From the Jersey Journal:
Hudson County’s rents shoot up an average of 7.2 percent in 2011
The average asking rent for an available apartment in Hudson County has shot up 7.2 percent over the past year, with some luxury buildings seeing increases closer to 16 percent, according to a market report by the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
The new numbers bring much of the market back to levels last seen in 2008, says the report, which predicts new housing will be on the way to meet demand.
According to Robert Antonicello, executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, the rental market is reacting to pent-up demand. Many would-be buyers are currently renters due to economic conditions and an under-supply of condos. Antonicello agrees that more residences will be built to meet the demand. “People originally come to Jersey City because they like the convenience of the city. They discover the city, and they love the city once they live in it,” said Antonicello.
Some Hudson renters are getting squeezed out of more popular locations such as Hoboken and the Jersey City waterfront.
“With average rental rates on the rise, most college students and recent grads are now forced into surrounding communities (in Hudson County) , while Hoboken is attracting families, athletes, and entrepreneurs,” said Kristin Ehrgott, luxury residential specialist for Prudential Castle Point Realty.
“There’s an increased demand for three-bedroom residences and single-family homes (in Hoboken). While demand is high, inventory is low, causing values to rise exponentially,” Ehrgott said.
According to the report, three-bedroom residences make up only 5.5 percent of the Hudson County market, with an average size of 1,487 square feet. The increased demand has pushed asking rents of three-bedroom units to roughly $3,848 per month, nearly $1,200 more than the rest of Northern New Jersey.
Good Morning New Jersey
From the Record:
Fannie Mae will hold off on evictions during holidays
Fannie Mae says it won’t evict families living in foreclosed properties from Dec. 19 through Jan. 2.
Foreclosure proceedings will continue, but families in those properties will be permitted to remain in the home through the holiday season.
“The holidays are meant for families to spend time together, especially if they’ve gone through the stress of financial challenges and foreclosure,” said Terry Edwards, a Fannie Mae executive.
pay more to be closer to nyc nah. Went on a Christmas train ride (Polar Express) with the little ones out in Phillipsburg yesterday and seeing all the farms from Rt 78 now that’s better than looking at scummy sky scrapers
From the Star Ledger:
Future of foreclosures in N.J. hinges on state Supreme Court decision
In the nearly five months since the state Supreme Court effectively allowed six of the country’s biggest banks to begin filing foreclosures again, attorneys and court officials have been expecting a flood of new filings to hit the courts.
Except it hasn’t happened. Foreclosure filings are down 83 percent as of October this year, compared with the same time period last year, according to court figures, and there are at least 100,000 cases either pending in the system or waiting to be submitted.
Attorneys involved in the work in New Jersey point to at least one reason for the significant delay: a court case that has reached the state Supreme Court, with oral arguments on Wednesday.
The case, US Bank National Association v. Guillaume, is important because the court is asked to determine who must be named as a point of contact on the document that initiates the foreclosure process, known as the Notice of Intent to Foreclose. The state Fair Foreclosure Act requires identifying the lender and its contact information. But because the original lender has often bundled and sold the loans to investors, the current lender lists the servicer, a third party that collects monthly payments and dispurses it to the mortgage holder. In this situation, the lender’s attorney argued it was unnecessary to name his client on the notice because the servicer had been assigned the mortgage rights.
Attorneys for the homeowners, Maryse and Emilio Guillaume, said listing the servicer is not sufficient, should the homeowner want to work out a solution and stay in the house, and any foreclosure judgment without the lender having been named should be voided.
The Fair Foreclosure Act defines the lender as “any person, corporation or other entity which makes or holds a residential mortgage and any person, corporation or other entity to which such residential mortgage is assigned.”
Should the court side with the homeowners and determine what remedy must be made, it could affect pending or completed foreclosures and possibly change the process going forward, said Linda Fisher, a Seton Hall Law School professor who works closely with foreclosure cases at the school’s Center for Social Justice.
“The most immediate reason it’s such a big deal right now in New Jersey,” Fisher said, “is that there are over 100,000 foreclosures either pending or waiting to be filed, and since this Notice of Intent has to be met in every single case, what has to be included in that notice is fundamentally important to the status of foreclosure actions in the state.”
The Guillaumes are still in their East Orange home pending the outcome, despite a judge signing off on the foreclosure in 2009. That decision should be dismissed because the original notice directed the Guillaumes to their servicer, America’s Servicing Co., not the trust that now holds the mortgage, US Bank National Association, said Rebecca Schore, the Guillaumes’ attorney.
From the NY Times:
Help With a Down Payment
WITH most lenders requiring home buyers to put down at least 20 percent — and sometimes, with more expensive properties, an even greater amount — the best holiday gift some people might receive would be help with the down payment.
Under federal tax law, each individual is permitted to give away money or valuables worth up to $13,000 to a single recipient in a calendar year. A married couple could jointly bestow up to $26,000 a year per recipient.
“It really can be $52,000” if the recipient also has a partner, said Mike Maye, the owner of MJM Financial, a financial planning firm in Berkeley Heights, N.J.
And if the gift-givers wanted to spread even more good cheer into the next calendar year — perhaps distributing some future inheritance money — they could easily double the amount to the same couple, to $104,000.
“Give them one for Hanukkah or Christmas,” said Edward Ades, a partner in Universal Mortgage in Park Slope, Brooklyn, “and a week later give them another for New Year’s.”
The biggest barrier to buying a home these days is saving for the down payment, according to a survey released in September by Trulia. The survey, conducted over the summer by Harris Interactive, was based on responses from 2,207 people, including 758 renters who expressed an interest in buying a home at that time. Fifty-one percent of those renters said coming up with the money for the down payment was keeping them from buying (and 62 percent among adults 18 to 34), while 36 percent identified qualifying for a mortgage as the stumbling block.
“It’s a huge piece for first-time buyers,” Mr. Ades said. “Sometimes even the second-time home buyers are getting help from the family,” especially if their new residence needs renovation.
Mr. Ades estimates that 30 to 50 percent of Universal Mortgage clients who are first-time buyers receive some gifts toward the down payment.
Can’t speak for anybody else but best thing I ever did was rent a 1 BD/BA condo in Hoboken. I got my rent dropped 15% back in 2008 and there’s no way the guy is going to raise it because if I move he’ll have to repaint the entire place, make a bunch of minor repairs and find a new tenant. I can see the demand for the 3BD though; Hoboken has little quality stock in that area. Only place you are seeing those built is in new construction; about 99% of the construction 2000-2010 was 1BD/1BA and 2BD/2BA.
A pile of Narcissist
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9214237-gone-in-less-than-60-seconds-11-luxury-sports-cars-wrecked-in-expensive-pileup
BTW make sure you set you DVR’s to CSPAN this Thursday so we can all play the MF Global drinking game. Each time Corzine or one of the other execs invokes the 5th amendment everybody needs to drink.
[8] dissident
Speaking of drinking, how about a holiday season GTG? I am pretty busy but there must be some night in December when we can get out? It will be the one night of the year Fabius and I can go without antagonizing one another. And if we can get Clot to show and do the same, hell, there just might be peace on earth.
I would suggest a location close to rail transit so that we have some commuting time to sober up.
Dissident HEHEHE says:
December 5, 2011 at 7:30 am
Can’t speak for anybody else but best thing I ever did was rent a 1 BD/BA condo in Hoboken. I got my rent dropped 15% back in 2008 and there’s no way the guy is going to raise it because if I move he’ll have to repaint the entire place, make a bunch of minor repairs and find a new tenant. I can see the demand for the 3BD though; Hoboken has little quality stock in that area. Only place you are seeing those built is in new construction; about 99% of the construction 2000-2010 was 1BD/1BA and 2BD/2BA.
HEHEHE weas in Brklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens this weekend……I never thought that I would EVER EVER say this but Hoboken waterfront and vibe are hands down nicer that that area….and much cheaper too…it wasn’t this way in the past, but that place has basically sat is stasis for 20 years, so Hoboken bit by bit just passed it by……
Is Grim the moderator?
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
December 5, 2011 at 9:12 am
[8] dissident
Speaking of drinking, how about a holiday season GTG? I am pretty busy but there must be some night in December when we can get out? It will be the one night of the year Fabius and I can go without antagonizing one another. And if we can get Clot to show and do the same, hell, there just might be peace on earth.
I would suggest a location close to rail transit so that we have some commuting time to sober up.
[11] Yo,
Yes, Grim moderates. I am simply suggesting a holiday GTG and some criteria for location. How that translates into action or inaction is a mystery to me.
Nom
I am sure a once a year GTG will be a nice touch
#4 – I’ll eat my hat if the court upholds Laks. There is no proof that naming the servicer instead of the mortgage holder in the complaint prevented the defendants from protecting their interests or caused them damage. Unlike other violations by lenders, there was no fraudulent intent.
From Mushnick:
* A new adidas commercial includes a rapper grabbing at his crotch. The sneakers may prevent athlete’s foot — but not jock itch.
[15] chifi
And I thought the tax post I decided not to make was irrelevant.
Austerity here will occur in increments, and subtly change the way we conduct our day to day affairs. This is just one example:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45551343
For those of us that like to dissect trends, this is not unprecendented, and the subtle shifts in our behavior won’t be either. For example, I have long theorized that the popularity of SUVs was directly related to two trends, the first that launched the trend, and another that juiced it. The latter was concern over street crime, as exemplified by the LA riots, but even before that, a decline in municipal services led to the popularity of the SUV. When cities and towns cut back on school buses, road repairs, and even plowing snow, SUV sales took off. And auto manufacturers noticed this as it factored into their advertising, sometimes subtly and sometimes not.
Jil [190, prev thread];
Midcentury Modern (?!?) == We haven’t redecorated in 60 years.
Aside from time frame, how exactly does this differ from the 40-year old OEM finishings I see all over NNJ?
30-yr [14];
There is no proof that naming the servicer instead of the mortgage holder in the complaint prevented the defendants from protecting their interests or caused them damage.
I agree with every ‘occupying’ word of that.
Just this weekend I was clearing out the MLS papers from our Gold Coast tours but decided to keep a rental brochure from a Hudson County property. There are plenty of condos for sale there so I don’t know why the article refers to an “undersupply of condos.” To me, there are 3 kinds of condos for sale in that area – the ultra luxury condo, the stodgy old condo, and the middle-ground condo priced like the ultra luxury.
Moose #19 – There is a very fine line! Even though a decision that gets the foreclosure gears grinding again is worth hundreds of thousands per year to me, I can still differentiate between right and wrong. Wrong would be fraudulent intent and I do not see it as part of this particular issue in front of the court.
Nom [17];
US quality of life is being rolled back in many petit ways. My favorite example is bathroom fixtures – particularly low-flow shower heads and toilets. If you’re Mr. Theresa Heinz, for example, you just build yourself a guilded spa shower with 15 spary jets, and the flow restrictions on any one jet are immaterial. If you’re lower to middle class, however, and such things are unaffordable extravagances. Something as simple as a shower that the technological advance of indoor plumbing afforded our ancestors is now curtailed.
30-yr [21];
The argument for Laks in the story was unconvincing, to say the least. Yes, identifying the real party in interest gives the deadbeat the opportunity to plead for mercy. However – in the case of securitized mortgages, the trustee might lack the authority to grant mercy, so any pleas are futile. Even if the trustee has some authority to grant modification in the interst of maximising value of the portfolio (not to be confused with maximizing the value of any particular loan – sometimes you need to make an example of someone) that does not mean that they will do so in this deadbeat’s particular case. What it boils down to is that the deadbeat has no >right< to a mod, no matter how persuasive a case they can make for it. So being denied the opportunity to plead their case to a real party in interest deprived them of nothing that they were entitled to by contract or law.
The only valid reason to force disclosure of the real party in interest is to ensure no conflicts in the judicial process (for example if the judge were a direct investor in the underlying security); but that doesn't require that the case be dismissed if, once disclosed, no confict exists.
Dated crap Midcentury Modern
However, I do see many folks trying to justify their dated crap purchase by labeling it as so.
Real good examples are few and far between in Jersey. These homes were very expensive in comparison to the usual fare.
This morning, CNBC was discussing the demise of the middle class. It’s one end of the spectrum or the other. Let them eat cake.
There should have been an “is not” symbol between the two.
FRANCE, GERMANY WANT `NEW TREATY’ FOR EU
AUTOMATIC PENALTIES BACKED FOR BUDGET VIOLATORS, SARKOZY SAYS
Hahahahaha, hahahaha, too funny. Hahahaha, hahahaha.
For all you purple lovers. You’re out of luck, this lovely is already under contract.
http://mls.momls.com/ListitMonmouth/ListitLib/photo_show.aspx?mls_acct=21140458&report=members_full_prop1#
NJCoast,
Perhaps if you provided a link that didn’t require a username and password that would get more people looking at the same material you are.
Unfortunately, we all don’t have access to momls like you do.
Nicholas
Moose #18: Maybe if you don’t remember midcentury modern the first time, it seems kind of cool and retro. Because my POS needs so much updating and I have to pick and choose (plus the fact of plaster walls), I’ve decided to learn to love my black with seafoam (Am. Std. Ming Green?) trim downstairs bath and will just put in new floor (white hex tile, yes I’m mixing eras, but too bad), vanity (black with white sink top), and medicine cabinet (white)…and pale peach walls. The upstairs will have to be gutted. Not even I can love forever with an avocado green tub and gold-speckled tile, even if Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and Bon Ami DOES get rid of the old lime stains.
I won’t be calling the downstairs “midcentury modern”, though. When the time comes to sell, I’ll call it “updated” and “charming.” ;-)
But if you REALLY want to see midcentury modern, go down to World of Tile on Route 22 in Springfield. It’s a time capsule where you can get anything from that era that you want. It’ll cost you, but you can get it.
We’ve been way ahead of the curve when it comes to the new normal for the 99%ers. Wife and I have been managing just fine in an 800 square foot bungalow not including front and back porches for the past 6 plus years. We do spend a lot of time outdoors.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
December 5, 2011 at 9:42 am
Austerity here will occur in increments, and subtly change the way we conduct our day to day affairs. This is just one example:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45551343
For those of us that like to dissect trends, this is not unprecendented, and the subtle shifts in our behavior won’t be either. For example, I have long theorized that the popularity of SUVs was directly related to two trends, the first that launched the trend, and another that juiced it. The latter was concern over street crime, as exemplified by the LA riots, but even before that, a decline in municipal services led to the popularity of the SUV. When cities and towns cut back on school buses, road repairs, and even plowing snow, SUV sales took off. And auto manufacturers noticed this as it factored into their advertising, sometimes subtly and sometimes not.
Getting squeezed out of the Gold Coast is an understatement. I’m seeing more and more occupant stacking going on, especially in Hoboken. I was looking for an apartment there about a month ago (ideally a 2BR) because I don’t want to live like its a college dorm (4 to a unit). I’m seeing A LOT of those 4 person listings lately. I’m turning 28 and disheartened with my prospects. There’s also a lot of “Females only” listings for these multi-person units which indicates a lot of these women are faking it til they make it/meet a “rich” guy, who is also probably faking it.
We’re #1 online drugstores- How much drugs – [url=http://usaedrx.info/nizagara/nizagara-alternative.html]he’ll nizagara alternative[/url] – – medical education training center
This EU countries in exception of Greece did not have an unsustainable budget until the housing bubble bust.It was the ECB that did not see and stop the runaway increase in prices.Spain and Italy had a budget surplus before the down turn.
China is starting to feel the housing bust now too.40% decline in prices so far
Austerity is the new black.
Chris Matthews rips Obama and his Administration’s “kids with propellers on their heads.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB4b11_LREA&feature=youtu.be
#30 Whoops.Sorry Nick. See if this works. Good thing I’m not a practicing realtor.
http://mls.momls.com/MonmouthReports/ListitLib/photo_show.aspx?mls_acct=21140458&report=members_full_prop1
[37] coast
A song comes to mind when I look at that house . . .
“. . . and that’s how we all became
The Brady Bunch,
The Brady Bunch,
That’s how we became
the Brady Bunch”
[apologies if lyrics off. Still trying to delete this from my memory]
[36] shore
I am sure enjoying Tingle’s pain.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/05/us-eurozone-talks-idUSTRE7B411120111205
“We are absolutely determined to take decisions at the upcoming summit.”
You really must hand it to the Europeans — they have an unparalleled ability to use all of their many languages to say, effectively, nothing at all.
Glad to hear that little dust-up with the euro has been solved. Whew!
Carry on . . .
Re: 18, from previous thread. Jill, that house is an absolute gem. There is something so cool about having the confidence to let every trend go by and maintain what you have. Plus the house, inside and out is crazy immaculate.
ChiFi,
would like to ask a shop question:
if a mutual fund has some CMO and MTG Pass Through securities in it, on any given day, does the the share price of the mutual fund reflect the actual market value of the underlying securities, specifically the CMO and MTG? Trying to get a handle on how much lag time there might be if these mortgages are delinquent. They comprise almost 20% of the fund.
Any info is appreciated.
#41: I guess the house has a certain bebop charm to it, but that French Provincial furniture was awful the first time. Now if the previous owners of my house had only waited 15 years, they could have sold it as “early-70’s modern”, complete with orange shag carpet in the master bedroom, yellow striped sanitas wallpaper in the kitchen, dark plastic laminate refaced cabinets, yellow geometric kitchen floor, and harvest gold appliances.
But for you time capsule fans, here’s another one, right in Montclair-de-lune:
http://retrorenovation.com/2011/08/26/william-pahlmann-original-interiors-in-a-time-capsule-1962-house-for-sale-in-montclair-new-jersey-14-photos/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/us/charities-in-detroit-area-see-more-donated-homes/article2260228/
Will we see this in NJ? Paterson,Passaic, Trenton,Camden,Englewood,Lodi,Garfield ,
Wallington, Plainfield,Dover, and more. All wonderful NJ towns. Great places to raise a family
J La [41];
So nice when the agent (perhaps by pseudonym or through a crony of theirs) drops by and stumps for their listing. Thanks for that honest and objective opinion!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupier_gets_an_occupation_o8x0D8DkpsWB60rSMhcEgP
She’s gone from Occupy Wall Street to occupying a job on Wall Street.
Down-on-her-luck protester Tracy Postert spent 15 days washing sidewalks and making sandwiches at Zuccotti Park — then landed a dream job at a Financial District investment firm thanks to a high-powered passer-by who offered her work.
“I never thought I would be doing this,’’ Postert admitted to The Post.
The Upper West Sider, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical science specializing in pharmacology, was unemployed and had all but given up on finding work in her preferred field of academia when she joined the movement in October.
snip
was reading from Steve Keen recently and he said this in an interview:
“The meaning of mortgage is death contract, in Latin”
A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance from Washington state also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million dollars.
Federal agents raided the home this weekend but have not released the woman or her husband’s name because they have not officially been charged with a crime.
However, federal documents obtained by KING 5 News show the couple currently receives more than $1,200 a month in public housing vouchers, plus state and government disability checks and food stamps. They have been receiving the benefits since 2003.
The 2,500 square-foot home, which includes gardens and a boat dock, is valued at $1.2 million. And even though the couple has been receiving the benefits for nearly 10 years, records show that they accurately listed the address of their current home when applying for the state and federal benefits.
A federal official told KING 5 that the couple likely took advantage of a loophole, which allows low-income individuals to receive financial assistance to help them pay their rent and move away from housing projects. However, the law does not require officials to verify what type of home the benefits recipient is living in.
As if the million dollar home weren’t enough, the supposedly low-income couple also gave money to various charities and traveled around the world to locales in Turkey, Tel Aviv and resort towns in Mexico, according to court records.
Shore (46),
Tracy is almost certainly going to be doing something more valuable that holding a sign at OWS, but that’s a pretty weird job. I’ve never heard of a junior analyst position that paid just a “little more than minimum wage”. (Though my first job at a small firm right out of college didn’t pay much). Also, she won’t be getting a perfect score on her Chartered Financial Analyst exams if she calls it “Certified Financial Analyst”. She looks slightly hotter on the job than in the street, I hope there’s nobody at her firm like JJ managing her.
It is the end of days.
Prepare. Doom is nigh.
51.There Went Meat says:
December 5, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Prepare. Doom is nigh
“Nigh” is still looking like 12/21/2012, but the Mayans may be off by a couple of months, either way.
If there is going to be a NJRER GTG, I’m bringing one of these:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1798316/concerned-about-facebook-privacy-drink-up
http://youtu.be/gPm7iWo0Tg4
43 – hideous
Built their dream home In ’64 … And kept the dream alive.
I think they were just too cheap to update the house.
[43] Jill
Don Draper lives in Montclair????
hey evil doc, fyi my wife passed the EMT training class and will soon transition from volunteer to f/t ER tech and is now a first responder. How cool is that at 55.
I seem to recall that some republican floated this idea a while ago, and the left called him loony. Now Chuckie is floating the very same idea.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45554173
Course, what Chuckie isn’t pointing out is that huge tax trap that attends anyone of means that actually goes through with this. Still, this isn’t a problem—those with means will decide for themselves if they want to own here, and would likely do so regardless.
Now if Chucky were serious, he’d offer what Canada does, which is a temp tax holiday for permanent residents. It could even be much more modest—buy a house and stay, and we won’t tax you on your offshore investments for 3 years.
[56] escapee
Can she still qualify for the pension gravy train???
56. 55 in FL is like 35 anywhere else :-)
Nom, it’s not a public hospital so no gravy train deal. oh well :)
This is not a good thing to keep from one’s boss, or the White House. My guess is that he is gone just based on not telling the Secretary or the WH:
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration is on administrative leave after being charged with drunk driving Saturday night by Fairfax City police, according to the Department of Transportation.
FAA Administrator Jerome Randolph “Randy” Babbitt, 65, was arrested after being spotted driving on the wrong side of Old Lee Highway, according to the arresting officer.
Babbitt requested the leave and DOT officials are in discussions with legal counsel about Babbitt’s employment status, according to an agency statement. Neither the White House nor the Department of Transportation learned of Babbitt’s arrest until Monday afternoon, administration officials said.
snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/faa-head-randy-babbitt-charged-with-drunk-driving-in-fairfax/2011/12/05/gIQAkNjdWO_blog.html
Re :43. Both houses cited by Jill (btw I agree with the French provincial part of the decor) are in very nice areas. I doubt each couldn’t finance a redo if they chose.
Grim,
If you want to stay on the cutting edge it may be time for the Kepler 22b RE Report:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2011-12-05/nasa-finds-planet-that-could-sustain-life/51656310/1
Astronomers on Monday reported the discovery of an Earth-like planet outside the solar system whose size and distance from its own star put it in the “habitable” zone and make for a surface temperature perhaps averaging a balmy 72 degrees.
he planet, Kepler 22b, about 2.4 times wider than Earth, circles a star about 600 light years away, close by astronomical standards. The Kepler space telescope discovery team announced the find at a briefing at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
“It is right smack in the middle of the habitable zone,” Kepler scientist Natalie Batalha says. Launched in 2009, the $591 million Kepler space telescope has detected more than 2,000 possible planets observed among about 150,000 stars within 3,000 light years of Earth along the “Orion spur” of our Milky Way galaxy. Kepler 22b’s discovery caps a half-decade of astronomers searching for a “Goldilocks” planet — not too hot or not too cold to harbor oceans on its surface, like Earth. Liquid water is considered key for development of life.
snip
ChiFi, I could have told you that about brooklyn a while ago, same goes for LIC. Compared to the Moldcoast NYC outerboroughs were like standing still, they’ll have totally redeveloped that north end of JC on the Hoboken border before Williamsburg ceases to look like a post apocalyptic movie. As bad a jersey is, it is still way easier and cheaper to build here even including the bribes to the local powers that be in hudson county. A place like billyburg that has been THE place for years, with all of its shops and restaurants still looks like a movie set, if the city couldn’t get that waterfront redeveloped, I have little faith that established places like BK Hgts would do better.
[61] shore
Getting to the wrong side of Old Lee Hwy is not an easy thing to do. If memory serves, much of it is a divided highway. I used to use a maildrop there as a VA address.
FAA guy is no worse than many of the pilots they oversee.
Let’s give that FAA head guy a liter of Jack and a Cessna, then sit back and see what happens.
I have as many guns as I need, but not as many as I want.
“Despite all the hoopla over Thanksgiving, total chain store sales only came in +3.2% YoY in November, which was light versus consensus expectations and far slower than the 5.5% pace of a year ago. Volumes may have been blown out, but the retailers cannibalized their margins with the widespread promotional activity (Have a look at In Bargain Aisle, a Squeeze on Margins on page Cl of today’s WSJ). Not only that but one-third of the retail universe missed their sales targets last month. And guess what item was the hottest seller in the post-Thanksgiving sales rush? Try … hand guns: a record 32% YoY pace (to 129,166 — based on FBI background checks). All of a sudden, being a bank teller or gas station attendant just became a tad less safe.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/black-friday-shopping-hangover-coming-david-rosenberg-explains
Hey, John. Are you still holding Kodak stock?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20111204,0,507980.column
Kodak’s long fade to black
Like the passing of distinguished individuals, the passing of great corporations should prompt us to ponder the transience of earthly glory.
So let’s pay our respects to Eastman Kodak, which at this writing appears to be a shutter-click from extinction.
Once ranked among the bluest of blue chips, Kodak shares sell today at close to $1. Kodak’s chairman has been denying that the company is contemplating a bankruptcy filing with such vehemence that many believe Chapter 11 must lurk just around the corner.
The Rochester, N.Y., company said it had $862 million in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, but at the rate it’s losing money from operations (more than $70 million a month), that hoard would barely last a year.
snip
—hey evil doc, fyi my wife passed the EMT training class and will soon transition from volunteer to f/t ER tech and is now a first responder. How cool is that at 55.—
That’s very cool :)
morph….more…
WsJ
DECEMBER 5, 2011
Big Oil Heads Back Home
Energy companies are shifting their focus away from the Middle East and toward the West—with profound implications for the companies, global politics and consumers
By GUY CHAZAN
Jean-Francois Podevin
Big Oil is redrawing the energy map.
For decades, its main stomping grounds were in the developing world—exotic locales like the Persian Gulf and the desert sands of North Africa, the Niger Delta and the Caspian Sea. But in recent years, that geographical focus has undergone a radical change. Western energy giants are increasingly hunting for supplies in rich, developed countries—a shift that could have profound implications for the industry, global politics and consumers.
Driving the change is the boom in unconventionals—the tough kinds of hydrocarbons like shale gas and oil sands that were once considered too difficult and expensive to extract and are now being exploited on an unprecedented scale from Australia to Canada.
The U.S. is at the forefront of the unconventionals revolution. By 2020, shale sources will make up about a third of total U.S. oil and gas production, according to PFC Energy, a Washington-based consultancy. By that time, the U.S. will be the top global oil and gas producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia, PFC predicts.
That could have far-reaching ramifications for the politics of oil, potentially shifting power away from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries toward the Western hemisphere. With more crude being produced in North America, there’s less likelihood of Middle Eastern politics causing supply shocks that drive up gasoline prices. Consumers could also benefit from lower electricity prices, as power plants switch from coal to cheap and plentiful natural gas.
And the change is reshaping the oil companies themselves, as they reallocate their vast resources to new areas and new kinds of fuel. Working in the rich world—with its more predictable taxes and investor-friendly policies—removes some of the risks about the big oil companies that worry investors, making them less vulnerable to the resource nationalism of petrostates like Russia and Venezuela.
“A company like Exxon Mobil can eliminate the technological risk” of developing unconventionals, says Amy Myers Jaffe, senior energy adviser at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “But it can’t eliminate the risk of a Vladimir Putin or a Hugo Chavez.”
This new way of looking at risk is at the heart of the transformation. International oil companies traditionally face a choice: They can either invest in oil that is easy to produce but located in politically volatile countries. Or they can seek opportunities in stable countries where the oil is hard to extract, requiring complex and expensive production techniques.
Bloomberg News (2); AFP/Getty Images (2)
Now, in a sense, the choice has been made for them. Big onshore fields in the world’s most prolific hydrocarbon provinces are increasingly the preserve of national oil companies, state-owned behemoths like Saudi Aramco and Russia’s OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom. For foreign majors like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC, their former heartlands in the Gulf sands are now largely off-limits.
Shut out of the Middle East, they have responded with a huge push into new areas, both geographic and technological. Over the past few decades, they have built vast plants to produce liquefied natural gas, or LNG. They have drilled for oil in ever-deeper waters, ever farther offshore. They have worked out how to squeeze oil from the tar sands of Alberta. And they have deployed technologies like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling to produce gas from shale rock.
Wood Mackenzie, an oil consultancy in Edinburgh, says that more than half of the international oil companies’ long-term capital investments are now going into these four “resource themes”—a huge shift, considering how marginal the companies once considered them.
There are also drawbacks to the new focus on nontraditional kinds of hydrocarbons. Environmentalists strongly oppose shale-gas extraction due to fears that fracking may contaminate water supplies, the oil-sands industry because it is energy-intensive and dirty, and deep-water drilling because of the risk of oil spills like last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster.
There are financial considerations, too. While conventional assets are relatively easy to develop and historically have offered good returns, projects in some more technically difficult sectors—like deep-water and LNG—typically take longer to bring on-stream, and are higher cost, meaning returns are lower.
But there is an upside for the majors. “The silver lining is the shape of the profile of these projects, which is different than conventional ones,” says Simon Flowers, head of corporate analysis at Wood Mackenzie. LNG ventures, for example, can deliver contract levels of gas at a steady rate over 20 years. “So the returns may be lower, but overall you have a more dependable cash-flow stream,” he says.
By pursuing these nontraditional fuels, the oil companies are committing themselves ever more deeply to the wealthy nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Wood Mackenzie says $1.7 trillion of future value for all the world’s oil companies—52% of the total—is in North America, Europe and Australia. The consultancy has identified a “significant westward shift” in oil-industry investment, away from traditional areas like North Africa and the Middle East “towards the Brazilian offshore, deepwater oil in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa and unconventional oil and gas in North America.” And then there’s Australia, far out east, “which is in the early stages of a spectacular growth phase.”
Consider Shell. Seven years ago, the oil giant, synonymous with turbulent hot spots like Nigeria, decided to shift resources to more-developed nations that offered a friendly environment for investors and predictable tax regimes. Shell used to split spending on the upstream—the basic business of exploring for and producing oil and gas—roughly 50/50 between nations in the OECD and those outside of it. It’s now 70/30 in favor of the OECD, with the bulk going to Canada, Australia and the U.S.
“The risks in OECD are technical, but they’re easier to manage than political risk,” says Simon Henry, Shell’s chief financial officer. “In the OECD, you have more control of your operations.”
With the new turf comes a new focus: Shell will soon be producing more natural gas than oil. That might have scared investors a decade or two ago. But with gas demand set to grow strongly, especially in Asia, the future for gas-focused companies is looking increasingly rosy—especially after the Fukushima disaster, which prompted a rethinking of nuclear power in Japan and elsewhere.
Entrenching Its Position
Like Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp. is entrenching its position in the Americas, home to just over half its resource base. Its unconventional resources have grown by almost 90% over the past five years to 35 billion oil-equivalent barrels—partly thanks to its 2010 acquisition of XTO Energy, a big shale-gas player. Exxon’s U.S. unconventional production alone is expected to double over the next decade.
Some giants are looking further afield. Chevron Corp.’s three focus areas—the parts of the world that account for the bulk of its exploration budget—are the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa and the waters off western Australia.
In particular, the company has staked out a huge position in Australian natural gas; its Gorgon LNG project in Australia is one of the world’s largest. The push is based on expectations of surging demand for the fuel in Asia, largely in China, which wants to improve air quality in its heavily polluted cities by switching from coal to gas in power generation and running more commercial vehicles and buses on natural gas.
It “wasn’t a conscious decision” to move into the OECD, says Jay Pryor, head of business development at Chevron. The company doesn’t decide what projects to pursue based on where they are in the world, but on the quality of the resource, the commercial terms and the geopolitical risk. “The best rocks with the best terms are going to get the quickest investment,” he says. Money has flowed into the U.S. and Australia because they offer the best incentives to oil companies, he says.
In recent years, Chevron has also expanded into another promising part of the OECD—Europe, which some estimates suggest has shale-gas reserves comparable to those in the U.S. Chevron has picked up millions of acres of land in Poland and Romania, where it will soon be drilling for shale gas. That’s part of a wider trend: Dozens of companies are now exporting to Europe technologies used to open up shale deposits in the U.S.
Holding Back
Not all oil companies have piled into unconventionals the way Shell and Chevron have. BP, for one, has far fewer investments in tar sands and shale gas than its peers, though it has an unrivaled position in deep-water oil. That means it has less of a presence in the OECD than Shell: Its biggest projects are in poorer countries like Angola, Azerbaijan and Russia, and in recent years it has won a string of licenses and contracts in India, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan.
Yet even BP has been bolstering its position in the OECD. It said recently it was pressing ahead with a £4.5 billion ($7 billion) investment in the North Sea’s Clair oil field, part of a five-year, £10 billion program.
Still, being in the OECD doesn’t guarantee oil companies an easy ride. Operators in the North Sea were shocked earlier this year when the U.K. government suddenly increased taxes on oil producers. In France, authorities recently banned hydraulic fracturing. And in the U.S., the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, imposed after the Deepwater Horizon blowout, threw many of the majors’ plans into disarray.
But still, for the most part, the risks are much greater in the non-OECD. “The majors went to Venezuela and lost their property,” says Ms. Myers Jaffe of the Baker Institute. “They went to Russia and had to whisk their CEO off to a safe house. They went to the Caspian and realized they couldn’t get the oil out. I for one would much rather invest in a company that had 70% of its spending in the OECD.”
Mr. Chazan is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal’s London bureau. He can be reached at guy.chazan@wsj.com.
Don’t know whether this has been posted previously…it is a month old….if not, then thank our former poster CINDY from CA who sent it to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V3kpKzd-Yw&feature=player_embedded
[63] 600 light years away = BUY NOW OR BE PRICED OUT FOREVER!
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-heres-the-1-most-undervalued-housing-market-in-america-2011-12?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Where’s Irvington on the list?
Buy health and beauty products online from the UKs most popular chemist, Boots. How pils called [url=http://usaedrx.info/celias/online-celias.html]lower online celias[/url] advanced medical imaging consultants amic articles –
Blue Angels to return to the Keys in 2013
The Blue Angels and other military and civilian teams will be returning to the Lower Keys in 2013, the Navy announced Monday.
The Blue Angels, the Navy’s celebrated demonstration flight team, is scheduled for a free air show on March 23 and 24 at Naval Air Station Key West, Mile Marker 8 off U.S. 1. The air show will include a static military and vintage aircraft.
A final schedule will be set at a later date.
The Blue Angels were last in Key West in 2010, and drew an estimated 25,000 viewers over three days.
http://jamesshinn.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Black-Swan-of-Cairo.pdf
Clot, et al. Here is something to make your blood boil. Apparently this yahoo is not familiar with the concept of resaonable time, place, and manner restrictions:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/occupy-wall-street-un-envoy_n_1125860.html
U.N. Envoy: U.S. Isn’t Protecting Occupy Protesters’ Rights
WASHINGTON — The United Nations envoy for freedom of expression is drafting an official communication to the U.S. government demanding to know why federal officials are not protecting the rights of Occupy demonstrators whose protests are being disbanded — sometimes violently — by local authorities.
Frank La Rue, who serves as the U.N. “special rapporteur” for the protection of free expression, told HuffPost in an interview that the crackdowns against Occupy protesters appear to be violating their human and constitutional rights.
“I believe in city ordinances and I believe in maintaining urban order,” he said Thursday. “But on the other hand I also believe that the state — in this case the federal state — has an obligation to protect and promote human rights.”
snip
Chifi,
Please send my regards to Cindy.
chi (72)-
This was also posted at ZH a few days ago.
shore (78)-
I support Occupy (also anarchists, Tea Party and anyone else who wants to upend the status quo), but this UN wuss needs about 7-8 waterboardings, just because he’s a soci@list douchebag.
Pant-up rental demand for Hobroken? Wow…perpetual flooding, atmosphere of a big kegger 24/7, and a high cost of living for one of the most inconvenient towns in NJ? Where do I sign up?
At least in Hudson County, you have stable, predictable taxes and an ethical, responsible public sector.
[sarc off]
Hi friends,
Been a long time since I’ve posted but glad to see some of the original crew still kicking around.
NJ Coast, just as an aside, if the fund has a significant amount of securities that could become illiquid in a market panic, you really want to watch the total AUM of the fund and ensure it’s not dropping over time into the danger zone. I know of a FI fund that steadily dropped from say $1.5bil down to $80-100mil over a year or two period, and as a result the % of illiquid securities became a greater and greater portion of the remaining assets, without clients taking much notice. Then 2007/2008 hits and the manager can’t get a bid on 70-80% of the securities. Literally, no bid for an extended period. So, each redemption drops the NAV like a rock and they started levying ADLs to slow it down (anti dilution levies, essentially adding an extra 1% fee to redeem). It was very ugly.
The fund manager should have closed it down well prior, but instead let the fund drift lower and lower until it was left solely with concentrated, toxic MBS. This happened to be offshore, not a domestic (40 Act) fund, but it was eye opening to be sure.
Steve
Sorry, meant NJ Toast. I guess I’ve been away too long to differentiate all these new handles :)
#201 (previous thread) Chi
“versus entering with an open mind and trying to uncover as much factual evidence as possible and posit solutions……”
Chi, last time I heard a plea like that, it turns out that the other side was doing PR for the developer. This would be fine if that open mind was looking at a level playing field. I don’t know how long I’ve been looking at T Boone Pickens shilling his version of events. He always reminds me of this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_yLodI1CQ
Here is JJ’s explanation for the Greek Insolvency Crisis…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbNr_13ESM0
Fabius Maximus says:
December 5, 2011 at 11:26 pm
#201 (previous thread) Chi
“versus entering with an open mind and trying to uncover as much factual evidence as possible and posit solutions……”
Chi, last time I heard a plea like that, it turns out that the other side was doing PR for the developer. This would be fine if that open mind was looking at a level playing field. I don’t know how long I’ve been looking at T Boone Pickens shilling his version of events. He always reminds me of this.
#89 Chi
Is this his explaination of OWS?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIEsmGzo2UE&ob=av2e
Chi,
You can always use this to support fracking when it goes DH .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2V3SNrkpp0
Horse, meet barn door:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69796.html
Financial regulators Monday banned the kinds of in-house deals that may have contributed to the the bankruptcy of MF Global and the downfall of Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey Democratic governor and senator whose ties to Wall Street once made him a possible contender to become the next Treasury secretary.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 5-0 on a rule stemming from the Dodd-Frank reforms that limits how futures brokerages can invest their customers’ money
snip
Thanks Steve –
Can I just say what a aid to find someone who actually knows what theyre speaking about on the internet. You definitely know the best way to convey a difficulty to light and make it important. More people have to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.
Bank of America somehow makes cash even though they are one of the worst companies in the World. Would would you let a company like thats have your money?
I personally am a huge fan of the street food in nj. There’s not much vegan fare so I was so happy to discover this tasty place!
street food in nj