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The House Is Just A Series Of Unfortunate Events

A report from KHON in Hawaii. “Many condo and townhouse owners are starting to pay up for the increased maintenance fees due to skyrocketing insurance costs. The Gardens at Launani Valley in Mililani has 238 units. Each owner received a letter from the association dated Aug. 27, saying they’ll all have to cover the 325% increase in insurance coverage for the complex, which is more than $570,000, due Oct. 1. Miles Curtis’ portion comes out to a one-time payment of about $2,700. That’s on top of the $600 monthly maintenance fee. On top of the assessment, Curtis said homeowners had to pay for a $900 plumbing upgrade at the beginning of the year. ‘I can get that, you know, insurance rates go up, but then like, where does it stop?’ said Curtis. ‘And it goes into I mean, just worrying about the family, like, you know, I don’t want to have to get two, two or three full time jobs.'”

Boston.com in Massachusetts. “There are some words that just don’t go together. ‘Toilet’ and ‘explode’ are two of them. So in January, when the toilet exploded in Nick Motyl’s Somerville condominium, he called 911. Motyl had closed on the home, his first, in September 2021. ‘I got the thing that I wanted for such a long time,’ Motyl said. ‘And it was really cool for like two years, and then it just kind of got ripped away, literally overnight.’ The toilet wouldn’t flush. The plumber couldn’t get there anytime soon. But then, without warning, water began to gush from the tub. Terrible, stinky water. It was sewage. Owning a home seemed like an obvious goal — and a socially encouraged one at that — said Motyl. But it’s hard not to regret this decision. ‘I don’t honestly know what I would have been able to do to prevent this from happening,’ he said.”

“It was a few months following inspection when Nicole Eller figured out there was a hole in the foundation of her new home. A heating exhaust system had been improperly installed prior to move-in day at the Barrington, R.I., property. Soon, the house required a water heater replacement, costing more than $15,000. Door and window replacement contractors presented myriad frustrations. And, Eller said, she had ignored her mortgage broker’s advice to buy a slightly larger house, and her family soon began to outgrow this one. ‘The house, I guess, is just a series of unfortunate events,’ Eller said.”

Fox Local in Florida. “It only took about an hour for two feet of water to flood Gary Dykens’ home of more than 25 years last Wednesday night in St. Pete. ‘It was seeping all through the doors, even through the sliding glass door, seeping under the tub,’ Dykens said. ‘You got sewage in the house, and so, the whole house has to be gutted.’ He’s not alone. Neighbors a few houses down said they climbed through a window to escape, because they didn’t want to let more water into the house through the front door. Dykens and others, though, said they want more answers from the city. They said they don’t have flood insurance, because it’s not a flood zone, and have never had issues. ‘You have a lot of angry people,’ Dykens said. ‘They need to help us out maybe a little bit. They need to put a sump pump in at the baseball field. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not enough over there.'”

From Denver 7. “Holly Crystal says her homeowners association in Frisco has been in turmoil for years. Court records show she has fought a long legal battle after she said her four-house HOA granted themselves an easement on her property. Last month, a court of appeals ruled in her favor on that issue. ‘I’m horrified to the point where I need to do something,’ she said. ‘To date, I’m now over $400,000 in legal fees, and my journey through this process has been horrifying.’ Now, she is part of a growing Colorado chorus calling for HOA reform.”

“‘HOAs are almost like third-world dictatorships, where they can do almost anything they want, even flat-out crime,’ said Patrick Johansen, with HOA Reform Leaders (HRLING), a national HOA reform advocacy group. ‘So the biggest problem is that there’s no enforcement of the laws. The only thing that the homeowners can do is to take them to court. The homeowners have to use their own money and could potentially risk their home, trying to force the HOA board to follow the laws.'”

The San Francisco Standard in California. “In the idyllic, coastal city of Pacifica, a civil war is unfolding over what some say their lifestyles and livelihoods depend on: Airbnb. On one side of the debate, residents say short-term rentals have subjected them to a living hell of loud parties, overflowing trash, and parking wars. On the other, some homeowners say Airbnb income allows them to afford their mortgages. Wayne Thai and his wife moved to Pacifica in 2019 after purchasing a three-bedroom house on Milagra Drive for $1.3 million. When the couple decided to move back to the East Bay to care for ill relatives, they listed the home on Airbnb and its competitor Vrbo. Thai said the income they get from renting out the house — $70,000 a year — goes toward home improvements and paying off the mortgage. The couple rents it out for nine months a year, just enough to break even, Thai said. ‘We could lose the home,’ the 40-year-old said of the proposed restrictions. ‘I want to work out a solution rather than a straight ban.'”

The Westside Current. “For non-profit affordable housing developers, business in Los Angeles is booming. But in the past 18 months, new housing development in Los Angeles has collapsed, all but guaranteeing that L.A.’s housing shortage will continue in perpetuity. And the political influence of those non-profit developers may be to blame. During the pandemic, these developers benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in Project Homekey funds – grants issued by the state for homeless housing. The Ramada Inn project developed by PATH Ventures was just such a Homekey-funded project. So are the Aviation Apartments, opened by Venice Community Housing. All in all, over $800 million in Project Homekey funds went to non profit developers, and, according to our recent reporting, over 1200 of the units purchased are still vacant, including the Ramada.”

“This growth is not limited to these particular 503cs. As illustrated by Sue Pascoe in a recent editorial for Circling the News, many other not-for-profits have benefited from what she terms a ‘gold rush’ for homeless services agencies. This explosive growth has occurred concurrently with a massive increase in government funding for affordable housing projects over the past eight years. In 2016, voters passed Proposition HHH, which raised $1.2 billion, funneled exclusively to affordable housing developers for new construction projects which cost, on average, over $600K per unit to build.”

The El Paso Times in Texas. “El Paso’s Gateway Hotel was temporarily shut down by a state judge after the hotel owner was accused by the El Paso County Attorney’s Office of illegally operating the hotel and allowing criminal activity, including housing members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The El Paso Police Department has received 693 police calls for service related to criminal activities, including assaults, gang involvement, and suspected prostitution, the lawsuit states. The officers claimed hotel management has not attempted to control illegal activity, allowing drug use, gang activity, and illegal dumping to persist, the affidavit states. The officers warned that the establishment poses a significant threat to public safety if these conditions continue.”

“News of the Tren de Aragua gang in El Paso has also made headlines, with several high-profile figures, including Elon Musk, sharing it on social media. Musk reposted an image of the alleged gang in a hotel, captioning it, ‘Mad Max is becoming real fast.'”

Global News in Canada. “Residents in an Upper Mission neighbourhood of Kelowna, B.C., are pleading with the city to help shut down what they call a problem short-term rental home. ‘I’ll be frank with you, I’m fed up,’ said Dave Montpetit, who lives on Viewcrest Court. ‘Parties going on, we had a tour bus show up and drop people off, we had abusive tenants in the house that were renting it, they were swearing and intimidating and yelling at the neighbours.’ Earlier this month, there was another disturbing incident as Montpetit took his dog for an early-morning walk. ‘I heard loud music followed by moaning and groaning,’ Montpetit said. ‘There were people having sex in the pool, utterly shocked.'”

“Montpetit is far from alone as numerous residents on the street told Global News they are fed up. ‘I have kids, and some of the stuff that goes on, like vulgar language, the partying, you know, obviously the sex on the street, you know, up in the pool,’ said Trevor Bigelow, another concerned resident. ‘It’s just constant.’ Residents were hopeful B.C.’s new legislation that stipulates the owner must live on the premises to rent would help shut down the operation, but that hasn’t happened. ‘We know there is no owner there,’ said Montpetit. ‘They reside in Vancouver.'”

From CTV News. “The dream of a life on water has drowned in a sea of sadness for a group of Chatham-Kent residents who paid a Wallaceburg-based company for a floating home they never received. ‘It just never happened,’ stated Meg Connelly, who along with Melissa Jacob and Keith Thompson say they’re waiting for their money back from Stronghouse Canada Corp./Twin Dolphins Canada Corp. The residents even have a court ruling, ordering restitution and they’re still waiting for repayment. ‘It’s really disheartening. I’ve cried a lot of tears,’ said Connelly.”

“The 71-year-old retired nurse said she was excited about the idea of living on the Sydenham River when it was first presented in 2020. She sold her mortgage-free home to get one. Now, Connelly describes herself as a senior with no nest egg who was forced to take a part time job at a grocery store to make ends meet. ‘It’s been really disappointing. Disheartening. I lost my life savings doing this. I sold a home that was paid for, and eventually after two years I had to try and find another place to live. I was living in a camper in my daughter’s backyard. I got a condo, but I now have a mortgage on it.'”

The Telegraph. “George Osborne’s redesign of England’s stamp duty taxation has driven down the number of £1m homes in London over the past decade, analysis shows. In December 2014, then-Conservative chancellor Mr Osborne announced major reforms to stamp duty. He abolished the ‘slab’ system in favour of charging on ‘slices.’ This meant stamp duty began to work in a similar way to income tax, with higher rates only charged on the parts of the price above the thresholds. More expensive homes suddenly saw their stamp duty liabilities shoot up. This then ate into the potential profit owners could make if they decided to sell, as buyers now had to factor in much higher bills for these types of properties. Since Mr Osborne’s changes, prices in the prime London market have fallen by 17pc.”

Radio New Zealand. “A year after a troubled, half-finished Auckland apartment block found a new owner, neighbouring businesses are still waiting for the building to be finished – or knocked down. The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent. The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023. Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with rats and squatters.”

“Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association president Dominique Bonn described the multi-storey building as a ‘blight on the Epsom landscape.’ It was covered in graffiti and ‘entombed’ in scaffolding. ‘It’s an eyesore – certainly not something we welcome in the area. We’re very keen to see something built to conclusion, but we have no real gauge on what’s going to happen.’ Yvonne Sanders, the owner of Yvonne Sanders Antiques on the other side of the apartment block, said the derelict state of the building had led to rats coming into her shop. ‘We even had one worker who had a rat crawl across her leg!'”

News.com.au in Australia. “Dr Smith* thought he’d retired to a nice suburb and complex in Sydney’s east when for the first time, as a strata committee member, he was confronted by other members who thought nothing of abusing him. The stoush began when he simply suggested cleaning faecal matter from defective piping which had leaked onto his car space. Instead of a solution, emails seen by news.com.au reveal he was met with accusations by the chairman of the committee that the only ‘faecal matter’ was the ‘stinky content’ of his email and that he stop ‘faecal ranting’ about ‘faecal nonsense.’ But it didn’t stop there, with another committee member suggesting Dr Smith stop ‘creating drama’ and that he should ‘sell’ and ‘go find happiness’ elsewhere. ‘To say I was shocked is an understatement,’ Dr Smith said.”

“Meanwhile, in another example, Samantha*, a lawyer and committee member on another complex, said she was stunned to find that her committee chairman took it upon himself to send a derogatory letter to a long-term tenant telling him to ‘stop washing his genitals with the hose’ and to ‘stop spreading odours with his cooking,’ while also wrongly accusing him of having a ‘mental illness.’ ‘The committee was livid at these accusations, as they only came from the chairman. I insisted a record be kept by strata management that the committee had not approved this,’ she said. ‘It’s disgraceful. Imagine this happening in the workplace? Strata committees are like the wild wild west.'”

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This Post Has 111 Comments

  2. ‘Owning a home seemed like an obvious goal — and a socially encouraged one at that — said Motyl. But it’s hard not to regret this decision. ‘I don’t honestly know what I would have been able to do to prevent this from happening’

    I don’t either Nick, but it is still way cheaper than renting!

  3. Is now a good time to buy a home? Or should CR8Ring share prices serve as a warning to the wise to stand by and stand back?

    1. Real Estate
      Economic Report
      Economic Report
      Mortgage rates plunge to lowest level since February 2023
      Home-buying activity is slowly inching up while refinances are up 106% from a year ago, industry group says
      By Aarthi Swaminathan
      Follow
      Published: Sept. 11, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. ET
      Mortgage applications are an early indicator of sales activity in the housing market.
      Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
      Referenced Symbols
      FNMA

      The numbers: Applications for mortgages inched up as mortgage rates fell for the sixth week in a row.

      The 30-year fell to the lowest level since February 2023 ahead of a highly anticipated rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.

      The drop in rates pushed the market composite index — a measure of mortgage application volume — up slightly in the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday.

      The market index rose 1.4% to 233.7 for the week ending Sept. 6 from a week prior. A year ago, the index stood at 182.2.

      Key details: The purchase index — which measures mortgage applications for the purchase of a home — rose 1.8% from a week before.

      The refinance index rose by 0.9%.

      The average contract rate for a 30-year mortgage for homes sold for $766,550 or less was 6.29% for the week ending Sept. 6. That’s down from 6.43% the previous week.

      The rate for jumbo loans, or the 30-year mortgage for homes sold for over $766,550, was 6.56%, down from 6.73% a week before.

      The average rate for a 30-year mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration was 6.24%, down from 6.3% a week prior.

      The 15-year was down to 5.71% from 5.98% from the previous week.
      …
      https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mortgage-rates-plunge-to-lowest-level-since-february-2023-76a77d68

    2. LStock Market Today
      Dow Jones Slides On Surprise Inflation Report; GameStop Plunges On Sales Miss, Share Offering
      SCOTT LEHTONEN 09:36 AM ET 09/11/2024

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped Wednesday, as Wall Street digested inflation news with a surprise reading on the consumer price index, or CPI. An early earnings loser on the stock market today was GameStop (GME), which plunged nearly 13%.
      …
      https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-sp500-nasdaq-cpi-inflation-gamestop-gme-stock/

    1. Ha Ha, it’s a known ,that in urban areas , if you advertise free pets ,to “a good home”, they’re often hanging meat by that night, and in the pot , of people that eat them……
      .That’s the one thing easy to recall from the debate….Why would a city Manager,of Springfied Ohio, tell the truth about anything, anyways?

      1. Why would a city Manager,of Springfied Ohio, tell the truth about anything, anyways?

        Brown envelopes are probably at stake. Tell the truth and they stop arriving.

    3. “Has anyone seen my cat?”

      I think the guy holding the duck with a broken neck has it next to his mattress on this lady’s front lawn.

      1. captive dreamer
        @captivedreamer7

        Absolutely HEARTBREAKING moment Springfield, Ohio, resident tells mayor that she “can’t take it anymore” as Haitian migrants squat on her lawn, litter in her yard and harass her and elderly husband daily.

        The mayor of Springfield does NOT want people to see this:

        11:52 PM · Sep 6, 2024
        ·
        https://x.com/captivedreamer7/status/1832265609905672235

    4. The meme-igry coming out of the cat story is priceless. Twitter/X is overflowing with AI-generated images of DJT rescuing rotund cats from the zombie hordes.

  6. “Soon, the house required a water heater replacement, costing more than $15,000”

    In case any of you have never installed a water heater, even tankless, that’s about $13,500 profit for a half days work. Explain again why you want to send your kids to college?

    1. installed a water heater, even tankless

      The one I put in here 10 years cost $1,000 and my son installed it in probably about half a day, not including running the gas line and flue.

    2. I saw that too and that makes little sense.

      Maybe they meant a boiler (for hot water heat, radiators and such?)

      Cuz HVAC has definitely gone crazy price wise (like a true double in the last few years).

    3. “Soon, the house required a water heater replacement, costing more than $15,000”

      Someone got taken for a ride.

    5. The really sad part is that often times it is just the heater element that goes bad and you can buy one for 10 dollars and see how it goes in on youtube. They are made to be easily replaced but most home owners dont know this so they believe it when they are told they need a new 15k tank. Way too many contractors have become thieves.

      1. Just be certain to double check your voltage is off. Someone mislabeled dryer and water heater in the breaker box of my home and gave me a good old scare. Thank goodness for rubber handled screwdrivers and baby wipes!

  7. Pres. Trump had a tough go of it, debating 3 people at the same time …he’d do well to just ignore it and go about his business of informing people of his plans ……i’m worried about “Madame pres,”s plans for us ,if she has any that dosen’t involve big government

    1. lots of people should vote for Trump. just out of protest for the D not going the 25th amendment route, and give K 100 days to prove her worth…. where is da prez?

    2. “Pres. Trump had a tough go of it, debating 3 people at the same time”

      21 False Claims & Hoaxes by Kamala Harris that ABC’s Debate Moderators Did Not Fact Check

      Alana Mastrangelo
      10 Sep 2024

      (after number 1 I have left out descriptions but feel free to click the link and read them.)

      1. “Very fine people” hoax

      Harris claimed Trump called neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “very fine people,” a widely known hoax that Democrats continue to repeat, despite it being debunked for years by numerous outlets, including by the left-wing fact checking website Snopes.

      2. Project 2025 hoax
      3. False claims on Trump trade deficit
      4. Putin can “do whatever the hell he wants”
      5. “Dictator on day one” hoax
      6. Blaming botched Afghanistan withdrawal on Trump
      7. Putin “would be sitting in Kyiv”
      8. “Bloodbath” hoax
      9. Abortion “monitor” hoax
      10. Rental property hoax
      11. Central Park Five “execution” hoax
      12. “Suckers and losers” hoax
      13. False fracking claims
      14. False oil production claims
      15. National Sales Tax
      16. Distorting unemployment figures
      17. “I was raised middle-class”
      18. “Terminating” the Constitution
      19. “Sold us out” to China
      20. “Not one” troop in any war zone
      21. Taking guns away

      While ABC’s debate moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir failed to fact-check the plethora of false claims and hoaxes uttered by Harris, they frequently tried to fact-check Trump, with Muir even bizarrely fact-checking a joke the 45th president had previously made.

      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/09/10/21-kamala-harris-false-claims-hoaxes-that-debate-moderators-did-not-fact-check/

    4. debating 3 people at the same time

      Possibly more. It looks like Kamala wore NOVA Audio Device Earrings.

      1. It’s all lying and cheating with them. Which shows just how much is at stake.

        I’ve lived in a one party state before, in Mexico when the PRI ruled. But the PRI wasn’t half as crazy as the Dems, they were mostly content with grifting. That said, Mexico is reverting to a defacto one party state, this time with MORENA (AMLO’s party) at the helm. And MORENA is all on board with globo homo, especially AMLO’s replacement, Claudia Sheinbaum, who takes office in December

    5. Usually it’s the losing team that blames the moderators. But this time it was SO egregious that even the normies knew something was up.

      At first I thought the Special K won the debate, but looking back, DJT didn’t really do any worse than he did in the Biden debate. He still doesn’t prepare like he should, and he still gets distracted by the same ten old-news questions like J6 and election integrity, and he still can’t pivot to save his life. But he did get some zingers off, so overall the whole thing was inconclusive.

      Special K will get a small bump in the polls, but her bump will disappear agagin as more and more stories come out about gangs taking over apartments, bennies for migrants, and cat sacrifice. And nobody believes her policy shifts. Suddenly she’s pro-gun?
      She thinks COVID came from a lab in China? She’s now pro-Israel (maybe)? Pro-border? Nobody believes it.

  8. Best and brightest!

    the El Paso County Attorney’s Office of illegally operating the hotel and allowing criminal activity, including housing members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

  9. “..Many condo and townhouse owners are starting to pay up for the increased maintenance fees due to skyrocketing insurance costs. The Gardens at Launani Valley in Mililani…”

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

  12. A reader sent these in:

    What a disgrace. @ABC didn’t ask a single question about the soaring national debt, the rising cost of servicing that debt, out-of-control entitlement spending, high inflation, rising unemployment, record-high consumer debt, record-low savings, or the explosion of moonlighting.

    https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/1833697237529952682

    A 336 unit luxury apartment complex in Downtown Atlanta is already facing foreclosure 3 yrs after the owners acquired it

    It sold in 2021 for $126M, a record for the most expensive apartment to sell in the submarket

    https://x.com/TripleNetInvest/status/1833560569271751049

    Volkswagen told union leaders on Tuesday that it is ending a labor agreement that protected workers from mass layoffs, a week after the automaker said it was considering closing factories in Germany amid a steep sales decline.

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1833577182406320229

    Amazon to eliminate hundreds of positions in California – primarily at distribution centers

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1833602318119436580

    PHCV4 Homes, LLC has filed Chapter 11 in the Northern District of Alabama

    https://x.com/_RKConsultants/status/1833607970355106000

    I have talked to SO MANY people who lost their housing because their landlords took their houses or apartments off the housing market in order to turn them into Airbnb’s.

    That’s the real story, not noise and trash complaints.

    https://x.com/BrenBartholomew/status/1832256698192687147

    Brian Moynihan makes about $30M a year to run a bank that the Fed (via U.S. taxpayers) won’t let fail.

    https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1833576258233635139

    Slapping a cop or anyone and expecting no reaction, is pure ignorance.

    https://x.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1833629899132731452

    Boomer to builder: “Like a mobile home but 6 of them all merged together into one super mobile home”

    https://x.com/NipseyHoussle/status/1833638740830433691

    Real estate is the business cycle.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1833664027383185461

    There is nothing in the world that is a more reliable indicator that we’re at the end of the cycle than $ALLY imploding. 👇🏼

    https://x.com/MauiBoyMacro/status/1833516462725861694

    Car insurance rates are skyrocketing (up 95% over the past 10 years) and car insurance companies are minting money. Progressive stock is up over 1,000% in the last decade vs. 241% gain for the S&P 500.

    https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1833527289516331346

    Auto loan delinquencies keep climbing

    Subprime delinquencies (FICO: 580–669) jumped 26 basis points to 5.17% in Aug.

    Even prime loans (660–719) saw a slight uptick to 0.50% overdue.

    The reason?

    Consumers with auto loans originated in the past two years are falling further behind as elevated interest rates and vehicle prices squeeze household finances.

    Of subprime auto loans originated in 2023, 13.4% are 30+ days to 90+ days overdue.

    And there’s another red flag—

    Loss severities (the portion of value investors lose when borrowers default) on 2023 subprime loans are the highest on record.

    Bottom line: Consumer resilience has kept a recession at bay but it could be reaching its limits.

    https://x.com/GuyDealership/status/1833521166876639281

    1. “Slapping a cop or anyone and expecting no reaction, is pure ignorance.

      https://x.com/SteveInmanUIC/status/1833629899132731452

      My father drilled into my head from a very early age that when addressing a policeman you say… Yes sir, no sir and comply with whatever he asks me to do.

      He also taught me to never ever hit a girl or a woman under any circumstance. He went as far to say you may have a good reason, but don’t ever do it.

      It appears from this video that the hitter and the hitee”s fathers had a different world view than that of my old man.

  13. Contractor errors and defects fuel offshore wind project losses

    The surge in offshore wind construction has led to a corresponding increase in insurance claims, creating a cyclical “boom and bust” pattern, according to GCube Insurance.

    In a report, GCube said contractor error and defect continue to be the major root causes of offshore wind losses, representing 63% of claims by frequency in 2022, up from 55% in 2020.

    Its analysis also revealed that 48% of onshore (wind and solar) construction losses by severity are attributable to natural catastrophe and extreme weather, followed by contractor error and defect at 16%.

    The insurer warned that these challenges may lead to delayed project start times and drive a surge in construction claims.

    What the renewable energy sector needs to do is focus on long-term sustainability, GCube said. Offshore construction should prioritise project success over rapid growth, whilst onshore construction must prevent compounding natural catastrophe losses with human errors, it added.

    To mitigate potential losses, GCube is also urging asset owners to have a robust baseline project plan supplemented by thorough project monitoring, understand the insurance policy, and develop trusted contacts in the supply chain to ensure quality control.

    “The forthcoming period of construction activity – and the rising impact of extreme weather – requires a high concentration of risk management, insurance and claims expertise as the industry braces itself for an inevitable increase in losses,” said Fraser McLachlan, founder and CEO of GCube.

    “Pivotal to minimising project disruption and unbudgeted expense will be the collaboration of insureds and insurers to exchange information and expertise throughout the project lifecycle,” he added.

    https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/contractor-errors-and-defects-fuel-offshore-wind-project-losses/ar-AA1qmTFa

  14. Leaders in San Jose face two major problems: dirty streets filled with trash and debris, and a housing crisis that contributes to homelessness.

    But there’s hope that an expansion of the existing Downtown Streets Team program will help to solve both issues.

    A clean business is a thriving business, something Francisco Quintero, owner of El Maza, knows all too well.

    He’s proud of his restaurant in the Luna Park District of Downtown San Jose.

    But he’s still dealing with bad reviews, due to the conditions along the street outside his front door.

    “Saying that it wasn’t very safe to come here, that it was too dirty,” Quintero said. “That’s not a good sensation when you’re putting all your money into your business for someone to come and criticize that or telling other people not to come to this area.”

    “If it wasn’t for us, all the debris, needles and all that stuff that we found – drug pipes and all that nasty stuff – it wouldn’t be so good for children to even be in that environment,” volunteer Mercy Wong said. “It was really horrible to see. But I’m really glad they have the Downtown Street Team to clean all that up.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/sj-to-expand-downtown-streets-team-coverage-to-address-blight-homelessness-issues/ar-AA1qlVQx

  15. Five babies have died while homeless in Santa Clara County this year

    Advocates in San Jose say five babies have died on the streets so far this year, they were living unhoused with their families. They say this is the highest number of infant deaths they’ve seen in recent years.

    Advocates told the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors that things seem to be getting worse for people living on the streets. They’re seeing babies and elderly people who simply cannot survive without housing.

    “There’s a pregnant woman who’s been swept five times in two months but never missed a day of work while being swept. I’m just hoping she will not have a baby while being swept,” said Rose, a homeless advocate who spoke to the Board of Supervisors.

    During Tuesday’s Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting, homeless advocates told the board how dire situations are for those living on the streets, especially the elderly and young children.

    “So far, 145 people have died on the streets this year. Eighty-five of them have been seniors and the worst fact is that five of them have been babies,” said Shaunn Cartwright, Co-founder of Unhoused Response Group.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/five-babies-have-died-while-homeless-in-santa-clara-county-this-year/ar-AA1qmSej

    1. Five babies have died while homeless in Santa Clara County this year

      There was a time when somebody would have gone to prison for this. But it’s all very progressive and compassionate.

      2. “At the encampment at San Jose’s Columbus Park, 22-year-old Angie told us through a translator that she’s afraid to be alone in a shelter with her two-month-old baby. She says she came from Columbia about five months ago and has been living there in a trailer with seven other family members.”

        Her and the love child demand Section 8 housing, NOW. You taxpayers better get moving; chop chop!!

  16. Sir: Incessant building collapse, to say the least has become a source of concern and embarrassment to Nigerians. More embarrassing is that buildings are collapsing across the country in quick succession, giving the impression that there are no professionals and that there is no regulatory body in place.

    Causes of building collapse include, but not limited to influx of substandard building materials into the market-leading to incessant complaints and defects in buildings, non-implementation of the National Building Code, soil investigation not carried out, and use of wrong foundation type on varying soils.

    Other causes include failure of regulatory authorities to ensure compliance to permits and approvals, negligence or non-involvement of professionals in building and construction process.

    There is no better way to prevent building collapse outside the coming-together of all building professionals- architects, engineers, builders, estate surveyors and valuers-to ensure approvals are adhered to and also to certify every stage of a building project. This way, it would be easy to know when a developer is cutting corners or compromising on regulatory permits and approvals.

    https://thenationonlineng.net/on-incessant-building-collapse/

  17. The announcement that the New Democratic Party is splintering from its coalition with the Liberals served as a reminder of what a colossal mess the government has left the national economy. The imbalances are shocking and numerous.

    For one, Canada is in a debt crisis. Not necessarily in the government sector, but for whatever reason, someone at the helm thought it prudent to allow the household sector to run up an extraordinarily leveraged balance sheet.

    Total debt-to-income sits at 177 per cent, which is double the government sector debt load and nearly 40 percentage points above both the historical norm and the peak of the credit market bubble in the United States in 2006-2007. We all know what happened next.

    With the Bank of Canada’s prior aggressive tightening cycle bumping against this debt burden, Canadians, in the aggregate, are shelling out 15 cents in debt service for every after-tax dollar earned, which is a level that presaged each of the past four official recessions.

    Second, we have had a government that has not been at all focused on capital formation and productivity, camouflaging the underlying weakness in the economy by promoting the most aggressive immigration policy on record — to a point where population growth is running at a hot 3.5 per cent annual rate.

    But the multiplier impact on the economy has been so nonexistent in that it has only managed to spin out a real gross domestic product growth trend of less than one per cent year over year. Real per capita GDP has sequentially contracted in each of the past five quarters and is now down 2.4 per cent on a year-over-year basis.

    Third, and this is a product of No. 2, productivity in Canada is in secular decline — down 0.8 per cent from a year ago versus the 2.7 per cent uptrend south of the border. The question is, why?

    Well, in Canada, the government has built up such a machinery that it represents 26 per cent of GDP. The business sector, the area that is there to support growth in the productive private capital stock, now commands just a little over 10 per cent share of GDP, which is about three-quarters of what it is in the U.S.

    In case you’re wondering how it came to pass that the productivity differential between the two countries has reached such disturbingly high levels, we have concentrated so much on government that the ignored productive private sector capital stock has completely stagnated over the past decade.

    Ergo, we have a crisis in Canada of capital investment and productivity, which is why we have been so reliant on immigration, but even here, the population boom is lagging well behind the economy’s output and income-generating capacity.

    Only 50 per cent of new entrants to the labour force over the past year have managed to land a job, and that compares to more than 80 per cent a year ago and over 100 per cent two years ago. As the slack in the labour market widens further, nominal wage growth, while elevated now, will recede with a lag. That is the denominator in the debt ratio and will make household balance sheets even more fragile than they are today — notwithstanding the Bank of Canada’s attempt now to contain the damage.

    The Bank of Canada estimates that average monthly payments have risen nine per cent since the onset of the aggressive tightening cycle two years ago, and that burden will rise by 17 per cent by 2027.

    The numbers you need to keep top of mind are: first, that just under 50 per cent of the existing fixed-mortgage stock will be renewing by the end of 2026 (and 76 per cent of all categories of mortgages, including variable-rate mortgages with fixed payments, per the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions); and, second, two-thirds of mortgages have a loan-to-value ratio of more than 65 per cent and that share goes up to 80 per cent for first-time buyers.

    https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/david-rosenberg-canada-crisis-maybe-153725312.html

  18. Bank of Canada’s Tiff Macklem warns of price shocks as trade is rewired

    Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem warned Tuesday that changing patterns of global trade could add upward pressure to inflation and cautioned governments against using national-security concerns as a “pretext for inefficient protectionism.”

    International trade is being “rewired” by geopolitical tensions, digital technology and China’s transition from being a supplier of low-cost goods to a producer of advanced technologies, such as electric vehicles and semi-conductors, Mr. Macklem said in a speech to the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce in London.

    Tariff walls are rising and globe-spanning supply chains are being reconfigured in real time. That creates opportunities for businesses and governments willing to seize the initiative, Mr. Macklem said. But it also creates risks, not least for central bankers trying to keep inflation under control.

    In recent decades, the expansion of global trade helped push down the price of many goods.

    “Going forward, with globalization slowing, the cost of global goods may not decline to the same degree. All things equal, this could put more upward pressure on inflation,” Mr. Macklem said, adding that “trade disruptions may also increase the variability of inflation.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-bank-of-canada-macklem-inflation-global-trade/

    1. ‘Tiff Macklem warned Tuesday that changing patterns of global trade could add upward pressure to inflation…International trade is being “rewired” by geopolitical tensions, digital technology and China’s transition from being a supplier of low-cost goods to a producer of advanced technologies, such as electric vehicles and semi-conductors, Mr. Macklem said…In recent decades, the expansion of global trade helped push down the price of many goods’

      ‘Going forward, with globalization slowing, the cost of global goods may not decline to the same degree. All things equal, this could put more upward pressure on inflation’

      I think about this some. Why did inflation run out of control after decades? It wasn’t the just the money printing cuz we’ve had QE for well over a decade. IMO it was because China ran out of rope, stopped being the worlds factory and their labor prices have gotten too high. Look at all these globalist scum at eat others throats now over EV’s, energy and minerals, etc.

      Let’s say Tiff and the girls get inflation down. That isn’t going to put China back to where they were. Which suggests inflation could shoot up at any time with more money printing, which the globalist scum are already anticipating. Yer easy money cookie jar may be broken Tiff and Jerry.

  19. Saskatchewan’s overdose crisis is tragically on par with last year’s record breaking total, with more than 200 people having lost their lives to accidental overdoses in the first seven months of the year.

    From Jan. 1 to July 31, 229 people have died as a result of drug toxicity in Saskatchewan. Of those, 104 have been conclusively proven to be accidental, while five were found to be a result of suicide. One case is still classified as undetermined.

    In addition, suspected drug toxicity deaths total 119 in the same period, resulting in a total of 229.

    Including both confirmed and suspected deaths – 2023 saw 460 people lose their lives to drug toxicity.

    “Drug toxicity is getting much, much worse. We’re seeing combinations of drugs where people still don’t know there’s fentanyl in it,” explained Kayla Demong, executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction.

    https://regina.ctvnews.ca/drug-toxicity-deaths-in-sask-seemingly-on-course-to-match-record-set-in-2023-1.7022693

    1. Funny how the gooberment was able to keep ivermectin out of people’s hands, but is powerless to stop the spread of fentanyl.

      1. Big Pharma gets paid by taxpayers, and the flood of fentanyl continues to exterminate unneeded Whitey.

        All intentional and by design.

  20. The National Flood Insurance Program — the government-sponsored public insurance program that is the largest flood insurer in the U.S. — needs to be reauthorized by Sept. 30 to continue to issue new policies or increase coverage on existing policies.

    If you are buying or selling a house, you want to avoid the end of September and the beginning of October.

    Congress established the NFIP in 1968 to provide reasonably priced flood insurance coverage. The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, which included the NFIP authorization, expired on Sept. 30, 2017. Since then, Congress has extended the NFIP’s authorization 30 times — but it has also lapsed briefly three times in that period.

    “This is about the ability to get a mortgage in a flood zone after Sept. 30,” said Jaret Seiberg, a managing director and financial policy analyst at TD Cowen. “Without an [NFIP] extension, you’re not going to be able to get a mortgage in any area that requires flood insurance.”

    Congress is unlikely to let the NFIP entirely expire, given the number of homeowners who depend on the program, Seiberg said.

    “The real problem is that the flood insurance program is a financial debacle, and Congress doesn’t seem capable of fixing it and, instead, what Capitol Hill does is just kick the can down the road,” he said.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/business/real-estate/man-made-disaster-make-trickier-buy-sell-home-areas-fall-real-estate-e-rcna168236

  21. Despite more workers returning to offices, much of downtown Seattle’s office space is still reeling from the pandemic and it could be years before it is in high demand again.

    Office construction in the city is down significantly in the last year and vacancy rates remain some of the highest in the country, a new national report says.

    The CommercialEdge report also points to a slowdown in the life sciences sector as one of the biggest factors behind a slow commercial real estate market in Seattle. The sector, which uses buildings for labs, research centers and clinics, takes up a large portion of buildings in the city.

    “Once a driving force behind the growth of the market’s pipeline, the life science sector is now grappling with an oversupply and diminished demand,” according to the report.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/seattle-office-real-estate-market-110053623.html

    1. the life science sector

      The purveyor of all those weird meds advertised on TeeVee and other places. Ask your doctor if Kylunow is right for you!

  22. More new apartments opening in Phoenix than LA, Houston and Atlanta

    If you feel like new apartment complexes are popping up all across the Phoenix metro, you aren’t imagining things!

    According to recent numbers from RentCafe, an estimated 20,000+ new apartments will open in the Phoenix area by the end of the year, higher than cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta and Houston.

    In fact, RentCafe’s data shows that only New York, Dallas, and Austin are ahead of Phoenix when it comes to new apartment builds.

    “We have all kind of commerce coming here, jobs coming here. You know, they’re building the TSMC plant, Intel is doing huge expansions, and that’s all great. We want people here, but then our housing became critical so at that point years ago is when all this permitting started, rezoning for multifamily or for high density housing, so we’re just now seeing that supply come to fruition,” longtime Valley realtor Carla Magee said.

    Magee says even if you can’t reduce your monthly rent, you should ask for incentives when looking at new apartments.

    “Especially in these mega apartment complexes, they are going to try to fill them as fast as possible. So to do that, they’re going to incentivize you. They’ll incentivize you by giving you a couple months free,” Magee added.

    She also said you might be able to negotiate for “no pet rent, or, you know, waive your deposit for your pets, or something like that.”

    https://www.azfamily.com/2024/09/04/more-new-apartments-opening-phoenix-than-la-houston-atlanta/

  23. After multiple failed attempts to sell throughout 2023 and 2024, a luxurious Toronto home was finally sold at a staggering $430,000 loss this month.

    The two-bedroom home is located in Toronto’s affluent Teddington Park neighbourhood and boasts three bathrooms, an iron gate, a heated driveway, and heated floors.

    The property first sold for $3.88 million in May 2023, and just four months later, was put back on the market for $4.6 million. That same October, the home was re-listed for a mind-boggling $9.6 million, but quickly slashed millions of dollars off its price in February and March 2024, when it was listed just shy of $4 million both times.

    In its fifth attempt to sell, the home was put on the market for $3.88 million in May 2024, but failed to attract any buyers once again. Finally, the home sold for $3.45 million last week, representing a loss of $430,000 when compared to its price just a year and a half earlier.

    https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2024/09/toronto-home-sold-430k-loss/

  24. A masked man pounding on a glass case inside a jewelry store and spitting on a staff member.

    A shopkeeper who has to rouse a sleeping man from her doorway before she can get to work.

    A grocery store where verbal assaults leave staff and customers alike rattled.

    These are the experiences downtown business owners say have become all too common as a trio of crises — homelessness, addiction and mental illness — reach epic proportions.

    More than ever, the human tragedy of it all — the tents in parks, the overdoses, the broken lives — are front and centre. Franco Ciarlo says he witnesses it daily on walks between his car and law office at King and James streets. “It’s sad to see what is out there.”

    Add to that a recent rash of gun crime, including broad daylight shootings just west of his building.

    That factored into the Tax Court of Canada’s decision to leave its location next to city hall this summer. The circumstances have Ciarlo wondering about downtown Hamilton’s future. Having worked in the core for 31 years, he has the benefit of uninterrupted hindsight.

    “There’s no question it’s been struggling for a long time, and these problems didn’t occur overnight.”

    But a resulting sense of unease over downtown has permeated the public psyche as of late, suggests Ciarlo, 54.

    “That, I think is relatively new. I don’t think people were worried about their personal safety. I certainly hear that,” the Mountain resident says.

    And he adds: “To be honest with you, if I didn’t work downtown, I probably wouldn’t come into the core that often — just because everything I need is sort of available elsewhere.”

    Just east on King Street, thefts are on the rise, says Patrick Denninger, CEO of the longtime grocery store and lunch spot that bears his family name. “I literally chased someone down on my way in today that had $50 in steaks in his bag that he’d ‘forgotten to pay for.’” Such episodes have become so commonplace, “it’s almost mind-blowing,” he says.

    Denninger says he has been able to track thieves to nearby encampments, including one who made off with $300 worth of chocolate bars. “So it’s certainly felt like an increase — between the presence and proximity and the frequency of things happening.” Meanwhile, “very vicious verbal assaults” that explode in the store have also taken their toll, Denninger says. “It’s tiring. It’s draining.”

    Citing safety concerns about downtown, customers have decided to shop elsewhere and workers have left, he says. “They’re not as safe on the streets anymore and they’ve vocalized that.”

    https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/our-city-is-basically-dying-how-do-we-stop-downtown-hamiltons-progress-from-unravelling/article_66dd8dbf-ccbe-56d3-aa88-f89a4314ccd4.html

  26. Had to go back and read twice. Fifteen grand for a replacement H2o heater? Now I’m really sad I retired in 2012. Twenty years installing h20heaters and H2o treatment systems. Plumbing contractor is now plundering contractor. I really cant think of many scenarios where it would cost that for a h20 heater, even commercial 200 gallon tanks. Some people are just too stupid to live the dream

    1. I know someone who just replaced their 50 gallon water heater. When I heard they paid $2000, I thought that was kind of steep, but chalked it up to Bidenomics.

      1. I live in the boonies (not colorado). Plumber was just here doing other stuff, he said water heater replacement (40gal) is like $1600

        Neighbor across the street works for a different plumbing firm and he says they charge $2500 (which is bullcrapola and you notice I don’t use that firm).

        So 2 grand in colorado probably right.

        1. A 50-gal, electric dual element water heater at Home Depot cost roughly $550 these days. The balance is labor and waste disposal.

          1. Waste disposal. Hilarious. In our neck of the woods the dump takes them for a measly 6 bucks. Figure an hour drive time to and from. Also, many places I’ve lived will take them straight from the curb at no extra charge as part of weekly pick up.

            Plumbing parts have doubled the last 4 years, or maybe the value of the dollar has just dwindled by half.

  27. “Where are all the cats in Port-au-Prince?”

    By: Family Health Ministries|
    Published on: Feb 10, 2014

    When arrived at our gated guesthouse and we were greeted by skinny, but friendly yellow dogs. The team leader had already instructed us to not trust the animals in Haiti, so I kept my hands to myself. The dogs guarded the guesthouse at night by barking…all night long…at whomever walked past the gate. Thanks, puppies –Yawn!

    As we travelled around Haiti through Port-au-Prince, Blanchard, Leogane, Fondwa, and Jacmel I saw dogs everywhere. Always yellow, brown, and whitish colored dogs, but hardly any black dogs. Then I realized, where are all the cats?

    He replied, “They are at home.”

    “At home? What do you mean at home?” I said.

    Kerby said, “Girl, we don’t eat the cats!* They are at home. They know better than to roam around. They know where they get fed! Not like stupid dogs.”

    So the next time I go to Haiti I will continue to be on the look out for more cats. I guess they are there, hanging out in the shaded corner of a small home, waiting to pounce on a tasty mouse and earn their keep.

    *I later learned that some Haitians do…

    https://familyhealthministries.org/where-are-all-the-cats-in-port-au-prince/

  28. a group of Chatham-Kent residents who paid a Wallaceburg-based company for a floating home they never received

    I can think of fewer things that are higher maintenance than a houseboat.

    This 71 year old woman had a paid for shack, but just had to live in a houseboat. Oh well.

  29. Reuters Focus Group: Undecided Voters Lean Trump 2-to-1 After Debate

    Wendell Husebø
    11 Sep 2024

    Although pundits declared Vice President Kamala Harris the clear winner of Tuesday night’s debate, former President Trump won six of ten undecided voters in a Reuters focus group. Harris only won three. A New York Times survey of undecideds had similar results.

    The debate, which was widely criticized for bias on the part of the ABC News moderators, was mostly seen as a draw between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. “These ‘moderators’ are complete hacks,” Michael Knowles posted on X. “It’s three on one, and Trump is still winning!”

    Reuters interviewed 10 people who were still unsure how they were going to vote in the Nov. 5 election before they watched the debate. Six said afterward they would now either vote for Trump or were leaning toward backing him. Three said they would now back Harris and one was still unsure how he would vote.

    …

    Five said they found Harris vague during the more than 90-minute debate on how she would improve the U.S. economy and deal with the high cost of living, a top concern for voters.

    …

    Four of those six also said Harris did not convince them she would pursue different economic policies than Democratic President Joe Biden, a Democrat they largely blame for the high cost of living.

    Six of the undecided voters were men, four were women, and all have previously voted for Democrat and Republican candidates.

    “I felt like the whole debate was Kamala Harris telling me why not to vote for Donald Trump instead of why she’s the right candidate,” said Robert Wheeler, a security firm executive in Nevada who was leaning toward Harris before the debate.

    “I still don’t know what she is for,” an entrepreneur from Florida, Mark Kadish, said. “There was no real meat and bones for her plans.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2024/09/11/abc-news-debate-causes-undecided-voters-vote-or-lean-trump/

    1. Makes sense.

      1. DJT fans liked the zingers, they weren’t swayed.
      2. Special K fans liked that she was more coherent and cohesive; they weren’t swayed.
      3. The undecides were intently looking for substance.
      They already knew DJT’s substance and record.
      But for Special K., they were looking for something, anything, and only saw attacks. There was nothing to actively drive them to her side.

      Actually, if I were undecided and had ONLY the debate to look at, I would be tempted not to vote at all. But looking at the whole picture, DJT has more going for him: past record, tons of interviews/podcasts, better VP pick, and of course a little bit of fight fight fight spirit.

    2. Five said they found Harris vague during the more than 90-minute debate on how she would improve the U.S. economy and deal with the high cost of living, a top concern for voters.

      I skipped the debate, but from what I heard she spent a large portion of her time promising more freebies to the Free Sh!t Army

    2. Wasn’t Kamala laughing when Trump suggested this last night?

      Not just laughing. Making it seem like he was crazy.

      1. investors shrug off inflation numbers, rising odds of Harris winning White House

        If one wants more inflation then Harris is the woman for the job.

  32. ‘I can get that, you know, insurance rates go up, but then like, where does it stop?’ said Curtis. ‘And it goes into I mean, just worrying about the family, like, you know, I don’t want to have to get two, two or three full time jobs’

    Winnah! tip numba one Miles. You better not be eating.

    1. but then like, where does it stop?’

      Maybe when crazy inflation, the real one, not the bogus “under 3%” they gaslight us with, ends.

      Almost everyone whooped it up when their houses were appreciating like mad: “Yeehaw! I’m rich! Wait! My insurance and property taxes are doubling? Woe is me! I’m broke!”

  33. ‘Dykens and others, though, said they want more answers from the city. They said they don’t have flood insurance, because it’s not a flood zone, and have never had issues. ‘You have a lot of angry people,’ Dykens said. ‘They need to help us out maybe a little bit. They need to put a sump pump in at the baseball field’

    I don’t think that’s gonna put yer shack back together Gary. Getting all that stench out too.

    1. They need to help us out maybe a little bit.
      Again, other people’s money is key to solving all the world’s problems.

  34. ‘I’m horrified to the point where I need to do something,’ she said. ‘To date, I’m now over $400,000 in legal fees, and my journey through this process has been horrifying…‘HOAs are almost like third-world dictatorships, where they can do almost anything they want, even flat-out crime…‘So the biggest problem is that there’s no enforcement of the laws. The only thing that the homeowners can do is to take them to court. The homeowners have to use their own money and could potentially risk their home, trying to force the HOA board to follow the laws’

    The reason that is Pat, is guberment doesn’t enforce many laws and when they do they do it badly. Yes, yer on yer own dime to enforce yer property rights. And that’s just one reason this commie urban living everybody has a strangers hand in their pocket sh$t doesn’t work.

  35. ‘The couple rents it out for nine months a year, just enough to break even, Thai said. ‘We could lose the home,’ the 40-year-old said of the proposed restrictions. ‘I want to work out a solution rather than a straight ban’

    Bargaining <- Wayne you are here. And you are clearly just speculating as yer cash flow negative.

  36. ‘Musk reposted an image of the alleged gang in a hotel, captioning it, ‘Mad Max is becoming real fast’

    I read that insulin prices are down.

  37. ‘Montpetit took his dog for an early-morning walk. ‘I heard loud music followed by moaning and groaning’…‘There were people having sex in the pool, utterly shocked’…’I have kids, and some of the stuff that goes on, like vulgar language, the partying, you know, obviously the sex on the street, you know, up in the pool’

    Trevor you have been disrupted.

  38. ‘The 71-year-old retired nurse said she was excited about the idea of living on the Sydenham River when it was first presented in 2020. She sold her mortgage-free home to get one. Now, Connelly describes herself as a senior with no nest egg who was forced to take a part time job at a grocery store to make ends meet. ‘It’s been really disappointing. Disheartening. I lost my life savings doing this. I sold a home that was paid for, and eventually after two years I had to try and find another place to live. I was living in a camper in my daughter’s backyard. I got a condo, but I now have a mortgage on it’

    See, you snapped out of yer nosedive and went neck deep back into debt on real estate Meg. You are a winnah!

    1. That is really a sad story yet I can’t imagine who or what could have possibly made her think a financial move like that was a good idea in her what, mid to late 60s?

  39. ‘Meanwhile, in another example, Samantha*, a lawyer and committee member on another complex, said she was stunned to find that her committee chairman took it upon himself to send a derogatory letter to a long-term tenant telling him to ‘stop washing his genitals with the hose’ and to ‘stop spreading odours with his cooking’

    How did you lose yer airbox mate?

    My tenant was washing his balls with a hose.

  40. The Problems For These Condo’s Hasn’t Even Begun (GTA Condo Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    23 minutes ago TORONTO

    In this episode we take a look at the current GTA Condo Markets – Toronto, York Region & Peel Region for week ending Sept 4, 2024. We also discuss certain calls we receive about pre-construction buyers who have already decided they don’t want to close on units closing in the next year or two. This will put an extra strain on the pre-construction market.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ENvt6wpmE

    15 minutes. Oh dear…

  44. Kirby: ‘No use in responding’ to a ‘handful of vets’ on Biden’s botched Afghan withdrawal

    ‘Obviously no use in responding. A “handful” of vets indeed and all of one stripe,’ Kirby said in a ‘reply all’ email chain

    By Emma Colton Fox News
    Published September 11, 2024 4:43pm EDT

    On the anniversary of 9/11, White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby dismissed the concerns of military veterans critical of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, writing in response to a Fox News Digital press inquiry that there’s “no use” weighing in on the veterans’ views.

    “Obviously no use in responding. A ‘handful’ of vets indeed and all of one stripe,” Kirby said in a “reply all” email chain Wednesday afternoon that appeared to be intended for White House staffers, but which also included Fox News Digital.

    Kirby’s message was sent in error, with him following up with a Fox News Digital reporter, “Clearly, I didn’t realize you were on the chain.” Kirby sent the email while traveling with President Biden on the anniversary of 9/11.

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kirby-no-use-responding-handful-vets-bidens-botched-afghan-withdrawal

  45. Commentary
    Once again, California beats every other state when it comes to poverty
    Avatar photo
    by Dan Walters
    September 11, 2024
    Mattresses lay on top of each other in a makeshift playground at Stockton Park Village in Stockton on Nov. 22, 2022. Bob Riley, 87, lives in the area where he states that the owner let the park go and garbage hasn’t been picked up for months. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

    Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering statewide issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for WeeklyMatters for a Saturday morning digest of the latest news and commentary from the Golden State.

    This story is part of California Voices, a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more here.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom is fond of comparing California’s economy to those of other states, particularly arch-rivals Texas and Florida, and even other nations.

    Unsurprisingly, however, there was no braggadocio from the governor’s office Tuesday when California found itself in a No. 1 economic position — having, once again, the nation’s highest level of poverty.
    …
    https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/09/california-again-top-state-poverty/

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