From the WSJ:
If I close my eyes, I can remember the first apartment where I lived with my family in Newark, N.J., in the late 1930s. The rooms were lined up like train cars—you had to go through one to get to another—and there wasn’t any heat or hot water. Heat came from the kitchen stove that ran all day on coal, and if you needed hot water for a bath or to wash, a huge kettle was put up. Fortunately, when I was 6, my family moved to Stephen Crane Village, Newark’s first low-income housing project. I thought we were rich.
We were among the first families in 1940 to be accepted into Stephen Crane. The apartment project wasn’t anything like the anonymous building complexes that would follow in the ’50s. The buildings at Stephen Crane were long, two-story structures that held several apartments. Each unit was self-contained, like a garden apartment. We had an entrance in the front and one in the back, where the kitchen was. In the front, you entered into the living room, and upstairs were two bedrooms—one for my parents and one for the three of us. By then I had two younger brothers. I slept on a twin bed while my brothers shared the full. There was only one bathroom, but the apartment had real hardwood floors, steam heat, and hot and cold running water. I couldn’t believe it.
Right across South Franklin Avenue was Branch Brook Park. It had lawns and baseball fields, like the suburbs I saw in magazine ads. My dad, Anthony, was happy, too. He had been a barber, but by the 1940s he was working for Lionel Trains. He started as an assembly-line worker in their plant in Hillside, N.J., but he soon became responsible for designing model-train displays in store windows. He was a creative guy.
…
Stephen Crane was ethnically mixed—Italians, Filipinos, Hispanics, you name it—so I picked up on all their music, too. Believe me when I tell you that everyone was for everybody else in my neighborhood. That’s the way it was. I went to Central High School about a mile away and usually walked. At school, I’d sing in groups in the locker room or in the bathroom, which was like an echo chamber.
…
I was married a short time later, when I was 20. I wasn’t making much money, so my wife and I moved into an apartment in Stephen Crane near my mom. During the day I worked as a maintenance repairman, a painter, a construction worker and a florist. At night I’d sing in small clubs all over New Jersey. Eventually I met Bob Gaudio in nearby Bergenfield, and after he joined my group we became the Four Seasons, in 1960. The name came from a local bowling alley where we had failed an audition.Stephen Crane was a safe haven for me, and I didn’t move out until 1964—two years after “Sherry” became our first No. 1 hit. I was always afraid my success could disappear overnight and I wouldn’t have a place to live. Even when I bought my first home in Nutley, N.J., in 1964, I chose a two-family house. I figured if the Four Seasons didn’t make it beyond a handful of hits, I could always take in a tenant to help pay the mortgage.
From HousingWire:
Housing inventory jumps 11.8% but first-time buyers still locked out
fter plunging throughout 2012 and for much of 2013, and rising only modestly through the beginning of this year, the inventory of all for-sale homes nationwide spiked in May, jumping 11.8% year-over-year according to Zillow.
But most of those gains in inventory were made among homes priced in the middle and top one-third of home values, according to Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.
The number of homes available for sale in the most affordable price bracket, those homes most sought by first-time homebuyers, fell year-over-year in 28 of the nation’s largest metro areas analyzed by Zillow.
“It’s good to see overall inventory rising. It’s likely that many would-be sellers have decided to capitalize on recent home value gains, particularly as the pace slows, and list their home for sale now in order to move into a new home while mortgage interest rates remain low,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. “But persistent inventory constraints at the low end of the market continue to make it a tough environment for first-time and lower-income homebuyers. Low inventory and high demand can lead to rapid price spikes, which make homes even more difficult to afford for many buyers. Hopefully the inventory gains we’re seeing in the middle and upper tiers of the market will begin trickling down to the most affordable homes soon.”
http://www.housingwire.com/ext/resources/images/editorial/Trey/Zillow-Chart.png
May 2014 – ZHVI – NY/NNJ
YOY Change in home prices – Up 5.6%
YOY Change in Inventory
Bottom Tier – Up 1.5%
Mid Tier – Down 1.3%
Top Tier – Down 0.2%
Interesting idea, but who will pay for it? Suggest that the private sector be allowed to develop this one on their own.
From the Press of Atlantic City:
Atlantic City’s mayor floats idea of port for tour-cruise lines
Planes, trains and automobiles all deliver tourists to the doorsteps of Atlantic City. Buses, too.
Strangely, what’s missing from a seaside resort named after the Atlantic Ocean are ships.
Searching for new ways to draw business to the tourist-dependent town, Mayor Don Guardian wants to transform Atlantic City into a port of call for cruise lines.
Guardian’s ambitions appear to be somewhat modest — not, well, titanic.
Atlantic City would cater to the smaller cruise lines, not the megaships that commonly ply the waters of the Caribbean carrying thousands of passengers at a time.
An engineering study has found that the city’s waterways are deep enough to accommodate cruise ships 200 feet long, Guardian noted.
“We’ll be looking at trying to get the federal government to help establish a port in Atlantic City,” he said.
The mayor described a possible channel for the ships in the northeastern tip of the city between the Golden Nugget Atlantic City casino hotel, the Brigantine Bridge and the U.S. Coast Guard Station.
…
Guardian told the European-American Chamber of Commerce that the city plans to seek formal proposals by the end of the year from private companies to develop 22 acres at Gardner’s Basin.
“That’s the amount of space you have at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor,” he said.
Cruise ships could enhance the redevelopment of Gardner’s Basin and help diversify the city’s tourist trade, the mayor said. Currently, the vast majority of Atlantic City’s nearly 27 million annual visitors arrive by car. Planes and trains contribute only small numbers of tourists. Casino bus passengers used to represent close to half of the annual visitors. However, bus traffic has plunged in recent years.
One casino executive believes cruise ships could help re-energize the city by giving a boost to midweek business, normally the slowest time for the gambling industry.
Scratch it, 200 feet is too small to be meaningful. I don’t think there is even a cruise ship that small in the entire Atlantic Ocean. I don’t think there is a 200 foot cruise ship anywhere in the world. Nobody would come.
I guess that means it will be built.
And how could you compete with NYC?
Cruise industry in New York is booming
That is funny. 200 ft cruise ship? lmao Oh boy, they are lost.
grim says:
June 23, 2014 at 6:47 am
Scratch it, 200 feet is too small to be meaningful. I don’t think there is even a cruise ship that small in the entire Atlantic Ocean. I don’t think there is a 200 foot cruise ship anywhere in the world. Nobody would come.
I guess that means it will be built.
http://qz.com/224352/kurdistan-defies-baghdad-and-delivers-a-million-barrels-of-oil-to-israel/
In a step that cements the impression of a de facto independent Kurdistan, a million barrels of Kurdish oil were delivered to a client in Israel today, despite threats by Baghdad to sue anyone buying it. The US government, fearing another blow to embattled Baghdad, had also worked to prevent anyone from buying the oil.
1
Reuters broke the story in a scoop, followed a few hours later by a statement on the Kurdish government website. “We are proud of this milestone achievement, which was accomplished despite almost three weeks of intimidation and baseless interferences from Baghdad against the tanker-ship owners and the related international traders and buyers.”
So we put an offer last week on a building in our town. It is a 3500 square foot century old seashore colonial where the first two floors were converted into a hair salon and the 3rd floor remained untouched. It’s been on the market for over 2 years and the listing expired 2 months ago at $559,000 after several price reductions. The taxes are only $4800 a year. I was looking to convert the first floor to a commercial kitchen for me and use the remaining floors for rental apartments as it is zoned mixed use. We put in a $500,000 offer through our agent to their listing agent even though the listing expired. They turned down our offer and said they would only consider offers in the $700,000 range. WTF?
8 – It’s not really for sale.
re # 3 – ” bus traffic has plunged in recent years.” Fixed income crowd is eating friskies these days, no disposable income for slot machines thanks to ZIRP.
A while back, I asked about certain towns along the shore in Monmouth (thanks again for giving me your brief opinion of each). I offered on a property that was listed in the upper 300’s right before it expired. Needless to say my offer wasn’t accepted, and it was relisted at 425k… and still sitting.
Crazy
True. Also, it isn’t much farther (if not closer) to the casino’s in PA.
Juice Box says:
June 23, 2014 at 9:05 am
re # 3 – ” bus traffic has plunged in recent years.” Fixed income crowd is eating friskies these days, no disposable income for slot machines thanks to ZIRP.
A few years back when I was serving breakfast to the stage crew of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at Convention Hall, there was one guy sitting at a table by himself so I sat down and struck up a conversation with him. He talked about how his family came to Asbury Park when he was a kid and the great memories he had of his times here. We talked about the decline and possible comeback of the town. I was just about to ask him what he did on the crew-lighting?, sound?, bus driver?- when one of the guys asked
“Hey Frankie what are you doing here so early?” He had stayed at the Berkley Carteret the night before to avoid Memorial Day traffic and had walked over to stroll the beach and have breakfast with the crew.
11,004,507: Disability Beneficiaries Top 11 Million for First Time
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/11004507-disability-beneficiaries-top-11-million-first-time
Can’t wait to see “The Jersey Boys” this weekend
Grim,
You know what AC could use? A private airport right next to the Boardwalk that casinos can use to fly in their high rollers by private jet, that can attract megabucks gamblers with their own private and charter flights, and that less-rich but still well-to-do HENRYs can use to fly their own private planes into.
You know, something like Bader Field was… right before the city closed it. (DOH!)
Didn’t some idiot try to land a jet there a few years back and ended up in the drink?
ON SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2005, A CESSNA TWIN-JET ENGINE Citation executive aircraft attempted to land at Atlantic City (NJ) Bader Field Airport. It crash-landed in the inland waterway; the water depth at the center was about 25 to 30 feet. The aircraft did not sink and in fact continued to run in the water.
The aircraft, from Denmark, had two flight crew members and two passengers onboard. The plane was attempting to land on runway 11-28L when the pilot reported a brake failure and ran off the end of the runway into the water. The pilot, the plane’s owner, and two teenage girls evacuated to the plane’s wing, where they were picked up by fire, police, and marine state police personnel. The crew members suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from the Atlantic City Medical Center.
What made this incident unique was that jet aircraft are prohibited from landing at the Atlantic City Airport, which is a visual flight rule field capable of handling rotor and small fixed-wing propeller aircraft. The longest runway, 11-28L, is 2,800 feet in length. The Cessna Citation CJ2 requires a minimum of 3,400 feet of runway to land. It is no wonder the plane went into the water; the runway was almost 600 feet short. The pilot, from Denmark, had intended to land at Bader, since it was closer to Atlantic City. He had filed the flight plan for Bader, and the airport card was on the steering yoke. He apparently had missed the “NO JET AIRCRAFT” sign.
I wonder if they got paid any insurance money on that one. Rumor has it the owner purchased a Citation Sovereign to replace it and had it taggged “OY-WET” (the sunk plane was tagged “OY-JET”.
Is the Spring selling season here yet?
As expected, the 1+ million dollar home sales are propping up the housing market:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-23/guess-who-propping-us-housing-market
The End Is Nigh (JJ Frommer’s Edition):
Well that’s embarrassing.
A US exchange student had to be delivered from a giant stone vagina in Germany after a dare went awry.
German emergency services were called to make a safe withdrawal of the student from the marble sculpture of a vulva in the grounds of Tubingen University Institute of Microbiology.
It ended up being quite a public spectacle.
Some 22 firefighters in five emergency vehicles arrived to watch the drama being played out on a public footpath.
Local residents were also amused.
“I was there!!! He just wanted to take a funny picture,” witness Erick Guzman posted to Imgur. “The fire department was not really amused, and he was really embarrassed.”
A short labor produced results. The delivery proved not to be complicated, firefighters said, and was achieved by hand without any mechanical intervention.
The 13-year-old, $163,000 statue, designed by Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara, was said to be recovering well. The name, “Pi-Chacan,” means “making love” in a Peruvian Indian dialect.
Exactly how the student explained his position to local authorities has not yet been reported.
The End Is Nigh (JJ Frommer’s Edition):
Well that’s embarrassing.
A US exchange student had to be delivered from a giant stone vag!na in Germany after a dare went awry.
German emergency services were called to make a safe withdrawal of the student from the marble sculpture of a v^lva in the grounds of Tubingen University Institute of Microbiology.
It ended up being quite a public spectacle.
Some 22 firefighters in five emergency vehicles arrived to watch the drama being played out on a public footpath.
Local residents were also amused.
“I was there!!! He just wanted to take a funny picture,” witness Erick Guzman posted to Imgur. “The fire department was not really amused, and he was really embarrassed.”
A short labor produced results. The delivery proved not to be complicated, firefighters said, and was achieved by hand without any mechanical intervention.
The 13-year-old, $163,000 statue, designed by Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara, was said to be recovering well. The name, “Pi-Chacan,” means “making love” in a Peruvian Indian dialect.
Exactly how the student explained his position to local authorities has not yet been reported.
Just a FYI…I have heard in the last week 3 people who have forgone buying houses in the NY/NJ area and have shifted their purchases to Rochester, NY. Not that Rochester is a great place but it appears people are starting to figure out that the NYC area is now a completely unaffordable tax draining liberal utopia where paying over 12k a year for the pleasure of having a house on a piece of land is not the sure fire way to prosperity.
All Hype [20],
There’s the NAR version and then, of course, there’s reality.
I love this last sentence:
“Housing recovery? Maybe for the richest, and even they are far less exuberant about purchasing $1MM+ mansions. For everyone else, enjoy “plunging” hedonically-adjusted LCD TV prices. Everything else is, well, noise.”
20 – Not in the NY Metro they are not…
24 – It’s different here? :)
According to S&P Case Shiller Tiered Indicies, it’s the low tier that is leading the charge.
No surprise since the low tier saw the biggest jump in prices during the boom, and the biggest drop in prices during the bust.
March 2012-March 2014
Low Tier – Up 9.9%
High Tier – Up 8.6%
Whole reason to look at the Case Shiller is that it is not influenced by mix shift like simple aggregate statistics are.
Drop in sales at the low end (on a national level) is likely due to fewer REO and Short Sales in the Fail States (Arizona, Nevada, Florida, California)..
Funny that bit about only one percenters being able to afford $750k houses.
Where do those guys live again? South Dakota?
62% Medicaid… between this and Medicare…
Doctors’ offices, urgent care centers, mental health agencies and medical clinics are flooded with newly covered patients — 430,000 of them in New Jersey as of early March.
Some 62 percent of the enrollees statewide signed up for Medicaid, according to survey projections and federal statistics. The remaining 162,000 bought private plans on the Health Insurance Marketplace, 84 percent of them using government subsidies.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2014/06/22/obamacares-early-impact-morris/11232321/
Grim (28):
No doubt that your facts are correct, I just wanted to give some other info about what is going on nationwide.
Yeah, Atlantic City won’t be coming back anytime soon.
Talk about racket protection.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/06/us_supreme_court_allows_sports_betting_ban_in_nj_remain.html#incart_m-rpt-1
The 1% by me can’t afford one million dollar homes. The carrying costs on large homes on Long Island is insance.
Growing up older homes in Manhasset, Rockville Centire and Garden City the rich folk living in got assessed as old homes and paid sometimes lower taxes than a 50×100 dump that was new construction. The rich would have a one time cost of an extra 300K to pay then rode low taxes and high appreciations and came out ahead.
Today thoses houes are pushing 30K in taxes while the 50×100 houses sit at 8k. Plus the small house owner can mow his own lawn, shovel own walkway and heat and electric is 1/4 the cost and insurance 1/2 the price.
So folks who would trade up dont trade up. Why I could have the big house easy no problem but the carring costs means used cars, no date nights, no cruises, no weekends in the Hamptons in other words you are house rich but cash flow poor.
Down South and out West the carrying costs of a big house is not that big a difference. It is just the price like Long Island was in the 1980s.
[21] LOL. Pictures: http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/22/student-gets-stuck-inside-giant-stone-vagina-4771752/
I guess he decided to make like a baby and head out.
From the WSJ:
Existing Home Sales Up 4.9% in May
Sales of previously-owned homes rose in May, a sign the housing market strengthened during the important spring buying season.
Sales of existing homes increased 4.9% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a rate of 4.75 million for the month.
April sales figures were revised up to a rate of 4.66 million, a 1.5% increase from the prior month. Sales have now risen for two consecutive months this spring after declining in each of the first three months of the year.
Still, May sales were down 5% from the year-earlier level.
All Hype,
Really?? My brother went to U of R and lived off Lake Ave. for 10 years but moved to NJ as his neighborhood turned bad. With Kodak going belly up, it seems like Rochester’s heydey is over…unless you mean suburbs like Pittsford. Weather is brutal during winter. That said, I loved going to Sal’s Birdland and Country Sweet for chicken/wings. Great stuff. Rochester was very fun and seemed like good place to raise a family years ago
Something for JJ to ruminate on that doesn’t involve sex. . .
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-23/bridges-crumble-as-muni-rates-at-least-since-60s-ignored.html
Hype [22];
I know Rochester well, and like it alot. I would have moved there years before buying in NJ if I could have landed a decent job. Even wearing my local ties on my sleeve, that just never happened. Based on this and my frequest visits, I think the economy there is not growing at a sufficient pace to absorb any significant number of transplants.
I was at an Open House yesterday in our 50 unit condo complex. I was surprised that he’s trying FSBO as I thought he was not living here any more. Sure enough he was there at the open house. I talked to him for a while to find out his story. He moved to Boston to attend nursing school as a late career change in 2005 and bought his place as an “investment’ and a place to live. After graduating nursing school he couldn’t find a job in Boston(?) and moved to Vermont where he makes 40% less than whatever his pre-nursing career was and has been renting out his 2BR to 3 girls who would like to stay and he said he’ll give them a new lease if he doesn’t sell in the next two weeks. He bought in 2005 with 10% down and a First and Second mortgage which he still has. He also has $100K of student loan debt that he says he’s paying interest only right now to the tune of $1000/month (that would be 12% interest, right?). So he bought at the top of the real estate market (although it looks like a new top now in my area) just to take on another $100K of student loan debt and end up in a 1 bedroom apartment in Vermont that he rents for $1200K a month. My wife went over the following day to look at the place for friend. He told her some more details including that if he doesn’t sell he may try again next year but it will be priced “at least” $20K more next Spring. I’m wondering where he obtained his market clairvoyance as he obviously never had it before. He’s in his early 50’s.
$1200/month, not $1200K/month. He rents out the place he owns for $2100.
Moose and Bystander:
Mrs. Hype is from Rochester and she is the one who told me about the 3 people buying up there. She is suprised as the rest of us.
Regarding the Rochester economy, there seems to be a lot of small technology companies starting up there as a lot of ex Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, Xerox, U of R, etc former employees ready and willing to work. There is also a fair number of hedge funds up in the Pittsford area. I agree that the area cannot handle a lot of transplants but people seem to get by and the area did not have the housing bubble so homes are cheap up there.
I never cross a bridge so I am safe. I usually live LI by Train or Plane.
I actually dont wont more muni debt from towns that I own muni bonds from.
37.Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. Captain Justice says:
June 23, 2014 at 11:59 am
Something for JJ to ruminate on that doesn’t involve sex. . .
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-23/bridges-crumble-as-muni-rates-at-least-since-60s-ignored.html
My complex we have two units not in arrears for sale (both empty), two units in arrears for sale and another 5 units in arrears going down path of liens and lawsuits. This is out of a total of 30 units. For a total of 7 units in trouble and 2 others for sale. It is a 30 unit building so 9 fire sales coming up. Almost 1/3 of building.
Estate Sales, Improperly insured for interior when Sandy hit, Overpaid, business that went bk and a fw rich folks who are multi millionaires who just dont pay maint as prior board were buddies with them and building does not share arrears details.
Fortunately the new lawyer is foreclosing/suing all the folks in arrears and they have to face the cold hard facts. Sadly the building will not get back the past maint for most units or the legal fees but will eventually get the folks out. Only cause the biggest deadbeats are dead (estates) or got flooded out in Sandy and units are shells. So estates need to be settled and you cant rent shells. So the road has hit a road block.
From my perspective you have to hit a new bottom before you hit a new top. We will get 18 months of firesales which is low comps which lets me grieve the living heck out of buildings property tax for next two years and then up up and away as once we clear the units out and get paying customers in combined with low property taxes we should move forward.
Funny part if these folks paid their arrears condo values would soar and they could sell for a profit. The deadbeats are only hurting themselves and two unit owners who are selling now. The rest of us once we win a few tax grievances we should do just fine.
39.The Original NJ ExPat says:
June 23, 2014 at 12:06 pm
I was at an Open House yesterday in our 50 unit condo complex. I was surprised that he’s trying FSBO as I thought he was not living here any more. Sure enough he was there at the open house. I talked to him for a while to find out his story. He moved to Boston to attend nursing school as a late career change in 2005 and bought his place as an “investment’ and a place to live. After graduating nursing school he couldn’t find a job in Boston(?) and moved to Vermont where he makes 40% less than whatever his pre-nursing career was and has been renting out his 2BR to 3 girls who would like to stay and he said he’ll give them a new lease if he doesn’t sell in the next two weeks. He bought in 2005 with 10% down and a First and Second mortgage which he still has. He also has $100K of student loan debt that he says he’s paying interest only right now to the tune of $1000/month (that would be 12% interest, right?). So he bought at the top of the real estate market (although it looks like a new top now in my area) just to take on another $100K of student loan debt and end up in a 1 bedroom apartment in Vermont that he rents for $1200K a month. My wife went over the following day to look at the place for friend. He told her some more details including that if he doesn’t sell he may try again next year but it will be priced “at least” $20K more next Spring. I’m wondering where he obtained his market clairvoyance as he obviously never had it before. He’s in his early 50′s.
I guess NY doesn’t have 33 non-usable codes which exclude things such as estate sales, bank sales, etc when used for tax appeal comparables.
ExPat [39],
Another muppet with minus zero financial acumen. It’s an epidemic and I practically outright sneer and snicker when I hear the dumb-f.uckery of people. It’s absolutely bewildering over the lengths people will go to in order to demolish their financial well-being. And, they actually hope that another muppet, even more clueless than themselves, will fall into the overleveraged abyss on their behalf.
How is it relevant? I sold my Mom’s house as an Estate and got Full Asking Price. Chase near me had a Sandy Damaged house and guess what Bank did a full renovation and hired a good realtor. Arent a lot of sales distress sales pretty much? I mean if I bought a trade up house I would list my old home, if I got only low balls I might just rent it out. But if I had a big nut to carry, or need money for other house or was sick or moving etc I might take the low ball offer.
I won a big grievance on my primary and I used only distressed sales as comps and then claimed my house was worth slightly less than a distressed sale. My theory I had a flood damaged houses and fire sales all around me if I sold I would be competing with fire sales. Even better I am worth less than the fire sales as I cant fix my house if I sold in 2013 as I did not get my Sandy money yet. So it would be as is. I won the case. I have since fixed the hosue. But it is a point in time grievance. The point in time was the 12-1-2012 value in that grievance and most certainly if I sold as is 12-1-2012 that is all I would have got.
44.joyce says:
June 23, 2014 at 1:47 pm
I guess NY doesn’t have 33 non-usable codes which exclude things such as estate sales, bank sales, etc when used for tax appeal comparables.
#46
It’s not relevant in a lot of cases but the towns love to it to exclude sales that are not favorable to them. The best part is there is a catch all code “other” that they use to throw pretty much any BS out there. “Sorry excluded sale”
Last stat I saw for this (around 2012 or so) was that more than 10% of sales were getting tagged in such a manner, many of them incorrectly.
Other problem is small towns with busy body assessors who are not objective.
I also have a grievance pending on my condo. Three in fact. Using comps, misclassification, sandy damage, comparisions to assessed values simlar units, everything BUT my sale price as I paid over assessed value.
47.nwnj says:
June 23, 2014 at 4:13 pm
#46
It’s not relevant in a lot of cases but the towns love to it to exclude sales that are not favorable to them. The best part is there is a catch all code “other” that they use to throw pretty much any BS out there. “Sorry excluded sale”
Greetings from sunny vegas! #34….yep!!! #43…good luck with that..don’t miss those concerns!!
El Tri just got jobbed.
GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAlllll
Just a question…maybe I’ll raise it again tomorrow morning if I remember…..
All we do here is look at the transactions, but there are plenty of people that are living substantially below markets rates (e.g., mortgage free, or purchased well over 15 years ago). The reason that the market prices are so skewed is because there is a whole swath of the population that never EVER touches the market….who are these people…..your neighbors……so when people moan about the cost, what % of the population is really in play here?
grim says:
June 23, 2014 at 11:01 am
Funny that bit about only one percenters being able to afford $750k houses.
Where do those guys live again? South Dakota?