patrick.net

Maybe they told the staff that the paper was being acquired by Rupert Murdock, and 30 staffers dropped dead of sheer fright.

The other 30 were illegal aliens...........

Or maybe the other 30 were directly employed by the NAR. :)

10% of 40 is 4. That would mean, 36 employees were fired without without cause.

Sorry, I misread this on another bolg about the percentage, 30 is the correct number.

On another note; The subprime mess is Re-Contained.

HelloKitty Says:
We can only assume that 30 of the employees were terminated via MURDER!?

Seppuku!

SP

"The layoffs include four newsroom positions and will involve closing the newspaper’s one-man Sacramento bureau."

So, basically the Sacramento "bureau" was some guy whose livelihood was _completely_ funded by RE advertising.

I hope this didn't impair his ability to report on the clusterfuck in Sacramento area real-estate.

SP

It's time for the poster that observed it would simply be easier for the SacBee to advertise the homes that *aren't* "for sale" to take a victory lap!

Now who was that? SP? OO?

Step forward and be recognized! :)

Perhaps the other 36 were just open positions which will not be filled? Though you never know how far an editor will go when pushed...

"what would it take for media/TV to stop following NAR reports on housing sales, median price… and start following others like case shiller index"

Ad dollars are a factor keeping NAR as the data source, but do not forget percieved expertise. Too many people believe that reators are as integral to the buying/selling of real estate as doctors are to hospitals. It also seems that too many folks will still believe a Realtor who says "ignore the bubble babble" over others like Case-Shiller who warn of a crash. After all, the Reator is the expert who knows the subject. Hopefully, the market reality will soon debunk the Realtor spouted myths even to those most inclined to believe the "experts."

I bet David Crisp is not buying as many ads this year.

http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/2007/06/just-like-dot-bomb-housing-mania-will.html

FAB,

That story is like the old time rock and roll stars with a one time hit record....

Will 2007 be the era of the Real Estate Shooting Star's fall to Earth?

That guy Crisp had a helluva ride!

Its shocking you can live that well on credit so easy. I suppose it doesnt last very long.... and he can always get the old waiter job back.

Perhaps his model would work better in SF or Bev Hills? Or maybe not too many people doing that model there. In backwater bakersfield the rubes musta been hornswaggled in by his fancy pants and shiny cars. All the other realtors were driving suburbans and he took thier clients.

Interesting to me that the media might view Realtors as experts and defer to them for that reason.

Long experience is not always perceived as expertise. An example would be a long-time environmental activist. Reliable expert or biased fanatic? I think I've seen the second version slightly more often than the first.

I wonder what it would take to shift the perspective on Realtors?

Eliza Says:

> Long experience is not always perceived as expertise.
> An example would be a long-time environmental activist.
> Reliable expert or biased fanatic?

Anyone that self identifies as an “activist” is nuts and you can replace the word “activist” with “nut ball”.

Some examples (from both sides of the aisle) are:
“Animal Rights Nut Ball”
“Taxpayers Rights Nut Ball”

DinOR Says:
It’s time for the poster that observed it would simply be easier for the SacBee to advertise the homes that *aren’t* “for sale” to take a victory lap! Now who was that? SP? OO?

Well, half the time I don't remember what I said, but I don't believe that was me. May have been OO or stuckInBA or one of the other bon-mot'ers.

SP

I wonder what it would take to shift the perspective on Realtors?

For starters, the Main Street Media (TM) etc. should stop capitalizing the word Realtor (TM). It's a joke that they consider themselves a "profession" in the strict sense of the word.

From East Coast's Boston article link:

" We figure it is worth it for us to be house-poor."

What sane person wants to compete in a market with this mindset? Going into debt to build a new business in a act of hope and courage, but to fiscally enslave oneself to a consumer item is the worst of greed and folly.

Sheesh!

Well, being a Realtor â„¢ is a profession in the same sense that the oldest profession is...

Eliza Says:
Interesting to me that the media might view Realtors as experts and defer to them for that reason. I wonder what it would take to shift the perspective on Realtors?

Here are a few things that might work.
1. Recycle old lawyer jokes but with 'lawyer' replaced by 'realtor'
example: The doctors had given this old man only three more weeks to live, so he spent two weeks studying to become a realtor. When he finally got his license, a bimbo from the local tv station interviewed him:
"With only three weeks to live, why did you become a realtor? Was that always a dream or something?"
"Heck no," replied the old fart, "I hate realtors."
"Then why did you become one?" asked the bimbo.
"Ah, you see, I am about to die and you know what that means? One less realtor."

2. Recycle 'dumb blonde' jokes with 'dumb realtor' instead
example: The trouble with dumb realtor jokes is that realtors don't think they are funny, and everyone else doesn't think those are jokes.

3. Call them 'Used Home Salesman' in all your conversation and correspondence

SP

I'm messing with some files to see if I can speed up the site. If the site looks weird for a bit, not to worry...

Patrick

@SP
Those are actually awsome ideas!

The funny part is one in 50 people in CA is a Used Home Salesman™ so it would be sure to offend at every location.

OK, I think I'm now running wordpess 2.1.

Any problems? Please write p@patrick.net

Patrick

Wow, it is faster, isn't it?

It's nice to see some honest comments - completely devoid of spin - from a Realtor.

http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond/California~Tracy~martyhackworth

that prices are falling and inventory is way up.
...
Even homes that are pending are having an increasingly difficult time closing as buyers struggle to get a loan approval.

But there is no crash in Bay Area. Because Tracy is not in Bay Area. Any area that starts showing signs of crash will be removed from Bat Area.

Can the houses in Dublin (or any similar town nearby) maintain the 800K tag if you can get a similar house in Tracy for 400k ? This process is as (in)efficient as the bubble sort, but bubble up it will.

Yes it was fast ! I realized a mistake in tag, and before I could hit cancel, my post showed up.

In the above post, the missing part (and only this was supposed to be in bold)
was

It's no secret that prices are falling and inventory is way up. ...

Ok, all the natively hosted thread image files (the ones that point to Patrick.net, not other sites) are gone --even the ones from 2 years ago.

However, the site is a lot faster.

But there is no crash in Bay Area. Because Tracy is not in Bay Area. Any area that starts showing signs of crash will be removed from Bat Area.

That's so true. As inner Bay Area home prices have been forcing folks to move farther and farther out, people started calling areas well outside the Bay Area proper the "Bay Area." I remember 15 years ago thinking Livermore and the Tri Valley was a completely different part of the state, and now most clearly consider it Bay Area (it gets regular coverage on the local news - that's my rough guage). Fairfield, Vacaville - same story. Antioch, Oakley - same story. Morgan Hill, Gilroy - same story.

Boy, the site DOES post much faster. Sweet.

OK, I got the images back. Please let me know if other problems.

Patrick

Wow, that was quick --thanks!

FYI: The 'ol Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter just hit 91. At this rate, we ought to break 100 by end of July.

Ahh... those 'gloomy-Gus' Brits. Always with the Doom-'n-Gloom and baseless hand-wringing. Why, these guys would probably see a cloud in every silver lining.

"The United States faces a severe credit crunch as mounting losses on risky forms of debt catch up with the banks and force them to curb lending and call in existing loans, according to a report by Lombard Street Research.

US property writer Paul Muolo described the Bearn Stearns crisis as the “subprime Chernobyl”, saying the bank had created a “cone of silence”.

Don't these wild-eyed Limeys know that the damage is "limited" only to second-lien subprime loans (that no one owns) and that the Fed/banksters have declared the situation well "contained"?

Nothing to see here, folks, move along...

HARM: And what exactly do the British know about banking and finance? ;)

Back in the 50's and early 60's my aunt and uncle owned a farm in Oakdale. When we would visit from Palo Alto or Campbell, it was almost a whole day's drive out there. Nowadays there are knuckleheads that commute from Oakdale to Silicon Valley.

Bakersfield's David Crisp, a Casey Serin South, continues to implode:

http://www.bakersfield.com/137/story/164483.html

Even more problems for Bakersfield's "King of Bling":

http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/176832.html

http://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2007e.htm

BIS warns of Great Depression dangers from credit spree
The Bank for International Settlements, the world's most prestigious financial body, has warned that years of loose monetary policy has fuelled a dangerous credit bubble, leaving the global economy more vulnerable to another 1930s-style slump than generally understood.
...
In a thinly-veiled rebuke to the US Federal Reserve, the BIS said central banks were starting to doubt the wisdom of letting asset bubbles build up on the assumption that they could safely be "cleaned up" afterwards - which was more or less the strategy pursued by former Fed chief Alan Greenspan after the dotcom bust.

It said this approach had failed in the US in 1930 and in Japan in 1991 because excess debt and investment built up in the boom years had suffocating effects.

While cutting interest rates in such a crisis may help, it has the effect of transferring wealth from creditors to debtors and "sowing the seeds for more serious problems further ahead."

The world waits to see what Ben Bernanke will do to "clean up" after Alan Greenspan.