The Journalo Thread

[Smitty-48]

Hup, Treason, Marxism and Pussies in da house.

Not one step back, lads, stand and deliver, front rank kneel, company, load... make... ready!

Pipe-Major! Sound the regimental march!



MAGA, troops, time it is once again, for the Blue and the Gray to come together, to fight the Reds.

Morning in America, eh? Wot? Indeed.

Hardships do not deter, lads, no fears on earth.

[Ex-California]

I mean that we are, in fact, witnessing the end of the Republic. But blaming it on Russia is similar to blaming the Fall of Rome on the Gauls. Sure, they pushed over the last little pile of ashes, but the whole thing was finished long before that.

Our society is completely imploded at this point - given over totally to corporate/special interests. People are being poisoned via tap water in massive numbers, earthquakes abound throughout the shale fields, mcDonalds continues to push their filth into kids, air pollution is treated as a Free Market issue, and on and on. Everything is for profit, no one is responsible, nothing else matters.

Make no mistake, this society is ending, and it's only going to get worse. Russia? Some pissant dictator on the other side of the planet. Give me a fucking break.

Wow. That's some hyperbole right thur, boy.

I don't see anything hyperbolic about it... all of these things are documented facts, accepted as 'normal' by the vast majority of Americans...

I'm not seeing the hyperbole either.

We've completely let our wealth distribution go to asinine levels. Look at real estate My family is in the top 5% nationwide and top 7% in our region for yearly income and we can barely afford a starter home around here. It will either be a small townhouse or in need of massive amounts of work. AND that's almost 40 miles from the LA city center. 30+ miles in LA traffic. What's happening to people at the median income?

[MilSpecs]

Wow. That's some hyperbole right thur, boy.

I don't see anything hyperbolic about it... all of these things are documented facts, accepted as 'normal' by the vast majority of Americans...

I'm not seeing the hyperbole either.

We've completely let our wealth distribution go to asinine levels. Look at real estate My family is in the top 5% nationwide and top 7% in our region for yearly income and we can barely afford a starter home around here. It will either be a small townhouse or in need of massive amounts of work. AND that's almost 40 miles from the LA city center. 30+ miles in LA traffic. What's happening to people at the median income?

Same here. This is real. You're right that the line is shifting, too. If you really want to see the shift, just look at real estate prices and see the 'empty middle' - there's a gap where it's difficult to find houses. Those people (comfortable but not rich) are disappearing. I ask myself the same thing: what's happening to people at the median income?

[Ex-California]

I've loosened some of my authoritarian planned-market tendencies just because of the middle-income housing program they have here in Orange County.

Without getting too into specifics basically there are neighborhoods where you're limited to $105,000 of income for a family of four (smaller family, less income and vice versa). However, these homes are priced in a way that no one who makes that kind of money a year could afford it on an FHA, and where is someone with that level of income going to save up enough for a conventional down payment that is like $75k @ 20%?

On its face, the program has good intentions, but in practice, especially with prices right now, I'm simply not seeing how brand-new buyers (who these houses were intended for) are able to afford them

[Montegriffo]

I don't see anything hyperbolic about it... all of these things are documented facts, accepted as 'normal' by the vast majority of Americans...

I'm not seeing the hyperbole either.

We've completely let our wealth distribution go to asinine levels. Look at real estate My family is in the top 5% nationwide and top 7% in our region for yearly income and we can barely afford a starter home around here. It will either be a small townhouse or in need of massive amounts of work. AND that's almost 40 miles from the LA city center. 30+ miles in LA traffic. What's happening to people at the median income?

Same here. This is real. You're right that the line is shifting, too. If you really want to see the shift, just look at real estate prices and see the 'empty middle' - there's a gap where it's difficult to find houses. Those people (comfortable but not rich) are disappearing. I ask myself the same thing: what's happening to people at the median income?

Over here we have the crazy situation that in many places it costs more to rent but because the banks fucked up so spectacularly people can't get a mortgage. So you are in the position where you can pay the high rents without defaulting but you can't get a loan, even though it is cheaper per month, because of banks getting it wrong before the crash.

[Ex-California]

That was the case here, but they relaxed lending standards again because of PMI

Basically, you get the privilege of paying them extra "private mortgage insurance" because they gambled on bad loans last time and lost money. This is while our income taxes are paying for them

[MilSpecs]

Without getting too into specifics basically there are neighborhoods where you're limited to $105,000 of income for a family of four (smaller family, less income and vice versa). However, these homes are priced in a way that no one who makes that kind of money a year could afford it on an FHA, and where is someone with that level of income going to save up enough for a conventional down payment that is like $75k @ 20%?

I've asked my sister (a broker) how people afford to buy houses more expensive than ours with less income. She says you'd be amazed how many people get the down payments from their parents. So, basically we're subsidizing people who have boomer parents (more likely to have a pot of money to give to their children). We sold our house this past summer and that's how the buyer did it. We were able to buy another house using the equity from the house we sold, but if we'd been starting out it would not have been possible.

[Ex-California]

We're going to get a little bit of money from both sets of parents but it is nothing compared to the amount a lot of people I know have gotten.

I mean the amount we're getting won't even cover closing costs

It just shows how out of control the market is that boomers who had 50k/year jobs have multiple 100s of thousands of dollars in equity

[Smitty-48]

What y'all moaning about now?

Generatonal transfer ain't nothing to moan about, ya got no inherentence tax, thanks to George W. Bush, God bless him.

[MilSpecs]

We're going to get a little bit of money from both sets of parents but it is nothing compared to the amount a lot of people I know have gotten.

I mean the amount we're getting won't even cover closing costs

It just shows how out of control the market is that boomers who had 50k/year jobs have multiple 100s of thousands of dollars in equity

My inlaws (greatest generation) are in that position. They bought a middle-class home in Long Island after the war and stayed there. They made many improvements and additions, but even factoring that in they have that kind of equity. They couldn't remodel their kitchen for what they paid for the house.

The parts of NJ close to NYC and on transit lines are even crazier in how much they've appreciated. I know people whose houses are worth close to a million because they improved a starter home in several of those towns. The craziest thing of all is the teardown, where someone buys a house in an expensive town for around $600K, tears the house down and builds a million + house. The next town over has subsidized housing as well, but the middle class can't pay the property taxes on houses they've owned forever.