California is pretty interesting today.

We have been in a drought so long - I thought we has zero chance of flooding this year. We had so much excess capacity for all the water to go

Yet.... here we are. Palo Alto is on the verge of flooding or already is. Even on high ground all the up by the Stanford shopping center. Which I have never seen in my entire life. 

Two freeways are shut down in both directions due to flooding.  101 might be flooding in multiple places. Now shut down infinitely. East Palo Alto (where I used to live by the freeway, the creek is overtopping)

It seems like the rain is melting all the snow we just had, so the Sierra is flooding. 

Capitola is flooding. Which I have seen before.

We gonna b on the news ya'll!

There is no Happy New year.

We get to live 2020 all over again. Bravo for everyone! People's selfishness, laziness and vanity have brought us to this point. People are going to get the world they so militantly fought for and deserve. 

All this year people screamed about how horrible China was and how they should open up.  ( I do not support the way China handled SARS-2 AT ALL, but we all should have prayed that they would succeed. THAT ANYTHING WOULD SUCCEED. Instead people rubbed their hands with glee that they did not) 

You got your wish and now China is filled with nothing but death. The very thing people like me tried to tell others would happen.  AND MORE TROUBLING - the rumor out of China is the new strain they have causes white lung. Chinese doctors are now trying to warn us. Which makes me laugh because they should save their breath. Americans are THICK. I'm sure everyone reading my blog has a PH'd in GoogleU. So... just put that search into twitter, google or whatever. 

There are controlled lockdowns and uncontrolled lockdowns, and you are going to get the second one. I can assure you - the first one is much better. Now you are not getting shit out of China. It has completely collapsed. China is just videos of caskets, mortuary lines and streets filled with packages because everyone is too sick to work. Good job everyone!

I have actually been preparing like it is 2020. If you haven't..... ?

Additionally - I doubt very highly that the Government is going to print 40% of the entire mount of money ever printed like they did in 2020.  What should have happened in 2020 has only been delayed. You are going to get those consequences this year. 

I really do not understand why people think collapsing the healthcare system is a fun thing to do. I'm not sure what result they think they are going to get. But it's literally  about the same result as Antifa burning down cities. Those cities rarely recover... and I wonder if this is the eventual goal.

The thing that has fascinated me the most is how people are treating others like slaves.  And everyone just seems okay with it. People don't care if manufacturing or restaurant workers die or get sick, as long as people don't have to change their behavior in any way. I mean, you can't complain about the results of all the things people refused to do. Eventually all those slaves will be too sick or dead to work.

I'm sure many countries weren't sure if they could rid themselves of SARS-1. But they did. It's only lack of imagination and laziness that most people think we can not eventually one day get rid of SARS-2. Which is now becoming SARS-3 because it has been allowed to enter so many people to become stronger.

So... if I continue this blog I am going to be shittier than I have ever been. Mark my words because people need an ass kicking.

And lastly... the thing I wish people understood is - getting Covid is not the way forward. Every human this virus enters gives it a chance to mutate. Which is NOT the thing you want for a lab grown virus which has already been accelerated by gain of function. People are just making this virus stronger. It is learning FROM YOUR body how to infect people better.

 

This guy wins Christmas.

All the things she said running through my head.

I was going to wait until after the Holiday to post this, but what is going on just makes me so intensely sad. I feel like how those guys must have felt when they knew credit default swaps were going to blow up the world. I am begging you to protect yourselves. PLEASE.

Many people talk about how our education system has failed us in Math and Science, but after the past three years I've come to realize, the area they really failed us is in health education. The literacy of Americans on basic health is astonishing. And this is coming from a high school drop out!

I say this because just yesterday a girl I know was telling me that at her bowling league some guy had a heart attack four lanes down. They worked on him for 45 minutes. When I told her that SARS-2 inflames the heart, she replied - why has no one said this to me before? Then goes on to say she didn't believe that COVID was leaked from a lab. She thought it came from Nuclear fall out. Despite the injury from such an event would damage a body in a completely different way. But she said no one was going to talk her out of it. I left things there because really... what can you say at that point?

For months, and years now I guess, I have been completely perplexed as to why Governments around the world continue to refuse to tell people the real consequences of SARS-2. I believe if they told people the virus causes hyper-coagulation of blood, people would voluntarily reduce their exposure. And, I am genuinely not being mean here... if they could even figure out what the word hyper-coagulation means. I've come to realize that people are afraid of big words.  

For uncountable months I have been trying to figure out why people, instead of using caution, they feel they need to be infected. Which is of ZERO benefit! There has NEVER been herd immunity to a corona virus. NEVER. 

I feel that it is because of a widespread misinterpretation the public has due to the book Dirt is Good: The Advantage of Germs for Your Child's Developing Immune System. We all remember when that book came around telling us to let your kids play in the dirt. Which talks about the possible benefit dirt has on allergic response. NOT VIRAL response. Most viruses don't live in the ground. And if they do, it's often the REALLY bad ones.

I will admit right up front that I have not read the book, but I have gone through many of the comments and other articles citing this book. Most of which are obviously geared around the fear in the 80's and 90's that kids were watching too much TV. The excerpts I HAVE read - obviously the author is talking about bacteria. NOT VIRUSES! Yet people's literacy is so limited, they are conflating the two. And even if you tried to tell them the difference their eyes would glaze over and they would militantly tell you how stupid you were.. That is our real society right now. Now the blind are leading the blind and walking people right off a cliff. I however have been telling people for at least a year or more that this was a vascular disease. I've said it so many times.

To figure out the difference READ HERE.

"Viruses need to enter a living cell (such as a human cell) to be able to reproduce, and once inside they take over all of the cellular machinery and force the cell to make new virus. "

I believe this book is the reason people are not taking more care. Inaccurately believing that they need to be infected to be protected. Whatever the reason, PLEASE read this and whatever crazy theory you have - stop it. This is what is really happening. I don't normally snarf so much of an article. But this guy saves me a lot of work.

Source.

"2. COVID is a disease of the vascular system.

It inflames the lining of blood vessels in both the young and old and can cause blood clotting.

This explains why COVID infection can leave in its wake a variety of cardiovascular injuries including stroke, restricted blood flow, inflamed hearts, and blood clots in the heart and lungs.

It also explains why COVID in different people affects different organs. The infection travels by the vascular system to the brain, the gut, the heart, the lymph glands and the kidneys. It was never, as hubris has alleged, a cold or “just the flu.”"

4. Having COVID is associated with a 66 per cent higher risk of developing new onset diabetes.

So says an article in the science journal Nature.

5. COVID damages the heart and can cause sudden strokes in young people.

Prior to the pandemic excess deaths from strokes were on the decline in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now reports that excess deaths from strokes rose 23 to 34 per cent among young people between the ages of 25 and 44, and rose 13 to 18 percent in older age groups since the beginning of the pandemic.

6. Each and every COVID infection exerts a toll on your health.

image atom The Pandemic Speaks READ MORE Reinfections increase the risk of developing diabetes, kidney disease, organ failure and mental health problems, according to research published in Nature Medicine. The authors found that people with COVID reinfections were twice as likely to die and three times more likely to be hospitalized than those with no history of previous COVID infection.

Moreover people with repeat infections were three and a half times more likely to develop lung problems, three times more likely to suffer heart conditions and 1.6 times more likely to experience brain conditions than patients who had been infected with the virus once.

As one recent Canadian study noted, “Because each new SARS-CoV-2 infection carries some risk of long COVID, everyone remains at risk for developing the condition.”

image atom We Didn’t Grieve the Pandemic. Now We’re Stuck Fighting READ MORE 7. Immune dysfunctions can persist for up to eight months after a COVID infection.

Australian researchers found “an ongoing, sustained inflammatory response following even mild-to-moderate acute COVID-19.”

8. Women are at greatest risk for long COVID.

We don’t know why, but we don’t improve things by ignoring the evidence.

9. Vaccines alone won’t deliver us.

When public health officials now speak to us, they invariably hammer home one, simple message. Get vaccinated. No argument here. Yes, do get vaccinated. Still, we should keep some important caveats in mind.

Although vaccines have significantly reduced deaths and hospitalizations their effectiveness is waning as the virus that causes COVID evolves. And by not engaging in other public health measures, we make it easier to spread and therefore evolve.

And consider this flaw built into the current messaging strategy. Just why would the public seek out booster shots (which really do work for a short period of time), when the authorities pretend the worst is over and that no other interventions are necessary?

There is no single technological fix that will dispatch COVID let alone end the pandemic.

Maybe there is a faint pulse.

I have been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out how much of my time I want to share with the world. In other words, I've been trying to figure out if I want to continue blogging at all. I do this every year honestly, but after the last three years - blogging has become way more than a burden. It has been really nice not having a running narrative in my head of trying to form posts or figure out how I am going to explain technology most people have never seen. 

Unlike other sites who make money from their posts - I blog to share the really cool things I see and provide a perspective that I don't think other sites are giving. Often times because their narrative is whatever, whoever, is paying them for at the time. 

I don't make money. Blogging costs me money, and if my audience is not interested in what I say, I have absolutely ZERO incentive to do so. 

I have been on the opposite side of many topics. During the housing crisis people said houses would never be worth the prices people paid for them again. I spent years saying how rediculous and untrue that was. I supported Trump before anyone did. When literally you couldn't admit it without fear of real retribution. I was at the San Jose rally where people threw eggs at Trump supporters. But this panemic has exausted me in a way that I can't even describe. 

Basically every day I wonder what the hell happened to this country. I am an atheist, and you will never find an instance of me shitting on any religion, but I am here today asking what the hell happened to Christians? I guess they got tired of pretending to love their neighbor. 

Most days lately, the narrative that runs through my head is from the Dalai Lama. "OUR PRIME PURPOSE IN THIS LIFE IS TO HELP OTHERS. AND IF YOU CAN'T HELP THEM, AT LEAST DON'T HURT THEM." 

As for this blog? They are letting me into CES this year.... so, I'm saying there is a chance.

Pigs bring down the whole market.

I would wager that every single house sold during the pandemic will go into negative equity. I'm posting about this house because it obviously fell out of the sale, and when they put it back on - it was for 17% less. That was a 400k price drop. Seriously.

The price it sold for in 2019 is closer to the real value.  Which means this house needs to fall a further 20-30%. I bet the market over-corrects. These people tried to squeeze out a 56% profit in three years. And let me tell you - the MLS is full of this crap! 

The housing market is absolutely vaporized now. Soon construction will be too.

What I learned during the housing crisis is that people who benefit early from government intervention, are rarely the same people who benefit in the long run. And often people who had no involvement at all will pay. I mean, people basically looted the government. Partied like it's 1999. And we don't have a single thing to show for it.

There is going to be a lot of finger pointing in the coming months, but one thing is sure - no one said a single thing while it was happening. 

I'd also like to say that a direct neighbor of mine just paid 400k over asking (for a total fixer) and I can barely look at those people. I spent ore than 10 years trying to claw back my equity. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Mellisa Healy should lose her job for being a bad reporter.

I do it this way because "Staff Reporters" should never be writing about issues with such huge repercussions. Especially when 95% of what they write is entirely WRONG and completely made up! So... let's go. 

"For almost two years, COVID-19 vaccine holdouts have been the objects of earnest pleading and financial inducements, of social-media shaming and truth campaigns. They’ve missed weddings, birthday celebrations and recitals, and even forfeited high-stakes athletic competitions. Until last month, they were barred from entering the United States and more than 100 other countries.

Now the unvaccinated are suddenly back in the mix. They’re dining in restaurants, rocking out at music festivals and filling the stands at sporting venues. They mingle freely in places where they used to be shunned for fear they’d seed superspreader events."

Straight out of the gate she writes a meme. Not a reality. I hear that they are going to study me one day because it's been three years and I haven't caught SARS2 yet.  And I have a phone full of photos of negative tests. It's a marvel they say. And then they make all sorts of stupid assumptions. The only thing I've done? I wear a mask and I carry around alcohol swabs. A GOOD quality mask. 

During the "lock-down period" I was out about every three days trying to save my favorite restaurants. I have receipts. I was eating inside within a month of open dining depending on the density of the crowd. I went out of State each year. My Aunt died. We went to see friends in Oregon one of whom was an ER doc. I have lived a very normal life, and people who keep repeating the lie that people who take precautions are scared freaks who never left the house is propaganda. I was out... so I know there were TONS of people out as well. I make two posts where I say "you feel like a sucker staying at the house because SO MANY PEOPLE ARE OUT". 

The worst part is, is that many people who normally wore masks got peer pressured into events with people who refused to take their health choices into account. Even though they were vaxxed, they can still spread it -  and gave no fucks about accommodating those who were trying not to get it. Everyone must get it don't ya know!? It's been pretty interesting to find out how casually people treat others health.

I will give you just one example. I have this girl still in my circle. She's a veteran and doesn't want to mask. Her choice. But I went to lunch with her on a Tuesday. By Friday she was calling me to say that she didn't feel well. In my head I'm like dammit - this is one of the few people right now I'm still hugging like family. A Crack your back deep hug.  She'd  apparently had gone for a PCR test that day.

By Saturday she was calling me to walk her through a RAT test. Which came up positive. This is where she started crying and was afraid to lose her job. I didn't want her to feel sad so I was hoping her PCR came up negative. So  I asked her if she'd gotten the results yet and she said the PCR was POSitive. Which really surprised me because - why is she calling me? PCR's are the gold standard. But I guess she was in denial. But that girl was SARS positive. 

Because I wore a mask, except in the restaurant when we were eating I didn't get it.  As soon as she told me I popped a test and was negative. I also took one two days later. Masking is about reducing your viral load. 

"State and local leaders sought not only to suppress spread of the virus, but also to prevent their healthcare systems from being overwhelmed, degrading care for all. The unvaccinated made those goals harder to achieve since they were more likely to become infected and, when they did, to require hospitalization." 

This is another complete lie. The government steadfastly refused to count reinfections. So we will never know what the true numbers for the vaccinated being hospitalized. Additionally people like this reporter got ME dragged for telling people they could get reinfected over and over.

"U.S. officials had long hoped to vaccinate the American public into a state of “herd immunity,” in which so few people would be vulnerable to the virus that the outbreak would simply sputter out. That objective assumed a uniformly high uptake of vaccine across the nation. It also assumed a vaccine that protected against reinfection, and did so durably."

Another lie. The virus mutates too quickly and the government is too incompetent and slow. There will never be herd immunity with uncontrolled spread. NEVER.

"An unknown number of Americans have “hybrid immunity” from both an infection and vaccine. Researchers believe that catching the coronavirus after vaccination (though not so much the other way around) may provide enhanced protection against severe illness and death. But whether that is the case — and how much — can vary based on how long ago an infection took place and the particular variant that caused it. In other words, Americans range in vulnerability from the unvaccinated and never infected to the vaccinated, previously infected and fully boosted, with infinite gradations of protection in between. In conditions like these, the role the unvaccinated could play in seeding outbreaks will vary."

This is the most infuriating part. It is insanely well documented that new variants were created in immunocompromised patients. AIDSs patients for instance. You literally have to be so intellectually dishonest to make the claims she has. You can go directly to Google and find out for yourself! Hybrid immunity is also a LIE.

Read : UK Patient Had COVID-19 for 505 Days Straight, Study Shows. 

"The steady waning of immunity raises a discouraging prospect: that over time, people who are still called “fully vaccinated” will become indistinguishable from the unvaccinated unless they’ve received a booster. Until more Americans embrace booster shots, the “undervaccinated” will steadily swell the ranks of the vulnerable."

Reports are already coming in that the 5th shot does very little. Isreal showed us this at least a year ago. With each shot you get less immunity. Some say it's because of virus imprinting and something called ADE.

And I will say again that I am NOT anti-vax. However, the medical community and the government have destroyed the trust of those of us who were just vaccine resistant. I've had Bells Palsy before. Which is why I was vaccine resistant. But, over time I became super fearful because I have heart issues in my family. I've written about both of these things many time before COVID. I literally saw my grandfather drop dead from a heart attack at the kitchen table. 

Being forced into a vaccine with that backstory was a super crazy time. EVERY company in Silicon Valley was towing the Biden line and they exerted a LOT of pressure.

Lastly, it's super crazy how people have convinced each other these test don't work. Yet to meet with Biden you need to take a PCR test THAT DAY. People at the White House test several times a week.

Yet these tests aren't good enough for average plebes apparently. Insanity.

I don't think the Fed is coming to save us.

I have to admit - I never thought I'd see interest rates this high again in my lifetime. It would suuuuuck to be selling a house right now. All these houses are going to go no bid. There is nothing the Fed can do/ wants to do, about inflation. Raising rates is the only tool they have. They don't want to drill more lowering energy prices. And China is a few shades of crazy right now. I don't know if you've been keeping up with this Foxconn thing. Ya know... the people who make iPhone parts. Manufacturing companies like Foxconn, have been operating in a closed loop system. Meaning - employees live and work at the site in a closed loop "bubble". Presumably the disease can't get in that way. But there have been rumors that it got in anyway, and people started dying. It's alleged bodies were found in dumpsters. The whole thing is a mess. This is the reason for inflation. Pretending like the virus is gone will not save the economy. What is going on right now is not sustainable. The whole supply chain is going to collapse. I will link up a soon as I get a chance. Or you could go to twitter, Google, or wherever and "do your own research".

M&M pumpkins.

 

This years concept brought to you by..... these shoe inserts I keep getting when I buy shoes.

 

Last night, when they were getting their face done.

Mini Crawl 2022.

Why is everyone okay with these government failures?

I think the thing that makes me the maddest about the past three years is - all this infighting and complete denial have made it so there are ZERO new advancements on SARS.

For instance - it's a marvel there is even an at home test for SARS2. But why are they still 10 bucks a box? And why are they not made in multi packs? The most I can find is 5 tests in a box. You literally should be able to find these anywhere at any time of the year. Including holidays.

We should have been putting money towards a PCR level at home test.

At the VERY least, all testing should be free. This is what a serious nation would do. I mean, I just spent 70 bucks on 10 tests. It's outrageous. Everyone regardless of socioeconomic status, should be able to find out their infection status. And ideally not have to wait 24+ hours for the results.

COVID is a vascular disease.

I finally found a video that explains what SARS2 really does to your body. This is well accepted fact at this point. 

As you can see - I have been saying this for a very long time but have not been able to articulate it well. It's not exactly like "the experts" have been a lot of help. I had to piece this all together through reading some very smart people who were dragged and told they were fear mongers too. 

I have said for a very long time that the reality is even worse than what any of us could get across at the time because the MOB was saying we were wrong, and creating fear. We were only trying to tell you what the government  wouldn't. Now a lot of people are going to be fucked because SARS is a very dangerous disease. And herd immunity was always a lie.

I don't want to see any comments about this being because of the vax. SARS2 does this because of the spike protein, which is also in the vax. Something I've also been saying for  two years. But people are affected to a lesser degree. I am not vaccinated, but am NOT anti vax. My position has always been that for the level of protection you get, and the side affects, the vax is not worth it.

If at this point you don't get these simple facts, good luck. A new wave is upon us. I mean, it's completely crazy. when people dropped dead in China is was FAKE, yet we have people dropping dead every day now and everyone just says - oh... people always dropped dead like that before. And as someone who watched their grandfather drop dead from a heart attack at age seven, I can assure you that it does happen - however the mental gymnastics you need to be doing to avoid the prevalence right now is really something.

Pigs get slaughtered.

 

I'm not sure who is holding these mortgages, but they are going to get wiped out. The MLS is just fire right now. I'm only showing you three cases, but there are tons.

These are obvious flip houses because they were bought and put back on the market within months. Except for the last one. It was sold in 2019. So... ITS REAL VALUE.

 

Trying to make 30% in two months? Ballsey.

 

This one also thought they were going to squeak out 40% or so in two months. Now.... they gonna lose this house probably. They better shove a renter into it, More likely they walk away.

I like this one a lot. 50%ish in two years. Genuinely.... the Great housing Crisis would blush with envy.  Especially because the market was slowing in 2019. Which is probably why Trump went so aggressively to backstop housing. In 2019, this sold for under asking.

Just earlier this year all the financial journos were saying that this time was different because everyone had equity. And there a housing shortage! If you saw the MLS right now. You would laugh and laugh and laugh.

 

They let me drive it!

Spotted inland.

 

This is the first Rivian SUV I've seen. They must be shipping them though because they are on the Rivian site.

Honestly, I wouldn't have even chased this thing if it didn't have that wrap. They are like neon signs saying - this vehicle is unusual. 

My shots suck because it was a very low light area.

Meta fail.

 

I was up in "The City" last week. And I only saw ONE case of public nudity. So.. I think technically SF is getting a little better. Anyway.

Meta was telling people they were going to have a hologram display. Holograms are my jam.  

They set up a glass box with a remote speaker. Why? I'm not sure. The "hologram" was just three of those 3D hologram fans. You can clearly see where the camera can see the object is spinning. AND THOSE AREN'T EVEN NEW! I've been seeing them for almost a decade.

Lamest hologram ever. For a fan they are amazing. But.... this is 2022.

The death of autonomous cars is greatly over-exaggerated.

They are loading them with even more gear than before.

Everyone gets it but the American public.

Long Covid Disables Millions Worldwide, Even as Rates Ease, Study Shows. 

"The study, published Monday in the journal JAMA, helps explain why as many as 4 million Americans have dropped out of the workforce in the wake of the pandemic and why long Covid may cost $3.7 trillion in the US alone. More than 94 million cases and 1 million Covid deaths have been reported in the US, where the coronavirus infected almost 42,000 people a day on average in September. " 

The article goes on to say....

"The research is based on data from 1.2 million Covid patients in 22 countries gathered from 54 studies and two medical record databases, including from the US Veterans Affairs health system. More than 200 ailments have been linked to long Covid, but the study in JAMA collated information on three common clusters of symptoms. "

"It found that three months after a coronavirus infection, 3.7% of patients had ongoing respiratory problems, 3.2% had persistent fatigue with bodily pain or mood swings and 2.2% had cognitive problems, after adjusting for their health status before Covid."

“The pandemic will raise the baseline risk of disease and disability to a new level,” said co-author Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

Even further down the article.

Long haul symptoms aren’t the only health threat to Covid survivors. Diabetes and life-threatening conditions including heart attacks, stroke and kidney damage are more common in Covid patients than those who avoided the pandemic disease. 

The Fed is raising rates for things they can not fix. Most of this inflation is from labor shortages and energy. But, raising rates is the only tool the FED has - so.. that's what they will do.

People think the Great Resignation is because people don't want to work. It's REALLY because the public treated workers like garbage and expendable. People ground them to the nubs. Why would they ever work in a public forward facing job again? In short - Why would they put their lives on the line for you?

No. Herd immunity in any form - was always a lie.

Pfizer Exec Admits Under Oath: 'We Never Tested COVID Vaccine Against Transmission'.

Huh. I was called a fear monger for even suggesting you could get SARS2 over and over. I was a cult member. A covidian and all sorts of other shit. And YES - I'M STILL MAD. The way people treated businesses for just trying to protect their workers! I can't even.

The funny thing is that everyone was calling this an Orwellian dystopia. Yet they kept insisting that 2+2='s 5. Not only that - they let out their rage on people like me instead of the incompetent government. "There is nothing we can do. We're all just gonna have to die." They said.

Every single day, I wonder if the trajectory of the pandemic might have been different if the government had simply set up tents to show people how to wear masks properly and why it's important. To this day I see elderly people wearing chin diapers when there is no mask mandate in place. But.... I bet they tell everyone they mask all the time. Why even bother?

I genuinely don't understand how some people can look at themselves in the mirror. They screamed the government was wrong,  but followed in lockstep anyway. Even to the point of taking away peoples livelihood.

When I think of the incredible toll this has taken on our country, and our workforce - I feel like the coming pain is sort of deserved by most. Most everyone treated others as disposable. And I will never forget that. It sort of offsets my sadness about the whole thing. Maybe they deserve what they get. Sadly.

I mean, I never even talked about Long SARS, because you couldn't get people to understand the basics. This country is medically illiterate as fuck. Just wait till you see. This is going to be a plot twist no one saw coming. 

THREE YEARS have been wasted! And I'm here to tell you - we are in a worse spot. The hell people have chosen for themselves. I just don't get it.

I think we can get out of this with testing, but people can't be bothered. So this is the world they get. Their rules not mine. 

It's a long way down from here.

Homeowner Equity Reached Record Level in Early 2022.

Increasing home prices have pushed equity extraction and driven a remodeling boom.

"Since 2012, home prices have risen continuously, providing borrowers with large amounts of home equity. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the average borrower had $280,000 in home equity — this is a gain of $64,000 over the past year and $125,000 over the past five years.

High amounts of home equity can not only cushion borrowers from defaulting on their mortgages, but increased equity also provides homeowners with the opportunity to extract equity for debt consolidation and other expenses.

When mortgage rates hit record lows in 2021, many homeowners who wanted to extract equity from their properties opted to refinance their entire mortgage and take the cash out. As a result, cash-out refinance dollar amounts increased by 35% from 2020 to 2021.

Borrowers also increased their use of home equity loans starting in 2021. After decreasing from 2018 through 2020, in 2021, the dollar amount of approved lines of credit reached its highest level since 2007 when it increased by 23%1.     <--------

Mortgage rates began increasing in April of this year, and with that increase came a shift in equity extraction. Higher mortgage rates can make cash-out refinances less attractive and make lines of credit more attractive, especially if borrowers hold a mortgage with a very low interest rate. The use of cash-out refinancing increased by just 3% in Q1 2022 compared to a year earlier. However, the use of home equity lines of credit increased by 29%.

A low supply of available homes for sale put upward pressure on home prices and kept many homeowners in their current homes, which, in turn, fueled a remodeling boom. Remodeling expenditures rose to $391 billion in Q1 2022, the largest figure in over 25 years2.

While we forecast continued home price increases, those increases are predicted to slow to 5% by May 2023. This will similarly slow the rate of home equity gains.

Furthermore, the increases in mortgage rates to the highest levels in more than 13 years will make borrowing more expensive and could slow the rate of home equity extraction. However, the already-high amounts of home equity and low supply of homes on the market means that remodeling activity should remain strong through the next year.

For more information on CoreLogic’s perspective on the property market, please subscribe to our channel, like this video and visit our blog. See the link below."

Banks say the funniest things.

A couple of months ago I accidentally underpaid my mortgage by a penny. Yes. A PENNY. Obvi I had to call the bank to figure out why they were warning me I was going to be late. 

After I had them do a bank draw of one cent, they said.....we have a lot of options for you to help you make your mortgage payments easier. I told them I didn't need any money from my house. Obviously a one cent underpayment is an accident. But they sent me over to "where-ever". 

This is where the bank told me that - you know... home prices have gone up a LOT in the past few months. Wouldn't you like to do a cash out refi before that goes away? It was at that moment that I realized that every notice they have sent me in months has been about tapping my equity. 

If you think negative equity is just for people who bought in the last year.... I'm gonna say you are wrong.

Negative equity is back.

This weekend, I was driving down my street and noticed that one of the two houses that turned over this year, was back on the market. Self I said - that was a flip. And they have had it a while. I couldn't wait till it hit the MLS so I could see what they'd done to it an how much they were selling it for.

Both houses were time capsule houses. Which is my term for a house that is original to the year it was built. This means it basically needs a gut. It literally needs everything because it's never been updated in any way. 

The flip house is about 10 houses down. The other one is right across the street from me. They paid 400k OVER asking. I can't even believe it honestly. But it's true. Both of these houses sold within a month of each other so they are a good gauge of the market. The flip house is about 500 square feet bigger. Both are one stories.

If the flip house sells for that they are asking, my neighbor across the street will be 100 grand in negative equity. That's not even accounting for all the money they have put in to bring it back to life. And that flip house is not going to get asking. Not in this market.

I've gutted a house before, and have an idea how much that costs. That flipper might get out flat if he gets asking. Otherwise...... not so much. 

I haven't really talked about the housing market in a while because I don't really understand why no one cared that houses went up 20-40% in TWO years....... and literally no one cared. Especially in markets like Vegas that depend so much on tourism. No one was sounding the alarm. On the contrary, everyone was saying how this time was different than the Great Finical Crisis. Is it NOT.

It doesn't matter who your Presidential candidate is - printing the kind of money they did during the pandemic was wrong. Trump built this enormous fire and everyone co-signed apparently. Biden only poured a small amount of gas on it. Trump made it so the banks could not foreclose or evict people. Distorting the market and causing people to pay insane prices just to get into a house. People went out with their pandemic loans (helicopter money) and bought houses and cars and boats and literally everything!

Hell, if my neighbor across the street had waited SIX months, they could have gotten a house that was 500 square feet bigger. Which is completely updated now, for 100 grand less!

Now innocent people are going to pay.

Who wore it better?

 

House  number 1? 

I was like - oh, I've never seen that one before. The cat was also a nice touch. Super friendly and wanted love. 

 

Or house number 2? Which is litterally 6 houses down. Be honest. Would that make you crazy? House number 1 was unique for like a second.

Topical

The US was committing suicide....

And  everyone was patting themselves on the back. They all wanted to burn it down. Now you get your wish.

There were zero fiscal conservatives during the pandemic.  I was the only one saying Trump was printing an obscene amount of money. Which probably labeled me as anti Trump. Everyone else was like -no... this is our new normal. 

I was yelling into the wind - it's not normal for housing prices to go up 20-40% in a pandemic. This was not caused by anything other than money printing. Nothing new was created during the pandemic, an obvi there were no production increases. People went out with that free PPP money and bought cars and houses and fixed up their places.

I want to say this is well played by Trump. Biden will get all the blame, and I'm fine with that. But people have been living a complete illusion for three years. Now....... everyone will pay.

And China can't save us this time. I still think they might collapse. Europe is having a few problems of their own. And the US is completely clueless again. They are in "back to normal vibes" and they don't even realize there is nothing but air under their feet.