From HousingWire:
Consumers don’t think it’s the right time to buy
The percentage of consumers who believe it is a good time to buy dropped to 61%, an all-time survey low, right as summer is about to come to a close.
According to the July Housing Survey from Fannie Mae, consumer attitudes toward the home-buying environment stumbled last month despite positive home-price change expectations.
And the share of consumers who believe now is a good time to sell a home didn’t fare too much better, dropping 7 percentage points to 45%.
“Deteriorating consumer assessments of income growth over the past year as well as increased caution around the direction of the economy and personal financial expectations may be contributing to the pullback in sentiment,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae.
“Still, it is premature to read too much into this month’s results as the survey was taken around the time of increased global turmoil, including Greece’s potential default and China’s stock market plunge, which has receded somewhat. Most of our key indicators are as strong or stronger than they were at this time last year, which is indicative of an improving housing market this year,” he explained.
VR will not go mainstream until someone figures out how to replicate the technology in a William Gibson novel.
We got enough bag holders this season. Thanks for playing.
VR was supposed to become a reality back in the early 90s. If pron adapts, then maybe it will have a chance. Me thinks it’s still far away. Like wage inflation.
Should I stay or should I go now.
I’m just saying, give it a chance. A lot of money is being dumped into VR by almost every major tech company. They are all racing to be the first to get this right because the profit for being first will be highly lucrative.
Just think how VR will change real estate. No more live walk throughs. Just strap on the VR to do a walk-through. VR will change the world we live in.
Lib, you are so right. Just like porn played a role in early internet adoption, it will def play a major role in VR. Hookers start looking for another job.
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
$115K! The 13 best-paying U.S. companies
http://usat.ly/1Nl0dVE
Maybe USA Today should interview the CEO of Gravity?
Going forward, all mentions of that kindergarten rag must be referred to as USA Tarday!
Oh look…pretty colors and infographics…where’s my horoscope?
The photoshops of the photoshopped cover of the Time magazine VR guy was great. I think that floating VR guy can be my new image of pumpkin, kind of flying and pooping at the same time.
Does someone else have the photoshop skills to create the appropriate image?
I’m more of an Adobe Lightroom guy myself.
The highest paying job on that list wouldn’t pay most folks bar tab in Manhattan.
The Great Pumpkin says:
August 10, 2015 at 8:50 am
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
$115K! The 13 best-paying U.S. companies
http://usat.ly/1Nl0dVE
I notice that there are a lot of homes on the market right now in my part of Bridgewater. Some came on in the summer. In the $700k to $1.3m range.
Not sure who’s buying and why.
Still a good time to take a mortgage.
For Joyce – From yesterday’s comment containing the story on the soccer rivalry in Newark.
Quote from Tony Meola (former US Goalkeeper):
“Quick story. My best friend from high school is the head cop here, and he took off today because he said he didn’t want to have to work for his money. He called on the way in and said, ‘We’ve already arrested almost 30 people.’ … The point is, there’s a rivalry now.’’
Classic cop mantra or a friend being too loose with his words. I think the former and I think this cop is really doing a fine job earning that life-time platinum benefits package here.
Went to Green & White scrimmage with my son…..I was surprised, it was actually pretty cool….esp for free….great for kids….
I would be shocked if this guy took Ryan Quigley’s job….
http://www.newyorkjets.com/team/roster/Jacob-Schum/6e87a774-80f4-4f08-ac6c-a347c81b8dc2
JJ says:
August 10, 2015 at 8:29 am
Should I stay or should I go now.
would NOT
Would you expect a listing of a house over $800k to have well-taken, in-focus photos? Would it be too hard to remove the dunkin donut coffee cup from the table before photographing it with your iphone?
Yes and yes. Realtor Audrey Dooley, these listing photos are a disgrace.
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Bridgewater-NJ-08807/39864471_zpid/61181_rid/40.62949,-74.55318,40.561384,-74.637294_rect/13_zm/?view=map
15 – That is a great listing. Available for rent for 5 months at $6,000, obviously no takers, so the solution? Don’t lower the price, go ahead and list it for sale at $830,000, you see the price isn’t the problem, it was the wrong strategy.
I can’t decide which is more indicative of a piece of Sh!t realtor that has no clue what they are doing. A. The blurry photos B. The pictures of the exterior with snow on the ground, during August, that just scream – “Nobody is interested in this house!”
Rags…looks like she is not used to marketing listings worth over 200K. Considering that those photos were from the winter (snow), I’m not surprised this house is still on the market.
was at the game. real blast
Go Red Bulls!
homeboken says:
August 10, 2015 at 9:24 am
For Joyce – From yesterday’s comment containing the story on the soccer rivalry in Newark.
That first photo is pixelated like it was shot with the .5mp Mavica circa 2002, The last photo actually caught my attention but by then most people have walked by.
Oh krap. A none is a Red Bull fan. And I was about to renew my season tickets. Yes the game was a good one last night. But where are all of the fans when we play anyone but Sh1tty.
Running commentary on the photos, I suspect taken by the owner, or the owner’s 8 year old child using his Sesame Street camera. Even the most incompetent RE agent would have done better than this.
1) looks like a 1000 pixel photo taken from a toy camera. Can barely make out the house, but we’re treated to a great view of the asphalt on the driveway.
2) kitchen, but probably taken at night, so most of the actual kitchen is dark. Only the horrid fake fruit basket, coffee cup, and chair backs are lit, on the crappy white table.
3) bath scene, poorly lit, not wide enough angle to actually see what’s in the bathroom besides a tub. Chinese goddess decorations hint at the ethnicity of seller.
4) A dark blurry mess of a bedroom photo, I think. Clearly a bed. But there is also a blurry sofa and 2 comfy chairs. Does this suggest the master bedroom? Why is the living room in the bedroom? Or did someone put a bed in a living room?
5) Family room. A black fireplace is the spiritual center of the home? The back of a white sofa is the real highlight of this photo.
6) Dark blurry living room scene. Cannot actually tell what the room looks like. An out of focus dining table and chairs is the only thing one can make out, and is presumably not included in the price of the house.
7)Back to the dark kitchen, with coffee cup and fake fruit basket, from another unflattering angle. This time can make out the sub-zero.
8) Back to the fireplace room. Expansive view of a white couch, not included in house.
9) Patio with melting snow slush, again underexposed, not level.
10) Blurry pixelated desolate winter photo scene. Behind 8 trees one can make out the out of focus house. In July, the house almost certainly looks much more appealing.
Re: Lead article – It’s always a good time to buy. Just ask Fast Eddie, who apparently capitulated after years of being waterboarded by NAR’s cool aid.
I must have been crazy to capitulate. I can’t even begin to tell you the roller coaster these last two weeks have been. I’m holding my breath on every move from the sell and buy side.
Wally park pickup newark
Fast Eddie (23)
Just think, if you end up owning both houses, you can use your old house as a pied-a-terre.
(But seriously, good luck – I’m sure you went into this with a very clear head.)
“I’m holding my breath on every move from the sell and buy side.”
#16 and 15 HAHA I agree!! However you should look at the listings in Hillbillyville. Were I live they leave really tons of junk all over the house and yard. Its almost comical. I don’t know who to feel more sorry for the seller or the realtor or who is more stupid. Closing date is 8/27/15 Im getting so excited. The more cops I see trying to give me a speeding ticket, the more illegals, the more disability cases who are faking it, the more social programs for little schumtzi, the more crazy ideas like have a recreation tax, and the general malaise of where I live in this terrible place (yes I picked it and made a mistake) im smiling all the way to Raleigh.
This so called rural white Detroit here in Lake Stockholm has hit an all time low. For some examples, duct tape mailboxes, cardboard as window treatments, compressors the size of trailer on front lawns, tarps that stay on roofs for years, boarded up windows and the wonderful blow up Santa that still sits on the lawn , its really went down hill in the 8 years I have been here. Thank God I found a friend who is buying it.
There is only one positive that I can think of when I drive to Waldwick everyday to the gym. There is no rush hour in the morning anymore. 8 years ago there was some heavy traffic. Now I go thru at all times like a breeze on route 23 in the morning. No one is working out here anymore!!
Juicebox,
To what question is Wallypark an answer?
I’m planning to go on a 9 day vacation soon, do you recommend Wallypark?
Seems like their main weakness is a sometimes-slow arriving/departing shuttle.
Any other views?
Notice the other mistake on that Bridgewater listing. Last sold 1994, but it was built 2000. Good job.
ohh maybe it was a knockdown my mistake.
Rags.
ABC parking. The best. Nuff said. Cheap, reliable and the Latino girls in the office are cute.
The 10 most lucrative Jersey City tax abatements
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/08/the_10_jersey_city_properties_with_the_best_tax-ab.html#incart_river
JERSEY CITY — $30.6 million.
That’s how much just 10 Jersey City properties with long-term tax breaks would have paid more in taxes last year if the city had billed them at the normal rate.
The figure comes from the city’s user-friendly budget (pdf), a new document meant to offer taxpayers an easier way to learn how their money is spent. Overall, the document says that the city’s 146 tax-abated properties would have paid about $80 million last year under normal taxation.
Ten private properties alone — six office buildings and four residential towers, all along the lucrative Waterfront — would have paid about 40 percent of that total. Portside Towers, overlooking Liberty State Park, represents the biggest disparity: the city raked in $2.4 million from Portside last year, $5.7 million less than it would have received under normal taxation.
City officials and developers have argued that the $80 million figure in the user-friendly budget is misleading. Many if not all of the projects that receive abatements wouldn’t have been built without them, they argue, so the abatements bring in revenue to the city that a vacant lot would not.
Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-Jersey City, offered a robust defense of tax abatements to The Jersey Journal last week, noting that the projects that receive them sometimes also receive some sort of state aid.
Their “economic benefits must be proven,” Mukherji said. “They’re not given out willy-nilly.”
Two GOP lawmakers last week seized on a Jersey Journal story about tax abatements to criticize the city for handing out tax breaks while seeking state aid to pay for most of its school budget.
And CHEERLEADERS!!
Banco Popular Trust Preferred Shares says:
August 10, 2015 at 9:31 am
Went to Green & White scrimmage with my son…..I was surprised, it was actually pretty cool….esp for free….great for kids….
I would be shocked if this guy took Ryan Quigley’s job….
http://www.newyorkjets.com/team/roster/Jacob-Schum/6e87a774-80f4-4f08-ac6c-a347c81b8dc2
JJ says:
August 10, 2015 at 8:29 am
Should I stay or should I go now.
Minimum wage effect? January to June job losses for Seattle area restaurants (-1,300) largest since Great Recession
http://www.aei.org/publication/minimum-wage-effect-january-to-june-job-losses-for-seattle-area-restaurants-1300-largest-since-great-recession/
In June of last year, the Seattle city council passed a $15 minimum wage law to be phased in over time, with the first increase to $11 an hour starting on April 1, 2015. What effect will the eventual 58% increase in labor costs have on small businesses, including area restaurants? It’s too soon to tell for sure, but there is already some evidence that the recent minimum wage hike to $11 an hour, along with the pending increase of an additional $4 an hour by 2017 for some businesses, has started having a negative effect on restaurant jobs in the Seattle area. The chart above shows that the Emerald City MSA started experiencing a decline in restaurant employment around the first of the year (when the state minimum wage increased to $9.47 per hour, the highest state minimum wage in the country), and the 1,300 job loss between January and June is the largest decline over that period since 2009 during the Great Recession (data here). The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession. In contrast to the January-June loss of restaurant jobs in the Seattle area: a) restaurant employment nationally increased by 130,700 jobs (and by 1.2%) during that same period (data here), b) overall employment in the Seattle MSA increased 1.2% and by 21,800 jobs (data here) and c) non-Seattle MSA restaurant employment in Washington increased 3.2% and by 2,800 jobs (data here).
Perhaps Seattle’s restaurant employment will recover, or perhaps it will continue to suffer from the upcoming full 58% increase in labor costs for the city’s restaurants that will be phased in during the coming years – time will tell. What we know for sure is that there are now 1,300 Seattle area restaurant workers who were employed in January who are no longer employed today, so it looks like the Seattle minimum wage hike is getting off to a pretty bad start.
F U, pay me! I know you have the money.
Two Large Puerto Rico Bondholders Demand Full Payment
The mutual fund executives disputed that. They said the law that allowed the bonds to be sold authorized Puerto Rico’s Treasury secretary to advance the money needed to pay interest and principal each year, rather than waiting for the Legislature to make the appropriation.
“The Treasury secretary must now exercise that power,” they wrote. “Not only is this failure to pay unprecedented in modern times, it also violates the requirements of Puerto Rican law.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/business/two-large-puerto-rico-bondholders-demand-full-payment.html?_r=0
34 – Too early, that blip looks like noise.
Move along, nothing to see here. Cops shots and unarmed teenager and justifies because his life was in danger. Officer reports he was about to be run over but autopsy says differently.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/06/an-unarmed-white-teen-was-shot-dead-by-police-his-family-asks-where-is-the-outrage/
To be honest PR should be put under strict US Treasury oversight like Banks were in TARP> Then they need to get the hedge funds and PE shops to step up and volunteer some folks to fix the whole sales tax collection process and modernize the sales, tolls and gas tax collection as folks cheat and it should be outsourced.
Then PR needs to get creditors to take a mild haircut 10-20 percent
Then the current creditors and US Treasury lends them money back by hard assets to get it to a triple AAA rating and use it to call every single callable bond outstanding in one shot at 80 cents on the dollar.
Everyone needs shared pain, PRPRA the electric company with oil fire plants was blessed by oil price collaspe. Prices will go back up and unless, hedged, switched to gas or at least modernize existing oil burners they will get killed.
Nobody want to give PR a deal on the money owed as I see no pain on their side.
Real life Breaking Bad, well sort of.
How this chemist unwittingly helped spawn the synthetic drug industry
John W. Huffman is his name. But he is better known by his initials: JWH. In the world of synthetic drugs, few letters carry greater notoriety. They have materialized on thousands of advertisements selling what are known as synthetic cannabinoids or marijuana. And government authorities have banned nine JWH substances, making him arguably the nation’s most prolific inventor of outlawed synthetic marijuana.
Huffman’s compounds, experts say, laid some of the earliest groundwork for what has become a scourge of cheaply made, mass-produced synthetic drugs wreaking havoc in the District and beyond. Since the 1990s, when Huffman cloistered himself in a lab and forged hundreds of compounds for medicinal purposes, the synthetic marijuana industry has become an international, multibillion-dollar juggernaut that D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) calls a “serious threat to our public health and public safety.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/how-a-chemist-unwittingly-helped-spawn-the-synthetic-drug-epidemic/2015/08/09/94454824-3633-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html?tid=sm_tw
That white kid deserved it. For his privilege.
re #28 – I meant to txt Wallypark to pick me up, so tired did not notice I was typing into this blog instead of txt messaging. Corporate rate is $8 a day, they aren’t slow if you txt them when your plane arrives, they valet your car to their front door which is protected from the elements, lot P4 next to Terminal C is $27 a day self park if it isn’t full and valet is even crazier at $40 a day.
Air train is getting shut down in the next year or two if it dosen’t delrail first. It is going to be hellish for a few years as they replace it, you should not have to take the Airtrain from P4 or to go between terminals but oh well you do, get ready for the short bus from hell.
Just back from Ireland, their tidy towns programs makes us here in NY Metro all look like slobs. No garbage anywhere, not on the side of the road, not on exit ramps ( a favorite place here to discard crap out your car window), and not strewn on sidewalks or in the gutters etc.
They go out of their way to keep everything clean and landscaped nicely with lots and lots of flowers and plantings. Something similar to Disney but mostly volunteer. Sure they rely on tourism but many places I went that weren’t touristy were still kept neat and clean.
A thought I had on the life-of-its-own aspect of Trump’s candidacy.
We can speculate all day about what fuels it–the different approach and hot button issue that resonates; the media attention that fuels it; the backlash from the establishment GOP that doesn’t want him around . . .
But here is a thought: Assuming he is a rational actor (huge assumption, I know) he has two motivations– Trump’s ego is so huge, he thinks he can win or he has an ulterior motive. The appeal of the former is obvious, so obvious we neglect to consider the latter: Suppose he knows he can’t win but wants to do as much damage as possible, and if so, to who and why?
As Dr. Lanning said in “I, Robot”, “that, detective, is the right question.”
It’s pretty simple, Trump loves attention. The other aspect of it is, he’s probably having a lot of fun running his mouth.
Ego is reason enough with Trump. He’s been a regular on the Howard Stern show for as far back as I can remember and his only motivation is ego. The fact that he can answer questions honestly sets him apart from every other candidate running on either side of the aisle. It even becomes easier when you realize that he probably wouldn’t accept the nomination even if he won it. He’s always been likeable in a bar buddy kind of way. He has always conducted his persona as a peer. Meanwhile, he is not a peer since he has more money than all of us combined. In a way, he’s like American royalty. Like the Hilton’s or the Kardashians. But his track record of abusing bankruptcy and the fact that he inherited his privilege from daddy hardly makes him a qualified leader. Sadly, he’s making a mockery of the Red team’s best. Then again, that hasn’t been too difficult since W retired.
45 – Lib – What if we go real tin-foil hat theory here? Trump has given mega $ to Hillary in the past, he admitted that she was a guest at his wedding. What if ego has nothing to do with primary motivation, and is just a pleasant perq to the Donald with all this.
What if, his run in the primary is the largest and most valuable legal campaign contribution in the history of US politics for his pal Hillary. If he hangs in, and drags the GOP through the mud until Spring, then bows out. Who gains? Certainly not the GOP.
CNBC Now @CNBCnow 47m47 minutes ago
Donald Trump maintains support of 24% of Republican voters in new online Reuters/IPSOS poll with 6.7% margin of error; Bush trails with 12%.
I think the best quality Trump has as a candidate is that he pi$$es off all of the other Republican candidates. It’s worth it for that alone.
It’s Tin Hat Theory alright. If you said Trump attended Hilary’s wedding, then I might think you have something there. Unfortunately, the world has attended Trump’s many weddings.
These are all good explanations, but I have to apply Occam’s Razor here and go with the simplest being the most plausible: Trump is an egomaniac who doesn’t care what he burns so long as he gets the credit.
Been working on a lot of different things lately and still finding time to follow the news. There appear to be a lot fewer open seats on the crazy train these days, and unless the latest reincarnation of the weirdness of the 60’s crashes on the rocks of reality like it did then, we are in for interesting times.
I am finding myself in agreement with Clot more and more.
But for now, I have deal with a very gassy Boston Terrier and start my PADI course. And no, those things are not related.
Trump is about Trump he loves the attention hence the three ring circus act where he says things just to piss people off. Becoming president is all about his ego and nothing else, but again he’d never really say otherwise where with the current empty suit living on Pennsylvania ave, he’ll never admit that his presidency is all about his own hubris and legacy and nothing about doing a good job or workign for the american people or their interests.
GOOG go bicheZ!
Nom -51 – That is the breed standard, my BT is next to me now and the fumes are making my eyes tear up
Thanks Obama…
Real War on Women: Number of Women Not in Labor Force Reaches Record High – See more at: http://www.iwf.org/blog/2797841/Real-War-on-Women:-Number-of-Women-Not-in-Labor-Force-Reaches-Record-High#sthash.uUkljdbn.dpuf
Question for the establishment Republican candidates…
Would you support Trump if he were the nominee?
Turnabout is fair play….
Just another day at the quickie mart…
http://breaking911.com/watch-armed-employees-stand-guard-at-ferguson-market-liquor-store/
Nothing fuels a mob better than loot booze.