thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Owners Think, If We Don’t List Now, Prices May Fall In Six Months’ Time, This Might Be The Best Price We Can Achieve

A report from USA Today. “Homes sold below their list price at the peak of the housing season, Redfin reports. ‘It means that the housing market is starting to move to the buyer’s favor,’ said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. ‘People are setting prices based on what they saw their neighbors’ homes sell for three or four months ago, and maybe that was when there were more buyers on the market.’ ‘Overall, what we’re seeing is that buyers have the power, and I’m actually seeing that everywhere,’ said Ryan Sypek, a broker associate at Compass real estate in Los Angeles, California. ‘What I’m hearing everywhere is, there’s just a lack of urgency from buyers right now. And urgency, and that feeding frenzy, is what drives prices up.'”

From KETV Omaha. “The housing market seems to be taking a breather, according to some local real estate experts. ‘Still multiple offers, but things above that are slowing down a little bit,’ said Cindy Andrew, a broker in Nebraska and Iowa. ‘You have some sellers that they’re getting nervous because it’s taking longer. They thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just put my house on the market at whatever price, and I’ll get multiple offers.’ No, you won’t. Not now.’ For potential buyers, Andrew advises that now is an opportune time to shop for a home. ‘With houses being on the market a little bit longer, you don’t have to pull the trigger so quickly,’ Andrew said. ‘You have a little bit more time now.'”

Axios on Arizona. “Metro Phoenix homeowners who want to upsize or move to a new neighborhood are coming to terms with an unfortunate reality: They’re not going anywhere. Megan Slattery told us she purchased a condo in Sunnyslope in March 2020 and paid $1,500 per month for her mortgage and HOA. Last year, Slattery and her husband decided to buy a bigger home in a slightly more affordable neighborhood. Their monthly payment more than doubled. ‘It was a very hard decision to take on that large of a mortgage payment. Our motto is ‘marry the house, divorce the interest rate,’ she told us.”

From WFLA. “Florida is spending big money on a program that promises to bring down property insurance premiums. Some saw the benefits, but others say they were stuck on a waiting list. The state allocated an additional $200 million for this year’s program, but there’s still concern there won’t be enough to meet the demand. Joe Fabrizio says he’s still left in limbo. ‘The purpose of doing this was to help us secure our homes and make them a little safer,’ said Joe Fabrizio. ‘There was no direction on whether that was just going to stay in a queue or if I had to reapply or what was going to happen. I didn’t receive anything. There was no money left, according to what they told me, so I was not funded.'”

“His home in St. Petersburg was inspected through the program last year, but he was put on the waiting list when the funding was depleted. ‘It’s confusing and frustrating because you don’t know where you stand,’ said Fabrizio. ‘It’s the second go around and I’m still sort of in the same point I was after the first go around.’ There’s not going to be enough money for every Floridian,’ said Lisa Miller, an insurance consultant with Lisa Miller and Associates. ‘$200 million will go quickly. That’s about 20,000 at $10,000 – a maximum of $10,000. Apply early and try to get in the program.'”

The Real Deal on Texas. “A $795,000 price cut did the trick. Austin’s most expensive home sale of the week came at 403 Graciosa Cove in Westlake. The modern-style mansion last asked $4.2 million, down from $4.99 million when it was listed in April. That the home price needed to fall 15 percent in three months reflects the difficult week for high-end Austin home sales, according to the latest Eklund Gomes Austin Luxury Report, which tracks signed contracts that last asked above $2 million. Next on the list came 613 Rocky River Road, a five-bedroom home also in Westlake. That home has also been consistently cutting its asking price since April. It first listed for $4.5 million, but the price fell three times until landing at $3.8 million.”

WFSB in Connecticut. “New information on a story the I-Team first exposed months ago. The Farmington Valley developer accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes he never built now faces new criminal charges. William Ferrigno is facing two new charges. The state charged him with violating home construction laws, and Avon Police hit him with another count of larceny. According to his most recent arrest warrant in Avon, police say Ferrigno signed a contract with a man in December 2019, to build a home in Burlington. The man gave Ferrigno $150,000, but no work was ever done. Avon Police said, ‘William has shown a history of entering into contracts he knows to be fraudulent and accepting money from victims in the past with no intention, ability or effort made to complete the contracts.'”

WNCN in North Carolina. “A Durham man will serve seven years in prison for fraudulently obtaining nearly $3 million in mortgage and COVID-19 funds. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing of 48-year-old Reynold Eugene Mullen on Tuesday. Mullen pled guilty to his role in the three-year fraud scheme in April 2023. According to the DOJ, Mullen and his girlfriend, Tiffany Dawn Russell, used ‘washed’ credit reports and fabricated bank statements between 2019 and 2021 to obtain four mortgages totaling $1.37 million for the purchase of properties in Rocky Mount, Nags Head, and Miami, FL. Mullen and Russell also submitted fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications between March 2020 and July 2021 on behalf of entities they owned or partly owned. Federal officials said Mullen and Russell obtained over $1.6 million from these frauds, which was used to purchase six properties and pay for Mullen’s plastic surgery.”

Mountain View Voice in California. “A Santa Clara County report of assessed property values puts Mountain View at the top with the highest property value growth in the region. But while property values have increased, the report also described fewer residential transactions in the region and a troubled commercial real estate market. The assessor’s office also described a volatile commercial real estate market, where new construction of commercial properties has come to a standstill. ‘While some projects already under construction moved forward, plans for commercial new construction have stalled, changed or been considered for conversion to housing,’ the report said. The report also noted that the office vacancy rate in Silicon Valley has risen to over 20%, an increasing number of office buildings are selling for less than the assessed value, and foreclosures are becoming more frequent.”

The Financial Post. “Sellers are streaming back into the housing market, inflating inventories in Canada’s biggest cities and handing more bargaining power to potential buyers. The Bank of Canada ‘s slight cut to interest rates last month enticed some buyers off the sidelines, but not enough to absorb the new inventory that’s been building for months, said Royal Bank of Canada economist Rachel Battaglia in a report out yesterday. ‘Growth in new listings continued to outpace sales in Canada’s more expensive markets, and inventories are continuing to grow — even in the busy Calgary market,’ she said. ‘The influx of supply has shifted more of the bargaining power to buyers, who in some markets are still extracting price concessions from sellers.'”

“No where is the rush to sell more apparent than in the country’s biggest city. Almost 18,000 new units went up for sale in Toronto in June, an 9.3 per cent rise from the month before and the third monthly increase in a row. Active listings are now up 68 per cent from a year ago, with condo listings up 84 per cent. Listings for single-detached homes are up 56 per cent. ‘A slight uptick in sales activity (4.2 per cent) from May helped absorb some of the new inventory on the market, but not enough to keep active listings from reaching a 14-year high of 23,600 in June,’ said Battaglia. Toronto home sales are still down 13 per cent from a year ago, and prices are down 4.6 per cent. Apartments have suffered the steepest declines, with prices down 4.7 per cent, particularly in Toronto’s core and Durham region, said RBC.”

Blog TO in Canada. “With home sales activity slowing down in most major Ontario housing markets throughout the spring, prospective buyers benefitted from more wiggle room when negotiating lower prices. As a result, more and more homes have sold well below their listing prices over the past few months — including this two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in Burlington’s Tansley neighbourhood. The unit was first sold in February for $865,000, at a time when cheaper borrowing rates contributed to heightened demand throughout the province’s real estate market and, in turn, drove home prices up.”

The Jerusalem Post in Israel. “In recent weeks, it seems that the terms ‘apartments’ and ‘buns’ have become synonymous. Contractors offer tempting financing terms to anyone willing to listen, along the lines of ‘pay a little today and forget.’ Financing plans like 20-80, where you pay only 20% now and the rest upon occupancy in three or four years, suddenly seem like very profitable deals. Lo and behold, it works. They haven’t seen such a flood in sales offices in twenty years: people are grabbing apartments like there’s no tomorrow, especially during wartime. It’s not just in the center of the country—Ofakim, Ashkelon, and even Kiryat Shmona are also seeing a surge in demand. Something abnormal is happening in the real estate industry.”

“Given these amazing figures, I decided to dive into the Bank of Israel’s publication, with the help of senior mortgage consultant Moti Shoika (Mortgage Front), and discovered an interesting detail: NIS 1.8 billion of the amount distributed in May 2024 are contractor loans or balloon loans. The so-called ‘Welcome to Las Vegas.’ A balloon loan works on the same principle – and as its name implies, it is – a bubble that may burst. When that balloon bursts, the family will have to take care of the money to cover the loan or take out a new mortgage or refinance it. As we said in the title – a blue-and-white combination of a madhouse and Las Vegas. Bet today and pay tomorrow. The question is whether there will be a way to pay. Hey guys, we’re going to a casino. If there is an increase in prices and demand, buyers will become millionaires like a roulette jackpot. But if not, they will lose their underwear.”

Radio New Zealand. “A rise of mortgagee sales is only the beginning of a ‘painful period,’ as one property expert warns that ‘it’s going to get much, much worse.’ While not at the levels seen during the Global Financial Crisis, mortgagee sales have been climbing. Property expert David Whitburn told Checkpoint business owners were among those feeling the pressure the most. ‘We’ve seen over 50 companies across Aotearoa every week, going to the wall, facing either receivership or liquidation and often they’re securing their own home that they’ve put up as collateral for their business debt,’ he said. ‘Homeowners and property investors are not immune to this too.'”

“Hindsight was a wonderful thing, Whitburn said, suggesting that the financial settings perhaps were not set quite right during Covid-19. ‘People are struggling to keep their heads above water. I think we’re at the beginning of a painful period, it’s already started, but unfortunately it’s going to get much, much worse over the next six months or so.'”

Domain News in Australia. “Property owners struggling under the weight of 13 interest rate rises are more likely to list their homes for urgent sale than a year ago in the two largest states. The number of homes for sale classified as distressed listings was 16.3 per cent higher in NSW in June than a year earlier, while the number in Victoria rose 15.6 per cent, figures from SQM Research found. Distressed listings are homes for sale marked with phrases such as ‘urgent sale’ or “must sell’ or ‘price reduced.’ ‘They may well be listing because of increased uncertainty – uncertainty around what interest rates are likely to do, uncertainty around what the economy will do,’ said SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher. ‘[Owners think] ‘If we don’t list now, prices may fall in six months’ time, this might be the best price we can achieve.’”

From News.com.au. “While Australia continues to grapple with a critical shortage of homes, one of the world’s biggest economies is coming to terms with the exact opposite. China is home to at least 50 so-called ‘ghost cities’, which combined have as many as 65 million empty homes and apartments within them. To the naked eye, they look like any other major urban area. Two million people were projected to call Ordos home when complete. All of the scaffolding has long since come down and the city is open, but those millions of people never arrived. Estimates are that up to 30,000 people are scattered across the landscape, giving Ordos an eerie feeling.”

“International urban explore Darmon Richter told the British newspaper Express that the city has a ‘post-apocalyptic’ feel that doesn’t compare to anywhere else he’s been. ‘Even in Chernobyl you tend to run into other tour groups, or see the furniture rearranged by the countless photographers who’ve visited before you,’ Mr Richter said. ‘Kangbashi district was utterly untouched though, and walking through the silent streets was an unnerving experience.’

Related Posts
This Post Has 87 Comments

  1. ‘Megan Slattery told us she purchased a condo in Sunnyslope in March 2020 and paid $1,500 per month for her mortgage and HOA. Last year, Slattery and her husband decided to buy a bigger home in a slightly more affordable neighborhood. Their monthly payment more than doubled. ‘It was a very hard decision to take on that large of a mortgage payment. Our motto is ‘marry the house, divorce the interest rate’

    I think you got the UHS saying a bit wrong Megan, but you achieved the same result.

    2. I’ve been around over 6 decades.
      traveled around the globe.
      moved up & down through the social classes.
      held occupations where I’ve talked a lot, in-person / on phones.

      and I have never, ever, had anyone say to me ” LO & BEHOLD!”

      has anyone else ever heard spoken aloud that outdated anachronism that, for some bizarre reason, writers keep using to make a point?

      anyone ?!
      ANYONE ?!?

      (I don’t know why it annoys me. it just does)

        1. “King James Bible” Hahaha

          yep, that’s pretty much the era that comes to my mind also.
          Verily, I say unto thee.

      2. “Lo and behold” is still used, but only with a connotation of disbelieving sarcasm. It’s in the same vein as “coincidence, I think not,” or “oh now isn’t that convenient.”

        This entire news article is written to be snark, and the author is clearly conveying that these 20/80 schemes would never fool anyone with any sense; but yet, *lo and behold*, gullible bankers are falling for it.

        “Lo and behold” is being used 100% correctly here.

      3. (I don’t know why it annoys me. it just does)

        I hate when someone speaks “to” a subject (leaving out the “in regard”.) Karine Jean-Pierre says this a lot.

  3. ‘What I’m hearing everywhere is, there’s just a lack of urgency from buyers right now. And urgency, and that feeding frenzy, is what drives prices up.’”

    Hard for the dissemblers of the NAR to instill a sense of FOMO in their “clients” (marks) when even the REIC shills in the globalist scum media are forced to acknowledge the obvious: the housing market has turned, and the squeals and tales of woe of FBs who overpaid are reaching epidemic proportions.

  4. Our motto is ‘marry the house, divorce the interest rate,’ she told us.”

    You’re quite the clever one, Megan. You can impart such gems of wisdom to your fellow passengers on the express train to Schlongville.

    1. The problem with dumping a love interest is that often the replacement is worse than the jilted lover.

  5. “For potential buyers, Andrew advises that now is an opportune time to shop for a home.”

    Sorry Andrew, it don’t work that way. There’s blood in the water and your buyers are loading up on popcorn and settling into their favorite easy chair to watch the show.

    Locally, seeing a lot of listings coming on the market that were purchased ‘21 thru ‘23 that are listed at their original purchase plus enough to cover the realturd commish. These folks are tomorrow’s casualties. And it’s just beginning.

  6. ‘It’s confusing and frustrating because you don’t know where you stand,’ said Fabrizio.

    Let me clarify your situation, Joe: You’re schlonged, bigly.

  7. That home has also been consistently cutting its asking price since April. It first listed for $4.5 million, but the price fell three times until landing at $3.8 million.”

    Chase that market down, greedheads!

    1. “Chase that market down, greedheads!”

      Haha- fer sure, mah peeps. why wait to catch a falling knife when you can chase one down?
      don’t forget plenty of walking selfies-from-a-stick, complete w/20 minute tedious rambling video of you & fake AI bikini girl on cover thumbnail for max views of your “experience”.

  8. The report also noted that the office vacancy rate in Silicon Valley has risen to over 20%, an increasing number of office buildings are selling for less than the assessed value, and foreclosures are becoming more frequent.”

    Another “Oh dear!” moment in time.

  9. Active listings are now up 68 per cent from a year ago, with condo listings up 84 per cent.

    Is that a lot?

  10. They haven’t seen such a flood in sales offices in twenty years: people are grabbing apartments like there’s no tomorrow, especially during wartime.

    Wait until thousands of Hezbollah rockets and missiles start raining down.

  11. The number of homes for sale classified as distressed listings was 16.3 per cent higher in NSW in June than a year earlier, while the number in Victoria rose 15.6 per cent, figures from SQM Research found.

    I smell something putrid, like a mass die-off in the arse of some sort is occurring.

    1. “mass die-off”

      like a retired female realtor perpetual happy-talk after COVID wipes out 99% of the men at a nursing home: “Now there’s MORE SELECTION for you fella’s ! ”

      A.B.C.

  12. China is home to at least 50 so-called ‘ghost cities’, which combined have as many as 65 million empty homes and apartments within them.

    The US has 66 million Biden voters (2020) who yearn to live under Communism. See where I’m going with this?

    1. speaking of regional banks, there is a local Credit Union here in Greater Sacramento area, called “PATELCO” that was hacked last week.
      took the entire system off line. I’m a long time customer but only keep .01 balance in checking as a long held precaution for exactly THIS KIND OF SCENARIO!
      we now get updates daily from the CEO about how they are “tirelessly working to solve the problem.”
      gosh golly, even thru the 4th of july, employees were heroically sacrificing their holiday in the great struggle to repair the system, and it will be online soon.

      still waiting.
      FORWARD COMRADES !

      * I tell my spouse the customers should charge the financial institution a daily fee for the inconvenience. like they so readily & eagerly will not hesitate to charge US for any transgression.
      (So Ohhhhh, I see, when the shoe is on the other foot it’s all about “We’re SO SORRY. SO VERY, VERY SORRY! “)

      yeah yeah, PAY UP, AZZHOLES !!!

      1. we now get updates daily from the CEO about how they are “tirelessly working to solve the problem.

        For a financial institution to not be able to get running again within 24 hours is unforgivable. But backups and recovery plans are often given lip service, as having good ones cost $$$

      2. We had an ISP, that I ditched a year earlier, down due to a hardware failure. They recovered from backups, and my credit card started getting charged again. WTF? Called them, and they explained having to use old backup tapes, so I guess they didn’t have a durable current backup procedure in place. Oops.

  15. “I didn’t receive anything. There was no money left, according to what they told me, so I was not funded.’”

    I wonder if they stamped that on Joe’s forehead?

    NOT FUNDED

    Next!

    1. Getting taxpayers to subsidize insurance premiums is a formula for disaster. It works, until you run out of other people’s money to spend.

      1. IIRC, we’re starting to see a new insurance product, where your coverage amount only covers the mortgage. So if your house is destroyed in a hurricane, the insurance company doesn’t pay to replace your house, it only pays off your mortgage.

        TBH, I’m very much in favor of this idea. 😃 You pay a lower premium, but you still have a little protection. Sure, you might lose the house, but you won’t be in debt for nothing. You could take out a new mortgage to demolish and rebuild. Or you could sell the underlying land, take the cash, and start over elsewhere. The premium could dwindle with the mortgage balance, to where it becomes $0 when you pay it off — great for seniors. Lots of options here.

      2. Getting taxpayers to subsidize insurance premiums is a formula for disaster.
        Why do so many people in these stories seem to think other peoples money should bail them out for their bad decisions.
        it’s not a good thing when a lot of people seem to think Socialism is the answer.

        1. people seem to think Socialism is the answer.

          They are told this incessantly by the rich (and wannabees) people who intend to rule them.

          1. and wannabees) people who intend to rule them.
            Good point. Everyone thinks they will be the boss and tell what people need to do.
            This is Especially true of the “highly educated” people I know.

  17. Four More Days! Four More Days!

    What’s that? Why didn’t I get that memo?

    “Stephanopoulos later walked his comment back, telling TMZ: “Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have.” ABC News distanced itself from his comment.”

    Stephanopoulos on Biden: ‘I Don’t Think He Can Serve Another 4 Years’

    JOEL B. POLLAK
    9 Jul 2024

    ABC News anchor George Steohamolpoulos said Tuesday that he did not believe that President Joe Biden had the stamina to survive another four years in the Oval Office.

    The ‘GMA’ anchor was out and about Tuesday afternoon on 5th Avenue, wearing workout clothes, when the pedestrian approached him and asked, “Do you think Biden should step down? You’ve talked to him more than anybody else has lately.” George’s response — “I DON’T THINK HE CAN SERVE 4 MORE YEARS.”…

    George’s comment is telling, given he had an exclusive sit-down with the Prez just 4 days ago. George pressed Biden on his mental acuity and his dismal debate performance. Outside the White House bubble, George has spent more one-on-one time with the President than just about anyone.

    Stephanopoulos later walked his comment back, telling TMZ: “Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have.” ABC News distanced itself from his comment.

    https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/07/09/stephanopoulos-on-biden-i-dont-think-he-can-serve-another-4-years/

    1. I don’t buy that he told that to a complete stranger. He’s savvy enough to know that the only correct answer is ignore the question. I think that it was deliberate, maybe even set up.

    2. This has evolved into ‘we’re going to lose the house, senate and white house.’ It’s just democracy at work, what are you a feared of?

      I was thinking yesterday this may be the blow that the globalist scum can’t get past. These media types and politicians thought they could gas light us indefinitely. These are the same people who demanded they and they alone could discern truth from lies. And they couldn’t see this coming?

      via GIPHY

      1. I was thinking yesterday this may be the blow that the globalist scum can’t get past.

        I have been hoping for that in the European elections, but so far it has been “Communism will prevail”

        1. They have a screwed up system over there. In France, the party that got the most votes came in third. Now they get to deal with a bunch of lunatics that are headed for a collision with the EU. In the UK Reform got enough votes to win 90 MP seats in a proportional system. They got 5. The good news is they came in second in enough places to get over that ‘past the post’ system next time, as I understand it.

          1. It seems that it’s always “next time the real conservatives will gain control.”

            France is a dumpster fire, and yet LePen and her minions could not win.

          2. France is a dumpster fire, and yet LePen and her minions could not win.

            Socially, Le Pen is unpopular. The economic message gains some traction.

            Similar to Larry Elder when he tried to win the governorship in California. He threw an election because he stuck to views that are unpopular by a wide margin.

            Do you want to win or be ideologically pure? That is an important life lesson, and we all make decisions for one or the other throughout our lives and careers.

          3. She’s a socialist. What more can she do to be popular, other than welcoming invaders?

      2. I’m also thinking that the globalists might not be able to muster the same ballot games that they did last time. The TDS and gaslighting just doesn’t have the same traction it did last time — not with the media in disarray, and not with Elon in charge of Twitter/X. Last time, they could bank on the element of surprise, but now they’re being watched like a hawk. Not sure Zuck wants to risk another $400m either, certainly not with Biden and probably not with any of the weak bench. Even if they try the same strategy at the top, they can’t cover every district where there is a weak Dem downticket.

        Michelle is their only hope, and nobody has officially floated that… yet.

    2. …some places have not received enough money to buy the units. San Jose was given $13.3 million; however, it needed $22.7 million to buy enough homes for 200 people.

      So they built nothing?

    3. —–
      California’s homeless population has been given $750 per month as part of universal basic income for one year. This was given to 100 people in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles County areas…They spent this money on food, accommodation, transport, clothes and other unidentified expenses. This is in comparison to the people who thought they would spend the money on drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
      —–

      That’s because you cherry-picked those 100 people, and you know it. Try this with everyone and you’ll be spending another $750 on Narcan, on the first of the month.

      —–
      What makes the delays in building the tiny homes even more confusing is that they only take 90 minutes, which is a fraction of the time it takes to build other buildings.
      —–

      Other buildings have plumbing. Next.

      —–
      This is so state and local governments can quickly move the homeless out of encampments and into tiny homes. Federal courts made this a legal requirement, stating that cities can only clear homeless encampments if they have some form of shelter for them to go to.
      —–

      Didn’t the Supreme Court overturn this?

      —–
      350 will be built in Sacramento, 500 in Los Angeles, 200 in San Jose and 150 in San Diego County.
      —–

      You could put double that number of people into a single low-occupancy office building — TODAY. And you could probably use the existing office cubicles and locked file cabinets. If the building meets code enough to house six-figure-salary workers for 8 hours/day, then it meets code enough for the homeless. Just add a shower house and you’re done.

      This is SO bloody tiring.

      1. they only take 90 minutes

        Don’t take that to literally mean one person with a screw gun takes 90 minutes. That would make it worth $75 plus some 2x4s. They say the things cost over $100K!

    4. “Between $2 and $3 billion are spent every year under the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) to help California’s residents with mental health issues. However, Newsom wants to spend 60% of these funds on the homeless, with professionals worried this could affect existing services.”

      Nobody in their right mind wants this perpetual burden. We need a euthanasia program similar to Soylent Green, a place where you could take a warm bath, enjoy an all you can eat buffet, drink something desirable laced with fentanyl and watch a surround sound movie of your choice.

    5. “Between $2 and $3 billion are spent every year under the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) to help California’s residents with mental health issues. However, Newsom wants to spend 60% of these funds on the homeless, with professionals worried this could affect existing services.”

      Nobody in their right mind wants this perpetual burden. We need a euthanasia program similar to Soylent Green, a place where you could take a warm bath, enjoy an all you can eat buffet, drink something desirable laced with fentanyl and watch a surround sound movie of your choice.

  19. “Even in Chernobyl you tend to run into other tour groups, or see the furniture rearranged by the countless photographers who’ve visited before you,’ Mr Richter said . .”

    “We’re walking, walking . . . never mind the clumps of hair . . walking, walking, this way, people . . walking, walking”

      1. Work permits are the LEAST important thing they’re getting, but they’ll ALL be getting ballots before November.

    2. Illegals Getting SSNs Within Four Months of Crossing Border

      Well the system is bankrupt. How else to fund it in the medium-term?

      I’m perfectly happy telling everyone under 67.5 they get zero, zilch, nada.

      Sorry, we spent it on our little Afghanistan-Pakistan war, and tossed in Iraq and Syria because why not.

  21. New fear unlocked:

    —–
    A man was stabbed and killed inside his apartment in April and the suspects cut off his thumb in order to steal money off his cellphone, according to D.C. court documents…

    …Tiffany Taylor Gray, 22, and Audrey Denise Miller, 19, are both being charged with first-degree murder while armed, according to D.C. police.

    Court documents allege that witnesses told investigators Teklemariam was Gray’s “sugar daddy,” and that the 22-year-old was involved in prostitution.
    —–

    https://wtop.com/crime/2024/07/mans-thumb-cut-off-by-suspects-who-used-it-to-steal-money-off-his-phone-court-docs-say/

  23. ‘Overall, what we’re seeing is that buyers have the power, and I’m actually seeing that everywhere…What I’m hearing everywhere is, there’s just a lack of urgency from buyers right now. And urgency, and that feeding frenzy, is what drives prices up’

    All time high Ryan. Larry said so.

  24. ‘Still multiple offers, but things above that are slowing down a little bit‘

    Playing it safe, still a sellers market, smart move Cindy. Above what?

    ‘You have some sellers that they’re getting nervous because it’s taking longer. They thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just put my house on the market at whatever price, and I’ll get multiple offers.’ No, you won’t. Not now’

    I like the cut of yer jib Cindy. Establish trust with the would be movers, then try and talk them down outta that tree.

  25. ‘William has shown a history of entering into contracts he knows to be fraudulent and accepting money from victims in the past with no intention, ability or effort made to complete the contracts’

    Like the bank fraudsters yesterday, this guy knew he was going to get caught all along.

  26. ‘A Durham man will serve seven years in prison for fraudulently obtaining nearly $3 million in mortgage and COVID-19 funds…used ‘washed’ credit reports and fabricated bank statements between 2019 and 2021 to obtain four mortgages totaling $1.37 million for the purchase of properties in Rocky Mount, Nags Head, and Miami, FL. Mullen and Russell also submitted fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications between March 2020 and July 2021 on behalf of entities they owned or partly owned. Federal officials said Mullen and Russell obtained over $1.6 million from these frauds, which was used to purchase six properties and pay for Mullen’s plastic surgery’

    So they committed one big fraud and canon balled the money into another shack fraud. Bravo Reynold, you are a winnah!

    1. Mullen and Russell obtained over $1.6 million from these frauds, which was used to purchase six properties and pay for Mullen’s plastic surgery’

      Will they repo the surgery? Oh my!

  27. ‘The Bank of Canada ‘s slight cut to interest rates last month enticed some buyers off the sidelines, but not enough to absorb the new inventory that’s been building for months…‘Growth in new listings continued to outpace sales in Canada’s more expensive markets, and inventories are continuing to grow — even in the busy Calgary market,’ she said. ‘The influx of supply has shifted more of the bargaining power to buyers, who in some markets are still extracting price concessions from sellers’

    Tiff broke it off in yer a$$ Rachel.

    ‘No where is the rush to sell more apparent than in the country’s biggest city. Almost 18,000 new units went up for sale in Toronto in June, an 9.3 per cent rise from the month before and the third monthly increase in a row. Active listings are now up 68 per cent from a year ago, with condo listings up 84 per cent. Listings for single-detached homes are up 56 per cent. ‘A slight uptick in sales activity (4.2 per cent) from May helped absorb some of the new inventory on the market, but not enough to keep active listings from reaching a 14-year high of 23,600 in June’

    Let’s be clear, almost all the experts still say it’s still a sellers market in Toronto.

  28. ‘As we said in the title – a blue-and-white combination of a madhouse and Las Vegas. Bet today and pay tomorrow. The question is whether there will be a way to pay. Hey guys, we’re going to a casino’

    Local customs and business practices may change from sh$thole to sh$thole, but we can be assured that it’s all sound lending!

  29. ‘We’ve seen over 50 companies across Aotearoa every week, going to the wall, facing either receivership or liquidation and often they’re securing their own home that they’ve put up as collateral for their business debt…Homeowners and property investors are not immune to this too’…Hindsight was a wonderful thing, Whitburn said, suggesting that the financial settings perhaps were not set quite right during Covid-19. ‘People are struggling to keep their heads above water’

    Yer forgetting the plain truth Dave. Flooding the globe with money was the only way to combat minor respiratory illness. Foreclosures be damned.

  30. ‘The number of homes for sale classified as distressed listings was 16.3 per cent higher in NSW in June than a year earlier, while the number in Victoria rose 15.6 per cent, figures from SQM Research found. Distressed listings are homes for sale marked with phrases such as ‘urgent sale’ or “must sell’ or ‘price reduced.’ ‘They may well be listing because of increased uncertainty – uncertainty around what interest rates are likely to do, uncertainty around what the economy will do…[Owners think] ‘If we don’t list now, prices may fall in six months’ time, this might be the best price we can achieve’

    This cartoonish cheerleaders big a$$ is on the bus so the game must be over!

  31. ‘Two million people were projected to call Ordos home when complete. All of the scaffolding has long since come down and the city is open, but those millions of people never arrived. Estimates are that up to 30,000 people are scattered across the landscape, giving Ordos an eerie feeling…the city has a ‘post-apocalyptic’ feel that doesn’t compare to anywhere else he’s been. ‘Even in Chernobyl you tend to run into other tour groups, or see the furniture rearranged by the countless photographers who’ve visited before you…’Kangbashi district was utterly untouched though, and walking through the silent streets was an unnerving experience’

    Ordos was the first obvious clusterfook ghost city, way back. And it’s still just sitting there.

    Dan:

    via GIPHY

  32. More Units Absolutely No One Wants (GTA Condo Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    15 minutes ago TORONTO

    In this episode we take a look at the current GTA Condo Markets – Toronto, York Region & Peel Region for week ending July 3, 2024. We also discuss the growing problem with high levels of inventory for units that are currently undesirable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyIliViO8F4

    12:52.

  33. Washington Post — NATO leaders move to ‘Trump-proof’ the alliance in Washington (7/10/2024):

    “Former president Donald Trump doesn’t have a seat at the table as NATO leaders gather this week in Washington, but he might as well, as officials strategize about how to adapt the alliance for the possibility that its most senior leader may soon again be a skeptic.

    Alliance policymakers have moved control of major elements of military aid to Ukraine away from U.S. command to the NATO umbrella. They appointed a new NATO secretary general who has a reputation as being especially agile with Trump’s unpredictable impulses toward the alliance. They are signing decade-long defense pledges with Ukraine to try to buffer military aid to Kyiv from the ups and downs of politics. And they are pushing up their defense spending, Trump’s single biggest anger point when it comes to NATO.

    Inside Washington’s convention center, where the summit is being held, Trump isn’t often being raised explicitly, but he is casting a dark shadow. European leaders quietly wonder whether this is their final encounter with a U.S. leader who hews to a transatlantic agenda — a bipartisan constant of U.S. foreign policy from World War II until Trump’s first arrival in the White House.

    “If we elect him a second time, then I think that’s, from the Europeans’ perspective, extraordinarily telling about our direction of travel in the United States,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the transatlantic security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank and a former senior intelligence officer focused on Russia. “And so it is Trump-proofing for the most immediate four years, but there is a growing worry that the United States will be less committed to Europe over the longer term.”

    https://archive.ph/jeLWl

    1. it is Trump-proofing for the most immediate four years

      If you’re going to pay for your wars yourself, feel free to proof them from the US.

  37. Breaking: House Passes SAVE Act That Bans Noncitizen Voting in Federal Elections

    by Jamie White
    July 10th 2024, 5:05 pm

    The House passed the Republican-led Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act by a 221-198 vote, which requires voters to prove their citizenship in order to vote in federal elections.

    Only 5 House Democrats sided with the Republicans in voting for the bill.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a statement excoriated the Democrats for voting against the bill, claiming they have “now proven they believe that illegal aliens should vote in American elections.”

    “Today, 198 House Democrats voted against preventing illegal aliens from voting in American elections. Over the past four years, Joe Biden has welcomed millions upon millions of illegals into the country knowing that noncitizens only have to check a box to vote in a federal election,” Johnson wrote.

    1. Forbes Digital Assets
      An ‘Imminent’ Stock Market ‘Correction’ Warning Suddenly Flashed Red—Just As The S&P 500, Nasdaq And Dow Hit Record Highs
      Billy Bambrough
      Senior Contributor
      I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.
      Jul 10, 2024,05:45pm EDT
      Updated Jul 10, 2024, 05:52pm EDT

      Stock markets are surging after Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell fanned the flames of September interest rate cut hopes—just after issuing a “critical” warning.

      The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have notched fresh all-time highs, following in the footsteps of the Dow, which hit a peak in May, despite fresh debt spiral fears unsettling traders.

      Now, as uncertainty hangs over the White House, one analyst has pointed to a surprise stock market warning like that’s just begun flashing red.

      The recent bitcoin and crypto crash, that’s seen $500 billion wiped from the combined market in just over a month, could be about to trigger “an imminent S&P 500 summer correction,” Barry Bannister, managing director and chief equity strategist at Stifel, told MarketWatch.

      Bannister pointed to the correlation of bitcoin to stock markets and specifically the tech-heavy Nasdaq in recent years.

      “It’s the availability of cheap, Fed liquidity that drives drives the price of bitcoin,” Bannister said. “Every single dovish pivot for the past 13 years has marked a sharp bitcoin increase, and bitcoin is a non-interest bearing asset that thrives on lower interest rates and available liquidity”—much like stock markets.
      …
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/07/10/a-huge-stock-market-warning-suddenly-flashed-red-just-as-the-sp-500-dow-and-nasdaq-hit-record-highs/

    2. Market Extra
      Stocks are extremely overvalued according to an indicator favored by Warren Buffett
      Published: July 9, 2024 at 4:48 p.m. ET
      By Joseph Adinolfi
      An indicator once touted by Warren Buffett says stocks are extremely expensive right now.
      Associated Press

      The Buffett Indicator is flashing a warning for investors.

      Its message is clear, according to one hedge-fund founder: U.S. stocks are looking extremely rich, so tread carefully.

      For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, the Buffett Indicator compares the value of the U.S. stock market to the size of the economy by dividing total market capitalization by gross domestic product. Back in 2001, Buffett reportedly told Fortune Magazine that this was “probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment.”

      At the beginning of July, the ratio rose above 2, reaching levels it hasn’t seen since early 2022. That previous episode presaged the worst calendar-year drop for the S&P 500 since 2008, according to FactSet data.

      “Nearly two years ago, the ratio rose to an unprecedented level. That should have been a very strong warning signal,” said Doug Kass, founder and president of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management.
      …
      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocks-are-extremely-overvalued-according-to-an-indicator-favored-by-warren-buffett-e5fb9c9d

Comments are closed.