Housing predator Blackstone says housing affordability is comparable to the 2007 housing bubble, but it isn't

Here:

Blackstone’s Joe Zidle calls homes almost as unaffordable as the 2007 peak. Yet, he believes a crash is unlikely due to a major difference: Most owners aren’t using their homes like an ATM.

That's a total smokescreen. Look! Over there! A deer!

Peak unaffordability was actually in 2014, when Blackstone was buying up all the inventory individual homebuyers couldn't afford.

Housing was actually more affordable during the 2007 housing bubble than it is today. The read then was 20.5 but in January 2022 it's more like 17.3, much worse. People who are paying these high prices are nuts. If it all blows up again you can bet firms like Blackstone will be waiting in the wings to acquire bargains you have to sell at a loss.

Meanwhile Blackstone today remains a huge buyer of commercial and multifamily rental real estate, especially student housing:

80 percent of the firm’s real estate holdings are in sectors with shorter-length leases that will allow Blackstone to benefit from rising rents . . ..

Median household income now buys about 17% of the median sales price of a house, a new low: Joe Biden is the Barack Obama of unaffordable housing, only worse

 Housing affordability has never been so bad.

The median sales price in 1Q2022 climbed to $428,700.

Median household income in January 2022 is estimated at $74,099, which buys 17.3% of the median house sold in the United States.

Official annual figures through 2020 are indicated in this chart.

 

 

People who don't care are already slaves

 There is a kind of sluggish resignation, as well as poorness and degeneracy of spirit, in a state of slavery.

-- Joseph Addison

LOL, obsessive truck tire slasher Juliette Kayyem thinks there's a whole CONVOY of colluders behind the Buffalo shooter

 But that lone wolf language fails us in an era when hate and radicalization now serve as a proxy for the collaborative herd, for the co-conspirators and colluders. Gendron wasn’t alone. His mission was effective because he was supported by an apparatus that provided the ideology and means for the hunt. Based on evidence from a manifesto that he reportedly posted Thursday night, Gendron did not perceive himself as being alone: He had his people; they were there for him.

More. 

State terror is OK, got it? She's a Harvard man, see, a former Obama official.

 

LOL, The New York Times is the Hotel California of newspapers

 You can sign up for it, but you can never leave.

Essentially, so far, it appears like The New York Times does not let its subscribers cancel their subscription even if they want to given that the producer’s request was “rejected by the system” on two separate occasions. 

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Kevin Williamson: Biden has done everything wrong on inflation, all at once

 For The New York Post, here:

And it is what you get when you combine the wrong monetary policy with the wrong fiscal policy, the wrong trade policy, the wrong regulatory policy, and the wrong energy policy.

Mitch McConnell flies to Ukraine hot on the heels of Nancy Pelosi, so when's Peter Meijer going?

 

For the money, LOL

 Why women file for divorce more than men...

Filing for divorce might be their only choice to secure assets . . .

LOL, back to back stories curated by Drudge say Xi Jinping did not, or did, appear at the Winter Olympic Games, take your pick

 

CLAIM: Xi suffering from deadly brain aneurysm... 

Troubles mount in China ahead of bid to stay in power... 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UK Sun:

Rumours about the state of Xi's health have been swirling for years, with fresh speculation sparked by his unexplained absence from the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

LA Times:

When Xi Jinping strode into the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium in the winter, waving and bundled in a black jacket and mask, hundreds of Chinese spectators and performers cheered in what was meant to be the start of a victorious year for their nation's president.

 

American real economic growth rates in the 21st century are a catastrophe, down 44% from their 20th century levels 1929-1999

GDPCA, compound annual growth rates

1929-1999: 3.534% (almost 79% better than 1999-2021)

1999-2021: 1.979% (-44.001% from 1929-1999) 

1977-1999: 3.263% (65% better than 1999-2021)

 

 

It's like someone flipped a switch and went away.

I turn on Clay and Buck out of the blue and get them normalizing gay by interviewing black Republican Rob Smith

It's become a feature of so-called conservatism now, no longer a bug.

COVID-19 in the US in April 2022

COVID-19 in the US in April 2022

Monthly deaths in April were the third lowest since the first wave of the pandemic.

Cases in April meanwhile ticked up slightly, though mass self-testing makes that an increasingly dodgy indicator. Many cases are escaping tabulation.

Deaths per day in 2022 through April (120 days) fell to about 1,400 vs. about 1,131/day in 2020 (306 days) and about 1,310/day in 2021:

Deaths per day in Jan 2022: 2,001

Deaths per day in Feb 2022: 2,247

Deaths per day in Mar 2022:   980

Deaths per day in Apr 2022:    426. 

Deaths per day in May 2022 have ticked up to about 497 through the 11th.

The goal is to get this down to 100 deaths per day, to make it more like the flu.

 

 

 

 

Is China canceling Xi Jinping over Zero Covid Policy?

Backlash against the government’s harsh approach is fueling widespread disgust of China‘s leadership, including Mr. Xi who has boasted of taking direct control of anti-pandemic measures. An estimated 330 million Chinese are currently in health-related lockdowns in some 45 cities since March, even as restrictions on gatherings and travel in other developed countries are being lifted. ...

The party media organ People’s Daily on May 8 also failed to run one of the usual glowing photos of Mr. Xi on its front page. Instead, only Mr. Li, the premier, and another party leader were mentioned.

Bill Gertz, here.

As of May 4 Paul Bedard puts Trump at 55-0 for Election 2022, no endorsements lost

 

According to an early tabulation of his betting on the 2022 primaries, his endorsed candidates have all won or moved into runoffs.

More.

Democrat Manchin-endorsed Republican Rep. McKinley loses to Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Mooney in West Virginia redistricting shootout

After redistricting, both members chose to compete in the 2nd District. Trump endorsed Mooney in the race, but the consolidated district, spanning the northern half of the state, includes more areas currently represented by McKinley. But Mooney’s Trump endorsement appeared to overcome McKinley's structural advantage in the district. 

More.

Senator Manchin, call your office.

Trump-endorsed Herbster loses in Nebraska

 

Tuesday's results were an indication of how much voters weighed the allegations against Herbster and turned to Pillen, who is backed by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

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The new White House press secretary is nothing but a Democrat hack who maintains Trump and Kemp both stole their elections

 

Phony Evan McMullin would have made appointments to overturn Roe v Wade if elected in 2016, now is against overturning it

 

All Items Consumer Price Index under Jerome Powell isn't capturing inflation like it did under Arthur F. Burns even though they both increased money supply at about the same rate

Currency in Circulation (CURRCIR) under Arthur F. Burns rose at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.64% from Feb 1970 to March 1978. The Consumer Price Index (CPIAUCSL) rose at a compound annual growth rate of 6.49%.

After four years of Jerome Powell, Feb 2018 to Feb 2022, Currency in Circulation rose at a similar 8.41% CAGR but the CPI only at 3.31% CAGR, almost 50% less than under Burns.

Milton Friedman famously said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”

Something is rotten in CPI Denmark.

LOL, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller scares CNBC into misspelling "bank"

 

More.