Nexgen Blog

Latest Housing and Employment numbers are in...

2011-05-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

So there is good news and bad news...

Jobless claims declined for the second straight week. Unemployment benefits for the week dropped 29,000 to 409,000. This beat the median estimates which were calling for the benefits to drop to 420,000. This further points to the fact that April's surge might have been more of a result of temporary events and not a sign of a deeper erosion in the job market.

Now for the not so good news. Although, if you read my blog you will not be surprised by this data.
Here is the latest data:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Sales of existing single-family homes and condos fell 0.8% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. The decline was a surprise. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected sales to rise to 5.25 million units in April, based on a surge in pending home sales in March. Sales rose a revised 3.5% in March to 5.09 million units, down from the initial estimate of a 3.7% rise to 5.1 million units. The median price of homes sold was down 5% in April from last year at $163,700. Inventories of existing homes for sale rose 9.9% to 3.87 million units in April, representing 9.2 months' supply, up from 8.3 months in March

Keep in mind that this is national data and not specific to our area.

I want to give you money....why won't you let me?

2011-05-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

We have just launched a new campaign to ring in the new buyer's market. Yes, you heard me right, it is officially a buyer's market. So what better way to celebrate than to give you money. Here is how it works.

Purchase Price                                                    Amount Credited by Nexgen

$300,000-$500,000                                                      $2,000

$501,000-$800,000                                                       $3,500

$801,000-$1,000,000                                                    $5,000

Over 1 Million                                                                 $7,500

Over 2 Million                                                                 $10,000

Don't look at me with that sideways eye, there is no catch. We are not inexperienced, we have over 20 years in the industry. We are not shady, we are a fully licensed California corporation with a ton of references that can attest to our superior customer service. We are not crazy.....okay you got me on that one. We just want to grow and we have been so fortunate dealing with our awesome buyers and sellers that we want to pay it forward!

The funny thing is, every time I try and give money back I am met with resistance and uninterest. I purposefully don't drive a fancy car, or have a huge office, or a $5,000 suit or a $10,000/mo marketing budget. Simple = Savings. The only thing is I want to give it to you. So why won't you take it?

When did we as consumers give up on saving money?

2011-05-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

I was the youngest of 5 children in a one income household. So when we went to the grocery store it was a treasure hunting expedition of sorts. After all, we were only looking to find products that matched the images on my mother's large stack of wrinkled coupons. It might have taken us a half hour longer, it might have dictated what we ate, and it might have only saved us $5-$10. But that was money in our pocket and that is what people did back then....maximized income through savings.

Flash forward to the present......we have now created a mentality where discount = junk or discount = scam. Granted, there are more scammers now then there was back then. A couple years ago I went to a place I saw in the penny saver to get my thermostat changed in my Honda. The price was low....I didn't think inappropriately, but better than the competition. I ended up getting the work done and the car overheated while driving the very next day! I bring it back and the guy tells me that the deal I bought didn't include some part which they recommend because this very thing could happen. So he wanted another $100 or so to finish the work. That to me was a lot like going to a restaurant and ordering a delicious steak, only to find out that you have to pay extra for the silverware. So I accept that there are more unscrupulous characters now than there was back then.

So there are more scammers....some would also say that we have trust issues because of the whole Bernie Madoff scandal. I don't mean to sound insensitive because what happened to a whole lot of people is appalling and unconscionable to me. That being said, that was not a discount or savings. Bernie Madoff dangled the carrot of unbelievable returns....and guess what....they were not only unbelievable but also impossible.

But does this mean that we should just stop shopping and go with the biggest, oldest company we can find? Is MySpace better than Facebook? Is Barnes and Noble better than Amazon or Itunes? Is Blockbuster better than Redbox? My point is, we need to question motives and realities of savings, but dismissing them altogether just prevents competition and innovation.

So when I tell you that you can buy a house with me and I will give you $4000 at closing. Ask me how is that possible or why would you do that. Don't dismiss it outright and run to the nearest corporate conglomerate.

Numbers don't lie....do they?

2011-05-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Last month seemed to me to be the slowest month in real estate since I started in 2003. Oddly enough, it wasn't for the lack of business. We had a few listings and a handful of buyers keeping us busy. However, it just seemed like we were working in a vacuum. Open Houses had very few visits, the inventory for my buyer's needs was lacking, and despite all the "all cash" offers that went through one of our properties they never pulled the trigger. I talked to a few other agents that expressed the same somber conclusion about the month of April. So I decided to look at some statistics and see if numbers backed up the ghost town feeling. Here are the sales statistics for Huntington Beach in 30 day increments.

Last 30 days..............157 sold

Prior 30 days.............143 sold

Prior 30 days.............107 sold

Prior 30 days.............102 sold

To put it in perspective the same dates in 2010 yielded 95, 99, 110, and 184 sales respectively. So although more houses have sold this year than last YTD, the april-May numbers are still concerning. Historically the first three months of the year are a horrible time to buy or sell. I often refer to it as our ill timed summer vacation. However, last year is more indicative of the surge in sales that ususally starts to take place as the ground dries up and people start leaving their houses again. Who am I kidding, in Huntington we just don't go outside because it is an uncomfortable 67 degrees and not in the 70-80 range where we don't feel lethargic. Anyway, this year we are about 15% off our abismal sales from last year! I will monitor this and post again in a month or so to see if this is just a slump or a sign of what is to come.

Inflation....it's like watching an old horror film

2011-02-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

We all know it is there lurking around the corner waiting for our young attractive vulnerable actors/actresses....aka country. We all know it is going to be a huge problem in the future. (hence the obscene gains in gold and gold producers over the last year +.) However, we live in a see no evil hear no evil time similar to our scantily clad soon to be victims in the metaphor above.

After all, don't we hear enough doom and gloom with the earnings projections, Greece and Spain's debt woes, and let us not leave out the latest rendering of the classic tune "protest like an Egyptian". With all this going on it is nice to hear manufacturing is improving, production seems to be picking up some steam, and the unemployment rate is falling.(disclaimer: If I remember correctly we added 36K private sector jobs last month, the fact that the unemployment percentage in this country dropped from the 9.4% to 9% between Dec. and Jan. simply tells me that people stopped looking and gave up. How do you add 36K net jobs in the private sector and have that significant of a drop in the unemployment rate without doubling our military personnel or some sort of U.S. genocide that took potential workers off the table.)

I digress from my point....today China raised its rate .25% for the 3rd time since October to combat inflation. As a result, our treasury auction was a disaster as the faux pas "i" word worked its way through the market and investors began anticipating the same thing eventually happening in the US. Now we haven't had nearly the growth that China has seen over the last few years so this isn't an apples to apples comparison. However, it should be noted that our rates rising does numerous things. First, as I said in my last blog, it prices people out of the fragile housing market if it is not a gradual increase. Second, Adjustable rate mortgages that people are treading water with because their house is underwater will now be on the rise. Also, all that debt that the treasury is selling off on a weekly basis to fund QE2....well I think it goes without saying that the higher the yield the more interest the US is going to have to pay back to borrow that money. (I guess it didn't go without saying). Finally, remember all that money that the banks are lending because they are getting it so cheap.....(insert sarcastic grin).....imagine what how brutal lending is going to be when the lending window isn't just throwing money to the banks.

So now that you are panicking wondering what do I do? Here is some free advice: (disclaimer: you get what you pay for)

1. Pick your investments wisely as you will be fighting inflation. I personally would not be bullish on US Treasury Bonds.
2. For the love of all that is good in this world get a fixed rate mortgage. Rates are on the rise but they are still ridiculously low and inflation will cause higher rents....(light bulb) a rental property with a loan at 4.875% when rates jump to 6% and rents increase is going to look pretty swanky.
3. There was always one day a month that my dad would do all the bills and I knew that was not a day to cross, question, or annoy my dad...because it was crunch time to budget and/or make cuts. Let's just say that 'ol lady liberty is going to be having "bill day" for a couple years coming up. We dug ourselves in a giant hole and surprise, surprise, throwing money at it hasn't decreased the pile of money we owe. Be patient....
4. The price of Vodka is going to increase....get those martinis flowing
Until next time....

Numbers tell the tale

2011-01-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

As unfathomable as it seems the housing market is slowly validating the minority of people who claim we are experiencing a recovery. According to CAR....California home sales rose in December, posting their highest level since May.
"December's sales increase reflects buyers taking advantage of rock bottom interest rates and improved affordability since the first half of the year, when prices were higher," said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce. "December's sales opened escrow in October and November. Rates hit their absolute lowest in October but began edging higher in November, prompting buyers to get off the fence,"

However, with yesterday's horrific auction of TIPS, investors appear to have given up on the idea that inflation is going to play a significant role in monetary policy. This is also evidenced in the fact that rates have been trending higher into the new year. The problem with that is a small rate jump will get people off the fence as the CAR President said. However, a more than gradual rise in rates consistently throughout the year might just push people off the fence as their affordability dwindles.

Here is summation of the rest of the report:

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 520,680 in December. December's sales were up 5.9 percent from November's revised pace of 491,590 but were down 6.8 percent from the revised 558,840 sales pace recorded in December 2009. The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2010 if sales maintained the November pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
Following three consecutive monthly declines, the median price of an existing, single-family detached home sold in California increased 1.7 percent from a revised $296,690 in November but was down 1.6 percent from the revised $306,860 median price recorded for the same period a year ago.

"While sales rose in December, the sales pace in the second half of the year was lower than the first half as the housing market weaned itself off home buyer tax credits," said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. "For 2010 as a whole, sales reached 494,900 homes sold, down 9.5 percent from the 546,860 homes sold in 2009. However, the statewide median price increased 10.2 percent to reach $302,900 for the year, up from the $275,000 recorded in 2009," she said.
A greater than usual drop in listings combined with the sales increase caused C.A.R.'s Unsold Inventory Index to decline more than one month. The Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes was 5.0 months in December, down from 6.2 months in November. The index was 3.8 months in December 2009. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 57.5 days in December 2010, compared with 35.1 days for the same period a year ago.

Source: BusinessWire

Huntington Beach Housing Statistics as of July 13th, 2010

2010-07-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Short sales take a lot more time than standard sales and they seem to be the predominant force in the market right now. Hanging out all day on the phone with the banks offers very little time for blogging and updating the website. That being said, I wanted to continue my thread of the trends in the foreclosure and preforeclosure activity in Huntington Beach to seek out patterns and trends which will help buyers and sellers navigate this unique market. So here are the numbers broken down by zip code:

92648 - 280

92649 - 158

92647 - 186

92646 - 267

For a grand total of 891

Of those figures 292 are condos and townhomes, 561 are Single Family Residences and PUD's, and 38 are land, business, or multifamily.

Good News! That was an improvement in every zip code from the last blog in April!

In addition, there are 676 total Active listings on the MLS for Huntington Beach. That is slightly higher than April. Although skeptics might see that as a negative, I personally think a healthy market requires slightly more inventory than the figure from the last blog entry. Plus, with the tax credit recently ending, in my opinion that inventory could have shot through the roof. I believe these are all healthy signs of a snails pace recovery, albeit a recovery and not a double dip.

Now on to the bad news...of the 891 people that are distressed in Huntington Beach only 147 have their home on the MLS. Now don't get me wrong. I am not the realtor that wears the red blazer with the Realtor pin anchored to my lapel for the world to see. I do not believe that a short sale is the answer for all distressed homeowners. However, that being said, it is beneficial for far more than 17%. Legislation is constantly providing more and more benefit to short selling over a standard foreclosure. Fannie and Freddie will now (with re-established credit) let you purchase within 2 years with 20% down with a short sale on your credit. With a standard foreclosure you will have to wait 7! That means 83% of the distressed homeowners will not be re-entering the housing market for 7 years. That is not a healthy statistic for the economy or the housing market. Plus, deficiency judgements are being sought after like never before forcing many of these former homeowners to file for bankruptcy. That also is not healthy for the economy/housing market. Many of the horror stories of 12 month escrows and cash contributions have also been addressed with recent legislation. However, the average homeowner seems to be unaware of this advancement. I talk with more and more buyers/sellers/ and even other Realtors at my open houses that have no idea that short sales are not nearly as ugly and painful as they were even six months ago. I think this area of concern because:

1.) Confidence will not be restored in the market place when there are this many foreclosures looming.
2.) Bad/outdated information leads to frustration and buyers give up trying to buy.
3.) Potential Sellers are out of the real estate game for the better part of a decade and might be so frustrated after dealing with deficiency judgements and HOA litigation that they might not ever want to come back into the market.

Luckily there is a simple solution to this problem. Whether you are a Realtor/friend/parent/sibling/grandparent/etc it makes no difference...if you are not up to date on current information for distressed homeowners KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. You will cause more harm than good. The more people that are actually guided to professionals that can help them the faster we will all get through this and can go back to griping about healthcare and leave the real estate market alone for a while.

As always call or e-mail me with questions...

Jason Kiffe
Real Estate Broker
Lic # 01430639
949-293-9959
428 Main St #207
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Huntington Beach Housing Statistics as of April 2nd, 2010

2010-04-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most common questions I get lately is about foreclosures. When is the shadow inventory going to hit the market? How many foreclosures are there in Huntington Beach right now? What is the price range for foreclosures in Huntington Beach?

So I am going to go away from my usual political sattire, and I am going to make this a regular monthly post on my blog. So feel free to follow the blog if you want to stay up-to-date on the trends and direction we are going in regards to distressed properties. Afterall, we are all in this together.

# of foreclosures by Zip code in Huntington Beach

92648--319 preforeclosure and foreclosures

92649--172 pre and foreclosures

92647--235 pre and foreclosures

62646--312 pre and foreclosures

That is a grand total of 1038. These are not necessarily all listed......these are just preforeclosures and foreclosures in public records. Of that number 307 are condos and 679 are single family homes. Now for all you math wizards I am aware the numbers do not add up. That is because the remaining 52 foreclosures are either commercial or multifamily, or land.

That number doesn't jump off the page at me.........that is until you do a blind search and see that (excluding pending, back-up, and hold do not show listings) there are only 543 active listings in Huntington Beach. That is with ZERO parameters. Of that only 148 (ranging in price from $122,750 all the way to $2,050,000) are tagged as preforeclosure, foreclosure, or short sale homes. (which is relying on real estate agents to correctly tag there listings, so there is a margin of error.....I know, should be basic, but you would be surprised!) What does that all mean. Basically we have a lot of hurting people and a lot of inventory getting ready to come on the market. That being said, demand is very high and there are numerous buyers for every house on the market, but it does give you a good idea of the amount of inventory that is going to have to be absorbed in Huntington Beach.

As always, feel free to call or e-mail me with specific questions, neighborhoods, etc.

Jason Kiffe
949-293-9959

War of Words

2010-03-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

There was a lot to not like about George W. Bush. For example, he would chuckle mid sentence for no apparent reason, he often used the syntax of a hillbilly, and overall I just felt like he had no idea what his job description entailed.

That being said, looking back there was one thing I can honestly say I miss about George W...........ignorance was bliss. I read recently that in his 8 years as President of the United States he appeared on television less times than Obama has appeared in his first year in office.

Now let me stop right there......I have one giant concern with that......who is running our country? After all, those press conferences, speeches, Sportscenter, The Tonight show, The Late Show, etc......take time. Ever sat through the taping of a 30 minute sitcom. If you have you know that it takes ALL day. It is one of the most grueling experiences that you will ever endure.......and that is only a half hour sitcom!!

So our President is a Narcissist. It is America, and we all tend to get caught up in appearance and fame. So I will give him a pass on that one.

However and more importantly........when your face time, which is taking away from the job you should be doing, is being used almost exclusively to air dirty laundry, point fingers, bad mouth fellow politicians, the FED, banks, Wall Street, and Health Care providers. That is where I draw the line. Can you imagine if Steve Jobs came out tomorrow on prime time television talking about how incompetent the board of directors over at Apple are..........about how his creative director is making way too much money and how he has this great new idea that they are too stubborn and stupid to grant him permission to move forward with. What would happen next? I imagine the stocks plummets, The board and high ranking employees come out to defend themselves and slander Steve Jobs right back, the shareholders revolt, and a couple dozen people minimum lose their jobs.

The difference between the two? Steve Jobs isn't foolish enough to make such comments. Sad.....considering the argument can be made that the United States is much more important that Apple.

One last note: Have you ever given your dog a treat for going to the bathroom on your carpet? That's crazy right? Well that is essentially what just happened with the passage of the Heathcare reform. Let me be the first to welcome you to the new world of politics ladies and gentlemen.........public slandering has been proven effective and is here to stay! We have just entered the next stage of reality television.........

Discounting the Discount Rate

2010-03-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

So by now you have probably heard the big news. The FED unexpectedly came out and raised the discount rate last week. As a repercussion........the market panicked, homeowners everywhere dropped their head in disgust and I even saw a couple Realtors with a case of the "lip quivers". So what now.........are we destined to succumb to rising rates, falling home prices, and on a more positive note, CD's yielding higher than a .05% return?

Don't get ahead of yourself. Go ahead and put down the stiff drink and call off the relocation to Canada for now. The discount rate increase will impact your life about as much as a fly getting a cramp in its wing.......in Africa. I'll even go as far as to say that if you are a frequent traveler to Africa I might even be overstating things. The discount rate is essentially the rate at which the banks would receive funds from the Central Bank. In normal economic times these are overnight loans. In times of turmoil........2008 for example, these loans were given up to 90 days to be paid back at a 0-.5% interest rate, depending on when in the last three years we are talking about. Which the banks, of course, would then turn around and invest in our Businesses and individuals right?

Yeah, not so much........that might have been the FED's intention but.........what happened more recently as things calmed down was that banks were utilizing these "overnight" loans to invest at their discretion for large interest returns. There were some banks making twice to three times the interest income that they did in prior years. We are not talking about hundreds or even millions, think hundreds of millions.

Let me stop right there and say, I personally find it completely shocking that the bank would exploit, for gain, our Central Bank and Tarp (aka taxpayer funds) for personal gain without any regard for the best interest of the United States and its account holders and consumers. Just shocked.

Am I laying on the sarcasm thick enough? So if you were wondering why the banks earnings looked so good by the end of the year when we were talking financial Apocalypse in March........there you go. But, that being said, unless you are a major shareholder in a bank, it really shouldn't affect your life one little bit.

However, be forewarned the day of reckoning is coming. GDP is rising and money is still flying off the press in DC. So rates will be rising......just hopefully later than sooner.

Okay, now you can commence with that stiff drink......

No Simple Answer

2009-10-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

Are we out of the woods yet or is the worst still to come? There is only so much conjecture that this question can create........Right? Well, it seems since our proverbial collapse in March this question has loomed in both whispers and screams on wall street. Here we are entering November and it seems we are still digesting data to determine whether this question can finally be put to bed or whether it will continue on into the better part of 2010. The problem? A majority of the positive earnings and data from the banks was either manipulated by the government's cash infusion and tax modifications that changed the way in which they realize income and thus pay taxes. As well as, the non banking US companies that have fueled the rally laid off employees and implemented cost cutting techniques to improve their bottom line. Now this is definitely not a bad thing as most of these companies have increased productivity and profitability by improving their efficiency. However, the problem is that there is only so much fat you can trim. You can't keep downsizing and cost cutting to manipulate earnings and keep your stockholders happy.........eventually even the biggest companies run out of employees to fire. So the million dollar question is...........Now that a majority of the manipulation and smoke and mirrors are used up, are earnings next quarter going to plunge and unveil the true catastrophic environment we are in? Or did we buy ourselves just enough time to actually crawl out of the recession and realize "true" growth, albeit probably very small, without the "growth by subtraction" technique or growth by taxpayer infusion? Until then, welcome to life on the fence.........and here's to hoping we get off on solid footing and don't fall off.

What do you mean I can't buy?

2009-10-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

As home inventory continues to erode..........eager buyers are left home-less. With rates dropping to new historic levels thanks to the mortgage backed security market finally thawing out a little bit, affordability for housing in Southern California is the highest it has been in years. However, don't think that means that you can just run out and get your pick of the litter. Right now, it is common for buyer's to submit multiple offers before they get one accepted. The local media has not given it much attention so many home buyers are getting blindsided with this information by their agents or the constant rejection of their offers. Like 2005 when buyers were getting into bidding wars and throwing all but the kitchen sink at sellers to get them to take their offer........we are once again in a position of extremely high demand at the first time home buyer level. Homes above 500K are still seeing normal marketing times, but the market under 500K and more specifically under 400K are going like they are the prize pig at the fair. Sometimes the bank or seller have multiple offers within 48 hours of listing the property. Often times Agents are setting a date a week or less from the initial listings as a cut-off for offers. With the first time home buyer credit set to expire Dec. 1st this could just be thousands of tax payers fighting to get free money from the government. Regardless of the cause.........the effect is once again a colossal battle of wills as buyer's struggle to reach the American dream despite being qualified, ready, and able to purchase.

With rates inevitably set to rise, temporary loan limits set to expire, and the first time homebuyer credit set to disappear as well.......time will tell how long the demand will last and who will still qualify to buy after the dust has settled.....

REO......Rejecting Every Offer

2009-08-05T15:35:00.000-07:00

Are you uneducated?

Able to return phone calls but choose not to?

Professionalism.........not for you?

Greedy and underhanded?

Then YOU might just excel in the Southern California Real Estate market. Okay, so I am being pretty cynical. Not everyone fits that mold. I have done countless transactions where the agent on the other side was diligent, professional and knowledgable. However, it sure seems like those were the agents that were forced out of the market when things fell apart. Right now in Orange County and LA county if you are looking to buy something below 400K you are lucky if you even get a phone call acknowledging your offer. Really people...............someone spends a minimum of one hour putting together an offer complete with all the documenation that is "required" for the offer and.........nothing. No "got it, thanks". "Sorry took another offer"...........nothing. Michael Vick had more respect for his dogs than some of these listing agents offer their fellow Realtor and inturn their buyer.

Given this predicament I am now offering anyone that will listen to me some simple advice to weed out these unprofessional agents: Write down the name of the company that shuns you and make it a note to pass it on to anyone and everyone you know. Facebook, Tweet, Myspace, any means available to you. Make a list......most of them are selling REO's. When the REO's run out and no one wants to do business with them, they will wish they took 5 seconds out of their time to e-mail a denial for every buyer and agent that took the time to write an offer. Am I being a little vindictive.........you better believe I am. Imagine going to the car dealership to buy a new car. You offer the "nice" salesman a price and he goes to check with his boss. You wait hours, he never comes back. The place closes for the night and he still never comes back. Turns out he went home hours ago. Now repeat that process at about 10 dealerships and you are starting to understand how much time and energy buyers are wasting.

Interesting Fact......

All of the scammers in the real estate industry have gone straight from subprime to loan mods. They made the money screwing people into the bad loans and now they are getting paid to try and put them in the loan that most of them qualified for in the first place but required more knowledge to originate and fund.

More stimulus money coming?

2009-07-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Okay so word on the financial circuit today is that politicians are already testing the waters to see what the response would be on a 2ND round of stimuli (really 3rd if you count Bushes 145 or so Billion but who's counting). They are citing the need for this based on the failure of the administration to get the economy to turn the corner.

Before I even go "there". Are they telling us that 787 Billion has been spent? Where did all that money go?

True story: I lost $2000 cash a few years back. it was in a bank envelope and I think I hid it or someone stole it. Regardless, I TORE MY HOUSE UP!.........every book, every page, every cereal box, figurine, I even emptied the entire refrigerator(thought maybe I got hungry while in the middle of my hiding process and set it down.....). Anyway, I felt sick to my stomach for about 2 months. No exaggeration......2 full months! I can't even imagine how I would feel losing 787 Billion. If there was an actual person that was accountable for that money they would have exploded like the guy from the "I won the corvette" commercial a few years back. He/she would be in an indescribable amount of pain from lost and wasted stimuli. Thank the good lord our politicians didn't feel the need to assign someone to have that kind of accountability! Good thinking guys/gals.

In all fairness lets say they can account for all but 1 Billion. Does anyone reading this even know what it is like to have a Billion? (if you answered "yes"to this question I know some fine pieces of real estate, we should talk) A Billion..........If you haven't noticed I capitalize the word Billion in this blog involuntarily.........it is that important, incomprehensible, and ridiculously large of a number. But hey.........it's only money, fire up the printer......what's the worst that could happen.........China only owns us on Paper.....

Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul.......

2009-07-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

So I have a little bit of a problem with our 787 Billion dollar stimulus. And no, I am not going to bore you with the usual

1"we are passing on debt to our grandchildren"
2"inflation from printing all this money is going to come back and bite us in the you know where"
3"All we are doing is bailing out the people who got us into this"

Nope, I am not going there, although, I guess in a literal translation I just did. My real problem is as follows:

We got into the current mortgage, housing and economic mess that we are in today because of greed. That is easy.........you could securitize a bag of dog sh*^ and investors would have jumped all over it if they were getting a solid 7% return on their money. Never looking, or in this case smelling, what it was that they just purchased. Okay, that is all Econ101. What gets me is our government decides that it is a good idea to borrow money we do not have to fix the problem. For those of you that don't understand the gravity of that statement let me sum it up as simple as possible:

1. Our government is spending money we do not have(aka borrowed) to curb a crisis that was started by our citizens spending money we did not have and had no way of paying back (aka borrowing or mortgaging)

Does that not strike anyone else as a horrible idea and a catastrophe waiting to happen. If this was 2006 I could see the rationale. Afterall, ignorance is bliss. But we are talking about AFTER the fact. Just to beat a dead horse let me put this in story form:

a child is hit by a car after crossing the street and not looking both ways first. don't worry the child is okay. In fact the parents sat through the bandaging, stitches, an other procedures all the while shaking their finger that you need to look both ways before crossing the street. Then the parents go to bring the child home, walk out of the hospital and cross the busy street without looking both ways. Can anyone guess what happens next?

Isn't natural selection supposed to kill off animals like us?

Everyday Annoyance

2009-06-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

----Hybrid Cars allowed in the carpool lane----

My Take: I am all for saving the environment and doing my part in "going green" and if this law was only for Hydrogen Cars omitting just water......I get it. But is anyone else accutely aware of the fact that electricity does not spontaneously come from magic. Hate to break it to all you Prius owners but burning coal for electricity is just an alternative way to destroy the environment and deserves no special treatment. Also, check out the life of an electric car battery and, oh yeah, the super efficient way that we dispose of them. Recycle? Nope, not able to just yet, just throw them in a big pile at the local landfill. And for this specimen of clean carbonless footprinting, I offer you the commuter lane so you can go home and plug in your car for tomorrow's fill of "magic" power. Good work politicians, way to think that one through. Oh wait, one more thing, you deserve a big old tax credit too. Federal Deficit....smeficit

Top 10 advertising annoyances

2009-05-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

1. Cash for Gold

My take: Really? Send me your gold and I will send you an unagreed upon amount of money that I feel is fair. Who does that?

2. AshleyMadison.com

My Take: Did a pair of divorce lawyers start this company to drum up business? If you need a website to help you commit adultery, maybe you should think twice about it.......

3. 1-800 Dentist

My Take: Is it really that hard to find a dentist? Yellowpages.com, 411.com, the phonebook, a friend, a relative, I can’t imagine it was necessary to have a dentist headhunting company.

4. Subway "five dollar footlongs"

My Take: If you are going to pump a catchy little tune to bounce around in my subconscious for an indefinite amount of time………one request, use professional singers, or just someone that has sang once before in their life.

5. Old Navy mannequin commercials

My Take: I’ll keep this to one word……..”Creepy”

6. E-trade Baby commercials

My Take: Congratulations E-trade you outdid Old Navy. Your commercials are far creepier.

7. Verizon Guy Commercials

My Take: "I can hear you now” I have heard you for the last four years. I now have a question for you. Can you stop talking?

8. Cheerios cholesterol commercials

My Take: There are far too many ignorant people to make these kinds of commercials. I cringe thinking about how many people are sitting down with a bowl right now for health reasons.

9. Viagra and Cialis War

My Take: I am pretty confident that you can stop. There is not one warm blooded male in the universe that would be unaware of the existence of magic blue pills.....let alone recite the warnings and songs associated with them.

10. Geico Caveman

My Take: After four years and a failed sitcom spinoff.........can't we put this one to rest.