No exodus?

From The Real Deal:

No exodus from California despite pressure from new fed tax plan: real estate pros

While homeowners in high-tax states like New York and New Jersey may be packing their bags to move to Florida and Texas, real estate professionals in California say they are not seeing an exodus spurred by changes to the federal tax code.

But the new rules could have a “chilling effect” on asking prices for homes in the state, and lead many residents to decide to rent instead of own their homes, one private wealth manager said.

For the moment, agents and real estate executives interviewed by The Real Deal say they aren’t seeing a substantial number of buyers making plans to sell their million-dollar homes and leave the state.

California’s tight housing market has fueled soaring prices in both Northern and Southern California.

“All high-end sales are up,” said Nick Segal, president for Southern California of Pacific Union International. “Our biggest problem in that market is inventory. If sellers aren’t willing to put their houses on the market then I guess they’re not looking to leave.”

The new federal tax changes bring added pain to California residents already frustrated by the state’s high cost of living and some of the highest state income taxes in the country. Those state taxes have caused many residents, especially ones on the lower-end of the earnings spectrum, to migrate in recent years to Nevada, Texas, Florida, and other states with lower taxes.

In January, home prices in Southern California posted the largest year-over-year rise in 44 months. The median price rose to $507,000, reflecting an 11.4 percent hike since the year prior.

“Sure, we have seen a lot of people over the years move from here to Las Vegas, from here to Arizona, from here to Texas, Utah and Wyoming,” said Beth Styne, chief operating officer at Coldwell Banker in Los Angeles. “That is about state taxes. But our state taxes have been exorbitant for a long time.”

This entry was posted in Demographics, Economics, National Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes. Bookmark the permalink.

86 Responses to No exodus?

  1. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    fristy!

  2. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Uhhh….Wouldn’t the necessary converse statement be: “For the moment, agents and real estate executives interviewed by The Real Deal say they aren’t seeing a substantial number of buyers making plans to buy million-dollar homes and stay in the state.”

    For the moment, agents and real estate executives interviewed by The Real Deal say they aren’t seeing a substantial number of buyers making plans to sell their million-dollar homes and leave the state.

  3. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    ^^^I guess that assumes static supply. Since the people debtors who own occupy million dollar homes aren’t selling, everybody who wants to join the club bubble must be buying new construction?

  4. Yo! says:

    California has concentration of high quality growing tech employees,, beautiful weather, and unique culture. The state can afford some stupid politicians. Unfortunately, NJ can not afford dumb politicians of which we have many ( Murphy, Gottheimer).

  5. Yo! says:

    ExPat, workers are moving in droves from Boston and New York areas to California, in particular the Bay Area. Many of these workers have massive home equity to spend on houses in California.

  6. Hold my beer says:

    1.6 million to live in asbury?

  7. Yo! says:

    More and more NJ cities (Asbury, Hackensack) in early stages of multi decade comeback. Any hope for Camden, Vineland, Bridgetown, Salem? I say nope.

  8. The Great Pumpkin says:

    “Not for long, my uncle is living in NC and has seen drastic property tax increases over the past 5 years as more residents move in and demand more services, ie. increased police, firemen, ambulance services, increased number of children attending school, etc. Also housing prices are starting to climb there as well as demand increases. Low property taxes only sustain when demand for housing is low. There’s many in Mecklenburg County who are freaking out about the 2019 tax reassessment, because they know their property taxes are going to soon soar.”

    https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article129157234.html

  9. 3b says:

    We go to Asbury a lot great restaurants etc. The oceanfront strip is booming but once you get further away it still has a long way to go. I don’t think the whole town will come back. It will be limited.

  10. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    Asbury is a perfect example of the gays preceding the rejuvenation.

  11. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    They should give tax incentives to gays, Jews, and Asians in cities that need to be turned around.

  12. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    If you’re a gay Asian Jew they should give you a free house with zero taxes.

  13. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    “If you’re a gay Asian Jew”

    That’s like saying, “If you’re a white professional running back.”

  14. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Or High School dropout real estate and economics visionary?

  15. LurksMcGee says:

    Peyton Hillis was great for my fantasy team one year! That unicorn existed!

  16. Fast Eddie says:

    Or, you’re a red-blooded, heterosexual male and you voted for Hillary.

  17. Juice Box says:

    re: Asbury – once you get further away it still has a long way to go..

    It literally is the definition of the “other side of the tracks” idiom.

    Some history if you did not know about Asbury and the other side of the tracks.

    https://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2018/03/asbury_park_founder_statue_segregation.html

  18. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    I was in Asbury at the beach yesterday. That complex under construction does look amazing. They’ve done wonders with the waterfront. I still remember going to concerts at the Stone Pony and the entire town being boarded up. 3 blocks in will always be pitiful unless they remove the Abbott status of the school and taxes increase.

    Asbury’s segregation goes further than that. There was an old map from the 30s someone had of Asbury and the beach in front of the old steam plant (the monolith thing near the carousel) was referred to as “n***** beach” on the map. Even near the 80s it was refereed to as the “black’s beach”.

    The crazy thing about the other side of the tracks is that if you ever talk to any of the younger kids there, most of them have never even seen the beach.

    My favorite restaurant in Asbury was always Jimmy’s on Asbury Ave. It survived the entire down period. Awesome Italian food. Haven’t been there in 10 years but last time I was there, it was like they still had the original waitresses from the 50s. They were all late 60s early 70s.

  19. 3b says:

    The funny thing too about Asbury is it’s the straight visitors who think because it’s Gay that anything goes! When they start looking twice at some of the straight people you it’s reversed.

  20. NJCoast says:

    The new Asbury Park sucks. The new “Disneyfied” Lanes suck. Gone are the days when we would work rehearsals at Convention Hall and a few diehard fans would be outside. On really cold days Bruce would invite them in for a private rehearsal concert. Vinnie Lopez’s legless dad, who patrolled the boardwalk on his motorized wheelchair, would stop in for a donut and Bruce would jump off the stage to say hello. I remember one hot September day, the lighting guys bought fishing poles and caught bluefish for us to cook. The Christmas shows where family and friends would party backstage. The Paramount Theatre with it’s haunted dressing rooms. The Rising. The NBC Today show on the beach. The punk shows. The feral cats in the hall. The Berkeley Carteret or “The Shining” as we called it back then. Fun times.
    I only go to Asbury in the winter to the Pinball Museum. I’m sure that will be run out of there soon.

  21. ExEssex says:

    President Donald Trump claimed he is “the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party,” during an interview with a British newspaper on Thursday.

    During a conversation with The Sun, Trump insisted his approval rating among Republicans landed at 92%, “beating [Abraham] Lincoln.”

  22. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    Dude is baiting them too apparently.

  23. ExEssex says:

    A Master Baiter

  24. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    Exactly.

  25. ExEssex says:

    Probably hung like a toddler.

  26. joyce says:

    https://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2018/07/chief_who_ran_ticket_incentive_program_suspended_after_report_shreds_his_one-highway_department.html

    Biggest problem in this whole story is the unmentioned fact that we don’t need a separate police agency to monitor 11 miles of highway.

  27. joyce says:

    Did you predict Asbury’s (far from confirmed) success 20-30 years ago?

  28. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    Are they going to rename Bradley Beach?

  29. Fast Eddie says:

    Lib,

    Why would they rename it?

  30. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Rosenstein indicting another dozen Russians to get the media spotlight off Strzok.

  31. Mike S says:

    I would buy a house in ocean grove over asbury.

  32. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    In 2008, I said Asbury was going to go into the crapper again because a major developer left a project unfinished and I figured a lot of those places were bought at elevated prices. I was wrong and it’s kept up. I think it’s Abbott status is going a long way to propping it up the same way Jersey City is enjoying the fruits of other’s money. Those 3 blocks keep getting better and better. Even that unfinished monstrosity that sat there for decades is now converted. But 3 blocks out, it’s the same ol Asbury, and I don’t see that changing.

  33. joyce says:

    Let me preface this by saying that the way Trump is going about this trade issue is wrong. He’s getting a better result than doing nothing, but the fact of the matter is that he’s approaching it incorrectly, and it’s by mere accident that the outcomes are working out.

    Specifically, on outcomes, import prices are down and export prices are up. How’s that bad, exactly?

    As I pointed out in Leverage in my section in recommending Wage and Environmental parity tariffs the problem with “free trade” policies is that they’re anything but because you cannot control the legal environment in other nations. As a sovereign said nation is free to set whatever internal legal environment it desires. Short of an embargo or outright war you cannot compel another nation to adopt your view of human rights, workers rights or property rights, to name three obvious things.

    Now couple this with two additional facts: Technology has shortened the effective distance and delay between a point of control and a point of action which lowers the imputed cost that comes with distance, and that corporations always exist for one purpose above all others: To make a profit.

    Corporations operate in the legal framework permitted by the nations in which they have facilities and people. If you wish to constrain a corporation’s underlying purpose, which is to maximize profit, you must constrain the legal environment in which they operate.

    There is no other way to do it.

    It is a fact that throughout human history humans have attempted to enslave one another. So long as one can compel someone to work in some fashion that does not reflect economic pressures you can profit from this, and some percentage of people will. That person or organization will succeed on a profit basis where others who do not adopt that policy will fail. This inevitably encourages such behavior until only those who engage in it remain in business!

    As such the only constraint on such behavior is laws that are actually enforced so that the cost of such behavior is higher than the benefit.

    GM is going to make the Blazer in Mexico because they can employ what amounts to legal slave labor in Mexico that carries an “all-in” cost of under $4/hour. They will not sell any such trucks to the Mexicans building them because on a $4/hour wage nobody can afford to buy a $40,000 product. GM incurs the shipping expense of the finished product back to America because it is lower than the labor differential expense were they to build that same truck for our market here.

    Apple sources labor for the iPhone in China because it’s cheaper than sourcing the same labor in the United States. China has a huge number of people who live in abject poverty — they’re peasants. China allows factories to come into those towns and literally destroy the means of survival (rice paddies and similar) that said people were formerly relying on — either by paving them over and erecting a factory or by emitting pollution into the ground and water supply to the point that you can’t grow a crop there anymore that won’t poison you. Those employees are not “at will”; they are factual slaves.

    Apple (and others) source the screws for the frame of their device from slave labor factories in places like Malaysia. Malaysia, and other Asian nations, have a thriving illegal immigration problem which they actively exploit. Much like the “coyotes” who run Guatemalans to the United States as indentured servants, since no such person has the $6,000 average “fee” for such a service in advance, these nations allow the same practice. We in fact do it here too; we “allow” employers to hire someone on an H1b visa but they are captives to that employer since their visa is bound to the entity that employs them.

    Multiple large, “luxury” brands in America source tanned leather from similar third-world crapholes for the same reason. Tanning leather requires the use of toxic chemicals and properly disposing of them is expensive. It’s (much) cheaper to dump them in the water (but that’s illegal in the US) and, if you can obtain effective slave labor while destroying the environment there as well that tends to destroy the option of local people to subsistence farm at the same time then so much the better. Ditto for all the clothes that come from places like Vietnam and Bangladesh.

    Is this a “free market”? Of course not. But it does produce cheap screws — both for Apple and up the ass of the people making them.

    Now contemplate this: The average IQ in this nation is approximately 100. Fully one half of the people are on the left side of the bell curve. Those who are “business successes” as entrepreneurs, CEOs and similar are statistically all on the right side, and most of them are 2 standard deviations or better to the right — that is, in the top 2% of all persons.

    That’s six million people, more or less, in the US.

    What do you do with the 150 million-odd people who are on the left side of the curve?

    Business and politicians alike ignore them in recent years, but had better not. They’re fully half the population and were there to be a civil war you might want to compute the odds of six million people surviving when 150 million decide to eat them.

    If you’re in that top 2% you’re what’s for dinner, irrespective of whatever sort of technological prowess or equipment you may deploy. Oh sure, you’d slaughter a lot of those 150 million in the process, but you still die and so does your entire family.

    Every.

    Single.

    Time.

    But what happens if Trump lays tariffs that erase the benefit of employing slavery in other lands? Let’s say for example that Trump was to figure out the difference in labor cost in a Blazer between one built here and one built in Mexico. It’s not hard — $4/hour there, $20/hour here times however many hours of labor are in the truck. That’s the tariff.

    Now take Apple’s iPhone. How much would the screws and assembly cost here .vs. over there? That’s the tariff.

    Go down the list one at a time of everything we import and look at what costs are evaded by firms soliciting labor through other lands where the legal environment does not protect the right of free movement, the environment and similar. That, by the way, is essentially everything this nation imports.

    Now lay the same via taxes on any firm that employs H1b — or the so-called “Seasonal worker” visas (H2a and H2b) . Take the full imputed cost including salary and benefits of said person and, if lower than a US individual of the same skill set employed in the same job that’s the tax due.

    What happens if you do this?

    Those manufacturers no longer have an economic reason to put labor there. They will bring it here instead, by and large. Further, watch how fast all those H2 jobs who people claim “can’t be filled by Americans” suddenly can find all the employees they need!

    The result is that all those people on the left side of the curve will have jobs that are sufficient to support themselves and their families.

    But what if the manufacturers don’t bring the labor back? Then Treasury has hundreds of billions of dollars in surplus funds to cover the welfare costs of everyone on the left side of the curve.

    Either way the outcome is the same — we have a stable, thriving society.

    No, your iPhone will not cost an extra $200 nor will your GM truck. If either company could charge another $200 or $6,000 for their products and still sell them here in the United States they would do it right now. What prevents them from doing it is that they’ve determined that demand is insufficient to support that price. That does not change if there is a tariff imposed.

    So what will happen is that Apple’s margin on said iPhone will go from 40% to 25% and their stock price will reflect that. Likewise GM’s margin on that truck (remember, they make more on trucks than any other vehicle) will come in and so will their stock price.

    Neither company will admit this because if they do there is a very real risk that those 150 million on the left side of the curve will decide to eat the executives of said firms and the politicians that screwed them out of a job on purpose so the top 2% of the nation can make money through a rapidly advancing stock price! See above for the survival odds of that ~6 million should the other 150 million take that decision.

    That is why they lie repeatedly on this subject and in fact will never admit the truth.

    Now the usual argument is that these other nations will “retaliate.” Let ’em. If you think about it what’s there to retaliate upon? GM is a global company. So is Apple. Apple will build iPhones for the US inside the US. They’ll build the ones to sell in China in China. GM will build trucks for Mexico in Mexico (if anyone can pay for them there.) And so on.

    That outcome isn’t bad, it’s good! It’s always more efficient to build something closer to the point of consumption. Shipping is not free, never mind all the screaming about carbon emissions which are inevitably tied to moving crap around the world!

    Trump is getting a good result even though he isn’t doing it the right way. Both he and Navarro are trying to look at this as a function of “trade balance” in dollars, which is the wrong approach. It happens to be working (although the stock market has yet to recognize the loss of imputed valuation due to ending slave labor) essentially by accident.

    We ought to turn it into “on purpose.”

    Now are there places we can have “free trade” with? Sure — we could, for example, have zero tariffs on cars between the US and EU. Why? Because the slave labor and environmental issues are mostly-absent in both nations when it comes to building cars up and down the supply chain. But even with zero tariffs VW would be insane to build their cars in Germany for export to the US when they can build them here, as they’re doing today. Ditto for US automakers selling in Europe; why would you build a car here in the United States and then incur anywhere from $750 to over $2,000 in freight costs to move it across the ocean? Do you really think these firms intentionally undertake $2,000 in loss to ship an SUV across the Atlantic? If so you’re nuts.

    Wake up America.
    http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=233780

  34. Grim says:

    More realistic is that $4 Chinese shit at Walmart goes up to $6 and people still buy it.

  35. Libturd, AKA Dr. Howie Feltersnatch says:

    Bradley was nearly a Klansman.

  36. chicagofinance says:

    Have you ever eaten that product? For the price, it is one of most delicious things……I could throw it in the oven and eat it without seasoning……

    Libturd questioning the gender of Hillary’s Cankle fluid. says:
    July 12, 2018 at 11:28 am
    Whole Paycheck just sent me an add for their Amazon Prime specials.

    There is a sale on Animal Welfare Rated, Air-Chilled, Boneless Chicken Breasts*?

    WTF. We ARE elitists.

  37. chicagofinance says:

    Fumbled too much

    LurksMcGee says:
    July 13, 2018 at 9:55 am
    Peyton Hillis was great for my fantasy team one year! That unicorn existed!

  38. chicagofinance says:

    For the record, I voted for Hillary……but I also knew that my vote didn’t count.

    Back 2 years ago, there were too many people around, who have since made themselves very vocal and visible. I needed to be able to look them in the eye and say I did not vote for Trump. That said, this outcome is by far the best for the country. I don’t think it is even a question at this point.

    Fast Eddie says:
    July 13, 2018 at 9:56 am
    Or, you’re a red-blooded, heterosexual male and you voted for Hillary.

  39. joyce says:

    I don’t disagree with you, but to play devils advocate… the author contends if they could sell it for $6 they already would be. What do you think of that?

    Grim says:
    July 13, 2018 at 12:42 pm
    More realistic is that $4 Chinese shit at Walmart goes up to $6 and people still buy it.

  40. leftwing says:

    Know this conversation occurred but can’t find it…..

    What should I pay for new disc brakes and rotors for 2017 jeep? Rear only…

    In for cooling system fail and dealer is recommending new pads and resurface (not replace) for $479 lol……..

    Anyone use places like mavis? It’s a pretty straightforward job…..

    Thanks in advance.

  41. JCer says:

    Joyce it really depends. On lower cost items they will attempt to pass on the cost increase incrementally and back off the increases if it starts eating too much into units sold.

    Here is the deal nobody wants to bring back the manufacture of plastic trinkets and otherwise other spurious junk. The goal is to keep the nasty manufacturing over there but keep the more lucrative and specialized manufacturing here. The trade war will end, either the US will abandon it or the chinese capitulate. Navaro and Trump are looking to get concessions that allow the sale of US goods in China and protection for IP. China can keep shoes, clothing, phones, tv’s, small engines, etc that isn’t high value, this stuff isn’t coming back and there is benefit to the consumer of the ridiculously low prices. They want to nip Made in China 2025 in the bud, that means no chinese CPU’s, no Chinese Jetliners, no Chinese heavy machinery, no Chinese cars, no Chinese appliances etc.

  42. joyce says:

    JCer,
    Agreed that’s what the administration is aiming for… just not what the author of the article wants. To be fair, article does start out with:

    Let me preface this by saying that the way Trump is going about this trade issue is wrong. He’s getting a better result than doing nothing, but the fact of the matter is that he’s approaching it incorrectly, and it’s by mere accident that the outcomes are working out.

  43. JCer says:

    leftwing, I pay labor $100 per axle for brakes and rotors on my range rover using an independent mechanic and buy the brake kit from roverparts for ~$175 per axle. The labor cost is generally the same regardless of car $75-125 per axle is pretty standard. Find out what the part cost is for new factory rotor and pads is. I don’t like using places like Mavis if they are providing parts because they use cheap POS aftermarket stuff, you either want OEM or an upgrade like EBC especially in a heavy car like a jeep.

    Pep boys can cut your rotors without removing them from the car and then you can do a pad swap. It’s easy work anyone should be able to do it…..unless you have an electronic parking brake like a Range Rover does in which case you need someone competent if they need to remove the rotors..

  44. Trick says:

    Left

    Took my wife car in for a few recalls and the dealer said I needed new rear brakes, I just changed the fronts. Went to the autoparts store pick up a pair of pads, got home took the tires off and they had more then half there life left. Went back to the parts store to return the pads and will never go back to that dealer.

  45. Trick says:

    On my truck the front and rear pads went at the same time, traction control destroys the back pads on rear wheel drive.

  46. Grim says:

    Aftermarket rotors are so cheap I just change them when I change pads.

    Why bother having them cut?

  47. 3b says:

    We like Ocean Grove as well. We do bed and breakfast there then head to Asbury for the restaurants and bars.

  48. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Joyce,

    Excellent share. Thanks. Author nails it. That’s how a true free market is supposed to work. Competition based on equal rules, not this garbage that has been going on for way too long.

  49. leftwing says:

    “Aftermarket rotors are so cheap I just change them when I change pads.
    Why bother having them cut?”

    Same thing I asked dealer…that, and with an inkling that the dealer may be pulling something like what happened to Trick has me questioning…car only has 32k on it….

  50. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Probably more so if the bed is frequently empty. Lib and I are both proponents of dedicated Winter tires, so this reminded me of an added benefit: reduced brake wear.

    When I got my Mazda6 (FWD) in 2011 it was the first non-4WD I’ve had in decades (for Winter driving). I researched the OEM tires and how they would do in the Winter. They looked bad, so I spent $1200 on dedicated alloy wheels with Michelin X-Ice tires. They were tremendous, but I wondered how much was the tires and how much was TSC/ESC. Testing in big snowy parking lots with TSC/ESC completely off (there is actually a trick to that, you have to press and hold the button, IIRC, otherwise it doesn’t really turn all of the ESC off). I would say the Winter performance was about 50% tires, 50% microprocessing.

    The thing that surprised me most is how much more comfortable Winter tires are in cold temps and similarly how much more comfortable OEM tires are in the warm weather. Modern tire compound trickery makes them behave oppositely; both sets give a hard and uncomfortable ride when they are used in the opposite season. It was unbelievable how comfortable the Winters were when put on in 35 degree temps and the same increase in comfort happens when you put the Summers back on in 60 degree temps.

    On my truck the front and rear pads went at the same time, traction control destroys the back pads on rear wheel drive.

  51. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I think most passenger cars have rotors that are so thin that nobody cuts them anymore. I haven’t had rotors cut or drums turned since last century.

    Aftermarket rotors are so cheap I just change them when I change pads.

    Why bother having them cut?

  52. Juice Box says:

    Problem with rear OEM rotors after 32k miles? Might be rust do to the salt we have on our roads. If you are going to keep the car longer try getting better rotors. I agree with expat rotors today don’t get cut much anymore they are too cheap to replace and safer.

    Example (not an endorsement)

    https://www.autozone.com/landing/page.jsp?name=duralast-gold-rotors

  53. leftwing says:

    “1.6 million to live in asbury?”

    Or, $1.6m for a three BR ocean front, ocean view all amenity NY metro upper floor residence.

    There’s a bid/ask for you.

  54. leftwing says:

    “If you’re in that top 2% you’re what’s for dinner, irrespective of whatever sort of technological prowess or equipment you may deploy. Oh sure, you’d slaughter a lot of those 150 million in the process, but you still die and so does your entire family.”

    That’s why NZ exists. Ask Nom. Or any banker/techie/hedgie on the far right of the curve.

  55. leftwing says:

    ^^^^Aside from the fact that they also have nearly zero extradiction laws as well….

  56. leftwing says:

    In case things get warm, but not hot lol…….

  57. 3b says:

    Where is. Comrade these days?

  58. Juice Box says:

    Not everything keeps it value down the shore.

    07/04/18 Price change $1,899,999

    01/05/14 last sold $2,171,500

    https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Belmar-NJ/119976015_zpid/37367_rid/globalrelevanceex_sort/40.180341,-74.006578,40.168683,-74.024945_rect/15_zm/

  59. Libturd says:

    Nom is fine. Last I checked, his heels were caught in JJ’s oar locks.

  60. Bystander says:

    Oh, this will be priceless. Must watch on Showtime this weekend. Just remember that idiot Rs would have had this moron a breath away from running the world.

    “Duped Sarah Palin says Sacha Baron Cohen told her Chelsea Clinton was a recipient of a government-funded sex change”

  61. Juice Box says:

    Palin has been Irrelevant for 10 years, Cohen seems like he is too he should be going after somebody in the spotlight now.

  62. NJdepartment says:

    Zillow now say Rutherford NJ has cooled down… From very hot…

    https://www.zillow.com/rutherford-nj-07070/home-values/

    MARKET TEMPERATURE
    Cool
    Buyers’ Market

  63. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    2 children? I doubt most millennials even get to that number. My millenial siblings cousins and in laws have a big fat zero.

  64. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I think they’ll ultimately choose virtual children. That way you can always carry them in your pocket and spend the money you would have spent on diapers, food, and strollers on $5 Lattes.

    2 children? I doubt most millennials even get to that number. My millenial siblings cousins and in laws have a big fat zero.

  65. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    There goes the neighborhood. I want to get away from hipsters in my retirement;-)

    https://medium.com/@inkind/costa-rica-becomes-the-first-nation-to-ban-fossil-fuels-a180691daae4

  66. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    LOL. Dems have a blowhardy bill to “Abolish ICE” going around the House. GOP, in a jiu-jitsu move, may force them to vote on in.

  67. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    vote on it

  68. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Chinese investment in the US has tanked, and there’s no sign of it picking up anytime soon – Business Insider
    https://apple.news/A-nqtsIjsTP-Vo1LRmE0bCg

  69. Libturd says:

    My investment in Chinese food has unfortunately increased.

  70. homeboken says:

    Lib – Hunan Taste in Denville – I can never go back to a “normal” Chinese joint any longer. Hunan does cost quite a bit more but it is gourmet quality food.

  71. joyce says:

    For Grim:

    N.J. home makeover: A pretty master suite with a Japanese soaking tub for $85K
    https://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/07/nj_home_makeover_maplewood_colonial.html

  72. Juice Box says:

    idiot protesting Trump in Scotland don’t even realize “well below par” is a complement.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/jul/14/well-below-par-protesting-paraglider-flies-over-trumps-scotland-resort-video

  73. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    The whole idea behind the tariffs is to increase US investment here while sacrificing Chinese investment here. China has to decide whether its going to be worth the US decreasing investment over there.

  74. leftwing says:

    From Joyce’s article on the $85k bedroom makeover….

    How they saved
    “We designed and assembled our walk-in closet system from IKEA, and we did all the interior painting for the remodel, said Shelly Photiades. “We sanded, primed and painted all trim, walls and ceilings.”

    LOL. Self installed IKEA closet – barely wide enough to turn around in by the way – and doing all the painting and trim work by yourself?

    That contractor is laughing his ass off enjoying his new fishing boat, while the tenants float their rubber duckies in the japanese bath.

  75. leftwing says:

    I may take a drive from Harrison up through Rutherford and Passaic tomorrow.

    Rutherford it sounds has popped in price, but the handful of properties I pulled up show no steep appreciation since 2008-10.

    Funny, I lived there briefly. Friend from college was renting a house, needed to fill a BR, and I was between places in Park Slope and Hoboken.

  76. leftwing says:

    So Lib, are multifamily rentals all that hellish?

    Any insights on multis in those towns?

  77. Libturd says:

    What do you want to know?

    Also, I don’t think you could put any water in that Japanese soaking tub once I got in. That’s one of those things that will make your house extremely hard to sell.

  78. ExEssex says:

    Meanwhile another potential exodus……

    Teachers’ unions across the country are facing such discussions as they deal with the fallout of the June 27 Supreme Court decision that now prohibits labor unions from collecting fees from public workers who decline union membership. Janus vs. A.F.S.C.M.E. dealt a stinging blow to teachers’ unions in particular, which are projected to lose up to a third of their members.

    It has become important fodder in the fight to confirm Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court because Democrats argue that past nominees’ solemn promises to abide by court precedent were belied by the majority’s vote to overturn past rulings in the Janus case.

    More pressing for the teachers’ unions, the ruling jeopardizes a funding stream that has made them political heavyweights for decades. In that sense, Janus has been a rude awakening for the lumbering union giants that some say have lost touch with the educators they are supposed to lead.

    “Since they’ve built up this big political muscle, organizing has been less necessary because they have money and power,” said Evan Stone, a founder of Educators for Excellence, a teacher-led advocacy organization. “This whole effort to reconnect is only happening because of Janus, and it should have been happening the whole time.”

    Source: NYTimes

  79. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    The Janus decision gives teeachers the power to force their union to act in their own interests.

  80. Hold my beer says:

    85k. Lol. They got soaked. And they put a laminate floor over the original floor. Had to have been 95 year old oak or yellow pine they just covered.

  81. ExEssex says:

    Corporate profits have rarely swept up a bigger share of the nation’s wealth, and workers have rarely shared a smaller one.

    The lopsided split is especially pronounced given how low the official unemployment rate has sunk. Throughout the recession and much of its aftermath, when many Americans were grateful to receive a paycheck instead of a pink slip, jobs and raises were in short supply. Now, complaints of labor shortages are as common as tweets. For the first time in a long while, workers have some leverage to push for more.

    Yet many are far from making up all the lost ground. Hourly earnings have moved forward at a crawl, with higher prices giving workers less buying power than they had last summer. Last-minute scheduling, no-poaching and noncompete clauses, and the use of independent contractors are popular tactics that put workers at a disadvantage. Threats to move operations overseas, where labor is cheaper, continue to loom.

    And in the background, the nation’s central bankers stand poised to raise interest rates and deliberately rein in growth if wages climb too rapidly.

    Source: NYTimes

  82. grim says:

    $85,000?

    Holy f*ck they got taken.

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