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A Bull Market In $1,000 Faucets As Home Equity Loans Soar
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
“People don’t want granite countertops — they want marble costing at least 25 percent more,” said Mroz, owner of Michael Robert Construction in Westfield, an affluent town less than an hour’s commute to Manhattan. “Money is so cheap today, people can splurge on $1,000 faucets.”
- From today’s Bloomberg News article: Faucets at $1,000 Abound as Home Equity Spigot Opens
It’s interesting, disturbing and pathetic that this article emerged so shortly after I highlighted the fact that there is about to be a huge, and potentially disruptive reset in home equity loans over the next several years. So while we are still dealing with the ramifications of the prior housing bubble and the HELOCs associated with that debacle, we are right back at it. Extracting additional equity from another phony housing bubble to remodel homes that likely aren’t worth anywhere near what people think once private equity and money laundering oligarchs are done with their binge buying.
As I have said many times before, QE makes a society lose its mind. From Bloomberg:
A year ago, New Jersey contractor Michael Mroz’s customers were focused on saving money when renovating kitchens and baths, he said. Now, with a resurgence of home equity lending, they’re ready to pay for the best.
“People don’t want granite countertops — they want marble costing at least 25 percent more,” said Mroz, owner of Michael Robert Construction in Westfield, an affluent town less than an hour’s commute to Manhattan. “Money is so cheap today, people can splurge on $1,000 faucets.”
Spending on home renovations is rising to records as banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. increase lending for home equity lines of credit, or Helocs, after property prices this year gained at a pace not seen since the last housing boom. Heloc originations could rise 16 percent this year and reach another five-year high in 2014, according to Mustafa Akcay, an economist for Moody’s Analytics, powering the earnings of Home Depot Inc. and boosting the economic expansion.
Helocs were used during the housing boom to cash in on surging property values to spend on cars or take vacations. Often, lenders allowed the loans to exceed property values by 25 percent on the supposition that home prices were only going up, Gumbinger said.
Home equity production at Bank of America for the first nine months of 2013 was $4.4 billion, an increase of 69 percent from the first nine months of 2012 when production stood at $2.6 billion, according to Terry Francisco, a spokesman.
Renovation spending this year probably will rise to an all-time high of $146.1 billion, according to Harvard’s Baker. Last year, the spending was $126 billion, he said.
“People aren’t cheaping out anymore because more of them are getting Helocs instead of saving up cash,” said Mroz. Getting a Heloc is “a lot easier to do with home prices coming back,” he said.
Good lord.
Full article here.
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these fuckers deserve everything that is coming to them..
Granted, but most people are doing it just to stay in their home and enjoy it.
The question is how long will they have the job that allows them to enjoy it?
Yes, QE makes a society lose its mind.
But who's crazy - the people taking out these loans...
... or the people who aren't?
I'm not sure anymore.
Kyle Bass's 2 year limit of amnesia/deja-vous is in play here all over again.
Could this be an economic sign that global climate growth is fine and well. The trashing of so many communities and the rebuilding which takes place once the funding is approved. Don't read too much into your own article, it may not be that deep after all.
NR, could you explain a bit more? i don't quite get if you are serious or sarcastic, but either way you are bumping up against a pretty good topic.
"What kind of idiot takes out a loan when they can't even make the first payment? 'What kind of idiot loans money to someone that can't make the first payment?'" -- parapharse from "The Big Short"
Ben Bernanke, he's the man, if he can't loan money, no one can.
many years ago I worked for a company that imported and resold these ultra high end faucets from Sweden, I believe it was. I was a kid and had no idea anyone would pay that kind of money for something that simply delivered water from pipes. and truthfully, they were really not much different from other faucets, but these guys had a name in the industry, and apparently, if one were to refurbish one of these Boston brownstone, one needed to recklessly splurge on the best or it just didn't cut it.
These days we have a solution for that.
It's called Chinese counterfeit. FTW.
Re "Chinese counterfeit":
Probably made in the same factory as the original. Don't take my word for it. I've never even been to China.
Pssst. Wanna buy a "Pi-phone"?
(Again, I'm only guessing. Feel free to show me if I'm right or wrong.)
pt, good call. a lot of foreign production runs a 'night shift' that the american owners are blissfully unaware of. why would any chinese 'businessman' invest in such silly things as R&D, or a factory, when american suckers provide all that for free
I once met a man that had a "Pi-Phone". Illegal to import in bulk into this country. Out of all the names they could have called it .... I guess it was easier to tool up adding an extra "P".
And, sorry for repeating so soon, its time for this link again. Look at number 8:
http://listverse.com/2010/03/23/10-pretty-stupid-business-moves/
Those of us who stacked missed the UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE SURGE of stocks since 2008. Insane, insecure yet true.
Couldn't agree more... But will the rest of us deserve what is coming with it? When these douches collapse the banks, it's going to be a "bail-in". Then we all get to participate in the "fun".
I predict a good deal of violence. America isn't Cyprus. The only reason we haven't seen even more violence is that not enough people have lost everything.
When people lose everything, they lose it mentally; and all the moral, ethical and social barriers that were hitherto preventing them from engaging.
I'd like to see them "bail in" silver bullion in the vault of a small family bank in a very conservative European country; which said bullion they don't even know exists. Now, that would be a good trick.
I don't think so. So far Americans have been tolerant of the shit that these sociopaths have been doing but that tolerance will come to a swift fucking end if we wake up one morning to discover our bank balances have decreased by 15-20% without millions of banksters and politicians doing the perp walk for fraud. If they bail in Americans then the dollar will already be dead or shortly thereafter and it won't matter anyway imo. All they need to keep doing is inflate the money supply and it's effectively the same thing anyway without the uproar.
But will the rest of us deserve what is coming with it?
We all have it coming, kid. Clint Eastwood -Unforgiven
"QE makes a society lose its mind"---very good comment. Every historical example we have validates this premiss. The availability of cheap specualative capital causes market distortions, which become gross market distortions, which become grotesque market distortions; which become "bubbles"; which POP. Everytime. all the time. 100% of the time. The answer to the difficult, hard to analize, question of what causes market cycles and bubbles; is so simple it offends the mind; easy money.
God bless aMOARica
As long as it's a jump, a noose, or a guillotine blade.
Julian
I have to agree with you but.........................
I am in the UK and same shit is happening.................can you belive it.
Our government is helping (bankrolling) first time buyers and other to buy houses up to £600K that's close on to $1m
Peeps are being brain washed like fish and are grabbing the hook.
Watched a programe on the BBC interviewing a girl who had just purchesed with Gov help with just 5% down, she had no idea that interest rates are at a 300 year low.....................if interest rates rise this girl is toast.
It makes me sick to the stomach how governments are distorting the markets to bail the banks on thier ballance sheets for short time gain and to get back in government.
How the feck can house prices increase when wages are stagnet at best or take home pay is less and cost of living going up......................EASY FECKING MONEY..........AS ALWAYS!
I am guseing this will be the shortest boom in history that will lead to a bigger mess than we are already in.
My 2 cents......................or should that be My $2M due to inflation
I see it here too in the DC area. My coworker lives with some chick that when I mention the word marriage he wants to jump out of his skin and run out the door. So he tells me last week that he put an offer in on a $650k house with this chick that he doesn't even want to marry imo. Both of them make maybe $70k each. I honestly don't see how they could afford that place even with 20% down, which I don't even think they have, but then who am I...
I got out of my house this summer after 10 long years, 5 of them underwater and stuck in a neighborhood that went to section 8 blacks and illegal mexicans. After 10 years I walked out with $1800 in my pocket after expenses. 120 payments, over $10k of repairs and upgrades, and 5 years of dealing with 3rd world low lifes and I have $1800 left to show for it. Fucking ridiculous. Me and the family are making plans to move away from here within 12-18 months. We have all had it.
May I ask which neighborhood?
LACK OF FINACIAL EDUCATION IS THE GOV'S
"WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION"
AGAINST IT'S CASH COW, THE TAX PAYERS
RINSE AND REPEAT
IF IT GOES WRONG...........PRINT MORE MONEY
Saving up "cash"?
Who dat?
Ben BernankYellen followed Paul "when Mars attacks" Krugman's advice and went down on the monetary spigot, again, to blow an even bigger, broader, ballsier bubble, bitchez!
Success!
Going for broke. When this Fed induced bubble blows there will be nothing to save, Hard to do anything when rates are so low.
Got news. This bubble will first exceed dot.com 2000 plus subprime 2007 rolled together before it really takes off to new obscene levels never even imagined in a prop-trader wet dream. It'll be fun. While it lasts.
I hope so. I've always said I wanted to afford a good high quality meth-drug binge before I see a FEMA camp.
Improvements also hike up assessments. The property tax collectors will be happy again.
More money for all those government workers.
Things getting crazy again! I just took out 2 home equities on my new home, and I've not even closed on it yet.
Why only two?
Cause he's only got two fists to punch with, and before long they wont even be worth a damn.
I thought you were never suppse to go Full Retard.
This is fucking mind blowing! After what we went through, to be back at this all over again, and at a time when the main street economy and wages are still in decline. What can you say, if this sucker blows up again, and I hear one word about bailouts, I will lose my fucking mind.
In the past the mobs hung the banksters. This time they they can Pay-Per-View it,
"In the past the mobs hung the banksters."
Nope, we did not hang the banksters, that is why we are having another bubble/crash
One word about bailouts: They're coming.
You better prepare to lose your mind. The bailouts will be bigger and even include your money next time. We can't have our banking system compromised so the criminals will continue to go unpunished. Those pricks are probably writing iron-clad contracts so they get even more money after the bailouts. And predictably, dummies on here will support the criminals because we "have to honor our contracts".
Hey don't worry....these lunatics pinky-swore for reelz double stamped that they learned their lesson last bubble collapse! They got this shit.
Not satisfied enough with rhyming, history is repeating itself on full parade now.
Samuel Clemens never saw it coming.
I CAN AFFORD 1000 DOLLAR TRINKETS,,,,I CAN AFFORD 75000 CARS..BUT I AIN'T GOT ANY DO NOT WANT ANY....MAYBE THATS IT...THE ONES WHO CAN'T AFFORD EM WANT EM...
OK I got a plan...
...if you got the money, and don't need the car, simple...
...buy me one!
I honestly got on the caboose ride in 2007......maybe I can hop back in the caboose return trip in 2014
Thank God there are no bubbles
There is a huge upside to this - for me anyways.
The ex was able to refi the 1st BA and the PNC - and as of today - I am off both them and officially a free man!
And now to stand back and watch this fucker implode - and than maybe check the wreckage for bottom market deals.
That's even better than watching her drive your Porsche off a cliff.
I hate replacing keyboards in the morning. Need more coffee now.
I wonder what a faucet is worth, if no water comes out of it.
@Zero Point
Depends what the faucet is made off
Gold/silver..................still worth something
I've never actually slammed my face against the keyboard before, but this made me come pretty damn close.
A nice cold beer is much cheaper..
I've already consumed more beer this November than January-October combined. And it's not even Thanksgiving. Fucking depressing.
Good thing that, as a runner, my metabolism is still high at the base level, otherwise I'd have gained a gut.
Don't break your neck trying not to break your ankle.
It looks like we have a QE leak into the economy. Facet inflation is running rampant.
My timing was perfect for the additional shitter room i put in last year.
Thar she blows!
Hopefully with a fan to evacuate the noxious odors from a guest dropping a couple of battleships.
BitCoin about to break out of its cup-with-handle formation Last:$864.00
Check out this comment from: http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/11/13/next-up-in-housing-a-huge-home-e...
"My HELOC loan reset in August and went from $375 per month to $1640 per month. I will have to assume that this is fairly typical and that most people won’t be able to cover such an increase. I dealt with the difference by dropping my health insurance policy for my family, which was about $1200 per month. Irony of all ironies, my policy was dropped anyway due to the new ObamaCare rules. You asked for input, Mike. Here it is. And keep up the good work!"
I wonder how much of these skyrocketing home prices is hedging with leverage , locking in 3.5% for 30 yrs, and how much is smart folks getting out of fiat cash trash just before the perceived largest devaluation in history? Stocks have left the station. Bonds are zirped. Gold is under the boot. About the only thing left is R/E.
Might be the average home price hits double in a couple years? The Fed is going to set the bazooka on full auto here, so that folks don't think Mr. Yellen's bluffing.
Got to have people camped out in front of sales offices by the Con-gressional elections.
Get this shit. I became debt free this year after joining a debt consolidation service and ended up paying back about half of what I owed to creditors. Trust me when I say, I kept up the minimum payments for 10 years until I could no longer stay above water after losing a few jobs and having interest rates plunged balls deep in my ass after missing a few payments. I had amassed about 17k in debt and managed to pay back about 9k of it when all was said and done.
In hindsight now, those cocksuckers must have made about 20k in interest payments from me over a duration of about 10 years. So they took the hit for the 7k I didnt pay them on the principle, but take that out of the 20k in interest payments and they still made around 13k off my ass. Some of my APRs got hiked to around 30%
During the last two years that I was locked into the consolidation program, I recieved plenty of harassing calls and the endless flow of credit card applications stopped showing up in the mail. Guess what? The applications started flowing again now that I am debt free, the sharks are fucking circling.
Fuck these bloodsucking cunts, I am tempted to take every goddamn cash back reward/bonus miles/free hotel stay piece of shit card and abuse the fuck out this shitshow of easy credit. I will take every goddamn cash reward, and pay myself back with PM's. Fuck it, maybe even a buttcoin or two.
These shitsacks game us all- with impunity, I am going to pay it forward.
As an aside, this Clown Shoes Muffin Top Belgian Tripel IPA is quite a heavenly nectar. 10% ABV of lovey goodness.
American Craft Beer FTMFW.
Just get every card you can, jack up all the limits by playing their games. Then, once you hit a comfortable amount, google merchant account it all out in cash. Then make a trip overseas and wire it all to yourself. Sell everything you own and anything not nailed down. Payday loan all you want (you'll never be paying it back). Just leave and don't come back. Believe it or not, there is NOTHING they can do to stop you from doing this.
Wow, someone has been thinking about this.....
Thanks for the posts
esquuze my harshness, whytf didn't you do that in the first place then went BK court route? it would've stopped the her-assing calls AND stopped flow of CC apps for few years. I promise.
The hell with bitcoins, Im going to invest in stainless steel mills , everyone wants stainless steel appliances.
Wait till the chinese catch on! they will fill every room with stainless steel appliances, stainless steel furniture, stainless steel cieling fance, stanless steel tv stands
Stainless STEEL BABY!.
Faucets to the MOON!
Those "stainless steel appliances" aren't really stainless steel. Stainless steel is very heavy and expensive; it's reserved for true industrial stoves & ovens & freezers used in commercial restaraunts & such, or very wealthy folks who want the very best and money is no object. These folks eat at fancy resaraunts and don't even know how to turn the appliances in their "dream kitchen" on.
The "stainless steel appliances" aspirational people are filling their kitchens with are really just regular steel appliances with a very thin veneer of aluminum instead of paint. The guts are the same as any other run-of-the-mill home appliance.
You cannot put a refrigerator magnet on a true stainless steel refrigerator. Stainless is non-magnetic.
When our fridge broke down last summer the sales dude was pushing the stainless. When the wife found out she couldn't stick her magnets to it the sale fell through ...
You should see this thing. You can't see the fridge under all the magnets.
And those banks will be happy to foreclose on those homes when their heroin supplier the Federal Reserve colludes with them to crash the equity casino all over again (after they sell at the highs of course).
They're doing it "for the children", but it's a very small pool of children they are doing it for, be certain of that.
SSDD! (Same Shit Different Decade).
On the other side: A friend has a ~10-15 yo house. Half the door knobs have fallen off. Kitchen tap recently replaced because it rusted through and sprung a leak.
Remember back in the day when you could buy simple shit and it would simply last forever?
The new faucent won't last 15 years regardless of price.
Borrowing money at interest in order to buy $1000 faucets is hilarious. Impressive even. Too bad the same shit city water comes no matter how much you spend.
1000/23 = ~43 oz of shiny, sweet silver. You could cast all your faucets and shower heads of silver and be money ahead. Quite literally.
Too bad my earnt dollars has to compete with their borrowed dollars. You think you're safe because you're not the idiot borrower or the idiot lender. Wrong. We are being screwed.
When can I get my Obama faucet?
I am waiting for my Obama BJs.... Just saying!
Could it be to maintain this lifestyle the sheeples will work work work and be broke in the end not realizing that materialsim is crap. Not going to end well. Fucked up society
Geez, and I installed lowly laminate counters in my kitchen, bought my appliances from "scracth and dent" outlets, and installed hickory cabinets myself....
I'm not worthy!
I think it turned out well though.....https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/28203_1414995065470_7628852...
I'd purchase gold and silver using home equity credit.
That's risky unless you plan on holding it for a long time.
i watched people down here pull off an astonishingly successful move i just knew would implode on them, but it never did. now i'm scratching my head, about ethics and intelligence and all sorts of things. basically went like this. owners of ordinary nice middle class homes (all of these guys work for the city or county) watched their values skyrocket. then remortgaged to the hilt, bought vacation farms in the mountains with the cash, free and clear. they then informed the bank they would not be making any more payments on the notes. they are still in the the original homes, having not made a payment in 3-4 years, and have now saved enough money to buy another house with 50% down if they ever have to move. what am i missing here?
SHEEPLE! It is not free money, YOU HAVE TO PAY IT BACK or default!
Fing idiots!
http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USL2N0JB01020131126
Brilliant idea. Max out the home equity loans and then default. The first loans take precedence.
Home equity to pay school loans, then default.
Or max out and buy precious metals, then default. The banksters are stuck with crap while you sitting on reserves.
The foreclosure sale covers some of the first mortgage and the home equity banksters get zero.
The ATM machines back open. What a fucking clown show!
Max them out baby and then stick the banksters with loads of crap.
Game on again.
Hey, Buffet and Munger, eat crap when your famed Well Fargo is stuck with all those defaulted home equity loans.
That is almost motivation enough to do it right there.
I thought that this ended badly last time. Well I just can't wait for silver to be $9 again. That is something worth taking out a HELOC for!
At least you'll have an asset they can't take. The banksters are stuck with a loss.
College loans are non-defaultable.. HELOCs makes them defaultable..
The banksters know it's all an infinite debt game. You just transfer the losses to them again.
Some perspective.
From the Bloomberg article:
"The biggest Heloc holders are Bank of America Corp. (BAC), with $81.4 billion in the third quarter, Wells Fargo with $79.8 billion, and JPMorgan with $70.1 billion, according to Federal Reserve data."
And the Fed continues to add $85 billion PER MONTH to system.
FUBAR.
How ever will the banksters cope ?
"U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks. More than $221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 percent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding"
http://news.yahoo.com/insight-wave-u-mortgage-trouble-threatens-06043020...
“People don’t want granite countertops — they want marble costing at least 25 percent more,” said Mroz,
I was a manager for a short time in an upscale little company north of NYC 15 years ago which cut its own marble and granite countertops from large slabs. Marble is practically impossible to seal long term against staining and is a poor choice for kitchens.