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Before Long, The Party Was Over

A report from the Scottsdale Progress in Arizona. “August brought dog days to the Scottsdale housing market. Pending sales plummeted year-over-year by 37.4% and new listings edged down 4.4% in the same time period, according to Phoenix Realtors. ‘At the end of the month, housing inventory was up 49.8% compared to last year, with enough homes for nearly four months’ worth of sales activity,’ it said of the Valley-wide inventory. Phoenix Realtors said, ‘Closed sales have topped 40,000 so far in 2024, less than but close to the average of the past few years. August’s pending sales, on the other hand, are the lowest since December 2007.'”

Mountain Xpress in North Carolina. “Asheville region home sales declined in August, falling 2 percent compared to last August, with 935 homes sold. Listing activity has risen for the past twelve months and has increased inventory in August by 40.1 percent, to nearly 3,350 homes for sale and four months of supply. Canopy MLS data at report time showed a 26.8 percent year-over-year increase in new construction throughout the 13 counties, equating to 483 additional new construction homes added to the market. ‘At four months of supply, our housing market is moving towards a more balanced position, and in the direction of a buyer’s market,’ said Caleb Phillips, a Canopy MLS Board of Director and Realtor®/broker with Lusso Realty. The September rate cut should bring more sellers to the market, who have been reluctant to sell due to the ‘lock-in’ effect of their lower rate. Burke County experienced decreases in all pricing metrics except for the average list price which increased 12.0 percent to $361,996. The percent of original list price received fell to 92.9 percent this month. The median sales price declined by 20.3 percent to $250,000.”

WFLA Tampa. “Massive rains from powerful Hurricane Helene left people stranded, without shelter and awaiting rescue Saturday. ‘I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,’ said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes. Taylor County is in Florida’s Big Bend, went years without taking a direct hit from a hurricane. But after Idalia and two other storms in a little over a year, the area is beginning to feel like a hurricane superhighway.”

CBS News on Florida. “Residents at Springbrook Gardens in Fort Lauderdale were forced to evacuate their condo building after it was deemed unsafe. They loaded furniture into their vehicles on Friday. Saltwater has taken its toll on the building that is more than 70 years old. ‘It hasn’t hit me yet,’ Warren Sackler, who has lived in the building since 2007, said. The cost to fix the foundation could top a million dollars, and that worries Sackler. ‘That’s just the start,’ Sackler said. ‘We need a new roof so there’s no end.””

Clarksville Now in Tennessee. “On Memorial Day, Candace Payne woke up to find her basement filled with murky water. ‘I walked down the first set of stairs, and as soon as you turn to go down the second set, you see nothing but water,’ Payne said. After already investing $110,000 into renovating the house on Elberta Drive before the flood, it would now cost Payne an additional $186,000 to make repairs, including excavation around her property and foundation. It was once her dream home, but Payne is now asking the city to condemn the house, bulldoze it, and stop anyone else from ever building there again. ‘It’s only going to get worse; it’s going to continue happening, it’s going to be more devastating,’ she said. ‘On top of that, who can afford to stay in their home and keep repairing it when they know it’s going to flood? Flooding was never disclosed to me, and I recently discovered my house has flooded several times in the last 20 years,’ Payne told Clarksville Now.”

“Payne said when she bought the house, the previous owners offered the property without a Residential Property Condition Statement because they didn’t live in the house for the three years prior to the sale. Payne said she didn’t realize this wasn’t included in the housing contract until after the flooding took place. For now, she said, she’s stuck there with no way of leaving.”

The Maine Monitor. “Frustrated with used needles littering city streets, some local officials have called for renewed restrictions on syringe service programs, which they say contribute to the recent rise in needle waste. But harm reduction experts say the needle waste — and high rates of infectious disease among injection drug users in Maine — is evidence that these programs should be expanded, not restricted. Portland’s two programs distributed nearly 1.4 million syringes last year. At a March 2021 health and human services committee workshop, Marie L. Gray wrote, ‘As a longtime resident of the Parkside neighborhood and an avid walker, the issue of randomly discarded needles is a major concern. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to take a walk through the neighborhood and not see several discarded needles.’ At a West End Neighborhood Association meeting earlier this month, Rich Bianculli, echoing complaints from other residents, said the situation is, ‘kind of a nightmare,’ the Press Herald reported.”

ABC 7 in California. “Questions are being raised about a homeless housing project in the San Fernando Valley. According to one neighbor, the motel is closed and blocked off, with many homeless individuals living around the fenced area. She’s concerned about the volume of homelessness and drug activity in the area, wondering when the transition will begin. Fran Potaski said homeless encampments have taken over two vacant lots on a corner near her home. ‘This is unacceptable. It’s not safe for the residents. It’s not safe for anybody,’ she said. ‘I saw a guy smoking a pipe the other day, lighting up right there on the sidewalk, I went, ‘Oh my God. I’ve had enough of this. It’s ridiculous.'”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “For more than three years Mayor London Breed has been trying to attract developers willing to bet on the conversion of vacant office buildings into housing, a key part of her plan to revive downtown San Francisco. So far the pay off for all the effort has been stingy — just two significant conversion project applications totaling 164 units have been submitted. Construction hasn’t started on either. Veteran developer and broker Chris Foley said he is still not sold on the notion that conversions will play a significant role in the comeback of downtown San Francisco. ‘At the end of the day it costs the same amount of money to do a conversion as it does to build new,’ he said. ‘It’s great (Breed) is cutting the fees, but it’s not going to move the needle.'”

The Baltimore Sun in Maryland. “Chasen Cos., a builder of apartment projects in Fells Point, Mount Vernon, Federal Hill and downtown, is facing foreclosure on a historic office tower it planned to convert to housing. The Baltimore-based developer planned to transform One Calvert Plaza, one of the city’s oldest office buildings, into about 165 apartments with ground-level retail and office space on the second floor. Lender Sandy Spring Bank filed last week to foreclose on the 16-story, Beaux Arts-style building at East Baltimore and North Calvert streets. Court documents show Chasen defaulted on a $33.7 million loan that the bank approved in March 2022 and owed $28.9 million in principal, interest, late fees and attorneys’ fees as of Sept. 7.”

“Court records show Chasen’s financial troubles apparently stretch beyond the foreclosure, with contractors in recent weeks demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly unpaid bills. Chasen is listed as a defendant in at least 10 cases filed this year, most since June, and several this month. Most have been filed by subcontractors or service providers seeking payment. Nottingham-based Pinpoint Plumbing said Chasen owes it more than $48,000 for a $432,000 job it was hired for in August 2022 and has since completed. The contractor said in an August complaint that it installed new construction plumbing and gas piping at at The Brixton, an apartment project at 421 South Broadway in Fells Point. ‘Despite repeated demand, Chasen refused to pay, and did not pay, the remaining balance owed’ under an agreement for services, Pinpoint’s complaint says.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “In an act of desperation, Metro Vancouver’s development community has embarked on a letter-writing campaign calling on the regional government to reconsider major fee hikes on new residential development. The builders say that increased government fees for new home infrastructure, amid a bleak housing market, are in many cases making the delivery of new housing impossible. It’s already been well publicized that dozens of projects have gone into foreclosure or stalled, and developers with big enough pockets are not moving forward with their projects. This isn’t a case of developer greed, Wesgroup president Beau Jarvis said, although he’s aware that the public might interpret it that way. ‘It’s an untenable operating environment,’ he said in an interview. ‘Our industry is broken.'”

Guelph Mercury Tribune in Canada. “Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are looking for information about fires early on Friday morning in Erin. Police said two separate fires, which were deemed suspicious, were reported in a new housing development on Sept. 27. At approximately 12:54 a.m., members of the OPP and fire crews from the Erin Fire Department rushed to the structure fires on Brown Street. OPP said that eight houses sustained damage in the fires, with some of them being ‘completely destroyed.’ Police are asking the public to review video surveillance and dash cam footage if they were in the area at the time of the fires.”

The Spinoff. “In TVNZ’s new series AA Insurance Location Location Location New Zealand, two familiar faces step up as our own Kirstie and Phil: Jayne Kiely and Paul Glover. You might remember Kiely from her TV presenting roles in the 2000s, or recognise actor Glover from shows like Educators and 800 Words. Now, they’re real estate agents ready to help New Zealand house hunters find a home. ‘I’m your fairy godmother, dressed in a blue suit,’ Glover jokes when he meets first home buyers Adam and Jesz.”

“Adam and Jesz need more than a fairy godmother in their search for a home on Auckland’s popular North Shore. Despite a budget of (Dr Evil voice) one million dollars, they’re exhausted from three years of open homes and auctions. ‘We’re a bit deluded, thinking maybe we can afford that, and finding out we’re nowhere near,’ Jesz says. ‘I’m not going to lie, we’re up against it,’ Glover warns them. LLL slides across some of the challenges in today’s market. It also informs us that house prices have fallen since their peak in 2021, and that we’re now in a ‘buyers’ market.'”

“But what LLL NZ does – perhaps unwittingly – is reflect how hard it is for today’s first home buyers to compete in a system that isn’t built for them, where one million Auckland dollars doesn’t buy you a million dollar view, let alone a house that isn’t plonked on top of a busy highway. At least Adam and Jesz get their happy ending. They fall in love with the third property Glover shows them and secure it at auction for $50,000 over their million dollar budget. Their relief and joy is a reminder of everything home ownership represents: security, safety, a place to put down roots forever. This happy ending should have made LLL NZ feel as warm and comforting as the UK version, but somehow, it didn’t. Like being shown a $1.6 million dollar house with half a garage, it just felt a bit bleak. This Stuff piece from 2022 states that in the mid-1990s, the average New Zealand home cost $125,440, which was 3.2 times the average household income of $39,796. In 2022, the average house cost $977,158, 8.2 times the average household’s income.”

ABC News in Australia. “When Marnie Robertson stumped up $140,000 for a ‘house and land package’ in the Coolah Caravan Park, she thought she was buying into a grey nomad Utopia. Yet her dream house is literally falling apart around her. Back in 2017, an engineer deemed the house ‘not suitable for occupation’ and noted more than 100 defects. Camped out in Marnie’s backyard, Janet unveiled her vision: a ‘home base’ for grey nomads to return to when had they tired of life on the road. This Utopia would be based at the Coolah Caravan Park, which Janet bought with her partner, Graeme Booker, a small business owner. In the early months, Marnie says life in the park was ‘very enjoyable.’ ‘We used to have a happy hour down in front of the camp kitchen every night.'”

“Before long, the party was over. The residents started to ask questions, wanting to know where their weekly site fees were going. They’d bought into a company title arrangement, making them shareholders in the company that owned the park. And they wanted to see the books. Marnie’s neighbour, Geoff McMillan, got a lawyer on the case. Stonewalled, the residents eventually applied to the Supreme Court to inspect the books. ‘After two days, the judge says, ‘Stop. This is all a waste of time. There are no books for you to inspect,’ Geoff recalls.”

“The residents had together put more than a million dollars into the company for their ‘house and land packages.’ Yet one of the profit and loss statements they received was simply blank. And their weekly site fees, it turns out, were being transferred to another company controlled by Graeme and Janet. ‘We were gobsmacked,’ Geoff says. Next, it was announced the park would be sold. Marnie and Geoff didn’t understand: The company constitution said the park couldn’t be sold without 80 per cent of shareholders agreeing. That had been part of the sales pitch: ‘The dream is to be debt-free in your own home … without the risk that someone else can sell it out from under you.'”

“But now, the administrators were in charge. And they were, in fact, selling the park from underneath them. The buyer would once again be Janet and Graeme — only this time, without the shareholders. With the park settlement looming, Geoff’s neighbour, Jimmy, came home to a letter saying he had no entitlement to continue living on his plot. He had to sign a new agreement to pay Janet and Graeme’s other company triple his current site fees or leave. ‘I’ve put my life savings into this place and I thought I’d find bailiffs and all sorts at home,’ he said. This cabin was Jimmy’s first home. He’d previously been living in a bus while waiting 16 years for social housing.”

“The court’s position was that despite buying what was called a ‘house and land package,’ the residents had not bought any land title. They’d bought a share in a company that owned the land, and once it no longer owned that land, the residents had no entitlement to it. ‘I was told the land was mine. But it’s not mine,’ Jimmy says. An ex-sailor and circus promoter, Jimmy describes himself as largely illiterate. To him, court was a bewildering place. At one point, he was scolded by the judge: ‘Mr James, don’t call me mate!’ Jimmy shakes his head at the memory: ‘That went down like a turd in a punch bowl.’ But the verdict didn’t go their way. The Supreme Court dismissed the claims against Janet and Graeme: unconscionable conduct, harassment and coercion, and misleading and deceptive conduct.”

“The High Court will decide whether it will hear the appeal in the coming weeks. If unsuccessful, the residents will be facing enormous court costs from their losses so far. ‘We’ll be bankrupt, as far as I understand,’ Jimmy says. ‘They’ll take my house and car and everything.’ This week, he got a taste of what’s to come. When his card was declined, he discovered $5,000 had been debited from his account on court order.”

Related Posts

Getting Ahead Of Buyer’s Remorse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpSbVF1WVqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poWv_GoIJFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTRuHXEEBZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk3CH3ps5g0

This Post Has 127 Comments

  1. ‘Burke County experienced decreases in all pricing metrics except for the average list price which increased 12.0 percent to $361,996. The percent of original list price received fell to 92.9 percent this month. The median sales price declined by 20.3 percent to $250,000’

    It’s a good thing everybody put 25% down!

  2. ‘At the end of the day it costs the same amount of money to do a conversion as it does to build new’

    Might as well start tearing these obsolete buildings down. The math isn’t getting better.

    1. While a lot of buildings deserve to be torn down, I hope they can save One Calvert Plaza, the Beaux Arts building in downtown Baltimore. It’s a beautiful building and probably better built than the rest of the city. $33 million isn’t that bad a price for 165 units, especially if there is retail and office income to supplement the residential units.

        1. He’s flirted with OF-in-the-hotel before.

          I’m more impressed that two days ago he accurately described the flooding that’s happening right now in Appalachia.

          1. An already humid airmass from the gulf coast to the NE due to exceptionally warm gulf combined with a 500-mi diameter hurricane, and you’ve got a serious precipitation event. Imagine losing everything in one fell swoop?

      2. “…the Beaux Arts building in downtown Baltimore.”

        “Originally built in 1909, the grade II-listed Beaux Arts Building was transformed into an award-winning development of 180 luxury loft apartments and duplex penthouses. With its grand, exquisitely detailed foyer, it offers an exquisite, modern central London lifestyle in a landmark Edwardian building.” —ballymoregroup

    2. “Might as well start tearing these obsolete buildings down.”

      Can’t do that either if it has been designated an historic landmark.

  4. Springbrook Gardens in Fort Lauderdale

    Small condo building built 1947, 4 floors, 35-ish units.
    The lot is big enough for the building, a small pool, and 30 parking spaces.
    25 feet from the water.
    A 2-bed is zestimated at $400K. $600/mo HOA.

    A million bucks to just fix the foundation, plus a roof? The residents, likely retired folks on a fixed income, are hosed. 35 units simply cannot support a couple million in repairs to a building that’s already very old. The plot of land seems too small to even buy out and rebuild.

    If i were in that situation, I would walk away, jingle mail, and start over somewhere inland.

    1. I wonder if someone had an app like Rocket Mortgage if they could get a high rate HELOC a couple of days ahead of a hurricane? The mortgage broker just wants his cut, let subprime Sam take the hit.

  5. ‘Complete Obliteration’: DeSantis Says Hurricane Helene Damage Worse Than Idalia

    Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said Hurricane Helene’s “monumental storm surge” caused far greater damage than last year’s Idalia.

    “Clearly you saw storm surge in excess of 15 feet,” DeSantis said to reporters in Taylor County’s Dekle Beach on the morning of Sept. 28.

    “So that is much, much more significant than what we’ve seen in recent storms like Idalia that hit and certainly Debbie, and that is really, really destructive. So, as you look around here, you see some homes that are now just rubble.”

    He said some of the damage he saw while flying over the affected coastline on Sept. 27 en route to Cedar Key was “complete obliteration.”

    As recovery and emergency response efforts continue across the southeast United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, more than 50 storm-related deaths have been confirmed, and early estimates expect to see more than $15 billion in damages.

    DeSantis confirmed that at least 11 of those storm-related fatalities occurred in the state. However, none of these fatalities occurred in Taylor County, where Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.

    “All roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation stated on its website. ”I-40 and I-26 are impassable in multiple locations. Travel in this area for non-emergency purposes is hindering needed emergency response.”

    Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/complete-obliteration-desantis-says-hurricane-helene-damage-worse-than-idalia-5731855

    1. Raise taxes.
      Ban beef and dairy.
      Ban private cars.
      Live in the pod.
      Eat the bugs.

      The Guardian and other globalist sc*m media are already pimping their pre-scripted narrative about this storm.

      2. Ban beef and dairy.
        Ban private cars.

        They won’t be banned because the people who matter will still want them. But they will be so regulated that ordinary people won’t be able to afford them.

  6. Boris Johnson has said he is “no longer sure” lockdowns played a decisive role in defeating Covid.

    Describing the pandemic restrictions as “literally medieval in their savagery and consequences”, he likened himself to King Canute and questioned whether it was possible for government action to “repel the waves of a highly contagious disease”.

    He has also said that he now believes Covid-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory leak, rather than from transmission in a wildlife market.

    The admission, revealed in extracts from his new memoir, Unleashed, indicates a significant change in thinking from the architect of arguably the most controversial peacetime policy in modern British history.

    At the Covid inquiry last December, Mr Johnson acknowledged “appalling harms on either side of the decision” and issued a general apology for mistakes made.

    But he has never before admitted to serious doubts about the effectiveness of lockdown.

    Mr Johnson writes in the memoir, serialised in the Mail on Sunday, that he initially believed lockdowns were having a suppressing effect on the virus.

    “It was only later that I started to look at the curves of the pandemic around the world – the double hump that seemed to rise and fall irrespective of the approaches taken by governments,” he said.

    “There were always two waves, whether you were in China, where lockdowns were ruthlessly enforced, or in Sweden, where they took a more voluntary approach.”

    He then added: “I am not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing; I am sure they had some effect. But were they decisive in beating back the ­disease, turning that wave down? All I can say is that I am no longer sure.”

    He made a parallel with the story of King Canute, questioning whether he had been right to demonstrate to his courtiers that he had no power to control the elements by vainly ordering the Thames to recede.

    Mr Johnson added that by locking down society, the country showed it had “barely progressed” from early modern England, citing restrictions during Shakespeare’s time, such as the closure of theatres and limits to the number who could attend funerals.

    On Saturday night, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader and outspoken lockdown critic, said Mr Johnson had been “basically bullied” by the scientists.

    “Boris realises in hindsight that we had been led down the garden path by the scientists,” he said. “I wrote that this was a mistake – we should have only looked after the most vulnerable. “His advisors poo-pooed that. The reality is he should have looked at other sources.”

    In the book, Mr Johnson reportedly describes as “bonkers” the tier system in late 2020. “It’s like those weird bans in Leviticus on the types of four-legged animal you can eat or the ban on trimming your sideburns,” he wrote.

    Speaking about the origin of coronavirus, Mr Johnson added: “The awful thing about the whole Covid catastrophe is that it appears to have been entirely man-made, in all its aspects.

    “It now looks overwhelmingly likely that the mutation was the result of some botched experiment in a Chinese lab.”

    The virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a view long promulgated by Donald Trump.

    Latterly, the FBI has said it believes it is “most likely” that the virus originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.

    The theory was aggressively resisted by much of the mainstream academic community during the pandemic, who advocated a zoonotic, or animal-to-human, theory.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/28/boris-johnson-medieval-lockdowns-covid/

    2. Oh, this was just a miscalculation by Global Countries that acted in lockstep on lockdowns, masks, destruction of business, and mandated fake vaccines that has killed and injured millions.
      The was a pre planned highly calculated launched warfare on humanity that can’t be racked off to oh gosh we made some mistakes, we will try to do better next time.

  7. “August’s pending sales, on the other hand, are the lowest since December 2007.’”

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s the sound of history rhyming.

  8. The Main Stream News these days is like a Hollywood Production of a Movie.

    They are totally producing a Kamala Harris fake character that isn’t the truth of what has been , unburdened by the past.

    And the HARRIS slogan of “A New Way Forward”, tells you nothing, but its close to The Great Leap Forward that in China killed millions.

    And Harris is going to restore reproductive/Abortion rights for women, pay for child care, and this issue is more important than survival of the US. Harris is going to give you 25 K to buy a house, and the invasion on US borders is Trumps fault, even if he wasn’t in office and Harris was the Border Czar.
    The Hollywood production will choose what the issue are, so never mind being on the verge of World War 3, inflation and collapse of US economy, border invasion, food isn’t affordable, and Treaties giving UN power of Global Governance.

    The re-marketing of Harris/Walz is a insult to any person who doesn’t like to be defrauded, and than finds out they were conned.
    Oh Harris is so happy, isn’t that refreshing, so ignore her laughter and 12 year old mentality. This is a person who should preside over the Military, be the Commander in Chief , and lead us to a NEW WAY FORWARD, whatever that means.

    The evidence shows Harris is a Commie shill and chosen plant for The One World Order powers that be , along with her stooge VP pick Walz. The mission is to destroy the US , and replace with Global Governance by Psychopathic Dictorship, tyranny, and genocide.
    So this is nothing to laugh about Mrs Harris, and its not a refreshing New Way Forward.
    So, voting for Trump might at least buy humanity more time to combat this enemy from within that’s insane and doesn’t have good intent.The Hollywood production is warfare, pure and simple.

      1. Lots of fixed income seniors are eating oatmeal for all three meals, and they still can’t pay for their prescription medications. And the rising cost of shelter is forcing many of them into default. Meanwhile the MSM is telling them 2025 will usher in worse yet.

        1. they still can’t pay for their prescription medications.
          Medicare has a maximum drug coverage which, in my opinion, is not that much (other people’s money is the answer again) and part C can help sometimes, I have been told. Also, I know people that have local non-profits and churches helping them, with Meds, food and medical care. So yes, some people are struggling but most can get a lot of help.

    3. Right now, leftist X swoons over any video footage of Strong Woman Queen K walking down an aircraft ramp. Oh so Presidential.

      Yes well, Special K needs to remember that the President is a veggie and she’s the sitting Vice President. Campaign or not, she needs to do some Presidnetial things right now. That is, she needs to issue a reassuring statement about what FEMA is doing in Asheville, and then announe that she’s arranging a visit to Asheville. And then actually visit in about 10 days or so.

      To be fair, Vance and DJT seem kinda quiet too.

  9. Crooked Hillary said she didn’t go far enough in describing Trump supporters as “deplorables.” She’s also publicly suggested they are in need of “reprogramming.” With psychopaths like this in the highest echelons of the Democrat-Bolshevik Party, do Comrade Kamala & her globalist handlers really believe Les Deplorables are going to meekly surrender their means of self-defense just because Communist Kamala issues an executive order?

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1840203630634279003

    1. 100+ million dead under socialist / communist regimes just in the 20th century.

      The public “education” system doesn’t teach that.

      1. Our NEA indoctrination mills are controlled by the same globalists who were and are the intellectual authors and prime movers behind Marxist-Leninist ideology and one-party tyranny.

  10. “Asheville region home sales declined in August, falling 2 percent compared to last August, with 935 homes sold. Listing activity has risen for the past twelve months and has increased inventory in August by 40.1 percent, to nearly 3,350 homes for sale and four months of supply.

    Asheville was the epicenter of the Helene-related flooding. That whole region is going to be economically devastated for months, maybe years. Maybe they can ask Ukraine to annex them so they can get some federal reconstruction aid.

    1. Asheville was the epicenter of the Helene-related flooding. T
      For Those not familiar with Asheville it is one of the MOST woke liberal places in the country.
      Nice place to party and hang out 20-25 years ago but i understand it has gone way crazy left. If I recall correctly, in Andy Ngo’s book “Unmasked” he states that there was an Antifa chapter (if that is the correct word) in Asheville. Interesting book if you haven’t read it.

      2. The nearby Biltmore Estate also flooded. The relative in Fuquay-Varina had part of his backyard flood, but the waters have receded.

  11. Flooding was never disclosed to me, and I recently discovered my house has flooded several times in the last 20 years,’ Payne told Clarksville Now.”

    Ever hear of the internet, Candace? Or doing basic due diligence before you bought a shack in a flood zone?

  12. Payne said she didn’t realize this wasn’t included in the housing contract until after the flooding took place.

    The stupid, it burns. I’m guessing Payne’s ever-helpful “buyer’s agent” didn’t honor her fiduciary duty to educate and warn this FB that she was buying a flood-prone shack.

  13. How Easy Is It To Become Middle Class Now?

    https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2024/09/how-easy-is-it-to-become-middle-class.html

    If we want social / economic renewal, we have to make it straightforward for anyone willing to adopt the values and habits of “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” to climb the ladder to middle class security.

    How easy is it to climb the social mobility ladder into the middle class? It’s a key question because the middle class is the ultimate source of social stability, innovation and democracy.

    To answer this question, we must start with the rise of the middle class in Europe and the market economy which enabled that rise.

    This article explores the specific cultural adaptations which set the stage for Europe’s adoption of a market economy as the primary social-economic force, supplanting family and feudal ties.

    When did Europe pull ahead? And why?

    The author notes that Northern European economic expansion began in the 1300s, before the Protestant Reformation, the discovery of the Americas and before the printing press–all factors others have identified as key to Europe’s rise to dominance.

    He identifies the assimilation by Catholic Europe of two Northern European cultural traits–individualism and the ban on cousin marriages, which led to social trust extending beyond the immediate family– as critical preconditions for the acceptance of a market economy.

    He then adds a third condition: the suppression / elimination of violent males from the social order via harsh secular and religious punishment of evil-doers. Murder rates declined as the most violent were executed or imprisoned in large numbers.

    Here are some key excerpts from the article:

    “Those three causes–individualism, impersonal sociality, and a pacified environment–allowed the market economy to grow beyond its former limits.

    ‘The Market’ could thus spread farther and farther beyond the marketplace, replacing older forms of exchange and ultimately replacing kinship as the main organizing principle of society.

    The English as a whole became more and more middle-class in their mindset: ‘Thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work were becoming values for communities that previously had been spendthrift, impulsive, violent, and leisure loving.’

    The Western world thus embarked on a trajectory of sustained economic growth. This is in contrast to what we see in other times and places, where economic growth tended to stall after a while and give way to stagnation or even contraction.

    Western Christianity (which assimilated pagan characteristics of northern Europe) enabled ‘the peace, order, and stability that allowed the middle class to expand and become dominant.'” (end of excerpt)

    I am wary of relying on any limited set of reasons for Europe’s rise, but the social willingness to trust strangers is a largely overlooked factor in stable, prosperous societies.

    Modern-day surveys find that Scandinavian people tend to have high levels of trust in strangers, and this correlates to high levels of general prosperity and individual happiness.

    Clearly, economies in which business is only conducted with family members or equally narrow circles is far more limiting than economies in which business is conducted with strangers and impersonal corporations.

    As people acquired means, they could afford more education, and they had a stake in the system that needed to be defended / advocated. This advocacy nurtured democratic / legal institutions and a free press. These institutional forms of social capital act as social technologies, enabling and nurturing the rise of markets, ownership of land and enterprises and the middle class.

    Some of these critical social technologies stretch back to the Roman Era. These forms of social capital were lost to feudalism, and their restoration in the 1300s and 1400s enabled the rise of a middle class that was neither nobility nor serf.

    As the book The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 detailed, the egalitarian aspects of Roman rule continued to influence everyday life for hundreds of years. It took centuries for feudalism to eradicate these holdovers from Roman rule (for example, peasant ownership of land).

    The rise of the middle class broke the stranglehold of feudalism by encouraging free movement of labor and capital, and strengthening weak central governments to the point that feudal fiefdoms answered to the central government again, as in the Roman and Carolingian eras.

    In my view, the key factor that determines the rise of a middle class is the relative ease of laborers achieving middle class ownership, security and stability.

    In the classical Roman era, freed slaves often ended up doing very well for themselves and becoming middle class, as the class boundaries were porous enough to enable craftworkers and small merchants to improve their lot in life.

    In the context of this article, are “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” enough to transform a family from penury to middle class? If the answer is “yes,” then the ladder to middle class security is open to anyone who adopts these values / habits.

    If the answer is “no,” then the ladder to middle class security is not open to everyone, and the economy stagnates.

    Broadly speaking, virtually anyone who rigorously adopted “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” in the fifty years from 1946 to 1995 could (once they married and gained a two-income household) eventually afford a family and a stake in the system–a house and/or small business, a pension, etc.

    Once financialization and globalization rose to dominance and distorted the economy with increasing wealth and income inequality (“winner take most”), this was no longer the case.

    Workers of average skill, motivation and wages who adopt “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” can no longer afford a family or a stake in the system–at least in high-cost, enormously unequal locales.

    This is true not just of the U.S. but globally.

    This reality has fueled two trends of decay: 1) a dependence on speculation as the only means to “get ahead” and 2) “laying flat” / “let it rot”–giving up on marrying, having a family and acquiring a stake in the system.

    Once these aspirations are only available to those with the right connections or extraordinary drive / talent, society and the economy decay and collapse under the weight of inequality–an inequality defended by those who made it to the top and want to preserve the status quo as it is.

    This is the pattern of stagnation and collapse: once the elites devote themselves to suppressing adaptations and defending extremes of the wealth-income-power inequality that benefits them, the system decays and collapses.

    The top 10% want the status quo to continue as is, even as the bottom 90% fall behind. When enough of the bottom 90% decide to “let it rot,” the entire rotten structure collapses under its own weight.

    If we want social / economic renewal, we have to make it straightforward for anyone willing to adopt the values and habits of “thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work” to climb the ladder to middle class security.

    Trust matters, too. A middle class can only thrive if the institutions enabling social technologies are trustworthy, and others in the markets of labor, capital, goods, services and risk are trustworthy. Once social trust is lost, the foundations of society and the economy crumble.

    [A chart appears here …]

    2. Denver, as an example, is a Low Trust Society.

      Also, there is no reward for “hard work” in Denver as it is now impossible to buy a house on a single income, unless you’re part of the Parasite Class.

    3. Good article. They should have also mentioned the development of the English Common Law (1300-present).

    4. Also, I would question the author’s thesis that institutions are necessary to bring about trust between tribes, I think you can subscribe to common principles without needing to belong to an institution.

      1. Everyone working together (common principles) with no motivation to do so, just cooperation?
        Good luck with that idea!

  14. Hurricane Helene weakened to a Category 1 hurricane early Friday with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.

    The storm made landfall in the sparsely-populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet.

    “Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified,” the sheriff’s office in mostly rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post, the dire advice similar to what other officials have dolled out during past hurricanes.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/helene-weakens-to-category-1-hurricane-while-moving-north-from-florida-to-georgia/ar-AA1rji1F

  15. While used car prices continue to drop from their COVID-era highs, used electric vehicle prices are dropping much faster. Used EVs prices have fallen four times faster than hybrids and six times faster than gasoline models, losing 24.7 percent of their value over the past year. This compares to a 6 percent drop in used hybrid prices and 4.4 percent drop in used gasoline prices, according to the latest iSeeCars study.

    The study analyzed the pricing trends of over 1.6 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars sold in August 2023 and 2024 to determine the difference in market values between used gasoline, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

    “The 25 percent drop in used electric vehicle prices over the past year remains several times higher than gasoline or hybrid cars,” said Karl Brauer, iSeeCars Executive Analyst. “But it’s lower than the 30 to 40 percent drops we were seeing at the end of 2023 and first half of 2024. And the substantial drop in EV prices over the past year appears to have brought them in line with demand, with used EV days-on-market much lower today, reflecting a faster selling rate compared to a year ago.”

    While used EV prices continue to fall, used hybrid and gasoline cars are showing remarkable stability. Both vehicle types are holding stable at around $30,000, while used electric vehicles fell below $27,000 for the first time last month.

    “The used car market clearly couldn’t support electric vehicles priced in the mid- to low-$30,000 range,” said Brauer. “But with used EV prices showing smaller declines in recent months it’s possible these cars will stabilize somewhere around $25,000.”

    https://wgntv.com/automotive/tesla-model-3-leads-ongoing-plunge-in-used-electric-vehicle-prices/

    1. Trading in a late model car to get the latest and greatest has long been a losing proposition, but is even worse now.

  16. The U.S. has announced an agreement with Iraq’s government to wrap up the military mission there of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group. By next year, U.S. troops will depart some bases that they have long occupied during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

    For years, Iraqi officials have periodically called for a withdrawal of coalition forces, and formal talks to wind down the U.S. presence in the country have been going on for months.

    “We thank the government for its position to expel the international coalition forces,” Qais Khazali, founder of Asaib Ahl al Haq — an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia that has conducted attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq — said last week.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/u-s-troops-will-leave-some-longstanding-bases-in-iraq-under-deal-to-wrap-up-mission/ar-AA1rnu5C

      1. “what we gained”

        Nothing.

        And a reminder, before becoming SecDef under W, Donald Rumsfeld was the CEO of Searle Pharmaceuticals.

        Big War, Big Pharma, it’s all the same big scam.

      2. The goal was to “sandwich” Iran from both eastern and western borders to enforce economic sanctions. The rapid development of armed surveillance drones has obviated the need for previous deployments. Containing the threat throughout the region is the larger goal as Iran continues to grow as a proxy, e.g., Red Sea shipping through the Suez canal. But there is no winning.

  17. Just over two years ago, fewer than 14,500 people on either of Ontario’s main social assistance programs were experiencing homelessness. That number had almost doubled — to more than 26,500 — as of a couple of months ago, provincial data obtained by The Trillium shows.

    As cities and towns have pleaded in recent years for help from the province to deal with rising homelessness, Premier Doug Ford has preached the importance of hard work.

    “You need to start working if you’re healthy,” Ford said on Monday, referring to people living in encampments. “Bottom line, if you’re unhealthy, I’ll take care of you the rest of my life — your life — we’ll take care of you. But if you’re healthy, get off your A-S-S and start working like everyone else does. Very simple.”

    https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/number-of-homeless-ow-odsp-recipients-has-almost-doubled-in-two-years-government-data-9584463

    1. That number had almost doubled — to more than 26,500

      And it’s going to get worser, a lot worser. People are becoming homeless faster than they OD on fentanyl.

      1. Especially when guberment pays people to sit around and narcan them. Remember the story where bums were ODing more than once a day? If you told that to people 15 or 20 years ago they wouldn’t believe you.

        1. If you told that to people 15 or 20 years ago they wouldn’t believe you.

          Agreed. Makes one wonder what will be considered “normal” around 2040.

  18. Daniel Westlake, assistant political studies professor at the University of Saskatchewan, talked to Evan Bray about Saskatchewan’s upcoming election and the state of federal politics on Thursday.

    Bray: Turning to federal politics. The Conservatives want a snap election because it would likely be quite favourable for them. What do you think the Liberals need to focus on if they have any chance of salvaging seats?

    Westlake: I think the main problem for the Liberals is the fundamentals are not in their favour and there’s nothing they can do about it. One of the big issues is the cost of living and housing prices. There’s no way the Liberals can build enough houses to address this issue by the time the next election happens. As best I can tell, the Liberal strategy is hold on for as long as you can and hope something changes, hope an issue pops up or inflation drops enough or cost of living goes down enough that they’re not campaigning in such an unfriendly environment.

    This is kind of the reality sometimes in politics. Sometimes there isn’t a strategy that a party can pursue that really outweighs the electoral environment they’re competing in. I think, unfortunately, for the Liberal Party, they’re in a situation where they’ve been in power for quite some time and we’re in a kind of economic environment that is not particularly favourable to incumbents. It’s just a tough spot for them to be in and not much they can do about it.

    https://www.cjme.com/2024/09/28/the-evan-bray-show-cost-of-living-high-on-minds-of-sask-voters/

    1. and we’re in a kind of economic environment that is not particularly favourable to incumbents

      A “kind of economic environment”? Isn’t that like being “a little bit pregnant”.

  19. NDP uses BC United research to mount attacks on ‘crackpot’ B.C. Conservatives

    Almost 200 pages of research on the B.C. Conservative Party, which sources within BC United confirm were compiled by their party before it dropped out of the British Columbia election campaign to support its former rival, have come back to haunt the new alliance.

    The New Democrats are using the leaked documents to depict B.C. Conservative candidates as supporters of what they call “crackpot” conspiracy theories, including that Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol involved “antifa” in disguise.

    The release of the leaked research triggered an exchange of pointed letters between the Conservative and New Democrat leaders, with the NDP’s David Eby demanding John Rustad drop seven of his Tory candidates before Saturday’s nomination deadline. Rustad countered by calling on Eby to support a potential conflict of interest investigation involving Ravi Kahlon, the province’s most recent housing minister.

    The file uploaded to document-sharing site Scribd by Johal is 199 pages long and cites hundreds of social media posts by B.C. Conservative candidates.

    It also includes material about Rustad that has already been highlighted by the NDP, including a speech in May last year in which he said children should not be expected to “eat bugs.”

    Eby said at a Friday campaign appearance in Cumberland, B.C., that Rustad and his team were “focused on bizarre internet conspiracy theories — vaccines are a hoax, the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax, kids are being forced to eat bugs.”

    “Today (you see) a significant number of B.C. Conservative candidates advancing American election conspiracies that the January 6 riot at the Capitol Building was, in fact, a hoax, that it was actors that were made up,” he said.

    The party previously highlighted comments by Rustad in June in which he said he regretted getting the “so-called vaccine” against COVID-19, and that vaccine mandates were “not so much” about achieving herd immunity or stopping the spread of the disease as they were about “shaping opinion and control of the population.”

    Rustad said this week he regretted getting vaccinated because he developed heart problems after his second shot, and when he went for his third he wasn’t asked about it.

    https://bc.ctvnews.ca/ndp-uses-bc-united-research-to-mount-attacks-on-crackpot-b-c-conservatives-1.7055991

    2. of what they call “crackpot” conspiracy theories

      The only crackpots are the liberals who think their policies are conducive to prosperity.

  20. The three contenders vying for power in Austrian election

    A combative far-right marathon-runner is up against a mild-mannered chancellor and a left-wing former warehouse worker in Austria’s national election on Sunday.

    In a campaign dominated by immigration concerns and an economic downturn, polls put the far right ahead for the first time ever — narrowly followed by the ruling conservatives and the Social Democrats in third place.

    Here are mini-biographies of the three party leaders.

    Herbert Kickl, 55, the abrasive leader of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) since 2021, has made his career largely behind the scenes as its long-time ideologue.

    By tapping into voter anger and anxieties over restrictions during the Covid pandemic, migration and the war in Ukraine, Kickl has succeeded in restoring his party’s popularity after a massive corruption scandal rocked it in 2019.

    https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/national/the-three-contenders-vying-for-power-in-austrian-election/article_5b3d7cba-8f48-52fb-96d3-de2c58b6f0f7.html

    1. FRom what I have read, the FPOe, while gaining a record number of seats, won’t have enough to form a coalition government. We’ll see what the actual numbers turn out to be, maybe they will prove the pollsters wrong.

      1. They won 29 percent of the vote, the most of any party. But no one will form a government with them, not even the “conservative” party, meaning that the Austrian commies will do that instead.

  21. The police blotter is published to give readers an abridged look at criminal activity in their community and neighborhood. It is simply an illustration of what local law enforcement, funded by taxpayers, must deal with daily throughout the Española Valley.

    Española Police officers, Ohkay Owingeh Tribal Police, Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputies or State Police responded to the following calls:

    12:30 a.m. A 15-year-old boy in Truchas was breaking stuff in his room and tearing up his grandmother’s house.

    5:11 a.m. A woman who was dropped off at the Rodeway Inn by a police officer was yelling in the lobby.

    8:06 a.m. A caller said people who have been trespassed from the Dollar Tree in Española are on the property, passing around a pipe with heroin.

    9:43 a.m. A drunk man was lying beneath the RTD bus stop near Subway.

    9:55 a.m. A caller reported her child came home with bruises on his back because his father hit him after he wrecked the man’s side-by-side.

    10:58 a.m. An employee who was terminated from the Española Pathways Shelter got upset and smashed the windows on other employees’ cars.

    11:12 a.m. A man who does work on foreclosed houses went to a home in Medanales and noticed the water heater and other items had been stolen.

    5:22 p.m. A woman was behind Speedway, taking off her clothes and exposing herself.

    4:20 p.m. A Hernandez caller said a man is lying in the road, groaning, grabbing his belly and saying “that bitch, that bitch.” A second caller said the man was picked up by a man and woman with a baby.

    2:51 a.m. A caller said President Trump kidnapped her son and took him to “desmadre’s house.”

    https://www.riograndesun.com/news/woman-says-president-trump-kidnapped-her-son/article_62a0ebfc-7b4d-11ef-aea3-3b5245e3eb5e.html

  22. Their relief and joy is a reminder of everything home ownership represents: security, safety, a place to put down roots forever.

    What a crock. These FBs massively overpaid, and buying at the peak of a central bank-blown housing bubble is the furthest thing from “ownership.” The illusory “security, safety, and a place to put down roots forever” wifey thought she was gaining with this ill-advised shack purchase will turn to financial ruin as New Zealand’s insane housing bubble implodes under the weight of its own debt, fraud, and the growing financial strain of the “cost of living crisis.”

  24. Are Me Too vigilantes going to cancel Paul Gaugin for violating contemporary cultural norms regarding age differences in cis gender couples?

    Good thing my grandpa wasn’t a famous artist, as he married my 17-yo grandma when he was 29.

      2. +1

        Anyone with pronouns in their email signature, or on their business card (Wells Fargo Bank) is not a person who should be taken seriously, about anything.

        His name is Richard Levine, it’s not “Rachel” Levine. Clown World gonna clown.

        2. Anyone with pronouns in their email signature, or on their business card (Wells Fargo Bank) is not a person who should be taken seriously, about anything.

          It is required at some places that pay the big bucks.

  25. Sunday: No Snark. No Bark

    A big thanks to all the electrical workers helping out in the recent hurricane. Glen Campbell- Wichita Lineman

  26. [Here is an article …]

    John Kerry Says The Quiet Part Out Loud: “First Amendment Stands As Major Block” To “Govern”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/john-kerry-says-quiet-part-out-loud-first-amendment-stands-major-block-govern

    [Here is a snip from the article …]

    Within the recent WEF discussion, Secretary Kerry outlines how freedom of speech is a ‘threat to the global democracy ‘because the governing officials have a difficult time controlling information. Kerry goes on to posit how the next administration, presumably in his hope Kamala Harris, will forcefully structure all the tools of government to stop Americans from using the first amendment to freely speak about issues.

    Governing is too challenging, according to Kerry, when the government cannot stop people from seeking and discovering information that is against their interests. Effective governing required compliant adherence to a singular ideology. Against the backdrop of COVID-19 and a host of similarly related government narratives, if people are free to find alternative information and think for themselves, they become increasingly more difficult to control. Yes, this is said quite openly. This is the mindset of those in power.

    [If you access the link you will not only be presented with the article but you will also be presented with a video.]

    2. “..discovering information against their interest..says John Kerry is grounds to obstruct free speech.
      Isn’t it more accurate to say that the One World Order Cult doesn’t wants information discovered against their interest.
      Hilary Clinton promotes taking free speech and US Citizens should be subjected to reprogramming camps.
      Here you have 2 former Presidential Candidates wanting to violate Constitutional Protections in US.

  27. The Supreme Court dismissed the claims against Janet and Graeme: unconscionable conduct, harassment and coercion, and misleading and deceptive conduct.”

    This is globalism distilled to its essence.

    “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
    ― Frédéric Bastiat

      1. I don’t know about the governments, but if I were to bet, I’d put my money on Oz to dig their way out of it sooner. There’s far too much testosterone in the outback to put up with this sh!t for long Your average rugby team has enough T to overthrow Prime Minister Peoplekind and his minions too.

    2. People gonna start justifiably taking things back into their own hands and “solving’ these issues once and for all.

      1. Frontier justice gonna justice.

        “Try that in a small town” hey Reddit, bring your Soy Army and come and take it.

    1. But, but my betters tell me that inflation is caused by gouging and the only solution is to decree price controls.

    1. Globalists gonna globe. You are being replaced. Name those names. Name them:

      Southern Poverty Law Center
      Anti Defamation League

      #Notice and #Name

  31. The Fed’s bullion bank market manipulators are trying desperately to tamp down the price of silver – and prop up the U.S. dollar – with massive naked shorting – illegal, but conducted under the noses of the captured, complicit CFTC regulators with impunity. A 698 million oz short position could rip the faces off the shorts if strong physical buying overwhelms the bullion bankers’ spoofing and dumping of paper (non-existent) silver.

    https://x.com/Thedudesetx00/status/1839856081796821150

    1. The new R’s definitely have a deeper bench, and a younger bench. Seriously, we could have DJT, Vance, Vance, DeSantis, DeSantis. And then in 2044, Vivek could run and still be the same age as Special K is now.

  33. Ally Carter was at the P Diddy “freak off” Parties when she was a child.

    Here’s a video she made and put on her TG channel Pray for her they’re probably going to try and kill her. She pointing her finger straight at the CPS in Riverside CA. She says they delivered the “product” to the parties.

    “Let’s not just talk about the adults … talk about the children! We will be back soon with receipts. We have a few things to do first. Thank you to those who believed the kids the first time. We love you. – 💜Ally Carter”

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/FJXcbqxXZn5L

    25 minutes. She starts talking about satanic ritual orgies at 5:30.

    1. This story keeps getting weirder. What happens when a Democrat Party fundraiser goes on too long and turns into a mess of depravity with all kinds of drugs and sex slaves. Sounds like a Democrat Party kind of thing, every major donor was at these parties.

  34. RESCUE THE REPUBLIC rally going on in Washington DC right now, where about 100 thousand are there, with notable speakers that we are all familiar with.

    Its screaming live on INFOWARS and maybe other channels.
    I predict Main Stream News isn’t going to want to cover this one.

  35. ‘Asheville region home sales declined in August, falling 2 percent compared to last August, with 935 homes sold. Listing activity has risen for the past twelve months and has increased inventory in August by 40.1 percent, to nearly 3,350 homes for sale’

    I expect multiple tales of ‘insurance fooked me, somebody please take this flooded shack off my hands’ stories in the coming days.

    1. The destruction of Yellen bux “value” from waterlogged, uninsurable shacks is going to be staggering.

  37. ‘I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,’ said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend, as she turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes’

    Couldn’t afford insurance.

    1. I doubt anyone can get insurance in Steinhatchee regarding flooding. Have you missed the fact that all structures built in last 20 years or so are required to be elevated on stilts? Older ones are either gone already or soaked fairly regularly.

  38. ‘Payne said when she bought the house, the previous owners offered the property without a Residential Property Condition Statement because they didn’t live in the house for the three years prior to the sale. Payne said she didn’t realize this wasn’t included in the housing contract until after the flooding took place. For now, she said, she’s stuck there with no way of leaving’

    What I do is read the long dam things Candace. For instance, I’d bet there was some box you checked that said ‘this property does not come with a Residential Property Condition Statement.’

  39. ‘As a longtime resident of the Parkside neighborhood and an avid walker, the issue of randomly discarded needles is a major concern. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to take a walk through the neighborhood and not see several discarded needles.’ At a West End Neighborhood Association meeting earlier this month, Rich Bianculli, echoing complaints from other residents, said the situation is, ‘kind of a nightmare’

    I’ve never seen a single used needle near any of the shacks I’ve lived in.

    1. I’ve never seen a single used needle near any of the shacks I’ve lived in.

      I haven’t seen any here either. It might have to do with the city not handing out free needles.

  40. ‘This isn’t a case of developer greed, Wesgroup president Beau Jarvis said, although he’s aware that the public might interpret it that way. ‘It’s an untenable operating environment,’ he said in an interview. ‘Our industry is broken’

    The good news for you Beau is that K-dns hold real estate developers in high esteem.

  41. ‘two separate fires, which were deemed suspicious, were reported in a new housing development on Sept. 27. At approximately 12:54 a.m.’

    Two. Just after midnight seems to be the preference.

  42. ‘It also informs us that house prices have fallen since their peak in 2021, and that we’re now in a ‘buyers’ market’

    ‘where one million Auckland dollars doesn’t buy you a million dollar view, let alone a house that isn’t plonked on top of a busy highway….They fall in love with the third property Glover shows them and secure it at auction for $50,000 over their million dollar budget…like being shown a $1.6 million dollar house with half a garage, it just felt a bit bleak. This Stuff piece from 2022 states that in the mid-1990s, the average New Zealand home cost $125,440, which was 3.2 times the average household income of $39,796. In 2022, the average house cost $977,158, 8.2 times the average household’s income’

    They did make it clear it’s a buyers market.

    1. $600K USD for a squalid shack in a low populated country with tons of open space, plenty of fresh water, and no real economy to speak of. I worked with a guy who once moved there. He said all he could find were low paid menial jobs, so he came back.

  43. ‘After two days, the judge says, ‘Stop. This is all a waste of time. There are no books for you to inspect’…The residents had together put more than a million dollars into the company for their ‘house and land packages.’ Yet one of the profit and loss statements they received was simply blank’

    That was a big red flag.

  44. Do you worry that China’s massive hair-of-the-dog stimulus package may ultimately prove to be a misfire?

    1. Discourse Economy
      China’s massive stimulus misfire
      The new measures are supposed to reignite the economy. They won’t.

      Xi Jinping holding a sparkler, preparing to launch a large cannon-fired Chinese Yuan Currency cash ball
      iStock; Andres Martinez Casares/Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI
      Linette Lopez
      Sep 29, 2024, 2:57 AM PDT
      Sure, Wall Street. Go ahead. Ride the dragon.

      There was a moment of grace on Tuesday for investors, market analysts, and finance’s top brass when Beijing announced measures to try to reinvigorate China’s croaking economy. Pan Gongsheng, a governor of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, announced that 800 billion yuan, or about $114 billion, would be injected into the stock market. Policymakers also said they were discussing raising a fund designed to stabilize stocks and announced rules allowing Chinese banks to keep less money in reserve, freeing up 1 trillion yuan to go out as loans. They also lowered the People’s Bank of China’s medium-term lending rate and key interest rates for banks and customers. Homebuyers can also now put less money down on their purchases — an attempt to breathe life into China’s moribund property market.

      The immediate reaction from Wall Street was all-out jubilee. Since the pandemic, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has done little to stop the bleeding in the country’s property market or to get China’s ailing consumers to start spending money again. The Shanghai Composite lost nearly a quarter of its value. American companies in China are getting crushed. Foreign investors are pulling record amounts of money out of the country. This week’s announcements sent Wall Street into a state of rapture, hoping that the Chinese Communist Party is now, as in years past, prepared to catch a falling knife. The Golden Dragon index — a collection of Nasdaq-traded companies that do most of their business in China — rallied 9% following the announcements. Financial-news talking heads heralded this as a clear sign from Beijing that policymakers were getting real about stopping China’s descent into a deflationary funk. There would be more mergers and acquisitions! Lower rates could mean more private-equity activity! The famous Beijing “bazooka” could finally be on the way!

      But honey, they are delusional.

      Xi’s Beijing lacks the will and the power to turn China’s economy around.
      …
      https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xi-jinping-stimulus-plan-wall-street-stock-market-economy-2024-9

  45. Climate Totalitarianism

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    22 hours ago

    Carbon fundamentalism, which values the reduction of carbon above all else, overlooks the reasons most people want to protect the environment in the first place. As I told ‪@MeatEaterTV‬ host Steven Rinella, this may constitute the biggest mistake the environmental movement has ever made.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EkKQWzJ3bo

    1:22.

    1. Carbon fundamentalism

      That’s exactly what it is. And it only has one real purpose: to make billionaires even richer.

    1. Iconic California city with gorgeous beaches and mountains could soon be filled with property bargains as experts warn of house price crash
      By Mitchell Goodbar For Dailymail.Com 01:42 28 Sep 2024

      House prices in Los Angeles might be about to plummet, according to a new analysis conducted by the investment banking company UBS.

      Although the demand for LA property is expected to remain hot, especially after interest rates were cut earlier this month, UBS said the situation is more complicated than it seems.

      In their thorough report, the banking giant determined that among the 25 major international cities, Los Angeles had the fourth highest risk of being in a housing bubble.
      …
      https://www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-13900683/amp/California-city-property-bargains-crash-UBS.html

      1. “…could soon be filled with property bargains…”

        The important detail is not that housing may soon end its period of historically euphoric overvaluation. Rather it’s that investors will soon have yet another opportunity to snap up investment homes at fire sale prices.

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