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
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