Real Estate and foreclosure thread

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Every thriving shopping district needs an anchor—a center of gravity for everything else to orbit around. Usually a grocery or department store, the anchor occupies the most space, attracts the most people and serves as a landmark for the neighborhood.

For the better part of a century in Union Square, that was Macy’s—until it confirmed Feb. 27 it intends to pull out of its flagship store in San Francisco.

If the retailer were to vacate the roughly 700,000 square feet it occupies today, a shocking 34.5% of the shopping district would be rendered empty and available, per real estate firm Avison Young. That figure would even outstrip the 30.2% total office vacancy rate that has functioned as a bright red flag for the health of the city’s downtown.

The sudden decline of San Francisco’s top shopping destination, paired with an unprecedented retreat from office use, is a novel trial for a city that has faced its fair share of challenges in recent years.

For Union Square and its environs, the changes have come rapidly. In 2016, less than 3% of retail space in the area was available for lease. That number spiked to 9.4% at the onset of the pandemic, which cut off daily foot traffic downtown. Fast forward to today, and that number has only gotten worse, now standing at approximately 22%.
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sfstandard.com

Macy’s closure would leave a third of Union Square empty

A similar domino effect that hit the former Westfield mall could be at play in San Francisco’s premier shopping district.
sfstandard.com sfstandard.com

Sounds like San Francisco is imploding.
 
Two vids about the real estate market in the greater Phila area. The first one is about Jan and the second one is about Feb.

Philadelphia Real Estate News | February 2024​

Dive into the latest developments in the Philadelphia real estate market with our comprehensive video update for January 2024. Discover the subtle yet significant changes that are redefining investment and ownership opportunities across the city's vibrant landscape. Despite the growth not quite hitting the peaks I had hoped for, my optimism for a sustained upward trend remains strong. This video is essential viewing for anyone looking to understand the nuances of Philadelphia's housing market, offering key insights and forward-looking predictions for buyers, sellers, and investors ready to explore the burgeoning opportunities.


8:36

Philadelphia Suburbs Real Estate News | March 2024​



13:20
 

US lawmakers to propose legislation seeking more scrutiny of Chinese real estate purchases​

March 13, 2024 7:39 AM EDT Updated 15 min ago


WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - Two U.S. lawmakers are set to introduce legislation on Thursday to significantly expand government foreign investment reviews of real estate purchases by buyers from China and other foreign countries posing national security concerns.

Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, and Republican Blake Moore are proposing to expand the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over foreign real estate purchases.

"We need to have official national security experts review these land purchases with clear-eyed expertise, and without fear or favor," Slotkin said.

Congress in 2018 passed legislation to expand CFIUS oversight to explicitly include real estate transactions in close proximity to key airports, maritime ports and some military installations.

CFIUS is a Treasury-led inter-agency committee that reviews some transactions involving foreign investment in the United States. Treasury in May proposed to expand the number of military installations covered.

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I Want the House, Not My Spouse​

Dividing the marital home in divorce can be a financially and emotionally fraught experience

As soon as she knew her husband wasn’t coming back, Terri Martin logged onto Facebook Marketplace and bought a 1949 General Electric refrigerator for $5. Her marriage might be over, she thought, but her relationship with her home certainly wasn’t.

“I started to realize that even without him, I still loved the house,” said Ms. Martin, 37, a knitwear designer in Cincinnati.

With her husband, Tim Larson, 37, out of the picture, Ms. Martin would no longer have to sell him on her vision of a retro kitchen that would embrace the historic character of the 1916 American Foursquare, a house the couple bought in 2021 for $180,000. She was now free to rip out the generic yellow oak cabinets and install open shelving, replace the vinyl floors with linoleum, and swap the run-of-the-mill stainless steel refrigerator for the vintage Facebook find. “It is exciting to think about doing the entire kitchen now and not having to compromise,” Ms. Martin said on Feb. 1, hours after filing for a dissolution of marriage.

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Why would someone pay an agent tens of thousands of dollars for tens of hours of actual desktop "work"?
I would like to see the "agents" working at a meat plant, where they actually have to earn their check. Or anywhere something has to be be made. Selling as a profession DOES NOT benefit the people. It TAKES AWAY from the people. I did spend some of my life in sales. I regret that.
 

Idaho Legislature unanimously acts to close home equity theft loophole​

www.mountainstatespolicy.org

Idaho Legislature unanimously acts to close home equity theft loophole

Unanimous support. That was the response from the Idaho legislature to Mountain States Policy Center’s recommendation to close the state’s home equity theft loophole. The Senate adopted HB 444 (Home Equity Theft reform) by a vote of 34-0 on March 5. The House passed the bill 66-0 on February 9...
www.mountainstatespolicy.org www.mountainstatespolicy.org
 
From the link:

It is becoming increasingly obvious that mega landlords across the country are (allegedly) colluding to jack up rents using centralized algorithms.

Last month, the Arizona attorney general joined the District of Columbia AG in filing a lawsuit against RealPage, which is accused of acting as an information-sharing middleman for real estate rental giants through its price-setting software. The North Carolina AG is also investigating RealPage, and the Colorado House of Representatives recently passed a bill targeting RealPage’s business model.

RealPage is facing several lawsuits contending that the property managers agreed to set prices through RealPage’s software, which also allowed the companies to share data on vacancy rates and prices in many of the US’ most expensive markets. Reporting, the lawsuits, and RealPage’s own statements showed that the company’s software said that it was often more profitable for mega landlords to have higher vacancy rates and keep rents elevated, which contradicted the old landlord practice of getting heads in beds even if that meant lowering rents.

“The Algorithm Told Me to Do It”: More Price Fixing in US Rental Market | naked capitalism

Arizona and another class action join lawsuit parade against price-setting software companies and property managers.
www.nakedcapitalism.com www.nakedcapitalism.com
 

Baltimore Wants to Sell Hundreds of Vacant Homes for $1 Each​

(Bloomberg) -- Baltimore plans to sell boarded-up houses for $1 each in an attempt to revive neighborhoods that have been plagued by crime and disrepair.

The program backed by Mayor Brandon Scott will offer more than 200 city-owned vacant properties to residents who commit to repairing and living in them. A city board approved the measure on Wednesday.

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Voodoo said:
They probably aren't worth a $1.
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You got THAT right...

In Wisconsin, when I lived there, I was looking for a cheap home to buy. It's well I never found it; it was to be a short station-stop...only two years, and then back inna saddle and riding off. But I didn't know that; I was flush with cash, having sold my Ohio home.

I was looking at foreclosed and motivated-seller properties - HUD and other sources. What I found, even with relatively new stuff...was what the dampness of the Midwestern Great-Lakes weather, and lack of heating, would do to a home. Black mold over whole walls of sheet rock. Frost heaves. Some of these places were vandalized, with fists through walls, broken doors, smashed sinks and commodes.

Basically they'd need to be gutted and rebuilt, and often re-roofed, to be habitable.

Baltimore is warmer but wetter and filled with more dindunuffins. A home there is a money-pit, and once you get it squared away, God only knows what sort of evil the Woketard government will work up on you. Go to work in the morning, and by evening a squatter has moved in. Change the locks and get locked up yourself.

Give the $1 houses to the illegal invaders. See how they improve the neighborhoods.
 
In this vid Yak (real estate agent) rants about the NAR settlement. Nothing to see (unless you want to watch him rant) so you don't need to watch it, you can listen in one tab and surf the forum in a different tab. He actually seems a bit upset. Remember.......it's his opinion.

The END OF Realtors! (Must Watch!)​

Mar 22, 2024

Here are my views on the new National Association of Realtors settlement that may destroy the Real Estate Agent world!


24:28
 
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales of existing single-family houses, condos, and co-ops rose 9.5% in February from January, but that increase was smaller than the increase in February 2023 (+11.5%), and so the annual rate of sales at 4.38 million homes, was still down 3.3% from the already collapsed levels of February 2023, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today

And the rate of sales was down 26% from February 2022, and down 29% from February 2021, and down 19% from February 2019.

In other words, home sales remain at very low levels as the entire housing market has shrunk by 20% to 25% because homeowners with 3% mortgages are neither buying nor selling, so they have vanished as demand, and they have vanished in equal number as supply, and so churn is down, along with sales and supply, and Realtors hate it because they make their commissions off churn (historic data via YCharts):
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California home insurance exodus pushes state’s last-resort backup plan toward insolvency​


SAN JOSE, Calif. — As home insurers flee California, the state’s last-resort insurance plan is warning that it’s being pushed toward insolvency, forced to cover a rapidly growing number of properties that have lost traditional coverage and unable to collect enough in premiums to cover potential losses.

The number of homes and commercial properties in high-risk wildfire areas covered by the California FAIR Plan has more than doubled, from 154,000 in 2019 to 375,000, and liability exposure has ballooned from $50 billion in 2018 to $336 billion in February, its president told lawmakers at an insurance committee hearing last week.

“These are huge numbers,” California FAIR Plan President Victoria Roach told the committee. “And they continue to grow. … As those numbers climb, our financial stability comes more into question.”

Roach added that one bad wildfire or even a series of smaller fires could overwhelm the plan’s resources, forcing it to bill all the state’s insurers for liabilities it cannot cover, which they in turn would pass on to all their insured home and business customers as higher premiums.

“It’s a gamble,” Roach said. “We are one event away from a large assessment, there’s no other way to say it, because we don’t have a lot of money on hand, and we have a lot of exposure out there.”

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Some nice houses (and cars) in today's walk & talk.

PROOF EVERYONE IS GOING BROKE!​

Mar 23, 2024
At this point, we are being lied to every single day about how well the economy is doing, and you don't have to look very far for proof that simultaneously everyone is going broke. In fact, we can sum it all up just from looking at one FRED chart on the economy that proves this.


24:26
 

Man Says He Was Asked to Squat in House to Help the Buyers Get a Lower Price​

Mar 26, 2024

And his lawyer claims to have video proof.


10:27
 
Yeah, that's the issue with tidal surges. Even a weak Cat 1 hurricane can bring devastating tidal surges and wreck a coastline.
 
Ever hear anything like this before?

$500K Hawaiian home accidentally built on wrong plot overrun by pooping squatters — as developer sues owner​


AHawaiian property owner was left baffled when a half-million-dollar home was accidentally built on her plot — and the real estate developer slapped her with a lawsuit as the vacant home is being overrun by pooping squatters.

“You already make a mistake, and then you build on my land without my permission. And then now you’re suing me for it,” Annaleine “Anne” Reynolds told The Post about the nightmare ordeal.

“I was so mad. I was so mad that day … that’s a really big mistake to make.”

Now, the three-bedroom, two-bath home in Hawaii’s fastest-growing development zone is running rampant with squatters as Reynolds and the developers remain locked in a legal battle.

The bewildering saga began in 2018 when Reynolds bought the one-acre plot in Puna’s Hawaiian Paradise Park for just $22,500 at a county tax auction.

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How do they construct (and finish?) a home on the wrong site? How did the local building inspectors much less the home owner/financier not catch it? smh
 

It’s All Designed TO MAKE YOU SPEND!​

Apr 1, 2024
As much as we would all love to see prices and goods and services go back to pre-pandemic levels that is very likely to never happen and it's because our government and the federal reserves are on a hard mission to make sure it never does. Because that would be called deflation which goes directly against their goal of having 2% inflation. Another words they want prices to continue going up forever and never go down. Once you realize that it gives the economy a whole new perspective.


21:29
 

Justice Department Can Reopen Realtors Case, Court Rules​

(Bloomberg) -- The Justice Department can reopen an antitrust probe into the National Association of Realtors, an appeals court ruled Friday, rejecting a bid by the real estate trade group to enforce a 2020 settlement with the Trump administration to close the case.

“The fact that DOJ ‘closed its investigation’ does not guarantee that the investigation would stay closed forever,” the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit wrote in a 2-1 decision. “The words ‘close’ and ‘reopen’ are unambiguously compatible.”

Former President Donald Trump’s administration in November 2020 reached a settlement with the group to end an antitrust investigation into its policies.

The proposed settlement included several requirements for the group — which represents more than 1.5 million agents — including boosting transparency about broker commissions and barring claims that real estate buyers don’t pay for any services. The Justice Department issued a letter stating that it was closing the probe in connection with two of the group’s other rules.

Eight months later, President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew from the settlement, which hadn’t been finalized, and sought to continue the probe.

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Once the owner or his hired re-squatter comes in, and the original trespasser returns...

...WHY would they even BOTHER calling the cops?

Gun. Target. Hit the floor, scumbag.

THEN comes the FUN.

Zip ties and wire...to cut off circulation of the hands. When they yell, take a hammer to the dental work.

Throw them in the trunk of an old car. Park it in the hot sun.

Or leave it in subzero temperatures. KNOWING they're in REAL fear...the kind of fear only by those who believe nothing but their own super-importance.

Once dead, remove zip ties, dump body far away. If all goes well, you didn't need to use the boom-stick; and what the defunded po-po have is a frozen carcass, or a mummified corpse stored in heat until dried. Or, in the Yeast Coast humidity...the cops have a putrid mess.

But I can't think of a good reason for letting these scumbags walk away alive.

And if this is DONE enough...this squatting STOPS.
 
^^^^^^^
- holy shades of Yellowstone Batman!
- yes Robin, this is straight outta Yellowstone where they off peeps, drive them into Wyoming, throw them off a cliff and no one knows anything
- gee Batman, this is nuts
- yes boy wonder, hop back in the Batmobile and we'll hear to the Gotham Tavern. I hear there's a new drink called the Squatter's Last Ride.
- sounds great Batman........I'm in.
 
searcher said:
^^^^^^^
- holy shades of Yellowstone Batman!
- yes Robin, this is straight outta Yellowstone where they off peeps, drive them into Wyoming, throw them off a cliff and no one knows anything
- gee Batman, this is nuts
- yes boy wonder, hop back in the Batmobile and we'll hear to the Gotham Tavern. I hear there's a new drink called the Squatter's Last Ride.
- sounds great Batman........I'm in.
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I'll have you know...I'm not far from Yellowstone.

I haven't watched it, but I'm told, a diner that was popular in an earlier era, Ruby's Cafe, is featured in several scenes and episodes. It's about eight blocks from me.

Ruby's, which has been made not-so-accessible by changing roads and traffic patterns, was closed for a year to be used as a field office and set.
 
Just did a search for Yellowstone stills. I'll have to find a way to see some of it without becoming a Netflixxed idiot.

To tie this in to the topic at hand...I think this nation would be a whole lot better off, if we employed some Montana-style justice to those squatter-trespasser-property-thieves.

This is not a new problem. Claim jumpers were around from the first prospectors' settlements.

And many of them wound up hanged from willow trees.

The old ways are sometimes the best ways.
 
Casey Jones said:
I'll have you know...I'm not far from Yellowstone.

I haven't watched it, but I'm told, a diner that was popular in an earlier era, Ruby's Cafe, is featured in several scenes and episodes. It's about eight blocks from me.

Ruby's, which has been made not-so-accessible by changing roads and traffic patterns, was closed for a year to be used as a field office and set.
Click to expand...

You should watch it if you get the chance. Good show. My favorite is Beth, she's one tough chic.

Beth likes her tea



Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@yellowstone/videos
 
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