It’s a bargain, darling.

From the NY Post:

Beach bargains: Hamptons luxury home prices are dropping

After numerous record-breaking, pandemic-fueled, $100-million-plus mega-mansion sales, the hyped up Hamptons may have finally hit a wall. 

The number of East End home sales fell to their lowest level in 14 years in the first quarter of the year, according to Douglas Elliman. 

Meanwhile, the median home price saw a 7.6% decline, down to its lowest point since 2019, according to Town & Country Real Estate.

“The overall feeling is that there are buyers and that there is still demand,” says Scott Bradley, a Hamptons specialist with Saunders & Associates. “I think inventory is the leading culprit of the sluggish sales we’ve seen.”

Most of the trophy homes that traded during the pandemic remain happily occupied, leaving little for hungry buyers to choose from. And many have taken a wait-and-see approach due to soaring interest rates, a shaky stock market and the looming threat of “the R word.”

But there is some good news for fearless shoppers: Discounts. Spectacular summer homes from Quogue to Montauk are chopping prices to entice wallflowers to the dance floor.

At 335 Town Lane in Amagansett’s estate section, Alec Baldwin is asking $22.5 million for his sweet-as-can-be stunner on 10 acres. 

The two-story, 10,000-square-foot, cedar-shingle modern farmhouse, with five bedrooms and five full baths, listed back in November 2022 for $29 million, before being reduced in January and again in March to its current price. 

Back on the beach, 33 Lily Pond Lane — a 7,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, eight-bathroom, oceanfront oasis in East Hampton — hit the market in the heady days of August 2021 asking $64 million. 

That’s been whittled down to its current ask of $44.5 million. 

Priced to move, the mansion comes with all the bells and whistles, including a pool, a six-room pool house, game rooms, a sauna, gardens, a koi pond and the only lit private tennis court in East Hampton. Hedgerow Exclusive Properties has the listing with Douglas Elliman’s Michaela Keszler and Erica Grossman.

This entry was posted in Economics, NYC, Price Reduced, Shore Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink.

56 Responses to It’s a bargain, darling.

  1. grim says:

    Insurance Crisis?

    Allstate Is No Longer Offering New Policies in California

    California property owners hoping to open new insurance policies are no longer able to do so with one of the nation’s largest homeowner insurance companies.

    Allstate, the state’s fourth-largest property and casualty insurance provider, has stopped selling new home, condominium or commercial insurance policies in California, the company said in an emailed statement. It is the latest insurance giant to say it will no longer offer coverage, citing worsening climate and higher building costs that have made it harder to do business in the nation’s most-populous state.

    California’s largest homeowner insurance provider, State Farm, made a similar decision last week, pointing to “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure.” Allstate stopped accepting new policies in the state last year, according to the statement.

    “We paused new homeowners, condo and commercial insurance policies in California last year so we can continue to protect current customers,” the Allstate statement said. “The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes and higher reinsurance premiums.”

    Allstate’s decision in California follows a pattern seen across the United States in which insurance companies are raising rates, restricting coverage or ending business altogether in areas vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters. In Florida, most large insurance companies have pulled out of the state, with homeowners relying on smaller private companies, whose resources are being stretched, to protect their homes in the face of severe storms that have become typical.

  2. grim says:

    Curious how Allstate and State Farm is planning to compensate all of the (thousands of) franchisees.

  3. Fabius Maximus says:

    Same way they did it with NJ car insurance around 2000. Big Middle Finger!

  4. Very Stable Genius says:

    Is the NJ taxpayer subsidizing insurance in Florida?

  5. Bystander says:

    Hey Fab,

    I can’t let this one be missed. Good that he appreciates fine music but I now wonder what hallucinagens he takes.

    Fed Chair Jay Powell at the dead and co show in Virginia last night.
    https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1665338322519031808

  6. Fast Eddie says:

    Is the NJ taxpayer subsidizing insurance in Florida?

    Yes, all blue state progressives need to pay their fair share. The talking is over. Progressive voter’s wages will be deducted directly from their bank accounts every pay cycle.

  7. leftwing says:

    “Is the NJ taxpayer subsidizing insurance in Florida?”

    Yes, NJ taxpayers are subsidizing Florida. And I find it abhorrent. Almost as bad as the heavy subsidy the Blue states provide to the Red states because the Blues pay so much more to the Feds than they receive in return.

    It is truly unjust and must be rectified.

    Given the geographic dispersion of US income and wealth, the only manner mathematically and logically by which we can rectify this situation is,,,by letting each citizen keep what they earn and cease taking income and wealth from one class to support the underclass.

    End federal taxes and transfer payments.

    VSG, I never thought we would find common ground but welcome aboard!

    Any other Liberals on here want to get on the bus?

  8. leftwing says:

    Not a lot of time to provide support and with the caveat that I’ve had goalposts at 3600/3800 and 4400 on the SPX before taking any real action for the longest time here, and I can very easily and quickly revert back to that trade plan….I will be leaning into some new positions this week.

    Anticipating replies from 3b similar to when a cat is thrown into a full bathtub of water here’s why…(i) Fed ‘pauses’ in eight days, (ii) Fed does not resume in July (market rockets) or they do and we have our first meeting with actual dissension (market moves up anticipating no Sept move), and (iii) Fed will not be raising in Sept regardless of above outcomes (party on, dude).

    July-Sept will be too late to catch that upside, ie. the market (all the market, not seven stocks) will be close to fairly priced for those changes by that time.

    Backstopping the above, I’m of the Knapp/Ironsides view that we’ve seen most (excluding employment) signs of a recession and they are starting to fade in the rear view mirror.

    Whether it is/was an actual recession – which by the way we all know is never declared until it’s over (ie, too late to catch a market move) – doesn’t really matter. I don’t care in the present what eight octogenarians (NBER) using ouija boards say about last year’s data….zero impact on share prices.

    Clouds on the horizon….sure. Consumer debt, massive required new Fed issuance in the pipeline, political risk, pockets of extreme valuations, etc.

    But…I feel like I’m under a yellow flag at F1….won’t (can’t ) pass anyone but the team is in my ear telling me the debris is nearly cleaned so I’m swerving and warming up my tires for the soon-to-be green flag….

    Will be smart and judicious on my picks, and will use option strategies to define my risk and amplify my returns just in case I’m wrong, but this is the first time in a while I believe we can see a break over 4400 forthcoming near term and run and hold (ie, 4400 stops being resistance and becomes support).

    YMMV and nothing wrong with waiting to confirm that move before hopping in for more conservative equity investors with sideline LT money.

  9. 1987 Condo says:

    Your Blue state vs Red state “fair” share payment transfer issue may not be as great as folks think.

    The majority of the Federal budget is SS payments and Medicare. Large numbers of blue state retirees move to red states and thus impact perceived Red state funding.

    The bulk of discretionary spending is the US Military, and for practical purposes most bases and ports are in the South. I’d also suggest that the majority of the armed force members and their pay and pensions are from Red states rather than Blue as well.

    As far as Medicaid, Red states probably get more than their “fair” share, but we are one country and probably makes sense to share that burden among those that can afford it.

  10. Fabius Maximus says:

    Too Funny.

    https://twitter.com/RCdeWinter/status/1665573055626616833
    RC deWinter @RCdeWinter
    A California ranch that was once owned by Ronald Reagan was being threatened by a wildfire. Firefighters attempted to save it by pouring water on a nearby hill and hoping it would trickle down.

  11. leftwing says:

    “Your Blue state vs Red state “fair” share payment transfer issue may not be as great as folks think.”

    Doesn’t matter….whatever the actual regional delta, the only way to rectify it given the actual geographic dispersion of income and wealth is to cease taking money from the wealthy and giving it to the needy.

    All aboard! Woot, woot!

    So nice to the Left and Right come together…

  12. crushednjmillenial says:

    Affirmative action is going down this month. Colleges prepare for the change that is coming soon . . .

    https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/2023/06/05/colleges-plan-and-wait-supreme-court

  13. No One says:

    left,
    The same folks who harp on the blue state to red state transfers are the folks whose favorite policies will be driving businesses to red states, and who want big federal welfare programs. Why do they hate the poor so much?
    Of course I could ask the same about their hatred of capitalism, why do they hate the poor so much that they would keep current and future generations poorer than they could be? Why don’t they think that people deserve liberty?
    Anyway, who cares, people who can’t even see the gross contradictions in the political memes they adopt aren’t going to suddenly see the light and change their minds in any coherent way.

  14. Juice Box says:

    Vanlords instead of landlords.

    People living in over 7,100 RVs scattered throughout Los Angeles many are rented out.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/us/los-angeles-rv-dwellers/index.html

  15. Phoenix says:

    This should help the economy-just in time for summer:

    Saudi Arabia slashes oil supply – pushing up fuel prices – as Crown Prince MBS looks to balance the books to fund his ‘giga-projects’
    The decision will likely mean drivers will pay more to fill their car up at the pump

  16. Phoenix says:

    These don’t look like your typical homeless now do they?

    Juice Box says:
    June 5, 2023 at 11:02 am
    Vanlords instead of landlords.

    People living in over 7,100 RVs scattered throughout Los Angeles many are rented out.

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/us/los-angeles-rv-dwellers/index.html

  17. leftwing says:

    “Anyway, who cares, people who can’t even see the gross contradictions in the political memes they adopt aren’t going to suddenly see the light…”

    Amazing, isn’t it?

    The only way one can hold the Blue/Red State federal ‘contribution’ opinion is to conclude that we should not have a progressive federal income tax…a tenet of modern liberalism.

    Or, and this darker but equally possible given the petty meanness and hypocrisy of modern Liberals, they believe in progressive taxation and funding of the underclass *but only for those members of the underclass who hold the same political views as they do*. Urban center poor, of course, the rest can just rot.

    As I’ve said since I’ve been here and raised my children…

    Liberals desire two things…to take your money and control your life. They most often accomplish one by effecting the other.

    Feature, not flaw.

  18. Bystander says:

    If right loves current state of capitalism so much then quit bitching about inflation and get a better job. There are millions unfilled. Get off your duff. Get education and work harder Ayn said so.

  19. Fast Eddie says:

    Inflation: This past weekend really opened my eyes about the cost of everything compared to a few short years ago. $20 or $30 bucks has turned into $100 bucks. A few hundred bucks has turned into a thousand bucks. Politics aside, prices of everything is just nuts. I’m really inching closer to putting a ‘for sale’ sign up and doing a serious downsize. I don’t know how people are surviving. Either that are they just don’t care anymore.

  20. Phoenix says:

    Liberals desire two things…to take your money and control your life. They most often accomplish one by effecting the other.

    Feature, not flaw.

    Young women are liberal. As per your statement above. Take government jobs in NJ where liberal pensions make them secure.

    Once they have all of your money, own a few houses, they turn Red, take the liberal money, move to Florida, and become republican where they can hoard it.

  21. Bystander says:

    Just inhale deep Ed. Invest it all in stock market, 100%. DNA is a great choice. The riskier the better. Once Oz Powell comes down from his Sunshine Daydream, he will pause rates for no real reason and just ignore al jobs and inflation data. He only needs one reason, Wall street expectations Wall street execs and day traders will cheer bc their stock income makes them richer. Unload it and who cares what happens underneath

  22. Phoenix says:

    You could say the same for men as well.

    So many make money in govt jobs in liberal states, only to later move to a repub state pocketing the difference.

    It’s the Government pension that does the trick. Take that away from NJ and it would be like turning the lights on in a roach coach.

  23. joyce says:

    No One,
    May I ask why you seem to be a much stronger supporter of liberty of people’s property more than liberty of the people themselves?

    No One says:
    June 5, 2023 at 11:01 am
    left,
    The same folks who harp on the blue state to red state transfers are the folks whose favorite policies will be driving businesses to red states, and who want big federal welfare programs. Why do they hate the poor so much?
    Of course I could ask the same about their hatred of capitalism, why do they hate the poor so much that they would keep current and future generations poorer than they could be? Why don’t they think that people deserve liberty?
    Anyway, who cares, people who can’t even see the gross contradictions in the political memes they adopt aren’t going to suddenly see the light and change their minds in any coherent way.

  24. ExEx says:

    11:45 pfffffft ridiculous.

  25. Juice Box says:

    Poof goes another Crypto Ponzi?

    WSJ – “The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday sued Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, alleging the overseas company operated an illegal exchange in the U.S.

    The SEC lawsuit also named Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder and controlling shareholder, as a defendant. The SEC said that Binance and Zhao misused customers’ funds and even diverted them to a trading entity that Zhao controlled. That trading firm, Sigma Chain, engaged in fraudulent trading that made Binance’s volume appear larger than it actually was, the SEC said.”

    This coincides with the CTFC saying a few months ago they were frontrunning customer trades.

  26. 3b says:

    Left: MS economist sees Fed on pause for rest of year, then cutting rates early 2024. So full speed ahead! Makes no sense to me.

  27. Boomer Remover says:

    Eddie – Why do you need to be driven to downsize? Why not just downsize proactively if it fits with your future goals?

    Phoenix – You need a good tinder run, I’m sure we here wouldn’t mind following a good campaign. I just need you to be less broken and cynical of the opposite sex.

  28. 3b says:

    Fast: I don’t see any real drop in inflation, but people still spending wildly it appears. Depending on what you read, people still flush with Covid money, others say Covid money long gone. Consumer credit card balances all time high, but not apparently stopping spending it seems. Mortgage rates close to 7 again, and people overbidding for houses. Job numbers high, but a lot of the new jobs service industry, leisure hospitality. It’s like living in the upside down world.

  29. Fast Eddie says:

    Why do you need to be driven to downsize?

    Because the fire hose went from a 3/4 inch to a 1 and 1/2 inch line real fast. The volume is becoming a bit too much for my liking.

  30. No One says:

    joyce,
    I advocate for individual rights, which includes a person and their property.
    I’m probably more vocal about property rights and economic liberty here because there are so many people who speak up to violate them.
    If this forum had a bunch of people who were into outlawing abortion, I’d probably spend a lot more time writing about what a rights violation that is.
    What do you think are the key violations of people’s liberty that are being under-represented in the discussion here?

    I know you have a beef with police brutality and such, but it’s not an area I know much about. I’m for drug legalization, but I really think people are destroying themselves with drugs too, so I admit I don’t put much effort into that topic.

  31. Fast Eddie says:

    I don’t see any real drop in inflation, but people still spending wildly it appears.

    It’s inching closer to madness. We went to some joint in Wyckoff for breakfast Sunday morning. Four people, $139 with tip. That’s unacceptable.

  32. 3b says:

    Fast; Here are Fidelity ‘s latest numbers for 401k balances by generation.

    Gen Z Avg 7,100. Median 2,500.00

    Millenials Avg 44,900 Median 15,500

    Gen X Avg 145,000 Median 44,000

    Boomers Avg 215.000 Median 61,200

  33. chicagofinance says:

    How was the CUNY Law School commencement last month?

    Fabius Maximus says:
    June 5, 2023 at 6:23 am
    Same way they did it with NJ car insurance around 2000. Big Middle Finger!

  34. OC1 says:

    The blue state to red state transfers (much of which is SS and medicare) is the main reason why I think the occaisional talk you hear about red states seceding is ridiculous.

    There’s just no way those red states would be willing (or able) to take over SS and medicare for their residents.

    What really bugs me is the national flood insurance program- rich people with beachfront property getting subsidized flood insurance to cover properties that would otherwise be uninsurable.

  35. leftwing says:

    “Phoenix – You need a good tinder run, I’m sure we here wouldn’t mind following a good campaign. I just need you to be less broken and cynical of the opposite sex.”

    Yeah, the man needs a few good lays by someone not of his generation. Hit-and-run, no strings attached, rabid monkey sex with a later 20s-something who’s going to throw him around like a toy doll and not be there in the morning.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXNHTROcoSs&ab_channel=VKmov

    Does wonders.

  36. joyce says:

    Sorry, I can’t accept your premise. Other than a couple of trolls, there’s very few people regularly commenting in favor of violating property rights, et al. Also, there are more regulars here that equate abortion to murder without any nuance in their comments.

    No One says:
    June 5, 2023 at 12:24 pm

  37. leftwing says:

    Refocuses the mind. Among other body parts.

  38. chicagofinance says:

    “skips”

    leftwing says:
    June 5, 2023 at 9:17 am
    (i) Fed ‘pauses’ in eight days

  39. chicagofinance says:

    What you say Trader Joe leftwing? I see Mike Wilson has been hiding in his bunker. If what you say comes to pass, he will be on the beach.

    Business Is Slowing. So Companies Are Juicing Profits.

    Reallocate costs. Unwind charges. Delay depreciation. Companies are using nontraditional ways to boost the bottom line.

    By Ben Foldy
    Business slowed last year for Google’s parent, Alphabet. The tech giant still beat earnings expectations in this year’s first quarter, in part because it said that its computer servers would last longer than expected.

    The shift reduced its depreciation expense by nearly $1 billion and helped push per-share earnings ahead of analysts’ estimates.

    Google isn’t alone in boosting its earnings in surprising ways. When business slows, companies often try to make their numbers look better. That appears to be happening now, from tech giants to used-car dealers.

    A spokeswoman for Google declined to comment.

    More companies are beating analysts’ expectations and by bigger amounts. Businesses’ nontraditional earnings metrics are beating reported earnings by a lot more than last year, and a measure of the likelihood of earnings manipulation is at its highest level in about 40 years.

    Companies have long engaged in earnings management, by which executives use the flexibility in accounting rules to improve reported earnings per share.

    The moves, many of which are allowed under accounting rules, nonetheless have detractors. In a letter to investors earlier this year, Warren Buffett called the practice “one of the shames of capitalism.”

    One way companies are trying to make their results look better is to provide numbers that don’t adhere to accounting standards—what are often referred to as pro forma measures—alongside the official data.

    A report published Thursday by research firm Calcbench compared the net income based on accounting standards for 200 randomly selected companies in the S&P 500 with their adjusted net income, which can include or exclude items that would normally be counted. The adjusted numbers were higher by $1.1 billion on average last year, an increase of more than 130% over a similar sample from the year prior.

    Another measure used to predict the likelihood of earnings flattery is the Beneish M-score, named for its creator, Indiana University accounting professor Messod Beneish. Recently, academics found the aggregate score of a sample of nearly 2,000 companies was at its highest level in more than 40 years, the most recent data shows. Historically, the aggregate score peaks ahead of a downturn.

    First-quarter earnings exceeded expectations by an unusually large amount. Of the 485 companies on the S&P 500’s roster that had reported first-quarter earnings as of May 26, 77% surpassed analysts’ expectations, according to data provider Refinitiv. Since 1994, 66% of companies beat expectations in an average quarter.

    The magnitude of the overperformance also stands out. Companies in aggregate are reporting earnings 6.9% above expectations, compared to a long-term average of 4.1%, according to Refinitiv. Some of that outperformance was the result of changes in the way the numbers were calculated.

    The heightened use of the measures comes as regulators are scrutinizing nontraditional calculations and earnings manipulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission as recently as December warned companies that pro forma measures that replace traditional accounting methods with individually tailored disclosure could violate its rules.

    The SEC has also said companies must reconcile how they get to the pro forma figures from the reported ones. In December, the regulator expanded the guidance with more details on what constitutes a possible violation.

    Google came into 2023 on a cold streak, having missed analysts’ consensus for earnings in every quarter of last year as the slowing economy dragged on its core advertising business.

    In April, the company broke the trend. Despite a continued slowdown in the company’s ad sales, Alphabet reported earnings per share of $1.17, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.08 a share. Google’s shares have risen some 18% since its earnings report.

    The company’s filings noted two material changes in its accounting that helped boost the bottom line.

    First, the company revised its estimates on the useful life of its server infrastructure, saying it would last up to six years instead of four. The change, the second such extension in two years, added 6 cents a share of earnings, according to the company. The change mirrored similar moves by competitors.

    Separately, the company said it was shifting its stock-compensation awards for employees from January to March, resulting in the company recognizing less expense in the first quarter relative to the rest of the year.

    The company’s filings didn’t disclose the precise impact of the move on first-quarter earnings but mentioned it several times as a material offset to expenses. In a filing, the company said the move was due to a previously announced change to employee evaluations.

    Some accounting professors questioned the treatment. “It’s highly suspect,” said Melissa Lewis-Western, an accounting professor at Brigham Young University. “Actual performance hasn’t changed, you’re just changing the allocation of the cost.”

    Online used-car seller Carvana CVNA 0.51%increase; green up pointing triangle was coming off a dismal year in 2022, in which its shares lost 97%.

    Analysts expected the company to post a loss of $2.03 a share for this year’s first quarter. Ten days before the quarter ended, Carvana executives said they expected adjusted gross profit per car sold to come in between $4,100 and $4,400 for the quarter.

    Carvana surprised Wall Street by losing only $1.51 a share, which sent the company’s shares soaring. Driving the beat was a better-than-forecast adjusted gross profit per car sold of nearly $4,800.

    One reason Carvana’s earnings jumped was because it unwound $51 million in charges it made in the previous quarter. The company took the charges because it had expected to sell cars in its inventory for less than it had once expected but was then able to sell them for more as used car prices appreciated.

    Unwinding the allowances boosted earnings by 48 cents a share, nearly all of the company’s beat of analysts’ expectations.

    A spokesman for Carvana said the allowance’s potential impact was widely communicated to the market before the earnings release.

    The company’s shares are up roughly 80% since it reported earnings.

    Write to Ben Foldy at ben.foldy@wsj.com

  40. chicagofinance says:

    Nice sandwich of posts.

    leftwing says:
    June 5, 2023 at 12:58 pm
    “Phoenix – You need a good tinder run, I’m sure we here wouldn’t mind following a good campaign. I just need you to be less broken and cynical of the opposite sex.”

    Yeah, the man needs a few good lays by someone not of his generation. Hit-and-run, no strings attached, rabid monkey sex with a later 20s-something who’s going to throw him around like a toy doll and not be there in the morning.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXNHTROcoSs&ab_channel=VKmov

    Does wonders.

    joyce says:
    June 5, 2023 at 12:58 pm
    Sorry, I can’t accept your premise. Other than a couple of trolls, there’s very few people regularly commenting in favor of violating property rights, et al. Also, there are more regulars here that equate abortion to murder without any nuance in their comments.

    No One says:
    June 5, 2023 at 12:24 pm

    leftwing says:
    June 5, 2023 at 1:00 pm
    Refocuses the mind. Among other body parts.

  41. No One says:

    joyce,
    welfare statism, redistribution, big government, big regulation, heavy taxation, central planning of money and interest rates I consider all variations on a theme of property rights violation. Equating tax-cuts with government spending. NJ’s extra annoying kinks besides the heavy expropriation and regulation of productive people is that you must not pump your own gas, and stores must not provide convenient shopping bags.
    I don’t just accept the status quo.

  42. The Great Pumpkin says:

    What I always found interesting, how people will be against big business and then advocate for big govt to fix it…or the other way around….against big govt, but believe big business can fix it.

    No One says:
    June 5, 2023 at 1:55 pm
    joyce,
    welfare statism, redistribution, big government, big regulation, heavy taxation, central planning of money and interest rates I consider all variations on a theme of property rights violation. Equating tax-cuts with government spending. NJ’s extra annoying kinks besides the heavy expropriation and regulation of productive people is that you must not pump your own gas, and stores must not provide convenient shopping bags.
    I don’t just accept the status quo.

  43. joyce says:

    Okay… and? I don’t like any of those things either. Where are the so many people here that speak up in favor of these things?

    No One says:
    June 5, 2023 at 1:55 pm
    joyce,
    welfare statism, redistribution, big government, big regulation, heavy taxation, central planning of money and interest rates I consider all variations on a theme of property rights violation. Equating tax-cuts with government spending. NJ’s extra annoying kinks besides the heavy expropriation and regulation of productive people is that you must not pump your own gas, and stores must not provide convenient shopping bags.
    I don’t just accept the status quo.

  44. ExEx says:

    Los Angeles
    CNN

    Early one recent Friday morning, sanitation workers, homeless-outreach workers and LAPD officers arrived on a little street in the west of Los Angeles. Jasmine Avenue is lined with low-rise apartment blocks, an imposing Catholic Church, a school and a handful of dilapidated recreational vehicles.

    That morning on Jasmine Avenue, RV residents were offered $500 gift cards and a motel room. The city also offered to tow and destroy their RVs. One RV managed to leave, under its own steam, with what smelled like sewage leaking along the road as it left. This clearance is one small part of what has been a piecemeal approach by officials trying to tackle a burgeoning phenomenon of people living permanently in RVs on these streets.

    “I’ll take a motel room,” one RV owner told me as he packed up his belongings after about six months on Jasmine Avenue. “See what happens.” But he did not let the city tow and destroy his RV. He towed it elsewhere himself, using a chain and a beaten-up SUV. He wants to keep it.

    “The idea sometimes our clients have is, ‘What if this doesn’t work? If this doesn’t work, then I’m back on the streets. I’m back to square one,’” said LaTonya Smith, interim CEO at the St. Joseph Center, a nonprofit that helps the city find accommodation for the unhoused. “People who are living in RVs consider themselves to be housed, and in order for them to leave that RV, sometimes we have to incentivize.”

    There are, by the latest count, more than 11,000 people living in RVs across Los Angeles County. And that number has been rising. The Covid-19 pandemic forced more people into poverty. Some of the RV dwellers have jobs but either don’t want to pay apartment rent, or can’t afford to pay it, in a city where the average one-bedroom apartment costs around $2,500 a month.

  45. Bystander says:

    “I don’t just accept the status quo”

    Hah. Sure you do. My sister had a friend who was member of Sav-a-patriot. I remember talking with him at 24, starting out in career. He was maybe 30 and refused to complete W4 or provide SSN to employer. He said he would fight when employer tried to withhold anyway. These people are in court or under threat all the time. Won a few too against but that is “not accepting the status quo”. We would to find out what happened to that guy 25 plus years later.

  46. Fast Eddie says:

    I can’t figure California out. A million plus for a shit ranch in the SV region, the local CVS was aged, musty, not well-stocked and the shopping plazas were worn, dirty and trashy. It’s unaffordable and people are living in make-shift housing structures. We had friends who just came back from San Diego and they said one street was nice followed by one shitty street, etc. Punkin noggin may be right, North Jersey still may be the cream of the crop. Couple this with cities like Philly, Baltimore, Portland, Chicago, etc. and the blue vote fails to deliver results time and time again.

  47. ExEx says:

    3:10 you seem kind of dim. Like a toddler.

  48. ExEx says:

    Two people were caught on video unleashing a brutal road-rage attack on a neighbor in Queens after a dispute over a parking spot — leaving the man with brain damage and on a ventilator, authorities said Monday.

    https://nypost.com/2023/03/20/video-shows-man-woman-brutally-attack-neighbor-over-nyc-parking-dispute/

  49. ExEx says:

    Hundreds of thousands of poor Floridians have been kicked off Medicaid in recent weeks as their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, travels the country for his 2024 presidential bid and rakes in campaign cash from big donors.

    Florida is among the states that have begun unwinding pandemic-era rules barring states from removing people from Medicaid during the public health emergency. Late last year, Congress reached a bipartisan deal to end the so-called continuous coverage requirements, opening the door to a massive purge of the lifesaving healthcare program.

    A dozen states have released early data on the number of people removed from Medicaid as they restart eligibility checks, a cumbersome process that many people fail to navigate.

    So far, the statistics are alarming: More than 600,000 people across the U.S. have been stripped of Medicaid coverage since April, according to a KFF Health Newsanalysis of the available data, and “the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork” rather than confirmed ineligibility.

  50. No One says:

    Ex Ex,
    See, Florida is trying to limit those blue state to red state transfers.
    It’s definitely easier to get medicaid in NJ than in FL, has been for a long time.
    Sounds like the author of this article practically yearns for medicaid for those beyond who are eligible. Eligibility checks are social injustice?
    Keep in mind, in NJ, they send paperwork for Medicaid eligibility with a very short turnaround time requirement.
    Some of the real big users of medicaid are elderly parents of immigrants. Minimal income or assets, no social security checks. Even if the kids have money. Or even if they secretly have money out of the country or held in the kids’ bank accounts.

  51. leftwing says:

    “More than 600,000 people across the U.S. have been stripped of Medicaid coverage…and “the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork” rather than confirmed ineligibility.”

    I’m fed up with this shit.

    Either you are a functioning human or not. If so, get your shit done, especially if it is coming for free and you have few other obligations. If not, declare yourself a ward of the State and rely on the rest of humanity to support you and to spoon feed you your support as well. But in doing so you surrender other major privileges and rights. Driving. Voting. Go live like someone’s pet, and you’ll be cared for. Like a pet. Domiciled, clothed, medical, fed.

    No one follows up on my ‘eligibility’ for anything I may require like a job, my own healthcare, discounts and offers, my well being. No one likes IADLs, hell I fucking hate them. But I get them done.

    If you can’t function in society fine. No one should be dying or starving in the streets. But you are fully a ward of the State then.

  52. IfIsGoodForHumans IsSameForCorpsSoonAICorps says:

    Leftwing,

    But, but what about GS JPM BOA AIG from the financial crisis or Silicon Valley, Republic just a few weeks ago and all these assorted entities that have human like constitutional rights to free speech and got plenty of the only welfare that seems to be allowed but they have another name “bailouts”.

    Are they now ward of the state?

  53. ExEx says:

    Touché

  54. Libturd says:

    No. The state is a ward of JPM.

  55. The Great Pumpkin says:

    I know it hurts to hear for some, but this is the truth.

    “Punkin noggin may be right, North Jersey still may be the cream of the crop.”

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