Sometimes The Seller Just Goes, ‘No, I’m Not Responding; This Is Way Too Low’
A report from Axios DC. “Vying for Washington’s white-collar jobs has become uber competitive as laid-off federal workers flood the market. Some are having to take positions they’re overqualified for, or do gig work to pay their mortgage or kids’ tuition, says Chris Jones, founder of the political staffing agency PoliTemps. A Washington resident in their early 30s who lost their job at a nonprofit that implemented USAID and State Department grants tells Axios they’ve applied to between 50 and 100 jobs since February — and they’ve only landed one interview that didn’t go anywhere. ‘I would be looking at a climate job, and then would read about how the EPA [fired workers],’ says the resident, who asked for anonymity as they job hunt. ‘[And it’s like] ‘Okay, now I’m competing with a bunch of people who are actual experts.’ The job seeker and their spouse were about to start house-hunting before the DOGE firings. Now they’re using their real estate savings to stay afloat. ‘It kind of really threw a wrench in all of our financial planning.'”
“The real estate market during COVID-19, with low interest rates, is a thing of the past. But after a long period where seller’s were in control, the market has shifted to a ‘buyer’s market,’ according to local real estate agent Jonathan Daugherty and new data from Northeast Florida Association of Realtors (NEFAR). Daugherty said new data shows there are no new construction homes in Duval County to speak of. The average listing price in Duval County is $380,00 and the average sold price is around $355,000, he said. The decrease in prices reflects the actual market across Florida. Hope Marini and her family lived in Hawaii for years. Recently, they traded one paradise for another and moved to Florida. ‘We just moved back to Jacksonville and there are a lot of inventory and there’s a lot of buyers and so we felt like, because we had good representation and a good Realtor that we were able to get a good deal on the house,’ Marini said. She is enjoying her new piece of paradise and was able to get a 10% price cut. ‘To quote Warren Buffett, the best time to buy is when everyone else is scared,’ Marini said.”
Live Insurance News. “The condo market along Alabama’s Gulf Coast is facing a wave of challenges that’s left buyers, sellers, and real estate agents all staring down mounting obstacles. What’s behind the slowdown? Well, the short answer is insurance. The long answer? It’s a tangle of skyrocketing premiums, tougher lending guidelines, and an ominous ‘blacklist’ that’s thrown the local market into disarray. Fannie Mae—yep, that Fannie Mae—not only backs a massive chunk of mortgages but also decides which properties get their big stamp of approval. Now, nearly 70 Alabama condo complexes, including many in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, don’t make the cut. ‘Insurance premiums have tripled,’ said David Swiger, a Gulf Shores broker. ‘And what we’re running into left and right are new insurance assessments. It’s eating into everyone’s pockets. It’s frustrating,’ admitted Swiger. ‘Some people bought these as investments and planned to rent them out. With rising assessments and insurance costs, it’s getting harder to make money.'”
From Bisnow. “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is facing some of the steepest cuts, a 44% budget reduction from $75B to $42B. If approved, the adjustments at HUD would threaten to collapse the country’s affordable housing model, putting owners at risk of foreclosure and forcing people from their homes. There’s little expectation that state entities will backfill funding gaps left by the federal government at a time when state tax revenue is falling and major cities are already grappling with an affordability crisis. ‘How are they going to make up the cuts to 35% of rental assistance and 44% overall of the HUD housing programs? It’s like voodoo economics, it just doesn’t work,’ said Dan Cruz Jr., senior vice president at Cruz Development Corp., a subsidiary of a third-generation Black-owned affordable housing developer based in Boston.”
Denverite in Colorado. “Metrowide rents are falling for the first time in years. A record number of new apartments are hitting the market, and population growth has slowed from a pandemic low. Many renters are still struggling to afford their leases. But many are hunting for better deals — and some are succeeding. ‘Now would be the time to take a shot,’ RiNo developer Andrew Feinstein said. ‘I would say that we’re in a market where the landlords need the tenants more than the tenants need the landlords.’ The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, a landlord advocacy group, said the metro had become a ‘renter’s market.’ The drop in price comes as record numbers of new apartments are opening – more than 20,000 units have been completed around the seven-county metro area in the past 12 months. In short, supply is growing faster than demand. The result: the metro’s apartment vacancy rate has broken 7 percent, with a greater percentage of apartments sitting empty than at any time since 2009.”
Bloomberg on Canada. “Homebuyers are starting to find deals in what’s shaping up to be one of the toughest spring seasons for the Toronto housing market in more than a decade. In April, 66 per cent of homes sold in Toronto went for less than the listing price, the highest percentage for that month since 2013, according to data compiled by real estate agent Robert Marsiglio. ‘There’s no more FOMO,’ said Marsiglio, using an acronym that stands for the fear of missing out. ‘It’s just improving for buyers relative to sellers. That power balance is still shifting to buyers. It’s probably in the relatively early days of it.'”
“The shift has emboldened buyers to play hardball, according to Toronto broker Tom Storey. He’s seen initial offers that have come in 5 per cent below list prices at a minimum this spring, with buyers simply moving on if sellers don’t indicate at least some willingness to negotiate. In many cases, the buyers aren’t willing to negotiate their opening offers at all, he said. Storey said he’d never seen the Toronto market favouring buyers so heavily in his 12 years being a broker, outside of the pandemic. ‘Buyers are holding their foot down,’ he said. ‘sometimes the seller just goes, ‘No, I’m not responding; this is way too low.’ And the buyer just goes, ‘All right. I have five other options. I’ll go try on the next one.'”
Radio New Zealand. “Real estate agent Caleb Paterson said a new ‘try-before-you-buy’ model was emerging locally, with some clients paying up to $30,000 a week to rent off-market homes while they ‘awaited clarity’ on New Zealand’s foreign buyer ban. ‘We’re dealing with a lot of home owners in that luxury space and the market is not responding where they want [it], so now they’re having to reassess all their options.’ He had ‘a lot’ of clients looking at purchasing properties who had subsequently withdrawn. A lot of high-end vendors in the baby boom demographic were looking to sell up, and many were prepared to meet the market, he said. The vendors of one off-market property ‘worth $20 million on paper’ were happy to drop their price to $15 million but even the $5million price-drop was not enough.”
From Vietnam Express. “Hong Kong’s prolonged property downturn is dragging down the value of real estate owned by celebrities and tycoons, including actor Nicholas Tse and the family of late Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho. In March, Tse leased out a retail space in Central Hong Kong for HK$60,000 (US$7,721) per month, 40% below the original listed price of HK$100,000, after the unit sat vacant for more than a year. Just last week, a high-end duplex apartment once owned by Chinese actress Vicki Zhao and her former husband also struggled to attract interest. The property went to auction at HK$49 million, a steep 32% markdown from its purchase price of HK$72 million, but failed to draw any bids. In the housing segment, prices have plunged nearly 30% since their peak in 2021.”
Barron’s on China. “Lu Yangling, 52, who is from the lower-tier southwestern city of Xishuangbanna, in Yunnan province, told Barron’s that three units owned by himself and his brother and sister have all lost value in the last several years. ‘There is no real estate activity. Really, there seems to be little business activity overall,’ he said by phone. When asked if these trends were affecting his consumer and savings activities, he said: ‘Of course. Our money is in our homes. If they are losing value, we are going to spend less on things’ like travel, dining out, and even in-city meetups with friends, he said.”
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‘She is enjoying her new piece of paradise and was able to get a 10% price cut. ‘To quote Warren Buffett, the best time to buy is when everyone else is scared’
The market needs knife catchers Hope.
Chumming the market with 10% cuts…
10% discount
snort
That’s like a starting point in a bull market Should be looking 30 to 40% here, just to start.
“…Should be looking 30 to 40% here, just to start….”
What’s highly amusing is that at the height of the mania, the REIConplex claimed that 30%,40%,50% cuts were ‘unpossible’. (Very well documented here on the HBB).
Of course, no-one in the REIConplex could of seen it coming.
‘Of course. Our money is in our homes. If they are losing value, we are going to spend less on things’ like travel, dining out’
There’s yer problem right there Lu. No eating if you want to be a winnah!
From the Axios article:
A quarter of surveyed Washingtonians who had a federal worker or contractor in their household at the beginning of the year say that person has now been let go or put on leave, per a recent poll from George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government and the Washington Post.
A Washington resident in their early 30s who lost their job at a nonprofit that implemented USAID and State Department grants tells Axios they’ve applied to between 50 and 100 jobs since February — and they’ve only landed one interview that didn’t go anywhere.
‘I would be looking at a climate job, and then would read about how the EPA [fired workers],” says the resident, who asked for anonymity as they job hunt. “[And it’s like] ‘Okay, now I’m competing with a bunch of people who are actual experts.’
A former contractor for USAID who’s in their early 40s, and also asked to be anonymous while they look for a job, says they’ve applied to over 100 jobs since February, with only five interviews. One open position they saw on LinkedIn Premium advertised that it had over 1,800 applicants.
The former contractor said they previously could rely on networking to get a new job. No more: “I’ve been having to reach back a long way [in my job history] because my entire industry died.”
And now they’re considering leaving D.C. altogether. “The job market right now here is somewhat impossible, and I’d almost rather not fight tooth and nail for one position [out of] 2,000 applicants,” they say. “We have a little bit of beaten-down MAGA fatigue.”
The Washington region is in danger of experiencing a talent drain as many of these former feds struggle to find new jobs locally, says Jones.
“They’re at a part in their life where they put in 15, 20 years to the government, and now the contract has been broken,” he says. “They no longer feel responsibility or tethered to the DMV area.”
I voted for this.
The Washington region is in danger of experiencing a talent drain
Honestly “They”, we’re not seeing the downside.
“They’re at a part in their life where they put in 15, 20 years to the government, and now the contract has been broken,” he says.
You didn’t have an employment contract; it was paycheck to paycheck, administration to administration. Your government exhausted our prosperity in the middle-east, so now it’s time to utilize your accumulated experience in the free market.
“exhausted our prosperity in the middle-east”
Securing the Realm.
We pay for all of Israel’s health care too.
“talent drain”
hahahahahahahahaah
more like parasite drain
‘I would be looking at a climate job, and then would read about how the EPA [fired workers],” says the resident, who asked for anonymity as they job hunt. “[And it’s like] ‘Okay, now I’m competing with a bunch of people who are actual experts.’
You can’t just decide you want a science (climate) job, you should actually have a scientific background. And hopefully, but doubtful, the people working at the EPA had scientific backgrounds, although, based on some things I have seen about NASA and Scientific American, I wonder if science knowledge was the key hiring metric.
“my entire industry died”
Industry, did you say? What do you manufacture, besides more government debt?
A Washington resident in their early 30s who lost their job at a nonprofit that implemented USAID and State Department grants tells Axios they’ve applied to between 50 and 100 jobs since February — and they’ve only landed one interview that didn’t go anywhere.
Your days of pouring my hard-earned tax dollars down every rat-hole on the planet that generates kickbacks for the DNC are over, Comrade. Learn to pick crops, parasite.
Learn to pick crops, parasite.
I still see jobs available for underground coal miners if picking crops ain’t your thing.
————
A Washington resident in their early 30s who lost their job
they’ve only landed one interview
asked for anonymity as they job hunt.
The job seeker and their spouse
————
Does anyone else read this as trans, and not as someone who only wants to conceal their gender?
‘If approved, the adjustments at HUD would threaten to collapse the country’s affordable housing model, putting owners at risk of foreclosure and forcing people from their homes. There’s little expectation that state entities will backfill funding gaps left by the federal government at a time when state tax revenue is falling and major cities are already grappling with an affordability crisis. ‘How are they going to make up the cuts to 35% of rental assistance and 44% overall of the HUD housing programs? It’s like voodoo economics, it just doesn’t work’
A whole lot of landlords are gonna be fooked like Dan.
‘To quote Warren Buffett, the best time to buy is when everyone else is scared,’ Marini said.”
Remember, knife catchers, it’s the 2nd mouse that gets the cheese.
It’s a tangle of skyrocketing premiums, tougher lending guidelines, and an ominous ‘blacklist’ that’s thrown the local market into disarray.
I fear this drumbeat of bad news could monkey-wrench Always Be Closing.
“The Department of Housing and Urban Development is facing some of the steepest cuts, a 44% budget reduction from $75B to $42B. If approved, the adjustments at HUD would threaten to collapse the country’s affordable housing model, putting owners at risk of foreclosure and forcing people from their homes.
Seethe harder, globalist scum media. Ever since LBJ’s “Great Society” middle class taxpayers have been forced to subsidize the irresponsible lifestyles and parasitism of the layabout class of Democrat dependency voters, while also artificially driving up shack prices. A nation that’s $37 trillion in debt can no longer afford such fiscal profligacy.
“Metrowide rents are falling for the first time in years. A record number of new apartments are hitting the market, and population growth has slowed from a pandemic low.
Denver is finished. Even high net worth libtards are bailing from what they’ve created.
‘There’s no more FOMO,’ said Marsiglio, using an acronym that stands for the fear of missing out. ‘It’s just improving for buyers relative to sellers.
And now comes the panic-selling by overleveraged FBs as Fear of Getting Schlonged sets in. Got popcorn?
Just Say No to FB “friends” being pulled underwater by their alligators. If stupid didn’t hurt, fools would never learn.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/im-flabbergasted-my-friend-wants-to-borrow-5-800-to-save-his-home-from-foreclosure-what-should-i-do-c578b12b?mod=home_ln
The vendors of one off-market property ‘worth $20 million on paper’ were happy to drop their price to $15 million but even the $5million price-drop was not enough.”
The “wealth destruction” as fake value created by the central bankers’ gusher of created-out-of-thin-air fiat currency gets obliterated from global asset bubbles and Ponzi markets is going to be a thing of terrible beauty. Got gold? Got silver? Got lead & brass?
When asked if these trends were affecting his consumer and savings activities, he said: ‘Of course. Our money is in our homes. If they are losing value, we are going to spend less on things’ like travel, dining out, and even in-city meetups with friends, he said.
Welp, I’m sure this housing bubble meltdown will be confined to Vietnam, and here in the U.S. we have reached a permanently high plateau. Cuz it’s different here. Party on, Garth!
‘To quote Warren Buffett, the best time to buy is when everyone else is scared,’ Marini said.’
Not sure he said that, but I beg to differ.
The best time to buy is after prices have CR8Red, many who might otherwise want to buy are broke or unemployed, and others are warning you that you would have to be crazy to buy now.
That’s how it was the last time I bought, which in retrospect was a very good time go buy. We’re nowhere near there yet.
yes it’s a good time to buy when nobody even wants to talk about it, much less do a deal. Now it’s still “oh i want to buy a place but i want 10% off” that’s not the bottom. not even close.
Buffet said “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”
Baron Nathan Rothschild said “When blood runs in the streets, buy property.”
Looks like she’s conflating the two.
Trump’s federal firings and their ripple effect
Naomi Anderson was on leave looking after her young baby when she was told her US Department of Agriculture job helping farmers in developing countries was being cut. A former volunteer with the Peace Corps, which sends young Americans overseas to projects in emerging economies, Anderson had expected to spend her whole career in international development.
“I had taken this job two years ago expecting to stay here for at least 10 years, and you know, we had started to make a community and build up our life here. In January, we had started looking at buying a home,” she says.
Now Anderson is having to consider giving up the apartment in the Washington DC commuter town of Reston, Virginia, that she shares with her husband and their four-month-old baby and almost two-year-old toddler.
“Financially, it’s a little bit precarious, and honestly we’re not sure what we’re going to do,” says Anderson, who is also an activist with the local branch of the AFSCME union and dabbles in selling political merchandise. “We’re thinking about moving back to Ohio, where I’m from, where my family is. You know, it’s a lot cheaper there.”
Anderson is far from alone. “In our apartment complex, there’s been lots of yard sales, people selling things and moving away. It really does seem like people are just picking up and leaving, because it’s too expensive to live here without a job,” she says.
Brendan Demich is among those to be dismissed, losing his job as an engineer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All his colleagues working on mine safety, as well as those in their sister laboratory testing equipment such as respirators, are also leaving – more than 200 in total – as part of a wave of cuts initiated by Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“So many people are devastated,” says Demich, chief steward of the local AFGE union branch. He says so many workers have been removed at once that their colleagues have barely been able to give them any kind of send-off. “It’s just unceremoniously leaving, because they had their package processed and they had to walk out the door.”
Jess Miller, who set up Rock Spring Real Estate Solutions a couple of years ago, has been hosting a breakfast roundtable for clients, on the top floor of an as yet unoccupied new office block in Arlington.
She has noticed clients responding to the shifting climate, pulling out of deals and hoping to negotiate unusually short leases. The owners of this building are splitting the floors instead of looking for one anchor tenant.
“Just how they’re making decisions is different – the cutbacks we’re seeing,” Miller says. “It hit the NGOs first and then it hit, you know, the corporations and the contractors, and it’s a lot of the senior management.”
At her office nearby, Renata Briggman, a residential estate agent, plays down the idea that the housing market in Arlington could be hit, pointing to the many local employers broadly unaffected by federal spending – such as Amazon, which is headquartered here.
However, she does acknowledge signs of change. “It’s definitely shifting. We’re not seeing any fire sales, it’s too soon for that. It’s very, very slow, and we’re just going to start seeing it, it’s just on the cusp … end of June, we’ll have a better idea.”
Such challenges are being replicated across the region. Jimmy Olevson, the president and chief executive of National Capital Bank, which serves Washington DC and the surrounding areas, says the bank is not yet seeing signs of financial distress, such as rising arrears, but the mood is “uneasy”. Many customers who have had a recent mortgage application approved seem to have put house-hunting on hold.
Meanwhile, for many of the affected individuals, the future looks highly uncertain – despite the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s suggestion they should go work in manufacturing. “For us on our team, we work in international development,” says Anderson. “We have a background in humanitarian work, and the Trump administration is trying to cut international foreign aid. So where do you go from there?”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/14/trump-federal-layoffs-ripple-effect-us-economy
their colleagues have barely been able to give them any kind of send-off
On an expense account, he should have added.
“We have a background in humanitarian work, and the Trump administration is trying to cut international foreign aid. So where do you go from there?”
As was mentioned above, learn to pick crops or get into underground coal mining. Problem solved, you are welcome!
Which still means they’ll need to move. As they said, there are no ties to the DC area anymore.
Seller still has high hopes for huge profits.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5773-Michael-Dr-Milton-FL-32583/62701186_zpid/
Trump’s insults and tariffs strain relationships along the U.S.-Canadian border
DERBY LINE, VERMONT — This tiny village of 700 in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is surrounded by rolling, green hills, and sits along the U.S.-Canadian border.
A few steps away, a visitor can wander into the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, a handsome brick and stone Victorian building that straddles the border. Step over a black line painted across the floor near of the librarian’s desk, and you enter Stanstead, Quebec.
“It was built intentionally to be able to re-unite both countries and both communities,” said Sylvie Boudreau, president of the Haskell board.
Since 1906, the Haskell has been a powerful symbol of cross-border friendship. But now Washington is stoking division, according to Boudreau, who said many of her Canadian neighbors don’t want to venture any closer to America than the library.
“They want to boycott the United States. Some are afraid to cross the border,” she said. “It hurts me, and I get emotional.”
A Quebec resident, Boudreau said she spent 20 years working for the Canadian Border Agency, so she recognizes the need for border security. But she said the new rules and attitude coming from Washington harm communities along the border, which have a long tradition of close cooperation and friendship.
A visit to the library earlier this year by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, didn’t help. Boudreau recalls that Noem stepped back and forth across the borderline, parroting her boss — Trump — referring to the Canadian side as “the 51st state.”
“Being Canadians, we are all polite, so we didn’t say anything,” Boudreau said. But Noem’s antics were “disrespectful,” she said, and made her angry.
“We’re definitely seeing less Canadian traffic going south,” said Stanstead Mayor Jody Stone.
Stone said the rift between Canada and the U.S. feels like a couple going through a “break-up,” after “one betrayed the other.” He said Canadians feel a sense of “dueil,” using the French word for “mourning.”
“That’s what we’re going through,” Stone said. “We had an economic relationship and a friendly-family-friends-allies relationship, as well. And I think that’s what we’re mourning.”
https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/05/15/vermont-canada-library-town-trump-border
CHARLEBOIS: Forget ‘Elbows Up,’ it’s ‘Wallets Out’ for Canadian consumers
While Washington appears to be softening its stance with several key trading partners, Canada remains entrenched in a solitary and expensive tariff posture. This week, Loblaw president Per Bank issued a public warning: A new wave of price hikes, directly linked to Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, is about to hit store shelves. For consumers, this will mean more products marked with a subtle yet telling symbol: “T” — indicating tariff-impacted goods.
Since March 4, 2025, Canada has implemented several rounds of 25% counter-tariffs on U.S. goods in retaliation for protectionist measures from the Trump administration. The surcharges apply to a wide range of imports: Orange juice, peanut butter, wine, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, tools, cosmetics and other consumer goods. In total, nearly $60 billion in imports are now affected.
The agri-food sector is especially vulnerable to these trade frictions. With thin profit margins and a high reliance on strategic imports, food processors and retailers are under intense pressure. Ottawa’s tariff list includes about $5.8 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products — dairy, poultry, fresh produce, candy ingredients, bouillons, condiments, grains, rice and more. Some iconic items, like Kentucky bourbon, have already disappeared from Canadian shelves. Since April, any U.S. vehicle not meeting Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement rules of origin is also subject to a 25% levy.
In many cases, Canadian manufacturers have no viable alternatives. For a significant number of ingredients or components, the U.S. remains the only feasible supplier in the short term. The result? Higher costs, few substitutes and inevitably a pass-through to consumers.
This tariff path imposes a double penalty on Canadians: Rising prices and shrinking choices. Ironically, despite Trump’s aggressive tariff playbook, U.S. food inflation fell to 2% in April — way below Canada’s. In theory, tariffs should drive prices up. That hasn’t happened in the U.S., where a denser, more competitive market absorbs external shocks more effectively. Canada lacks that economic cushion.
The “Elbows Up” campaign may be meant to inspire resilience, but from an economic standpoint it’s little more than a distraction. While the U.S. manages to contain food inflation at 2% despite aggressive tariffs, Canada is facing higher prices and fewer choices — a direct result of poor policy insulation and limited market competitiveness. Symbolic gestures won’t offset structural inefficiencies.
This tariff path imposes a double penalty on Canadians: Rising prices and shrinking choices. Ironically, despite Trump’s aggressive tariff playbook, U.S. food inflation fell to 2% in April — way below Canada’s. In theory, tariffs should drive prices up. That hasn’t happened in the U.S., where a denser, more competitive market absorbs external shocks more effectively. Canada lacks that economic cushion.
The “Elbows Up” campaign may be meant to inspire resilience, but from an economic standpoint it’s little more than a distraction. While the U.S. manages to contain food inflation at 2% despite aggressive tariffs, Canada is facing higher prices and fewer choices — a direct result of poor policy insulation and limited market competitiveness. Symbolic gestures won’t offset structural inefficiencies.
The message from grocers is clear: It’s time for Ottawa to rethink its retaliatory tariff strategy — before the cost becomes too steep for households and industry alike.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/charlebois-forget-elbows-up-its-wallets-out-for-canadian-consumers
With thin profit margins and a high reliance on strategic imports, food processors and retailers are under intense pressure
That’s odd. Just a few months ago Ottawa was telling everyone food prices were high because of the greed of grocery companies. Now it’s thin margins?
Panic among workers: ICE enters Florida construction sites and detains undocumented individuals
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a series of raids on construction and landscaping sites in the city of Wildwood this Wednesday, a situation that caused panic among the workers present.
During these operations, ICE detained more than two dozen undocumented immigrants, many of whom had been previously deported, several media outlets reported.
According to official reports, the arrested individuals are from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. On social media, reports and videos of the arrests went viral quickly.
Activist Carlos Eduardo Espina published several videos of the raids and denounced that they are happening despite the vulnerability of migrant workers.
Her post has generated dozens of comments, including one from the user mariluz1909, who wrote: “How shocking, taking them away from where they are only working.”
In the southern part of the state, where Hispanics are crucial to the service economy and tourism, the government’s crackdown on illegal immigration began to reduce the presence of employees in workplaces as they chose to stay home due to the risk of deportation.
https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2025-05-15-u1-e199894-s27061-nid302825-panico-trabajadores-ice-entra-obras-florida-detiene
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a series of raids on construction and landscaping sites
When I was overseas last year i saw a “raid” on a restaurant/bar looking for illegals. It was interesting, the word was quickly spread that the Police were circling the area. One woman, who was working at the time and illegal, just calmly walked across the street away from the bar, talking on her phone as the police were parking, an other one, who was working and legal, but not approved for the job she was working, calmly sat down next to me, as we were friends, and we drank beer together as they walked around. Supposedly, an other woman, who is a citizen, but because of her religion is not allowed to work where they serve alcohol, ran out the back door when she heard the police were pulling up. I was wondering if they were going to question me, as I was obviously a foreigner, but just looked at me, nodded and walked by.
South LA couple arrested for allegedly blocking immigration agents with cars
A South LA couple faces federal charges for allegedly trying to block immigration agents during an operation on Feb. 28.
Aerial footage from the day shows groups of people protesting as federal immigration agents served search warrants across Los Angeles. The Department of Justice claims Gustavo Torres, 28, and Kiara Jaime-Flores, 34, used their car to chase and block immigration agents during the operation
Court documents outlined Torres’ reasoning for blocking the federal agents during an interview for the investigation.
“We thought that it’d be a good idea,” Torres said, according to the DOJ. “If it was immigration, they were taking someone’s family member unjustified. Well, me and my girlfriend, the first instinct was, well, to block the cars.”
The couple is being charged with conspiracy to impede or injure officers. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/south-la-couple-arrested-for-allegedly-blocking-immigration-agents-with-cars/
They actually did a lot more than what this article says.
Bay Area Environmental Justice Projects in Limbo After Federal Funding Is Canceled
Bay Area nonprofits, counties and cities with environmental justice projects are searching for new funding after the Trump administration terminated the grants that funded their work in the last two weeks.
At least three nonprofits, Contra Costa County and the city of San José received emails from the administration, primarily from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stating “the objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” The grant terminations came as the administration has sought to eliminate any focus on environmental justice at the EPA.
The grant recipients had planned to establish a bike-share program in East San José, provide food to low-income families in Vallejo, purchase air purifiers for families with asthmatic children along the peninsula, enable San Rafael residents to prepare their neighborhoods for flooding and create a resilience hub with a 24/7 emergency shelter and plant trees in North Richmond.
Now, staff from each city, county and nonprofit are figuring out how to accomplish their goals without help from the federal government.
Last week, the EPA also terminated a nearly $500,000 grant for the Canal Alliance, a San Rafael nonprofit that planned to use the money to recruit residents to create a plan for the Canal neighborhood to adapt to the effects of climate change, as well as long-standing issues like a lack of transportation and housing.
“The Canal community is at the front lines of sea level rise,” said Aaron Burnett, director of policy and civic engagement at the Canal Alliance. “It’s the most prone to flooding as a result of sea level rise in any community in the entire Bay Area.”
The EPA also dropped a more than $19 million grant for Contra Costa County. The county planned to use the funds to bolster the community of North Richmond by making homes energy efficient, removing asphalt, planting trees, establishing a resiliency center, creating a community farm and other initiatives.
“This is one of those cases where the EPA is robbing the community of a benefit that it deserves,” said county supervisor John Gioia, whose district includes Richmond. “This community, which is adjacent to a chemical plant and oil refinery, is in need of this type of investment.”
“We’re exploring legal options, but in the meantime, we are robbed of the money,” Gioia said. “Unfortunately, all we can do is pursue this in court and hope that if there is a future administration, things will change.”
https://www.kqed.org/news/12039891/bay-area-environmental-justice-projects-in-limbo-after-federal-funding-is-canceled
we are robbed of the money,”
Come on be serious, you just got a grant cut/stopped. That’s life.
Grow up.
Montara residents alarmed by fire threat from overgrown Caltrans land
For 25 years, Larry De Young has lived and raised horses in the coastal town of Montara in San Mateo County.
“When we moved in, we thought this was a great place because it was open space,’’ said De Young, a retired biologist.
As the years went on, however, that space across a dirt road from his home became dense with non-native trees, including highly flammable eucalyptus. The area near his home is part of a 100-acre stretch of land Caltrans bought back in the 1970s, to serve as a freeway bypass around the unstable Devil’s Slide area.
In September 2023, De Young got a cancellation letter from his insurance carrier, citing high fire risk as justification. He said what’s so frustrating is, that as he has cleared the land around his home, Caltrans has not been doing its part.
“They just let all this happen,” he said. Concerned that the densely wooded land imperils the entire 2,400 home community, De Young and his neighbors formed a group to push Caltrans to honor what they consider to be its legal obligation to clear the overgrowth.
“I want them to make this fire safe – I want them to mitigate the fire hazard,” De Young said.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/montara-residents-alarmed-fire-threat-overgrown-caltrans-land/3869208/
Newsom’s push to ban homeless encampments is making housing advocates uncomfortable
Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing California municipalities to ban homeless encampments, saying it’s time to take steps that let the public “see results.”
Newsom on Monday issued a model ordinance that municipalities can adopt to ban homeless encampments on public property, the latest rightward step the governor has taken on housing issues. Newsom, a prominent Democratic figure and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has spent the last few years trying to stake himself to the right of most of his fellow Democrats on several issues, including this one.
“It’s not human to allow people to live three, four, five years in encampments. It’s not human to allow the status quo to continue,” Newsom told reporters Monday during a news conference in which he said the measures he proposed reflect a “deeper sense of clarity” between state and local efforts to address the homelessness crisis in California.
The model ordinance, which includes citations or arrest as possible consequences for those who violate the ban, is not an executive order. Instead, localities would need to implement it themselves. Newsom also announced $3.3 billion to help fund mental health and homelessness solutions.
Last year, California voters approved more than $6 billion in funding to build additional mental health facilities and homeless shelters in the state. On Monday, Newsom also called on local governments to streamline their permitting processes to speed up the building of these facilities.
California has an outsized unsheltered population, with nearly 187,000 unhoused people, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Dennis Oleesky, interim CEO of Los Angeles Mission, a nonprofit faith-based organization focused on homelessness, said Newsom’s model ordinance “leans heavily on enforcement without offering sufficient guarantees that real housing or services will be in place before people are displaced.”
“Yes, the ordinance includes language about offering shelter and services — but we’ve seen that those offers often amount to temporary fixes: a mat on a floor for one night, or a referral to a shelter that’s already full,” Oleesky said in a statement to NOTUS. “There’s no meaningful path to permanence for most people being displaced, and unless that’s addressed, this policy risks being a revolving door of disruption rather than a real solution.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, who also said he was just learning of Newsom’s recommendations, told NOTUS that while he doesn’t want to see Democrats “criminalizing homelessness,” he also feels homeless people have a right to a safe environment.
“We first need to make sure that there are beds available in shelters, but if there are available spaces, I think a city has the right to make sure that people can walk down their sidewalk, that businesses can make sure customers can enter their buildings without stepping over people, and we protect against debris that can pose a health and fire risk,” Schiff told NOTUS.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/newsom-s-push-to-ban-homeless-encampments-is-making-housing-advocates-uncomfortable/ar-AA1EHxKB
‘It’s not human to allow people to live three, four, five years in encampments. It’s not human to allow the status quo to continue’
It only took you several years and handing out billion$ to bum herders to see what the rest of the world knew years ago Gavin.
When even Gruesome Newsome wants the hobo camps torn down, you know you picked the wrong side.
It’s just been the past few months that some of them realized letting bums shoot up hard drugs in their ‘shelters’ might be a bad idea.
Some people bought these as investments and planned to rent them out. With rising assessments and insurance costs, it’s getting harder to make money.’”
Reading this just made me laugh. Damn, I feel soooo bad for them.
Border Boom Boosting Texas Metros — For Now
While tariff uncertainty has swept through the nation’s industrial markets, the sector still booms at the Texas border, putting the state’s two largest metros in pole position to benefit from explosive growth.
Both Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are already reaping overflow benefits of policy that facilitated trade with Mexico, sending industrial players flocking to both sides of the border.
The ever-evolving tariff picture has companies at the border and elsewhere hitting the brakes on new projects, and Savills has warned the border region is at an “inflection point” as President Donald Trump goes back and forth on a permanent policy.
That same inflection point extends to Houston and DFW, according to Savills Research Manager Deandre Prescott, with some fearing good times rolling today could turn sour tomorrow.
“There hasn’t been necessarily any data points as of yet to point to what actual impact [tariffs] are going to have, or if there will be an impact,” Prescott said. But, he added, “uncertainty goes across Texas.”
Surplus growth flowed to cities like San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, in the form of large-scale distribution centers to handle all the goods streaming from Mexico. At almost $90B, Texas now outpaces every other state in the country in annual commercial construction spending by a wide margin, according to a report from construction aggregate supplier Twisted Nail.
Yet many of the industrial projects now beginning construction were funded by Biden-era legislation, and worry is simmering that Trump administration tariffs could stifle future projects due to elevated material costs and general reluctance to pull the trigger until the picture clears.
“We are sitting on our hands right now, waiting,” Ric Campo, commission chairman of the Port of Houston Authority and CEO of multifamily REIT Camden Property Trust, said at a Greater Houston Partnership event this month.
No one is panicking for now, despite the era of build, build, build ending in both metros.
https://www.bisnow.com/dallas-ft-worth/news/industrial/overflow-from-industrial-border-boom-should-benefit-dfw-houston-129353
Did you buy the bear trap rally?
WSJ Opinion – Welcome to the Post-Progressive Political Era.
For decades, the right lost almost every battle in the culture. But now the left has clearly gone too far.
https://archive.ph/SsvoN
The decline of woke isn’t merely a “vibe shift.” It marks the end of the 60-year rise of left-liberalism in American culture. We are entering a post-progressive era.
Woke refers to an ideology of equal outcomes and emotional-harm protection for minorities. It produced phenomena such as cancel culture, men in women’s spaces and the toppling of statues. It energized a suite of policies known as diversity, equity and inclusion, whose roots lie in older racial-sensitivity training and affirmative-action programs. It is now in retreat.
The Trump administration has rescinded executive orders on affirmative action and disparate impact that were more than 50 years old. Universities are no longer allowed to enforce broad, identity-based speech codes, many of which arose nearly four decades ago. Colleges have adopted institutional-neutrality policies and ended mandatory diversity statements. Corporations have cut back on DEI. Today’s anti-DEI mood is likely to outlast the current administration, reflecting a deeper shift in the culture.
Culture can change from the top as elites lead public opinion. American elite culture turned against immigration in the late 1880s, then gradually liberalized between the 1920s and ’60s. Are we witnessing a similar elite-led shift, this time away from the ideology of equal outcomes and emotional-harm protection that has guided it since the mid-1960s?
The liberal left spearheaded liberation from social mores around divorce, sex and the traditional family. Attitudes toward interracial marriage, women’s equality and homosexuality liberalized, making society better. Conservatives lost virtually every battle in the culture, culminating most recently in the growing acceptance of gay marriage.
The success of the cultural left created a sense of progressive inevitability, captured by Ronald Inglehart’s important book, “Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society” (1990), which suggested that rising affluence and security propel young and educated people toward liberal-egalitarian cultural views. They in turn change society through generational turnover: one birth, one funeral and one college degree at a time. Left-liberalism was to usher in the end of history as society became more enlightened and empathetic. This confident historicist outlook could be discerned through phrases such as “the right side of history” or references to certain attitudes being out of date.
The cultural left envisioned a grand narrative of progress whose next phase would move from individual rights to group rights, citizen rights to rights across borders, and gay rights to trans rights. But what Daniel Bell termed the left’s “chiliastic hopes” appear to have ended in stalemate and polarization. The attempt to push for next-level DEI policies such as segregated graduation ceremonies, mandatory diversity statements, critical race and gender ideology in schools, or males in female sports has produced an enduring antiwoke reaction. Immigration attitudes have turned restrictionist after decades of liberalization.
Young people are more culturally progressive than their elders, but large-scale college freshman data and exit polls show a substantial rightward shift among young people from 2021-24. In Britain, YouGov’s tracker finds the under-25s moving sharply right on transgender issues and immigration since 2022. Both elite and public opinion on transgenderism has shifted against the left in the past two years, its first cultural loss in six decades.
The new vibe shift isn’t, as with the 1990s reaction to political correctness, confined to the pages of elite outlets like the New Republic and the New York Times. Instead, social media and today’s opinion-led media, which helped spread woke ideas off campus in the 2010s, have facilitated a wider backlash that has entered state and federal politics. Op-eds in liberal outlets have criticized diversity training, cancel culture, transgender medicine, DEI administrators and diversity statements.
Confronted by this broad-based rejection, progressive activists have lost confidence and energy. This contributed to the muted and disorganized reaction to Donald Trump’s election in 2024 as compared with 2016. Indeed, the left’s response to Mr. Trump today draws more on traditional idioms like free speech, due process and the Constitution than on the tropes of identity politics.
A further source of progressive malaise is that a series of culturally inflected problems elude progressive solutions. From endemic populism to declining birthrates, youth mental health to working-class social collapse and deaths of despair, the cultural left seems to be part of the problem rather than the solution. While the economic left remains relevant, cultural progressivism is losing influence. When a quasi-religious movement that sees itself as the vanguard of history stops rising, the effect is more profound than when an incremental reform movement is forced to moderate. Like a bicyclist who has stopped pedaling, the results are cataclysmic.
We are leaving the age of progressive confidence, but what will replace it? When the stories that set the direction for society no longer seem relevant, an opening is created for new ideas that can build on criticism of the existing order. How long the transition takes and what replaces progressivism as our cultural lodestar will become evident only in the fullness of time.
“… a new ‘try-before-you-buy’ model was emerging locally, with some clients paying up to $30,000 a week to rent off-market homes…”
$30,000 / week. Are these people serious?
Thanks $175+ / hour.
Are bathroom towels included?
Exactly what exactly do these ‘clients’ do for a living anyway?
Almost feels like some sort of elaborate money launder scheme.