Time to buy?

From Time:

Why Real Estate May Be The Buying Opportunity of the Decade

No one knows what the economy or the stock market will do over the next six months. But when your time horizon is 20 years, the outlook is actually a lot clearer. And right now, all the trends are lining up to make real estate a fantastic long-term buy.

Of course, if you look at recent real estate statistics, the picture is a total catastrophe. Home prices are down by a third, and the decline recently exceeded that of the Great Depression. Across the country, 2 million homes are in foreclosure and another 2 million are more than 90 days behind in their payments. The backlog of foreclosures could last two or three years.

Falling home prices plus the foreclosure backlog probably mean a flat-to-down market over the next couple of years. But beyond the current desolation, the outlook is exactly the opposite. In fact, three different trends are aligning that figure to produce a major home-price boom over the next 20 years.

The real estate market may not quite have bottomed out yet. And the boom I’m talking about will probably take more than a decade to unfold. It also may not apply as directly to real estate stocks. Home builders have more complex problems and real estate investment trusts often depend on commercial properties that are sensitive to business conditions. But the next two or three years should offer exceptional opportunities for buying actual real estate – primary residences and vacation homes – preferably somewhere that’s green.

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155 Responses to Time to buy?

  1. Essex says:

    Frist!

  2. Mike says:

    Good Morning New Jersey

  3. Mike says:

    I remember reading that same article back in 2006

  4. grim says:

    From Politico:

    Housing crisis back on President Obama’s agenda

    Suddenly, President Barack Obama is talking about housing again.

    At a Twitter town hall event last week, the president said he is directing his administration to redouble its efforts to help struggling homeowners.

    The progress made with the foreclosure crisis is “not enough,” Obama said. “And so we’re going back to the drawing board, talking to banks, try to put some pressure on them to work with people who have mortgages to see if we can make further adjustments.”

    The next day, his administration announced an initiative to give borrowers a minimum 12-month grace period if they default on their mortgages, a measure intended to help unemployed homeowners hang on to their houses.

    The renewed attention to the ongoing housing crisis reflects a sense of urgency that had been largely absent from Obama’s message in recent months, when he described the housing market as “tough” and an area of “concern” and counseled that “it just takes some time” for the policies his administration launched to provide some relief. Obama focused early in his presidency on the impact of the crisis on American families, but his economic message had shifted toward broader job creation initiatives, even as many of the housing problems remain.

    Some analysts have called for Obama to respond more forcefully.

    “From a policy standpoint, housing has been the least successful area of the president’s early economic program,” said William Galston, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration. “If I were sitting in the White House worrying about how current economic conditions are affecting everyday families, … I would be spending a lot more time on the housing issue, because not only is it proverbially at the heart of the American dream, but also it’s at the heart of family balance sheets.”

  5. Essex says:

    Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel.

  6. grim says:

    From the Record:

    Great Falls condos experiment ends in failure

    Workmen boarded up the shattered windows at The Vistas at Great Falls last week, ending a failed chapter in a well-publicized effort to attract residential development around one of Paterson’s most recognizable landmarks.

    The 10-unit condominium building was supposed to be the first of 12 such structures to be built at a cost of about $36 million along the edge of the cliffs when it opened in December 2008.

    They were billed as affordable housing for professionals who worked and lived near the city. With grants for first-time homebuyers, the units sold in the low $200,000 range.

    But the Vistas became a ghost town where thieves stole furniture from a rundown sales center and vandals smashed windows on all sides of the condo building.

    Signs advertising the property still stand at its entrance, off Jasper Street near Totowa Avenue. But a welcome mat that read “The Vistas” in front of the sales office was covered with pellets of broken glass. A strip of wooden molding had fallen off the front of the office.

    Mayor Jeffery Jones — who alluded to the Vistas site in his recent state of the city speech — said last week that the abandoned project was one that probably should never have been approved.

    “Without careful and articulate planning, that’s what you get,” Jones said. He said he would prefer to see the site turned into a state park and for a hotel to be built nearby. If the property were to become a state park adjacent to the new National Historic Park in the Falls District, the condos would likely be torn down, he acknowledged.

  7. freedy says:

    They should have tried that in Trenton

  8. grim says:

    From the WSJ:

    Mortgage Rates Are Great, If You Qualify

    With interest rates near rock bottom and home prices down, this ought to be a great time to buy a home. But for most people, it’s a lousy time to get a mortgage.

    Years after the collapse of the real-estate market and resulting financial crisis, it takes nearly pristine credit scores and hefty down payments to get the best rates.

    “Since 2009, credit has become a lot tighter,” says Greg Reiter, who follows mortgage-backed bonds at RBS Global Banking & Markets.

    For borrowers, this highlights the need to pay close attention to credit scores. New rules unveiled last week should make it easier for consumers to see how their credit scores affect the interest rates they pay. These rules, the result of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial-services legislation, require banks and other lenders to disclose to consumers the scores used to determine interest rates charged borrowers, or to deny credit.

    The new reality for borrowers can be seen in the FICO credit scores on the loans that banks are giving out and that are backed by government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These days the two agencies essentially finance 75% of all mortgages by purchasing the loans from the banks. In the process, they shape how much it costs to borrow.

    FICO scores range from 300 to 850. Pre-crisis, a score of 700 to 725 was deemed solid and a borrower could expect to get a “conventional” mortgage at the lowest rates.

    From 2003 through 2006, 82% of Fannie Mae mortgages were for borrowers with a score between 700 and 750, according to data compiled by RBS.

    But so far in 2011, only 13% of Fannie Mae mortgages carry that score, and just 1.7% have a score of 700 to 725, according to RBS. This year, 75% of Fannie Mae mortgages are for FICO scores of 750 to 775, up from less than 5% before 2005.

    Meanwhile, the median score is 711, according to FICO.

    “Half the population is locked out” from the best mortgages, says Mr. Reiter.

  9. grim says:

    Krugman comes out swinging:

    No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?

    If you were shocked by Friday’s job report, if you thought we were doing well and were taken aback by the bad news, you haven’t been paying attention. The fact is, the United States economy has been stuck in a rut for a year and a half.

    Yet a destructive passivity has overtaken our discourse. Turn on your TV and you’ll see some self-satisfied pundit declaring that nothing much can be done about the economy’s short-run problems (reminder: this “short run” is now in its fourth year), that we should focus on the long run instead.

    This gets things exactly wrong. The truth is that creating jobs in a depressed economy is something government could and should be doing. Yes, there are huge political obstacles to action — notably, the fact that the House is controlled by a party that benefits from the economy’s weakness. But political gridlock should not be conflated with economic reality.

    Our failure to create jobs is a choice, not a necessity — a choice rationalized by an ever-shifting set of excuses.

  10. Confused In NJ says:

    ..Geithner says hard times to continue for many

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT’-nur) says many Americans will face hard times for a long time to come.

    He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy. But Geithner says will be some time before many people feel like the country is recovering.

    Geithner tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it’s a very tough economy. He says that for a lot of people “it’s going to feel very hard, harder than anything they’ve experienced in their lifetime now, for a long time to come.”

  11. gary says:

    He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy.

    LMAO! It must be the current streak of weekend golf outings that did it. I think he’s at 14 weekends in a row and counting. Yes… We… Can.

  12. Stench of death pervasive now.

  13. Is there anyone outside NYC who pays one second of attention to anything Krugman says?

    God, I hope not.

  14. When did they change the rules so that only certified retards can win a Nobel?

  15. jamil says:

    From the WSJ

    A Home Is a Lousy Investment
    Today’s young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance.

    By ROBERT BRIDGES
    At the risk of heaping more misery on the struggling residential property market, an analysis of home-price and ownership data for the last 30 years in California—the Golden State with notoriously golden property prices—indicates that the average single family house has never been a particularly stellar investment.

    Between 1980 and 2010, the value of a median-price, single-family house in California rose by an average of 3.6% per year—to $296,820 from $99,550, according to data from the California Association of Realtors, Freddie Mac and the U.S. Census. Even if that house was sold at the most recent market peak in 2007, the average annual price growth was just 6.61%.

    Is it wise for coming generations to continue to view ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance? Young people planning for retirement increasingly face a choice between house payments and contributions to retirement accounts. They simply can’t afford both. With the specter of looming cuts in Social Security and other entitlement programs, or even possible systemic insolvency, the challenge for tomorrow’s retirees is income self-sufficiency.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576375323652341888.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0

  16. freedy says:

    Do not show the above article around River Edge. Its a high end Bergen County
    Town.

  17. Dissident HEHEHE says:

    “He says President Barack Obama rescued the United States from a second Great Depression and will keep working to strengthen the economy.”

    Sounds like Timmy G is a team player. Sounds like a nice soundbite for an opposing campaign add once the blood starts flowing in the streets. This country is so f*cked.

  18. freedy says:

    http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/nj_state_police_look_to_sell_a.html

    No problem, let the taxpayer pick up the tab. I’ve been wondering about this for years.
    Lots of waste

  19. gary says:

    “It’s baffling that the President and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

    It’s not baffling, this is be design.

  20. 2Cents says:

    markets are not equal & it’s silly & valueless to speak in monolithic language and declare points of doom & gloom, fitting for Detroit or Buffalo to Manhattan & NJ train points that connect therein. Interest rates cannot get lower and there are some great properties in Glen Rock, Millburn, Ridgewood, on and on, priced right under the current FHA cap enabling you to get in with 3% down and back load the majority of the price in these super low interest rates. Makes zero sense to burn cash up front when you can load the price into the lowest interest rates anyone alive’s ever seen. The negative naysayers? Well the joke is on them, as the owner and founder of this blog demonstrated when he saw the wisdom of buying now and did. Talk is cheap, action speaks louder than words, and this blog’s founder’s actions (his buying in home in this market) kind of says it all, no? Negative people, sit down, thank you!

  21. gary says:

    2cents,

    Should I frame my mortgage or just burn it? Whadda ya think?

  22. A.West says:

    Krugman is a true Keynesian and in their minds any problem in any economy is due to the government not borrowing and spending enough. I had a similar professor once, he inspired an essay I linked to a month back. He claimed that Japan’s economic problems were due to “timid” policy responses. All they can see is “insufficient demand,” and imagine that the government could always fix it if it would just spend more.

  23. gary says:

    Still a terrible time to buy… another leg down currently under way. It’s not about the interest rate, it’s about price… price… price. Don’t let the starving useless house tour guides and the underwater wannabes tell you otherwise.

    tick… tick… tick… tick…

  24. jamil says:

    From the WSJ

    Taxes Upon Taxes Upon . . .

    Obama wants $1 trillion in taxes on top of what he’s already signed..
    So the fondest Washington hopes for a grand debt-limit deal have broken down over taxes. House Speaker John Boehner said late Saturday that he couldn’t move ahead with a $4 trillion deal because President Obama was insisting on a $1 trillion tax increase, and the White House quickly denounced House Republicans for scuttling debt reduction and preventing “the very wealthiest and special interests from paying their fair share.”

    How dare Republicans not agree to break their campaign promises and raise taxes when the jobless rate is 9.2% and President Obama’s economic recovery is in jeopardy?

    We think Mr. Boehner is making the sensible choice. No one wants to reform the tax code more than we do, but passing a $1 trillion tax increase first on the promise of tax reform later is a political trap. If the President were really sincere about reform and a willingness to keep the top tax rate at or below 35%, he’d negotiate that at the same time he does a debt deal. Mr. Boehner will have a hard enough time getting any debt-limit increase through the House, much less one that raises tax rates.

    Keep in mind that Mr. Obama has already signed the largest tax increase since 1993. While everyone focuses on the Bush tax rates that expire after 2012, other tax increases are already set to hit the economy thanks to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As a refresher, here’s a non-exhaustive list of ObamaCare’s tax increases:

    • Starting in 2013, the bill adds an additional 0.9% to the 2.9% Medicare tax for singles who earn more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

    • For first time, the bill also applies Medicare’s 2.9% payroll tax rate to investment income, including dividends, interest income and capital gains. Added to the 0.9% payroll surcharge, that means a 3.8-percentage point tax hike on “the rich.” Oh, and these new taxes aren’t indexed for inflation, so many middle-class families will soon be considered rich and pay the surcharge as their incomes rise past $250,000 due to tax-bracket creep. Remember how the Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to apply only to a handful of millionaires?

    Taxpayer cost over 10 years: $210 billion.

    • Also starting in 2013 is a 2.3% excise tax on medical device manufacturers and importers. That’s estimated to raise $20 billion.

    • Already underway this year is the new annual fee on “branded” drug makers and importers, which will raise $27 billion.

    • Another $15.2 billion will come from raising the floor on allowable medical deductions to 10% of adjusted gross income from 7.5%.

    • Starting in 2018, the bill imposes a whopping 40% “excise tax” on high-cost health insurance plans. Though it only applies to two years in the 2010-2019 window of ObamaCare’s original budget score, this tax would still raise $32 billion—and much more in future years.

    • And don’t forget a new annual fee on health insurance providers starting in 2014 and estimated to raise $60 billion. This tax, like many others on this list, will be passed along to consumers in higher health-care costs.

    There are numerous other new taxes in the bill, all adding up to some $438 billion in new revenue over 10 years. But even that is understated because by 2019 the annual revenue increase is nearly $90 billion, or $900 billion in the 10 years after that. Yet Mr. Obama wants to add another $1 trillion in new taxes on top of this.

    The economic ironies are also, well, rich. Mr. Obama is now pushing to reduce the payroll tax by two-percentage points for another year to boost the economy, but he’s already built in a big increase in that same payroll tax for 2013. So if a payroll tax cut creates jobs this year, why doesn’t a payroll tax increase destroy jobs after 2013?

    Mr. Obama is also touting spending cuts he’s willing to make in entitlements in return for bigger tax increases, yet the spending increases built into ObamaCare aren’t even up for discussion in the debt-limit talks. The Affordable Care Act adds more than 30 million more Americans onto Medicaid’s rolls, when that program is already growing by 6.5% this year. So Mr. Obama is willing to cut current entitlements on grounds that they are unaffordable, but he’s taken what may be the most expensive entitlement off the table.

    We think this was the President’s spend-and-tax plan from the very first. Run up spending and debt in the name of stimulus and health-care reform, then count on Wall Street bond holders and the political establishment to browbeat Republicans into paying for it all. He apparently didn’t figure on the rise of the tea party, or 1.9% GDP growth and 9.2% unemployment two years after the recession ended.

    Last November Republicans won the House and landslide gains in many states in large part because of the deep unpopularity of the stimulus and ObamaCare. Mr. Boehner has a mandate for spending cuts and repealing the Affordable Care Act. If Republicans instead agree to raise taxes in return for future spending cuts that may or may not happen, they will simply be the tax collectors for Mr. Obama’s much expanded entitlement society.

  25. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    The illiquid nature of homes and the fact selling or borrowing against to get your cash is quite expensive make it a bad deal, let alone lost opportunity cost and upkeep.

    I would say that someone who bought a 200K home with 20K down, if they skipped the home and put the 20K in the stock market, reinvested dividends even if they never put another nickle in stock market they would be way ahead.

    Homes also match one magic thing that Suzie Orman preaches, compounding, it pays no interest or dividends. You have to take your own money out of bank to pay down principal and pray for appreciation. If times are tight with stocks, you can stop contributing, or ask for dividends to be paid out or sell some. With a home it is all or nothing.

    The longer I go with no mortgage, three years now. The more I realize how bad a home is as an investment.

    A Home Is a Lousy Investment
    Today’s young people would be foolish to imitate their parents and view ownership as the cornerstone of personal finance.

  26. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    HOVNANIAN K ENTERPRISES INC 8.62500% 01/15/2017SR NT
    Basic Analytics
    Price (Ask) 66.000
    Yield to Worst (Ask) 18.805%
    Yield to Maturity 18.804868%

    Judging from the yield on the senior bond of Hovnanian now must be a great time to buy!

  27. freedy says:

    How long before HOV files a BK? start the pool

  28. 3B says:

    preferably somewhere that’s green,and does not have 12k a year in property taxes for a 3 bed crap shack.

  29. Mike says:

    JJ 26 Rated caa2 by Moody’s, you need a cast iron stomach to purchase this. That 18% is tempting though

  30. 3B says:

    #8 I wonder type of scores FHA mtg’s are being approved at?

  31. 3B says:

    #15/16 ironic I have had that very same conversation with several people in RE over the last few years. They would get uncomfortable, or just give me the blink of the eyes with no response.

  32. 3B says:

    #20 2cents/jets12. Yes but he did not bu in River Edge one of the highest taxed towns in Bergen County. Amazing to me that you re advocating that people go out with almost no money down and leverage themselves to the max to buy a house. I cannot believe you are calling for a return to the very same behavior that created the housing bubble and collapse in the first place. But than again perhaps I should not be surprised, after all you are a resident of the land of Unicorns where the housing riches dream dies hard.

  33. Shore Guy says:

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/07/11/authorities-investigate-stun-gun-found-on-jet-blue-plane/

    Never, never, never forget that most of what the TSA does is for show — demonstrating vigilance (not so much being vigilant) in the interest of making people feel it is safe to fly. There are a number of ways — well known to DHS, and some of these have been tabletopped — by which a moderately bright (well, not frigg’in’ stupid) terrorist can destroy an aircraft with no possibility of being stopped by the USG. Some of these ways will result in the closing of the national air space. Remember the disruptions caused on and after 9-11 when we closed the NAS for a few days? The current dog-and-pony show is what we got as a way of deceriving the public that we can in fact prevent a determined terrorist or group of terrorists from grounding the nation’s airlines. Next time, don’t be surprised if there is nothing the TSA can do to make people feel safe and cause them to resume flying, at least not in a span measured in months.

    So, take off your shoes, because a dolt failed in his attempt to ignite a bomb that eluded security, remove your jackets, because competent terrorists used vests to elude security and bring down a plane, dump your water bottles and only carry aboard tiny toothpaste, because marginally-competent terrorists constructed h2o2 bombs, make 95-year-old grandmothers remove their adult diapers and let federal officials feel-up the crotches of little children, because another incopetent terrorist attempted to ignite an underwear bomb in his seat, and arrest or harasss law-abiding citizens who raise objections to these actions because standing up for constitutional rights is now seen as evidence of hostile intent, and on, and on, ad nauseum.

    With each mode of attack we fail to properly defend against, the DHS imposes ever-more-intrusive searches of law-abiding people, without a real prayer of actually stopping the next attack. so, next time the TSA screeners have you remove your belt and roll down your waist band and start running their hands all over your person, feel vindicated in any outrage you may feel because it is for naught, and is more a show for the others in line than it is a real exercise in protecting air assets or passengers.

  34. 2Cents says:

    23, Gary – you’ve not supported why “It’s a terribly time to buy”. All you do is talk with no substance. No one disputes i rates cannot get lower. It’s a fact FHA is about to lower the limits in October and the $700K property will now cost you 3 times at minimum up front cash (10%). 2002 price points are out there all over the place.

    All you people do is gloom and doom ‘talk’, which is very cheap!. Here’s a great example of how and why it’s a great time to buy and what you negative fools HATE. Look at this house.

    $299K, FABULOUS Finishes, Large, 5 Minute walk to NJ Transit and a 32 Minute (no transfer) commute to Manhattan. South Orange is a nice place to live.

    http://www.trulia.com/property/1072323093-529-Scotland-Rd-South-Orange-NJ-07079

    This crowd of losers focuses on the $14K annual taxes, right? The fact is anywhere you go the taxes are going to be $8K-10K and you won’t get this property’s excellent location for the person that works in Manhattan. Also, Few of you reading this have homes with this quality and measure of ‘finishes’. Do any of you have any real world idea of the time and money it takes to get a kitchen to that level? How about the bathroom? I don’t think so.

    1) Most $299K homes NEED $100K+ in renovations to get to close to this listing.
    2) Those homes don’t have this homes proximity to a direct train to Manhattan.
    3) South Orange has nice parks & culture
    4) Who cares if you have to pay $3K or $4K more a year in property taxes if you don’t have to put $100K immediately into the home in renovations?
    5) What’s a 5 Minute Walk to the Train worth to ya? Versus a 10 or 15 minute commute in a car? And what does that 10 or 15 minute drive actually cost you over the course of the year?

    Always amusing to see people on this board try and ‘blur’ and ‘diminish’ the value of a home. People here equate particle board and formica with granite for example. They don’t speak in language mindful some of us have kids and want decent schools and parks (like So. Orange has). Some people like ‘QUALITY’ in their living space. It’s a great time to buy and there is no better $299K house in all of New Jersey than that listing above, no $299K house with this proximity to a train station in decent town, – and it’s a real deal at $299K even with those property taxes.

  35. Shore Guy says:

    Is it 2cents or no sense? I vote for the latter. This fet-ish the poster has for pointing out that certain people have purchased homes in the current environment focuses on a narrow specific and ignores the general condition of RE in this area. Yes, No Sense, there are in fact individual instances where it makes sense for a given person to buy a given property at a given time; that said, just because one finds such a property, it does not mean that the specifics of that deal prove the general propisition that “it is a great time to buy.”

    Put another way, Stu may (or may not have, I have no idea) have found that last evening was an excellent time to slip into a bathtub with Gator and play rub-a-dub. But, just because he did, it does not mean that it was a good time for Nom to do the same or for Stuy to go over and try to play the same game with sl. Nor because Stu found (assuming arguendo that he did so) last night a good time to frolic in the bath with his beloved does not mean that Little Gator should have invited a neighbor over to do the same. Enough already with your over-simplified analysis and generalizations.

    If one finds a good deal in the current market, by all means, go ahead and buy; however, just because someone else finds a good deal does not mean that every property offered for sale is also a good deal.

  36. Shore Guy says:

    “i rates”

    Is that what one pays on an iPhone?

  37. Shore Guy says:

    “and it’s a real deal at $299K even with those property taxes.”

    Okay, that is one house out of what number being offered for sale? That home may well be a screaming deal and, if so, soimeone will snatch it up, probably before the end of today. The problem is that a large, and I would assert, overwhelming percentage of homes are priced in ways that indicate either a profound disconnect from reality or a very active imagination. Hey, a tricked out Lexus may be a screaming deal at $60,000, wheras a broken down Yugo may be a looser of a car at $500. Likewise, that screaming Lexus deal — same car, same buyer, and same seller –is not a deal at $100,000.

  38. 3B says:

    #35 You quote a 14K annual tax bill, and than state that anywhere you go, you will pay 8 to 10K in taxes. Well clueless there is a big difference between 8 to 10k, and 14K. Of course 14k will be the norm in another year or 2 in River Edge, but according to you it does not matter. (The current level of inventory indicates otherwise). And who wants to spend 700k or more on a House in West Orange, or River Edge, or anywhere for that matter? I hope you are enjoying that ball and chain around your neck.

  39. 3B says:

    #36 Shore: He/She is from River Edge sadly it is indicative of the mind set group think in the town. Around 8 or 9 years, the conervative cautious nature of the town that gave it good schools, a budget surplus, and good services, was hijacked and taken over a by a spend till we drop group, and they did, and ruined the town.

  40. Shore Guy says:

    “This crowd of losers”

    Yes, I admit it, Mrs. Shore and I are losers. We are debt free and have a seven-figure net worth but, clearly, we are losers. Of course living in a paid-off house in what is independently judged to be one of the finest municipalities in the entier country also marks us as losers, as does socking away six figures each year. Clearly, it is in our best intertest to defer to your superior economic prowess.

    I must admit, No Sense, that we are losers for choosing to not over pay for additional homes and property because others, many of which are overlevereged, have chosen to rush like lemmings into purchasing. We look at a property that was worth $300m and which rose to $700k and has now fallen in price to $500m as $150-200m overpriced, not as “on sale” for $200m off the original price. If you see things differently, so be it and good luck spending your money. I for one grew up too poor to squander money on things that do not provide me with what I see as value.

  41. Simply Ravishing HEHEHE says:

    Re Muni Bonds

    “Moody’s says that for every issue they upgraded during the first quarter they downgraded three. “

  42. vb says:

    It seems there is a good chance 50k sft Berkeley aquatic center is moving right in front of new pulte homeson hillcrest(Warren)
    Some say this is good because of swimming pool access others see it as a resale issue. What are your thoughts?
    Thanks!

  43. gary says:

    2cents,

    tick… tick… tick… tick…

  44. gary says:

    2cents = Sue Adler

  45. Shore Guy says:

    During the Cold War, there were many instances of people selling-out their country for paltry sums of money. Here, in another context, is another example. One wonders what kind of cooperation $10,000 might gain, say from a $10/hr. airport security person:

    http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/bbc–tabloids-pay-to-protective-service-put-royal-familys-security-at-risk/1

    snip

    “BBC business editor Robert Peston says emails uncovered in 2007 by News International, the parent company of the now defunct tabloid News of the World, contain evidence that a reporter paid the equivalent of $1,600 dollars to police officers in the royal protection branch for information and phone details of the British royal family.”

    snip

  46. ruggles says:

    Regarding the house in South Orange, it appears to be located one house from the Orange border where the run down apartment complexes start. Anyone who rides the train (or knows the area even a little) knows that everything changes right after Mountain Station and this house is after Mountain Station. The only thing worse in South Orange would be living behind Seton Hall on the Irvington border.

  47. Shore Guy says:

    “for every issue they upgraded during the first quarter they downgraded three”

    Oh, goody! This clearly, so very clearly — using the rationale of No Sense — that this is a great time for municipal debt as some bonds have been upgraded.

  48. Shore Guy says:

    Hey, can someone have “Loser” tee-shirts printed up for those of us here who are solvent?

  49. gary says:

    South Orange: Surrounded by Irvington, East Orange, Newark and Union. Yeah, let me get my f*cking checkbook! LMAO!

  50. gary says:

    It’s only a flesh wound! LOL!

  51. 3B says:

    #47 But, but, but, 2cents/Jets12 says it is a screaming value in the entire state of NJ.

  52. Shore Guy says:

    “During an Assembly hearing this year, Dow said she was worried that, considering the economy, the state would not get $3.5 million each. But she again budgeted $7 million in sales, which again would go toward State Police salaries.

    “Lee Moore, a spokesman for Dow, said there is no indication the helicopters cannot be sold this fiscal year. But he said the department is unsure how much money the sales could raise.”

    I think we should sell them to the FED or the ECB, they seem to be willing to give top dollar for any old asset

  53. Shore Guy says:

    Fed, even

  54. 3B says:

    #44gary: It is amazing this 2cents/jets 12 man/woman continues to come here and make a fool of themselves. I guess I have to admire their tenacity, or is it stupidity.

    Remember this is the same personwho said prices in RE were up 26% from last year. They probbaly consider themselves a town expert too.

  55. Shore Guy says:

    Now for something completely different:

    http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/07/06/rhonda-hollander-pictures_n_891565.html#s297062&title=Mug_Shot_Handy

    Rhonda Hollander, Florida Traffic Magistrate, Busted For Taking Pictures Of Men In Court Bathroom
    snip
    Using a cellphone camera, Rhonda Hollander snapped a photo of a man getting ready to use a urinal at the West Regional Courthouse in Plantation on June 30, then took a second image of another man entering the restroom, according to a police report obtained by The Sun-Sentinel.

    A female deputy reportedly confronted the 47-year-old suspect in a judge’s chamber and asked her to turn over the photo of the man at the urinal.

    But according to documents obtained by NBC Miami, Hollander refused, claiming she took the image in a “public restroom and that she was not breaking any kind of laws.”

    While being escorted out of the court, Hollander purportedly continued taking pictures of the man she photographed at the urinal — then trained her lens on the deputy.

    The deputy pointed her finger at the suspect and told her to stop snapping photos. But the suspect allegedly responded by attempting to bite the officer’s digit.

    snip

  56. Shore Guy says:

    Were the days of Theorodic like this in Rome?

    http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/07/07/700-pound-woman-makes-a-career-out-of-eating-a-lot/

    Donna Simpson, a single mom in New Jersey, weighs 700 pounds and is trying to gain an additional 300 pounds so that she can claim and hold the Guinness World Records’ title of World’s Most Obese Woman. She says that she couldn’t do it without the help of her 4-year-old daughter, who shops with her, helps her prepare food, and feeds her so that she can pile on additional pounds.

    Hiring Now

    Search All Job Listings

    New York Jobs

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    How does someone who relies on a 4-year-old and a reinforced scooter to get around make a living? Online, of course. Simpson pays for her $580-to-$750 per week eating habit plus other expenses by, basically, being overweight. She has a website, OfficialDonnaSimpson.com, geared toward “fat admirers,” where people pay to see her eat and flaunt her flab.

    She claims that she has 7,000 paying fans, and makes nearly $100,000 annually from the site, according to the Daily Mail. A three-day membership to her site goes for $7.95, and a one-month membership costs $19.95. For that you get to see videos like “Squashing,” “Blue Dress” and “Eating a Pie” plus access to more than 270 photos. She believes the record she holds as Heaviest Woman to Give Birth sets her apart from other big women with similar sites.

    snip

  57. Juice Box says:

    re # 35 – No Cents – “No one disputes i rates cannot get lower. It’s a fact FHA is about to lower the limits in October and the $700K property will now cost you 3 times at minimum up front cash (10%). 2002 price points are out there all over the place. ”

    Wanna bet that the buyers won’t be putting down bigger down payments and the sellers will have to capitulate on price?

    FYI I have posted extensively here about the number of Mortgages that fall into this FHA single family loan limit change coming Oct 1 2011. In Bergen County it is peanuts.

    It would have only have effected 3% of 29k loans issued in NJ last year. In NY it was 2% of 39k loans. CT was 8% of 12k loans.

    Table 2 page 20

    http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=fhaloanlmhera.pdf

    No go back and get some spare change and stop harping on the FHA. It does not drive the markets it is too small of a percentage There are plenty of qualified buyers sitting on the sidelines and you cannot change the perception that the prices will continue to drop so just eat it already.

  58. Shore Guy says:

    “No one disputes i rates cannot get lower”

    Interest rates mean little to the best-qualified buyers, and mean the most to those who are less economically secure and are in greater risk of default due to economic disruption.

  59. Shore Guy says:

    Leverage away folks, I need to go pay the tax beast.

  60. Fabius Maximus says:

    #24 Jamil
    ” If the President were really sincere about reform and a willingness to keep the top tax rate at or below 35%, he’d negotiate that at the same time he does a debt deal. Mr. Boehner will have a hard enough time getting any debt-limit increase through the House, much less one that raises tax rates.”

    Heathcare reform springs to mind here. How long before the GOP come out with their Stop, Scrap and Start over nonsense again. They are going to get burnt badly on this.

  61. Fabius Maximus says:

    #36 Shore

    Socially Inappropiate Post of the Day.

    I think you need to get out more!

  62. 3B says:

    #59 Please be advised that none of what you say is applicable to RE.

  63. Anon E. Moose says:

    Gary [45];

    More likey, one of the “Spear” girls talking their own book.

    “Spear” — very curious name for this pair. Why do I doubt that anything resembling a spear might come ebtween them?

  64. Al Mossberg says:

    Looks ugly out there. I like to congratulate Italy’s enterance into the maelstrom.

  65. jamil says:

    46 keith:
    “BBC business editor Robert Peston says emails uncovered in 2007 by News International, the parent company of the now defunct tabloid News of the World, contain ”

    New York Times is doing this all the time, e.g. bribing some DOJ/DoD official and then publishing secret government details. People get killed because of this.
    Every leftist media apparatus is doing this also to Joe the Plumber if Joe happens to question dear leader. With the ObamaCare, next time Joe questions Dear Leader, his medical details will be all over media too.

    But of course, there is nothing wrong with state media in the US /sarc

  66. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    I, for one, think 2cents is absolutely correct and has a keen intellect and sense for value.

    In fact, I think 2cents should demonstrate this by buying my house in Brigadoon for 850K, a bargain considering the improvements I made and the obvious investment potential for a decent Brigadoon home on a deep lot within a few hundreds yards of the best school in the district. In fact, I won’t be making any money to speak of here, so 2cents would be getting a helluva deal.

    2cents–lets cut out the 6% salesflack. email me at nomdeplumenj@gmail.com to see this Brigadoon gem for yourself.

  67. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    what exactly is a “7 figure net worth”?

    I know in asset wealth management lingo they only count liquid assets, no house, no cars, no 401Ks, no IRAs, no annuities, no deferred comp, no unvested stock, no 529 plans.

    Just liquid and easily tradeable fully paid for stocks, bonds, CDs or Cash. If you have a 7 figure net worth in that you are a real millionaire. Just stuff you can click and sell in which you already paid the tax on.

    Not like we have 400K in the 401ks, 400K equity in home, 160 in unvested stock options and 30K worth of cars in driveway and 10K in bank and WOW I am a millionaire. When really you are a 10Konaire.

    Shore Guy says:
    July 11, 2011 at 9:34 am

    “This crowd of losers”

    Yes, I admit it, Mrs. Shore and I are losers. We are debt free and have a seven-figure net worth but, clearly, we are losers. Of course living in a paid-off house in what is independently judged to be one of the finest municipalities in the entier country also marks us as losers, as does socking away six figures each year. Clearly, it is in our best intertest to defer to your superior economic prowess.

    I must admit, No Sense, that we are losers for choosing to not over pay for additional homes and property because others, many of which are overlevereged, have chosen to rush like lemmings into purchasing. We look at a property that was worth $300m and which rose to $700k and has now fallen in price to $500m as $150-200m overpriced, not as “on sale” for $200m off the original price. If you see things differently, so be it and good luck spending your money. I for one grew up too poor to squander money on things that do not provide me with what I see as value.

  68. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [13] hobo,

    Some of my far left friends in the Peoples Republic of Mass. think Krugman is a genius. They are also unemployed, mostly unskilled, divorced, and proud of the fact that they are fat drunks.

    [14] hobo,

    Remember, they gave a Nobel Prize to Obama because of hope. ‘Nuff said.

  69. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    Big deal. Didn’t Moody’s rate subprime MBS triple AAA. Back in January an AA bond was trading like a BBB bond during the craziness. Now the AA bond is still AA but on negative credit watch. Moodys calls it a downgrade. But really. A bond that was 102 in October 2010, bought in January 2011 for 88 that is now 100 is a good deal.

    Simply Ravishing HEHEHE says:
    July 11, 2011 at 9:36 am

    Re Muni Bonds

    “Moody’s says that for every issue they upgraded during the first quarter they downgraded three. “

  70. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [69] JJ

    I hope you are recognizing and paying estimated taxes on all that income you receive for letting people see your prodigious gent1talia. Think of what that would do for the deficit.

  71. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [36] shore,

    little bit skeeved over here, thanks.

  72. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    If I am paying income tax the person receiving the service should pay sales taxes.

    Comrade Nom Deplume says:
    July 11, 2011 at 11:13 am

    [69] JJ

    I hope you are recognizing and paying estimated taxes on all that income you receive for letting people see your prodigious gent1talia. Think of what that would do for the deficit.

  73. Comrade Nom Deplume says:

    [75] JJ

    I may be able to argue for an exemption.

  74. Juice Box says:

    re: #77 – Bunch of hedge funds are making a killing again right now playing the TBTF card, in this case TBTF is the EU itself.

  75. Al Mossberg says:

    Barry Soetoro wants to make sure Sallie Mae and Medicare are paid for.

    Sallie Mae + Higher education cartel = Debt slavery for the young.

    Medicare is a joke.

  76. Al Mossberg says:

    JP Morgan working hard keeping gold and silver down. Keep issuing unbacked paper fellas. That RICO lawsuit is coming.

  77. gary (19)-

    Too bad you’re one of the few anywhere who understands that the gubmint is actively waging war against its own people…and, the segments of the population targeted are small/middle sized businesses and middle class people who just get up and go to work every day.

  78. Oops…forgot to include children in that group.

  79. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    small business, do they even pay taxes?

  80. homeboken says:

    2cents – that south orange house is now in my bookmarks, let’s check in once a week and see what a deal the sellers get on that flip.

    An investment group paid 225k for it a few years back, dropped in 30-40k in improvements and put it on the market 81 days ago for $399k.

    Three months, and $100,000 later, it still sits. Let’s see if the investors get their money back, I peg their breakeven at 250-260k.

  81. shore (34)-

    I have long felt one of the goals of TPTB is to use the threat of terror to trap people in their towns, neighborhoods, then finally, their homes.

  82. jamil says:

    Fabius,
    remember, without Porkulus and increase in Debt Ceiling (which, according to Senator Hussein in 2006, was failure in leadership) this sort of things would not be possible anymore. Think of the children!

    “The Omaha Public Schools used more than $130,000 in federal stimulus dollars to buy each teacher, administrator and staff member a manual on how to become more culturally sensitive. The book by Virginia education consultants could raise some eyebrows with its viewpoints. The authors assert that American government and institutions create advantages that “channel wealth and power to white people,” that color-blindness will not end racism and that educators should “take action for social justice.” The book says that teachers should acknowledge historical systemic oppression in schools, including racism, se-xism, homop-hobia and “ableism,” defined by the authors as discrimination or”

  83. vb (43)-

    Judging from the posts of yours I’ve read here, you are either a troll or have no feel for real estate whatsoever. Do yourself a favor, and re-up the lease wherever you are now.

  84. Anon E. Moose says:

    AH [77];

    Reminds me of this movie:

    I consolidated your outstanding debt… got a real sweet deal, too. Cents on the dollar. There’s not a lot of faith in you out there in the business community.

  85. 3B says:

    #84 In addition to myself and Juice, you re also now on 2 cents/jets 12 krap list. In fact with this information you may be in first place.

  86. boken (84)-

    I’m amazed that residential RE “investor groups” still exist. However, it sounds like their ranks in NJ are about to be thinned by at least one group.

  87. My first wave of short sales back in the day were primarily the primary residences of “real estate investors”.

  88. Orion says:

    An astounding revelation by Timmy yesterday on Meet the Press: The US currently borrows 40cents for every dollar it spends. Think about that, if one has to borrow $40.00 to pay off your $100.00 credit card bill, one is truly fckd.

  89. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    Refer to MLS Number 2385966
    1692 Private Ln
    LAUREL HOLLOW, NY 11791
    List Price: $1,099,900

    This REO is one of my favorite. The prior owner had it as his primary residence and lost it. What does the prior owner do for a living? He is a real estate attorney who gives “how to make money in real estate seminars” for a living. It doesn’t get better than that. He still gives the seminars. Luckily a sucker is born every minute.

  90. jj (93)-

    I think the rate of sucker creation has declined markedly in recent years.

  91. A.West says:

    vb (43),
    Should be great if you love the sound of screaming kids, and traffic noise from 78. Looks like one of the worst locations and among the smallest new houses being built in Warren. Aren’t there plenty of 4/2.5 houses in better locations of Warren?

  92. Anon E. Moose says:

    Orion [92];

    40¢ of every dollar spent is borrowed. How much of that spending is service of existing debt? I think the right analogy is that we’re borrowing enough to pay the minimums on our existing credit cards. NG

  93. 3B says:

    #94 Did you run that by 2 cents???

  94. A.West says:

    Hobo,
    I don’t think that the rate of sucker creation has declined markedly. In the private sector, the spending power of suckers has been diminished, but suckers in the public sector are on a spree.

    The whole concept of “sucker” takes on a new meaning when one realizes that the majority of humanity is flat out wrong and actively self-deluded about the biggest questions relating to human life. Fortunately for them, most are able to compartmentalize.

  95. make money says:

    Juice (77),

    Are you saying that we should buy some greek paper and that it will pay 100 cents on the dollar with a cool 31% yield because EU is TBTF????

  96. Juice Box says:

    re # 99 – Make – sovereign basis trade take a look at the playas. First they bought (created) the CDS market in 2009-2010, now they are mopping up buying up the bonds. I would not be surprised if they were donating the tear gas to the Greek police as well.

  97. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    for someone big on TBTF in the USA I am not keen on the Greeks, famous for borrowing from you, then offering to pay back at 80 cents on dollar a year late and then a year later they stiff you.

  98. 3B says:

    #98 I am not so sure. I have been at several social functions lately, and no one talks about real estate any more; in fact the topice is avoided now. So as far as real estate that madness appears to be over.

  99. make money says:

    Proof? How do you knowthat “players” are loading up on bonds? Bill and Mohammed are running in another direction, I hear.

  100. JJ - AKA Two Hands says:

    Hedge funds are loading on bonds. Banks are being forced to take a “voluntary” haircut so they don’t get a default. hedgies could care less how they look so they can decline the “voluntary” offer and get par.

  101. Anon E. Moose says:

    JJ [104];

    The Greeks probably don’t care about their reputation with the community any more than the Hedgies do. So in the event of a defualt, if reputation is merely the carrot, what’s the stick? Can I own the Acropolis?

  102. Ponderer says:

    Like to ask the esteemed panel – any thoughts or guidance these towns: Montvale, Woodcliff Lake, Allendale, Saddle River, USR – or other towns in the vicinity? I have a pre-K and two middle school’ish children and looking to set anchor for a while. Perhaps looking to rent for a year or so till we get to know where in town to buy. Commuting is not an issue.

    I would appreciate the panel sharing the wisdom that I have followed here for years (which saved me parting with roughly $500K+ in the last four years).

  103. Simply Ravishing HEHEHE says:

    Another miracle close?

  104. cobbler says:

    vb [43]
    I don’t think the aquatic center is relevant to RE values except that an Olympic-size pool requires a rather large building which likely will not be an architectural gem. It’s an indoor pool so no issues with kids’ noise or crowds (their current parking lot is for about 40 cars only, and it’s not a recreational facility); I don’t know how loud the ventilation system for the pool building is. All this said, I don’t believe buying in this development is a smart idea: 200 yards from I-78, 3-mile hike without a sidewalk to the store or train/bus if your car somehow breaks down, not sure if Pulte be around in a couple of years to honor the builders’ warranty…

  105. Dan says:

    3) South Orange has nice parks & culture

    Oh my god, how did I forget to include South Orange in my recent home search for the last year!!!!!!!!!

    Oh yeah, the crack houses and the shootings. I’ll pass on the culture.

  106. Dan says:

    Of course South Orange is a great place to live. I mean, every third year no one is murdered………..

    http://www.idcide.com/citydata/nj/south-orange.htm

  107. Kettle1^2 says:

    Shore,

    What i dont get is that your telling me that those who would want to strike against the US domestically dont have a few EE’s of grad level Phys students? it would only take one or two who then pass the knowledge to those who take the action.

    Anyone at those levels with that degree of knowledge shouldn’t have a problem coming up with a productive avenue of “action” with a little creative thinking.

    I am honestly surprised at the lack of strikes against the US. While i am sure the various 3 letter agencies work very hard to prevent such actions, a single or very small group of individuals that are tech savvy and willing to die in the process would be a challenge at best to detect and stop.

    I guess the whole dumbing down thing has hit the entire world, not just the US.

  108. Kettle1^2 says:

    EE’s OR grad level Phys students?

  109. Sarah R. says:

    Dan(111)

    Good one!

  110. vodka (112)-

    All it takes is a motivated nutcase like McVeigh.

    The real problem is that TPTB are turning their heavy guns toward people like me who are not nuts and just happen to have figured out the scam. The fact that I won’t sit by with my mouth shut and will eventually be willing to fire back once fired upon makes me a potential terrorist in their books.

    When all resources are trained on the loyal opposition, the real terrorists get a free pass.

  111. Kettle1^2 says:

    Doom, Shore

    What kind of world do we live in when even the terrorists get lazy and stupid!!!!

  112. cobbler says:

    The 18-month U.S. recession that ended in June 2009 has so far cut spending by more than $7,300 per person, or about $175 a month, from the pace that prevailed during the housing boom, said a Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco researcher.

    The $7,300 figure reflects the period from December 2007 to May 2011, and was calculated by comparing the inflation-adjusted path of consumer purchases to pre-crisis levels, senior economist Kevin Lansing wrote in a paper released today. Per- capita consumption is still 1.6 percent below its pre-recession peak, 42 months after the recession started, he said.

    “The purpose of the paper was to give an idea of how much stimulus was coming from the housing bubble,” Lansing said in a phone interview. “People are wondering why consumer spending is so slow these days. What they should be asking is: Why was it so strong in previous years? You’re comparing it to an artificial economy that was driven by debt.”

    “We’re not going back to that kind of spending growth unless we have a big run-up in housing prices again…

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/fed-says-18-month-recession-cost-each-american-7-300-in-lost-consumption.html

  113. Only the little people drink swill.

  114. Then again, spending $350 for wine in a restaurant is a very stupid thing to do: hedgie, politician or private citizen. Most restaurants don’t employ a graduated markup system, which means that the best wines for the money (assuming the list is even well-selected, which most restaurant lists aren’t) are all at the low end.

  115. Why do I always have the creepy feeling that Paul Ryan would convene a death panel…for someone not in his immediate family?

  116. Essex says:

    I for one love the fact that we are represented by complete retards. I get a warm feeling when I think about how they’ll collect pensions for all the work that they have performed in my interest.

  117. Spain rejoins the European battle of deadbeat idiots:

    “There was a time when countries would use Goldman’s “innovative” currency swaps to hide billions of debt off the books. Those days are gone. Now governments, at both the state and regional level, just outright lie about what their deficit and debt is. Case in point, Spain’s Castilla La Mancha region, best known for being the stomping ground for one Don Quixote, where the cities of Toledo and Albacete are located, has just announced that it has “a budget deficit more than twice as large as previously thought, raising new concerns over the true state of regional finances and helping to send Spain’s risk premium to new historic highs. Castilla La Mancha President Maria Dolores de Cospedal said her government will present Tuesday the first results of the audit she announced after being elected in nationwide regional and municipal elections on May 22.” What? Politicians lying about the state of their finances only for it to be uncovered that things are 100% worse? Say it isn’t so. And why on earth couldn’t Spain just open a local branch of the BLS: it would have absolutely no problem hiding its manipulated economic data. Too late now…”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/spanish-region-discovers-its-budget-deficit-double-what-was-previously-thought

  118. chicagofinance says:

    Why talk wine? Go where the real markup is…..
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/dunkin-brands-seeks-460-6-million-in-initial-public-offering.html

    Hobo With a Shotgun says:
    July 11, 2011 at 5:23 pm
    Then again, spending $350 for wine in a restaurant is a very stupid thing to do: hedgie, politician or private citizen. Most restaurants don’t employ a graduated markup system, which means that the best wines for the money (assuming the list is even well-selected, which most restaurant lists aren’t) are all at the low end.

  119. DKN = fried flour and shit coffee.

  120. jamil says:

    I guess teleprompter had off-day yesterday..

    “So, when you hear folks saying ‘Well, the president shouldn’t want massive job killing tax increases when the economy is this weak.’ Nobody’s looking to raise taxes right now. We’re talking about potentially 2013 and the out years.

    So his campaign message is “re-elect me and get massive job-killing taxes after 2012!” ?
    This makes nice campaign video material, but probably not in the way he intended. Smartest guy in the world and greatest orator in history, indeed. Maybe worth Nobel in Literature or Chemistry?

  121. Not that I have an ounce of love for dumbocrats, jamil…but have you ever considered the fact that the rehthugs gain political advantage by helping things go to hell even faster?

    Please take your clown act to London. Write back, and let us all know how it plays.

  122. Kettle1^2 says:

    Nom

    you have been calling this for years. The secession sentiment is spreading nicely.

    “Accusing Sacramento of pillaging local governments to feed its runaway spending and left-wing policies, a Riverside County politician is proposing a solution: He wants 13 mostly inland, conservative counties to break away to form a separate state of “South California.” Supervisor Jeff Stone, a Republican pharmacist from Temecula, called California an “ungovernable” financial catastrophe from which businesses are fleeing and where taxpayers are being crushed by the burden of caring for welfare recipients and illegal immigrants.”

  123. Kettle1^2 says:

    Hobo

    this one is for u

    Spain’s Castilla La Mancha region, best known for being the stomping ground for one Don Quixote, where the cities of Toledo and Albacete are located, has just announced that it has “a budget deficit more than twice as large as previously thought, raising new concerns over the true state of regional finances and helping to send Spain’s risk premium to new historic highs. Castilla La Mancha President Maria Dolores de Cospedal said her government will present Tuesday the first results of the audit she announced after being elected in nationwide regional and municipal elections on May 22.”

  124. Juice Box says:

    Hobo – This coming from someone who went to Wharton lived and worked in France and teaches business, getting rich and how to be successful in globalism and obviously has no idea how Washington DC works and the fact a Congressman makes 174k a year and fancy restaurants do exist even in Washington DC.

    ” Feinberg, an economist by training, was even more appalled when the table ordered a second bottle. She quickly did the math and figured out that the $700 in wine the trio consumed over the course of 90 minutes amounted to more than the entire weekly income of a couple making minimum wage.

    “We were just stunned,” said Feinberg, who e-mailed TPM about her encounter later the same evening. “I was an economist so I started doing the envelope calculations and quickly figured out that those two bottles of wine was more than two-income working family making minimum wage earned in a week.”

    http://www.susanfeinberg.com

  125. A.West says:

    I’d enjoy dinner with Cliff Asness, and I don’t care much about wine. Asness has enough money to say “F U” to just about anyone. He has written some interesting finance articles, and recently, some interesting pro-liberty articles. The government employee Rutgers professor who got upset helped advise Kerry in 04.

  126. Neanderthal Economist says:

    “The longer I go with no mortgage, three years The more I realize how bad a home is as an investment..”

    If anyone here is a contrarian investor, jjs (the most positive investor alive) capitulation should be your queue to go all in.

  127. jamil says:

    re wine. Nancy Pelosi spent over $100,000 for wine and dine alone in her tax-payer funded jet, more than all previous speakers combined. I assume that is not an issue for TPM.

  128. Neanderthal Economist says:

    “No one disputes i rates cannot get lower. ”
    2 cents, its not that nobody disputes, its just that most are ignoring you because you are purposely wording your posts to give the impression that you’re a complete obnoxious joke and a troll, which makes it so hillarious that you try to clown others here. If you really want to debate housing then lets start with the fact that your claims, which you state as fact, are laughable. Rates can go sideways, and get stuck there for two decades. They can go to zero, which is a 100% decline. They can even go negative, possibly to negative infinity with constant compounding… Point is that your assenine assumptions are dead wrong. Go away.

  129. Neanderthal Economist says:

    “I admit it, Mrs. Shore and I are losers. We are debt free and have a seven-figure net worth but, clearly, we are losers.”
    Shore, you never were a good bragger. You forgot to mention your many guest appearances on fox/cnbc and your pro football career. Do I really have to do this for you?

  130. Neanderthal Economist says:

    “Hey, can someone have “Loser” tee-shirts printed up for those of us here who are solvent?”
    Shore/loser, face it. In the race to acquire the most debt, you and wife come in dead last. Sux to be you.

  131. Juice Box says:

    Re: re: 134 – jamil = captain obvious – the libs will never believe that go down to DC and get som visual evidence.

  132. A.West says:

    Shore is Jon Runyan?

  133. box (131)-

    She’s just a dumb bitch with a stick up her arse and an ax to grind against the silly rich.

    My feeling is that her ire is better directed toward people other than some Rethug tool who is willing to death panel my aunt and a dumb, drunky hedge fund prick.

  134. I love wine. I love great wine. And, anyone who loves wine who is not rich already knows everyone who is rich (and didn’t get that way by stealing from other people) who will- out of love for wine- serve up all the ’29 Latour, ’47 Cheval Blanc, ’59 Moulin Touchais and ’76 Yquem in their cellars to anyone, rich or poor, who also simply loves wine.

  135. Cannavaro retired. Great career and a great player.

  136. Al Mossberg says:

    Cisco laying off 10,000 by end of August.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/spin-cisco-fire-10000

    This is the orchestrated descent into chaos. Welcome to h_ll.

    I enjoyed my lasagna tonight to honor Italy’s grand entrance into the maelstrom.

  137. chicagofinance says:

    The end is nigh (Glass Half-Full Edition):
    at least he’s not a pedophile….

    Queens prison chaplain busted for paying inmate for sex acts
    By DOUG AUER

    An elderly Catholic deacon working as a chaplain at a Queens prison has been arrested for allegedly paying an inmate to perform sex acts on him.

    The deacon, Frank DeTucci, 70, allegedly paid the male inmate $120 and $150 on two occasions to perform oral sex on him inside his chaplain’s office at the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City, sources said today.

    One alleged incident happened at around 9 a.m. on July 5, the sources said. The second occurred Sunday, at which time he was arrested by State Police, they added.

    DeTucci was hired by the state Department of Corrections in 1992.

    He is charged with criminal sex act, attempted criminal sex act, sexual misconduct, attempted sexual misconduct and official misconduct, said a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown.

    DeTucci, who lives in Astoria, is paid $79,819 a year to perform priestly duties at the prison. He has been put on leave without pay, said a prison spokeswoman.

    DeTucci, who also serves as a deacon at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Church in Astoria, could not be reached for comment.

  138. Shore Guy says:

    Neanderthal,

    I never played pro ball.

  139. Shore Guy says:

    Kettle,

    It is truely amazing, given the myriad low-cost opportunities that exist to inflict serious, serious emotional and economic harm upon this nation that we have in fact suffered so many attacks. And, inasmuch as most of these methods are all but impossible to discover or stop, it only points to the folly of the size of DHS and the restraint of American liberties in the quest to keep everyone safe from everything at every time.

    If someone wants to hurt or kill large numbers of U.S. citizens, it is easy and cost effective for them to do so and we should not let the fear of such actions prompt us to surrender freedoms or to live in ferar. Tens of thousands of us die on highways every year and most of us willingly/eagerly get into cars.

  140. Shore Guy says:

    Chifi,

    A hand up, not a handout?

  141. Shore Guy says:

    Neanderthal,

    I will leave bragging to Ol’ Two Hands. From time to time I have revealed certain things about my background and experience not to brag (as there are many, many people, including folks here who have accomplished far more than I have or ever will) but to rebut an assertion made by someone.

  142. Shore Guy says:

    As time ticks down on the debt limit, it is time to reread FLEMMING v. NESTOR, 363 U.S. 603 (1960) , and start cutting benefits we cannot afford to pay.

  143. Shore Guy says:

    “In the race to acquire the most debt, you and wife come in dead last. Sux to be you.”

    The worst thing is that I am sure that Two Hands (and others here) has matched our deb-free status and has likely accumulated as great or greater liquid assets, property, retirement, and other assets. Here again, we failed when measured against others.

  144. shore (152)-

    Red Bull should do that with their soccer team. And no parachutes.

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  146. Theo Joesph says:

    Very interesting entry, I look forward to the next! Thx for share

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