patrick.net

Strategist says

I do know a lot of Iranians fled their country with bags full of greenbacks when the Shah of Iran got overthrown in 1979 and early 1980's

That would be a small share of people, from the top that went to France. The other 80-90 percent were not that rich. "A Lot " is an overstatement.

Strategist says

I think they are buying everything. Commercial, residential, and corporations.

Every one but Americans have faith in America. Sad.

Well so much for thinking its safe or legit purchases... "They" being members or former members of the CCP are banned from being in the USA. And certainly in due time they will be found and sent back to China.. their property if they have any will get confiscated. Once again, our laws are not being enforced by the administration.

Beijing goes hunting for overseas real estate bought with dirty ...
qz.com/.../beijing-goes-hunting-for-overseas-real-estate-by-corrupt-offic...‎
Nov 5, 2013 - Now the Chinese government is embarking on a worldwide hunt to seize the properties with help from foreign governments, according to asset ...

Strategist says

No matter what, you have to ask yourself why is it America that is the most favored destination not just to immigrate, but also to invest in. How many want to go to Russia or Africa?

It isn't. Investors have the whole world. Some are investing in the US, but plenty are going with Europe, South America, and Asia. The US actually is 40th in the world for immigrants.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/18/u-s-is-just-average-as-a-destination-for-immigrants.html

This one's easy....This puts me over 100...
Hey Foxman...does I get to live in 'merica now??

Call it Crazy says

Find out who is hungry for U.S. real estate

It's all Governor Omalley's fault!!! He might even be worse than Obama.

Maryland state legislature opens today for their annual 90 day session where they will pass yet still more laws encouraging businesses to relocate elsewhere. Western MD where this plant is located should try to become part of West Virginia or Pennsylvania.

zzyzzx says

It's all Governor Omalley's fault!!! He might even be worse than Obama.

Um, no - Obama is THE worst, he HAS set a new standard for worst.

Call it Crazy says

Nonetheless, both Republicans and Democrats in Washington continue to
maintain that America requires more unskilled, cheap labor via immigration,
despite the loss of 6 million factory jobs between 2000 and 2009. That has been
the pitch from immigration reform advocates, who insist that the cure-all for
the American economy is an endless supply of less educated migrants to fill “do
the jobs Americans won’t.”

Yeah this is the problem with both parties. if one looks at the last depression, immigration slowed down to a trickle and the pipes weren't opened up until the economy was on sounder footing.

mmmarvel says

Um, no - Obama is THE worst, he HAS set a new standard for worst.

You obviously do not live in Maryland.

Bill:

Thank you for the correction. I was referring more to the global central banks in total than the Fed alone (although they are the facilitator to be sure).

I think the 15 Trillion is underestimated. And the amount of "liquidity" created (at risk) via the derivatives is easily 10 times that number.

Without the Fed buying up the biggest mortgage-backed security failures real estate prices AND rents would be down 75 percent. It has everything to do with the money in the hands of foreign speculators. Especially the Chinese.

JodyChunder says

casandra says

jack in the box

Whoah..? Jackass in the Box has never been delicious.

"Our Monster burger is So Good, It's Scary"
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/06/business/company-news-jack-in-the-box-s-worst-nightmare.html

Strategist says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Don't all these 1600 people have houses? Why do they need to work, they can just use the houseATM card and pay themselves while they sleep. Working is for fools in this country.

They need to work to pay the rent that keeps going up.

Can't say I feel their pain. Never experienced a rent increase in my life. Have done many rent reductions though. I expect another one soon.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Strategist says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Don't all these 1600 people have houses? Why do they need to work, they can just use the houseATM card and pay themselves while they sleep. Working is for fools in this country.

They need to work to pay the rent that keeps going up.

Can't say I feel their pain. Never experienced a rent increase in my life. Have done many rent reductions though. I expect another one soon.

Your statements are not realistic nor believable.

The key to higher standard of living is to lessen the population over time so that there are fewer people competing for more or less fixed resources like housing. Yet our erudite gliterrati believes the opposite because they believe that growing population is key to supporting geezers in their twilight years.

lots and lots of new rentals going up in North San Jose, Santa Clara and Milpitas. Lots and Lots of land still open... with prices still high pretty much
open to more development. It appears they really are making new land...

Bellingham Bill says

Basically our entire economy is fucked. Too much money with the "savers", not enough remaining within the paycheck economy.

3/4 of the country don't have 6 months income saved, hell 2/3 don't have $1000

You have it entirely backassward. People don't save because the incentive to save (i.e. interest) is too low. Given high enough reward in the form of interest, practically everyone would save. 3/4 of the country don't have 6 months income saved because it doesn't pay to save money.

thomaswong.1986 says

lots and lots of new rentals going up in North San Jose, Santa Clara and Milpitas. Lots and Lots of land still open... with prices still high pretty much

open to more development. It appears they really are making new land...

Rezoning anyway.

There IS a lot of land still ripe for development.

In the south bay IBM Hitachi is sitting on a HUGE amount of (contaminated) real estate. Communication Hill is still mostly vacant land right next to Caltrain and close to the new Martial Cottle farm park. Coyote Valley and Morgan Hill are still mostly farmland yet are right on Caltrain as well.

Looking eastward Newark, East SJ hills and Livermore have lots of land too. Put in a few more BART stops and you've got something!

I am old enough to remember when Japanese Investors were buying all sorts of real estate in the US when Japan's economy was booming....one in particular was Pebble Beach Golf Course and the Lodge at Pebble Beach; bought extremely high then had to sell it to Clint Eastwood and his partners for less than half of what they purchased it for.

It will happen again...these prices are way overvalued today too....keep looking at history to find the past mistakes and you will know how to invest now...

retire59 says

I am old enough to remember when Japanese Investors were buying all sorts of real estate in the US when Japan's economy was booming....one in particular was Pebble Beach Golf Course and the Lodge at Pebble Beach; bought extremely high then had to sell it to Clint Eastwood and his partners for less than half of what they purchased it for.

The other example was NYC and Chicago property which went down and they lost money.... why is it everyone keeps forgetting how many people actually lose money on RE ... Residential and Commercial...

jazz music says

The liquidity that was to trickle down

Simply Excellent Jazz Music on all points !

Where did Goran go? I thought inventory had bottomed...

Declining inventory is further evidence that we need to have as many people as possible to migrate to bay area for tech jobs in order to increase housing prices further and eventually have everyone living in soviet communal apartment conditions.

Inventory did bottom in 2013 at the US level:

dublin hillz says

S'all right, 3 single parents with 3 kids and an extra roommate can easily share a 3 bedroom apartment and take turn inviting relatives for birthday party and holidays. Whoever said that such living arrangements are un-natural and stressful is simply a closeminded brainwashed first world westerner.

Especially if the house has a garage.

HydroCabron is Kochel 271 says

apital gains tax rates are so high that the wealthy can't afford to hire that many people.

Right, why not make it zero :)?
It is zero in Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland along with a few other places. Unemployment hardly exists in those countries.

Heard an ad on the car radio today (in LA) along the lines of "you to can can make big buck flipping homes, making 50K or more in a matter of weeks with no money down and no credit, using our in house credit system"

That's not the exact wording, but the gist. Unbelievable. If I was really cynical, I would think that those supporting the upcoming "flippers" are indirectly the same people who have bought up rental properties in bulk, or the equity funds that are selling shares in their bulk property investments.

Doing a google search, I see that flipping homes started to get really hot again last summer (2013).

Not even the Superbowl and ducky is already doing a victory lap. Calm down for a second. Do you really think the the Dec. Redfin numbers (any day now) will confirm all times lows? At any rate, it does look tight out there. As an aside, I do know of a couple who is a flippin'; it's been a while.

How do we know that this menu is from 1977?

Tell it to that industry toadie who publishes the Calculated Risk blog.

Let them eat cake, A LA MODE.

Peasants!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake

""Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", supposedly spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Since brioche was made from dough enriched with butter and eggs, and those ingredients were even more scarce and more costly than dough, making brioche even more out of the reach of the peasants than bread, the quote supposedly would reflect the princess's obliviousness as to the condition of the people.

I've not searched. How many auto makers can or will do this?

zzyzzx says

You obviously do not live in Maryland.

Nope, live in Texas ... Thank God.

Every car makers GPS system knows every damn thing about you. So does your cell phone. Soon most hand held GPS units will transmit your location. Don't like it don't buy a car or phone with GPS.

gsr says

It is zero in Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland along with a few other places. Unemployment hardly exists in those countries

It's really easy to have low unemployment when you use foreigners to do most of the work and boot them out of the country when they lose their jobs.

A lot of cars have something like this. Should be easy enough to disable if you own a factory service manual (which you should already own for every car that you have).

bob2356 says

It's really easy to have low unemployment when you use foreigners to do most of the work

Hmm, did you think it through? Cheap foreigners lower unemployment rate?
How does that make unemployment low? Don't we mostly hear the opposite argument on this forum?

Since I sold my modern car in 2012, whenever I go out of town I rent a car for the trip. About a year ago I went to the Enterprise office at the local Ford dealership and was put in a Focus for my trip to Dallas. Immediately I started driving and a ringing came from the dash and a note on the dashboard "Please Observe All Speed Limits, Drive Safely". When I entered Hill County on I-35 where the speed limit is now 75, I increased the speed and another came: "Vehicle is Approaching Maximum Speed", and stayed on until I returned to 65 in Ellis County. When I returned the car I asked what was going on and the lady said oh all the Fords are set not to go above 80, which to me would be very dangerous in an emergency. I wish I'd known that so I could have tested it. She said the computer (I guess the GPS) knows the speed limit everywhere and it will remind you when you go above it. Needless to say, I've avoided Fords since then.

I'm good with this, but is there a way he could have allowed our veterans to pass through his digestive tract unharmed, so as to visit war memorials throughout Manhattan?

I believe blocking veteran access to war memorials to be the highest of crimes. There are several WWII and Vietnam War memorials through Manhattan. Veteran access to these sites should remain unimpeded 24x7x365.

Call it Crazy says

I love these stories..... Boycott Ford... but let Google, Facebook, your cell carrier, etc. track everything you do with your phone... Hilarious...

Robert Samuelson made the same point in his column yesterday:

"People do not open Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram accounts because they wish to shroud their lives in secrecy. They do not use online dating services or post videos on YouTube because they cherish their anonymity. The Internet is a vehicle for self-promotion, personal advertising and the pursuit of celebrity."

"If Americans think their privacy is dangerously diminished, there are remedies. They can turn off their PCs, toss their smartphones and smash their tablets. Somehow, this seems unlikely, even though another Pew survey finds that '86 percent of adult Internet users have taken steps . . . to avoid surveillance by other people or organizations.'"

HydroCabron is Kochel 271 says

There are several WWII and Vietnam War memorials through Manhattan. Veteran access to these sites should remain unimpeded 24x7x365.

I concur, and would add Grant's Tomb to the access list. Due to the continuing mystery about who is actually buried there, all veterans should have a right to inspect and see for themselves at any time. You never know when terrorists or illegal aliens might try to bury themselves in Grant's Tomb.