The other foreclosure crisis

From the WSJ:

Warning: Property Foreclosures Ahead

Many small firms that own commercial property are facing big trouble.

The problem is simple: Banks typically re-evaluate commercial mortgages every five to 10 years. At that point, they can renew the loans, or ask business owners to pay them off.

These days, lenders are a lot less willing to extend loans that don’t seem like good bets—and it’s tough for businesses to look creditworthy after years of slumped sales and exhausted savings. “So many small businesses have lost their reserves during the recession,” says Brent Case, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic International Inc., in Charleston, S.C. “They don’t have that chunk of cash that banks want as a buffer.”

That leaves many small-business owners scrambling to find a lender that will cover their loan—or facing the loss of their property through foreclosure.

For an idea of the scope the problem, consider this: Some $276.2 billion of nonresidential commercial-property loans are expected to come due in 2013. That’s higher than any prior year, according to Trepp LLC, a commercial-mortgage research firm in New York.

Many of these loans were made leading up to the financial collapse in 2008, when property values were high and business owners could depend on steady income to repay the loan. In other cases, the loans came due in the depths of the financial crisis, but banks were willing to give businesses extensions—essentially pushing the question of refinancing to a later date. Some analysts estimate as many as 60% of commercial real-estate loans that came due were extended during this period.

Now the extension periods have been coming to an end. Borrowers are again confronting big balloon payments they can’t make—and banks are more willing to foreclose. They’re better capitalized than they’ve been in years and “are in a position to take a hit” on a loan, says Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics Inc., a commercial real-estate research firm in New York.

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96 Responses to The other foreclosure crisis

  1. grim says:

    From the NYT:

    Today’s Dream House May Not Be Tomorrow’s

    HOUSES are just buildings, but homes are often beautiful dreams. Unfortunately, as millions of people have learned in the housing crisis, those dreams don’t always comport with reality.

    Economic and demographic changes may severely impair the value of a home when it’s time to sell, a decade or more in the future. Will a particular home still be fashionable then? Will social and economic shifts tilt demand toward new designs and types of communities —even toward renting rather than an outright purchase? Any of these factors could affect home prices substantially.

    An ever-changing economy requires constant geographical repositioning. In the 19th century, for example, housing was often built near factories and warehouses, with apartments or houses containing numerous small rooms intended to accommodate many people per structure. In those days, before air-conditioning, these buildings often had large porches for access to cooling breezes.

    Early in the 20th century, many houses were built around streetcar routes. Then, when the Interstate Highway System started in the 1950s, suburbs bloomed along the path of superhighways. With cheaper cars and relatively cheap gasoline (despite spikes in the 1970s and after 2005), housing developments became more dispersed. A culture that prized privacy and individuality left many neighborhoods without sidewalks or nearby community gathering places. Houses were cheaper to build this way, and they grew larger.

    In the last century, shifts like these helped explain why inflation-corrected prices for existing homes typically changed by plus or minus 15 percent in a decade, even without national bubbles.

    Further changes are inevitable, but hard to predict. For example, governments may now be reluctant to spend much on infrastructure like new highways or high-speed rail. But what will happen in 10 years — and what are the possible effects for the housing market?

  2. WickedOrange says:

    “The Italian mindset is that being a pizza-maker is humiliating, it is a manual labour job,” he said. “Young Italians want to own 40,000 euro cars and wear nice clothes but they are not prepared to work for it. So the gap is being filled by the Egyptians, the Filipinos and the Arabs.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10023741/Shortage-of-pizza-makers-as-Italians-are-too-proud.html

  3. Commercial RE owners should just get in touch with CashCall.

    Problem solved.

  4. 1987 Condo Buyer says:

    http://www.northjersey.com/fairlawn/Reverse_migration_from_North_Jersey_to_New_York_City_signals_a_new_challenge.html

    ….The reverse migration, however, signals a new challenge for suburban communities that thrived from their proximity to Manhattan during the exodus. Today’s New Jersey is experiencing a retraction of the employment gains, relative to New York City, that it experienced during the half-century after the baby boom: a decline in the number of families with small children and a new glut of vacant office space in sprawling campuses built to accommodate workers who wanted to avoid the city…….
    ……..

  5. grim says:

    Like it or not, the metro sprawl that is “NYC” extends much further than the borders of the city.

    Just for a second, disregard the geographic borders and take a look at the metroplex from a satellite shot.

    http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/712129main_8247975848_88635d38a1_o.jpg

    The definition of “suburb” in the NY Metro is very different from somewhere out in the midwest. We do not transition to 100% residential subdivision style development as soon as you cross over the GWB.

    I’m not saying to poo-poo the borders (towns, states, etc), but that theories that rely wholly on geographic distinction are somewhat unfulfilling.

  6. anon (the good one) says:

    travelled around last week and, indeed, gdp of the poor world is growing fast. pleasantly surprised with updates being made to business class. seats used to be horrible. service remains aweful, but at least had flat beds.
    to my point. sipping scotch and reading magazines came to an art about W mostly painting dogs and cats these days. does anybody know if his paintings are for sale? article didn’t mention it. was leader of the free world for 8 yrs and it seems to have found true calling

  7. freedy says:

    I see they finally knocked down the Old State Farm Building on rt. 23 in Wayne,

    It was empty for about 5/6 years .

  8. anon (6)-

    Most Amerikan presidents are just a little more sophisticated version of Chauncey Gardner.

  9. President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
    [Long pause]
    Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
    President “Bobby”: In the garden.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
    President “Bobby”: Spring and summer.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes.
    President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes.
    Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.
    Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
    Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
    Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
    President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
    [Benjamin Rand applauds]
    President “Bobby”: I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.

  10. grim says:

    7 – Five or six? Double that, hell, maybe triple that.

    I was under the impression that the property was privately owned, and only leased by the previous residents. As far as I know, there are no plans to build anything on that site. The last proposal was a Lowes, but the residents rejected it, and they subsequently built up Rt 23 in Butler/Riverdale. I believe that fiasco ended with the town prohibiting any new big box development (which is probably why West Belt Mall/Fortunoff remain a pile of rubble).

  11. 1987 Condo Buyer says:

    #4..possible impact on premiums in NYC “train towns”?

  12. freedy says:

    Well if you go to Willowbrook mall its third world. surprised the signs are not up in
    Spanish, Arabic, etc

  13. jcer says:

    12, always called it ghettobrook, that mall belongs to newark.

  14. freedy says:

    This will make our morning . Food Stamps all time high

    Then There Was This. This is the story that I said earlier today played well
    with the reason to look to own Gold. This was sent to me by colleague, Aaron,
    who found it on CNSNews.com. The latest available data from the United States
    Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that a record number 23 million
    households in the United States are now on food stamps.

    The most recent Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) statistics of
    the number of households receiving food stamps shows that 23,087,886 households
    participated in January 2013 – an increase of 889,154 families from January 2012
    when the number of households totaled 22,188,732.

    The most recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau– from December
    2012– puts the number of households in the United States at 115,310,000. If you
    divide 115,310,000 by 23,087,866, that equals one out of every five households
    now receiving food stamps.

    As CNSNews.com previously reported, food stamp rolls in America recently
    surpassed the population of Spain. A record number 47,692,896 Americans are now
    enrolled in the program and the cost of food stamp fraud has more than doubled
    in just three years.”

    Chuck again. Sad but true, eh? And the Gov’t keeps recruiting people to enroll
    in the program. Do I need to say more about that’s not how I was raised, or my
    dad, or my grandfather? Oh well, it is what it is, right?

  15. Jason says:

    AP: Thousands in NJ and NY remain homeless, 6 months after hurricane Sandy.

  16. DL says:

    Ref 2: A lot of Italian resturants in Germany are run by Turks and Arabs. Even if the owner is Italian, the kitchen is staffed with Africans. Wife was at lunch last week in a place called Rossini. All Arab wait staff and kitchen according to regulars. But they all answered va bene and prego to maintain the illusion.

  17. Juice Box says:

    My mom was down in South Long Branch area over the weekend. No beach to speak of but the cross at San Alfonso’s is still standing.

  18. Juice Box says:

    re #17 – the waiters and kitchen staff are mostly illiterate anyway. What should we do give them a corner office like JJ?

  19. DL says:

    Viewed another crap box over the weekend (via video.) Nothing done since 1995 when it was built, full of linoelum, stained carpets and Ikea furniture. Three bedrooms that could each barely fit a single bed. How can you make 2500 sq ft so tiny? Middle of spring selling season and no one is selling.

  20. grim says:

    Thank god we have Short Hills and Riverside Square within driving distance, even Garden State Plaza is slumming it these days.

  21. DL says:

    Re 19. Chalk it up to globalization. I just assumed Turks and Arabs would be peddling ethnic cuisine. Aparently people only want Italian.

  22. grim says:

    How can you make 2500 sq ft so tiny?

    Easy – Start with a two level CHC, now that leaves only 1250 square feet for the second level.

    Remove the square footage lost by the two story foyer and second floor stair landing and hallways (250 square feet). Divide the remaining 1000 square feet into 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms (which includes a large master bath), and at least one grand walk in closet in the master bedroom.

  23. Happy Renter says:

    [9] Classic flick. Made all the more so by the “green shoots!” *ssclown we have in charge.

  24. Happy Renter says:

    [2] Italians too good to make pizza anymore? Must be the fault of austerity. If only those bond vigalantes would just bring back la dolce vita for all.

  25. freedy says:

    Oh,did i forget Garden State Plaza is third world as well. Hand guns should be available for rent as you walk the mall ,except for ,you know,Nortstams

  26. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [15] freedy,

    Did you also notice that when unemployment started running out for the 99ers, that disability spiked? It was too obvious a trend not to be noticed, and some papers did notice it, but then the story quickly died.

    It seemed to me that the government was turning an eye away from the rules for disability when unemployed folks started losing benefits. Now I see some support for that: I learned that the rules for social security disability are relaxed for people over 50. So it would seem that the long term unemployed, many of whom are the “beached white males”, are quietly being moved over to the disability rolls. So if you are unemployed, over 50, and have diabetes, you can get Social Security disability.

    Get a clue, mon frere. It’s better to be on the gravy train than under it.

  27. grim says:

    From Marketwatch:

    Pending sales of homes rose 1.5% in March, reversing February’s decline, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. The pending-home-sales index increased to 105.7 in March from 104.1 in February, and was up 7% from March 2012. “Contract activity has been in a narrow range in recent months, not from a pause in demand but because of limited supply,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “Little movement is expected in near-term sales closings, but they should edge up modestly as the year progresses.” By region, March saw pending home sales rise 2.7% in the South, 1.5% in the West, and 0.3% in the Midwest. There was no change in the Northeast. On Monday, NAR revised U.S. pending home sales for February to a decline of 1% from a prior estimate of a 0.4% slip. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed. Typically, sales are finalized within two months of signing.

  28. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    Sometimes an acronym just says it all.

    http://www.nadr.org/

  29. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [30] redux,

    If expat is on, thats another word you might have to look up. Sorry.

  30. Brian says:

    Vacant homes linger in Sussex
    Hundreds of empty homes, potential boons and threats to neighborhoods

    http://townshipjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130423/NEWS01/130429990/Vacant-homes-linger-in-Sussex

    By Joshua Rosenau

    SUSSEX COUNTY — Rain-soaked newspapers wait at the door. There’s a mini forest growing from the gutters. Lichens are attacking the lawn furniture. The doorbell is dead.Five years after the financial collapse that seized the housing market in the U.S., hundreds of vacant properties remain scattered across Sussex County, the lingering byproducts of the mortgage crisis.As spring brings the start of the 2013 construction season, there are tepid hopes this year the housing market turn itself around. Standing in its way, however, are vacant properties like the ones in Newton, Sparta and Byram, which present distinct problems — and unusual opportunities — for homeowners.Newton resident John Ragsdale has lived in his whitewashed Victorian home on Halsted St. for nearly 20 years.Over the last three years a handful of homes just a few hundred feet away from his have stood empty as their former owners faced foreclosure.“That one’s been empty for about a year and a half,” Ragsdale said of the house at 42 Halsted St.Ragsdale is one of hundreds of homeowners living near foreclosed and vacant properties who worry about the decline of their neighborhoods.“Now you can see that it’s an eyesore. It’s getting decrepit. It’s not being maintained physically, so I am worried about that and what it does for the property values here. Is this thing going to sit another year, another two years? There is one right behind me that’s been sitting vacant for two-and-a-half years.”Empty and unknown
    The house at 42 Halsted is currently owned by a bank, which has contracted with an independent property management company to keep the home in line with local codes.“The banks won’t put much money into them other than paying taxes and other minor maintenance, like cutting grass, so they don’t get fined by the town,” Ragsdale said.In the month of February, the property management firm Safeguard performed approximately 800 work orders on properties in just two zip codes, Newton’s 07860 and Sparta’s 07871.Though that number reflects only the work orders and not individual properties, Safeguard was the only property management service that reported data. Other major companies, including CoreLogic, and LPS Field Services refused to give numbers on the properties they maintain.The Sparta Independent found several homes in both Sparta and Newton that carried labels from those two companies by crossing-checking public data on homes with zero water usage. There were also many that had no indication any property manager was looking after them.In Byram Township, vacant properties have prompted dozens of calls to the town from neighbors complaining about overgrowth, vermin infestations and other problems.“We do the best we can to get the banks to maintain them,” said Byram Zoning Officer John Gutwerk. “They pretty much haven’t changed. We may have even more that have gone empty over the winter that we just don’t know about yet.” Gutwerk said that the two to four years it takes to foreclose on a property means that there are many more vacant homes than the township’s records reflect. “Complaints always go up this time of year. In another month, when things start to really get green we’ll see a lot of the same problems we had last year,” he said.Tipping the scales
    Economists estimate that vacant, delinquent and foreclosed homes hold leverage over the prices of surrounding properties.A 2011 study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that vacant or delinquent homes have a negative impact between 1.5 and 3 percent for each distressed property within 500 feet of standard sale.Although that may seem like threat to a neighborhood, it also represents an opportunity for a purchasers looking to quickly regain value in a home.But the longer the property stays vacant, the more unlikely it is for a buyer to pick it up.“Properties that have been vacant for longer than two years are much more likely to have severe problems, such as cracked floors or walls, broken or boarded up windows, and a roof or foundation in disrepair, that make these properties harder to rehabilitate and less appealing to prospective buyers,” said Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth A. Duke.Still, Ragsdale is hopeful.
    “It’s a nice town. It’s affordable, and there’s never been a better time to buy a house,” he said.The Sussex County Association of Realtors declined to comment on this story.Editor’s note: This article has been changed to correct errors in reporting.

  31. Brian says:

    Vacant homes linger in Sussex
    Hundreds of empty homes, potential boons and threats to neighborhoods

    http://townshipjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130423/NEWS01/130429990/Vacant-homes-linger-in-Sussex

  32. Anon E. Moose says:

    Nom [30];

    Sounds like it should be called the “B!nder & B!nder Alumni Association”.

  33. Randy says:

    Can anyone recommend a title insurance agency? What’s the deal with owner’s title insurance? Small lender is only charging $50 for it while TD Bank wants $2800. Say what!!??

    Is there opportunity for savings in shopping for your own title insurer?

  34. freedy says:

    http://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2013/041213.htm

    for those seeking shelter in Montclair . Here’s one with a history

  35. Anon E. Moose says:

    Randy [34];

    I was told that NJ title ins. rates are regulated (i.e., fixed) — No benefit to shop around (why and how good/bad a thing this is, and for whom, is another conversation). Your latter number is in the ball park of what I paid. Maybe the ‘small lender’ is burying it in another fee or just hiding the ball?

  36. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [33] moose

    Good one. But I was just considering the interrelation between the acronym’s homonym and Tytler’s and Adams’ musing on democracy, and wondering it it wasn’t intentional on a cosmic or Freudian level.

  37. POS cape says:

    21, 26:

    Behind JC Penny the Paterson buses are backed up 4 deep unloading. I think this is why they made Paramus Park – Northern Bergenites who won’t go to the Plaza.

  38. Juice Box says:

    re# 27 – Nom – NPR just did a piece on SSDI. “Unfit for Work”

    http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

    Seems they are trotting out former Commissioners of the Social Security Administration to rebut the NPR, saying it is a demographic change.

    http://nosscr.org/open-letter-former-commissioners-social-security-administration

  39. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    Jets release Tebow. Some speculation he lands in Foxboro but I consider that spitballing at best. Fact that drama follows Tebow isn’t his fault but Pats don’t like drama in a player.

  40. Happy Renter says:

    [39] Yeah – definitely check out that NPR story on “disability” (i.e. the new permanent unemployment). This American Life did a full show on it recently as well, spun off from the Planet Money story:

    http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits

    Green shoots!

  41. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [39] juice,

    I saw that a while ago and thought, man if you lose NPR, who else have you lost?

    I see that Nosscr picked it up. No surprise, they are driving the gravy train.

    And the letter is misleading. It glosses over the fact that rules are different for older applicants, and glosses over fact that nearly everyone is denied at first. Then you get lawyer, appeal the agency decision and win or appeal to courts.

  42. Juice Box says:

    They prob tried to pawn Tebow off to Tampa in the Revis deal but since nobody wants him say farewell, he will be off to Arena Football in Orlando.

  43. Juice Box says:

    re # 42- They have been saying it is a demographic change for a while now. I know a few on SSDI, these people could work doing some manual labor that the current illegal immigrants do now. But hey if you have doctors and lawyers on your side to help you collect your check then why not do what they say (docs and lawyers)?

  44. Happy Renter says:

    [44] “I know a few on SSDI, these people could work doing some manual labor that the current illegal immigrants do now.”

    Could they make pizza? Can’t our government at least arrange things so that those of us who pay for all these layabouts at least get free pizza as we plummet toward oblivion?

  45. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [41] renter,

    It’s the same story, just different site.

    BTW, lest anyone think its a condemnation of Obama, this didn’t become a trend on his watch. The increase started under Clinton and, curiously, continued during Bush. Growth continued under Obama then spiked a bit as UI started running out. I object only to the media giving Obama a pass on U3 and U6 because its clear that this number is skewed by disability but no one calls him on it.

    Another curious fact was that the growth rate decoupled from unemployment under Clinton and Bush. Even when U3 went down, disability growth continued, probably due to job migration.

  46. xolepa says:

    (1) What complete trash of an article. Written by and for college freshman. I could write something more newsworthy in 5 minutes. Okay, 7 minutes including spell checking. Grim, articles like that actually offend me. They are written to the lowest denominator of social awareness.

    Further changes are inevitable, but hard to predict. For example, governments may now be reluctant to spend much on infrastructure like new highways or high-speed rail. But what will happen in 10 years — and what are the possible effects for the housing market?

  47. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [43] juice,

    I actually think he’d work in New England, so long as he toed the line and dialed back on the public persona. But mgt there are not fans of players with their own cults of personality.

  48. chicagofinance says:

    Was down on the Route 1 corridor in the Princeton/West Windsor area…..Route 1 around the Quakerbridge Mall is dense! I guess it must be just like the 4/17 Paramus cross is these days. I was a very unusual population mix….clear influence of Princeton University with infill of Desi & Chinese……the area of West Windor down Old Trenton road from 133 Bypass area to Mercer Community College & around the Princeton Junction NJT station is really odd. It is just mile after mile of McMansion Cul-De-Sac’s on flat farm lands……utterly impossible to have any idea where you are, every street looks exactly as the last…..no for sale signs, but interesting several FOR LEASE signs…..for McMansions?

  49. chicagofinance says:

    Two clients that are SSDI….#1 inherited money; #2 they work off the books…..

    Juice Box says:
    April 29, 2013 at 12:20 pm
    re # 42- They have been saying it is a demographic change for a while now. I know a few on SSDI, these people could work doing some manual labor that the current illegal immigrants do now. But hey if you have doctors and lawyers on your side to help you collect your check then why not do what they say (docs and lawyers)?

  50. Juice Box says:

    Anybody got an insider deal for Phone, Internet and TV service? I am moving and currently have Direct TV and cablevision for internet and phone and I want to consolidate since I am paying more than I care to pay.

    FIOS Is available at my new home and their $79.99 monthly plan seems pretty cheap.

    Anyone here know the main difference between FIOS TV Prime and FIOS TV Extreme? Is it worth the $20 a month for the extra 140 TV channels?

    http://www22.verizon.com/home/shop/shopping.htm#offerfilter

  51. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [47]. Xo,

    Perhaps, but it was designed to accomplish a purpose and I thought it worked. We discuss many of those topics here but not everyone can sit and ruminate with us day in and day out. I thought it did a good job of presenting important macroconsiderations in a succinct way.

    So you may be offended, but then it probably wasn’t meant for you.

  52. Libtard in the City says:

    “Well if you go to Willowbrook mall its third world. surprised the signs are not up in
    Spanish, Arabic, etc”

    It has always been that way. I worked at the Willowbrook KayBee when I was in college (one of four part-time gigs). It always was a melting pot of a mall. I never found it much of an issue though.

  53. chicagofinance says:

    I have never had FiOS, so anyone can correct me. I believe that they are less negotiable on the back end and make it more expensive to cut ties. If you are going to remain at your address for several years, I believe it is less of an issue. For a relatively basic TV with DVR (all the major stuff just no move channel)/phone/high speed interent, you should be to nail Cablevision in a competitive area for all-on $90-$110/month, and then keep that in perpetuity, just calling once a year to threaten.

    Juice Box says:
    April 29, 2013 at 12:40 pm
    Anybody got an insider deal for Phone, Internet and TV service? I am moving and currently have Direct TV and cablevision for internet and phone and I want to consolidate since I am paying more than I care to pay.

    FIOS Is available at my new home and their $79.99 monthly plan seems pretty cheap.

    Anyone here know the main difference between FIOS TV Prime and FIOS TV Extreme? Is it worth the $20 a month for the extra 140 TV channels?

  54. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [49] chifi,

    Aren’t you renting one? If this house were bigger, I’d be renting one.

    That area has lots of professional turnover. Makes sense to me. And you can bet that lots of that money never sees a 1040.

  55. Libtard in the City says:

    Juice.

    We’ve had FIOS Xtreme since the start. Make sure when you sign up, that you check the internet forums for the best promotions. It can make a huge difference in a two year contract. Also, it seems for everything you add to Verizon’s one-bill plan, they give you about $10 off for each additional item. When we booked Xtreme, it came with the higher speed internet that now, everyone else is being asked to pay to upgrade to. Sometimes it pays to be an early adopter. The other nice thing about FIOS, is that the contract moves with you (if where you move to is FIOS wired). Though, be warned, they always f up the billing in the start and you will end up on the phone for hours being transferred from one wrong person to the next. Once it’s setup right, then it’s easy peasy.

  56. chicagofinance says:

    This area looks developed in the last 10 years. It has more in common with Northern Virginia than NJ. The difference is that NoVA is endless. This area appears proximate to NJT NEC Princeton Jct/Hamilton on the east side, hugging Route 1 and the train….very sterile….I am not going to defend where I live, but at least it has some really quaint areas, and most of the development occurred 30-40 years ago (except the golf course communities), so there is a bit of vegetation that has grown in.

    Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:
    April 29, 2013 at 12:45 pm
    [49] chifi, Aren’t you renting one? If this house were bigger, I’d be renting one.
    That area has lots of professional turnover. Makes sense to me. And you can bet that lots of that money never sees a 1040.

  57. freedy says:

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/29/report-women-opting-surgery-get-arms-michelle-obam/

    Another wtf moment,sad state of affairs when stuff like this goes on. Does medicare pay ? oh,medicade does,sorry

  58. Libtard in the City says:

    In other news, our deck (and awning) is complete and our driveway gets repaved on Wednesday. Williams Paving in Wayne is cheap! And the driveway on the multi is holding up perfectly (1 year later). Almost done.

    We are also getting excited about our refi. Captain Cheapo likes getting a good deal! Taking the multi down to a 15 (no cost) shaving another 1.5 years off that loan and saving $40 a month to boot. The appraiser comes out tomorrow morning. I’m dying to know what it’s worth. We are also refinancing our GR home. This one will cost us $120 more per month (also doing a no cost), but we are cutting out more than three years of payments.

    Just a year in a half since we bought the place and we are down to 15 years on the loan. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  59. Juice Box says:

    The neighborhood I am moving to in Middletown has no telephone poles, everything is wired underground, so I figured I will not add an unsightly Sat Dish by keeping Direct TV. So I will go with the FIOS mainly because it’s already installed at the address and I really dislike the Cable TV receiver.

  60. Libtard in the City says:

    ChiFi,

    My sister lives in West Windsor. I know what you are saying. Though there are a couple of quaint areas mixed in among those Toll Brothers/Centrex vinyl sided converted farm developments. Nowhere have I seen the Kumon/Karate quotient higher than in those parts. Additionally, I think Princeton area kids think their sh1t don’t stink even more than Bostonians (sorry Nom).

  61. joyce says:

    62

    The end of the article is great… (paraphrasing) nothing can be done, we can’t undo the rubber stamp

  62. joyce says:

    But seriously, how stupid must one be to fake disability and then appear on TV repeatedly?

    Another question, do the current cops (especially those near retirement) not care that their funds are being depleted by scammers like this genius? I guess they truly believe the pensions will never go bust.

  63. Libtard in the City says:

    I question the same thing. The math doesn’t work on these pensions. There have been article after article written about the coming shortfalls. Yet, no one seems to care. Will be fun to watch towards the end of this decade.

  64. Ragnar says:

    Here’s how you sign up for disability:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyRHAvfA6Eg

    I have a strong suspicion that the Bommaphone lady is on disability.

  65. 1987 Condo Buyer says:

    #65, since most of these pensions have legal guarantees and support, I’d imagine that any shortfall will be picked up via local property tax and/or State Income tax

  66. Juice Box says:

    If only he had a pair of scissors…

    Ponytail stuntman Sailendra Nath Roy dies on a zip-line in India. (Pics are somewhat safe for work, Dead man hanging by ponytail.)

    http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/ponytail-stuntman-sailendra-nath-roy-dies-on-a-zip-line-in-india/story-fnd134gw-1226631947968

  67. chicagofinance says:

    Juice…..Hoboken to Middletown? You follow in my footsteps 6 years later. The first place we moved was right off Bamm Hollow about a mile from the train station….which side of Rte. 35?

    Juice Box says:
    April 29, 2013 at 1:00 pm
    The neighborhood I am moving to in Middletown has no telephone poles, everything is wired underground, so I figured I will not add an unsightly Sat Dish by keeping Direct TV. So I will go with the FIOS mainly because it’s already installed at the address and I really dislike the Cable TV receiver.

  68. Doyle says:

    #59

    Lib: what’s cheap? I’m due.

  69. Juice Box says:

    Chi – West of 35 and the train not far from the schools. We like the area allot.

  70. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    [31] Nom –
    nadir or acronym? I used to work for a defense contractor where all we spoke was acronym. It was the nadir of my existence.

    [30] redux,

    If expat is on, thats another word you might have to look up. Sorry.

    nadir or acronym? I used to work for a defense contractor where all we spoke was acronym. It was the nadir of my existence.

  71. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    [33] Did anybody listen to the “This American Life” episode “Unfit for Work – The startling rise of disability in America”?

    “PCG is a private company that states pay to comb their welfare rolls and move as many people as possible onto disability. “What we’re offering is to work to identify those folks who have the highest likelihood of meeting disability criteria,” Pat Coakley, who runs PCG’s Social Security Advocacy Management team, told me.

    The company has an office in eastern Washington state that’s basically a call center, full of headsetted women in cubicles who make calls all day long to potentially disabled Americans, trying to help them discover and document their disabilities:

    “The high blood pressure, how long have you been taking medications for that?” one PCG employee asked over the phone the day I visited the company. “Can you think of anything else that’s been bothering you and disabling you and preventing you from working?”

    The PCG agents help the potentially disabled fill out the Social Security disability application over the phone. And by help, I mean the agents actually do the filling out. When the potentially disabled don’t have the right medical documentation to prove a disability, the agents at PCG help them get it. They call doctors’ offices; they get records faxed. If the right medical records do not exist, PCG sets up doctors’ appointments and calls applicants the day before to remind them of those appointments.

    PCG also works very, very hard to make the people who work at the Social Security happy. Whenever the company wins a new contract, Coakley will personally introduce himself at the local Social Security Administration office, and see how he can make things as easy as possible for the administrators there.

    “We go through even to the point, frankly, of do you like things to be stapled or paper-clipped?” he told me. “Paper clips wins out a lot of times because they need to make photocopies and they don’t want to be taking staples out.”

    There’s a reason PCG goes to all this trouble. The company gets paid by the state every time it moves someone off of welfare and onto disability. In recent contract negotiations with Missouri, PCG asked for $2,300 per person. For Missouri, that’s a deal — every time someone goes on disability, it means Missouri no longer has to send them cash payments every month. For the nation as a whole, it means one more person added to the disability rolls.”

    http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

    Nom [30];

    Sounds like it should be called the “B!nder & B!nder Alumni Association”.

  72. nwnj says:

    In general, I understand the sentiment, but I think eventually the public pensions will be in line for the mother of all bailouts(they already are being bailed out stealthily now through inflation and maniuplation of the bond market).

    I think there is a practical limit to how much you can raise property taxes. Taxes are already pushing down prices in certain areas which in turn forces them to raise tax rates. So it’s the snake eating its own tail analogy.

    1987 Condo Buyer says:
    April 29, 2013 at 2:48 pm

    #65, since most of these pensions have legal guarantees and support, I’d imagine that any shortfall will be picked up via local property tax and/or State Income tax

  73. joyce says:

    74
    Maybe. But I think something more towards the consolidation of all retirement accounts into Social Security is the long term picture. (public/private pentions, private retirement accounts, govt retirement accounts, social security… and all the ones I’m missing)

  74. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [72] expat,

    Nadir. And I figured you knew it but I was having some fun with you and your jibe at me for my vocabulary.

  75. Anon E. Moose says:

    Chifi;

    This one’s for you. I knew there had to be a catch.

    Don’t let that 529 college plan hurt your financial aid

    Seems like on balance its best to have the 529 in your name or your kids’ name, not grandparents’ name. I wonder if the beneficiary makes a diffrence. I have one 529 for each kid — do they count the second kid’s 529 as assets to be plundered to pay for the first kids education? Younger siblings get screwed yet again.

    Anyway, just goes to show you what happens to the customer when the government gets involved making something ‘more affordable’. Nothing like sitting down to a negotiation where your counterparty has complete transparency into your finances.

  76. Comrade Nom Deplume, Bostonian says:

    [77]. Moose,

    I’m a believer in the final year payout rule for grandparent plans.

  77. chicagofinance says:

    Anon E. Moose says:
    April 29, 2013 at 5:37 pm
    Chifi; This one’s for you. I knew there had to be a catch. Don’t let that 529 college plan hurt your financial aid

    FROM THE ARTICLE
    Also, you can wait to spend down the grandparents’ 529 plans until the last year of college. Since the financial aid forms are based on the previous year’s income and assets, this type of backloading would avoid any impact from the withdrawals.

  78. chicagofinance says:

    Essentially the Red Hill area…..do you have kids? Are you zoned for Middletown N or S high school? FYI – Holmdel Park (across the GSP) is a great place to chill out…..

    Juice Box says:
    April 29, 2013 at 3:20 pm
    Chi – West of 35 and the train not far from the schools. We like the area allot.

  79. Juice Box says:

    Chi -Middletown South I am not far from everything.

  80. Juice Box says:

    Moose – complete transparency? I was under the impression you were good at keeping stuff buried.

  81. grim says:

    No Aunt or Uncle that can be trusted?

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  84. Libtard at home says:

    Doyle. I wish I knew the measurements of my driveways. When I first repaved my multi, their cost was less than half of the other three estimates I received. Their quality was excellent too. Both of my driveways are long singles which eventually merge out into doubles as they approach the detached garages. At my multi, the cost was $2,000 cash. At my GR home it’s $2,500, as they wouldn’t offer an off the books discount. Both places ended up at around $1 per square foot. 2″ asphalt (not digging up the old stuff). Just be warned, they will canvass your neighborhood at the time of the work to see if they can find anyone else interested.

  85. Ragnar says:

    Now the pensioners are already borrowing against their pensions. The positive side is that dumb state employees with overly generous pensions still find a way to lose it via dumb decisions and impatience. If the govt goes bust it may be a brilliant move.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/business/economy/pension-loans-drive-retirees-into-more-debt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    A fool and his money is soon parted.

  86. chicagofinance says:

    Rags: Less the 5% of my business is annuities, but I have to admit that I’ve seen one positive influence which is rendering these locust-like humanoids quiescent in the face of a lock-up penalty……I guess regardless of the expenses, if the choice is to save money or to spend $200/week at CostCo for 5 gallon tubs of vanilla, there is something to be said for……

    Ragnar says:
    April 29, 2013 at 10:42 pm
    A fool and his money is soon parted.

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