Housing market taking a breather

From the WSJ:

Home-Sales Frenzy Eases

After a yearlong rally, the U.S. housing market is showing signs of cooling as higher prices and interest rates, a slowdown in investor purchases and shortages of homes for sale weigh on one of the economy’s brightest sectors.

While few economists and industry watchers believe the housing recovery will stall, there is growing evidence that the exuberance that prompted bidding wars and led to double-digit price gains is easing. Redfin, an online real-estate brokerage, said its agents had multiple bids on 61% of its homes in August, down from 76% in March.

“It’s clear there will be some moderation in demand,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. He noted that the use of electronic “lockboxes” used by listing agents, an indicator of foot traffic at homes on the market, showed a “measurable decline” during August.

Another measure of home-buyer traffic maintained by Credit Suisse showed traffic fell in August to its lowest level since December 2011.

Some closely watched measures of housing activity, including sales of previously owned homes, may not yet capture the full extent of any slowdown, in part because they measure sales that went under contract earlier in the summer when activity was still robust. The Realtors group is set to report Thursday on existing home sales for August, which will show completed sales of homes that went into contracts one to two months earlier.

The consensus of economists surveyed last week by Dow Jones Newswires estimates that the pace of sales fell to a 5.24 million seasonally adjusted annual rate in August, down about 3% from July but ahead of last year’s 4.84 million.

Some agents say the biggest problem in the market is “seller greed”—that is, sellers pricing their homes too high, said Jim Klinge, a real-estate agent in Carlsbad, Calif. Faced with rising rates, buyers aren’t going for higher prices. “They don’t realize our 12- to 18-month full-tilt boogie is over,” he said.

This entry was posted in Economics, Housing Recovery, National Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

81 Responses to Housing market taking a breather

  1. Fabius Maximus says:

    Friskies

  2. Fabius Maximus says:

    Hi Chi,

    Looks like my tax dollars will be paying for Fracking cleanup earlier than I expected.
    But hey, cheap gas trumps everything. Right!
    http://www.texassharon.com/2013/09/15/is-there-a-media-blackout-on-the-fracking-flood-disaster-in-colorado/

  3. If Janet is Yellen, you must be sellin’.

  4. QE for the rest of our lives. It is our Amerikan birthright.

    Got shiny?

  5. grim says:

    Continuing the thread of infringing on intellectual property – the new Corvette looks like an almost identical copy of the Ferrari F12.

  6. Anon E. Moose says:

    Grim [5];

    As of June ’13, the gov’t still owned 30 MM shares of “New” GM. IN addition to no patent worries, I’ll be they don’t have many OSHA inspections, EPA problems, NLRB inquiries…

  7. anon (the good one) says:

    Grim,
    did you catch up Sundays NYT real estate section with recent closings in the 3 state area.
    well, highest priced house in CT and in NJ were almost identical prices at $3.7 million. Greenwich and Tenafly are the towns.

    guess the tax bill for each one.

  8. JJ says:

    5th anniversary of Lehman Brothers today!!

    The P0rn Star who changed his name to Dick Fluid after the collapse can rest and count his money today

  9. JJ says:

    The vettes are designed years ahead of time. It is a huge mass production. Ferrari is a smaller place. Who knows who swiped from who.

    The Vette is by far a way way better car when you factor in price.
    grim says:
    September 16, 2013 at 8:06 am

    Continuing the thread of infringing on intellectual property – the new Corvette looks like an almost identical copy of the Ferrari F12.

  10. anon (the good one) says:

    @MMFlint: Did you know all the subprime execs from 5 years ago are in jail? Haha. Psych! They’re back to doing the same thing http://t.co/koZzO3VJaN

    @ezraklein: Five years after the financial crisis, Wall Street is doing grrrreat! Everyone else? Not so much. http://t.co/szuGdZYqZf

  11. All Hype says:

    Doom (4):

    Did you ever expect that that QE and ZIRP 4Eva would ever stop? Summers would have been fun to see in the job but the banking overlords said “no” to his nomination. Yellin will just go with the flow and keep printing.

  12. hype (11)-

    I have never doubted that the likely outcome will be the worst possible outcome.

    Yellen, Summers, Timmay…it matters not at this point. Whoever gets the job will simply be presiding over the collapse of fiat and probably get blamed for everything, to boot.

    Not that I would object to seeing a public execution of Geethner…

  13. chicagofinance says:

    This one will keep me amused for days….

    JJ says:
    September 16, 2013 at 8:35 am
    5th anniversary of Lehman Brothers today!!

    The P0rn Star who changed his name to Dick Fluid after the collapse can rest and count his money today

  14. JJ says:

    S&P Futures are up 19+pts with Dow Futures up 185 pts

    three minutes to the pop!!

  15. JJ says:

    Chifi a whole stack of my GMAC bonds called today. The inventory of pre-bailout GMAC bonds have fallen like a brick last few months. That combined will all the maturities of last five years and fact Ally Bank has been borrowing at Fed window last five years at near zero means they are going to have an early 2014 IPO.

    The balance sheet is squeeky clean and post sandy and all of 2013 GM has been selling cars like hot cakes and Ally has been making loans like crazy.

  16. JJ says:

    Chif

    Seriously, what do you think of these two bonds?. Both have duration risk. But both have been bought or are being bought by A rated companies. Nokia is Microsoft and Motorola is google. That takes away default risk. Both are callable but the yield is pretty good. Mortorola was issued in 2007 at par when rates were a few hundred bps higher than now so that should withstand a few rate hikes.

    654902AC9
    Description NOKIA CORP MAKE WHOLE 06.62500% 05/15/2039
    Order Type Limit at $96.10

    Order: 620076BA6 – MOTOROLA INC NOTE CALL MAKE WHOLE 6.625% 11/15/2037 ISIN #US620076BA68 SEDOL #B28YMS9
    Order Type Limit at $100.44

  17. Painhrtz - Disobey! says:

    Fab not to be a dick or anything to texasharon, but that could also be any above ground storage facility housing chemicals. amgen has a manufacturing plant in boulder plus one of my former employers. there also a few chemical plants. not to mention cars, oil tanks for houses etc. so to blame fracking alone is taking a huge leap of faith.

    People will point to any bad consequence on why we should not do something. I’m all for responsible development but you can’t save every amoeba for each tree huggers pet cause. The industrial and electronic revolutions were predicated on the availability of cheap fuels and I happen to like lights, teh ability to be mobile long distances and my f*cking electronic doo dads.

  18. grim says:

    I’m quite sure there were a considerable number of chemical spills during Sandy that went unreported.

    Good thing that the solution to pollution is dilution.

  19. Painhrtz - Disobey! says:

    Grim and the funny thing most folks don’t realize is that large spills of short duration diluted over a huge area have minimal impact. Look at all the Mississippi Floods based on what environmetalists believe the Mississipi Valley should be a chemical wasteland. It is those log duration spills, see Kalama (Kalamity) chemical NJ, Love Canal NY, the entire hudson River below the GE plant, and in our own backyard the Passaic river. they do the most damage

  20. JJ says:

    Grim

    Bay Park in East Rockaway New York the entire sewerage plant that handles nearly all of Southern Nassau County caught fire during Sandy and sprayed raw sewerage on all the houses nearby for several days. Houses were coated in Poop

  21. chicagofinance says:

    “That takes away default risk.” You make sure of that lock-tight…..there is still Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI) -NYSE and Nokia the corporate entity is still going to be there, ONLY the handset assets are going to MSFT.
    Don’t get bait and switched!!!

    JJ says:
    September 16, 2013 at 9:37 am
    Chif Seriously, what do you think of these two bonds?. Both have duration risk. But both have been bought or are being bought by A rated companies. Nokia is Microsoft and Motorola is google. That takes away default risk. Both are callable but the yield is pretty good. Mortorola was issued in 2007 at par when rates were a few hundred bps higher than now so that should withstand a few rate hikes.

    654902AC9
    Description NOKIA CORP MAKE WHOLE 06.62500% 05/15/2039
    Order Type Limit at $96.10

    Order: 620076BA6 – MOTOROLA INC NOTE CALL MAKE WHOLE 6.625% 11/15/2037 ISIN #US620076BA68 SEDOL #B28YMS9
    Order Type Limit at $100.44

  22. chicagofinance says:

    Yellen want FF at 0% until Sept 2016….

  23. Anon E. Moose says:

    JJ [21];

    Houses were coated in Poop

    The answer to that is “Neighborhood improvement. And you’re welcome.”

  24. Lurker says:

    @ChiFi 23 – Yellen want FF at 0% until Dec 2016, she will have to wait until after Hillary’s election don’t forget!

  25. cobbler says:

    Unfortunately, our homes and garages contain in aggregate way more hazardous chemicals than the industrial sites (except maybe large distribution facilities), and I think the actual environmental releases are tens of time greater from the private parties than from businesses. My company will be slapped with the large fine if our effluent going to the treatment plant would have any oil on surface, or if the pH is out of range. Nothing whatsover will be done with the individual dumping spent oil into the sewer. For that matter, if your factory emits more than a few pounds of e.g. toluene vapors a day, you are in trouble. Every gallon of many paints and varnishes sold in HD or anywhere else when drying releases a pound of toluene or so…

  26. JJ says:

    What is the rush?

    Seriously the old folk who roll five year CDs at the bank the fifth anniversary of ZIRP means 100% of their CDs have rolled over to near nothing.

    When I worked in the bank the coupon clippers would just keep re-rolling 5 year cds and have interest payments sent to them.

    That strategy worked for a long long time. In the past interest rates fell for only a short period of time, think 1993 or 2003-2005, you always had a few 5 year cds with high coupons to offset the one or two with low coupons. Now with all bonds with low coupons where do they go? They missed stock run and bonds that August run on the house was just a clue of what is going to happen in 2016 when rates really rise.

    Inflation at zero. Out by me with oil and electric bills way up combined with rising home and flood insurance and property taxes good luck claiming it is at 2% like SS says.

    chicagofinance says:
    September 16, 2013 at 11:05 am

    Yellen want FF at 0% until Sept 2016….

  27. grim says:

    Remember the days when you poured the jar of paint thinner down the drain after you were done washing the oil paint off your brushes…

  28. grim says:

    Why does nobody complain about the amount of active, unmetabolized drugs that are pissed down the drain (wastewater) every day by millions of Americans?

    I remember seeing an EU study that purported to be able to measure the amount of illegal drug use in a population by monitoring wastewater.

  29. Painhrtz - Disobey! says:

    grim the amount of free hormones and hormone analogs running around in wastewater is absolutely astounding.

    most topsoil contains enough arsenic to stop someone cold if you ingested enough of it.

    Way back when I worked in an enviro lab the crap just below toxic limits would frighten the holy hell out of most people we would just laugh it off.

  30. cobbler says:

    grim [28]
    There is no difference between dumping a can of paint thinner down the drain and using it as intended: in former case it (most of) will evaporate from the aeration tanks at the treatment plant, in the latter right in your home or yard. Either way, it ends up in NJ air.

  31. The Original NJ Expat says:

    Grim bought an iMac a while back because he hated Windows 8 so much…I’m installing Windows 8.1 *on* my Mac right now.

  32. grim says:

    32 – welcome to a whole new world of unproductivity

  33. JJ says:

    I like that absestos, lead, oil, bug killer, plant killer, batteries were piled six feet high down every block after Sandy for miles than a nine months later I see farmer markets selling organically grown local produce.

    Can soil full of absestos and lead be organic.

    DEC guy pumping out my basement said in Freeport Long Island the old victorians by the water built back in roaring 20s all have oil tanks in the basement, huge oil tanks. Those houses are like 4,000 square feet and have 50 year old windows.

    Since oil is lighter than water, 1,000 gallon tanks were shooting out of basements like cherry bombs rolling down the street. End of block is the famed nautical mile and folks are sitting there eating fresh seafood and lobsters from the water that a few million gallons of stuff was dumped in.

    I doubt that pouring a little bit of paint thinner down your toliet does anything.

  34. The Original NJ Expat says:

    Haven’t you heard? In Win 8.1 the start menu is back!

    Seriously though, I’m noticing a huge policy and strategy shift at Microsoft. IT pros have had access to TechNet subscriptions for years now where basically for $200/year (paid individually or by your company, doesn’t matter) you have access to LICENSED, non-expiring copies of every Microsoft product times 10 or so. I run an all Mac household but a $200 TechNet Subscription gives our family A.) OS software so everyone’s Mac can boot Win 7 or Win 8 or XP, B.) Microsoft Office Software for BOTH OS’s, and C.) All the Server software I could possibly need for my projects. I think Microsoft’s miscalculated notion was that if you give this little bit of graft to all the IT pros (managers and techies alike) that somehow we’ll increase their enterprise software sales. Unfortunately, they are late to realize that it is actually the lowest couple rungs on the SW development ladder that determines later IT direction and Server OS purchases (or lack thereof). All it takes is a couple rogue Microsoft haters to develop some good stuff with Ruby on Rails, Apache, Mongrel etc. and suddenly the most conservative organizations are building out open-source infrastructures to scale these creations on which Microsoft isn’t making a dime. Microsoft is now making some very smart moves:
    1. Terminating sale of TechNet subscriptions. No more free software, only evaluation copies. Subscriptions sales stopped at the end of August and they gave us all a 3 month severance on top of our current subscriptions, so I get free software until November 2014 and then the gravy train ends.
    2. They have created the best IDE out there with Visual Studio 2012 (out last August) and Visual Studio 2013 which is RC right now. And most versions are FREE and OPEN-SOURCE. Yes, free and open-source from Microsoft.
    3. They’re building community at ASP.net. Take a look at all the great resources there and then look at what’s missing. Almost no Microsoft branding.
    4. Offering frameworks for open source competitors libraries, built right into their product. Jquery, Twitter’s bootstrap, knockout.js., etc.

    I think this is a smart move by Microsoft. They have the cash and resources to create A.) The best development environment, B.) Make it open source, and C.) Give it away for free.

    They’re counting on developers accepting this productivity boom at zero cost to them and hoping that they take the Microsoft MVC 5 framework and build cool applications with it. If that happens, guess what happens next? Those applications don’t run (or scale) unless they run on Windows Servers with IIS Web Servers and usually SQL Server Databases.

    You want to sell toilet paper, not toilet seats.

    32 – welcome to a whole new world of unproductivity.

  35. Ben says:

    I remember seeing an EU study that purported to be able to measure the amount of illegal drug use in a population by monitoring wastewater.

    More of a testament to the extreme sensitivity of analytical chemistry than an actual concern. All of those drugs you consume are in quantities that are meaningless.

  36. grim says:

    Fracking liquids in floodwaters would be in quantities that are equally as meaningless, no?

  37. anon (the good one) says:

    good guesses y’all.

    CT is at $25,000
    NJ is at $70,000

    that’s why I can’t upgrade. plenty of houses under a million with a tax bill close to $30k!

    anon (the good one) says:
    September 16, 2013 at 8:28 am
    Grim,
    did you catch up Sundays NYT real estate section with recent closings in the 3 state area.
    well, highest priced house in CT and in NJ were almost identical prices at $3.7 million. Greenwich and Tenafly are the towns.

    guess the tax bill

  38. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    A-duh! How many Abbot districts are in CT? Just another example of rich white people not paying their fair share (of high salaries going to ineffective administrators, politicians, and addled family members, that is).

    good guesses y’all.

    CT is at $25,000
    NJ is at $70,000

  39. grim says:

    $3-4 million in high end Morris and Somerset are routinely in the $30-$40k range, I can even find a number of older/historic homes in high $20k range without too much work.

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  41. Anon E. Moose says:

    Re: Tax bills

    When I was shopping, I [briefly] tried comparing apples to apples in different towns with different tax bills by capitalizing the taxes — if there were no property taxes, how much more house would the T portion of my PITI buy? Consider a $14.4k tax bill — $1,200/mo. — at 4% for 30 yrs == $250k

    After I stopped puking, I stopped doing that so I could buy something.

  42. Comrade Nom Deplume, unpacking boxes for the foreseeable future says:

    It occurs to me that the silence over the Navy Yard shooting is deafening. Not just here but on my facebook page, which is overflowing with anon-type lefties.

    I figured by now the left would be capitalizing on the latest crisis, screaming about the gun culture, about yahoos from down south going postal from racist rage. Nope, nothing, zilch, zip, nada. Nary a peep.

    As it turns out, the shooter is a Brother from NYC (who moved to Texas not long ago so MSNBC calls him a Texan). He’s also former military (which in many otherwise liberal nanny-states still qualifies you for a permit to carry) and just started this contract at the Navy Yard. Also apparently a psycho who harbored a grudge against the Navy.

    Wonder if the fact that he doesn’t fit the Angry White Male stereotype, and his target was the military, are the reasons that the anons of the world are temporarily stunned into silence?

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  44. Comrade Nom Deplume, unpacking boxes for the foreseeable future says:

    MSNBC (yes, that network) is reporting that the shooter didn’t come in with an AR-15 or a pistol but recovered them during his rampage (probably from an SP since no one but SPs or MPs can carry on military bases). So what did he start with? A shotgun.

    Wasn’t that what Biden recommended?

  45. Fabius Maximus says:

    #21 JJ

    At least that sh1t was biodegradable. I get what people are saying about volume displacement, but there is a big difference between a few hundred home heating oil tanks floating off to a half million gallon storage tank full of who the F knows tipping over.
    Any of those storage tanks at the Newark Refinery tip over in Sandy.

  46. Fabius Maximus says:

    #46 redux

    and its not just a solitary tank tipping. They are toppling all over in this flood.

    Lets see if this is one of those ” of course the tank will be safe, the 100yr flood will never impact here! The flood waters will recede, but unlike like the Gulf or Sandy, the toxic sh1t wont be left on the sea bed.

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    Tenafly is for the kids!!!

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    Happy 5th anniversary Occupy Wall Street!!!

  54. chicagofinance says:

    Dick Fluid……hilarious…..

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  56. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    Me Chinese,
    Me play joke,
    Me put peepee in your comments.

  57. Fast Eddie says:

    Some agents say the biggest problem in the market is “seller greed”—that is, sellers pricing their homes too high, said Jim Klinge, a real-estate agent in Carlsbad, Calif. Faced with rising rates, buyers aren’t going for higher prices. “They don’t realize our 12- to 18-month full-tilt boogie is over,” he said.

    Why are people so small-minded and can’t comprehend anything long term? Even more so, why do people fall for a bullsh1t sales pitch over and over? I guess what I’m really asking is, why are there a greater number of m0rons as a percent of the population than ever before? And what’s the 30 yr. rate looking like? I assume it’s around 5%? Does it matter?

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  59. The Original NJ ExPat says:

    I guess what I’m really asking is, why are there a greater number of m0rons as a percent of the population than ever before?

    Moron population grows geometrically. The rest of the population barely meets the replacement rate.

  60. Anon E. Moose says:

    NJExPat [60];

    Idiocracy!

    http://youtu.be/icmRCixQrx8

  61. JJ says:

    Ok guys I have a guess the estimate question!!!!

    So New York State finally gets back to me on my Sandy grant. Sending an inspector from Florida up and he is looking at my house tomorrow.
    So I had to give them a list of work to be performed, See below.

    Then NYS told me get a licensed contractor on top of the state guy to give me a quote.

    Now I heard NYS calculates based on bare min standards. Formica countertops, stick on vinyl tiles, cheapest stuff possible. Think base model rent controlled place. That is first estimate. Then I have licensed contractor coming tommorrow. too.

    For my list of work to be done I bet the state will say something like 15k and contractor 115k. Then state based on income will give me most likely a percentage of the 15k. I don’t know why I bother. I am just hoping to get enough cash to sheetrock garage.

    I never did a full list of work to be done since Sandy. I did all emergency repairs after Sandy. Heat, Electric, Mold, but all the stuff like warped floors, warped cabinets, rusty doors I was told full stop dont touch. Until NYS and a licensed contractor looks I cant touch. My guy also left after emergency work was done and he is coming back Spring 2014 after he finishes a few other jobs.

    Kinda really annoying I cant even paint the stuff in my kitchen. Best is I still have curtains up in Florida junk room that is unheated. Water line is five feet high. I washed them but salt water stained them. Put them back us as NYS forced me to keep them up to “evidence” the damage.

    Only in NYS do you get this crap!!! I am in one way happy NYS waited. I thought I got all the mold and damage but stuff keeps popping up.

    Work to be performed
    Crawl Space
    Damage to Subfloor
    Clean foundation and floor fix cracks

    Den
    New Main Electrical Box and some wiring
    Replace Storm Door
    Vinyl siding repair outside Laundry Room

    Work to be Performed Main Level – Kitchen/Dining Room/Hallway
    Replace damaged trim main level (Kitchen, Living Room, Den, Hallway), Cut bottom three feet of sheet rock, on main level, living room, dining room, mold spray, new installation, tape and spackle and paint
    Floor to Ceiling Mirror in Dining room glued to wall needs to be demo’d to get to wet sheetrock etc behind it.
    Lower Kitchen Cabinets, pull kickboards, replace damaged wood and mold spray and reassemble. If not doable replace lower cabinets.
    Replace/Repair Damaged Oak floor LR/DR
    Replace Damaged and Cracked Tile in Entry way from subfloor shifting.
    Replace Front Screen Door that is rusty from salt and no longer hanging correctly due to water pressure
    Sliding door on main level by kitchen inoperable due to shifting, to be replaced. Has mold and wood rot issues too from flood.
    Remove Vinyl Siding behind Kitchen Cabinets and remove damaged wood/wet installation, cant get from front
    New Baseboard heating LR, DR, Kitchen (Salt Water damage, rusting. Etc,
    Paint main floor

    Crawl Space Under Kitchen Extension
    Mold Remedtion – Under kitchen crawl space under kitchen cabinets. 11×13 Extension has installation under neath. Space is enclosed, needs demo work, mold spray, and repair. Deck needs to be removed to get to. No access from inside house
    Replace damaged lumber in crawl space under extension under kitchen. Heavy damage, walls need to be shored up and beams replaced

    Garage
    Demo Garage, Spray for Mold, Resheet Rock Garage, insulation, Replace Cabinets fix electric, replace door between garage and Florida room/extension and fix garage door. Room is a 100% loss.

    Florida Room/Extension off Dining Room area
    Demo, spray for mold, new electric, fix floor, replace door and windows and resheetrock, insulate and paint enclosed 11 by 12 room off Den that was completely damaged. 100% loss
    Fix (cement work) buckled cement floor in 11 by 12 room off dining room area

  62. Anon E. Moose says:

    JJ [62];

    I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have my state tax dollars go to. Too bad I’m out here in NJ now — I get to subsidize the Abbott Family in Camden, Patterson and Newark instead.

  63. JJ says:

    Thanks!!!!

    But there is one big catch. I have to maintain flood insurance on my house. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Down after Katrina they gave folks 30K to fix their house without flood insurance with a few catches, must maintain flood insurance, home owners insurance and be current on mortgage and property taxes.

    Flood is on average 4k a year. New Orleans has not flooded since. Folks already paid back 8 years of flood insurance or 32K for their 30K hand out. The govt always wins.

    I am one of the few getting it. Only for primary home owners. Cant have taken a HELOC or SBA loan to fix repairs and must show evidence of work to be performed. 11 months later I am one of few cheapskates who still owns home, current on it and has unfixed repairs. Also form took me 8 hours to complete and I am good with forms.

    I also cant sell or rent my house for five years or I have to pay it all back.

    My neighbor down the block who is retired also applied. He said unless they give him 20K or more he is not doing it. The lien on house, the fact he cant sell or move or rent and forced flood insurance is too much. I bet lots of folks say that.

    The lien on house thing I spoke to a few neighbors over 65 and they are scared to have a lien put on house by NYS as they have house paid off. The younger folks with a 100% mortgage, HELOC, SBA loan etc could care less they have no equity.

    Once 5 years is up I have to drop flood again. My rates are going to go up 20% a year next five years. I am at $450 now. By year five it aint worth it anymore. I think NYS bought a lot of time by forcing us to buy flood for five years. But come year six with the planned increases we will have a ton of houses with no insurance all over again.

    Anon E. Moose says:
    September 17, 2013 at 1:08 pm

    JJ [62];

    I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have my state tax dollars go to. Too bad I’m out here in NJ now — I get to subsidize the Abbott Family in Camden, Patterson and Newark instead.

  64. Libtard in Union says:

    Insurance companies never lose. Just ask Buffet.

  65. Brian says:

    The injustice of New Jersey’s property-tax system: Couldn’t have said it better myself

    http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2013/09/couldnt_have_said_it_better_my.html

    Assemblyman Parker Space, a Republican who represents Sussex, Warren, and Morris Counties, sent me this analysis that mirrors everything I’ve written about the causes of our suburban property-tax crisis:

    Once again, Jersey City is looking for more tax breaks. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported: “Jersey City’s gleaming corporate towers and luxury residential skyscrapers were built in the past three decades with the aggressive use of tax breaks that helped transform its waterfront district.”

    Those tax breaks have made life easier for the corporations and millionaires who inhabit those “gleaming corporate towers and luxury residential skyscrapers,” but they have taken away tax revenues that could have gone to funding the education of the children of Jersey City. And because it is a so-called “Abbott District,” Jersey City acts as a vacuum cleaner, sucking up state education money that should help financially at-risk children across the state.

    The Wall Street Journal noted that Jersey City’s abatement program has been criticized by those who argue that the tax breaks that benefit “Wall Street commercial tenants and young professionals from New York City. . . starve the state and school districts of revenue and give local officials unregulated say over fiscal decisions affecting the rest of the state.” The newspaper goes on to report: “State Comptroller Matthew Boxer cited Jersey City in a 2010 report that found significant revenue was being lost through tax abatements. The city exempted property valued at roughly $2 billion at the time, leading to a loss of about $120 million in property taxes and $30 million in Hudson County revenues, the report found.”

    The state’s income tax money is collected to be used to fund education at the local level. That was the promise the elected politicians made when they imposed the state income tax 40 years ago. But then the unelected politicians got involved – in the form of the State Supreme Court. They did an end run around the solemn promise made to all taxpayers and spent most of our income tax money to pay for a handful of urban school districts — the so-called Abbott Districts.

    These districts are home to powerful political machines and well-connected corporations so that even as many have grown richer and able to afford to educate the children of their own communities they haven’t had to step up and put their hands in their pockets. Even after Democrat Governor McGreevey’s own Education Commissioner said that many Abbott Districts were too rich to justify getting our money and even after the Supreme Court’s own report said that half the financially at-risk children in the state lived outside these Abbott Districts – even then, the money still came and the rest of the state suffered.

    That’s why we can’t cut our property taxes in Sussex, Warren, and Morris Counties. Because so much of the money the state collects for education ends up supporting “gleaming corporate towers and luxury residential skyscrapers” in Abbott Districts, there is little left for our schools. And remember this: Every education dollar that isn’t funded by state income tax revenue must be made up for in higher property taxes. That’s why we need to put Fair School Funding at the forefront of the State’s legislative agenda for 2014-15.

    There are too many families in my home county in danger of losing their homes, needing the county food bank, and having to make a choice between paying the property taxes or health care. Sure we have trees, but you can’t eat trees – and the Highlands Act, which was forced upon us by a Democrat administration and a Democrat legislature, puts us at a big disadvantage with other counties when it comes to job creation.

    It is time for the Wall Street corporations who reside in places like Jersey City – firms like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch – to be good corporate citizens and accept responsibility for the communities in which they earn so much profit. Pay to educate the children of your community so that we can afford to pay to educate the children of our community.

    .

    Of course, this will all change once Chris Christie wins majorities in both legislatures this Nov. 5 and gets to implement his own property-tax reform plan.

    Anyone know what that is?

    So far, I haven’t heard.

  66. nwnj says:

    That Seaside boardwalk fire should scare sh!tless anyone living in a Sandy marinaded shack. That saltwater corrosion will be wreaking havoc for years. Sadly this won’t be the last fire.

  67. Brian says:

    The largest part of suburban and exurban property tax bills is…….

    Education

    Support equitable distribution of state school aid to all districts.

  68. nwnj says:

    Joyce, that’s 3-4 weeks old.

  69. Painhrtz - Disobey! says:

    Brian, I have been supporting Doherty’s fair school funding plan since I heard about sadly it ain’t gonna happen unless a miracle occurs or unicorns spread skittles outside of Brigadoon. In other words I’ll be playing ice hockey on the river styxx before it passes.

  70. Juice Box says:

    re: # 70- Never gonna happen the 10 Billion spent on Skool Aid keeps the inner cities from completely collapsing, just as our Wayne resident Michael. He is worried about where they will erect the barricades on Preakness Road and Central Ave to keep the Zombie hoards from reaching the Wayne Hills Mall where he will be manning a 50 cal on the roof.

  71. 1987 condo says:

    #69….bingo, unless you replace all wiring you will never no for sure, and it can happen any time….

  72. JJ says:

    Blame FEMA. People fix what they are paid to fix. Folks have fire insurance. So if house burns down you get a new one.

    My main breaker box was 2/3rd’s underwater for several hours. Did not reach main switch a few inches below it. I cleaned it with fresh water and soap the day after sandy. Replaced all the underwater breakers and then got LIPA to sign off. Legally I am allowed to do my own electrical repairs. I pulled some breakers a few weeks ago, little bit of rust underneath. I want to replace box but I have to wait till I get approval from New York State to do repairs otherwise no grant.

    There is lot of funky stuff going on. FEMA or NFIP did quick walkthroughs. I have two sliders starting to mold out and rust. But only started in August.

    Worse is there is no record of any of this. I dont have a single permit in my house. Not a single licensed contractor came. What I did looks great, what I did not do looks like crap.

    Hurricane season is coming. So I hope to get stuff fixed soon. I really really really want to fix this crap. It is really really really annoying that NYS wont let me fix it. There are going to be some nasty fires, mold spores etc. But then again if a flood hits again NYS if off the hook, folks like me can file flood claims. So no rush. But they are playing with fire

    But the state cant let folks do repairs and then claim they fixed things and put in for brand new kitchens and baths on the states dime.

    So folks like me sit and wait.
    1987 condo says:
    September 17, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    #69….bingo, unless you replace all wiring you will never no for sure, and it can happen any time…

  73. Richard says:

    I agree Jersey City could probably fund its own schools by now, but its wrong to say that JC is taking all the Abbott Money. Only numbers I could find were at below. Looks like JC took 10% of the Abbott budget. Newark takes the lion share, Paterson, Elizabeth, Camden, Trenton are huge too.

    http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2011/dec/01/chris-christie/Chris-Christie-claims-31-former-Abbott-districts-r/

  74. JJ says:

    Off to see the contractor!!! Wonder what the SOB will claim it costs to gut and resheetrock a one car garage!!!

    My few off the book guys quoted like $2,500. Wonder what a licensed contractor quotes?

    Scumbags. Other stuff I have no clue.

  75. Libtard at home says:

    The problem isn’t so much that Goldman isn’t paying for Bebo’s education. The problem is that, you could give Lloyd’s CEO compensation to Bebo’s classroom and he still won’t be any more educated. Yet we have to continue sending the lion’s share of our taxes to districts where education is not valued. I envy the schools in Irvington and Newark that I’ve seen. They have incredible labs, pools, athletic fields, etc. Meanwhile, my son’s classroom has no air conditioning and the PTA bought the smart boards.

  76. joyce says:

    Yup, can’t let a penny of money you don’t deserve go unstolen…

    76.JJ says:
    September 17, 2013 at 3:58 pm

    So folks like me sit and wait.

  77. ain't no Libtard at home says:

    The tribe for the tribe. Your boy is making more that many NJ counties combined. Then againt, the problem is Goldman.

    Libtard at home says:
    September 17, 2013 at 8:21 pm
    The problem isn’t so much that Goldman isn’t paying for Bebo’s education. The problem is that, you could give Lloyd’s CEO compensation to Bebo’s classroom and he still won’t be any more educated. Yet we have to continue sending the lion’s share of our taxes to districts where education is not valued.

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