From the WSJ:
Home Ownership Rate Drops to 1998 Level
The housing market’s woes continue forcing people into rentals, further depressing the home ownership rate in a nation that now has fewer homeowners than were created during the housing boom.
In the first quarter, 66.5% of Americans owned homes, down from 67.2% a year earlier, the Census Bureau reported. The rate last hit this level in 1998.
During the boom, when easy credit made mortgages available with less regard for income or ability to pay, the ownership rate surged to a record 69.2% in 2004′s second and fourth quarters and stayed near that level until the recession deepened.
Now, some industry watchers expect the rate to slip below 65%. Housing experts say each 1% decline in the home ownership rate represents the movement of one million households to rentals. Some people can’t buy homes, while others just don’t want to.
“The further decline … provides yet more evidence that Americans are now less able and less willing to buy a home,” wrote Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist with Captial Economics, in a client note. “But it also seems likely that there has been a reduction in the desire to own a home now it’s clear that housing is not a one way bet.”
From HousingWire:
Homeownership falls to lowest level since 1998
The homeownership rate dropped to 66.4% in the first quarter, the lowest level since 1998, according to the Census Bureau.
The rate is down from 67.1% one year ago, and a single basis point dip from the previous quarter. But it has not been this low since the fourth quarter of 1998.
Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics, said the decline is “yet more evidence that Americans are now less able and less willing to buy a home.” Subsequently, he expects increased demand for rental accommodation will boost returns in the residential rental market.
Dales also said “the housing crash has more than reversed the increase seen during the boom.”
From Reuters:
Mortgage applications fell last week: MBA
Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week as higher insurance premiums for government-insured loans sapped demand, an industry group said on Wednesday.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, fell 5.6 percent in the week ended April 22.
“Purchase applications fell last week, driven primarily by a sharp decrease in government purchase applications as new, higher Federal Housing Administration premiums went into effect,” Michael Fratantoni, MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.
The decline reverses a recent increase in government purchase applications, which was likely due to borrowers trying to beat the deadline, Fratantoni said.
The MBA’s seasonally adjusted index of loan requests for home purchases tumbled 13.6 percent, while the gauge of refinancing applications slipped 0.6 percent.
Reverting to mean, huh?
Henry and his wife Ethyl went to the state fair every year,
And every year Henry would say,
” Ethyl I’d like to ride in that helicopter ”
Ethyl always replied,
” I know, Henry, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks,
and fifty bucks is fifty bucks! ”
One year Henryand Ethyl went to the fair, and Henry said,
” Ethyl , I’m 75 years old.
If I don’t ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance ”
To this, Ethyl replied,
” Henry that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks ”
The pilot overheard the couple and said,
” Folks I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don’t say a word I won’t charge you a penny!
But if you say one word it’s fifty dollars. ”
Henry and Ethyl agreed and up they went.
The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard.
He did his daredevil tricks,
but still not a word…
When they landed, the pilot turned to Henry and said,
” By golly , I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn’t.
I’m impressed! ”
Henry replied,
” Well, to tell you the truth
I almost said something when Ethyl fell out,
but you know,
Fifty bucks is fifty bucks! “
Back in NJ, just in time to vote no on the budget.
BERKELEY HEIGHTS — Berkeley Heights residents took to the polls this evening to decide whether to approve a $36.1 million tax levy to support the local school district’s budget. Last year, voters rejected the budget, which led to roughly $900,000 in additional cuts by the township council.
Speaking outside Governor Livingston High School, school board President Paul Beisser said he was hopeful this year’s budget would be approved.
Standing by for the Municipal Levy Cap Referendum results. The doom is thick in the air tonight isnt it?
Can somebody point me to a graph that combines Kendra Todd’s career with the Case-Schiller graph?
I’m thinking she’s now KW and rents an apartment near the fish market in Seattle, but can find no independent confirmation.
And this has absolutely nothing, nothing to do with the Donald, but everything to do with rents and incomes.
oops..sorry, ignore my fake German accent. Shiller.
8 in mod..maybe should stay there.
The dollar is getting absolutely crushed tonite. Looks like nobody believes Uncle Ben’s spin.
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/index.html?s=NYBOT_DX&t=f&a=2&w=1&v=s
Tide is rolling out on Dimon and his silver thugs.
“A week ago we noted something peculiar: in one day, COMEX depository Scotia Mocatta (one of five in the world) saw a 25% transfer of silver from “registered” (or deliverable physical) to “eligible” (or “undefined” – a distinction discussed previously, and also below). We said: “Canada’s largest bullion depository (and one of five total) reclassified a whopping 5.2 million ounces of silver from Registered to Eligible status. In order to get a sense of how big this amount is, which amounts to just under $238 million at today’s fixing price, it represents just over 25% of the total silver stored at Scotia Mocatta, and about 5% of the total silver held across all depositories.” The reason then given was: “due to a reporting reclassification, 5,287,142 t oz was moved from Registered to Eligible.” To our (lack of) surprise, a quick glance at today’s silver holdings at the Comex confirms that the trend of reclassification is continuing unabated, and total “physical” silver across the entire Comex universe has now plunged by almost 20%, or from 41 million ounces to 33 million ounces, in the span of one week! And while last week it was Scotia Mocatta, today it is HSBC and the Delaware Depository, and the reason given: “Adjustments include reporting classifications of t oz that were moved from Registered to Eligible.” And a further drill down reveals the following link (deleted to avoid a double link in this post). Many have speculated that there could well be a run on physical silver. But for those looking for a smoking gun, this is probably as close as you will get to one, short of JPM actually declaring “force majeure.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-comex-lost-20-its-registered-silver-one-week-or-where-theres-smoke-run-theres-probably-r
hype (10)-
I’d be willing to bet that sucker busts under 70 within a month.
From there? Uncharted waters. Always where you want to be with a dying currency.
Note to self: bone up on Weimar and beginnings of N@zi movement.
Gotta expect the Bergabe goon squad will shank stocks in a final attempt to juice Treasuries and keep the DXY above 70.
Too bad the DXY and USTs have decoupled.
Hyperinflation, dead ahead.
When I was at the hotel bar in Florida, I was near some guys from a tech company who were meeting at the hotel. I overheard the words “mini 14” so I approached the fellow mini-14 owner to ask about his.
What I found was a guy who, along with others, bought the surface rights to 3,000 acres of gas company land that wasn’t fracked (older field, not in Marcellus shale), and have been selling off lots. When I probed further, and he was probing me to see if I had an occupation that would fit, I found that this guy was already developing a Nompound!!! It is rural, within 5 miles of a ski area, and in a state that I had considered for a nompound. It is also pretty distant from here, so getting away for the weekend isn’t much of an option. But it is an ongoing Nompound development, and he is incorporating many of the ideas that I had suggested.
Needless to say, we exchanged cards.
Stuck in Dueling Banjos VA. The air pressure just dropped and I think the path of the storm should pass over here in about 10 minutes. The TV has Tornado warnings every few minutes. Its hard not to jump in the car and go take a look.
gluteus (16)-
Were I a Gooner fan, I’d point my car straight at the eye of the funnel as it touches down.
Then again, were Djourou or Koscielny driving your car, they’d aim for the funnel and miss.
[16] fabius
I suggest you go into the nearest bar flying the stars and bars, and educate them a bit on their backwardness. I’m sure that they will appreciate being set straight.
Quote of the Month:
“The law, sir, is like a net. Little fish slip through it. Great fish crash through it. And all the rest are hopelessly entangled in it.”
Phil Hodgens will give $50 to whoever can identify the author.
Clot any year we have a St Swithens day is a good one for me. We need two wins to guarantee finishing above Spurs.
Big thanks to City for stopping the treble.
Personally, I’d like to see some of the bluebloods tell Menino, in a very polite tone, to go fcuk himself.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/04/24/boston_sends_tax_bills_to_major_nonprofits/?page=1
Nom
Funny that was dinner. Starts and Bars over one shoulder and the white minutemen flag over the other. The Royal Irish flag got the conversation started and they overlooked the fact that I was in a dress shirt and had parked the Prius out front. I discussed the St Louis ribs with the owner, Harleys and general bikes , pre 1980s Toyota trucks and saltwater vs freshwater fishing.
Clot you would be happy to know that we all took the pi$$ out of Bobby Flay on Iron Chef as he tried to gut fish.
So what did the No vote get you. They go back to the town and they pass the same number or a sliver off. They give up the padding they had in reserve when CC didn’t yank the last of the state aid or pull the junior varsity traveling fencing team.
Otherwise No Change.
On the board members, voting against the teacher/administrator connection in favor of the hygienist/Realtor (no offense) is just dumb. You want someone in there that knows the system and understands the likes of the contracts and the implications of decisions. My ideal is the 35Yr teaching veteran that are teaching as they want to. They can retire if they want to but in the BofE they are fireproof. They are the ones that can call BS on the Administrators. Otherwise the Admins will run rings around a week board that are out of their depth. I worked with a guy that was on the Board of Ed. He was an awesome Project Manager, but his biggest contribution to the schools was his work with the boosters and his decision not to seek re-election due to work pressures. His replacement unfortunatly was the keen SoccerMom who has a heart in the right place, but not the sharpest tool in the box.
gluteus (21)-
And neither of those two wins is a lock. Wanker ought to re-sign Adams and Bould out of retirement, then put them at centre half. I bet they’d outplay Djourou and Koscielny for a couple of games.
gluteus (23)-
Wish Food Network would feature a show with someone gutting Bobby Flay.
Six years running our district has voted down the budget. Methinks this year will be #7.
Poll lady told me the turnout was light today. That usually means the “no” takes it here.
Our blue ribbony middle skool has a superintendent knocking close to 200K in comp/bennies. He is an illiterate trilobite who is scheming, deceptive, mumbles and won’t look you in the eye when he speaks.
I voted for candidates who want to not only not renew his contract, but eliminate this useless position entirely.
nom [5]
You didn’t have to rush home as your budget passed… So far in Union County only Linden and Rahway failed, couple of towns’ results still missing.
Free-trade benefits:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-28/u-s-failure-on-s-korea-fta-would-cede-market-to-beef-rivals-locke-says.html
U.S. Failure on S. Korea FTA Would Cede Market, Locke Says
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said failure by Congress to pass a free-trade agreement with South Korea would hand an advantage to rivals such as Australian beef exporters….
…
South Korea reported a trade surplus of $9.4 billion with the U.S. in 2010, with two-way trade topping $90 billion, according to the Korea International Trade Association.
The pact will help South Korea’s trade surplus with the U.S. widen by $463 million annually over 10 years, aided by increased exports of automobiles, electronics and textiles, according to a 2007 study by South Korean think tanks, including the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.
Now, could someone explain why this agreement is in the national interest of the U.S.?
re: 11
Well,
Have my in-laws visiting us and below is a flash-back of Russian default 1998
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-27/belarus-to-lift-currency-restrictions-in-shortest-time-frame-.html
Exchange rate on the black marked now is ~1×9000 comparing to 1×3100 a month earlier. Guess what? Forget about Greece violence. Won’t happen there. different mentality
The end is nigh (Roadkill Edition):
April 27 (Bloomberg) — Armadillos are the most likely cause of unexplained cases of leprosy among people with the disease in the southern U.S., where the animals are hunted and eaten, a study found.
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=as0K7TCX8_SU
DXY lost over 20% of its value in the last 5 years and GOLD gained over 100% in the same time period.Unbalanced, interesting fact.
Voters rejected property-tax increases in 12 municipalities today, while two towns approved special ballots to exceed the new 2 percent municipal property-tax cap.
Brick Township and Lambertville voters passed the measures. In Brick, which would have had to privatize garbage collection if the referendum had failed, the move squeaked by with 51.43 percent of the vote, a margin of 478 votes.
In Lambertville, 59.02 percent of voters approved the measure, allowing the township to include garbage collection in property taxes, instead of as a separate fee.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/all_but_two_nj_towns_vote_to_r.html
Yesterdays Property Tax Vote
http://media.nj.com/ledgerupdates_impact/photo/tr0427votegrjpg-0bb35dbc11e8462a.jpg
Edison passed a 5.5% tax increase on the School budget.No word yet on the Municipal increase.
Edison Municipal taxes will go up 3.66%.
The tax rate jumps 4 cents, from $1.09 to $1.13 — meaning a home accessed at the township average of about $176,000 would pay about $70 more this year.
Where is the CAP?
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