What's even dumber than credit card debt?

... Mark Ratchford, a business school professor at Tulane University who studies consumer behavior related to home equity, says that a lot of people are doing the calculation in their head, and they are noting that if the cost of borrowing is that high, they just won’t do it. Ratchford says he is among those now feeling the pain as a consumer.

“I need to remodel my kitchen, but when I look at the price and the interest rates, I can’t afford that. I’ll just wait, that is the whole housing market now,” Ratchford said. “People are skipping cosmetic improvements and only doing the work they need to do.”

The high cost of borrowing has squashed the fixer-upper market too.

“Five to 10 years ago, people would flip houses, they would buy properties, do the work and then sell it for a profit, but that is less of a thing now. People are not buying fixer-uppers. The cost of borrowing and doing upgrades has gotten so high they can’t do it,” Ratchford said.

Even when consumers do have home equity or HELOCs available, they aren’t pouring that money into new cabinets. “If you are using home equity, HELOCs, you are not using it for home improvements, you are using it to cover credit card debt,” Ratchford said. ...

More.

It used to take one breadwinner to buy a new house, then both spouses had to work, now you need 3.5 welders

LOL Kudlow and Ingraham: The trades are making close to $200k per year, why aren't Republicans in Congress taking credit?

 Because Republicans in Congress, contrary to popular opinion, aren't all stupid, you dopes.

Fox’s Laura Ingraham Alleges ‘Many Republicans Secretly Want Trump To Lose’ Congress

... “One of the most incredible statistics is the Trump administration, in one year, has grown personal incomes more than Biden in four,” Ingraham stated, alluding to Census Bureau data released this week.

“That is correct,” Kudlow replied.

“Why aren’t Republicans screaming this from the rooftops?!” Ingraham exclaimed.

Kudlow replied by saying people in trade professions such as “pipefitters, electricians, welders, carpenters [are] making close to $200,000 a year.” Ingraham responded by saying that now is the “best time ever for men without college degrees.” ...

First of all, Ingraham says personal income, which is not the median household income data released this week.

Real personal income grew by 7.4% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2024 compared with only 2.1% from 2024 to 2025.

She means real median household income, which grew by only 1.9% in the four years 2020-2024 but by 2.6% in the one 2024-2025.

But one can forgive the American people for not being overly excited about that 2.6% increase because it is still part of a picture since the 1980s showing structural long term weakness, while the 2025 increase of 2.6% pales in comparison to Trump I performance in 2019 at 7.2%.

He campaigned on a return to that and has not delivered it so far. 

 

Meanwhile Kudlow's claim about trade incomes approaching $200k is just crazy.

Top pay in the skilled trades is for the building trades, and their average national mean wage is nowhere near $100k let alone $200k. It's north of only $65k.

And the mean is lower for the other trades.

For installers, maintenance workers, mechanics, and repairers it's $58k. For welders, fabricators, and assemblers it's $47k.

The building trades represent only 4.1% of the workforce.  

Altogether the trades represent just under 14% of the workforce. 

The votes of these 21 million matter a lot, but even assuming Kudlow's fanciful incomes, Republicans aren't going to win with them alone.

Republicans don't have a problem communicating a message. 

They have a problem seeing reality.

Here's the reality.

The median sales price of an existing single family home in August 2026 was $434,800. 

Using the old formula of affordability which said you can afford a home which is 2.6 times your annual salary, you'd need a job paying $167,231 to afford that one.

Or 3.5 welding jobs.

Like Marco Rubio said, you need more welders. 

Housing affordability: The percentage of a new house purchased by the median household income is up for a third year in a row in 2025

 Median household income for 2025 was published yesterday at $87,460, which means it's time to see how much house it bought: 21%.

The average new house sold for $415,400 in 2025. 

Still not early 1990s affordable, but better for a third year in a row to 21.05%, just slightly under the 2019 level of 21.45% in the FRED chart.

 

 

The beatings will continue until morale improves

 30-year fixed mortgage rate tops 7% for the first time in over a year

There is plenty of housing available, but year over year sales in August are up only on homes priced more than $1 million

New houses are selling at an annualized rate of 607,000 in July 2026, with 488,000 available in July and supply at 9.6 months. 

Existing homes are selling at an annual rate of 3.98 million in August with 1.62 million available and supply at 4.9 months.

Highest supply in a decade for existing homes indicates sellers are asking too much.

You know what to do. 

 

 Home sales fall in August despite the highest supply in over a decade

... Sales of previously owned homes fell 2% in August from July to 3.98 million units on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors.

... Housing supply totaled 1.62 million homes for sale at the end of August, up 3.2% from July and up 5.9% from the year before. At the current sales pace, that represents a 4.9-month supply — the highest level in over a decade, according to NAR.

Despite more supply, prices continue to rise. The median price of a home sold in august was $429,100, up 1.6% from August 2025. That is a new record high for the month of August.

... Homes are sitting on the market longer, averaging 31 days in August compared with 29 days in July. ...

Golden Age NOT: Just 49.14% had a full time job in August 2026, the second lowest figure for an August in 11 years

Both Biden and Trump have had this figure above 50%, but even that has been pathetically weak.

 

Compared to the past, 50% should be the floor, not the ceiling.

 

I remain disgusted with the complacency of both political parties, as demonstrated by the complete absence of urgency about the one thing which is the very ticket to the middle class. 

 

August 2016: 49.59%

August 2017: 49.87%

August 2018: 50.36%

August 2019: 50.94%

August 2020: 47.44%

August 2021: 49.18%

August 2022: 50.58%

August 2023: 50.68%

August 2024: 49.98%

August 2025: 49.44%

August 2026: 49.14%

 

 

Bond yields and oil wars and inflation, oh my!

Global bond yields soar to multi-decade highs as Middle East turmoil reignites inflation fears

 

10-year yield hits highest since January 2025 as higher oil prices stoke inflation worries 

 

Vance suspects Antichrist 'among us'...  

 

... like I'd be not shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us ... 

 

Well . . . what a coincidence!

 

👇 

 

 

VGSIX vs. SPX since May 1996

Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund Investor Shares average annual since inception 5/13/1996 through July 2026 (single-family residential REITs are just 3.35% of the current holdings):

 

9.07% (last 10 years 4.61%, 5 years 2.28%, 3 years 9.15%, 1 year 15.04%)

 

S&P 500 average per annum nominal, dividends reinvested, same period:

 

10.30% 

Oh, so you don't think real estate is a bfd

 

I remember when Japan was going to replace us, then after that it was China . . .

 

Gen Z hypocrites who ridiculed suburban inauthenticity now sad they'll never be able to have it

What Do Young People Really Want? The Suburbs.

A steady job, a simple house, and a quiet life used to sound like hell to many young people. Now the old American dream is back. 

Politicians these days cannot stop talking about “affordability,” especially for housing. And Americans’ cries for relief have grown loud enough to push lawmakers from babbling into action. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law last month with overwhelming bipartisan support within Congress. It’s encouraging to see members of both parties coming together around something other than just spending more money—and doing so in a way that helps the young more than the old.

In fact, young people are supplying most of the pressure behind this political movement. A Pew Research poll last month found that 89 percent believe buying a home will be harder for them than it was for their parents’ generation.

And it isn’t just the homes themselves. Americans still believe the American dream is worth striving for, yet less than half believe that every American has the opportunity to achieve it. Many young people are trying to find their way toward a lifestyle their parents had that they took for granted and now feel they cannot reach as adults. That includes owning a home, having a good-paying job with benefits, and being able to afford some added comforts in addition to the necessities. In a word, suburbia.

It’s an extraordinary and ironic turn that bourgeois suburban life would become the deepest desire of many young Americans. I grew up in the suburbs in a time when you had to hate the suburbs. ...

If you want to get a feel for the zeitgeist back then, check out Green Day’s 2004 American Idiot album, especially the 9-minute-long epic “Jesus of Suburbia.” Everyone’s so full of shit / Born and raised by hypocrites. It’s a spirited rejection of George W. Bush, the Iraq War, hypocritical parents, and apparently, the suburbs. ... 

Shoulda saved your pennies instead of buying a house

25 years ago copper was 65-cents a pound, today it's $6.65. 

Adjusted for inflation it should be more like $1.22. Copper is up 923%.

By contrast the median sales price of houses sold in the United States is up only 140%.

He'll be taking credit for it sooner or later

 Bipartisan housing bill automatically becomes law after Trump refuses to sign it

30-year mortgages have averaged above 6.00% since August 2022

 It will be four consecutive years in September 2026.

 

 

The Trump clown show now says the housing bill is so unimportant, you know, the bill he urged Congress to pass in a White House proclamation on June 12th lol

 

I was confidently told House Speaker Mike Johnson would never go against Trump by sending him the housing bill lol

 Exclusive: Johnson says housing bill will become law, with or without Trump

... "He won't veto the bill. We already know that. He'll either allow it to just go into law, or he'll put his signature on it and take partial ownership, and I hope he does the latter." ... 

House Speaker Mike Johnson sends housing bill to Trump, starting 10-day clock

 

Well guess what, Speaker Mike Johnson apparently never presented the housing bill to the president, so the 10-day clock is not ticking for it to become law

 Trump halts bipartisan victory lap on housing 

... One potential wrinkle in that 10-day clock is that it doesn’t start until the enrolled bill has been officially “presented” to the president.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether that had happened yet as of Trump’s social media post at 10:26 a.m. But as the day went on it became apparent the bill still hadn’t been presented to the president, according to a top Democrat.

House Minority Whip Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass., laid the blame at Johnson’s feet.

“Mike Johnson could, right now, at any time, formally present this bill to the president and make the president choose: Will he veto it or will it become law in ten days?” Clark said at a news conference. “But Mike Johnson is not choosing that path. That is a betrayal of duty.”

Aides to Johnson didn’t respond to requests for comment. ...

 

President Applesauce Brains II forgot that he urged Congress 12 days ago to pass the bill which he refused to sign today lol