From Vanity Fair:
The Hamptons Housing Market Is Getting Clobbered by Wall Street Jitters
IIt’s beginning to look a lot like springtime in the Hamptons. Frost has cleared from the dunes; landscape artists are tending to hedge-grow after the wilds of winter on the east end of Long Island; and if you listen hard enough, you can hear the sound of 1,000 tricked-out Range Rovers rolling into town.
But a cool wind is blowing through the elite enclave, as Wall Street fears send a chill through a real-estate market that, until recently, has been white hot.
Home sales in the Hamptons, a second-home hub for financiers, New York’s famed families, and actual famous people alike, has fallen to its lowest level in three years, as concerns over global markets in the first quarter of 2016 kept buyers at bay.
The market was hit by a swift one-two punch at the start of the year: a slowdown in China and anemic oil prices caused the S&P 500 to suffer its weakest start to a year since 2009, and Wall Street bonuses—a major source of funding for high-end home purchases—took a blow, too. Hedge funds were coming off a dismal year and continued to bleed well into the first quarter, while lay-offs in the banking sector have continued apace.
All of this led the number of Hamptons home sales to tumble 19.2 percent in the three months through March year-over-year, according to a report published Thursday by real-estate company Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel. At the same time, the median sales price fell 2.8 percent to $895,000 from a year earlier.
Sales of luxury homes—anything listed for at least $4.05 million—fell 30 percent to 45 deals in the first quarter, according to the report. On the even higher end, the number of purchases at or above the $10 million mark fell to 9 from 13 from a year earlier.
Good Morning New Jersey
plume (from 124 yesterday)-
I’ll be wearing my Wijnaldum shirt.
“We didn’t discuss this place once expect to promise Gator that I’ll be dragging Splat to an alcohol related event at gunpoint.”
If you want an anecdote to explain why NJ and the schools get a rap for being cesspools look no further.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/crime/morris-county/2016/04/21/former-mt-olive-boe-member-defrauded-school-district-us-attorney/83347514/
The guy was a school board member and ALSO brokered the town’s health insurance. How corrupt is that relationship being both a vendor and a school board member? I wonder what order those two things occurred in.
This guy diverted the invoices to his own address rather than the school and apparently no once noticed which allowed this to go on for a few years. MIND BOGGLING.
Oh, by the way the superintendent who claims to have no knowledge that even an investigation occurred and can’t answer even the most basic facts about the situation is also a consultant apparently brokering for education companies to NJ public schools.
Is it any wonder when these superintendents get sweetheart deals from these school boards? They’re apparently front men witting-or-unwitting in some cases. It also makes you wonder what percent of the school budget statewide is simply stolen right off the top from the board of ed office(10, 20, 30%)?
The sad thing is, my experience is that the residents will be more up in arms if the teachers negotiate a 2 percent raise. I remember someone bilked my district out of 3 million. Not a peep. I heard more noise about us trying to negotiate a 2% raise which was essentially a 5% pay decrease given the other things we had to do.
[4] No one really despises industrious thieves. That is the true American Dream.
[2] splat
The really sad thing is now we need the Gooners to beat Norwich and the SMBs.
The idea of cheering on Fabius’ team is making me sick to my stomach. And that he’ll be cheered by that makes me sicker still
Nice day outside today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP38Z1QfkYw
plume (6)-
Last time we went down, we got 100 points and went right back up.
I’ll never pull for the Gooners.
Can this really happen here?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-19/the-sub-zero-club-getting-used-to-the-upside-down-world-economy
@SenSanders
You want to know something that is radical:
You are living in the only major country that doesn’t guarantee health care as a right.
Is this a scam?
Just got a notice that “they” are lowering my mortgage rate 50 basis points. That lowers my interest paid by about $265 a month. Don’t know all the details yet, if it is a new loan commitment or not. We shall see, I am thinking scam for now, but they did seem to have all of my mortgage details.
Mortgages are public record, beware, could be phishing. My advice call a phone number, don’t click through.
So this sunny Sunday, before turning on the Caps/Flyers with my boys, I went to a storage unit. I leased it since at the time of my divorce my ex- and I had literally a ton of stuff still in storage in CT from when we had initially moved overseas. As the marriage melted down when we got back there was no reason to get it, and when I had to take delivery last year it was just easier to jam it in a unit. It waited 20 years, what the he11, could wait some more.
So, LOL, freaking time capsule. Items as far back 1987. Nothing after 1997. Train pass with photo from ’93 (damn, I was good looking 25 years ago!).
A ton of real estate stuff.
Tossed a lot, brought the RE materials home. Going to browse them tonight. Some Lands & Home, Coldwell magazines, MLS listings from brokers. I’ll crack some Goose and either lol or cry over values.
[9] Mike
Short answer: No
Well I’m on the Downeaster Alexa
And I’m cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
But tonight I am Nantucket bound
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner’s Bay
Like all the locals here I’ve had to sell my home
Too proud to leave I’ve worked my fingers to the bone
So I could own my Downeaster Alexa
And I go where the ocean is deep
There are giants out there in the canyons
And a good captain can’t fall asleep
I’ve got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there’s fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren’t what they used to be
But I’ve got people back on land who count on me
So if you see my Downeaster Alexa
And if you work with the rod and the reel
Tell my wife I am trawling Atlantis
And I still have my hands on the wheel
Now I drive my Downeaster Alexa
More and more miles from shore every year
Since they tell me I can’t sell no stripers
And there’s no luck in swordfishing here
I was a bayman like my father was before
Can’t make a living as a bayman anymore
There ain’t much future for a man who works the sea
But there ain’t no island left for islanders like me
Grim,
I hear playing that song makes the Amazon Echo explode.
Grim [14];
Nice choice.
In other anon “raise the mimimum wage” news…
WSJ reports that restaurant chain Bob Evans will lay off 1100 workers.
I miss Arthur Treacher’s.
Google shows an Arthur Treacher’s in Stroudsburg.
Fish has gotta be pretty damn old by the time it gets there…
This comment gets it.
“Only a fool would think that conditions won’t deteriorate again once workers stop banding together. The decrease in union membership and the increase in income inequality, caused by stagnant wages, is highly correlated. People didn’t care when it was the grocery clerks who saw their jobs go from having their jobs go from being decent work to minimum wage and without benefits, because they thought “well, you should have gotten an education.” What they didn’t realize is that once you start to hollow out the trunk, the rest of the tree dies. Eventually, once they can’t suck the lower rung jobs dry any further, they start coming for the mid tier jobs like at Verizon, and once they are done there they’ll come for the higher tier jobs. Only a fool would think that their wages aren’t influenced by what lower wage workers make. ”
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/04/what_nj_labor_leader_says_about_verizon_strike_pub.html#incart_river_home_pop
What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?
Supplies!
@SenSanders
Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.
It’s simple.
We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour.
[22],
Raising the minimum wage will likely increase goods and services proportionally to maintain revenue and profit. Is that ok with you?
God hates the poor.
no true
“Raising the minimum wage will likely increase…”
[25],
So, if you’re a small business owner with 60 employees and are forced to increase payroll expense by 90%, that would be acceptable, correct?
Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.
So it’s ok for them to work 0 hours and live in poverty?
anon,
Let’s say you own a McDonalds franchise and you currently pay your workers $8.38 per hour. Starting next week, you have to pay them $15.00 per hour. How do you make up the difference in cost?
The profit margin on a franchise is small. So, fewer employees, higher prices…and fewer people opening franchises or small businesses. Let’s add more regulations and costs to the burdens of opening a small business. No wonder fewer and fewer new ones open each year.
In their eyes, when you sell a Big Kahuna Burger Combo for $7.99 – that $7.99 is all profit to the business owner.
$15 an hour to a 16 year old flipping burgers?
What they don’t realize is the average fast food franchise profit margin is like 3%.
So that $7.99 Big Kahuna combo represents $0.24 profit.
So, assuming 5 employees, just to cover the increased wage, they would need to sell 138 more Big Kahuna combos, every single hour, and those 138 combos don’t represent any additional profit, they are needed to simply cover the cost.
So in reality, there is zero ability to cover increased wage costs through “profit sharing”.
anon? We’re awaiting your response.
Anon is waiting for twitter. What’s new?
You have it all wrong. There are fewer and fewer small businesses because they are getting destroyed by the huge corporations. What do you have to say about that?
Since when is McDonald’s a small business?
Now Spanky, be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 1:30 pm
The profit margin on a franchise is small. So, fewer employees, higher prices…and fewer people opening franchises or small businesses. Let’s add more regulations and costs to the burdens of opening a small business. No wonder fewer and fewer new ones open each year.
You know, I could really go for a Big Kahuna Burger Combo right now…
It better be small. Do you know how many items they sell in a day?
Now Spanky, be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 1:30 pm
The profit margin on a franchise is small. So, fewer employees, higher prices…and fewer people opening franchises or small businesses. Let’s add more regulations and costs to the burdens of opening a small business. No wonder fewer and fewer new ones open each year.
The individual franchise owner is the small business owner. And, the $15 minimum wage will apply to all businesses, no? Or only the ginormous corporate ones? Oh, wait…don’t the ginormous corporations usually pay off the politicians to write exemptions into these laws? Like all the big businesses that were exempted from the very ironically named Affordable Care Act?
Is that so? How come when workers are replaced with more efficient automation, the price doesn’t come down? Doesn’t work both ways? Why?
Fast Eddie says:
April 25, 2016 at 12:34 pm
[22],
Raising the minimum wage will likely increase goods and services proportionally to maintain revenue and profit. Is that ok with you?
Why should the profit margin be small? If people are willing to pay the price, then let them.
A lot of mcd’s are corporate owned and if they are franchise owned, how many franchises does the owner own?
And yes, the giant corporations hijack the govt with it’s money and legions of lobbyists, and use it to crush its competition….small biz
Now Spanky be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:18 pm
The individual franchise owner is the small business owner. And, the $15 minimum wage will apply to all businesses, no? Or only the ginormous corporate ones? Oh, wait…don’t the ginormous corporations usually pay off the politicians to write exemptions into these laws? Like all the big businesses that were exempted from the very ironically named Affordable Care Act?
Regarding the price of goods that are made by robots, just take a look at the relative price of a television set. Care to look up the price of a television set in 1960 and compare it to 2016?
Let me teach you how it works. They lower the profit margin to take out their competition (small business) because they can sell so many more products than your avg small business that can’t survive on those profit margins. They don’t have small profit margins because they are barely getting by, quite the opposite. So go back and think over the situation again.
Now Spanky be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:21 pm
Why should the profit margin be small? If people are willing to pay the price, then let them.
Lame example. What tv’s are cheap? Outdated ones? How about the new ones? Couple of thousand dollars. So what is your point?
Now Spanky be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:22 pm
Regarding the price of goods that are made by robots, just take a look at the relative price of a television set. Care to look up the price of a television set in 1960 and compare it to 2016?
Who cares if some franchises are corporate owned or if some franchise owners have more than one franchise? The point is still the same – nearly doubling the minimum wage will have a negative effect on small businesses.
How come when workers are replaced with more efficient automation, the price doesn’t come down?
The so-called efficient automation is to offset the increase in payroll, among other things. Machines are consistent, show up for work every day, on time and don’t f.uck up. Also, do you think the automation is free? There’s no cost to purchase, lease, maintain and run? And what about the increases in insurance, regulation fees, white privilege fees and taxes?
Yes, but what negative effect will come from paying your workers too low a percentage of the profit pie?
An owner of a car manufacturer wished that he could replace all his workers with robots to build the cars, but he then thought to himself, who will buy my cars?
Now Spanky be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:27 pm
Who cares if some franchises are corporate owned or if some franchise owners have more than one franchise? The point is still the same – nearly doubling the minimum wage will have a negative effect on small businesses.
who will buy my cars?
Those who have the skills or education that will enable them to earn a salary.
I can go to best buy and pick up a very nice Sharp led for $149. A black and white tv in 1959 cost $259.99. Average salary in the US are$53,657, back in 1960 it was $5315. I would include the links to where I found all this lovely data but I already lost them somewhere in the black maw of moderation. Now, does Mother also have to figure out the percentages for you? Does Mother have to explain how automation reduces cost? (drops mic, goes back to work).
Regarding profit margin Pumpkin says:
“It better be small. Do you know how many items they sell in a day?”
This statement is AWESOME.
What about the people that don’t?
Fast Eddie says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:39 pm
who will buy my cars?
Those who have the skills or education that will enable them to earn a salary.
Like I said, lame example. Sharp led for $149 isn’t a good deal, it’s basically throwing your money away on garbage. It’s such old technology and you are over here bragging that it is a $149. Why do you think it’s so cheap? It’s garbage. They will take what they can get; milk that old tech for all its worth.
Now Spanky be reasonable says:
April 25, 2016 at 2:40 pm
I can go to best buy and pick up a very nice Sharp led for $149. A black and white tv in 1959 cost $259.99. Average salary in the US are$53,657, back in 1960 it was $5315. I would include the links to where I found all this lovely data but I already lost them somewhere in the black maw of moderation. Now, does Mother also have to figure out the percentages for you? Does Mother have to explain how automation reduces cost? (drops mic, goes back to work).
You know what I meant. I’m not the best with my wording.
homeboken says:
April 25, 2016 at 3:31 pm
Regarding profit margin Pumpkin says:
“It better be small. Do you know how many items they sell in a day?”
This statement is AWESOME.
What about the people that don’t?
They take a bus or a train.
My point is that automation brings down the price of goods. Econ 101.
Anona-pumpkin [29];
@SenSanders
Nobody who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty.
It’s simple.
We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour.
Yeah, those upper middle class teenagers driving mom’s hand-me-down bimmer to work after school have to pop for premium unleaded.
Blumpkin style justice..give me $15 an hour or I’ll kill you!
http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/04/parish_brothers_assaulted_their_employer_after_being_denied_pay_raise.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Fast food place near where I work in the city had one of those obnoxious union-backed “fight for 15” protests a little while back. Last week heading in to work one morning noticed the place had been completely gutted overnight, today there’s a “for lease” sign in the windows. At least those workers are now spared the indignity of working for less than $15/hour. Most of the other local chain places have replaced all but 1 or 2 of the order takers with touchscreens in the last few months. Sure, automation may bring the price of goods down. Or, it may just be reducing the amount of the increase.
gary (28)-
Serve hamburgers made of rat meat.
“Let’s say you own a McDonalds franchise and you currently pay your workers $8.38 per hour. Starting next week, you have to pay them $15.00 per hour. How do you make up the difference in cost?”
bystander (58)-
They fukin’ kneecapped their boss. Pure Upstate, that story…