Category Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

Jun 24 2023

Sign of the Times


Armstrong Economics Blog/ECM Re-Posted Jun 22, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The picture of our times is without question quite depressing certainly on a moral foundation if not on the material side as well. Our government has been seized by the Neocons who care nothing about the welfare of the state, only to bring death and destruction to their personal hated enemies. Every line that we read brings to mind the sad state of our future and the fact that the nation has fallen cascading into evil times.

First and foremost remains the outright moral deterioration domestically by companies rushing to jump on the WOKE bandwagon polarizing the nation and making discrimination against the gay community far worse than at any point in history. Perhaps the worst of all was Disney – a company that was supposed to care about children has turned into an evil empire that seeks to undermine the relationship that binds a family together.

I grew up with a boy who ended up being gay. We all played together. He did not know he was gay until puberty hit. Disney taking a stand to teach young children even about transgender is bordering on child abuse as a pedophile would talk about sex with a child. Disney’s new Pixar Movie ‘Elemental’ opened with the worse Box Office day in history – $29.6M. Public companies making political decisions violates their fiduciary duty and is polarizing the nation.

People are dumping stocks of those who have been endorsing this WOKE agenda and Disney is perhaps the worst of all for they are advocating indoctrinating children. Disney peaked back in February at around 113 and has fallen to about $87 – a 23% decline thanks to WOKE. Even the Washington Post is losing money and is starting to lay off people – probably anyone who has any independent thought is the first to go. It may be very dangerous to have WOKE stocks in your portfolio.

Add to this domestic upheaval dividing the country deeply, and we have the most corrupt and wretched Ukrainian War, which was begun in the pure spirit of Neocon hatred, greed, and ambition. This Ukrainian war began with foreign mercenaries volunteering only to return remarking how corrupt Ukraine really is to the point that American weapons are vanishing and being sold on the black market.  The lies of Zelensky have persisted shrouded in raw hatred and he refuses to negotiate peace rendering any reasonable solution hopeless. The greed of companies like Blackrock cheering on the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the more destruction the more profit they see in their eyes.

Year after year men and money had been lavished on the war to no effect and when the final catastrophe becomes apparent, World War III, Zelensky and his Ukrainians will be cheering but fail to understand that they will never again have their own country. You do not agree to be a proxy war for the United States and survive. The Neocons will bleed Ukraine dry economically and reduce its population. Zelensky has come out with the standard NEOCON propaganda that if Ukraine loses, Russia will then go take all of Eastern Europe. Russia has only taken the Donbas and could have utterly destroyed Ukraine just as the US did to Iraq. They did not destroy the power grid, the water supply, or the communications which has allowed Zelensky to plead to the world as if he is Joan of Arc in drag with his stiletto high heels. Russia has never had any interest in invading Eastern Europe or Western Europe and they have had more than 30 years to do so.

This is just standard Neocon propaganda and Zelensky spouts out the same nonsense. On top of that, Zelensky is telling Israel that they can stop the Iranian drones by starting an open war against Iran. So what if a few million people die? Zelensky is a psychopath when it comes to other people’s deaths. This Ukrainian government cares nothing for peace. They live and breathe nothing but hatred.

“If any candidate thinks supporting Ukraine is too costly, are they ready to go to war? Are they ready to fight? Send their children? Die?” Zelenskyy said. “They will have to do it anyway if NATO enters this war, and if Ukraine fails and Russia occupies us, they will move on to the Baltics or Poland or some other NATO country. And then the U.S. will have to choose between keeping NATO or entering the war.”

This Ukrainian War has weakened and destroyed the global economy. You now have IRAN and CHINA both pushing their alternatives to SWIFT. Besides ending world peace and the global economy, it has escalated inflation on a grand scale. The NEOCONS care nothing about the living standard of the people nor the economy going forward. They care even less about American or European livelihoods. Zelensky’s administration is purely evil people no different from the Nazis put on trial at Nuremberg.

The NEOCONS are manipulating society to achieve their personal goals no different than the Nazis. Goring’s remark at the Nuremberg Trial should be a warning to all of us for this is the same strategy being used by the NEOCONS to whip us up into World War III.

At home, the bulwarks of social order seemed to crumble away. Private wars, riots, open highway robbery, murder, abduction, and armed resistance to the law, prevailed on a scale that had been unknown since World War II around the world. The satellite evidence has suggested that the Trudeau government in Canada and his WEF climate change zealots have endorsed/created a false flag by setting Quebec on fire all to blame climate change to further get people to surrender their future to the WEF’s indoctrinated fools.

Everywhere we turn, people are creating insurmountable obstacles to world peace and the advancement of society both economically as well as geopolitically. We are headed to the destruction of the world economy as we know it. What we are headed into is an opportunity to remake the world into our vision of freedom – not Schwab’s vision of totalitarianism of Marxism. But in the process, all Western sovereign debt will default and from the ashes, China will replace the USA as the next financial capital of the world. BLACKROCK – kiss your ass goodbye and take your idol Schwab with you!

May 19 2023

April Home Prices Reflect Largest Year-Over-Year Drop in Decade, April Prices Drop 1.7%, Decline 23.2% from Prior Year


Posted originally on the CTH on May 18, 2023 | Sundance 

Homeowner equity is being erased. As higher interest rates continue to put pressure on borrowers, the ability of the average person to afford a mortgage diminishes.  Higher mortgage rates lead to downward pressure on residential home values as fewer borrowers can afford higher payments.  Simultaneously, commercial real estate is dropping in value as vacancies continue increasing.

Put both of these issues together and already tenuous banks holding mortgage bonds as assets can become more unstable.

This dynamic creates the continual tremors in the background of an economy already suffering from high inflation and low consumer purchasing of durable goods.

A perfect storm starts to realize.

(Wall Street Journal) – Sales of previously owned homes fell in April from the prior month and prices declined from a year earlier by the most in more than 11 years.

U.S. existing home sales, which make up most of the housing market, fell 3.4% in April from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. April sales fell 23.2% from a year earlier.

The national median existing-home price fell 1.7% in April from a year earlier to $388,800, the biggest year-over-year price decline since January 2012, NAR said. Median prices, which aren’t seasonally adjusted, were down 6% from a record $413,800 in June. Home prices have fallen the most in the western half of the U.S., while prices continue to rise from a year earlier in many eastern markets. (read more) 

Before looking at today’s graph showing median existing home values, remember me saying this in 2021?:

“I said in June, at a macro level home prices had reached their peak (last two weeks of May, first two weeks of June was apex).  Obviously, there are some geographic home value increases still happening as COVID related regional issues and work opportunities are shifting populations.  There is also a lag and ripple effect that takes time to work through the economy.  The macro-apex will not be visible until next year.”

When I said that in 2021, people said I was wrong.   Well, with hindsight now visible within the data as it is reflected, look at the result:

May and June 2021 was the peak of year-over-year percent of change in median home value increases.

So, what was going on?

As CTH outlined in 2022:  If you look closely at the timing (keep in mind the data reporting lag) what you will notice is that financial institutions began a big surge in purchasing hard assets, specifically real estate, as soon as Joe Biden took office (Jan ’21), and the economic policy became evident.   Intangible financial instruments became an immediate risk as the professional financial control groups recognized energy policy would drive inflation (supply side) and devalued money would fuel it (demand side).

As an offset to predictable inflationary policy (the insiders’ game), institutional money (Blackrock, Vanguard, etc) was moved into hard assets with tangible value.

This shift in asset allocation, institutional sales, helped fuel a false surge in home prices and their valuations.  CTH was writing about this in 2021, and sounding alarms as it took place.  25% of all real estate purchases were being made by institutional investors.

We The People got screwed. 

The dynamic was predictable.  The Biden administration economic policy, energy policy and monetary policy, was going to cause massive inflation.  CTH was shouting about it in early 2021 and warning everyone to prepare for waves of price increases that would naturally surface first on high-turn consumable goods, and then embed into longer-term durable goods.

Despite claims to the contrary, this 2021 inflationary explosion had nothing to do with the pandemic or supply chain shortages.  It was entirely self-created by western governmental policy – the collective ‘Build Back Better’ agenda.  You can see now from the background moves within the financial sectors, they too knew the reality and their money shifts reflected that despite their ‘transitory’ pretending they were mitigating their own exposure.

We the People were yet again going to be victims of specifically intended monetary, regulatory, energy and economic policy.

The investment class rulers of the WEF assembly shifted assets to avoid the pain that we would feel.   We “would own nothing and be happy,” and their shifts would position them to own everything and be in control.

Overall govt spending and regulatory controls drove inflation for these past two years.  The ‘demand side’ was blamed, despite the lack of demand. I will be proven right when history is concluded with this.  Interest rates were raised by central banks in an effort to support the policies that are driving ‘supply side’ inflation – not demand side.

Energy policy was/is crushing the consumer by driving up the cost of all goods and services.  To support the overall goal of changing global energy resource and development (a false and controlled global operation), central banks raised interest rates.  Various western economies, including our own, have been pushed deeper into a state of contraction by central banks crushing consumer demand, and eliminating investment via increased borrowing costs.

In short, the goal was/is to lower energy consumption by shrinking the economic activity.  This, according to the BBB plan, was needed at the same time as energy development was reduced.  These economic outcomes are not organic, they are all being controlled by collective western government agreement.

Within this control dynamic, there was always going to be a point where the reaction of the people to their economic reality means the financial control elements need to shift direction.  They will always maximize profit and minimized risk, while knowing what the larger objective remains.

Just like every other durable good, housing demand contracts as prices and costs become unaffordable.  The loss of equity within your home is damaging to your own value or ability to borrow against it.

From the perspective of an institutional asset, that same equity drop is an investment loss.  However, the investment loss is not materialized until the sale of the lower valued asset is completed.  Retaining declining real estate on investment books creates an artificially high appearance of the investment result; unless and until the real estate is sold at a diminished value.

As mortgage rates rise, just as a consumer would pull back from the housing market, so too will institutional investment groups now control the slow dumping of the asset to remove the equity they pumped into it.  Much of the investment housing will be retained as rental housing, with the monthly rents being part of the returns on the investments.    However, as this dynamic unfolds, further investment purchases of houses stop, because the asset overall is declining in value.  This halt of investment activity also worsens a steeper drop in home values.

May 12 2023

15-Minute Cities – Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted May 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

https://youtube.com/watch?v=njo0FfXA5WQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Let’s take a closer look at Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) that have been proposed for 15-minute cities. These small units are typically under 1,000 sq ft and were once considered secondary structures on an existing residential lot. Think of what we once considered “in-law suites” or guest houses. There are numerous designs for ADUs, but 15-minute cities will seek to create connected units to house as many people as possible. The exact plans for ADUs within 15-minute cities are shrouded in mystery, but we can ascertain what they have planned based on other proposed policies.

“You will own nothing,” as these structures will be built upon government and/or privately owned land for the people to rent. The 15-minute city is marketed as a futuristic town where everyone will live within 15 minutes of essential services. Some may say that large cities already meet this criterion, but the difference is that people currently have the ability to own their properties. Excess will not be possible in ADUs due to size. The World Economic Forum is also proposing more “micro-housing units” or “plug-in houses” that will be no larger than 500 sq ft. Cars will be unnecessary in these sustainable cities, as reducing fossil fuels and sustainability is the top priority.

Senseable City Lab analyzed 40 million mobile devices to analyze how and where people travel. The study backed by MIT found that people tend to travel 7 miles for essentials, which is much further than what is being proposed for 15-minute cities. Hence, the ADUs proposed for the 15-minute cities will be connected, one on top of the other, for this to work logistically.

Regulations and zoning restrictions need to be altered or dismantled for these cities to work. Another issue is equity and eliminating our “unfair” capitalistic societies where some have more than others. The C40 Knowledge Hub explains this premise to “build back better” in detail throughout their writings.

“In a successful 15-minute city, everyone would have the opportunity to live in a 15-minute neighbourhood. It is vital that cities prioritise 15-minute city-style investments for lower-income neighbourhoods and those that are most underserved, informed by the baseline mapping of existing amenities in each neighbourhood. Just as critically, take steps to ensure that existing local populations in those neighbourhoods are not displaced through the process of gentrification, or feel excluded due to changes to local identity. Cities should also pursue opportunities to build affordable homes and diversify the mix of homes within neighbourhoods.”

Equality in this manner does not meet the dictionary definition, as equality is intended to “prioritize the most underserved neighbourhoods and disadvantaged groups.” Hence numerous policies are being brought forth that penalize the middle class with taxes, shrinking the group that was once the bulk of modernized societies.

Sustainability, equality, and going green are cited as the main reasons to “build back better” with these 15-minute cities. However, the real motive here is control and power. They are discussing controlling everything, including food production. They are making it increasingly harder for the average person to obtain housing, whether it be rentals or owning. These AUDs will be brought forth as perhaps the only solution for permanent housing. Yet, they are making it clear that those dwelling in these structures will have landlords who may become overlords as the people relinquish all their freedoms to exist.

May 12 2023

South Shore Chicago Residents Blast City Council During Public Hearing Over Housing Illegal Alien Migrants


Posted Originally on the CTH on May 11, 2023 | Sundance 

The national media hide these types of local stories because they destroy the preferred narrative.  However, the open border leftist policies are opposed by every cross-cultural faction of ordinary Americans, including the predominantly black community of South Shore Chicago.  Keep in mind the DNC convention for 2024 will be held in Chicago.

Watch the response from local residents as the City Council attempts to hold a meeting to inform the public of their decision to place 250 to 500 illegal aliens in housing at South Shore High School.  There are hundreds of illegal aliens currently camped out in police stations around the community and the residents of the area are sick of it.

This video shows the issue of illegal immigration cuts across all political boundaries.  The officials in charge are disconnected from the will of the people.  This conflict is going to escalate across the country as millions of illegal aliens are now pouring through the southern border soon to occupy the land space in all major metropolitan areas.  WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Etc28ut1qaI%3Fstart%3D49%26feature%3Doembed

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