Category: Real Estate (page 23 of 266)

Here’s an obvious fact no one wants to think about: America has had a Praetorian Guard since the end of World War II. It was crypto – not even nukes – that birthed the security state; you can see its inception in “The Imitation Game.” Our unelected, unacknowledged guardians have, so far, kept America’s nuclear weapons from falling into enemy hands.

That will change on January 20th, if China Joe Biden in inaugurated.

The alternative might seem to be secession, with or without a civil war, but that doesn’t work, either. Anything that disrupts the vigilance of our defenses cannot happen.

Accordingly, it seems reasonable to suppose that it won’t. If popular self-government has been an illusion in The West for 75 years, this is one more veil we should expect to see fall away from our eyes in the coming days.

Is that good news or bad? Far better than the alternative, at least in the short-run.

Otherwhere:

The Washington Examiner: Poll: ‘Civil War’ expectations reach new high, 71% of Trump voters. Most important housing story of the day, by far. Incidentally, have you figured out yet why BloodhoundBlog is back in daily operation?

Redfin: Housing Market Update: Home Prices Up 13%, Pending Sales Rise 38%.

Housing Wire: Economists see housing as bright spot to unemployment.

Real Clear Investigations: A Big Move to Ban Realtor ‘Hate Speech.’ At Work. Anywhere. 24/7. As always, actual real estate news does not come from the real estate press. This is a nice read today – after yesterday.

Jacob Sullum: Did Trump Commit a Crime When He Riled Up His Supporters Before They Rioted?

Jordan Davidson: Twitter Just Nuked The Account Of The World’s Biggest Critic Of Big Tech And China.

American Thinker: Silence Will Be the Next Hate Crime.

So everybody knows the election was stolen – and that’s the point. You just watched the Congress sanctimoniously sanctify that Big Lie – all the while telling still more lies about “terrorism” and “peaceful protest” – and all of that is the point.

The long game is to goad the Middle Class into acting out, as seen at the Capitol, in order to malign them as ‘white supremacists’ – thus to rationalize disarming, enslaving and exterminating America’s Kulaks.

“You don’t have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line.” Famed psychopath Hillary Clinton said that – and she would love to see you in a place where you don’t dare dispute it.

But: Meanwhile: If you meekly fall in line, the crocodile won’t eat you – today.

But if you object in any way at all – they’ll know who to come for.

Donald Trump brought America a nation-unifying landslide. If we let China Joe steal our Republic, he’ll be around to steal everything else in due course.

Elsewhere, as if anything else could matter at this juncture:

Housing Wire: Mortgage rates drop even lower to new record of 2.65%.

CNBC: Buyers and sellers are substantially more pessimistic about the housing market, as Covid cases surge again.

Housing Wire: For 2021 housing data, context is key.

Tablet: Techxodus: The flight of terrified techies from California to Texas marks the end of one era, and the beginning of a new one.

Frontpage Mag: The Great UnReason of 2020: The ‘Curious, but Quite Authentic, Inability to Think’.

American Thinker: Recognizing the coordinated attacks on the First Amendment.

John Daniel Davidson: Media Outrage Over Capitol Riot Isn’t About Defending Democracy, It’s About Wielding Power.

An innocent, unarmed “peaceful protestor” – a 14-year Airforce vet – was shot and killed by police in the Capitol yesterday. What’s the name of her murderer? What charges have been brought against him? Now you know what the Red Chinese will do with America’s military, if China Joe Biden completes the sale on January 20th. But you don’t have to wait until then to find out which live don’t matter.

On the other side of the street, we have three iBuyer plays. It’s a stupid time to try to buy at a discount, but dead money always gets a seat at the table and an easy chance to lose. Even so, if you parse the arguments, each one turns on agency-with-an-interest – on overt and financially-advantageous fiduciary violations by real estate licensees – so the ultimate class action lawsuits should be fun to watch.

Housing Wire: RedfinNow launches in Phoenix housing market.

Housing Wire: Offerpad expands services through homebuilder partner.

Housing Wire: Knock offers Home Swap in Jacksonville, Florida, market.

CNBC: What a Democratic-controlled Congress could mean for renters struggling amid the pandemic.

Housing Wire: Democrat Senate win could cut refinance wave short.

David Marcus: The Nation’s Riots Have Now Entered The Capitol. The Center Cannot Hold.

I wrote a song this morning. Feel free to sing it with me:

I do not consent
I do not consent
I do not consent
to being enslaved by government.

I know Trump’s victory – and America’s – was stolen, and I now suspect that all elections have been corrupt for decades. But that does not even matter, by now: America is at the abyss, and if it tumbles, the whole world goes with it.

Fun fact: Every prediction is non-epiphanted. What happens today could change everything.

Otherwhere:

CNBC: Mortgage demand from homebuyers pulled back sharply, even as rates ended 2020 near record low. Hmm… How’d that happen?

Housing Wire: Mortgage applications drop over holidays. Hey, maybe that’s it!

CNBC: Snowflake CEO says Covid has shown old approach to working at the office is ‘nonsense’.

City Journal: The Sunshine Exodus: New York license plates increasingly stand out on Florida roads.

Lee Smith: The American Elite Declares Its Independence From America.

Christopher Rufo: Radicals in the Classroom: San Diego’s school district tells white teachers that they are guilty of “spirit murdering” black children and should undergo “antiracist therapy.”

Last year was a clinic for the Cautious, but preening Ci came off very badly, compared to compassionate Cs. Whether the impetus is the virus, the response to it or the riots, Cs and Ds are on the move – away from every pernicious Ci influence.

Housing is about kids and dogs. Every noun in that sentence will do better, going forward, because of 2020’s hysterical Ci overreach. Everyone wants to believe in his own peculiar genius, but good news, most often, comes from the other guy’s mistakes. Rejoice and be glad in it.

Elsewhere:

Housing Wire: Will we have a buyer’s housing market in 2021?

Housing Wire: Could 2% define mortgage rates for the next decade?

CNBC: Home prices are rising faster in the middle of the U.S. as Covid drives people away from coasts.

Jordan Davidson: Exodus From Blue States In 2020 Fueled By COVID And Government Mandates.

City Journal: For Chicago Homeowners, It’s All Pain, Little Gain: Driven by exploding pension costs, the city’s property-tax hikes are depressing the housing market.

American Thinker: The Future: It Ain’t Gonna Be Pretty.

Margot Cleveland: Is The United States Too Big To Save?

One of the awful consequences of the Deep State’s deep aversion to Donald Trump and his supporters is the deliverance of Hong Kong in to Red China’s bloody clutches. Perhaps Trumps could have done nothing – or perhaps he will do something yet – but America, Hong Kong and the whole world suffered while the leader of the free world was being swarmed by gnats.

When the heroes of Hong Kong were protesting, we longed to be the Americans they imagined us to be. This week we get to find out who we really are.

In other news:

Joel Kotkin: Can California stop Big Tech from decamping for cheaper places?

The Federalist: Radical Democrats Are Turning Minneapolis Into A Violent Wasteland.

AND Magazine: She Painted The Pavement And Failed Her City.

Roger Kimball: Who Will Be Inaugurated?

Stella Morabito: Ignoring And Ridiculing Election Fraud Concerns Will Not Make Them Go Away.

Vivek Saxena: Peter Navarro to release full election report ‘The Art of the Steal’ on Monday. Here’s what he alleges.

David Solway: January 6, 2021: The Day of the Electoral Epiphany.

American Thinker: Why the Left Always Wins.

And here’s a song, lately sung in Hong Kong, I hope to be hearing a lot over the next few days:

The caravans of Trump supporters are on the move to Washington, to converge there on or before 9 am on Wednesday, January 6th – the Feast of the Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

I don’t know if their transit will be news, but their arrival will be: We made a stout point of ignoring all the rioting, looting and destruction committed by Antifa, BLM and other arms of the DNCCP last year. Two million or more very neat, very orderly taxpayers will be decried as bloodthirsty terrorists.

The real question: Does Trump have a plan beyond massed Sullaism – a vast, intimidating mob? We shall see…

In a world without real estate news:

Sacramento Business Journal: A multibillion-dollar f-you.

The Atlantic: The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives’ Theory About Gentrification.

The New York Post: Say a prayer for New York City.

Forbes: As More Americans Move To No-Income-Tax States, More Lawmakers Move To Phase Out State Income Taxes.

The Washington Examiner: 2020 was the point of no return for establishment media.

Michael Goodwin: President Trump is set for his last stand.

Sundance: January 6th Ted Cruz Has a Rare Second-Chance At Redemption, But Don’t Expect Him to Take It…

Daniel Greenfield: Frontpage Person of the Year: The Disenfranchised American Voter.

Cheryl Chumley: Fear is the socialist, communist, collectivist left’s greatest weapon.

The seven rules of The Church of Splendor are mental- and moral-management strategies for an appropriately-prioritized anarchist egoist life – that being mine. You’re free to make free with them:

1. I don’t go to your church.
2. I am not arguing with you.
3. Don’t be an asshole.
4. Butthurt is not contagious.
5. Never play the other man’s game.
6. Keep your own counsel.
7. Look out for your own.

The one that matters most right now? Rule #7.

My perennial New Year’s admonition: Want to be a better, more-perfect version of yourself? Master something difficult this year. My bite of the apple: I already know how to play the ukulele, so this year I’m going learn how to work the supply side of the real estate market.

In a world without real estate news:

The New York Post: Portland kicks off 2021 with a riot for the new year.

Glenn Greenwald: The Kafkaesque Imprisonment of Julian Assange Exposes U.S. Myths About Freedom and Tyranny.

FEE.org: The Fight to Keep Schools Closed Has Proven Thomas Sowell Right About Teachers’ Unions.

Michael Barone: The Year America Went Crazy.

The National Pulse: The Senior U.S. Officials Taking CCP-Subsidized Trips, Dinners For ‘Favorable Coverage’.

The New York Post: 2020 was an absolute bloodbath for box offices.

Fender.com: 7 Reasons You Should Play the Ukulele.

Inspiration:

“Give me a lever and firm place to stand and I will move the earth!”

So said Archimedes. Here is a simple lever to fix everything that is wrong in civil society – in due course:

Change your state’s Family Law to default to residential custody to the father regardless of marital state.

Right now, the incentives are intentionally inverted toward family destruction. By returning to default custody to the father, you eliminate virtually all divorce and most out-of-wedlock births. In five years, children will be able to spell again. In ten, they will have recovered the ability to make change. In twenty years, there will be a lot more children around. And in fifty short years we will be back to 1970 – where we were when the war on the family began its final assault.

Everything you want changed in laws and constitutions requires the long-range vision of fathers. But everything you want in everyday life – honesty, trustworthiness, reliability, follow-through – all of those are brought to the world by fathers, too.

When we robbed our children of their fathers, we robbed America of everything that had made it great. We can get back to where we belong simply by unmaking that awful mistake.

Christmas Brutality: How to slay dragons.

Yesterday on BloodhoundBlog:

Greg Swann: Bloodhound’s end-of-year letter to our rental-property investors: Thriving by surprise.

Elsewhere:

Housing Wire: Mortgage rates remain at record-low levels.

Daniel Greenfield: Democrats Destroyed All the Savings of Americans Three Times Over.

Tyler O’Neil: 5 Great Trump Victories in 2020.

The Federalist: Donald Trump Has Been The Most Illuminating President In Decades.

Victoria Taft: 5 Reasons Why You’re Not Crazy to Question the Election Results.

Reason: The Bipartisan Push To Gut Section 230 Will Suppress Online Speech.

My prediction for “The New Normal” is that the Chief Diversity Officer will dominate companies, going forward, overseeing the progressively-accelerating looting of corporate America – this being the best-case scenario, with Trump continuing as President.

But: It remains that entities like NASCAR and Walmart need a Chief Redneck Officer in their C-suites, to remind them who they work for as they preen their way into oblivion.

Christmas Brutality: Courtney at the speed of life.

After sunrise:

Housing Wire: How record-low mortgage rates changed everything in 2020.

The National Pulse: All Major Western Media Outlets Take ‘Private Dinners’, ‘Sponsored Trips’ From Chinese Communist Propaganda Front.

Victoria Taft: Tech Expert Shocks GA Election Fraud Hearing With News He ‘Got Into’ Voting System With WiFi.

The Epoch Times: Trump Team Wants to Present ‘Specific Evidence’ on Jan. 6.

The Epoch Times: Hawley Becomes First Senator Committed to Challenging Electoral College Results.

The New York Post: Walmart apologizes for now-deleted tweet calling Sen. Hawley a ‘sore loser’.

Don Feder: Anti-Trump Conservatives – An Army of Envious Dwarfs.

Jeff Jacoby: What Was Great About 2020.

And so you can start the New Year dancing, music from the most-profound lyricist in rock ’n’ roll history, Woody Guthrie:

The idea of a “police force” is ancient. Rich people needed security, but poor people had nothing to secure. The middle class needed what it couldn’t pay for, and the rich, as always, wanted someone else to pay its way.

Enter the police under various names, with politics, ultimately, turning on that bargain: Essentially the middle class making sure it is getting what it is paying for.

That’s what is not happening now. The oligarchical class is seeking to subjugate the middle class, so it is consistently and overtly reneging on the policing bargain: Not only will no one police crooks, when the crooks turn on the taxpayers, it is the taxpayers who are punished.

How does that story end happily?

Christmas Brutality: Finding visibility, absolution and closure at the choo-choo train at the mall on New Year’s Eve.

Outside the mall:

Housing Wire: U.S. home prices hit 14-year high in October. Firearms sales peaked in November. I wonder if there’s a connection…

Liberty Unyielding: Murder rate rose by 37% in U.S. cities in 2020.

The Post Millennial: Antifa activists take over hotel near Seattle as owner begs authorities for help. Remember that surly old police chief who really knew how to knock heads when the moment called for it? Now you know enough to miss him, at least.

The Federalist: The Top Five Most Suppressed News Stories Of 2020.

Glenn Greenwald: The Threat of Authoritarianism in the U.S. is Very Real, and Has Nothing To Do With Trump.

City Journal: The West Should Not Abandon Hong Kong.

Michael Walsh: A Perfect Storm Seeks Destruction of the US.

I swear, you cannot make this stuff up. Seattle is being emptied by its riots, and Redfin notices by ostentatiously not noticing. As was noted in the comments here lately, this is by now arguably a matter of fraud – boosting their own home values as they too race away from the inevitable further consequences of Marxism.

My take, about which I may have much more to say later:

For freedom of trade to persist, trustworthiness should not just be assumed but never doubted. Accordingly, worthy traders must be more than simply non-predatory – they must be explicitly, overtly and vigilantly anti-predation.

There are far too many ways to get this wrong, but here is an easy way for Redfin to start getting it right:

Tell the truth – all of it.

Christmas Brutality: A future more vivid.

Outside the mall:

Redfin: 6 of the 10 Most Competitive Cities For Buying a Home This Year Are in Washington State. How’d that happen?

Reason: Will Cities Survive 2020?

Redfin: Housing Market Update: Home Prices Up 14%, Pending Sales Rise 34%. More about what the riots that definitely did not happen this Summer still aren’t doing to the real estate markets.

Libby Emmons: The New York Times Using Its Reporting Resources To Weaponize Teen Drama Is A Scary Trend. This story is precisely why the NAR gave itself a speech code: Weaponized evil.

Andrea Widburg: Ukraine press conference explicitly ties Hunter and Joe Biden to corruption.

American Thinker: A Supreme Court in Hiding is Dangerous for Our Country.

The Federalist: A National Popular Vote Won’t Fix The Electoral College, But Smaller Government Will.

FEE.org: Compulsory Schooling Laws: What if We Didn’t Have Them?

Brian Brady fingered the link on brand new rental communities pitching detached apartments as SFRs for lease.

We have these in Phoenix, too, though I have never toured them. They look to be 1,200sf homes on 1,400sf parcels – except of course they aren’t parcels – yet.

When the market soared the last time, we saw hundreds of apartment communities file public reports to become condominium communities, instead. Whatever else cheap mortgage money means, it means that Wall Street is betting against dirt.

That suggests to me that the tiny houses on tiny lots will soon become condominium plats, thus subject to hypothecation – mortgage financing. The smaller the homestead, the greater the greater-fool? So it would seem…

Christmas Brutality: The true story of Christmas? Joseph didn’t dump the baby and ditch Mary.

Beyond Bethlehem:

The Epoch Times: Trump Signs $2.3 Trillion Relief and Spending Bill, Says More Money to Come. I am told this is more 4D chess. It had better be.

The Palm Beach Post: Housing market trend heading to Florida: Single-family homes to rent, not buy.

Calculated Risk: Ten Economic Questions for 2021.

Monica Showalter: Trouble for Democrats: Rebellion in the California suburbs.

David Marcus: Dr. Fauci Admits He Has Treated The American People Like Children.

The Hill: Five GOP senators to watch in next month’s Electoral College fight.

American Greatness: An Essential Man: In this climactic battle of our decades-long culture war, we need to win – or be prepared to lose in ways beyond imagining.

John Daniel Davidson: 5 Big Things We Learned About Our Elites In 2020.

Jeffrey Lord: Soviet-Style Media Propaganda in America.

Andrea Widburg: An 18-year-old boy’s terrible revenge on a girl who never harmed him.

City Journal: Tell Only Lies: Americans are increasingly afraid to express themselves honestly.

I saw a bunch of images decrying America’s gun culture, and it was amazing too me how much has changed in my own lifetime.

I got a BB gun for my eighth birthday. For my tenth, I got a 22 rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun – full choke, a pheasant gun.

Every boy I knew had his own arsenal, and no one thought twice about securing firearms: Children learned about gun safety by being around guns all the time.

Nobody was hurting, financially, but everyone hunted for game, and everyone spit birdshot out of their pheasant and duck at Sunday dinner.

All of this is fatherhood, not firearms. No one locked their doors when I was a kid – not even the doors of pick-up trucks with fully-stocked gun-racks. That’s important to note, because what will need fixing, when we finally grow up and get serious, is not this law or that constitution but fatherhood itself.

Christmas Brutality: Ladybug’s Christmas dismissal.

News from otherwhere:

Townhall: Schumer Wants Biden to Transfer Wealth From Auto Mechanics to Harvard Grads.

Andrea Widburg: Dr. Fauci justifies lies, saying Americans can’t handle the truth.

Daniel Greenfield: The War on Trump and the End of the Right to a Lawyer.

The Washington Free Beacon: How the Centers for Disease Control Went Woke.

Spiked Online: The year the ruling class got woke.

The Daily Caller: Dave Portnoy Rescues Small Businesses While Congress Snoozes.