nyonyamansor09

If you're one of the four hardy souls who visit this abandoned dump on a regular basis, I can only assume you're suffering from Alzheimer's. Only someone without a memory could keep returning to read the same post day after day without update. If that's you, you've already read this yesterday. Now I can't even remember why I started this obnoxious site. I recall getting a little annoyed with BS real estate media reports. Something that may have been noticeable at one time or another. Initially, I had nothing more than mild contempt for the media. It has grown. It was fun for a while. People talked on forums. Came to visit. Occasionally left a comment. Even babes writing for respectable publications referenced me in their work. The impact had some Tasmanian media peeps actually being more measured in their spruiking. And fewer real estate goons were prepared to take ice-cold stats and pimp them in the media as scorching hot. Someone was watching. But why did it a...

If Jeff Bezos was prepared to outlay $250 million for The Washington Post, you begin to wonder what price for Tasmania's three venerable newspapers? On honesty, integrity and credibility alone I'd expect no less than two bags of Doritos and a bottle of Coke Zero Lime. While we've long been harangued with the plight of newspapers and their depression like operating environment, the weight of the excuse has become tiresome. Important facts in stories are continually viewed as dust to be swept under the nearest Persian. Pride in your efforts? No need. In two years time the jerk on the local news sausage maker will be fitting themselves out as a social media expert or whispering in the ear of your local MP on a daily basis. Alternatively, they'll still be in the same chook pen, churning out the same garbage, while bemoaning the state of the media on twitter each day. You go, girl! Hating the Rupert ethos, while still trudging into work for him? The equivalent of being tea-b...

Time is beautiful. Given enough time you can get fat, bald and start to sprout hair from your ears. Suffering those indignities is worth it because time also builds something else - an artillery. As Sun Tzu said, "while you sweat an imprint into your couch, your enemies sow the seeds of their destruction." Predictions have been made and forgotten by most. Those without shame and something to sell can forever make those predictions without fear of second guessing. Welcome to Tasmania, where the print media is a contemptible landscape of irrelevant whiskey-nosed boozers and their fresh faced, empty headed underlings. You know the type, tweeting while watching Q&A on Monday night allows them to believe they're the state's intelligentsia. Luckily there's me. Thoroughly lazy, yet occasionally motivated by the chance any of Tasmania's lamentable journalistic stock will rip me off and highlight something original. The odds aren't good. The Mercury's pumpe...

When a newspaper croaks, a loyal and important servant to its community is lost. Or that's what the obituaries say. The truth is, a dead newspaper scarcely bears any resemblance to the mythical beast that will be lionised when the printing presses shut down and the plastic bag full of paper and ink stops landing on lawns each morning.  The Advocate, its death assured as a marsupial on a Tasmanian road at dusk, will be one of those lionised newspapers. It shouldn't be. The Advocate's turf is one of Australia's most economically disadvantaged electorates, something that goes hand in hand with low education levels. It's almost assured when The Advocate recycles a press release or culls stats to craft a story, the readership won't find themselves digging any deeper. Forget them trawling ABS spreadsheets for reality.  Sean Ford, senior journalist amongst a bunch of 12 year olds, knows this. He's The Advocate's "resident numbers man" (yep, that's...

"Australian's deserve a lot better, especially on Melbourne Cup day." - Wayne Swan You've really got to wonder about the brain-dead, no real world experience, "thinks they're playing West Wing" staffer, who cooked that one up for Wayne Swan. Really, who has the cheek to raise interest rates on Melbourne Cup day? Clearly it's Australia's right to gamble in peace - on horses and houses. Cheap populism takes no courage. Wayne Swan has no courage and Joe Hockey has no courage, because the easiest scenario here is to hook into a faceless bank and continue to ignore the elephant in the room - Australians are addicted to debt. They continually mainline it into their veins, while hitting a full pipe at the same time. And who acts as the enabler to this situation? The politicians who won't suggest fiscal responsibility. Apparently being so indebted that a rate rise could push you over the edge is someone else's fault. Where is the encouragement to...

It's not everyday a guy blows himself up on the North-West of Tasmania. Guy Fawkes night isn't that popular any more, which stops the most industrious Dads passing down their backyard knowledge of fireworks to their kids. First National Real Estate CEO, Ray Ellis, however is an exception. Yesterday, Ellis and his unnaturally large set of Captain America white teeth, found himself sitting on a box of dynamite with a quick burning fuse after suggesting , well I'll copy/paste so you can regale in the comedic horror: "SELFISH" baby boomers are keeping generation Y out of the housing market, First National Real Estate chief executive Ray Ellis believes. Mr Ellis paid out on what he called the "most self-indulgent, spoilt, want everything for nothing generation that ever existed" in an exclusive interview with The Advocate during a visit to the North- West on Wednesday. He wants governments to encourage boomers to move into smaller homes to free up housing for...

Apologies for the lack of anything substantial this week, unfortunately I do have employment and other things going on. Needless to say little has changed in Tasmania - except for it getting worse. Burnie listings have exploded, so much so, I feel like a bear handler from a former Soviet state when talking about it - I could be up on cruelty charges, it's almost poking a caged animal with a stick at this stage. Devonport continues to rise and Launceston looks like it's about to blow after adding another fifty plus listings before the week is out. After reading Jeremy Grantham's latest "Night of the Living Fed" newsletter at work today, I had hoped to present it as some super new news, but David Llewellyn-Smith squeezed me out on that front. I will say, in a moment of Chris Joye pomposity, I'm taking credit for Grantham's follow up, given the fact I made sure GMO was fully aware of the the howling from Australian vested interests to his bubble claims. Take...

Announcer: Reports continue to flow from the outer colonies of plastic and wood structures being erected on front lawns. Debate rages in the local communities regarding the how and why, but one consensus has emerged - this isn't good for real estate prices. Lady stands in front of house. Lady: I don't know where these signs are coming from, but I want it to stop. I've got one either side of me and the longer they sit here the more I can feel my home value going down and we've only got 10% equity in this thing. We had 15% but we took some out to buy a new boat and BBQ. As the bad news piles up, much to the chagrin of the real estate industry, who have effectively now lost control of the media, the bubble boys are furiously comparing notes - trying to understand where the epicentre is. Don't discount Tasmania's ability to punch above its weight. Right now in Tasmania, real estate signs are appearing like the plague cross did in 1400's Europe. Real estate agent...

We aren't even there yet and life is beginning to imitate art. With news again rumbling out of the RBA about potential rising interest rates and credit card debt back scaling the mountain of stupidity, a dude in the Hobart suburb of Moonah has gone all Nancy Botwin, moonlighting as a pot barren to ease his financial distress. Why? Well for this guy, the brown stuff from the bowels hit the air displacement mechanism when the fixed rate mortgage on a rental property switched from fixed to variable. It was then, the mild mannered father of three, junior soccer coach and scout volunteer, saw a grow-op as his best chance to get things back on track. As you'd understand, for any average guy who was earning over $100k a year - well it's hard out there for a pimp - when he trying to get money in as rent - SUV and petrol money spent - and bitches like me talking shit. That's right, brother was earning over $100k a year and still struggled with the payments before he turned hydr...

It’s slightly ironic, as we come to the end of Mental Health week, that the real estate industry is having an anxiety attack and from my remote diagnosis, showing signs of bi-polar disorder. Yesterday, while the REIT CEO was busy participating in a feature on the North-West of the state, detailing how tough the Tasmanian market was, giving quotes on sales being down 20% and where blame should be apportioned, the newly minted REIT President was at the other end of the state, talking up Tasmania - with higher demand and strong interest from speculators.   Somebody is off the reservation, or possibly hasn’t even arrived on the reservation yet. Whatever the case, the REIT needs to get their communications in order, maybe a dose of Malcolm Tucker would do the trick. A united front at least gives the appearance, to the less nuanced amongst us, that everything is fine. It’s clearly not. The lead for the article was an unfortunate boast – “ Sandy Bay is makin’ it rain: Dollar bills f...

They used to tell me I was selling a dream, and so I followed the mob, When there was a home to show, or contracts to sign, I was always there right on the job. They used to tell me I was selling a dream, with riches and glory ahead, Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread? Brother, can you spare a dime? This morning, on the way to work, some guy sporting a bluetooth ear piece and a sharp suit was hassling me for spare change. Confused, I tossed him a coin and thought nothing more of it. By mid-afternoon I knew what was up and I wanted my coin back. Apparently there is a real estate Hindenburg going down in Tasmania (who knew), which some real estate agents finally admitted to this morning. You probably already know about this because it was featured on bubblepedia and delusional economics this afternoon. And right now the web nerds at The Advocate are busy scratching their heads, wondering where all those hits came from. Online , our old buddy, Deanne ' seve...

In the face of continuing rodent infested news for housing, what better time for BIS Shrapnel to come out with one of their housing outlooks, predictions, forecasts, whatever. One seems to roll out every quarter, under a different guise, reheating essentially the same information. Basically with the job of communicating from the sector, to the naive, through a lazy media, how awesome shit is gonna get. The equivalent of an agent reassuring you: "you'll never lose in this location." And if you are naive, or just twelfth man on the deal team, last to know - this one rolled out after being commissioned by QBE LMI. Yes sir, they're a big old issuer of mortgage insurance. Needless to say house prices are going up. So don't delay, buy one for Mum, one for Dad and one for QBE. In the face of all common sense, you can make 13% in Hobart over the next 3 years, or you could go backwards even further, like some Hobart residences previously featured in this blog. Which bring...

Rotten. That would be the only way to describe the latest ABS housing finance statistics for Tasmania. Sure they're up on last month and you can make statistics dance anyway you choose, if you're so inclined. Yet for the whole of 2010, Tasmanian housing finance commitments have not cracked 1000 in any month. Well what does that mean? August and September of 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, was the last time figures hit this mark and looked like staying there. And we know what happened next, Rudd and Swan tossed money out into the battlefield and their doe-eyed saleswoman, Tanya Plibersek, sold the cash bribes to the naive and inexperienced first home buyers. Thanks to that intervention, the figures climbed above 1000 and stayed there until January this year, when the bribe was withdrawn. Since that point Tasmanian housing finance commitments have continued in a bottom bumping trend, under 1000 per month. To put this in perspective, sub-1000 is a figure not con...

It’s only taken six weeks and I can officially get high on the smell of my own farts. This morning a North-West reader alerted me the local newspaper, The Advocate, had written a story questioning any housing shortage - going so far as to suggest there might be a bunch of empty houses around the state. I ran out and grabbed the paper, in the process half expecting pig poop to land on my head at any moment. Upon reading the article I found myself as pleasantly surprised as anyone could be in this situation – don’t kid yourself, the weekly Domain real estate lift out is probably the ventilator keeping this newspaper breathing. Now anyone who’s read this mangy mess of a blog would quickly realise The Advocate story had my fingerprints all over it. After all, it was only last weekend I drove a dagger into the heart of any spruiker cunning enough to suggest the North-West had a shortage of housing. And a month earlier I suggested Tasmania was currently building a new dwelling for every 1.84...