Thursday, March 20, 2008

So Last Century

The problem is overpriced real estate and moribund ossified transaction mechanisms that are better suited to quill on parchment by candlelight at the county seat a day's horseback ride away than today. 10 years ago you could order online a replacement handle for the pot of your kitchen coffee maker at the same website as a diesel electric locomotive and F-18 jet engine (GE). There is so much turf protection and anti-consumer garbage built into the system that the perception that the market can be controlled has taken hold. The NAR is a laughing stock for trying to mislead the public. Mortgage broker and RE brokers alike are suffering real economic pain and garnering no sympathy. This is turning into more than a buyer's strike, it is on the verge of becoming a participants strike. At every end stage people are just saying no to price and terms and transaction costs. Lenders won't buy mortgage pools. Investors won't buy tranches or even straight debt. Home buyers won't take on debt.

There is not intervention that can change the imbalances that exist. The Fed doesn't like it. The banking system doesn't like it. Wall Street doesn't like it. Tough.

25 comments:

Lou Minatti said...

Good morning, Rob. Foist.

Northern Renter said...

Morning all. Moist. And when I say moist, I refer to the winter's snow (currently chest-height on our front lawn, and I stand 6'1") which is just starting to melt out there.

NR

newt said...
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Jean ValJean said...

Spooq, hope you followed your own "shorting Casey suggestion" advice:

"The price of gold fell 3% to $912.85 an ounce after hitting a record high of more than $1,000 an ounce earlier this month."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7306223.stm

segfault said...

HTFC CEO has a potty mouth. Someone e-mailed me the full, 44-page memorandum from Federal Court in Pennsylvania.

wagga said...

And their toxic waste is radioactive

wagga said...

Oops! on the HTFC site, click "'products".

spooq said...

Jean,

the price of gold always goes up in the long run ;)

Seriously though, I'm not going to sell. This was always going to be a long-term hold, regardless of price. However, I did expect it to go up further and for longer than it did.

w said...

I just couldn't buy more at $1000/oz. but I will now. The next time a bank goes under and everyone really starts to panic it will be back at $1000.

Rob Dawg said...

I think we'll see 4780 gold before $1000. I'm positive the 'demand' is industrial users performing supply arbitrage just like a lot of the oil price rise is classic hedging and/or insurance against disruption.

Casey Serin said...

Can I give the opposite of good advice or what? :-)

You people want lower prices at the pump? OK, then, I predict oil will skyrocket to $2,000 per fluid ounce. Another sweet deal!

Rob Dawg said...

Casey, please. Tell me my penis will shrink and my hair will fall out. No doubt due to the sun.

Casey Serin said...

Well, Robbo, if you take the fake pills I've been selling, it'll shrink. Allegedly the pills' other side effects include hair loss, rampant diarrhea, bloating, increased body odor, and possibly death.

Hence the lack of FDA approval. ;-)

Centipede said...

Pretty dead around here, but I just wanted to let you know that Hillary's dignity is going $48 on eBay. Get it while you can!

Anonymous said...

When I was younger I didn't mind paying interest to buy nice things on credit. Now I hate, nay, loathe, those maggots. I wouldn't give them the sweat off my nether regions. I don't care if prices do come down, I'm pissed on principle now.

Akubi said...

If Shillary is the nominee, I'm moving to Ireland – one of those places where she "brokered peace" in her 35 years of BS experience of lacking a backbone and eating cookies. While I've been registered in various fringe parties, this is the first time in my life I've hated a democrat more than a war-mongering republican. She is f-ing psychotic. I despise her and hope a giant octopus sucks her away.

Curious said...

At Buzz Saw 8:15 PM,

I was the same. Now I refuse to do it.

My HELOC'd boss just asked my why I haven't updated my house yet. My response: "I really want to, but I want to pay cash for it and I'm not comfortable spending that much of my cash yet. I'm waiting for the construction costs to go down more".

Boss looks sick. Epresses a few fears regarding the interest rate on his HELOC.

I feel bad for him.

For Akubi/Centipede: I am a member of the generation you loath and revile.

Next rant brewing...

Curious said...

Epresses=Expresses

Curious said...
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Curious said...

@ Akubi 9:17 PM.

Fuck you, pick another country.

Ireland doesn't want or need you.

I sincerely doubt that you are 100% Irish-American anyway so pick another country of origin to emigrate to in order to find a home outside the "gulag" of the USA.

May I suggest England or anywhere else in the great BE instead?

This election is gonna be ugly, no matter our personal opinions. Best to be quiet unless you're a proselytizer for the demi-god Obama.

It just occurred to me, is this your first campaign? If so, wow.

They will all break your heart if you let them. As a former idealist, I feel your pain.

Obama is no Kennedy, no matter how much any of us want him to be.

Lou Minatti said...

If Shillary is the nominee, I'm moving to Ireland

(Reagan voice) There you go again.
#75 from What White People Like.

Jake said...

@ Lou Minatti - 6:47 AM
(Reagan voice) There you go again. #75 from What White People Like.

I love that site!

When people used to bring this up, and I was more naive, I used to asked them where they were thinking of moving to, where in Canada they had been before, which winter sports were their favorite, did they speak French, etc.

I lived on the border, took classes over there, went shopping there, bought my meds there, and knew a number of Canadians who also crossed the border to shop on our side, get gas, etc. Until about 5 years ago, I still had two wallets I carried around.

I always found that most people threatening to move knew next to NOTHING about Canada, the politics, society, and definitely nothing about the healthcare. There are pros and cons of living there, but they didn't seem that interested in hearing any of the cons.

As I learned what that blog talked about on my own, I now just nod my head in agreement most of the time.

Now if they get in a tangent about health care and they just won't shut up, I either kindly walk away, or ask them to look into it a little more.

My sister-in-law works at a US hospital that's closest to Winnipeg, and if it's serious or life threatening, that's where some of the Canadians go so they don't die. Either they've been on the waiting list for forever, or they just can't wait. Another funny thing to watch for is the rare occasion when a woman is in labor and they don't have any beds available so they hire a private airplane to fly her to another hospital or even to the USA.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

#75? No way! I lived in the frozen north (MN) real close to Canada. Been there, done that, no thanks. When the SHTF I am, as Axel Foley would say, going deep deep deep undercover. Zig Heil !

Akubi said...

@Curious,
What makes you an expert on what Ireland wants?
No, this is not my first campaign, but it is the first one I cared all that much about.
And no, I’m not a “a proselytizer for the demi-god Obama” but Hillary gives me nightmares. A week or so ago I fell asleep while watching TV on and awoke in a panic. All I remember was this enormous big brother-ish image of Clinton shaking her finger and saying “Shame on you!”

@Lou,
That one cracked me up - as did #82