« First « Previous Comments 167 - 206 of 308 Next » Last » Search these comments
@HARM,
Yeah, I hear ya. In our house she isn't so much popular for her "views" as the fact that she's a Filipina AND opinionated! What ISN'T an emotional issue for her!? From a cultural standpoint she's bridge between the sterotypical "submissive asian female" and reality. It seems many asian cultures interpret an out-spoken female in public as crude and unrefined.
Evidently *astrid was absent for these "grooming" sessions as well!
MM's responses weren't so much "knee-jerk" bail-out=liberal policy, b/c she lambasted "William" Gross as well. Do these guys have an exaggerated sense of self importance or what? Where does some bond guy come off like that!? Dude, go back to toiling in anonymity.
HARM the Mrs. was serious, let us know when you what the omelet.
What omelet? :)
You went to CalTech, too PermaRenter? When were you there? I agree it is a grueling place: the incredible workload, along with my general upreparedness for it, led to me failing out after two years.
I was generally unhappy there, due to the amazingly bad "ratio" but that was probably really only ancillary to my academic issues.
LowlySmartRenter Says:
Greenland has about 8% of the world’s glaciers, all melting right now, and falling on London and Amsterdam
gravity works in mysterious ways... ironically, oz is in a 7 year drought, and even large parts of the US are in drought right now. and yet london recycles more water in the urban context than anywhere in australia.
But it’s not likely most Europeans will want to put up with the likes of Bush. I think they’d rather drown.
enough said. they get 'socialized medicine' after all... (cializ anyone?)
Peter P Says:
I have to agree Italy has a lot of cheap, good food. But they were still using LIRA when I visited.
at least with euros they can't pretend you handed them a 10000 lira note when it was a 100000 lira note when giving you change... although introduction of the euro seemed to result in a massive rounding up of prices everywhere, even in formerly cheap places like italy and spain, creating systemic inflation...
Bank Protection Act of 2007
isn't that why they invented centralised reserve banks?
HARM Says:
I’m no big fan of Michelle Malkin or any demagogue either right or left, but sometimes, just sometimes… she hits the nail right on the head.
hmm, even a stopped clock is right twice a day... and robert kiyosaki...
Kiyosaki is telling us to load up on silver now...right when digital cameras have obviated the need for silver.
DennisN Says:
Kiyosaki is telling us to load up on silver now…right when digital cameras have obviated the need for silver.
hmm, bring back the days of bimetallism...
kiyosaki just reads what someone fairly reputable commentator wrote and repeats it 2 days later... i could do that, just have to create a cult of personality first...
i could do that, just have to create a cult of personality first…
I know the first step you can take in that direction...
On the released number of "New Home Sales".
Today I heard new housing sales for juli were up against june. A while ago you explained how this number does not really reflect true new housing sales. I can vaguely remember you sad something about buying options that are included in the number but I am not sure. Could you please tell me the name of the indicator and what it tells? Thank you.
Sales are up, BUT prices are DOWN
More than that. These tactics have gotten so old that the Patrick.net regulars don't even bother commenting on it.
First, the sales include contracts that can be canceled. So it's not a true statistic. Second the prices are not (and cannot be) adjusted for free upgrades. So the real prices are down much more.
Third the more important trend indicator, compare against YOY - the sales are DOWN. The sales are lowest July sales since 2000. Similarly the YOY median price is DOWN. The DROP in median (3.4%) is highest YOY drop since Oct 2001.
None of what a Patrick.net regular typically will highlight, will ever be used as a MSM headline. The important details will be buried inside the story and headline will try be a cheerleader as much as possible.
For housing news, ignore MSM and use the blogs.
whew.......
glad to see the market rebound and that new homes data......
for a minute there i thought we were headed for a rate cut!!!
(beware the sarcastic poster)
The uptick in home sales of 2.8% is vs what base? I searched all over the news and none of them seem to quote the base upon which the 2.8% is computed.
Is it based on YOY comparison or vs. June 07?
Is it based on YOY comparison or vs. June 07?
Perhaps June 1932. :lol:
Is it based on YOY comparison or vs. June 07?
it's vs June 07. YOY, it was down around 10%.
Also, the data is little old. i believe the current market purchases will show in sep'07
Is there a technical term for people who were unqualified cheerleaders for the housing bubble, but have now started issuing statements that are attempts to cover up their old sins?
This particular fellow comes to mind:
“‘Over the last couple of years, people became so desperate to buy a home that they stopped asking what the payments would be over time,’ said Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. ‘The only question they asked is what’s the least possible payment I can make next month so I can afford to buy that house.’â€
The volume of new home sales increased by 2.8% in July compared to June. However, sales in July 2007 were 10.8% lower than the sales in July of 2006. Of course, the effect of cancellations could undermine this growth in sales volume.
The median price of a new home rose by 3.9% (to $239k) during July, but is up by only 0.6% since last July.
It is taking much longer to sell a new home this year as well (6.1 months compared to 3.6 months last July).
On August 20, I had posted:
Hate to be the bearer of bad rumours, but the jungle telegraph is saying Bernanke is going to do something more tomorrow to prop up the financial sector. The banks have served notice that they can’t keep up with the maturing repo obligations.
Exactly what he will do is the subject of much speculation. Monkeys on tv are chattering about a rate cut, others are saying it will be less public than that.
I still don't exactly know whether the rumor was true, but I found this article that may be a possible clue.
http://tinyurl.com/yt46we
"The Aug. 20 letters from the Fed to Citigroup and Bank of America state that the Fed, which regulates large parts of the U.S. financial system, has agreed to exempt both banks from rules that effectively limit the amount of lending that their federally-insured banks can do with their brokerage affiliates."
SP
Thanks for the clarifications provided by fellow bloggers above, that's why I stopped trusting MSM numbers.
I was watching a footage of CNBC aired a week ago when DOW first headed down 200+ point and eventually came back positive + 10 points or something just before the close. The crowd at the back were cheering as Maria Bartiromo exclaimed at the front, yeah, we are positive, what a come back!
What do they think DOW has become? Spectator sports game? What the hell is positive anyway? If expressed in Euro terms, and adjusted for inflation, is the positive really positive?
Owner Identity?
I was on the Spoke Software site. A San Mateo company that has thousands of employee records. I sure think many employers or even employees would be shocked to find insider info was available to
anyone. To me these guys are scum and care very little when info can
be traded for money.
Remember - the Census Bureau will revise July housing figures two more times before arriving at a final figure. For some time now, the final revision has been sharply lower than the initial estimate.
Not only are the Census figures based on contracts for sale, and not only do they not record cancellations, they also do not include cancelled-contract houses in their unsold inventory totals, producing positive distortion in down market conditions.
i think the data was from june 15th to july 15th. mostly before the credit jitters. september would be the 1st month that would show the numbers since credit crunch.
Let's not forget that they don't include the cancellations which might even outnumber the sales :lol:
OO:
Related to the topic of this post:
If the policy of propertyshark was that every time someone made an inquiry, the homeowner/borrower would have the identity of the inquirer disclosed to them, would you still do it?
Are you telling your neighbors and colleagues or whomever, straight to their faces, what you learned about them, how you learned it and why you did it?
So far so good in my develpment (Boise). There is only one "brown lawn" FB house in a development of 400 houses. It's odd that he let things go since the yard water, from our irrigation district, is free to homeowners. But he hasn't paid the gas bill so the gas company came by and TOOK OFF THE EXTERIOR METER. Wow are they soreheads or what? Is this common with FB abandoned homes?
Most of the selling prices for new houses in this development are in the $250K - $300K range. One builder, Sawtooth Homes, wants more in the $340 range and his houses aren't selling anymore. All of a sudden this week, the development RE signs came down from their houses and dime-store "For Sale / For Rent" signs went up in their place. I wonder what the heck is going on...the builder having problems?
Are you telling your neighbors and colleagues or whomever, straight to their faces, what you learned about them, how you learned it and why you did it?
I sure do. I even send them the link to propertyshark. I keep hunting up and down my old street to see what's up, and will often send a summary to a couple of neighbors I keep in contact with.
Yes, it appears the bankster is one in the same. If it starts disrupting things then either I or one of the others will start yanking the comments.
Haven't we already established that using multiple identities is grounds for a permanent ban? Let's boot the troll already, and if it comes back, we should report it to its ISP.
sybrib,
I sent propertyshark info to all my friends (people that I care about) to let them know that their mortgage information is already out in the open. If they want to take certain steps to keep such info to themselves, they should perhaps explore different ways to do it.
If I were to negotiate a house purchase, I would sure send all the data I can dig up on the owner legally to HIMSELF, to let him know that I have a good grasp of his bottom line.
Regarding my neighbors, some are my friends, some are not. I don't have to worry about people who are not.
What I find really disturbing is that Mr. Bernanke is probably not taking a single penny in bribes for his actions. That's like UnAmerican to throw some 120 billion at the banking industry in a span of two weeks for no good reason, and not expect something in return. You are doing a heckuva job Bennie!
Mr. Newsfreak
newsfreak,
By the time this thing is done the billions will turn to trillions!
Paul
The Graphologic Psychologic Automatic Systematic Hydromatic Identity Parser package installed on my PC tells me TOB ≠TOS.
Even though 'the man' (who probably really are the banksters and REI) may have gotten one over the rest of society, and blogging here won't advantage anyone except perhaps to provide mild catharsis, I'd like to think the presence of patrick.net with all of its current and growing resources might have an effect out there, and that my blog and the frequent letters I write to the major parties also have an effect.
I've been a fan of this site for quit some time. Its been a great place to reinforce a train of thought that is frowned upon by those who do not wish to have there revenue interfered with.
I don't need to reiterate the theme of this site, obviously so I will cut to the chase.
I have a question in terms of the future of the money movement in our 'freemarket society' with regards to the housing market gone kaput. Any thoughts on: we know they can not underpin this market - which they are despirately trying to underpin - what other financial vehicle could be used to move such vast amounts of capital by encouraging people to take on huge amounts of debt, live check to check, and think they are better off for having done it?
I'm enjoying watching the depreciation of land values excellerate. It is truly amazing to be witnessing history.
I believe the next great debt boom will be government debt. If they spark inflation they will have major problems. But if you can entice people to loan the government money, then the government can facilitate liquidity without running the presses.
Not Investment Advice
RandyH said:
"There is more than a mini run on banks. This is the real deal: a full fledged run on the banks. It’s just happening for the first time in the post-depressionary modern US banking system on more than a tiny, neighborhood scale. So far the system is handling fairly well with the help of the Fed’s actions."
I was suspicious of the timing of the Wells Fargo system hiccup when the Chronicle ran the story. But man, Randy's comments kept me from falling asleep. After a bit of research, I was worried enough to move what I could to Wachovia. So are there signs when a small, local bank is going under? Or is it more like when the first heart attack it fatal and comes without warning? My instincts are to pay interest penalties, then cut and run from the locals. Thoughts anyone?
Isn't Wachovia somewhat unstable compared to Wells Fargo?
Not Investment Advice
« First « Previous Comments 167 - 206 of 308 Next » Last » Search these comments
How can the public easily get the identity of the owner of any given address?
I know Property Shark gives away this information if you sign up for a free account, but how do they get it? They probably don't physically go around to county buildings. They must rely on some aggregators or title companies which have some form of direct electronic access to county records. But last time I checked, San Mateo County was distinctly unhelpful to the public in this regard.
And once you have a name, how do you disambiguate all of the John Smiths? SSN is probably not in the public records.
Thanks for any insights. I have to start my quest for buyer information weapons with baby steps.
Patrick