Why are so many Americans suddenly relocating, buying guns and storing up huge quantities of food?

In 2020, we have been watching hundreds of thousands of Americans relocate, gun sales have shattered all previous levels, and people are purchasing and storing huge stockpiles of food.  We have seen the American people get deeply concerned about the future before, but we have never seen anything quite like this.  It is definitely a major life decision to pack up everything you own and move to another part of the country, but that is precisely what countless Americans have been doing in recent months.  WABC wanted to know precisely how many people have been doing this in New York City, and the information that they were able to get from the United States Postal Service really surprised them(Read More...)

America’s Summer Exodus: Thousands Flee The Cities Every Day Because They Don’t Feel Safe

In modern American history, we have never seen such a sudden mass exodus away from our major cities.  Overall, the U.S. economy is a complete and total disaster in 2020, but moving companies and real estate agents that work in desirable rural and suburban areas are absolutely thriving right now.  Each weekend we are seeing long lines at U-Haul rental facilities, moving companies can’t handle all of the requests that they are getting, and property values are shifting at a pace that is difficult to believe.  Homes in our core urban areas are losing value very rapidly, and at the same time we are seeing bidding wars for some rural and suburban properties that are absolutely insane. (Read More...)

Escape From New York: Wealthy Residents Flee In Droves As The City Degenerates Into A Hellhole

Hundreds of thousands of wealthy residents have already left New York City, and more are leaving every day as America’s biggest city rapidly degenerates into a hellhole.  This is incredibly sad to watch, because in many ways New York had been an incredible success story over the past several decades.  The 1970s and 1980s were nightmarish times for the city, but over the past several decades it was transformed into a virtual paradise for the wealthy and famous.  Crime rates absolutely plummeted, the city was given a dramatic facelift and a booming financial community brought an unprecedented amount of wealth into New York.  But now many of the old problems are starting to come back again, and a lot of wealthy New Yorkers have decided that it is time to look for greener pastures. (Read More...)

Right Now There Is A “Mad Rush” To Get Out Of The Cities

So many wealthy people are rushing to move away from the big cities that it is creating a bit of a “real estate boom” in many suburban areas, small towns and rural communities.  Fear of COVID-19, a collapsing economy and the tremendous urban violence that we have witnessed in recent weeks have combined to create a frenzy of activity.  Last week, my wife and I heard from a friend in New York City that is all of a sudden desperate to move to another state, and I certainly can’t blame him for wanting to relocate.  If I was in his shoes, I would be wanting to move too.  But at this point so many people are all thinking the same thing that the demand for housing in certain areas threatens to greatly exceed the supply.  In fact, one real estate agent in the San Francisco area is describing it as “a mad rush to get out of the city”(Read More...)

As U.S. Cities Crumble, Demand For Rural And Suburban Properties Is Soaring

Have the events of 2020 caused you to consider moving somewhere else?  If so, you are definitely not alone.  The COVID-19 pandemic, a historic economic downturn and extremely violent riots in major cities all across America are fueling a sudden surge in interest in rural and suburban properties.  This represents a major shift, because prior to 2020 we had seen a tremendous boom in real estate prices in large cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle.  Now a lot of those buyers have become very motivated sellers, but there just isn’t a lot of demand for tremendously overpriced homes in core urban areas that are currently being torn to pieces by rioters. (Read More...)

The Banks Show No Mercy: 10 Foreclosure Horror Stories That Will Blow Your Mind

The Banks Show No Mercy: 10 Foreclosure Horror Stories That Will Blow Your MindDuring the last housing crash, the big banks begged the federal government for help and they received it, but when average Americans ask the big banks for help most of the time the banks show no mercy whatsoever.  If you fall behind on your mortgage payments, the big banks have shown that they are willing to be absolutely ruthless.  They will change locks in the middle of the night, they will toss disabled veterans and families with children out into the street in the middle of winter, and sometimes once the foreclosure process has begun they will not even allow someone to come forward and offer to pay off the loan if they think that they can make more money by selling the home.  The big banks will often string homeowners along for months or even years with loan modification promises, only to drop the hammer on them at the most inopportune time.  Over the past several years there has been case after case where mortgage documents have “disappeared”, where big banks have “manufactured” missing documents out of thin air and there have even been cases where big banks have tried to foreclose on homes that do not even have a mortgage.  Once in a while, the big banks get a small slap on the wrist, but nobody ever really gets into much trouble for any of this.  In fact, the big banks just continue to gain even more market share and even more power.  Hopefully when some of these foreclosure horror stories start to become publicized more widely we will start to see some real changes in the marketplace. (Read More...)

The Last Housing Crash Is Not Even Over But Bernanke Is Already Setting The Stage For The Next One

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is determined to push mortgage rates to record low levels and he is encouraging the banks that the Fed regulates to make home loans more freely.  Wait a second – isn’t that exactly what caused the last housing bubble?  After 9/11, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates and this caused mortgage rates to steadily fall.  Financial institutions were urged to help “expand home ownership” in America, and many of them started making home loans to people who never, ever should have gotten home loans.  When mortgage rates started to go back up, millions of families with adjustable rate mortgages discovered that they could not make their monthly payments.  Mortgage delinquencies absolutely soared and large numbers of mortgage-backed securities suddenly turned into garbage.  So what is the Fed doing about it?  The Fed recently announced another round of quantitative easing in which it will buy 40 billion dollars worth of these mortgage-backed securities a month.  Essentially the Fed is clearing the bad financial paper out of the system and is creating the conditions for another housing bubble.  But will we really fix our problems by going back and doing the same things that got us into trouble in the first place? (Read More...)

27 Amazing Statistics About The Real Estate Crash That Never Seems To End: More Foreclosures, More Underwater Mortgages And More Home Price Declines

The real estate crash that never seems to end appears to be getting even worse.  Home prices continue to go down, the number of underwater mortgages is soaring and the number of foreclosures set an all-time record in 2010.  The peak of the housing market was in 2005 and the subprime mortgage crisis erupted in 2008.  Shouldn’t things be getting better by now?  How many years is this real estate crash going to go on for?  Home builders and those that work in the construction industry are deeply suffering because new home sales continue to hover around record lows.  Mortgage professionals are having a really hard time because very few people are seeking home loans and many of those that are seeking loans cannot get approved.  Real estate agents all over the country are pulling their hair out in frustration and large numbers of them have left the industry completely.  The United States has never had such a prolonged real estate slump in the post-World War 2 era.  Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of indications that the real estate crash is going to get even worse. (Read More...)