And then the 6%'ers sent flyers in the mail promoting that they sold a house. Any house. Even a crack den covered in graffiti.

Thanks to photogmatt for the flyer.

You'd think the 6%'er would cover up the graffiti before snapping the pic.

You'd think.

But that would involve actually doing some work that day.

Amazing.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

I was just wondering, do any of you plan on admitting that you have been "very publicly very foolish" anytime soon?

he he he..

The monkey-run NAR reports New Jersey home sales up. Then after getting laughed at, reports that they screwed up royally and sales actually fell 30%.

Cheers to James at the NJ Report for taking the NAR to task.

Monkeys I tell ya. Monkeys.

Never to be used again. Never to be trusted again.

NJ home sales plunged 30 percent in first quarter

When the National Association of Realtors issued its first-quarter report on the health of the housing market last month, New Jersey was singled out as one of only three states that saw the volume of home sales increase during the first three months of the year.

On Friday, the Realtors’ group issued a huge correction, saying that instead of a slight increase, New Jersey’s housing market actually saw a 30 percent drop in home sales during the first quarter compared with the same period last year.

HousingPANIC "We've Hit Bottom" REIC Quote of the Day

The Pesky Reality (LA home prices):

The Ignorant REIC Quote:

"I think we will see months of gains and then maybe retreat a little bit. I think we will be bouncing along a bottom for a while"

- Leslie Appleton-Young, the shockingly still-employed chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, June 2008

(So, how many months or years will the realtors keep calling bottom until they realize they have absolutely no credibility left?)

So the NAR is saying in public that all is fine, and prices have bottomed. But in REALTOR magazine, they're telling the 6%'ers to cut the prices fast

Saw this from a post over at the always-entertaining Active Rain blog:

From REALTOR Magazine. In the June 2008 issue, on page 42, there is the following statement.

Tip 3: Build in a preset price reduction. While all our practitioners agreed that arriving at the right price the first time is the goal, sometimes you have to be a little more flexible, especially if you are in a marketwhere prices are in decline.

So.. nice to see the NAR FINALLY adopting the correct strategy, at least internally. It's the price stupid. It'll always be the price stupid. The 6%'ers aren't eating anymore because the NAR chose to lie and spin and deceive, when they should have been shouting at the top of their lungs this message:

"Home prices got wildly inflated in the US in a wave of massive speculation and fraud. If you're a seller, cut your price, cut it dramatically, and get out now. If you're a buyer, 50% off peak prices in most markets should be your target, at the highest, and a P/E ratio that makes sense. And as always, REALTORS are here to help you (while taking our 6% off the top of course)"

Yup, that would have done the trick.

And then the realtors, after two years of not eating, finally turned on their lying and deceptive National Association of REALTORS masters

The hungry army of 1.2 million ramen eating realtors should march on the NAR offices in Chicago and demand an end to Lawrence Yun's happy talk and spin, the NAR's non-stop "we've hit bottom" and "prices aren't falling" spew of lies and deception.

Why?

Because this line of BS is actually hurting the 6%'ers, a HELL OF A LOT more than helping. Besides destroying their dwindling base of dues-payers' credibility (what very little of that there's left), the monkeys at the NAR are also confusing would-be sellers into not pricing their debt-traps at saleable prices, and transactions (that aren't REO's) dry up.

No transactions = no commissions = no NAR dues = more ramen

As we've said for years, the NAR should be out there saying "prices are plummeting and will fall even more. If you're a seller, lower your price, lower it big-time, and get out. If you're a buyer, get even more aggressive with your low-ball offers"

Instead, the NAR happy-talk is just freezing the market, as sellers point to the NAR spin as a reason to NOT lower prices, and buyers don't buy, because prices are still way to high.

Meanwhile, the realtors don't eat. And they're getting pissed.

Here's the latest, thanks to the NJ Real Estate Report, who's still kicking HP's ass in that REIC contest btw...

Real estate agents debate local statistics

The latest positive numbers for home sales and prices have divided real estate agents, ordinarily a group uniformly upbeat about the housing market.
Some doubt the numbers, even though they're from their own association, and say it's making it tougher to get home sellers to reduce their prices to more realistic levels.

In particular, Dawe said the figures from the National Association of Realtors, and other information gathered from state and local Realtor groups, seemed to disagree with what the Multiple Listing Service showed.

"As we talk to our sellers about the declining market we are actually facing and the fact that they have to be aggressive in pricing their homes if they expect to find a buyer, the statistics in your article are baffling and impact our credibility with customers," Dawe said.

To Eileen Raynes, an agent with Rosenthal Realty in Margate, the higher sales and price figures were a very welcome break from media coverage she described as "standing on a corner screaming 'Get your dead fish.'"

Bruce E. Breunig Jr., broker at Century 21 Alliance in Margate, admitted that "we Realtors remain part of the problem. We blame the media for fueling the downturn and try to counterbalance it with our own positive spin."

HousingPANIC Quote of the Day

"We paid $585,000. It was the peak of the market, but no one told us. We would probably have to spend the next 20 years trying to get right on the mortgage. That's crazy."

Joan Shaffer - Screwed Phoenix homedebtor, failed housing gambler, realtor and now jingle mail sender, April 2008

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

What percent of realtors do you think have read "Manias, Panics and Crashes"?

What percent do you think should have before they positioned themselves as "financial advisors"?

And who should we send copies to?

Update on the ramen-eater who won't cut her commission, regardless of what the market will pay

I wish more realtor sites would allow comments from consumers instead of just other realtors. They'd be SO much more entertaining.

Active Rain, god bless 'em, allowed HP'ers and others to comment on the post where the realtor stomped her feet and said no way Jose was she cutting her rate - because she had all these other crooks taking her money (waaaaa!!).

$20 an hour I say. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Take it or leave it.

Here's some of the best comments. Feel free to keep adding, but keep it clean OK...

_____

Dear Kim,

You provide no value whatsoever. Is there a "vehicletor" when I want to sell my car? No. Sorry cutie, find a new job.

_____

HAHAHA!, pathetic. Thanks for helping to destroy the economy realtor lady.
_____

Realtor is the new used car salesman
_____

Will you be selling houses.....No!
_____

One word for you.

Redfin

_____

Realtors are scum. What service do you provide? Your days are numbered.
_____

you will be getting a lesson in economics, as the free market will be cutting your commission for you, regardless of what you think. have fun revisiting this post and these thoughts in a year!
_____

You need not cut your commission.

It will be cut for you, by the market, or you will simply become part of the tsunamai of out-of-work used house salespeople.
_____

I cannot understand why Realtors charge 6% in the US.

I lived in the UK and I sold my house and the Realtors charged 1%

They also prepared beautiful marketing materials - full color brochures - not like the garbage here.

____

Supply. Demand. Price. Logic. realtors. Something's missing in this loop as a ramen eater states "Will I cut my commision? No!.... Next question"

Let me see if I can help her out, since she obviously has never taken an Econ 101 class..

OK, let's say you had a company who made widgets (oh, please, don't ask what a widget is). So the company makes a million widgets, at a cost of $1 each, and prices them at $100 each. But there's only buyers for 2 of them.


So the company lowers the price to $50. And finds 5,000 buyers.

So the company lowers the price to $10. And finds 10,000 buyers.

So the company lowers the price to $2. And clears through their inventory.

So did that help?

It doesn't matter how much you believe in your price, or think you can justify your price. It doesn't matter what your costs are. The ONLY thing that matters is what price the market will bear for your product or service. And the market will no longer pay 6%.

Try $20 an hour. Max.

And want a really good tip? Go find another job. "realtor" is no longer a viable profession in America.

Thanks Wot for the link...

Will I cut my commision? No!.... Next question.

It should be that easy, but it isn't! My value as a REALTOR to you the home seller is well worth my professional fee. You the home seller, need to know the answer to my most frequently asked question.

Greg Swann admits that the Phoenix housing market has crashed. I guess the Brown Shirts and Flying Monkeys at HP were right after all, eh?

HP'ers favorite discredited Phoenix realtor Greg Swann (he who shall not be linked) admitted the other day in the Arizona Republic that Phoenix housing prices have crashed 24% from the peak (thanks HP'ers for the lead).

So should we now expect locusts and wormwood? Along with the assorted flying pigs and hot times in hell of course.

He was great at unprofessional name calling and bluster, but if you wanted sound, rational, unbiased housing market analysis, you were MUCH better off going elsewhere. It's the 6% HP'ers - it makes people say and do stupid things.

Here was his hilarious admission this week:

"Values for an average suburban Phoenix home were down 14.66% year-over-year. That doesn’t sound too bad, but prices were down almost six percent just in December. We’re down 24% from the peak in December of 2005, on average"

Yet here he was in 2006, when he was pissing on HP'ers as sewer-living Brown Shirts and Flying Monkeys who would be proven wrong:

"To lurk among the BubbleBloggers and their seething commentariat is to acquire an education in a slice of America invisible from this side of the sewer gratings. Notwithstanding the idiotic economic analysis, which is really no worse than the static-market fallacies paraded as profundities in the pages of the Arizona Republic, these sites — and not just HousingPanic — are infested with a cult-like fever to inflict suffering — at second hand, to be sure — on people who are in fact guilty of nothing except failing to have drunk the BubbleBlogger KoolAde."

"The BubbleBloggers will someday bawl balefully in private, but they will never, ever admit that they have been very publicly very foolish. You will know and I will know and in the secret chambers of their hearts they will know they were wrong all along. But as long as you don’t hold your breath waiting for that contrite admission of error, you should be fine."

So, I guess the question is, when do we get Swanndive's contrite admission of error? And how do his financially devastated former victims (I mean clients - if he had any) get their money back?

I think this embarrassing about-face shows just how bad it's getting for the ramen eaters now. The NAR talking points are out the window, and in a desperate attempt to make 6%, they're trying the one and only thing they haven't tried before:

The truth.

More with the freak realtor who might be on coke - says with low offers "you're going to offend the seller and they're not going to like you". Yup.

You just have to laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh some more.

She says prices aren't coming down and that she's "not seeing any price adjustment at all". Yet just check the listings on her own website - "JUST REDUCED $200,000!", "REDUCED $250,000!", and I'm sure there's more where that came from. Bottom line - as always, realtors are liars. And not smart ones at that.

Memo to all potential home buyers, even those in the 90210 zip code - IT IS YOUR JOB TO OFFEND THE SELLER AND MAKE THEM AND THEIR STUPID REALTOR NOT LIKE YOU. THIS IS WAR - SO DROP BOMBS AND DON'T WORRY ABOUT COLLATERAL DAMAGE!!!

Realtors - doing more to kill their profession every day than we ever could. (and Connie - might want to switch to decaf before going on live TV... and by "coke" I mean Coca-Cola of course)

YouTube Video: Freak realtor who might be on coke vs. Peter Schiff Round 2 on Fox News (Warning - this one is deliciously painful)

Freak realtor who might be on coke: "I'm not going to bore you with all of these numbers. It's a terrific time to buy! A new home is going to cost so much more in a couple years!"

Schiff: "This is a terrible time to buy a house. It's a great time to sell one - IF you can find a buyer!"

Freak realtor who might be on coke (now yelling): "I completely disagree. You're misleading people - you spend too much time on Wall Street and not enough time on Main Street"

Schiff (barely able to contain his laughter): "Ma'am, I'm the only person who's not misled people on real estate over the years. I'm one of the few people who told people to ignore the cheerleading of realtors"

At this point, the show ends. And I'm sure the freak realtor who might be on coke made a beeline straight to the ladies room if ya know what I mean.

HILARIOUS! But sad in a way to witness the desperate behavior of ramen eating realtors as it all caves in around them. Sad.

Go Schiff! HP f*cking loves ya man! (and of course by "coke" I mean Coca-Cola! What were you thinking?)

Gotta love realtor cannibalism

Here's a realtor in Texas who has a page on his site making fun of other realtors, and their awful marketing photos.

I gotta believe that the crash is bringing out the worst in the ramen eaters, as they desperately attempt to screw their fellow six-percenters, in order to keep up their Lexus and ARM payments even though they're doing no transactions.

In a sick way it'll be fun to see realtors turn on other realtors in a blood sport fight to the death for six percent.

Let's get ready to rumble!!!!

(thanks HP'ers for the link)

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the day

Do you ever check out realtor blogs or realtytimes and wonder to yourself, are these people this clueless, or do they simply think that by ignoring the problem, it'll just go away?

Seriously, there's an alternative reality out there today - they call it the "re.net", and they give themselves lots of awards, but they never, EVER, discuss what's really going on out there. It's always a great time to buy or sell a home ya know!

Note to realtors - want to have a shot at making money again? Just tell the damn truth. America hates liars. Trust me, you'll stand out from your crowd. Here's a new marketing pitch for ya - give it a shot!

"Now is a HORRIBLE time to buy a home - it's called 'catching a falling knife'. But maybe I can help you find a sick deal out there, one that even has positive cash flow. And if you 'own' a home and want to preserve any of the equity you have left, get it on the market NOW, price it TO SELL FAST, and let's get you out from under that depreciating debt-trap ASAP!! This market is CRASHING, it's only going to get worse, so the time to move is NOW!"

Sage advice from a REALTOR(R) - Top 5 Reasons Why It's a Great Time to Buy Real Estate!!!!

Seems like a nice guy.

But what is it with REALTORS that they never talk about the fundamentals, the historical housing P/E ratios, the credit crunch, microeconomic and macroeconomic trends, the rampant fraud, historical manias and crashes, etc?

Their idea of financial advice is "it's a great time to buy because there's tons of inventory".

Was it a great time to buy buggy whips and 8-track tapes too?

FLASH: Housing crash over! Phoenix has year-round golf and pro athletes!

Since we recently published the Time magazine "goo goo for housing" cover, and the Century 21 "Suzanne" commercial, I thought I'd hit for the trifecta and remind HP'ers of the stupidest realtor we've ever seen, and his now-hilarious 21 reasons why the Phoenix housing market wouldn't crash.

The chart above is for all of Phoenix (Maricopa County) c/o zillow.com. F*ck that's ugly, and it's gonna get worse. I guess the good news is the golf might get cheaper...

Damn, I pity that clueless realtor's clients. If he has any. They likely lost everything by now, all because they listened to a realtor who had no idea what he was talking about, except for his commission.

Here's reasons #20 and #21 - you'll have to google to find the rest. And please feel free to add to the "21 Reasons the Phoenix Housing Crash Will Be Historic" list.

20. A significant number of active and retired professional athletes maintain homes here, in no small part because the Phoenix/Scottsdale area has… 21. Year-around golf.

This one's just funny. Arizona Cardinals QB loses $500,000 on his Phoenix home in one year

Remember that clueless Phoenix realtor's "21 reasons to bank on Phoenix real estate"? One of them being that professional athletes have homes in Phoenix (as if that had anything to do with anything)?

Well, of of those professional athletes just got slaughtered by listening to a realtor on commission, and just took a massive loss on an Ahwatukee home (that's South Phoenix btw). No biggie, he makes millions, so to lose $500k in a few months must suck, but he'll be OK.

But the rest of Phoenix? They won't be OK. Their town's fake economy was propped up by real estate and the REIC. They HELOC'd their homes to the hilt. They overconsumed when they should have saved. And they'll be the poster child of the Great Housing Ponzi Scheme. People around the world will laugh at the people of Phoenix.

(Oh, one more thing. Any realtor who mentions "Beverly Hills" and "Chandler" in the same sentence should be given a wedgie)

Amare Stoudemire has purchased Arizona Cardinals' quarterback Matt Leinart's Ahwatukee home for $1.9 million, about $500,000 less than what Leinart paid for it last year.

Leinart put the 6,800-square-foot Ahwatukee home on the market in June for $2.4 million, after he moved to a $2.3 million home in a gated community that real estate agents have nicknamed "the Beverly Hills of Chandler."

But the real estate market's slowdown has hit everyone, and the home sat on the market.

Home prices crashing? Heading to foreclosure? Lied to by your realtor for a commission? Who cares! Kids like swings!

We all know realtors are usually the dumbest people in the room (after all, that's how these life's losers became realtors in the first place). But the fact that the dumbest people in the room are run by people WHO ARE EVEN DUMBER, well, that's just kinda sad. Or funny.

Remember when these idiots spent all that money on the now infamous and mathematically impossible "it's a great time to buy AND sell a home" ad campaign? Well, if you're the NAR, when you find yourself in a hole, you keep digging.

Here's HP'er Seth Jayson at Motley Fool on the latest spin and deception from the NAR monkeys.

And here's the monkey-run NAR's self-inflicted-gunshot-wound ad. Note to NAR - past performance does not guarantee future returns. But of course, you know that.

Everything to do with The Great Phoenix Housing Collapse encapsulated in one horrific article. Ah, the end of a classic Ponzi Scheme. Classic.

Ya gotta love those ramen eating Phoenix real estate bloggers on commission who were either too naive or too addicted to their commissions and NAR cheerleading PR to understand the factors at play that made the Phoenix housing market a classic unsustainable financial mania. The jobs! The immigrants! The weather! The golf! And they ain't makin' more desert!

Well, one thing they are making more of in Phoenix these days is foreclosure signs. Lots of 'em. Lots and lots and lots of 'em.

And the Ponzi Scheme ends.

Phoenix: Boom, Bust in Area Beset by Foreclosures - Real Estate Bust and Foreclosure Boom Comes Home to a Neighborhood Built on Easy Credit

Out on Phoenix's suburban fringes, where cement mixers are fast colonizing what's left of the hay and cotton fields, the day is winding to a close. The home hour has arrived. But sundown gives away a troubling secret: Behind dark windows and many unanswered doors, it's clear nobody is coming home.

The ranch home on Via del Palo where the newspaper in the driveway has been sitting unclaimed since April. The house at the corner of 223rd Court with faded fliers stuck in the door. The two-story on Via del Rancho with the phone book on the step.

They're all empty, left behind by a rising tide of foreclosures.

This neighborhood has a still-unfolding story to tell, and it is not always a comfortable one to hear.

Not long ago, builders were raising home prices here thousands of dollars week after week. Families pitched tents in front of sales offices and waited for Saturday morning lotteries to win the right to buy. Buyers -- including more than a few speculators -- gambled with loans whose risks were obscured by euphoria.

This is the tale of how America's real estate boom came to a seemingly ordinary subdivision called the Villages at Queen Creek, where the whipsaw of easy credit has led to some extraordinary times.

They were the best of times, for a while. The empty homes, though, raise serious doubts about what comes next.

"You drive around this subdivision and there are 'For Sale' signs everywhere,"

"Sometimes the neighbors don't like you so much because you're one of the reasons the values are declining,"