israel position, while Bowman, a member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in the war. His early call for a ceasefire drew criticism from Jewish groups because it did not mention Hamas or hostages in Gaza. He has repeatedly accused Israel of “genocide.”

    The leading progressives who have rallied around Bowman’s campaign sought to drive home that message at Saturday’s event, which notably did not take place in Bowman’s district. Along with free bottles of water and ice cream, organizers passed out signs saying “For the many, not the money,” a slogan of Bowman’s campaign.

    “Jamaal also understands that what’s going on in Gaza today is totally unacceptable,” Sanders, who is Jewish, said at the rally. “Israel had the right to defend itself against the terrorist attack but it does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.”

    He added, “Never before in history have powerful special interest groups spent so much money trying to defeat a candidate.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sanders-ocasio-cortez-slam-aipac-funding-of-rival-at-bowman-rally-in-nyc/ar-BB1oIJ9B

    1. “My opponent and AIPAC are the ones destroying our democracy and it is on us, it is on all of us, to save our democracy.”

      Now the democrats are trying to shut down democracy but other democrats are trying to save democracy? i get so confused.

  20. California is known for many things, including beautiful scenery, Hollywood’s most famous, and being expensive.

    According to the latest PODS Moving and Storage data, the state continues to lead the rest of the states with the largest leaving trend. Seven of the 20 cities named “Cities With the Highest Number of Move-Outs” were in the Golden State.

    According to Rent Cafe, the average rent in the U.S. is around $1,700 for a 900square-foot apartment. I n California, the average rent is almost double at $2,500 for an apartment around the same size.

    That’s why the PODS are moving and Storage company says many people are choosing to leave the state altogether.

    “I can’t even begin to tell you how much happier I am in Florida than California,” said Terry Gilliam. Gilliam even started two Facebook groups called “Leaving California” and “Life after California” as a way to connect with others who felt the same way. He said he left California three years ago after living in the Bay Area for 35 years.

    He said most people are saying…

    “Rents are astronomical in California,” said Gilliam. “So it’s not just buying a house, it’s renting a house. So there’s a huge shortage of housing. And then really it’s the domino effect, and it gets to where you get the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

    Another contributing factor driving people to leave is crime. “You know, the whole shoplifting thing. If you only steal up to a $950,” said Gilliam. “It’s not really a crime, it’s a ticket. You know, it’s insanity. It’s insanity, and people want to come to places like the south, where I move to where law and order rules.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/california-sees-record-high-move-outs-cost-of-living-push-residents-to-leave/ar-BB1nZgWe

    1. I’ve been to Key West. For once, the listing description is correct when they write that it’s steeped in history and rich heritage. Key West is massively historic, and those conch cottages are part of the unique vibe. Well worth saving. I’m not sure about $749K, but any Key West fan with the money would easily pay $500K with $200K to fix up the house and property. Pets not allowed, not a problem, there are plenty of stray chickens roaming around.

  22. Image file for Jeff — Drive Til You Qualify Edition:

    https://ibb.co/SPn1Kkt

    If you zoom in enough you can see my car, the only car, in this photo, left of the switchback turns and below the snowbank blocking the road at lower center.

    No dogs today. Just some elk.

  23. ‘Now I have to pay $4,000 a year in insurance for that,’ Syed laments. The problem is that he has to pay for two other policies: one to cover the risk of wind damage and a general one for the home, which raised his home insurance budget last year to $16,000. That amount is double what he paid when you bought the home in 2017, but less than what you will pay this year. This week he was notified that the general home insurance premium has risen from $6,791 to $8,198. ‘Insurance is so out of control that people are leaving’

    Not you Mohammed, just keep making those payments., I can tell you are a winnah!

  24. ‘in January she got her renewal in the mail. Her premium jumped 500% to $19,310. Her monthly mortgage payment doubled overnight to $8,000. She had to pull money out of her retirement account and take on credit card debt for a couple of months just to make the higher payments’

    It’s still way cheaper than renting Michelle.

    ‘Now she says she feels stuck. With runaway premiums and insurance companies dropping coverage for homeowners in high-risk areas, she has watched neighbors slash the asking price to sell their homes. ‘If I put this house on the market and it really doesn’t sell, I will know that I have nowhere to go,’ Gradnigo said. ‘It’s despair here. No one is helping us and no one is talking about it’

    I’m talking about it I suppose and sounds like you better get some boxes.

    1. “She had to pull money out of her retirement account and take on credit card debt for a couple of months just to make the higher payments.”

      A foolish decision!

  25. ‘Home prices in Austin, where the typical home fetched more than half a million dollars at the height of the state’s pandemic-era housing market, have fallen for 16 straight months, according to Zillow data. San Antonio has also seen months’ long decline in home prices. ‘Buyers are still very much. contending with elevated home prices, and of course, mortgage rates’

    Austin was the first metro to sink like a turd in a well after rates first increased significantly Clare. That’s been a lot longer than 16 months. Not that every month is down, but every measure for Austin RE comes up fooked.

  26. ‘(Celtics!) We are not, however, exceptional. Not the ‘Hub of the Universe.’ Not even the hub of the Northeast Corridor. So let’s put aside the fanciful notion — particularly popular among fiscal progressives — that Boston’s many strengths and charms ensure we will remain economically competitive. I wrote last week that our paramount progressive, Mayor Michelle Wu, says that Boston’s business districts have held up better than those in other cities. Call it the ‘At Least We’re Not San Francisco Syndrome.’ It’s unhelpfully optimistic. San Fran is certainly an outlier’

    Yer sh$thole is being run by a little smiling communist. The path is predictable.

    ‘The value of its office real estate tumbled nearly 60 percent from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, according to estimates in a 2023 academic research paper. But the average drop for the 20 largest US office markets was a painful 47 percent’

    We see a lot of numbers on the crater, but this last bit is notable. I did say more than once when you started destroying yer sh$tholes this would be how it turned out. Eat yer crows:

    via GIPHY

  27. ‘Ashcroft Homes has defaulted on a $6.5-million loan, sending three of its Richmond Road condominium properties into receivership…Buyers have been waiting more than a year to move into completed homes in the development as Ashcroft and the city have fought over who should pay for the sewers’

    We don’t hear much from Ottawa, I think maybe cuz almost nobody lives in that sh$thole. This is the continuing story of the airbox commie urban living fantasy.

  28. ‘And there’s a glut of available houses. The house price news will hurt. I don’t think you can overstate how much of a psychological impact the housing market has on Kiwis. We are hugely invested in the housing market both financially and emotionally. When house prices go up, the mood of the nation goes up. When they go down, or are even just in the doldrums, the mood goes down. And I think that’s about where we are now as we get to the halfway point in the year. House prices starting to fall again are the over-ripe cherry on top of an increasingly soggy cake’

    Yer sh$thole island tanked first because you raised rates first and yer lending had gotten to 13 times incomes at that point – to investors!

    ‘New Zealanders are a phlegmatic bunch, who mind their own business and get on with things. It was never going to be apparent on the face of things when savings buffers were starting to run out and when the leeway that had been established on the mortgage payments was starting to be used up. Until suddenly. Here we go’

    Yep, happens over and over. Even to the phlegmatic bunch.

    1. who mind their own business

      In my experience socialists NEVER mind their own business.

  29. ‘She and her partner bought a property in Melbourne that was too good to pass up and while she doesn’t regret their decision, she admits it’s been ‘pretty intense’ since they got the keys…‘We were used to renting and having a bit more of our income that we could play around with. Now, pretty much the majority of our wage goes to the mortgage, so we’ve really had to sacrifice a lot.’ She said if it wasn’t for her partner’s parents living close by and the odd free dinner here and there’

    OK stop right there Danielle, you have to stop eating to be a winnah! The wall street journal recommended it

    ‘The 26-year-old, who works in marketing, told Yahoo Finance it’s difficult watching her friends and loved ones around the same age enjoy their 20s. It’s particularly frustrating at the moment as Aussies head over to Europe to enjoy a few weeks or months off, while Anstey and her partner endure a Melbourne winter and are forced to save every cent. ‘Seeing everyone be able to jet off and kind of escape reality for a couple of months of the year is extremely hard,’ she said. ‘Especially when you work all year long. And you know that every step you make is just going to the house you don’t really get a chance to enjoy the money that you’ve made. People don’t understand how hard it is right now and the Boomers are still saying, ‘You need to stop complaining, stop whinging, make some sacrifices,’ she said. ‘But the sacrifice is our entire wage’

    The boomers are right Danielle, you have to be in it to win it! They did it, you can too.

  31. I’ll have what he’s having.

    Bad Hombre
    @joma_gc

    Holy crap! They’re saying the quiet part out loud. “Expect to see a ‘very energized’ Joe Biden at the debate.”

    They’re going for the full Bobby Brown cocktail. He’s gonna be tweakin’ like a MFer.

    2:21 PM · Jun 24, 2024

    https://x.com/joma_gc/status/1805275000242401535

    2. It would be hilarious if he keeled over mid rant. The only downside is that Kamala would be sworn in.

    3. 5 months ago, he couldn’t make it 90 minutes for the State of the Union address. So they’ve stipulated two breaks for this debate; time for him to re-up.

      A lot of people think that they’re going to find some way to edit the debate, even with the live format.

        1. FDR had a fully functioning brain. Unfortunately, a hundred years ago people were less accepting of disabled people. It’s different today. Nobody is tying up Greg Abbot.

          Biden falling up stairs and off of bicycles doesn’t bug me. Biden being unable to complete a sentence does.

  32. Bach Double Violin Concerto – Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh.

    Michel8665

    11 years ago

    1st movement: 0:09
    2nd movement: 4:34
    3rd movement: 12:31

    Bach Double Violin Concerto – Yehudi Menuhin And David Oistrakh.
    Enregistrement de 1958 salle Pleyel orchestre de la RTF direction Philippe Capdevielle réalisé par Philippe Truffaut.

    Sir Yehudi Menuhin (plus tard Lord Menuhin of Stoke D’Abernon) est un violoniste et chef d’orchestre américain, né le 22 avril 1916 à New York et décédé le 12 mars 1999 à Berlin. Il est un enfant prodige, se produisant dès 1927 à Paris avec l’Orchestre Lamoureux et à New York au Carnegie Hall. Il est considéré comme l’un des plus grands violonistes du XXe siècle.

    David Fiodorovitch Oïstrakh (en russe : Давид Фёдорович Ойстрах), né le 30 septembre 1908 à Odessa et mort le 24 octobre 1974 à Amsterdam, est l’un des violonistes les plus réputés du XXe siècle. Violoniste et altiste, il a profondément influencé la technique de l’instrument, par sa maîtrise technique, sa déconcertante décontraction, sa virtuosité. Musicien, il a durablement marqué l’histoire de la musique au travers de la collaboration qu’il entretint avec de grands compositeurs qui lui dédiaient leurs œuvres. Son fils et disciple Igor Oïstrakh est également un violoniste réputé.

    “Sir Yehudi Menuhin (plus tard Lord Menuhin of Stoke D’Abernon) est un violoniste et chef d’orchestre américain, né le 22 avril 1916 à New York et décédé le 12 mars 1999 à Berlin. Il est un enfant prodige, se produisant dès 1927 à Paris avec l’Orchestre Lamoureux et à New York au Carnegie Hall. Il est considéré comme l’un des plus grands violonistes du XXe siècle.

    David Fiodorovitch Oïstrakh, né le 30 septembre 1908 à Odessa et mort le 24 octobre 1974 à Amsterdam, est l’un des violonistes les plus réputés du XXe siècle. Violoniste et altiste, il a profondément influencé la technique de l’instrument, par sa maîtrise technique, sa déconcertante décontraction, sa virtuosité. Musicien, il a durablement marqué l’histoire de la musique au travers de la collaboration qu’il entretint avec de grands compositeurs qui lui dédiaient leurs œuvres. Son fils et disciple Igor Oïstrakh est également un violoniste réputé.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJh6i-t_I1Q

    18:14.

    1. Thank you for this. I had never heard this recording, and my life is enriched by absorbing it.

  35. Yahoo Finance
    Moneywise
    Ramit Sethi wants Americans to stop believing a major ‘lie’ about housing
    Lou Carlozo
    Mon, Jun 24, 2024, 10:00 AM PDT
    5 min read

    For generations, the virtues of owning one’s home versus forking over money to a landlord have been obvious. You build equity, you may get a tax deduction on mortgage interest payments, you gain bragging rights, you gain stability, and you can paint the place any color you want.

    But try telling that to one tycoon, who proclaims at the outset of his recent YouTube video, “I’m a multimillionaire, and I rent my house.”

    The contented castle dwellers of America watching this video titled “Renting vs Buying a Home: The Lie You’ve Been Told” might well ask, “Just who is this guy?”

    Ramit Sethi is the host of Netflix’s “How To Get Rich,” a New York Times bestselling author and the brains behind the YouTube channel “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” which boasts more than half a million subscribers.

    He wants to change the popular mindset that “buying is the best thing ever to build equity; renting is throwing your money away.”

    Given Sethi’s estimated net worth of $25 million (per Fortune), it’s worth considering his argument even if it runs counter to the so-called American Dream.

    Run the numbers

    Sethi isn’t 100% against home ownership. Rather, he contends that it isn’t always the best answer and renting can sometimes be a better financial decision.

    To Sethi’s credit, he uses an actual address in Palo Alto, Calif. to make his point. The two-bed, two-bath condo at 776 Bryant St. sold in 2018 for $2.15 million. When he filmed his video, Sethi found that the current price estimate on the property had fallen to $1.9 million, per Redfin.

    With a $1.6 million 30-year mortgage at 7%, Sethi showed that you’d pay about $10,600 a month on the mortgage alone. That’s much higher than the $5,400 monthly rent the owner charged as of January 2024. He added, “That’s not even factoring in what I call ‘phantom costs’ of ownership — things like maintenance or closing costs or all kinds of hidden or counterintuitive fees that would make renting an even better financial decision.”

    He believes that less than 5% of people carefully run the numbers before buying a home, and mentions three popular beliefs about housing he calls myths, including:
    …
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ramit-sethi-wants-americans-stop-170000492.html

  36. Like you’re going to believe a guy who sells his snake oil on YouTube? And these days, half a mil subscribers is paltry.

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