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Because Of Way Too Many Listings For Buyers Out There, They Can Make Lower Offers

A report from the Floridian Press. “Governor Ron DeSantis has called for the Florida Legislature to modify the Condo Safety Law he signed after the Surfside tragedy of 2021 to ease the financial burden on condo owners. Since the Law was signed, horror stories of Florida residents, including seniors, facing six-figure special assessments have emerged. Aventura condo owner Judith Weinberg said she currently is paying three special assessments and may be facing a fourth. ‘They are hard. They are challenging,’ said Weinberg. ‘Many of us are semi-retired. It is challenging and I will leave it at that.’ Weinberg feels confident the law can be modified to ease the burden on her and others in her situation. ‘I think if we stick together maybe we can do something to address the issue and make it more reasonable,’ said Weinberg.”

The Aspen Times in Colorado. “Most sellers are beginning to see the writing on the wall but are stubbornly ignoring the obvious, hoping the party that started in June of 2020 isn’t quite over. They’re wishing there’s time for one more drink or another lap around the dance floor before the lights come up and the bouncer shows them the door. But at this point, there’s clear evidence of a significant shift. When sellers aren’t sure what to ask for and buyers don’t want to get caught at the top of the market, we see stagnation.”

“At the end of the day, it’s guys like me to inform clients of this new dynamic and to work to bridge the gap to close deals. The only way to do that is by encouraging seller price reductions and convincing buyers that offers less than asking price are not a waste of time. The deals are there for those willing to acknowledge the new state of play and come to the middle rather than digging in or not making the attempt. Not doing so is the same as believing in fairies, elves, and bunnies who lay eggs.”

The Durango Herald in Colorodo. “Durango Area Association of Realtors’ quarterly real estate statistics show that La Plata County residential real estate was down 29 units, or 8.1%, from the second quarter of last year. According to DAAR’s data, the median cost of Durango Mountain homes – those around Purgatory Resort – dropped from just over $2.1 million to around $1.5 million since second quarter 2023. But John Wells, owner of The Wells Group, noted Durango Mountain home and Durango Mountain condominium numbers are a bit skewed based on the number of units sold. ‘It’s way off because it such a small number of units,’ he said. Durango condos and townhomes saw an 18.1% decrease in median price during second quarter 2024, which again is reflected by the price of the condos sold not the value of condos in general, he said.”

Beat of Hawaii. “This week’s unanimous vote by the Maui County Planning Commission to endorse banning 7,000 purpose-built short-term vacation rentals had intense debate, beyond what we expected. It also brought to the surface issues of racism, xenophobia, and hatred. Some community members argue that the push to eliminate these short-term rentals is driven by anti-tourist sentiment that also unfairly targets non-resident owners, many of whom are from the mainland or international backgrounds. One commenter noted, ‘This move will not create any more long term rentals… It simply means the current owners will need to cheat or find a loop-hole.’ Another said, ‘Locals want something for nothing, and the visitors who would love to be appreciated are treated like trespassers.'”

The Independent. “A Nevada business owner says he is concerned about squatters causing damage to a Las Vegas-area high-rise building where construction halted last year. Jeremy Day, owner of neighboring business Freak’s Tattoo Emporium, is working to keep The Watermark, a mixed-use apartment building in Downtown Henderson, clean. He’s complained about how alleged squatters have pried the fence posts open in front of the building. Day has struggled to locate the property’s owner. The man is not financially attached to the building but is worried that the squatters may cause fires that’ll reach his business.”

“‘I’m worried as time goes on, it gets out cold, they’re going to light fires or something,’ he said. ‘I’ve had multiple confrontations where I’ve actually told them, they need to leave the property. They’re in the parking garage, as far as I know, but they’re in there all the time.’ Construction on the building stalled in December when contractors walked off the job. There are around $16m in liens against the property.”

KMPH in California. “Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer is now introducing a new city ordinance, banning homeless encampments on private and public properties. ‘During the past few years, the City has provided additional homeless resources and services such as restrooms, showers, medical and dental services,’ said Councilmember Miguel Arias. ‘Yet we have individuals who refuse help, who destroy neighborhoods, and engage in criminal activities near our sensitive uses. Our residents and businesses are fed up. It is time we hold those who refuse help to be held accountable.'”

CBS Bay Area in California. “Burglars kicked down doors and ransacked 16 small businesses in East Oakland’s troubled Hegenberger corridor. All the affected businesses are located inside an office building at 8055 Collins Drive, which is situated right behind the Denny’s Restaurant that shut down earlier this year citing crime. The building co-owner and community activist Ken Houston said the thieves cut through two layers of fencing to get into the property around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Surveillance footage showed multiple thieves kicking down doors once inside. he businesses range from construction to a barber shop. ‘They kicked this one open, and this tenant just moved in here. You can see her boxes, she’s just moving in. So you think she’s going to want to stay here with this happening to her? I don’t think so,’ said Houston.”

The Boston Herald. “A Massachusetts housing attorney says residents’ fears over migrants being housed in a proposed family homeless shelter in a Cape Cod town, triggering a request for opposition from a regional board, are unfounded. The Cape Cod Commission has found the project, which looks to convert a former nursing home into a ‘family transitional shelter’ in Dennis would have no regional impact, denying a discretionary referral from the towns of Dennis and Harwich. Dennis Planning Board Chairman Paul McCormick Jr., during a May 20 hearing, called putting in a condition that the use of the shelter be for only U.S. citizens a ‘fair suggestion.'”

“The proposed family homeless facility on Cape Cod would be funded through the state’s emergency housing assistance program, which runs shelters that have been used to house migrants. Homeless families and individuals would receive lessons at the facility on ‘life skills,’ to get them permanent housing in the future, project leaders had said. ‘We need to have shelter for our homeless people as housing becomes more and more difficult,’ said Peter Okun, a commission board member from Provincetown. ‘We need to get people off the street, we need to teach them how to fend for themselves.'”

CBC New in Canada. “According to Landlord and Tenant Board data, applications for own-use evictions — which can be used when the landlord or a family member needs to move into the unit — are up 85 per cent in Ontario since 2020, rising from 3,445 that year to 6,376 in 2023. Board data also show that T5 applications — when a tenant wants to dispute the own-use claim — quadrupled from 2020 to 2023. Some small landlords and landlord advocates say that the issue is an increase in landlords actually needing their properties back, often because of higher interest rates. ‘If you have to pay $800 a month for your rental property, and then your mortgage needs to be renewed for your principal residence and you have to pay another $600 or $800 for that, you can’t afford it,’ said Rose Marie, vice-chair of Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario (SOLO), a landlord advocacy group. ‘You can’t just pass that monthly increase over to the tenant. So then who’s paying it?'”

“At a recent SOLO protest at Queen’s Park in Toronto, several landlords protested the delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board in dealing with tenants fighting their N12 eviction notices. ‘I am a single mom, I cannot afford this, I have to move back into my house and I cannot,’ landlord Jessica Huang said through tears. Her issue, she said, is as Marie laid it out: once mortgage rates went up, she could no longer afford the rental property. Now, she needs to move in instead and can’t.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “4483 Cove Cliff Rd., North Vancouver, B.C. Asking price: $1,798,800 (Feb. 11). Selling price: $2,150,000 (Feb. 27). The 102-year-old cottage had undergone updates and has a lot of exposed wood and craftsmanship on the interior. There’s also a detached suite, office studio as well as RV parking on the property. Listing agent Patricia Houlihan got a few offers on the house and the sellers accepted the highest one. ‘The market was going crazy,’ she says of the first quarter, when there was little inventory and a lot of demand. Although the first part of the year was a frenzy, it quickly cooled by spring. Now, it’s a buyers’ market, says Ms. Houlihan.”

“‘You are way better off to buy right now because if rates come down everybody will bid prices up again,’ she says. ‘There is opportunity to buy without competing; a lot of choice because of way too many listings for buyers out there; and they can control what’s going on, they can make lower offers. There are tons of subject-to-sales now.'”

Business Live in the UK. “Insolvency specialists handling the affairs of a failed Newcastle student accommodation landlord say the firm’s lender is unlikely to recover £11.7m owed to it, in full. The administration of three companies within the Bricks Capital Group, which were behind the city’s Glassworks block, has been extended for another year as staff at Interpath continue to investigate assets and debt. Newcastle Glassworks Limited, Newcastle Glassworks Management Limited and Bricks K5 Capital Ltd – which developed and managed the 270-bed Glassworks property in Ouseburn – all entered administration in July 2022 following unpaid debt owed to a Hong Kong lender CIMC Financial Leasing, which also owns a company that provided the prefabricated shipping containers used in its construction.”

“The underperformance of the Glassworks block had been blamed on an oversupply of student accommodation in Newcastle, with Interpath having issued a report in 2022 which said: ‘Developers and investors capitalised on the large number of students and the reputation of the city resulting in a significant and rapid increase in supply. Some reports suggest that, by 2017, Newcastle had the highest rate of student housing in the entire country, with one in every 15 homes being a student property, some 10 times higher than the national average for local authorities in the UK. Given the high level of supply, the group experienced significant downwards pressure on rents to attract tenants, particularly given the property’s peripheral location and relative lack of amenities.'”

ABC News in Australia. “For almost a decade, pensioners Trish Reece and her husband Wayne have been living in a gated village in Shepparton in regional Victoria, run by the controversial land lease operator Lifestyle Communities. Now they want to get out. ‘We don’t want to live here anymore,’ she says. But she says they are stuck, financially, due to the so-called exit fees charged by the company when a resident sells their home. For a house that sells for $500,000, Lifestyle can take up to $100,000 in exit fees after five years. ‘We’re just vegetables waiting to pop off the perch so they can collect their exit fee,’ Trish says.”

“The stories generated a flood of messages to the ABC from residents not just in Lifestyle villages but other land lease communities across Australia. Trish Reece is one of them. When they eventually sold their home in the community and moved into Gwenda’s, the company made it clear they would have to pay two exit fees, which disappointed them, but Trish says she was unwell at the time and didn’t fight it. All up, Lifestyle deducted $104,831 in exit fees, rent and selling fees, leaving them with $180,168. When they sell the place they are currently in they will face a third exit fee. ‘They were underhanded, greedy,’ she says. ‘We would have been better off financially if we stayed in the original home because we wouldn’t be up for three sets of exit fees,’ she says. ‘It’s so much of a chunk of our retirement savings gone … we’ll have to be carried out of here in a box. We can’t leave.'”

“Another person told the ABC that Lifestyle had charged a relative a 0.5 per cent handling fee and 2.5 per cent selling agent commission totalling $18,000 despite the relative finding the buyer and introducing the buyer to the Lifestyle agent. ‘It was a friend of a friend who wanted to get into that particular site,’ he said. He said the exit fee cost tens of thousands of dollars to ‘get out of their clutches.’ ‘She has the psychological scar of feeling like a complete idiot for ever going there in the first place,’ he said.”

South China Morning Post. “For Raymond Tsoi, Hong Kong’s current property slump feels like deja vu. The veteran investor and chairman of Asia Property Holdings, best known for his part in the HK$40.2 billion (US$5.2 billion) takeover of the world’s most expensive office tower, lost HK$4 million in 1998 when he sold sell two flats at half their purchase price because of collapsing asset prices during the Asian Financial Crisis. Tsoi had paid about HK$11,000 per square foot for two apartments at Laguna Verde in Hung Hom, only for the developers CK Asset Holdings and CLP Holdings to slash prices by a third to HK$7,000 per sq ft within a year.”

“That was just the start. CK Asset, known as Cheung Kong Property Holdings until it was renamed, would later send a jolt through the market when it priced the Tierra Verde project in Tsing Yi at HK$4,147 per sq ft, below the market average. While that tactic helped the developer sell all 1,400 flats on the first day, it became the opening salvo of a price war that would crimp 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s median home price, a crash so severe that recovery took six years. Tsoi said he sees history repeating in the topsy turvy market. Major developers like CK Asset had lavished discounts since the start of the year, driving prices down by about 25 per cent from their September 2021 peak. ‘What we are seeing now is similar’ to the collapse in the late 1990s, Tsoi said in an interview with the Post. ‘The slowdown in transactions had started since 2019, and developers had joined the price war in the first half of this year to offload their inventory.'”

“The discount war is taking place amid a housing glut in the city. Developers launched 9,419 new homes in the first half, equal to 87.6 per cent of the total flats sold in the whole of last year, according to data compiled by CBRE. Most of this year’s new launches took place in the four months after Hong Kong’s government scrapping a decade-old stamp duty in February. The spurt was short-lived though, as newly built homes that were delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic subsequently came to completion, or were launched anew. The housing supply pipeline may expand to 109,000 homes over the next three to four years, according to the forecast by the government’s Housing Bureau.”

“Developers rushed to launch, and then outdid each other with discounts to attract buyers. CK Asset, ever the trend setter in Hong Kong’s property market, in late March launched the first 138 flats at its Blue Coast project in Wong Chuk Hang at a 20 per cent discount to its development cost. That first batch sold out, with 65 bidders vying for every available unit. That record turnout emboldened other developers to replicate the discounts. All told, the average prices of new launches across the city this year had been about 15 per cent cheaper than previous sales in the same neighbourhood, according to analysts.”

“‘We are still facing an abundant supply of new flats in the short term,’ said Norry Lee, JLL’s senior director of project strategy in Hong Kong. About 40,000 new homes are available this year, comprising 23,000 existing units in the market, and another 20,000 units which will be ready to launch, Lee said. ‘Prices will only stabilise when the [inventory] drops to around 20,000 units,’ as that means developers have offloaded to a sufficiently comfortable cash position to resume raising prices, Lee said. Some Hong Kong developers are even resorting to stealth discounts, offering cash rebates of up to 50 per cent.”

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This Post Has 96 Comments

  1. The only way to do that is by encouraging seller price reductions and convincing buyers that offers less than asking price are not a waste of time.

    And just like that, the UHSs pivot effortlessly from “buy now or be priced out forever” to “get to sawin’ and slashin’ if you want to sell before the bottom drops out.”

    1. ** “At the end of the day, it’s guys like me to inform clients of this new dynamic and to work to bridge the gap to close deals. The only way to do that is by encouraging seller price reductions and convincing buyers that offers less than asking price are not a waste of time. The deals are there for those willing to acknowledge the new state of play and come to the middle rather than digging in or not making the attempt. Not doing so is the same as believing in fairies, elves, and bunnies who lay eggs.”

      OOHHH so NOW it’s the come-to-Jesus-moment !?!?
      Yes, I’ve noticed the same about-faced attitude from the house sales force. Gee, whatever happened to all the screeching of “That’s an INSULTING lowball offer?! ”
      “Yer INSULTING the seller!!”
      “INSULTING, INSULTING . . . ”
      ad nauseum, yadda yadda like my mean mother-in-law !!!

      “Every salesperson has plan . . . until the payment is due.”

      props to Mike T.

  2. But John Wells, owner of The Wells Group, noted Durango Mountain home and Durango Mountain condominium numbers are a bit skewed based on the number of units sold. ‘It’s way off because it such a small number of units,’ he said.

    Lie all you want, John, but the data tells its own story, and the cratering only accelerates from here as the FBs & AirBnB speculator scum see the writing on the wall & stampede for the exits before the bottom drops out.

  3. ‘she currently is paying three special assessments and may be facing a fourth. ‘They are hard. They are challenging,’ said Weinberg. ‘Many of us are semi-retired. It is challenging and I will leave it at that.’ Weinberg feels confident the law can be modified to ease the burden on her and others in her situation. ‘I think if we stick together maybe we can do something to address the issue and make it more reasonable’

    Bargaining <- Judith you are here.

    1. ‘I think if we stick together maybe we can do something to address the issue and make it more reasonable’

      The issue is structural defects, Judy. Try as you might, you can’t wish this away.

      1. But are they really structural defects? I’d be interested in seeing some of these “inspection” reports that identify hundreds of thousands worth of repairs. I think maybe someone’s got an incentive to find a lot of necessary repairs?

        1. I think maybe someone’s got an incentive to find a lot of necessary repairs?

          Like roofers who offer “free inspections” after a hailstorm?

          roofer: “Bad news, sir. Your roof is wrecked and needs to be replaced. I can do it for $14,000”

          insurance adjuster: “The roof is fine. Not surprising, since it was replaced just a few years ago.

      2. “The issue is structural defects, Judy.”

        +1 Corrosion occurs due to exposure to the environment and influences the loss of steel’s dimensional characteristics and its mechanical properties.

    3. My guess is, they’ll push the deadline date out another year or two. Extend and pretend….it’s what American is all about now! Well has been for 15-20 years. Load up trillions of debt and hand it off to the kids. What a system.

    4. nonsense. years and years of everyone (including the people in question) voting against every dues raise cuz “someone else can pay for it later”.

      well now you’re gonna have to pay all at once. Would have better to eat a little bit of that sandwich year over year and then everyone owning and depreciating those units that year would have paid, but no, now you’re gonna have to eat that sandwich all at once. And everyone who sold out early screwed everyone else.

      Not that they will ever learn, “let someone else pay”

    5. “DeSantis said the media pushed for the reforms. “First of all it was this massive tragedy,” said DeSantis. “Within 24 hours the media was like, ‘you need to do this law’ and I’m like ‘We don’t even know what happened yet! Just give us some time.”

      Ron is backpedaling, hehe.

  4. ‘all entered administration in July 2022 following unpaid debt owed to a Hong Kong lender CIMC Financial Leasing, which also owns a company that provided the prefabricated shipping containers used in its construction’

    There’s a photo and yes they are ugly.

    2. Yeah, what is with these flat vinyl windows now that have no protruding sills or framing? I see them everywhere now and they look very cheap and cheesy.

  5. From the Boston article:

    A vast majority of Harwich residents had “no knowledge” of the proposal, with the only way of knowing about it is by listening to a local radio station or being a member of the Cape Cod Concerned Citizens activist group, resident Martha Taylor told the Herald in May.

    Harwich Town Administrator Joe Powers echoed that to the Cape Cod Commission.

    “We are looking for an opportunity to be spoken with and heard from,” he said. “I am mystified as to how anyone can come to any conclusions on the impact to the town of Harwich without formally and officially speaking to the town of Harwich.”

    1. “A Massachusetts housing attorney says residents’ fears over migrants being housed in a proposed family homeless shelter in a Cape Cod town, triggering a request for opposition from a regional board, are unfounded.”

      But muh Sanctuary city.

      Try voting harder.

  6. ‘If you have to pay $800 a month for your rental property, and then your mortgage needs to be renewed for your principal residence and you have to pay another $600 or $800 for that, you can’t afford it,’ said Rose Marie, vice-chair of Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario (SOLO), a landlord advocacy group.

    Oh dear. Methinks we could see a mass die-off in the arse of wanna-be real estate mogul dreams of gouging tenants to build effortless wealth.

    1. Leveraged investors with variable rate debt will eventually buckle leaving taxpayers to make the banks whole again.

  7. Her issue, she said, is as Marie laid it out: once mortgage rates went up, she could no longer afford the rental property. Now, she needs to move in instead and can’t.”

    Gosh, Marie, it seems that you went into the landlord business with a fundamentally flawed understanding of the risks involved.

  8. feels confident the law can be modified to ease the burden on her and others in her situation. ‘I think if we stick together maybe we can do something to address the issue and make it more reasonable,’

    Seems to me that They/she have/has been kicking the “can” down the road for the past 30 years and are asking that the can be kicked down the road a few more years. If I were going to become homeless I’d probably suggest that too. Funny thing is, I know several people who own their single family homes that have done or are doing that right now. One person has a hole in the roof and he says he can’t afford a new roof but he is thinking about paying someone to fix the hole. Too old and disabled to do it now. 10 years ago he could have easily fixed it.

    1. There probably are a few ways to modify the law. Two big ones:

      1. Limit the required assessments to damage immediately threatening life; for example, structural damage that would pancake the building, or electrical that would cause a sudden fire. Leaky roofs and old plumbing and mold are bad, but they won’t kill somebody instantly.

      2. IIRC, one- and two-story buildings are already exempt. Expand the exemption to three stories, which will provide relief for a lot more buildings. Buildings taller than that are usually newer.

      Not great, but I think it would make a dent in these sob stories.

    2. exactly. I made the same point (but not as well) up above.

      Everyone wants someone else to be left paying the bill and this law now exposes how empty all these promises (HOA reserves) are.

    3. Seniors, especially widows, have been notoriously poor for decades. That’s why Grandma-finally-died houses need so much renovation. As long as the bones are good, houses can decay for a very long time before something physically breaks. At that point grandma goes into a nursing home and lets the next young person deal with it.

      TBH I’m kinda doing that in my home too. My house is structurally in great shape but it’s a relic from the 70s and 80s. Oh sure, I could drop $120K and make it into an HGTV showpiece. But I had a choice: fix it up or pay it off (eventually). I chose the pay-it-off route.

      1. Seniors, especially widows, have been notoriously poor for decades.

        More like notoriously lazy and cheap. I know some WWII era people who bought an old mansion in rural Virginia, but never lived in it or kept it up, though they easily could have afforded to do so. It eventually collapsed into a heap of rubble.

  9. “‘You are way better off to buy right now because if rates come down everybody will bid prices up again,’ she says.

    Are all realtors compulsive liars? How do these people sleep at night knowing they’re setting up their “clients” for financial ruin?

  10. Given the high level of supply, the group experienced significant downwards pressure on rents to attract tenants, particularly given the property’s peripheral location and relative lack of amenities.’”

    Die, speculator scum.

    1. “…given the property’s peripheral location and relative lack of amenities.”

      In a place like Los Angeles or San Diego a peripheral location could easily mean a 90-minute commute.

  11. When they eventually sold their home in the community and moved into Gwenda’s, the company made it clear they would have to pay two exit fees, which disappointed them, but Trish says she was unwell at the time and didn’t fight it.

    I see what you did there, Trish. Dodging accountability for basic stupidity and failure to do a proper due dilligence by claiming to be “unwell.” Let us know how making excuses works out for ya.

  12. ‘She has the psychological scar of feeling like a complete idiot for ever going there in the first place,’ he said.”

    If stupid didn’t hurt, fools would never learn.

  17. Paul Krugman muh best economy ever.

    CNBC — McDonald’s earnings, revenue miss estimates as consumer pullback worsens (7/29/2024):

    “The fast-food giant reported second-quarter net income of $2.02 billion, or $2.80 per share, down from $2.31 billion, or $3.15 per share, a year earlier. Excluding charges related to the future sale of its South Korean business and other items, McDonald’s earned $2.97 a share.

    Its quarterly revenue of $6.49 billion was about flat compared with the year-ago period.

    McDonald’s same-store sales shrank 1%, missing StreetAccount estimates for growth of 0.4%. It’s the first time companywide same-store sales have fallen since the fourth quarter of 2020.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/29/mcdonalds-mcd-q2-2024-earnings.html

    People won’t pay $15+ for a combo meal that cost $8 a few years ago? Unpossible.

    2. Much like self driving cars, it can do some cool tricks, but that’s about it so far.

        2. AI is woke garbage.

          It is extremely useful for data analysis and coding assistance.

          Garbage in, garbage out as they say.

    1. Makes one wonder if all those skyscrapers in Shanghai are also tofu construction. I recall that people ran out of a office tower somewhere in China as it began to shake, never heard any follow up on that.

      1. Makes one wonder if all those skyscrapers in Shanghai are also tofu construction.

        Probably not because Shanghai is not only wealthy, but it is also an entry point for foreigners into China, so things are generally very nice there. The population of that city is bigger than most USA states, so there are many many many buildings and you will find quality varies based on specs set by the developer.

        The linked video is from Jilin Province, a poor place that borders North Korea. There is little money in that area, future prospects are bleak, and construction reflects that reality.

    1. Small businesses depend on consumers having disposable income, but the government seems intent on them spending it all on shelter.

    2. That should be no problem once we’re done paying off the $96 Trillion in unfunded “entitlements”.

  23. A reader sent these in:

    From Nomad to Nomomoney

    Starting to see some of this oversupply in STR prices & discounts (particularly in places like MX). Too many people thought they were the next JW Marriott.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1817226835530228104

    1 in 5 US homes for sale had a price cut in June, the highest level out of any June on record.

    This is up from the 14.4% seen in 2023 and below the all-time high of 21.7% posted in October 2022.

    Sellers are slashing prices as homes sitting on the market are getting stale, according to Redfin.

    The average home that was sold last month spent 32 days on the market, marking the longest average duration of any June since 2020.

    Meanwhile, home builders now have 102,000 completed and unsold homes for sale on the market, the highest since 2009.

    Price cuts are coming.

    https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1816922393191022863

    US starter home prices have hit $1 million in 237 cities, the most on record.

    The number of such cities has TRIPLED in just 5 years, according to Zillow.

    The typical starter home is determined as the lowest third of residential values in a region and should be affordable for first-time buyers.

    98 cities with starter homes at $1 million or more are in California, followed by 31 cities in New York and 21 in New Jersey.

    US cities are incredibly expensive.

    https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1817194256257393108

    Donald Trump announces that he will create a US government #Bitcoin strategic reserve if elected president.

    This would be a stockpile of Bitcoin similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

    If this happens, it could be the biggest development in crypto history.

    https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1817303069811773540

    Trump:

    > “Bitcoin probably overtakes gold”
    > “I will fire Gary Gensler”
    > “Never sell your bitcoin”
    > “Bitcoiners saw inflation before anyone else”
    > “Danger to the dollar comes from Washington not Bitcoin”
    > “U.S. to create a strategic BTC stockpile”

    https://x.com/DylanLeClair_/status/1817307498849661152

    I remember when everyone was going to buy EVs. Not.

    Biggest ‘planet saving’ grift to date. Shame on these inept corporate leaders & politicians.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1817586438206292271

  24. Belgian company Umicore announced Friday that it was pumping the brakes on a planned $2.8-billion battery-materials manufacturing plant in Ontario.

    The company, which is also active in Europe and Asia, announced it had delayed spending on the plant’s construction in Loyalist, Ont., and commenced a review of its expansion plans in North America. It promised to make the results of that review public in the first quarter of next year.

    The move arrived amid falling revenues for the company. Last month, Umicore revealed that an expected contract with a Chinese manufacturer would not materialize, and that existing contracts were “tailing off faster than anticipated.”

    Umicore said Friday it had begun reassessing growth forecasts for its battery-materials business beyond this year.

    “For Umicore, customers’ demand projections for our battery materials have steeply declined recently,” company spokesperson Caroline Jacobs wrote in a statement.

    “No decisions have been made yet” regarding the project’s fate, she added.

    Announced in 2022, the Loyalist plant would have manufactured enough cathode active battery materials for 800,000 electric vehicles a year on a 142-hectare plot of land, and was expected to employ about 600 people.

    The company said it represented its final step to becoming a truly global producer and would have been the first of its kind on the continent. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time said the plant, and others like it, would make Canadians global leaders in EVs.

    Its construction, the first phase of which was to have been completed late next year at a cost of roughly $1.9-billion, was strongly supported by government subsidies. The federal government had committed up to $551.3-million to the project, and Ontario promised an additional $424.6-million.

    On Friday, the company said it’s now assuming that customers contracted volumes for EV batteries will be delayed by at least 18 months. It also undertook a €1.60-billion ($2.4-billion) impairment relating to property, plant and equipment and inventories across its battery-materials business, primarily in Asia.

    “In recent months, short- and medium-term growth projections for the electric-vehicles market have been scaled back substantially, significantly affecting Umicore’s battery-materials business,” Umicore CEO Bart Sap said in a statement.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-umicore-halts-construction-of-28-billion-ev-battery-materials-plant-in/

    2. “Belgian company Umicore announced Friday that it was pumping the brakes on a planned $2.8-billion battery-materials manufacturing plant in Ontario.”

      With euphemisms like this who needs Preparation H?

  25. Ford Motor Co.’s decision to produce gas-powered trucks at its Oakville, Ont., assembly plant and push off its electric-vehicle plans is yet another reminder that free-market realities rooted in customer demand win over ideology and government mandates every time.

    Ford’s move, announced last week, reflects continued hesitance among car buyers about a wholesale shift to an all-electric future that has slowed EV sales globally and put automakers’ investments in the emerging technology at risk. Ford, for example, has said it lost US$4.7-billion on EVs in 2023, and expects to lose US$5.5-billion this year.

    Moreover, Ford’s decision reflects consumers’ mounting resistance to government efforts in the United States and Canada to press them into buying things they simply don’t want. Whether it’s EV sticker prices, range anxiety, the cost of maintenance, repairs and insurance, or resale concerns, car buyers are voting with their wallets with such fervour that mandates for all new-car sales to be EVs by 2035 look less and less likely to hold.

    But Ford’s decision is much more than a refresher course in market dynamics. It is a good thing for Canada, for Ontario, for workers and their communities, and for the economy.

    Ford said it will inject US$2.3-billion into the plant to produce heavy duty trucks in its F-series line, the bestselling truck models in North America, beginning in 2026. Production of those trucks is maxed out at Ford plants, the company said, so converting the Oakville plant makes sound operational sense.

    The investment marks a significant increase from Ford’s original investment plans of US$1.8-billion earmarked for EV production in Oakville, which were put on hold earlier this year as cracks continued to appear in the EV market.

    The pivot will create 1,800 jobs. These are good jobs, with good pay, good benefits and will go a long way to supporting thousands of families in the communities that serve the Oakville plant’s work force and the supply chain that supports it. Even the autoworkers’ union, Unifor, is excited about the prospect.

    Ontario, too, has acknowledged this is a good thing, even though the province and Ottawa pledged $590-million to support the Oakville plant’s EV conversion in 2020. It remains to be seen how that investment is sorted, but it’s clear that no one wants to put money on a flagging horse.

    The timing could not be better. In a tough economy with stubborn inflation, high interest rates and nagging labour shortages, Ford’s move is a windfall for the market. It will create jobs and investment downstream in the supply chain serving the plant. It also allays fears that the jobs tied to Ford’s EV plans for Oakville would be lost forever when the company put those plans on hold.

    Things could have gone a much different – and negative – way. Just ask the 1,400 workers in Michigan who were reassigned or offered early retirement packages when Ford stopped production of its all-electric Lightning pickup trucks this year because of weak demand.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-ontario-should-be-thanking-ford-for-pivoting-away-from-electric/

    1. And for those who are affected with short term vision, let us not forget about the downstream jobs that will be created with return of those well-paying jobs to the community. more jobs mean more sandwich’s to make, more jobs for the commercial bakeries, more peanut butter and jelly needed and juice boxes for the lunch boxes. Jelly filled donuts for the kiddees and creme puffs for the little woman waiting at home for joe-six-pack when he comes home with a paycheck, that single Pay -check also goes eventually to the cook-the baker-the candle stick maker and so on and so forth. I remember when a minority community asked to be paid in 2 $ bills to show how those paychecks affected the entire community. Soon the entire community was awash in 2$ bills, proving a rising tide affects all to some degree more or less.

  26. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals remain deeply unpopular, currently trailing Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives by as many as 17 points in the polls, after more than a year of lagging behind.

    If an election was held today, the Conservatives would likely trounce the Liberals and cruise to a majority government, with polling aggregator 338Canada projecting the Conservatives would win 212 seats, based on the current polling data. The Liberals would win just 74 seats.

    Trudeau himself appears to be dragging the party’s popularity down.

    A recent poll by Nanos Research, commissioned by CTV News, found only nine per cent of Canadians say Trudeau is the most politically appealing option for party leadership.

    As the Globe and Mail reported earlier this month, citing unnamed sources, Trudeau is working to recruit Mark Carney – the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England – to cabinet, possibly to replace Chrystia Freeland as finance minister.

    Freeland, once widely touted as Trudeau’s potential successor, has seen her own political fortunes slide. That same Nanos poll has her tied with Trudeau at nine per cent, down from 18 per cent in just seven months.

    “Clearly Canadians are souring, specifically on her, and this has been a period of time that she has been out in front more so,” Kathleen Monk, former director of communications to Jack Layton, said in a panel interview of political strategists on The Vassy Kapelos Show this week. “She was out there with the last fiscal update, she was out there with the budget, and clearly Canadians have reacted to that.”

    Kory Teneycke, former communications director to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he doesn’t think Canadians would take notice of any cabinet shake up if it didn’t include moving Freeland out of finance.

    Even then, he said, it may not be enough.

    “The electorate’s mind is just so thoroughly made up about Trudeau at this point that I think shuffling a few chairs around the cabinet table won’t make a difference,” Teneycke said.

    Scott Reid, former communications director to Prime Minister Paul Martin, said unless the Liberals are willing to do something that looks like genuine change – a new finance minister and a brand new economic approach that could include abandoning its consumer carbon tax – their electoral fortunes won’t change.

    “This is a government that is running as fast as it can, as hard as possible with its eyes squeezed shut into a great stone wall,” Reid said. “It just isn’t changing what it’s doing.”

    If the Liberals do pursue radical change and it still doesn’t affect their position in the polls, Reid said then it’s time for Trudeau to step down.

    Shakir Chambers, a conservative strategist and principal at Earnscliffe Strategies, thinks Poilievre would welcome Carney as Liberal leader.

    “Mark Carney is pretty much the epitome of an elite Liberal and they can paint him as that pretty easily,” Chambers said in an interview with CTV News. “Carney’s resume speaks to globe-trotting, all these international forums, speaking at all these events, going all in on the climate agenda.”

    “I think it’s a very easy transition from saying it’s all Justin Trudeau’s fault to saying Mark Carney and the Liberals are to blame for what we’re experiencing right now,” Chambers added.

    Chambers said he thinks the Liberal brand is simply too damaged after nine years in power for anyone to come in and turn the party’s political fortunes around before the next election.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/with-trudeau-s-liberals-in-trouble-is-mark-carney-the-answer-1.6979158

  27. Our country is broken. Our state is broken. And, sadly, at a time when our leadership is desperately needed, the Democratic Party is broken. This did not just happen recently; it has been years in the making. When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, we had a tremendous opportunity and we squandered it. There were countless Republicans who could not believe the direction their party had taken and were looking for a new home. But instead of moving to the middle and moderating our stance on issues, a loud minority within the Democratic Party opted to push further left, leaving disgruntled Republicans with no place to go.

    Even before then, Democrats had begun making many in their own party feel unwelcome. They had decided identity politics was the way to go and if you weren’t a minority, female, or gay, you need not apply. Young people decided that since they had access to more information on the internet, they had all the answers, and experience shouldn’t really count for anything. Older white men were demonized, even those of us who had worked to create a more just and diverse society.

    While running for the U.S. Senate in 2020, I could not believe how many people would question why I was running when there were younger minority and female candidates in the Democratic field. When trying to explain that the field represented the sort of diversity for which I had worked and had always championed, it would fall on deaf ears. One woman listened to what I was proposing and then said, “I really like what I’m hearing but you’re a white man and I believe white men are responsible for everything that’s wrong.” Am I going to seriously argue that white men should face no blame whatsoever? Of course not, but it takes a very broad brush to paint us all into that category.

    If the Democratic Party is ever going to win again in Texas, we are going to have to learn to live and work together. We don’t have to agree on everything, and, in fact, we should be more open about our differences. Now, everyone is so frightened by political correctness that nothing can be discussed. No one wishes to be called racist or sexist so it’s easier to just remain silent and ill informed. That makes no sense whatsoever. Talking is healthy and folks shouldn’t feel as if they’re walking on eggshells whenever they do so with a person of a different race or sex.

    Texas Democrats are also going to have to accept that the national Democratic agenda is not going to carry the day back home. We must carve out positions that fit our state. When Democrats talk about eradicating all fossil fuels, many Texans see a decimated economy and high unemployment. When there’s talk about taking guns away, they see an infringement on personal freedom, something Texans take very seriously. And there are ways to make progress on these types of controversial issues without glomming onto the most extreme positions.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-ever-win-again-texas-105924397.html

    1. “Democrats had begun making many in their own party feel unwelcome. They had decided identity politics was the way to go”

      ^This.

      Democrat Party should also stop “culturally appropriating” white labor, specifically the skilled trades.

      You want South Africa or Zimbabwe? All we have to do is stand back and do nothing, and watch your infrastructure collapse.

      1. The globalist oligarchs that bankroll & control the Democrat Party have a pathological hatred of the Constitution, Heritage America, and Christianity. Ditto for their Democrat-Bolshevik termites in the foundations.

  28. Trump gunman spotted 90 minutes before shooting, texts show; SWAT team speaks

    Members of a local SWAT team at the scene the day former President Donald Trump was shot spoke out for the first time Monday, citing communication failures with the Secret Service but acknowledging that “we all failed that day.”

    “I remember standing in the parking lot talking to one of the guys” after the July 13 shooting, Mike Priolo, a member of the Beaver County, Pennsylvania, SWAT team, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” (GMA). “We just became part of history. And not in a good way.”

    Also Monday, ABC News reported obtaining text messages indicating that would-be gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks drew the attention of a sniper more than 90 minutes before the shooting began on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show. That is more than a half hour earlier than previously reported.

    A sniper leaving the area where local SWAT members assembled texted the others that he saw Crooks “sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.” He also texted that Crooks saw him leave the area with a rifle “so he knows you guys are up there.”

    About an hour before the shooting, sniper team member Gregory Nicol told GMA he saw Crooks take a rangefinder from his pocket. Though rangefinders were not banned from rallies, Nicol took Crooks’ picture and called in a warning of a suspicious presence.

    “He was looking up and down the building,” Nicols said. “It just seemed out of place.”

    Crooks opened fire shortly after 6 p.m., killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore, 50, wounding Trump in the ear and critically injuring two other men. A Secret Service sniper on another roof fatally shot Crooks, authorities say.

    “I think we all failed that day,” Priolo said. “People died. If there was anything we could have done to stop that, we should have.”

    The Secret Service, responsible for security that day, typically is supported by local law enforcement. Jason Woods, team leader for Beaver County’s Emergency Services Unit and SWAT sniper section, told GMA his team was supposed to meet with the Secret Service before the event.

    “That was probably a pivotal point, where I started thinking things were wrong because (the meeting) never happened,” Woods said. “We had no communication … not until after the shooting.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-gunman-spotted-90-minutes-before-shooting-texts-show-swat-team-speaks/ar-BB1qPBZx

      1. It gets worse everyday with more news. By the end of the week I expect to see photos of the shooter having dinner with the SS going over their plan.

          1. “The shooter wasn’t this 20 year old with a terrible rifle IMO.”

            Lee Harvey Oswald worked so well why not just rinse and repeat.

    2. At the moment, conservative Twitter/x is being stampeded with K propaganda, and all the righties can do is focus on J13. Geeze, they need to stop obsessing with that and go back to the issues, especially the border crisis. Because if the Ks cheat and win again, nothing will ever matter again. In fact I fully expect T to be drawn and quartered just to make an example of him.

  31. ‘At the end of the day, it’s guys like me to inform clients of this new dynamic and to work to bridge the gap to close deals. The only way to do that is by encouraging seller price reductions and convincing buyers that offers less than asking price are not a waste of time. The deals are there for those willing to acknowledge the new state of play and come to the middle rather than digging in or not making the attempt. Not doing so is the same as believing in fairies, elves, and bunnies who lay eggs’

    That’s the spirit!

  32. ‘the median cost of Durango Mountain homes – those around Purgatory Resort – dropped from just over $2.1 million to around $1.5 million since second quarter 2023…condominium numbers are a bit skewed based on the number of units sold. ‘It’s way off because it such a small number of units,’ he said. Durango condos and townhomes saw an 18.1% decrease in median price during second quarter 2024, which again is reflected by the price of the condos sold not the value of condos in general’

    Yer right John, it’s the MIX!

  33. ‘This move will not create any more long term rentals… It simply means the current owners will need to cheat or find a loop-hole.’ Another said, ‘Locals want something for nothing, and the visitors who would love to be appreciated are treated like trespassers’

    Another day in paradise.

  34. ‘The building co-owner and community activist Ken Houston said the thieves cut through two layers of fencing to get into the property around 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Surveillance footage showed multiple thieves kicking down doors once inside. he businesses range from construction tguess yer fooked Ken.o a barber shop. ‘They kicked this one open, and this tenant just moved in here. You can see her boxes, she’s just moving in. So you think she’s going to want to stay here with this happening to her? I don’t think so’

    I See yer fooked Ken. And you were a community activist.

  35. ‘We need to have shelter for our homeless people as housing becomes more and more difficult…We need to get people off the street, we need to teach them how to fend for themselves’

    I’d say yer teaching them the exact opposite Pete.

  36. ‘I am a single mom, I cannot afford this, I have to move back into my house and I cannot,’ landlord Jessica Huang said through tears. Her issue, she said, is as Marie laid it out: once mortgage rates went up, she could no longer afford the rental property. Now, she needs to move in instead and can’t’

    Marie, Jessica, it’s called affordable igloos. Nothing is more important in K-da.

    1. In the depression era book, “Ten Lost Years,” one of the vignettes describes a family that were forced to move into the basement of their house, and rented their house with the wife acting as a concierge servant to tenants.

  37. ‘Asking price: $1,798,800 (Feb. 11). Selling price: $2,150,000 (Feb. 27)…‘The market was going crazy’..it quickly cooled by spring…’Now, it’s a buyers’ market,…‘There is opportunity to buy without competing; a lot of choice because of way too many listings for buyers out there; and they can control what’s going on, they can make lower offers. There are tons of subject-to-sales now’

    So the February buyer overpaid Pat?

  38. ‘It was a friend of a friend who wanted to get into that particular site’ …He said the exit fee cost tens of thousands of dollars to ‘get out of their clutches.’ ‘She has the psychological scar of feeling like a complete idiot for ever going there in the first place’

    Let us not over react here. It was still way cheaper than renting!

  39. ‘The housing supply pipeline may expand to 109,000 homes over the next three to four years…Developers rushed to launch, and then outdid each other with discounts to attract buyers. CK Asset, ever the trend setter in Hong Kong’s property market, in late March launched the first 138 flats at its Blue Coast project in Wong Chuk Hang at a 20 per cent discount to its development cost. That first batch sold out, with 65 bidders vying for every available unit. That record turnout emboldened other developers to replicate the discounts. All told, the average prices of new launches across the city this year had been about 15 per cent cheaper than previous sales in the same neighbourhood’

    This is an island. The most expensive residential real estate in the world.

  40. Gavin Newsom Humiliated as Elon Musk Responds to His Threat

    The Rubin Report

    1 hour ago

    Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” shares a DM clip of Elon Musk’s vicious comeback to Gavin Newsom for threatening him for posting an AI-generated parody of a Kamala Harris campaign ad.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOnP8Q8oG0o

    3 minutes.

  41. Protests Erupt in Venezuela Following Dictator Maduro ‘Victory’
    Infowars.com

    July 29th 2024, 5:51 pm

    Skeptical Venezuelans, upset over President Nicolas Maduro’s purported electoral victory, took to the streets to protest, amid widespread suspicions the administration conspired to steal the election.

    The Associated Press reports on the police crackdown on protesters, which involved firing rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrator

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/protests-erupt-in-venezuela-following-dictator-maduro-victory/

  43. We’re number one!

    …on the list of the worst places to buy property in the next 5 years, according to real estate agents…

    1. Yahoo
      7 Worst States To Buy Property in the Next 5 Years, According to Real Estate Agents
      Heather Altamirano
      Sun, Jul 28, 2024, 6:00 AM PDT
      4 min read

      There are many factors to consider when buying a home, and evaluating factors like cost of living, crime rate, climate change, local issues and property taxes can help you save money.

      Whether you’re saving to buy a house, waiting for mortgage rates to fall or planning a big move in the next few years, researching the market now can help you decide where to invest later.

      “While no one can predict the market with absolute certainty, the patterns we’re seeing now offer some valuable clues,” said Yawar Charlie, estates director of Aaron Kirman Group at Christie’s International Real Estate and cast member of CNBC’s “Listing Impossible.”

      Based on current market trends, GOBankingRates spoke with experts who shared which states to avoid buying property in the next five years and why.

      California

      Stunning scenery, a vibrant culture and near-perfect weather make California so appealing, but the affordability is an issue.

      “As a real estate broker in Los Angeles, I’ve observed some trends that suggest certain states might become less attractive for homebuyers over the next five years,” Charlie told us.

      “It’s not just the high cost of living here that’s a problem. The state also struggles with issues like wildfires and droughts, which can make homeownership even more challenging and expensive,” he explained.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-worst-states-buy-property-140044720.html

  44. Is America On The Precipice of a Housing Crash?
    Posted on Monday, July 29, 2024
    by Andrew Shirley

    Home prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic, but industry data and some expert analyses suggests that the bubble may be about to burst, and the country may already be in the early stages of a dramatic housing crash.

    In an X post earlier this month that has now garnered more than three million views, real estate analyst Nick Gerli warned that in parts of the country, the housing market was at the peak of a bubble that could collapse at any moment. “The number of new homes for sale in the Southern Region has spiked up to nearly 300,000,” he wrote. “This is the highest level of all time — even higher than the previous bubble peak in August 2006. These houses are overvalued by an average of 30%.”

    “The builders in the South have gone absolutely crazy, and continue to pull single-family permits at an extremely high rate,” he continued. “Many are adopting a mid-2000s perspective of ‘build it and they will come.’ However, the demand has dropped off precipitously, with new home sales in the South falling down below pre-pandemic levels.”

    Two key concerning metrics Gerli pointed to were a spike in active inventory, or houses that are currently on the market, and price cuts. Combined, these factors indicate a looming market downturn. The Florida and Texas markets look particularly vulnerable, according to Gerli’s data.

    “I know this sounds very bearish on Southern real estate,” Gerli concluded. “But ultimately it’s pretty simple. Home builders and investors rampantly speculated in this housing market the last 3-4 years. And prices went far above what locals can afford. And created a bubble. Now that bubble is – slowly – popping. And it could start to pop pretty fast if a Recession is thrown into the mix.”
    …
    https://amac.us/newsline/economy/is-america-on-the-precipice-of-a-housing-crash/

    1. Of course the lenders who likely sold their paper to fannie or freddie are not held responsible.

      1. sold their paper to fannie or freddie are not held responsible.
        Last I knew, and I don’t think it changed, there was a 2 year time limit on liability for the banks.
        After 2 years, unless fraud was involved, no bank liability.

  45. ….”Homeless families and individuals would receive lessons at the facility on ‘life skills,”
    And who might be the instructor on “life skills”, ? Probably some wet behind the ears recent graduate of Victim Studies” that has never had a real job.

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