From the WSJ:
Home-Price Scorecard: A Turning Market, But Which Way? (click for graphic)
Our latest price scorecard raises the question of whether a real or false spring is under way.
The March numbers, which show the percentage change in prices compared with March 2011, offer a rare “thumbs up” from an index: one from the Federal Housing Finance Agency following home purchases involving loans backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. An earlier Developments post explored how foreclosures might play less of a role in this index, but its upbeat result isn’t as much of an outlier as it might seem here.
Other indexes reported less-severe price drops, and the monthly changes from February to March looked better still. Zillow’s index, which measures home values and not just individual sales prices, reported a rise of 0.5% from February to March, the biggest on a monthly basis since May 2006, and another uptick from March to April. It’s worth remembering that these indexes often capture earlier activity, so prices could be stronger today than they seem.
Still, it’s hard to envision a recovery for the housing market while the jobs market is still ailing, and some say the housing market itself remains too troubled to bottom out. “In light of the oversupply we continue to see in the market, we disagree with the widespread view that home prices have reached a bottom or will do so in the near future,” Michael Feder, chief executive of data-provider Radar Logic, said when the firm released its market report last week. A change of mood in response to gloomy economic news could undermine housing demand, he said.
Radar Logic says the main concern is the “supply overhang” of homes “on the market, on their way to market or poised to enter the market the moment prices start to increase.” Housing prices won’t see a sustained recovery, the firm says, until the inventories of distressed homes are worked through the market. Absorbing this overhang, could take years at the current rate of sales.
The mild winter might have sent buyers out earlier in the season this year, shifting activity up from the usual selling season—and meaning the year-over-year comparisons that overstate the health of the housing market.
In the short-term, brokers and buyers are often talking about just the opposite problem: that there are too few quality listings, and the competition for the available homes is heating up.
Good Morning New Jersey
My heart bleeds.
“Goldman Sachs (GS) fired around 50 people last week, according to sources who spoke to the NYT, looking to trim costs as its revenue prospects worsen. Fifty is hardly a bloodbath, but the layoffs included several managing directors on the higher-end of Goldman’s pay scale, a sign that Goldman is looking to cut some senior players after laying off 8.5% of its work force in the last year. [Financials] “
But WS bonus loot is supposed to lead the housing recovery!!!
It’s all turning to black. The Bernank will confirm that on Thursday.
Another day in hell.
Europe’s recession firmly taking hold.
“Eurozone PMI hits near a three-year low in May, with the final composite index at 46.0 (vs. 45.9 flash and 46.7 prior). The “sector has fallen into a steepening downturn” with “further signs of weakness spreading from the non-core to core nations, with even Germany slipping back into contraction.” Based on these numbers, “it would not be surprising to see GDP for the region contract by 0.5%” in Q2″
“Eurozone April retail sales come in at -1% M/M and -2.5% Y/Y, much worse than expectations of -0.1% M/M and -1.1% Y/Y. March’s figures were +0.3% M/M and -0.2% Y/Y. “
A quick glance at May contracts shows pending sales continuing to rocket forward, what slowdown?
From HousingWire:
Home prices up quarterly and yearly: Clear Capital
Home prices grew from the previous rolling quarter and year-over-year in May, making it the first time in two years that both indicators have risen in the same period, asset valuation firm Clear Capital said.
The firm published its home data index market report, showing that the West, South and Northeast saw both quarterly and yearly price gains.
Truckee, Calif.-based Clear Capital uses rolling quarters to study home prices. It compares the most recent four months to the previous three months to give users a more timely look at market prices.
The only area with price declines in the recent report was the Midwest, but that area’s declines were less severe when compared to April’s report.
…
Home price appreciation grew 0.4% at the national level in May, the first quarterly gain since November of 2011. The West saw the biggest jump in prices over the quarter with the region’s growth rate hitting 2.7%, up 2.2 percentage points over the previous month’s report.
…
Home price appreciation in the South grew 1.2% quarter-over-quarter, and in the Northeast gains of 0.4% were reported. Midwest prices, meanwhile, declined 2.2% quarter-over-quarter.
Debt 4 Taxiing to the runway.
The Obamunists are worried. Europe has the potential to tank our economy, which could tank the democrats.
They are also worried because its a lot harder to blame it on Bush and the GOP House. If they push that line, the sheeple may actually start to smell the bullsh1t
The real definition of “Blue Ribbony”.
http://wyckoff.org/site/joomla/index.php/wef-news/107-apps-in-our-schools
“In 2011 the Wyckoff school district, under the guidance of Superintendant Richard Kuder, embarked on an innovative program to see how the traditional classroom education could be enhanced through the use of iPads as educational tools. The Wyckoff Education Foundation (WEF) was proud to be a part of this introduction of the iPad program and provided 120 iPad tablets to kick start the program.
The rollout of the iPads to the classrooms has been a great success. The students have used a wide range of iPad applications through the year while the teachers evaluated their effectiveness to determine which apps provided a real boost in a variety of subjects.
As we wind down the school year, WEF thought it would be helpful to consolidate the best applications and websites used in the classroom so that your child can benefit from using an iPad at home as a learning tool over the summer.
Each of the district schools has posted the applications to their websites and we have provided a summary of apps in the table below and links to the apps used in each elementary school. For more iPad applications and websites please visit your school’s homepage and click on the iPad button to the right. Many of these applications can be downloaded via the iTunes store from the iPad for free however some applications may have a minimal fee”
Tenafly – Just Listed (4 Years Ago)! Price Reduced!
78 Mackay Dr, Tenafly NJ
1950s split level, 5,384 sqft
Country club section, 0.48 acres
New NJMLS#: 1220556
Purchase price: $2,000,000 (2006)
Earlier list price: $1,300,000 (January 2008)
New list price: $799,000 (June 2012)
Tax assessment: $1,028,100 (2011)
Taxes: $23,193.94 (2011)
From Financial Armageddon
Well-Suited to the Times
Here are two YouTube videos that offer contrasting perspectives on the events of the past few years:
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2012/06/well-suited-to-the-times.html
Maybe when the sheeple wake up one day and realize that their vote is meaningless you’ll get some real hope and change in this country. Hopefully it comes from a Constitutional amendment getting $ out of politics and not from Clot’s bullets to heads program.
“Hopefully it comes from a Constitutional amendment getting $ out of politics and not from Clot’s bullets to heads program.”
Unfortunately, the constitutional amendment will never happen without the impetus of the bullets to heads program.
Grim (6):
Saw some houses over the weekend. I am starting to see some almost reasonably priced houses. They still got a bit lower to go but sellers are now realizing that reasonably priced houses actually sell.
Nom 9 They are knee deep in it already.
Somebody gets it.
“Further monetary ease would not just be “pushing on a string,” says Dallas Fed President Fisher, but would make the Fed “an accomplice to the mischief” of D.C. All 50 states have the same monetary conditions, yet growth in Texas and California (to name 2) are different. It’s time, he says, for fiscal authorities to put in place measures to incent the private sector to put all this cheap money to work.”
Radar Logic says the main concern is the “supply overhang” of homes “on the market, on their way to market or poised to enter the market the moment prices start to increase.”
A “supply overhang” doesn’t appear to exist in the Pascack Valley region in the 500K to 600K at the moment. There seems to be very little to choose in this range and they all seem to need a lot of work. Could potential sellers be waiting? Are the true listings being “hidden” to prop up the market? I can’t figure it out. 500K and 12K in taxes for a hunk of sh1t still doesn’t make sense to me.
All Eight home pricing indexes say same thing. Adjusted for inflation homes are almost back to 1999 pricing.
Bottom lines PEAK HOMES WILL NEVER RECOVER. Think about this my ex-neighbor who bought at peak in spring of 2008 for 680K who just sold for 480K, would need inflation adjusted the home to have sold for $806,000 to BREAK EVEN. In another six years that home would have to sell for one million to reach break even inflation adjusted Unless run down splits on small plots in blue collar neighborhoods are selling for an average price of one million in the year 2018 it aint breaking even ever.
Inflation adjusted No Home bought in prior bubble of 1986-1989 or from 2000-2008 will ever be above water again adjusted for inflation. You may own a home 30 years but it is all dependent on price you pay for it. You are not dollar cost averaging in and you are buying a leveraged asset an paying margin interest. A home bought in Spring of 2006 is like buying Facebook at the opening price at 44 on Margin, paying Margin interest on a declining stock that pays no dividend. It is never going to work out. That is why we have short sales and BKs.
Since the chance to do a short sale and get the debt forgiven tax free ends 12-31-2012 combined with banks just agreeing to approve short sale quicker I imagine in uppidity towns we will have a rush of inventory from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. That is the buying opportunity.
All Hype [14]
The question is: what does reasonably priced mean? What are they comparing the prices to? Recent comps? Peak to trough?
Gary Shilling aka Doctor doom says:
Gary Shilling Explains Why The S&P 500 Will Plunge To 800 This Year
http://www.businessinsider.com/gary-shilling-the-sp-500-will-fall-to-800-this-year-2012-6
Also he has some not-so-rosy predictions on housing. I think this guy might need some antidipressants.
Predicting that we have another four years until the market absorbs all the excess housing supply, he said that Americans have finally reached an important realization that could change their views on homeownership in the future.
“People now realize, for the first time since 1937, that house prices can and do fall,” Shilling said.
“The next event to watch is what happens in the next few quarters,” he continued, arguing that major banks and the government “did not want the bad PR of a big wave of foreclosures” while they were mediating an end to the robo-signing crisis. “Now they’re going to come back with a vengeance,” he predicted.
Tuesday, June 5, 8:36 AM Housing prices have another 20% downside, Gary Shilling tells Bloomberg, as “people now realize – for the first time since 1937 – that house prices can and do fall.” A 4% dividend yield is of little comfort when a stock drops 30%. Likewise, that 3.5% 30-year mortgage isn’t so sweet if the home value declines.
#16 mike: I think more easing is exactly what bernank wants, and Europe and last Friday’s jobs numbers gives him the cover he needs, regardless of what the the Dallas Fed Pres says.
#6 grim: I don’t deny it, but I don’t understand it. We will see what the remainder of the season brings, it will be wrapping up in the next 3 weeks or so.
Gary (20):
I just use a very basic test of whether I would buy the house within 10% of the asking price. If the house passes that basic test then I look at the taxes then look at the comps. Not very scientific but it does screen out 80% of the houses on the listings I receive.
#21People now realize, for the first time since 1937, that house prices can and do fall,” Shilling said.
I realized that in 1987.
Hype [25],
I can’t trust what the house tour guides are saying because most of it is just bullsh1t talking points. And access to data is only what they want to reveal so it really makes it difficult.
[7] grim – mix shift?
Home prices grew from the previous rolling quarter and year-over-year in May
So what did you do 3b? Stay and pay? Walk away? Foreclose? Short sale?
26.3B says:
June 5, 2012 at 8:59 am
#21People now realize, for the first time since 1937, that house prices can and do fall,” Shilling said.
I realized that in 1987.
JJ, if you don’t mind me asking, when did you buy your house? Did you and your wife time the housing market and analyze housing data when you were married?
18.JJ says:
June 5, 2012 at 8:41 am
All Eight home pricing indexes say same thing. Adjusted for inflation homes are almost back to 1999 pricing.
If the economy has been good to you and you want to show the other guys at the gym that you are a man with means don’t miss this opportunity to store the family jewels in our Gold Man Sacks. Sure a jock may be functional but our Gold Man Sacks show that you are a man of wealth and substance. Order now! For an extra fee, order our blue ribbon Gold Man Sacks to show that you have the means to buy a house in a Blue Ribbon town, after all you are bleeding wealth.
When you walk around the lockerroom in your Gold Man Sacks you will feel the shrinkage all around you from those who cant afford to store their jewels in style.
Standard size, extra large. Slight additional cost for large. Medium and small not available.
“Walk away?”
The theme song for the next year of the housing market?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmpJZ8hNZR0&feature=fvwrel
Former head of Deutsch Bank says Germany will do everything to rescue the Euro zone. Merkel says no Euro-Bonds, but is open to helping. Is Germany really going to be able to handle this mess? I just don’t see it.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/germany-will-rescue-euro-zone-ackermann-2012-06-04?dist=beforebell
#29 Brian: Stayed and paid, thats waht real men did back in the day!!
And as the Spring market starts to close for the year, in the land of the Unicorn, more listings are coming on every day, 7 new ones in less than a week. And lots of price drops on houses that have been sitting. Those 12k taxes on starter houses and up from there are a problem.
[12] Dissident – One video is a trailer for an HBO documentary, the other is a (hacky) Obama attack piece with poor editing (“One thing we can agree on upon”, for example). Not really contrasting videos. I’m no Obama fan, either. BTW, FinancialArmageddon.com isn’t known to be “fair and balanced” with contrasting views, I don’t think. I’m interested in the HBO doc, though.
Thanks. That’s what I thought. I didn’t sleep much last night (the baby is teething crying and keeping everybody up) and after reading the Gary Shilling article and JJ’s post, I sometimes question my own sanity in doing that. I’m thankfull I bought a smaller house where I can afford the payment. Better that than living in a huge house I can barely afford that comes with a tax bill that makes you want to gargle drano.
34.3B says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:11 am
#29 Brian: Stayed and paid, thats waht real men did back in the day!!
3b 23 Agreed.
3b 34 “Stayed and paid” and still took a loss as I recall. Brain was not around for your tale, thought he might get the wrong idea.
[21] Brian – Schilling has the direction right, the S&P 500 will be lower at year end. It’ll definitely be lower when priced in gold. What’s unknown is whether it will also be lower when priced in dollars.
I’d bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I’d either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. Didn’t matter. It didn’t mean anything. When I was broke I would go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking.
The mob? The Fed Reserve? :)
Brain 37 options are limited anyway, gonna run & rent I think not .
Yeah I think the one thing I sacrificed was my mobility buying a house. Renting, you can move where you want when your lease is up but I think my wife and I sacrificed our mobility anyway when we decided to have kids.
Everytime I think it through I’m back to stay and pay. My life is less about myself now anyway and mostly about my kids.
I guess I’m just tired today. My daughter kept us up most of the night and my 3 year old flushed his underpants and shirt down the toilet yesterday and I spent the better part of the evening unclogging the sewer main.
Ugh.
41.Mikeinwaiting says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:30 am
Brain 37 options are limited anyway, gonna run & rent I think not .
#38 Mike: Thats right, stayed paid and took a loss even after 10 years, and improvements.
#37 Brian: It gets better, the yeares go quickly!!! Small house is fine, don’t get caught in the bigger is better silliness.
re # 16 – Bernanke can QE till the cows come home and he will. We have no control of our future here there will be only inflation and lots of it.
As far as Europe goes, the least painful way for the Germans to deal with it is for Germany to exit the EU now, before the rest of them drag them down into a depression.
Cool Thanks 3b. It’s just a little POS cape. We dormered part of the back and added a bath and I had the place resided. It’s everything we need right now.
44.3B says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:56 am
#37 Brian: It gets better, the yeares go quickly!!! Small house is fine, don’t get caught in the bigger is better silliness.
Another just closed in The Fly:
Last LP: $849,000 ML#: 1145127
Addr: 9 GREENTREE TER RES/S
Twn: TENAFLY Zip: 07670
Orig LP: $899,000
Sold: $790,000
Taxes: $16,793
SD: 6/4/2012 UCD: 3/23/2012 DOM: 96
#46 Sounds good all around.
32 – here is a great cover of “Walk Away.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjQT2SCD3UM
the guitar solo starts at around the 4:00 mark but it really heats up after that.
#45 Juice: I agree. But I still the Bernank will ease further. May’s ISM number just came out, essentially flat form the month before. Bernank is getting all the cover he needs to continue with QE-eeing.
Don’t forget Germany has precedent in this area. They had to clean up and absorb East Germany. It came with a boat load of debt and a very high unemployment rate.
Of course. Actually I mistimed big on selling. I got lucky in my 20s when I bought a coop in the fall of 1991 at the absolute low. I got lucky again in buying my house as I bought December 1999 and the housing bubble pretty much started on 1-1-2000. My big mistake was selling my coop for 86K in Feb 2000 as I sold it to a single kid from Morgan Stanley in his mid twenties who did absolutely nothing to it. I mean my bedroom my wife made me pain a girlie color and I had National Wholesale Liquidators mini-blinds. Guy sold it Spring of 2005 for 230K!!! Did nothing to it. I lost on that.
I paid 280K for house, was able to get 3k knocked off at closing for some minor repairs not done which got me house for 277K. I put down 120K downpayment and financed 160k mortgage. I Paid of Mortgage in late 2008. My taxes are $8,400 a year. Insurance is $2,000 a year. House is small, so lawn service costs me $25 bucks a week. Used to mow my own lawn up till the summer of 2006, but wife ended up on bed rest with third kid and it was lawn service or get a cow to graze on the hay. Since third came so busy on weekends dont have time to mow. Bascially I am lucky I have never had high housing expenses. Even with housing bust houses are expensive, my house is worth still around 400K. My orginal 120K down on my house at todays prices would leave me a 280k mortgage. I also noticed taxes are slightly higher on homes bought from 2004-2010 as purchase price slight effects assessed value. I managed to keep my taxes somewhat reasonable. I know people in PA will say OMG $8,400 for a small 1,600 square foot house in taxes. But I got three kids in a great school district, nice parks, good summer programs, sewers, three day a week garbage pick-up. If they cut taxes to $6,400 I am only saving 2k, but services would be killed. Also helpful my property taxes are steady. I paid 6k a year in 2000 and now I pay $8,400 in 2012, My property taxes have risen $200 bucks a year on average. Not bad.
Actually sometimes I shake my heads at people in NJ with land. Guy I know has three acres in Hunterdon. Meanwhile, no pool, no tennis court, no trampoline, no dog, no fence, parts of land is just wild trees loaded with ticks he cant use. I have a small backyard, jammed with stuff, every square inch used. I go to parks or beach when I want open spaces. I also park my car in street. Guy in hunterdom has space in driveway for like twenty cars, meanwhile he is paying taxes on all that space 365 days a year. I have space for one car in my driveway. I load up block with cars every party. Guy from Hunterdom cant understand why I have a BMW sitting out on street. Why it is a good deal. Tax free parking spot. I noticed everyone on block uses plot for house or yard, Cars are a waste. Most dont even have garages. Would I like more land yes, but people make mistakes on upkeep of big houses, anyone who thinks a big old house is grand should watch the movie the money pitt. My house I could work in trader joes for benefits 20 hours a week and easily pay my bills.
Brian says:
June 5, 2012 at 9:04 am
JJ, if you don’t mind me asking, when did you buy your house? Did you and your wife time the housing market and analyze housing data when you were married?
18.JJ says:
June 5, 2012 at 8:41 am
All Eight home pricing indexes say same thing. Adjusted for inflation homes are almost back to 1999 pricing.
Brian, in the scheme of things you have healthy kids and an affordable roof over your head. What more could you ask for? If you can preserve most of your capital until the great reset is over consider it victory.
JJ never saw the point in land either, buddy built a house on 55 ACs choking now. One ac is almost to much for me, of course I grew up with an alley way between homes.
[26] gary – I realized that in 1987 too. I bought a 2BR 1.5bath condo conversion as an insider. I even ponied up an extra $5,000 to buy an extra garage. Can’t lose, right? wrong.
[55] I meant 3b, not gary
[55] I lost my job the exact day of the ’87 Oct market crash. I figured I could get out of my condo closing, scheduled the following week due to this material event, but I didn’t say anything and closed anyway.
[57] After buying at the top in ’87, I got RE license 6 months later. Another brilliant move.
Uggh some NJ police state fun. Sad part is the statute was already on the books it is now going through legal hoop jumping to apply to unrestrained pets. 40 bucks for adult not wearing a seatbelt 200 bucks for fido
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/06/02/new-fines-in-place-for-cats-and-dogs-that-dont-buckle-up-in-new-jersey/
Agreed. Funny thing is the next qe wont be about buying rates down since rates are already super low nut it will be borrow print and spend to spark inflation. If we are smart we will use the printed stimulus funds to rebuild assets and infrastructure we will need 50 yrs into future.
Juice Box says: June 5, 2012 at 9:58 am
re # 16 – Bernanke can QE till the cows come home and he will. We have no control of our future here there will be only inflation and lots of it.
How does inflation lead to job creation? Or, is the QE to infinity simply to pay for dead assets and obligations?
#60 Then we will simply have stagflation.
Pain,
My dog is very good in the car, unless he’s restrained. I guess I’ll just have to drive with one hand and make my dog lay down whenever I see a cop. Sounds much safer to me.
Speaking of police state, I was wondering where Chuck Schumer got the idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsfluchtsteuer
Ironic, eh?
“Of course. Actually I mistimed big on selling”
JJ
Most people don’t do that. I mean I looked for research but the majority of it chearleaded homeownership. I don’t even think Grim’s blog was around then….Plus I hadn’t finished school and hadn’t taken business classes so I had no idea what a business cycle was anyway. I remember reading your post where you described saving most or all of your wife’s salary. We did the same thing. We pretty much did the math on what kind of mortgage we could afford and saved her salary in addition to our rent and used it as a down payment. Trouble is, we were married in 2004 and all the saving really didn’t get us anywhere. Sort of felt like running up a down escalator. What it did, was push us further away from where the jobs were so we bought a less expensive house in Sussex County.
What I really hate is how guys like Gary Shilling think they have some idea of what the regular guy on the street is thinking. My decision to buy a house had a lot more factors involved than just what the direction of housing prices would do. Things were really going to sh1t around me and I just wanted to be that guy that was starting a family and show the rest of my realatives what stability should look like. Around 2006/2007 My dad was fired from his job. My brother lost his job (then his PITA fiance dumped him), plus my parents split up after 30+ years. All while my wife was going through similarly painful stuff with her side of the family. I was just trying to put down roots and be the guy that pulled the family together and grounded everybody. It was part of the fight for strong family values and a close family that supports each other for me.
Plus an Indian family moved in above us towards the end of our lease in our apartment and there were times when I swear they had a dozen people living up there. The sleep deprivation was driving me slightly crazy.
[54] mike
Whaddya complaining about? JJ grew up IN an alley, that he built with his own two hands.
Depends on what you do with it. My wife’s uncle has a huge piece of property in Hope Township. Don’t know how many acres. There’s a pond on the property with a stream full of bass. I love fishing there. Plus he’s a big hunter. There’s a ton of deer and turkey and other game on his property. He has a catering business on the side so, he sometimes cooks all sorts of wild game for us to try. He has ATV’s too. They’re a ton of fun. Also, the property came with a huge barn. In the winter, he has all sorts of people that store their motorcycles, classic cars, and boats in there for a fee. Some really cool cars in there too from the 20’s. I love going in his old barn it’s like going to a museum.
54.Mikeinwaiting says:
June 5, 2012 at 10:32 am
JJ never saw the point in land either, buddy built a house on 55 ACs choking now. One ac is almost to much for me, of course I grew up with an alley way between homes.
I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Schlitz.
Live royal, my friends.
#65 Brian: I don’t think Schilling is commenting on what the regular guy in the street is thinking, I think he is simply voicing his opinion. People will do ultimately do what they will want to do, and then hope for the best. If you bought within your means, and plan to stay for some time, you will be fine.
I had a family member who bought a condo at the peak, he asked me my opinion, I told him to wait. At the time it was bubble mania,and people were possessed. (This was shortly after I had sold my place, and people did the whispering, tongue clicking they are crazy thing), Guy was not even married yet, told him to wait, rent for a few years, like we used to do back in the long ago 1980’s and let this thing play out.
Long story short, 3 months later they bought a condo. 5 years later 2 kids in a 2 bedroom condo (boy and girl), bought way above Westchester Co, easy 40% hit or more if they sell. Their 20% down payment is gone, and they are stuck.
#69 – 3b – I know plenty of Joes that bought during the 80s bubble who paid and stayed it out. I don’t think the latest crowd however will stay. Too many HAMP issues and walk aways already. A coworker of mine told me yesterday about his family member who walked away from a Condo in Orlando years ago and is currently renting it out collecting the money and not paying the mortgage. Another sis-in-law of a family member is doing the same thing down there as well. I am not so certain people will choose morals over their wallet this time, heck most of them don’t even bother to go to church services anymore. Several friends and coworkers are POed because they cannot refi under HAMP, and are still paying around 5% but are very angry about it. It will boil over especially if prices drop more.
My great dane does not fit in the back seat of my SUV.
Restraints? Not possible.
3b (62)-
Wake me when it’s time to start rounding up central banksters.
[63] Lib – If Little Gator is very good in the car, needs no restraint also? Or are they both so good that they know how not to be projectiles? I see a lot of people break a lot of laws on the roadway, but I never saw a single one who could break the laws of physics.
My dog is very good in the car
My mom and dad rented a rent controlled apt in 1957 when they were newlweds. They held onto it till January 1974. We slept in living room as there was no bedroom. Rent was insanely cheap, but nieghbor hood went to hell. I recall my Dad yelling at my Mom about taking on a Huge $200 a month mortgage payment in 1974 and giving up his $80 bucks a month rent controled apt. Funny giving rent has risen on rent controled units around 2% a year if you kept doing 2 year leases even after 38 years of increases my Dads old apts rent would be a joke. What he did not factor in was he paid 36K for a house that later sold for 550K.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
June 5, 2012 at 11:21 am
[54] mike
Whaddya complaining about? JJ grew up IN an alley, that he built with his own two hands.
I was in two extremely high speed accidents and as cars were rolling down road I was ducking and weaving with my cat like reflexes. The laws of physics dont really apply to me. At one point I was ejecting from vehicle but changed my mind and went back into vehicle. What appears to be 70mph to the average human is actually in slow motion to me. I think on flip two I stopped and adjusted the radio and flip three I read the sports section.
The Original NJ Expat says:
June 5, 2012 at 11:51 am
[63] Lib – If Little Gator is very good in the car, needs no restraint also? Or are they both so good that they know how not to be projectiles? I see a lot of people break a lot of laws on the roadway, but I never saw a single one who could break the laws of physics.
My dog is very good in the car
[71] grim – Romney roof-rack carrier for you my friend. There’s probably a smartphone app that will help you find hose-off stations.
My great dane does not fit in the back seat of my SUV.
Restraints? Not possible.
#70 Juice: Different time (and not that long ago), we stayed and paid, the thought of walking away was not even there. Now everyone cries, it is not fair,a nd or they did not know. And now of course all the cheerleaders do not want to talk about real estate!! I wonder why??
As far as prices counting to fall. As I say, I am buying but I still think prices are going to fall. I have not yet seen one compelling reason as to why they will not continue to fall.
Anyone underwater on RE right now and strapped is an idiot not to walk away. This is way different from ’87, as that was an inventory-driven cyclical recession. You knew the market- and prices- would rebound eventually. Also, back in ’87, more people were able to withstand selling at a loss, because they had the wherewithal necessary to bring a check to the closing, since paying for housing/taxes/etc didn’t eat every single penny of J6P’s income.
Today, we are in the early phases of a massive, worldwide depression, fueled by a debt deflation that will end in the worldwide meter’s being reset to 0. There will also be nothing but sequentially nastier events leading up to this inevitable reset. Housing will not recover for 50-100 years in the US, as the deflation of housing debt- and its cover-up- is both the trigger and accelerant of so much of the knock-on destruction.
“I prefer Schlitz.”
You know what they say, Gary. “When you’re out of Schlitz….”
Lib it is kind of hard to hide a 120 pound German Shepherd with his head out of the back window of my pick up. Plus they don’t make harnesses big enough for him. I guess I’ll hide him with my guns under the seats while in transport
There is no morality involved in the decision to walk on underwater RE. It’s a simple breach of contract, and if there’s one thing the bank bailouts taught us, it’s that it’s OK to walk away. Our bankster masters do it all the time, and to play the game any way other than the way they do it is pure financial suicide for the individual.
This week kipplingers magazine has an extremely good looking young couple, her tall blonde, nails done blazing white teeth expensive cloths, he is tall full head of hair, young designer clothing expensive watch blazing white teeth both working full time both in late 20s, they are talking about how they just short sold their house for a 250K loss and did it this year to avoid taxes on the forgiving debt. Said they bought home hoping it would go up in value but it fell so they are walking away.
25 years ago could you imagine a young good looking, college educated, well off working couple with no kids just walking away from house and sticking it to bank, let alone going on a photoshoot in a national magazine giving real names and address and bragging about it. No, times have changed. It is Heads I win, Tails you lose.
[75] I was in a ’63 VW beetle that barrel rolled twice in the rain on Route 23 and landed on it’s roof. No seat belts in that car. I was fine. So was my sister. So was my dad. I was 5, my sister was 3 and I remember looking out the windshield as the car turned over and over and over, it was like being in a front-loading washing machine. When the car stopped my first words were, “Daddy, why are you upside down?”. He was still doing a JJ power curl on the steering wheel, still sitting in the drivers seat, even with no seat belts, when a woman pulled over and opened the drivers door and asked if he was OK. Twice and a half times over and landed on the roof, no seat belts, no injuries, no broken glass. I think that incident contributed significantly to the fearlessness I’ve always had when driving cars.
I was in two extremely high speed accidents and as cars were rolling down road I was ducking and weaving with my cat like reflexes. The laws of physics dont really apply to me. At one point I was ejecting from vehicle but changed my mind and went back into vehicle. What appears to be 70mph to the average human is actually in slow motion to me. I think on flip two I stopped and adjusted the radio and flip three I read the sports section.
#78 New: But the Germans are going to fix everything aren’t they??
Today, we are in the early phases of a massive, worldwide depression, fueled by a debt deflation that will end in the worldwide meter’s being reset to 0. There will also be nothing but sequentially nastier events leading up to this inevitable reset. Housing will not recover for 50-100 years in the US, as the deflation of housing debt- and its cover-up- is both the trigger and accelerant of so much of the knock-on destruction.
Wierd coincidence….
I was just working on a bond trader’s pc. He says Gary Shilling was his landlord.
Small world.
#81 New: Agree in many respects. My problem however is twofold, one, they all seem to be crying that it is not fair, and they did not know, and somebody made them or told them and on and on, and second what about all the poor fools that played by the rules, what do we get?? As gary says where is my pony!!!
#86 = 3b
Can’t I just prepay the principle? Sheesh.
78.New Improved Meat says:
June 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Anyone underwater on RE right now and strapped is an idiot not to walk away. This is way different from ’87, as that was an inventory-driven cyclical recession. You knew the market- and prices- would rebound eventually. Also, back in ’87, more people were able to withstand selling at a loss, because they had the wherewithal necessary to bring a check to the closing, since paying for housing/taxes/etc didn’t eat every single penny of J6P’s income.
Today, we are in the early phases of a massive, worldwide depression, fueled by a debt deflation that will end in the worldwide meter’s being reset to 0. There will also be nothing but sequentially nastier events leading up to this inevitable reset. Housing will not recover for 50-100 years in the US, as the deflation of housing debt- and its cover-up- is both the trigger and accelerant of so much of the knock-on destruction.
“and second what about all the poor fools that played by the rules, what do we get?? ”
We get to pay for it all. BOHICA and try to smile when it happens.
No thanks. Just because banks were bailed out doesn’t mean anything changes for me. Life isn’t supposed to be easy. I signed a contract and gave my word that I would pay it back. My word is actually worth something.
81.New Improved Meat says:
June 5, 2012 at 12:08 pm
There is no morality involved in the decision to walk on underwater RE. It’s a simple breach of contract, and if there’s one thing the bank bailouts taught us, it’s that it’s OK to walk away. Our bankster masters do it all the time, and to play the game any way other than the way they do it is pure financial suicide for the individual.
I went thru a toll booth on a bridge in MD. I asked for a receipt and some vaseline. The toll taker wasn’t amused.
Expat…I am aware. My dog just goes ballistic when restrained. I even bought a $75 belt for him to no avail. The second you strap him in, he spends every ounce of energy trying to get free. He’s a bit of a crazy dog. He’s extremely obedient too. Out of the belt, he just lays down on the seat. If this law does pass, it will never be enforced like so many other police state attempts which are merely diversions to keep us from paying attention to the real problems of joblessness and insolvent banks.
That sounds great, but the fact he runs around shooting things and driving his ATV does not make it a good investment.
Bagholder Brian says:
June 5, 2012 at 11:25 am
Depends on what you do with it. My wife’s uncle has a huge piece of property in Hope Township. Don’t know how many acres. There’s a pond on the property with a stream full of bass. I love fishing there. Plus he’s a big hunter. There’s a ton of deer and turkey and other game on his property. He has a catering business on the side so, he sometimes cooks all sorts of wild game for us to try. He has ATV’s too. They’re a ton of fun. Also, the property came with a huge barn. In the winter, he has all sorts of people that store their motorcycles, classic cars, and boats in there for a fee. Some really cool cars in there too from the 20′s. I love going in his old barn it’s like going to a museum.
54.Mikeinwaiting says:
June 5, 2012 at 10:32 am
JJ never saw the point in land either, buddy built a house on 55 ACs choking now. One ac is almost to much for me, of course I grew up with an alley way between homes.
Nom (91): “Vaseline”
The last time I parked at the Meadowlands, upon paying the $30, I asked them to use 5w-30 when they changed my oil. The collector there too was not amused at the least.
Can’t wait to see the police try to issue that ticket to a driver with an unrestrained big dog. Many dogs go crazy when someone in uniform approaches.
Who cares it’s fun.
And your point was that your buddy in Hunterdon county does nothing with his land. My wife’s uncle has a lot of fun on his.
Plus he’s got rent revenue coming in from the barn offsetting some of the cost of owning it.
93.JJ says:
June 5, 2012 at 12:48 pm
That sounds great, but the fact he runs around shooting things and driving his ATV does not make it a good investment.
Lib my resposne would be give it to the dog he is the one refusing to wear his seatbelt the roll down the window.
The riduculousness of it all is not restrained. so back of an SUV no harness – ticket. how is it distracted the driver in the back of the SUV or bed of a pick up. My dog just lays down he has no interest in what is going on up front.
i agree just another distraction. I can almost here them yelling don’t look at the man behind the curtain
[96] Brian,
Stay close to the guy. He has a nompound.
Great WSJ video blurb for this blog:
This woman bought her first house – a topnotch home – at a 46% discount to the listing price. She saved millions.
http://online.wsj.com/video/202CFC67-86BC-4451-885D-2E788A463051.html?mod=wsj_article_tboright
*Brian – warning: the video may cause you to vomit. be careful.
How does one get a talking head job like these broads? How this adds any sort of value to anyone’s day, irrespective of your personal circumstance, is beyond me. This looks more TMZ rather than WSJ.
JJ, I know you know. We all know, you know. Elucidate, please.
Nom, my fiance felt ill and we ended up scrapping the weekend at the last second. We thought about making a go at it this weekend until I saw that the forecast called for thirty five degrees with snow/sleet (!!!!). Yikes. Shelved for summer.
As somebody who is looking to buy a house next year with 2 kids (ages 4 & 6), I would like to buy in one of the ‘blue ribbon-ey’ towns but due to the fact that (1) I can’t afford it and (2) I believe future price appreciation in those towns is limited b/c of taxes, I’m gonna pass and look to 2nd tier towns. I did not grow up in NJ (bergen county) so I’m not too familiar with what towns would be considered 2nd tier town in bergen county. Rochelle Park seems like there might be some potential there since prices are pretty affordable and taxes don’t seem like they’ve gotten crazy yet. My price range is in the $300-350k area.
(52)
JJ,
You can rationalize the outrages prop taxes in NJ/NY (and some other places) by listing the services received, yet countless other places throughout the country have similar services and 1/4 the tax bill.
jj (82)-
Heads I win, tails you lose is a game created by banksters. For individuals to play it any other way is stupidity.
Guess that moral hazard thingy is a bitch.
Want some comps? This one closed @ 475K, two months ago. It needs work but the final hammer price isn’t making me vomit:
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Park_Ridge/sold/1000035275-49-Degroff-Pl-Park-Ridge-NJ-07656
shore (89)-
Guess you missed the memo; there are no longer any rules.
Sure wish that moral hazard thingy could get stuffed back into Pandora’s Box.
brain (90)-
Congratulations. You are a bankster’s wet dream.
Ready? Pay attention: This one sold for $366,500 in 2002. Ten years later, it sold for $355,000. Prices never go down in blue ribbon ‘hoods? Nay nay! Think again:
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Park_Ridge/sold/493855-178-Park-Ave-Park-Ridge-NJ-07656
Got a loan thru the credit union. No banks involed smart guy.
106.New Improved Meat says:
June 5, 2012 at 2:01 pm
brain (90)-
Congratulations. You are a bankster’s wet dream.
This one sold for $485,000, four years ago and sold for 458,000 a few months ago. How’s that for (negative) equity! I’m beginning to smell a pattern!
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Park_Ridge/sold/752423-5-Quackenbush-Ln-Park-Ridge-NJ-07656
JJ [82];
Heads I win, Tails you lose.
That’s the way the big boys taught us to do it. And as much as Sr. Schizo would call me a bankster lackey; I don’t much care about this default any more than I care about Stuy Town — until the government bailouts start rolling; and until Mr. & Mrs. Too Pretty to Pay apply for an FHA or Fannie/Freddie loan in two years that my money will be backstopping.
We’re so Greek I should start drinking ouzo instead of whiskey.
(83)
Expat,
Fearlessness? except for the big bag texter and now dog/child projectiles
;-) Lol I had to ask.
This one sold for $370,000 in 2000 and closed two months ago @ $490,000. That’s a 2% (nominal) increase, year over year. Any Questions?
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Park_Ridge/sold/787405-34-4th-St-Park-Ridge-NJ-07656
(90)
Brian,
You gave your word you’d pay the money back, AND if you didn’t they would foreclose. There is redress for the other party if you break the contract. Contracts are broken all the time. It’s not a moral issue.
Life is not an investment. You are given only one chance to go through it and you try to make the most of the experience. I would prefer having the extra land so I can take a piss outside between the trees and not worry about being seen. I would prefer hanging out in my back yard with no one visible except my family and pets, drinking a cold one, jumping on the diving board into the pool and hanging out. I would prefer driving up to NY near the Delaware river, miles past Port Jervis, hanging out at the lake house, fishing, drinking more good bear. No cell signal (well, barely) no internet. The main thing I wish for is more time on my hands to enjoy it more. Not too much time, though.
If I was more interested in ‘good’ investments, life would be very sad.
(93) That sounds great, but the fact he runs around shooting things and driving his ATV does not make it a good investment.
[34] 3b – Not me. I stayed and got paid. Sort of. My mortgage in October ’87 was a 9.25% ARM. I think I put down $13K on $130K purchase, so my payments were like $1000/month, I think. Well my roommate moved out the next month and, as I said earlier, I was recently unemployed. I believe I made my very first mortgage payment in December ’87 and never made another one. First Federal of Rochester, I think, must have been shocked. They provided the financing for us insiders that were buying and they never got to sell my mortgage because I went delinquent so quick. When I started selling RE 6 months later I started dating another Realtor who was also a paralegal. She typed up the answer to the foreclosure motion while I kept her Chardonnay glass full. I ended up staying all of 1988, 1989, & half of 1990 rent free while I collected rent from various roommates that cycled through. I think July 1990 I was finally being foreclosed on. Since I was burning my credit rating anyway, I maxed out all my credit cards and lines of credit as best I could too. Never had to pay any of it back. If you’re going to do it, don’t take any half measures, just straight out default on all of it and never make another payment. I think in 1998 I logged onto the credit reporting agencies web sites, protested everything still on my credit reports and it was all cleaned up in surprisingly no time. By ’99 I had a car loan and a credit card and no problems rebuilding credit.
#29 Brian: Stayed and paid, thats waht real men did back in the day!!
But I can rationalize them as a % of income. I would have to take a 75% pay cut to move to an area that is not within commuting distance of Manhattan. A better measure to measure property taxes is vs. per cent of income. I know in catskills for instance property tax is a big fat joke. But if you live there full time paying $1,500 a year property tax on 15K income is huge. Paying 10K property tax on 300K income is easy. Paying 20K property tax on 500K income is also not bad. Issue it that people in high tax towns close to NYC often can afford home in retirement. The 15K real estate tax is based on a NYC salary not a retiree salary.
joyce says:
June 5, 2012 at 1:55 pm
(52)
JJ,
You can rationalize the outrages prop taxes in NJ/NY (and some other places) by listing the services received, yet countless other places throughout the country have similar services and 1/4 the tax bill.
Why would I do that?
I can afford the mortgage.
Plus, the lender can go after what little assets I have (maybe a lawyer on the board can speak to that with more specificity)
I like the house.
Plus, why do I even care? Before Trulia and Zillow people probably didn’t obsess over the value of their home. Most probably didn’t even realize they were underwater in previous cycles until the went to sell.
Yes sometimes it p1sses me off. But whaddya gonna do?
I bought a Ryobi drill last summer. I was putting my kids swingset together and my old 12volt craftsman drill broke. So, I just really needed a drill to finish the job. I bought one of those Ryobe one+ 18volt drills with the 1/2 inch chuck. Pretty cool becuause all of the Ryobi stuff is interchangeable and I can use the batteries in any of the tools and even upgrade from Ni-Cad to Lithium Ion later.
So I see in the local flyer yesterday that you can buy a whole kit for father’s day that comes with the drill, circular saw, light, sawsall and case for $89. I am like SH1T! I just paid $79 for the drill! Aw God, now I am underwater on my drill! I can’t possibly use this thing any longer since it is not worth what I paid for it can I?
113.joyce says:
June 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm
(90)
Brian,
You gave your word you’d pay the money back, AND if you didn’t they would foreclose. There is redress for the other party if you break the contract. Contracts are broken all the time. It’s not a moral issue.
Wall Street’s (Other) Great Deleveraging
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47690943
Wonder if all those hot-shots in NNJ / NY / CT have a plan B
Wall Street has good reason to be rattled by the news that Goldman Sachs laid off senior personnel, including managing directors, last week. It is likely the beginning of a new kind of deleveraging that will occur at every major Wall Street firm.
It’s well known that Wall Street has been forced by markets and regulators to delever in the wake of the financial crisis. For the most part, this has been a matter of financial deleveraging: reducing debt to capital ratios, reducing dependence on short-term debt, reducing compensation (especially bonuses) to revenue ratios.
But many Wall Street firms, especially Goldman Sachs [GS 92.20 1.20 (+1.32%) ], have engaged in another form of leverage that has persisted through the crisis but now seems ready to crack. Despite being public companies seemingly dedicated to capitalism, many Wall Street firms remain as high-income workers collectives. Regardless of the legal ownership structure, they are compensation machines for their employees.
Compensation for the upper-middle tier of Wall Street—those below what are called “senior managing directors” at most firms (and “partnership managing director” at Goldman) but above the junior vice-president and associate level—is extremely generous. At Goldman, for instance, managing directors reportedly earn $500,000 in annual salary. Similar figures can be found at most of Wall Street’s bigger institutions.
Most of the people in these roles are extremely intelligent and hard-working. In good times, they can boost a firm’s earnings into the stratosphere. The upper ranks may win the new business, have the client relationships, or construct the trading strategies. But when client business is running hot, the execution of the deals depends on the MDs and VPs.
When business runs cold, however, these upper-middle-ranks are costly.
They have high fixed costs but do not produce much stand-alone income for the firm. Senior managing directors in hard times tend to hoard business for themselves—with the perfectly good reason that there is less work to do, so more time for senior people to be more hands-on.
Wall Street firms describe their people as “human capital.” But in many ways, they are more like “human debt.” They enable a firm to perform better than the actual capital—the senior MDs and partners—would alone. The return on “equity”—that is, the profits going to senior executives—is greater because the MDs and VPs don’t receive as great a share of the profits. But when profits are low, they drain income from senior executives.
Reduced compensation at all levels exacerbated this problem. With senior executives receiving lower levels of compensation than they did before the crisis, there is a tendency to stay on longer. This means there are fewer opportunities for the middle ranks to move up—and thus fewer incentives for them to become profit-centers rather than cost-centers.
Another change in compensation—the move away from annual bonuses and toward higher fixed salaries—has made this problem even more acute.
It is now much harder to reduce the compensation costs of the upper-middle ranks of an investment bank based on a firm’s annual performance. Gone are the days when all a firm had to do was slash bonuses in a tough year. Salaries have become much more akin to debt service.
Finally, a third compensation switch may also be a contributor toward this trend. Firms have been compensating employees with larger levels of equity instead of cash. Many firms, however, believe that their shares are currently underpriced. Awards and options granted now will be costly if prices rise in the future. What’s more, in order to avoid diluting existing shareholders, firms may need to buy back stock when equity compensation grants vest. Paying middle-ranked executives with costly equity may simply be a price too dear for some firms.
So when firms start letting managing directors and vice-presidents go, it is a form of deleveraging. They are reducing their exposure to the high-fixed costs of middle-ranks. But they are also likely reducing their ability to outperform in good years. As with financial deleveraging, personnel deleveraging has both benefits and costs for the returns that firms will be able to make.
It’s very possible that personnel deleveraging could be a long-term cost to firms. It likely exacerbates the desire for middle-ranked executives to be “short-term greedy.” In order to preserve their jobs, they will feel pressure to increase their daily, weekly and quarterly profits. Collaboration may decline and hoarding of business, strategies and client contacts increase.
On the other hand, this could be a temporary phenomenon. Goldman executive Gary Cohn recently said that this year’s class of summer associates at Goldman was so large that it had to be split into two—one group starting last week, the other this week. Perhaps firms are trying to time the market: letting go of the middle-ranks now, while beefing up on the most junior employees who will be ready to play the role of human leverage when business picks up in the future.
(116)
JJ then the services offered doesn’t matter as much as income, or do they? try to keep your story straight
New Jersey has 16 out of the top 25 highest property tax counties (among counties with populations greater than 65,000) in the US. New York has six counties, and Illinois, three. For three counties in New Jersey — Passaic, Essex and Bergen — the median property tax represents over eight percent of median homeowner income. As a benchmark, the average for the US is 2.8 percent.
http://neighborhoodeffects.mercatus.org/2009/10/20/hhi-proptax/
And since wages keep falling and prop taxes keep rising, I assume it’s worse now since then.
‘New York has six counties in the top 25 in the eight percent range.’
101 Simon:
Waldwick is a 2nd tier town in northern BC surrounded by blue ribbony towns. There are houses in your range listed.
Delevering of staff is big on wall street. Goal is to push out highly compensated mid to high level management and it leaves the firm with four opportunities.
1) see if work can be split up and what work can be elminated and not re-fill postion, leave that comp saved for shareholders, to build captial cushions and bonus pool
2) see if a junior staff member can step up to plate and fill role at a lesser salary
3) hire from outside a lower paid person. plus eliminates all deferred comp, unvested bonus, built up sick days and vacation days of prior person
4) if 1, 2 or 3 cant be done replace with outside person at same salary and benefits but get a better person
Meanwhile we know lean times dont last forever, good time to bring in recent grads midyear 2012 cheap, train while older experienced staff is on board. Weed out poor performers in 2013 before they get a full YE bonus in 2014. We all know markets are in a deadlock till after elections. We hope 2013 forward maybe be start of another bull market. Hopefully, a nice five year one. If one starts the bull in 2013 with the lean less expensive staff who are young and trained with no build up of vacation/sick days, no build up of stock grants, 401K matches etc. Lean and mean with higher volumes will be great. By the time younger staff become expensive next bull market will be over and we can show them the door and start again.
“On the other hand, this could be a temporary phenomenon. Goldman executive Gary Cohn recently said that this year’s class of summer associates at Goldman was so large that it had to be split into two—one group starting last week, the other this week. Perhaps firms are trying to time the market: letting go of the middle-ranks now, while beefing up on the most junior employees who will be ready to play the role of human leverage when business picks up in the future”.
#4. Nassau NY 8.1 %
Wall Street has good reason to be rattled by the news that Goldman Sachs laid off senior personnel, including managing directors, last week. It is likely the beginning of a new kind of deleveraging that will occur at every major Wall Street firm.
Tick… tick… tick… tick…
They both matter, my daughters class does multiple languages including Mandarian, has an amazing theater department, head of program produced and starred in Broadway plays, the music program is head by a singer who has her own carbret act in summer, Football coach has sent kids to NFL inculding starting QB, English department had a kid in Spelling Bee Championship on TV this weekend. Entire Elementary School goes on several field trips each year including in sixth grade a few days camping trip. Every kid must learn music and be proficient in an instument by fourth grade. My kid by age of eight spoke two languages, mastered an instrument, appreared in art shows, were in the newspapers for awards and performed in shows in front of 100s of people. My one daughter lost out to kid who went to Scribbs spelling bee championship a few weeks ago. Teachers are competitive. They push kids to bring home the bacon. Not enough to get an A on a spelling test, they want their kid on national tv. Not enough to be in play they want the kid on Broadway. In fact one of the kids in my daughters class in fifth grade was on broadway in a show as a co-star for a few weeks last year. I think outside LI/BC/NYC kids lack drive or ability to even see motivated people. Nike said it best, there is a word for Second Place, it is called Losing. My daughter got for almost making it to the Scribbs national championship and making it through multiple rounds in front of packed rooms, better luck next year. Although pretty proud at nine years of age she made it through several rounds in front of hundreds of people. Damm kid who beat her was 11. Lucky that SOB graduated this year as it is only up to grade six. Other things we do is Personal Finance Courses starting in fourth grade, budgeting, insurance, mortgages. Also tons of gifted programs. I never had any of this growing up. Also 7th graders all get IPADs. Also all rooms have teleconference set up, for instance when they learn about Japan they talk live to Japansese students in the class room. This is public school mind you. Joyce could your school district do this on this budget? Mind you $8,400 is my total tax bill. My school taxes are only $4,900 a year. And I got three kids in school district.
School is a long day. Elementary School on band days starts at 7:25 am and ends at 3:05 pm. Clubs and after school help can drag day to fourish. Meanwhile in Hunderdoom they still have 1/2 day kindergarten. My town has all day kindergarten and they are learning a foreign language already in kindergarten. My town is a little nutso with school. But still for a public school pretty good.
joyce says:
June 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm
(116)
JJ then the services offered doesn’t matter as much as income, or do they? try to keep your story straight
joyce – The people doing stupid things don’t frighten me a bit. In fact I rather enjoy molding their behavior for the better on the roadways. I’m like a mobile driving instructor who doesn’t even need to get in your car to teach you valuable lessons.
Even though I’m an excellent and professionally trained driver, I am fanatical, to some extent about everything I can control. Even when my mechanic changes my winter wheels to my summer wheels, I tell him what torque the lugs should be at, but I pull out my own torque wrench later and recheck them myself and then re-torque them again 100 miles later. That kind of fanatical. When we go on a long trip in our SUV, I pack the rear of the car not just for vision, but for not having any heavy items that can get jettisoned toward my loved ones should something unforeseen occur. Average drivers always go for the brakes in and emergency. Professionals like JJ and I use superior reaction times and maximum acceleration to remove ourselves quickly from the messes you commoners create hours before you even cause them, scant milliseconds in your time frame.
Expat,
Fearlessness? except for the big bag texter and now dog/child projectiles
;-) Lol I had to ask.
Trouble with that approach is it limits future employment opportunities. I’ve worked mostly for financial institutions that like to run background checks, drug screenings, and they run your credit report before you are hired.
115.The Original NJ Expat says:
June 5, 2012 at 2:26 pm
[34] 3b – Not me. I stayed and got paid.
Joyce that number is not correct. They take the average property tax bill and divides by average income. They should take average property tax bill and divide by average income of property tax owners. For instance Great Neck Long Island which had huge mansions, think Great Gatsby, also has tons of apts above stores, a run down areat called “spinney hill”with welfare units and rent control apts for elderly in town. Overall income is not that high. But average homeowner income is high. Back in 1979 I saw a stat that average homeowner income was 100K. Meanwhile overaall aveage income in 2012 is less. The rich park ave plastic surgeon, may have his elderly Mom and mother in law in senior housing in Great Neck, his maid lives in run down Spinney Hill, his Gardner above a store front and his Nanny has a small rent controlled studio. Why are we averaging in all these peoples incomes. Only the home owner should be counted .
joyce says:
June 5, 2012 at 2:49 pm
#4. Nassau NY 8.1 %
Simon depending on what you want to spend and what your threshold is look at towns with the lowest tax caps
Midland Park
Saddle Brook
Fair Lawn
[128] – Brian – That is true. I did miss getting a job consulting at one of the big banks because of that circa ’94 or so. Funny thing was, a consulting company in Hoboken interviewed me for a salaried position as their consultant at the big bank on Wall St. I interviewed with the bank and they liked me, wanted me to do the job, but found out my skills (I think Microsoft Access) weren’t up to snuff. Instead of denying me the job, they provided me some expensive at home software + cassette tape training course to take home for two weeks and they would hire me anyway and do my background checks while I was at home and getting paid. So my company, which hadn’t hired me yet, instantly hired me and sent me home to teach myself Microsoft Access. When my Security check didn’t go so well, I even had an interview over the phone with the guy checking me out. He wanted to know not so much about my credit cards or foreclosure, but specifically about a $12K line of credit from another big bank I defaulted on during that period. You’re probably too young to remember, but the big banks used to send you line of credit “checkbooks” that you used just like cash. Well, I didn’t get the job, which confused me. I thought they shouldn’t care because it wasn’t their bank;-) So the consulting company cut me loose because of this too. They did pay me $2500 and I used their Cobra benefits (Cobra used to be cheap) even though I never worked a day for them.
The other thing was what the job was supposed to be. This big bank had so many consultants working there that they were losing track of them. The answer? They wanted to hire me, as a consultant, to build a database for HR to track the other consultants.
Trouble with that approach is it limits future employment opportunities. I’ve worked mostly for financial institutions that like to run background checks, drug screenings, and they run your credit report before you are hired.
This one sold for $580,000 in 2003 and then $538,000 in Sept., 2011. That would be a slow bleed of $438 per month over eight years. Startling when there’s actual data in front of you, isn’t it? Anyone feel nauseous? Boyaa!
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Park_Ridge/sold/347227-6-Villa-Ct-Park-Ridge-NJ-07656
132 – interesting…you would think a 2003 purchase could at least get out last Sept at 2003-pricing
The only background check I’ve ever worried about is the one DHS runs on me every few weeks.
seif [133],
Indeed, interesting! Does that mean we’re cracking the 1990s in pricing and the best (worst) is yet to come?
re 134
Is is frowned upon to lol on this board?
@122 POP
@130 Painhrtz
Thanks. I’ll check those towns out with the Mrs.
[126] JJ – Sounds like our kids’ school. Other school’s have parents who hate our school because it’s public and has all the resources you mentioned (except iPads) that their schools in the same system don’t. Maximum of 15 kids per class and there are two teachers per class. Mandatory band starting 4th grade and the school provides all instruments. If your kid doesn’t get in at Kindergarten, they never get in because the kids never leave. Also only one class per grade, so 15 K, 15 1st, 15 2nd…etc. The real difference is fundraisers. Since you really have to pull strings (in theory it’s a lottery) to get your kids in, it’s all motivated 2 parent families and they raise a ton of money at all the fundraisers. Kids get to go on way more school trips because they raised enough money to buy their own bus. They don’t even use their own gym because there is a brand new YMCA with pool and climbing wall 5 blocks away and the bus just takes the kids to the YMCA for gym class during the winter. Free before and after school program too, so parents who both work can have their kids there by 7:15AM and they can stay until 5PM. It was originally a K-5 program, put was so successful that some parent donate $500K to change it to a K-8 program maybe 10 years ago and they just 2 years they gave them a whole second school (kicked the other kids out) a half block away to expand a year at a time to K-12. Of course the bright kids test into Boston Latin for 7th grade. My kids have been going to public school since age 3 as they have K0,K1, & K2 – three years of kindergarten. All within Boston Public which has some of the worst schools and some of the best schools. My kids school is one mile away but they go both ways by bus. We give the bus drivers Target and Dunkin Donuts cards at the beginning of the year to make our stop the last one in the morning and the first one in the afternoon;-) My taxes, after the owner-occupy Boston rebate: $2,000. They would be about $3600 if I moved and acted as landlord.
[136] I had to Google both BOHICA and DHS today before I LOL’d.
#04 gary: taht whol eback doubel family room is a little odd, but that is a lot of house. I think Park Ave though may be a somewhat busy street, but still not bad. PR taxes are “nice” too.
Brian [117];
I don’t think its quite so trivial to compare a $90 drill to a $500,000 mortgage. At some point well short of that, the size increase changes the nature of the transaction, and the options presented. Besides, you could always sell the used drill into the down market (like home sellers no seem to have to).
Lastly, the merchant got paid for your Ryobi drill in full. Unless you’re still paying it off your credit card at the minimum payments (the wisdom of which is a whole different discussion) you just don’t have the same options with your drill that you have with your house.
#40 Sorry for the typos, should have said that whole back double family room thing is a little odd.
01 Simon: With that price range you can do Washington Township. And I believe the elementary school may have been blue ribbony at one time. For what it is worth the blue ribbony thing means nothing. Also New Milford, would be well within your price range, in fact you can get 1990’s pricing there now. I would do New Milford before Rochelle par though.
The below listing sold in September of 2003 for 350K, sat for two months at 359K, no takers. Price just dropped today to 349k. Thats nine years boys and girls; if you have any questions ask gary.
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1208926&dayssince=&countysearch=false
#01 Simon: Also Washington Township would fit your criteria. There are othe choices beside R Park, such as New M.
FB hit another new low today. Seems Zuck is also going to now need to answer Congress on what he plans for the under 13 crowd.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/06/05/bloomberg_articlesM53RC607SXKX01-M54BY.DTL
@3B Thanks. I’ll add Washington Township and New Milford to my list.
Anybody have any feelings about Rochelle Park? I personally like the location of Rochelle Park (close to Rte 4, 17, 80, GSP).
145 duh easier access to $exual predators. Ability to coordinate rainbow parties. come up with new slang and code for drug use which is really old slang and code for drug use.
Won’t somebody think of the children and puppies !
I am moving to Boston. How do they do it on such low school taxes.
The Original NJ Expat says:
June 5, 2012 at 4:02 pm
[126] JJ – Sounds like our kids’ school. Other school’s have parents who hate our school because it’s public and has all the resources you mentioned (except iPads) that their schools in the same system don’t. Maximum of 15 kids per class and there are two teachers per class. Mandatory band starting 4th grade and the school provides all instruments. If your kid doesn’t get in at Kindergarten, they never get in because the kids never leave. Also only one class per grade, so 15 K, 15 1st, 15 2nd…etc. The real difference is fundraisers. Since you really have to pull strings (in theory it’s a lottery) to get your kids in, it’s all motivated 2 parent families and they raise a ton of money at all the fundraisers. Kids get to go on way more school trips because they raised enough money to buy their own bus. They don’t even use their own gym because there is a brand new YMCA with pool and climbing wall 5 blocks away and the bus just takes the kids to the YMCA for gym class during the winter. Free before and after school program too, so parents who both work can have their kids there by 7:15AM and they can stay until 5PM. It was originally a K-5 program, put was so successful that some parent donate $500K to change it to a K-8 program maybe 10 years ago and they just 2 years they gave them a whole second school (kicked the other kids out) a half block away to expand a year at a time to K-12. Of course the bright kids test into Boston Latin for 7th grade. My kids have been going to public school since age 3 as they have K0,K1, & K2 – three years of kindergarten. All within Boston Public which has some of the worst schools and some of the best schools. My kids school is one mile away but they go both ways by bus. We give the bus drivers Target and Dunkin Donuts cards at the beginning of the year to make our stop the last one in the morning and the first one in the afternoon;-) My taxes, after the owner-occupy Boston rebate: $2,000. They would be about $3600 if I moved and acted as landlord.
Facebook is also going after Fetuses, they apparently are the only living humans who don’t know yet that Facebook sucks.
Juice Box says:
June 5, 2012 at 4:37 pm
FB hit another new low today. Seems Zuck is also going to now need to answer Congress on what he plans for the under 13 crowd.
129
JJ
People who rent pay the property tax of the landlord (owners).
(127)
If you’re not afraid of the stupid things that people do while driving, why do you think we need all these laws against them?
Ps. Thank you for telling JJ an example of a good public school district with very low taxes.
in a fair market non-regulated rental market yes. In Great Neck no. Plus lots of units are public housing in some towns. Rockville Centre is a rich town for instance. They had the bright idea at one point in the 1960s they should build public housing units and shove tons of welfare people into them. I dont even think apts pay property taxes. Plus you have towns like Freeport with seven families living in a single house. Average family income is super low. Lets say house has 8k taxes. Cut up to 8 illegal apts who most work off the books. It is loopy. They should count landlords income not tennant. Even my house, town counts household income. WTF I am only person who earns income. At one point for instance I was on the lease in a Hampton house, had a rent stabalized apt in NYC, owned a coop in Queens, guess what none of them was my legal residence. My legal residence was where I got my mail mainly. They somehow have to tie it back to owners ability to afford property tax and cut out all the noise.
The Boston taxes are good and Boston has decent salaries. But I still would need to take around a 200K pay cut to move there. hardly worth it to save 6k in taxes. I would love to move and consider it sometimes but really Atlanta best offer is 100k, NJ best offer was like 120K, even Boston and Philly best offer maybe 160K. Considering a cop married to a school teacher in my town is pulling down 210K for basically part time work and LIRR conductors make 140K it is crazy that jobs that require graduate degrees and running departments and years of experience pay what a train conductor makes.
joyce says:
June 5, 2012 at 5:01 pm
129
JJ
People who rent pay the property tax of the landlord (owners).
Regarding Joyce’s list of high tax counties (top 3 printed below), inasmuch as one pays for these taxes with after-rax income (yea I know some folks get a reduction of income tax but it is not 1 for 1) the hit is even worse:
Here are all the top 25 counties (I truncated the list ):
Highest 25 Property Tax Counties in United States, 2008 (Median Homeowner Property Tax as a Percentage of Median Homeowner Income)
County State Taxes as % of Income
1. Passaic NJ 8.7%
2. Essex NJ 8.3
3. Bergen NJ 8.2
Property taxes are odd, they are not based on income. They are based on value or size of your home. People with high incomes who never traded up, property tax is not even a blip to them. My quarterly estimated tax payment is my real PITA. I get nothing in return for that. I know lots of people who put down zero dependents even through they have a wife and kids and pay max payroll tax and have to keep writing checks to state and fed every 90 days. I pay 4x my property taxes in estimated tax payments and I usually owe taxes at year end!! Where that money goes is a black hole. School tax sure they waste a lot of it, but at least I see where it goes.
JJ:
http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics5.asp#axzz1wxWHYE5n
aka: diff’rent strokes.
The whole idea of taxing property based on its value at a given moment seems a bit odd. Lets say JJ and I live in identical houses, except mine is a dump and his is in bristol shape. Why should he pay more in taxes? He will not get more police or fire protection than I. He will not get more use of parks than I.
No more odd than basing tax on income.
Market forecasters estimate that Wall Street could see job cuts over the next quarter of between 10 percent and 15 percent.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/cruel_summer_xkJ9nxWgRukmM0Nn2BFzxK
Income involves a flow of money, property value does not. If the tax were based on the square footage of the lot, it would make more sense.
Shore158 doesn’t work either , everybody builds biggest house they can on the smallest lot. Or how about a guy with an old one room log cabin on 2 ACs up my way.
People still watch horse racing?
http://news.yahoo.com/labor-woes-belmont-triple-crown-bid-nears-141351500–spt.html
NEW YORK (AP) — A mediator was trying to settle a labor dispute at Belmont Park that threatens to scratch I’ll Have Another’s chance of winning thoroughbred racing’s first Triple Crown in more than 30 years.
snip
About 150 union members at NYRA’s Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks have been working without a contract since February 2011, a year after the previous contract was given a one-year extension. The workers last month authorized a strike to begin Friday, a day before the running of the Belmont Stakes, the final jewel in the Triple Crown. I’ll Have Another is trying become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978.
snip
2 “back on market” in the Tenafly “under contract listings.
Inspection issues? Appraisal issues? Don’t know, but they are back on. Also, several of the under contracts are way past the estimated close date but still no info posted yet (from as far back as 5/15 and 5/25).
I only watch horse racing for the fights.
Oh wait…that’s hockey.
#68 gary
I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Labatts Blue $0.93/24oz. Eh!
Scott Walker wins in Wisconsin. Poor organization and leadership by the Democrats. You can’t blame the voters, they followed the lead of their leadership. Instead of voting they ran away to other states and hid;-)
Didn’t someone here say they drink Schlitz beer?
When I drink beer, I don’t go below Dogfish Head 60. Cheap beer gives me the farts.
Don’t buy cheap shoes or cheap beer. Sometimes, cheap is expensive.
I also like Westmalle Tripel.
My wife toggles between Tanqueray with olives and DFH IPA 60….
Debt Deflation Supercycle says:
June 5, 2012 at 10:28 pm
When I drink beer, I don’t go below Dogfish Head 60
I found this post earlier today while in the office Very useful Sent the link to myself and will most likely bookmark njrereport.com when I make it home
166
Just last week I had the Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA for the 1st time (a phenomenal beer) and last night had their Indian Brown. What a great brewery. I look forward to trying the 120 Minute IPA and the rest of their lineup.
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/index.htm
Horse racing is huge and a major growth industry. Just dont in the USA, in Asia they have the largest race track in the world and in Saudi Arabia a huge past time. Paramutual software to support it is cutting edge and sums involved is outrageous. At Belmont this Sunday the cash bet will be insane.
Shore Guy says:
June 5, 2012 at 6:31 pm
People still watch horse racing?
I love Belgian beer. Great stuff. My wife’s family is from Belgium and they smuggle over the best beers when they visit. Still, I’m no rich guy so my everyday drinking beer is Yuengling. If I buy a six pack of something good, or a Tripel or whatever, it’s usually not around for very long :)
Funniest moment was when my wife’s family from Belgium was visiting to help us move into our appartment. On the drive over in the moving truck my wife’s cousin was going on about how great the beer is in Belgium. So I offer him a beer when we get to my apartment but all we have is Milwakee’s best light in the refrigerator. He was a good sport and drank it anyway.
167.Debt Deflation Supercycle says:
June 5, 2012 at 10:29 pm
I also like Westmalle Tripel.
172 – I say we get a little fund together to buy Brian a few sixes of some topnotch craft beers. $40 could get you 4 6-packs (a 4 pack in the case of Dogfish 90 Minute IPA). I will put a few bucks in. How could we arrange such a thing? We would have to be assure that he spends the money on the craft beer…and not paying down that damn mortgage!
She told me we couldn’t afford beer anymore..
http://i.imgur.com/mpY5y.jpg
Invested money doubles every 10 years. Every 40 Brian spends on fancy pants beer is really stealing $480 from his kids inheritance money. I like the the three dollar 24 ounce tall boys at Penn, ice cold, fresh and makes my train ride tolerable on a hot day. Us blue collar working class folk like me dont need fancy pants beer. I got kids to support.
seif says:
June 6, 2012 at 9:11 am
172 – I say we get a little fund together to buy Brian a few sixes of some topnotch craft beers. $40 could get you 4 6-packs (a 4 pack in the case of Dogfish 90 Minute IPA). I will put a few bucks in. How could we arrange such a thing? We would have to be assure that he spends the money on the craft beer…and not paying down that damn mortgage!
I haven’t been around much – just been crazy busy with work, house, etc….
Please email me (via Grim, if necessary) for the annual June b’day/pool/miniGTG at the still_lookings…
Sat June 16th. afternoon til evening…..
sl
6.5 Million LinkedIn Accounts May Be Compromised
http://lifehacker.com/5916177/65-million-linkedin-accounts-may-be-compromised-change-your-passwords-now
Just send me the money :)
11 Pondview Dr
UPPER BROOKVILLE, NY 11771
for you players, ultilmate compound, priced for less than construction cost.
Brian and Seif ( wow something we agree on!) my everyday beer has progessed back to a canned beers. Weird i know, but i just poor them into a frosty glass. there are some craft brewers making great canned brews. Butternuts Pork Slap ale is tops on my list right now but their IPA is sufficient. I also am a big fan of Dale’s Pale Ale. All are great beers and reasonably priced for everyday use.
180 – yes…beer seems to be one of the only places that my Venn diagram overlaps with many other posters.
FB dropping again seems Parker & Fanning’s Press Event for Airtime.com full of celebs calling FB boring and outdated will be taking another bite out of the Zuck.
http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-blog/2012-06-05-sean-parker-calls-facebook-boring-launches-video-chat-service/
10 year at 1.61,gotta get the QE going again. Meanwhile one of the Fed Governor’s said Operation Twist which expires end of June could be (translated will be) extended, more cover for the Bernank.
I am going to quote the great Jaimie Dimon from 2003. “Every day you people show up to work and collect a paycheck you are stealing from the bank and its shareholders”. Next Question please.
From a town hall meeting in 2003 when an employee asked if he would continue the tuition reimbursement program when he is full CEO.
I love Jaimie. The employees of Chase are thieves. If it was up to me, Jaimie would get his huge check and shareholders would get a huge dividends. Damm employees are stealling every day by collecting paychecks.
re# 183 3B – Bernanke now has his cover, one year TIPS now pricing in deflation, it inverted from -2.5% to 0% in 4 months. Last time this happened was 2009.
What craft beer do you guys think is closest to Sam Adams Summer Ale?
try Lagunitas Sumpin’ Sumpin Ale (if you can get your hands on it) or even Saranac White IPA.
they are both light and refreshing for Summer.
Ibonds rock compared to TIPs. Plus Gold/Oil way down and housing is flatlined to down. I can fill up my SUV, buy wife gold earnings and a mcmansion for peanuts now!!! So what if I cant afford to eat as grocery prices are sky high.
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2012 at 10:40 am
re# 183 3B – Bernanke now has his cover, one year TIPS now pricing in deflation, it inverted from -2.5% to 0% in 4 months. Last time this happened was 2009.
JJ you’re so rich it doesn’t matter
Distress Properties for the Masses
That’s be for the folks who need to make up for what they lost on the FB IPO.
I love the listings that say “Buyer assumes responsibility of occupancy”. Pay ~$50k, here’s your piece of paper; good luck getting that squatter out of your house. I like the odds on “I’ll Have Another” to win Saturday better.
[175] JJ – at ~7.2% it doubles every 10 years. I don’t know why kids aren’t really taught the rule of 72 in 4th grade. Divide an interest rate into 72 and that’s how long it takes for the money to double. Surprisingly accurate for interest rates below 24% or so.
I used to grab a cold 16 ounce Bud in PA before taking the short bus trip back to Nutley, $2 in the mid 90’s I think. A guy had dozens of them in a barrel of ice right at the entrance of the store, just to the right as you walk into PA from 42nd st, took seconds to buy it as I walked buy. I would usually sit mid way back in the bus and crack it open as soon as we got into the Lincoln Tunnel. On a hot July day every man on the bus’s head would snap swivel with jealousy when they heard that unmistakable sound. My local liquor store now sells 18 packs of Bud Light tall boys for $15.99. That seems pretty cheap for these days. I wonder if beer is still dirt cheap up in the Finger Lakes and up that way like it used to be.
Invested money doubles every 10 years. Every 40 Brian spends on fancy pants beer is really stealing $480 from his kids inheritance money. I like the the three dollar 24 ounce tall boys at Penn, ice cold, fresh and makes my train ride tolerable on a hot day. Us blue collar working class folk like me dont need fancy pants beer. I got kids to support.
Had aSierra Nevada Blonde the other week. It’s an absolutely fantastic Blonde.
Jill i usually drink the Sam but here are some good choices if price is not the option
Victory Brewery Summer Love
Brooklyn Summer Ale
New Belgium Brewrey Somersualt
If you want less pricey there is always sarnac. or yuengling
Plenty of 8% Bank Trups at TBTF Banks with a 8.2% coupon at Par. Means in 8.8 years money doubles.
That 100K kitchen/bath reno is rally a 200K reno in nine years, a 400K reno in 18 years and a a 800K reno and in 27 years. Meanwhile in 27 years kitchen will be worthless and your 100K is gone. I did my kitchen and enjoy it but it is just a waste of money no different than gambling at Vegas. Yet realtors and home improvement guys pass it off as an investment. Yea maybe if you are a home flipper and got house cheap as kitchen was a trainwreck and are selling immediately. But not if you are a homeowner.
For instance newlywed couple behind me I see they cut a big sliding door to yard, put in a huge concrete patio and now have a mac truck with pavers to cover it into something fancy. Why dont they just dig a home in hard and start throwing buckets of 100 dollar bills in. He is a young cop with a working wife who looks like a clerk, He also threw out appliances that worked for new ones. Why I dont know. He also resanded floors, painted walls, so on and so on, meanwhile home was mint. he bought in December 2010 so I am sure he paid to refinance already and has taken out home loans. He is basically stealing from his kids future. He should pay down mortgage and invest in stocks and bonds. But like many he is under optical illusion a home is an investment. A REO/Short Sale/ Estate Sale/ Rental/ Fixer upper bought for cash on the cheap, fixed and flipped or rented is an investment. He paid full market price for a mint home that showed well. That is no more an investment than buying a new car.
The Original NJ Expat says:
June 6, 2012 at 11:04 am
[175] JJ – at ~7.2% it doubles every 10 years. I don’t know why kids aren’t really taught the rule of 72 in 4th grade. Divide an interest rate into 72 and that’s how long it takes for the money to double. Surprisingly accurate for interest rates below 24% or so.
The Victory Summer Love is very good as well. Actually, nearly everything Victory brews is top notch.
Expat,
Can’t drink on buses anymore. Still can on the trains, although I’m guessing its only a matter of time before that’s prohibited as well. LIRR recently banned it on weekend late night trains.
Anyone try the Leinenkugel’s line of beers? Sort of a Sam Adams – ish price and what I buy when I splurge.
Lib I am a huge fan of their stuff as well even if they are a bunk of Pikers from the Philly area.
I told my wife I would leave her if Prima Pils were a woman.
[196] Pete – You couldn’t back then either, that’s why I’d be discreet. What’s the driver going to do in the middle of the Lincoln Tunnel, anyway?
Can’t drink on buses anymore. Still can on the trains, although I’m guessing its only a matter of time before that’s prohibited as well. LIRR recently banned it on weekend late night trains.
stupid auto correct squirrels bunk = bunch
i have had the Linenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown. would buy it again.
*Leinenkugel
re: beer
thoughts, in no particular order:
– I recently had a couple from Belgium stay with us. Poor guy lugged over a bottle of Chimay (red label) only to find a 25oz corked resting in my fridge. He was rather unimpressed with what I had prepared for that evening and kept asking for darker and stronger.
– Porkslap brews are indeed delicious; a bacony high five to the brewmasters.
– Jill: Though not a wheat ale, but rather a pale ale brewed with apricots, I think you’ll find that Magic Hat’s #9 fills the same niche as Summer Ale. This is also my go-to daily brew between March and October and it is relatively easy to find. On a related note; I’m convinced Sam Adam’s changed its formulation for Summer Ale. A few years back it became drier and more peppery and I no longer prefer it.
– Higher up the beer hierarchy (and my list of favorites) is Six Point, a brewery located in Brooklyn; not to be confused with Brooklyn Brewery. Sixpoint’s crafts are outstanding though somewhat pricey (you essentially get four and change for the price of six). I recommend Sweetaction, part ale, part wheat, smooth, sweet and malty. Their IPA offering is called Bengali Tiger. Their take on the summer ale, a very smooth, full floral wheat beer with hints of banana, is called Apollo. These are all tall cans and come in packs of four.
– Shame on the Sam Adam’s gang not brewing Noble Pils (a seasonal) this year, the most refreshing, crisp, citrusy Pils this side of Bavaria. I’ve heard stories about this being available year round, but I doubt it. It’s simply amazing.
– A few years back I decided that I simply cannot drink anymore Black&Tan. Since then I don’t pick up Yuengling, even at $4.99 for a six pack.
– Farmstead Hill remains on my to-do list
– Brian, you just can’t go on drinking corn-water and calling it beer. If you want us to turn a blind eye, then stop communicating beer related horrors that occur on your watch. I recently discovered that Sam’s Club has a surprisingly good, and stupid cheap, beer selection, with Belgian, Saranac, Sam/Magic variety packs in addition to cans of generic swill from the smokestacks Newark.
I have one of these sitting in my basement beer fridge…it was a gift and I haven’t figured out just yet if I am supposed to drink it with a pancake breakfast, which seems like the logical choice:
http://rogue.com/beers/voodoo-bacon-maple.php
Lastly;
I some time ago I stopped at this unsuspecting looking place at the mouth of the Holland tunnel called Super Buy-Rite Wine and Liquor. I was on my way to a BBQ and needed to pick something up. What I found inside was the largest collection of beers under one roof. Ever.
Every brewery, geographically arranged from west coast to easy in the coolers, and by country on the floor pallets. The selection was deep too. They didn’t just have..say a lager or a pale ale from Kona Brewery in Hawaii… they had the whole damn Kona line!
If you’re ever passing through…
Easy there tough guy. No need to go all beer snob on me. I think maybe you meant to post over in the whine forum. I only drink that stuff to rehydrate anyway.
By the way, I just bought a Sam Adams variety pack that had the Noble Pils in it. Also, there’s an italian place down the road from me that has a liquor license. They had it on tap about 2 months ago.
– Brian, you just can’t go on drinking corn-water and calling it beer. If you want us to turn a blind eye, then stop communicating beer related horrors that occur on your watch. I recently discovered that Sam’s Club has a surprisingly good, and stupid cheap, beer selection, with Belgian, Saranac, Sam/Magic variety packs in addition to cans of generic swill from the smokestacks Newark.
So, the First Lady is yukking it up on Letterman as further evidence of her husband’s inevitable demise is previewed in Wisconsin. I think Michelle and Barry need to get their own reality show and call it, “Chillin’ with the Obameez.” Since that’s the direction that this country has gone, it’s only fitting. We’ve gone from roast beef and mashed potatoes to cheese whiz and saltines in just under four years.
And why would the progressives and liberals in Wisconsin be p1ssed off that the people paying THEIR salaries are questioning where the money is going? If I had a cradle to grave safety net, I certainly wouldn’t attempt to bleed the source to death.
By the way, the dude from Belgium turned out to be a real douche. He left his wife while she was dying of cancer and now barely ever talks to his kids (who are in grade school and high school). Thinking back, I wish I had punched him, then shaken up the beer and sprayed it in his face.
I don’t need to impress anybody with what I drink.
68 years ago at this very moment, the Allies were storming German bunkers and scratching their way inland from the shores of Normandy. Talk about b@lls of steel, those men had it!
My favorite Beer was Heineken in High School. I could get a case of Bud on Sale for like $7.99 and I think a case of Heinken was around $10.99 on sale. I bring them Ice Cold to Jones Beah and sell enough beer to cover, gas, parking, lunch at Roy Rodgers in Merrick and beer we drank. I could get $2 bucks a bottle off middle age speedo weaking hairy guido guys trying to impress their secretary GFs but only a buck a bottle for bud. Beer is heavey with the ice. Plus I had to watch out for cops.
Case of Heinken netted me $37 profit while a case of Bud netted me only $16. I only sold Bud as that is what most people drank and one buck was the price point. But once in awhile I would get a couple of rich guido guys.
zieba (205)-
Go a few blocks down Jersey Av. to Jersey Wine & Spirits. We have a better selection than the BuyWrong at the tunnel (they buy everything…no tasting/no editing), and our staff can speak to you in complete sentences.
The New Jersey Real Estate and Summer Beer Report.
Can we get back to nompounds now? ;-)
[209] gary,
I’ve been in the bocage country. No clear sitelines and those hedgerows are still there. Stayed next to the Cerisy Forest in and old farmhouse. I can only imagine the carnage that ensued. BTW, the barn of the farmhouse is filled with old artillery pieces taken from the surrounding fields. Owners are English and used to work for glaxo; said if they knew spouse was with glaxo when we booked, they would have knocked off 10%.
Nom [213],
I envy and admire those men. They came from nothing, had nothing, didn’t whine nor were distracted. We really are soft compared to them. It really was the greatest generation.
I like cider from Normandy.
Gary the oh so tolerant Libs are sending Death threats via twitter to Walker.
i so wish they would rise up llike they all fantasize about. I’m pretty sure the wussified un armed girly men will do really well against the armed to the teeth conservatives in middle american.
would make for great theater
Painhrtz,
Even Mayor Tom Barrett got slapped in the face! lol!
Schneider Aventinus – Probably my favorite beer of all time and relatively available, but not an easy drinking beer. Amazing with Steak.
Brothers Thelonius – Awesome high alcohol beer. Should really be drank from a snifter.
Yuengling – The best of the cheap domestics and always have a case in the basement fridge
Guinness – The best of the cheap(er) imports and surprisingly low in carbs and calories
Sam Smith Nut Brown – Also extremely good, a little more pricey, but a step above Sams specialty brews
Sam Adams – What to get at your average franchise restaurant
Costco occasionally carries a Guinness/Smithwicks/Harp sampler that’s a great value
Boddingtons – When in a pub in the UK
I’ve gone to four beer festivals and I always find myself mysteriously drawn to the non-hoppy Belgians. Hmmmmmm.
If I want a hoppy craft – I like Rogue alot
And Dale’s Pale (from the can) tastes like caramel and is very drinkable.
And yes…beer taste is super subjective.
#10 gary: And 68 years later the fate of Europe rests with the Germans, not the English, French or Americans; that is why history matters, for those who think it does not.
Sam Adams Noble Pils is actually available. ShopRite Liquors in the Brig has plenty, and they are definitely from this year.
For a hoppy IPA – I’d say Firestone Walkers Union Jack is the best available in NJ right now. But keep an eye out, because Troeg’s just turned their one-off Perpetual IPA into a year-round offering, available in the next few weeks. Awesome, awesome IPA – I think I bought almost every bottle I could find last year.
For a really good summer session beer, a fresh glass of Victory Prima Pils is very hard to beat, and this is coming from someone who universally hates Pilsners and Lagers.
Oh – and please don’t drink good beer out of the bottle…it’s such a waste. Bud wants you to drink ice cold beer from the bottle because it tastes like crap any other way. Craft beer should be served warmer and in a glass…aroma makes a huge difference.
3B [220],
Amazing, isn’t it?
Here’s a nice job with a pension:
UMass Medical School official eligible to receive $1,000 a day pension.
Pay, perks total at least $634,456
Manning works at a nonprofit consulting operation at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) that employees 1,800 people and has been hired by more than 20 states.
Manning is currently one of the state’s highest-paid employees with a base salary of $433,500.
Last year he earned a $130,050 bonus and received a $43,350 boost to his retirement plan.
The school also reimbursed him $25,396.56 for the cost of leasing a 2009 Chevrolet Impala and $2,160 for an annual membership to the Worcester Club for entertainment purposes.
http://www.wcvb.com/news/investigative/UMass-Medical-School-official-eligible-to-receive-1-000-a-day-pension/-/12520878/13708920/-/142m9kdz/-/index.html
The ulitmate honor is to be able to kill for your country. I had an uncle who at 18 was drafted in WWII and was that guy in the bubble at bottom of planes dropping bombs. Did it 40 times. Bottom line you wait till you are at target and drop or close to target as possible as measured by pinging sound of bullets hitting plane from below.
Wonder if when he got to Heaven whether a ton of Germans were waiting to jump him. Most were like I was having a nice cup of coffee and BOOM. Really?
gary says:
June 6, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Nom [213],
I envy and admire those men. They came from nothing, had nothing, didn’t whine nor were distracted. We really are soft compared to them. It really was the greatest generation
[223] -from the article:
when Manning leaves his post, he’ll be eligible for the state’s highest pension, estimated at $346,800. That’s almost $1,000 a day, 365 days a year.
Hey did any one buy JPM below 32? Damm it I called the bottom but I put in a low ball limit order when I got greedy and missed the bottom. Hope I dont miss bottom in housing, ha ha.
Seriously I think this is a dead cat bounce in stocks and may also be a dead cat bounce in real estate untill next leg down,.
Dow up over 220 points. U.S. first quarter productivity drops , offset by comments from Europe, leads to the surge? Nah!!! The Bernank speaks tomorrow, and me thinks he will indicate more easing on the way; that is what is driving today’s rally IMO.
The driver of the market today: From CNN
http://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/
JJ…I still have my buy at 29.99. I too think it’s a bounce. Until things get figured out in Europe, I think we continue to drop after today. Of course, all this might change with QE3.
My wife has developed an expensive taste for Innis&Gunn cask beer and Peach Lambic.
At least its cheaper than shoes!
[227] 3b – Wow! We haven’t seen the Dow at these levels since…Thursday.
Dow up over 220 points.
Brian – I guess no one else wants to contribute to your beer fund :(
Here is an item created by Dogfish – upgrade your cheap beer by infusing it with this gadget (might make a good father’s day gift):
http://www.dogfish.com/store/beer-drinkin-goods/other-accessories/randall-jr.htm
230 – Mitt, is it also true that your wife likes her beer like she likes her presidents? Dark.
Hey JJ 226:
You think??!!?! this is a dead cat bounce?!?!?
It’s like a high school exam, you either know it or ya don’t.
Hint – of course it is a reflation trade…until Fed QE3/Twist Lite ~ 20 Jun. Rumor spread yesterday of $1.5 Trillion ready to flood the world in time to save summer and fall from election changes.
Enjoy your about to be again devalued dollar!
Hoping not, but that’s not realistic and hope is NOT a method.
Clot,
My apologies. I was under the impression that your operation was devoted solely to wine; else I would not have plugged that soul-less, rat-dropping-infested, price-gouging bix-box-hell-hole of a beer retailer. Better?
Brian,
There’s a brewery in somewhere around Wayne called Cricket Hill. The owner, Rick, is a red faced, passionate, red blooded, womanizing, quasi drunk brewery owner (and I meant all that in the kindest, most sincere, non libelous way). Rick gets on top of one of this brew tanks every Friday at around 6PM, cigar and beer in hand, to deliver the most passionate, stroke inducing rant against corn-water. When he finishes minutes later its as if he’s just run a half marathon; red, panting and an ear to ear smile. It’s a good show. Rick is a good dude. Snacks are free and the taps are open. They don’t have a license to openly serve liquor so the whole thing is done under the guise of a brewery tour with a nominal entry fee.
daddyo,
Thanks for the heads up on Noble Pils!
Zeiba,
My wife has dragged me to enough wineries where, I think she owes me. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
B
Daddyo I have not been able to find noble Pils anywhere. guess I have a road trip coming. It is one of the best Pils outside of Germany and the Czech Republic. The lack of production further reinforced my notion that Americans do not know what a good beer is
Zeiba I may have to take my father in law to one of those. I have half day fridays and he being a True Schwartz, rot, gold passport holder would appreciate it.
I wish Cricket Hill made some good beers. Unfortunately, NJ is currently a craft beer brewery wasteland. Flying Fish makes two good beers (Exit 16 and Exit 9, both limited run currently, but going full production end of summer), also the brewers are Rutgers guys. Everything else I’ve tried is pretty marginal. Oh, I forgot about River Horse Pumpkin Ale, probably a top 5 in the category.
Carton Brewery and Kane Brewery are up-and-comers that might put us on the map. If you are going to visit a brewery, head to Kane in Ocean on most Saturdays.
Hey speaking of WWII and beer look what I found:
On Battleship New Jersey
Garden State Craft Brewers Guild Beer Festival
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=4321605
anyone in/near Sparta should hit this:
http://greatbrewers.com/event/107435
scroll down for some of the brewers
#233
As her preference for presidents is for them to be female, the correct definition would be “Hard to find!”
Brian [197];
I like Lienie’s. A midwest brew, tough to find out this way, no?
re: # 234 – Fed has the authority to buy foreign government debt, as well as domestic government debt. European bailout anyone? They are just begging for a trillion dollar buyout of Sovereign Debt. Fed can also buy private assets such as corporate bonds, commercial paper, bank loans, and mortgages, so pretty much everything is on the table and start up the debt machine all over again. Housing Bubble added $15 Trillion in debt last time, each successive bubble needs to be bigger so they could in effect begin a massive $20 Trillion credit binge worldwide. The Banksters said at Davos we need another $100 trillion in new credit so who knows where this will actually go.
Problem is this will appear like he is trying to affect the election. Will Bernake get involved? I am not so sure this time, since they Fed had it’s hand slapped by Dodd-Frank last time.
Meanwhile Turbo Timmay is carrying water again teeing himself up for his next gig after the election.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/06/06/bloomberg_articlesM55PXZ0UQVI901-M56B6.DTL
I work very high up, I need to get a cat to throw out window to see if it bounces.
#32 Everytime it is the end of thw world, the Fed steps or is expceted to step in, than the market is happy.
#44 Juice: I still say he steps in, he is gone if Romney wins any how, so noting to lose by stepping in at this point.
They usually have a couple different varieties in the Shoprite Liquors. Plus I saw a summer variety pack.
242.Anon E. Moose says:
June 6, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Brian [197];
I like Lienie’s. A midwest brew, tough to find out this way, no?
JJ [210];
My favorite Beer was Heineken in High School. I could get a case of Bud on Sale for like $7.99 and I think a case of Heinken was around $10.99 on sale. I bring them Ice Cold to Jones Beah and sell enough beer to cover, gas, parking, lunch at Roy Rodgers in Merrick and beer we drank. I could get $2 bucks a bottle off middle age speedo weaking hairy guido guys trying to impress their secretary GFs but only a buck a bottle for bud. Beer is heavey with the ice.
Reminds me of when I found Mexican kids selling cold Coke bottles at the top of Chichen Itza. “Ten dollar, senor…” Supply, demand, location, foreign exchange — a G- damn MBA cirriculum all balled up in one sweatty transaction.
re #246 – If Romney wins he isn’t gone. His reappointment comes up again in Jan 2014. Remember, this is a heads I win tails you lose game, and has little to do with the election cycle.
Meat [211];
Go a few blocks down Jersey Av. to Jersey Wine & Spirits. We have…
Snookie!
Go a few blocks down Jersey Av. to Jersey Wine & Spirits and bring your GAT!!!
Lib [218];
Boddingtons – When in a pub in the UK
I was at the bar in Tracks when this tourist walks in and asks for a Killians. The bartender doesn’t miss a beat and offers him a taste of Boddingtons. Guy asks “What’s this?”
“Its what Coors was trying to copy when they made Killian’s.”
#50 Juice: I should have.said Romney if he wins will not reappoint him as Chairman.,and that is what will be remembered; I think it would be a legacy issue for Bernank.
JPMorgan has returned $600 million of MF Global money: WSJ
http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20120601&id=15178789
3B – whomever gets the Chairman’s Job is going to need magic underpants.
Juice [243];
European bailout anyone?
el TARPo!
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/06/thoughts-on-how-to-avoid-another-great-depression.html
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2012/06/what-color-is-your-panic-button.html
Juice, that’s a nice neighborhood now, when I lived there years back that was Uncle Willies liquor store, I had no idea it even changed hands. Uncle Willies was not a good place, pretty much catered to Hobo’s(40’s, little bottles of booze, and cheap plastic bottle vodka), I went there once and bought sam adams only to find the best by date was 16 months ago after I started drinking it and it tasted really off. Buy rite is what it is, a big warehouse with an indiscriminate selection, parking, and cheap prices it’s ok for me they do carry some decent stuff.
255 – they can drink some Magic Hat #9 while wearing their magic underpants and operating the printing presses.
Hello my loved one! I wish to say that this article about capilatis dosage is amazing, great written and come with almost all important infos. I would like to see more posts like this.
President Romney sounds good. Our current president is a nancy boy. His wife has bigger hands than he does.
“Rumor spread yesterday of $1.5 Trillion ready to flood the world in time to save summer and fall from election changes.”
YEAH!!!! Keep the ponzi going! I need my portfolio to keep increasing in value.
260
“Our current president is a nancy boy.”
says the guy who stated (210):
“once in awhile I would get a couple of rich guido guys.”
we bet ya did!
204-zeiba
My soon to be SIL left as the brewer at Six Point to brew at Farmstead Hill. He and my daughter are looking at property in upstate NY to open a brewery so they can distribute in NYC.
There will be lots of Farmstead Hill at the wedding!
re: #257 – Jcer – Don’t you need a GAT to protect yourself from the manager of the establishment?
We have a prez who never held a single job in his life.
seif says:
June 6, 2012 at 4:16 pm
260
“Our current president is a nancy boy.”
says the guy who stated (210):
“once in awhile I would get a couple of rich guido guys.”
we bet ya did!
I still don’t get the Six Point thing, I thought it was just alright, far from something I’d seek out and pay a lot for. Also the cans, there is something about a fine brew in a tall boy that doesn’t sit well with me. I tried at least 2 or 3 varieties and was kind of meh. Farmstead Hill on the other hand is the stuff, had it in VT and it is some damn fine beer.
[225] “when Manning leaves his post, he’ll be eligible for the state’s highest pension, estimated at $346,800. That’s almost $1,000 a day, 365 days a year.”
It’s for the children.
You make that seem like a lot of money. $346,800 gets you a small cape, two used cars and maybe enough to go to Olive Garden on your birthday. You need at least 500K to afford even a split level in Bergen County
Happy Renter says:
June 6, 2012 at 4:41 pm
[225] “when Manning leaves his post, he’ll be eligible for the state’s highest pension, estimated at $346,800. That’s almost $1,000 a day, 365 days a year.”
It’s for the children.
I thought Six Point Apollo was pretty amazing if you like the style, but for my own taste, it had a little too much banana going on.
On the other hand, I have been very happy with the Six Point Resin I have had so far, no complaints at all there. Sweet Action was also VERY drinkable.
Cans can look pretty lame, but they preserve the beer better and they ship easier. Expect to see more and more cans on shelves in the craft beer sections.
I need to crash a wedding with a bunch of Hill Farmstead. A few months ago I managed to make it into the Blind Tiger in the village when they were supposed to have Hill Farmstead on tap, and it ended up kicking before we made it…
This one sobering article from Zero hedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-labor-market-full-blown-depression
Pain,
Good to know I’m not the only one who was floored with just how good Noble Pils was. I had six cases last spring; they went fast, bbq here, bbq there.
NJC,
I have a few home brewers in my circle who don’t have the stones to follow this path; so they toil away in big business. I hope all works out well for them. If something monumental does happen, shout it out here.
Daddyo,
I love me an IPA as much as the next guy but Resin was just too much. I mean, it wasn’t a bad sipper and the red bull can size reflects that but they describe it as a balanced 9.1ABV, but you have to have a really strong palette to find it. I concur on the Banana-y nature of Apollo, it really is a strong note. Sweet action would probably be the best entry into the Sixpoint for anyone.
“8 house price indexes, no clear direction”
I think that Bruce has written a song about where housing prices in NJ are headed over the next year or two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn4n4VVwKfk
“There will be lots of Farmstead Hill at the wedding!”
Mazel Tov!
Why do I see JJ in this article, big time?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/y-big-story-why-t-job-210829464.html
Moose,
From that article:
“In Cappelli’s book, one staffing company president described the process as ‘looking for a unicorn.’ Managers pile all the credentials and expertise into the job description to minimize the risk that the candidate will fail, making it virtually impossible to find anyone who fits.”
Heck, if they want unicorns, we know where to send them.
mitten (230)-
Innis & Gunn Irish Cask is one of the best beers I’ve ever tasted.
zieba (235)-
You forgot to mention the MS-13 in the parking lot. :)
“My apologies. I was under the impression that your operation was devoted solely to wine; else I would not have plugged that soul-less, rat-dropping-infested, price-gouging bix-box-hell-hole of a beer retailer. Better?”
Free the Morgan Stanley 13
No US IPAs can touch Schlafly or Great Divide Hercules.
Don’t forget “hybrid” IPAs, like Flying Dog Wildeman (farmhouse) and Green Flash Le Freak (Belgian Tripel + Imperial IPA). One Le Freak will put you out.
212: Nom,
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2012/06/05/paulson-buys-aspen-ranch-formerly-owned-by-saudi-prince-for-49-million/
http://nj1015.com/former-nj-real-housewives-star-danielle-staub-files-for-chapter-7/
The skank goes BK. I saw this women up close recently in a CVS ,man oh man she has not aged well . Bad skin for starters
Came home to find the Mrs drinking Broklyn Sorachi Ace!
a balanced 9.1ABV
I have a problem with that as well, as at that ABV level you’re in malt or barley wine teritorry. The only way to drink it is ice cold to kill the taste. I have the same problem with Scottish Heavies like 90/-
#270 Hype
I always wonder in those numbers how the Incrrease in Bommer retirement is factored in as well as the fact that a lot of people have defered retirement from 2008 so are cloging up the turnover rates.
The picture is either better or worse.
Moose. I walk past Tracks every morning and night. Never stepped in.
Reposted from earlier:
I haven’t been around much – just been crazy busy with work, house, etc….
Please email me (via Grim, if necessary) for the annual June b’day/pool/miniGTG at the still_lookings…
Sat June 16th. afternoon til evening…..
sl
[215] meat,
So did Hemingway. He autographed a photo hanging in a hotel in Deauville where he proclaimed that he was going back to Calvados cuz that was where the booze was.