April sales dip

From Reuters:

US home sales post second straight monthly drop; house prices accelerate

U.S. existing home sales unexpectedly fell in April as higher mortgage rates and house prices weighed on demand, dealing another setback to the housing market.

Though the report from the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday showed inventory increasing last month to a 2-1/2-year high entry-level homes remained scarce, accounting for the second straight monthly decline in sales.

The housing market has taken a step back after residential investment, which includes homebuilding, grew at its fastest pace in more than three years in the first quarter amid a resurgence in mortgage rates.

“Supply constraints are doing as much to hold back sales as demand-side weakness,” said Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Existing home sales will probably tread water, or perhaps even edge down a bit further, over the next few months.”

Home sales slipped 1.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.14 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales would rise to a rate of 4.21 million units. Home resales are counted at the closing of a contract.

April sales likely reflect contracts signed in the prior two months when the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was hovering just below 7%.

Sales fell in all four regions. The average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has struggled to break back below 7% after surging to more than a five-month high of 7.22% in early May, data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac showed.

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

94 Responses to April sales dip

  1. grim says:

    From NJBiz:

    NJ job numbers dip, unemployment inches down in April

    The latest jobs report from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development reflects varied results here in the Garden State. In April, the numbers of jobs fell while the unemployment rate ticked down.

    “April was yet another mixed month for the state’s labor market,” said Charles Steindel, former chief economist of the State of New Jersey, who analyzed the report for the research and education organization Garden State Initiative. “The number of jobs fell a stiff 10,900, which was the largest decline since last July. Moreover, the large increase initially reported for March was pared from 13,800 to 12,500.”

    Six of the nine main sectors recorded losses last month, led by:

    Leisure and hospitality (-8,900)
    Professional and business services (-2,600)
    Manufacturing (-1,000)

    Trade, transportation, and utilities (+2,400) had the biggest increase.

    “It’s hard to explain such a large decline; conceivably there may have been difficulty adjusting for the rather early date of Easter (before seasonal adjustment leisure and hospitality actually rose 5,600),” Steindel said regarding the notable drop in leisure and hospitality jobs. “Professional and business services also had a pronounced decline. Like leisure and hospitality, it’s possible some of the reported loss was an artifact of problems with seasonally adjustment of the raw numbers.

    “After a wrenching seven straight months at 4.8%, the unemployment rate inched down to 4.7% (the actual drop was on the order of .05% – the March number was actually a bit more than 4.75%, while April was a touch under 4.7%),” said Steindel. “While the decline was minute, it was generated in a good way; household employment rose 7,200, and the labor force increased 4,300.”

  2. Juice Box says:

    Foist not Grim..

  3. Juice Box says:

    Back to AI – PC

    Microsoft has so far done a great job indexing your data and then using Chat GPT to perform AI tasks, like a search of images.

    Their semantic search index of any and all data locally is why they can do AI well in Office 365 as well as locally on your PC.

    Elon knows this and that is why he says to shut it off.

    https://english.newstrack.com/business/microsoft-spying-on-you-with-this-new-feature-elon-musk-says-like-black-mirror-443602

  4. Juice Box says:

    So Justice Alito had a flag flying at his Jersey Shore beach house and people took pictures of it? His wife is responsible for the upside down flag and probably this white flag too..

    I heard Justice Alito was seen wearing a backpack, you know those Jan 6th insurrectionists were wearing backpacks…Alito needs to recuse himself! Recuse recuse recuse…..

    What counts as news today is just click bait advertising…

  5. grim says:

    So has Apple though.

    The image search on the iPhone can now find text in photos, identify plants, etc etc.

    No way this is on-device at this scale.

    I can search by name and find matching photos, that were not tagged in any way.

    I can tell you exactly what Recall is for, because it’s not the headline use case.

    Recall is about collecting enough data to train AI models on desktop automation in a way that’s generalizable across applications.

    Unlike old school RPA, that never really delivered, multimodal models + action give us the first real glimpse into autonomous automation.

    “Hey, Microsoft, that thing I’ve been doing every Monday, do it for me”

    This is a massive unlock, and doing it at the operating system level cements Microsoft’s position in the enterprise for the next two decades or more.

  6. grim says:

    They would, in one move, absolutely own the entire RPA and automation market. Automation Anywhere, UIPath, etc etc – bye bye.

    They could triple their OS/Office revenue with this. If companies happily pay $30 of o365, they’ll pay $100 for self-learning automation. Not only that, they’d easily double, triple, the current market size of automation, just by making it easy and accessible.

    But first, we need to record every screen, every keypress, every mouse movement and click. They need this data at you-tube scale.

    Just like Tesla giving everyone self-driving for a month. They were able to collect an absolutely massive amount of data. That wasn’t a free trial of a service, that was a data collection initiative. Did Elon forget to mention that part?

    Yeah.

  7. Juice Box says:

    Grim – you are half right.

    The secret sauce is the cheap labor, the hidden millions of 3rd world workers literally being paid two cents to label images.

    https://www.wired.com/story/millions-of-workers-are-training-ai-models-for-pennies/

  8. grim says:

    I’ve launched a few annotation projects, including one for a very well known west coast university, and a few other well known other household names.

    People we have doing it generally love it, it’s good pay, easy work. This is not a universal, there are tons of sweat shops.

    This is dying, AI is better at labeling in many cases. For example, part of speech labeling used to be huge with last gen AI models for NLU. That’s all but dead, LLMs can do a far better job training their less sophisticated brethren. The only exceptions are completely novel datasets (which are finite by the way, there are only so many things on earth). Even that is becoming less of an issue, as AI models become more advanced, they are able to generalize and identify and label completely novel data, sometimes without even needing basic few-shot learning to get it on task.

    There are notable gaps here though. Language is a big one. The amount of money going into English Language AI is enormous. This is not easily generalizable into other languages. I’ve long said that many countries should start considering giving up their native languages, especially if they are considered “low resource” – meaning, no real technological investment. The big risk to humanity, is that you end up with 4 or 5 languages globally.

    Translation is a big part of this already. You are already seeing translation greasing the wheels of global commerce, but only for the main languages. Countries speaking languages that aren’t well supported – risk being left out completely.

    Who is willing to make the investment in training AI models on Indonesian? You think OpenAI is going to spend a billion dollars on building the best Indonesian dataset?

    They’ll never recoup it.

    That big university ai project, that was to build a dataset for a low-resource language. So maybe academia is willing to fund. Guessing not, since we did the work for free.

    We’re not talking about obscure languages here. Italian for example, barely in the top 20. How much money is the Italian government and private sector sinking into creating datasets for global AI companies to ensure that Italian is well supported?

    Nepali, Oriya, Uzbek, Malayalam, Igbo, Azerbaijani, Pashto, Fula, Kannada, Ukranian, Polish, Bjojupuri, Gujarati, Thai, Hausa, Jin, Korean, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Turkish, Italian, Vietnamese, Wu, Javanese, Farsi, Punjabi… Bye Bye. 2 billion people whose languages are barely supported by AI, basically a quarter of the world. You think these economies are going to survive?

  9. Very Stable Genius says:

    Bers are fuk. Roaring 20’s are here

  10. Very Stable Genius says:

    UPDATED THU, MAY 23 20246:45 AM EDT
    Nasdaq futures jump after AI-darling Nvidia issues strong forecast: Live updates

  11. Very Stable Genius says:

    AI speaks Indonesian, what’s the problem?

    “Who is willing to make the investment in training AI models on Indonesian? You think OpenAI is going to spend a billion dollars on building the best Indonesian dataset?”

  12. Fast Eddie says:

    The input data collected to ‘train’ algorithms is a stunning concept. What happens when AI systems become smarter over time? Where will LLMs be in a decade from now? If Einstein was intrigued by compounding interest, what would he have thought of the exponential growth of machine learning and maybe, our inability to control it. The Terminator will corner us no matter how hard we try to elude it.

  13. Fast Eddie says:

    “Alice, create a portal design that will allow me to travel at 186,000.01 miles per second so that I can revisit my youth.”

  14. grim says:

    Need to print up a t-shirt

    “Humanity spent $100 trillion dollars on AI and all we have to show for it is porn”

  15. grim says:

    On Indonesian, which is why I used it as an example:

    https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2024/04/30/microsoft-announces-us1-7-billion-investment-to-advance-indonesias-cloud-and-ai-ambitions/

    Basically the technological equivalent of invading a country? Why compete for English when some of these tier 2/3 markets are completely greenfield.

  16. Juice Box says:

    A global map for it all. Microsoft’s 300 plus hyperscale data centers.

    The round white does are “coming soon” data centers.

    https://datacenters.microsoft.com/globe/explore/

  17. Juice Box says:

    white dots

  18. SomeOne says:

    Juice 6:24 AM,

    Where is the line in sand for you? Hypothetically, someone on SCOTUS flying a confederate flag, an SS flag, a Palestinian flag, or a Ukraine flag… Or wearing a MAGA hat or a BLM hat.

  19. SomeOne says:

    Grim 7:20,

    The AI may move us closer to something like this (from THHGTG):

    “Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”

  20. Libturd says:

    Someone,

    Read this.

    “It Isn’t a Crime If MAGA Does It

    From Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s upside-down flag to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s pardoning of a killer, it’s all fine in Trump’s gang.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-05-21/alito-and-abbott-show-that-the-rules-are-different-for-maga

  21. Chicago says:

    If he wants to pursue track, my son is going to be a senior and will be captain of the boys varsity at Colts Neck high school. You can pick his brain. He just received an official visit invite from Rutgers (i.e., leads to offer). He knows everyone in the area (Shore Conference), as well as the CBA guys and Middletown South.

    They will be training over the summer at the Manasquan Reservoir and also Holmdel Park. I know how the coach at Colts neck works, and if your son is interested, he can train with them. The coach at high school is considered the top guy in the entire area.

    Juice Box says:
    May 22, 2024 at 6:39 pm
    BRT – October birthday so my son is 14 one of the older 8th graders. He excels in everything he does except for saxophone which he wants to give up when he goes to high school as it’s not cool and all. Heck I get it I played Trumpet with braces on, totally not cool but I also played football and baseball and was an honor roll and AP student. Best thing about football was when I made Varsity I did not have to do marching band on game day….

    Time is flying four more years and he will hopefully be off to college…our 529 plans are fully funded too. My son has no idea how easy it will be for him, he won’t have to work and go to school at the same time, bonus would be a nice scholarship too

  22. Chicago says:

    His plan on this race got blown up and he whiffed. He was shooting for 4:12.
    https://nj.milesplit.com/meets/597543-holmdel-twilight-series-royal-rumble-2024/results

  23. Juice Box says:

    re: “someone on SCOTUS flying a flag”.

    Lol – My wife hung up an American flag upside down once too… that means I must be a Commie or a Christian nationalist. Which is it this week?

    There are dozens of recent examples where the now sitting Supreme Court Justices have failed to recuse, even when they have real glaring reasons to do so. Like receiving money from the company seeking relief from the Supreme Court? You know book deals and all?

    Sotomayor has done it a few times actually (took money from publishers and did not recuse), but the fact remains they self certify that they are and will be impartial. Kagan, Thomas, Alito really all of them have had real reason to recuse, and the reason they don’t?

    They claim they are different and rise above the partisan opportunism and rhetoric that surrounds each and every Supreme Court Case.

    Who is the NY Times or anyone else to dare judge a Supreme Court Judge…GFY…. my wife put up the flag, so take it up with her I have better things to do like take a vacation with my rich billionaire friends.

  24. Juice Box says:

    Chi – Congrats on your son making captain. Thanks for the offer on training etc. FYI he was approached by the coach at CBA. He is going to South this year, and maybe CBA next year. He wants to go for Soccer not track and not for grades either….

    South High School has already started Captain’s practice for soccer and he has been up with them for training and will do so for the summer. We also have allot of Travel soccer training all summer.

    I really want him to be a Camp Counselor this summer. He was offered the job, but it means being up early every day and getting to camp. Cannot do that part time either, have to commit to the whole summer. So he is probably going to choose training for Soccer etc and hanging with his friends at the beach.

  25. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Loving this AI discussion…

  26. Juice Box says:

    Ah Politicans.. Hoboken current mayor Ravi Bhalla has been trying to get out of the swamp that is Hudson county probably since the first day he was elected to town council. He wants to be the next congress critter to represent Hudson County in Washington. Guy went to Berkeley, the London school of economics, and Tulane Law and has been stuck in the Hudson County muck for a long long time now.

    All he has to do is beat the soon to be convicted Senator Menendez’s son the incumbent in the June 4th primary. Hopefully his father’s conviction will come before the primary….

  27. Libturd says:

    Juice,

    Ask him who is paying for soccer training? My kids been working his Summers since he was 13.

    As for the Flag. Yes, it’s a nothingburger, but the blame it on the wife excuse is complete bullshit. Of course for MAGA, you can do no wrong, ever. And when you do, it’s a deep state conspiracy or fake news.

    Say you are just the lowly mayor of say, Plainfield. Your wife puts up an ALL LIVES MATTER sign on the front lawn. You’d be run out of town. But for the SCOTUS, it’s completely alright. Not saying you have to quit, but take the sign down. Have some respect for the country you are making the laws for. Again. MAGA is the party of assholery. I guess if you are less educated, playing the bully gives one a feeling of superiority. Whether it’s making fun of the disabled, or calling migrants animals, or dead American soldiers losers. The power to ignore is strong within MAGA.

  28. LAX says:

    Fuckin’ Reddit, now AI will have edgelord intelligence.

  29. LAX says:

    Pearl Jam was amaaaaazing last night. I took my 20 year-old daughter.

  30. Libturd says:

    Juice on Bhalla, who really is a very good person. Not a corrupt bone in his body (yet). I hope he gets it. The real good race is for Menendez’ Sr.’s seat.

  31. Libturd says:

    LAX, could anyone understand the lyrics?

  32. Juice Box says:

    Lib – “complete bullshit?” Are you saying he hung the flags up himself? He and his aging wife probably have one or two South or Central American undocumented house keepers, one for each house etc. He should have blamed them.

  33. BRT says:

    I could never understand Eddie Vedder

    “Glorified version of a pellet gun” to me was “4 or 5 versions of a pelican”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA4tlvpHhh0

    “Lick the dirt off a larger ones feet” was “Lick the dirt of Olajuwon’s feet”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXCEe3Aos8

    Listen to the 2nd one, you won’t be able to unhear it

  34. Juice Box says:

    Lib – re: “working his Summers since he was 13”

    His friends at Camp some much older in College have been pestering him to take the job, they even came by and took him out for ice cream. The Soccer friends will scatter in a few weeks, most live outside the area a few towns away etc. I am hoping the peer pressure and the realization that it will be extremely boring being home will change his mind. Happened last year and should happen again this one.

  35. Very Stable Genius says:

    “Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.

    This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

  36. LAX says:

    9:46 i still couldn’t tell you the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter.
    I think they actually changed in each performance.

  37. LAX says:

    Alito is a canker sore.

  38. BRT says:

    My FIL went to school and ran track with Alito. Casual friends. Saw him a few years ago at their Athletic Hall of Fame dinner. Guy is as normal and down to earth as they come.

  39. Libturd says:

    I’m sure he’s a nice guy. But as a SC judge, you would think he would know better. It’s like farting in a crowded elevator. Sure, there is no law prohibiting it. But you simply know better than to release the Kraken in one.

  40. 3b says:

    AOC wants an investigation into the Alito flag thing. What a joke of a country we have become, upside down flags, a lunatic running for reelection while at the same time being charged in political show trials, another old geezer running for reelection, who does not have a clue as to what’s going on and says inflation is a made up issue. And yet people plan to vote for one of these two old geezers. This is what America has to offer as our choices for President. Perhaps, it’s our own fault.

  41. OC1 says:

    Code of conduct for United States Judges:

    https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/code-conduct-united-states-judges#c

    from the link:

    Canon 2: A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all Activities

    An appearance of impropriety occurs when reasonable minds, with knowledge of all the relevant circumstances disclosed by a reasonable inquiry, would conclude that the judge’s honesty, integrity, impartiality, temperament, or fitness to serve as a judge is impaired. Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges, including harassment and other inappropriate workplace behavior. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. This prohibition applies to both professional and personal conduct. A judge must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny and accept freely and willingly restrictions that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen. Because it is not practicable to list all prohibited acts, the prohibition is necessarily cast in general terms that extend to conduct by judges that is harmful although not specifically mentioned in the Code. Actual improprieties under this standard include violations of law, court rules, or other specific provisions of this Code.

  42. leftwing says:

    “When a local municipality, which is supposed to have a balanced budget…the local taxpayer, who does not know a damn thing about finance…all made possible, by Wall Street alchemists.”

    You say this with a straight face, seeing no internal inconsistencies here?

    Are we not all adults? Responsible for our decisions…ethically, morally, and legally?

    I guess if your worldview is that some Orange Fool is casting a spell over half of the population it makes sense to find a bogeyman in ‘Wall Street’ for the ramifications of other adult decisions.

    It’s been really sad watching your progressive decline into illogical liberal dogmatic foolishness over the last six weeks…kind of like watching Joe’s worsening dementia over his term but on fast forward…

    Mean people! Nasty people! Everywhere! Everywhere I tell you!

  43. Very Stable Genius says:

    SomeOne says:
    May 23, 2024 at 8:16 am
    Juice 6:24 AM,

    Where is the line in sand for you? Hypothetically, someone on SCOTUS flying a confederate flag, an SS flag, a Palestinian flag, or a Ukraine flag… Or wearing a MAGA hat or a BLM hat.

    3b says:
    May 23, 2024 at 10:33 am
    AOC wants an investigation into the Alito flag thing

  44. Libturd says:

    You’ll see Lefty. When Trump wins, he is going to turn this country into a steaming pile of arrogant white male feces. I’ve always believed morals matter. I never cheated on a partner, I believe in live and let live. I see these MAGA rallies for what they are. Trump HAS to do them because he can’t run on his past accomplishments since they are a string of bankruptcies and government bailouts. Anyone can get up in front of a crowd and play the roll of Andrew Dice Clay. It sure is nice blaming the woes of the under educated blue collar class on immigrants. It sure is nice complaining about how gays and trans are wrecking the moral fiber of America. It sure sounds nice making believe you are a man of the church, while going through wives and mistresses like they are tubes of toothpaste.

    I know what really disappoints you about me Lefty. It’s that you know I am smart, especially in the common sense department, and it does not jibe with your political beliefs. Because there is something deep down in the back of your mind that is telling you that following the Asshole Trump might be a mistake. That maybe just perhaps, calling up election officials and asking for votes it’s slightly problematic. Or rallying the troops of supporters or simply asking the Veep to not ratify election results is one of the most fucked up things a POTUS has ever done. Again, if you can look past this, you are either one of two things. An anarchist or an idiot.

    And with that, please stop being disappointed in me. Learn to love your enemies. You’ll live a lot longer and will have a lot more friends. Plus you’de be amazed at how powerful of a thing it can be.

  45. Very Stable Genius says:

    Boogleheads boards turned me off with the number of radical righwingers asking how to legally avoid their offspring from receiving inheritance. Disgusting parents who use money to abuse their children into rightwing political views, racism, and even election of college majors, etc. Sad!

  46. Libturd says:

    By the way, you are lucky I still talk to you after being told I have dementia and worse yet, think like Pumps. Gandhi had it easier.

  47. Libturd says:

    VSG,

    It does suck when it comes down to crazy vs. corruption. I am disgusted by both parties. 3B is correct. It is our fault because we are sated by the crumbs. We do not hold our leaders to any moral standards. Heck, half the country applauds bad behavior. I guess everyone wants to be the bully.

  48. Fast Eddie says:

    sated by the crumbs

    Wasn’t that Foghat’s first album?

  49. TraitorJoe says:

    Why don’t you worry about your children and money if you have either and let people worry about their own. Leftists always thinking they know what’s best for everyone else.

  50. TraitorJoe says:

    Even fake news wapo has admitted fentanyl deaths have doubled among 17 and under the past three years. Open borders is more important to them yet than dead kids yet they carry on with their self righteousness.

  51. Libturd says:

    Again, blame fentanyl on the open borders. How about raising your kids not to abuse drugs. Oh wait, you only care about controlling women and gays.

    Seriously. Give it a break.

  52. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Lefty has some nerve talking down to me. This is the guy that chit all over my epic calls 10 years out as inevitable….got it. Yet, at the time, was busting my balls for making the calls. To each and their own, he wishes he made a call like that…

    Libturd says:
    May 23, 2024 at 10:57 am
    By the way, you are lucky I still talk to you after being told I have dementia and worse yet, think like Pumps. Gandhi had it easier.

  53. Libturd says:

    And on Fentanyl
    Here are facts:

    Fentanyl smuggling is ultimately funded by U.S. consumers who pay for illicit opioids: nearly 99 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.
    In 2021, U.S. citizens were 86.3 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers—ten times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense.
    Over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens (who are subject to less scrutiny) when crossing legally are the best smugglers.
    The location of smuggling makes sense because hard drugs at ports of entry are about 97 percent less likely to be stopped than are people crossing illegally between them.
    Just 0.02 percent of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.
    The government exacerbated the problem by banning most legal cross border traffic in 2020 and 2021, accelerating a switch to fentanyl (the easiest‐​to‐​conceal drug).
    During the travel restrictions, fentanyl seizures at ports quadrupled from fiscal year 2019 to 2021. Fentanyl went from a third of combined heroin and fentanyl seizures to over 90 percent.
    Annual deaths from fentanyl nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 after the government banned most travel (and asylum).

    But it’s way more fun to blame it on the immigrants instead of Americans.

  54. TraitorJoe says:

    I know the left is okay with kids making life altering decisions. That’s part of the platform. Not everyone is on board.

  55. Libturd says:

    Yeah.

    I know of zero people who have physically changed their gender. How many do you know? Zero too. Heck of an issue to hand your hat on.

    Maybe tomorrow we should focus on siamese twins who want to separate?

  56. Very Stable Genius says:

    Rightwingers were all about “Personal Responsibility” during the crack epidemic as it was mostly afflicting black communities.

  57. BRT says:

    I know of zero people who have physically changed their gender. How many do you know? Zero too. Heck of an issue to hand your hat on.

    So why are these elementary schools so focused on this issue making it a weekly part of their curriculum? FYI, I know of 5 in my side of town alone. And I know 4 kids as well, who’s choice was made for them by their parents.

  58. 3b says:

    Lib: Raising your kids not to abuse drugs, does not mean we turn an eye to fentanyl getting into this country over the border. You know that.

  59. leftwing says:

    Lib, you’re not my enemy. Never have been, never will be.

    Regarding enemies, if you had any inkling of my three year divorce and the financial and family effects for me no action or emotion of mine would be out of bounds. Same toward the ‘friend’ for whom I funded multiple six figures of his business which walked out the back door. No action or emotion of mine would be out of bounds there either.

    I don’t consider them ‘enemies’. Don’t actually consider them at all. They are outside of my control. Unchangeable. New baseline realty. Don’t really cross my line of sight unless prompted.

    Yet countless times a week you are on here frothing about some politician whose direct effects on you are miniscule relative to my two experiences and relative to your lived experiences.

    Re-read your post at 10:53. I am your friend. And I am trying to help you, you are on full tilt, my friend.

  60. leftwing says:

    “By the way, you are lucky I still talk to you after being told I have dementia and worse yet, think like Pumps.”

    LOL. I was going to hit up Grim on here offering that your handle was hijacked by Pumps as I know he has a real issue posters impersonating others!

    “This is the guy that chit all over my epic calls 10 years out as inevitable…”

    Uh, they were.

    So I’ll make an epic call the S&P will be higher in 2034 than now (it will). See you in ten years when I’m a genius!

    What’s amazing is not your ‘call’ after ten years, it’s that it’s ten years later you still don’t realize how dumb you are.

  61. 3b says:

    On a lighter note, anyone have any thoughts on those coil hoses? I had one some years ago, and it was a piece of crap. It lasted for about a month, and then got multiple holes in it. I understand they have improved over the years.

  62. Libturd says:

    3b,

    Yes, we should not ignore drugs getting in our country. But if you want to stop the flow of it, you need to close all points of entry. No airports, no ship terminals, no crossings into Canada or Mexico. Because nearly all of it is coming in through legal entrance by United States citizens. To blame the Fentanyl issue on immigrants is completely ludicrous and shows the problem with the most people in our country. They take whatever politicians say as the gospel. And the bigger problem is not the drugs getting in. The bigger problem is why as a society are we taking them at all? Why is the United States number one in illegal drug use? That is where to solve the problem. Because it’s always going to get in no matter how hard you try to stop it.

  63. Libturd says:

    As to those coil hoses. I got one for free from Bally’s a few weeks ago. They are still not worth it. If you want a hose that will last forever and won’t kink, make the investment in a rubber hose that is rated for hot and cold water. I have a pair that are 24 years old and I’ve even left them outside a few winters. One is a Goodyear and the other was a Craftsman. They cost me about $50 for a fifty footer. Don’t go longer or they get too heavy to wind up over the arm. Don’t fall for synthetic rubber which is cheaper and won’t last. If you can afford a Dramm, it will last forever and has crushproof ends. You can even drive over them. I don’t worry about a machine to roll the hoses up. I loop them around my arm and throw them over one of these old fandangled holders.

    https://www.amazon.com/TomCare-Decorative-Durable-Storage-Organizer/dp/B08J4556PH

  64. 3b says:

    Lib: I agree on the drug use, and have often wondered why the use of drugs is so high in this country. I don’t blame immigrants for that, but I would for those who may be trying to bring them in over the border. At the end of the day the border has to be secure. Every one should be able to agree with that.

  65. 3b says:

    Lib: Thsnks for your thoughts on the coil hose.

  66. Libturd says:

    I agree it should be secure to and wish the government would spend the proper amount of money to vet and process them. Once legal, they are a lot more likely to help society.

  67. The Great Pumpkin says:

    I’ll bite.

    This is bs. We were coming out of a financial crisis. When I was making my calls about real estate, people were claiming that real estate was going to crash….that high taxes would prevent any appreciation. I was the only one saying to buy and take advantage of as much free money as the bank would give you. Also, I called on the year when the housing market would go nuts…did that 10 years out.

    How can you write this off as nothing? That’s f;ing insane. I was screaming that wayne and fairfield were the last good values in the north jersey housing market in 2018/19. I was dead on…

    I have no issues with you…I just hate how you belittle me. I do something extraordinary in terms of calls…..and you brush it off as nothing. Give a bs example that the s & p 500 will be higher 10 years from now as an equivalent call. That’s some f/ing bs. Go f yourself, or be a man, and say really really nice call. kudos….wish i listened.

    leftwing says:
    May 23, 2024 at 1:33 pm
    “By the way, you are lucky I still talk to you after being told I have dementia and worse yet, think like Pumps.”

    LOL. I was going to hit up Grim on here offering that your handle was hijacked by Pumps as I know he has a real issue posters impersonating others!

    “This is the guy that chit all over my epic calls 10 years out as inevitable…”

    Uh, they were.

    So I’ll make an epic call the S&P will be higher in 2034 than now (it will). See you in ten years when I’m a genius!

    What’s amazing is not your ‘call’ after ten years, it’s that it’s ten years later you still don’t realize how dumb you are.

  68. leftwing says:

    “This is bs. We were coming out of a financial crisis. When I was making my calls about real estate…”

    JFC, you just don’t stop…

    You are correct. We were coming out of a financial crisis, THAT IS housing prices were DEFLATED from highs. But even that doesn’t matter….

    I posted actual data back in the day unlike your unsupported oral diarrhea then and now. One last time….

    HOUSING PRICES ARE HIGHER FOR EVERY YEAR FOR EVERY TEN YEAR PERIOD OVER THE LAST 50 YEARS.

    Market high + 10 years, higher. Market low +10 years, higher. War +10 years, higher. Peace + 10 years later war, higher. No inflation + 10 years, higher. Etc, etc.

    Can your simple fucking brain understand that your ‘call’ was saying that something that had not occurred in any economic environment during the last 50 years will….drumroll, please….not happen again?

    You literally called before someone turned on the faucet that the water coming out will be wet. Fucking Einstein you are.

    Dumbass.

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USSTHPI

  69. Fast Eddie says:

    Okay, you financial gurus, explain this one:

    https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ELF

  70. leftwing says:

    Sorry Gary, those companies aren’t in my sandbox.

  71. Fast Eddie says:

    Gary thinks that that industry would be over-saturated so it’s surprising to see the acceleration to the upside.

  72. Libturd says:

    As a former owner of ULTA in the Mad Loot Investment Club, when money gets tight, women spend more on things that make them feel good. She might have to buy a Malibu instead of a Maserati, but hell if she’s not going to still going to look good. This happened too during the housing/financial crisis.

  73. Fast Eddie says:

    In other news, Nikki Haley is voting for Trump so I guess MSNBC and CNN will have to look elsewhere to siphon votes. Too bad she didn’t stay uncommitted; the urban areas would’ve had a perfect excuse to mask the “discovery” of O’Biden ballots at 3:00 AM.

  74. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Seriously? You are pissing me off…this is insulting.

    Again, I said exactly when housing would go off 10 years in advance. WTF are you talking about below? If it was a given, then wtf would I even be making a call?

    Let’s play… tell me the year the stock market will drop, and tell me the year it will rebound in the next decade. Let’s see you do it hot shot.

    “Can your simple fucking brain understand that your ‘call’ was saying that something that had not occurred in any economic environment during the last 50 years will….drumroll, please….not happen again?

    You literally called before someone turned on the faucet that the water coming out will be wet. Fucking Einstein you are.”

  75. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Better yet….tell me when housing will go off again. Do it….I dare you. It’s so easy….then please share.

  76. Fast Eddie says:

    …when money gets tight, women spend more on things that make them feel good.

    Which very rarely includes a man, unless he has something worthwhile to offer.

    C’est la vie.

  77. Libturd says:

    Pumps,

    What’s your excuse for DNA?

  78. 3b says:

    Fast: Are you implying women are looking for men with money? That is not PC to say today. As for Ulta stock its around the same level as Amazon. Who knew??

  79. LAX says:

    I’ve worked kids “in transition”. Newsflash.
    They’re just like any other kid. Should they use the current
    Technology to change themselves?? I myself am working on
    a bionic penis.

  80. Old realtor says:

    Fairness and impartiality are the idea behind the blindfold on the statue of Justice. It shouldn’t be too much to ask of judges, to maintain a neutral public view on matters of politics. Doesn’t matter if they are appointed or elected, municipal to supreme. Not much to ask.

  81. Old realtor says:

    And I beg to differ with whoever said the Alito flag thing isn’t news. The Supreme Court is more controversial than ever before in my lifetime. If you are a justice and you show bias about an issue coming before the court, THAT IS NEWS!

  82. Old realtor says:

    On the subject of live music, P-Funk last night. Rolling Stones tonight.

  83. chicagofinance says:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byDiILrNbM4
    LAX says:
    May 23, 2024 at 4:17 pm
    I myself am working on a bionic penis.

  84. Very Stable Genius says:

    3b is into penis too.

    LAX says:
    May 23, 2024 at 4:17 pm
    I’ve worked kids “in transition”. Newsflash.
    They’re just like any other kid. Should they use the current
    Technology to change themselves?? I myself am working on
    a bionic penis.

    3b says:
    April 26, 2024 at 1:36 pm
    Fast: As long as you don’t drive recklessly, you can continue to drive your BMW and be confident that penis issues do not apply to you.

  85. JUice Box says:

    Old Realtor – “to maintain a neutral public view”.

    Since when? They make public speech and write books all the time.

  86. 3b says:

    Very: Well no surprise you posted that comment, in fact I was waiting for it. Like I told you, it’s OK, love is love. You don’t have to hide it anymore.

  87. Juice Box says:

    LAX – re: “I’ve worked kids “in transition”

    Baloney. I’ve worked kids “in transition”. There are hardly any transition surgeries performed on people under 18. Putting on lipstick and wearing hosiery like you do is not a transition.

  88. LAX says:

    6:07 you seem like a very particular kind of stupid.

  89. LAX says:

    Earning you this:

    ( )( )========D – – juuuice — box —-

  90. Juice Box says:

    LAX- You need a tear down? There are really no professional or ethical guidelines around this..I will attempt anyway….

    How hard is your creation to human sexuality your bionic phallus? Is it fitted for you correctly? Where the sun doesn’t shine?

  91. LAX says:

    Would you like to touch my monkey??

  92. LAX says:

    We caught “the last” Parliament w/ Geo Clinton a few months back. Fishbone played too. Fishbone, Maybe the loudest band i’ve heard lately!

  93. Chicago says:

    From what I see, CBA has substandard academics and students. The only kids that make good schools are from sports. Don’t waste your time or money. And RBC is even a substantial cut below CBA. The only local private school worth the money is Ranney, and possibly Trinity Hall for girls.

    Juice Box says:
    May 23, 2024 at 9:07 am
    Chi – Congrats on your son making captain. Thanks for the offer on training etc. FYI he was approached by the coach at CBA. He is going to South this year, and maybe CBA next year. He wants to go for Soccer not track and not for grades either…

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