From Crain’s New York Business:
Foreclosed properties go for 14 cents on dollar
More than a thousand real estate bargain hunters spent $13.2 million Sunday snapping up foreclosed homes in New York and New Jersey during an auction in New York City. In addition, two successful bidders walked away with oceanfront lots in the Bahamas—at discounts of about 85%.
At its last New York City event for the summer, Real Estate Disposition Corp.’s Auction.com put 149 properties on the block, including 10 vacant lots totaling 2.5 acres located in Cistern Cay on the Berry Islands, just northwest of Nassau.
…
Other deals of the day included the sale of a 1,498-square-foot, four-bedroom house in Suffolk County, L.I., for $126,000, 67% less than its stated value of $381,000, and the sale of an artsy 3,150-square-foot, 18-room, seven-bedroom house in the Bronx, for $367,500, 37% less than its estimated value of $595,000.“These auctions will clear up inventory,” says Bill Staniford, CEO of PropertyShark.com. “We will see more foreclosed homes auctioned off.”
Foreclosures in the five boroughs were up 14.8% in July, to 2,192, from the same time last year, according to market research firm RealtyTrac.
Auction.com’s latest event attracted a slightly smaller crowd than its previous auctions. Of nearly 1,500 pre-registered attendees, only 1,175 showed up at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers in midtown Manhattan. The company’s previous New York events in March and June drew crowds of more than 1,200 and drummed up about $28.2 million in sales from more than 300 properties.
“REDC has been pretty successful,” said Mr. Staniford, who did not attend Sunday’s event. “It’s a decent turnout considering most people are on vacation during this period.”
So far this year, Auction.com, a subsidiary of Irvine, Calif.-based REDC, has auctioned more than 20,000 foreclosed houses across the nation for $1.4 billion.
From the Record:
Secaucus budget would bring tax increase
The town council introduced a $44.5 million budget on Monday, which officials said would add $160 to the tax bill of the average single-family home.
…
The budget increases came mainly from a $571,000 hike in pay and benefits for town workers and about $400,000, or about a 12 percent increase, in health insurance payments, Administrator David Drumeler told the council. The town will also add three police officers but the cost will be offset by retirement of senior officers, he said.
…
Town officials, who had to borrow about $17 million to keep the town afloat, are eager to get tax bills out but will have to wait until mid-September to adopt the budget.
“The sooner we get tax bills out the sooner that gives us cash flow as well,” Drumeler said.
The tax increase of 97 cents per $1,000 of tax valuation is approximately the same as last year’s hike, Drumeler said.
From the NY Times:
Tax Bills Put Pressure on Struggling Homeowners
Hard times are causing more homeowners to fall behind on their property taxes. But in thousands of cases, they are not responsible to their local governments, but to private companies that charge double-digit interest and thousands of dollars in service fees.
This is because in recent years struggling cities and counties have sold their delinquent tax bills to the highest bidder. It seemed a painless way to turn old debts into cash to finance schools or public services.
But housing advocates say the private companies may be exacerbating the foreclosure crisis, pushing out homeowners faster than would governments, which are increasingly concerned about neighborhoods becoming wastelands of abandoned properties.
“In the beginning, you’re getting this immediate windfall of cash,” said Anita Lopez, the auditor of Lucas County, Ohio, which sold off more than 3,000 tax liens for $14.7 million. The county includes Toledo. “But when you think about abandoned properties, foreclosed properties — the cost to the community is far more expensive than the short-term benefits.”
Investors say the arrangement actually benefits everyone. School districts, fire departments and public parks get an infusion of cash. The investors take on a risky but potentially high-yielding investment. And taxpayers do not have to pick up the slack from scofflaw landlords or tax evaders.
From the NY Post:
JERSEY’S TRUE TEST
Over the last four decades, an increasingly liberal electorate has transformed New Jersey from a low-tax, small-government state to a high-tax, high-spending place. But there’s been little payoff for residents.
Like New York, Jersey remains one of the country’s worst governed states, where government has proven effective mostly at protecting its own interests. If there’s an issue for voters nationwide in Jersey’s race, it’s whether the nation is in for the same fate as the federal government expands sharply.
It would be easy to dismiss what has happened in Jersey as a function of the state’s long history of political corruption. Last month’s indictment of 44 people, including two state legislators and three mayors, on bribery and influence-peddling charges was another reminder of this sordid reputation. GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie himself prosecuted more than 130 public officials when he was US attorney for the state.
But the ineptitude and inadequacy of Jersey government goes beyond corruption among a few dozen local officials. It permeates the state, including Trenton. Last year, Governing Magazine, the bible of good-government types, ranked Jersey’s government the third worst-managed in the country.
The state budget is a mess, the magazine noted, its infrastructure is falling apart, government has poor training and development programs for state workers — and even the technology systems for governing the state are poor. All in a state with one of the highest percentages of college-educated adults nationally.
Jersey is an object lesson in how big government can come to care more about feeding itself than taking care of basics. A suburban state where cars and roads are crucial, it has the country’s worst-rated roads, according to the Reason Foundation’s transportation project. It’s no mystery: Jersey’s politicians have squandered the state’s transportation fund and neglected investment in roads.
If there’s one thing more basic than roads in local government, it’s education — where Jersey wastes money liberally. In 2001, the Legislature created a massive $8.6 billion building fund to remake urban and suburban schools. But the state so mismanaged the program that it ran out of cash with only half the promised building done.
Jersey’s public schools spend more per pupil than those of almost every other state. The teacher’s union, one of the state’s most powerful political forces, likes to call this an example of big government that works. But Jersey’s schools, which boast high graduation rates and test scores in many districts, don’t add much value, according to Manhattan Institute studies.
From Bloomberg:
U.S. Housing Starts Probably Climbed in July as Recession Eased
U.S. builders in July probably broke ground on homes at the fastest pace in eight months, a sign the housing market is healing as the economic contraction eases, analysts said before a government report today.
Housing starts rose 2.7 percent to an annual rate of 598,000, the third straight increase, according to the median forecast of 69 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. A separate report may show wholesale prices fell in July as weak demand and lower energy costs kept inflation in check.
Falling home values and stimulus efforts such as a tax credit for first-time buyers are starting to reverse the housing meltdown that triggered the financial crisis and led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. While growth is forecast to resume this quarter, foreclosures, tight credit and job losses will temper the recovery.
“The rebound in housing starts has legs,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at Lexington, Massachusetts-based IHS Global Insight. “Residential construction will show some very strong numbers in coming months and won’t be a drag any further. If it weren’t for foreclosures, builders would be putting up more homes.”
The Commerce Department’s report is due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Projections in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 542,000 to 646,000, after a 582,000 pace in June.
Rats jumping ship..
From Bloomberg:
Ginnie Mae President Murin Said to Resign Tomorrow
Joseph Murin, the president of government-run mortgage bond insurer Ginnie Mae, will step down tomorrow after about 13 months on the job, according to two people familiar with his plans.
Murin, who joined Ginnie Mae on July 1, 2008, plans to pursue private business opportunities, according to the people, who asked not to be named because an announcement has yet to be made. His resignation would be the third departure this year of the top executive for the main companies responsible for the majority of U.S. mortgage financing.
Ginnie Mae, long overshadowed by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has seen its business almost double in the past two years as a lack of financing options pushes borrowers into government loan programs. The new business has brought more risk because Federal Housing Administration loans, the main collateral for Ginnie Mae securities, have lower credit-score and down-payment requirements than private-label loans.
“Many if not most of the new Ginnie Mae loans are very likely to default,” said Julian Mann, who helps manage $5.5 billion in fixed income securities at First Pacific Advisors LLC in Los Angeles. “You have to be out of your mind to be at the top of one of these GSEs now. Who in their right mind would wants to be in the position of managing these toxic assets?”
never mind. this is the “polite society”
223# chicagofinance says:
ket: Serious question…..have you ever had a hemorrhoidectomy?
224# Cyclonic Action Vacuum says:
August 17, 2009 at 10:21 pm
chi (218)-
I don’t think you can survive without hemorrhoids. You’d be crapping yourself all the time.
Calpers in death spiral:
“The CalPERS chief actuary says pension costs are “unsustainable,” and the giant public employee pension system plans to meet with stakeholders to discuss the issue.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” Ron Seeling, the CalPERS chief actuary said as he neared the end of his comments. “We are facing decades without significant turnarounds in assets, decades of — what I, my personal words, nobody else’s — unsustainable pension costs of between 25 percent of pay for a miscellaneous plan and 40 to 50 percent of pay for a safety plan (police and firefighters) … unsustainable pension costs. We’ve got to find some other solutions.”
Dwight Stenbakken of the League of California Cities told the seminar that pension benefits are “just unsustainable” in their current form and difficult to defend politically.
“I think it’s incumbent upon labor and management to get together and solve this problem before it gets on the ballot,” he said.”
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/calpers-admits-california-pension-costs.html
from #46 previous thread:
apparently, srs is not dead. better taking 20% gain from low, where i started to scream, and enjoy last 2 weeks of summer.
>Cyclonic Action Vacuum says:
August 17, 2009 at 9:23 am
make (39)-
Been building SRS position all the way down. Out of SKF for a long time.
Furiously trading in and out of TBT and have been shorting selected issues for a trade for months on end.
Very tiresome. I’m ready to ride a good, hard trend into the toilet.
eyes on housing starts numbers at 8:30. recover or not recover, it will be the main theme for the rest of the year.
U.S. Housing Starts Probably Climbed in July as Recession Eased
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLTmT6l191Bg
Great chart on Calulated Risk on delinquency rates. Looks like one of Grim’s charts turned upside down.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/08/fed-delinquency-rates-surged-in-q2-2009.html
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/Overall%20Performance.pdf
#3 Grim #7 Clot – I tried poking around to find current state rankings because if New Jersey is considered to be poorly managed, surely CA must be as well.
According to the Pew Center – “C” for both states – near the bottom. But it would be pretty hard to match the ineptitude of CalPERS/ CalSTRS.
I never thought I would agree with a NY Post article or editorial so much.
That may be a signal for the end of times…
How is it possible that there are two states managed worse than New Jersey?
#211 from last thread
Barbara go here first
http://njactb.org/
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08182009/business/talf_program_extended_185136.htm
TALF Program Extended
June 30, 2010 instead of Dec. 31st. – Gee, I wonder what they will do on 6/3/10 – uh….extend again on into infinity? Am I catching on yet?
Whatever happened to Sastry who I think bought a place in Green Brook? I’m noticing big houses starting to pile up for sale there, with several just listing at what seems to be an inopportune time.
If you’re out there Sastry, how’s life up on the hill?
Cindy (11)-
I’ll see your Calpers and raise it a NJ Division of Investments, siphoning billions into LEH, as it was diving straight for the center of the Earth.
Cindy (15)-
The fraud won’t end until we are either all penniless and wards of the state or rise up and begin shooting these scoundrels.
11 – “I tried poking around…” – for a second there I thought we were back on the hemorroid discussion.
HE (13)-
Can we count Iceland and Albania?
“How is it possible that there are two states managed worse than New Jersey?”
19- Ruggles – LOL –
C- Rhose Island
D+ New Hampshire
#10 DL
when looking at that chart I can’t help but wonder what the breakdown by age would be. Did anyone ever see delinquency rates categorized by age groups?
As a lifelong resident of New Jersey and Rhode Island all I can say is haha New Hampshire! You SUK!
How much are you in for? My brother-in-law was bragging he bought citi when it was one dollar, then I said how much did you buy and he said 400 shares, big deal. barely $1,200 bucks profit.
I am actually mad at myself, I sold half my CIT position for a $2,500 loss when they were faking bankruptcy a few weeks ago, breaking my never tender/never sell and wait for the bail out rule for bonds Uncle Sam has invested in. .
bi says:
August 18, 2009 at 7:13 am
from #46 previous thread:
apparently, srs is not dead. better taking 20% gain from low, where i started to scream, and enjoy last 2 weeks of summer.
i was hit on several years ago on this thread when all i said was: NJ is a welfare state.
well here we are, NJ a welfare state and its getting worse .
the state is busted out.
How do they rank states that don’t have governments or infrastructure? Like Pennsylvania?
#16 West.
Thanks, just settling in the house. Moved around July 1st, then had a month-long trip to India from mid-july. The place is nice and the minor setting up of things keeps us pretty busy. We had to remove massive weeds from the backyard, put in a fence near the retaining wall, fix a few things here and there, minor plumbing things (plumber quoted 1k; did it myself). Time seems to just fly.
About the house prices. We are hoping to get the house reassessed for tax purposes (the county people said October). At that time, it would be great to get comps.
BTW, Clot, could you please let me know how much 6 Red Bud Lane in Green Brook got sold for? The For Sale signs are gone there.
S
Clot – 17/18
I now feel a bit like a ward of my state. I have to keep my big mouth shut because there are plenty who would gladly take my position – I have never felt quite like this before – fearing for my job after 27 years in the profession.
25 students expected @ grade 2 with cuts in supplies. At this point, I have 1/2 the budget in copies, pencils, etc. I don’t even have the desks or text books for the new students I am expecting.
When the school year ended in June, they told us 21/22 per primary grade – that changed when they couldn’t balance the budget last month so – teachers are losing jobs all over the place as they consolidate classrooms to meet the new budget demands.
No raises for four years – only increases in healthcare expenses each year – but more students per classroom and smaller budgets. School hasn’t even started and I have already used up my allotted funds. So, I will need to budget supplies from my own funds for the school year.
They keep coming back to cut school budgets. It appears to be the only solution the state can muster. How sad. By next year???? Who knows – 30 per classroom @ first and second? Will I have a job? Who knows at this point…..
Starts down 1%. Northeast starts plunge 16%, by far the worst showing in the country.
so where does this leave us grim?
Town officials, who had to borrow about $17 million to keep the town afloat, are eager to get tax bills out but will have to wait until mid-September to adopt the budget.
“The sooner we get tax bills out the sooner that gives us cash flow as well,” Drumeler said.”
LMAO!! As long as the masses have their Red Lobster, everything is fine!
Same store sales still pretty lame. The consumer is still in the toilet.
Redbook at 8:55am
And housing starts and PPI were both pretty lame as well.
Hahaha, so in the past week the rose colored glasses clowns were surprised by worse than expected unemployment figures, retail sales and now housing starts. Could it be they are all full of sheeyat?
That stinks, buy hey when I was in second grade we had 40 kids in my class, no teacher assistance, zero budget for supplies and the teacher was a nun who took a vow of poverty and her salary was zero. She did ten times the job of a public school teacher with half the class size.
Cindy says:
August 18, 2009 at 8:34 am
Clot – 17/18
I now feel a bit like a ward of my state. I have to keep my big mouth shut because there are plenty who would gladly take my position – I have never felt quite like this before – fearing for my job after 27 years in the profession.
25 students expected @ grade 2 with cuts in supplies. At this point, I have 1/2 the budget in copies, pencils, etc. I don’t even have the desks or text books for the new students I am expecting.
When the school year ended in June, they told us 21/22 per primary grade – that changed when they couldn’t balance the budget last month so – teachers are losing jobs all over the place as they consolidate classrooms to meet the new budget demands.
No raises for four years – only increases in healthcare expenses each year – but more students per classroom and smaller budgets. School hasn’t even started and I have already used up my allotted funds. So, I will need to budget supplies from my own funds for the school year.
They keep coming back to cut school budgets. It appears to be the only solution the state can muster. How sad. By next year???? Who knows – 30 per classroom @ first and second? Will I have a job? Who knows at this point…..
You are obviously not indian as you do your own home repairs!
Sastry says:
August 18, 2009 at 8:31 am
#16 West.
Thanks, just settling in the house. Moved around July 1st, then had a month-long trip to India from mid-july. The place is nice and the minor setting up of things keeps us pretty busy. We had to remove massive weeds from the backyard, put in a fence near the retaining wall, fix a few things here and there, minor plumbing things (plumber quoted 1k; did it myself). Time seems to just fly.
About the house prices. We are hoping to get the house reassessed for tax purposes (the county people said October). At that time, it would be great to get comps.
BTW, Clot, could you please let me know how much 6 Red Bud Lane in Green Brook got sold for? The For Sale signs are gone there.
Discerning a real from a fake, technical, statistical, or partial recovery
http://www.creditwritedowns.com/2009/08/discerning-a-real-from-a-fake-technical-statistical-or-partial-recovery.html
“stock prices anticipate a complete, not a partial recovery. If employment and retail sales data continue to disappoint, shares will turn down and test new lows.”
“You are obviously not indian as you do your own home repairs!”
Especially plumbing :P
RedBook in and more green shoots.
Prior Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change -4.2 % -4.5 %
where’s MY govt job? Can’t beat em…
“She did ten times the job of a public school teacher with half the class size.”
Good Morning John @ 34 – I don’t want to get hung up on public schools here on Grim’s threads so I’ll only make this comment:
As a nun, she had the option of whacking you upside the head when you acted out or sending you to someone who could. When she did and told your parents about your misbehavior, they probably spanked you till you couldn’t sit down.
I’ll also bet your fellow students came to school fed, clean, secure in their home life/ where they would sleep that evening, and with a work ethic and values already in place.
I am happy you had an excellent education. I would like to provide the same to the students in my care.
I like the newish Indian immigrants in Middlesex County. Their kids and my kid really get along and politically, they no sooner put down their suitcases, get a tax bill and are all like WTF? They know the state is a scam and speak out at school boards and city hall.
Cindy (40):
“where’s MY govt job? Can’t beat em…”
You better have a good relationship with someone in hiring, cause skills are obviously not factored in to the hiring process.
“and the teacher was a nun”
That’s hot!!!
Stu
everyone here wants to be a housing inspector. Pay is modest but the benefits and bribe money make for some nice gravy.
re: #34 – John – I attended 2nd grade in the school of hard knocks also known as St. Ann’s on Bainbridge Ave in the Bronx where the nuns said bless you right after you got a whack with a ruler or a book for acting up. The little spanish kid Julio used to pee his pants every time sister Mary would call on him in class. It wasn’t his fault his 5th generation American grandparents raised him to speak only spanish!
Actually Sister Dominca was like 75 years old and was something like four foot eleven inches and 90 pounds. She ruled by sheer fear and rarely hit anyone. I decided one day to push envelope a bit two months in as I thought BS, she has not hit anyone yet and we were shooting spitballs. Sure enough she did not hit us. She just told us she had a suprise for us at the end of class. That lady is exceptionally tricky. Come 2:55 she tells the class that little John and Steve like to throw paper so much everyone is to clean out their desks and throw every scrap of paper they could find on the ground, with 38 students and messy desks within five minutes there was a foot of paper covering the classroom floor. Took us almost two hours to clean up. When both of us got home we were being yelled at why we were so late and when we said to our respective parents that the teacher kept us late they got mad and said we will call teacher and tell her to never do that again without calling us first, well at that point we both fessed up to our parents about the spitballs. Sister Dominca must have been know the right time to keep us late and how long before we would fess up and when Dad would get home as the whole thing unfolded right around dinner time when Dad usually stormed through the door in a bad mood after a bad day at work. Well the timing worked well with Steves Day and my Dad, well anyhow both out dads worked us over pretty good with the the belt, pants down style for dissing a nun and sent us to bed without dinner. Sister Dominica was nice the next day and gave us an occassional smile as we wiggled in pain from being forced to sit on a hard wooden chair for six hours on a beet red ass. Needless to say no one else tested her that year.
Maybe little Julio is that lawn service guy who always craps in my yard.
Sean says:
August 18, 2009 at 9:13 am
re: #34 – John – I attended 2nd grade in the school of hard knocks also known as St. Ann’s on Bainbridge Ave in the Bronx where the nuns said bless you right after you got a whack with a ruler or a book for acting up. The little spanish kid Julio used to pee his pants every time sister Mary would call on him in class. It wasn’t his fault his 5th generation American grandparents raised him to speak only spanish!
Cindy, I agree, I will ship you a strong ruler and some brass knuckles so you can beat some education into those students.
I am happy you had an excellent education. I would like to provide the same to the students in my care.
TITANIK?
8.8 million people working part time for economic reasons. From the Atlanta Fed. Second chart.
http://www.frbatlanta.org/EH_invoke.cfm?objectid=148A77E8-5056-9F12-12EABD10CAAAFEDC&method=display_body
John
If public school teachers could do what Catholic school teachers used to do, the public school system would be very different.
Cindy, don’t take it personally. You do the best you can.
48 – John – Yeah, right.
Back to R/E
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1602594.html
Headline News: “Fresno Co. home prices draw buyers”
“In June, 78% of families could afford an entry-level house, up from 39% in ’05.”
Home affordability has hit a record high…Entry-level price as of June was about $120,000. Probably much lower than N.J.
Re NJ: You hope it gets much worse. The only way to have even a remote chance to fix things is a complete catastrophe. You need collapse to build anew, it can’t be (wouldn’t be permitted to be) imploded.
51 – Lost – Thanks….I know. Not a problem. I will always do the best I can – period.
sastry (27)-
6 Red Bud sold for 540K. Asking was 525.5K.
(21) Cindy,
RI not a surprise. It is a mini version of NJ.
NH is a surprise as it used to be very well-governed. It did flip to majority-transplants about 9 years ago, and went Dem about 4 years ago. That may explain a lot. A bias against anti-tax states also may be present a la CBPP, but that would not account for two very different states ranked similarly.
John (34)-
Does this mean there are 39 other people just like you, out there wreaking havoc?
“That stinks, buy hey when I was in second grade we had 40 kids in my class, no teacher assistance, zero budget for supplies and the teacher was a nun who took a vow of poverty and her salary was zero. She did ten times the job of a public school teacher with half the class size.”
Cindy (40)-
I would imagine that in another year or two, your class sizes will shrink, as parents put their grade-school kids into full-time work breaking down computers, picking vegetables, panhandling, etc.
#58 – Clot
You guys crack me up…I got a good story out of John, huh…
Both my Mom and Dad- and virtually all their friends- worked during their grade school years and in HS during the depression. In most Southern states, schools would close for 2-3 weeks during cotton-picking time in September. In their HS, almost 100% of the students picked cotton.
This was in suburban Memphis, not some Alabama backwater.
…58 – or rag pickers – a that a bit Dickens-esque….
(48). John
LOL as usual. Of course, in reality, the little brats would lawyer up and seek millions for emotional distress if Cindy merely raised her voice. And woe to her if she taught history with a prohibited eurocentric perspective.
dl(50),
That just confirms what we on this board were saying for about a year now. Unemploymnet rate is huge when you factor in underemplyed.
btw,
I have 12 renters behind at least 60 days. 21 behind 0-30 days. number one reason stated Unemployment ran out and the part time job off the books does not cut it.
It’s really Fugly out there!!!.
sorry if a repost:
Secret History of the Credit Card
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/more/rise.html
crafty buggers
John (46)-
This is the kind of thing that keeps clubs like The Vault in business.
“Sister Dominica was nice the next day and gave us an occassional smile as we wiggled in pain from being forced to sit on a hard wooden chair for six hours on a beet red ass.”
Sister Eileen Joseph – 2nd grade – switched to ruler as implement of enforcement after having business end of hammer integrity fail, loosen, and break window behind her on draw back.
Cindy (61)-
I fear we are headed straight into a rather Dickens-esque period in our history.
Hmmm…
http://tinyurl.com/oydgxd
“I fear we are headed straight into a rather Dickens-esque period in our history.”
On that sobering note, I will bid you all a good day – enjoy. C.
Clot: Did you by any chance give me 10 Reb Bud info instead of 6 Red Bud?
“6 Red Bud sold for 540K. Asking was 525.5K.”
The ask for 10 Red Bud was 525 and it was sold for 540. 6 Red Bud ask was 619 or so (down from 675). It’d be great if the final price was 525 — direct comp for us, but I doubt it…
S
When Abby Jospeh Cohen said the recession is ending, I went almost to all to cash. Just at the right time. Green shoots are almost gone. Good old Goldman Sachs must have told her to get in line with the pump and dump scam to allow her back in the front door….
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0sLU2hOmYZ0
Speaking of Rentals.
How is this for an all cash deal?
1.9 mil cash for whole apt complex 45-51 Morris Ave Springfield NJ.
Not Sure of how many units.
http://www.globest.com/news/1475_1475/newjersey/180461-1.html
For the Pharma Folks, more job losses equals lots of vacant commercial properties.
“You have a trickle down effect of if these jobs go–the people who service those companies also need fewer people,” he says. “One lost pharma job lost can cost you two or three other jobs.”
http://www.globest.com/news/1372_1372/newjersey/177612-1.html
re #71 – All Hype – Anyone else remember her bullish call on dot com in 2000?
Tax News of the Day:
Some confusion was present as to whether states taxed the C4C rebates or not. For sales tax purposes, here is the regional breakdown (and with no real surprises locally)
NJ: Yes
NY: Yes
PA: No
CT: No
DE: n/a
Nom – Can Delaware always be Not Applicable? I think that is highly appropriate.
comment of front page of MW
“Any light you see at the end of this real-estate tunnel will be a freight train of foreclosures”
I stopped going to the vault after they started enforcing the no fluid exchange rule. Is it still open?
Cyclonic Action Vacuum says:
August 18, 2009 at 9:45 am
John (46)-
This is the kind of thing that keeps clubs like The Vault in business.
“Sister Dominica was nice the next day and gave us an occassional smile as we wiggled in pain from being forced to sit on a hard wooden chair for six hours on a beet red ass.”
63 Make money
I have 12 renters behind at least 60 days. 21 behind 0-30 days. number one reason stated Unemployment ran out and the part time job off the books does not cut it.
It’s really Fugly out there!!!.
Do you know any rentals in SI that take dogs?
78 John
The Vault was always gross. Why go there at all?
Cause if you brought a girl you could go upstairs. Downstairs was for posers, I actually rather go to Wilt’s place.
Back to RE.
#79 – Lost – Not sure what your budget is like, but here’s a 3 bdrm that allows doggies.
Lost 79 – I know of a great rental in Montclair that takes dogs :)
Any Hindus out there? I have a work thing on Thursday and a Hindu is claiming it is some type of holiday where she can’t drink so she wants to wiggle out of it, yet on the internet I can’t find any holiday that takes place this week that bars drinking. What up. I need mysterous holidays.
Jeez Gator. We haven’t even bought a new place yet.
Good place to put a dog in SI, 1409 Richmond Ave, Staten Island, NY 718-984-6643
John:
http://www.krishnajanmashtami.com/when-janmashtami.html
Apparently there is a trap door at the bottom.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125055110779538417.html
“Secaucus budget would bring tax increase”
What were the odds this would happen?
Also, we are considering a place in Spring Lake. It looks to be a short sale and the ask is around the 2001/02 value. Any thoughts as to the best way of packaging a lowball offer?
The Vault? Isn’t that an employment compensation web site?
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/081809dnbusequity.edc6bbe1.html
1/3 of all homes with a mortgage are underwater.
Lost,
No dogs one cat policy only.
You have to love this! How out of touch with reality do you need to be to make over $200,000 a year and claim the only reason you work for the school district is the free car & gas!!!! Maybe it’s time to change tactics when hiring principals and superintendants. Hire from within and people who want to be there regardless of the perks.
Taxpayers fuel cars for school staff’s personal trips
Monday, August 17, 2009
Last updated: Monday August 17, 2009, 6:55 AM
BY MICHAEL GARTLAND
The Record
STAFF WRITER
Administrators in the Bergen County Technical and Special Services school districts drive district vehicles — fueled with gas paid for by the district — for their own personal use, as well as for school business, according to the districts’ top official.
Superintendent Robert Aloia confirmed that personal trips are permitted within a 50-mile radius of the district’s central offices in Paramus.
“It’s part of their package,” Aloia said. “You try to attract good people to work for the district.”
Aloia did not respond to a request made in June to provide the number of administrators who use district vehicles.
County records show that the district reimbursed Bergen County $23,765 for gas and diesel fuel in the first fiscal quarter of 2009. Much of that fuel went to school buses, but erratic record-keeping makes it hard to determine how much went toward administrators’ business and personal use.
More than 170 employees have access to district vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They include Aloia, Technology Coordinator George Gonzalez, spokeswoman Jennifer Lee, District Supervisor Richard Panicucci and John Susino, the district business administrator.
The district’s gas accounts are linked to vehicles, not individuals though, and reports provided by the district show dozens of discrepancies in odometer readings, which employees are required to enter each time they fuel up.
One set of entries, for a vehicle identified as 40-160, lists an odometer reading of 112,846 miles on Jan. 6 and a 59,407 reading on Jan. 7. The driver’s name listed on that account is Shaw. District officials would not release the employee’s full name.
Several employees used a vehicle listed as having the name MASTE in March 2009, but county records show that each time the vehicle was fueled, the driver entered zero as the odometer reading. The vehicle was fueled seven times in March.
Vehicle 40-155 was fueled seven times in March as well. The first odometer reading is 7,140. The following two readings are 9,999. The final four readings are 999,999.
School district records also show that more than half of the vehicles that appear on the district’s master list of vehicles do not show up on fuel invoices for the first quarter of 2009. District Business Administrator John Susino did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
The practice of allowing officials to drive district vehicles for personal use has prompted criticism from teachers union representatives, who have railed against Aloia and the district administration about cuts in school programs and jobs.
Teachers from both the technical district and the special services district — both of which fall under Aloia’s supervision — have in recent months publicly protested the administration’s decision to eliminate 18 teachers and aides’ jobs, as well as the daytime adult vocational program.
Bill Pavlu, president of the Bergen County Vocational and Technical Schools Education Association, a union representing teachers, described fuel as an area in which the district could save money. He has also criticized the district for spending $1.1 million on two electron microscopes.
“They should consider using their personal vehicle and be reimbursed at the state rate,” he said. “Any vehicle issued to the schools should have a clearly marked logo: ‘For official use only.’ I don’t think anything should be used for personal use.”
Aloia said that the discrepancies in the odometer records were most likely caused by the machines that take the readings and fuel vehicles. When county or district employees get gas or diesel, they are required to swipe a fuel card that comes with each vehicle and then enter the odometer reading. Aloia said that once the odometer reading has been entered, employees can begin fueling.
“There’s got to be something wrong with the machines,” he said.
Bergen County spokesman Brian Hague said that, like county employees with vehicles, district employees have to enter a PIN after swiping their cards. He said there is nothing wrong with the gas pumps or the card swipe.
“They would have to be inputting it wrong,” he said. “The odometer readings you see logged in, it’s just not accurate.”
Hague said odometer readings are recorded so county maintenance workers will know when to service vehicles, not for monitoring whether fuel privileges are being abused.
“Their guys should be following the proper protocol,” he said.
Hague added that, unlike the school district, the county does not allow its employees to use county vehicles for personal business.
But Aloia maintained that allowing personal use of district vehicles attracts talented people to the district.
“I’m in the district 15 years &hellip I’ve always had a car,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to take the job.”
Elyse Schifrien, co-president of the Bergen County Special Services Education Association, a teachers union, said that instead of spending money on vehicles for administrators, the district should focus more funding on students and school programs.
“We shouldn’t be providing these cars to central office personnel,” she said. “Under no circumstance should the money be used for the cars. &hellip The reputation of our district should be enough to entice people to work here.”
Less Vegas: The Casino Town Bets on a Comeback
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1915962-1,00.html
This article is infuriating, inspirational and a laugh riot all at the same time.
“It is lawless right now in the Wild West. There’s even a real estate agent (and the figures and details are slightly changed here to protect him) whose out-of-town investor demanded that the agent find a way to cover some of the losses he was taking on the $60,000 down payment he’d sunk into a house. So the agent created a separate contract, never shown to the bank, that said the new buyer had to purchase a $60,000 Persian carpet from the seller — a check his mortgage company, which was sucking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses on the short sale, would never see. When the buyer — who was happy just to get a deal on the house — asked if the Persian carpet was really worth $60,000, the agent looked at him as if he were insane. “I bought it at Wal-Mart,” the agent told him. Now all the friends of the investor who got his $60,000 back are asking the agent to pull the same scam for them. And he’s doing it. “
Where’s SAS when we need him? This is beginning to sound a lot like the “false flag” stuff he was talking about.
http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/man-seen-walking-around-with-ar-15-and.html
Seems there is some very credible evidence popping up to suggest that the guy carrying an AR-15 was a plant as he was supposedly seen chanting pro-obama slogans and was with the SEIU crowd of counterdemonstrators.
Further, I found it utterly astonishing that he was not at least questioned by police. There is more than enough probable cause for police to stop and ask questions, and it would have been derelict of the police to NOT do so. One explanation would have been that the police already knew who he was and that (perhaps) the rifle and clip he carried were unloaded, or not real at all (some true gun nuts are pointing out things to suggest that the gun was a fake, and while there were reports he was carrying an extra clip, there were no rounds visible in it in any photo).
My $0.02: It was a pretty brain-dead stunt, and anyone who is as educated as he appears to be should know better than to do something that provocative, further suggesting it was more of a plant exercise than an actual protest.
so with all the chatter on loan mods,its
safe to say the banks are on the homeowners side? only the best for the homestead.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/fdic-broke-now-what/25274
Is FDIC broke?
#93 – Silera – Amazing, there wasn’t a single redeeming person in that entire article.
chifi, bad call on American Axle. That was the buy of the year.
Silera thanks now I really refuse to go to the Jersey Shore west. Can’t wait fo rthe criminals to run out of water.
Reap what you sow mf’ers you reap what you sow
#72 Sean,
I don’t know number of units but I think’s it the buildings next to the 7-11 which means it’s also real close to Millburn/Short Hills. High-quality tenants, no way, but I think the location is good being that’s it it so close to many highways within 2 minutes (parkway, 24, 78) and the #70 bus line has a stop near there so people can get to Newark and Millburn train station quickly. Seriously, this would be a good cash cow IMO.
I read that Time article a couple days ago. I think there are a few incidents that are likely criminal activities. Where are the authorities? Probably engaged in the same deals.
Barbara says:
August 18, 2009 at 9:01 am
where’s MY govt job? Can’t beat em…
that’s what I was saying to Ben
Barbara says:
August 18, 2009 at 9:06 am
Stu everyone here wants to be a housing inspector. Pay is modest but the benefits and bribe money make for some nice gravy.
Barb & Stu: bribes in Albania are called “coffee”
John/Sean/Barb: did you see the movie Doubt? It was fine, although Meryl Streep was her usual excellent self.
chifi,
I saw Doubt. Streep was of course, great but the movie was underwhelming
chifi,
that one scene with Streep confronting the mom, that was intense.
John,
It may be a Jain holiday.
as for being Indian and handy, the need never arises in India since labor is dirt cheap. We used to get a electrician to change the fuse.
Barb: I am no huge fan of hers, and I don’t really follow her, but my general impression is that she is so good at acting that she is actually underrated. She always blows the doors off, but people have a ho-hum attitude about it.
82 Tosh
Thanks but we don’t need a 3 br. And if I’m paying that much, I should be owning not renting.
Nom,
This image of B.O. is for you:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/18/obama-joker-image-creator
83 Gator
The only way we’re moving to Jersey is if I’m working back on Staten Island. I will keep you posted.
104 Chifi
I saw Doubt. I liked it.
From Las Vegas article above,
Boemio specializes in short selling, in a particularly Vegas way. Basically, she finds clients who owe more on their house than the house is worth (and that’s about 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas) and sells them a new house similar to the one they’ve been living in at half the price they paid for their old house. Then she tells them to stop paying the mortgage on their old place until the bank becomes so fed up that it’s willing to let the owner sell the house at a huge loss rather than dragging everyone through foreclosure. Since that takes about nine months, many of the owners even rent out their old house in the interim, pocketing a profit.
That Vegas article was a fantastic read. For someone who goes out there 2 to 3 times a year, there were a lot of interesting tidbits that I was not aware of. The mothballed casino projects are a site to see.
I also noticed the trees that Wynn planted on the old Frontier’s property and wondered who paid to put them in.
I’m next going out there October 7th if anyone else will be out that ways.
Here comes the Greenspan put…
‘I think we’re OK for the next six months,’Greenspan told Reuters in an interview. ‘We are getting a recovery in (housing) starts and motor vehicles, but the process doesn’t have legs to it.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1207348/U-S-economy-ok-months–falter-says-financial-guru-Alan-Greenspan.html?ITO=1490
Further to the c/c article above:
http://www.bankrate.com/blogs/credit-cards/plastic-rap.aspx
Kettle1 – sent you an email on the deflation vs inflation argument.
sean wasn’t Jain an ice cream parlor in the bronx?
OT alert
This guy is fast becoming a joke.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/08/18/brett-favre/index.html
Dunno John everything before 1969 in the Bronx to me is kinda fuzzy, all I remember is a bad dream about having a furiously wagging tail and swimming around allot.
sastry (70)-
Sorry. Going too fast. 6 Red Bud hasn’t closed yet.
Best analogy of the US Economy I have read in a while.
Think of the U.S. economy as like a man who sat and ate cheeseburgers and milkshakes for 30 years. He had a heart attack in 2008. He is on an IV of government money–artificial blood. The good news is that he did not die. But no politician wants to approach him with the bad news: that he has to change his diet and run 20 miles a week. The longer he stays on the IV the longer his incentives remain distorted, the closer he gets to a fresh crisis. This time it will not be only caused by the conditions he developed by eating cheeseburgers and milkshakes for 30 years, but additionally those that come from laying comatose in a hospital bed pumped full of artificial blood. He starts to develop bed sores. His immune system starts to reject his own blood. He gets sicker and sicker. Some day he reaches a point of no return.
Nom,
I thought Favre was out searching for the person who fit OJ’s glove.
Sean Wall Street Journal today has a nice book review about a book all about the Grand Concorse.
I thought you guys would enjoy some comedy. Apparently it is possible to get a home with no money and this RE agent will show you how.
http://www.trulia.com/profile/genemichaels/
sean (122)-
I’ll stick with my Weekend at Bernie’s analogy. The patient is dead. We’ve been transfusing a cadaver for close to three years now.
re: #124 – John I will pick that up for my dear old mom, thanks.
#118 Yes, it was. Located just off Fordham Road in the Bronx. My husband took me to the movies and then for ice cream on our first date. We will be married 25 years this October.
113: NV is a deficiency judgement state. Not that it matters, apparently.
Safe to say Annie (128) has never visited The Vault.
130 Clot
Probably a good thing.
I once went there on a very hot day in August after Mom was wiped out from back to school shopping at Alexanders. Is it still around?
Annie says:
August 18, 2009 at 2:37 pm
#118 Yes, it was. Located just off Fordham Road in the Bronx. My husband took me to the movies and then for ice cream on our first date. We will be married 25 years this October.
The vault has an appropriate name because there really is a substantial penalty for early withdrawl.
Cyclonic Action Vacuum says:
August 18, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Safe to say Annie (128) has never visited The Vault.
Annie, that movie theater I saw the 7-ups in and in the movie the car chase goes right by that movie theater.
Annie rent the 7-up it came out on DVD not long ago. Filmed on location in the Bronx in 1972/1973 it really is like time traveling.
Filming locations feature uptown Manhattan and The Bronx. Buddy makes his rounds on and around Arthur Avenue and the Arthur Avenue Retail Market in The Bronx. The funeral home sequence where Ansel is abducted was filmed one block over, at the side entrance to Lucia Brothers Funeral Home on the corner of E 184th Street and Hoffman Street. Buddy and partner are doing a stake-out from an upstairs apartment across the street . In the background you can see the Third avenue “L” train which has since been dismantled. Aside from the “L”, and that the one-way vehicle traffic on Hoffman Street and Arthur Avenue has since been reversed, the locations remain today for the most part as they did in the movie. The funeral procession then rides on Pelham Parkway. Vito pays-off Moon at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx; Buddy and Vito meet at the track field between Dewitt Clinton High School and Bronx High School of Science, and object to the new Tracey Towers housing project looming in the background. Max Kalish’s house is at W 246th Street and Fieldston Road, Riverdale, Bronx.
ICSC-Goldman Store Sales
Released on 8/18/2009 7:45:00 AM For wk8/15, 2009
Prior Actual
Store Sales – W/W change 0 % -0.9 %
Store Sales – Y/Y 0.4 % -0.6 %
Housing Starts
Released on 8/18/2009 8:30:00 AM For July, 2009
Prior Consensus Consensus Range Actual
Starts – Level – SAAR 0.582 M 0.605 M 0.555 M to 0.630 M 0.581 M
Permits – Level – SAAR 0.563 M 0.560 M
Producer Price Index
Released on 8/18/2009 8:30:00 AM For July, 2009
Prior Consensus Consensus Range Actual
PPI – M/M change 1.8 % -0.3 % -0.7 % to 0.1 % -0.9 %
PPI -Yr/Yr change -4.7 % -6.4 %
PPI less food & energy – M/M change 0.5 % 0.1 % 0.0 % to 0.2 % -0.1 %
PPI less food & energy – Yr/Yr change 3.4 % 2.6 %
Redbook
Released on 8/18/2009 8:55:00 AM For wk8/15, 2009
Prior Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change -4.2 % -4.5 %
Conservative commentator Robert Novak dies aged 78
Wow that’s sad.Who gets his corvette?
Yes yo’me, every report is negative. The inevitable will come. Buy bonds!
Stu,I hope not.Just finished watching the soloist not a good sight.
According to Schiff, government stimulus is the problem, not the solution. “As painful as it is, this recession is necessary,” he told Moneynews.com’s Dan Mangru in an exclusive interview.
Is he not heavily invested in gold?
SEC warns investors on leveraged ETF holdings
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN1842784620090818
U.S. Busts Largest-Ever Hacking, Identity Theft Ring
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/financenews/identity_theft/2009/08/18/249091.html
I wonder why there’s all of a sudden a disclosure about the leveraged etf’s? They never seem to make these statements by accident. Also the SEC is asking for advice re curbing shorting. Perhaps they don’t see a big perky upside in the market.
yo’me says:
August 18, 2009 at 3:58 pm
According to Schiff, government stimulus is the problem, not the solution. “As painful as it is, this recession is necessary,” he told Moneynews.com’s Dan Mangru in an exclusive interview.
Is he not heavily invested in gold?
yo’: with major apologies to albani…I hate that self-promoting double-talking weasel….
Just got this in email from property shark.
I haven’t had a chance to read this blog today, so apologies if it’s already been posted:
From: Brian Scully
Subject: July New Jersey Foreclosure Report for press
To: brian@propertyshark.com
Greetings,
The July 2009 New Jersey Foreclosure Report is available now to the media. Please let me know if you would like a copy of the report and/or if you would like to speak with our CEO Bill Staniford for comment.
Key takeaways from the report:
– There were 1,041 new foreclosures scheduled for auction in New Jersey in July 2009. This is almost equal to June 2009 (1,036) and 6% lower than in July 2008 (1,107).
– Essex County had the highest number of scheduled foreclosures in July 2009, while Atlantic County had the highest foreclosure rate.
– There were 152 new foreclosures in Essex County in July 2009, 96 in Middlesex County, 94 in Ocean County and 79 in Union County.
– Atlantic County had the highest rate of foreclosures per household, with one in every 1,418 homes scheduled for auction in July 2009.
– Newark, Paterson and Trenton were the cities with the most new foreclosures in July 2009. Newark topped the list with 71 new foreclosures, followed by Paterson with 37 new foreclosures, and 34 in Trenton.
It will not go out on the wire until Thursday morning, but you can publish at any time.
Best,
Brian
Sean says:
August 18, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Kettle1 – sent you an email on the
deflation vs inflation argument.
sean: now that they cut off the very end of his digestive system, he doesn’t have those issues anymore….
RUWaiting says:
August 17, 2009 at 10:10 am
Goodness…..
“Salary figures: 627 Central Jersey school employees earn $100,000 or more”
“Superintendents, district administrators, school principals, supervisors — and even 48 teachers — are among the 627 public school employees in the Home News Tribune coverage area earning six-figure salaries this year, according to records obtained through the state Open Public Records Act and available on MyCentralJersey.com.”
“All of the superintendents in the 23 school districts that this newspaper reviewed are earning more than $100,000. Five of them earn more than $200,000.”
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090815/NEWS/908150317/
what do all these superintendents do?
having our gutters cleaned tomorrow. ive been in college or renting in the city for the last 14 years (and prior to that i was in HS and never paid attention to that), i have no clue what to look for.
do i even look for anything? guy comes with a ladder, does his business and leaves, right?
WOW oceanfront lots in the Bahamas.