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Last Thursday, a coalition of Yuba County residents sued San Francisco. The reason? They don't want our trash dumped in their backyard, reports SFGate. The Board of Supes approved a contract that, starting in 2015, will truck our trash to Oakland, where it'll board a train and go on a 130-mile journey to Yuba County. "Well, we say, 'Hey, they approved this contract and they forgot to do an environmental (study), '" said Richard Paskowitz, a resident of Yuba County who can see the landfill from his house. "Our bottom line is the environment." Adam Alberti, spokesman for Recology, disagrees. "I haven't seen the suit, but we disagree on principle," he said. "There is absolutely no …requirement to look at the impacts of transporting goods."
· Group sues over garbage contract [SFGate]
· Trash Talk [Curbed SF]
[photo via Ariel Dovas]
There has never been a better time to kill the messenger whose message you dislike.
Man behind US credit downgrade rejects blame for market rout
Standard & Poor’s David Beers rebuffs criticism and says developed economies need to address debt problems
Phillip Inman and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 August 2011 19.36 BST
Article history
US vice-president Joe Biden has suggested the downgrade of the US credit rating led to the resignation of S&P’s boss.
Photograph: Zhang Jun/Corbis
The man behind Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US credit rating said on Friday the agency was not to blame for August’s stock market rout, and warned that developed nations still needed to “get their act together” to tackle their debts.
S&P cut the United States’ prized AAA rating one notch to AA+ on 5 August, exacerbating a sell-off in global stock markets that had already been hit by Europe’s growing sovereign debt crisis and fears of a renewed US recession.
“From our perspective, it’s an oversimplification to say this was happening because of S&P’s downgrade,” said David Beers, S&P’s global head of sovereign ratings, referring to criticism that the move caused volatility in the market.
S&P is one of three main firms that analyse the creditworthiness of businesses and sovereign states, along with rivals Moody’s and Fitch. They have faced severe criticism for their failure to predict the credit crunch and subsequent bank insolvencies.
S&P’s officials have said the US downgrade was mostly based on their view that politics in Washington has become too divisive to ensure more deficit-reduction measures are adopted next year.
The US vice-president, Joe Biden, said he believed the downgrade was excessive and the resignation of the S&P president, Deven Sharma, this week was recognition by the firm that it had been wrong to be overly cautious.
World stocks, as measured by MSCI’s All-Country World Index, have fallen more than 17% from their May high as markets lose faith in the ability of politicians in rich economies to tackle debt burdens.
In Europe, investors are increasingly worried that eurozone leaders have been unable to contain the debt crisis that has swamped Greece, Portugal and Ireland and now threatens bigger, much harder to save economies such as Spain and Italy.
Japan, meanwhile, with a public debt twice the size of the $3tn economy, is looking for its sixth leader in five years after prime minister Naoto Kan confirmed on Friday his intention to step down.
“We’re waiting to see if the governments can get their act together and address both the short-term and long-term issues,” Beers told journalists at a press conference in Singapore, referring to developed countries in general.
He added that monetary and fiscal tools that could be used to boost sluggish economic growth would be of limited use if households in rich nations continued to focus on reducing their own debt rather than spending.
“One of the lessons that we’re perhaps learning from this crisis, and this applies to many countries, not just the US, is the limits of what these sorts of fiscal and monetary policies can achieve,” Beers said.
…
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Absorption defined for the purposes of this chart is: Number of months to sell all listing inventory at the annual pace of sales activity. (The definition of absorption in my market report series reflects the quarterly pace – nearly the same)
I started this analysis in August 2009 so I am able to show side-by side year-over-year comparisons. The blue line showing the 10-year quarterly average travels up and down because of the change in scale caused by some of the significant volatility seen at the upper end of the market.
Thoughts
The entry level market continues to weaken but the absorption rate is consistent with the 10-year average. $500 to $2M is moving best but $1.5M to $2M is the fastest. Dowtown is most efficient market overall followed by West Side then East Side.
Side by Side Manhattan regional comparison:
[click images to expand]
Manhattan Absorption Archive 2011 [Miller Samuel]
Manhattan Absorption Archive 2010 [Miller Samuel]
Note: This chart series does not include shadow inventory (properties ready for market but not yet listed for sale) so this anlaysis understates the rate of condo absorption. The Uptown (Northern Manhattan) data set is too thin for a reliable presentation.
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It's hotter than hell outside—why not stay indoors and stalk us on Facebook? It's as easy as heading over to the Curbed National Facebook page and hitting "Like." Our top stories will show up in your Facebook feed, like magic. And hey, follow us on Twitter, too. We'll be liking you back in spirit. [Facebook, Twitter]
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A reader suggested a topic on the Australian housing bubble. “I want to talk about the craziness going on in Australia right now. Pure hilarity down there. I’ve been entertaining myself watching ‘The Renovators,’ a show currently on TV down under. The market down there is insanely deluded, to an extreme that I think easily meets or exceeds anything we had going on here (except in perhaps the most insane markets like Manhattan or San Fran).”
“For those who haven’t seen it - the show revolves around a group of individuals (Australia’s top renovators) who win keys to one of 6 ‘houses’ and have to renovate and sell them. The team who makes the largest percentage of profit wins the profit of all 6 houses. Where it gets hilarious is when they reveal the homes.”
“Like this one: The Inner City Terrace. It’s a 2 bedroom townhouse that’s completely eaten by termites and literally falling down (no updates since the 1950’s). No indoor toilet, It has an “outdoor bathroom” in the garden under a piece of corrugated metal. Purchased for only 750,000$ (AUS - and remember, AUS/US dollars are basically 1:1 today).”
“These people keep talking about how excited they are at the potential profits and how much money they are going to make on these homes. One insane challenge after another exemplifies the hilarity. One such challenge put both teams in side-by-side townhomes to ‘renovate’ for one day and see who could add the most value to their auction price in a SINGLE day.”
“One team added some paint, ripped out a beautiful quirky kitchen to replace it with an ugly squared-off ‘thing’ from ikea, put grass-matting down over the kitchen tiles, and supposedly added over 60,000$ to the value (which put the total value of the home at 1,030,000$ - for a tiny two story townhouse). I’m certain it’s a sign of their coming bubblepocolypse but damn if it’s not the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time.”
From Perth Now. “WA’S biggest property players have joined forces with Bankwest to try and reinvigorate the State’s struggling residential housing construction sector. Prospective first time buyers will be able to borrow up to 97 per cent of the value of the property, outstripping the usual 20 or 25 per cent deposit required for some first time home loan products.”
“‘Our research showed it took about four to four-and-a-half years to save for a deposit under a traditional 80 per cent LVR (loan-to-value ratio),’ said Bankwest managing director, Jon Sutton. ‘Under this product, at 97 per cent, that brings that down to about six months, so it does help West Australians get into their house a lot quicker.’”
“Mr Sutton was adamant that lending first home buyers almost the entire value of a property was not irresponsible practice, claiming the bank’s strict lending criteria, including a minimum annual income threshold of $80,000 for the borrower or at least one person in a borrowing couple capped at $500,000 per loan, would insulate borrowers. ‘The product itself is two years interest only, 40 basis point off the standard variable mortgage rate, and there’s a further 10 points reduction for each year up to four years,’ Mr Sutton added.”
The Herald Sun. “Victoria has a property oversupply of about 70,000 dwellings - enough to house a city the size of Geelong, tax reform lobby group Prosper Australia says. The group, which once launched a first-home buyers’ strike, renewed its prediction of a US-style property crash with price falls of 30 per cent across the state’s capital. ‘Melbourne will be the epicentre for foreclosures and price falls because we have overbuilt by so much,’ Prosper Australia spokesman David Collyer warned.”
“Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows Victoria has built a new dwelling for every 2.15 people in the 15 years to last year, while the occupancy rate per household stands at about 2.5 people. Residex chief executive John Edwards said Melbourne was oversupplied, but would avoid a crash. Mr Edwards, who has monitored the country’s property market for more than 20 years, estimates Victoria had an oversupply of about 24,000 dwellings.”
“Australia’s strong economy, low unemployment and absence of non-recourse mortgages, which were widespread in the US, would limit price falls, Mr Edwards said. ‘Unless unemployment climbs, there will be no need for the people who live in Melbourne to sell up and take a loss, and if they don’t have to, they won’t,’ he said.”
The Brisbane Times. “If there were a Logie for making something out of nothing, The Block grand finale would be a shoo-in for having crafted two hours of ‘event’ television from an auction at which three out of four houses failed to sell. Josh Densten and Jenna Whitehead provided two of the evening’s biggest surprises. First, Densten got down on one knee to propose to Whitehead. Second surprise was the performance of their house. Though it had been considered the most likely to secure a significant margin above reserve, it failed to sell. In fact, it failed to attract even a single genuine bid.”
“For close to 20 agonising minutes, auctioneer Ruth Roberts of Woodards tried to elicit an advance on the $900,000 vendor bid with which she had kicked things off. Someone from the floor offered a desultory $750,000, to which she replied, ‘I’d like to play with you but I can’t.’ Finally, buyers’ advocate Frank Valentic offered an apparently genuine $901,000, at which point the house was passed in.”
“Josh and Jenna were on a big screen at the front of the hall, the thrill of engagement having given way to the shock of defeat. At the back of the hall, the remaining contestants looked stunned. As the night wore on it became obvious this was no aberration.”
‘All the reserves were set before the renovations began and presumably based on the $3.6 million (including stamp duty) production company Watercress paid for the four derelict Victorian properties on Cameron Street in Richmond at the height of the most recent boom. Since then, a second storey has been added to three of the houses, all four were restumped, rewired, replumbed and re-roofed, and each has had $100,000 spent on it by the contestants.”
“Nine (network) has emerged a massive winner anyway with The Block averaging 1.336 million viewers a night for the past nine weeks. The finale is likely to have come close to doubling that figure – not a bad result in a market like this one.”
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I’m still reeling from what they did to Palm.
Palm was on the ropes - no doubt - but they have a massive patent library easily worth their purchase price and they had some very real growing mindshare with their webOS phone operating system (for those who haven’t used it, it’s extremely compelling compared to the competition).
What Palm lacked was money, their warchest down to roughly 500 million dollars. When HP bought them (1.2 billion, so a bit over half a billion dollars when you figure in the cash Palm had in the bank), everyone involved breathed a sigh of relief and said: Wow, palm is going to make it!
The way forward was so clear you could have asked a blind man for a roadmap and been given something reasonably accurate. The homebrew scene had done AMAZING things with the original palm phone. They had designed new custom kernels that had the phone running at 1.0-1.2 gigahertz on thousands of phones with no casualty’s (they scaled speeds based on use and because of this ran incredibly faster, cooler, and with longer battery life than the stock phone. There were also a huge number of patches and tweaks that fixed every little problem with the phone and added tons of useful features. All of this made possible because Palm left the phone open and hackable (you literally entered the “konami code” into the phone and it opened into development mode). The problem? Only a minority of the Pre users knew this existed, and most users were still suffering with a buggy and sluggish phone that wasn’t coming close to demonstrating it’s true potential.
These fixes should have been baked into a new patch for all existing Pre users IMMEDIATELY while HP worked on putting out a truly next-gen phone. The whole community offered the patch up on a silver platter, the work was done, the cake was ready to eat. The 2%-4% of the smartphone users were about to get a patch that was going to rock their world. I’m telling you guys that the experience of using a palm pre with these patches is like holding a brand new piece of hardware. My pre is running at 1.1ghz (a speed that roughly matches the -BRAND NEW- phones out there), is butter-smooth with amazing multitasking (I can run dozens of open “cards”, have multiple browsers open surfing the web, and switch between everything seamlessly). A person running a stock pre? They are going to have slowdowns, chuggy unresponsiveness (it’s only a 500mhz processor), and when they try to open more than a few windows they’ll get a memory error that says “too many cards, close some cards and try again” (the homebrew patches added compressed ram and fixed this issue).
Instead, HP killed all support of the “legacy” devices at barely over a year old. This meant not only would the old phones receive all the amazing boosts a -few- of us were enjoying, but also that the development community for applications was completely shafted. Palm had been promising 2.0 webOS for all palm phones, and 2.0 apps are incompatible with the 1.4.5 running on those current devices. A large number of palm devs had worked for months and months on the next wave of 2.0 apps (2.0 could do many things 1.4.5 could not), only to discover that their already small market of potential customers had been cut by 2/3rds without any warning. This was obviously a HUGE mistake.
HP’s reasons for this? The “legacy devices” (original palm pre/pixi) couldn’t handle 2.0. The reason this statement is hilarious? A leaked virtually completed 2.0 kernel hit the scene and demonstrated that it worked absolutely fine. Even funnier, the homebrew community came up with a way to install 2.0 -with- all of the proper speedups and patches they’d created onto the legacy phones and they work beautifully. Of course, only a few hundred people with palm phones know this, while the thousands upon thousands of other people who own the phone are stuck.
Then HP came out with their new line of phones/tablets. Every single one of them was underwhelming. The touchpad was an ipad 1 clone priced expensively and released just as apple released their IPAD 2 - it was doomed to failure. The new palm veer is a tiny phone that doesn’t showcase webOS thanks to it’s itty bitty touchscreen. The Pre 2 was a joke (barely better than an original palm pre and ran crappier than the original pre properly patched).
Finally HP announced they were going to make a real effort - the PRE 3 was coming! Here was a phone with a larger screen, a better footprint, gorilla glass, a decent processor. It’s the webOS phone many of us wanted, and while I still feel it was a little underwhelming on components (needed a dual core processor, for example), it was still a huge step forward.
HP went into full gear, production got started, palm workers were excited for the future. 5 days ago, palm released the pre 3 in europe with US release coming ASAP. And then HP killed the whole brand, saying they were no longer supporting or producing any hardware and pulling the plug on the launch.
Nobody at palm knew this was coming. Whole elements of HP were in the dark. There’s a production line out there that was humming along just a few days ago pumping these phones out. There’s gotta be a freaking warehouse full of phones ready to launch. Several people managed to buy the phone before it was effectively yanked.
All adopters of any newer hardware are totally shafted. The app development community is now effectively dead and anyone who purchased in the last few months is angry. Best buy is offering to take back 25,000 touchpads they sold over the last two months - they seem angry about the whole thing too.
Touchpads were on sale for 99$/149$ yesterday night and this-morning at several retailers. Sold out everywhere now. Insanity.
In the 1960s, actor Clint Eastwood began acquiring land in Carmel, Calif. that would eventually become a development project known as Tehama. Today, plots in that development are among the most sought after in this ritzy seaside escape some two hours south of San Francisco. But now local brokers are concerned that the auctioning of one of the area's prime lots—a 15.4-acre hilltop building site—may erode the cachet of this celeb-driven development. That home site, with its views of Carmel Bay and the surrounding hills, was previously listed for $3.45M, but will hit the auction block with an opening bid of just $1.75M. Adding fuel to the fire brokers are starting over this is the fact that the seller is not some disgraced Ponzi schemer, but wildly wealthy Gateway co-founder Norman Waitt, who would apparently just like to free himself of the headaches of a property lingering on the market. But, who knows, maybe a call from Dirty Harry himself will be enough to dissuade the computer king from cutting and running. That seems unlikely though, considering the auction is set for August 31.
· Tehama Carmel [official site]
· Auction Prompts Concern at Eastwood’s Carmel Development [WSJ]
· Carmel Auction [Sheldon Good & Company]
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I was reading a good blog post over at Time: Busted Recovery: How Much is Housing to Blame? when I came across an out-of-character quote from Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics, someone whom I normally find offers sage advice:
Still, Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics says there is a little hyperbole when people say the economy can’t recover without the housing market. That’s because much of what we normally think of the housing market doesn’t produce a lot of economic value. “Realtors have perpetuated the fraud that selling homes back and forth between people is good for the economy,” says Thornberg. “I’m not convinced that does that much for the economy.”
His use of the word “fraud” set me off.
However I agree with what he is saying about housing and the economy – I do believe there is way too much hyperbole that housing must recover before the economy recovers. I think that the economy will likely recover before housing will and that housing will be a drag on overall economic recover. And we all know that all jobs created by the housing market during the boom quickly evaporated during the bust.
But this part…
“Realtors have perpetuated the fraud that selling homes back and forth between people is good for the economy,” says Thornberg. “I’m not convinced that does that much for the economy.”
Really? Fraud?
While I’ve been very vocal about the misleading comments about the credit crunch and housing observations coming out of NAR since the days of David Lereah and now with Lawrence Yun, it’s ridiculous to call it fraud. It’s called selling and spin. Big difference although they are also distasteful.
It is the job of Realtors to sell homes for sellers and help find homes for buyers. They are in the business of sales. Realtors are represented by The National Association of Realtors who are a trade group and the function of a trade group is to help their members be more successful and represent their interests.
I’ll bet every single trade group has similar pitches specific to their client’s needs. Attend plumbing convention and you’ll be told that PVC pipes enable our country to grow. Attend a snack food convention and there will be no discussion about eating too many candy bars. Attend a dental convention and you’ll hear all the spin about brushing and how bad candy is for teeth (but good for business).
I think the part many miss with the dissemination real estate information, is that a trade group as a source should not be presented in the media as an authoritative source on a topic. Yes they can attest to a condition that helps their members but we should never see them as a neutral go-to resource. Think Mortgage Bankers Association, American Banking Association, National Association of Homebuilders, etc. Massive spin for their members. It’s not fraud.
The blogosphere was particularly good at outing NAR’s former chief economist Lereah and current chief economist Yun’s usually absurd press releases and proclamations.
Up until recently, I don’t think the public realized that there was any difference in credibility in the analysis of the real estate market from NAR. That realization has propped up alternatives like Case Shiller and CoreLogic (although Case Shiller has many of its own serious flaws).
So despite the easy target, let’s raise the bar on the discourse. Realtor-bashing isn’t in style anymore. Realtors are simply doing their jobs and there isn’t some sort of conspiracy – they are too busy driving clients around looking at homes.
In fact, of all people that touched the home buying process, from rating agencies, investment banks, consumers, mortgage brokers, commercial banks and appraisers during the bubble, Realtors had little to do with the run up. They were order-takers in a nation gone insane.
The pattern is this:
1. Economic shock, companies shed people, and space;
2. Real Estate turmoil, distressed properties have basis reset (through foreclosures and/or resale), game of musical chairs as landlords of new cheap buildings attract tenants from their existing space by lowering rents; market rents wind their way down, starting as vacancies are rising, but even in the first part of vacancies falling/occupancy increases;
3. Real Estate recovery, with positive absorption of space, eventually the game of musical chairs slows down as there is less and less vacant space with the positive absorption, rents rise to justify new development, new development occurs.
We are at phase 2/3 right now, with the predominance of markets still in phase 2, but finding a bottom in terms of rents.
Data:
From CoStar, US Industrial market absorbed 32 million square feet in the second quarter, LOWERING vacancy rate to 9.9%.
From CoStar, US Retail market absorbed 11 million square feet in the second quarter; vacancy rate stable at 7.1%.
From Colliers, US Office market absorbed 9.9 million square feet in the second quarter; vacancy rate fell slightly to 15.3%.
Look at commercial property REIT vacancy rates (published quarterly, if not more frequently via special investor presentations). They cover a lot of the country.
A couple of examples:
DDR - Stable occupancy rate for years at about 95% pre-crash, fell to about 90.5% at the worst. Now has clawed it’s way back up to 93%. Rents have risen off the bottom.
FR - Stable occupancy rate was 91/92%, fell to about 81% at worst. Now has clawed its way back to 86%.
Positive absorption of space is a good thing…like the jobs numbers, it means that more space was newly occupied than newly vacated, with the jobs corollary being that more people get jobs than lose them. Only with jobs, you constantly have new people entering the workforce, making the pace of jobs recovery critical to lowering unemployment rates. With buildings, as long as there isn’t appreciable construction, you can lower vacancy rates even with small amounts of positive absorption.
This is an important fact: You can have a commercial real estate recovery WITHOUT a drop in unemployment rate…as long as there is positive job creation, and with it, positive absorption of commercial space, and little new construction.
Unless you believe there to be a vast conspiracy where all public REITs and providers of data are sending out bogus financials, vacancies are falling generally. Industrial is leading the pack, retail is gradually getting better, and office is lagging (no surprise).
I’m not saying that things are wonderful, but gradually getting better. You’ll note that all of my commentary (with the exception of apartments, and Silicon Valley/Inland Empire industrial) is in the future. Over the next 3-5 years, you will see the broad rent growth that I’m talking about…not the next year except in select pockets where vacancy rates have fallen due to local market conditions.
Enthusiasm is rare on sleepy, sweltering Friday afternoons, which is why the person who took to Craigslist with an unbridled zest for life deserves some due attention. The posting, which first surfaced on Gizmodo, was written by a 25-year-old "professional marketing agent with experience at bad-ass companies in New York Fucking City." (Sorry to offend, but the F-bomb appears 16 times in his ad. Brace.) Anyway, this fella is headed out to San Francisco and has $1,000 per month to spend on shared housing. Some of his selling points: he turns off lights, he cleans toilets, he even cooks—"I'll fry green tomatoes, cover them with marinated crab meat and smother that shit in bearnaise. EVERY. GODDAMN. NIGHT." Plus—and this is really a big one—he's not racist: "A lot of people ask me, 'Hey, you're from Alabama. Are you racist?' And, the answer to that question is, no. I'm not racist or judgmental at all. I love everyone. I'm a secular humanist. I FUCKING LOVE PEOPLE." He implores interested parties to email him, after which he'll provide all his vital stats: "I'll hook yo ass up with Facebook links, background checks, credit reports, phone numbers, resumes, references, awards, sexual history, pictures of karate trophies and a list of the top 10 women I'd like to bang before I die." We're done with this clown: just read the full post below.
· $1000 Best. Roommate. Ever. [Craigslist San Francisco via Gizmodo]
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A primary news service in Brazil, Jornal da Globo, interviewed me on the housing market and I did a quick overview of the 2008 and laid out the US part of the story. If you blink you might miss me but its a balanced story and it seems to me like Brazil is in year 2006 of our cycle.
[click to see video]
The reporter told me that their economists and regulators say they are not in a bubble. However consumers have easy access to credit and there has been double digit multi-year housing growth far outpacing rental prices. That’s a housing bubble, no?
Incidentally, the day before this interview I was interviewed by a Chinese Television station with a similar story but less optimistic about the state of their market – saw it as a bubble.
Here’s a good Financial Times article on the Brazil housing market from last spring: Housing boom raises fears of Brazil bubble [subscription]
Entenda as causas do crescimento nos preços dos imóveis no Brasil [Jornal da Globo]
Understand the causes of growth in property prices in Brazil [English Translation]
Unless there's a dry cleaners on your block, many of us would prefer to just buy garments we can launder at home without the hassle of taking things in, let alone remembering to pick them back up. Well relax, there might be some garments that can easily be washed at home without the headache. Here's what to look for:
The folks over at Whole Living shared a little insight behind the world of fashion. When an item can be either washed or dry cleaned, usually the company will opt to just say dry clean on the label to make sure we don't shrink our shirts and write them nasty letters telling them they told us we could do so.
So many items that are dry clean — really aren't! Some items that can be washed by hand at home are solid-c0lor cotton, wool, linen, rayon and washable silk. Want to learn more? It might just open up a whole new world of shopping and laundering to you. Check out all the details over at Whole Living.
Image: Flickr member vintagedept licensed for use by Creative Commons
Kudos to the Chronicle's John King for his piece today on the future recreational marinas that may appear in the the two last open water areas along the Embarcadero. As people wade through the America's Cup Draft EIR, the questions are beginning to sound like "did we give away the store?" in the Host Agreement for the race, and King brings up the point that the Event Authority and their planners, Aecom, have identified the Cupid's Arrow-adjacent Rincon Hill basin for temporary berthing of private spectator boats, including mega-yachts. If the Event Authority (Ellison & Friends) has to pay to dredge these two open areas to accommodate large boats, such dredging gives them the right to develop the sites into commercial recreational marinas. From the DEIR:
The Host Agreement identifies both the Rincon Point and Brannan Street Wharf Open Water Basins as locations for temporary berthing and, if the Event Authority pays to dredge the Basins, this would trigger long-term development rights for construction of a marina in each location… development of long term marinas within the Rincon Point or Brannan Street Wharf Open Water Basins would be considered a significant and unavoidable impact.
The Event Authority is probably getting bids right now to dredge the Brannan Street basin next to Pier 30, which will be home to some of the race's big boats, plus it's across the street from Sea Wall Lot 330, the W-shaped lot owned by Ports that was ceded to the Event Authority for development.
Over here at Curbed SF's A-Cup Headquarters, we're thinking "mega-yacht"="red herring". It's a loose term, but these are boats starting at 150 feet in length, and we almost never see them in the Bay Area. They cost over $20M (second-hand) and most owners defray their costs by renting them out by the week. Depending on the week, these charters start at around $300K- a week plus fuel and food. Where are these boats? In the winter, many are in the Caribbean. In the summer, they tend to be in the Northern Mediterranean, from Turkey across to Spain. They tend not to be on our Pacific Coast, except for a few hardy expedition boats, plus some in San Diego and Mexico. The East Coast of Africa to the China Sea? No way, too many pirates. So the odds of sending your empty, fully-crewed boat in August from Cannes or Calvi across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal while it could be rented out for $500K a week to a fellow from Dubai? Not bloody likely, and we're thinking the Rincon basin may instead become a two-year used-yacht lot for boat brokers. So be careful about giving out those dredging permits, OK?
· Cups Yacht Plans Threatens Our Wide-Open Bay Views [SF Gate]
· Fraser Partners With America's Cup [The Triton]
· Fraser Yachts [Fraser Yachts]
Every now and then you come across a table or desk in a thrift store that would be perfect if not for the totally messed up top. Sanding is messy and not always an option so follow Nichole's lead and decoupage fabric to the table top. It creates a bold look (as you'll see after the jump) and it's an easy way to cover up a bad finish…
Now, before I stir the ire of the wood-should-never-be-painted-let-alone-covered-with-fabric purists among us, let's just admit that sometimes it's not possible to sand and refinish furniture. For those of us without garages or workshops, sanding in the apartment is just a big fat mess. If you've ever tried it, you know what I mean. If you haven't tried sanding in your apartment, here's a tip: cover every single thing (including your pets) and prepare for a lot of dust!
Nichole, from Parlour, picked up this beautiful table with the great legs but battered top at an estate sale for $50 (cat not inclluded). She didn't want to sand it in her apartment and she didn't want to lug it down three flights of stairs to do it outside so she came up with another way of transforming the top. To give the table new life, Nichole covered the top with fabric. Using a few different kinds of glue, Nichole adhered the fabric directly to the tabletop and then topped it all off with four coats of polyurethane and a coat of spray sealant. I love the bold print, which is further enhanced by the white chairs Nichole has paired with the table.
Check out the full post over on Nichole's blog — Parlour: Decoupaging with Fabric.
Images: Parlour
Pulse plugs are a radical departure from spark plugs. Their physical dimensions are the same as spark plugs because they have to interface with the engine and ignition system just like spark plugs. But this is where the similarity ends.Price: $24.95
Bryant Park Place, located in midtown Manhattan, is a distinguished pre-war building that was originally built by Andrew Carnegie to house the Engineer's Club. Well, those engineers might have been focused on structure, but even they would have objected to the trompe l'oeil treatment on the walls of this one-bedroom co-op. Normally, we might expect this from an attempt to convert a sprawling apartment into some version of a palace, but this place, measuring just 750 square feet, reflects even greater delusions of grandeur. The apartment is currently on the market for $645K, but is also available for rent for $3K a month. We envy the gall of someone who leases this apartment without getting the landlord to swap out the wallpaper.
· 32 West 40th Street [Elliman]
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actual AMC (car) factory
AMC Factory For a year and a half, our firm tangled with the bureaucracy of Landsafe, the poster child for the appraisal management company (AMC) industry. While not all AMC’s are bad, their relationship to the mortgage process is fundamentally flawed. The estimation of market value of mortgage collateral to enable lenders to make informed decisions has been commoditized to the point where most mortgage appraisals are generally not worth the paper they are written on. This series is from an appraiser’s perspective, about a profession left to die by the side of the road.
Incidentally, some may view this series as providing cheap shots since it is always easy to pick out unflattering examples of misconduct in a large industry. You bet it is. After what good appraisers have observed over the past several years, the AMC industry deserves nothing more than that.
River Views Less Valuable Because of “Smelly Fish Boats”
Here’s one broker’s experience:
…client in [Manhattan] (urban market) could not buy the 10th Floor river-view apartment he wanted because his bank assigned an appraiser from Suffolk County, Long Island, (suburban market several hours away) who appraised it at less than the recent sale price of a 3rd Floor apartment in the same line, which had no river-view, and the client was short $20,000 cash which he did not have; the appraiser explained that where he comes from residences near enough to the shore to have a water-view, always have lower value perhaps because of the smelly fishboats. The bank would not do another appraisal because of the belief that all appraisers in a state are equally able to appraise any property in that state, no exceptions. So the client had to move into another rental apartment.
My thoughts
Local market knowledge is the primary qualification to hire a specific appraiser for an assignment. Merely having a license in the same state as the subject property to be appraised does not make someone competent.
A continuing refrain among real estate agents is that the appraiser came from another market, often 3-5 hours away. Not something that was the status quo in prior years.
Sigh.
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Recently Curbed Hamptons editor Nick Leighton paid a visit to the Amagansett, N.Y., weekend house of fashion designer Nanette Lepore. Actually a barn that was moved to the site in the '70s, Lepore's home features a a wide variety of tastes: "It's a barn, so there's barnwood, it feels like a French country kitchen in the kitchen, and yet the rooms feel very modern," she explains. "I don't want to be beholden to one era or style, I love to mix it up." Lepore worked with longtime designer Jonathan Adler (who also did her Manhattan townhouse) on the space: "We decided to decorate this house a lot of things that we've had forever landed here, and they feel right at home." View the video after the jump.
After the let down in the 2008 presidential primary, Mitt Romney sold some of his impressive residences—a 6,400-square-foot Colonial in Belmont, Mass. and a 9,500-square-foot Deer Valley, Utah spread—and purchased a modestly-sized 3,000-square-foot beach house in La Jolla, California. The property was not so modestly priced, however, and Romney paid $12M for the house and its half-acre lot. Now he's looking to expand accommodations on his slice of the SoCal coast. Plans are in the works to bulldoze the existing structure (above) and built a house that's almost four times the size: 11,062 square feet to be exact. According to the campaign, the Romneys "want to enlarge their two bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs."
· The Personal HQs of the 2012's GOP Presidential Hopefuls [Curbed National]
· Mitt Romney Looks To Expand $12 Million La Jolla, California Home [Huffington Post]
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Buy properties such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Rocky Mountains, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. Collect slices of All-American Apple Pie and trade them in for the American Dream. Land on the Liberty Bell and scoop up everything in the center of the board. Pick up $200 each time you pass Uncle Sam, but beware...you may end up in a traffic jam and lose three turns. Or worse yet, you may be audited by the IRS! Whatever happens, America in-a-box is good, healthy, American fun for family and friends.Price:
Portugal, despite its small size and out of the way location on the Iberian peninsula, was once a major world power, commanding a fleet that circumnavigated the globe and returned bearing riches from far off lands. Some of those riches found their way into grand palaces and private mansions near Lisbon, which, nowadays, are generally falling into disrepair. The Quinta do Marquês, a 17th-century stone castle in the Torres Novas neighborhood of Lisbon, features 20 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, manicured gardens, and lavish local tile work, but it's still rough around the edges, in need of paint and some general landscaping. Judging the total cost of such a project is made particularly difficult by the fact that this Portugese estate is listed as "price upon request."
? This 18,000-square-foot palace, also in Lisbon, offers up even more bedrooms, 24, than the last place, but claims just three bathrooms. That fact, combined with less-than-revealing interior photographs and some overgrown gardens, suggests that Quinta das Águias is in need of a full renovation. Once again, the price is "upon request," though a UK property website estimates the price at almost $29M.
? Other, even older, properties have fared better. Like this broad, tile-roofed manor located outside of Lisbon in the town of Loures. On the market for $10.2M, the house, known as Quinta de Santa Maria, was built in 1677 and has either been very dutifully maintained since or, more likely, recently restored. Awash in white-and-blue Portugese tile, the estate boasts remarkable gardens and a terraced swimming pool.
? The 15-bedroom Palace Pinteus is also priced around $10M, was also built in the 17th century, but has a unique and distinguished history. Visited by the Portugese king João V on his many trips to a nearby monastery, the home later became a haven for the Portugese literati, before being fully restored by the previous owner, a famous fadista. Today, the revamped palace houses 15 bedrooms, six baths, and enjoys a glorious pink facade.
? Built in 1911 by the Brazilian millionaire Benedita de Mello Alves Nogueira, the aptly named Palácio de São Paulo is dramatically set on a cliffside overlooking the seaside town of Cascais, some 19 miles west of Lisbon. In 2006, the property was renovated with several modern additions, including a glass railing to maximize the sea view, huge single-pane windows, and a pool-level spa. Currently the price is available only on request, though one can rest assured this 10-bedroom seaside villa will trade for many, many millions.
· Quinta do Marquês [Sotheby's]
· Quinta das Águias [Sotheby's]
· Lisbon palace to restore [Country Life UK]
· Original architecture and adapted for modern living [Luxury Portfolio]
· Palace Pinteus [Luxury Portfolio]
· Palácio de São Paulo [Sotheby's]
Readers ss a topic on house buying, financing and owning. “I’d like a better understanding about the historical context of home financing/owning/buying.
1) The evolution of FHA, HUD, VA loans, etc. (And how were homes purchased prior to the invention of the 30 year mortgage?)
2) Historical down payment requirements.
3) Redlining and flight to the suburbs
4) Impact of the change when they allowed exclusion of housing capital gains instead of rollover requirements (late 90’s if I remember correctly). (Did this perhaps begin the ATM mentality?)
5) When did we adopt the “move up the property ladder” mentality instead of aiming for the goal of a lifetime home and a mortgage burning party?
6) The creation of adjustable loans (early 80’s I think).”
A reply, “You can’t have a analysis of the items you mentioned without considering how the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 had on the financial markets. Basically getting rid of Glass-Steagall ( enacted in 1933 ) removed the separation between Investment Banking and commercial banking. In the 1930’s after the great stock market crash they figured out there was a conflict of interest between investing and lending and the two worlds should be separated. Basically the investment world will resort to faulty lending because they want the person to make the investment. Lending should be based on qualifying for the loan ,not how attractive the investment is for the future in other words, and the 2 worlds have different principals .”
“It didn’t take them more than 7 years from the repeal of Glass-Steagal to screw up the entire financial markets when the crash of real estate gained speed. People went into debt based on the wealth effect of fake real estate prices ( destined to crash ). De-coupling debt from ability to pay is crazy.”
One said, “The idea was home prices would go up 15% a year (in the bag) and ability to pay was irrelevant. What I am trying more seriously to figure out is how to either make the debts go away gracefully or inflate the money supply to cover the debts. Once people realize that the debts, at least the real component of the debts is largely held by pension funds, governments etc will allowing debt failure remain an option. If not an option, so far efforts to print money have not made it down the chain where they can do any good…”
A reply, “What, if Freddie & Fannie with the fed’s backing offered 80% financing, on a owner occupied SFR, @ 0% interest rate for 30 years…Would the market clear ??”
I asked, “Along these lines, someone suggested this week that we have a topic on what readers would like to hear or not hear from presidential candidates.”
To which was said, “Similarly, and I know this is slightly OT, how could a sane and responsible ‘third’ political party be created?”
A reply, “I don’t know that a third party could work. The two that currently exist have so much organization, money and whatever that they have to win. With a substantial third party, you are almost always going to split one of the two and throw the election to the one that isn’t split.”
“What I think you might be able to do in the age of the internet is get a few people to run for office with a pledge to not take any money from PACs, contributions of no more than $200 (or something like that) from any one person, and the staff looking after donations would not communicate to the candidate/person in office any information about you have X number of donors from industry Y so that X percent of your support was from that industry. No one who worked with donations would be allowed to get a regular staffer job. If any person or company came in to give information to the staff or candidate (or office holder) and mentioned contributions or told how much they gave or aggregated in the past, they would be asked to leave and couldn’t come back for 6 months. Every time someone got themselves kicked out, it would be tweeted and put up on the web as well as released as a regular press release. No junkets - if the candidate had to go on a trip for information purposes, he or she would pay for it.’
“If a candidate could actually get elected under those rules, he or she would have amazing freedom that the money scroungers don’t have. And a few of them just might be able to shame the rest of the Congress into behaving a little better.”
Another added, “The internet could possibly be the tool for undermining the stranglehold that the big financial interests have on our government, because these financial interests also have a large measure of control over the traditional media.”
And finally, “It doesn’t matter what the Presidential candidates say. All you need is 40 Senators in the other party and CSPAN turns into Hostage TV.”
From The Hill. “Plans to boost the stymied housing market continue to emerge, with a New York Democratic lawmaker adding his proposal that would provide incentives for real estate investment to sell 3 million existing homes into the mix. Rep. Gary Ackerman will introduce a bill when Congress returns from its August recess designed to spur home sales and ‘to decrease the glut of 3 million existing unsold, vacant, often-blighted and foreclosed properties that are currently impeding economic recovery across the country.’”
“The measure would offer 2 million qualified borrowers a matching subsidy of up to $20,000 for a down payment for single-family home purchases. The subsidy would be a loan, with 20 percent forgiven in each of the first five years of owner-occupancy.”
“To help cover the cost of these programs, the bill would use currently unrealized revenue by leveraging the first $500 billion of the estimated $1.2 trillion ‘in idle capital that U.S. companies have sitting off shore and incentivizing those companies to bring the money home by reducing the corporate tax rate on repatriated earnings to 10 percent. That revenue would cover the cost of the program,’ Ackerman said.”
“Last week, the Obama administration announced that it is seeking creative ways to revive the sluggish housing market by selling off certain repossessed properties, a move Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has said goes along with his plan to turn vacant, foreclosed homes into rental units. Reed’s proposal seeks to increase the resale value of vacant foreclosed homes for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by turning them into profitable rental units that could be sold to the private sector. The senator’s plan to retrofit and renovate the houses would create jobs.’
From CBS News. “Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry officially jumped in the race for the White House Saturday and is already considered a major player. Perry has a double digit lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, according to one poll released Tuesday. Perry is not backing down from his controversial remark that it would be ‘almost treasonous’ for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to try to boost the U.S. economy ahead of next year’s election.”
“‘If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion,’ Perry said when asked about his views on the Federal Reserve.”
‘Bernanke, who served as a top White House economist under Bush before becoming Fed chief in 2006, has lowered interest rates and overseen a host of extraordinary measures to revive the U.S. economy which was officially in recession from December 2007 through June 2009.
US News and World Report. “Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign is taking a victory lap this week as he is vindicated for standing by his views on the Federal Reserve. While Paul has long been considered outside of the mainstream for his strong libertarian views, some of his predictions have come to pass—like the housing bubble’s burst and the recent economic downturn—and some of his views are now hitting center stage.”
“‘What fascinates me,’ he said with pride, ‘is we’ve been talking about and thinking about and understanding [this] for so long, who would ever have thought, you know, the former speaker of the House would come out and say, ‘Audit the Fed!’”
“And former Speaker Newt Gingrich isn’t the only other candidate focusing on the issue, as Paul pointed out. ‘Now we have this other governor—I can’t remember his name—who’s coming into the campaign,’ he joked, referring to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. ‘He realized that talking about the Fed is good too.’”
“‘But I tell you what,’ Paul continued. ‘He makes me look like a moderate. I have never once said Bernanke has committed treason. But I have suggested very strongly that the Federal Reserve system and all the members have been counterfeiters for a long time.’”
“The past two months have taught us that the Republican presidential candidates are going to try to make the 2012 election a referendum on President Obama’s first term, and one of the most effective means of attack is starting to pop up both on television screens and websites — using the president’s words against him.’
“Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) campaign has released a series of videos over the summer in that vein. Romney’s campaign released a video presaging a visit to the early primary state of New Hampshire. Once again, neither Romney’s face nor his words shows up in the ad. Instead, it leads with the president’s promise in 2008: ‘We Democrats have a very different message of what constitutes progress in this country. We measure progress by how many people can find a job to pay the mortgage.’”
‘The implication was obvious: With a 9.2 percent unemployment rate at the time the ad ran and housing prices continuing to struggle, holding jobs and paying off mortgages were even more difficult than when Obama ran for president.”
From WTMJ. “People looking to buy or sell a home can find out more information from a national organization touring through the Milwaukee area on Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors has a bus tour which has been scheduled to make two stops in and nearby Milwaukee.”
“‘We’re here to help. We know a number of programs and resources to hep people facing the situation of foreclosure,’ said John Horning, the Chairman of the Wisconsin Realtors Association.’
“People could meet with those in the realty industry if they were facing foreclosure, a short sale, or simply if they wanted to get a better mortgage deal. Those attending could learn how to reduce loan payments, which in this market could mean being able to stay in their home.”
“The group is also making its voice heard in Washington, D.C. with federal officials. ‘There’s a lot of opportunity right now, and our message in D.C. is (not to) do any harm in the housing industry. That would harm our economy.’”
Tax the super-rich or riots will rage in 2012
MarketWatch
A recent IMF report looked at “the causes of the two major U.S. economic crises over the past 100 years, the Great Depression of 1929 and the Great Recession of 2007,” writes Rana Foroohar, an economics editor at Time magazine.
“There are two remarkable similarities in the eras that preceded these crises. Both saw a sharp increase in income inequality and household-debt-to-income ratios.” And in each case, “as the poor and middle-class were squeezed, they tried to cope by borrowing to maintain their standard of living.”
But the rich “got richer, by lending, and looked for more places to invest, bidding up securities that eventually exploded in everyone’s face. In both eras, financial deregulation and loose monetary policies played roles in creating the bubble. But inequality itself — and the political pressure not to reverse it, but to hide it — was a crucial factor in the meltdown. The shrinking middle isn’t a symptom of the downturn. It’s the source of it.” Today the consequences of the meltdown still haunt us — there’s more to come.
There’s enormous “political pressure not to reverse” inequality till it “explodes in our faces.” We deny the inequality between rich and the other 99%. The rich are addicts. More is never enough. They thrive on greed, blind to the needs of others. Worse, they have no commitment to America as a nation. From Forbes billionaires and signers of “no new taxes” pledges, to Mitch McConnell’s un-American willingness to sabotage the economy to deliver on his main promise to make Obama a one-term president.
1. Warning: High unemployment is a global ticking time bomb
An earlier special report in Time, “Poor vs. Rich: A New Global Conflict,” warns that a “conflict between two worlds — one rich, one poor — is developing, and the battlefield is the globe itself.”
Just 25 developed nations with 750 million citizens “consume most of the world’s resources … enjoy history’s highest standard of living.” But now they face 100 poor nations with 2 billion people, many living in poverty, all demanding “an ever larger share of that wealth.” A British leader calls this a “time bomb for the human race.”
2. Warning: Tax cuts for the rich increase youth unemployment
In a New York Times column, Matthew Klein, a 24-year-old Council on Foreign Relations researcher, saw the parallel between the 25% unemployment among Egypt’s young and the 21% for young Americans: “The young will bear the brunt of the pain” as governments rebalance budgets. “Taxes on workers will be raised, spending on education will be cut while mortgage subsidies and entitlements for the elderly are untouchable.” And more tax cuts for the rich.
3. Warning: Rich get richer on commodity inflation, poor get angrier
USAToday’s John Waggoner warned: “Soaring food prices send millions into poverty, hunger.” The “rise in food prices means a descent into extreme poverty and hunger, warns the World Bank.” One Pimco manager warns that commodity inflation exposes “the underlying inequalities and issues related to the standard of living that boil beneath the surface.”
4. Warning: The super-rich are blinded by their addiction to money
In “Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest American Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You with the Bill),” David Cay Johnston warns that the rich are like addicts, and to “the addicted, money is like cocaine, too much is never enough.” Recent data: 300,000 Americans in “the top tenth of 1% of income had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the economic lower half of our population.”
5. Warning: Politicians are corrupted by this super-rich addiction to greed
In “Washington’s Suicide Pact,” Newsweek’s Ezra Klein warns: “Congress is careening toward the worst of all worlds: massive job losses and an exploding deficit.” And the debt-ceiling drama just made things a lot worse. Millions of jobs were lost during Bush years, his wars, tax cuts for the rich. Yet, today the GOP is in total denial of that legacy, blinded by an obsession to destroy Obama’s presidency, no matter the consequences.
6. Warning: Soon the revolutionaries will rage, then dominate ‘Third World America’
Yes, we are ripe for a surprise revolution. In “Third World America” Arianna Huffington warns: “Washington rushed to the rescue of Wall Street but forgot about Main Street.” Now Bernanke’s promise of cheap money through 2013 is just one more “free lunch” to the richest 1%. Meanwhile, “one in five Americans unemployed or underemployed. One in nine families unable to make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans on food stamps. Upward mobility has always been at the center of the American Dream … that promise has been broken… The American Dream is becoming a nightmare.”
It's no secret that scoring an apartment in San Francisco is historically difficult. And with the recent surge of tech folk moving in the City and residential property owners turning their digs into short-term vacation rentals, it can feel like you'll never find a place. Thankfully, the kind folks at Zillow have posted an entry to their blog about how to make your rental application stand out. Highlights include wearing a suit writing legibly and informing the landlord that you can pay everything right this second, the cashier's check is already ready. [Zillow Blog/photo via Chris Saulit]
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This is the most luxurious edition of Monopoly ever! Crafted to be a treasured heirloom that you will be proud to pass down to your children and grandchildren.Price:
The Press of Atlantic City reports from New Jersey. “With home prices and mortgage rates low, and lots of distressed properties, real estate is a buyer’s market. Yet buyers are less satisfied. Marsha Mangiello, one of four co-owners of Re/Max Atlantic in Northfield and Absecon, said buyers without money saved for a big down payment should realize their window to buy a home might close soon, since there’s a move in Congress to require 20 percent down payments. Being realistic up front with sellers is more important than ever, she said, since they’re more likely to have expectations that don’t match the market.”
“‘We wish we could give sellers the prices that they want, but that’s just not reality,’ she said. ‘I tell them, do you want me to tell you what you need to hear or what you want to hear? They always say, well, I guess what I need to hear.’”
The Record in New Jersey. “Four major mortgage lenders were cleared Monday to start filing foreclosure cases in New Jersey again, almost eight months after the state’s chief justice halted most foreclosures following reports of legal irregularities. Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase Bank and Wells Fargo all got the green light to move forward with uncontested foreclosures from Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson, sitting in Trenton. Uncontested foreclosures, in which the homeowner does not fight the lender’s effort to take back the property, make up more than 90 percent of the cases in the state.’
“Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, head of New Jersey Citizen Action, the state’s largest housing-counseling agency, predicted the ruling would lead to a rush of foreclosures. ‘Here they come,’ she said.”
Vermont Public Radio. “News that bankruptcy filings were down compared to last year might appear to be some good news. But as VPR’s Nina Keck reports, experts say the reasons behind the decline are troubling. (Keck) Remember all the trouble some banks got in when it was learned that they had improperly filed foreclosure documents? Attorney Michelle Kainen, chair of the Vermont Bar Association’s bankruptcy section says that may just have delayed bankruptcy for many Vermonters.”
“(Kainen) ‘So we’re all just wondering if there isn’t a bottle neck with lenders and once the documentation gets straightened out, that those will jut bust loose all of a sudden - that’s what I’m concerned about. And if there’s a flood of those all of a sudden the numbers will shoot back up quite rapidly.’”
From Vt Digger. “If you have a mortgage, chances are you have never spoken to the owner of your mortgage deed. If you have spoken to anyone, it was probably to an agent of the servicing company. This is someone who has about the same authority over your mortgage as a gardener at a Bel Air mansion has over redecorating the west wing.’
“This formula works well so long as the mortgage is paid and money flows through the joints of the system. Shut that money off and begin default, and issues quickly arise. The well-oiled investment machine starts to behave like a high school dropout at exam time. This brings us to today’s case. A homeowner was sued by a U.S. bank for defaulting on her mortgage…The trial court, leery and suspicious of so many questionable documents from the bank, granted the motion to dismiss and did so with prejudice.”
“Here is the rub for the homeowner. This victory, sweet as it might be, is destined to be short lived…The bank can simply re-file its complaint to revive its claims. So the homeowner’s victory only buys her a few more months unless she and the bank can settle. At the end, you can see both sides pulling out their hair. The homeowner, meanwhile, can only savor her bittersweet victory with the knowledge that another round of foreclosures are coming down the pike — and the bankers know her address.”
The New York Observer. “Ample closet space, like an in-unit washer and dryer, is one of those coveted and elusive amenities most Manhattanites aren’t accustomed to. This one-bedroom apartment had plenty of storage space for one person (or two), with closets in the kitchen, hallway, bedroom, bathroom and entrance area.”
“Storage bins are also available in the building’s basement, as an added cost on top of the $499,000 asking price for the apartment.”
“Apartment 821 at 333 East 43rd Street has a creative solution for the lack of large, walk-in closets in pre-war buildings: built-in storage cabinets in the living room. A small, white cabinet sits near the front door of the apartment, and similar cabinets line the windowed corner of the living room. With cushions on top, these double as seating space in front of a kitchen table. ‘Most people who are looking at pre-wars understand that in that era people didn’t have walk-ins so they appreciate the new things like the built-ins,’ said broker Matthew Pucker.”
“The two-bedroom apartment, priced at $865,000, also has a bathroom closet, a small closet in the second bedroom and a large closet that stretches across one wall of the master bedroom. Indeed, people during those times probably didn’t amass quite as much stuff as modern-day New Yorkers. But it is the age of excess.”
“The last unit we looked at, 216 East 47th Street, apartment 6 A/B, is really two adjacent units combined into one massive three- or four-bedroom, has about eight closets and comes with two basement storage bins. Being an estate property, the apartment would need some sprucing up, but at $1.7 million it’s still not a bad deal. Despite our natural inclination to believe that listings advertising closet space would net many an interested buyer, The Observer didn’t find any house hunters while we were at at this Sunday’s showings.”
The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “Laurie and Chris Ying of Lexington began thinking about selling their four-bedroom home after their daughter left for college in 2005. When they couldn’t find a suitable smaller home, they decided to renovate and wait. Then the housing market crashed, convincing them to stay put even longer. But last year, sensing an improvement in local real estate conditions, and needing to spend another $120,000 to update the kitchen and dining area, they decided to put their home of 25 years up for sale. With nearby construction coming onto the market, they figured they had ‘maxed out’ the profit they could make.”
“While the Yings waited for the real estate market to recover, they renovated their home to improve its value. As a result, when they sensed the market improving, they felt they could get a good price for a home that their investments had made ‘very desirable.’ ‘Lexington was in a unique position,’ said Laurie Ying. ‘Houses and values slowed down but never stopped.’”
“The Yings put their home on the market in February 2010 after deciding to buy a townhouse in a new development in Lexington. Eight days later, they sold it for the asking price of just over $1 million. It was less than they would have received before the housing crash - and perhaps a bit less than this year - but enough to allow them to also buy a condo in Falmouth.”
“They may not have received top dollar for their family home, but Laurie, happy to have a getaway on the Cape, said, ‘We took one property investment and turned it into two.’”
From WWLP in Massachusetts. “The state Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, testified before the House Bonding Committee as part of its annual review on her department’s capital expenditures. During the hearing, Bigby said Massachusetts only trails Vermont in ratcheting up the highest healthcare premiums in the nation.’
“‘About 15% of those increased costs are attributed to the higher cost of living in Massachusetts,’ said Bigby. ‘If you think about labor costs, housing, those types of things, we’re in a high cost region.’”
The Taunton Daily Gazette in Massachusetts. “The waiting list for families applying for one of the Bridgewater Housing Authority’s 12 units may close because the number has grown improbably high, says the BHA executive director Karen Rudd. ‘It just gives people false hope. It doesn’t make sense to keep it open,’ said Rudd.”
“The waiting list has grown to 517 for low-income families to have a chance at the single-family units available through the Bridgewater Housing Authority. According to Rudd, none of the units are currently available, and it may be years before another one turns over. Even when one family leaves, added Rudd, there will still be 516 families left on the list. ‘If we leave it open another two years, the list will be at 800. We have 12 houses,’ Rudd emphasized.”
The Providence Journal in Rhode Island. “Although the real estate market as a whole remains in a slump in 2011, a tiny sliver of it, houses priced at $1 million and above, has experienced a slight uptick in sales in the first half of the year. According to statistics from the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, the number of single-family house sales at $1 million and above in the first six months of 2011 inched up to 46, from 43 last year and just 26 in the first half of 2009.”
“Realtors’ association statistics show there were 433 houses in Rhode Island for sale with list prices at $1 million and above as of June 30 –– nearly 10 times the number of sales in the first half of the year.”
“‘What’s concerning to me is the overhang of inventory,’ said Jay Serzan, of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, in Newport. ‘In the million-dollar price range, I almost want to say it’s a huge number of available properties as compared to the number of sales.’ Serzan added that ‘if buyer activity doesn’t increase … it’s going to put downward pressure on prices.’”
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