The Dark Years Are Here
Sweetening the dividend deal
Dr. Housing Bubble: Spawning a Mortgage Disaster: The Birth of the Adjustable Rate Mortgage in 1982. California Confidential. A Budget Mess and Massive Cuts. S&P 500 Stock Market Speedway.
State Street Posts $3.3 Billion Loss After Writedown
Rocky Road for mobile ice cream vendors during this Recession
California wakes up and sniffs the cyanide gas
WSJ: Are Banks Holding a Shadow Inventory of Homes?
WaPo: At N.Y. Fed, Blending In Is Part of the Job
Salon: Who Caused The Economic Crisis? Part 1 of 3
Jim the Realtor's "REO Shadow Tour #4"
More Stores Roll Out "Christmas In July" Sales
CIT Hit With Interest Rate More Than 25 Times Libor
Mogambo Guru: The Reality of Fictitious Jobs
MarketWatch:From left field, Brazil, Canada pull money out of Treasurys
Mish: Moody's Commercial Real Estate Scorecard Accelerates To Downside
22 July 2009
21 July 2009
Three Paragraphs from Jim Kunstler's Latest "Is Obama Gorbachev?"
Jim Kunstler's latest "Is Obama Gorbachev?" has the following three paragraphs. This is the type of thinking which is on the minds of many Americans, even many who voted for Obama in 2008.
Those members of the FIRE Economy Rackets who are not aware of the anger percolating inside the bowels of America's middle and lower classes would do well to read this whole piece. Pay attention to the middle paragraph of just the 3 paragraphs I present here.
Since September of 2008, when Hank Paulson began shoveling bail-outs to the very banks who screwed the world on fraudulent and unreal securities, and left American society comprehensively bankrupt, the consensus has only deepened on the perception of an historic swindle. And so far, President Obama has positioned himself as chief enabler to further swindling. One need look no further than the rulings this past spring of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC, an official government agency, created 1934), which have allowed the biggest banks to pretend that the fraudulent paper in their vaults does not have to be recorded as a loss on their books.
The US economy is now dying a slow and painful death because it had become based on activities that had nothing to do with producing real wealth. Instead, it became dependent on rackets, that is, behavior geared to getting something for nothing. These rackets are often summarized under the acronym FIRE (for finance, insurance and real estate), a system set up to strip-mine profits from the wish commonly labeled "the American Dream" -- itself largely a product of televised advertising and propaganda. The end product of all that was the doomed economy of suburban sprawl, an infrastructure for daily life with no future in a world defined by fossil fuel scarcity. The unraveling of debt at every level now is directly related to the mis-investments made in that way of life.
By now, it's self-evident that the "change" voted for in November's election was too horrifying to articulate. It still is. The suburban sprawl economy was all we had left. Now it's gone and we're stuck with all its deleveraging after-effects -- the worst case of "buyer's remorse" since the fall of Nazi Germany. Thus, the only "change" that President Obama can really work for is the health care system, which is a life-and-death matter. The sordid rackets so ostentatiously infecting the system boil down vividly to lives ruined and bankrupted, and a system more frightful to deal with than disease itself. Probably the baseline truth is that health care will end up being rationed one way or another. It's another prime symptom of population overshoot, and a reminder that life is tragic.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune Reveals Results Of Their Epic One Year Investigation Into Housing Bubble Fraud – Part 1
In an gutsy expose of the white collar fraud committed during the Housing Bubble, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is currently in the midst of a multi-part series of articles concerning property flipping in Sarasota and Manatee Counties on Florida's Gulf Coast.The first article in the series sketches a sordid two county scene where many a white collar criminal . . . still uninvestigated and walking the streets as free men and women . . . colluded to manipulate property prices so as to land huge commissions, steal money from banks who were not aware they were set up on the sale, and rake in huge capital gains on properties which sometimes rose 100% in just one day.
To perpetuate the crimes, the Herald-Tribune says (after a one-year investigation) that the 37 "flipping rings" they've identified used insider buyers, sellers, Realtors, loan brokers, appraisers and title insurers. The newspaper says over 40% of these flipping rings were "Real Estate" insider run. In the most egregious acts of fraudulent flipping, it was usually rings led or "salted" by industry insiders . . . such as rings led by one of the Top 50 ReMax Realtors in the world, to the same ring who had an esteemed mortgage lender on board and who recently won a prestigious award from the Mortgage Bankers of America, to the same ring using one title insurer over and over and who looked the other way on many a fraudulent loan and who is still a member of a Real Estate board which is an overseer of Real Estate practices.If you do nothing else this week, begin to read this investigative journalistic tour de force today, and I'll bring you the updates daily as it progresses. (As it is now, I am 3 days behind the actual launch of each piece in this series. I want to have time to assimilate them in my brain before commenting.)
The first piece in the series is simply titled, "'Flip that house' fraud cost billions", and it opens this way:
Fraudulent property flipping ran rampant during this decade's housing boom, with $10 billion in suspicious deals inFlorida alone, a Herald-Tribune investigation has found.
The deals -- many of them inflated sales among friends, family and business associates -- drove up property values and tax bills during the boom, fed bank bailouts and failures after the boom, and fueled the foreclosure wave that has gutted property values.
Unscrupulous property flippers would buy houses or condos, then drive up the price in a few days or weeks by selling it to someone they knew. Buyers used the inflated price to get bank loans for more than the property was worth, leaving money for flippers to split as profit.
Those are just the first three paragraphs. And after being introduced to a figure of $10 Billion in "suspicious deals" in Florida alone, and the idea that the newspaper had uncovered massive fraud in just its two county reach, we read the following:
Despite their role in one of Florida's largest white-collar crime sprees, the vast majority of unscrupulous real estate flippers will never be prosecuted. Most Florida law enforcement agencies have done little to investigate property flip fraud. The FBI has been left to chase far more cases than it can handle.
But evidence of illegal deals is available in the public records filed when a property changes hands.
The Herald-Tribune spent a year gathering and reviewing nearly 19 million Florida real estate transactions for red flags that can help identify flipping fraud. Using public records, including land deeds and mortgage filings, it found that:
I'm not going to divulge any more of the article (which can be read here . . . click this and read link which also contains maps and graphs), but I will tell you this: Realtors and everyone associated with the FIRE Economy are the Frankenstein monsters which the lower and middle classes are about to lash out with pitchforks and rifles.
Nothing in my lifetime has had such a national stench of open air fraud as the Housing Bubble and concurrent Housing Crash. How anyone floating a Realtor's trademark symbol by their names expects respect from future homebuyers is beyond me. I think I speak for 99% of blue collar workers I know: I don't trust anyone in the Realty profession as far as I can toss them. And let me say, I can toss a Realtor probably farther than the average man (might make for a great Bar Wars event, "Toss a Realtor"), but I still can count the Realtors from Key West on one hand with a finger and thumb left over who I would entrust my money and time to.
For everybody who thinks I've been to hard on the Realtors, Appraisers, Insurers, Brokers, Bankers, etc., who were all sucking on the FIRE Economy's teat during the Housing Bubble with no thoughts whatsoever to the damage they were doing, I say this: let the blame fall where it is deserved.
Read this series. Learn. Educate yourself. And don't trust anyone who talks like a Realtor circa 2005. And especially don't listen to the whiners of the FIRE Economy who destroyed Capitalism as we once knew it.
The damage done in the name of Mammon clothed in a Gold Century 21 Jacket and Goldman Slacks will be felt for decades to come in this Country. Our children's children's children will be paying the cost of the insider sociopaths who committed fraud at all levels during and after the Housing Bubble. I'd love to see hard time prisons fill up with these white collar fraudsters. None of them deserve to still be walking the streets.
May the FBI have a hiring frenzy so we can put more of these sick white collar criminals behind bars where they belong.
Caveat Emptor,
Rock Trueblood
Advice to Landlords Looking for Solid Renters
I live in a giant condo with 218 units. Since living here, I've watched as more of these condos empty due to foreclosure, walkaways, or the landlord is unable to attract new renters.
A few years ago, Sally O' Boyle, a Realtor who now lives in Costa Rica but who keeps her rental management business going via cellphone wrote some of the best advice I ever read right as the Housing Bubble was beginning to burst. She said, and I'm paraphrasing here,
Exactly.
If way back in 2006-2007 I was trying to unload a $550,000 condo and I had already had it on the market for 90 days with no action, why continue with the same price which brought no browsers?
What I should have been doing is stepping down that price by $10,000 a week until the calls started flooding in. That hypothetical price might have been the $520,000 mark. Or it could have been the $450,000 mark. But somewhere along the line, some shopper of Real Estate would have thought, "Hmmm, this one keeps coming down in price. If it reaches $XXX,XXX I am going to jump on it."
By marking down that hypothetical condo quickly and efficiently (as Sally O'Boyle suggested) I (the hypothetical seller) would not still be sitting on it today, late to the game of reducing my ask price, realizing I could have maybe gotten $350,000 back a few years ago, when today I can't even ask $200,000.
Which leads me to this:
There are units in my building which haven't had an occupant in them the whole time I've lived in my mine. In fact, this condo has more "dark" units today than it did just one year ago.
Case in point is the unit next to mine. It has remained empty for 14 months straight. The owner had it as a second home. He's now being foreclosed upon. For the past 3 months he has tried renting it out for $1,600 a month . . . exactly what my unit used to go for.
However, my landlord is being foreclosed upon. To keep me in here for another month or two, he lowered my rent.
Now I know there are other tenants in this same building who are paying $1,400 a month for the same 2 BR/2 Ba sized condo which I live in. And yet, recently, last week, a similar sized condo which had been advertising for 4 weeks at $1,400 and no renters suddenly dropped its rent to $1,300 and the price change obviously worked as the ad quit running two days later.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post: advice for landlords.
Were I the owner of a money pit which is empty and which I must continue to make mortgage payments, taxes and insurance payments on, would it not behoove me to rent the sucker out as quick as possible?
Hence, what I would do is drop my rent ask by $50.00 a week until the phones started ringing off the hook.
I don't know why landlords sit and HOPE a good renter will come along when renters are all savvy to falling rents all over this island.
Not only that, there is an unadvertised "shadow rental inventory" which is being passed around by longtime hospitality workers and in which (I'm looking at two like this today, Tuesday) the tipster tells you, "the landlord is cool, and you can probably get in without a security deposit," or "he dropped rent on my friend and I think he'd do it again for a good renter such as yourself who'll never miss a payment and is always on time."
There are great landlords out there using this Cocoanut Hotline method of word of mouth advertising. It's an easier way to find great tenants without attracting all the crazymakers who want to waste your time with phone calls asking if they can park their boat in the yard or bring in 3 pitbulls to the pool area.
Were I a landlord, I'd use the Cocoanut Hotline and I'd also consider using Craigslist ads. I would not use the Key West Citizen, because Craigslist allows me to expand the criteria in renters I would be looking for. Craigslist also allows for photos. (Why don't more landlords use photos? The more the better.)
So, I'd write an ad listing all the demands a renter must meet to be considered for my property.
You put this ad up on craigslist at $1,500 rent per month.
If you don't get any leads, drop the rent by $50 to $1,450 the following week.
And if you get no quality leads the second week, drop that ask price $50 again the following week.
Keep doing this 'til you have great renters crawling through your cellphone begging you to take their First/Last/Security deposit and agreeing to abide by all your rules.
It really is that simple.
If the renters break the contract (say they bring home a Rottweiler or take up chain smoking) you show them the lease, give them their 30 days notice, and start running the ad again.
I don't know why more landlords are sitting on properties un-rented for 2, 3, 12, and even 14 months without understanding there are renters out there searching through deal after deal.
Look, the biggest apartment complex on this island, West Isle Clubs, has been advertising "One Month's Rent Free" for over a year now. And they are still not full. Now they've budged on some rents by lowering them $50 a month and advertising "Military Discounts" very heavily in their paper ads. And this is after they've upgraded all units and added stainless steel appliances in the kitchens, new carpet and paint everywhere, and new A/Cs in some of the units. That should tell all landlords on this island the rental game has changed.
And yet the 2 Ba/2 Br unit next to me is still being marketed at $1,600 while a luxury penthouse unit with an ocean view on the next floor up is a 3 Ba/2 Br unit at the exact same price?
Supply and demand, Economics 101
Lower your price, and eventually, you'll have people standing in line willing to trade their dollars for your service. It doesn't mean you can take a dump in a bad location and market it as successfully as a newly renovated place with relative quiet.
Last week I saw a place for $1,400 including all utilities. Great location. Except the damn place needs some serious maintenance and renovation. You can't even open the front door at this time because the deadbolt is rusted into the faceplate. (And the door knob is ready to be yanked out of the door.) That's the first impression you get from this dump. The frozen and unpainted front door. (Actually the sidewalk out front was covered in leaves, trash and detritus, but that's an easy fix if somebody associated with this property would simply grab a broom and try his/her hand at painting and minor repairs.)
This landlord keeps dropping the price while the place is still empty for two months now. Has that landlord any eyes? Have they not tried the door on their own rental? We weren't even issued the instructions on how to enter the place (you need to try and ever so slowly turn the key while lifting on the bent door knob with all your strength, that's all, just a minor overlook there.)
Here's some advice for that landlord: invest in a carpenter. Have him install a shiny brass heavy duty new door knob (preferably a European latch which opens by pressing down with your arm as you hold bags of groceries). Then do something with the rooms. Sheetrock a bedroom with a door so people sleeping aren't woken up by the person outside in the kitchen. I'll gurantee you with just those two changes, you'll have someone rent it out at its new discounted asking price. Hell, I'd rent it out and I'd do all the painting myself if you'd simply do the major repairs needed.
It's just common sense things which landlords are overlooking in this Recession. It's not time to maintain a Fantasy that a "greater fool will eventually come along and rent this place for the price I originally envisioned." Those days are history. Monroe County keeps losing residents and the number one reason why is "It's too expensive to live here."
If you want to rent out your place, it had better have some curb appeal and you need to step down on your price like I just suggested. Eventually, you'll find what the market will bear, and not what the fantasy in your head supposes is the "Price Is Right".
Caveat Emptor,
Rock Trueblood
A few years ago, Sally O' Boyle, a Realtor who now lives in Costa Rica but who keeps her rental management business going via cellphone wrote some of the best advice I ever read right as the Housing Bubble was beginning to burst. She said, and I'm paraphrasing here,
"If you want to sell your home quickly, here's what you do. Drop your price $10,000 a week until your phone starts to ring off the hook."
Exactly.
If way back in 2006-2007 I was trying to unload a $550,000 condo and I had already had it on the market for 90 days with no action, why continue with the same price which brought no browsers?
What I should have been doing is stepping down that price by $10,000 a week until the calls started flooding in. That hypothetical price might have been the $520,000 mark. Or it could have been the $450,000 mark. But somewhere along the line, some shopper of Real Estate would have thought, "Hmmm, this one keeps coming down in price. If it reaches $XXX,XXX I am going to jump on it."
By marking down that hypothetical condo quickly and efficiently (as Sally O'Boyle suggested) I (the hypothetical seller) would not still be sitting on it today, late to the game of reducing my ask price, realizing I could have maybe gotten $350,000 back a few years ago, when today I can't even ask $200,000.
Which leads me to this:
There are units in my building which haven't had an occupant in them the whole time I've lived in my mine. In fact, this condo has more "dark" units today than it did just one year ago.
Case in point is the unit next to mine. It has remained empty for 14 months straight. The owner had it as a second home. He's now being foreclosed upon. For the past 3 months he has tried renting it out for $1,600 a month . . . exactly what my unit used to go for.
However, my landlord is being foreclosed upon. To keep me in here for another month or two, he lowered my rent.
Now I know there are other tenants in this same building who are paying $1,400 a month for the same 2 BR/2 Ba sized condo which I live in. And yet, recently, last week, a similar sized condo which had been advertising for 4 weeks at $1,400 and no renters suddenly dropped its rent to $1,300 and the price change obviously worked as the ad quit running two days later.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post: advice for landlords.
Were I the owner of a money pit which is empty and which I must continue to make mortgage payments, taxes and insurance payments on, would it not behoove me to rent the sucker out as quick as possible?
Hence, what I would do is drop my rent ask by $50.00 a week until the phones started ringing off the hook.
I don't know why landlords sit and HOPE a good renter will come along when renters are all savvy to falling rents all over this island.
Not only that, there is an unadvertised "shadow rental inventory" which is being passed around by longtime hospitality workers and in which (I'm looking at two like this today, Tuesday) the tipster tells you, "the landlord is cool, and you can probably get in without a security deposit," or "he dropped rent on my friend and I think he'd do it again for a good renter such as yourself who'll never miss a payment and is always on time."
There are great landlords out there using this Cocoanut Hotline method of word of mouth advertising. It's an easier way to find great tenants without attracting all the crazymakers who want to waste your time with phone calls asking if they can park their boat in the yard or bring in 3 pitbulls to the pool area.
Were I a landlord, I'd use the Cocoanut Hotline and I'd also consider using Craigslist ads. I would not use the Key West Citizen, because Craigslist allows me to expand the criteria in renters I would be looking for. Craigslist also allows for photos. (Why don't more landlords use photos? The more the better.)
So, I'd write an ad listing all the demands a renter must meet to be considered for my property.
"Hello,
My name is Gary. I own a great little cottage at XXX Catherine Street. It has a tiny, but well kept yard. The cottage is located behind the main house I live in.
I am looking for one good renter/couple with the following qualities:
1. Quiet and who is not into having 4 AM parties with your rowdy
friends sitting around the pool
2. Might have one housecat as a pet (and no more than one cat, and sorry, no dogs, don't even bother asking me to bend this rule)
3. Non-smoker(s). This does not mean non-smokers in the house but who want to come out into the yard around the pool and smoke cigarettes and leave your butts to smell up the hammock. I simply will not rent to anyone who smokes cigarettes in or outside this unit.
4. Pays rent on time
5. Who will notify me immediately when anything in their unit breaks down.
You put this ad up on craigslist at $1,500 rent per month.
If you don't get any leads, drop the rent by $50 to $1,450 the following week.
And if you get no quality leads the second week, drop that ask price $50 again the following week.
Keep doing this 'til you have great renters crawling through your cellphone begging you to take their First/Last/Security deposit and agreeing to abide by all your rules.
It really is that simple.
If the renters break the contract (say they bring home a Rottweiler or take up chain smoking) you show them the lease, give them their 30 days notice, and start running the ad again.
I don't know why more landlords are sitting on properties un-rented for 2, 3, 12, and even 14 months without understanding there are renters out there searching through deal after deal.
Look, the biggest apartment complex on this island, West Isle Clubs, has been advertising "One Month's Rent Free" for over a year now. And they are still not full. Now they've budged on some rents by lowering them $50 a month and advertising "Military Discounts" very heavily in their paper ads. And this is after they've upgraded all units and added stainless steel appliances in the kitchens, new carpet and paint everywhere, and new A/Cs in some of the units. That should tell all landlords on this island the rental game has changed.
And yet the 2 Ba/2 Br unit next to me is still being marketed at $1,600 while a luxury penthouse unit with an ocean view on the next floor up is a 3 Ba/2 Br unit at the exact same price?
Supply and demand, Economics 101
Lower your price, and eventually, you'll have people standing in line willing to trade their dollars for your service. It doesn't mean you can take a dump in a bad location and market it as successfully as a newly renovated place with relative quiet.
Last week I saw a place for $1,400 including all utilities. Great location. Except the damn place needs some serious maintenance and renovation. You can't even open the front door at this time because the deadbolt is rusted into the faceplate. (And the door knob is ready to be yanked out of the door.) That's the first impression you get from this dump. The frozen and unpainted front door. (Actually the sidewalk out front was covered in leaves, trash and detritus, but that's an easy fix if somebody associated with this property would simply grab a broom and try his/her hand at painting and minor repairs.)
This landlord keeps dropping the price while the place is still empty for two months now. Has that landlord any eyes? Have they not tried the door on their own rental? We weren't even issued the instructions on how to enter the place (you need to try and ever so slowly turn the key while lifting on the bent door knob with all your strength, that's all, just a minor overlook there.)
Here's some advice for that landlord: invest in a carpenter. Have him install a shiny brass heavy duty new door knob (preferably a European latch which opens by pressing down with your arm as you hold bags of groceries). Then do something with the rooms. Sheetrock a bedroom with a door so people sleeping aren't woken up by the person outside in the kitchen. I'll gurantee you with just those two changes, you'll have someone rent it out at its new discounted asking price. Hell, I'd rent it out and I'd do all the painting myself if you'd simply do the major repairs needed.
It's just common sense things which landlords are overlooking in this Recession. It's not time to maintain a Fantasy that a "greater fool will eventually come along and rent this place for the price I originally envisioned." Those days are history. Monroe County keeps losing residents and the number one reason why is "It's too expensive to live here."
If you want to rent out your place, it had better have some curb appeal and you need to step down on your price like I just suggested. Eventually, you'll find what the market will bear, and not what the fantasy in your head supposes is the "Price Is Right".
Caveat Emptor,
Rock Trueblood
20 July 2009
Lastest Video from Jim the Realtor Looks at 29 New Condos Being Auctioned Off
The developer gave up on selling the residential condos the traditional way, even though the agent had cash offers at $300/sf. Instead, they're being auctioned, with opening bids around $300/sf.
When you watch the video, you'll see how these babies were once listed for $1,456,900 and are now being auctioned with minimum bids of $595,000.
Jim the Realtor suspects most of these will go for between $600,000 to $700,000 and buyers will pay in cash.
This is the kind of collapse in upper end condo and town home prices which I'm beginning to see in the Florida Keys.
When you watch the video, you'll see how these babies were once listed for $1,456,900 and are now being auctioned with minimum bids of $595,000.
Jim the Realtor suspects most of these will go for between $600,000 to $700,000 and buyers will pay in cash.
This is the kind of collapse in upper end condo and town home prices which I'm beginning to see in the Florida Keys.
Mish On First Big Wave of Unemployed Losing Their Benefits
I had full intentions of writing a piece about the unemployed who will soon be losing their unemployment checks (normally, you're cut off after 26 weeks but there have been more than several extensions in benefits from states and the Feds) and how these folks will enter the "stealth unemployed" (my term) which will no logner be counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
My friend, Mish, already has jumped on this topic. I highly recommend you read Mish's last post from yesterday titled "500,000 Will Exhaust Unemployment Benefits by September, 1.5 Million by Year-end".
Mish understands what this wave of soon to be uncounted (in labor stats) unemployed will mean to our Economy. And as these hundreds of thousands are no longer counted for "unemployment" figures put out by the government, we will soon have mainstream Economists who are in the pockets of FIRE Economy cartel members telling us "things are improving" in America. Lucky for us, Mish reprints a Chris Puplava graph which shows what "stealth unemployed" and current unemployed figures look like after being added together. It ain't pretty, folks.
The homeless are growing. And home inventory is growing. Defaults on high end homes are skyrocketing. Shadow inventory of housing has grown exponentially as different governments order moratoriums on foreclosures. Putting off the Day of Reckoning for Housing cannot be extended forever. Nor can hiding the real truth of the severity of joblessness in America.
In my opinion, buying a house in today's market is akin to buying shares of NYSE stock in 1930. The Crash started in 1929. The market continued tanking for many years to come after than despite the President and business leaders claiming "the bottom" was in during the early part of 1930.
Caveat emptor,
Rock Trueblood
p.s. I'm in the rental market again. I am amazed at how many great 1 and 2 BR apartments are down in Old Town not being advertised at this moment, but which are being marketed by word of mouth. I am going to see three of them this coming Tuesday. One of them is a 1 BR cottage with swimming pool, covered deck w/hammock, off street parking, and is part of a four cottage courtyard. The rent is only $1,100 and that includes all utilities except electricity.
I gave my current landlord his 30 day notice a few days ago. I cannot wait to leave this insane condo living. As soon as I am out of here, I'll dish the dirt on what I've been going through for the past two weeks.
Anybody considering a purchase of a Key West condo do yourself one favor: ask what the condo fees are first. And then ask if the condo association is run by a megalomaniac who dispenses rules on high without ever considering whether his stupid edicts are chasing potential buyers and renters from the building. (I've tipped my hand enough for now, but I will say, there's more, a whole lot more on which I will rant.)
Ciao
My friend, Mish, already has jumped on this topic. I highly recommend you read Mish's last post from yesterday titled "500,000 Will Exhaust Unemployment Benefits by September, 1.5 Million by Year-end".
Mish understands what this wave of soon to be uncounted (in labor stats) unemployed will mean to our Economy. And as these hundreds of thousands are no longer counted for "unemployment" figures put out by the government, we will soon have mainstream Economists who are in the pockets of FIRE Economy cartel members telling us "things are improving" in America. Lucky for us, Mish reprints a Chris Puplava graph which shows what "stealth unemployed" and current unemployed figures look like after being added together. It ain't pretty, folks.
The homeless are growing. And home inventory is growing. Defaults on high end homes are skyrocketing. Shadow inventory of housing has grown exponentially as different governments order moratoriums on foreclosures. Putting off the Day of Reckoning for Housing cannot be extended forever. Nor can hiding the real truth of the severity of joblessness in America.
In my opinion, buying a house in today's market is akin to buying shares of NYSE stock in 1930. The Crash started in 1929. The market continued tanking for many years to come after than despite the President and business leaders claiming "the bottom" was in during the early part of 1930.
Caveat emptor,
Rock Trueblood
p.s. I'm in the rental market again. I am amazed at how many great 1 and 2 BR apartments are down in Old Town not being advertised at this moment, but which are being marketed by word of mouth. I am going to see three of them this coming Tuesday. One of them is a 1 BR cottage with swimming pool, covered deck w/hammock, off street parking, and is part of a four cottage courtyard. The rent is only $1,100 and that includes all utilities except electricity.
I gave my current landlord his 30 day notice a few days ago. I cannot wait to leave this insane condo living. As soon as I am out of here, I'll dish the dirt on what I've been going through for the past two weeks.
Anybody considering a purchase of a Key West condo do yourself one favor: ask what the condo fees are first. And then ask if the condo association is run by a megalomaniac who dispenses rules on high without ever considering whether his stupid edicts are chasing potential buyers and renters from the building. (I've tipped my hand enough for now, but I will say, there's more, a whole lot more on which I will rant.)
Ciao
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