Economy

Where Are The Starter Homes?

/ SupremeCmdr / 3 Comments

Pergens and his wife, Amanda, have a 6-year-old daughter and another child due this month. She stopped working as a pastry chef during the pandemic. They rent a small two-bedroom apartment. “We build all these fancy homes,” Pergens says. “Fancy, fancy houses … and low-income apartments. And there’s absolutely nothing in between.”

The Housing Shortage Is Significant. It’s Acute For Small, Entry-Level Homes — https://www.npr.org/2021/09/04/1033585422/the-housing-shortage-is-significant-its-acute-for-small-entry-level-homes?

Good article but the analysis is only partially correct. Affordable housing has been an issue for decades. It’s not merely an issue of current economic conditions. It’s a lack of political will and the continuing demise of the middle class. WAY BACK last century our starter home cost less than $100,000 and we had over 1600 square feet 3BR 2B.

It’s no wonder the newest hit show on HGTV is Cheap Old Houses. https://www.hgtv.com/shows/discovery-plus-home/articles/cheap-old-houses-hgtv-show

Every Day is an Emergency – Psychiatric Bed Shortages Nationwide

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

The pandemic and the parallel economic crisis have fueled new concern about access to mental health care. An estimated 40% of American adults are have a condition involving mental illness or substance abuse. In June, federal health officials reported nearly 11% percent of adults surveyed seriously considered suicide during the past 30 days.

‘Every day is an emergency’: The pandemic is worsening psychiatric bed shortages nationwide — https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/23/mental-health-covid19-psychiatric-beds/?utm_campaign=rss

We are just ten months into the Great Pandemic and I fear conditions will get worse before they get better.

Movie Theaters Got Annihilated in 2020

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Through 2019, the way movie theaters tried to deal with this structural decline in moviegoers was by raising ticket prices, offering big comfortable chairs to justify those ticket prices, installing bars with overpriced beer and food, and cranking up prices for popcorn and sodas. Fewer people paying a lot more money was the trick to maintain revenue growth.

And because going to the movies got so expensive and because much cheaper options have increasingly been available on the big screen at home, the number of tickets sold continued to drop. Go figure.

After 17 Years of Falling Ticket Sales, Movie Theaters Got Annihilated in 2020 — https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/10/movie-theater-ticket-sales-after-falling-for-years-got-annihilated-in-2020/

The local movie theater which closed in March 2020 has yet to reopen. I doubt they ever will.

“There are people close who are in need”

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Several churches joined forces to distribute food on Friday as part of the “Simultaneous Free Food Giveaway.

“The Rev. Derrick Scobey, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, helped coordinate the event, partnering with World Vision and Joey Abbo, chief executive officer of the Needs Foundation. The humanitarian aid organization and the foundation supplied the food that was distributed on Friday.

Oklahoma churches, leaders join forces for ‘simultaneous’ food distribution — https://oklahoman.com/article/5678143/oklahoma-churches-leaders-join-forces-for-simultaneous-food-distribution

If you have the means to help please help others in need.

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Mike Tyson

The drop in the volume of employment in a given sector always has a ripple effect in the national economy. The loss of so many high-paying jobs in a short time will be a dent in the coffers of Los Angeles County and for New York state in the short term. Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based National Employment Law Project, says it hits at a time when other industries are undergoing similar sweeping realignments with huge human toll.

“Nobody’s got a plan for how to transition these massive sectors of the workforce into a different thing,” Evermore says.

Hollywood Grapples With Mass Layoffs as the Biz Redefines Itself for Streaming Future — https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hollywood-layoffs-streaming-future-1234838650/

I sat for a few minutes thinking about what to write next when Charlie Hunter popped into my head. Hunter titled one of his albums with the Tyson quote.

Which was then followed by some great advice from Charlie on his strategy for success and survival in the years to come.

Don’t wait until you get punched in the mouth to make your Plan B. And while you’re at it you might want to come up with a Plan C as well.

Scary Charts San Francisco Edition – Nov. 2020

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There were 2,532 homes listed for sale in San Francisco at the end of October, up 77% from the same week a year ago, according to data from Redfin. About two-thirds were condos. According to data from Compass, inventory of condos for sale was up 85% year-over-year. Inventory of single-family houses was up 25%:

Condo Prices Drop 9% in San Francisco, All-Time Record Inventory Glut Piles Up — https://wolfstreet.com/2020/11/05/condo-prices-drop-9-in-san-francisco-all-time-record-inventory-glut-piles-up/

Meanwhile in Aspen…

In 2019 throughout the entire year, 27 residential properties sold for a price over $10 million. So far this year, a record 48 properties have sold for prices over $10 million, of which 39 have sold since April. This is twice the volume of 2019 and we still have almost four months remaining in the year.At the beginning of 2019, the median price per square foot of a residential property in Aspen was about $1,350. At the end of August, that median square-foot price had risen roughly 15% to about $1,550. In the Snowmass market at the beginning of 2019, the median price per square foot for a residential property was about $680. At the end of August, that median price had risen to about $760, a roughly 12% increase.

Small: The pandemic and rising real estate values locally — https://www.aspendailynews.com/opinion/small-the-pandemic-and-rising-real-estate-values-locally/article_3d9ffcfc-fbaa-11ea-8b7b-379359f41398.html

And since I have your attention down here near the end of the post about that mask debate in Oklahoma…

https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/ Weekly Epidemiology and Surveillance Report
…the needs of the few

The Beginning of the End

/ SupremeCmdr / 1 Comment

Airlines want more from the government printing press.

American Airlines was also the airline that blew, incinerated, wasted, and trashed more than any other airline on share buybacks. Buybacks ceased in the second quarter, but from 2013 through Q1 2020, American Airlines incinerated $13.1 billion in cash on share buybacks. That cash would now come in very handy. 2013 was also the year Mr. Parker became CEO of American Airlines. Delta blew, wasted, and incinerated $11.7 billion in cash on share buybacks over the period; Southwest Airlines, $10.9 billion (starting in 2012); and United $8.9 billion. In total, the big four airlines blew, wasted, and incinerated $44.6 billion in cash on share buybacks from 2012 through Q1 2020, and now the airlines want an additional $25 billion bailout, for a total of $50 billion, much of it in forms of grants, from taxpayers (data via YCharts)

Facing Crappiest Recovery Ever, Airlines Demand New $25-Billion Bailout, for $50 Billion Total, after Having Burned $45 Billion on Share Buybacks — https://wolfstreet.com/2020/09/28/facing-crappiest-recovery-ever-airlines-demand-new-25-billion-bailout-for-50-billion-total-after-having-burned-45-billion-on-share-buybacks/

Just. Say. NO.

Quote for Today – 09.19.20

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Higher education committed suicide with its dual racketeering model. First was the college loan racket, in which schools colluded with the federal government to jam too many “customers” through the pipeline who didn’t belong there, and who buried themselves under a lifetime debt obligation they could never escape. The second was the intellectual racket of creating sham fields of study that contaminated all the other “humanities” with poisonous bullshit theory, and eventually even invaded the STEM disciplines. Covid-19 screwed the pooch on all that, scotching the four-year party-hearty in-residence part of the deal. For now, who needs an online class in Contemporary Sexual Transgression ($2000-a-credit) when you can just click on Porn-hub for free? Hundreds of colleges and universities will be going out of business in the years ahead.

James Howard Kunstler — https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/things-going-by/#more-‘

Quote for Today – 09.16.20

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We do not, as these numbers show, live in one economy. We are a tale of too many economies. There are no one-size fits all solutions, though several trillion dollars more of spending surely will benefit everyone. No part of the country is unaffected by the past months, but some parts are devastated and others merely dented. A sense that we are actually all in this together would dictate that we only thrive when most of us thrive, but that sense was not prevalent enough before this crisis for it to be demonstrable during. Instead, our many economies are making collective stories impossible and added to the sense of fracture that the presidential election and pandemic are magnifying.

America is a Tale of Fractured Economic Realities and That’s Stopping Us From Fixing this Crisis — By Zachary Karabell September 15, 2020 1:30 PM EDT — https://time.com/5888267/america-fractured-economic-realities/