June 04, 2008

BUBBLETALK - Open thread to talk about the housing crash, mortgage meltdown and other stuff

Have at it..

And vote early and vote often for HP at this REIC blog contest (current hilarious leaderboard here).

(UPDATE) We "lost" the fake link-baiting no-rules REIC lending whore "contest" even though HP'ers completely flooded the zone and had way more votes. But congrats to NJ on the "win" - sure was fun to see two bubble blogs dominate and disrupt the REIC (yet again), even though we knew there was no way in hell they'd recognize HP'ers...

1 HousingPANIC - The Housing Bubble and Crash Blog with an Attitude Problem, by keith Vote & view profile 1817
2 New Jersey Real Estate Report, by James Bednar Vote & view profile 1688
3 NJ Real Estate Report, by James Bednar Vote & view profile 186
4 Housing Bubble Hall of Shame®, by Tyrone Vote & view profile 176
5 Another F@CKED Borrower, by SoCalMtgGuy Vote & view profile 143
6 Branchblog, by Reeves "Chip" Hughes Vote & view profile 138
7 NJ HELOC Heaven, by NJHH Vote & view profile 121
8 Orlando Condo Blog, by Marcus Burke Vote & view profile 96
9 Housing Panic, by Keith Vote & view profile 93
10 HousingPANIC: The Housing Bubble and Crash Blog with an Attitude Problem, by Keith Vote & view profile 87
11 HousingPANIC - The Housing Bubble and Crash Blog with an Attitude Problem, by Keith Vote & view profile 83
12 housingpanic, by Kieth Vote & view profile 81
13 housingpanics, by keith Vote & view profile 80

196 comments:

Anonymous said...

29.83% of new car sales paid for with HELOCs.
http://tinyurl.com/4c8s5v

Batten down the hatches, it's going to get rough.

Anonymous said...

The longer banks sit on their vacant properties the more they have to pay.

It is no longer a game between Seller and Buyers, now it is a game between Banks and Buyers.

Keeping the price artificially high now will work against the Sellers and the Banks.

http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.
com/biz/content/shared-gen/nyt/
business//a0ebf383-a436-483d-
833c-8f81e5f75fd9.html

The house on East 24th Street was the worst of the six that David Law and Trey McCallister worked on the other day here. The front door had been kicked in so many times that the dead bolt was exposed and bent. Trash littered the front and back yards. A copper pipe was gone.

“Somebody has been trying to destroy this place,” said Mr. McCallister, eyeing the door.

But the two men have seen far more destruction as they go from one deserted house to another here in northern Florida, where the foreclosure crisis has struck particularly hard.

Mortgage companies hire contractors like them to inspect and maintain houses that once-proud owners can no longer afford and no one else wants. These days, business is brisk.

These contractors and thousands like them see first hand the detritus of the subprime era: peeling paint, gutted interiors, family dogs left behind to starve, overgrown lawns infested with snakes.

In Florida, the crisis can seem overwhelming at times. It can take months, even years, for some homes to wind through foreclosure in the backlogged local courts.

The longer a home sits vacant, the more vulnerable it becomes. After a few months, the Florida weather starts to takes a toll. Mold and mildew creep. Algae chokes forsaken swimming pools. Sometimes vandals strike. And sometimes wiring or plumbing just give out.

Anonymous said...

Plenty of 'For Sale' signs but actual sales lagging

Like spring flowers, the "For Sale" signs are sprouting in front yards all over the country. But anxious sellers are facing the most brutal environment in decades, with a slumping economy, falling home prices and rising mortgage foreclosures.

And even the faint promise of better days ahead might not come true, given all the headwinds the housing industry is facing at the moment.

"This is going to be another difficult spring," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I think we are at the beginning of the end of the housing downturn, but it is going to be a long and painful end."

http://www.amny.com/business/
sns-ap-housing-prospects,0,
6027435.story?track=rss

Anonymous said...

Here we go
http://tinyurl.com/57t4ut

Anonymous said...

libvet, the 30% figure you linked to was for California only. The US total is 12%. Still kind of a WTF number, but not quite as bad as what you're saying...unless your comment was directed to the Cali market only.

Miss Goldbug said...

Everyone knows this blog is #1.

Anonymous said...

Investment advice,

Read this article, and for all you renters who would like to buy a house in the future, but are afraid rates may rise to a rate that makes even MUCH LOWER prices just too expensive, have I got news (investment advice) for you...

http://tinyurl.com/3r8ey3

And the sweetest part, if rates rise, the dividend INCREASES!!!

This is a sweet place to park some of that money that is just sitting there, waiting for you to pull the trigger and buy your dream house.

If rates rise, then so will this security, WITH increased dividends, so it will offset the higher cost of borrowing, or if you are lucky, totally eliminate the need to borrow!!!
(Although I am sure most people who prepared for this debacle, and continue to shore up their finances, will probably be able to buy with "cash" anyway), but if not...

Look at it this way, it is a hedge against rates BLOCKING you out of the market in the future. So you will now become part of the 600 TRILLION dollar Derivative market!!!!

Congratulations!!!!



the other trader

Anonymous said...

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities said Monday they found two handguns with the decomposed bodies of five family members discovered in a home overlooking the ocean in a wealthy, gated Orange County community.

...The house is in Sea Pointe Estates, a gated community of about 75 upscale homes on a hill near the coast in San Clemente..."

Less than a mile from
The Copes'

Anonymous said...

25 year old computer programmer loses 5 homes in foreclosure.

One more brain-dead shit eating moron back on the streets competing for a 1 BR rental shithole or beaten down trailer.
Computer programmers LMFAO owning properties? I did not know that imbeciles and retards are supposed to own anything except a food stamp card issued by the US government. When an IT monkey thinks that he can make money with real estate or low and behold in the stock market, he usually gets raped in the ass. I’m saying this again renter retards and scum sucking computer programmers. “Your IT job will be outsourced to China. To some slit eyed dog eating yellow skinned jackass working for $2 a day”. Won’t that be f*cking fun for you? Bravo, you went to college to learn something an ape can do blindfolded!

Anonymous said...

May consumer confidence falls to near 16-year low
http://tinyurl.com/6ezdv6

16 years ago was 1992, the last year of the reign of King George the First.

My business just freaking DIED by the end of that 4 years. Demand dried up. We depended on people who had extra money. They stopped having extra money.

Here we are again. The Republicans have managed things so well that things all around us are grinding to a halt. Wouldn't have anything to do with the vast increases in the national debt they love so much, would it?

We are a consumer economy because, as Bob Dylan said 20 years ago, we don't make nothing here no more. We buy hamburgers from each other. That's our economy.

So, when THAT goes to hell, batten down the hatches. It's going to get rough.

Anonymous said...

Leaderboard:

NJ RE report: 796
Housing Panic: 748

Almost there!

Anonymous said...

More bad news for the economy:
The airlines are goin' down!

"So uncertain is the cash solvency of the industry that jet fuel suppliers insist on prepayments into special bank accounts."

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article4004371.ece


Beignet

bradinsb said...

We are not close to the bottom yet.I got so mad at Realtors that I have built a website for the For Sale By Owner its www.AreaCodeFSBO.com

Anonymous said...

Another nail in the realtwhore® coffin

Anonymous said...

The smoking gun of the mortgage industry

http://tinyurl.com/4lt3vw

Anonymous said...

anon, I stand corrected.
Thanks.

Owner Earnings said...

1 vote away from 1st place as of May 27th 7PM eastern!

Anonymous said...

Come on people. HP is now TIED with the New Jersey Retard Report. Get voting! We need to be #1 by the end of the day!!!

Anonymous said...

Leaderboard:

HousingPANIC 810
NJ RE Report 810

It's a tie!

Anonymous said...

edgar alpo,

Not just another nail. The final nail.

6 percenters are toast, once that ruling gets followed the only thing (MLS access) they had over their online competition is leveled out.

See travel agents and booking a trip to Vegas for what happens now...

Formosan said...

Wow, we're # one for the best site!

Anonymous said...

Norwegian currently has the high cost for gas. $11 per gallon to fill up

Norwegians, who now pay more at the pump than any other drivers in Europe, have begun to push back against high gas prices.

Last week, 67,000 people, in a country with a population of less than 5 million, joined an Internet protest, Aftenposten reported Friday. They threatened a boycott of Norway's two largest chains of gas stations, Statoil and Shell.

Norway is a major oil producer and benefits from skyrocketing prices for crude. Most of the cost of a gallon of gas goes to the government, the result of a policy aimed at keeping car ownership low.

But drivers tend to blame the oil companies, including Statoil, which is owned by the state, for soaring prices. Norwegian motorists are now paying the equivalent of $11 per gallon to fill up.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/
Top_News/2008/05/23/norwegians_
protest_high_gas_prices/3669/

Anonymous said...

Blowfly:
It's "lo and behold" you uneducated, retarded, drooling butt picker....

And dude, shave your hairy back already......it tickles when I'm giving it to you from behind....

Anonymous said...

``Housing weakness is far from over,'' said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

New-home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in April after readings for the prior month were revised down, signaling a worsening housing slump is still a threat to the economy.

Sales increased 3.3 percent to an annual pace of 526,000 from a 509,000 rate the prior month that was the lowest in 17 years, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. A separate report today showed home prices dropped in the first quarter by the most in at least 20 years.

Concern about declining home values and stricter loan rules are limiting demand and foreclosures are throwing even more properties on the market.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601103&sid=ab1G5WrEFhpk

Anonymous said...

S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index Reveals Largest Drop In 20-Year History

Home prices plunged at a record pace in the first quarter, data released on Tuesday showed. The S&P/Case-Shiller national home-price index - a closely-watched gauge of housing prices - revealed a 14.4 percent decline from last year. This was the largest drop in the two-decades since the index began recording home prices in 1988.

The quarterly index covers the nine U.S. Census divisions. A separate index examining 20-cities around the United States also revealed a decline of 14.4 percent in the first quarter. That index is only 7 years old, making this decline the steepest since its inception in 2001. A smaller, older 10-city index plummeted 15.3 percent - the most in its 20-year history.

Anonymous said...

naz up 1.4%

some crash

DOPES
DOLTS
FOOLS
TOOLS

Anonymous said...

I read this blog and NJREReport.com. I come here for the humor, and there for the information. I didn't vote for this blog, though.

Anonymous said...

corrected link...

Fuel suppliers demand airlines pay cash in advance

Anonymous said...

Failed flippers in congress, the real reason for the bailout?
http://tinyurl.com/6maldg

Anonymous said...

Surprised you missed this one. I scooped ya, K! This will only drive prices down...down..down down down


https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=18675105&postID=2399112446506301725

Realtors settle case with U.S.
Real estate agents were accused of illegally blocking posting of home listings and limiting competition from online brokers.
Last Updated: May 27, 2008: 3:44 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department gave a boost Tuesday to online real estate brokers - and potentially their clients - by forcing new industry policies to give Internet-based agents access to home listings they were previously denied.

The tentative settlement, which still requires court approval, could save consumers thousands of dollars when buying a home.

Online real estate agents often charge discounted commission fees and allow buyers to review listings at their own pace.

For years, however, Internet-based brokers were blocked from accessing more than 800 multiple listing services nationwide affiliated with the National Association of Realtors. An MLS is a database of properties for sale.

In a September 2005 lawsuit, government lawyers said such policies discriminated against online brokers. The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, opens the MLS databases to online and traditional residential property agents.

"It really does free brokers generally to engage in whatever they feel is the most efficient and effective way to compete," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Deborah A. Garza of the Justice Department's antitrust division told reporters.

She said the settlement "should lower the cost of the transaction for buying a house."

In 2006, for example, consumers saved up to 1% on the price of a home by using an online broker, Garza said. That year, the median home price amounted to over $225,000, with median commissions of more than $11,000.

Real estate agents earned $93 billion in commissions in 2006, she said.

In a report last year, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission found that limits on discount brokers' access to Web listings of for-sale properties have prevented consumers from receiving the cost savings and other benefits that online competition has brought to other industries.

The report found that more consumers use the Web when house hunting than rely on "For Sale" yard signs.

Even so, online brokers who were locked out of the MLS databases were unable to compete with real estate agents, government attorneys said. In at least one case, in Emporia, Kan., an Internet-based agent was forced out of business after the local MLS denied his access to any property listings in the local market.

Tuesday's settlement will not take effect until late summer at the earliest, or 60 days after it wins court approval. It would be in place for 10 years.

It neither imposes a fine on the National Association of Realtors, nor does it force the group to acknowledge any liability.

The group represents 1.2 million real estate agents and other members in more than 250,000 active office locations and branches nationwide.

In a statement, Realtors President Richard F. Gaylord said the Chicago-based association is "focused on what matters most to consumers - re-energizing the housing market."

"Competition is alive and well in the real estate industry," Gaylord said. "In fact, the competitive nature of our industry is even more apparent in times of market turmoil like those we are currently experiencing." To top of page
First Published: May 27, 2008: 2:04 PM EDT

Anonymous said...

Just saw this interesting article. Looks like the 6%ers are definitely going extinct.

http://tinyurl.com/5p7ex5

Please add to the blog!

Gazzaden

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who's noticed that Greg Swann and crew are now talking about anything BUT real estate? They're whoring some sort of Tony Robbins-esque "seminar," writing these weird messages of the sort that I used to turn into my Freshman English Composition instructor after a night of beer bongs, and even having whole threads about how much prettier their "For Sale" signs are than the competition's.

As I understand it, we're not supposed to post links to Swann & Co's site. Which is a pity. There's comedy gold in them thar hills.

Unknown said...

Housing Flipper in Congress:
Rep. Laura Richardson has THREE homes that she bought and are now being foreclosed on, yet she was able to loan herself $77,000 to run for congress.

"We need to put a better process in place, so a person's home is not being sold up underneath them," she said. "We have to improve the way we respond to this crisis." -Laura Richardson

http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_9366061

Mammoth said...

Libvet said:
“My business just freaking DIED by the end of that 4 years. Demand dried up. We depended on people who had extra money. They stopped having extra money.”
----------------------------
I am an Engineer but have a small business on the side, selling plants and some produce from my garden.

Right now I am getting more orders for vegetable starts than I can fill, and more vegetables & greens than I have planted.

So if you have a green thumb, some dirt to dig in, and don’t mind getting your hands dirty you can do a decent business these days.

Cheers,
Mammoth

Anonymous said...

I'm a network plumber for a large-ish real estate company and when I see stories like this I know that it's only a matter of time before 6% is out the window.

Internet-based realtors win monster settlement:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/28143

"No I'm not giving you 6% to sell my house. You'll take $1,000 and LIKE it, or I'll find some other poor shlub who will do it for $1,000."

Amen, brother. Now I'm thinking that Ramen noodles may be a little too upscale for some of those realtors.

Anonymous said...

Serious question for HP'ers:

If Obama becomes president, does that mean the secret service will provide him with access to DC call girls to relieve his stress? Do you think all the di*ks in congress would be willing to share the call girls with him? This brings up another question: since Obama and Mcsain and Bush are related, wouldn't that be incest if they share the same call girl in the same week?

Anonymous said...

Don't use the anon 4:33pm url to vote for this site . . . it leads to a vote for the New Jersey Realtor blog that is currently winning!

By the way, I have voted successfully for Panic for a couple days, but I tried today from both my home AND work computer, and it said I already voted . . . what's up with that?

Anonymous said...

Global warming detected on Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and now Pluto - not to mention satellites Enceladus and Europa.

I blame myself.

Anonymous said...

FROM PEAK OIL:

I thought this was written well. I don't know who the author is but the link is at the bottom.

Beignet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The worst part about the McMansions won't be upkeep however, even given their generally crappy construction quality.

It will be . .. ENERGY.

You get yourself a nice 5,000 sf monster with 2x4 framing and crappy fiberglass insulation and you've got yourself a whopping R value of about R-18 in the walls. All those walls! And that Lawyer Foyer, 16 feet tall, with lots of big, heat leeching windows.

And you see that some have 2 - count 'em, 2! - A/C units, and some have 2 hot water heaters.

Most have crappy forced air heating systems so the A/C can be doubled in.

Most burn FF - propane or oil if you're far from the center, maybe electric. If you're really unlucky, you've got gas.

And those mortgage payments are killing you.

And winter is 4 months away.

The American Nightmare . . . It's January 24, 2009. You're 3 months in arrears on your ARM, your bloatmobiles are drinking 300 dollars of gas a week, the house on which you took a 100% leveraged position is down 30% in value from what you paid, and the best part?

The heat is set on 60 because you can't afford to put it any higher!

Yes folks, the shine has worn off the McMansion - welcome to financial hell.

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic40538.html

blogger said...

deleted 4.33 - must have been Swann

Why we're trying to win a bogus REIC contest I'll never know, but it's fun to see the other desperate realtor blogs with hardly any votes..

Unknown said...

Keith?

Bogus leaderboard?

I was one of the first bubble bloggers when I launched the Northern New Jersey Real Estate Bubble Blog (http://nnjbubble.blogspot.com/). Prior to that I was an active participant on the major blogs for over a year.

In fact, I believe I was bubble blogging long before you were.

The fact that you would lump me in the same camp as the other Realtor trash blogs is a bit disappointing.

I maintain my position that I run one of the best real estate blogs on the net, period.

How about a vote?

http://www.fhamortgagecenter.com/contest/view.php?id=73

jb (aka Grim)

Anonymous said...

Don't use the anon 4:33pm url to vote for this site . . . it leads to a vote for the New Jersey Realtor blog that is currently winning!

Have you actually spent time on my blog? I was one of the first bubble bloggers, launching the Northern NJ Real Estate Bubble blog in 2006.

The fact that you lump my site in with the other REIC hacks only proves you haven't spent more than a minute on my site.

I'm proudly hated by the New Jersey association of Realtors.

jb

blogger said...

I'm confused - is

http://njrereport.com/

a bubble blog or a REIC blog?

"New Jersey Real Estate Report" sounds like a 6%'er trying to get paid..

but if it's a bubble blog, then damn, let's kick some ass!

Unknown said...

Keith,

A proud bubble blogger, since September of 2005 when I launched the NNJBubble blog.

The name change was, in part, an effort to build credibility with the press and the public.

blogger said...

James - I think I remember NNJ back in the day - but you're new name SUCKS! Come on man, F the MSM - gotta have "bubble" or "crash" in the title!

I'll link you though on the blogroll. On the REIC contest, F 'em. I fully expect to get pulled any day in this bogus contest but it's fun to have the realtors look up at us going 'hey what the hell? why doesn't anyone read my realtor blog?"

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Keith,

I don't know if that was really Grim but his site IS a Bubble Blog site.
Take the time to read the site. He has been posting factual stats since 2004/2005.

He no RE shill.

Hey, want don't you throw him a vote?!
http://www.fhamortgagecenter.com/contest/view.php?id=73

Anonymous said...

keith - the result of grim's name change has been the ability to place a large amount of bubble information in the mainstream media that otherwise wouldn't be there. Google grim's name and the blog's name in Google News and you'll see what I mean.

The name change is an unqualified success, IMO.

Anonymous said...

stocks up yet again today

some crash

DOPES
DOLTS
FOOLS
TOOLS

Anonymous said...

Its a fun contest between two bubble blogs. I login every morning to see if HP have pipped them at number 1 yet - go team! All good fun

Its even funnier watching the RE blogs with one or two votes - they must just feel like throwing in the towel

Anonymous said...

Just to let you guys know, James Bednar from njrereport is a REALTOR and a card carrying member of the NAR. He also does not believe in free speech and that is why he banned me from his site.

Anonymous said...

I used to post on njrereport prior to being CENSORED, and I have to say, HP is #1. I enjoy the pictures and the commentary. NJREREPORT is quite boring since it's nothing but copied and pasted articles. Sorry, but I am not stupid. I can find the same articles on my own and read them. No need for a blog to spoon feed them to me.

Anonymous said...

Hey found a great use for all those metal H sign holders that hold For Sale signs. I pick them up and pull off the sign part and use the metal frame to help hold up all my garden plants that need a support. That you real estate agent for all those free garden supports.

Anonymous said...

"In fact, I believe I was bubble blogging long before you were."

Your bubble blog is only 60 days older than HP. How dare you try to trash HousingPANIC!

Anonymous said...

Any reporting on the DOJ settlement with the NAR yesterday?
Any thoughts out there?

Anonymous said...

I think its funny that there are real estate blogs on there with zero votes.

Even the blog owners cant be bothered voting for themselves :)

Anonymous said...

.


deepcgi,

This Universe wide global warming is your fault you Bastard!!!!

.

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

Mark Zandi is on C-SPAN right now defending all aspects of the bailout in front of National Governors Association.

He laments disappearance of private Alt-A, sub-prime and jumbo mortgages, and the resulting 15% nationwide decline from 2006 peak.

He applauds every single Federal Reserve, FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and congressional action to provide new sources of reckless credit, and thus "hopefully" limit total price declines to 25% off 2006 peak.

Diana Olick is upbeat, "all real estate is local"

Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America, admits that prices were disconnected from economic fundamentals. And he also admits that many struggling homedebtors would be better off renting, and that the Frank-Dodd bill will just prolong the agony for these folks.

Tim Pawlenty (R Minnessota)paradoxically hopes prices won't decline, yet cheerleads for "ownership society"

Ed Rendel (D Pennsylvania)correctly advocated better financial education and counseling, but he evaded a point blank question from Olick "Won't the Frank-Dodd bill just prop up prices at an artificially high level?" Rendel made a joke, changed the subject, and never answered the question.

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

I have my own economic stimulus plan. I call it the "Bailout Cheerleader Wealth Confiscation Act of 2008". All the personal assets of Mark Zandi, James Cooper (Business Week editor) and other bailout cheerleaders will be seized, and the proceeds will be used to finance a new round of stimulus checks. Ridiculous? Well Mark, James, I think your plans to prop up house prices are equally ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

But wouldn't this drive interest rate up decimate any hope of a housing recovery.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080529/bs_nm/usa_fed_dc_3

The Federal Reserve could execute a rapid about-face on monetary policy if the threat of inflation continues to get worse, Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher warned tonight.

'If inflationary developments and, more important, inflationary expectations, continue to worsen, I would expect a change of course to occur sooner rather than later, even in the face of an anemic economic scenario,' he said in a speech prepared for the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

Fed officials generally have been raising the level of concern about inflation in their speeches recently, but Fisher is one of the two members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to vote against the last rate cut because of their inflation fears. The other was Philadelphia Fed president Charles Plosser.

Anonymous said...

Better start stocking up on diapers and detergent. Consumers hit hard in recent months by sharply higher prices for gasoline and food should prepare to start paying more for various household items following Dow Chemical Co.'s decision to raise its prices by up to 20 percent to offset the soaring cost of energy.

Inflation is rising globally because of an easy monetary policy, especially in the United States, leading economist and former U.S. Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs John Taylor said on Wednesday.

Dow Chemical Co. may not be the last company to increase prices this year because of rising raw materials costs.

Monsanto Co., Hershey Co., General Mills Inc. and Avery Dennison Corp. may follow suit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. They're among 11 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index that increased their so-called LIFO reserve, which captures rising inventory costs, by at least 20 percent over the past four quarters.

With oil and commodity prices at record highs, these companies and others will be forced to pass on higher costs, analysts said after Dow Chemical announced today it will raise prices by the most in its 111-year history.

``We are going to see a cascading of higher prices through the system,'' said Steve Hoedt, who helps manage $34 billion including Dow Chemical shares at National City Corp. in Cleveland. ``Companies that are able to push prices through to their customers are the ones that are going to be successful.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601103&sid=aAmR.
NPK90fU

Anonymous said...

The intruders haven't chewed through the wood or even destroyed the carpets. These termites, as Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli calls them, are vandals who've stripped the recently foreclosed house of its fixtures, plumbing pipes, windows and wiring.

"It's a very lucrative business. These aren't just necessarily somebody trying to get a fix or a crack head. These are professionals who come in to strip these houses," Brancatelli says. "We saw people in vans with high-powered equipment."

Vandalized homes are just one aspect of the fallout from the national subprime mortgage meltdown that has hit the Ohio city particularly hard. Since 2000, Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland, has recorded 80,000 foreclosures — the most per capita in the country. Nearly 19 percent of those foreclosures occurred last year, according to city statistics.

http://www.npr.org/
templates/story/story.php?
storyId=90745303&ft=1&f=1001

Anonymous said...

Majority of Renters Have No Plans to Purchase a Home: Survey

Sixty-seven percent of current renters plan to continue renting for at least the next 12 months, a survey commissioned by the National Apartment Association found, while 80 percent of U.S. adults believe that the national housing picture won’t improve for at least six months.

“The country is deep into the discussion of the economic fallout of sub-prime mortgage lending. However, little attention has been paid to how the crisis is impacting people’s choices to stay in rental homes and wait out the storm,” said National Apartment Association president Douglas Culkin.

“Renters are not eager to take a chance on homeownership this year. If the economy improves, that trend may abate, but, for now, people are generally staying put.”

http://www.housingwire.com/
2008/05/28/majority-of-renters-
have-no-plans-to-purchase-a-home-
survey/

Anonymous said...

Morgan Stanley has cut a number of high-level staffers from its structured-finance area in recent days, as it carries out the latest reduction in its overall workforce.
Laya Khadjavi, the widely known head of Morgan Stanley's CDO-banking group is now gone from that position, but may remain with the institution. Meanwhile, the bank laid off structured-product sales chief Robert Hershy and Mike Pohly, its global head of trading for synthetic CDOs and other credit-derivative instruments.
All told, Morgan Stanley plans to eliminate 5% of its staff in the coming months. That works out to about 2,000 staffers, on top of some 3,000 it has cut since October in response to credit-crunch-related troubles.
But amid the scads of other layoffs taking place at the bank, the dismissals of Khadjavi and Pohly from their posts especially stand out. The reason: those moves suggest that the institution is partly retreating from the now-treacherous business of underwriting CDOs.

http://www.securitization.net/
news/article.asp?id=364&aid=8198

Anonymous said...

We have "bitter renters".

Is Blowfly (if he's the *real* Blowfly) a angry bitter black man who hasn't sold any albums in a while?

And why the hell would he be trolling HP????

Anonymous said...

A little info on Donald from the posts above, he's a "bagholder"!

He overpaid on his home along the "gold coast" in NJ in 2005.
Then put it on the market in 2007 for close to $1M (about $160k over purchase). He slowly brought the price down then pulled it DECLARING he would never sell for a loss and that those on NJRE were loser renters and whiners who missed out. He said he expected the market to rebound this Spring and would list it then.

Well, he has listed it. IF he gets asking price for it he will take a loss of about $41k (excluding commision, RE fees, inflation, etc).

A duck that now eats crow. Interesting.

Anonymous said...

Here is a story:

LAGUNA HILLS, California (CNN) -- Charles Nelson has paid about $30,000 in rent since moving into a spacious four-bedroom home in August. He was stunned when a real estate agent knocked on his door recently and said the home was in foreclosure.


Charles Nelson paid $30,000 in rent, yet he faces eviction because his landlord is getting foreclosed upon.

1 of 3 His landlord had not paid the mortgage since he moved in and the bank is now demanding the house back. Nelson will also lose his $7,700 security deposit.

When he confronted the landlord, he says, he was given a terse response: "That's none of your business."

Anonymous said...

"naz up 1.4%

some crash

stocks up yet again today

some crash

DOPES
DOLTS
FOOLS
TOOLS"

Stupefying

Anonymous said...

"Bend over white supremacist shit hole renters and take your medicine right up your f*cking ass."

Are you a black ghetto slumlord?

Anonymous said...

Spain and the UK getting hit hard, now. What do you all think the result of the global meltdown will be on currencies? If the UK housing crash trails the US and Spain by as much as it seems, will there be a huge influx of Brits into LA and Madrid soon? Or will the inventories build worldwide and leave everyone stuck where they are?

Will Japan be the big winner because their real estate crash preceded ours?

Just curious.

Anonymous said...

Donald,

Is this you?


http://www.njmls.com/cf/details.cfm?mls_number=2817408&id=999999

You still haven't sold your place? I thought Bergen County prices never went down. What happened? What do I know, I'm a bitter renter, right?

Purchased for $840,000 in 2005, during the peak of the bubble.

Current asking: $799,000

Even if you get asking, you'll be losing almost $90,000. Ninety thousand dollars in the hole.

Good luck with that one. Good luck chasing down the market.

MLS# 2633176
Listed: 8/22/2006
List Price: $998,000
Reduced to: $975,000
Reduced to: $939,000
Reduced to: $919,000
Withdrawn

Relisted MLS# 2701367
Listed: 1/10/2007
List Price: $905,000
Reduced to: $899,900
Reduced to: $899,800
Reduced to: $899,000
Reduced to: $884,000
Reduced to: $879,000
Reduced to: $874,000
Reduced to: $869,000
Withdrawn

Relisted MLS# 2719972
Listed: 5/16/2007
List Price: $869,000
INCREASED TO: $899,000
(YOU SHOW 'EM DUCK!)
Withdrawn

Relisted MLS# 2817408
Listed: 4/28/2008
List Price: $869,000
Reduced to: $799,000

I did what I needed to do to get MLS access so that I could dig up the dirt on bagholders like you.

Caveat Emptor,
grim
New Jersey Real Estate Report

Anonymous said...

Duck listed his house again?!?

I might buy it - he's kind of a celebrity!

Hey, Donald - give us a link to the listing!

Anonymous said...

A little info on anonymous:

He is a renter in northern NJ, where rents are already up 14% and expected to rise another 5%. I think I might even feel bad for him.

Oh, and his math on how much I will "lose" is wrong. Apprarently he never heard of flat fee realtwhores.

Anonymous said...

It looks like HousingPANIC is under at least three different slots on the voting, and would be the clear winner if they were consolidated.

What, no place for the blog run by that nutjob Ben?

Anonymous said...

So, donald duck, since anonymous is wrong about how much you'll "lose", why don't you give us correct numbers for how much you'll lose?

Anonymous said...

Market Ticker



Name: Genesis
Location: Niceville, Florida, United States



* Temblor Thursday - CHALLENGE TO RICHARD FISHER
* Windup Wednesday!
* Toilet Paper Tuesday
* The 5-Month Checkup For 2008 - Memorial Weekend
* Flying Fraud Friday
* Thrombosis Thursday
* Windup Wednesday
* Terribly Fraudulent Tuesday!
* Mathematically Impossible Monday
* Weekend Edition - Politics


Thursday, May 29, 2008
Temblor Thursday - CHALLENGE TO RICHARD FISHER <<<<

does anyone ever take the time to read all this bs? gads, this guy should shut his silly piehole. rant, rant, rant. heck it would be different if he said something interesting, but here lately all he ever does is spew....i have quit reading any of his stuff now...

Anonymous said...

stocks up yet again today

some crash

DOPES
DOLTS
FOOLS
TOOLS


________

It's you who is the imbecile.

Read this: http://tinyurl.com/68p2p2

Anonymous said...

Yaysh, dat's right, youse is da imbecile.

Anonymous said...

I'm listing my house for rent next month. I thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of the red hot rental market.

And why don't you tell us when your rent goes up on that sh*thole you are renting in Clifton, Bednar? What's it like living so close to those train tracks? Is that why you wake up so early in the morning to blog.. because the trains wake you up at 5 am??? Man, I would shoot myself if I had to live near train tracks.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I just lowered the price to $799,000 just to have fun with you silly bbitter njrereport renters. I have absolutely no intentions of selling the house for that price.

And quit factoring in the 6% commission into your math. Don't you dumb realtwhores understand that 6% is dead and burried? Gone! Forever! Nobody pays that much anymore! Good luck competing with the $500 flat fee companies.

Just curious Bednar, how many houses have you sold this year? And crack houses don't count...

Anonymous said...

Hey Bednar, what was that you just said?? I can't hear you... another train must be going by:

http://tinyurl.com/4fdqqg

If you want some more suitable housing, call my people. I might be willing to rent my house you you, but ONLY if you can show me evdience of a REAL income. Blogging and "selling" houses don't count.

And I am just curious, what is your REAL job anyway??

Anonymous said...

"So, donald duck, since anonymous is wrong about how much you'll "lose", why don't you give us correct numbers for how much you'll lose?"

$0. I have no intentions of selling the house for the $799k it is listed for. I listed it at that price just to have fun with njrereport.

If Bednar and his njrereport clowns want to have an intelligent discussion with me, then they need to learn that 6% is no more. Nobody pays their realtwhore 6% anymore. The 6% has gone the way of the drive in theater, subway token, and the lead paint.

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting that Bednar is only posting on HP during the blog contest. He is obvivoulsy trying to steal votes from HP since he is most likely hard up for the $500 grand prize since, being the poor cpaitalist he is, has chosen not to put any ads on njrereport. I could have made him a mint since, when I posted on that site, hits went through the roof. Oh well, sucks for him...

Anonymous said...

DONALD,

I'M WRONG?!

$840,000 - $799,000 = $41,000

But I guess you don't need to pay realty transfer fees and aren't affected by inflation along the "gold coast"?
And what's this about flat fee?Your commission payout is 6%. It's in the MLS, 3% to buyer agent and 3% to seller.

Lie all you want but be honest to yourself.
You were wrong.
Admit it.
It's a bursting bubble and you lost.

Anonymous said...

Ralph K. said...
It looks like HousingPANIC is under at least three different slots on the voting, and would be the clear winner if they were consolidated.

What, no place for the blog run by that nutjob Ben?

May 29, 2008 9:02 PM


Ralph --- maybe you missed the blog at #4... ;)

Tyrone said...

This from the NAR, trying to discredit the Case-Shiller Index:

Getting Case-Shillered
Yale economist Robert Shiller, cofounder of the index, is scaring home buyers with proclamations that home prices “will fall further than the 30 percent drop in the historic depression of the 1930s,” as he told the Associated Press in April. Prognostications like that are a problem because financial journalists such as Michael Grynbaum of The New York Times, Les Christie of CNN, and Rex Nutting of CBS MarketWatch, as well as securities investors and analysts, call his index “the best gauge” of real estate values. Since when do reporters feel the need to fluff a source, and why are analysts so enthralled with the index? One reason might be its Wall Street seal of approval: It was launched to provide information for hedge funds.

“Every time a CME hedge is made, revenue flows to Macromarkets,” says NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun. “People would hedge only if they believe price movements will be volatile.” Shiller is a founder and chief economist of Macromarkets. So, is the index biased to the negative?.

Anonymous said...

*
*
****************
MAJOR NEWS FLASH
****************

In what looks to be a landmark court case over "liar" loans...

BK Judge Rules Stated Income HELOC Debt Dischargeable!

This is major news because if it is upheld by the 9th Circut Appeals court it means that the banks will be the ultimate 'bag' holders of all the liar loan debt.

You see, the dirty little secrete of why the banks were willing to look the other way and fund liar loans on inflated appraisals was that their backup plan was to make the lying debtor the bag holder (a debt slave owning the bank on non-discharable debt). The legal theroy now falling apart on the banks was that by relying on the lying debtors inflated 'stated income' the bank could claim in BK court that the debtor obtained the funds by committing fraud and therefore exclude all such 'liar' loans from the debtors bankruptcy discharge. This would have the effect of turning the debtor into a "debt slave" for the bank and/or investors who bought SIVs based on such notes.

With this one landmark decision, a number of banks are likely to implode during the next 6 to 12 months as they are forced to write off the losses and eat the garbage paper being returned by the SIV investors.

Boys and Girls, welcome to the next leg of the credit crisis!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I just had an "AHA Moment"

You will notice many articles and quizzes on the net point to Boomers as the root of all evil.

These are mean-spirited articles, anticipating Boomer deaths, their rotten children receiving inheritances, the need for health care and retirement money in old age.

Yet I have posted here previously an article that points out that the overpriced market was driven by younger people, Casey Serin, for example.

I believe that this is a tactic to redirect attention from the real culprits...the economic/political industries pulling the strings.

Divide and conquer is a familiar tactic. Turn the people against one another so they forget who is really causeing the problem.

I'll bet some of those slanderous articles about "boomers" are written by paid operatives protecting their employer's interests.

Mammoth said...

Hey Keith,
Looks like it's time to run another 'Boomer-bashing' thread!

These are great, entertaining reads.

Hey, wait a sec...I'm a boomer. Yikes! Never mind...

Anonymous said...

"And what's this about flat fee?Your commission payout is 6%. It's in the MLS, 3% to buyer agent and 3% to seller."

The commission is 4% with a co-agent and 3% without. I do not pay real estate whores 6%.

And is that you Rich? First you impersonate grim, and now you are posting anonymously? You think I would not realize who you are???

Anonymous said...

That's right, HP is losing to New Jersey! Better get voting HPers, as the losers get burried under Giants Stadium! HA HA HA HA

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

Insult NJ, will ya Keith?

I'll vote all right, for NJ RE Report.

Even if "grim" is a Hudson county benny.

Anonymous said...

You will notice many articles and quizzes on the net point to Boomers as the root of all evil.

____

It's the generation about 1/2 generation younger than the younger boomers -- those born in the late sixties to mid seventies, who are the biggest part of this bubble-bust cycle.

The ones who've lived long enough to have enough income to get themselves into big trouble, and not enough life experience to spot bubbles and manias -- in the case of the housing bubble, the biggest bubble the planet has ever seen.

When people are in their thirties, they have enough teenager left in them to be extremely dangerous to themselves. You see people with far too much confidence -- confidence that is based on having achieved only a few things in life, and only when times were quite favorable. True wisdom is seldom gained until one has been through some difficult phases of life, like getting your kids all the way through college, getting laid off at least once, going through a career change or two, etc. If you can survive that kind of stuff, chances are you've got a grey beard, some scars, and some hard-earned wisdom. Granted, some remain woefully unwise their whole lives, no matter what happens.

Question: how old is Kendra "bubbles are for bathtubs" Todd?

Anonymous said...

Keith, you'll like this one - YouTube spoof on Young Hillary Clinton (3:05):

http://tinyurl.com/6od9b5

Paul E. Math said...

Yes, losing to NJ Blog by about 10 votes everytime I vote.

Funny thing is that the NJ blog is also, for the most part, a bubble blog. Not that it can hold a candle to HP.

But it is funny that the top 2 blogs that are running away with the lead are both bubble blogs. That should tell these idiots something.

Anonymous said...

For all of the NJ haters out there (I'm looking at you Keith), just remember that we are home to the #1richest town in the United States: Alpine (Median house price: $3.4 million). NJ also has the highest percentage of millionaires in the country.

Anonymous said...

The news about what Brevard County -- and Central Florida -- would lose if NASA orders mass layoffs at Kennedy Space Center just gets worse.

The space agency says it could eliminate 6,400 positions at KSC after it retires the space shuttle in 2010. Now, a new NASA economic study puts a dollar sign on what those layoffs -- and related job losses -- would cost.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
news/local/state/orl-bleak2908
may29,0,7179194.story

Anonymous said...

KraftMaid Cabinetry workers Friday morning say they felt terrible, when they learned that four hundred employees were being laid off in three facilities, two in Middlefield and one in Orwell.

http://www.wytv.com/news/
local/19409894.html

Anonymous said...

Housing slump triggers Scott County layoffs

Since the first of the year, several companies in Scott County have laid off workers. Barna Log Homes let 43 people go, and Great Dane Trailers laid off seven.

Now Armstrong Hardwood Flooring is joining that trend, laying off 113 workers.

Unemployment has been up and down in Scott County during the past year. Mayor Rick Keeton said the month-to-month figures range from about 6% to about 10%.

The reason? He said the national housing slump impacts local businesses, including Armstrong. Layoffs effective this week at Armstrong Hardwood Flooring eliminate the third shift work force. The company added that shift last year, when demand was up.

http://www.wbir.com/news/
local/story.aspx?storyid=58666

RentinginNJ said...

but you're new name SUCKS! Come on man, F the MSM - gotta have "bubble" or "crash" in the title!

I have to admit, seeing a blog named “housing panic” near the top of the FHA real estate leaderboard on top of all these has-been or never-was 6%’er realtors® trying to recapture their 2005 glory days is pretty f**king funny. For sh*ts and giggles, for example, check out the Tampa blog (with their 15 votes) who claims the housing crisis is over. I guess that means its time to get back to flipping condos.

Well, I enjoyed the visit. It’s a humorous site, but I’m Jersey guy, so my vote goes to Grim.

Anonymous said...

Florida Expected To Lose 18,000 Restaurant Jobs This Summer

If you're hunting for restaurant work this summer, Florida may not be the best place to look. The reason: The restaurant industry is expected to shed more than 18,000 jobs this summer in Florida, according to The National Restaurant Association.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/
may/29/florida-expected-lose-
18000-restaurant-jobs-summer/

Anonymous said...

The housing downturn is showing no signs of abating.

In March, home prices in 20 metropolitan cities fell by 14 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest S&P/Case Shiller indexes. It was the biggest drop the index has recorded in its history and the 15th consecutive decline since January 2007.

The prices fell by 2.2 percent from February to March.

The decline was across the board, with only one city, Charlotte, N.C., posting a slight gain in home prices year over year.

Las Vegas, Miami, and Phoenix saw the biggest declines, with indexes falling 25.9 percent, 24.6 percent, and 23 percent, respectively. In just the month of March, Las Vegas prices shed 4.4 percent of their value.

According to the Commerce Department, sales of new homes unexpectedly rose by 3.3 percent during April. But it revised downward its figures for the prior month, showing purchases of new homes in March at their lowest level since 1991.

How low will they go? Yale economist Robert Shiller, who established the indexes with fellow economist Karl Case, believes this current downturn could exceed the housing bust of the Great Depression.

http://www.portfolio.com/news-
markets/top-5/2008/05/27/
Housing-Bust-Continues/

Anonymous said...

It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich

From the NY Times:

http://tinyurl.com/3eo2ur

"people who provide services to the wealthy — lawyers, art advisers, personal trainers and hairstylists — say they are getting an earful about their clients’ financial anxieties

Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago

Anonymous said...

"Donald" and "Alpine the Realist" are one and the same.

Anonymous said...

I just love your blog. Hope you win the contest. ;)

Anonymous said...

Keith burned down 50 cents' house!!!

Let's face it, the circumstantial evidence is undeniable.

1. Keith recently raged about such evil flaunting of wealth by mtv cribs.

2. Keith may not have been on the North American continent at the time of the crime, but he was on planet earth.

3. Even if Keith was soaring around in space with Richard Branson on one of his flying machines, he was likely still in our solar system.


There you go. I rest my case.

Anonymous said...

I went to the New Jersey blog and was staggered by how much money people were still asking for unattractive houses! 700k for a piece of trash that could be built for 300-400k?

We ain't seen nothing yet.

Anonymous said...

Donald (5/30, 12:32)-

Post on whatever blog you can find...you're still a bagholder and a loser.

Great to see your pit of an overpriced house listed yet again. What, two years now...and still no buyer?

You're f-ed. Why don't you just burn the thing down or FK and be done with it?

Anonymous said...

My my, your so bitter Chip. What's the matter? Did the commissions dry up? Such a pitty, because I know someone who is looking for a condo in Fort Lee. And when he asked me to give him the # of a realtwhore, you can be sure that it was not your number.

Anonymous said...

NJ Real estate report is running a freaking bot! They should be DQ-ed immediately.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this poll is obviously rigged. I've never seen HP surpass this other blog which I doubt has anywhere near the traffic of HP... unless it IS different in Jersey.

Anonymous said...

http://tinyurl.com/3uz539

here you go keith. another video about the poor disrespected hillary. i told you keith. to the bitter end and beyond. this thing will never be over. surely someone remembers these people and how they acted in the 90's.

Anonymous said...

No bot!
We're a densely populated state that LOVES New Jersey Real Estate Report!!

How's it going Ira?!

Anonymous said...

This blog is a piece of crap, compared to njrereport.com.

No offense...

DreadlocCowgirl said...

NEW JERSEY RULZ! HOLLA!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

"I went to the New Jersey blog and was staggered by how much money people were still asking for unattractive houses! 700k for a piece of trash that could be built for 300-400k?"

That's because those houses are in prestigious Bergen County where prices never go down since they are all being bought my Wall Street people :-)

Anonymous said...

Nice site. I check this blog out occasionally, but my vote goes to NJrereport.

Donald, do you still play on the kannekt site or whatever it's called? that was fun getting those hobroken clowns cranked up.

Anonymous said...

if jersey wins, the least they can do is buy us all a drink over at the bada bing club....

Anonymous said...

the site wont let me vote
wtf are they for real..probably coonie deroot or gregg swans doing LOL

Anonymous said...

ducki,
When are you going to foreclose? Did you call Hope Now or whatever it's called now?

Anonymous said...

paul e. math

"But it is funny that the top 2 blogs that are running away with the lead are both bubble blogs. That should tell these idiots something."

Too right. I'd love to be a fly on the FHA wall when they open their presents in the morning tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

wow, donald - I thought maybe bednar was being unfair to you, but you've really confirmed yourself an A-1 bitter bagholding nutjob.
Keep posting, though. It sure is fun watching a lunatic slowly go to pieces!

Anonymous said...

why you call donald ira? Is his name Ira?

I'd be bitter, too, if my name were Ira.

Anonymous said...

Neddy (6/1, 6:33 AM)-

Our pal, Duck, inhabits the zone somewhere between megalomania and outright psychosis. He's stuck with an unsellable house, so instead of getting on with his life, he surfs blogs and looks to pick fights. He managed to get himself banned from njrereport...which is quite a feat, since pretty much anything goes there.

Of course, this changes nothing. Every day, he wakes up and his overpriced POS is still there, losing value faster than the three remaining synapses in his brain can fire.

Anonymous said...

My name is not Ira.

"wow, donald - I thought maybe bednar was being unfair to you, but you've really confirmed yourself an A-1 bitter bagholding nutjob."

Oh really. Well, Bednar is an unfair person. He is the biggest cherry picker I have ever seen. He only posts the worst house sales he can find, leaving out the ones that do not involve losses.

And theREAL bitter person on here is clotpoll... a desperate realtor with too much time on his hands.

Anonymous said...

"This blog is a piece of crap, compared to njrereport.com."

No it's not... this is the best bubble blog out there. It is the only one that has not censoreed me. And no bubble blog can beat the graphics! Sorry you can't take the realtor insults on here. If you can't stand the heat....

Anonymous said...

"He's stuck with an unsellable house, so instead of getting on with his life, he surfs blogs and looks to pick fights."

Hi pot, I'm kettle. Just to see how outrageous the above statement is, I encourage everyone to go to njrereport right now and read clotpoll's comments under the "Comp Killer" section. He is engaged in quite a nasty battle with "Frank" and with another poster over his pro illegal immigration views. Seriously, it's WWF smackdown over there, with Clotpoll hitting everyone over the head with a metal chair.

Anonymous said...

If you took away the military might of the USA, it would be a third world nation.

Anonymous said...

donald/ira

" He only posts the worst house sales he can find, leaving out the ones that do not involve losses."

A housing bull?? On housing panic??!?

You're sad that bloggers like James and Keith are sharing bad news about the real estate market going into the sh*tter while you leave your overpriced hovel on the market for two whole years, chasing the market inexorably down the drain???!?!?

Someone call this guy a waaaaahmbulance.

Anonymous said...

hey clot
I think you'd like the Goon Show.

scribe said...

Keith,

Donald aka "the Duck" was banned from NJREreport by popular demand.

He was clear pretty much immediately that he was a failed flipper, left holding the bag.

But there were some pretty interesting posts from someone named anonymoose, who claimed to know him in real time.

Wonder if Grim could dig those out of archives?

Anonymous said...

I visited this blog due to references to it over at NJ Real Estate Report. Now that I'm over here, I noticed that some of my enemies from that blog are posting over here. Amazing.

I think this contest is a bunch of bullshlt however. It's like a contest between al queada and hezbollah to try to determine who is the bigger terrorist. From what I can see, there's a bunch of people here with negative thoughts just like there is on Bednar's blog.

What you people fail to realize is that this talk has upended real estate markets and is really a despicable undermining of this great country.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there is a common tie to why commodities price have been going up.

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/
20080530/READERS/909306333

Don't blame farmers for high food costs

There's a lot of risk in farming. As farmers, we don't control the price of production inputs needed to produce a crop. We don't know if weather will cooperate to produce a crop, and we don't know what price our crop will bring. But it's our way of life and we embrace it.

We are proud that each American farmer feeds 127 people, approximately one-third of them in other countries.

http://southeastfarmpress.com/
cotton/cotton-production-0530/


“In the past, we haven’t grown very much corn. But last year, we starting growing more of it, and this year’s acreage will match what we grew in 2007,” adds brother Neil. “Last year, we had two farms where we couldn’t get enough water on the cotton because we used it all on corn. Hopefully, we can do a better job of managing water if have another dry year. We learned lessons from last year.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601087&sid=aZkTcpcv
JdkI&refer=home

Cotton-Price Swings Disrupt Farmer Sales, Spark Probe by CFTC

Unusual swings in cotton prices that disrupted farmer sales in March are now the target of an investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, two people familiar with the probe said.

Results of the investigation may be released as soon as June 3, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the probe hasn't been made public. The Washington-based commission, which also is examining potentially improper trading in oil markets, began the cotton inquiry after seeing unusual gaps between futures and spot prices, the people said.

Anonymous said...

yeah yeah, my house is losing value so fast... I lost a grand total of $10,000. Boo hoo! Why don't you just shut up aldready Snotpoll? You can't even afford my house! You live in the hilbilly section of NJ. If you look at the inventory in Brachburg, New Jersey, they have TRAILERS. Sorry, but I will not take advice from a trailer park trash realtwhore.

Anonymous said...

Hey Clotpoll,

I take back everything I said about you. In fact, I want to buy a house from you. Why don't you send me some info on that 2 bedroom/ 1 bathroom trailer in Branchburg listed for $25,000 (that's right HPers, a house in NJ for only $25,000... prices are CRASHING faster than you can blink)? I always wanted to live in a trailer park next door to a loud mouthed realtor. Drop by my NJREREPORT Watch blog and we will talk.

--Donald

Anonymous said...

Donald,

Although I am fundamentally against blog moderation, I can now see where it has a place. If Keith was smart, he would ban you from his blog as well. Your comments are so immature it lowers the overall quality of the site which you choose to visit. Your logic has serious cracks in it, like your homes foundation!

Anonymous said...

From what I can tell Housing Panic is winning. There are at least 4 different entries for Housing Panic.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Clotpoll said...

This blog is a piece of crap, compared to njrereport.com.

No offense...

May 31, 2008 10:52 PM<<<

none taken asswhipe. now then. be a good guido and go jump on the hudson and take a nice swim and stfu already....

Anonymous said...

People who were aware of the long-wave should have seen this coming. As baby boomers enter retirement, we will enter a deflationary environment. This includes housing and the stock market.

http://www.longwavepress.com/Baby_Boomers_Generation_X_SCv1a.pdf

Anonymous said...

Housing Panic, to paraphrase Ric Flair, to be the Blog, you have to beat the Blog, and whether you like, or don’t like it, you better learn to live with it, because New Jersey Real Estate Report is the best thing going today! Wooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Is it possible a bank in Minnesota could fail?

When asked that question on Thursday, Kevin Murphy of the Minnesota Department of Commerce said yes.

On Friday, it happened.

Federal regulators closed First Integrity in Staples. The 89-year-old bank is the first in Minnesota to go under since Town & Country Bank of Almelund failed in 2000. It's the fourth bank to fail nationwide this year.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/
.site/news/Stock%20News/1643986/

Anonymous said...

The Fed's $300 billion baby

Hot on the heels of its $307 billion farm-subsidy orgy, Congress barely caught its breath before plunging back into another multibillion-dollar spend-a-thon.

The next targets of its affection are mortgage holders, soon to be seduced with other people's money. Maddeningly enough, part of this courtship will be billed to America's 83 million equity-starved renters who only fantasize about homeownership.

The House has approved and the Senate will consider legislation to provide federal insurance for $300 billion in refinanced home loans.

Taxpayers will have to shell out hard cash if borrowers default on this government-guaranteed debt. This new program is expected to cover up to 1 million homes. Thus, these taxpayer-insured mortgages would average at least $300,000; not exactly low-income housing.

This bailout, The Wall Street Journal reports, would cover more than just those Americans who struggle to pay their mortgages.

It would benefit those whose home prices have sunk below the value of their mortgages. It is unfortunate if someone possesses, say, a $1 million mortgage on a home now worth $900,000.

But so long as that person's monthly mortgage check does not bounce, there is no reason for government to rush to the rescue.

Impending homelessness because of negative cash flow is one thing. Steady, positive income that finances a lifeless housing investment is something else and does not merit public relief.

Congress' lavish scheme is a particularly shabby deal for renters. While politicians routinely ignore apartment-dwellers and other renters, people like us inhabit 34.7 percent of America's 108 million households, according to the National Apartment Association.

More than one-third of U.S. homes are rented, yet rent payments are not tax-deductible, as mortgages are. Where is the justice in that?

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/
2008/06/01/opinion/
syndicated_columnists/345439.txt

Anonymous said...

Consumers Lean on Rebate Checks for Bills and Gas

The federal government is showering households with tax rebates to spur spending and invigorate a troubled economy.

But many Americans are so consumed with debt and the soaring price of gasoline that they are opting to save the money or use it to pay bills, according to surveys, sales data and interviews with people from Florida to California.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/
article/20080601/ZNYT01/
806010354/1001/TL23

Anonymous said...

Gasoline prices have surged past euro 1.40 a liter, or the equivalent of $8.21 a gallon, on much of the Europeans Continent.

In London, diesel fuel costs about pound(s)1.27 a liter, or the equivalent of $9.50 a gallon, the highest in Europe,

"Crude was our life and we didn't know that everything depended on it," said Maria Jose Aragon, a 56-year-old government worker in Madrid. "Groceries have gone up 20 to 30 percent. A loaf of bread that used to cost 30 cents now costs 55 cents."

Even in Russia, one of the world's largest oil producers, consumers have cut back spending and demonstrations by disgruntled drivers have erupted after prices at the pump rose by more than 7 percent from a year earlier.

"The prices are nightmarish," said Arutsun Hachaturyan, manager of a jewelry business, who said he pumps about $1,200 in gasoline a month into his black Range Rover. "This is Russia," he said, while filling his tank at a Moscow gasoline station. "We live on oil."

http://www.redorbit.com/news/
business/1411300/
europeans_are_fed_up_with_
high_fuel_prices/index.html

Anonymous said...

IT'S NOT OVER!

NJ Real Estate Report 1496
HousingPANIC 1495

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Anonymous said...

S&L Crisis vs. Current Crisis

I have been talking about an expected wave of bank failures for quite some time, most recently in Too Late To Stop Bank Failures.

Recently I was asked to compare the current crisis to the 1980's S&L Crisis in regards to to whether or not this crisis will be worse.

By sheer number of failures the S&L crisis will dwarf what's coming hands down. Here is a chart from MarketWatch that tells the story.

However, numbers alone are not the proper way to measure things.

The failure of Bear Stearns alone is enough to counterbalance hundreds of what really amounts to branch failures during the S&L crisis.

From the MarketWatch article: "During the late 1980s, banks in Texas couldn't open a new branch in another county without forming a new commercial bank.

That meant there were lots more lenders in the state when the S&L crisis struck. So when a bank failed, "40 of its other banks failed on the same day," Cassidy recalls."

Today there are some huge banks and brokers at risk. Wachovia (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Lehman (LEH), Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), Merrill Lynch (MER), Countrywide Financial (CFC) , Keycorp (KEY), Fifth Third (FITB), and Regions Financial (RF) for starters.

That list looks ominous if not preposterous. Yet two years ago if someone said Bear Stearns and Countrywide would fail and that Citigroup, Morgan Staley, Lehman and others would need repeated capital infusions from Dubai, Singapore, and China they would have been laughed off the street.

The Fed will likely act to prevent Citigroup from going under, but I do not believe Citigroup will survive in its current form. I said that last summer while Chuck Prince was still a "dancing fool".

http://www.howestreet.com/
articles/index.php?article_id=6555

Anonymous said...

The U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts have helped increase liquidity, but have also led to rising prices in commodities, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said on Friday.

The central bank governor said this has affected the anti-inflation policies of emerging markets.

Zhou was speaking at a conference following the release of a report by the Commission on Growth and Development, an international organization that focuses on policy consultation in emerging markets, and provides reference for aid programs.

"The U.S. Fed has significantly reduced interest rates on the other hand, global commodity market prices have risen. A lot of developing countries are now suffering from rising inflation," Zhou said.

The central banks of the world should cooperate more closely to tackle the inflation problem, he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/
2008-05/31/content_8287662.htm

Anonymous said...

So Inflation is not driven by the weak US Dollar policy created by the US Federal Reserve when they lowered interest rate back to all time low.

If that is the case then why defend the US Dollar peg policy.

Let the US Dollar float freely in the Gulf region and Hong Kong, and watch the derivative market unravel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
20080601/pl_afp/
gulfuseconomyqatar_080601175021

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday that high inflation in the oil-rich Gulf region was not caused by the peg to the stumbling dollar, but any decision on the link was up to individual governments.

Speaking to reporters in Qatar on the second leg of a Gulf tour, Paulson also said skyrocketing oil prices were a question of supply and demand.

"I haven't heard anyone saying to me that the peg is causing a problem. You can look at Kuwait, they depegged to a basket of currencies (but) they have the same inflation... problem," he said.

Inflation is "driven by food prices and (cost of) building materials," Paulson said, adding that "the peg has served the region well for a long time."

Anonymous said...

Investment banks have been trying hedge against losses from the mortgage meltdown and broader credit crunch for at least a year.

But as parts of the credit market showed tentative signs of improvement in the second quarter, some of those hedging strategies failed.

That could exacerbate already weak performances when big brokerage firms Lehman Brothers (LEH), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) report quarterly results in coming weeks, analysts say.

Big investment banks often hedge mortgage holdings and other exposures to things like leveraged loans by betting against market indexes that track derivatives linked to these types of assets.

The ABX indexes track derivatives tied to some subprime mortgage-backed securities.

The CMBX indexes focus on commercial mortgage securities, while the LCDX indexes track leveraged loans.

CDX indexes cover credit default swaps, widely used derivatives that provide insurance against defaults.

Since April, the value of derivatives tied to corporate bonds and commercial mortgage debt has rallied, but the actual bonds haven't.

Spreads, a measure of the extra interest rate paid on debt that's riskier than U.S. Treasury bonds, have narrowed by more than 50% on credit derivatives linked to investment grade corporate debt.

At the same time, spreads on the bonds themselves have narrowed by less than 30%, according to Ken Worthington, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

"The performance of the cash positions and the index-based hedges have diverged, resulting in less effective or value-destroying hedges," he explained.

Such divergence between cash and derivative spreads is known as basis risk. Worthington and other analysts reckon it's going to be a big drag on brokerage firm's earnings during the second quarter.

The big brokerage firms still have "significant" exposures to troubled assets including mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and leveraged loans, Hintz noted earlier this week.

Lehman tops the list of most exposed brokerage firms, with almost $85 billion in mortgage-backed securities, CDOs and other asset-backed securities at the end of its fiscal first-quarter, according Bernstein.

That's 408% of the firm's tangible equity.

Goldman has almost $52 billion of mortgage securities, CDOs and other asset-backed securities, which represents 139% of the firm's tangible equity. Morgan Stanley has $22.1 billion of such exposures, or 66% of tangible equity, Bernstein data show.

Investors are hoping these firms can sell these holdings, but so far they've only had success off-loading some leveraged loans - often at steep discounts.

http://eresearch.fidelity.com/
eresearch/markets_sectors/
analysis/story.jhtml?storyid
=NEWS.CBSMW.A63BA072A4C24EF29AFA.
674738C7CC13&provider=
CBSMW&product=CBS/TOPS&category=
mktcommentary

Anonymous said...

The ratings agency Moody's has just admitted awarding incorrect ratings to $4bn worth of debt instruments because of a bug in its computer models.

The total ‘value' of global derivatives - financial instruments which are priced on the back of the underlying assets that they track - has now reached a breathtaking $596 trillion, after a mammoth rise over the previous twelve months.

A story on Bloomberg at the end of April summed this up pretty well. The chief finance officer of an Indian company was persuaded by his bank to start dabbling in the currency derivatives market.

Although the CFO explained to the bankers that he didn’t understand how these products work, apparently they chauffeured him round and bombarded him with charts showing how his company could make a profit with a zero investment.

Too good to be true? Clearly it was. Three months later, two of the contracts had turned sour, incurring losses of $1.5 million and prompting the bank to issue a bankruptcy notice to recover the cash. Meanwhile, our poor CFO had no idea that these derivative bets could go so wrong. But he’s not alone. Indian companies could lose up to $4bn on derivatives, according to Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA Ltd. Naïvety? Maybe. But we’re all good at repenting at leisure.

Which brings us onto the next potential problem, counterparty risk. That’s when the deal you’ve just done comes unstuck because the people on the other side of the trade can’t settle their side of the deal. A bit like backing the Derby winner, then finding the bookie can't pay up because he's run out of money.

Indian banks may lose up to $400m if they can't enforce derivatives contracts they’ve set up with smaller companies, says CLSA. This is because 10% of these smaller companies may renege on their agreements because they haven’t the cash to settle the deals.

And this is just one country. BNP Paribas analyst Andera Cicione believes that total world CDS losses could hit $150bn. As the CDS market is unregulated, there are no public records showing whether sellers have the assets to pay out if a bond defaults. George Soros himself has warned this week that CDS counterparty risk is “a Damoclean sword waiting to fall.”

What’s worse – and here we come to the third problem - some buyers have now found out that the derivatives they’ve bought haven’t matched up to “what it said on the tin”.

http://www.moneyweek.com/file/
47668/why-derivatives-are-getting
-much-more-dangerous.html

Anonymous said...

Moody's Points Out Risks Of CDS

The most significant systemic risk posed by credit default swaps is the effect the failure of a major CDS counterparty firm would have on the operational integrity and pricing in the markets for CDS, Moody's Investors Service reports.

In a report designed to dispel misperceptions about the CDS market and to examine its risks, the rating agency concludes that the sheer size of the market in notional terms and its exposure to "credit events" among underlying securities do not, in and of themselves, pose undue concern.

Credit default swaps are derivative contracts intended to create credit exposures (long or short) to an underlying reference obligation (such as a bond, an ABS security, or an index of bonds or ABS securities).

In a typical transaction, an insured party buys protection against a default in payments on the underlying instrument from a protection seller, who insures against this default risk in exchange for regular payments.

If the reference entity defaults, the protection seller pays the insured party the difference between the par value ofthe reference obligation and its recovery value.

"The notion that credit default swaps represent this $62 trillion long credit exposure is not an accurate depiction of the market nor particularly helpful to investors in determining where the true risks lie," says Moody's AVP/Analyst Alexander Yavorsky, one of the authors of the report, referring to the oft-cited figure for the notional amount of CDS contracts outstanding.

http://www.emii.com/Articles/
1938902/Derivatives/Derivatives-
Articles/Moodys-Points-Out-
Risks-Of-CDS.aspx

Anonymous said...

So US Congress is going after the oil and financial cartel instead of the central banks that floods the World with worthless paper.

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/
2008/05/26/america-under-attack-
memorial-day.html

The London-centered oil cartel, Big Oil, the handful of giant oil companies that dominate the transportation, processing and distribution of petroleum products on the planet.

The oil cartel and the financial cartel, also centered in the City of London, run the markets which set the price of oil, and thus the price of products like gasoline and diesel. Every time you fill up your tank, you pay a hidden tax to these cartels.

Making matters worse, they use these obscene profits to fund the consolidation of power into fewer and fewer hands, increasing imperial control over the world.

What about high food prices? These are set by the commodities markets, which are jointly fun by the British-centered commodities cartels and the financial cartel.

As the financial markets die, money is pouring into oil and food speculation because while people may not need CDOs, they do need food and gasoline.

The global financial system has died, and the effects of that death are now being felt worldwide. Quadrillions of dollars of financial bets, and trillions of dollars of assets, have vaporized, triggering a savage deflation of financial values.

To try to plug the holes, the central bankers have poured trillions of dollars of loans into the system, and are doing everything they can to convert their worthless paper into government-guaranteed debt.

Anonymous said...

Fed want to blame other, but when asked about their own weak US Dollar policy, Fed has no real answer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/
20080526/bs_nm/
forex_trichet_dc_5

Geithner is a proponent of financial market overhauls that would rid the system of the type of excessive incentives paid to financial executives which some officials believe caused the current global crisis.

Major banks have reported more than $200 billion of writedowns so far from the crisis that started with defaults in the U.S. mortgage market but snowballed as investors turned their back on mortgage backed securities and other exotic derivatives.

"My own sense is that we're going to have to find a better balance between market discipline and supervision, certainly in the United States, but that's a question we're looking at across the major financial centers," he told a news conference.

Geithner declined to comment on U.S. monetary policy but, when asked how the Fed would combat growing inflation risks stemming from soaring food, oil and overall commodity prices, he replied with one word: "Effectively." He declined to elaborate.

Anonymous said...

The weak U.S. dollar, market speculation and the subprime crisis are the causes for the spiraling price of oil, OPEC's current president said Saturday.

Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil told reporters the cartel will make no new decision on production levels until its Sept. 9 meeting in Vienna.

He notes that OPEC controls only 40 percent of world oil production, and says the high prices do not reflect market conditions but rather other factors linked to the weakening dollar, market speculation and the U.S. subprime mortgage market turmoil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20080601/ap_on_bi_ge/
algeria_opec_4

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm from NJ. I don't think it sucks... well, not that much.

Anonymous said...

Henry Kissinger explains why in today’s International Herald Tribune:

“...the role of speculative capital has magnified. For speculative capital, nimbleness is the essential attribute. Rushing in when it sees and opportunity and heading for the exit at the first sign of trouble...”

Speculative capital is what the Feds create when they lend money below the inflation rate. It does not go out and invest in long term projects like steel mills. Instead, it looks for the hot, rising market...the one that will give it a quick payoff.

The guy with the big house and the subprime mortgage was not really buying a house...he never paid for it. He was just speculating.

And now his speculation has gone bad...and all the Fed’s hot air goes into a new bubble. When the tech stock bubble popped, for example, the next big thing was a bubble in housing and housing-related debt.

When the housing and subprime bubbles popped we guessed that the authorities would pump hard to try to reflate them...but that the Fed’s inflation would go into new bubbles – in commodities, oil, and gold. So far, so good. Oil slid up past $135. Gold shot up over $1,000.

And food? Food prices are so high they’ve set off riots all over the world. The OECD says high food prices are here to stay. And farmers in Argentina are setting up roadblocks, again, to try to starve the capital into submission

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/
bubbles-commodities-oil-gold-2/
2008/06/02/

Anonymous said...

The chief market strategist for one of the world's leading oil industry banks, David Kelly, of JP Morgan Funds, recently admitted something telling to the Washington Post: "One of the things I think is very important to realize is that the growth in the world oil consumption is not that strong."

One of the stories used to support the oil futures speculators is the allegation that China's demand for imported oil is exploding out of control, driving shortages in the supply-demand equilibrium. Yet the facts do not support the China demand thesis.

The US government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) concluded in its most recent monthly Short Term Energy Outlook report that US oil demand is expected to decline by 190,000 barrels per day (b/d) this year. That is mainly owing to the deepening economic recession.

Chinese consumption, the EIA says, far from exploding, is expected to increase this year by only 400,000 barrels a day. That is hardly the "surging oil demand" blamed on China in the media. Last year, China imported 3.2 million barrels per day, and its estimated usage was around 7 million b/d total. The US, by contrast, consumes around 20.7 million b/d.

That means the key oil-consuming nation, the US, is experiencing a significant drop in demand. China, which consumes only a third of the oil the US does, will see a minor rise in import demand compared with the total daily world oil output of some 84 million barrels, less than half of one percent of total demand.

OPEC has its 2008 global oil demand growth forecast unchanged at 1.2 million barrels per day (mm bpd), as slowing economic growth in the industrialized world is offset by slightly growing consumption in developing nations. OPEC predicts that global oil demand in 2008 will average 87 million bpd, largely unchanged from its previous estimate. Demand from China, the Middle East, India and Latin America is forecast to be stronger, but the European Union and North American demand will be lower.

So the world's largest oil consumer faces a sharp decline in consumption, a decline that will worsen as the housing and related economic effects of the US securitization crisis in finance de-leverages. The price in normal open or transparent markets should presumably be falling not rising. No supply crisis justifies the way the world's oil is being priced today.

Not only is there no supply crisis to justify such a price bubble. There are several giant new oil fields due to begin production over the course of 2008 to further add to supply.

http://peakoil.com/
article38931.html

Anonymous said...

The US dollar strengthened as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher spurred speculation that the Fed may consider rate hikes in the near future, helping the greenback to advance against all of the major currencies

A speech by Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher spurred bets that the Fed may raise the benchmark interest rates earlier than expected as he highlighted upside inflationary risks to be a major concern for the central bank. Furthermore, he said he expected the FOMC to change course if “inflation expectations continue to worsen.”

US Treasury prices continued to face downside pressures as the stock markets advanced throughout the week, and swayed demands for risk free bonds. As a result, the benchmark 10-Year yield rose, while the 2-Year yield surged.

http://au.biz.yahoo.com/
080529/36/1rjjm.html

Paul E. Math said...

Finally, an FB with some self-respect: "The banks loaned money to all kinds of people they shouldn't have, including us," Gary said. "This situation we're in is one of our own making. We were not taken advantage of."

http://tinyurl.com/652fzm

Question: why don't more Americans have more self-respect and pride?

Anonymous said...

The History of Wrong Predictions:

This is the history of Lereah and Yun's NAR predictions ... in chart form


http://bp0.blogger.com/_SfxDExxUukY/R-he5fB56aI/AAAAAAAAASk/JiIYUiK914o/s1600-h/nar_rid6.JPG


From Terrell Sheilds at Appraisers Forum

Anonymous said...

naz down yet again today...enjoy those 1.8% CDs

DOPES
DOLTS
FOOLS
TOOLS

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm from NJ. I don't think it sucks... well, not that much.

Well I got news for you moron piney dipshit, NJ sucks donkey dicks! Last time I've been in Newark the freaking panhandlers surrounded my taxi on its way to the Gansevoort where I was supposed to party with that fine ho that sucked Spitzers dick. All of these beggars are previous shit-hole renters and had their asses kicked to the curb when their IT jobs were outsourced to some slit-eyed jackass ching chong china man. He's working for a f*cking buck a day, beat that rentards. You have first moved into a rental trailer that stunk from years of neglect and now you're moved in under the bridge fighting with your fellow imbeciles for a few sips of watered down vino. You're all just a bunch of f*cking laughable slaves who own nothing but their own underwear! Even illegal sharecroppers are better than you asinine scumbags.

Anonymous said...

This one is for bitter renter

http://tinyurl.com/4dqvj7

Anonymous said...

"If Keith was smart, he would ban you from his blog as well."

If Keith was smart, he would ban all of the njrereport people on HP that STOLE votes from HP. And at least I am not the desperate realtwhore who called this blog apiece of crap.

"Your comments are so immature it lowers the overall quality of the site which you choose to visit."

No more inmature that Franks's comments.

"But there were some pretty interesting posts from someone named anonymoose, who claimed to know him in real time."

Nobody on njrereport or HP knows me in real life. How do I know? Because none of my friends are a-holes.

Now I am done talking to you. The blog contest is over. Please go back to nj retard report and don't come back.

--Donald

Out at the peak said...

Keith, one builder finally did a 2-for-1 deal for houses, but the terms are still incredibly terrible.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/06/in-escondido-bu.html

Anonymous said...

link for keith

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

This contest may serve a good purpose, even if it is a joke.

2 bubble blogs got by far the most votes.

Maybe, just maybe the FHA will realise future buyers don't want lower down-payment requirements, we want lower prices. 3% down payments gotta go, they keep prices high.

Anonymous said...

How does Helicopter sleep at night knowing he is perpetuating a global food crisis to save his buddies and the stock market?



http://tinyurl.com/5xd2ks

Anonymous said...

yea!! HP is in the lead now. take that jersey.....as they say in florida...vote early and vote often...

Anonymous said...

And for those of you who do not think that Bednar at njrereport is cherry picking, ask yourself this: why has there not been any coverage (lowballs, compe killers, etc.) of Hudson County? What's the matter.... does Hoboken, Weehawken, and West New York, as well as the rest of the Gold Coast not exist in the world of njrereport? Why no coverage of the Hudson River waterfront?

Anonymous said...

The Economist is now showing the drop off in housing is greater than the Great Depression

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11465476

Anonymous said...

Director Ramanathan delivered a presentation to the Committee which highlighted various factors to consider including the flat growth of individual and corporate income taxes year-over-year, the increase in outlays by nearly to 6% year-over-year, and the impact of the stimulus program enacted in February 2008.

These factors have led to a substantial increase in deficit estimates by market participants, with the average deficit estimate rising nearly $156 billion to $414 billion.

Moreover, according to Director Ramanathan, marketable borrowing – i.e. borrowing from the public - has increased from $134 billion in fiscal year 2007 to nearly $300 billion fiscal year to date in 2008, and this large increase warranted the Committee's focus.

Director Ramanathan noted that the redemptions and outright sales by the Federal Reserve since August for liquidity purposes have resulted in the Treasury's need to issue an additional $200 billion in bills and coupons this fiscal year.

Moreover, state and local government issuance, which totaled $58 billion in fiscal year 2007, is -$10 billion (i.e. a net redemption) fiscal year to date. This issuance is not expected to reverse in the near term.

These factors, as well as volatility in receipts and outlays, have resulted in less predictable cash balances making cash management an ongoing challenge.

http://www.treas.gov/press/
releases/hp1002.htm

Anonymous said...

Were there Hanky Panky going on.

Bernanke and the President's Working Group on Financial Markets: Since this outfit, CIA-like in its official but also clandestine nature was set up in 1988, rumor has made it a backstage and unauthorized financial markets participant in crisis periods.

The March episode may well be another example. Treasury Secretary Paulson is the Working Group's big capo in Washington, not Bernanke. Indeed, bipartisan leaders of the Senate Finance Committee expressed open concern that Paulson had told Bernanke what to do.

Furthermore, although Bernanke testified to Congress that he didn't know about the grave Bear Stearns financial situation until March 13, it turns out, from Freedom of Information Act disclosures, that he may well have known.

On March 11, Bernanke and another bail-out architect, New York Fed President Tim Geithner, lunched with representatives of every big Wall Street firm except Bear Stearns.

The financial website Monkeybusinessblog.com assumes that Bear people were not on hand because it was their own situation being discussed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
kevin-phillips/time-to-end-
bernanke-pank_b_104769.html

Anonymous said...

What would you do with that list of banks name if you know who they were.

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/
milwaukee/othercities/atlanta/
stories/2008/06/02/story1.html?
b=1212379200^1643547

The collapse of the housing boom is now a banking bust.

After years of rapid bank expansion across metro Atlanta, bankers, attorneys and analysts are wary the housing market collapse will spur a new round of contraction, consolidation and bank failures.

Georgia and California rank near the top of a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-maintained watch list for states with the most problem banks, according to bankers and attorneys familiar with the list.

David Barr, FDIC spokesman, declined to discuss geographic breakdowns of the federal bank regulator's watch list, or individual banks that may be on the list.

Barr did say 76 banks are on the watch list, which is not released publicly, and the regulatory agency is updating the roster every quarter.

Anonymous said...

I run a small ISP, so I was able to vote one time from each of my 16 servers tonight and all of the votes were counted. So it looks like you are in first place now. What a great way to waste time!

Anonymous said...

The economic blight of mounting home foreclosures in some American communities could take years to heal, according to government officials and housing advocates.

Tens of thousands of financially stretched Americans face the prospect of having their homes repossessed in coming months, more than two years after the property bubble burst, triggering one of the deepest housing market slumps in decades.

Rising foreclosures have acted as a drag on economic growth and some cities are struggling to cope with increased trash and crime tied to abandoned properties and, in some cases, entire streets.

"The large number of multi-family dwellings entering foreclosure presents a serious challenge to cities," the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren, warned in a speech Friday.

The nationwide downturn has particularly affected California, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio and Florida.

"We anticipate that by this time next year, whole neighborhoods and whole communities will be greatly impacted by vacant property issues," said Marietta Rodriguez, the national director of home ownership programs for NeighborWorks America

http://www.breitbart.com/article.
php?id=080603044217.xn1xoews&show_
article=1&catnum=1

Anonymous said...

Wachovia slid to the lowest level since 1995 after saying Kennedy Thompson will step down, reigniting concern that subprime losses will deepen. Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. tumbled after S&P said the firms will be forced to report more writedowns.

`Everyone's trying to pick the bottom in financials, and what the news flow is showing you is that we're not there yet,'' said Paul Kandel, a New York-based money manager at Sentinel Asset Management, which oversees about $5 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601103&sid=aRgREbmqNeVA

Anonymous said...

"Utah Bubble said...
I run a small ISP, so I was able to vote one time from each of my 16 servers tonight and all of the votes were counted. So it looks like you are in first place now. What a great way to waste time!"

Especially when you consider that the contest was over at midnight May 31, which makes NNJ report the winner.

Anonymous said...

The housing market has bottomed people. Buy one house, and get a second one for FREE. This is not a joke. Read about it at the la times blog...

Anonymous said...

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has moved inflation up on his list of worries, suggesting the time for cutting interest rates is over in view of soaring oil and commodity prices and a weakened dollar."

Why is UnKle Ben always 2 months behind consumer sentiment and 6 months behind HP?

Anonymous said...

See, the true "there is no bubble" Donald comes out. I'm sure all at HP will embrace you.

"Donald said...
The housing market has bottomed people. Buy one house, and get a second one for FREE. This is not a joke. Read about it at the la times blog..."

Anonymous said...

"...ask yourself this: why has there not been any coverage (lowballs, compe killers, etc.) of Hudson County?"

Simply because no one on the blog has access to the MLS that covers Hudson County.
They DO have access to GSMLS and NJMLS.
They do have access to you s4ithole town, Cliffside Park which is NOT in Hudson County and is DEFINITELY not a "Gold Coast" town.

Anonymous said...

"Simply because no one on the blog has access to the MLS that covers Hudson County."

Hudson County is covered by the NJMLS. Lame excuse.

"They do have access to you s4ithole town, Cliffside Park which is NOT in Hudson County and is DEFINITELY not a "Gold Coast" town."

That's right. I would rather live in the middle of the Arizona desert than in Hudson County. I could never stand living in an area infested with illegals and violent crime. From your tone, it sounds like you graduated from a sub-standard Hudson County high school. If that is the case, I feel sorry for you.

And as far as not living on the Gold Coast, I could not care less. It is full of nothing but Manhattan wannabees and arrorgant yuppies.

--Donald

Anonymous said...

"See, the true "there is no bubble" Donald comes out. I'm sure all at HP will embrace you."

"So what. You won't get the free house since you can't afford to buy a house for $1.6 million. You can't even afford my house or the property taxes on it.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

See, the true "there is no bubble" Donald comes out. I'm sure all at HP will embrace you.

"Donald said...
The housing market has bottomed people. Buy one house, and get a second one for FREE. This is not a joke. Read about it at the la times blog..."

June 03, 2008 10:52 PM<<

do you know the particulars or the fine print on that deal? heck when it is all said and done it comes to about 20 percent off......whoopie!! get real anon. go spread that garbage on the new jersey blog where it belongs...ha ha ha

E said...

Phoenix mortgage exec offs himself:

http://wcvarones.blogspot.com/2008/06/greenspans-body-count-another-mortgage.html

Anonymous said...

"Hudson County is covered by the NJMLS. Lame excuse."

Wrong, as usual.
Hudson County is covered primarily by the Liberty Board of Realtors

When are you going to raise the price Donny?

Anonymous said...

Donald,

"And as far as not living on the Gold Coast, I could not care less. It is full of nothing but Manhattan wannabees and arrorgant yuppies."

From your very own web site:
"...currently residing on NJ Gold Coast"

Will you NOW admit that there was a housing bubble?
Oh wait, you can't do that. If you did you would have to admit to purchasing in 2005 and taking a loss if you managed to find a buyer.

Let the HP people know your true feelings about housing.

Anonymous said...

It is full of nothing but Manhattan wannabees and arrorgant yuppies.

Yuppies you dumb f*ck are extinct since the mid 90's. What you wanted to say is shit-hole renting sh*t for brains with semi-retarded imbecile siblings and of course not to miss white supremacist trailer trash parents as well as an Arian Nation uncle in a federal Supermax facility. Under the new economic order renters will always be renters and then become slaves to us the "mocha elite". Asinine pimple-faced software developers. Your end is neigh - repent and BUY!

Anonymous said...

Read it and weep HP'ers.
From the FHA Blog:
"The popular vote winner is NJ Real Estate Report. This was a tight race between first and second but as of Sunday, June 1 at 12:00 A.M. NJ was in the lead. James, the author of NJREreport.com, has graciously asked us to send his $500 prize to the Newark Chapter of Habitat for Humanity."

Anonymous said...

The popular vote winner is NJ Real Estate Report. This was a tight race between first and second but as of Sunday, June 1 at 12:00 A.M. NJ was in the lead. James, the author of NJREreport.com, has graciously asked us to send his $500 prize to the Newark Chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Anonymous said...

The popular vote winner is NJ Real Estate Report.<<

no good cheaters...

Anonymous said...

Congrats keefer!

Anonymous said...

"Wrong, as usual.
Hudson County is covered primarily by the Liberty Board of Realtors"

Funny, I just went to njmls.com, clicked on Hudson County, and tons of properties showed up, both on the water and inland.

And what is up with "bowfly's" rant in responese to my yuppie comment? Did you write that? Man, sounds like someone REALLY needs their diaper changed.

Anonymous said...

"do you know the particulars or the fine print on that deal? heck when it is all said and done it comes to about 20 percent off......whoopie!! get real anon. go spread that garbage on the new jersey blog where it belongs...ha ha ha"

Actually, the discount is less than that because the builder rmost likely raised the price before the free house giveaway. The supermarket near me does it all the time: Buy one jar of tomato sauce for 99 cents or buy one jar for $1.99 and get the second one free.

Anonymous said...

And what is up with "bowfly's" rant in responese to my yuppie comment? Did you write that? Man, sounds like someone REALLY needs their diaper changed.

June 04, 2008 9:01 PM<<<

oh don't worry about blowfly. he is always doing that stuff. we were hoping some of you jersey guys would invite him over to your blog to do what he does best, bloviate...

Anonymous said...

"We "lost" the fake link-baiting no-rules REIC lending whore "contest" even though HP'ers completely flooded the zone and had way more votes."

Wrong!!! The contest was over at midnight on May 31st. Check out the screen shot at NNJRE Report from June 1st. NNJRE Report was the clear winner. But "nice try" to all the HP'ers that tried to stuff the ballot after the deadline.