Today I took the last batch of property tax appeals for the year to the Sacramento County Assessment Appeals Board at 700 H Street in Sacramento (as pictured below). Before I headed out of the office though I thought it would be interesting to calculate the difference between the Assessor’s property tax assessment and my [...]

Ben Bernanke Pleads For His Job; My Response to Bernanke – Mish In Stock! Bad Holiday Sales Forecasts – TBP, Barry Ritholtz One of the items that never seems to go out of style is the annual holiday sales forecast. Mix one part survey, one part “foot traffic” analysis, and an (un)healthy dollop of optimistic [...]

A record-high 23,117 trustee sales are scheduled for sale Monday, November 30th,  in the ForeclosureRadar.com coverage area (CA, AZ, NV, WA, OR). Because state laws do not allow trustee sales on state holidays, we expected to see a significant bump in sales Monday. However, the total number of trustee sales per day for the region [...]

I admit that of late my writings have had a rather dark tone. There are certainly a number of severe long-term problems that we must deal with, and they’re going to serve up a lot of economic pain. But the Thanksgiving weekend with the kids has me in a reflective mood, and one that has [...]

Some Jostling, but Less of a Frenzy Among Shoppers – The New York Times Despite the improved mood, frugality has not gone out of style. Many of Friday’s shoppers seemed to stick to lists and take advantage of discounts, rather than give in to impulse purchases. Hotel owners, like home owners, behind on payments – [...]