A hint of recovery in the NYC condo market?

From HousingWire:

Manhattan condos fall short of pre-recession price points

Manhattan condo prices regained 16% of their value in the past two years, but still remain 12% below pre-crisis levels, according to Radar Logic’s latest RPX Manhattan Condominium price report.

In March, Radar Logic priced the average Manhattan condo at $1,017 per square foot, up from $923 in 2009, but still below the $1,213 price point established in 2008.

Despite condos regaining some of their value these past two years, the Manhattan market still grapples with lackluster sales in this segment, the RPX report said. March condo sales were down 18% from 2008’s peak level, and the total condo transaction count fell 3% this past March when compared to year-ago levels.

In terms of where activity is occurring in Manhattan, the RPX report says larger units are pulling in more buyers. The sale of units in the 900- to 1,500-square-foot range grew year over year, while sales in the 450-to 900-square-foot market fell over last year in March.

Researchers with Radar Logic concluded that “the shift toward larger units has contributed to an improvement in the Manhattan Condominium RPX price relative to last year, as larger units command higher prices per square foot than smaller units.” Even still, the report stipulated that Radar Logic is not “comfortable calling it a recovery” just yet.

The Manhattan neighborhoods reporting the largest year-over-year price gains included Chelsea/West Village, where prices rose 23.4%; the East Village/Lower East Side, where prices jumped 16.6%, and Soho/Tribeca, where prices are 14.7% higher.

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161 Responses to A hint of recovery in the NYC condo market?

  1. grim says:

    From Bloomberg:

    Glaeser: Housing Market Has Persistent Case of the Blahs

    The seasonally adjusted S&P/Case- Shiller index of housing prices in 20 cities has now fallen for nine consecutive months, but before we get all hot and bothered about another collapse, we should recognize the relatively modest nature of the current double dip.

    The seasonally adjusted decline since last June has been only about 4 percent, whereas the decline from April 2006 to May 2009 was 32 percent. The current drop seems less like a second big bust, and more like just another phase of a long period of the housing blahs.

    The Case-Shiller 20-city series began in January 2000. From then until April 2006, the peak of the bubble, prices rose 105 percent, before beginning their spectacular 32 percent decline in nominal terms, or 36 percent in real terms.

    Even the Great Depression didn’t see such drops in housing prices. From 1925 to 1933, nominal prices fell 30 percent, according to the data compiled by Robert Shiller, who created the index with Karl Case, a fellow economist. Correcting for the depression’s deflation, that price fall ended by 1932 and was only 13 percent.

    That index is typically less volatile, and the boom, which lasted until 2007, according to the FHFA, registered at “only” 65 percent nominal price growth, or 38 percent in real terms. Moreover, the FHFA bust has pretty much continued unabated, and we are now down 21 percent nominally, or 26 percent in real terms.

    Still, Case-Shiller gave us hope for a rebound in 2009, and until July 2010 their price index rose by 4.7 percent, or 2.7 percent in real terms. Those hopes have now vanished as prices have fallen 4.3 percent since the post-crash peak, or about 7 percent in real terms.

    The U.S. has experienced more than a few housing bubbles and busts, and our post-bust history is remarkably uniform. There are generally modest gyrations, though there has never been either a quick turnaround or a second huge drop. The typical pattern is that nominal prices stay flat for years.

    Rather than expecting huge future price swings — one way or the other — in the near future, it makes more sense to plan for the doldrums, and there’s good and bad in that. On the negative side, people do seem to spend more when their houses are worth more, so low housing prices keep consumption down and that probably hurts the macro-economy.

    On the plus side, the housing bust made a basic necessity far more affordable. We’re all short housing at some point in our lives and cheaper homes are a blessing for consumers, just like cheaper cars and computers.

  2. grim says:

    From the Huffington Post:

    Foreclosure Fraud Price Tag: $20 Billion

    The nation’s largest mortgage companies are operating on the assumption that they will have to pay as much as $20 billion to resolve claims of widespread foreclosure abuse, an amount four times what they had originally proposed, the top federal official overseeing the discussions told state officials Monday, according to people who participated in the conversation.

    Associate U.S. Attorney General Tom Perrelli told a bipartisan group of state attorneys general during a conference call that he believes the banks have accepted the realization that a wide-ranging settlement to the months-long probes will cost them much more than the $5 billion offer they floated last month, according to officials with direct knowledge of the call. Perrelli said he’s basing his belief on his recent conversations with representatives of the five targeted firms: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial.

    Three unresolved issues remain, these people said. State and federal officials have not agreed on the scope of banks’ release from liability that would accompany such a deal; negotiators continue to hammer out how much of the money pot will be split between restructuring borrowers’ mortgages and bank fines, and officials are not yet near an agreement on how the coalition of state and federal government agencies will monitor and enforce bank behavior in the wake of a settlement agreement.

    The settlement talks are the result of state and federal investigations launched last autumn after widespread reports that the five largest mortgage handlers illegally seized the homes of an unknown number of homeowners and improperly accelerated foreclosure proceedings by failing to amass required paperwork, in some cases allegedly lying about it to local judges. Over the past couple months, government officials have been in discussions with the banks to resolve claims of past abuses and set new standards to govern bank dealings with distressed homeowners.

  3. grim says:

    From Nasdaq:

    Will Pent-Up Demand Drive Recovery?

    Though currently mired in gloom, the housing market could snap back fairly quickly, once consumers decide that prices have bottomed out and it’s once again safe to invest their money in a home.

    That’s according to the annual State of the Nation’s Housing report released today by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Although noting that factors such as the uncertain economy and an oversupply of foreclosed properties continue to depress the housing market, it suggests there’s also a fair amount of pent-up demand out there waiting to be unleashed.

    “While the sharp declines in both home prices and interest rates have left homes in many places more affordable than they have been in decades,” said Eric S. Belsky, Managing Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, “stubbornly high unemployment and tightened lending standards have limited the ability of many first-time buyers to capitalize on the situation.”

    The report goes on to say that “once consumers perceive that a floor has formed under house prices, their reentry into the market could quickly burn through the lean inventory of unsold new homes and slim down the excess supply of existing homes on the market.”

    “The ingredients for a sustained recovery may be coming together,” said Chris Herbert, the Center’s research director,”but it is still not clear when homebuyers will have the urgency to return to the market in sufficient numbers to lift the market in a meaningful way.”

    As in previous housing recoveries, the report says that renewed job growth and increased consumer confidence will be the key to a turnaround. It notes that one encouraging sign has been a significant decline in mortgage delinquencies over the past year, with loans at least 90 days past due dropping to 3.8 percent of all mortgages, down from 5.6 percent one year earlier.

    Demographic factors will likely drive increased demand for housing in the near future. The report notes that the so-called “echo boom,” whose numbers appear likely to exceed even those of the massive baby boom generation of their parents, are now moving into their prime years for becoming first-time homebuyers. Baby boomers themselves are approaching retirement, meaning that some 3.8 million boomers will likely be in the market to relocate into smaller homes over the coming decade.

  4. Mike says:

    Good Morning New Jersey

  5. still_looking says:

    feh.

    sl

  6. grim says:

    Congrats to all here who got it right, again…

    From CNBC:

    Spring Housing Season

    I don’t know what the official end of the Spring housing market is, but it seems as if the experts have called the close, and it ain’t great.

    Last week, after the folks at the vaunted S&P/Case Shiller Indices put a period on the home price double dip, which others had been reporting for months — and The New York Times did a piece on falling home prices — it seemed like suddenly the housing watchers got nervous again.

    Over the weekend, JP Morgan Chase’s housing analysts revised their outlook lower for home price recovery, “largely based on existing home sales coming in lower than expected.” While they expect that regional divergences will increase, “Our new base case is down percent from here (Q1 2011) and bottoming in mid-2012. We expect home prices to modestly improve over the summer months.”

    Soon after, Credit Suisse’s Monthly Survey of Real Estate Agents announced: “Weak ending to the Spring season.” CS’s Daniel Oppenheim notes, “A lack of urgency continues as does a fear and hesitation of buying if prices still have further to fall.” This, we knew.

    “Most worrisome was the lengthening time needed to sell a home, as there are few qualified buyers and those qualified buyers are waiting for the right price.” Buyer traffic is weak, and distressed markets are showing the best activity. This is a key point because of an argument that was going around the blogosphere last week.

    Politicians may point to a slowdown in new mortgage delinquencies, and claim that the housing recovery is fine, but just slow. That should not be the focus. The focus must be on the more than 11 million underwater borrowers, and not just because some might walk away from their homes.

    The plain truth is that not all homeowners who owe more on the mortgages than their homes are worth are going to walk away from said homes, and abandon their lifestyles and credit ratings in the process. Not near everyone.

    But negative equity has a huge effect on lifestyle, spending and mobility. There is an enormous inventory of unsold homes on the market and about to come on the market, and if current homeowners can’t sell their homes, then they can’t buy new ones.

    That may sound kind of “duh,” but I don’t think enough bankers or policymakers get it. You cannot rely on investors and first-time home buyers to eat up an unprecedented backlog of inventory.

  7. grim says:

    From the WSJ:

    Second-Mortgage Misery

    Almost 40% of homeowners who took out second mortgages—extracting cash from their residences to cover everything from vacations to medical bills—are underwater on their loans, more than twice the rate of owners who didn’t take out such loans.

    The finding, in a report to be released Tuesday by real-estate data firm CoreLogic Inc., illustrates the consequences of easy borrowing amid the housing boom’s inflated prices. The report says 38% of borrowers who took cash out of their residences using home-equity loans are underwater, or owe more than their home is worth. By contrast, 18% of borrowers who don’t have these loans were underwater.

    It’s not clear how much cash withdrawn from homes during the boom was used to acquire luxuries such as expensive automobiles, and how much went to basic necessities, including tuition expenses, or renovations intended to raise a property’s value.

    What is clear is that home-equity loans, which account for about 10% of the U.S. mortgage market, have been a headache for homeowners and lenders alike. Second mortgages refer to any loan taken out on a property that is subordinate to the first mortgage, and include home-equity loans or lines of credit.

    CoreLogic found that borrowers with second mortgages had deeper levels of negative equity—an average of $83,000 compared with $52,000—than borrowers without second mortgages. In many cases, borrowers withdrew cash from their properties using home-equity loans or lines of credit, a type of second mortgage. The CoreLogic report doesn’t include cash-out refinancing, a common practice during the boom, where borrowers opted to extract cash while refinancing their first mortgage.

    According to Federal Reserve Board data, homeowners took out a total of $2.69 trillion from their homes at the height of the housing boom between 2004 and 2006. That tally includes cash-out refinancings.

    “Easy access to home equity loans during the housing boom put borrowers who extracted home equity at more risk,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist. “The price declines were felt more severely by people who took out home-equity loans.”

    n 2005, Matt Facchini, took out a $200,000 home-equity loan on his home in Toms River, N.J., and used it to pay his divorce settlement, pay down some credit card debt and make home renovations, including installing new fences and restoring the swimming pool.

    Two years ago, after price declines put him approximately $190,000 underwater, he walked away from the home, and is currently trying to negotiate a short sale. But Mr. Facchini, who works installing insulation for pipes, worries that the lender on his second mortgage will demand that he pay the approximately $70,000 deficiency on the second loan.

    “I’m sweating. I have a broken car sitting in my driveway that I can’t afford to fix. I can’t get a loan to buy a new car because my credit is ruined,” Mr. Facchini said. “I’m hoping they don’t come after me for the money I owe them. That would be, for me, the end of it all.”

  8. wheaties says:

    Being someone who is starting to look around the rock or ridgewood area I’ve spoken to several families and realtors. They’ve all said the same thing; if it’s properly priced it doesn’t stay on market long. Sometimes there’s even a small bidding war. Realtors are having very little luck convincing sellers to lower prices. They all think they can get 2008 prices.

  9. The corpse of the spring market is covered in writhing maggots and engulfed in the stench of death. I am now calling DOA on the summer, fall, winter and spring markets.

    Until the year 2061, at the soonest.

  10. Getting close to Tom Joad time.

    Get that pickup truck lubed, and check your outdoor sleeping gear.

  11. 30 Year Realtor says:

    #8 wheaties – Properly priced is a relative term. What I am seeing at this moment in time is that none of the buyers currently buying are happy to be buying. These people are only buying because life situation offers them little other choice. They feel confident that their purchase will continue to depreciate for the foreseeable future.

    Buyers are trying to offer sellers tomorrow’s depreciated price today. Ninety plus percent of sellers have their heads up their collective a$$ and wouldn’t know a market value offer if it bit them. And the beat goes on…

    Did a BPO yesterday on a townhouse in Wayne. Recent closed sales in the mid $300’s. On market comps in the same range. Subject is a short sale and has been listed for 48 days at $299,000. So far no takers. It ain’t pretty out there!

  12. NWNJHighlander says:

    What NYC really needs is another groups of paradigm shifting sitcoms to draw in the rubes from the Heartland.

    This is the post Seinfeld/Friends correction.

    Bored to Death, How to Make It in America, and Scrappers just ain’t gonna cut it.

    —————-

  13. Housing is dead money for the rest of our lives. Best case scenario is that some of us survive the coming holocaust and widespread violence.

  14. Dissident HEHEHE says:

    “What NYC really needs is another groups of paradigm shifting sitcoms to draw in the rubes from the Heartland.

    This is the post Seinfeld/Friends correction.

    Bored to Death, How to Make It in America, and Scrappers just ain’t gonna cut it.”

    Does this Anthony Weiner thing count?

  15. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Here’s how you fix everything:

    Get extra-terrestrials to come here and trade their 24K gold spaceships for houses.

  16. gary says:

    Ninety plus percent of sellers have their heads up their collective a$$ and wouldn’t know a market value offer if it bit them. And the beat goes on…

    Any Questions?

  17. No questions. The answer is clear.

    However, the forces of fraud and denial are greater than the market’s natural impulses.

    Until such time as this rebalances itself, we continue to turn Japanese.

  18. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Let me see.
    Spring market a bust, check.
    Unemployment still in the sh*t & not getting better, check.
    World economic slow down (Japan, Europe, China, USA, various problems), check.
    Property taxes, still going up, check.
    Stock market looking to roll over, check.
    Hobo calls for the housing market to be dead a lifetime for the 2967th time, check.
    Article calling for “pant up demand “to save the day, check (LOLROF).
    CNBC going bear on housing, check (scary).

    Not to worry it will bottom by 2012, yea right.

  19. Essex says:

    16. Just one. “Why do you care?”

  20. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Whoa! shot across the bow from Essex.

  21. gary says:

    Realtors are having very little luck convincing sellers to lower prices. They all think they can get 2008 prices.

    tick… tick… tick… tick…

  22. Andrew says:

    I’m a daily reader and absolutely love the blog and the banter between posters. I’m looking for a reccomendation for a mortgage broker that can handle single family investment property re-fi’s. Any reccomendations are appreciated.

  23. NJ Toast says:

    Do banks that made loans based on artificially inflated appraisals have any legal recourse against the appraiser if they can prove some type of intended negligence and furthermore, have their been any cases that have tried to prove collusion between the mtg broker and appraiser?

  24. NJ Toast says:

    their = there

  25. Essex says:

    It’s a real question.

  26. 3b says:

    #6 There is a place…… And I the Spring selling season ends there in December, because there are new listings still coming on every day.

  27. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Gary undaunted, continues on.
    Toast23 That would open up a new can of worms, don’t know, can’t say,wait for the lawyers to get up. They may know.

  28. 3b says:

    #8 Lots of inventory in both those towns too.

  29. 3b says:

    #11 And the so called more affluent and blue ribbony towns really have their heads up their collective a$$.

  30. 3b says:

    #18 Mike: But the Harvard study says all the oieces are in place so that house prices could snap back quickly

  31. 3b says:

    I know lots of so called echo boomer’s, and they will not be buying houses any time soon. In fact many do not want to, and they all want to live in the city.

    So we have one article stating that and USA today had an article last week, about the declining birth rate, an the growing trend of many American suburbs having no kids living in them.

  32. 3b says:

    #21 I think they mean 1998 prices.

  33. gary says:

    The Case-Shiller 20-city series began in January 2000. From then until April 2006, the peak of the bubble, prices rose 105 percent, before beginning their spectacular 32 percent decline in nominal terms, or 36 percent in real terms. Even the Great Depression didn’t see such drops in housing prices.

    But, you know, certain towns expect certain buyers and one should consider looking out of state. I mean, after all, it’s very competitive around here since we’re so close to NYC. And, word has it that prices only go up around here.

    We’re in the 5th inning, folks.

  34. freedy says:

    “But River Edge is holding up”

  35. gary says:

    freedy,

    Indeed. River Edge is up 26% YOY.

  36. Shore Guy says:

    Lies, damn lies, and NAR statistics.

  37. 3b (30)-

    Harvard also said there was no housing bubble in 2005.

  38. Shore Guy says:

    Just remember folks, yes there has been a bit of a downturn but, the spring selling season in 2009 will come roaring back. I meant Spring 2010. No, wait, I miscalculated; it is the Spring of 2011 that things get back to normal. Whew! I almost messed up that call.

  39. Shore Guy says:

    Congressman Weiner has an better chance of being elected president than this housing market has of getting back to bubble pricing.

  40. Shore Guy says:

    The people who could not really afford to buy homes rushed in under dubious circumstances and many lost the homes and more will. The prudent either bought in a way that they were protected from downturns or sat out of the market, correctly believing that it was not a reasonable thing to buy at overinflated prices.

    Now, most of the folks who are in position to buy are prudent folks, but how many prudent people are willing to jump in and overpay either in price or taxes?

    We have cash that we wanted to deploy into another property and just have thrown up our hands for now. We will look at places in NC in a few weeks but we will not jump and buy just for the sake of buying.

  41. Mike says:

    It’s important to keep a positive mental attitude and take some xanax

  42. Mike says:

    keep a positive mental attitude and take xanax

  43. chicagofinance says:

    Retsinas is bought off…..that book my high school friend wrote connected the dots on that…..
    http://www.amazon.com/Our-Lot-Real-Estate-Came/dp/1596914793

    Hobo With a Shotgun says:
    June 7, 2011 at 9:03 am
    3b (30)- Harvard also said there was no housing bubble in 2005.

  44. chi (41)-

    Come to think of it, one of the few bubbles going is a Harvard edumacation.

  45. Don’t need a Harvard BA or BS to squeeze off a few rounds.

  46. gary says:

    Don’t need a Harvard BA or BS to squeeze off a few rounds.

    Post of the day… no question.

  47. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    Report from Brigadoon:

    Lots of inventory, so much so that neighbors are commenting on number of houses for sale around here. Houses do seem to be moving, but for sale signs are as common as hydrangeas. Don’t know if sellers are getting their prices or not.

    ++++++++++++++

    Bulk trash is being put out in our district. Over the weekend, so many vans and pickups from other towns (usually Plainfield) prowling the ‘hood, it was starting to cause traffic jams. Much more scavenging than in prior years. But also much more to scavenge: A lot of trash out on curbs this year as Brigadoonians do their annual purge. This suggests that there is also consumption since all that broken yard furniture, old televisions, and particle board crap furniture needed replacing.

    One odd anecdote: People will put out perfectly good appliances, and the plainfielders come around and cut off the cords, rendering the appliances useless. Seems they are doing it to get the copper. But I hardly think they are making anything as they troll around in vans, burning gas, to bring home a couple of dozen appliance cords.

    I don’t need any more clutter but I did find a perfectly good art storage tower for my daughter’s art supplies (just needed cleaning), a pretty good and working drop spreader for my lawn, a seemingly unused youth-sized tennis racket in case one of my girls decides on tennis, and a small fish tank setup to use as a hospital tank for new fish. Freecycle them now and put them out when I don’t need them anymore. Downside of bulk trash is trying to keep my 8YO from becoming a trashpicker though.

    Another odd anecdote: Neighbor saw me looking over a snowblower (decided against as it probably needed work) and I mentioned furniture (looking for shelves). He mentioned a very nice desk he had that he was about to put out. Pottery Barn, paid $1000 for it new. I looked at it and it was very nice but I did not need it. So I suggested to him that he find a charity that accepts furniture, have them get it, and get the tax deduction. He thought, wow, what a great idea. Funny thing was, he and his wife were corporate lawyers. I would have thought that an obvious solution.

  48. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [43] hobo

    What I know of Harvard grads is that they probably don’t know which end of the gun to point

    Even if they did, I could easily disarm them because they would leave the safety on, or forget to insert the magazine.

    FWIW, I was BORN in 02138. So I know my Harvard (even took some classes there).

  49. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    To quote from Master of Puppets:

    You will do, what I say
    Back to the front
    You will die when I say you must die
    Back to the front
    You coward, you servant, you blind man
    Back to the front

  50. whipped says:

    where are mortgage rates heading this week?
    predictions?

  51. 3b says:

    #34/35 jets 12 will not like this, but the reality is there are a record number of houses for sale in you know where for this time of year. The consenus taxes; so much for them not being an issue.

  52. JJ says:

    harvard grads don’t need a gun to rob you.

  53. 3b says:

    #50 Many of them also typically do not wash their hands when they go to the bathroom.

  54. Shore Guy says:

    What do you call one politician in prison for complicity in an economic collapse? A good start:

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2011-06-07-iceland-haarde-charged_n.htm

  55. Shore Guy says:

    He is the first person ever brought before the Landsdomur, a special criminal court created in 1905 to deal with charges against Icelandic government ministers.

    Iceland’s parliament, the Althingi, voted in September to indict Haarde for allegedly failing to prevent the 2008 financial crisis that sparked protests, toppled the government and brought the economy to a standstill. However, it voted not to pursue charges against three other members of the government.

  56. Shore Guy says:

    3b,

    If a person is too unsuccessful to pay the taxes, they obviously do NOT belong in this town.

  57. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Whipped if your buying get locked in as low as possible, a good portion of us predicted 9% or more many moons ago before the fed intervened. Based on historical reversions of interest rates to counteract overheated markets you would expect them to go up. Unfortunately, it is a rigged ponzi scheme now for the benefit of the banksters and the only thing rationale about it is the stink coming off of Helicopter Ben’s swamp a$$ on a summer day

  58. still_looking says:

    Need some on (or, preferably, off) line thoughts.

    My large physician partnership group is in the buying crosshairs of an enormously larger corporate physician company.

    I am admittedly, scared shitless.

    Corporate group is one where workers are expendable drones. Hired as independent contractors with no rights, etc. My fear is that the upper management of our company is looking at this as a swan-song sell out enabling them to golden parachute themselves whilst sacrificing us.

    I fear they are going to use Oba-ma care as the ‘boogeyman’ scare tactic (income drop, fear of jail time -yes!jail! — for noncompliant physicians, etc etc) to induce the shareholders of the company to vote in favor of a sell out.

    I will know more later this month but wonder if anyone else has thoughts on this….

    Thanks,

    sl

  59. Shore Guy says:

    Held up without a gun.

  60. Shore Guy says:

    sl,

    A huge proportion of people listed as “independent contractoes” are no such thing, and their classification as such violates the FLSA.

  61. Shore Guy says:

    freaking android.

  62. Shore Guy says:

    If we ever prosecuteed politicians for failing to act in the face of a crisis, we would empty out most of Washington and various statehouses:

    “The second count accuses Haarde of failing to uphold his duty under the constitution to hold ministerial meetings on important issues.

    “During this period there was little discussion at ministerial meetings of the imminent danger; there was no formal discussion of it at ministerial meetings, and nothing was recorded about these matters at the meetings,” the indictment said.”

  63. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    SL all your boogeymen are spot on. They pulled the O-care BS here to justify layoffs. Welcome to the new normal. My apologies usually you docs can avoid the ridiculousness of corporate America. You can always become a small town doc in some out of the way burb. Leave all of us behind to turn the lights off. Or you can join us in Pharma, wait that is going away too.

    doom it’s whats for dinner

  64. Shore Guy says:

    Roadkill moment of the day:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2000003/CFDA-Fashion-Awards-2011-Lady-Gaga-The-Edge-Glory-sheer-slips-reveals-chest.html

    Can the women of the blog shed some light on this, are rows of spikes usual on panties?

  65. Nicholas says:

    Nom,

    I don’t think that they cut the cord on the appliances for copper, they cut the cord because they don’t have enough room to take the appliance away but they still want it. This immediately discourages anyone else from taking the appliance that can’t see the true value, i.e. serious pickers. Replacing an appliance cord on a washer/dryer is three screws. You already have a whole supply of 240 volt appliance cords right?

    I got quoted 900$ to repair a washing machine that was broken. I ordered the parts and replaced it myself for 150$ in an afternoon. It is still working properly after 3 more years of service. I might have even posted my efforts on this blog three years ago.

  66. Happy Renter says:

    [38] Brigadoon-on-Hackensack enjoys a unique climate where it’s always Spring Selling Season, even when half the MLS listings have bare-branched trees in their photos.

    They’ve got alpha.

  67. Shore Guy says:

    “They’ve got alpha”

    Yea, byt a little medicated cream and an injection will clear up that problem.

  68. Shore Guy says:

    but

  69. Happy Renter says:

    This just in: Congressman Weiner said that he wasn’t intending to take that “lewd” photo, however, he had just taken a sip of water drawn from the magical Hackensack River when he noticed that he, too, was up 26% and then dropped his camera in disbelief, resulting in said photograph.

  70. 3b says:

    #64 have bare-branched trees in their photos

    And snow. Because it is a magical place, and it does snow sometimes in July.

  71. 3b says:

    #54 Shore: Sorry. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

  72. 3b says:

    #51 Well they don’t!!!

  73. njluv2travl says:

    #8 wheaties- Based on my experience, the info. you were given is accurate. My husband and I looked for nine months before we found a house (we are closing in two weeks). While renting for nine years, we saved obsessively for a house, even though family/friends pushed homeownership down our throats for years. We ignored their view of typical homeownership dreams and made a practical decision to purchase this year- the right time us. The few houses that came on the market in our prime location were distressed/estate sales which we were not in the market for- we do not have the experience or wherewithal for remodeling a dilapitated house. We lost out on a short sale- other bidder paid cash, three houses w/offers placed after ours (we walked away refusing to enter into a bidding war).

    What we learned through this experience is that there are several qualified buyers out there waiting for a well maintained house to come on the market, home owners in the nicer areas are not selling their homes unless they absolutely need to sell, several sellers are still overpricing their homes despite the market, realtors are desperately trying to push homes that they wouldn’t even live in, mortgage reps. will reduce their fees to remain competitive, and, most importantly, patience and research is key. We wound up compromising location for house in a nearby town. The house and property were immaculately cared for and updated nicely, .5 acre lot ($10k taxes). However, as 30-yr. realtor noted above, the seller overpriced the house. My husband and I conduct intensive research with anything we purchase so we were well educated in regards to comps. in the area. We also considered that we had to secure a mtg. appraisal and did not want to enter into a contract where the house would not appraise for the selling price or enter into further negotiations. We knew what the house was worth and took the market into consideration. We were confident that our offer was more than fair and held firm. We later discovered that the seller’s realtor chipped in $1k of their commission fee to make the sale happen. In the end, I think we all did well.

    Good luck with your venture. Don’t get discouraged, do your OWN research on comps./mortgage fees/interest rates/location/tax rates and only work with a realtor and mortgage rep. who understands your needs and wants. As a buyer these days, you have a lot of negotiating advantages if you educate yourself thoroughly and have the right people working with you.

    P.S. This site also helped in keeping up with the latest market news and predictions. I still refer to it and get a kick out of the cynists or realists :)

  74. nj escapee says:

    56, SL, sorry to hear that. Seems as though “Corporate Darwinism” is affecting everyone. even physicians.

  75. njluv2travl says:

    oops, i meant cynics. so much for proofreading :)

  76. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    njluv2travl good info and sound advice. Congrats and condolences

  77. Juice Box says:

    Pant up demand in NYC for Condos?

    Lets see conforming loan limit will drop a bit in NYC from 729k to 625k in October. That means if you buy a 900k NYC Condo now you need to put down down 20% or $180k to qualify for the 4.5% conforming jumbo. In October you will need another 95k or $275k deposit for the same Condo.

    Which is going to give? Buyers wallet with $275k deposits or Sellers price by a drop of 10%?

  78. still_looking says:

    pain, 55

    Sigh. I hope our share holder – physician-group owners are intelligent enough to recognize this scare tactic.

    I dunno

    sl

  79. still_looking says:

    Escapee, 72

    Well… there’s always the Keys.. ;P

    I was looking over the websites for hospitals there. There’s a great cardiologist that I knew from Mountainside Hosp in NJ. Dr. Campanile is at the hospital in Key West (or so the website suggests) He is topnotch and is the type of doc that “does the right thing” – I know first hand. Proud to have worked with him.

    sl

  80. Squeal like a pig.

    Only choice left these days is your choice of who gets to take your arse first.

  81. If my doctor cared for me, he’d give me a Kevorkian c@cktail.

  82. Oops. My bad. Don’t have a doctor anymore.

  83. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    (63) nic,

    Picker I saw had a van and cut cord from small appliance. She also god me it was 4 the copper.

  84. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    God S/b told

    Fcyking Android

  85. ParsnipPatty says:

    71 njluv2travl, Congratulations! But when you say, “We wound up compromising location for house in a nearby town. The house and property were immaculately cared for and updated nicely, .5 acre lot ($10k taxes)”, “location”. I’m looking to buy too but will only consider something within a 10 minute walk of a NJ Transit Station, decent park, & decent school(s). This I will not compromise.

    I might try and snap up this short for about $300,000. It’s priced as a standard resale, but that’s not going to happen, it will sell between $290-$310K
    http://www.weichert.com/37656871/?cityid=35985&mls=53&maxpr=400&view=gallery

  86. 3b says:

    gary: Always looking out for you. The below listing sold in August of 2005 for 770k. Yes that is $770,000.00. Price just reduced to 589K, yes that is $589,000.00 asking price. Yes the asking price is $181,000.00 less than they paid for it 5 years ago. 6 bedrooms 3 full baths, with property taxes of 20K a year.Yes that is $20,000.00 a year. But hey taxes are not an issue.

    http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1111434&dayssince=&countysearch=false

  87. 3b says:

    #83 That is a nice area of NM. I think you can definitely do much better than that 375k asking price.

  88. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Hobo someone forwarded a movie to me which I think perfectly sums up the American tax payer, Human Centipede – wiki it, you’ll laugh

  89. Anon E. Moose says:

    Shore [58];

    I’d love to see many more SS-8’s flying around. The problem is that, as I understand it, if an employee challenges their status, they remain liable for the unpaid payroll taxes. Making a sucessful claim of that kind of status fraud should put the employer on the hook for the unpaid payroll taxes over and above what they paid to the employee. It was the employer’s responsibility to classify their employees properly, and to withhold and remit required taxes. Employers are trying to make it the employee’s problem by mis-classifying them as contractors in the first place; they should not succeed in dumping the [financial] responsibility on the employee even when the employer is found to be wrong.

  90. Jets12 says:

    3b No 84 Comment. Not that uncommon or crazy actually. He’s a better one. Sold for $432,000 in ’06. Today it’s asking $159,900. Taxes $12,000. That’s 32% of it’s ’06 sale price in the under $500K market.

    http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/44-Ridge-St-Orange-NJ-07050/38725926_zpid/

  91. Barbara says:

    Need some quick insight here. Are appraisals now being paid out in cash by the buyers or homeowners who are refinancing their homes? I was told that the mortgage companies no longer roll it into the new mortgage. True?

  92. nj escapee says:

    ChiFi, in response to your post last week regarding Windstorm insurance in Florida:

    http://www.keysnet.com/2011/06/04/345797/pulitzer-winner-lays-bare-insurance.html

    The hurricane season opened on Wednesday with requisite warnings about keeping alert, taking necessary precautions and updating your family and workplace emergency response plan.

    We’d like to add another warning, this one about insurance rates and the major threat of further hikes justified by suspect risk models and Florida’s weak regulatory oversight.

    Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Paige St. John won the Pulitzer Prize this year for her 2010 investigative reporting on Florida’s well-heeled, well-connected insurance industry, exposing a pattern of repeated rate hikes tied to risk models that have been gamed by insurance companies, many of which hide big profits offshore while claiming losses in Florida.

    An introduction to her series outlined the stakes: “The past six years of record rate increases have in fact been driven by lies and half-truths from an industry that operates largely in secret and devoid of meaningful oversight, the series showed.”

    St. John will bring her expertise to Key West June 15 at a public forum on insurance hosted by the Key West Chamber of Commerce. The business group is coordinating the event to benefit Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe, which has been fighting the good fight in Tallahassee on behalf of all Keys property owners.

    Too often, the deck appears stacked against FIRM and others who challenge the insurance industry’s “facts” and “figures.” From St. John’s Pulitzer-winning investigation, some startling findings emerge:

    “Overhead costs — expenses not related to hurricanes or other disasters — are 50 percent higher in Florida than the national average. The higher overhead cost Florida homeowners an added $900 million in 2009 alone.”

    “Operating expenses charged by Florida insurance carriers account, on average, for as much as one-third of a homeowner’s premium. State regulators approve the management contracts, but legislation to require insurers to publicly disclose the finances of their related ventures was killed in the 2010 [legislative] session.”

    A Herald-Tribune review of regulatory filings and interviews with experts found insurers deciding which hurricane risk model to use in order to produce higher rates, “potentially doubling estimated hurricane losses,” according to a 2009 Florida State University study.

    There is far more disturbing information about the shell game being played on Florida property owners. To read St. John’s award-winning series, visit http://www.heraldtribune.com. In the search window, type in “Paige St. John.”

    To hear her in person, call the Key West chamber at 294-2587 and make a reservation for her 6 p.m. June 15 presentation at the Casa Marina Resort.

  93. NJCoast says:

    Beach report…Ocean temp 61 degrees. West wind makes the ocean clear. High tide small shore break.
    Summer rental available- Allenhurst, 1 house in from the ocean, 7 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths- $32,500 for the season reduced from $45,000.

  94. 3b says:

    #89 No that uncommon or crazy, if you say so. And then you post a listing from Orange NJ, as a counter point???? Just how deep is your denial?? I can post quite a few more listings like the above. The point is two fold. First as you know you have been blown out of the water with your ridiculous quote that prices are up 26% in the last year, when in fact prices are declining (not to mention you embarrassed yourself)Secondly outrageous taxes are destroying RE; period.

    There are a record number of houses for sale in town for this time of year, and more listings are coming on every day, even as the dismal Spring selling season is winding down. The wheels are coming off the “little town that could”, and quite frankly that is sad. As more than some of it could have been avoided. Oh and one final point, the funding question has not gone away you know.

  95. Juice Box says:

    re: copper – The unemployed have been very busy I gather. Huge export business to China 74% of US exports and over a million short tons and growing. Copper theft is a still a growing billion dollar business these days even after years of the FBI calling it a national emergency. South Carolina is about to enact a ban on cash for copper.

    http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/06/06/201341.htm

  96. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Chi they are making a sequel

  97. nj escapee says:

    Current Conditions Key Westn, FL
    Partly sunny88°F RealFeel: 98°F
    Winds: E at 10 mph
    Pressure: 29.92 in
    Humidity: 56%
    Visibility: 10 Miles
    TodayHigh: 90°F
    RealFeel: 102°FPartly sunnySunrise: 6:35 A
    Tonight High: 79°F
    BeachesTuesday, Jun 7
    Partly sunny.
    Surf Temperature: 82 F.
    Tanning Index (1-10): 8.
    High 86 F, 29 C. Low 79 F, 26 C.
    Winds: E at 15-25 knots.
    Wave Heights: 4-8 Ft.

  98. Kettle1^2 says:

    Pain,

    RE, centipede; why is it always the germans????????

  99. Njluv2travl says:

    Parsnip(I’m craving a certain root veggie now, lol), the reason we sacrificed location is because the homes were overpriced in our desired area (Princeton). We decided to purchase in Cranbury area – I’m not the burbs type but hubby desired enough yard for pool and backyard. That was my compromise but ultimately I’m happy w/our decision-lower taxes, bigger house for money = more money to travel the world-not such a bad compromise.

    Nice listing, by the way. Happy hunting.

  100. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Ket -I blame Mengle, a country that has produced some of the finest engineers and scientists the world has seen, reduced to a bad joke of lunacy and barbary. Somewhat deserved, but if stereotypes were norms then I guess I would be wearing a wifebeater while having a career in waste managment.

  101. JJ says:

    Does anyone know what is average downpayment on 1-1.5 million dollar homes are anyhow?

    I somehow doubt many are putting down just 20% and taking out such a huge mortgage. The only way I would do it is lets say I have one million in bonds paying 7% and mortgage rates are 4.5% I might take the max mortgage and enjoy the spread. But who in their right mind would take the max with nothing in the bank, what happens if you lose your job or get sick. Walking away was easy for people who bought at the peak with 5% down. Buying a home now with 20% down the odds are slimmer home will fall in excess of 20% in value in short term.

    I gave up looking for now, will start looking again In January. I personally am hopping homes fall another 5-10% at high end. I think they are still overpriced. I am still seeing run down pieces of garbage, in bad locations on bad plots with sky high taxes in my price range. Granted a million is not what it used to be but I don’t except it to be next to a bodego with piss rust on all the toliets either.
    Juice Box says:
    June 7, 2011 at 11:37 am

    Pant up demand in NYC for Condos?

    Lets see conforming loan limit will drop a bit in NYC from 729k to 625k in October. That means if you buy a 900k NYC Condo now you need to put down down 20% or $180k to qualify for the 4.5% conforming jumbo. In October you will need another 95k or $275k deposit for the same Condo.

    Which is going to give? Buyers wallet with $275k deposits or Sellers price by a drop of 10%?

  102. JJ says:

    Most garbage men make a lot more than engineers. Which is a bit crazy as I tried an engineering major for a few weeks at stony brook, it was overwelmingly hard. Added to madness was teachers who barely spoke english and fellow students who barely spoke english and given everything was curved so nobody wanted to help you in class and in fact they would throw out your work or steal your work if you were not looking.

    Upside was you start at a very high salary, till you are about 30 then it is just 3% raises. Meanwhile that bozo business major with a 2.2 who played lacross and was in a frat who partied all day started out of school in a peanuts job as a stock broker by 40 is living in a mansion with a jagur and a trophy wife while the engineer is sitting with his average wife in his average house driving an average car.

    Sadly Engineers and Pharmists which are very hard majors and pay very well out of school are terrible low paying jobs after the age of 30 that you are stuck in to the day you die.

    Painhrtz – Salmon of Doubt says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    Ket -I blame Mengle, a country that has produced some of the finest engineers and scientists the world has seen, reduced to a bad joke of lunacy and barbary. Somewhat deserved, but if stereotypes were norms then I guess I would be wearing a wifebeater while having a career in waste managment.

  103. Kettle1^2 says:

    Pain, 99

    Where are all of the mad Japanese doctors/villians????? they were arguably just as nasty if not more so then the mengle. The japanese did have a nasty habit of live vivisections.

  104. Kettle1^2 says:

    JJ

    a few weeks backed you claimed you had an undergraduate degree in ChemE. so which is it?

  105. Kettle1^2 says:

    JJ 101

    sadly enough your description is accurate in general terms.

  106. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    Ket ahh unit 731, you know why there is nothing menacing about Japanese accented English, it is more comical than anything else.

    JJ, thanks for pointing out an obvious fact us scientists and engineers are painfully aware of and rubbing salt firmly in the wound.

  107. wheaties says:

    #71 –

    Thanks for the encouragement. It’ll be a while for me too. I’m seeing the same. Only stuff on market needs alot of updating/repairs and is asking as if it didn’t. Then again, there are properties like 310 prospect street that need new roof+siding+ plumbing+electric+floors…

  108. A.West says:

    JJ,
    Good question on the down payment for the 1 to 2 mn house. I’ve got to assume it’s over 20%. I never really understood the rules for Jumbo mortgages. I wonder if people are buying 1mn+ homes with 5% down IOs these days. I doubt it but I cannot say. Traditionally people bought them with the equity they brought from their first home, and/or a large bonus.
    I assume you’re still not looking in NJ? Still have a daily commute to NYC?

  109. A.West says:

    Can’t bright engineers eventually try to invent their own stuff or start up a company?
    Can’t pharmacists eventually start up a meth lab or a new energy drink or something?
    I notice lots of my pharmacists these days are pimply girls from other countries (Asian). Is that just the trend in Green Brook, or all over?

  110. Juice Box says:

    JJ- My point was the government decided to step in starting in 2008 for a few years to prop up the jumbo markets keeping interest rates artificially low and now they are pulling out the rug somewhat. This should have a ripple in the million + market where the down payment is minimum 20% and 6 months cash reserves plus 720 FICO.
    ( Disclaimer, I am quoting what I have read from the big banks). This gave those willing to take on the Jumbo a very low rate, which should have shot up without government support since Jumbo default rates were very high over 11% in some areas.

    The FHA doc I posted the other day said somewhere between 6%-12% of mortgages in NY Metro would be affected by the lower limits come October.

    Will that translate into say a 10% price drop on a Million Dollar Condo or House?
    Will it overshoot?

    I think it would be be wise to wait until January to find out.

  111. chicagofinance says:

    Saw your man Chrebet checking out high end home theaters about 10 mins ago….

    JJ says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:31 pm

  112. JJ says:

    Where?

    chicagofinance says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:53 pm
    Saw your man Chrebet checking out high end home theaters about 10 mins ago….

    JJ says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:31 pm

  113. JJ says:

    I know enough about chemistry where I can turn whisky and beer into urine. In fact I am good at it and do it quite often.

    Kettle1^2 says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:33 pm
    JJ

    a few weeks backed you claimed you had an undergraduate degree in ChemE. so which is it?

  114. Everybody on WS also knows how to turn other people’s money into shit.

    Sort of reverse alchemy.

  115. Jets12 says:

    3b, not sure what you’re talking about – but regardless of the chant on this blog, like the founder of this blog, people are buying homes on a daily basis.

  116. chicagofinance says:

    By me…..

    JJ says:
    June 7, 2011 at 3:00 pm
    Where?

  117. chicagofinance says:

    People are getting kicked out of their homes too…what is your point?

    Jets12 says:
    June 7, 2011 at 3:23 pm
    3b, not sure what you’re talking about – but regardless of the chant on this blog, like the founder of this blog, people are buying homes on a daily basis.

  118. JJ says:

    Now that is the biggest bold face lie I have every heard. If it were true realtors would be much better looking and have nicer cars.

    Kettle1^2 says:
    June 7, 2011 at 2:33 pm
    JJ

    a few weeks backed you claimed you had an undergraduate degree in ChemE. so which is it?

  119. Jets12 says:

    116. My point is that lots of people are just like the founder of this blog. Rational and intelligent and are buying homes. If you read this blog, you would not think that’s the case and that anyone who buys are home is a fool.

  120. 3b says:

    #14 Yes they are, although few and far between;very little volume. Alhough they are not buying in RE. However, you are entitled to live in denial if you so chose to.

  121. 3b says:

    #118 Yes he did, buy a home. In a good area, with relatively low taxes. He did not buy in RE, nor did he make some outrageous claim that prices in the area that he bought in are up 26%. I ridicule you because of that comment, because if it is reflective of the delusion in RE, than that goes along way in explaining why things are such a mess there.

  122. Shore Guy says:

    Moose,

    The other thing that happens is calling people exempt when they are not.

  123. 3b says:

    #118 The only fool is the person who claimed prices were up 26% in a year. You should be embarrassed making that comment.

  124. Jets12 says:

    Okay, I read back. 3b is foolish and simply uninformed in not seeing the strength of River Edge by the purchase of that property, 28 Wayne, River Edge with an asking of $285K. That property needs $200K in work. It’s a near ‘tear down’, as some have said. The fact that a near tear down can command that price in less than 60 days is consistent with River Edge’s performance in this market, it does well.

    28 Wayne needs $60K-$75K in ‘repointing’ and repair on the outside, before you even enter the house. Anyone can see this in the photos. All that patch work you see in the photos? That was done wrong and has to be fixed along with all the current exterior that’s deteriorating. It’s a 1 bathroom house, and that is a 100% complete reno job. The bathroom at the upstairs is a toilet sitting there with no walls like the worse gas station you ever imagined. There is no floor upstairs. It needs all new windows and new window frames. It needs an electrical upgrade.

    I could go on and on and educate 3b as to the true condition of that property. 3b or anyone here can put up an email address, I would be glad to provide you private photos of the inside of that property that I have. Why? I have had repairs on that property quoted, I have been inside that property twice. 3b is a fool if he thinks that property at $285K and selling in less than 60 days shows River Edge’s weakness. The opposite is the truth.

    The fact that that near tear down sold in less than 60 days with an asking of $285K is unbelievable, in the context of the condition of that house, and speaks to the strength of that market. Again, it needs $200K plus in work.

  125. Jets12 says:

    I’m starting to believe 3b is one of these people that’s left out, can’t afford to buy in River Edge, and thus despises River Edge. Kind of like a guy that can’t get a date with a particular woman, so he downs her, etc.

  126. Libtard says:

    And people buying homes today, will have paid less than people who bought yesterday, but more than people buying tomorrow. Except in Utopia on the Hackensack.

  127. Painhrtz - Salmon of Doubt says:

    hey Jets12 you are by far the most delusional troll we have had in some time. At least the others had the good sense to leave when the truth became plainly obvious. No amount of psychobabble could define mentally unstable thinking about Brigadoon on Hackensack. Go hop on your unicorn, maybe you’ll gets some pixie dust under your pillow tonight

  128. Happy Renter says:

    [124] Jets12, people long ago came to the conclusion that you are one of the bagholders who bought in River Edge and are now trying to sell your house, so you come on here and hype up The Little Community That Could (TM) as if it were some fantasy-land unaffected by the housing bust. You claimed prices were up 26% y-o-y in River Edge, remember?

    I kinda thought you were coming back down to reality, but I guess you’ve been drinking the Hackensack punch again.

    Most people could care less about Brigadoon-on-Hackensack, but when you come on here and post nonsense about imaginary whacked-out price increases, the town becomes a piñata.

  129. implosion08 says:

    JJ 100- Ah, Long Island. The housing options are so poor/overpriced that they make NJ look like paradise. The asking prices absolutely boggle my mind. Want a house that should be knocked down? On a teeny piece of property? With exorbitant taxes? You’ve come to the right place.

    I’m not convinced that many properties over $800k are moving here and we can’t figure out the downpayment/mortgage issue either. But I don’t have MLS access to confirm any guesses.

    I personally am hopping homes fall another 5-10% at high end. I think they are still overpriced. I am still seeing run down pieces of garbage, in bad locations on bad plots with sky high taxes in my price range. Granted a million is not what it used to be but I don’t except it to be next to a bodego with piss rust on all the toliets either.

  130. gary says:

    Jets12,

    LMAO!!

  131. gary says:

    Lookey here! Sold for 770K in May, 2006. Current asking price: 689K. The town: brig on the hackey:

    http://www.trulia.com/property/1056278249–River-Edge-NJ-07661

  132. Nothing wrong with the Hackensack shores that a Dresden-style firebombing raid can’t cure.

  133. Juice Box says:

    Nice healthy Real Estate market right?

    Foreclosures approach 25% of the housing market: Zillow

    Tuesday, June 7th, 2011, 1:53 pm

    Sales of homes foreclosed on in the previous 12 months made up 24% of the market in April, up from 16% one year ago, according to data compiled by Zillow.

    It’s the 10th straight month of increases and yet another record high. There are still plenty of properties either in foreclosure or on the verge of it. Recent data puts the number of this shadow inventory at roughly 4.5 million.
    And as these properties take more and more of the market share away from new or traditional sales, losses continued.

    http://www.housingwire.com/2011/06/07/foreclosures-nearing-25-of-the-housing-market-zillow

  134. Juice Box says:

    Moose more BOA woes coming in Florida.

    The Florida Supreme Court may rule on banks capacity tomorrow to foreclose.

    http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/index.shtml

    Mortgage backed nothings….

    The Countrywide managers testified they did not deliver the mortgage notes to the trusts and they were/are sitting in some warehouse in California or went into the shredder when Countrywide imploded.

    I would think that everyone would agree that the purchasers of those trust securities have standing to sue their pants off and force put backs on the badly document loans. Once the loans are put back onto BOAs balance sheet they can file for lost notes and then foreclose, because only then would they actually have standing or capacity.

  135. JJ says:

    The founder of the blog sold out. Once he was fighting the man, now he is the man.

    Seriously, real estate is not an investment. It is consumption. Put it with leased cars, PSLs, Timeshares, 52 inch flatscreen tvs, jetskis, speedboats, Escalades etc. You bought it cause you want it or at best you were sick of renting. Or the neighborhood you wanted does not have good rentals or people shun you at cocktail parties if you are a renter.

    I bought my house in December 1999, pre-bubble. Add in transaction costs and all my repairs updates since December 1999 and I am dead even. I did not make a penny. Add in my property taxes, insurance and when I had a mortgage the mortgage interest and I am underwater by 130K. But I paid no rent for 12 years. AND I Bought pre-bubble. Neighbor next door paid around at the peak 340K more than me for same house and was rewarded with 2k a year taxes more than me as they assessed him higher. He put a noose around his neck for life. He forgot the first rule of investing you can’t sell at the top if you bought at the top.

    If hee put his 600K in long term treasuries back in 2006 he could of got 6%. That would be 36k a year for five years or 180K. Or he could have used the 3k a month to rent a place. Instead he is out 200K on house and paid 120K in RE taxes.

    That said you only live once and I may buy my dream house as I won’t live forever. But I won’t go around telling people it is an investment. It is not. About as much as an investment as home shopping network jewlery.

    Jets12 says:
    June 7, 2011 at 3:46 pm

    116. My point is that lots of people are just like the founder of this blog. Rational and intelligent and are buying homes. If you read this blog, you would not think that’s the case and that anyone who buys are home is a fool.

  136. JJ says:

    eriously, real estate is not an investment. It is consumption. Put it with leased cars, PSLs, Timeshares, 52 inch flatscreen tvs, jetskis, speedboats, Escalades etc. You bought it cause you want it or at best you were sick of renting. Or the neighborhood you wanted does not have good rentals or people shun you at cocktail parties if you are a renter.

    I bought my house in December 1999, pre-bubble. Add in transaction costs and all my repairs updates since December 1999 and I am dead even. I did not make a penny. Add in my property taxes, insurance and when I had a mortgage the mortgage interest and I am underwater by 130K. But I paid no rent for 12 years. AND I Bought pre-bubble. Neighbor next door paid around at the peak 340K more than me for same house and was rewarded with 2k a year taxes more than me as they assessed him higher. He put a noose around his neck for life. He forgot the first rule of investing you can’t sell at the top if you bought at the top.

    If hee put his 600K in long term treasuries back in 2006 he could of got 6%. That would be 36k a year for five years or 180K. Or he could have used the 3k a month to rent a place. Instead he is out 200K on house and paid 120K in RE taxes.

    That said you only live once and I may buy my dream house as I won’t live forever. But I won’t go around telling people it is an investment. It is not. About as much as an investment as home shopping network jewlery.

  137. JJ says:

    Bill Gross made one bad call on Treasuries.

    Juice Box says:
    June 7, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    Japan 2.0 here we come Bernake is calling for more Stimulus.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-07/bernanke-says-accommodative-policy-needed-for-uneven-economic-recovery.html

  138. JJ says:

    Boy rates are falling like a brick. ING Direct has one year cds at 3/4’s of one percent. And that is taxable interest. Ally Bank 1.25% one year CD ain’t going to last more than a day or two if Ben has his way.

    hard to imagine on January 15 of this year A rated muni bonds were paying 6% tax free. Even harder to imagine Junk Bonds are down 1,000 basis points in 24 months and hard to imagine 4.5% fixed rates mortgage and still no body wants a house.

  139. Kettle1^2 says:

    Juice 134

    how many of those homes have been resold in the interim and now have broken title chains or naked notes?

  140. Anon E. Moose says:

    Juice [134];

    You’ve got it just right, the people who gave money to BoA have a legitimate beef. The deadbeat homedebtors who borrowed money from BoA have no gripe whatsoever.

  141. 3b says:

    #131 gary: Keep up Buddy, just dropped to 589K!!!

  142. 3b says:

    #124 Oh you are really pathetic. I will fill you in at some point on the details, suffice to say I know all there is to know about the town, inside and out. I am not a recent homebuyer, like you who drank the kool aid. Oh and I got the girl and she is still hot, even better she has a brain.

  143. 3b says:

    #123 Are you the moron that bought it??? Some flipper probably bought it, and is going to do a quick home depot job on it, and try to sell it for 450K, which is not going happen. Becasue it will sit like the other flip/rehabs.

    Please don’t ty to do battle with me regarding RE. I know the town inside out. I am not a newbie like you. I will spell it out one more time for you. There is a record number of homes on the market in River Edge for this time of year. That is not my opinion, but rather a fact. That is not a positive sign, period. When houses continue to come on the market and the inventory backs up to the point where it is now, that grasshopper is a problem. If you chose to live in denial, well God Bless you.

    Again the reason I have such antipathy towards you, is because I believe it is clueless morons (up 26% in ayear) like you and others who have in no small part contributed to the mess that the town is now in. That of course is my opinion.

  144. chicagofinance says:

    River Edge is an obsolete term without meaning…please refrain from using it as it detracts from the points that you are positing.

  145. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Was reading a piece on Seeking Alpha http://seekingalpha.com/article/273783-fedspeak-derails-stock-rally as the title implies talk about BB’s speech numbers on various stocks, OK. Well read the comments ( I always do), never read this stuff on that site before WAR it’s coming & Blah blah this scenario , that one. We hashed this out like a year or 2 ago & most felt it was more than likely as I remember. Telling, it seems more & more are catching on to the end game. There will be war, when all of the other options fail the one that is left will happen however unpalatable.

  146. Al Mossberg says:

    145.

    Cant fight a land war in Asia but the US can get India and China to blow eachother to smitherings.

  147. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Al 146 sounds like a plan.

  148. Mikeinwaiting says:

    Al that would put us back in the manufacturing drivers seat, like I said sounds like a plan.

  149. Dink says:

    Happy Renter #64

    “enjoys a unique climate where it’s always Spring Selling Season”

    Great line. Well played.

  150. Kettle1^2 says:

    Miw

    it’s not the Chinese or Indians that are the problem. It’s the bankers of all nations. Perhaps we could agree to wipe out their bankers if they will handle ours….. A sort of next generation mutual aid pact. A few hundred well timed cruise missles sent in both directions could drastically reduce the global banker population in short order. Of course we may need to nuke the global banking centers and favorite banker playgrounds, just to be sure.

  151. Neanderthal Economist says:

    “The implication is not only will there be no change, but a third round of quantitative easing is not likely to come.”

    Juice Box says: June 7, 2011 at 4:58 pm Japan 2.0 here we come Bernake is calling for more Stimulus.

  152. Neanderthal Economist says:

    By the way, that human catepillar garbage is extremely disturbing.

  153. Neanderthal Economist says:

    Or human centipede, or whatever, thats one sick bstrd… I will not be seeing that movie.

  154. Neanderthal Economist says:

    Mike, Problem with war is we can’t take on whole world, only reason we benefited from war in 40’s was because we stayed out of it and let everyone destroy eachother.

  155. NJGator says:

    I heard the sequel is twice as bad!

  156. Kettle1^2 says:

    And to think that a surgeon consulted on rhe human centipede to make it as close to realistic/practical as possible in terms of the movie. Gotta put that medical education to work.

    How long before someone actually tries it?

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