Wed 13 Feb 2008
Bailouts of little help to borrowers
Categories: Housing Bubble , National Real Estate , Risky LendingFrom the Wall Street Journal:
Earlier Subprime Rescue Falters
December Plan Has Done Little to Help Borrowers In Dire Circumstances
By RUTH SIMON and TOM MCGINTY
February 13, 2008; Page A3
As the Bush administration announced a fresh plan to aid homeowners overburdened by their mortgages, initial figures suggest much-touted earlier efforts have done little to help most troubled borrowers.
An earlier plan, brokered in December by the Treasury Department, called for the mortgage industry to freeze interest rates or expedite refinancing for potentially hundreds of thousands of subprime borrowers, so long as they were current on their payments. In a companion move, the administration announced a toll-free number for homeowners, but the hotline has provided counseling to just 36,000 borrowers in the past two months, and representatives have suggested loan workouts for fewer than 10,000 of them — a small fraction of borrowers in need.
Other callers were looking for money, which the hotline doesn’t have available, or had only general questions, executives running the project say. It’s not clear how many borrowers were able to stay in their homes because of the hotline’s help.
The preliminary numbers throw into sharp relief the difficulty of finding a workable solution to the housing crisis, with hundreds of billions of dollars in potentially troubled loans flowing through the financial system and foreclosures hitting recent highs. Adjustable rates on some two million subprime mortgages are expected to rise in the next two years, raising the specter of further delinquencies and more financial turmoil.
Continuing concerns about the impact on the U.S. economy and society prompted six major mortgage companies and the Bush administration yesterday to renew their efforts. They announced “Project Lifeline,” a new program to help deeply troubled borrowers who are more than 90 days behind in their mortgage payments and face the imminent loss of their homes.
…
Some mortgage executives are skeptical whether the new program will make a difference. “What they are proposing is nothing new,” says William Ashmore, president of Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a real-estate investment trust that owns about $18 billion of mortgage loans. He added that his firm began offering to postpone foreclosures by as much as 90 days last year. Mr. Ashmore says his biggest problem is reaching borrowers who are behind on their payments.The Massachusetts Division of Banks has had a similar plan in place since April. Roughly 600 foreclosure actions have been paused since the program started, the division says.
“Let’s be clear and honest: One action alone will not solve every problem in the housing market,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said at the industry announcement in Washington. “Rather, a series of incremental steps provides the best chance.”
But even the initial steps dating from December appear to be having a limited impact on the growing mortgage crisis.
First…..
KL
From the Hartford Courant:
Mortgage Relief Plan Leaves Lots Of Pain
new, highly touted state program designed to aid first-time homeowners facing exploding mortgage costs has such strict standards that the vast majority of those seeking help don’t qualify — a stark reality for financially troubled Connecticut residents looking for a mortgage bailout.
More than 1,000 homeowners have flooded the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority with calls as they sought to qualify for the new loans, which were announced in November and funded by $50 million in state bond money.
The loans are intended to help people refinance adjustable-rate mortgages at fixed rates.
But so far, eight weeks into the program, only 25 loans have been approved. At one of the three mortgage lenders participating, more than 300 inquiries resulted in just three loan approvals.
From Thomson:
US home foreclosures rise 79.2% in 2007
The number of home foreclosures in the US rose 79.2% last year, the data service RealtyTrac reported today, with increases in 86 of the top 100 metropolitan areas.
‘Most of the metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates were either cities like Stockton, California and Las Vegas, Nevada which experienced meteoric growth and unsustainable price appreciation during the past few years, or cities like Detroit, Michigan, which are undergoing a more widespread economic downturn along with higher unemployment rates,’ said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio.
Four states, California, Florida, Michigan and Ohio dominated the high foreclosure rate list, with 15 of the top 20 cities.
From Bloomberg:
U.S. States’ Credit Rating Outlook Turns Negative, Moody’s Says
U.S. states’ credit ratings may be lowered this year as slumping housing and the weakened economy constrain tax revenue, Moody’s Investors Service said.
The rating company changed its credit outlook on states to negative from stable as sales, corporate and income taxes fall below forecasts. States will likely borrow more to fund programs, Moody’s said. A downgrade can boost taxpayer borrowing costs as investors demand a higher return for increased risk.
Half of U.S. states, including New York, New Jersey and California, are projecting budget deficits next fiscal year amid the worst housing slump in 16 years. States that had robust residential real estate markets, such as Florida, Arizona and Nevada, have been particularly hard hit, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research group, said in a Jan. 28 study.
“Pressures to spend in such areas as education, transportation and health care have not gone away, and, with this an election year, some budget decisions will be especially difficult,” Moody’s Public Finance Team Managing Director Robert Kurtter said in a report released late yesterday.
A slowing economy curbs tax collections, forcing local governments to spend savings, cut funding for programs and borrow or raise taxes.
From the APP:
Current weak economy complicates career prospects: MORE ANXIETY AT JOB FAIR
It’s not that Harold Besmanoff has never been out of work during his career. It’s just that this time, at 53, with two teenage children, the pressure to find another job is more intense.
“Somehow I feel this is more desperate because expenses have gone up,” said Besmanoff, of Freehold Township, who lost his job with a home builder several months ago. “Lifestyle. Kids. Family. House. More financial responsibility.”
…
It came as workers are expressing increasing concern about the slowing economy and their ability to find jobs that will pay them enough to keep up with the rising cost of living.
New Jersey’s job market has been growing slowly. The state added 29,400 jobs last year, compared with 33,900 in 2006, according to preliminary estimates by the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
And this year is off to a shaky start. The nation lost 17,000 jobs in January, and economists have debated whether the economy is in a recession. (New Jersey’s job figures for January aren’t yet available.)
That has left workers across the age groups in precarious positions.
…
Workers who have experience say the economy is tough going for them, too. Barry Hochberg, 50, of Marlboro said he was laid off in September from his technology job in Jersey City after 18 years with the company.
He thought he had a job as a consultant lined up with Merrill Lynch. But the brokerage firm became entangled in the subprime loan crisis. It had to write down the value of securities it couldn’t sell. And it lost nearly $10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Hochberg was forced to continue his job search. “It’s a little frustrating,” he said. “Leads are not quick to come by. I have resumes out everywhere, but don’t seem to be getting enough calls.”
…
Workers thought they needed other qualities, as well. Harold Besmanoff’s job with the home builder who let him go was finding subcontractors to fix maintenance problems. And to land a new job, he said he’ll need good networking skills and lots of perseverance.
From Reuters:
Japan banks’ subprime losses $5.6 bln - regulator
Subprime losses at Japanese banks more than doubled to 600 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in the last quarter of last year with total exposure to subprime-related investments hitting $14 billion, Japan’s financial regulator said on Wednesday.
The Financial Services Agency said the exposure, which also includes some deposit-taking co-operatives, grew 8 percent in the quarter to 1.5 trillion yen ($14 billion) at the end of December.
At the end of September the losses, which include revaluations of investments that might later recover, had been put at 276 billion yen by the regulator.
The December loss figure was split between 442 billion in realised losses and 158 billion in revaluations.
Japan’s three biggest banks have so far reported $4.7 billion in losses from soured bets on investment tied to the U.S. subprime mortgage market and analysts predict more pain ahead.
The tax law I was attemping to cite in my post #103 yeaterday was:
The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
According to Bankrate.com - computing gains on home sales
“What’s the best tax break available to Jane and John Q. Public? If they’re home owners, its selling their home.”
This change made it much easier to dispose of your residence. And you don’t have to buy another home with your proceeds.
There is no limit to the number of times you can use the home-sale exemption. (You can only use it every two years.)
Anyone, every two years can keep the proceeds from a home sale for any purpose ($250,000 single $500,000. couple.) You no longer have to roll-over the capital gain as in the old days. There is no longer a one-time exemption. You no longer have to be 55 or older. “The roll-over or once-in-a-lifetime options were replaced with the current per-sale exclusion amounts.”
I believe people began “working” this unique tax ruling. If you live in a place for 2 out of the last 5 years before the sale you can claim it as your “residence.”
You could own a rental - live in it a year, rent it out for two while you occupy a residence, move back into it for a year - then sell that “rental” as a “residence.”
During that same 5 year period, you could throw a vacation home into the mix. You just need to satisfy the three “tests.”
1. “ownership” test - You must have owned the home for at least 2 years of the last 5 year period ending on the date of sale.
2. “use” test - You must have used the home as your primary residence for at least 2 years of the 5 year period ending on the date of sale.
3. “Prior exclusion” test - You must not have taken this exclusion for a home sale during the same 2 year period on the date of sale.
Gains in excess of the maximum exclusion amounts -$250,000 single $500,000 couple-are taxable as capital gains.
Of course I am probably wrong…people probably didn’t go out and exploit this tax advantage and find every way to angle it so they could turn over properties and pocket or invest the funds in more housing.
But, IMHO - the mentality that a house was a long-term purchase - as a home vs, an investment vehicle was most certainly influenced by this liberal tax ruling.
When cutting rates doesn’t fix the problem, what do you do?
Cut rates more!
I guess it is true, when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
From Bloomberg:
Bernanke Stymied as Rate Cuts Fail to Lower Borrowing Costs
The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts last month have failed to lower borrowing costs for many companies and households, increasing the chance of further reductions from the central bank.
Companies are paying more to borrow now than before the Fed reduced its benchmark rate by 1.25 percentage point over nine days in January, based on data compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. Rates on so-called jumbo mortgages, those above $417,000, have increased in the past month, making it tougher to sell properties and risking further price declines.
“It’s the clogging up of the credit markets that worries me most,” Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein said in an interview in New York. “The Fed has done a lot of cutting, the question is whether it’s going to get the traction that it did in the past.”
Super comp killer in Ridgewood..
11 E. Glen Ave
Purchased: 8/29/2005
Purchase Price: $560,000
NJMLS# 2748837 - Short Sale
Listed: 12/18/2007
Original List Price: $549,000
Current Asking Price: $449,000
DOM: 57
That property has a prior sale in October of 2003, $430,000. OLP in September of 2003 was $449,000.
Ridgewood prices falling to 2003 levels?
Cindy
Can’t speak to the rest of the conditions, but I think getting rid of the 55 and over rule was a good one. My parents stayed married and didn’t sell the house until my dad turned 55 to avoid paying that tax. Those were a fun couple of years.
Gary,
This one is for you.
41 Goodviet, Glen Rock
Listed: 7/4/2006 - $689,000
Reduced: 7/31/2006 - $649,900
Reduced: 10/26/2006 - $599,900
Withdrawn: 10/26/2006
Relisted: 10/26/2006 - $599,900
Withdrawn: 3/29/2006
Relisted: 3/29/2006 - $559,900
Reduced: 5/9/2007 - $539,000
Reduced: 6/13/2007 - $529,900
Reduced: 8/10/2007 - $499,900
Expired: 11/1/2007
Relisted: 11/26/2007 - $488,800
Reduced: 2/12/2007 - $475,800
Was originally overpriced by more than $200,000.
Asking prices are meaningless.
[8],
Bergabe may be stymied but I’m not.
Lowering interest rates does not cure insolvency. The septic tank is overloaded, you can’t force more s*it in. This crisis is spreading rapidly as defaults increase across all sectors. It’s too late Ben, the domino efffect is in play; bad debts, accounting flaws, mortgages, fraud, ratings sham, cc, auto loans, student loans, cmbs, etc.. Each distressed sector is collapsing into another. As WB stated, derivatives are the nuclear bomb. Well, that game is out of the fed’s hands.
We are only in the first inning. I believe this game is headed for extra innings.
Regarding #8
When all you have is hammer , every problem looks like a nail.
The problem is Bernanke is’nt hitting the nail - he is hitting his thumb.
I think instead of Hope Now and Project Lifeline it’s time for Project Xanax
JB [9],
How can this be happening in Ridgewood? Are you sure that wasn’t Ridgefield Park?
Ridgewood comp killer is on E. Glen Ave. That is a busy street
rhymingrealtor Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 6:02 am
First…..
KL
Grim - Is it possible to delete posts like this one - It is becoming a plague of modern forums, Adolescent teens posting new trends just to say “First… ”
rhymingrealtor - WHY??????
Actually I am pretty happy at the latest initiative of six mortgage lenders about helping the borrowers. To me it is a masterstroke. It will give an impressions that Bush is doing something about it - although majority would still foreclose anyway. It will obviate the need for more expensive government bailouts - financed by taxpayers like me. Most importantly, it is financed by the mortgage lenders themselves, without tax-payer’s money. So I think it is a win-win.
Personally, I’d rather wait for a year or two before even considering buying a house.
“Ridgewood comp killer is on E. Glen Ave. That is a busy street”
tbw,
Not the point. In 2005, the herd would have been bidding up a tent, smack square on Rt 17.
(11) Ann
My thought process worked more like this..going backwards….
What contributed to the current environment that a house is an investment rather than a home? For a while there, each time a property changed hands, it escalated in “value.”..(each involved person needing to get their “cut.”)
More turn over - more “cuts” - more parties.
Did anything contribute to that change in “perception?”… To that increase in home turnover?
Working backwards..I ran into this 1997 change in the tax law and one (me anyway)
just has to wonder if it helped shape the current “home as investment” mentality.
(Tax breaks often do spur investment mentality.)
People in the industry may have an opinion. - maybe it made no difference at all. But I know of a few people who turned their vacation homes/rentals into “residences” in this manner.
Isn’t that turning over more homes, more often, adding to the asking price each time?
..or not…
Not the point. In 2005, the herd would have been bidding up a tent, smack square on Rt 17.
Exactly, E. Glen was just as busy in 2005, and 2003 for that matter.
rhymingrealtor - WHY??????
Al,
Why, because what else does one do at 6:02 am after a 1/2 of calling everyone and their brother regarding delayed school openings. I just was’nt thinking Al, that and I’m never first…
KL
Somebody wake me up when they figure out how to refinance negative equity.
Yesterday Mrs PGC and I bought our own little piece of REO in Bergan Co.
Can I submit an entry in “RElOwball”
Purchased 07/05/95 - 265000
Purchased 08/02/05 - $630,000
SOLD - 02/12/08 - $471,000
We had the bank kick in $10K for repairs giving a price to us as 26% under the 2005 high.
I think JB could do a better job with the numbers but i think with all the commisions paid the house came out as a 33% loss. I didn’t have a chance to look up the previous mortgages, but I think between the previous owner and the banks there was over $200K of blood left on the closing table.
rhymingrealtor Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 6:02 am
First….. KL
STAY ON TOPIC!
All bubble eventually move back towards normal growth rates and valuations. If you take historically how much houses increase and add back in normal bubble deflating you arrive at a 6% loss each year for housing for the next six years. Great article on Bubbles in this months Harpers magazine. But think about it in the spring of 2007 you bought a zero percent down IO loan so each year on a million dollar home you pay 60K in interest and the house falls 60K in value, that is a 10K a month punch in the stomach.
PGC (24)-
Obviously, a troll. Prices never go down in the prestigious BC.
Congrats!
“Somebody wake me up when they figure out how to refinance negative equity.”
Clot,
I assumed everybody was bringing 100-150K to their refinancing closing. No?
PGC,
Congratulations on your purchase!
26% under 2005 purchase price? $630k -> $471k? Fantastic!
PGC (24)-
You can figure the bank alone took a 50-70K hit, over and above the mortgage payoff.
et tu Chifi );
KL
grim Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 7:10 am
When cutting rates doesn’t fix the problem, what do you do? Cut rates more! I guess it is true, when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
grim: The writer of this article is a goofball. This price action is par for the course and Benny and the Feds are well aware and not surprised.
rhymingrealtor Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 8:40 am
et tu Chifi ); KL
Hoo-hah
Fantastically, BAD deal. Lets see home prices are predicted to fall 39% from 2005 prices and you paid 26% off. My brother bought a coop 26% off peak price in 1990 and two years later when it was 40% off peak price it did not look too smart. You better flip that sucker quick and cash out. There are two houses in my neighbor hood with 630K peak prices priced at 500K by the bank with zero takers. Bank is offering no closing costs and will give mortgage and pay for lawyer. Still no takers. They have better luck selling Yugos.
You also better start grieving your taxes ASAP, both peak foreclosures I looked at the town assessed at latest selling price and the taxes were sky high.
grim Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 8:36 am
PGC,
Congratulations on your purchase!
26% under 2005 purchase price? $630k -> $471k? Fantastic!
Traders now see a 100 percent chance of at least a half- point reduction at or before the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 18 meeting, up from 68 percent on Jan. 31, when the Fed cited tighter credit conditions as a reason for lowering rates. Futures show 20 percent odds of a three-quarter point move.
Bernanke may give an update of his outlook tomorrow when he testifies before the Senate Banking Committee at a hearing on the economy and financial markets. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox are also scheduled to appear.
The extra yield investors demand to buy investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds rose to 2.37 percentage point Feb. 12 from 2.24 percentage point on Jan. 21, Merrill data show. For high- risk, high-yield securities, premiums over Treasury securities have risen a quarter-point, Merrill data show.
From the AP:
MGIC Swings to $1.5B Loss in 4Q
Mortgage insurer MGIC Investment Corp. says it lost almost $1.5 billion for the last three months of 2007 on higher home delinquencies and payouts. It also says it is looking for ways to boost its capital.
The Milwaukee-based company said Wednesday it lost $18.17 per share in the fourth quarter compared with a profit of $121.5 million or $1.47 per share in the same period a year ago.
…
Chairman and chief executive Curt S. Culver says the company still doesn’t see making money this year.
John Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 8:34 am
JJ: Off-hand, I was surprised you b!tch-slapped Michelle Obama the other day. I saw her on Larry (The Hack) King and she said more compelling and memorable stuff in the first 3 minutes she opened her mouth than Laura Bush has in 7 years. She is Princeton/Harvard JD. She works at UChicago and her kids go to school around the corner from her at the Lab School. Just flat out an impressive and strong lady.
Booyah as it were….
PGC,
Congrats!! And they said BC was immune? Who are they?
20 Cindy
I definitely see your point and totally agree.
For selfish reasons, I just wish they had gotten rid of the 55 and over rule BEFORE my parents waited, for what felt like an eternity, to get divorced, just so they could get that tax break. : )
From Bloomberg:
Americans Selling Homes Find Prices Sink Below Mortgage Values
When Mary Kamanu paid $409,000 for a house in Folsom, California, she never imagined that three years later it would be worth about 20 percent less and she would have to pay the bank more than $80,000 just to sell the place.
“I’m completely upside-down on my mortgage, like a lot of people,” said Kamanu, who wants to move 12 miles away to live with her fiancé in a suburb of Sacramento. “I know I’m going to have to come up with a big chunk of change.”
By the end of this year as many as 15 million U.S. households may owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to an estimate from Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist of New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That may fuel an increase in foreclosures, erode prices, and increase mortgage bond losses, he said in a Feb. 1 report.
“If borrowers who are underwater go into foreclosure, the properties are likely to be sold at discount prices and will further depress the price of housing,” said Robert Engle, a Nobel laureate in economics who teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business in Manhattan. “It becomes a spiral.”
…
Home prices probably will decline 4.5 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year after falling 2.2 percent in 2007, according to Fannie Mae, the world’s largest mortgage buyer. New foreclosures averaged about 2,900 a day in the fourth quarter, double the pace of a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based real estate data company.
…
“If people owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, a substantial number of them will give their keys back,” said Kenneth Rosen, head of the University of California’s Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.
Refinancing won’t be an option for homeowners with negative equity who have mortgage rates that are spiking, he said. About a third of U.S. borrowers have adjustable-rate home loans, according to the Federal Housing Finance Board in Washington.
“They will lack refinancing ability, and will obviously be under financial strain as their rates adjust,” Rosen said. “We’re going to see credit card delinquencies rise and car loan delinquencies rise as a result.”
As many as 5 million U.S. homeowners may have mortgages that exceed the value of their homes by the end of this year, according to estimates from Rosen. He said he expects a 16 percent decline in home prices from 2006 to 2009, compared with Hatzius’ estimate of a 22 percent drop.
(38) Ann No kidding - that must have been the pits - sorry.
It used to be such a pain - you had to save every little receipt for property improvements…no more
Somebody wake me up when they figure out how to refinance negative equity.
Why bother? Deed in lieu.
ChiFi (36)-
Talk about a dilemma: I’m figuring two weeks ago that I’ll vote for McCain, since Satanette/Obama are just two sides of the same wealth-redistributor coin. McCain is a self-proclaimed economic ignoramus, which in my mind constitutes an improvement over the current CIC.
However, I now sense that the only way McCain will make peace with his own party is to take Huckabee as his running mate. That gives us a really old guy- who’s not entirely healthy- as prez…with a guy who thinks dinosaurs are a hoax one heartbeat away from the office. I guess my own little personal litmus test is that I can’t vote for someone who prefers fairy tales over decades of accrued scientific wisdom.
Now, Volcker has endorsed Obama. That’s somewhat comforting, even though Volcker’s genius was in monetary policy, not overall fiscal policy. Perhaps economics wasn’t the real motive behind Volcker’s endorsement, but instead, Volcker’s premonition that a sh*t tsunami is about to strike.
Better to have a young, charismatic, high-energy leader when things start going to black.
grim or RichNNJ,
did 240 paramus rd close yet?
sl
BTW - I finally got my NJMLS account back.
Good to go for NJMLS auto-emails!
sl,
Still UC
40
It was only a few years but it felt like an eternity. And we all knew they were waiting, it was totally out in the open. Then a few months before he turned 55, bam, for sale sign out on the lawn. Happy birthday!
grim [12],
Beautiful!
with higher levels of inventory, the houses on busy streets will be affected more severely first, right? As well as towns such as Hackensack which were labeled “up and coming”
Speaking of “up and coming” areas, I was watching HGTV during the summer, a young couple bought a house in an “up and coming” area in CA. They were surprised that after they had fixed up their house, gang grafitti appeared on their garage.
Thanks Everyone
#34 John
There are may ways off looking at it and they are all subjective. If prices do drop 39% then someone else has already paid to get us 2/3rds of the way to the bottom. While flip and cash is an option, its not our long term plan. I’m not looking to catch a falling knife and if we lose another 13% on the way to the bottom, we have factored that into the numbers. Our mid term goal is to get the house paid off in a few years so we only have to work for taxes and living expenses.
To quote the repo trader, don’t get gready and always leave enough for a haircut for the next guy. I understand what you say about taxes, but taxes can only be raised high enough to be unsustainable.
grim,
thanks, FLASH! (geeeez that was fast!)
sl
Smash and grab at the Short Hills Mall?
Millburn goin’ downhill fast. Gang related?
11 E. Glen at the end of Oak St, between the railroad tracks and Maple Avenue, is one of the least desirable neighborhoods in that town, at the bottom of the Hill or Upper Ridgewood, where you will find a level of snottiness unparalleled in Bergen County. If you owned that place you would sit out back in the warm weather and watch the commuter train roll by along with the benzes and bimmers backed up waiting for the train gates to lift as they head up the Hill. That would be my version of purgatory.
Oak street is light industrial and offices, and had a Dept of Motor Vehicles inspection station until McGreevy took it away. The house is on the edge of what is called a redevelopment zone which is now mostly owned by the village and is bordered by East Ridgewood Avenue, Oak Street, North Walnut Street and Franklin Avenue.They are breaking ground on a new 380 space parking garage and new retail stores in that area. Traffic will only increase.
I have been keeping a watchful eye on Ridgewood and most of the older properties in that area for sale today are in the same price mid 400 range down considerably from the 2005 highs. There are lots of homes built in the 1930s that really would have been knocked down but the township really never let people build the McMansions on the small lots.
Every time Hillary speaks..I feel like she’s YELLING AT ME.
I love 1920’s-30’s homes. Lots of character…and lots of cloth electrical wiring. Fun fun fun!
I hate Michelle Obama - she did not even what to marry Barrack, he chased her down as he thought she was an appropriate wife to further his political ambition. Plus she is very insulting towards stay at home moms and belittles them. That and she seems to belittle her husband and has no interest in being first lady.
She is a highly educated and successful businesswomen. I think that is great, but I don’t like her personally and I think she will be a lousy first lady.
# 20 ” In 2005, the herd would have been bidding up a tent, smack square on Rt 17.”
Ahh, but in 2005 it would have been a: “Charming, flex-walled portable cabin with low taxes and convenient to shopping all commuting routes.”
Grim (12),
The problem with Glen Rock, Ridgewood, etc…is that lots of the overpriced homes in the 450-600 K range are really starter homes. Granite kitchen counter tops just appreciated too fast. In 2006 when younger couples started buying in Midland Park and Hawthorne and (sometimes)paying private school tuition, the writing was on the wall.
Once again…I’ll make the plug for western Essex and eastern Morris county for anyone that wants a similar quality of life, lower prices and lower taxes than Bergen county.
BTW - mid 400’s is decent for that house…if the bones are good.
# 24 Clot,
It would not surprise me for someoe to package neg am loans as “all upside potential. Get in on the below ground floor.”
Guys:
Which is the best ETF to short the market?
Along the same lines of 51,
From a L/T perspective, anyone else here think a combination of the revitalization of urban cities (specifically NYC, NJ Gold Coast) will cause a decline in the suburb/rural portions of NJ? Unfortunately I don’t have any evidence of the fact, but it seems entirely plausible given the trends. I look at someone like myself who is delaying the suburbs as much as I can, because I love city life so much. Two kids (2yrs + 2month old) in a 2BR in the city. I SLEEP ON A PULLOUT SOFA in the living room!
I doubt anyone has anything to worry about, McCain will win the whole show.
Re #52…NY license plates….sounds like a PA gang…
My goodness….Millburn is turning into Paramus!
Two kids in two beedroom is the same as one kid in one bedroom ;)
From a L/T perspective, anyone else here think a combination of the revitalization of urban cities (specifically NYC, NJ Gold Coast) will cause a decline in the suburb/rural portions of NJ?
It is a plausable argument, especially once you factor in rapidly rising energy costs. Although you have got to wonder which is the chicken, and which is the egg.
#60,
SRS and SKF
grim Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 9:43 am
From a L/T perspective, anyone else here think a combination of the revitalization of urban cities (specifically NYC, NJ Gold Coast) will cause a decline in the suburb/rural portions of NJ?
Once gasoline will hit 6$ - sometimes in the next 2-3 years Main effect will be - people getting rid of their SUV’s as they will become too expensive to drive.
I do not see why urbanization will be the effect and not moving jobs to people - it just is as easy for company to move as it is for it’s employees.
18 AL
Lighten up.
It is a plausable argument, especially once you factor in rapidly rising energy costs.
That’s a good point. Rising energy costs will probably make commutable towns more stable. Towns on the fringes with large McMansions are probably going to be selling below replacement cost. I think we see more dense and smaller unit developments closer to the city. We’ve already seen it, but these types of units are probably most appealing until the trends change.
# 61 I doubt it. Once people have kids, they want them to be able to go out in the back yard and play. Although urban parks can be wonderful, being able to do work on the kitchen table while keeping one eye on the children out back has a great deal of appeal to the 25-45 set. Empty nesters and un-married or newly-married may decide they are better off on the “Gold Coast,” etc., rather than a condo or house out in the burbs, but for the ones with kids — and without the means to pay for the best private schools, nannys, etc. — the burbs will have a high degree of appeal. Now, “inner-ring,” middle-ring,” and “outer-ring” burbs may fare differently, of course.
Al,
We might see a decline of the SUV, but all that means is long-distance commuters downsize to more fuel efficient cars.
Trade the Hummer for a eco-subcompact or a hybrid, and you’ll realize an immediate savings in fuel and insurance.
Suburbs aren’t dead yet.
I do not see why urbanization will be the effect and not moving jobs to people - it just is as easy for company to move as it is for it’s employees.
Al - Prime reason for outsourcing jobs to India/China or even NC. They primarily move to urban centers in lower cost communities. Sure people will get rid of their SUV’s because at $6 a gallon it now costs them $200 to fill up a tank. However their 4 dr sedan now costs them $100 to fill up. They might as well live on the PATH train line or stay in NYC along the subway line for $76 monthly Metrocard instead of filling up once a week.
grim
can you pass my gmail address to sybarite. he gave me his business card at the GTG and i lost it. thanks
62#, like it or not, i think the best running mate for mccain is jeb bush: mcain can get more votes from independents while jeb bush can motivate the base.
Regarding the election.
Hillary terrifies me ( see’s just a neocon of a different flavor) and i have said this before, But McCain is just as scary to me.
McCain admits he has little grasp of economics and has stated many times that “there will be other wars” and that ” we will be in iraq for 100 years”. The scariest part of McCain is his foreign policy.
My 1st choice for pres would be ron paul, but he’s not going to make it. So my second choice would be Obama. While he may be similar to Hillary in politics, but at least he still casts a shadow
Projected population increase should fuel high density housing;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-11-population-study_N.htm?csp=34
# 72 “They might as well live on the PATH train line or stay in NYC along the subway line for $76 monthly Metrocard instead of filling up once a week.”
One can see a good argument for having a small place close to work and school for most of the week and a get-away place out in PA or the southern part of Upstate NY for fresh air and quiet. If it prevents one from spending an extra 15 or more hours per week stuck on 280, 78, the Parkway, etc. it may have a certain appeal vs. purchasing a big house, with big taxes, and a bigger commute, which requires frequent car purchases, and extra repair bills, yadda yadda.
I would be willing to vote for a Hillary Clinton/Jeb Bush Ticket, if we could just Coronate Them, and stop all this wastefull Pseudo Election Business.
74#, to follow up my recommendation, the best running mate for clinton/obama is someone with executive experience. bloomberg fits the profile.
70 - Shore Guy
Gold Coast living isn’t bad. Those developments have parks and green space. Still need your car, though. Now when I grew up in Queens along a bunch of row houses, it was a more dense development than a single house on a 1/4 acre tract, but parents could keep track of the gaggle of children running around the shared back yards.
Good schools are not made because of the district. It’s the people in the district. So I think the Gold Coast schools will be improving for those communities where parents value education. Eventually they will create a better school district.
I agree. The “outer-ring” burbs are going down. Lucky I held off on buying in a town like Mendham. I almost considered it a viable town to commute to NYC because it was cheaper than some of the closer communities. Now I’m focusing on moving inwards and will not look at a commute more than 45 mins. Who the heck wants to spend 1 1/2 hrs a day just commuting.
Though I do agree that my kid needs more space. NYC does not have enough parks. When my kid turns 5-8 years old he won’t be able to play in the park, because it’s dominated by big kids. Sad, but true. There is still hope he becomes the next Derek Jeter. I only have potential to be the next “Natural” with “Lightning” as my sidekick.
there is also a projected reverse migration from the southwest and south east back to the midwest and north east sometime in the next 10 - 15 yrs. This is projected as water resources continue to disappear and dry up in those 2 regions. A harvard study (dont have the link handy) suggests that phoenix and several other large cities in the southeast could disappear and become the small cities/towns they were 50 years ago, over the next 50 years
78
Seriously, let’s just go back to a monarchy and stop wasting everyone’s time. We just need a Bush son to marry a Clinton daughter and we’re set.
Clot, other gold bugs;
I starting looking into gold as a result of discussions here, but looking at the recent appreciation makes me fear that, like RE prices, gold is nearing the peak of a price bubble.
Can anyone explain how gold prices are not currently in a bubble? Is this runup in value not mirroring what happened in the early 80’s?
John, as much as I rarely agree with you, I’m with you on Michelle Obama. I think she is very insulting to at home mothers too. She was on Larry King the other night and she said a few irritating things to that effect.
I’m seeing lots of rehabilitation and even knock downs to build high(er) density housing in cities and towns right on the edge of cities in NJ. Newark, Bloomfield and Glenridge; New Brunswick and Highland park; Trenton and hamilton are a few examples. So density is increasing mainly in and immediately around cities. The condos being built in the “outer” suburbs are lower density than what was being built in the 80’s in places like West Orange and Ridgewood. If anything, because of the teardown -rebuilt syndrome that is thankfully subsiding…density (from my layman perspective) in ‘outer’ suburbs has been constant during the last run up in the housing market.
The demograhic may change in the suburbs…but there will continue to be a demand for that type of housing for a long long time.
If the Dems are all about wealth distribution, why is it that 90% of the time when we were living in prosperity (Clinton,Carter,Kennedy,LBJ), it was a Democratic government in place?
And, the most telling statistic has been the income disparity between the top 1% and the rest during the last regime. This disparity actually reduced under Clinton.
Also, doesn’t less disparity lead to a safer, more secure environment?
jj (384)from yesterday’s forum:
“montclair is a really great town and everything, but does everyone rent out a floor of their house so that they can cover their taxes?”
We do. And if 2K/month is what the market will pay, then one would be stupid not to charge it.
If we didn’t charge 2K/month then it would not make sense as a rental as the income would not cover the costs. Believe it or not, landlords are not in the business of subsidizing tenants.
From Bloomberg:
Half of Europe’s Leveraged Loans in Danger of Default, S&P Says
Half of the loans backing leveraged buyouts in Europe risk breaching investor safeguards or defaulting as company earnings and debt projections miss targets, Standard & Poor’s said in a report.
“There is a heightened potential for defaults,” S&P analysts led by Taron Wade in London wrote.
70 shore
I agree. People with kids like yards and decent public schools, especially the ones who can’t afford private schools in the cities. I don’t see the demise of the suburbs coming at all.
prosperity under Carter?
You have to thanks “contract with america” by newt gingrich for the budget balance under clinton and internet bubble for properity under clinton, which eventually busted in the first 2 years of bush years.
> prosperity (Clinton,Carter,Kennedy,LBJ)
Whats everybody’s view’s on riding motocycles - I am thinking of getting one instead of my car, but I am bit afraid of dying :)
60MPG looks very good right now - about double what my car gets.
sybarite
You are partially correct. the current run-up is in many ways similar to the 80’s and it is unlikely that gold will stay at very high prices for an extended period of time. But in the interium there is still room for growth. The inflation adjusted high fr gold in the 80’s was about $3000 US. we arent even over 1000 yet. There is also evidence that the FED has secretly been dumping old onto the market for years to try and keep prices from spiking. Like cutting interest rates, they can only do this for so long before the chickens come home to roost. If you add in the potential shift away from the US dollar as the petro currency and the continued weakness of the US dollar and economy as a whole and it looks like gold could still have some big increases in store. At the same time remember that “investing” in gold is still essentially gambling, so do so with as much info as you can and make sure you can live with the loses if you gamble goes bad.
Al,
How do you think that bike would have fared last night?
Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Cindy McCain…what about their spouses! Personally…I think Carol Paul is the cutest and most personable of the bunch.
Here it comes..
Report suggests higher gas tax and driving fees
Increasing the gas tax, hiking fees for driver’s licenses and car registrations, applying the sales tax to gas and boosting a tax on expensive vehicles would help New Jersey solve its fiscal woes, a new study has found.
The study by New Jersey Policy Perspective determined the moves could raise $2.8 billion annually.
That would help lower Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s proposed toll increases, which are designed to pay state debt and fund transportation work but have been criticized by legislators.
New Jersey has the nation’s third lowest gas tax, at 14.5 cents per gallon, and it hasn’t been increased since 1988, but Democratic senators have been weighing increasing the gas tax to help ease Corzine’s proposed toll increases.
NJPP, a liberal Trenton-based think tank that has successfully lobbied for, among other moves, income tax breaks for low-income earners and an income tax increase on wealthy earners, proposed:
– A 20-cent per gallon gas tax increase to generate $1 billion each year.
– Applying the sales tax to gasoline to raise $900 million a year, if gas costs $3 per gallon.
– Doubling registration fees on new, smaller cars and tripling fees on larger cars to increase revenue by $480 million a year.
– Doubling drivers’ license fees to $48 for a 4-year license to raise $340 million a year.
– Increasing a state fee charged to cars costing $45,000 and more to generate about $145 million a year. The fee would increase to 2 percent of the vehicle cost.
al i have had the same thought
kettle,
My wife won’t let me get a donorcycle.
Florida Taking Its Toll (Brothers) On Daughter’s Condo
Posted By:Diana Olick
Monday, 11 Feb 2008
You just can’t make this stuff up. Apparently even a big builder’s daughter can’t seem to keep faith in the Florida housing market. According to an SEC filing, Wendy Topkis, daughter of Toll Brothers co-founder and Vice-Chairman Bruce Toll, is walking away from a Florida condo, just like everyone else. A Toll Bros. condo!! The Palm Beach Post says it best: Et Tu Wendy?
According to the home builder’s proxy statement:
Prior to fiscal 2007, the Company entered into an agreement of sale to build and sell a condominium to Wendy Topkis, Bruce E. Toll’s daughter, and her husband for a purchase price of $2,468,075. In January 2008, the buyers informed the Company that they did not intend to make settlement on the condominium. The Company intends to pursue its rights under the agreement of sale.
Does that mean they’ll sue darling daughter? The company’s general counsel says they are pursuing normal procedures.
Daddy is quoted as saying she just changed her mind because she had another child and the place would be too small, but I’m guessing the 13 percent drop in Florida prices was screaming at her a little louder than the baby. So Wendy just adds to the company’s 61 percent cancellation rate in the Sunshine State.
Now, if Wendy was required to put down the same 7 percent deposit on the new home as everybody else, then she could be out $172,765. Of course, daddy owns almost five percent of the company (market cap around $3.5 billion) so maybe he could help out, or perhaps he wants her to learn about fiscal responsibility the hard way. None of my business of course; just family business…or lack thereof.
And check out the video on my discussion about home ownership, with Richard Gaylord, National Association of Realtors president.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23110984
Al: I gave up my motorcycle. NJ drivers with their heads in the clouds + SUV = not good for a rider.
grim Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Smash and grab at the Short Hills Mall?
Millburn goin’ downhill fast. Gang related?
________________________________________________
LOL!
“Can anyone explain how gold prices are not currently in a bubble?”
[83],
It does not come close to mirror Nelson Bunker and William Herbert. That said,the short term technicals are weakening.
All disclaimers.
Name the 3 top gold stocks.
wow - 20 cents per gallon tax increase + another 21 cents from sales tax - it is 0.41 raise instantly…..
IN additon to all other costs…. Moving out of NJ becoming more attractive every day.
But may be, just may be it will lead to less cars on roads???
John (34)-
Didya ever stop for a minute and think about why you’re a bean-counter?
Al, don’t do it. Not if you have a kid.
I lived through six older brothers and a slew of accidents, plus a best friend from college who had a great career and a husband but now sits home alone in her house with a bum leg that still doesn’t work after many surgeries. A lady fainted in her car after donating blood and dragged my friend and her motorcyle down Route 78.
Couldn’t have been a local.
Any good Bloomies regular knows that the furs are cabled.
I’ve got to ask, why furs? There can’t be a good fence for furs. Hmm, I take that back. Maybe they were just ’shopping’ for Valentines Day.
“At the same time remember that “investing” in gold is still essentially gambling,”
kettle,
Others think that you are gambling holding paper?
Cindy (54)-
She is.
In Fairness to Bush, his war (IRAQ), is more expensive then Wilson’s (WWI), FDR’s (WWII), Truman’s (Korea), Kennedy’s/LBJ’s (Vietnam). Their War’s were prior to Nixon eliminating the Draft. They had the Financial Benefit of Cheap American Labor & Full American Employement. My own personal opinion, I only supported WWI & WWII. Can’t even imagine the cost of defending Korea for 60 years, or the purpose. But then again I’m not a Globalist.
I do have a kid, and that’s one of the major reasons I do not have a motorcycle - kind of hard to install a car seat in it :)
Again, it is good to get input from people - I took one of the safe driving classes - and instructor in that class said that for NYC traffic motorcycles are great. For NJ - suicidal.
I need a motorcycle with Safety cage around - anybody knows if any company in USA selling motorized highway-allowed tricycles?
while i would like to have a motor cycle. Most of the people i know who have one have had a wreck of some sort that ends up with them having a serious injury. A friend of mine said that in the motorcycle world the only question is when do you get injured, not if. The main issue is apparently that with a place as crowded as NJ there just isnt enough rooms for motorcycles relative to cars as cars rarely give motorcycle enough respect on the road (i.e stopping distance, even being aware of their presence etc.)
By the way grim, i like “donorcycle”
Isn’t that basically a Smart car?
95,
all of those ideas seem reasonable. Non public transportation is one of the areas that we have the most discretion over our spending. Maybe the gas guzzling and “prestige” vechile purchases will cease and smaller more efficient cars will become more popular or public transportation will increase.
Better to have a young, charismatic, high-energy leader when things start going to black.
Clot,
Did’nt you forget to say “No Pun intended”
KL
BC Bob,
Both are forms of gambling, its just some games are riskier then others. choose the game to match your taste for risk
Al Says:
Whats everybody’s view’s on riding motocycles - I am thinking of getting one instead of my car, but I am bit afraid of dying :)
Getting a bike should be looked at as a lesiure activity done out in the country on a Sunday morning, not transportation. Especially here in the crowded New York area. There’s to many idiots in SUV’s sending out text messages that won’t see you. When you ride a motorcycle, you assume higher levels of risk of death or serious injury than you normally would in a car. Not that that’s saying it’s guaranteed, but the chances of it happening are much higher. Riding in snow/ice is a really bad idea. Go out and ride you bicycle for 10 miles today and see how that feels. Also, you have to factor in a 10 degree drop in temperature when riding. If it’s 80 degrees out, it will feel like 70. If it’s 20, it will feel like 10.
Absolutely take the Motorcycle Foundation Safety course before getting on one.
I found that a really good thing to do is just rent bikes. Many Harley dealers will rent you one for a day for just over $100. Let them pay for the maintenance and carrying costs.
I traded in mine to buy a wedding ring and now the wife doesn’t want me to get another.
Life is full of sacrifices
kettle [114],
I disagree 1000%. There are simple avenues to hedge your risk.
kettle (92)-
I might also add that the traditional use of gold in a personal portfolio is for insurance. Any move to overweight into a position much over 15% of your total portfolio value is veering into the realm of speculation (gambling). I’m no investment advisor, but for a novice to dive into gold/gold miners whole hog is a tough play. The volatility is gut-wrenching, and the temptation will be overwhelming to sell the dips. Right now, those dips are when you need to be pounding the “buy” button.
All possible disclaimers. I am long gold, way overweight, and Texas hedged with silver. There is every reasonable chance that my family and I may end up living under a bridge on 78.
(61) We’re in a similar boat. 3 yr old and next one due in 2 months. We have a (huge) 2 bdrm apt in Queens, and figure we can stay here comfortably for another 2 to 5 years (depending on how quickly house prices drop in areas near the train with grass and good schools).
(87) Heh, I thought the same thing. (Montclair is on our short list, but only if we can afford the taxes + mortgage) OTOH, here in Queens we rented out our spare bedroom (and a shelf in the kitchen) for $500/month for 6 months, so the thought isn’t terrifying to me. Do folks declare the rental income on their taxes? Or is it a shadow economy?
116 Bob
true, but what % of people are aware of how to best use various hedges in any given investment environment. A good financial planner can help with this but unexpected events can still occur that will hang you out to dry. Alas i am not an expert in the field and am sure that you know more then me about the subject. so lets leave it at the point we are at and both have somewhat different opinions.
# 117 “There is every reasonable chance that my family and I may end up living under a bridge on 78.”
And with the easy commute you will be the envy of folks who have to fight and scrape to get to the highway in odere to make their commute.
I guess smart is what I am lloking for, but at 10K+ before taxes for no AC/no anything model, it is not very appealing. May be once gas cost more. Also what are reairs on thouse - I assume with very small numbers outhere is will be quite costly.
Motorcycles - I had one when I was 25. It got stolen after owning it for about 6 months. Maybe the best thing that ever happened to me. I dropped the bike twice. Once because of a gravel road. Once turning slowly because I was a dumba$$. I took the bike over 120mph and I still remembering being in a state of exhiliration and fear all at once. Also took one of those sharp circular turns going farely fast and was close to running my knee on the ground like in the races. Felt the road gravel kicking and lucky was able to ride it through the turn.
Donorcycle is correct. My friend’s brother died last month in a motorcycle accident. He was 32. Car turned in front of him and he ran into the car. The impact crushed his chest.
It may be a thrill to get a bike and you may be the safest rider, but there are a lot of dumba$$es on the road. I have more stories from only being on the road for 6 months, but no time to share them all. Also have stories from others I know who have bikes w/ dislocated/broken bones, etc.
Not worth it in my opinion.
kettle [119],
I’ll discuss in detail, in person, sometime. This isn’t the place. I try to refrain from discussing it. Unfortunately, I get pulled in. After all, how many ways can you slice and dice a bust?
You do have a point about risk management. Socgen employs 2,600 in their risk dept and still can’t sniff out a rogue.
order, even.
Is Clemens getting hammered?
anybody here attended open house last weekend? i was driving by one in plainsboro for curiosity and found out i had to wait 10 minutes to get in.
Need some advice:
I made a lowball (in the toilet low) offer on a property about 1 year ago. It was rebuked/ignored. The property was originally listed at 579K and stayed at 579K for 6 months. I made my offer 18 days before the listing expired. I was the only offer. It was relisted with the same agent at 499K and stayed there for 6 more months. No more offers were made.
It has been relisted at 399K under a new agent.
My question is this: I’d like to call the listing agent and let them know I had made an offer of (low) and it could still go if the seller wants. Is this appropriate and if it is, what should Is ay so as not to piss off the new agent or sellers.
Background:
The sellers (5!) are all family members who farmed the property for at least 70 years. One seller is 93 yrs old, the youngest is in his early 60’s. The property is in the Highlands which means it has been greatly restricted for disturbing trees, creating impervious coverage (like building a barn), placing any building near natural water, etc. The property is not subdividable, so the knockdown house has to be redone completely.
The sellers are not “buying in” that the property is restricted and feel that’s a ploy to pay less.
To give you an idea of how bad the house is, the house itself has heat only on the first floor, the 1 bath is on the 2nd floor. The family rented it out for the last 40 years and although I cannot imagine how someone lived there (and with kids!), the sellers feel the house is “just fine”…
So, as Clot described yesterday, we cannot MAKE them see what they don’t want to see, and I don’t want to piss them off.
I just want to lay the offer out there in plain site.
We offered our price based upon assessed value and offered no mortgage contingency, and no inspections. (We know septic and well are probably toast (and priced accordingly), the rest of the property we can see for ourselves-no chemical dump sites, no waste pits, no oil drain yards, etc…)
We want the property becuase it’s close to our own house and I can add sorely needed horse facilities (a permeable riding ring) that I don’t have room for at my own place, but would be able to “hack” (ride through the woods) to this “new” property to school my horses, store surplus hay in it’s ramshackle barn, etc…
The house could sit as is. I have no plans other than leaving it grandfathered so a house COULD be built in the future….
Thoughts? Ideas? Crazy?
you know i’ve read a lot of everyone’s post here over the last year or so and to say that you ALL get kind of annoying. you’re all wishing for the downfall of the real estate market just so YOU can get into “Mcmansions” at “low prices”, yes NJ is the most expensive state in the union but geez if ya’ll hate it here so much..leave!!! if all of you spent as much time to generating income as you do posting, bitching and moaning on this website i gurantee you’d be in your homes that you can afford with some elbow grease. and by the way someone posted comments about the 20 somethings and their mentality…im 27 not all of us have the deserving mentality…i think the majority of the people here are just annoyed that the 20 somethings actually are out there buying there homes driving the cars they do talk/text till their finger fall off on their cells while hanging out star bucks…that folks is called envy. break out of your conformist shells and stop feeding into the paranoia that not only this website promotes but also the mainstream media
To Bi’s post #126:
When I will buy my house - I will host open house every weekend, and will charge 2$ admission fee….
bi [126],
Yeah, I attended. I had to wait 20 minutes to get in. The EMT held us up at the door. The seller had a heart attack after reviewing the highest bid.
# 126 Were there that many people there that they were metering people, or were you early?
It is a new test to weed out lookers - if you really want the house you will wait 10 minutes ;)
anybody here attended open house last weekend? i was driving by one in plainsboro for curiosity and found out i had to wait 10 minutes to get in.
My wife and I went to quite a few last Sunday (double digits).
Only one agent asked us to wait, but only because the house wasn’t vacant and she had security concerns. Once I identified myself as an agent, she let us walk through.
I don’t ever recall being more than the 4th or 5th name on the list.
Plainsboro is bubblewrapped I guess, everyone wants to live there..
Where is Plainsboro anyway, is that in NJ? :)
PGC (25) - Your REO is about 4.6% annualized appreciation since 1995.
From a L/T perspective that’s not bad.
“i gurantee you’d be in your homes that you can afford with some elbow grease.”
What does affordability have to do with it? The hunt is for value.
What bi fails to mention is the open house was Drumthwacket, the line was made up of sovereign-wealth fund managers and leasing specialists.
anarchy1
you might want to pay a little closer attention to some of the posts then. We are not all looking to get into mcmansions. i think the majority of the people here are just annoyed that the 20 somethings actually are out there buying there homes driving the cars they do talk/text till their finger fall off on their cells while hanging out star bucks…that folks is called envy no, its not envy, its frustration of seeing all the people around you ignore the basic tenets of financial responsibility and praying at the alter of “buy now pay later”. people are frustrated over seeing living costs home values etc driven upward by people spending and living in an unsustainable manner. You can only spend more then you make for so long before the creditors come knocking on the door. Everyone here recognizes that NJ will always be more expensive the nebraska, however when the median home price is 5+ times median family income you are looking at serious economic issues.
And on a side note, i would recommend that you talk to reinvestor101, it seems you two might get a long pretty well.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Couldn’t have been a local.
Any good Bloomies regular knows that the furs are cabled.
________________________________________________
I don’t know grim. It could have been a local gang–the Short Hills Crips? The Milburn MS-13? It seems that gangs are everywhere nowdays . . .
I say we buy motorcycles, but no helmets, for all the underwater subprime crowed and let darwin take care of the work.
Mentoring is a funny business, the girl I mentored at my old company, has a husband who makes 300K a year so she does not have to work but she is very career driven. Well in 2007 she had twins that was high risk pregancy and took off all the time during the whole pregancy and then finally makes it back to work where they changed her whole schedule around to accomidate her, now with ten month old twins she announces she is three months pregant and her boss tells her look you are going to have to work late, travel and do the work of everyone one else when you get back from number three. He will accomindate her once again, He then tells her she should either find a 9 to 5 job or stay at home if she can’t handle doing a regular workload with three infants at home when she gets back. Well she hit the roof and was not happy when I said what did you expect him to say. I wonder how far mentoring and support can go when you actually have to at some point get work out of people. I did tell her he should not have said it and it was a rare piece of honesty but come on now, what the heck.
So anarchy1… Is the only thing you listen to the voices in your head?
133#, plainsboro is at the south end of middlesex county.
i was a little surprised too. the house is in the grovers mill development in plainsboro, which is surrounded by farm land. it was near nowhere from north jersey point of view.
I guess it has about 5000 sq feet. The house is priced at 1.1M, which I think is pretty in line with the market value at that location.
anarchy1,
So how much underwater are you on the mortgage? Oh, and BTW, some of us are already homeowners… with equity. And the reason some of us have equity is because we didn’t fall for the bullsh*t sales pitch by the pimps and carpetbaggers looking to fund their habits at our expense.
Here is your answer as to why gold is a poor investment vehicle.
http://tinyurl.com/3794t7
Do you think things are different this time?
LT that is terrible, you could have bought a S&P 500 fund and made double that with no headaches. Heck in early 2005 you could have got a 6-8% muni and got a lot more than that tax free. Remember 2002-2005 RE had several whoppper years of insane returns, back out those four years from the last 100 years of RE and you see the average gains ain’t that great. Home prices should be at 2001 prices plus what ever inflation was for the last seven years. Anything over is bubble that is deflating like the residual value of a Ford Expediton.
Hard Place Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 11:18 am
PGC (25) - Your REO is about 4.6% annualized appreciation since 1995.
From a L/T perspective that’s not bad.
Bi 141
5000 sqft???? to each his own, but what does someone need 5000sqft for? In my own opinion, if you do not actively and regularly use a space in your house then its probably a waste of said space. For most families, what does 5000 sqft give you that 2000 sqft doesnt from a functional point of view? Yes some may want their media room and their smoking room and their yoga room ad nauseum, but these are ultimately nothing but window dressing that provide little to no utility relative to the income that they consume in construction and maintenance
Gary, I doubt hardly anyone on this site is a homeowner, until you pay off the loan and have you name on the title with no lien, you ain’t a homeowner.
gary Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 11:25 am
anarchy1,
So how much underwater are you on the mortgage? Oh, and BTW, some of us are already homeowners… with equity. And the reason some of us have equity is because we didn’t fall for the bullsh*t sales pitch by the pimps and carpetbaggers looking to fund their habits at our expense.
I don’t think suburbs are going away. The percentage of people who actually aspire to live out their lives in apartments is very small. They just get outsized representation in the media. Almost everybody in America aspires to live in a SFH.
As for the energy argument, that is not so straightforward. NYC and similar places will be like hellholes should we stop burning fossil fuels with abandon. It would be like Dickensian London, only hotter and dirtier.
kettle1 not everyone listents to the philosophy of buy now pay later…i for one dont im extremely careful in my financial situation..hard place the voices in my head are basically the only sane ones i hear and gary im not underwater on my mortgage…its actually free and clear..thats what happens when your careful
anarchy1
congrats on the sound financial base. most of the bitching here is because people do not follow your example
Anarchy,
Just a thought. Maybe you should redirect a little of that elbow grease and take a course?
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/
Anarchy: I want you to lift up your right hand and swear that you did not inherit the house.
If you inherited, you should change your last sentence to state:
“…free and clear. That’s what happens when you’re damn lucky. The rest of you can just keep working like dogs cause you have not been as lucky as I.”
I sense that you must have inherited or married wealth, since you use the word, “careful.” Had you worked hard and saved your money for a home, then you would have stated, “when you work hard.”
BC Bob too busy to be all grammatically correct and find “flaws” in a post on some forum…maybe YOU should take a course..give you something to do instead of looking at how people write lol
Clotpoll Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 8:59 am
ChiFi (36)- I guess my own little personal litmus test is that I can’t vote for someone who prefers fairy tales over decades of accrued scientific wisdom.
clot: I think I might have posting something to this effect last weekend. If the President of the U.S. is in the Middle East some time in the next 4 years (pick your poison….Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebannon, Saudi Arabia)…who is more likely to be received with open arms…..a white woman, and crusty old white man, or someone else? Further, part of the reason that this adminstration has devastated us financially, is that it isolated us from other countries. I won’t comment on diplomacy. What I care about is OTHER COUNTRY’S MONEY. The best way for us to save face and get other (especially Muslim-dominated) countries to step-up is not a crusty old white guy.
It is just logic.
That said, Obama is way green.
anarchy,
Just an observation.
Come on - nobody should believe any single word said on the forum. Nobody can/will prove that he owns/do not own a house, and it does not matter.
In my opinion, the only people who are cheering real estate up are people who need to sell and realtors.
Even independant contractos are feeling the pain - there are a lot less work available so they have to lower their fee’s.
As far as Owning - well, with NJ taxes do you really own anything - just wait for Federal Goverment RE tax introduction - there are quite a few countries where your posessions are taxed.
Pat i have worked extremely hard and im not married nor inherited anything…i just have a very high paying career which has let me do what i needed to do to be where i am now. dont get me wrong not saying no one here has worked hard…not at all
I know, Bob…observations are interesting. I saved my house pot. I don’t think I’ve ever described myself as “careful.”
“Cheap,” yes, maybe.
Not “careful.” Careful is what you are when you only marry somebody you select from Mates. com for their wealth and/or employment potential.
anarchy1,
27 years old and free and clear. Either you make a sick amount of money or you grind up sassafrass leaves for toothpaste because you want to save money, which is it?
And you’re complaining that people b*tch and moan about house prices? What do you expect? Why do you care? You want a guy who drives a truck 80 hours a week to just sign his life away and comply because you’re “annoyed”? Gimme a f*cking break.
anarchy,
if you’re such a non-conformist, why are you living in NJ and getting in this rat race at all. Just move out to Wyoming and live in a cave. I think you’re handle is not representative of what you are.
“grind up sassafrass leaves for toothpaste”
Gary,
That’s better than 18-1.
gary,
that sassafras comment is too funny. Haven’t talked about sassafras since my 5th grade field trip.
BC Bob,
..and Romo still s*cks.
#127 Spam…in reference to your lowball, my husband and I put in a lower offer on a home based on where we saw things going, state of the house, size etc. We were ridiculed, even accused of trying to take advantage of the older folks. Now, they have lowered the home by over 120,000 and it is still on the market, one more corrected and they are almost at our offer. Crazy huh? not to go back to the solid offer must be the egg on your face thing
Hard Place,
lol! Yup.
Schools could save millions each year - Report says 5 districts should share services
Five school districts could save up to $2.3 million a year if they combine services such as transportation, special education and groundskeeping, according to a report from the Rutgers University School of Business.
Re: Motorcycles (better late than never)
I use my motorcycle all summer long including my commute from Wayne to Madison. Try to stay on the back roads as much as possible. No coffee required to wake up. Gas savings compared to taking my Jeep are great.
Love it. Like a moth to a flame…
House Hunter [163],
If the realtor comes back to you, tell them that your price has now changed and it’s lower than your last offer. Let the realtor know that they should tell the sellers to sell now or be priced in forever.
sell now or be priced in forever.
this should be the new NAR tagline
Fed Interest-Rate Cuts Fail to Lower Borrowing Costs (Update1)
By Scott Lanman
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts last month have failed to lower borrowing costs for many companies and households, increasing the chance of further reductions from the central bank.
Savers better start emptying their accounts into the Stock Market. Ben’s not Happy Yet.
credit market seems to be getting drastically worse very quickly. it is amazing to see the entire debt pyramid of our economy unravel.
just read an article about the 100 student loan auctions that failed yesterday. Now Michigan, Mississippi and Montana can’t make loans to college students.
Financial aid officers are wondering how people will be able to pay for school. It definitely sucks for the students. I wonder if it is dawning on college administrators that the only way the vast majority of people can go to college is through irresponsible levels of debt.
this is a very rude awakening
Looks as if someone had “personal relationship with” a syringe…..
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3243667
RE motorcycles:
They are dangerous toys. Save yourself and the environment and get yourself a Honda Fit. It gets 34 MPH highway can fit five, allows you to drive in the rain and is more reliable than my morning dump. Did I mention that you can get one for 14K?
Twelve years ago, 14K is what I paid for my Civic hatchback (which has never needed repair outside of standard maintenance). This is essentially the same car with 10 more HP but 10 less MPG.
Several people on this site keep saying you people who are waiting to trade up or buy may never buy, so what is wrong with that. If I have my downpayment money sitting in a mix of investment grade bonds, CDs and Munis paying around 5.5% what is my rush to buy until we hit bottom. How will I know when it hits bottom, I won’t but I would rather buy at 5-10% up from the bottom on the way back up then market time it and if it takes 1,2,3 or 4+ years why do I care.
One thing I did see start to see drop real quick lately is coops in the Hamptons and timeshares. They are traditionally the broke man’s way to own in the hamptons and are the leveraged of the leveraged investments, letting a 300K one bedroom coop with 700 a month maint sit empty all winter is a kick in the pants to a man with caviar dreams on a meisterbrau budget.
“a man with caviar dreams on a meisterbrau budget.”
Awesome!
I drive a Vespa to the beach all summer only using back roads. I park it in the bike rack right on the boardwalk. It has just enough storage for a towel, water bottle and sunscreen. It gets about 80 miles to the gallon.There’s nothing like it!
anarchy1 Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
and by the way someone posted comments about the 20 somethings and their mentality…im 27 not all of us have the deserving mentality…i think the majority of the people here are just annoyed that the 20 somethings actually are out there buying there homes driving the cars they do talk/text till their finger fall off on their cells while hanging out star bucks…that folks is called envy. break out of your conformist shells and stop feeding into the paranoia that not only this website promotes but also the mainstream media
a: We’ve been pretty consistent for about 2 1/2 years.
Conformist? The MSM has moved to our way of thinking….
Envy? Come on…..you are the youngest GenX/oldest GenY…if you characterize yourself correctly, then you fully understand EXACTLY what we allege.
I will mention one item, and that is you were still likely working toward a bachelor’s during the last down cycle, and you are probably the oldest in the workforce of those that have only seen good times.
Watch some of your friends and family get financially slapped around a little, and I think what you characterize as “envy” is more appropriately seen as “foreboding”.
Hard Place #80,
You would be surprised at the # of husbands who love their 1 hr long commute. In the mornings, it is an extra hour nap. In the evenings, it is time to unwind, drink a beer, read the paper. “Within an hour” commuting towns are great but only if they offer a NYC express bus AND train. Can’t tell you how many nights have been saved by having both options available.
#177
I like my 40 minute train ride each morning/night. I read about a book a week on the train. I could stretch it out to an hr each way, no problem.
Anarchy1 (128) Cheers for speaking up. Could not agree more.
“I drive a Vespa to the beach all summer only using back roads.”
njcoast,
Ever drive it to Kelly’s?
#180 BC Bob
Never driven the Vespa to Kelly’s but I have certainly been there. You can’t beat their Rueben!
I guess the freaks don’t just come out at night.
145 kettle
5000 sf is way too big, I agree. I think 2,000 is nice if you have a bunch of kids like we do.
bi, I can’t believe those homes worth 1.1. I would be surprised if anything is Plainsboro was going for 1.1 anymore.
Bring back bar cars and my commute could be two hours. My Wall street journal, blackbery and x-large cup of coffee makes my 45 minutes to work each morning a little slice of heaven, coming home Friday Night with a tall boy and a NY Post under my arm are the things a man dreams about. Well until my wife hands me a screaming kid or two or three as soon as I get home, I wish I was Larry Tate sometimes in Bewitched, he always was greeted by his dressed up wife in full make up with a nice cool cocktail, or two or three and then headed out in his cool covertible for dinner with friends and yet more drinks.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/30/news/economy/Colvin_recession.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008020609
The big foreign-money purchases of stakes in Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley are merely a hint of what’s ahead in 2008. Foreign buyers, such as sovereign wealth funds from countries like Kuwait and Singapore, will continue to make headlines by grabbing major U.S. assets this year, and the trend is much broader than investments in Wall Street firms that need a capital infusion. What’s important to understand is why this is happening - the reasons go beyond what most people realize - and why it may be even more worrisome than it seems.
But here’s why the trend is troublesome, and more so now than ever. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the rest of the world currently owns way more of America (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.) than America owns of the rest of the world, by a margin of $2.6 trillion (as of year-end 2006; a 2007 figure is due in July and will be larger). Net foreign ownership is increasing very rapidly; it has multiplied by a factor of five in just the past decade. As it grows, we must send more dividends and interest to foreign owners, giving them more money with which to buy more U.S. assets, earning more dividends, and so on.
This compounding effect is small when net foreign ownership is low, but at today’s levels the effect is becoming significant and ever harder to reverse. Where it leads is grim: As a nation we eventually cease to be capitalists and become simply wage earners. As Warren Buffett put it in a prophetic Fortune article more than four years ago, a country that goes too far down this road can be “colonized by purchase rather than conquest.”
175: Sembra un Vespa! I use mine for short trips and errands (grocery store, take-away food, etc.) >85 mpg — and I never have to look for a parking spot. I’ve spared my car from >4000 miles of add’l wear-and-tear.
Bystander (177) -
I now commute only 30mins round trip to work. A 2hr round trip commute to me is too much. Now that I have two kids, I would rather choose to have a 1hr rd trip commute and spend the other 1hr w/ my crying/whining kids than spend them with complete strangers on a train. Spending time unwinding is copping out on my parental responsibilities, though sometimes I may want it.
118 Alia- Rental income must be declared.
So JJ, before you complain about greedy landlords, realize that those of us that bought within the last few years are not making a ton of money by renting out part of our homes to tenants. In Montclair what our tenants pay barely covers the property tax, forget about the mortgage - and it doesn’t even cover the property tax if you factor how much of your monthly rent check goes directly to Uncle Sam.
And not all landlords let their place go to crap. We occupy half of our home and promptly fix any issues that the tenants bring to our attention - we live there too, after all.
Morgan Stanley cuts 1,000 mortgage jobs 26 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Morgan Stanley on Wednesday said it will cut 1,000 jobs as the nation’s second-largest investment bank trims its residential mortgage operations amid the continued deterioration of the mortgage markets.
The New York-based company said it will shutter its U.K. business that issues home loans and significantly scale back its mortgage business in the United States. Morgan Stanley joins hundreds of lenders in scaling back operations as the U.S. housing crisis continues
For his birthday, little Joseph asked for a 10-speed bicycle. His father said, “Son, we’d give you one, but the mortgage on this house is $480,000 & your mother just lost her job. There’s no way we can afford it.”
The next day the father saw little Joseph heading out the front door with a suitcase. So he asked, “Son, where are you going?”
Little Joseph told him “I was walking past your room last night and heard you telling mom you were pulling out. Then I heard her tell you to wait because she was coming too. And I’ll be damned if I’m staying here by myself with a $480,000 mortgage & no bike.
“You can’t beat their Rueben!”
njc,
Their LI Iced Tea’s may, especially after a day at the beach.
John - that’s funny!
Anyone know what happened to 6 Woods Lane in Chatham, NJ? I don’t have the MLS #. I noted it was selling for $875k, but seems the listing is gone. Is it withdrawn or UC?
183#, ann, the more interesting is that
a similar house in nearby cranbury township was priced at $1.3M and sold in one week. i posted the link here before and now it is no longer in realtor.com
Tenancy was essential to the feudal hierarchy; a lord would own land and his tenants became his vassals.
Using the word Tenant is akin to calling some one your slave.
Hard Place,
6 Woods is under contract,
It was last listed at $875,000, the same as the 2006 purchase price.
193 john
If you really want to talk about that then we have already all become vassals to the State Gov. It is currently impossible to live off a piece of property you “own” without the “lord” asking for his tithing. You do not really own any property in the US, you only lease it from the state. try telling the town/state/Fed that it is your property when they show up for their taxes. true property rights have long been dead in the US
Eminent domain…
Grim - 6 woods
Thanks. I actually thought the house was close to fair value, but of course i still would not have bought. Wonder what the final SP will be? Seller was carrying 700k mtg, so he had some skin in the game. Being Chatham he probably got close to LP like $850k.
Haworth
SLD 206 PARK ST $734,500 6/29/2006
ACT 206 PARK ST $775,000 6/19/2007
W-T 206 PARK ST $775,000 7/9/2007
EXP 206 PARK ST $775,000 12/5/2007
ACT 206 PARK ST $599,000 2/11/2008
OUCH!
Hard Place,
I look at that listing and see only one thing:
A seller that stands to lose more than $40,000 on a nice home in a desirable NJ town.
I guess it’s all OK, he did get to paint the walls a color of his own choosing.
I found a property that has a “point well”. Does anyone know if this will be an issue when trying to get a mortgage?
#198: Park St in Haworth is right along the railroad tracks. Most of these houses are in less-desirable areas.
Park Street runs parallel to the railroad tracks. 404 - desirability not found
Define desirability please..
TBW,
I guess it was MORE desireable in 2006?
Well, certainly living pratically on top of a railroad isn’t my definition of desirability…I guess if you don’t sleep or are deaf it is okay.
That is why it didn’t sell. plain and simple.
That is why it didn’t sell. plain and simple.
So why did it sell in ‘06?
Rich,
Yes it was more desirable in 2006 because the herd was afraid they would be priced out. now that psychology has changed less desirable houses are sitting.
Kind of like how Bergen County suddenly became “prestigious” 5 years ago…like it actually moved closer to NYC.
Allendale
SLD 53 FOREST RD $639,000 6/28/2002
SLD 53 FOREST RD $850,000 8/27/2007
ACT 53 FOREST RD $869,000 10/16/2007
PCH 53 FOREST RD $819,000 11/6/2007
PCH 53 FOREST RD $779,000 11/29/2007
PCH 53 FOREST RD $749,000 2/13/2008
#197
That is a lot of house for the price, even in today’s market. I live down the road and even still you are talking over $1M for that elusive 4th bedroom most of the time in Chatham. I just called an architect to add the 4th bedroom on my house now. No need to pay up so much when I can just deal with some dust for a few months and add it myself. Zoning rules are a b*tch though. I may have to hire some ex cons to rough up the planning and variance board.
How about 495 Alpine Terrace in Ridgewood?
Not desirable either?
Sold: 7/27/2005 - $750,000
Sold: 2/6/2008 - $725,000
Forest Road, Allendale - another busy thorofare
Grim,
Got your NJMLS access back?
You do something wrong…
That house on Alpine Terrace has a mini-forest in the backyard. I would imagine it quite costly to take down all those trees and overgrowth. Most people want backyards, no?
ahh yes, the 2 bedroom, 1 bath bungalow in Ridgewood..
grim (6 woods lane),
Given they paid 875k in 3/06, if they get away with losing less than 100k inclusive of commission I would say they did ok.
grim (6 woods lane),
Given they paid 875k in 3/06, if they get away with losing less than 100k inclusive of commission I would say they did ok, especially with the way the RE market is looking.
Deleted that one, don’t want to insult the current owner..
bi (126)-
“…anybody here attended open house last weekend? i was driving by one in plainsboro for curiosity and found out i had to wait 10 minutes to get in…”
Try bathing and brushing your teeth. It works wonders.
spammer (127)-
Not at all. You can always re-present an offer- with updated pre-approvals, etc- to the new agent. Noboday needs to hear the backstory. It’s an offer, pure and simple.
TBW,
What’s your point other than the fact YOU don’t find these locations desireable?
Are saying that locations you find desireable are selling quickly and for asking?
Rich
At post #24 Clot pretty much summed up the situation.
But I can’t figure out why anybody keeps falling for this dog and pony show where all they talk about is borrowers.
I hate to keep bringing it back to this point, but it seems people forget what all of these workouts are always about: the Banks/lenders.
Banks (who are right to do this), and their surrogates like Paulson (he cannot help himself, see the story of the scorpion and the frog), are only concerned about what’s good for the banks.
Every time bankers and government officials stand up say we have created a program to help borrowers, simply substitute the word banks for borrowers.
They talk about borrowers because people hate the lenders.
Rich, would you want to live on railroad tracks? I wouldnt think most people would.
“Are saying that locations you find desireable are selling quickly and for asking?
”
No, absolutely not..I am saying that the less desireable houses are impacted more severely.
“What’s your point other than the fact YOU don’t find these locations desireable?”
Rich [220],
2004-2006 buyers were deaf or blind, in conjunction with being dumb?
2004-2006 buyers were deaf or blind, in conjunction with being dumb?
I can believe that.
Englewood
SLD 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,900,000 6/22/2004
ACT 207 CHESTNUT ST $5,600,000 1/2/2007
PCH 207 CHESTNUT ST $4,900,000 2/9/2007
PCH 207 CHESTNUT ST $4,500,000 4/25/2007
PCH 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,700,000 6/12/2007
PCH 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,500,000 7/20/2007
EXT 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,500,000 9/10/2007
PCH 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,400,000 9/26/2007
ACT* 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,400,000 11/22/2007
U/C 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,400,000 12/11/2007
SLD 207 CHESTNUT ST $3,200,000 2/5/2008
Looks like a “nice” neighborhood
Rich,
Sorry, wrong color.
Adding:
Just to get into the psychology behind Clots post at #24.
It’s not hard to get people to do something stupid (borrow way more than they can ever hope to pay back) when they believe it’s going to help them (own an asset that always goes up in value! It pays for itself!). It’s quite another thing to get them to do something stupid, continue to overpay for something when they know it is hurting them (costing them more than they would pay by leaving).
The latest plan might net some fools, but the banks are really kidding themselves if they think a large percentage of the people they f-d over are going to sign up for another round.
i never had a problem with corzine’s plan to begin with.
….
Think tank proposes alternatives to massive toll hikes
http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080213/FRONT01/80213025
TRENTON (AP) — Increasing the gas tax, hiking fees for driver’s licenses and
car registrations, applying the sales tax to gas and boosting a tax on expensive
vehicles would help New Jersey solve fiscal woes, a new study has found.
The study by New Jersey Policy Perspective said the moves could raise $2.8 billion annually.
That would help lower Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s proposed toll increases, which are designed to pay state debt and fund transportation work but have been criticized by legislators, including Republicans who on Wednesday questioned whether Corzine’s plan was constitutional.
New Jersey has the nation’s third lowest gas tax, at 14.5 cents per gallon, and it
hasn’t been increased since 1988, but Democratic senators have been weighing increasing the gas tax to ease Corzine’s proposed toll increases.
NJPP, a liberal-leaning think tank, proposed:
… A 20-cent per gallon gas tax increase to generate $1 billion each year.
… Applying the sales tax to gasoline to raise $900 million a year.
… Doubling registration fees on new, smaller cars and tripling fees on larger cars to increase revenue by $480 million a year.
… Doubling drivers’ license fees to $48 to raise $340 million a year.
… Increasing a state fee charged to cars costing $45,000 and more to generate about $145 million a year.
Corzine wants to pay at least half of $32 billion in state debt and fund
transportation projects for 75 years by creating a nonprofit corporation to manage toll roads and borrow up to $38 billion.
To pay that money back, he wants to increase tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Those increases would include inflation adjustments and, after 2022, tolls would increase every four years until 2085 to reflect inflation.
Many Sellers Homes Worth Less Than The Mortgage.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aaKqieyMLwnc&refer=home
Ridgewood
SLD 156 PERSHING AVE $566,000 6/14/2004
SLD 156 PERSHING AVE $550,000 2/8/2008
questions for realtors:
My realtor has put in a bid for me on a home. Despite numerous calls, the seller’s realtor has not gotten back to us. It’s been 5 days.
The house is still available and we are confused.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
#230, that is a nice house in a nice area of Ridgewood. Clearly an exception.
tbw,
Where did you end up buying, anyway? It has got to be one hell of a place.
Buyers werent deaf or blind, they were fearful of never being able to live in prestigious Bergen County
jam (231)-
Assume that the silence is your answer back from the seller.
If I receive an absurd or unqualified offer (not saying yours falls into that category), I do not make as much as a phone call back (of course, I do present all written offers to my client).
Auction-Bond Failures Roil Munis, Pushing Rates Up
By Martin Z. Braun
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Bonds sold by U.S. municipal borrowers with rates set through periodic auctions failed to attract enough buyers as banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. that run the bidding wouldn’t commit their own capital to the debt.
Rates on $100 million of bonds sold by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with bidding run by Goldman, soared to 20 percent yesterday from 4.3 percent a week ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
What began three weeks ago with too few bidders for auction-rate debt backed by relatively small entities, such as Georgetown University and Nevada Power, has widened in recent days to include large issues of state governments, such as New York state’s Dormitory Authority. The auction failures provide new indication of Wall Street’s unwillingness to commit capital amid $133 billion in credit losses and asset writedowns.
“It’s the beginning of the end for the auction-rate market,” said Matt Fabian, a senior analyst with Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Advisors. “Banks have stopped supporting the market.”
grim, It is nothing special. …but I have low taxes and a great house for the money. I would love to live in Ridgewood, but the wife wants to stay in Southern Bergen County…so even if we were really wealthy, we would probably stay put.
193:
John is also slang for “toilet,” too.
Just sayin’, that’s all.
“Buyers werent deaf or blind, they were fearful of never being able to live in prestigious Bergen County”
tbw,
You forgot to include dumb.
I have lived in BC for many years. What’s so prestigious?
NJPP, a liberal-leaning think tank, proposed:
… A 20-cent per gallon gas tax increase to generate $1 billion each year.
… Applying the sales tax to gasoline to raise $900 million a year.
… Doubling registration fees on new, smaller cars and tripling fees on larger cars to increase revenue by $480 million a year.
… Doubling drivers’ license fees to $48 to raise $340 million a year.
… Increasing a state fee charged to cars costing $45,000 and more to generate about $145 million a year.
I prefer the Conservative Think Tank suggestions;
… A $1 Dollar per gallon gas tax increase to generate $5 billion each year imposed only on State Workers.
… Applying the sales tax on gasoline to raise $900 million a year imposed only on State Workers.
… Doubling registration fees on non State Workers and Quadrupling fees on State Workers to increase revenue by $480 million a year.
… Quadrupling drivers’ license fees to $106 to raise $340 million a year only on State Workers.
as an alternative;
Outsource all State Workers, including Trenton, for a savings of $110B per year.
“What’s so prestigious?”
Call your Realtor today to find out!
[235] Let’s assume my offer is not absurd and I am highly qualified with at least a 20% down payment. What gives? I find it hard to believe that I can’t get a response.
I guess if silence is my answer then I have to move on to another house. It’s not the first house I’ve bid on and not gotten so in the long run it’s not a big deal - I don’t get attached to “attempts.”
Fearful of never being able to live in prstigious Bergen County?
Back to greed/fear. Yes, that is the true sign of capitulation.
I’ll take one stimulus super-sizer please!
$1,200 stimulus check becomes a down payment on a $700k FHA-secured loan!
#243, and there you have it.. Bubble
I am agreeing with you guys. Houses are overpriced and have been for at least 5 years. NYC money is a myth, distance to NYC another myth, bergen county being prestigious another myth.
#244 grim
so the sell price is mid-600k since you’re including closing costs for a total 700k?
or the seller is paying closing cost with their stimulus check?
Chestnut…hmmm. Rich, I don’t think it has the same ring as Mulholland Drive. Next.
TBW,
#230, that is a nice house in a nice area of Ridgewood. Clearly an exception.
I don’t care WHERE the house is, a $100,000 plus loss (and counting) on a home in Allendale (post 208) is BIG.
I lived just off of Forest in Mahwah and Forest is not “East Glen” busy. Actually, I think many would find that section of Forest in Allendale desireable as the road is wide, the homes are very well kept and most of the houses are set back off the road.
“wow - 20 cents per gallon tax increase + another 21 cents from sales tax - it is 0.41 raise instantly…..
IN additon to all other costs…. Moving out of NJ becoming more attractive every day.
But may be, just may be it will lead to less cars on roads???”
Since many people need to drive to get to work, they will just cut back somewhere else. The sales tax increase the state hopes to see might not materialize because it is offset by people cutting back on discretionary spending.
Anybody knows when will the changes to conforming loan limits become available.
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/2132008_New_Loan_Limits.asp
oh, Rich..before you go find another one of your silly examples…make sure it has a view of the Pacific..mmmkay.
If they are talking about increasing the gas tax, sales tax on clothing can’t be far behind.
glad I own a sewing machine…
Anybody knows when will the changes to conforming loan limits become available.
As soon as the GSEs can figure out what the heck to do with them. I can only imagine there is a tremendous amount of policy, guideline, documentation, and programs changes necessary to support this.
No doubt they’ve already been working on them, I’d expect a press release from the GSEs within a few days with an update/schedule.
Realize the loan limit changes are retroactive. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean lower rates for the borrowers that got those loans, just that the banks that currently hold the paper will be able to unload it profitably.
Small cluster of cells:
Thanks for reply, dude.
I can present my offer in writing using a realtor standard form… but since I have no buyer’s agent, do you (or anyone reading who wants to chime in) suggest I call the list agent and have him write it up and therefore take both sides of the comm or write it up myself, and give to him? As an agent, which is preferable?
We’re talking peanuts here, so there’s no real skin off me either way, but I’d rather go the route an agent would find preferable…
i don’t know why the state law requires full service at every gas station. it could save a few cents per gallon to offset tax increase for gasoline.
Then what about the self entitlement mentality of the 20 somethings. Talk about embarsing, a girl who works for me got married at 23 to a 26 year old well to do NJ live at home mama’s boy. So they go to Hawaii on their honeymoon and he sits and sits in the gas station awaiting his servant to pump his gas, finally he gets out and has no clue how to do it, then a little old lady pull in and offers to show him how to pump gas. I said to his wife wasn’t you embarsed that he did not know how to pump gas, she says with a straight face they don’t do manual labor.
bi Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
i don’t know why the state law requires full service at every gas station. it could save a few cents per gallon to offset tax increase for gasoline.
OFFER LETTER? That is so prebubble.
[254] So the borrow signed on and paid a premium for the jumbo and the bank got the premium because of the limitations it was accepting in writing the jumbo. Now the bank gets the retro effect of reducing its risk since it can lay the loan off more easily but the consumer (the one that all our politicians say they want to help is left with the increased jumbo rate - these rates should all reset as would and ARM). It doens’t effect me, but hey it doesn’t seem right.
so when is jason kidd’s house going up on the block?
bi Says:
i don’t know why the state law requires full service at every gas station.
There was a referendum several years ago where all the gas station owners voted to keep the full service stations. Why? I don’t know. It seems to me like it would cut more out of their profit
256, 257
If you remember, when they tried to get rid of self-service, people went nuts, including TONS of seniors.
254
Thanks grim, In my case, I am interested in mortgage for new purchase; which I am ‘hoping’ I would benefit from this increase with a better rate.
people care more about someone pumping their gas rather than who they elect. Go NJEA!!
I would have loved to pump my own gas last night in that dreadful weather. Believe me, if they made it self serve, they wouldn’t lower the prices and it would take hours to get out of the gas station, especially the ones that sell lottery tickets.
so what if GSE ups the limit. the homes between $417k & up to $729,750 aren’t worth it. they don’t suddenly become affordable, jumbo rate or not. & don’t get me started on the condos! + with PMI restrictions, forget it.
they oughta call this how to stimulate the economy with a falling knife. great, another year renting between the bus & the train.
(p.s. a little shout-out to paulson! thanks for helping me contribute $1200 less of my own money to roth next year.)
231 jam
I would ask for the contract back so I could rip it up. I never liked having our contracts out there floating around, not that it meant anything. At least ask your realtor to go get it.
192 bi
Cranbury is far nicer in all ways than Plainsboro, a totally different product.
I remember that house I think, that was in Lietke Farms? Also a much nice development than Grovers Mills.
#167 Gary…she is about to get fired at any rate… She has properties in the area and doesn’t want values to decline. Not my problem.
Being an ex New Yorker I can assure you that pumping your own gas will not save you money. In NY on a cold night, the guy who use to pump your gas laughs at you from a warm counter stocked with lottery tickets and potato chips. If you save the gas station owner .5/gal, he’ll put it in his own pocket. You might get a 20% discount though from a Surgeon for performing your own operation.
clot, can u email me privately….
if they made it self serve, they wouldn’t lower the prices and it would take hours to get out of the gas station
Of course. The price of self service would not go down; it would simply be an excuse to jack up the price of full service by $0.20/gallon for the luxury of getting your gas pumped for you. Plus, the gas stations would divide the pumps into full and self service. The self service lines would get ridiculous since you now have ½ the pumps and a population that doesn’t know how to pump its own gas.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out that my family of three does not qualify for the stimulus.
Although subject to AMT, priced out of the ROTH 401K and resting directly in the middle of Uncle Sam’s taxable sweet spot. I am in favor of a share of my taxes going to stimulate the economy, but wish it would have been issued in such a way to encourage people to save rather than to spend. For example, the longer someone holds the stimulus bond, the more it would be worth.
Lord knows, it is simply going to be used by most on some useless piece of consumerist crap or to pay off 1/10th of the average persons credit card balance. Nah, I think most will just buy lottery tickets with it.
Well anyhow, let it be known that as my personal wealth grows, I have no problem paying a larger share of my income to help out those lower on the totem poll. My dad was certainly wrong when he said I would be voting Republican by now.
Regarding pumping gas, since this is NJ, liability has to be involved. It’s probably cheaper to pay attendants to pump gas than to pay more insurance and hire lawyers to deal with all the lawsuits that will follow when NJ residents start spilling gas all over the place.
So many times I have wished I could pump my own gas when I sit there waiting for the attendant to either start filling or finish up but I lived in CA and was used to pumping my own. It really wasn’t that bad and all the seniors who spend winters in Florida should be used to it. I agree that we won’t see any savings by allowing us to pump our own gas.
A couple good reads:
Cost of Stimulus:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/89xx/doc8973/hr5140pgo.pdf
G-7 Working Group:
http://www.fsforum.org/publications/FSFWGG7Interimreport5Febfinal.pdf
If I have the gas pump in one hand and the fuel cap in the other, how the heck am I going to hold my cell phone and my Dunkin coffee?
House Hunter,
I’m sure she’ll feel proud of herself for keeping the “comps” up as she prepares her Tender Vittles casserole.
stu,
If you’re under 30 years of age, it’s an iPhone and Starbucks. :o
I never understood the offer letter, other than the agent wanting you to do it on his form so he has proof he gets the commission. I guess now that the market is sinking it is good to lock the buyer in as soon as possible. In the past on my FSBOs I just demanded 10% upfront into my lawyers escrow account. Then I had their cash, also everytime they haggle with me technically they altered the terms of the contract and gives me the opportunity to back out. Sold a house as is and when the guy contered with with me doing some repairs based on his home inspection and I refused to lower price I resold the house to a higher bidder and gave his check back.
When I bought a house with a realtor she made me do a kooky offer sheet with a $250 binder and it was like some stupid “who gets the house show” where I get all the suspense of seeing if he accepts my offer. I rather just come to price with seller and give him a check. Guess a realtor is like a DJ, they can’t make it look too easy or no one will pay them.
People from NJ have bizarre attitudes about pumping gas. 49 other states have self serve to my knowledge and people aren’t hosing each other down with gas and lighting each other on fire. What is wrong with having a choice? If it is freezing cold and I want full serve, I go to a station that has it. If I just want to get it over with (most of the time), I do it myself (pay at the pump is great and very fast).
All kidding aside we live in one of the small towns around the short hills mall and we just started noticing gang tags spray painted on stop signs
So many times I have wished I could pump my own gas when I sit there waiting for the attendant
I jump out and start filling my own tank all the time when the place is busy or the attendent is slow. 90% of the time they are indifferent. 10% of the time you might get a dirty look; mostly due to the fact that your action is pointing out that they are slow. Only once have I actually been yelled. What are they going to do, take away your birthday?
Interesting enough in Great Neck Long Island it is illegal to have a service attendent pump your gas. Many years ago being it is near the Queens border a few gas station attendants were shot pumping gas, for safety sake they stay in the bullet proof booth and you pump your own gas. The gas stations for legal liability reasons were for it. In NJ the stations years ago said smokers pumping their own gas were a danger and they said for legal libility reason it should be illegal to pump your own gas.
jam (242)-
Did your agent attempt to present the offer in person to both the seller and listing agent? Something so strong should be presented in person, even if your price is way low.
Oregon is the other state that doesn’t allow you to pump your own gas.
I’m with you on Michelle Obama. I think she is very insulting to at home mothers too
The fact that you’re throwing in with one of John’s posts/trolls should tell you something…
From Bloomberg:
Paulson Says Regulators to Propose Securitization Rule Changes
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said U.S. financial regulators will propose changes in the rules for packaging loans into bonds in the aftermath of the subprime credit collapse.
Paulson said it will be “a number of months” before the Presidential Working Group on Financial Markets announces its recommendations and that easing credit strains is the first “priority.”
“You can’t have gone through the process we’ve gone through without knowing there needs to be some changes,” Paulson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “First, we need to get through this period with as little impact as possible on our economy. And then secondly, we need a strong policy response.”
grim (254)-
“Realize the loan limit changes are retroactive. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean lower rates for the borrowers that got those loans, just that the banks that currently hold the paper will be able to unload it profitably.”
Fannie/Freddie/FHA = where bad jumbos go to die
spam (255)-
Let the agent write it up. The forms you get at Staples may end up driving your attorney nuts, and the agent’s company probably won’t accept processing the offer in such a form.
jam (259)-
“…but hey it doesn’t seem right…”
The gubmint don’t care what’s right, boy. You ain’t their master; the banks are.
Shut up, bend over, and learn to love it.
“Paulson said it will be “a number of months” before the Presidential Working Group on Financial Markets”
[287],
At this time other critical issues are of more importance. That Caribbean trading office is buzzing.
People who won’t pump their own gas are the same ones doing 10 MPH on the Parkway during an ice storm. Candy @sses.
jlx (260)-
“so when is jason kidd’s house going up on the block?”
I’d lay even odds Joumana’ll torch that place before a sign gets put in the yard.
That byatch is crazy, man!
stu Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Well anyhow, let it be known that as my personal wealth grows, I have no problem paying a larger share of my income to help out those lower on the totem poll. My dad was certainly wrong when he said I would be voting Republican by now.
stu: I think you would do better to keep the incremental tax money and give it to a charity ir cause that is aligned with your own interest. The wealth distribution biz administered by the government is really an opportunity for explicit or implicit graft in the bureaucracy and the end users. It has been shown time and time again….
Ultimately, I view voting democrat becuase one believes they have the moral high ground is just mentally lazy or else naive….
spam (271)-
Shoot me you e-mail via Grim.
Just so you know, I don’t represent people I meet here. I’d be happy to refer you to another agent, though.
#294
the other option is to just send a check to the IRS. Everyone who feels they aren’t taxed enough is free to donate.
Clotpoll Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
spam (271)- Just so you know, I don’t represent people I meet here.
clot: ya’ gotta represent the ‘hood…
John (279)-
What you call the “offer letter” BECOMES THE CONTRACT when attorney review is done. If the agent you used jerked you around in the offer process, it’s your fault for accepting that kind of treatment.
jlb (281)-
“we live in one of the small towns around the short hills mall and we just started noticing gang tags spray painted on stop signs”
The Abercrombies, or the American Eagles?
When you’re a jet you’re a jet all the way, from your first cigarette to your last dyin’ day!
(287)-
“Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said U.S. financial regulators will propose changes in the rules for packaging loans into bonds in the aftermath of the subprime credit collapse.”
As BC might say…as soon as they figure out a way to tamp more sh^t into the already-filled, failed septic.
BC (291)-
I’m feeling a PPT money bomb. You?
AUY holding up nicely, though.
Why Kellogg (i.e. MBA Northwestern) needs to be imploded immediately……churns out morons like this guy……
WSJ
Josh Gellert Brand Manager, Haagen-Dazs By AMY PALANJIAN
Special to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
February 13, 2008 2:40 p.m.
With his experience working with consumer packaged goods companies and a degree from a top-notch M.B.A. program, Josh Gellert has applied his knowledge to become a brand manager at one of the most respected — at least by many taste buds — dessert companies around, Haagen Dazs.
[edit]
Q: Your title is brand manager, but that’s a pretty broad term. What, exactly, do you do?
A: I manage our Haagen-Dazs business, which ranges from figuring out what new flavors to launch, to what the packaging should look like and what our advertising and promotional programming should be. At the end of the day, everything I do has to help drive the business to make those goals.
Q: OK, so you’re driving business, but you’re also around a lot of desserts. Which aspect of your job do you enjoy most?
A: Being able to walk into a store, see my product in the ice cream aisle and identify some of the things I’ve had a direct impact on. We recently launched a new line called Haagen-Dazs Reserve and the idea is similar to the wine industry: We have new flavors that are unique and we’re offering them in limited quantities to ice cream enthusiasts. These are flavors we’ve never launched before, like Pomegranate Chip, which is pomegranate ice cream with chocolate chips.
Q: Speaking of ice cream, do you have a favorite flavor?
A: Fleur de Sel Caramel, which is another new flavor in our reserve line. There’s also Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan, which was our 2007 Flavor Search winner. We have 40 flavors and usually it’s hard for new ones to even crack the top 20 since there are so many tried and true flavors. But people were so excited to try this flavor, and it became No. 15.
[edit]
Q: What does the coming year hold for you and Haagen-Dazs?
A: I’m leading the Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bee program, which is a huge 2008 initiative for us. From a brand management perspective, we’ve always been focused on using the best all natural ingredients and through that knowledge, we found out that 25% of the honeybee population in our country has disappeared just in the past year. The honeybee is responsible for pollinating ingredients like the nuts, fruits and berries that go into 40% of our flavors, so we realized that we needed to do something to help. The campaign will extend across television and print, and all of the flavors that are impacted will have a burst on the package that will explain the problem, what Haagen-Dazs is doing to help and how people can be involved. We really want to raise awareness.
The agent I “used” to buy was a sweetheart, she sold the JO the house a few years earlier and lost business as she was known to bring bad people to the neighborhood. The JO then used the same realtor to sell and she got him to take a flat rate so she could nail him by selling cheap. She let me write it up for 15K less than I wanted to pay and then helped me knock it down even more by convicing him to pay for every little repair, she was great and only an idiot would use her to sell a home.
Clotpoll Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
John (279)-
What you call the “offer letter” BECOMES THE CONTRACT when attorney review is done. If the agent you used jerked you around in the offer process, it’s your fault for accepting that kind of treatment.
For those with tight budgets:
5. Bottled Water Now More Expensive Than Malt Liquor!
According to scientists, water is vital to life. But malt liquor beverages are vital to an enjoyable weekend, and since weekends are a part of life, and malt liquor is made with water, it follows logically that malt liquor is the key to all of life.
Considering that bottled water is now more expensive than malt liquor, that’s quite a bargain for the smooth malt liquor picker.
A Minyanville random survey of retail outlets found that the average retail price for 40 ounces of Dasani Purified Water is $3.10.
However, the average retail price for a 40 ounce bottle of Colt 45 is $2.05, a savings of more than 33% over water. And that’s despite a surge in beer prices thanks to a shortage of hops and malted barley.
Well, enjoy it while you can, malt liquor lovers. Beer prices were up last year, and companies such as Anheuser Busch (BUD) and Molson Coors (TAP) are expected to continue to raise prices, perhaps by as much as 10% to 15% this year.
Colt 45, by the way, is owned by Pabst Brewing Company. Believe it or not, Pabst is a “virtual brewery,” meaning it owns no breweries of its own and instead pays others such as Miller to brew its beers while retaining ownership of the brand.
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index.php?a=15907
294
“I view voting Republican because one believes they have the moral high ground is just mentally lazy or else naive….”
You could substitute Republican in your sentence and it would hold.
Did I ever tell you the story about meeting the Managing Director of Cheese, North America at Kraft Foods? I had to excuse myself because I had to rinse out the alcohol that accidently shot up my nose because I held in a laugh…..
286
Because John says it, it can’t be true?
That’s how I feel about Michelle Obama. Sorry. Her Larry King episode didn’t help my impression. I’ll still vote for her husband if he gets the nom, but I am hoping and praying Hillary gets it.
Ann Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
294 “I view voting Republican because one believes they have the moral high ground is just mentally lazy or else naive….”
You could substitute Republican in your sentence and it would hold.
Ann: Out of context, yes, but not relative to Stu’s point.
Ann Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
286 That’s how I feel about Michelle Obama. Sorry. Her Larry King episode didn’t help my impression. I’ll still vote for her husband if he gets the nom, but I am hoping and praying Hillary gets it.
Ann: seriously? She was very impressive, and rather circumspect…..
Ann: relative to Michelle Obama…..do you know the road she has had to travel in accomplishing the things she has? ….I know people in similar circumstances….the constant whispers behind your back; the (really disgusting) preconceived notions; the constant feeling of paranoia. You end up seeming emotionally inert and being really aggressive.
You don’t have to like her, but to not openly acknowledge that she would be 50x the first lady that Laura (Manslaugter) Bush has been is just not objective….
“Getting A Handle On Inflation”
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/kirby/2008/0213.html
311
Agreed on Laura, still don’t like Michelle, believe me I have tried, she won’t affect my vote.
Clot [302],
“I think the necessity of being ready increases.” Abraham Lincoln
#307 ChiFi
Managing Director of Cheese? As Director is he in charge of cutting the cheese?
In the most famous of these press accounts of her sarcasm, New York Times op-ed columnist, Maureen Dowd, said: “I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god,. . .But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam J.F.K. into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffins. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk this mystique?”[14][27]
311#, yes she is very impressive. however, his view is far left from center and his experience is a X. people may think mccain is a safer bet in november.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama
316
I agree with Dowd on that one, that way Michelle talks about Barack is not flattering.
And this sounds horribly retro, but when your husband is going for president, it’s best to downplay your own work experience and accomplishments and just talk about him.
I was offended when on Larry King she said that she was “doing it all.” Ok, we get it, you’re a high-powered career woman. Enough.
In fact, I think Laura is a brilliant political spouse. She doesn’t say anything.
Ann,
Laura is brilliant. Brilliant at the bottom of a bottle of Xanax.
Ann Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
316 In fact, I think Laura is a brilliant political spouse. She doesn’t say anything.
ever see the movie Being There…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_There
(294) Ha-rumph!
BC (314)-
I’m beginning to live in a perpetual state of hyperreadiness.
Clot: see 271
Interesting that Edwards, Clinton & Obama all have Law Degrees.
re: motorcycles
I have owned at least one motorcycle since 1988. Since about 2000 I have cut down my riding to a few days a year. I ride on Wednesday nights to Ruts Hut and around the Northern NJ area when the weather is warm and usually I will meet up with other riders so we can take up entire lanes.
Studies show the number of people talking on cell phones while driving at any given time is estimated to be 1 in 10 cars. The rise in cell phone usage started around 1999-2000 and grew exponentially since then and some studies have shown that the peripheral vision of those cell phone talking drivers and their overall awareness and reaction time to what is going on is significantly impaired.
I was hit one time by a vehicle while stopped at a red light. Some lady in an SUV rear ended my bike and pushed me into the intersection. She was talking on the cell phone. Thankfully there was no traffic in the other direction or I would be taking a dirt nap right now.
I would estimate in 2008 during rush hour 3 out of 10 drivers is on the cell phone. The roads do clear around 9PM so if you do want to ride the later the better, and try and ride with a buddy and wear a skid jacket no matter how warm it is.
On Laura Bush vs. Michelle Obama-
Neither can hold a candle to Elizabeth Edwards.
WSJ - tax rebate:
Q: Do I have to file a federal income-tax return for 2007 in order to get something this year?
A: Yes. “You have to file a return for the 2007 tax year in order to receive a rebate check” during 2008, says an aide to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.
The IRS “will calculate the rebate from that return, estimating the reduction in tax liability for 2008 that results in the rebate check,” the aide says.
Q: Do I have to figure out how much I’m supposed to get this year?
A: No. You don’t have to apply. The Internal Revenue Service is supposed to handle it for you. As one congressional staffer put it, “all you have to know how to do is open an envelope” — or tell the government how to zap your money electronically into your account.
Q: But what about all these rumors that the payments will cut into what I get as my refund next year?
A: They’re wrong, congressional staffers say. “Please be aware that there have been erroneous reports that stimulus rebate checks are an advance on next year’s tax refund, so that any refund a taxpayer might normally receive would be reduced by the amount of the 2007 stimulus check,” says the Baucus aide. “This is not correct.”
Amy McAnarney, executive director for H&R Block’s Tax Institute, says, “The actual credit will be calculated on your 2008 return. If you’re due a higher credit, you’ll get the remainder next year when you file. If you received a higher credit than you should have, you do not have to pay anything back.”
“What might happen next year,” a House staffer says, “is that somebody who didn’t get their full amount this year could get more, based on their return for 2008. For example, if you had a child born in 2008 and you were within the income caps, you’ll get another benefit of $300 next year when you file your return for 2008.”
ChiFi
I cannot tell you how many different variations I have read about the rebate checks and how this is supposed to work. I read earlier today that they have proposed a change for ‘09 taxes and that is an extra $1200 per couple or however they are breaking down the checks. So this $1200 is an advance on next year’s taxes. They say its not taxable but I’m having trouble believing that.
spam (322)-
See my #295.
Mets - Santana
mms://a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2008/open/bbchtv/interviews/archive02/020108_reynolds_harold_400.wmv?ct3=-1&ct4=mlb&ct5=13-Feb-08
Evidently Corzine follows this Blog. He is now considering a .10/gallon tax on people who pump their own gas. That, I would definately support, so that they would have the option.
I have pumped my own gas in NY for as long as I can remember. Self-service was always cheaper. Also, cash always cheaper then credit. This is why I fill up in Jersey.
WOW… I just got a call from a seller who also happens to be a realtor representing herself whom we met at an open house this past Sunday. She just asked me if I was interested in her house and I basically told her that a) I liked her house, which we did and b) I believe everything is still 20% over-priced.
I explained to her that she and I both know that the lending spree is long over and explained that we’re in no rush and was confident that prices still have some declines to come.
Now get this… she asked me what I think her house is worth and again, I told her 20% under asking (649.9K) and she didn’t flinch or say a word. I confidently and firmly told her where I believe we’re heading as well as my own personal situation as far as timeline, finances and FICO is concerned.
I told her that I was simply being honest and she wished me well and said good luck and I thanked her. I wasn’t being arrogant or condescending but I did feel a little bad afterwards because I realized I was firm in my feelings. But hey, would she rather hear the truth or not?
Anyway, I thought it was interesting and very telling.
There are more lawyers in Congress than any other occupation: 217, or about 40% of the 106th Congress. According to Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, lawyers are followed by the following fields:
184 businessmen/bankers
124 public service/politicians
99 educators
28 farmers/ranchers
24 realtors
17 journalists
17 medical professionals
10 law enforcement officers
9 engineers
5 miscellaneous fields
3 professional athletes
3 skilled labor
3 health care providers
2 actors/entertainers
2 artists
2 clergy
2 military officers
1 aerospace professional
1 labor official
1 homemaker
1 secretary
Gary
Good for you. Don’t feel bad. She needs to wise up if she’s going to sell. Actually, it was probably a good thing that she heard it from you, in the way you put it. She could have heard it from any other one of us from the LOD and we could have told her that when her house fits where the sun don’t shine, that’s when we’ll pay what she’s asking.
lostinny [334],
After I explained my feelings on it all, she sort of said, “I get what you’re trying to say” meaning that I was telling her something that she really didn’t want to hear but knew was the truth.
But yeah, you’re right because the way we were treated 7 or 8 years ago when we were looking should entitle me to tee off if I wanted to but I won’t do it.
hey can we get back on topic with real estate please!!!!
this is not the NJ congressional and self-service gas blog
Why don’t we call it the kiss my @ss blog?
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson: “The worst is just beginning - we all know that”
http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e080213b
#338 Love it!! God I miss New Jersey! (and NY)
Kiss my @ss blog! A big ole ROARRRRR goes out to the lost person. And we’re doing the WAVE over here for you.
gary (332)-
She probably didn’t differentiate between what it’s worth to a buyer today…and what it will be worth if she holds out until Wil E hits the canyon floor.
Did you get the feeling she’s the type to hold out until that bitter end?
#314 BC Bob: Hey for those who said it would not or could not happen.
I can confirm that there were significant layoffs today in Goldmans Fixed Income Dept.
No rumor, fact; I know one of the individuals who was let go.
OOS and Pat
Thank you very much. *curtsies*
3b (343)-
Fixed income?
More like broken income.
Clotpoll [342],
I was really quite surprised I got this call. She is a little aggressive and yeah, I really believe she will be stubborn about it. I did tell her we were looking to make a move but don’t have a timeline and as I said, explained the reasons why.
She did give me the “it’s a good time to buy line” and I responded that for us personally, it wasn’t a good time just yet.
lost (338)-
You little minx, you.
gary (346)-
The fact that you got a call speaks volumes.
Clotpoll [348],
My wife said the same thing.
Has this been sold? 2445121
336
As long as we’re not talking STROLLERS…
Talking about the NJ Gang Survey is cool though.
Ah Clot. I just can’t help myself sometimes.
332 gary
That’s great. Hey, you just answered her question!
We did that once when some realtor called us about some ranch and it was listed at 600+ and we said, no more than 500 and you know what, it sold for 580! I couldn’t believe it. We didn’t want it for any amount of money though, it was funkadelic.
Ann [353],
Yup. The fact that she didn’t even say a word when I said 20% under asking speaks volumes. More tomorrow…
I’m as political as the next guy (actually more), but I sure hope this site doesn’t devolve into a GOP/Dem shouting match.
BTW, Chifi,
I don’t think the Dems hold the moral highground, but the current GOP cast members are sociopaths. They need to go.
This is from the great Lance Manion:
If the Goverment is a car setting out to give every one a ride to work, then for 40 years the Republicans have been puncturing the tires, pouring sand in the gas tank, stealing the distributer cap, and, whenever they can get their hands on the wheel, driving it straight into the nearest ditch and then, pointing to the wreckage as the tow truck backs up to it, saying, See, this proves that people were meant to walk.
And they do this so that they don’t have to chip in on gas.
#350
dinra: it has not sold
gary Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I told her that I was simply being honest and she wished me well and said good luck and I thanked her. I wasn’t being arrogant or condescending but I did feel a little bad afterwards because I realized I was firm in my feelings. But hey, would she rather hear the truth or not?
Mr. G: but where is the cussing?
Clotpoll Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
3b (343)- Fixed income? More like broken income.
No, as in “neutered”…
Ed Sanders Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I’m as political as the next guy (actually more), but I sure hope this site doesn’t devolve into a GOP/Dem shouting match
Colonel: it does as you’ve seen from time to time…..I tend to follow the money generally….
I think that Gary’s conversation was more like this…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or1_1Cktdvs
Sybarite , Does not show up in gsmls anymore. Was it withdrawn?
anne -
re: michelle obama
didn’t hillary clinton make some pretty disparaging remarks about stay at home moms during her husbands first campaign? i remember her saying something about “not staying home and baking cookies all day” - and then she had to back track, when there was a uproar,- did some p.r and shared some cookie recipes. it was all pretty insulting to stay at home moms - the remark and the backtrack.
i’m just going by memory, so details could be a little off, but i’m sure of the gist of it.
(360) Chicagofinance
“Did you touch me?”
“Yeah, cause you put your finger on me.”
“You HIT me Earl.”
Priceless….
I haven’t posted much since the day I encouraged people to get involved with their school systems, and I feel I won’t be posting at all after tonight, mainly from reading the responses to “anarchy1.” I mean, really, what’s the point? Far from being a place where people can exchange diverse opinions and maybe a little criticism, it seems to have become a forum for Kettle’s analytical opinions about absolutely everything and John’s anecdotal conclusions about absolutely everything. Enuf, already. (And BC Bob, I spelled that wrong intentionally.)
But please, people, try to base your conclusions about the upcoming presidential election based on the candidates’ stances on the issues, not what you “feel” about them or their spouses.
Peace out!
Met Michelle Obama and Laura Bush on the same night two years ago at a dinner in DC. Michelle definitely has a firmer handshake.
PeaceNow:
What was it about anarchy’s post (supposedly from someone earning a very high salary and working very hard) that was so open, non-aggressive, and educational that the posts deserved more than what they got?
334 lostinny
That was all I needed today.
Wooo!
332 gary
Fascinating.
Good on you.
chicagofinance(359)-
I have to stop reading at night…I am laughing too loud…will be in touch.
Lazy. All of you.
tcm Yes, Hillary did say something like that. And she got killed for it.
Peaceout, if the spouses campaign, then they are opening themselves up to critique. They can’t have it both ways. I’m not an Obama fan anyway and his wife doesn’t help.
No more political talk! This is an RE blog
: )
Bernanke is on CCN live right now talking about the banking losses.
He does not sound very optimistic, and pretty much said the housing market is toast.
FOMC and TAF are keeping the banks from completely collapsing, and the changes made will cause sluggish growth over the next few months and inflation will “moderate”.
He said exports will slow down the pullback in the economy, but nothing he is saying gives me the warm and fuzzies.
Anyone have any insight or info on new construction in Hillsborough NJ?
Anyone made an offer (albeit low-ball) recently? What were the results?
I’m looking to live in home for 20+ years so investors mentality aside I’d love to know if anyone has had any luck finding those so called “bargins”.
Thanks