From HousingWire:
1 in 5 homeowners still underwater at year’s end
Just under 1 in 5 homeowners are still underwater, according to the latest Zillow negative equity report, meaning they still owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
The national negative equity rate ended 2013 below 20% for the first time in years, dipping to 19.4% of all homeowners with a mortgage.
More than 9.8 million homeowners are still underwater nationwide.
The fourth quarter of 2013 is the seventh consecutive quarter that home values have risen, freeing almost 3.9 million homeowners nationwide in all of 2013.
The national negative equity rate fell from 27.5% of all homeowners with a mortgage as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, and 21% in the third quarter.
But while negative equity is slowly but surely receding, a number of factors will help ensure it remains a factor in the market for years to come.
“We’ve reached an important milestone as negative equity has fallen below 20% nationwide, which has helped free up marginally more inventory and contribute to further stabilization of the market,” said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. “But a number of headwinds will prevent negative equity from falling at the kind of sustained, rapid pace we need before the market can completely return to normal, and it remains roughly four times what it is in a healthier market. High negative equity is just another sign of how distorted the market continues to be, and how far we still have to go on the road back to normal.”
First good morning Mike
#50 joyce (previous thread)
Some light reading for you. http://www.caselaw4cops.net/searchandseizure/traffic.htm
@billmaher: Ironic Arizona ruled gay men can shop sans discrimination, cuz if you ever shopped with a gay man, they’re the ones who are discriminating
Turning the corner. As I predicted back in 2008, By the 2016 election, the country will be in good shape for the D’s to hold the WH.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/business/economy/federal-deficit-falls-to-smallest-level-since-2008.html?_r=0
[4] Fabian
Smoke and mirrors. Look for entitlement spending in the federal budget. Let me know what you find.
Also, consider how the deficit would look if Dems were unconstrained by the House and sequester. In essence, you are taking credit for the results of a scenario that you bitterly opposed.
@BloombergTV: BREAKING: S&P 500 closes at record high 1,854
Wouldn’t congress be responsible for that?
4.Fabius Maximus says:
February 28, 2014 at 7:46 am
Turning the corner. As I predicted back in 2008, By the 2016 election, the country will be in good shape for the D’s to hold the WH.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/business/economy/federal-deficit-falls-to-smallest-level-since-2008.html?_r=0
Wouldn’t congress be responsible for that? Couldn’t it be argued that the party of “no” in the house is to thank?
4.Fabius Maximus says:
February 28, 2014 at 7:46 am
Turning the corner. As I predicted back in 2008, By the 2016 election, the country will be in good shape for the D’s to hold the WH.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/business/economy/federal-deficit-falls-to-smallest-level-since-2008.html?_r=0
sorry for the double post. I recieved a server hangup message at first and my comment disappeard for a while…
Brian shhh Clinton was responsible for deficit reduction in the 90’s, not the fact that he had to be brought there kicking and screaming for survival.
Same thing here and to Noms point where is all the entitlement spending, quantitative easing? Oh that is right not counted!
Expect to be no less than 30 minutes late this morning. Sad when the entire commute is supposed to be 31 minutes according to their timetable.
If it’s not in the twitter feed, then it’s not true.
If it’s not in the twitter feed, than it’s not true.
“All of them are untrue, but they’re being told all over America,” Harry Reid said, calling ads that characterize sky-rocketing premiums, dropped insurance plans and other negative effects of the law “absolutely false.”
So, now you’re calling people liars, d0uche?
[4] fabian
Further, and with all due respect to your prognosticating skills, predicting economic recovery after a crisis is like predicting a sunrise. Absent an extinction event, the ecosystem recovers. This is true in economics as it is in biology. The more relevant question would have been what growth would have looked like under a different administration or a different political situation.
Finally, enjoy the lull. This is from the 2/4 CBO release:
“Under that assumption, the deficit is projected to decrease again in 2015—to $478 billion, or 2.6 percent of GDP. After that, however, deficits are projected to start rising—both in dollar terms and relative to the size of the economy—because revenues are expected to grow at roughly the same pace as GDP whereas spending is expected to grow more rapidly than GDP. In CBO’s baseline, spending is boosted by the aging of the population, the expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance, rising health care costs per beneficiary, and mounting interest costs on federal debt. By contrast, all federal spending apart from outlays for Social Security, major health care programs, and net interest payments is projected to drop to its lowest percentage of GDP since 1940 (the earliest year for which comparable data have been reported).”
So discretionary and military spending is being cut, and that is good, but entitlement spending growth continues to outpace revenue growth. I know that this isn’t news but it does seem to be a conveniently overlooked factor, and one of no small consequence.
Then again, he represents what this is administration is all about; verbal abuse against the citizens of a once great nation with personal agendas.
[14] fast eddie,
I predict more of the same of this environment, and worse, until at least two members of Congress or the Administration are @ssassinated, and I mean clear politically-motivated, not random crime or nuthouse fodder like the guy who shot Giffords.
[6] anon,
>must. not. feed. the. troll< (biting tongue, ow, this hurts)
The Party of NO can not take credit on falling budget deficit. It is the increase in Tax Revenue that is getting us out of the hole. The deficit shut up because of lack of revenue during the crisis in the first place add to that the spending we need to keep the economy going.
“The sequestration automatic budget cuts have also cut spending. However, the January “fiscal cliff” deal, which locked in the Bush-era tax cuts largely offset these savings, according to the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group.”
But as Mr. Elmendorf and other experts point out, one of the reasons it is falling is because it shot up so high in the first place. As the financial crisis devastated the economy, tax revenues fell. Spending on unemployment insurance and other government recovery programs rose. In 2008, the deficit was about $458 billion. In 2009, it rocketed up to $1.4 trillion. It stayed above the trillion-dollar mark for 2010 through 2012.
As the economy has gradually recovered, those cyclical expenses have receded. Tax revenues have risen modestly along with the slowly rising gross domestic product. The FY 2013 shortfall should end up at around $642 billion, according to the CBO.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0916/Obama-Deficits-falling-at-fastest-rate-since-WWII.-Is-that-true
Nom,
It was a series of underlying inuendos for the past 6 years; now, they’re out in the open about their agenda. Some of us have been screaming it since the moment that @sshole decided to run for president. It’s now become blatant arrogant lies. People are struggling and suffering, dying for a positive message and he and his empress wife are arrogantly showing off their life of entitlement as he goes about creating class warfare. The behavior and attitude of this president and the SS he commands is deplorable.
#19
Add to that $24B lost in economic output during the shutdown
Fabu [4];
Wrong headline. Data screams “Obama economy endures fifth consecutive year of record deficits higher than any predecessor”. I suppose I might agree with the Times’ assessment after a nice cup of Kool Aid, though. Bottom’s up!
Add to that $24B lost in economic output during the shutdown.
There’s no such thing as “economic output” when you’re s.ucking someones t1ts to survive.
It was always the way, then and the future. No Government survives without sucking tits to survive
“There’s no such thing as “economic output” when you’re s.ucking someones t1ts to survive.”
[19] yome (and all the rest of the left)
Okay, it is abundantly clear that there are two views on the deficit and debt: The smoke and mirrors world of government accounting that includes “off budget” spending and treats intragovernmental borrowing as revenue, and reality, as measured by the debt (both public and intragovernmental).
It is this idiocy (in the traditional Greek sense) that created the problem in the first place. I’m going out of town for a few days; debate amongst yourself. I’m too tired for this.
No Government survives without sucking tits to survive.
So, then you agree that government has become more of a burden and obstacle than ever before.
26
I cant agree to that when federal taxes have been at the lowest the last 30 years and servicing our obligations have been growing. Someting has to give. Cutting budgets , economic growh bringing in more revenue together with inreasing taxes is the only way we can get out of this. Taking one out does not balance the equation. Just like cutting budget on Sequestration and giving tax breaks does not necessarilly bring more tax revenue due to a sound economy.
26 government become more of a burden
I cant agree to that when federal taxes have been at the lowest the last 30 years and servicing our obligations have been growing. Someting has to give. Cutting budgets , economic growh bringing in more revenue together with inreasing taxes is the only way we can get out of this. Taking one out does not balance the equation. Just like cutting budget on Sequestration and giving tax breaks does not necessarilly bring more tax revenue due to a sound economy.
Once again, you’ve proven that I’m no match for you intellectually. I gave it my best reading effort yet couldn’t find anything directly relating to the event we’re discussing. I do find it amusing, you probably don’t cause you’re my intellectual superior by an order of magnitude, that the very first case listed says point blank that probable cause is needed, which you dismissed from the beginning.
The other thing that was apparent was that a lot of the case summaries contradicted each other. It’s not surprising as they came from different locales and different circuits… not to mention they just ignore precedents when they feel like it, as I mentioned the other day.
Fabius Maximus says:
February 28, 2014 at 7:21 am
#50 joyce (previous thread)
Some light reading for you. http://www.caselaw4cops.net/searchandseizure/traffic.htm
Is this where I volunteer to assassinate Reid and Pelosi?
joyce (29)-
The guy is an intellectual maggot. Why engage with such a nitwit? His only fields of expertise are strawman and deathly dull minutiae.
Gary, I’m just waiting to see who will be assigned to mentor you when you join “My Brother’s Keeper”.
“In 2005, before the Great Recession, having student loans was a good indicator that a graduate also had a mortgage. Student loans usually indicated a higher level of education, a higher salary, and better credit-worthiness. Better-educated, higher-earning people were more likely to take have the capital and the wherewithal to take out a mortgage; but now, that dynamic has changed. Bigger debts mean college graduates are less likely to take out mortgages than they used to be, dampening economic growth. “Now that’s kind of gone away, that relationship,” Haughwout says. “Knowing that someone has student debt doesn’t tell you very much at all about whether they’re going to have a mortgage in spite of the fact that it probably still signals higher level of education.”
Is college still worth it? Yes, without a doubt. But you’re going to need a lot of patience and a lot of luck, class of 2014.”
http://business.time.com/2014/02/26/student-loans-are-ruining-your-life-now-theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/
Gary, call me. I have some tips on how you can convince the gubmint you’re black.
33- What’s the other option, college only for the rich? I have to think it’s better for a society as a whole, to have an educated population across all classes. Nothing good comes from a society, in which only the elite are educated.
Nothing good comes from a society in which the ignorant teach the ignorant, all in the name of perpetuating the Ponzi until it blows up in the face of a future generation.
Amerikan edumacation is nothing more than the last bastion of financialization.
We all know how this movie ends.
@NewsBreaker: LOOK, MA… OOPS!: Nevada Boy accidentally shoots his mom in the leg while showing off new gun http://t.co/BqtPgcPNWk – @TPM
lol…great response!
“Nothing good comes from a society in which the ignorant teach the ignorant, all in the name of perpetuating the Ponzi until it blows up in the face of a future generation.”
[29] joyce
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Fabian has one of these. You don’t.
http://store.mentalfloss.com/The-Week-Store/TW-Staff-Picks/TW-Law-School-in-a-Box#axzz2udqflt6C
[31] clot,
Actually, not that deathly dull.
I recall one discussion with Fabian in person and was rather surprised to find that, for all his liberalism, he is not especially enamored of the protections afforded by our Bill of Rights, notably the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments. For once, he sounded like the conservative and I the liberal (or libertarian). One thing we agree on is what the law says; what we may not agree on is whether precedent is correct, and what result should attend different facts (Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is extremely fact-dependent).
Fabian is looking at how the law is given court precedents, which draw the right as narrowly as possible. Joyce feels that such narrow and arbitrary rulings do violence to the language and spirit of the Fourth Amendment. They are both right.
Anyway, on that note, I am off for the weekend. Won’t be near a computer much. Try not to kill each other. Well, with one notable exception . . . .
Back briefly to share this one story which I found as inane as it was informative:
http://economy.money.cnn.com/2014/02/28/housing-inequality/
Where’s Occupy Housing anyway? Get anon on this, stat!
42- Thanks for that share. Amazing visual graphs! Anyone take a look at graph of the country in 2010? What it tells me, that energy pushed Texas and the Dakota’s to come out of the crash first. I hate people that promote the texas model as some amazing economical breakthrough, that the rest of the country should follow. You are sitting on a lottery ticket called fossil fuels, your economic model is not some cutting edge breakthrough that the rest of the country needs to follow.
Watched a great video the other day, Silicon Valley.
Story about a bunch of engineers who transformed the industry.
One guy was one of the original inventors of the transistor.
He started a company by picking up the best engineers in their field
Next he received the Nobel prize, turned into a douche, and all of the engineers left.
They all then started their own companies, men went to the moon on their skills, etc.
Now our best and brightest make Facebook and Instagram.
Our kids are being mined for data and manipulated thru their ” likes” on these predatory sites.
Only thing you can buy that’s American made is a WeatherTech floormat.
Or some of Grim’s booze.
The incredible stock-picking ability of SEC employees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/27/the-incredible-stock-picking-ability-of-sec-employees/
I need more targets for my hatred.
Make sure you check both graphs. No surprise that most of the affluent locations are in Cali and north jersey. You see that fast eddie? This graph shows exactly what I have been telling you, north jersey is a special place for real estate. It’s one of the wealthiest locations in the world.
Everything is on the coasts, and this graph shows it in a very cool way.
The end is nigh, Princeton edition.
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2014/02/new_york_times_columnist_paul_krugman_announces_retirement_as_princeton_professor.html
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman announces retirement as Princeton professor
I bet you being a professor gets in the way of where the real money is. He’s probably going for full time partisan hack in some position.
Only thing I want to see about Krugman is his obit.
33- What’s the other option, college only for the rich? I have to think it’s better for a society as a whole, to have an educated population across all classes. Nothing good comes from a society, in which only the elite are educated.
This is a false idea that I hear thrown around a lot. There aren’t enough rich people to populate our top notch universities. Cut off the government funding, allow them to default on loans in bankruptcy, and you’ll see tuition prices collapse to something reasonable.
@Sethisfy: Apple’s hobby dwarfs entire businesses. But yeah Apple’s a dying company. RT @asymco: Hobby http://t.co/DVizK5NMgV
@asymco: Where Apple TV’s $1 billion revenues can be found: (17% of the grey area over last 4 quarters) http://t.co/sDhL21drwp
@MicahGrimes: NEW: Multiple people shot at a tax preparation office in Detroit – @wxyzdetroit – http://t.co/i9Kp1wNbR8 http://t.co/o17ay8yf6K
Robot [49];
Only thing I want to see about Krugman is his obit.
Or his divorce. His wife really wears the Mao suit in that family.
@Jermolene: Wow. Google’s transformation is now complete; they are apparently so blind to irony that they’ve rereleased Clippy http://t.co/FOUveNhZEm
Or his divorce. His wife really wears the Mao suit in that family.
Family? It’s him, his wife, and their cats.
[48] Ben,
Or perhaps being surrounded by one percenters and their offspring was getting a tad uncomfortable. He lacks cred when he spouts soc1alism yet lives in leafy, tony Princeton.
I predict that he takes up new digs in Montklair.
Some news: I have informed Princeton that I will be retiring at the end of next academic year, that is, in June 2015. In August 2015 I will join the faculty of the Graduate Center, City University of New York, as a professor in the Ph.D. program in economics. I will also become a distinguished scholar at the Graduate Center’s Luxembourg Income Study Center. You can read all about it in the Graduate Center’s announcement.
None of this will have any effect on my work at the New York Times, so unless you’re just curious about the guy behind the column and blog, you needn’t read further.
So, why am I doing this? It is in no sense a commentary on Princeton, which has been a wonderful place for me professionally and personally. In particular, I can’t praise Princeton’s intellectual quality enough: it has been a great honor to be affiliated with a superb public policy school and an equally superb economics department.
Instead, my move reflects some hard thinking about how I can best make use of my time.
Fairly obviously, the center of gravity of my work has shifted over time toward more of a public policy focus; and of course I also have a fairly unusual role as an academic who is also a columnist at the world’s greatest newspaper. Meanwhile, I’m now 61, and I realized that it’s time to take a hard look at where I really want to be at this point.
In terms of geography, the answer seemed clear on reflection: somewhere near Zabar’s New York is the best place to pursue my current interests. Given that decision, I sought an academic base.
Here too the answer seemed clear: more and more of my work has focused on issues of income inequality, and nobody does more important work producing the hard data on which all of this work relies than the Luxembourg Income Study, directed by Janet Gornick, professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of CUNY. So I approached Janet about the possibility of some kind of affiliation with LIS that would give me both an office and the ability to interact with the excellent group LIS has assembled in New York.
That is indeed going to happen, but to my surprise the Graduate Center offered me a faculty position as well, which I quickly realized would be a wonderful thing. The Graduate Center is a remarkable locus of public affairs-oriented scholarship, and is in the process of assembling an incredible team associated with LIS. I couldn’t imagine a better place for me at this point; I also, to be honest, like the idea of being associated with a great public university.
There you have it: anon is Krugman. Should have guessed.
So I am in Scranton, PA, in some fleabag Fairfield Inn because the wife wanted to go skiing this weekend. So you stay in fleabag Marriott in Scranton because the hotels closer to the slopes are worse.
It’s my first time in Scranton, the city that gave the world Joe Biden. Funny how that isn’t exactly trumpeted out here. I suppose I’d be embarrassed to admit it too.
The hotel us in a strip mall but there is a silver lining. Gander Mt is next door. Gonna see if they have any ARs at reasonable prices.
Joyce and clot, this is for you:
http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/fbi-interrogated-man-after-comment-about-american-police-state-on-facebook/