From the NY Times:
For Home Buyers, a Season for Deep Discounts
LOOKING for a deal in a down market? As winter sets in, the fruits of desperation — foreclosure sales, short sales, auction sales and deep discounts — are appearing in bountiful number, if anyone out there is hungry for a bargain.
Consider one example, a spacious six-bedroom colonial at 203 Highwood Avenue in Leonia, now on the market for $390,000.
The 90-year-old house, which has two and a half baths, has the obvious drawbacks of normal wear and tear, and an annual tax bill over $11,000. But it is in a community known for fine schools; last year it was on the market for $535,000. A potential buyer’s offer of $490,000 was rejected as too low, according to Reetesh Sood of Exit Platinum Realty, who is now handling the bank sale of the house.
Last summer, before foreclosure, the house became available as a short sale, in which a lender allows the owner to sell the house for less than the amount owed on the mortgage. The asking price then was $460,000. In September, after the bank took over and the owners departed, Mr. Sood listed the property at $420,000; last month he reduced the price twice more.
Mr. Sood said he was still getting calls. One was from the buyer who last offered $490,000; another was from a neighbor down the street, who actually made an offer the bank accepted, but then withdrew it out of “guilt” over taking advantage of a former friend’s misfortune.
The house on Highwood is one of 61 bank-owned properties for sale for less than $500,000 in Bergen County, according to multiple listing figures cited by Sharon Gill of Prudential New Jersey Properties. There are also 11 listed for more than $500,000.
“True, true bargains are available at every price level,” said Ms. Gill, who is based in Montclair, and is marketing several bank-owned properties in Essex County. One is 3 Brentwood Drive in North Caldwell, a custom-built five-bedroom six-bath French provincial listed at $949,000. (It was sold for $1.9 million in August 2006.) The backyard has a free-form pool with its own island.
…
In Essex County, for example, there are 603 homes under $500,000 identified as short sales, according to Ms. Gill. In Union County there are 625 — “phenomenal” numbers, in her view.Last month the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that a record number of New Jersey homeowners were in trouble with their loans. Slightly more than 15 percent of mortgage holders are in foreclosure proceedings, or are delinquent on payments, the bank association said.
From the Star Ledger:
Elimination of 200 Port Authority positions will leave agency with smallest staff in 40 years
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to cut 200 jobs while holding the line on its operating budget for the third straight year as it moves through the worst economy in a generation.
On Tuesday, authority commissioners will vote on the 2011 spending plan — a $7.2 billion budget that will see a reduction of 200 positions, mostly through attrition and retirement — and the end of E-ZPass privileges for many agency employees, officials said. No rate or toll hikes are anticipated.
From the Star Ledger:
Today’s real estate market calls for dire divorce decisions
Sarah Bandy always knows something is up when she helps a couple try to sell their home, but hears back from only one spouse.
“They don’t tell us in the beginning,” said Bandy, a real estate agent who brokers deals for luxury homes in Colts Neck. But lately, when she presents clients with a home valuation report, the answer is almost always, “Oh, we can’t do that. It’s too low.”
“Then they end up confessing, especially the wife,” Bandy said.
The couple is divorcing, and they need to get rid of the house. But today’s housing market has reversed what once was a hallmark of divorce settlements — who gets to keep the house. Now, the home might be worth less than its mortgage, and there are no guarantees it will sell in the near future, much less for a profit.
Couples then are left with a series of unforeseen puzzles — who takes on the financial responsibility, how to split any possible debt and at what point it makes sense to move on.
“This has become one of the prime issues that I’m dealing with,” said Robert Kornitzer, a matrimonial attorney in Hackensack. “I don’t want to say it’s slowly developed. It’s hit us with a sledgehammer.”
Good Morning New Jersey
From Bloomberg:
Pa. lawsuit targets Philly firm’s foreclosures
A Pittsburgh attorney says a Philadelphia law firm used nonlawyers to file untold numbers of mortgage foreclosures across the state and therefore fraudulently collected attorney’s fees in such cases.
The lawsuit comes as a bankruptcy court judge, also in Pittsburgh, has given the same firm until the end of business Friday to self-report to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. That judge says one of the firm’s attorneys knowingly gave the court phony lender documents in a foreclosure case.
From the LA Times:
Freddie Mac suspends evictions for the holidays
Mortgage titan Freddie Mac said Wednesday that homeowners who have lost their homes to foreclosure will not be evicted from their properties over the holiday season.
The McLean, Va., mortgage investor said all evictions involving single-family homes and properties of two to four units would be suspended from Dec. 20, 2010, to Jan. 3, 2011.
“If the property is occupied, our foreclosure attorneys will suspend the eviction to provide a greater measure of certainty to families during the holidays,” said Anthony Renzi, executive vice president of single family portfolio management at Freddie Mac.
Grim Number 1 Does this mean no more $100K in overtime for PA officers? Grim Number 2 Only the lawyers are the winners
From HousingWire:
Housing outlook darkens with price drops up to 10% expected
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told HousingWire that he expects home prices to be depressed during 2011 and into 2012. He is anticipating a 5% to 10% decline in prices until mid-2011. “We won’t see modest growth until 2012,” he said.
Zandi also believes that demand and supply for homes are bottoming out, though an increase in distressed sales will continue to drag values.
…
Hedge fund founder Greg Lippmann also believes a 10% drop is likely, but said the mortgage market will do fine with such a drop, according to a Bloomberg report. Lippmann is a founder of hedge fund LibreMax Capital and a former Deutsche Bank AG trader who gained fame for his bets against subprime-mortgage securities.
“If housing prices go down 10%, the mortgage market is going to do fine because that’s what is priced in,” Lippmann said. “Broader markets aren’t pricing in housing down another 10%.”
That’s the spirit Santa Freddie
#7 Grim
A 5 to 10% drop in prices will never happen in NJ, at least not in my county, not in my town, not on my street. /off sarcasm
I bet that is the mentality of a lot of potential sellers, and potential buyers with small down payments.
grim (2)-
Yeah, I hear that all the time from prospects who are divorcing. I reached a point a couple years ago where I started asking couples if they were divorcing during the first appointment (I also told them that if they withheld that info from me, I wouldn’t consider working for them).
If the answer is a “yes”, my whole approach to the divorcing couple is different than for one who’s staying married. As an agent, you have to establish control over the business relationship and lay out all the rules of the road before proceeding. If an agent can do that, the rest goes fairly well.
Oblivion…in shiny wrapping paper, with a big red bow on top.
Something inside that package smells like rotten fish, though.
11.Lamar Asperger says:
December 5, 2010 at 7:58 am
Oblivion…in shiny wrapping paper, with a big red bow on top.
Something inside that package smells like rotten fish, though
The end must be close, I bought an electric train for under the tree. First time in 50 years.
In Pakistan, Christianity Earns a Death Sentence
By OMAR WARAICH / ISLAMABAD Omar Waraich / Islamabad – 1 hr 29 mins ago
It all began a year and a half ago, with a quarrel over a bowl of water. A group of women farm workers were suffering in the heat near a village in Pakistans Punjab province. Aasia Noreen, an illiterate 45-year-old mother five, offered them water, but was rebuffed. Noreen was a Christian, they said, and therefore her water was unclean – sadly, a common taunt hurled at Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians. But rather than swallowing the indignity, she mounted a stout defense of her faith.
Word of the exchange swiftly filtered through the village of Ittan Wali, in Sheikhupura district. The local mullah took to his mosque’s loudspeakers, exhorting his followers to take action against Noreen. In a depressingly familiar pattern, her defense of her faith was twisted into an accusation of blasphemy, according to her family and legal observers familiar with the case. As a frenzied mob pursued her, the police intervened, taking her into custody. But far from protecting her, they arrested and charged Noreen with insulting Islam and its prophet. And on Nov. 8, after enduring 18 months in prison, she was sentenced to death by a district court, making her the first woman to suffer that fate. (See how WikiLeaks’ disclosure fueled anti-U.S. anger in Pakistan.)
In the ensuing weeks, the case of Noreen, popularly known as Aasia Bibi, has sparked a national furor. Human rights campaigners and lawyers have denounced the sentence. Religious fundamentalist groups, usually at odds with one another, have suddenly coalesced around a campaign to defend the blasphemy law and attack its critics. One politician who called for Noreen to be pardoned now faces a fatwa for alleged apostasy. Another politician, who is trying to have the blasphemy laws amended, has been warned that she will be besieged. On television, religious scholars have disagreed among themselves over the law’s merits. Divisions are also being seen within the government, with powerful figures taking opposing sides. And there has even been global outrage, with Pope Benedict XVI last week calling for Noreen’s freedom.
Noreen’s case has spurred the first genuine debate over some of Pakistans most controversial laws. The original blasphemy law was drawn up by the British, in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, aimed at keeping the peace among the subcontinent’s sometimes fractious diversity of faiths. Not only did Pakistan inherit the laws after partition, but it added to them. In the 1980s, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship introduced a slew of elastically worded clauses, including a death sentence for those deemed to have defiled the sacred name of the Prophet.
Before Zia, there were only two reported cases of blasphemy. Since the death sentence was inserted in 1986, the number has soared to 962 – including 340 members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect, 119 Christians, and 14 Hindus. Close examination of the cases reveals the laws often being invoked to settle personal vendettas, or used by Islamist extremists as cover to persecute religious minorities. (See how WikiLeaks exposed insecurity over Pakistan nukes.)
Vague wording allows the blasphemy laws to be used an instrument of political and social coercion, says Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. And they give the state a sectarian character.
No conclusive evidence has been presented against Noreen, say people familiar with the case. The district judge relied on the testimonies of three other women, all of whom bore animus toward her. Noreen had long been under pressure by fellow farmworkers to convert to Islam, her family says. And the district judge ruled out any possibility of her innocence or mitigating circumstances.
Christians are subject to vicious prejudice in Pakistan, where there beliefs are said to make them “unclean.” Municipalities routinely advertise jobs for cleaners with a note saying they would prefer Christian applicants. And defending their rights is not popular. When Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, visited Noreen in prison and urged her release, he was branded an apostate by fundamentalist groups. And in the fundamentalist view, apostasy, like blasphemy, is punishable by death.
Liberal lawmaker Sherry Rehman who has called for amendment of the blasphemy laws and removal of the death sentence clause was warned this week that she would be “besieged.” It is a measure of the state’s impotence in the face of extremist groups that such high-profile public figures can be openly threatened for merely advocating human rights, says Hasan, of Human Rights Watch.
Rehman insists that she won’t be cowed by the threats. “I really can’t be coerced into silencing myself like this,” she tells TIME. “It’s my freedom as a legislator to do as I do. If they want to talk, there’s no issue. But to use coercion is unacceptable.” Taseer, a notably outspoken politician, is phlegmatic. “It doesnt bother me,” he tells TIME. “Who the hell are these illiterare maulvis to decide to whether I’m a Muslim or not?” (See pictures of Pakistan’s waiting place.)
Rehman’s reform effort is unlikely to succeed, because few politicians have dared to support it. Indeed, Babar Awan, the Law Minister has vowed to oppose any move against the blasphemy laws. What’s more, the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who had last year suggested the laws should be reviewed after the killing of nine Christians in Punjab, now seems to be distancing himself. “It is not our party policy,” he told a news channel this week, when asked about Rehman’s bill. But Rehman, who spent years fighting laws that discriminate against women, says its mere submission is an important first step: “The first stone has been cast. It’s not a taboo subject anymore to be taken up by legislators.”
More worrying is the fate of Noreen. The Lahore High Court has taken the controversial step of saying that it won’t allow President Asif Ali Zardari to issue a pardon, a move that legal experts have said is unconstitutional. Her family is now hoping that the higher courts will strike down the death sentence, or that she will eventually secure a pardon. And the fear doesn’t end there. While no one has been executed for blasphemy yet, 32 people – including two judges – have been slain by vigilantes. At Friday prayers this week, Yousef Qureshi, a hardline cleric from the Mohabat Khan mosque in Peshawar, offered a reward of 500,000 rupees ($5,800) to “those who kill Aasia Bibi.”
Even if pardoned, Rehman notes grimply, Noreen will no longer be able to to live in her community. For her own safety, she will have to be moved – simply for defending her right to choose her own faith.
safe as houses [9],
I agree. Besides, interest rates are at historic lows, there is plenty of inventory to choose, they’re not making anymore land and studies have shown that Manhattan is actually 1.7 miles closer to Ridgewood now than it was in 2006.
Confused 13
I’m with clot on this. Any group who would try to use religion in such an oppressive manner probably should be wiped out for the benefit of all, regardless of the religion in question.
Eddie #9
Also, with the mortgage tax deduction will be eliminated anytime soon. Buy now, or lose the tax deduction opportunity for ever.
#15 Cat
I think that approach would takeout most of the Christian conservatives in this country. Not as if they wouldn’t attack a teacher for teaching Inteligent design
SAS3, Fast Eddie and Safe,
A further correction in prices is not a given.
Look closer at the supply and forget about the weakened demand for just one minute.
The shadow inventory that is supposedly going to flood the market and crash prices does not really exist since it wont come to market any time soon. And when it does, the mold adn rat infested homes will be inliveable knock downs. Unfortunately, removal of MTM is working, and it’s creating the same effect as if they bull-dozed 5 million homes. Plus this is not arizona, where full neighborhoods are totally abondoned.
Couple that with the fact that most buyers are downsizing into smaller homes, which we all know they didnt build a ton of those over the last decade. The average buyer in the $300-430k range might not see many more discounts than what is out there right now. Sure, maybe another 5%-8% on average prices across the state but not in all neighborhoods and housing types.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/politics/05states.html?_r=1&hp
mounting state debts … can anyone see a scenario where … pensions simply aren’t paid? what i don’t get is why they haven’t drawn a line in the sand and said, ‘that’s it. we’re halting pensions as of today, let’s go another route.’
because it’s political suicide? well, either that, or anarchy when the states run out of money…
Nean Number 18 There are some towns in North Jersey that have been selling in that $300K to $430K all year and these same towns have had houses for sale over the $500K for a year and they’re just not selling. Eventually they will come down when the sellers finally give in. More discount coming if that’s what you want to call them
The link to that TIME article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2035196,00.html
Yikes Number 19 You know the Fed will probably jump with a catch. All the retired flat footers will have to walk the beat in Camden and Newark to earn their keep.
So what does reduction in supply have to do with near term housing prices? Is that part of the “they’re not making any more land” theory?
Ever hear of home builders? They’ll pop up out of the ground faster than a zombie in Night of the Living Dead as soon as prices even hint at stabilizing.
15.Schrodinger’s Cat says:
December 5, 2010 at 11:41 am
Confused 13
I’m with clot on this. Any group who would try to use religion in such an oppressive manner probably should be wiped out for the benefit of all, regardless of the religion in question.
Our government would like us to believe that ISLAM is a peacefull religion, yet time after time we see that the incidence of Islamic opression is systemic, as in Pakistan.
From another blog:
Anti-union sentimentI was reading this story about concessions that Harley-Davidson is asking its union workers to agree to in order to save their jobs in Wisconsin. What struck me was not the fact that workers were being asked to sacrifice for years, something that happens with depressing regularity these days, but the reader comments on the story. Star Tribune story comments, by and large, represent a diversity of political wisdom ranging from Pat Buchanan to Mussolini, so it’s not all that shocking to see right-wing comments on stories. What I do not understand, however, is the strong anti-union sentiment that so many people express and agree with.
I’ve never been a member of a union. And yes, unions have had their problems. But if we are to blame the decline of the middle class on anybody, unions would be at the bottom of the list. Is some of the anger expressed at the Harley workers based on jealousy, from people who don’t get the $30 per hour that union worker do? Probably, but taking that jealousy and expressing glee at those workers finally getting their comeuppance is the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face: if you hope to make more money, cheering the elimination of higher-paying jobs is pretty illogical.
Unions are just doing what the businesses they are working for are doing: trying to do the best they can for themselves. Absolutely nothing wrong with that; in fact, that sentiment built the middle class. The “good old days” according to many conservatives, when mothers stayed at home and raised the kids while the fathers worked, was built on union jobs. And while I do not agree that said time period was, in fact, the “good old days”, if you wish you have a stay-at-home parent today, you can do it on $30 an hour plus overtime and benefits. You can’t do it on a part-time salary of $16.80 an hour with no benefits.
I’m not terribly surprised that Harley-Davidson is being short-sighted here. Henry Ford famously paid his workers well enough to afford the cars they were building. A full-time union worker making $30 an hour can afford a Harley; a part-timer with no benefits probably can’t. By slashing pay, Harley is just cannibalizing its own customer base. What I don’t quite understand, though, are fellow workers cheering the disappearance of these jobs. Yes, America is in desperate need of jobs these days. But if the jobs that are created are all part-time, with no benefits, and pay $10 an hour, that will not make America strong again. Sadly, when workers themselves see no problem with the elimination of solidly middle-class jobs, it would appear that only unions care about protecting the strength of the American middle class.
Mike 20. We all know that ask prices mean nothing. Closed comps is the only data worth discussing.
high asks could signal desperation or high confidence.
Perversion. You are right. Supply has nothing to do with market prices. And yes i’ve heard of home builders. Ive also heard of commodity inflation, which pushes up prices of homes regardless of supply and demand. But then again im not buying until prices go to a dollar and rates go to zero.
It all began a year and a half ago, with a quarrel over a bowl of water. A group of women farm workers were suffering in the heat near a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Aasia Noreen, an illiterate 45-year-old mother of five, offered them water, but was rebuffed. Noreen was a Christian, they said, and therefore her water was unclean — sadly, a common taunt hurled at Pakistan’s beleaguered Christians. But rather than swallowing the indignity, she mounted a stout defense of her faith.
Word of the exchange swiftly filtered through the village of Ittan Wali, in Sheikhupura district. The local mullah took to his mosque’s loudspeakers, exhorting his followers to take action against Noreen. In a depressingly familiar pattern, her defense of her faith was twisted into an accusation of blasphemy, according to her family and legal observers familiar with the case. As a frenzied mob pursued her, the police intervened, taking her into custody.
But far from protecting her, they arrested and charged Noreen with insulting Islam and its prophet.
The first two paragraphs can be any ethnic combination. The problem with Pak is in the third paragraph. If it were the US, there would be no need for the third paragraph and a word “protective custody” would have appeared in the second paragraph. That’s the great thing about US.
When sellers offer to pay buyers to take posession of the home that’s when its time to buy.
The original blasphemy law was drawn up by the British, in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, aimed at keeping the peace among the subcontinent’s sometimes fractious diversity of faiths.
Peace via a rule that says “we’ll arrest and/or kill you if you [directly, indirectly, or even tangentially] insult any religion.”
Neanderthal Economist(18):
“The average buyer in the $300-430k range might not see many more discounts than what is out there right now. Sure, maybe another 5%-8% on average prices across the state but not in all neighborhoods and housing types.”
I agree, as well does Grim the last time he made a prediction.
Essex…I have no issue with Unions in the private sector. If they want to shut down their company (GM), more power to them. In the public sector, it’s a whole different argument. You can just keep getting the world at the expense of everyone else in exchange for your vote. Wake me up when a government labor union negotiates fairly.
Gator’s brother works for the feds. His salary is supposedly frozen. Of course, his longevity and promotional raises are still in effect. I expect everyone in his office to get promoted annually. And you wonder why we are angry. In the private sector, a freeze is a freeze. Profit motive sucks, doesn’t it? I suppose, if we all thought the way you did, we would all work for the government.
i remember stu. Grim has made some of the more accurate re calls thus far.
You haven’t been too far off either.
Thus far.
Me? Im waiting until prices go to zero and gold goes to a zillion dollars per speck.
Lmao.
Fabius 17
Fine by me. Religious extremism is an insidious disease.
Back in 1986 and again in the year or 2 before the bubble burst, when pricing a property for a client I had to add an appreciation factor to the comps. The idea was to project ahead and price higher than the comps, no matter how recently they had closed.. Today I have to do exactly the opposite.
I’ll buy when a house the median house goes for a kilo of catnip
schrod: what in the heck kind of cat is into quantum physics anyway?
….illiterate ac :(
I’ll buy when the median home price is the same as a kilo of catnip
a poly-dactyl one with a nasty nip habit.
30. 1986=2005.
wasnt that about the same year they made back to the future?
Stu, I’m nitpicking here…
There are many ways to pay for past time in private sector settings. I’ve seen a case where pay cuts of 40% over two years were paid back in full after additional venture funding came through. There isn’t such flexibility in fed jobs.
In tough economic times, the fed jobs are very safe, but even in hot markets, they still get the same 2% raises. Of course, some jobs have the equivalent of a govt salary and no bonus/options with the job security of a start up environment :)
Back in 1986 and again in the year or 2 before the bubble burst, when pricing a property for a client I had to add an appreciation factor to the comps. The idea was to project ahead and price higher than the comps, no matter how recently they had closed.. Today I have to do exactly the opposite.
I’ll state it for anyone that has comprehension problems: The idea is to project ahead and price lower than the comps, no matter how recently they had closed.
Sellers, you can’t set up the heist without the supporting cast. Your accomplices are long gone so, even though you still have a substantial pool of victims, you can’t perform the larceny without the appraisers, RE agents and devious lenders. They used you for the sting even more so than the buyers. Go ahead, keep that asking price at “your” level. And remember, this time next year when the price is still the same because you refuse to give it away, but down the cheetoes and at least give an effort and slap a coat of Kmart paint on the walls.
Lamar [10];
As an agent, you have to establish control over the business relationship and lay out all the rules of the road before proceeding. If an agent can do that, the rest goes fairly well.
You must pay your clients well to put up with that sort of manipulation. Reputations are usually well earned.
SAS3,
For every example, I can show you a counter example. Give me one example of a union job where the average raise was 2% per year. I beg you to find one. There was once a myth that public sector jobs paid worse than private sector jobs so it was necessary to provide them with ironclad benefits, excessive holidays, paid sick days, outrageous levels of (PAID) overtime, etc. etc., etc. Then, those in power realized that if you gave them decent salaries too, no one would notice. In return for the favor, you would sell your vote to the highest bidder. After years and years of this practice, now even the average salaries far outweigh their counterparts in the private sector. Of course the insane benefits are maintained. Why shouldn’t they be maintained. After all, the recession wasn’t their fault right?
http://ezinearticles.com/?Nanny-Background-Check—Overview-and-Tips&id=5375266 Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time :-)
safe as houses says:
“A 5 to 10% drop in prices will never happen in NJ, at least not in my county, not in my town, not on my street. /off sarcasm
I bet that is the mentality of a lot of potential sellers, and potential buyers with small down payments.”
Safe as houses,
My question to you is:
How will a babyboomer be able to sell their $500k+ house due to retirement, divorce, etc, to generation X or Y, who at best earn 75k? (then of course also add in the 10k in RE taxes plus all other expenses associated with life)
Romeo [47],
How will a babyboomer be able to sell their $500k+ house due to retirement, divorce, etc, to generation X or Y, who at best earn 75k? (then of course also add in the 10k in RE taxes plus all other expenses associated with life)
Of course, that’s after they put down the requisite $100,000 as downpayment.
Fast Eddie [47]
Boy that’s a lot of gift baskets I have to sell for that type of down payment!!
I need to replace my NG boiler. It’s between 25 and 27 years old and needs more work than it’s worth. Plus the efficiency is krap. I got an insane quote from Weltman (who are supposed to be the best) and PSEG is coming early this week. Anyone else know
anyone good in the area for this kind of thing? Grim?
Oh, and captain cheapo is well aware of the rebates available.
Fast Eddie #43 – Always remember that I sell and value distressed property. I get a lot of inner city, homes on busy streets, moldy worn out wrecks and assorted other oddities. If pricing on my inventory isn’t ahead of the curve, it doesn’t sell.
Updated NJ forecast chart:
http://www.scribd.com/full/44717891?access_key=key-1od159ogih58qac5vdx2
30 year, how is nj re performing in the inner cities?
Stu, my experience — knowing univs, state, fed, consulting, and industry positions…
for staff positions requiring advanced degrees, the order of pay scales is:
state, univs, fed, industry employee, consulting [states and univs are probably interchangeable].
On the other hand, if you are a simple paper pusher with a very low skill set [other than confidently saying NO] and with many years experience, the state and fed jobs are probably very good — better paying and more stable. Private sector can sometimes be brutal for people without specialized skills.
May be the difference in our view points on pays is due to the types of jobs we are talking about?
Veto, now Neanderthal? Where have you been? Good to see you back.
You’re wrong, gold will not touch zillions per speck. However, it will trade, minimum, 2,500. If you learned anything here, when you were Veto, you now realize that gold trades as a currency. On another topic, supply doesn’t matter? I guess I would also change my name if I made a moronic statement like that.
Throw supply/demand out the window. It’s a fallacy.
Greetings from Acela, somewhere in Maryland:
A tad small, but secluded as hell, I give you the CLOTPOUND!!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_unabomber_property
[55] Wantan,
Problem I have with that prediction is, all things being proportional and linear, is that a price of 2,500 for gold would indicate a USD that was absolutely in the toilet.
I guess I am asking, realisitically, would we ever get to that point? Either it does because the US economy has utterly collapsed, or because we are well ahead of other nations in a race to the bottom. But to get to that point, would not countervailing economic and political forces prevent a further decline?
I am not a central banker, or even much of a banker, but the idea of $2,500 gold brings to mind the submariner’s term “crush depth.”
Cmon BC, we all know that supply/demand drives the market.
5 million homes are gone.
Poof.
Just like that.
“the idea of $2,500 gold brings to mind the submariner’s term “crush depth.””
nom, gold can do $2,500.
afterall, it is a bubble.
#47 Romeo
Hey, If you can’t make 100k+ in NJ, move to Charlotte. :P
I think we’re at or near the bottom for houses in good shape in good locations. The problem is I bet 90% of the houses for sale are in poor shape and/or poor locations, yet the sellers want the same price, or at least 90% to 95% of the price as good house in a good location. The pos houses and those in poor locations still have a ways to drop I think.
#50 Libtard,
I bet PSEG quotes you 9k or more. They will then outsource it to a local plumber. A boiler should cost you about 5 to 6k including installation.
Critics who fear the Fed’s bond purchases are raising the risk of inflation have complained that the purchases mean the Fed is, in effect, printing more money. In the interview, Bernanke called that a “myth.” He insisted the Fed isn’t printing money when it buys Treasurys and said the program won’t expand the amount of money in circulation in a “significant way.”
Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said Bernanke is right that the Fed’s purchases won’t significantly change the amount of money circulating in the economy. That’s mainly because banks aren’t lending most of the money they already hold in reserve. When the Fed buys Treasurys, it increases the reserves in the banking system. For those reserves to actually “create” money, the banks would have to lend it.
Still, Crandall suggested that the bond-buying program creates the appearance of printing money, something that could put the central bank’s credibility at stake.
(Bernanke called that a “myth.” He insisted the Fed isn’t printing money when it buys Treasurys), Interesting, evidently Bernanke is getting the money to purchase Treasurys from his own bank account or the tooth fairy, rather then printing money?
confused (12)-
When you’re tired of playing with that electric train, I know how to turn the transformer into a makeshift tort#re device.
E-mail me for details.
“The end must be close, I bought an electric train for under the tree. First time in 50 years.”
30.sas3 says:
December 5, 2010 at 4:15 pm
The original blasphemy law was drawn up by the British, in the Indian Penal Code of 1860, aimed at keeping the peace among the subcontinent’s sometimes fractious diversity of faiths.
Peace via a rule that says “we’ll arrest and/or kill you if you [directly, indirectly, or even tangentially] insult any religion.”
Not only did Pakistan inherit the laws after partition, but it added to them. In the 1980s, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship introduced a slew of elastically worded clauses, including a death sentence for those deemed to have defiled the sacred name of the Prophet.
Well it is RE related. Wonder what a one bed goes for?
I want to see this sail past Somalia!
http://www.aboardtheworld.com/
cat (15)-
A few airbursts over strategic points of interest in Pakistan should quell this niggling contretemps.
Kill all those mf’ers. Why? Because we can.
64.Lamar Asperger says:
December 5, 2010 at 10:22 pm
confused (12)-
When you’re tired of playing with that electric train, I know how to turn the transformer into a makeshift tort#re device.
E-mail me for details.
“The end must be close, I bought an electric train for under the tree. First time in 50 years.”
Thanks, but my original background was radar & electronics, so I have it covered.
sx (25)-
What needs to go away is Harley-Davidson, along with their crappy, noisy bikes that only found favor amongst the fattest and laziest of the worst generation I hope our God-forsaken nation will ever produce. Honest to God, how many 220-lb, 60+ y/o biker chicks does our country really need to support into their inevitable long dotage and even longer- and more expensive- deaths?
Execute the Boomers, and bury them with their Harleys.
67.Lamar Asperger says:
December 5, 2010 at 10:27 pm
cat (15)-
A few airbursts over strategic points of interest in Pakistan should quell this niggling contretemps.
Kill all those mf’ers. Why? Because we can.
Isn’t that what the Neutron Bomb was invented for?
69.Lamar Asperger says:
December 5, 2010 at 10:31 pm
sx (25)-
What needs to go away is Harley-Davidson, along with their crappy, noisy bikes that only found favor amongst the fattest and laziest of the worst generation I hope our God-forsaken nation will ever produce. Honest to God, how many 220-lb, 60+ y/o biker chicks does our country really need to support into their inevitable long dotage and even longer- and more expensive- deaths?
Execute the Boomers, and bury them with their Harleys
I always liked the Old Indian brand. Still see some from PA.
sastry (28)-
Nah. We’ve just figured out how to use religion to get the true believers of all faiths do do the gubmint’s dirty work of the suppression of rational thought and unpopular opinion.
“The first two paragraphs can be any ethnic combination. The problem with Pak is in the third paragraph. If it were the US, there would be no need for the third paragraph and a word “protective custody” would have appeared in the second paragraph. That’s the great thing about US.”
sastry (30)-
What does it say when a country’s laws concerning religion and state were drawn by an occupying force of inbred retards who all died over a century ago?
sastry (42)-
I will just interpret that post as your way of telling us you’re stoned.
moose (44)-
As usual, you prove yourself an idiot and add nothing to the discussion.
plume (57)-
What an overpriced POS. I wouldn’t give you a penny over 40K for that crapshack.
confused (71)-
If Old Indians are ridden by real bikers (and not these fat, diabetic Boomer gristlebags), count me as a new fan of Old Indian.
This is a very interesting read. Mrs Dunne was the subject of a sprited discussion here at one point.
“There is a padlock on the gate of Walford, the most expensive house in the priciest street in Ireland. Graffiti adorn the conservatory windows, the lawn is overgrown and old mattresses are piled up in the front room.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/dublin-housing-market-crisis-bailout
Check out this link: http://emailrpt.gsmls.com/public/show_public_report_rpt.do?report=clientfull&Id=60479750_11260http://seekingalpha.com/article/240058-new-housing-crash-trend-and-obvious-severe-risks-in-15-key-charts?source=email_watchlist
libtard [50]
Talk with whoever does plumbing maintenance at your job. If it is an outside contractor, you are likely to get a good deal; if it is your employee, and you are uncomfortable asking him to moonlight at your house, he will refer someone reasonable. Ask for a cash discount, too (after you’ve got a decent offer already).
Harley’s are OK and share a lot with the Indian in terms of history and engine design.
I have owned motorcycles and have the endorsement to ride. NJ doesn’t make it very easy to get your m/c lisc. A little like a gun permit I suppose. Lots of hoops.
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Sometimes I just think that people write and dont really have much to say. Not so here. You definitely have something to say and you say it with style, my man! You sure do have an interesting way of drawing people in, what with your videos and your words. Youve got quite a one-two punch for a blog!