1 My choking in a NFC Championship game was "completely unexpected" as well.

2 The world's gone to hell in a handbasket since Elin left Tiger.

3 I'm beginning to think that 'unexpected' doesn't really mean what they think it means.

4 As soon as the tax credit extension expires, the bottom is going to fall out. Down Down Down Foreclosures. Stock market plummets. Deflation. Even after the last plunge, housing is overvalued relative to historical norms. You can't cheat the math.

5 Why didn't you come to me like a fucking man and tell me that the press was unexpected to find out about me being the father?

6 In other news sales of pudding unexpectedly increased by 20% nationwide.

7 My Senate appointee being a corrupt scumbag was "completely unexpected" as well.

8 Hi, I'd like a Big Mac, large fries, a chocolate shake, and a 2-bedroom cape with a one-car garage, a full-length deck in the back, no pool, on 1.5 acres, please.

9 #5 OK, we all know that was really Silky Pony using me as a sock puppet.

They keep saying unexpected.  I guess that means that those in power, the Democrats, really don't know what their doing.

10 I'm unexpectly having coffee this morning.

11 Hi, I'd like a Big Mac, large fries, a chocolate shake, and a 2-bedroom cape with a one-car garage, a full-length deck in the back, no pool, on 1.5 acres, please.

Still ordering from the dollar menu, huh?

12 It's really unexpected when I make typos.

13
This is what happens when the MSM covers for radicals.

The middle class and all business are now frightened to death by their own government.

Yet - the democrats continue to push health care "reform".

14 11, Trying to cut back.

15 I can haz depression now?

16

It's amazing how everything is unexpected for these "experts". But don't worry about the economy, Barry is thinking about more one time tax credits. They worked so well last year at jump starting the economy.

17 For the last few days, heavy rain has been predicted for northeastern Pennsylvania. Today, however, we have had an unexpected period of heavy rain.

I blame Boooooooosh. And maybe Halliburton, too.

18 I'd have to say that this unexpected drop in housing sales is unprecedented!


Just LOVE the soft texture of that new Ball Dip!  Need me some more.

19

OT - but worth it.

News of this is going to send Napoletano over the edge!

http://tinyurl.com/yacsx56

Her new word for these terrorists will be:  ablehabblaableh.

Via Instapundit.

20 I want one of those high paying analyst jobs where everything that happens is "unexpected" and I get paid anyway.

21

Down dooby-doo down down, comma comma down, dooby-doo down down ... *

Makes me glad I rent space from a woman who (I haven't asked but I'd bet money) owns her house and land free and clear.

 

 

*That'll be in your head all day now. You're welcome.

22 My property tax bill was unexpectedly the same for the last two years.

23 just wait until the commercial real estate hits the fan, but thats too complicated for the twits in the press to understand and explain . its not like the banks and credit and the economy are interrelated or anything, it all just works on magic maybe that jerkoff barney frank can find some more people who need special favors

24 23 just wait until the commercial real estate hits the fan, but thats too complicated for the twits in the press to understand and explain .

I thought it already hit the fan. My REIT is down down down, and strip malls are sitting empty around here.

25 11, Trying to cut back.

For just 59 cents more, you can super-size your fries and get an inground pool.

26

Unexpected would be an article with bad economic news that didn't use the word "unexpected".

Oh, re the credits for house buying. There's one for people who aren't 1st time home buyers. That was us last year, so I looked up the details. You have to have lived in your house for something like 5 of the last 8 years, which we didn't. But wait, there's a special rule for military homeowners. Good, I thought, since how many military families lived in one house for 5 years?? Of course, the special rule was just about when you buy a new house, so most military people won't be able to take advantage of this.

Good thing they went to the trouble of making a special rule for the military, eh?

27
Geithner is a fucking genius!

This is the guy, a tax cheat, who the Republicans were afraid to vote against in confirmation.

28 I unexpectedly had a momentous bowel movement after 2 cups of coffee this morning.  Quite unprecented.

29 Isn't the Obama admin pushing for regulations to force everyone to spend $10K-$20K to "green" their house before they can sell it? I can't see how that's going to help turn this trend.

30

Sales of previously occupied homes took the largest monthly drop in more than 40 years last month, plunging far deeper than expected after lawmakers gave buyers extended time to use a tax credit...

OMG, so one time tax-credits and enabling people to borrow far above their means won't fix this? 

At least in the end, there will be only chaos.

31

Okay, I say "unexpectedly", you say "inconveniently".

Those words are easy to confuse.  Hell, they both end in "ly".

32 I had some unexpected emissions after I watched classic '90s Skinemax pron for 90 minutes seconds.

33 Snow in Iowa in January is really unexpected.

34 See assholes? Tax incentives definitely do not work.

35 I had some unexpected emissions after I watched classic '90s Skinemax pron for 90 minutes seconds.

FIFY, Kratos. 

36 I'm quite shocked that the house down the street has been up for sale for two years now. And it's quite unexpected that the spanking new condo complex a couple of blocks aways hasn't sold a single unit in the last year.

37

At least in the end, there will be only chaos.

I'll take it. At least then I'll have an excuse for why I haven't called my mother.

38
President Unexpected

39 Isn't the Obama admin pushing for regulations to force everyone to spend $10K-$20K to "green" their house before they can sell it?

It'll be cheaper to just burn it down and collect the insurance.  I'm just saying...

40 Oh, bullshit!  You must think I'm an Obama voter?

41 Look on the bright side: when hyper-inflation kicks in, at least you'll own a house worth $10,000,000,000 you can't sell.

42 UNPRECEDENTED!!

43 Unexpected? Hell, just be glad the weren't shocked.

44

Perpetual Groundhog Day for these ultramaroons

EXPECT that the PPT and other market manipulators will try and puff up our dead-man walking economy til the elections ... then for the S to HTF. Mao-Mart and other players are already fleeing the US$, and that leak ain't gonna get sealed. No more loans for you gwai-low

Brown in TeddyLand was nice, but either way EXPECT Mau-Mau Man to continue his Czar cum Executive Diktat style of governance.  Congressional makeup is immaterial to his crew

 

45 It'll be cheaper to just burn it down and collect the insurance.  I'm just saying...

Apparently a bunch of people have already thought of that.  My sister and her hubby are still trying to sell the house they moved out of a year ago; their insurance on it went UP after they moved out.

46

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the housing supply is still over capacity. The basic problem is that developers built far too many housing units than demand required. By "far too many" I mean an extra 5 years over supply and that not even taking into account the decrease in demand due to the economic slump. This problem will not be fixed until supply meets demand.

I suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply, since priming the pump with "rebates" don't work anymore (that was their demand side fix). Of course, they'll hide it as some sort of "renewal" project. 

47 It'll be cheaper to just burn it down and collect the insurance.  I'm just saying...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at January 25, 2010 11:03 AM (+2Sr1)

Such a wave of house fires would be completely unprecedented. Also, totally unexpected.

48 The middle class and all business are now frightened to death by their own government.


Don't say stuff like that!  We can't take much more of this dipping!!!

49 AND as we see from that link I posted this morning from NYC, we are starting to get the "unexpected" fail in commercial real estate.

50 Oh for Gods sake!

How much longer is the American public going to put up with this,  "Unexpected" shit? 

Hey 52,  We fucking TOLD YOU this was going to happen, but we were called racists, and what not.  Now, after the circle jerk is over, and the lube has been put away, everyone is shocked SHOCKED at what has happened to our country.

By all means, let's not interrupt our 'historic' President.

Because after all, it's unprecedented.

This admin and any incumbent Congress critter have to go, NOW.

51 The strip malls around here have unexpectedly become ghost towns.

52
Amirite about 1Q economic data effectively ending the Obama presidency or amirite?

April is gonna be a bad month for Obama. But first Obama will be able to brag about pulling the economy from the brink when positive GDP numbers are released for 4Q 2009, I predict.

53 hatchet five:  your sister is now insuring her former lived-in home with a "fire" policy instead of a "homeowners" policy.  Homeowners policies are cheaper (all things being equal like the age, construction, location) because the homeowner actually lives there & is keeping watch (hopefully) on cigarettes in ashtrays, temperature (so pipes don't burst), cutting trees so they don't fall on house, etc.

54 I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the housing supply is still over capacity.

Developers are bulldozing new houses in CA to reduce tax liability.

55 suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply


You could bulldoze all of Detroit for starters...

56 29 Isn't the Obama admin pushing for regulations to force everyone to spend $10K-$20K to "green" their house before they can sell it?

This is part of the Cap and Trade Bill passed by the House.  It is absolutely necessary to fight the imminent demise of all life on Planet Earth from global warming pay for Michael Mann's grant from the Stimulus Bill.

57 43 Oh, bullshit!  You must think I'm an Obama voter?

Posted by: Joanna's Mom at January 25, 2010 11:04 AM (xqzGc) 

Ha! I wish. That'd be easier to deal with. (The Drama Llama is a permanent resident at her house.)

58 48

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the housing supply is still over capacity. The basic problem is that developers built far too many housing units than demand required. By "far too many" I mean an extra 5 years over supply and that not even taking into account the decrease in demand due to the economic slump. This problem will not be fixed until supply meets demand.

I suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply, since priming the pump with "rebates" don't work anymore (that was their demand side fix). Of course, they'll hide it as some sort of "renewal" project. 

Posted by: Ken at January 25, 2010 11:06 AM (Bs34i)

That would be an unprecedented move, but not unexpected. I've been reading - for a year - lefties blathering about downsizing cities, returning urban land to rural status, turning cities into urban centers surrounded by a ring of small towns sited in a belt of farms, etc.

If the government does try this stunt, expect for the money to be spent on cities like Detroit, where a Dem mayor can call it "revitalizing," and the Obama regime can claim it is stimulating the local economy.

Yeah, what I thought was nonsense might well become Stimulus 2.0.

59
prediction: Home Depot's and Lowe's earnings will come in 'unexpectedly' short.

And then they'll 'unexpectedly' announce layoffs...and then unemployment will 'unexpectedly' rise.

hmmm, funny how that works? We're in recovery, my ass.

60 suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply

Gone beyond "propose" in Detroit.  They're actually doing it on a very large scale.

61 55  That's only part of it.  Her insurance man explained that a bunch of folks have previously tired of trying to sell empty house and simply burned it for the insurance money.  So vacant house for sale is now viewed as much higher risk for a claim.

62 Barry has unexpectedly created or saved thousands, 1.5 million, 2 million 300 gazillion jobs.

63

The ineptitude of a dem controlled economy is most unexpected.

64 You could bulldoze all of Detroit for starters...


I was thinking Flint myself.

65 Yeah, pretty much anything that is bad news for Barry qualifies as "unexpected" to the MSM.

After all, the LightWorker was supposed to fix everything just with the awesome power of his total hunky awesomeness.  Right?

66 62 suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply

Gone beyond "propose" in Detroit.  They're actually doing it on a very large scale.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at January 25, 2010 11:12 AM (+2Sr1)

Yes, but its that nasty populace doing it. We must have a properly planned and administrated Program of trashing renovating failed cities urban areas. How else can we ensure we control it and make sure our cronies profit from the chaos rehabilitation?

67

I've had a foreclosed on home on my street for almost 2 years.

My husband and I used to watch them roll up in new cars, get a boat and relandscape the front yard. Having spoken to them and knowing what jobs they had, we kept scratching our heads and asking each other, "How can they do all that? How can they afford it?"  and be a little jealous, looking at our older cars and lack of toys.

We're not so jealous anymore, just pisssed having to look at the tall grass and shit slowly accumulating in the yard, and lowering all the property values in the neighborhood.

The rental on our street has 12 people living it.

That is what most neighborhoods in SoCal are like these days.

68 Like any type of temporary tax credit all Obama did was give away tax payer money to steal sales from the future. The people that bought were going to buy anyway they just did it sooner to get some government cheese.

69 "Burn it down and collect the insurance ".
The guy that owned the property we now occupy did exactly that . I rebuilt our house on the slab and tied into the chimney that was all that remained after the conflagration . Apparently the insurance company that covered him couldn't prove it despite the locals all treating the arson as common knowledge . If my house burned(god forbid) my insurance company would crawl into my life worse than the watergate investigators.
The previous owner(arsonist) was also an evangelical preacher and ex marine . He ended up skipping out of his next house after defrauding quite a few of his congregation . We live in a poor rural area , so the people he scammed were seriously hurt . Like stealing from widows and orphans .
I'll have to nominate that guy as one of the all time greatest scumbags .

70 A house that had been on the market near me for more then a year finally sold; I spoke to the realtor - several buyers simply were never able to get the seller (a bank) to sign the contract. The buyer is paying cash, no loan -- the rich are moving into my neighborhood --Yeah, I think.

71

Even giving away $8,000 dollars isn't enough anymore.

 Neither are record low interest rates. Time to kick start the real estate market with exotic mortgages. Its immoral that school bus drivers making $38,000 a year can't qualify for $800,000 houses.   

72 I just don't get why two houses of my young married neighbors have brothers living with them.

73 PA, it's the psychology of no longer believing owning a home (or owning a more expensive home) is a good investment.  The dark cloud of socialism cancels and postpones games even if it never actually rains (or hasn't rained yet).

Next up:  a Congressional playing up of the idea of maintaining the Bush tax cuts.   People will run on the plank of making them permanent; whether they are so made, or just extended will depend on the aftermath of November.

74

I'd  be happy with an extra relative living with my neighbors. It's those other 10 or 11 (with their cars and noise) that frost my butt.

Kids and prowlers started invading the empty house, making life interesting.

 

75 Was that the Bush Bubble ?

76 "suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply" -- that would have been an actually useful way to spend stimulus dollars. No planning, no environmental issues, just civic work that has some residual value -- all mobbed up, but that shouldn't have been an issue for Obama.

77

I don't think that as a general rule we have an over-supply of private housing. I think we have a combination of two major problems:

1st the price of housing has still not corrected from the bubble due to the actions of this admin to attempt to prop it up. Housing is STILL over-priced in a lot of markets. I speak here from some reserch in the area where I used to live in CA. 1950s era track housing is still going for over $500/sq ft.  That is insane. You basically have to be wealthy to pay $500/sq ft for a house.

The 2nd major problem is that people are OUT of work and have no money. They are having problems buying a loaf of bread and a slice of baloney, much less a house at $500/sq ft.

We don't need to bulldoze housing. We need to get rid of the communists in Washington so the economy can recover and allow the price of housing to seek their own level in the market.

 

78 NYC East River (one of the) biggest real-estate boondoggle,
Apt.-R-Us; who are the creditors now owning all those units?
Would it be the taxpayers when the busters gets a bail-out?

79 Somewhat OT:

Today CNN had a whole segment about tracking the stimulus money. The gist of it was... cash is either not being used, or being thrown down the toilet. For example, there is $5 BILLION for weatherproofing. Some of the money has been used in Texas, and another state down south, maybe Georgia.

Am I the only one that thinks weatherproofing should be used in states where it (ahem) gets cold and snows?

80 Our new sour cream and onion Ball Dip provides unexpected pleasure... Enjoy it while you watch the unexpectedly dreadful SOTU this week!

81

BTW; it is really stupid to even try to prop this crap up anyway because eventually IT WILL find its own correct price; it always does.

All propping it up does is make different winners and losers. Government is not supposed to be in the buisiness of deterining who the winners and losers are.

 

82

Am I the only one that thinks weatherproofing should be used in states where it (ahem) gets cold and snows?

Texas and Georgia experience more extreem hot days than some Northern States experience extreme cold days. It works both ways.  In the North they have high heating bills in the Winter, in the South we have high cooling bills in the Summer.

83

Sooo, if the results of your theorys and actions are "unexpected", and of course for the worse, don't you think that you would re-think the theory?

If a physical scientist or engineer has this happen (say the dam collapses), hell is going to pay. Now you could argue that this is social science, and since it fails so often I think you need to strike the science part.

And the worse thing is, these people just crop up on all the Sunday AM talk shows and keep insisting that their policies will make things better. So now the meme needs to be "Really Senator,(or whomever), what if the unexpected happens"?

Make sure they come back the following week or month, and press them hard on what they predicted and what the actual results were of their policy or law.

 Sweat them. That would make things really interesting.

84

Even giving away $8,000 dollars isn't enough anymore.

 

Gosh, which is amazing considering you could buy an entire house in Detroit for 8k!  Course, then you'd have to live in  Detroit...

85 You could bulldoze all of Detroit Washington, DC for starters...

FIXED!

86 56 I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the housing supply is still over capacity.

Dr Housing Bubble Blog is all over the shadow inventory phenomena.  Banks are not foreclosing or delaying foreclosure in order to not take the write downs. Dr. HB has massive stats on this farce.  For example, in LA for a very specific zip code, the MLS shows 19,000 homes for sale.  But if you add in homes that have had a Notice of Default, plus those in default but not yet foreclosed, he comes up with an inventory of over 100,000 units. You go from a supposed healthy inventory of 3 months to sickening inventory of over 3 years. He's saying another 50% drop in prices in SoCal.

This will be frickin' ugly.  And the MSM rides to the rescue and says we're in recovery with a healthy 3 month inventory.  Riiiiiiiight.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the banks and the govt are complicit in encouraging this practice, as the govt revenue off of property tax will implode if the prices were set to reflect the reality.  Fraud is what I'd call it.
Clearly there are other major motivations/ramifications beyond pptax, but this is one way they are stealing your money even if you are "supposedly" not affected by the housing implosion. (Keeping the home values artificially propped up so your tax assessment remains high.)

87 #88 I don't think anyone really knows how much L.A. is a housing market of cards.

88 Community organizing, affirmative action president with no previous record of accomplishment is unexpectedly fucking up everything he touches.

89 What the fuck is this shit?

Eight grand?

Eight grand barely pays closing costs on a decent house, and doesn't even do that on a really *nice* place.

That's like expecting to "stimulate" care sales by offering to pay for their floormats.

What a bunch of retards.

90 Also that "expected fall of 10%" is because large purchases are ALWAYS expected to fall in December because people do not generally make major life purchases during Christmas.

91

65 The ineptitude of a dem controlled economy is most unexpected.

Especially by those who are confused and flustered by the rising of the Sun each morning.  But then, life is so much more exciting for them...

92 "suspect the government's next move will be to propose destroying housing units, reduce supply

Gone beyond "propose" in Detroit.  They're actually doing it on a very large scale."

The Detroiters have some fun along these lines every Halloween. The solution is to have Halloween at least once a month and have the MSM produce TV shows about how much fun it is, to encourage the spread of the Motown festivities to other cities. It then becomes a citizens initiative and BO can claim the savings in not having the government do it. Everyone wins!     

93 Banks are not foreclosing or delaying foreclosure in order to not take the write downs.

Yep.  This is why the Federal Reserve bought up $1.3T of those toxic mortgages.  They're trying to blunt the impact when the banks do ultimately have to take the hit.

Of course the Federal Reserve got'em cheap and expects to ultimately make a profit.  But since nobody audits the Federal Reserve, they can hide any badness a lot longer than commercial banks.

94 Gosh, which is amazing considering you could buy an entire house in Detroit for 8k!  Course, then you'd have to live in  Detroit...

All that's left in Detroit are criminals, welfare moms with 92 kids and old people who can't get out.

So no, you don't want to live there.

EVER.

And you'd be wasting your eight grand.

Unless someone wants to buy your house and make a parking lot out of it. Then you might see a return on your money.

95

88For example, in LA for a very specific zip code, the MLS shows 19,000 homes for sale.  But if you add in homes that have had a Notice of Default, plus those in default but not yet foreclosed, he comes up with an inventory of over 100,000 units. You go from a supposed healthy inventory of 3 months to sickening inventory of over 3 years. He's saying another 50% drop in prices in SoCal.

That's not even counting what it will be next year when the most of the Alt-A and Option ARM loans reset--it's going to be 2007-2008 all over again, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it take down the TBTFs, since another TARP bill could result in honest-to-goodness mayhem.  If the people in Congress have to choose at that point between another bank bailout or keeping their jobs, I think they'll throw Citi, BOA, and Wells under the bus without a second thought. 

This is why the Federal Reserve bought up $1.3T of those toxic mortgages.  They're trying to blunt the impact when the banks do ultimately have to take the hit.

I believe Helicopter Ben said the Fed would stop buying MBSs in March of this year, but I honestly don't expect that to happen--he'll probably find some "emergency" justification for their continued purchase.

96

"Yep.  This is why the Federal Reserve bought up $1.3T of those toxic mortgages.  They're trying to blunt the impact when the banks do ultimately have to take the hit."

You tellin' me Obama's got a stash of houses, too?  OOOOH-WEEEE, I's gonna vote for him at least four more times next election!  I'm gonna write him in on all the 2010 ballots I do!

97

Only tangentially related but...

Has anyone noticed that the federal goverment interest payment on the federal debt was only $142 billion last year? For 2008 it was almost $400 billion. Despite the enormous growth in our debt we paid an effective interest rate of 1.1% in 2009 versus 3.9% for 2008 (the Federal Fund rate was only 0.16% in 2009). The Federal Reserve has been artifically holding down the interest rates to help pay for the Obama spending programs. Also I believe a lot of debt was refinanced with shorter term, lower rate, bonds. Essentially, Obama got a little advertised extra $250 billion to play with last year.

The long term trend for the last 30 years has been a decreasing effective interest rate. Extrapolating, it looks like the rate will hit 0% in 2020. I don't know what that means, but everytime the interest rate has gone up it has led to a recession. Before Obama leaves office in 2012 things are going to get even more gruesome. Apparently the Fed has shown little interest in raising rates, but sooner or later they will have to to avoid inflation or entice bond buyers or else default on the debt.

98

Apparently the Fed has shown little interest in raising rates, but sooner or later they will have to to avoid inflation or entice bond buyers or else default on the debt.

Yes, the fed is holding rates down trying to hold that housing bubble. This is also one of the reasons nobody is buying bonds except the fed.  When Moody's downgrades the bonds there will be hell to pay. 

99 Obama got a little advertised extra $250 billion to play with last year.

Not really.  Tax receipts collapsed by a similar amount.

100 I unexpectedly have a lot less income tax to pay this year.

101

#101 - I doubt that Obama gives much consideration to the revenue side of things.

That reduction in interest payment wasn't saved, it was spent.

102 The Central Florida market is slow.

103 Very slow.

104 Down, down, down.

105 Business is slow.

106 it's UNPRECEDENTED