From CNBC:
Pending home sales fall unexpectedly in November
Contracts to buy previously owned homes fell unexpectedly in November, the National Association of Realtors said on Friday, the latest sign of weakness in the U.S. housing market.
The NAR’s pending home sales index decreased 0.7 percent from the prior month to 101.4. October’s index was unrevised.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast pending home sales to rise 0.7 percent last month.
Pending home contracts are seen as a forward-looking indicator of the health of the housing market because they become sales one to two months later.
Compared to one year ago, pending sales were down 7.7 percent in November, the eleventh straight year-over-year drop.
…
Groundbreaking for new homes also rebounded in November, but completions on single-family homes fell for a third straight month to their lowest level in more than a year.
Slight increase in the Northeast this month, but still down 3.5% year over year. Northeast showing the smallest year over year decline at this point – compare to the West region, which is down 12.2%.
We’ve had a decent run. Time to hunker down again. Happiness and success to all who dwell here in the new Year.
U.S. population growth fell to an 80-year low last year amid declining birth rates, a new Census report shows. But it’s also telling that some states are booming while others are suffering a European-style sclerosis of population loss and slow economic growth.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-tax-state-exodus-11546037709?emailToken=99519f91bc61fe18c3a915483642ee34r3UTq1bPRPsF83DUJkKyWw1yKQGqtXwaVaEUSBMyZ4cmO+B4ylmH5f7yyKgn4MIAmETXZ6/Az0UEiKRqCsRU6A%3D%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share
While California’s population continues to grow because of its relatively high birth rate and foreign immigration, other states that are hostile to business have been less blessed. Nine states lost population last year including Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, West Virginia and Wyoming. Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wyoming are heavily depen-dent on the vagaries of energy prices, but the economic malaise in Connecticut, Illinois, Hawaii and New York is self-inflicted.
These population shifts mean that several states including New York, Illinois and Minnesota are likely to lose House seats after the 2020 reapportionment. States that have been rapidly adding population like Arizona, Florida and Texas are likely to increase their representa-tion. It’d be nice to think this would finally prompt Democratic politicians to rethink their anti-growth policies. But with state political cultures dominated by public unions and welfare spend-ing, they probably require a much deeper crisis to face reality.
Another comment on Bergenfield from yesterday. Bergenfield had 4 kids commit suicide back in 1987. Parents around the country were freaking out that Ozzie Osborne’s “suicide solution” was to blame. I think the parents of those kids even tried to sue Ozzie. If those parents only knew the lyrics of today
A special shoutout: https://youtu.be/pYupSHWEJxA
Problem with lyrics?
Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks, lick on these nuts and suck the d&ck. – Snoop Dog
I really can’t stay (Get over that old out), Baby it’s cold, Baby it’s cold outside, Okay fine, just another drink then. That took a lot of convincing! – Frank Loesser
If you don’t understand why one is acceptable, and one is toxic male misogyny, you are a loser.
Grim, not sure if you are replying to me. And not sure where the comment is coming from. Little groggy on 2-3 hours of sleep a day. What I meant to explain, but perhaps did not as I have not slept in a few weeks working and juggling care for a sick parent is that the music lyrics of the 80,s seemed tame in comparison to today’s lyrics and not just inrap music but also in pop music today. Yes there was death metal which glorified killing but it was more fringe.
I do remember sister Clare slamming the radio off at the 8 th grade dance when “like a virgin “ came on. Never seen a nun run across a room so quickly.
On another note thinking of how times changed. In the 80s the Bergenfield burnouts (today’s outsiders) created a pack and committed suicide in a garage. Flash forward 10 years later and the school outcast kills his classmates and then takes his own life .
Cultural sensitivity to lyrics being “bad” or being the cause of behavior, despite the idiocy of the claim. Same nonsense today as back then. AC/DC were satanists and Bing Crosby made date rape ok.
Aside – Lots of Jersey towns have their dark little secrets of teens doing shitty things.
Hail Mary murder in Clifton, Glen Ridge football team, etc etc
I wonder what Sister Clare thought about Turning Japanese.
From the Vapors:
“The Americans seemed to think it was written about that. That it was an English phrase about m*sturbation. It wasn’t. The song was a love song about someone who had lost their girlfriend and was going slowly crazy — turning Japanese is just all the cliches of our angst… turning into something you never expected to.”
If I remember correctly only one of the teens who committed suicide was actually from Bergen field but that whole thing accelerated the decline of Bergen field.
The rap lyrics today are far worse than anything back in the 80s. You can’t complain about baby it’s cold outside and simply ignore rap lyrics depiction of women.
Alcohol and cocaine addicted dropouts, sisters were underage too, a crime today for sure.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/23/nyregion/tracing-the-tragic-path-to-four-teen-age-suicides.html
Expat, by radio I also meant boom box. No fancy dj at the 8th grade dance just a boom box and each kid brought in a tape of what to play. Quiet riot or Rat -hurricane were the class favorites. The like a virgin tape was snuck in when no one was looking probably labeled as something else. The whole shin ding was almost canceled after that. Sister was very upset someone pulled that stunt.
I remember that. In 88, they had us going through a ton of safety lessons/videos on train track safety. I witnessed a lot of kids do dumb shit on those tracks when I was in 3rd and 4th grade walking to the baseball card shop at Corner Square. We looked at house about 7 or 8 years back and it had a freight train 100 ft behind. I vetoed it, not because of the noise…but because of all the shit I saw go on at those tracks.
A kid was jumping on and off the train once when it was going at low speed. He fell off and it ran over and severed his foot. Another kid that lived down the block from me, he was riding his moped along side the tracks. The train came upside him and sucked him under.
Here is Grammy nominated Cardi B’s Bodak Yellow for best rap and rap performance.
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/cardi-b/bodakyellow.html
Either I’m fukcin old as sh1t or the youth today is more brain injured than my little brain cancer survivor.
12:13 they did Baby it’s Cold Outside at my
Kid’s High School Variety show this year. Never been so proud.
BRT. We used to jump on and off the freight trains with our BMX bikes in hand. They used to run really slowly along Main Street in Old Bridge down by Duhernal. We used to ride them all the way down to Cheesequake St. Park. What hell is a cheesequake by the way?
That Cardi B nomination is a GRAMMY nomination.
She was interviewed by Howard Stern and was so dumb that she didn’t realize he was playin’ her the entire time.
Cardi B, I guess future wedding song!
BRT , I remember the social workers coming to our high school as it was also blue collar (we didn’t have blue ribbob back then) . They pulled us into groups of 10 to discuss our feelings emotions etc. remember writing a poem or story of some sort about life and what it means to us. This was probably analyzed and kids who fell into a category probably received additional “screening”.
As for ac /dc worshipping the devil. You have to remember grim at the time they were arresting day care workers for running devil worshiping rings and using children at the centers. There were supposedly entire day care devil networks throughout the country. I think they tore down a center and dug up the foundation looking for the secret devil room shrine. You tell that to people now and they think it was 1692 not 1985. I even shake my head reading it thinking were we as a society that backwards ? I mean we had the space shuttle. I can only imagine when we look back on 2018 30 years from now and say my god what were they thinking.
Since this is also a RE blog, let me ask the gurus this. Does it make sense to buy and hold 5ish acre lot in PA for 20+ years? Budget is 250k tops. I understand lost opportunity and all that.
I’d buy land in Costa Rica.
Do not buy land as a long term investment. Not only lost opportunity but no cash flow. Property taxes and liability insurance every year. Unlikely appreciation will keep pace with inflation in what I assume will be a rural market.
Thanks for your insights Lib and 30yr.
I just got back from spending time at a friend’s place in rural GA. She has a couple of horses and a bunch of other pets… On a 5.5acre lot. She purchased it for 150k..anf her neighbors lot of about the same is up for sale.
I have no interest in going back to GA.. And started looking into what such a retirement would be here in NJ or PA.