From the Fed:
June Beige Book – Second District – New York
Economic activity in the Second District has continued to expand at a moderate pace since the last report. Price pressures have abated somewhat among manufacturers, though they remain more widespread in the service sector; contacts continue to report that selling prices are steady to up modestly. Labor market conditions continue to improve, and businesses increasingly report difficulty finding well-qualified workers. Retailers report that sales were tepid in April but picked up in early May, and new automobile sales have remained strong. Tourism activity has been mixed but generally robust. Commercial and residential real estate markets have strengthened further since the last report. Finally, credit conditions improved across the board, with bankers reporting increased loan demand, widespread narrowing in loan spreads, and declining delinquency rates across all loan categories.
…
Construction and Real EstateResidential real estate markets in the District have strengthened further since the last report. New York City’s home sales and rental markets have shown further signs of tightening–on both the sales and rental sides. Both apartment sales prices and transaction volume continue to run well ahead of a year ago in Manhattan and especially in prime areas of Brooklyn, reflecting a low inventory of available units. The rental market also remains tight: rents continue to rise at a roughly 6-7 percent annual rate in Manhattan and at a somewhat faster pace in Brooklyn; the Queens rental market is also seeing a pickup. Long Island, where the housing market had been generally flat until recently, has seen a recent sharp pickup in pending home sales and a drop in the inventory of homes for sale. Northern New Jersey continues to see modest, steady improvement in its housing market. With a relatively low inventory of new homes, prices are rising gradually; however, a sizable overhang of distressed properties is reported to be restraining price appreciation. A real estate contact in western New York reports increasingly strong market conditions: inventories have fallen, bidding wars have become increasingly common, and home prices have been rising.
And for the Third District – Philadelphia – Which also includes South Jersey and the Shore:
Real Estate and Construction
Following a little softness, homebuilders throughout most of the Third District resumed a moderate growth of contracts signed for new construction. Contracts signed from January through May–“Five good months in a row!” one builder exclaimed–have generated significantly greater construction activity than last year for many builders, large and small. Significant cost pressures face builders as the long housing recession has disrupted the supply chain for materials and the pool of skilled workers. In addition, some builders have faced labor shortages due to higher wages offered for certain trades that are in demand for the Hurricane Sandy recovery. Residential brokers reported moderate activity during April and May for the Third District overall. Existing home sales that closed during the period varied geographically with strong growth reported in the Philadelphia market. Brokers were also pleased by even stronger growth of sales contracts pending, which was more widely reported throughout the District. The estimated months’ supply of the existing inventory of homes continued to fall significantly. Brokers still expect that a shadow inventory of homes held by reluctant, if not underwater, owners will emerge as prices begin to rise once more.
Yikes – From Bloomberg:
Home Loan Rates Approaching 4% Send Buyers Scurrying: Mortgages
Rob Braunstein said his search for a three-bedroom home on a quiet street in Needham, Massachusetts is taking on more urgency as he watches mortgage rates tick higher. Every increase, he worries, shrinks his budget by boosting monthly payments, he said.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has risen for each of the past four weeks and is now at the highest level in a year, according to government mortgage-buyer Freddie Mac. While that’s already put a dent in the refinancing boom that has powered bank earnings this year, for buyers like Braunstein, the message is clear: buy quickly.
“Refinancing depends only on mortgage rates and therefore is very sensitive to changes in rates,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at San Francisco-based Trulia Inc., an online property listing service. When it comes to buying, “some people might want to hurry up and make a purchase, but with inventory so tight they might not be able to move that fast.”
…
“Have we seen the rock bottom for interest rates go past?” said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a Riverdale, New Jersey-based mortgage information website. “That’s a pretty reasonable certainty. We are off the record lows. To get back to those record lows, we’d need to see a considerable slowdown in the economy.”
…
“People think the 3.5 percent mortgage rate is going away, and ’I better hurry,’” Hui Shan, mortgage strategist for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a telephone interview.
From the Real Deal:
The not-so-outer borough: Brooklyn’s fast-climbing home prices make it nearly as expensive as Manhattan
Manhattan estate brokers Ari Harkov and Warner Lewis recently started searching for apartments in the West Village on behalf of a client, who wanted to pay around $650,000 for a one-bedroom. Not satisfied by the inventory they found in that price range, they expanded the search to Brooklyn Heights, thinking that would yield much more space for the money.
They were wrong.
Brooklyn hasn’t offered up the massive discount their client was hoping for, said Lewis, who works out of the Halstead Property’s West Village office. These days, “it’s not a dramatic difference” in price between one-bedrooms in the West Village and comparable units in Brooklyn Heights, Lewis said. “I think you’re often looking at a 10 percent differential.”
In fact, the median asking price for a Brooklyn Heights apartment has risen 37.8 percent in the past five years to $792,500, according to data provided to The Real Deal by the real estate listings website StreetEasy. By contrast, the median price in the West Village rose by only 4.34 percent during that same period, to $895,000 (the chart on this page shows figures for the broader Greenwich Village area).
Manhattan or Brooklyn: The choice used to be an easy one. Those who could afford it chose “the city,” not the dowdy stepsister across the river, with its longer commutes and cheaper home prices. Today, though, Brooklyn is the top pick of more and more harried urbanites, and the proof is in the numbers. With sale prices and especially rents rising sharply in Brooklyn, brokers said, many home-seekers find that popular neighborhoods no longer come at the discount they’re expecting.
“When I get a call from a buyer looking for a place in Brooklyn and they say, ‘I want to move there because I want more space for my money,’ I don’t beat around the bush,” said Lindsay Barton Barrett, a broker from the Corcoran Group with listings in both boroughs. “I immediately tell them they’re going to be disappointed.”
I thought rising rates would slow sales…which is it?
Elizabeth Warren has lost her mind, arguing for the elimination of the arms-length sales policy for short sales (you can’t short sale to a family member). Arms-Length policy is an anti-fraud/collusion measure. If your family member wants to help you keep your home, why do they have to buy it at a discount, WHY DON’T THEY JUST HELP YOU PAY THE F*CKING MORTGAGE.
Commentary: FHFA’s Senseless Arm’s-Length Policy on Short Sales
Calling it “senseless” is absolutely insane, it makes perfect sense, the likelihood of fraud between two family members is significantly higher than in an arms length transaction between strangers.
A family member can absolutely write you a second mortgage on your home, making them a lien holder and thus having interest in the property (if having an interest in the property is the crux). Otherwise, this is a fraudulent loan mod under the guise of “consumer protection”.
The economic concept is called price elasticity of demand. When the price of something changes (the mortgage rate is the price of borrowing) how does that impact the demand. Prices are said to be inelastic when a change in price doesn’t impact the demand, and elastic when small changes in price cause big changes in demand.
Cigarettes, for example, are a common example of an inelastic item. If we raised the price of cigarettes tomorrow, people would probably buy the same amount of cigarettes. The change in price doesn’t have a big impact on demand.
Price elasticity between refinance and purchase mortgages are entirely different. Refinance is likely to have a more consistent elasticity value over time than purchase. The elasticity of purchase loans might change depending on the economic situation, going from inelastic, to somewhat elastic, but probably never as elastic as refi.
Why Young People Don’t Vote Republican
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
Last Updated: Jun. 3
There has been no shortage of Republican post-mortems on the 2012 presidential election — and no shortage of apologists who claimed the party need only change its rhetoric (and stop nominating members of the legitimate-rape caucus) to attract women, minorities and young people.
The latest of these analyses, focused on voters aged 18-29, sometimes falls into the apologist/rebranding trap. It suggests, for example, that abortion is a problematic topic for the G.O.P. because young people “conflate” abortion with Planned Parenthood, contraception and women’s health care in general — as though Republican officeholders and candidates across the country hadn’t done their best to draw that connection.
But the report is far more candid than other post-mortems. It could also be far more helpful if it pushes the G.O.P. to examine the actual policies, rather than the slogans, that turn off young voters.
Younger voters don’t buy Republican dogma that lowering taxes on rich people will generate jobs and help everyone. In a survey conducted for the group in March, 54 percent of young voters said that “taxes should go up on the wealthy,” while only 31 percent said “taxes should be cut for everyone.”
The most damning conclusions lay in the survey’s examination of how people view the two major parties in terms of broad attributes. For Democrats, young voters chose “tolerant,” “diverse” and “open-minded,” while for Republicans they often chose “rich” and “religious.”
In focus groups in January, the report said, young voters were asked to list leaders of the Democratic Party. “They named prominent former or currently elected officials: Pelosi, the Clintons, Obama, Kennedy, Gore. When those same respondents were asked to name Republican leaders, they focused heavily on media personalities and commentators: Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.”
So it’s not terribly surprising that when they were asked what words came to mind when they heard “Republican Party,” the results “were brutal — closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”
[7] anon
This is news? Hardly; it has ever been thus. Young people are no more or less rationale than most voters. They stand where they sit.
“Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”
Winston Churchill
7 – business courses including personal finance should be part of the curriculum in public schools. I don’t necessarily fault the GOP for their poor image and marketing….I just think young people don’t understand any of their positions (regarding economics) because they are never taught them.
#9..Personal finance is now required in NJ…my wife teaches it in HS.
10 – interesting, when did that start?
http://www.jumpstart.org/national-standards.html
When I was in JR high school they had a home economics class but the curriculum was terribly outdated. The class seemed to be geared towards women who might be stay at home moms, and they taught skills like cooking, baking, sewing, and balancing a checkbook. That’s really the only class I remember taking in K-12 that even remotely resembled that.
My son is now taking his required financial literacy course in HS.
The centerpiece of this course is a four-week stock-picking/gambling event. The only plus to the whole thing is that it’s given me an opportunity to teach my son about ZIRP, risk on/off, HFT, quote stuffing and yield chasing.
The rest of the course is absolute crap and pretty much a state-sanctioned advertisement for mindless consumerism, under the guise of prudent “investment”.
We are so totally fuct.
Interestingly, stocks priced under $5/share and PMs are excluded from the investment contest. Nice to see how the next generation of retail sheep are being trained. All those HFT algos of the future will need willing suckers on the other side of their trades.
OTOH, paper gold and silver, of course, available to students spinning the roulette wheel in this failure contest.
Wow, this is great. Maybe there is hope for the future….
http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/standards/9/9.pdf
http://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/standards/9/9-2.htm
http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/
Grim can you unmod that please?
#11…couple of years ago
#12..I’d disagree…I am a CFP as well and think the curriculum my wife is using looks pretty good for a 17 year old to capture. Since my kids go to private HS, I have her review the powerpoints, etc with them so they have a base understanding.
I hope your wife did not know you when you bought a condo in 1987. Otherwise she would not be qualified to teach that course
1987 Condo Buyer says:
June 6, 2013 at 7:58 am
#9..Personal finance is now required in NJ…my wife teaches it in HS.
#18….yep, but she was but 22….I look upon that as a tremendous learning experience, I took master level tax classes to understand the implications of “walking away” renting, depreciation, amortization of that property. I buckled down, accelerated mortgage payments, rented it out for 7 years, sold it, bought my current home, doubled the size of it, paid that off completely and completely funded 12 years of catholic school for my two kids and their college at the state university of their choice (inc. out of state)..so I think I may have almost recovered.
What is the average age of a home buyer in NY Metro these days? It can’t be a 2o something anymore.
20 – Based on the NJAR 2012 Buyer and Seller Profile report:
32 years old for First Timers
51 years old for Repeat Buyers
New Jersey
All Buyers First-time Buyers Repeat Buyers
18 to 24 years 2% 5% *
25 to 34 years 27 53 9
35 to 44 years 27 27 26
45 to 54 years 15 8 20
55 to 64 years 14 5 20
65 to 74 years 13 3 20
75 years or older 3 * 5
Median age (years) 43 32 51
That was a terrible time period for folks who got married young and did right thing. I used to work with a guy same age as me and he got married right out of college and right at the peak of bubble they bought a “fixer-upper” levittown cape all original and he spent all of 1987-1989 every weekend renovating it all with his own blood and sweat and round time it was done the whole RE market collasped. He had a high interest mortgage he could not refinance to boot. Then he is working with me. I spent my entire 20s partying like a drunken sailor, never saving a dime and my net worth was like zero. We started hanging out and one night at Benigans over two for one happy hour he unloaded on my with fury. He was like I have a net worth of negative $100,000 a stay at home wife and two young kids to support, meanwhile you have been spending like a mad man yet you are zero in debt. I then tell him look I have nothing to show for it. He was like, you got a mercedes, a rich girlfriend and a hamptons share, tomorrow you could marry her become rich over night, you have no debt so easy to move on. I am stuck in this hell hole of debt from buying this overpriced house at the peak, I tried to do right thing you did wrong thing yet here you are better off.
Two years later he caught cancer and died. I agree with personal finance but quite often folks think doing the right thing will work out when often it does not. Only regret I have it not marrying my multimillionaire girlfriend. Was those few more girls I did worth it I will never know. Plus she made killer wings. Oh well. Like that 1987 Condo purchase too late to marry rich
1987 Condo Buyer says:
June 6, 2013 at 8:39 am
#18….yep, but she was but 22….I look upon that as a tremendous learning experience, I took master level tax classes to understand the implications of “walking away” renting, depreciation, amortization of that property. I buckled down, accelerated mortgage payments, rented it out for 7 years, sold it, bought my current home, doubled the size of it, paid that off completely and completely funded 12 years of catholic school for my two kids and their college at the state university of their choice (inc. out of state)..so I think I may have almost recovered.
Why does this missive give me inspiration to face the day? I must be demented…..I am not kidding……
Scrapple n’Ricin says:
June 5, 2013 at 7:38 pm
You should see all the RE agents coming into the store, buying bubbly for closings. Sickening.
Suck in all the latecomers, bar the exits shut, then set it all on fire.
Great good fun.
so young ppl ain’t republican due to lack of business classes? Is that what y’all sayin?
well in that case teatards and regressives should hope that these HS business courses make youngsters “— closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.” so that they vote republican.
#22…our purchase of that condo was so financially destructive for us..probably why I have been on this board since 2007 or so…..my wife and I had actually come out of college, thanks to sponsorships at the old “College of Insurance” with about $30,000 cash in 1987…and we lost it all and more with that Condo. Did not feel like I was back on even keel till about 2003!
re#23 – CHi – everyone likes a great comedy. Clot plays his part well in our modern comedy, that is why you enjoy him so much and keep coming back for repeat performances. In our modern adapted version of the classic comedies we have Clot to play the insufferably rude and objectionable character who showed how foolish and absurd humans could be.
An amazing comparision is my co-worker in 1986 bought a Levitown fixer upper for like 189K in 1986 and today they are listed at 239K.
Income in 1986 and mortgage rates in 1986 made 189K insanely expensive. This guy was only making 32k a year with a stay at home wife and two kids and a 150K mortgage at 8%. Talk about a blood sucking experience.
At absolute height of market coops in my building sold for 120K with $550 maint. Insiders could get them at 100K. Some rent stabalized folks bought their own units in the bubble era. Meanwhile they were only paying $550 rent. Only to watch units fall to 30K, they got foreclosed on and kicked out.
It got so bad my rent stabalized neighbor after sponsor defaulted RTC offered her the Apt at 3k. She refused. She was like why pay a nickle?
But think about it, folks paid 100K in fall 1988 for something they could have bought for 3k in fall 1991. WOW,. a 97% drop in three years.
1987 Condo Buyer says:
June 6, 2013 at 9:46 am
#22…our purchase of that condo was so financially destructive for us..probably why I have been on this board since 2007 or so…..my wife and I had actually come out of college, thanks to sponsorships at the old “College of Insurance” with about $30,000 cash in 1987…and we lost it all and more with that Condo. Did not feel like I was back on even keel till about 2003!
From CNBC:
Reverse Mortgages Backfiring on Some Seniors
As America’s population ages, the hard sell is on for reverse mortgages. Promising happier days ahead, the former “Fonz,” actor Henry Winkler, is giving the hard sell in relentless television ads. But the housing crash and the fiscal state of today’s seniors are causing many of these loans to backfire.
Reverse mortgages were originally designed for seniors who wanted to take out their home equity to spend during retirement. Unlike a regular mortgage, they require no monthly payments, and the borrower can take out a lump sum or receive regular payments.
…
About 9.5 percent of the 775,000 reverse mortgages outstanding are delinquent, far higher than the rate on regular mortgage loans. While lenders are pushing them aggressively, fewer are being made today, due to the drop in home values. Advocates say they can be a valuable tool, if used correctly, and that there are ample safeguards.
Chifi, are you still renting waiting for the bottom? If so and this is a dead cat bounce, when do you think bottom will be, or is this a massive drawn out scenario where housing wont keep up with inflation which means we wont see and inflation adjusted bottom in our lifetime.
chicagofinance says:
June 6, 2013 at 9:41 am
Why does this missive give me inspiration to face the day? I must be demented…..I am not kidding……
Scrapple n’Ricin says:
June 5, 2013 at 7:38 pm
You should see all the RE agents coming into the store, buying bubbly for closings. Sickening.
Suck in all the latecomers, bar the exits shut, then set it all on fire.
Great good fun.
re# 28 I saw an old geezer chomping on a cigar pull into his POS house the other day in a new Corvette Convertible, whatever money the reverse mortgage may have given him will let him live out his bucket list. I hope he spends the rest on strippers and blow before he checks out, the bank won’t be getting much of a house it looks pretty dilapidated but the dirt seems to be worth about 400k. Spending is good for the economy but bad for the kids I guess no inheritance to sit back on their fat asses with and stuff their gullets.
JJ – when do you think the punch bowl gets taken away? The Japanese have been playing this game for a 1/4 century. We may not be alive when this one ends.
UK Guardian reporting that the NSA subpoenaed Verizon for a log dump of all calls (from/to, SIM and IMEI nos.) on a daily basis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/nsa-asked-verizon-for-records-of-all-calls-in-the-u-s/
Lets see, 1st, 2d, 4th Amendment — at least we can be sure the Obama administration likes the 5th Amendment. For this we had to (re)elect the Lightbringer. Hey Fabius, you miss Chimpy McBushitlerburton yet?
Could You Have Passed this 8th Grade test from 1895?
http://www.salina.com/1895test/
Not a chance in he__ any 8th graders could answer these questions, particulalry the math section.
I saw a BK near me in 2011. Guy bought house brand new in 1954 for $13.500 borrowed $619,000 against it, which is 100% of the absolute peak value of home with a generous estimate and walked away at age of 87.
I love that guy. Used house a a piggy bank machine for 53 years straight and bet the last three years in house never paid a nickle in mortgage or nothing.
Kids most likely got great gifts, college paid for, new cars. for their whole life and grandkids did too. Who cares they dont get to inherit a pos split. Funny part new owner bought in Fall 2011 what seemed like a good price till Fall 2012 undid most of his renovatons. Old man stuck everyone.
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 10:16 am
re# 28 I saw an old geezer chomping on a cigar pull into his POS house the other day in a new Corvette Convertible, whatever money the reverse mortgage may have given him will let him live out his bucket list. I hope he spends the rest on strippers and blow before he checks out, the bank won’t be getting much of a house it looks pretty dilapidated but the dirt seems to be worth about 400k. Spending is good for the economy but bad for the kids I guess no inheritance to sit back on their fat asses with and stuff their gullets.
Actually it is called “freetexting” your call log on a cell phone is easy to get. Most BOD or CEO candidates background checks pull the log. What is big deal. Use your landline if you want privacy.
Anon E. Moose says:
June 6, 2013 at 10:21 am
UK Guardian reporting that the NSA subpoenaed Verizon for a log dump of all calls (from/to, SIM and IMEI nos.) on a daily basis.
Joyce – girls did not even go to school back then and the majority of the population was farmers. The boys had all winter to study and study they did there was nothing else to do after all, no TV just text books then bed and up at 5 am to tend to the animals.
re#32 – Moose shhhsh it’s a secret.
Supreme court refused to accept Hepting v. AT&T last June.EFF is working another case up to the Supreme Court now, it will be a few more years and they will decline that one too.
New boss same as old boss.
Read up on Room_641A there are loads of intercept rooms around the country, they are watching you right now, and if you act up Jack Bower will put one between your eyes right after the six degrees.
http://www.examiner.com/article/jack-bauer-s-six-degrees-of-torture-sickest-episode-of-24-yet
The boys also “tended” to the animals at 1am after a few beers.
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 10:36 am
Joyce – girls did not even go to school back then and the majority of the population was farmers. The boys had all winter to study and study they did there was nothing else to do after all, no TV just text books then bed and up at 5 am to tend to the animals.
33 –
http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp
JJ – no life is complete without an animal story.
“Only regret I have it not marrying my multimillionaire girlfriend. Was those few more girls I did worth it I will never know. Plus she made killer wings. Oh well.”
Line of the week.
Grammar withstanding, of course.
Juice [30];
Given what banks are willing to lend on a reverse mortgage, I doubt anyone is really living large on reverse mortgage proceeds*. It’s like a title pawn on a car: 35% cLTV at 20% interest. They’re happy if you pay and just as happy if you don’t. I see reverse mortgages more like like Motel Williams or Western Sky for the Social Security set.
* “If you want to know how much lenders really believe in endless, faster-than-non-housing-inflation house price appreciation, go ask what a reverse mortgage lender will lend to a recent retiree. Turns out they weren’t really drunk, they were just acting like drunks.”
Tanta, CR)
36
Juice,
Ok remove the farm specific & kansas specific questions and still watch them fail the teset now-a-days.
#6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 per cent.
#8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 per cent.
Do more or less people work in Finance today compared to 1895? I would venture this is taught in entry-level college Finance courses today.
1987 Condo (17)-
Prolly a big diff between what your wife teaches at a private skool and what my kid gets at a Group 4 NJ public skool. My son’t course also has to be dumbed-down so that the special needs kids and potheads can pass it.
Anybody here a registered R and want to be an interim Senator? Seems like more people DON’T want the seat than do.
juice (20)-
What is the average age of the NJ homeowner that goes underwater?
joyce [33],
Stunning… absolutely stunning. We went from that level to “OMGs” and “LOLs”. G0d, we’re doomed.
gary (48)-
Doomed might be a best case scenario. I think we will plunge to a new low that’s even lower than final doom.
I think we’re headed toward an extinction event.
Joyce – The most difficult mathematics is that which you do not know. Take away the TV, Puter, x-box, iJunk and give them books and a calculator then instill fear in their little brains and they will learn algebra practically overnight.
Back in the time you reference patriotism and citizenship were taught in schools along with the three Rs and teachers were strict and allowed to dish out a good whooping with an actual switch.
Actually back then, the parents would not be pleased if a teacher was lax in disciplining the children for misbehavior, they would be fired and no recommendation letter written so they could go to another town and get a job.
Fear is a great motivator to learn math.
Brian [4];
You need second order thinking, and consider human behavior in the mix.
Short term, the sharp change (first derivative) in rates motivates those who were sitting on the sidelines but respond to the change by thinking that their prospects tomorrow will be worse than today.
Longer term, you are right, higher rates means lower affordability.
House across the street from me rented in a month, 7.75% gross yield based on current zestimate; 6.5% based on ’06 purchase price.
51
Juice,
I agree. It is still noteworthy the education standards of the past as compared to the present seeing how far we’ve fallen.
Q. How do Farmers count their Cows?
A. With a cowcalator
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 11:23 am
Joyce – The most difficult mathematics is that which you do not know. Take away the TV, Puter, x-box, iJunk and give them books and a calculator then instill fear in their little brains and they will learn algebra practically overnight.
[39] Brian,
Am I reading that correctly, or is the reviewer really saying that the test is false because he would not have written the same exam?
#45..Public School, Group I
“some builders have faced labor shortages due to higher wages offered for certain trades that are in demand for the Hurricane Sandy recovery”
Re 1, I thought it was illegal to raise prices due to Sandy? Therefore, how can this sentence be true. If it is true can he provide the names and addresses of these folks raising prices so I can inform the AG of NJ.
I wonder how someone from the late 1800s would do if we sat them down to take a high school chemistry, physics or computer science exam.
Wasn’t “8th grade” a completely different thing than the current definition of it? Wasn’t that the terminal grade in public school at the time before going into college?
Periodic table was considered revolutionary chemistry in the late 1800s.
Today it’s taught in what, the 7th grade? Maybe earlier?
Yet, somehow, not knowing how to tickle a cow rectum or know how many board feet of lumber you need to build a barn is a problem?
Juice Box I have a serious question.
So your 400K stuff got me thinking. So I went through the permits for place I bought. Prior owner put in the following.
11 new windows, one new front door, new 7×10 deck, one new HVAC, one new water heater, new electric panel, base model new kitchen (not EIK), one new bathroom remodel and 1,000 square foot of new pergo style wood flooring plus he painted 1,200 square foot unit.
I am paying $11,000 more than his December 2001 purchase price.
He used licensed folks. Got permits and permits were signed off on. How much do you think he spent?
Thinking about getting the Honda Fit EV. Any of the experts around here see an issue with it? They are practically giving it away on lease.
Honda has plans to make only 1,100 copies for the U.S. market, said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman. And the cars won’t be available for purchase at the end of the 36-month lease.
“We’ve acknowledged, along with other EV manufacturers, that we don’t know how our 1,100 customers will use [the Fit EV],” Martin said. “We’re using this as a learning experience.”
The cars won’t be available nationwide. Honda said the Fit EV will be available only in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Existing Fit EV owners will see their $389-a-month payments automatically lowered to $259 starting in June.
“Ms. Hofacre said she was outraged last month when IRS higher-ups, including Lois Lerner, then the head of the IRS tax-exempt division, blamed the problem on employees in Cincinnati. “I was furious,” Ms. Hofacre told interviewers. “It looked like Lois Lerner was putting it on us.” ”
Front page WSJ
By JOHN D. MCKINNON and DIONNE SEARCEY
Two Internal Revenue Service employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office told congressional investigators that IRS officials in Washington helped direct the probe of tea-party groups that began in 2010.
Transcripts of the interviews, viewed Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, appear to contradict earlier statements by top IRS officials, who have blamed lower-level workers in Cincinnati.
Elizabeth Hofacre said her office in Cincinnati sought help from IRS officials in the Washington unit that oversees tax-exempt organizations after she started getting the tea-party cases in April 2010. Ms. Hofacre said Carter Hull, an IRS lawyer in Washington, closely oversaw her work and suggested some of the questions asked applicants.
“I was essentially a front person, because I had no autonomy or no authority to act on [applications] without Carter Hull’s influence or input,” she said, according to the transcripts.
Mr. Hull could not be reached for comment.
The interviews provide new clues to the puzzle slowly being pieced together in several congressional probes and a criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Investigators want to know exactly how the IRS initiated extra scrutiny to tea-party and other conservative grass roots organizations that were seeking tax-exempt status.
The transcripts don’t suggest that Obama administration officials at the Treasury or the White House knew of or were involved in the targeting. Many questions remain unanswered, including who ordered the targeting.
The interview transcripts suggest it began with a search for tea-party groups by name among applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status. The Cincinnati employee who conducted the search, Gary Muthert, said he started gathering applications in March 2010, at the request of an unidentified local manager, who allegedly told him that “Washington, D.C., wanted some cases,” according to the transcripts. Mr. Muthert first heard of tea-party applications from another Cincinnati employee.
The cases were handed off to Ms. Hofacre the following month, according to the interviews, which were conducted jointly by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. Both Republican and Democratic investigators participated in the interviews.
Ms. Hofacre said she was outraged last month when IRS higher-ups, including Lois Lerner, then the head of the IRS tax-exempt division, blamed the problem on employees in Cincinnati. “I was furious,” Ms. Hofacre told interviewers. “It looked like Lois Lerner was putting it on us.”
Mr. Muthert, Ms. Hofacre and Ms. Lerner didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The IRS didn’t respond to a request for comment.
When the controversy erupted in May, Ms. Lerner portrayed the targeting as the result of decisions by IRS employees in Cincinnati, who “decided to centralize [tea-party cases] so we’d have consistency,” she said during a May 10 conference call with reporters.
“The problem here was that in some cases they added actual case names to the list,” Ms. Lerner continued. “…They added tea party and patriot to the list of cases that should be centralized.” She described the actions as “absolutely inappropriate” and said the Cincinnati employees were guilty of an “error in judgment.”
Other IRS officials also blamed Cincinnati employees. At a recent congressional hearing, ousted acting Commissioner Steven Miller said: “People in Cincinnati decided, let’s start grouping these cases; let’s centralize these cases.”
Mr. Miller’s attorney, William Burck, said his client first learned of a spreadsheet that was used to target tea-party groups in early May 2012 after an internal review he had requested. “Upon learning the results of that review, Mr. Miller immediately put in place remedial measures to make sure the inappropriate criteria would not be used again,” Mr. Burck said.
The inspector general for the IRS, J. Russell George, also focused on mistakes in the Cincinnati office. He testified before a congressional panel this week that “only first-line management in Cincinnati…approved references to the Tea Party” in a document that listed criteria employees used in selecting applications for extra scrutiny. Mr. George blamed “insufficient oversight” by managers in Washington.
The statements by Mr. Muthert and Ms. Hofacre paint a more complicated picture.
In March 2010, Mr. Muthert was among the first IRS employees to start selecting and setting aside the tea-party applications for extra scrutiny, according to the transcripts.
In his interview with congressional investigators, he said a local manager—whose name was redacted in the transcripts—asked him to find all the tea-party applications in the office’s files, both pending and closed. The manager asked him to use the phrase “tea party” to conduct the search.
Around the same time, the local manager “said Washington, D.C., wanted seven” cases, Mr. Muthert said in the transcript. That month, he said, he “batched up” seven of the cases for “EO Technical,” a unit of the Exempt Organizations Division in Washington, then headed by Ms. Lerner, according to his interview.
Around May of 2010, Mr. Muthert said, another local official asked him to locate a couple more applications to send to Washington. Over the next two months, Mr. Muthert said, he located about 40 tea-party cases after expanding his search to include the terms “patriot” and “9/12.”
Ms. Hofacre said in her interview that she was in charge of the tea-party cases from the end of April until October. She was told by a Cincinnati employee, who wasn’t identified in the transcripts, to get in touch with the Exempt Organizations Technical unit in Washington, for guidance on the roughly 40 to 60 cases she was handling.
Ms. Hofacre said Mr. Hull, the IRS attorney in Washington, emailed her letters that he had already sent to two tea-party applicants. She was instructed to use those letters as a “foundation to prepare and review my cases and prepare my letters” to applicants, she said. She said she found the intervention by Mr. Hull “demeaning,” according to the transcripts.
Mr. Hull also suggested questions to applicants, she said, and she was told to send him all the responses.
“All I remember saying and thinking is, ‘This is ridiculous,'” she said. “Because at the same time, you are getting calls from irate taxpayers. And I see their point. Even if a decision isn’t favorable, they deserve some kind of treatment and they deserve, you know, timeliness, and…these applications and their responses were just being sent up there [to Washington] and I am not sure what was happening.”
At another point during the interview she complained she was “being micromanaged to death, and it was just really frustrating.” In part because of her experience, she asked for and was given a transfer that she said amounted to a promotion in the fall of 2010.
An IRS inspector general’s report last month found the IRS had used inappropriate criteria to select applications for extra review and left those criteria to stay in place for more than 18 months, resulting in substantial delays in processing certain applications.
A version of this article appeared June 6, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: IRS Staff Cite Washington Link.
These buildings are a few miles from me and I pass them regularly. This morning, I approached them from a different direction and noticed something that made me laugh.
The 8th picture. It reminded me of a regular here.
http://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=163
JJ – pergo? Did they even bother using Anderson? Sound like a flipper taking you to the cleaners.
When it rains..it pours
IRS Obamacare officials placed on leave for accepting food and gifts
June 6, 2013, 12:28 PM
.By Russ Britt
Just as President Obama is about to deliver a report card on his health-care overhaul initiative, two Internal Revenue Service officials charged with implementing the plan have been placed on administrative leave for accepting free food and gifts, according to reports.
The Hill reported late Wednesday that Fred Schindler and Donald Toda are accused of accepting more than $1,100 in food and gifts during a 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif. Schindler reportedly is a top aide to Sarah Hall Ingram, chief of the IRS’s health-care office. She also presided over the office that approved tax exemptions when conservative groups allegedly were targeted.
BloombergActing IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel
The conference was one of several events for which the agency is under fire. IRS officials are accused of spending nearly $49 million on more than 200 conferences from 2010 to 2012. Bloomberg reported late Wednesday that the Anaheim event was one of the most expensive, hosting 2,600 IRS employees.
Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the conference was geared to train new managers of the agency’s auditing group, many of whom were relatively new at the time, on employee safety and security training. There had been a suicide attack on an Austin IRS facility earlier that year.
In a prepared statement, Werfel said that while the purpose of the trip was legitimate, many of the expenses were not. He vowed that practice would not continue.
“This conference is an unfortunate vestige from a prior era. While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred,” Werfel said
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/health-exchange/2013/06/06/irs-obamacare-officials-placed-on-leave-for-accepting-food-and-gifts/
I am paying around January 2002 price. It is a beach place. I am only paying 11k more than their price. 11 Windows I would guess 5k, front door 1k, floors 3k, deck cause they did rails and foundation 2k, kitchen 10k, bathroom 10k. Electric 1k, HVAC, 6k, hotwater heater 1k so maybe 37k. And all real work. Some of work was done in 2010 and some done in 2013 after Sandy so new work.
My main concern is water durability. Metal/vinyl windows are great. You are still all mad over my 400K comment. I dont care about Anderson. I actually think Marvin is just as good.
I still want to know details about the remodel cost 400K. I dont get it. You better be splaining something to me. Unless I pay full price and hire strippers to do all the work while I light my cigars with $50 dollar bills I aint gettting to 400K. That is inground pools, media rooms pimp my ride type stuff.
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 12:27 pm
JJ – pergo? Did they even bother using Anderson? Sound like a flipper taking you to the cleaners.
1000 square feet of name brand Pergo installed is more than $3k – I’d say closer to $5k with labor and underlayment, and depending on the number of rooms, even that might be too low.
Going rate for a new service and panel is probably closer to $2k.
Bathroom is probably too high at 10k, I could do a bathroom for 1/3rd of that.
Kitchen is a total wildcard, impossible to determine if the 10k is way right, or way wrong.
Deck might be a little more, front door maybe a little lower unless they went with fiberglass.
Windows, if replacements, maybe less if it was smaller/bungalow style windows. I’ve seen cheap replacement windows for less than $150 a window.
BTW I am also getting place furnished, so I am renting it out furnished and the August 1st to Labor day rental should cover annual maint. If you are nice I will let you on my private beach. We have cabana girl service at our private beach, drinks or on the house.
Anyone who sells me anything is losing money. Why do you think last guy would not give me alarm code and let his dog shit on my floor before he left. He smelt shit I smelt victory.
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 12:27 pm
JJ – pergo? Did they even bother using Anderson? Sound like a flipper taking you to the cleaners.
ChiFi [63];
I can’t imagine that even His O-ness can get away with throwing some 100 career civil-servant types under the bus. They can’t ALL be true believers or easily bought off with jobs or favors, no matter how far left the aparachniks lean. At least two of them (any one alone can be easily smeared) have the goods and would be willing to come forward with them.
Eat more scrapple.
Good morning from the TODAY show at Rockefeller Plaza…..clot style….
“The IRS is trying to take my money! I’m not a freeloader!”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/man_tries_to_harm_himself_with_knife_diQtuczqVth0wKyYnUnzjK
Zillow CEO – great time to sell http://finance.yahoo.com/news/zillow-ceo-rising-mortgage-rates-145941720.html
Interesting premise, but it’s been already discussed here in detail (of course):
“As mortgage rates inevitably come from 3 percent up to 5 or 6 percent, it’s going to create problems down the road,” Rascoff said in a ” Squawk Box” interview.
…
“If you have any equity in your home and you’re thinking about selling in the next couple of years,” he continued, “[it’s] probably best to sell now, even though home values are continuing to rise.”
“Imagine yourself buying a $300,000 home today, and in four years you may want to trade up to a $500,000 home,” he said. “That home is not just that much more expensive-but because mortgage rates are going to be higher-it’s significantly more expensive. So the trade-up market is going to be very troubled in a couple of years.”
JJ – mad at your comment. Good one JJ for you see I won….only losers who plunked down 600k on a 2 br condo in nowhere land back in 2006 are still mad. Me I am the winner here.
My house was blown out and pimped all at the same time. The question from you really should be how it makes more sense to take a 1973 split level that’s held together with duct tape and bailing wire and, instead of fire-bombing the place and collecting the insurance money, you spend about 400k on the inside and out remodel to blow it out including adding in the open floor plan and raising the roof and redoing all flooring on both floors with all new nailed in oak floors with the longest board quality, and then add in a few dozen new Anderson windows, skylights and all new Anderson doors. But you don’t stop there you put in a kitchen that makes most women green with envy, a large in-ground pool with a classic herringbone patterned brick patios and walkways, outdoor firepit, outdoor kitchen patio then add lots of Dogwoods, Cypress Trees, Japanese maples, Cherry Tree, Noble firs and all kinds of trees you only see in Better Home and Garden Magazine. Then you go in and install a 12 zone Blue Bird sprinkler system to keep it all alive, then new sod front back and sides. Before you are finished you redo add a master suite and redo all three bathrooms and all four bedrooms and then finish the entire basement.
Sure just like the show pimp my ride you could have put in 14 plasma screens, a fish tank, a DJ turntable, a sauna, a barber chair, a massage table, a popcorn popper, dance floor, workout room and even a putting green. But that would be too much.
In some strange way, this was the best way to use my cash and credit, instead of just buying another newer home in a less desirable neighborhood close to the highway or on a road with a 40 mph speed limit. As they say they ain’t building anymore land, and I could have easily gotten the 7 figure brand new million dollar home but heck I am a cheap Irishman from the Bronx I will take the fixer upper.
chi (72)-
Why kill yourself when you could take out Matt Lauer?
Split level is the absolute worst starting point if you are looking to blow out a house, huge costs to add a tiny amount of square footage, oh, and ANOTHER set of stairs.
If it’s not a big split to start, it will never be. There is almost nothing you can do with flow, floorplan, and room sizes that isn’t going to cost you as much to change, as it would to just build a new house.
Those folks that throw on the huge great room off the back, out of proportion to the rest of the house, you know the kind, the cavernous 600 square foot masterpiece.
The problem is, now they call it a 2,500 square foot split level, when in reality, it’s barely pushing 2,000 (since stairs and hallways eat up the sqft) – with a ballroom attached.
Absolute best is a cape or ranch, as it’s easy to go straight up and double the square footage by adding a single level. In addition, it turns the house into the more desirable center-hall colonial style. Bi-level that doesn’t extend over the garages is another great option, you can easily blow out the master suite and add another bedroom (or increase the size of the existing).
A modest 1600 square foot ranch can easily be turned into a whopper 3200 square foot McMansion without even having to touch the footprint (assuming no zoning issues, of course).
Crazy part of split is you really can only do a big blow out in back. My neighbor did that, but it is still the same size upstairs. So unless kids are sleeping on Cot in great room at night or on top of kitchen island it is silly.
Only work I did on my split is I put in a nice new kitchen 35k in 2003. When I bought house kitchen was a trainwreck with cracked floors, yellow dishwasher green oven and aluminum wiring. But it was large kitchen and I got like 20k off house and wife wanted to redesign. New cement work and fence that was shot when I bought it. Then new lower level in Sandy which was last done in 1970 with paneling, wall to wall and blue shower and formica complete with absestos floors. I got 33k of that paid by flood grant. I only do work when it is shot. Money into a house is lost money.
Next flood I will finish it off.
JB bottom line as when you buy a place you dont know till ten years later who the fool was.
Most interesting part of all my house orginally was purchased by an extremely rich man. Mr. Breakstone’s son owned my house. Now Mr. Breakstones Son become a multimillionaie clothing designer in his own right and lived at home for awhile after he was rich. It is amazing how homes when they were not an investment and not something you showed off how rich people lived in modest homes. My uncle who was a very wealthy man lived in a split, in 1975 he was making 375K a year. His house in 1975 was worth like 30K. He paid 12k for it. He finally sold it a few weeks ago. Growing up in Bronx my neigbor was a Doctor and his son went to NYU to be a doctor and lived at home in the two bedroom apt. Never give up rent stabilization. He passed away when I was young and wife passed away around 1973. But still amazing.
The funny part about Breakstones is when the second owners bought it in 1970 they did some renovations. In the 16 years the Breakstones owned it they never put a nickle in it. That is why they are rich. God Bless them, I still love their butter.
Grim all homes have their charms and quirks. We picked a lifestyle and a school system first then the house next. I toured my fill of Center Halls built in the 80s priced in the 700k range when not a single dollar spent to update or maintain. They were all turn key 200k additional reno spend and years of angst with contractors. Anything updated in the last decade was pushing 800k+ but generally they all were worn out homes even the ones with the additions. All capes and ranches were in the less desirable neighborhoods or on busy roads requiring another 100k+ spend to update. I even considered an old farm house knock down to put up a newer home on on but the road was too busy. I waited over a year watching all of the inventory past and present looking at what was selling how much and where. You sit where you stand depending where you are situated in life. This means my number was up, it was my time to buy and buy the best house for the best price at the best rate and get out of the city. I will be smoking cigars and hitting the links this weekend, clebrating with a friend I lost touch with. I have an invite from a heavy hitter to play golf in a few weeks just because he knows I drink, smoke cigars and now live in the neighborhood. Not everything you do in life is perfect but I am about as close as I will ever get, for a kid from the Bronx.
JB I went to the Bronx a few weeks ago and it is pretty nice now days, pretty white yuppie girls jogging down the street. A little shocking.
Bronx is best place to score a dime bag.
That is all.
From Bloomberg:
U.S. Household Worth Tops Pre-Recession Peak for First Time
Household wealth in the U.S. jumped to a record in the first quarter, exceeding its pre-recession peak for the first time, bolstered by gains in the stock and housing markets that are helping Americans mend finances.
Net worth for households and non-profit groups increased by $3 trillion from January through March, or 4.5 percent from the previous three months, to $70.3 trillion, the Federal Reserve said today from Washington in its financial accounts report, previously known as the flow of funds survey.
Household wealth eclipsed its pre-recession level as gains in the stock and housing markets help Americans withstand an increase in the payroll tax this year. Lending rates kept low by the Federal Reserve, coupled with further gains in employment, may continue to repair balance sheets and support consumer spending that makes up about 70 percent of the economy.
“We’re still on track for another improvement in net worth in the second quarter,” said Guy Berger, an economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut. “It is having a positive effect.”
Household net worth is $2.29 trillion above its pre-recession peak of $68.1 trillion reached in the third quarter of 2007. It was at $67.3 trillion in the last three months of 2012.
The value of financial assets owned by American households, including stocks and pension-fund holdings, increased by $2.1 trillion in the first quarter to $57.7 trillion, today’s Fed report showed.
I found JB’s beach house
525 Riverleigh Ave, Riverhead NY, 11901 ( Sold )
Date:02/01/2013
MLS# 2547711
From the WSJ:
Wells Fargo Pays $42 Million to Resolve Foreclosure-Upkeep Case
Wells Fargo WFC +2.02% & Co. has agreed to pay $42 million to resolve allegations that it failed to maintain foreclosed homes in minority neighborhoods while putting more effort into upkeep of homes in primarily white areas.
The bank denied the allegations made last year by the National Fair Housing Alliance in a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But it agreed to settle the case to resolve the dispute quickly, Wells Fargo spokesman Tom Goyda said in an e-mail Thursday.
Cooperation with “organizations who share our commitment to helping communities with distressed real estate markets is a much better outcome than a long and contentious dispute,” Mr. Goyda said.
Wells Fargo agreed to pay $39 million to housing programs in 45 communities, plus $3 million toward legal fees, fees, education and outreach.
BTW-The Monmouth County public courses absolutely rock the house…..it is a long way from Pelham Bay/Split Rock…although I really enjoyed myself up there…..
Juice Box says:
June 6, 2013 at 2:57 pm
I have an invite from a heavy hitter to play golf in a few weeks just because he knows I drink, smoke cigars and now live in the neighborhood. Not everything you do in life is perfect but I am about as close as I will ever get, for a kid from the Bronx.
“Hawkish Dallas Fed head Richard Fisher was relatively outspoken following a speech this morning in Toronto as some insightful truthiness leaked out. As Money News reports, Fisher exclaimed,
‘we cannot live in fear that gee whiz the market is going to be unhappy that we are not giving them more monetary c0caine’ adding that,
‘only time will reveal the efficacy of current policy and whether the risks that I and more experienced observers like Paul Volcker fret over are as substantial as we surmise, or whether we have made much ado about nothing.'”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-06/quote-day-feds-fisher-markets-monetary-cocaine-addiction
Humm Tropical system Andrea headed our way. Time to prime the generators?
87 – Already changed the oil and refilled my tank
Grim [84];
Pick your metaphor —
A) College kid going back to the well one more time and hit up daddy for ‘incidental’ expenses; or
B) Shakedown racket rustling the leaves yet again to see what falls out.
No admission of liability or wrongdoing… nach.
#32 moose
Chimpy McBushitlerburton , would that be the guy that flushed the 4th amendment down the toilet to create this situation?
Checked I paid my flood insurance bill!!!
grim says:
June 6, 2013 at 4:23 pm
87 – Already changed the oil and refilled my tank
You gotta love the two wrongs make a right defense.
90.Fabius Maximus says:
June 6, 2013 at 4:27 pm
#32 moose
Chimpy McBushitlerburton , would that be the guy that flushed the 4th amendment down the toilet to create this situation?
From HousingWire:
Freddie: Borrowers strengthen their household budgets with refis
Borrowers who refinanced their homes in the first quarter will save approximately $7 billion in interest over the next 12 months, Freddie Mac said in its first-quarter 2013 quarterly refinance report.
The enterprise’s quarterly report is culled from data on sample properties in which Freddie Mac has funded two successive conventional, first-mortgage loans, with the second being a refinancing.
The overall data shows consumers strengthening their balance sheets by using low mortgage rates to move into reduced monthly payments. In other cases, they are refinancing into shorter loan terms or obtaining a safer long-term, fixed-rate mortgage.
Freddie says in the first quarter $8.1 billion in net home equity was cashed out during the refinancing of conventional prime-credit mortgages. This figure is virtually unchanged from the previous quarter, but substantially down from the peak cash-out refinance volume of $84 billion in the second quarter of 2006.
Of those borrowers who refinanced during the first quarter, 28% shortened their loan terms, 68% kept the same loan terms as the loan they paid off and 3% chose to lengthen their loan terms, Freddie Mac said.
About 85% of those who refinance a first-lien home mortgage maintained the same loan amount after refinancing their mortgage or lowered their principal balance by putting more down at the closing table.
re # 90 and 92 etc Let’s not ignore the facts that Jimmy Carter signed FISA act into law, a bill introduced by Dead Ted Kennedy.
Fabu [90]
5 years into his O-ness’ reign and its STILL Bush’s fault.
#61 Lib
“Thinking about getting the Honda Fit” I have to ask the obvious question, “Will you fit?” I looked at the Fit in 2008 and the drivers position was cramped.
Juice [94];
introduced by Dead Ted Kennedy.
Didn’t they open for Bon Jovi at the Stone Pony once?
Con’t [95]
“Won’t somebody PLEASE stop that dastardly GWB before I slaughter another innocent amendment?!?”
#92 joyce
I like to think of it as the Pandora or V1rginty defense, once you open the box there is no way to close it.
#94 Juice
At least that was passed 95-1 in the senate and had full congressional oversight.
#95 moose
And its been 14 years since The Phantom Menace and I still blame George Lucas for Jar Jar Binks.
#98 moose
Do you want to revisit the 6th?
15: Brian,
The person teaching to my kids last semester was completely inept. Then again, my kids had the opportunity to learn and converse at home about all my mistakes.
You’ve said that multiple times, and it was full of as much bullsh*t the first time as it is this time. There is no defense.
99.Fabius Maximus says:
June 6, 2013 at 5:12 pm
#92 joyce
I like to think of it as the Pandora or V1rginty defense, once you open the box there is no way to close it.
[43] Moose – I miss Tanta.
Looks like rates are back down to around 4 – If the jobs numbers tomorrow are ugly, may dip back into the 3’s. If they are positive, say good bye to the 3’s.
Jack Bauer is coming for you, don’t say you weren’t warned.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
Privacy fare thee well…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
When the street violence starts, there will be no Ds or Rs.
Git your gat, folks. It’s all going to black.
No privacy when we’re all sleeping outdoors around trash barrel fires.
No iPads or intertubes then, either.
Fabs,
I’ve been driving it’s predecessor, the 95 Civic hatchback for 18 years. The similarities between these two cars are tremendous. It’s amazing how little really changes after nearly 2 decades. I hopped on down to the ghetto dealer (Planet Honda) today to fit the Fit. It’s amazing how the sales vultures descend on you when you arrive in an 18 year old car. Then how quickly they run away when you tell them you are interested in an EV. There are no dealer incentives. I asked.
It’s amazing how little really changes after nearly 2 decades.
Eight hundred pounds heavier and gets the same gas mileage.
I’ll take an f150 raptor over the fit any day.
Can you lease a raptor for $259 a month, with all of the maintenance, collision, roadside assistance, unlimited mileage, plus have Ford install a $1,000 charger in your garage?
No, but I think Shelby will modify it for you so that it gets 575 horsepower.
http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2013/04/24/pf-w-shelby-ford-raptor.cnnmoney/index.html
Actually, my Civic weighs 400 lbs less than the equivalent Fit and gets almost 8 mpg more because of it. Same length and wheelbase essentially. Big difference are the 15 and 16″ wheels vs. the Civic’s 13″. Man, I’m going to miss being able to buy awesome tires for next to nothing.
Stu – who has them? For $259 a month, I’d take one to play with.
Grim – re: play with. More fun and probably the real future if the black stuff runs out. currently 14k.
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/
[89] moose,
It’s usually B.
I remember one deal I worked on was especially heavily protested. My job was to help prepare responses. I saw that one protesting group was a recipient of CRA grant $$ from my client. I pointed it out to the banks CRA officer. She said “yeah, I saw that. They’ll be getting a call from me.”
“Northern New Jersey continues to see modest, steady improvement in its housing market” | New Jersey Real Estate Report isbale marant sneaker http://www.goldisabelmarant.com/
Would anyone who has been a element of your program from the beginning mind sending me copies of your prior letters? I am signed up now but unfortunately did not hear of the until now. Many, many many thanks in advance.
“Northern New Jersey continues to see modest, steady improvement in its housing market” | New Jersey Real Estate Report mulberry bags outlet http://www.wellwish.co.uk/