From the Philly Inquirer:
Still No. 1: New Jersey’s supply of ‘zombie’ homes
The number of U.S. houses left vacant because of foreclosure was down at the start of the second quarter compared with the same period last year. But New Jersey’s share of these “zombies” continues to be tops in the nation, real estate information provider RealtyTrac said Thursday.
Zombie homes are defined as houses that mortgage borrowers vacated for which the foreclosure process was never completed.
In the United States overall, just 19,187, or 4.7 percent, of residential properties in the foreclosure process were zombies as of May, according to the Irvine, Calif., company, which monitors foreclosures nationwide. New Jersey claimed 4,003 of them. Pennsylvania had 572.
In South Jersey, zombies totaled 1,268 as of May, making up 11.2 percent of homes in foreclosure in Burlington County, 9.4 percent in Camden County, and 8 percent in Gloucester County.
RealtyTrac reported that Gloucester County had the fewest foreclosures, 2,975, and the fewest zombies, 237. Burlington County had 468 zombies among its 4,185 houses in foreclosure.
Only Camden County showed a year-over-year decline, 5.5 percent, in the number of zombies. Of the region’s three South Jersey counties, it had the most foreclosures, 5,967, and the most zombies, 563.
…
Typically, New Jersey has a roughly three-year timeline for moving houses in foreclosure’s many stages through the courts. At an average 1,103 days, it is the longest in the country. (Pennsylvania’s timeline is about 554 days.) High volume has exacerbated the Garden State’s situation, lawyers and experts say.
Good Morning New Jersey
bunch of 7 figures open houses this weekend around me
anything around $500k is offered as teardown
not a good situation
We still have a zombie on my street…….been a zombie since 2006……ostensible first lien is Countrywide/BoA
Zombie home around the corner from me. Eyesore in a great neighborhood. Place is condemned and has animals living inside now. A tree took out the whole back deck during Sandy. I was thinking I would go out next spring and sprinkle sunflower seeds all over the place on the property. Either that or plant bamboo all over it.
Chi [3];
We still have a zombie on my street…….been a zombie since 2006
In NY a squatter could gain good title by adverse possession in 10 years. In NJ it’s 30. I guess that how long we’ll have to wait until this mess gets cleaned up.
I drive around looking at about 40 houses per week to see properties scheduled for sheriff sale. Over the last 6 months I am seeing fewer and fewer vacant properties than in the recent past. I do not look at homes in urban areas.
Do you think there will eventually be an opportunity in these urban areas? I know it’s a tough question to answer, I’m just looking for your general feeling on those locations.
30 year realtor says:
May 20, 2016 at 9:55 am
I drive around looking at about 40 houses per week to see properties scheduled for sheriff sale. Over the last 6 months I am seeing fewer and fewer vacant properties than in the recent past. I do not look at homes in urban areas.
That’s also a great way to figure out which houses you can steal all of the copper from.
30 year realtor says:
May 20, 2016 at 9:55 am
I drive around looking at about 40 houses per week to see properties scheduled for sheriff sale. Over the last 6 months I am seeing fewer and fewer vacant properties than in the recent past. I do not look at homes in urban areas.
Either that or plant bamboo all over it.
Special place in hell for you.
Not interested in urban NJ properties because of the risk of oil tanks, low values, high repair cost, limited buyer pool, FHA financing is more likely and risk of vandalism.
Washington Post
After tensions explode in Nevada, it’s time for Sanders to be honest with his supporters
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a rally in Carson, Calif., on Tuesday, May 17. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)
By Editorial Board May 18
TENSIONS IN the Democratic presidential race exploded in Nevada over the weekend. Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shouted, cursed and threw chairs during a state party convention in which they failed to force rules changes they wanted. Even though they were attempting to get more delegates than the caucus results in the state suggested they deserved, they attacked the process as unfair. The state party chair subsequently received death threats against her and her family.
Mr. Sanders responded with self-righteousness and hypocrisy. He released a statement in which he listed a series of procedural complaints about the Nevada convention, attacked the Democratic Party for not being inclusive enough and warned that “millions of Americans are outraged” and that “the political world is changing.” He offered a throwaway line, three paragraphs down, condemning his supporters’ hooliganism in a statement that mostly justified it.
Mr. Sanders’s irresponsibility is sadly unsurprising. He has stirred up populist energy over the past several months with anti-corporate scapegoating and extravagant claims about policy. He has indulged and encouraged hyperbolic feelings that the country is badly adrift, that most of the nation agrees with a left-wing agenda but is trapped in a corrupt system, and that nothing but a political revolution will do. He has attracted some big, passionate crowds. But as he has lagged in votes, he increasingly has questioned the legitimacy of the process and encouraged his supporters to feel disenfranchised. The result is a toxic mix of unreason, revolutionary fervor and perceived grievance.
What is particularly galling about the Sanders camp’s complaints of disenfranchisement is that Mr. Sanders has benefited or tried to benefit from a variety of sketchy quirks of the nominating process. He has claimed support for his cause in caucuses, which are quite exclusive, but he complains about closed primary elections, which are more inclusive. In Nevada, his supporters were trying to game the rules to get more delegates and got upset when they did not succeed. As veteran Nevada politics reporter Jon Ralston put it, “Despite their social media frothing and self-righteous screeds, the facts reveal that the Sanders folks disregarded rules, then when shown the truth, attacked organizers and party officials as tools of a conspiracy to defraud the senator of what was never rightfully his in the first place.”
Mr. Sanders denies reality when he tells supporters he still has a plausible pathway to the Democratic presidential nomination. But passion cannot trump reality. It also cannot excuse violence, threats and attempts at mob rule. It is past time for Mr. Sanders to be honest with his supporters, before they take the campaign’s irresponsible ethos to greater extremes and thereby help ensure the election of Donald Trump.
11. In the Washington Post? That type of criticism of the Left? Unheard of.
Hill and Bezos must have had a very special meeting………
Separately, if you haven’t seen it on TV yet check out the commercial embedded in the below
http://cfif.org/v/index.php/press-room/3103-new-television-ad-highlights-contagion-risk-and-warns-about-dangerous-precedent-that-would-be-set-by-puerto-rico-legislation
#11..did someone swap out “Trump” for “Sanders” by mistake…??
#11 leftwing ….so that would open the door for pensions to file bankruptcy when they hit zero assets
Don’t build a tunnel…build a bridge…
http://www.nj.com/traffic/index.ssf/2016/05/could_this_futuristic_bridge_across_the_hudson_solve_njs_transit_woes.html#incart_2box_nj-homepage-featured
re: zombie foreclosures. Stats that I have seen say about 4,000 zombie foreclosures in New Jersey.
[12] leftwing,
As bad as that is, it is the lesser evil. The alternative is a direct bailout of the pensions themselves.
This way, only the rich get screwed. Initially at least. But this bill will not only raise borrowing costs for PR, it will raise them for any other state deemed to be in trouble. And not just in the future–I expect that NJ/IL/CA bonds would tank if the PR bill passes. Thus, the inevitable final payers will be the taxpayers in affected jurisdictions.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/fed-has-something-to-prove-to-dubious-traders-across-wall-street
What is interesting about the Puerto Rico bailout bill is they want to lower minimum wage in Puerto Rico from $7.25 an hour, to $4.25 an hour and only on people under 25 years old.
I would suggest that instead we sell the whole island to China.
Guess it’s deflation for the generation that is 25 and under.
Shouldn’t laugh, but can’t help at cracking up when I think of the economic mess this world is in from over 40 years of bs policy.
Juice Box says:
May 20, 2016 at 1:39 pm
What is interesting about the Puerto Rico bailout bill is they want to lower minimum wage in Puerto Rico from $7.25 an hour, to $4.25 an hour and only on people under 25 years old.
I would suggest that instead we sell the whole island to China.
Seems that the pols in the JC of Mass have learned a bit from their paisans in NJ.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2016/02/26/the-fight-over-the-wynn-casino-explained
I think it’s almost fading into oral tradition how minimum wage used to work. “Minimum” used to be a word that people understood, we should probably change the name to “Lowest” wage to promote universal understanding.
“I can’t raise my family on Lowest wage.” Duh. “I’ve been earning Lowest wage for 12 years and I’m not getting anywhere.” Duh. “I can’t see a future for myself working at Lowest wage.” Duh.
I became acquainted with minimum wage in 1976 in NJ, $2.50/hour. Quite a step up from paper boy money. Two years later, having been a constant part-time worker for several years, I could easily survey the situation, at least from my position as part-time worker at McDonalds.
During the school year it worked like this:
1. 6AM-2PM Senior Citizens making extra money or perhaps hand nothing to do.
2. 11AM-3PM Moms (not Dads!) making extra money, maybe some other random adults.
3. 3PM-9PM HS students working 20 hours or less per week,
4. 8PM-10:30PM Closers. 18-21 year olds going to community college with some rare exceptions, maybe a college junior or senior living at home, some wacko housewife, but mostly older kids. (I was in this group, but I was commuting to Rutgers or working weekends while attending RU)
Managers: 21-25 year olds who somehow didn’t make it to college. As I recall, they busted their ass for for really, really, really low salary wages.
Bottom line: This was a closed community where either you weren’t over 25 or you weren’t expecting much (Old people and secondary earners).
only way to generate new republicans
@nypost
Scientists are trying to creat embryos that are part-human, part-beast
Is this because they’re moving through the pipeline faster, or are more people realizing they can get a few years rent-free so aren’t picking up and leaving?
30 year realtor says:
May 20, 2016 at 9:55 am
Over the last 6 months I am seeing fewer and fewer vacant properties than in the recent past.
Minimum wage, Puerto Rico, pumps talking to himself yet grim hints he might be shutting the blog down and no one seems concerned, perhaps a little sad. Just saying.
Thought grim was being sarcastic yesterday given the high level discourse.
He can’t shut it down, what would we do all day, work?!
“I expect that NJ/IL/CA bonds would tank if the PR bill passes…”
Wish JJ didn’t pass
He called some good trades
#26 does anyone know what happened to j j? I have disappeared for a couple of years and only post infrequently now. But j j could bang out tons of posts a day. Then all of a sudden nothing.
Expat, agree with the premise of your post. What I don’t get is how you don’t realize how much the labor market has changed. You don’t think something is wrong when all the dead beat jobs reserved for hs kids are being taken by adults with a family. The labor market is a disaster.
Sure the funds returned 5.6%, might as well give it to the CWA to manage.
http://cwanj.org/SICpetition/
Juice, it’s criminal, esp when the workers are made to look like tax thieves to the public.
“That’s $1.3 billion of the hard-earned retirement of nearly 800,000 active and retired public employees in New Jersey being doled out to Wall Street in just two years.
Reducing the investment in these high-priced funds and investing more prudently could save taxpayers $20 billion over the next 30 years without making a single change to the pensions of the workers.”
I mean what could go wrong when giving politicians a key to a giant fund with worker’s money in it?
re: # 31 – Pumps – if you don’t like the 2% and 20% agreement then don’t invest. I am sure the CWA can do better. Just give it to them to manage, and with no constitutional amendment to put the taxpayers on the hook. FYI the assumed rate of return is 7.9%. That is the real crime here, lower the assumed rate ASAP and make the towns kick in more money ASAP. FYI – the alternative investments program (net all fees) has outperformed the broader pension fund and a mix of broader global public markets.
Does anyone really believe a bunch of government workers down in Trenton can produce better returns with the money?
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/03/23/many-happy-returns-alternative-investments-buoy-public-employee-pension-plan/
US States Attorney’s Office for the Districts of Massachusetts (USAO) sent us a letter today. They would like to interview us as they are “currently evaluating the racial climate at Boston Latin School”.
in bold:
The USAO will protect the confidentiality of all parent and student discussions and will not disclose personally identifying information about our or your child to the District or anyone else.
I think I can protect our confidentiality better by just ignoring their letter.
LOL. should be “you or your child”, not “our or your child”.
Juice: Best fcking investment (scam) of all time…..check out the fixed fund…….to be clear, no risk of principal…..yes…no sh!tting you…..
https://www.trsnyc.org/ASPENMemberPro/Account/HistoricalDataInvestmentReturns
Juice Box says:
May 20, 2016 at 7:18 pm
re: # 31 – Pumps – if you don’t like the 2% and 20% agreement then don’t invest. I am sure the CWA can do better. Just give it to them to manage, and with no constitutional amendment to put the taxpayers on the hook. FYI the assumed rate of return is 7.9%. That is the real crime here, lower the assumed rate ASAP and make the towns kick in more money ASAP. FYI – the alternative investments program (net all fees) has outperformed the broader pension fund and a mix of broader global public markets.
Does anyone really believe a bunch of government workers down in Trenton can produce better returns with the money?
The above is the 403(b) [public sector workers’ 401(k) equivalent]…….
re # 36- yeah TRS, pre 9/11 I was there for a stint.