From the Boston Globe: Mass. foreclosure cases plummet.
The drop is attributed to a state law that took effect May 1 giving struggling homeowners a bit of breathing room. The so-called right-to-cure law created a 90-day period in which homeowners can "cure" mortgage delinquencies by catching up on payments or finding a buyer.
There were just 350 new cases brought by lenders against delinquent homeowners last month, compared with 2,308 in June 2007.
The number of foreclosure proceedings initiated in Massachusetts plummeted in June, a sign that a new state law delaying property takings is working.
Yeah, right. It's really working.
This is just so fuckin' shameless it's hard to endure.
Yeah, sure, report on the 89th day that things are great after a law puts a temporary moratarium for 90 days. How much more mendacious and shameless can you get, motherfuckers?
What's missing in the detail is that this the 27th straight month of Y-o-Y (year-on-year) declines for the Boston area?
Let's rephrase that again.
Prices have dropped 27 straight months in a row.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Californication
From the Los Altos Town Crier: National home sales down, locally – up.
The average price of homes in June was $922,149, down from $970,702 in May.
The headline is absurd. They're trying to catch greater fools.
Besides, the EE is well aware that people have trouble conceptualizing large numbers like $900K.
Let's revisit the numbers again:
Drop = $970,702 - $922,149 = $48,553.
Number of days in June = 30.
Drop each day = $1,618.
That's a fuckload of money to be losing each bright summery California day in June, innit?!?
The average price of homes in June was $922,149, down from $970,702 in May.
The headline is absurd. They're trying to catch greater fools.
Besides, the EE is well aware that people have trouble conceptualizing large numbers like $900K.
Let's revisit the numbers again:
Drop = $970,702 - $922,149 = $48,553.
Number of days in June = 30.
Drop each day = $1,618.
That's a fuckload of money to be losing each bright summery California day in June, innit?!?
Sheeple Shearing
From Yahoo!: The Hidden Tax Traps in the Housing-Rescue Bill.
First, we have a $7,500 credit for new homeowners that's not really a credit. It's a loan. Those who qualify to receive this credit will receive 10% of the purchase price of their home -- up to $7,500, in the first year. Then they will repay the loan over a 15-year period, starting in the second year after the taxable year in which the house is purchased.
So it's not a tax-credit after all. It's just an interest-free loan that you have to pay back for the next 10 years.
I love this country. You get to shear the sheep all day long, and not only do they not object, but then afterwards, they even thank you for it.
"Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
First, we have a $7,500 credit for new homeowners that's not really a credit. It's a loan. Those who qualify to receive this credit will receive 10% of the purchase price of their home -- up to $7,500, in the first year. Then they will repay the loan over a 15-year period, starting in the second year after the taxable year in which the house is purchased.
So it's not a tax-credit after all. It's just an interest-free loan that you have to pay back for the next 10 years.
I love this country. You get to shear the sheep all day long, and not only do they not object, but then afterwards, they even thank you for it.
"Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Hey-ho Hey-ho
From CBS: Housing Prices Drop By The Hour.
These numbers are sobering: If you are a homeowner reading this right now, when you wake up in the morning, the value of your house will have dropped about 45 dollars. And that's if you sleep just 8 hours.
If that isn't disturbing enough, wait until you see how much home prices have dropped in the past 2 years.
"I knew it was softening," said investor Philip Logue. " I just didn't realize how quickly, how fast the market was dropping."
When Logue put his Coral Gables house on the market, he thought for sure it would sell. He started at $650,000 in 2006. A couple of years later, and a $175,000 price drop. He's now renting the house out.
"I was really surprised," said Logue. " Especially at the end when we really dropped our pants down and I felt we were giving it away, and we still couldn't sell it."
After the pants down episode, a Joshua Tree was shoved up there!
These numbers are sobering: If you are a homeowner reading this right now, when you wake up in the morning, the value of your house will have dropped about 45 dollars. And that's if you sleep just 8 hours.
If that isn't disturbing enough, wait until you see how much home prices have dropped in the past 2 years.
"I knew it was softening," said investor Philip Logue. " I just didn't realize how quickly, how fast the market was dropping."
When Logue put his Coral Gables house on the market, he thought for sure it would sell. He started at $650,000 in 2006. A couple of years later, and a $175,000 price drop. He's now renting the house out.
"I was really surprised," said Logue. " Especially at the end when we really dropped our pants down and I felt we were giving it away, and we still couldn't sell it."
After the pants down episode, a Joshua Tree was shoved up there!
The Distortionist
From Realtor.org: Existing-Home Sales Down In June.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.86 million units in June from a pace of 4.99 million in May, and are 15.5 percent lower than the 5.75 million-unit rate in June 2007.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said first-time home buyers are critical to the health of the housing market.
Yun said there is a downward distortion in the price data.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
They can't bring themselves to say that "prices are falling".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
By this logic, an avalanche is a "downward distortion in skiing conditions".
A thunderstorm is a "downward distortion in sunny weather".
A genocide is a "downward distortion in human lives".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.86 million units in June from a pace of 4.99 million in May, and are 15.5 percent lower than the 5.75 million-unit rate in June 2007.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said first-time home buyers are critical to the health of the housing market.
Yun said there is a downward distortion in the price data.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
They can't bring themselves to say that "prices are falling".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
By this logic, an avalanche is a "downward distortion in skiing conditions".
A thunderstorm is a "downward distortion in sunny weather".
A genocide is a "downward distortion in human lives".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Joys of Home Pawn-ership
From the Boston Herald: Taunton woman commits suicide as home foreclosed.
TAUNTON - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."
You weren't exactly the sharpest tool in the tool shed, were you, darling?
Life insurance doesn't pay off in case of suicide. Perhaps you should've read those documents just like you should've read the mortgage documents.
Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O’Berg said Balderrama’s fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead."
Aren't the joys of home ownership simply too delightful for words?
TAUNTON - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."
You weren't exactly the sharpest tool in the tool shed, were you, darling?
Life insurance doesn't pay off in case of suicide. Perhaps you should've read those documents just like you should've read the mortgage documents.
Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O’Berg said Balderrama’s fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead."
Aren't the joys of home ownership simply too delightful for words?
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Dementia
From ABC News: People lined up to get mortgage help.
A few years ago, Gary Robinson bought this home in Antioch for about $700,000 using an interest-only loan and an adjustable rate that started at about four percent and has nearly doubled.
"My mortgage is at $5,000 dollars. It went from $2,000 to $5,000 and the house is worth 60 to 50 percent less," said Robinson.
"So what I'm here to do is ask Washington Mutual to seek a return on my investment," said Gary Robinson, an Antioch Homeowner.
Yeah, they're going to give you a return on your "investment". Any day now. Just you wait.
Dude, you're demented. You singlehandedly are the best argument in favor of issuing "breeding licenses".
A few years ago, Gary Robinson bought this home in Antioch for about $700,000 using an interest-only loan and an adjustable rate that started at about four percent and has nearly doubled.
"My mortgage is at $5,000 dollars. It went from $2,000 to $5,000 and the house is worth 60 to 50 percent less," said Robinson.
"So what I'm here to do is ask Washington Mutual to seek a return on my investment," said Gary Robinson, an Antioch Homeowner.
Yeah, they're going to give you a return on your "investment". Any day now. Just you wait.
Dude, you're demented. You singlehandedly are the best argument in favor of issuing "breeding licenses".
Monday, July 07, 2008
Everything beats the fuck out of Cleveland!
From Cleveland.com: Foreclosed homes depress prices throughout area.
The median home sale price in the city of Cleveland has dropped an astonishing 75 percent compared with the first six months of last year - from $62,000 to $15,500.
Guess it's all contained. Someone should send Paulson a memo.
Forty percent of single-family homes sold in Cleveland this year were purchased for less than $10,000.
Watch, out 1940's. Here we come!
The median home sale price in the city of Cleveland has dropped an astonishing 75 percent compared with the first six months of last year - from $62,000 to $15,500.
Guess it's all contained. Someone should send Paulson a memo.
Forty percent of single-family homes sold in Cleveland this year were purchased for less than $10,000.
Watch, out 1940's. Here we come!
Welcome to the Jungle
From Business Week: Upset homeowner shoots real estate agent in Mich.
A man upset about a property transaction fatally shot a real estate agent in the head during a meeting Tuesday morning in the victim's office, authorities said.
Troy VanderStelt, 34, was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. at Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus in Muskegon, said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
A suspect was arrested a short time after the shooting at a home in nearby Norton Shores. Tague identified him as Robert Arnold Johnson, 73, of Roosevelt Park.
Tague said Johnson plotted to kill VanderStelt, took a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the real estate agent's office, got him preoccupied with some paperwork in a conference room, stood next to him, pulled out the gun and shot him once in the temple.
A man upset about a property transaction fatally shot a real estate agent in the head during a meeting Tuesday morning in the victim's office, authorities said.
Troy VanderStelt, 34, was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. at Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus in Muskegon, said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
A suspect was arrested a short time after the shooting at a home in nearby Norton Shores. Tague identified him as Robert Arnold Johnson, 73, of Roosevelt Park.
Tague said Johnson plotted to kill VanderStelt, took a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the real estate agent's office, got him preoccupied with some paperwork in a conference room, stood next to him, pulled out the gun and shot him once in the temple.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Flash 'n Sizzle
From the crappier Naples in Florida not the real one: Future uncertain for Third Street Plaza, some tenants say.
It’s a moving sale, the signs announce.
Reflections owner Larry Harris brought in his daughter and her boyfriend to help load the truck and haul the inventory into storage until he figures out a plan.
“We were so hard hit. Nobody was coming,” Harris said Wednesday morning while sitting in front of the shop he opened in November 2006.
On Gallery Row, the side that faces Broad Avenue, Gallery Matisse is gone, too.
In the past two years, The Good Life, a cookware store, left the Plaza; so did Bountiful, Artful Diva, Femme Fatale, Dominique Design Studio, Giggles and Glitz, Via Mediterranee, and ilSandalo on the inner courtyard.
Not THE Giggles and Glitz!
First the candle shops, then the pirate shops, and now the Artful Diva? And Giggles?
No way, man; no way.
It’s a moving sale, the signs announce.
Reflections owner Larry Harris brought in his daughter and her boyfriend to help load the truck and haul the inventory into storage until he figures out a plan.
“We were so hard hit. Nobody was coming,” Harris said Wednesday morning while sitting in front of the shop he opened in November 2006.
On Gallery Row, the side that faces Broad Avenue, Gallery Matisse is gone, too.
In the past two years, The Good Life, a cookware store, left the Plaza; so did Bountiful, Artful Diva, Femme Fatale, Dominique Design Studio, Giggles and Glitz, Via Mediterranee, and ilSandalo on the inner courtyard.
Not THE Giggles and Glitz!
First the candle shops, then the pirate shops, and now the Artful Diva? And Giggles?
No way, man; no way.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Scuppered
From the Bay Area: Fremont's pirate store to abandon ship.
FREMONT — All hands on deck! The Tri-City area's unique pirate store plans to abandon ship after nearly three years on the stormy retail seas.
Owner Don Hatcher, 47, said SeaWolf Trading Co. will raise anchor by Aug. 31, when the store's lease is up.
"We did great the first year, but we've been in the swamp for the past year, ever since the foreclosures started," he said. "We started to immediately see sales start slumping.
He said an effort to build community around the store by hosting a regular Guitar Hero video game night only attracted a small crowd, a result he attributed to gas prices.
Hatcher also was a vendor at last month's second Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. He said plenty of people attended but seemed to spend less than at last year's fest.
"It's a rare place in Fremont, as opposed to the usual strip mall crap," Neu said. "We'll miss it."
C'mon kids, by now you've had enough practice. Can you say it?
HELOC!!!
He plans to sell off the décor, including an elaborate treasure cave, as well as the discounted wares — which this reporter succumbed to — before the store is sent to Davy Jones's locker.
YAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
FREMONT — All hands on deck! The Tri-City area's unique pirate store plans to abandon ship after nearly three years on the stormy retail seas.
Owner Don Hatcher, 47, said SeaWolf Trading Co. will raise anchor by Aug. 31, when the store's lease is up.
"We did great the first year, but we've been in the swamp for the past year, ever since the foreclosures started," he said. "We started to immediately see sales start slumping.
He said an effort to build community around the store by hosting a regular Guitar Hero video game night only attracted a small crowd, a result he attributed to gas prices.
Hatcher also was a vendor at last month's second Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. He said plenty of people attended but seemed to spend less than at last year's fest.
"It's a rare place in Fremont, as opposed to the usual strip mall crap," Neu said. "We'll miss it."
C'mon kids, by now you've had enough practice. Can you say it?
HELOC!!!
He plans to sell off the décor, including an elaborate treasure cave, as well as the discounted wares — which this reporter succumbed to — before the store is sent to Davy Jones's locker.
YAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Translation Engine
From Bloomberg: Paulson Calls for Process to Liquidate Failing Firms.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening broader market stability.
``Two concerns underpin expectations of regulatory intervention to prevent a failure,'' Paulson said. ``They are that an institution may be too interconnected to fail or too big to fail. We must take steps to reduce the perception that this is so -- and that requires that we reduce the likelihood that it is so.''
We must "reduce the perception that an institution may be too big to fail".
Washington insiders (and others generally well-versed in the political process) will have no trouble interpreting this statement but for the general benefit, let me provide a translation:
"Currently, a large bank, and plenty of small banks are in too much deep doo-doo for us to bail out.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening broader market stability.
``Two concerns underpin expectations of regulatory intervention to prevent a failure,'' Paulson said. ``They are that an institution may be too interconnected to fail or too big to fail. We must take steps to reduce the perception that this is so -- and that requires that we reduce the likelihood that it is so.''
We must "reduce the perception that an institution may be too big to fail".
Washington insiders (and others generally well-versed in the political process) will have no trouble interpreting this statement but for the general benefit, let me provide a translation:
"Currently, a large bank, and plenty of small banks are in too much deep doo-doo for us to bail out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)