The Nation's Financial Condition

[MDlaxfan76]

Crazy times. Major CRE property sells for one third of its last sale price 2011 and $$/sq.ft has dropped by more than half:

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Market Square broke a record for its price per square foot when the complex was last sold in 2011 for $613M, or about $905 per SF.

This week's deal pencils out to about $464 per SF.

At a time when DC is in the process of changing Penn AveL https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Denver isn't waiting for the market to collapse....they're using Covid recovery funds to find office buildings that can be converted to residential. They've identified around 50.

It's another Fortune 500 and Foreign investor taxpayer bailout, of course, but we all got help this time (for once), so......

Certainly a risky approach, but trying anything is better than nothing. Covid really drove city living/loving families to the suburbs. Although we Americans tend to have shot memories... rather hard to decide to move in to a city from the suburbs when work from home is the new norm, and there really is not much incentive. Will be interesting to see where we are in 3-5 years.

Except here in Denver, all the young GenZ kids with disposable income want to live in cities. And they're not having kids until their 30's.

There's a huge demand for housing in Denver now, and Tech keeps moving here....and with that come rich kids and DINK's.

I would agree this is better than doing nothing. Vacant buildings are bad for cities when the numbers get this high. We're at 30%+ vacancy last I checked.

And I should add...we pay taxes BEFORE distributions (we're an LLC) close to seven figures for last year. Businesses get hammered for taxes in CO and Denver, all to protect homeowners, who pay at a much lower rate. Honestly, I have NO IDEA how anyone runs a restaurant in Denver....and it ain't a whole lot better in other cities. My vocation allows me to hear about business conditions in large and small cities.

Rough sledding this year for small biz.

There is a new trend in restaurants here in Upstate NY. They are calling it a " kitchen tax" It primarily effects people ordering for pick up. The last time my wife and I ordered cheese burgers for dinner the tab was 34 dollars to include the extravagant purchase of onion rings. Bill Grays use to be famous for BOGO that ship has sailed never to be seen again. I'll do all of the burger grilling in my house from now on. FTR pre COVID the same order was under 20 dollars. Some of these restaurants are pricing themselves out of business but I understand they have no other option.

Guess we need more migrants?

There doesn't seem to be a shortage as of right now. If you think Maryland is being short changed I'm sure Gov. Hochul can round up a few extras and send them your way. I'm sure she would consider that a huge solid on your end.

Sounds like you need some kitchen workers in Upstate...maybe you need to give's sanctuary and a job...

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans has a kit and kaboodle of new arrivals he doesn't know what to do with. They can't work because legally they are not eligible to work in NYS. FTR NYS is already a sanctuary state so you can check that box. There are 200 to 300 newbies being housed at a downtown Holiday Inn. NYS is picking up the tab so it is not a big deal yet. Less than a mile from my house there is an on ramp to the route 104 expressway. In a narrow ravine on the right side there is a bunch of tents set up as a homeless encampment. To parrot a theme repeated often is we can't take care of homeless people we have already. There is a bitter taste in some people's mouths about that. No one is offering these homeless people a warm room at the Holiday Inn with 3 squares a day. They have to fend for themselves as best they can. You would think that with this massive influx of cheap labor every city in the USA would be offering that hand of friendship. What you hear in all blue and red cities is NOT HERE...NOT NOW. The new tactic is to storm the border fence overwhelm those poor NG guard troops and tell the US government...EFF YOU.. you can't stop us. Is that suppose to resemble a rational immigration policy?? I don't think so, the USA has no functional immigration policy anymore. It has devolved into a free for all at the southern border. A self inflicted wound. I only wish the IRS was as loosey goosey with enforcement of our tax laws.

The inability to legally work is the issue, right?

[cradleandshoot]

Crazy times. Major CRE property sells for one third of its last sale price 2011 and $$/sq.ft has dropped by more than half:

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Market Square broke a record for its price per square foot when the complex was last sold in 2011 for $613M, or about $905 per SF.

This week's deal pencils out to about $464 per SF.

At a time when DC is in the process of changing Penn AveL https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Denver isn't waiting for the market to collapse....they're using Covid recovery funds to find office buildings that can be converted to residential. They've identified around 50.

It's another Fortune 500 and Foreign investor taxpayer bailout, of course, but we all got help this time (for once), so......

Certainly a risky approach, but trying anything is better than nothing. Covid really drove city living/loving families to the suburbs. Although we Americans tend to have shot memories... rather hard to decide to move in to a city from the suburbs when work from home is the new norm, and there really is not much incentive. Will be interesting to see where we are in 3-5 years.

Except here in Denver, all the young GenZ kids with disposable income want to live in cities. And they're not having kids until their 30's.

There's a huge demand for housing in Denver now, and Tech keeps moving here....and with that come rich kids and DINK's.

I would agree this is better than doing nothing. Vacant buildings are bad for cities when the numbers get this high. We're at 30%+ vacancy last I checked.

And I should add...we pay taxes BEFORE distributions (we're an LLC) close to seven figures for last year. Businesses get hammered for taxes in CO and Denver, all to protect homeowners, who pay at a much lower rate. Honestly, I have NO IDEA how anyone runs a restaurant in Denver....and it ain't a whole lot better in other cities. My vocation allows me to hear about business conditions in large and small cities.

Rough sledding this year for small biz.

There is a new trend in restaurants here in Upstate NY. They are calling it a " kitchen tax" It primarily effects people ordering for pick up. The last time my wife and I ordered cheese burgers for dinner the tab was 34 dollars to include the extravagant purchase of onion rings. Bill Grays use to be famous for BOGO that ship has sailed never to be seen again. I'll do all of the burger grilling in my house from now on. FTR pre COVID the same order was under 20 dollars. Some of these restaurants are pricing themselves out of business but I understand they have no other option.

Guess we need more migrants?

There doesn't seem to be a shortage as of right now. If you think Maryland is being short changed I'm sure Gov. Hochul can round up a few extras and send them your way. I'm sure she would consider that a huge solid on your end.

Sounds like you need some kitchen workers in Upstate...maybe you need to give's sanctuary and a job...

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans has a kit and kaboodle of new arrivals he doesn't know what to do with. They can't work because legally they are not eligible to work in NYS. FTR NYS is already a sanctuary state so you can check that box. There are 200 to 300 newbies being housed at a downtown Holiday Inn. NYS is picking up the tab so it is not a big deal yet. Less than a mile from my house there is an on ramp to the route 104 expressway. In a narrow ravine on the right side there is a bunch of tents set up as a homeless encampment. To parrot a theme repeated often is we can't take care of homeless people we have already. There is a bitter taste in some people's mouths about that. No one is offering these homeless people a warm room at the Holiday Inn with 3 squares a day. They have to fend for themselves as best they can. You would think that with this massive influx of cheap labor every city in the USA would be offering that hand of friendship. What you hear in all blue and red cities is NOT HERE...NOT NOW. The new tactic is to storm the border fence overwhelm those poor NG guard troops and tell the US government...EFF YOU.. you can't stop us. Is that suppose to resemble a rational immigration policy?? I don't think so, the USA has no functional immigration policy anymore. It has devolved into a free for all at the southern border. A self inflicted wound. I only wish the IRS was as loosey goosey with enforcement of our tax laws.

The inability to legally work is the issue, right?

That is what Mayor Evans says is the problem. He has stated it takes a minimum of 6 months until a temporary work permit can be issued. There have been attempts to waive that to no avail.

[cradleandshoot]

Crazy times. Major CRE property sells for one third of its last sale price 2011 and $$/sq.ft has dropped by more than half:

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Market Square broke a record for its price per square foot when the complex was last sold in 2011 for $613M, or about $905 per SF.

This week's deal pencils out to about $464 per SF.

At a time when DC is in the process of changing Penn AveL https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Denver isn't waiting for the market to collapse....they're using Covid recovery funds to find office buildings that can be converted to residential. They've identified around 50.

It's another Fortune 500 and Foreign investor taxpayer bailout, of course, but we all got help this time (for once), so......

Certainly a risky approach, but trying anything is better than nothing. Covid really drove city living/loving families to the suburbs. Although we Americans tend to have shot memories... rather hard to decide to move in to a city from the suburbs when work from home is the new norm, and there really is not much incentive. Will be interesting to see where we are in 3-5 years.

Except here in Denver, all the young GenZ kids with disposable income want to live in cities. And they're not having kids until their 30's.

There's a huge demand for housing in Denver now, and Tech keeps moving here....and with that come rich kids and DINK's.

I would agree this is better than doing nothing. Vacant buildings are bad for cities when the numbers get this high. We're at 30%+ vacancy last I checked.

And I should add...we pay taxes BEFORE distributions (we're an LLC) close to seven figures for last year. Businesses get hammered for taxes in CO and Denver, all to protect homeowners, who pay at a much lower rate. Honestly, I have NO IDEA how anyone runs a restaurant in Denver....and it ain't a whole lot better in other cities. My vocation allows me to hear about business conditions in large and small cities.

Rough sledding this year for small biz.

There is a new trend in restaurants here in Upstate NY. They are calling it a " kitchen tax" It primarily effects people ordering for pick up. The last time my wife and I ordered cheese burgers for dinner the tab was 34 dollars to include the extravagant purchase of onion rings. Bill Grays use to be famous for BOGO that ship has sailed never to be seen again. I'll do all of the burger grilling in my house from now on. FTR pre COVID the same order was under 20 dollars. Some of these restaurants are pricing themselves out of business but I understand they have no other option.

Guess we need more migrants?

There doesn't seem to be a shortage as of right now. If you think Maryland is being short changed I'm sure Gov. Hochul can round up a few extras and send them your way. I'm sure she would consider that a huge solid on your end.

Sounds like you need some kitchen workers in Upstate...maybe you need to give's sanctuary and a job...

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans has a kit and kaboodle of new arrivals he doesn't know what to do with. They can't work because legally they are not eligible to work in NYS.

Yep. That's why I'm 100% for: give every single one of them Work Visas. There is no logical reason to not do that.

Then they pay taxes, and contribute to our taxbase.

Or, we can keep playing this pointless game of not lifting a finger until we get the perfect solution, and use that as an excuse to do nothing, and maintain the status quo.

If I'm in charge? iPads and mobile printers....give them a VISA on the spot. Keep giving them out until yer done. Fake problem solved.

Here is some food for thought for you. There are advocacy groups for the many homeless people we have locally at present. Sadly, and this breaks my heart is many of them are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They returned home with issues of not being able to adjust to civilian life. They are broken and too many of them have given up hope. There is a perspective that says these homeless people have been largely forgotten and these new arrivals are being given preferential treatment unavailable to these homeless people we have locally that are struggling to get by everyday. The bottom line is there is a finite amount of resources and there is never enough to go around.

[a fan]

Here is some food for thought for you. There are advocacy groups for the many homeless people we have locally at present. Sadly, and this breaks my heart is many of them are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They returned home with issues of not being able to adjust to civilian life. They are broken and too many of them have given up hope. There is a perspective that says these homeless people have been largely forgotten and these new arrivals are being given preferential treatment unavailable to these homeless people we have locally that are struggling to get by everyday. The bottom line is there is a finite amount of resources and there is never enough to go around.

There is plenty to go around. We CHOOSE to F over our Veterans.

You know I've been saying this since the Water Cooler days: I do NOT understand why Vets and active duty combat-zone troops aren't treated like Kings and Queens. It should be the easiest bill to pass to pay them VERY well, and to take care of them afterwords.....health care, mental care, education, training. The whole deal. We wonder why enlistment is down, when anyone with a brain can see how we poorly we treat our Vets.

And if we can't do that? Shut down bases and forward posts until we can. Again, put me in charge, and it would happen tomorrow.

If you can't take care of your warriors? Don't go optional wars. And have you noticed that Congress ALWAYS finds money for nonstop wars since WWII?

They have money for that, but can't take care of our Vets? Bullsh*t.

[MDlaxfan76]

Crazy times. Major CRE property sells for one third of its last sale price 2011 and $$/sq.ft has dropped by more than half:

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Market Square broke a record for its price per square foot when the complex was last sold in 2011 for $613M, or about $905 per SF.

This week's deal pencils out to about $464 per SF.

At a time when DC is in the process of changing Penn AveL https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/ne ... dium=email

Denver isn't waiting for the market to collapse....they're using Covid recovery funds to find office buildings that can be converted to residential. They've identified around 50.

It's another Fortune 500 and Foreign investor taxpayer bailout, of course, but we all got help this time (for once), so......

Certainly a risky approach, but trying anything is better than nothing. Covid really drove city living/loving families to the suburbs. Although we Americans tend to have shot memories... rather hard to decide to move in to a city from the suburbs when work from home is the new norm, and there really is not much incentive. Will be interesting to see where we are in 3-5 years.

Except here in Denver, all the young GenZ kids with disposable income want to live in cities. And they're not having kids until their 30's.

There's a huge demand for housing in Denver now, and Tech keeps moving here....and with that come rich kids and DINK's.

I would agree this is better than doing nothing. Vacant buildings are bad for cities when the numbers get this high. We're at 30%+ vacancy last I checked.

And I should add...we pay taxes BEFORE distributions (we're an LLC) close to seven figures for last year. Businesses get hammered for taxes in CO and Denver, all to protect homeowners, who pay at a much lower rate. Honestly, I have NO IDEA how anyone runs a restaurant in Denver....and it ain't a whole lot better in other cities. My vocation allows me to hear about business conditions in large and small cities.

Rough sledding this year for small biz.

There is a new trend in restaurants here in Upstate NY. They are calling it a " kitchen tax" It primarily effects people ordering for pick up. The last time my wife and I ordered cheese burgers for dinner the tab was 34 dollars to include the extravagant purchase of onion rings. Bill Grays use to be famous for BOGO that ship has sailed never to be seen again. I'll do all of the burger grilling in my house from now on. FTR pre COVID the same order was under 20 dollars. Some of these restaurants are pricing themselves out of business but I understand they have no other option.

Guess we need more migrants?

There doesn't seem to be a shortage as of right now. If you think Maryland is being short changed I'm sure Gov. Hochul can round up a few extras and send them your way. I'm sure she would consider that a huge solid on your end.

Sounds like you need some kitchen workers in Upstate...maybe you need to give's sanctuary and a job...

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans has a kit and kaboodle of new arrivals he doesn't know what to do with. They can't work because legally they are not eligible to work in NYS. FTR NYS is already a sanctuary state so you can check that box. There are 200 to 300 newbies being housed at a downtown Holiday Inn. NYS is picking up the tab so it is not a big deal yet. Less than a mile from my house there is an on ramp to the route 104 expressway. In a narrow ravine on the right side there is a bunch of tents set up as a homeless encampment. To parrot a theme repeated often is we can't take care of homeless people we have already. There is a bitter taste in some people's mouths about that. No one is offering these homeless people a warm room at the Holiday Inn with 3 squares a day. They have to fend for themselves as best they can. You would think that with this massive influx of cheap labor every city in the USA would be offering that hand of friendship. What you hear in all blue and red cities is NOT HERE...NOT NOW. The new tactic is to storm the border fence overwhelm those poor NG guard troops and tell the US government...EFF YOU.. you can't stop us. Is that suppose to resemble a rational immigration policy?? I don't think so, the USA has no functional immigration policy anymore. It has devolved into a free for all at the southern border. A self inflicted wound. I only wish the IRS was as loosey goosey with enforcement of our tax laws.

The inability to legally work is the issue, right?

That is what Mayor Evans says is the problem. He has stated it takes a minimum of 6 months until a temporary work permit can be issued. There have been attempts to waive that to no avail.

Yup, and while the Dems would mostly like to see that happen, albeit with clear ID etc, the GOP does not (except for us old school R's who like the idea of plentiful low cost labor so that the US can keep more of our production here in the US without exacerbating inflation). Some of the old school labor union Dems are not so happy with low cost migrant labor, but we're not talking about work most Americans are standing in line to get. But when you can't get dishwashers and produce pickers and crab pickers at all, it restrains growth...and heck, let's let people work and pay taxes legally! The work for unskilled labor is very plentiful and the pay, even at a migrant wage rate, would be way, way better than where they came from and with better safety, etc. And a chance to move up from there...and those with skills, great!

Obviously, most of us would prefer such new workers to choose between temporary migration and full scale immigration with a path to eventual citizenship, but either way all out of the shadows. You wanna stay in the shadows because you're an actual bad actor, let's focus on rooting those out and sending 'em back. But folks who just want to work in a safer environment where their kids have a chance to change the trajectory for the family...god love'em.

[MDlaxfan76]

Here is some food for thought for you. There are advocacy groups for the many homeless people we have locally at present. Sadly, and this breaks my heart is many of them are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They returned home with issues of not being able to adjust to civilian life. They are broken and too many of them have given up hope. There is a perspective that says these homeless people have been largely forgotten and these new arrivals are being given preferential treatment unavailable to these homeless people we have locally that are struggling to get by everyday. The bottom line is there is a finite amount of resources and there is never enough to go around.

There is plenty to go around. We CHOOSE to F over our Veterans.

You know I've been saying this since the Water Cooler days: I do NOT understand why Vets and active duty combat-zone troops aren't treated like Kings and Queens. It should be the easiest bill to pass to pay them VERY well, and to take care of them afterwords.....health care, mental care, education, training. The whole deal. We wonder why enlistment is down, when anyone with a brain can see how we poorly we treat our Vets.

And if we can't do that? Shut down bases and forward posts until we can. Again, put me in charge, and it would happen tomorrow.

If you can't take care of your warriors? Don't go optional wars. And have you noticed that Congress ALWAYS finds money for nonstop wars since WWII?

They have money for that, but can't take care of our Vets? Bullsh*t.

+1...it's ridiculous we don't find it worth paying a little bit more in taxes to make sure these folks get treated well, especially in mental health care and re-socialization, job training, etc...and housing for those still a mess.

That said, it's interesting that my brother-in-law who washed out of Annapolis the first year due to socialization issues (bad fit, he's on the spectrum) is considered a veteran and eligible for most all veteran benefits...he's applying for a VA loan right now on much more favorable terms than you and I would get. We're finally downsizing and part of that is moving him out of my basement...quite a process

[Brooklyn]

300,000 new jobs!


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 7814&ei=15


U.S. job growth was strong last month, and the unemployment rate fell slightly. But wage growth remained contained, underscoring the growing belief among economists and policymakers that the country can keep adding jobs without fanning inflation.

U.S. employers added a seasonally adjusted 303,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported on Friday, significantly more than the 200,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.8%, versus February’s 3.9%, in line with expectations.

Average hourly earnings in March rose 0.3% from the previous month. That put them up 4.1% from a year earlier, marking the smallest on-the-year gain since June 2021.

Stocks edged up following the report, and Treasury yields moved higher.


Investors have been on edge recently over economic data suggesting that Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts might not be imminent. A stronger-than-expected labor market could feed into those concerns—first because increased spending power for consumers could fuel inflation, and second because a strong labor market gives the central bank more leeway to wait before cutting rates.

more ....




More jobs! Thank you Mr Biden!