thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

Someone Will Do A Price Drop, It Might As Well Be You, So You Can Steal The Buyer And Get Off The Market

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Two construction companies have filed lawsuits to foreclose on $3.5 million in construction liens placed on the unfinished Mandarin Oriental hotel and residential complex in downtown Boca Raton. The lawsuits follows five other complaints filed in the past two months by unhappy preconstruction buyers of the promised luxury condo. Some Mandarin Oriental condominium buyers, who have waited years to see their promised luxury residence completed, are fed up. ‘It’s pretty devastating,’ buyer Frank Scala said. Scala said he and his wife sold a large home and hoped to move into their luxury Mandarin Oriental condo in 2022. Since then, the Scalas been living in a rental apartment, hoping their condo’s construction would wrap up. Now they’re done waiting, and they want their $1.3 million deposit back. ‘We weren’t expecting this to continue to drag on,’ Scala said. ‘It’s been a real thorn in our sides.'”

“A narrow decision by Indian Rocks Beach city commissioners likely sets up an expensive legal fight over short-term vacation rentals, vacation homes available for rent on sites like AirBNB and VRBO. The city is currently being sued by the owners of many short-term rentals in seven separate federal lawsuits. ‘Traffic, trash, crowds, noise,’ said Dave Watt, one homeowner. ‘And I could give you a litany of all the problems that I’ve had in my place — and I’ve owned since 1957 — including a guy that my neighbor witnessed urinating in my yard at 1 o’clock last Sunday afternoon,’ added another, Marti Krajnik.”

“The Fox Run Community in Corcoran, CA is still sitting empty months after families were expecting to move in. The struggle to turn power on continues in the tight knit town’s latest housing development. Major Developer D.R. Horton built over 40 brand new homes and they are ready to move in. But, PG&E has yet to secure easements, or agreements to set up power lines. For the affected families, the empty homes now feel like empty promises. ‘It’s unfortunate for these families, and it’s unfortunate because they don’t care who’s at fault. These families just want these companies to make it right for them and give them their keys,’ explained Corcoran realtor Reina Madrid.”

“On a recent summer morning, a caravan of unmarked state police vehicles and white hazmat trucks crept past strip malls and wide intersections, making its way toward a pair of modest homes in a remote suburb north of Los Angeles. But there was no shootout. Just a tense half-hour as a phalanx of two dozen state police officers—agents from the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC)—kept snipers trained on the house, waiting for the second of two suspects to emerge. When agents serve a warrant, they often find human trafficking victims, automatic weapons, booby traps, and, increasingly, banned toxic pesticides smuggled from China. Working and middle-class families migrate to bedroom communities such as Lancaster, where you can still find a single-family home with a backyard for about $500,000—about half the median price in Los Angeles, according to Redfin. You may find one for even less if a grower has been busted and is offloading at a discount.”

“Like meth houses of decades past, there are residential grows too damaged to flip. But it’s the moderate ones, the ones that are at risk of selling at a discount to families, that Mike Katz, a Lancaster code enforcement officer who heads the city’s cannabis unit, said keep him up at night. If public safety officials don’t discover a grow before property owners start hiding the damage, it’s often too late. ‘There is no roadmap,’ Katz said. ‘These sociopaths are buying and selling these houses.'”

“A handful of Madison Avenue condominiums located in a luxury high-rise building near the Empire State building have wound up in bankruptcy and will be sold in Chapter 11. The residences include five penthouses, five non-penthouse residential units and two commercial units, according to developer Madison 33 Owner LLC, which filed Chapter 11 on Monday. The business sought court protection months after an affiliate behind a former residence once dubbed ‘Le Penthouse’ did the same to halt a foreclosure sale. The condos join a handful of notable residential properties that have ended up in Chapter 11 in recent years. A bankrupt Los Angeles mega mansion called ‘The One’ was sold in Chapter 11 for $141 million in 2022. Last year, natural gas tycoon Charif Souki put his sprawling Colorado ranch into bankruptcy amid a fight with lenders.”

“The once-booming life sciences leasing market in Greater Boston slowed dramatically just as dozens of speculative projects were under construction, leaving a huge amount of vacancy that could put developers at risk of losing their buildings. ‘We fully expect lenders to become more involved and take control of certain projects over the next year to two. That is going to happen,’ JLL Executive Managing Director Bob Richards said. ‘There just is not enough demand right now to support the amount of vacancy in the market. This is the most dramatic correction in the history of life science real estate in the United States,’ Richards added.”

“Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dismissed anger over Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in the Denver suburb of Aurora, calling it ‘imagination’ — despite video footage, police reports and the city’s mayor confirming it’s happening. Polis’ press office offered the snarky statement Wednesday night in response to Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky — who told The Post the gang’s takeovers are tied to his policies. ‘According to police intelligence this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination, ‘Shelby Wieman, a spokesperson for the Dem governor, told The Post.”

“Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, told Fox News on Thursday that ‘there are several buildings’ that have ‘fallen to these Venezuelan gangs’ in his city. Coffman said he believes the buildings were used as taxpayer-funded migrant housing, which is what gave the gangs a foothold. The Post exposed the gang’s takeover of apartments in Aurora and identified the area’s ‘shot-caller’ Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino, who is known as ‘Galleta,’ or cookie in English. Pacheco-Chirino alongside his fellow gangsters brutally beat a man at an apartment complex in Aurora. He was later arrested and then let go on bail.”

“A homeless man, only identifying himself as Kyle, agreed to speak to CTV News and admits living in an encampment can be chaotic. Tents, furniture, a filing cabinet, a BBQ, racks of clothing, a metal ice tub and needles are littered behind Kyle in a wooded encampment behind Crawford Avenue. ‘It looks like a (expletive) nightmare,’ he admits while holding drug paraphernalia in his hand. ‘I spent all winter out here,’ he explained, after being evicted from his home last August. According to a new survey, 1,400 encampments were identified in Ontario last year. The City of Windsor reported two encampments during the survey year, but now, the city estimates there are between eight and 10 encampments.”

“52 Unsworth Ave., Toronto. Asking price: $2,898,000 (July, 2024). Previous asking price: $2,995,000 (June, 2024). Selling price: $2,825,000 (July, 2024). In June, this four-bedroom house was among several properties up for sale in the area near Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue. It received two offers over a period of weeks, but neither one was acceptable to the sellers. The asking price was reduced by $97,000. Those efforts clicked, and a buyer worked out a deal for $2,825,000. ‘It’s so important to learn to pivot, and look at what’s working and what isn’t working,’ said agent Andrew Ipekian. ‘If your competitor is at a [similar] price and they’re not selling either, someone will do a price drop. It might as well be you, so you can steal the buyer and get off the market.'”

“Walk down Commercial Road as night draws in and look up at the residential tower blocks that crowd in, canyon-like. How many have their lights on as residents busy themselves with food and leisure? Not many – in some blocks, barely 10 per cent. Try it on any block in Zone 1 and 2 and draw your own conclusion. Mine is that few of these ‘units’ are regularly occupied. They count towards London’s housing targets, but few are actually lived in by Londoners. As research from 2020 by the Greater London Authority found, this ‘is the area of prime interest to the most discerning of international buyers and developments are designed, built and priced accordingly.'”

“In the jargon, many properties appear to be ‘safety deposit boxes’ for foreign investors. Let’s not be shy about this phenomenon. Developers are quite open about it. They say they need to sell units ‘off plan’ in order to help finance the development, and selling off plan often means through their offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore or Bangkok. So if an investor buys a property and that helps to get the development moving, regardless of whether the property then stays empty or not, that’s just how our warped housing market works. We’ve become numbed to it.”

“Nearly half of market funds see net loss of up to 68%. Commercial real estate-backed offshore property market funds are registering rapid losses, hamstrung by sustained high borrowing costs, an industry-wide slump and post-pandemic high vacancy rates, market watchers said Thursday. Further clouding the market is the plummeting value of the once-hyped underlying assets in the U.S. and Europe. Korea’s Igis Asset Management, Meritz Alternative Investment Management and Hyundai Investment Asset Management managed to recover less than half of their initial investments earlier this year, after the property owners defaulted on their loans. According to Korea Fund Ratings, over 1.5 trillion won ($1.1 billion) in publicly organized offshore real estate funds registered a net loss as of Wednesday, 43.5 percent of the 2.43 trillion won total.”

“Similarly, a fund operated by Kiwoom Asset Management saw up to a 72 percent drop in valuation, Aug. 2. The product was designed to track the value of Queens Tower, a building in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Propelling the steep decline was a 34 percent decrease in the value of the building to 85.2 million euros from 129.73 million euros, the figure at the time of the purchase. About 60 percent of the total was leveraged, accelerating the depreciation. ‘Rollovers and maturity extensions are ways for the fund operators to kick the can down the road, so to speak. The risk can be delayed only temporarily, not eliminated permanently,’ according to Standard Chartered Bank Korea analyst Hong Dong-hee.”

“Three more Auckland housing developments to have sewage trucked away and then that’s it, says Watercare. The Herald revealed last week that sewage from 300 new homes in West Auckland was going into holding tanks and then trucked to a wastewater pump station because there was no permanent wastewater infrastructure. At Cardinal West, a 470-home development on a former dairy farm at Red Hills, tankers have been making about 90 trips a week since 2022 to remove sewage from 300 homes to the Massey North wastewater pump station.”

“When the Herald visited Cardinal West last week, residents complained about the odours coming from four ‘tank farms’ at the development on the urban-rural fringe in West Auckland. ‘It’s like Rotorua but a little bit more potent. It smells like poo,’ said one woman, who rents a house with her partner and three children across the road from one of four ‘tank farms’ at Cardinal West. Another resident described the situation as not so bad in winter but summer is potentially going to be really bad with the heat and the stench. Waitakere councillor Ken Turner said Cardinal West pointed to the naive political belief that delivering more houses solves Auckland’s problems. ‘We must slow down intensification until our infrastructure has caught up. Tankering wastewater by road is just the old-fashioned night cart going door to door, ‘ he said.”

“When Australian investors tipped millions into a large investment fund, they probably didn’t expect it would go towards an event with boxer Floyd Mayweather or a penthouse for the wife of a property developer whose fortunes are tied to the fund. But that’s exactly what the corporate watchdog has alleged. Those are some of what the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) claims are questionable transactions entangling the $480 million Shield Master Fund. The fund is linked to property developer Paul Chiodo, the man behind a series of lavish resort proposals from Australia to Italy, as well as numerous local residential projects.”

“Last month, the ABC spoke to three women who allege they were pressured into switching super funds by a Queensland call centre after being offered a free review. Two claim they were cold called. A financial advice firm that partners with the call centre then recommended two of the women invest in Shield. One Victorian woman, Louise, said she eventually invested about $100,000 in Shield after receiving financial advice it would help her be better off. ‘You could earn quite a substantial bit more (the advice showed),’ she said. ‘The thing that was selling it to me most was having being reassured that a financial adviser would be …. keeping an eye on things.’ She’s one of many who’ve poured money into Shield, drawn in by its massive marketing machine. ‘I’m seriously worried that I’m going to lose it,’ she said.”

“Sahar Ghaly has almost $100,000 invested in Shield. The 56-year-old is a family violence survivor who runs a charity and was hoping the switch would lead to a more comfortable retirement. Right now, she feels anything but comfortable. ‘I’m disgusted,’ Ms Ghaly said. ‘As a working woman who’s trying to make ends meet and often sometimes runs out of money before my payday, I just feel really appalled.’ Victorian woman Louise has a similar amount invested. Unlike others the ABC has spoken to she didn’t feel pressured — but is now reconsidering her investment. ‘It’s gut wrenching,’ she said. ‘I’m a single woman, I don’t have anyone else … I need every cent that’s going to be there.'”

Related Posts
This Post Has 84 Comments

  1. ‘We fully expect lenders to become more involved and take control of certain projects over the next year to two. That is going to happen,’ JLL Executive Managing Director Bob Richards said. ‘There just is not enough demand right now to support the amount of vacancy in the market. This is the most dramatic correction in the history of life science real estate in the United States’

    Bob and his fellow savvy investors were patting each other on the back during minor respiratory illness. Now he’s a sad panda.

    1. With “best” being the key word here. Overall, I’ve seen worse from her. However, if you add in the super-biased interviewer and network, multiple-choice suggested answers, option for keeping and splicing only the best 25% of footage, and of course the emotional support pet, she actually *lost* ground.

      This interview will lose her a quarter- or half-point in the polls. But if she goes down in the polls, she’ll need to give more interviews. If she gives more interviews, she’ll just go down in the polls even more. Honeymoon is over babes, welcome to the doom loop.

      1. How often did Joetato come out of the basement? The Dems know how to “win” without campaigning.

        1. They had the veneer of a pandemic to hide behind. Plus Joe was known in DC for 40+ years already, even as VP. She can’t get away with the same.

          Yeah, they tried to do it, but they failed. Credit to JD Vance, and possibly Ben Shapiro, who started the count of # days Kamala avoided the press. The stunt on the tarmac helped too. That planted the idea in everyone’s head and upped the pressure until Kamala was forced out of hiding. She can’t go back into the basement now.

  3. “The once-booming life sciences leasing market in Greater Boston slowed dramatically just as dozens of speculative projects were under construction, leaving a huge amount of vacancy that could put developers at risk of losing their buildings.

    Most of the formerly high-flying “life sciences” companies and their “speculative projects” were only viable in a world awash with Fed funny money “stimulus.” When the financial reckoning day can no longer be deferred, the destruction of Yellen Bux “wealth” is going to be cataclysmic.

    1. Fed funny money “stimulus.”

      As someone who co-founded a biotech company and pitched investors, it takes A LOT more than stimulus money.

  4. Commercial real estate-backed offshore property market funds are registering rapid losses, hamstrung by sustained high borrowing costs, an industry-wide slump and post-pandemic high vacancy rates, market watchers said Thursday.

    I love the smell of burning private equity locusts in the morning. It smells like…victory!

  5. “Similarly, a fund operated by Kiwoom Asset Management saw up to a 72 percent drop in valuation, Aug. 2.

    Is that a lot?

  6. ‘It’s like Rotorua but a little bit more potent. It smells like poo,’ said one woman, who rents a house with her partner and three children across the road from one of four ‘tank farms’ at Cardinal West.

    Now add in the putrid odor of speculator dreams dying in the arse.

    1. Those Kiwis are real sticklers for requiring sewage infrastructure before allowing 400 houses to be built

  7. She’s one of many who’ve poured money into Shield, drawn in by its massive marketing machine. ‘I’m seriously worried that I’m going to lose it,’ she said.”

    These things happen for a reason, Louise. In this case, the reason was you were stupid & made bad decisions.

  9. ‘I’m disgusted,’ Ms Ghaly said. ‘As a working woman who’s trying to make ends meet and often sometimes runs out of money before my payday, I just feel really appalled.’

    Cry me a river, Sahar. Greedy speculators like you drove RE values to unsustainable levels & priced out the prudent & responsible – now stop yer whinging as you board the express train to Schlongville, population you.

    1. Wow. That would be like transferring your 401K into a investment scheme peddled by a cold caller. Heck, you have to do your due diligence with what Fidelity or Vanguard offer you, but at least there are tools like Morningstar.

  10. “the Scalas ….they’re done waiting, and they want their $1.3 million deposit back. ‘”

    hahahahahahahahhahahaha
    that money is gone!!!!!!!!! long gone.
    Man this is proof that money doesn’t come from being smart.

    1. They’re done waiting? Gosh, those developers better make it their top priority to deliver this couple their finished shack, or else!

  11. Narwhals off the coast of Greenland communicate by using a series of clicks and squeals. Although marine biologists initially believed these were evidence of a complex linguistic “language” that enabled information-sharing between pods of narwhals, a body of research has since confirmed narwhals were informing each other that realtors are liars.

  12. “the buildings were used as taxpayer-funded migrant housing, which is what gave the gangs a foothold”

    You are being replaced. And who, exactly, is replacing you?

    The Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti Defamation League, that’s who. These organizations need to be exposed, to be revealed of who they really are and what they are trying to do.

    They are anti America, anti Christianity, and anti White. They are the essence of the Marxist subversion that Yuri Bezmenov warned us about forty years ago, and they need to be shut down, and expelled from the country.

    #Noticing
    #Naming

    1. Citizen! At the Democrat Convention, the globalist scum media proclaimed that we are to feel joy at the specter of the hammer and sickle replacing the stars & stripes that are an outmoded relic of dead white male slaveowners and their loathsome Constitution. Those who fail to show the requisite joy as we march shoulder to shoulder under the red banners of socialism are clearly “MAGA Republican extremists” who belong in the ever-growing category of “Enemies of the State.” The Comrades of Proven Worth suggest you turn that frown upside down, citizen, unless you want your social credit score downgraded even further. Forward, Soviet!

    2. You are being replaced. And who, exactly, is replacing you?

      I would say the entire Leftist Machine is trying to replace us.

      What seems odd is that a lot of white people are voting for this. It is clear they don’t believe they will be directly affected by the fundamental transformation and will be able to keep their nice corporate and government jobs and their nice houses in neighborhoods that are almost 100% white (diversity is great as long as it’s not in their backyard).

      Few of them own small businesses on Main St. and they are fine if all those shops are replaced by corporate owned chain shops staffed by Nuevos Americanos.

    1. Finance·fed interest rates
      Interest rate cut expectations keep getting deeper as Powell’s ‘risk bias’ changes
      BY Eleanor Pringle
      August 29, 2024 at 3:57 AM PDT
      Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States Jerome Powell has signaled a shift in his approach to the base rate.
      Bonnie Cash—Getty Images
      At the beginning of the month Wall Street was confident—but not convinced—that it would be getting its much-anticipated interest rate cut come September.

      Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech sealed the deal for many that a reduction is indeed imminent. The rate currently sits at 5.25%—a more than two-decade high.

      But a combination of economic data and hints from FOMC members—including Powell himself—is now leading analysts to wonder if the cut will be more significant than previously expected. Powell’s “risk bias” is changing, according to some.

      Previously the likes of Bank of America and investment fund Vanguard had factored in a cut of 0.25%, or 25 basis points (bps), next month, but arguments for a 50 bps (0.5%) cut are beginning to gather pace.

      JPMorgan, for example, this week said it is expecting the Fed to cut by 100 bps—an entire percentage point—by the end of the year.

      With just three meetings left that would mean at least one of the cuts would have to be 50 bps, paired with two cuts at 25 bps.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2024/08/29/fed-interest-rate-cut-expectations/

      1. It seems like those overvalued share prices are highly dependent on the continuation of a protracted period of low risk premiums. Do you ever wonder how Mr Market would respond if Powell wrong footed it in September?

        1. Financial stocks, (ie V, JPM, BRKB) are pretty good forward looking litmus paper tests as to future of interest rates.

  15. The hunchback of San Francisco was talking about an era or ara according to Camela.

    Collin Rugg
    @CollinRugg

    NEW: Kamala Harris says the U.S. needs to “close the page” on the last decade, prompting Dana Bash to point out that a third of that time was with her in office.

    Kamala: “I believe the American people deserve a new way forward and turn the page on the last decade…”

    Bash: “The last three-and-a-half years has been part of your administration?”

    9:43 PM · Aug 29, 2024

    https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1829334152338174319

    1. She just wants us all to be unburdened by the unburdening of her past burdens, or something like that.

      You’d think that the people behind the curtain would have chosen a better puppet, one that isn’t a retard. If she is installed, then her animatronic in the Hall of Presidents in Disneyworld will actually be smarter than she is.

      1. They needed Joe’s campaign war chest $$$, and she is the only one who could legally access it. If they had a deep bench with a charismatic candidate, they possibly could have run on a budget without Joe’s money, but they don’t.

    1. +1

      TDS sufferers are literal NPC’s (non player characters) incapable of independent thought.

  17. A reader sent these in:

    That’s an all time low for pending home sales, a leading indicator for home sales.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1829158409608015953

    Shocking, really shocking that a price cap reduces supply and makes things worse.

    If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists.

    https://x.com/MichaelAArouet/status/1829038532406477251

    The economy is completely bifurcated.

    If you own assets you’re doing well, if you don’t own assets you’re living in the Great Depression 2.0

    The question is how much longer can the US economy be propped up by asset prices?

    My answer: not long

    https://x.com/GeorgeGammon/status/1829133982383878278

    GDP is lagging employment (was 3.4% in Q2 07), initial claims is the most lagging employment indicator (lags rate cuts), deficit is high but response capacity is limited from government, unemployment is way up (up in 90% or MSAs y/y) as are defaults/bankruptcies, the poor/middle class consumer is teetering, a 12 year housing cycle has just started contracting with activity at *lowest levels on record*. I think we’re in a pickle here.

    Some things like overall production output & heavy truck sales continue to look okay, but let’s see how they fair as we head into winter.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1829244245846438074

    “…the horrific inflation had a devastating impact on our modest and moderate income households. It appears that the standard of living is has declined very significantly in the last four years. Our modest and moderate income households can not survive in inflation.” -Lacy Hunt

    https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1829283540938449255

    Gunnison Valley Properties LLC has filed Chapter 11 in the District of Colorado

    Assets: $50M-$100M
    Liabilities: $10M-$50M

    https://x.com/_RKConsultants/status/1828933826002731281

    Big jump in Not Current On Mortgage in Census HPS

    Cycle 6 data collected May 28 – June 24

    5,340,972

    Cycle 7 data collected June 25 – July 22

    6,079,771

    https://x.com/TonyBennet42429/status/1829225568144920704

    SILENT DEPRESSION!!

    https://x.com/ManyBeenRinsed/status/1829233371740025074

    Shell Oil to cut 20% of oil exploration, well development workforce as CEO Wael Sawan widens his cost-saving drive to the highly profitable division

    Cuts will affect the US, Netherlands, and the UK

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1829305576653824407

    Excited about the US 🇺🇸GDP revision?

    US 🇺🇸Real gross domestic income (GDI) increased ONLY 1.3% in the second quarter.

    The average of real GDP and real GD increased 2.1% in the second quarter.

    This with a +6% deficit means the worst growth adjusted for accumulation of debt since the thirties.

    https://x.com/dlacalle_IA/status/1829233229305348283

    Allstate to increase home insurance rates for California customers by an average of 34.1%, per Bloomberg.

    The rate hike, which will take effect from November, will impact about 350,000 policyholder. Some customers will face premium increases of up to 650%.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1829127358147625278

    Ford Motor, $F, has said it will change its diversity, equity & inclusion program, including ending participation in an LGBTQ advocacy group’s ranking system.

    Several U.S. companies including JPMorgan Chase, $JPM, and Harley Davidson, recently modified their DEI policies.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1829134907488022748

    2. Heavy truck sales are probably still up because the big mega truck companies (who buy most of the new trucks) are on a 5 year replacement cycle (500k miles, as the warranty ends) and no trucks really got replaced during government shutdowns in 20/21 and trucks ran a LOT of miles, they are all behind on their replacement cycles. (and new trucks are not reliable like old trucks were (thanks emissions) so they do not want to be stuck with 800k mile trucks and massive repair bills, that’s not their model.

      BUT

      freight rates are massively down, not quite to money losing but close

      ain’t nobody busy. Guys that were making 1200/week are now making like $700/week as a driver (that’s a 70 hour week BTW, truck driving is a crappy job). It’s not to 2009 levels (you would sit all week for one load), but lots of guys sitting all weekend or deadheading 800 miles to get any load.

      megas have tightened their hiring standards considerably (meaning they don’t need as many drivers, their turnover is massive). 2 years ago, you needed to be breathing. Last year, you needed some good job history and not be a felon. This year, the list is endless and they are basically looking for a reason to say “no, we won’t hire you”

    3. Several U.S. companies including JPMorgan Chase, $JPM, and Harley Davidson, recently modified their DEI policies.

      Closing the barn door after the cow already got out.

    4. If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists.

      On the contrary, they expect to be part of the privileged few.

  18. One of the quiet strengths of Canada’s immigration system last decade was the job market’s ability to readily absorb recent immigrants.

    Now, as a record influx of temporary foreign workers prompts the federal government to overhaul its immigration policy, much of the focus is on the pressure the population boom has put on housing, infrastructure and services. But recent immigrants themselves have been big losers in the job market.

    The unemployment rate for immigrants who arrived within the past five years rose to nearly 13 per cent in July, which was seven percentage points higher than the unemployment rate for workers born here. Aside from the early months of COVID-19, that’s the largest unemployment gap for recent immigrants in more than a decade, Bank of Montreal senior economic Robert Kavcic wrote in a research note.

    “The reality now is that the current rate of inflow is not getting readily absorbed, which is doing no favour to the domestic job market (see youth unemployment), and no favour to those coming to Canada,” he wrote.

    It’s a stark reversal from what had been a shining feature of the Canadian immigration experience. Starting in the early 2010s the unemployment rate for newcomers who arrived within the previous five years began to fall faster than the unemployment rate for Canadian-born workers, which itself was also on the decline. In fact, by 2018 immigrants who’d arrived within the previous five years were more likely to be employed than native-born Canadians.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-immigration-system-is-failing-recent-immigrants-themselves/

    1. I was wondering if Canada suspended immigration during the Covid lockdowns? The short answer is no, they did not. It did drop, but remained non trivial in 2020 and 2021.

  19. Struggling Montreal unicorn Paper lays off all Canadian tutors after deep cuts to head office

    Online tutoring company Paper Education Co. Inc. has cut its entire Canadian tutor work force, affecting hundreds of people, weeks after laying off nearly half its head office staff and replacing CEO Philip Cutler.

    The Montreal-based company, which became one of Canada’s tech darlings during the pandemic, “never adjusted our tutor work force” when demand decreased as the global health crisis subsided, interim CEO Rich Yang said in a message to employees. “Paper unfortunately cannot justify the number of tutors based on the current demand.”

    The cuts follow the votes of hundreds of dissatisfied tutors in Ontario and Quebec this year to unionize. Mr. Yang didn’t address the unionization efforts in his messages to employees, customers or the media, but acknowledged that as demand for its services subsided, “many tutors received minimal and inconsistent scheduled hours, understandably causing frustration.”

    Some of its tutors had also taken to Reddit in recent months to complain about working conditions as they juggled multiple students, had irregular shifts and lacked job security. Paper had already messaged tutors recently postponing their back-to-school return date, citing the need to work through plans to navigate its financial and organizational challenges. That led some to speculate their jobs could be axed.

    Mr. Yang, a veteran Silicon Valley-based education technology executive, said focusing on the U.S. market, which accounts for most of Paper’s business, will give it the chance to rebuild its operation, deliver “consistent, high quality support to students” and improve its financial situation.

    Paper has struggled with several challenges after experiencing explosive growth during the pandemic. The cut to 45 per cent of its 180-person head office staff in late July was Paper’s fourth work-force reduction since early 2023.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-struggling-montreal-unicorn-paper-lays-off-all-canadian-tutors-after/

  20. Starbucks hit with class action lawsuit over alleged investor deception

    A class action lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Starbucks Corporation, its CEO Laxman Narasimhan, and its CFO Rachel Ruggeri.

    The lawsuit accuses the company of misleading investors about its financial health and growth prospects.

    The lawsuit alleges that Starbucks provided overly optimistic revenue projections while concealing significant challenges, particularly in the Chinese market.

    The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, claims that Starbucks’ executives made misleading statements regarding the company’s “Reinvention” strategy and expected financial performance for 2024.

    According to the complaint, these statements artificially inflated the price of Starbucks’ stock, causing investors to suffer significant losses when the company’s actual financial situation was revealed.

    The core of the allegations centers on Starbucks’ announcements in November 2023, when the company highlighted solid financial results and projected continued growth.

    However, the complaint says these optimistic projections did not account for critical issues, particularly the slower-than-expected recovery in China and increased competition, ultimately leading to a significant decline in sales and revenue.

    On April 30, Starbucks disclosed disappointing financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, including a 4% decline in global comparable store sales and a 2% drop in net revenues.

    Following this announcement, Starbucks’ stock price plummeted by over 15% in a single day, triggering the class action lawsuit.

    The lawsuit accuses Starbucks of violating federal securities laws by making false and misleading statements and failing to disclose adverse facts known to company executives.

    https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/starbucks-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-alleged-investor-deception/VJHUKQIGKVCCHB4I4YQB3ZKGA4/

  21. Germany deports 28 Afghan nationals to their homeland, the first since the Taliban takeover in 2021

    Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit described the 28 Afghan nationals as convicted criminals but did not clarify their offenses.

    “The security interests of Germany clearly outweigh the claim for protection of criminals and individuals endangering national security,” Hebestreit said in a statement.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking near Leipzig during a local election campaign event Friday, called it “a clear sign that those who commit crimes cannot count on us not deporting them, but that we will look for ways to do so.”

    Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the move a security issue for Germany.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/germany-deports-afghan-nationals-for-first-time-since-taliban-takeover-in-2021/ar-AA1pH1UV

  22. Germany’s Political Center Risks Fresh Blow in Sunday Votes

    With authorities ensuring the sides kept a safe distance on the market square of Bad Salzungen in Thuringia, the demonstrators shouted slogans like “Nazis out” to try to disrupt the campaign rally of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. Such standoffs have become routine in the country’s increasingly antagonistic political landscape.

    The states of Thuringia and Saxony — both in the former communist east — will elect new regional governments on Sunday, and frustration is high. About half of the electorate is projected to cast their ballots for the AfD or a new fringe party co-founded in January by former Left Party lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht.

    A popular figure in eastern Germany where she was born, some of Wagenknecht’s policies overlap with the AfD’s, including curbing immigration and improving relations with Russia. She also wants to hike taxes on the wealthy. The combination represents an anti-establishment wave in Europe’s largest economy.

    Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition is likely to end up the biggest loser, with polls showing combined support for the three parties below 15%. While the outcome could hold surprises with many voters undecided in the final days, the elections are likely to send a foreboding signal that Germany’s once-reliable political center has started to crumble in some parts of the country.

    A little over a week before the Saxony and Thuringia votes, a deadly knife attack in the western town of Solingen heightened tensions and underscored links between migration policy and security. A Syrian man who had avoided deportation was accused of carrying out the stabbings at a festival in an incident linked to the extremist Islamic State.

    In a sign of the pressure to act, Germany on Friday announced that 28 Afghan nationals who had been convicted of crimes were sent back to their home country for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

    Scholz vowed further steps, but asked for patience. “The topic of migration is a big wheel that needs to be turned,” he said in an interview with Spiegel magazine. “Change takes time.”

    Standing in the crowd of AfD sympathizers in picturesque Bad Salzungen, Frank Ullrich epitomized the growing dissatisfaction with Germany’s mainstream. “The ruling parties are just bickering and serving their own interests,” the 69-year-old former police officer said. “They are finished, we need a renewal.”

    A subsequent influx of investment projects has done little to brighten the mood. One in three chips produced in Europe today is “Made in Saxony.” BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Porsche AG have established production in the region, and Volkswagen AG is investing €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) to transform a plant in Zwickau into its leading production facility for electric cars. But many of the well-paid jobs pass over locals and skepticism runs deep.

    “We are also feeling the unrest in Germany, of course,” VW Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume told Bloomberg following a tour of a Porsche facility in Schwarzenberg near the Czech border. “I strongly attribute this to the fact that many people lack a sense of direction and perspective.”

    Instead of the “flourishing landscapes” promised by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, people in the east suffered job losses and semi-abandoned towns. Dashed hopes have bred mistrust.

    “The skepticism is always that if you do something in the East, it’s really only because the people there are supposed to be the guinea pigs,” said Thomas Knabel, who leads the chapter of the IG Metall union in the town in Saxony where VW’s EV factory is located.

    The AfD and the new BSW — which stands for Bündnis (Alliance) Sahra Wagenknecht — are exploiting feelings of being left behind. Both are pro-Russia and depict themselves as peace advocates, accusing Scholz’s ruling coalition of prolonging hostilities in Ukraine at the expense of the needs of Germans.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-political-fringe-takes-center-040003105.html

  23. We had fifty or 60 years of these Powers lying about the food supply and toxins and pesticides.

    The Medical Cartel was a Monopoly created by Rockefeller that infiltrated and peddled a Health System that was counter productive to health with perverse profit motives.
    The evidence is how bad the health has become to the point its a unsustainable , unaffordable and openly listed as the third cause of death in US.

    These powers just brainwashed the public into thinking that eating toxic food or taking medical chemicals and vaccines was Science.

    I remember in the 50s a Dr Budwick was a research Scientist who researched all the oils and published conclusions on how bad many oils were they were marketing in the food supply. In spite of the Dr getting nominated for Pulitzer a number of times, basically censoring the research was done.
    So, the con job was to convince the public that meat, eggs, and good fats were causing heart attacks, and you had to reduce your cholesterol by going on Statin drugs. What a con job because almost everyone would be considered being to high and they increasing lowered what they claimed was a good cholesterol score was.
    So, I go to Doctor recently and he tries to say my 138 cholesterol score was borderline and I probably need to go on statins. The truth is I was to low on count and I need to ingest more good fats to get the count up.

    The PCR test was a fake test to determine Covid.

    My friend sent me a stat that was mind blowing. The medical system has a 40% misdiagnosis rate on cancer. Since I know three people that were misdiagnosed for cancer in my life , this isn’t hard for me to believe.
    So, just saying that medical system is the test takers and the Entities that define treatment.
    They have a one size fits all approach and don’t seem to think that nutrition and lifestyle have anything to do with health.
    Now, they are geared up to market Ozempic, even to young people, when that drug has bizarre side effects, and one of the ingredients is posion. It causes your Vega nerve to become paralyzed, and this passes as a acceptable drug these day.
    Medicaid plans to put lower income children on this drug , rather than changing diet or exercise to combat overweight and diabetes.
    Just saying.

  24. Ukraine ‘shot down their own F-16 fighter jet killing ace pilot ‘Moonfish’ in friendly fire blunder with US missile’

    The lieutenant colonel – whose real name is Oleksii Mes, 31 – had shot down three cruise missiles and a Russian drone before roaring off to a second engagement.

    The F-16 had “demonstrated high efficiency” in its takedown of the enemy, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

    But tragically the jet was later found crashed on Monday with officials saying an anti-aircraft missile system shot Moonfish out of the sky by accident.

    Government MP Maryana Bezugla said: “According to my information, the F-16 of the Ukrainian pilot Oleksii ‘Moonfish’ Mes was shot down by the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system due to a lack of coordination between the [military] units.”

    https://www.thesun.ie/news/13719727/ukraine-fighter-jet-pilot-moonfish-patriot-missile/

  25. What If Real Estate Investors DON’T COME BACK | Canada Real Estate

    Angry Mortgage Podcast

    5 hours ago

    Now that we know Interest & Mortgage Rates are coming down and will bottom out next Summer many people expect sometime in the Fall or next Year the Real Estate Market will heat up & RE Investors will come flooding back into the Markets snapping up bargains, Property Flipping will resume & prices will soar again NOT SO FAST. Ron explains reality.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6t6z5F7dzA

    6:47.

    1. “Now that we know Interest & Mortgage Rates are coming down and will bottom out next Summer …”

      These people “KNOW” this, eh. Lol. These people are stupid.

      Check out what this guy has to say about knowns and unknowns:

      “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tends to be the difficult ones.” – Donald Rumsfeld

  26. ‘Two construction companies have filed lawsuits to foreclose on $3.5 million in construction liens placed on the unfinished Mandarin Oriental hotel and residential complex in downtown Boca Raton. The lawsuits follows five other complaints filed in the past two months by unhappy preconstruction buyers of the promised luxury condo…‘It’s pretty devastating,’ buyer Frank Scala said. Scala said he and his wife sold a large home and hoped to move into their luxury Mandarin Oriental condo in 2022. Since then, the Scalas been living in a rental apartment, hoping their condo’s construction would wrap up. Now they’re done waiting, and they want their $1.3 million deposit back. ‘We weren’t expecting this to continue to drag on,’ Scala said. ‘It’s been a real thorn in our sides’

    It’s been a while since I’ve read of preconstruction airbox FB’s in Florida. Something to watch.

  27. Corcoran is a city in Kings County, California, United States.[1] The population was 24,813 (2010 census), up from 14,458 (2000 census). Corcoran is located 17 miles (27 km) south-southeast of Hanford,[6] at an elevation of 207 ft (63 m).[1]

    Corcoran is most notable as the site of the California State Prison, Corcoran. The California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran is a separate facility that is also located in the city. As of January 1, 2015, the two prisons held a combined total of 9,592 inmates.[7] Inmates are counted as city residents by both the United States Census and the California Department of Finance. Thus, the incarcerated people in the two prisons comprise just over 43% of the total population of Corcoran.

    Corcoran was founded by Hobart Johnstone Whitley, a prominent land developer from southern California, who took the lead in building Corcoran (the main street of the community is named in his honor). Liking what he saw during a visit to the area in 1905 (a blacksmith shop, small store, scattered homes and a lush, untapped vista with herds of grazing wild hogs, horses and steers) Whitley purchased 32,000 acres (130 km2) to start development. Much like in the San Fernando Valley (Van Nuys and Canoga Park his “creations”), Whitley “leveraged” his holdings with the support of important Los Angeles businessmen. Whitley first intended the town be named “Otis”, after Harrison Gray Otis of the Los Angeles Times, and streets as Otis, Sherman, Letts (the Broadway store) and Ross (after his son, Ross Whitley) show the connections. Whitley, it is claimed, purchased and platted some 150 towns over the American West—and Corcoran is one of his last.

    Whitley moved a member of his real estate firm, J. W. Guiberson, to the area. Guiberson became one of the many pioneers of the community, building the first home and business structure in Corcoran. His family also helped establish the first church in the community, an event which helped lead to the town’s incorporation on August 14, 1914.

    The basis of Corcoran’s economy then and now is agriculture. Initially, the most successful crops were grains, alfalfa and sugar beets.

    In 1933, more than 12,000 workers went on strike against cotton farmers, one of the largest California agricultural strikes of 1933. Strikers in Corcoran created a tent city that eventually held more than 3,000 people, more than double the town’s population. Its lack of water or sewage systems created waves of illness.[8] Streets were staked out in the tent city, and committees of workers governed the camp.[9]

    The J. G. Boswell Company was established in Corcoran in 1921 and remains a major employer in the city.

    The first post office opened in 1901.[6]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corcoran%2C_California

    1. ‘The Fox Run Community in Corcoran, CA is still sitting empty months after families were expecting to move in. The struggle to turn power on continues in the tight knit town’s latest housing development. Major Developer D.R. Horton built over 40 brand new homes and they are ready to move in. But, PG&E has yet to secure easements, or agreements to set up power lines. For the affected families, the empty homes now feel like empty promises. ‘It’s unfortunate for these families, and it’s unfortunate because they don’t care who’s at fault. These families just want these companies to make it right for them and give them their keys’

      You have a fiasco there Reina. Video at the link above.

  28. ‘Colorado Gov. Jared Polis dismissed anger over Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in the Denver suburb of Aurora, calling it ‘imagination’ — despite video footage, police reports and the city’s mayor confirming it’s happening’

    Gaslighting doesn’t work anymore Jared.

    1. Real Journalists keep calling Aurora a suburb. It’s a city of 400,000, directly east of Denver. I live in Arapahoe County which also includes most of Aurora.

      The squeegee boys were out at the intersection of eastbound 6th Avenue and Federal this week. I idled the van a hundred feet behind the next car in front of me at the light to keep them from approaching the van.

      Nobody wants you here. You don’t belong here. GTFO of my country.

    2. “despite video footage, police reports and the city’s mayor confirming it’s happening’

      I am now 64 years old and I honestly can not believe what has happened to this country.

      Nor can I believe that these elected Marxists get away with this “Gaslighting” and continue to get elected.

      I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed but are these Leftists and middle of the road uninformed voters really that stupid?

      What’s it going to take one of the women in their family being gang raped by a Venezuelan gang while they hold off the police with “weapons of war” as the crime takes place?

      I know there are tens of thousand if not hundreds of thousand of “newcomers” in South Florida and I know they are running houses of prostitution with GD trafficked kids in Lake Worth (because it’s been on the local news and what I’ve heard from people who live there) but I haven’t seen armed gang members yet. Nonetheless, although I haven’t carried since I got pretty sick a number of years ago after seeing that Aurora apartment video I’ll be packing everyday I leave the house with a couple of extra mags until the time Donald Trump cleans up this sewer and sends these thugs back home.

  29. ‘Tents, furniture, a filing cabinet, a BBQ, racks of clothing, a metal ice tub and needles are littered behind Kyle in a wooded encampment behind Crawford Avenue. ‘It looks like a (expletive) nightmare,’ he admits while holding drug paraphernalia in his hand. ‘I spent all winter out here’

    We need to nurture and protect Kyle for as long as possible. Until he OD’s at least. And I guess then pay for his hole digging and probate mess.

  30. ‘It’s so important to learn to pivot, and look at what’s working and what isn’t working…If your competitor is at a [similar] price and they’re not selling either, someone will do a price drop. It might as well be you, so you can steal the buyer and get off the market’

    Yer right Andy, screw the comps, it’s every man for himself.

  31. ‘In the jargon, many properties appear to be ‘safety deposit boxes’ for foreign investors. Let’s not be shy about this phenomenon. Developers are quite open about it. They say they need to sell units ‘off plan’ in order to help finance the development, and selling off plan often means through their offices in Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore or Bangkok. So if an investor buys a property and that helps to get the development moving, regardless of whether the property then stays empty or not, that’s just how our warped housing market works. We’ve become numbed to it’

    The globalist scum runs on money laundering. That’s why their globalist scum media rarely talks about it.

  32. ‘It’s like Rotorua but a little bit more potent. It smells like poo’…‘We must slow down intensification until our infrastructure has caught up. Tankering wastewater by road is just the old-fashioned night cart going door to door‘

    I bet that night cart thing was a hoot Ken.

    From cesspits to night-men

    Open drains carrying sewage, and filled with other rubbish, stank in warm weather. By the 1860s the cities realised they had a problem. Yet it was the 1870s before money was raised to improve conditions. The most important steps were cheap – banning cesspits and requiring night-soil collections.

    A cesspit was a hole dug in a backyard, with an outhouse erected on top – when it filled, a new hole was dug. Pretty soon backyards were riddled with holes full of excrement.

    Cesspits were prohibited in the 1870s. Night soil had to be removed (at the householder’s expense) by council contractors who came to be known as night-men. They had to work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., emptying pails of excrement into their carts, which had specially constructed wooden tanks. Many householders simply ignored the regulations, so illegal disposal of human waste continued to be a nuisance and a hazard in some places.

    Councils set up ‘manure depots’ on the edges of town – often on dunelands – where collected night soil was dumped. Workers there were meant to bury the waste, but didn’t always do so adequately. The solution to these insanitary human waste dumps was to turn the night soil into sewage, mixing water with human and industrial waste in underground pipes that (initially) discharged it all untreated into the sea or rivers.

    https://teara.govt.nz/en/sewage-water-and-waste/page-3

    1. Pretty soon backyards were riddled with holes full of excrement.

      After about six months, it’s all decomposed and safe.

  33. ‘Sahar Ghaly has almost $100,000 invested in Shield. The 56-year-old is a family violence survivor who runs a charity and was hoping the switch would lead to a more comfortable retirement. Right now, she feels anything but comfortable. ‘I’m disgusted,’ Ms Ghaly said. ‘As a working woman who’s trying to make ends meet and often sometimes runs out of money before my payday, I just feel really appalled.’ Victorian woman Louise has a similar amount invested. Unlike others the ABC has spoken to she didn’t feel pressured — but is now reconsidering her investment. ‘It’s gut wrenching,’ she said. ‘I’m a single woman, I don’t have anyone else … I need every cent that’s going to be there’

    You got greedy and are holding the bag lady’s.

  34. Are The Banks Having Trust Issues? (Peel Region Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    23 minutes ago MISSISSAUGA

    In this episode we take a look at the current Brampton, Mississauga, Ajax, Whitby, Pickering Real Estate home prices and market trends for week ending Aug 21, 2024. We also discuss a new thing we are seeing where the same lender will be ordering multiple appraisals on one property.

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

    12 minutes.

Comments are closed.