Posted on 03/14/2016 5:58:43 AM PDT by artichokegrower
Due to Prop. 13 back in the 70s, California only reassesses when the property is sold. I pay basically the same property tax I've paid for 15 years, even though my house is worth almost three times more. Insurance doesn't really change much because the growth is all land value, not the residence.
Yes. The Cubans expropriated mostly oil fields and casinos and hotels owned by American interests. Mexico also expropriated all the foreign-developed oil fields in northeastern Mexico (Chicontepec, which is still a monster today, and the "Golden Lane" fields) and have only recently allowed, again, foreign participation in Mexican oil reserves.
Saudi Arabia expropriated Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company, co-owned by four companies) in the 70's, as did Iran after the fall of the Shah (mostly British interests).
More recently, Venezuela expropriated both producing properties and facilities, and also certain intellectual property developed by Exxon and Conoco, in particular proprietary processes for rendering tar and other heavy hydrocarbons into refinable feedstocks.
Hello, amigo, good to see you.
Your stated principle is a very, very old one. In the Roman Laws of the Twelve Tables (which were from about 400 BC, very early in the Republic), the principle was:
Adversus alienum ius semper esto.
"Against the foreigner [the citizen] shall always have rights."
Which meant simply that any access-capitalist games that rich foreigners might have been accustomed to playing at home would not be played on Roman citizens, in Rome.
House in suburbs south of Houston recently sold for way more than the listing in cash to a guy from Iran. Lots of homes in same area now being sold to muslims, all for cash and all well over current market value. Driving appraisal values for other homes up which results in a huge increase in taxes and insurance.
Does not bode well for the future.
I’ve been wondering who is buying up so much RE lately.
In some areas, every single halfway decent property at a cheap price is pending. Way outside the norm.
I believe our govt or some ME govt or both are buying this stuff up for “refugees”. One of the places I looked at was on the list of cities slated for invasion.
I’m somewhat alarmed by it.
The real-estate game is being played with alacrity in Houston. All the forces come to bear on the homeowner to sell up and accept a tiny one-bedroom in Jungle Acres or a trailer-house in far, far, far-exurban Decker Prairie.
Meanwhile, his 90-year-old Craftsman house or his 50-year-old tract-development ranch gets torn down either for rack-'em-and-stack-'em five-story future slums developed and spun off by Trammell Crow Interests (and other Bush family peers of the Realm) or new McMansions in the popular Overweening Screwyoulusers style. (Heated driveways in cold climates, heated towel racks, servant quarters [complete with irons], three-car garage, port-cochere and showoff driveway. Pool, of course. Tennis court, optional. BMW or [better] Bentley, bring your own. Your driver and security man can share the quarters with the housekeepers.)
Texas has a populist program of its own to promote property ownership, esp. by veterans: Each veteran living in Texas can apply to own 10 acres (bring your own mule), which the State makes available from tax forfeitures et cetera.
Hijra, immigration warfare, Koranic style.
Death to kufr kwai-loh gueros. You dead, Joe -- errabody hate you, devilhead white boy! Mate los todos!!
<Cue Apocalypse Now>
</off Apocalypse>"____ you, Joe! You die rill soon, Joe!" <Thunk! .....(pause) .... CRASH!! ....(silence)>
"It isn't paranoia if they're really out to get you."
Your analysis is frightening but I believe realistic.
Make a fine tag line.
My own view is that the Arabs are in a lot more jeopardy.
China looks like the big hog at the oil trough these days.
They won’t kiss the sheiks @sses like we do.
Thank God for the frackers who have put the US in a much better situation with our oil and gas supply.
Why, thank you, suh! (Bows, sweeps ground w/ hat plume)
It's something I keep in the back of my mind that helps me to stay politically incorrect.
Favoring fellow-citizens over Foreigners! How dare I?!
;)
Yeah. Anybody notice all the attention the Chinese are paying to East Africa, and the naval bases they're building on the Indian Ocean? (The Indians themselves have noticed, several years ago when the Chinese started quietly, quietly building naval infrastructure there.)
The biggest one is in southwestern Pakistan, not too far from the Strait of Hormuz and the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Not really a dissent, but two points:
First, a lot of Chinese money is not subject to the Red Chinese government as the people with the money are taking the money out of China because they found a way to do this. They got rich off the Red Chinese system and now they want to enjoy it. I do not know about some sects that as you say may keep their loyalty to the home country. This failure to assimilate has been a problem with immigration from lots of people, most noticeably with Muslims today. I agree this is not good.
Second, this has been going on for a long time, and was done by the Japanese even before that. The crash of US real estate values hurt the Japanese investor and many sold back out (lower). I once played golf with an agent from Fox and Carskadon who went to China and set up deals to sell mansions in Hillsboro. He only had to make one deal a year to earn a fabulous salary. (This would be around 1980)
These are just some of the billions of the Chinese trade surplus coming back to the US.
It highlights Trump’s fallacy in condemning our current trade with China. Those dollars that the Chinese hold have to be spent here.
My neighborhood is starting to see teardowns of post-war houses to put up McMansions. The value of the houses are out of line with the property costs. Good for us, though. The trap we’re in is that we can’t make what would essentially be a lateral trade without tripling our tax bill. Our plan is to sell when we retire and leave the state. Until then, I pay a reasonable mortgage on a nice little 1949 house that’s built like a tank. We were lucky to buy in 2001, right after there was a real estate crash out here but before prices went crazy. We were never upside down after 2008, and now we’re back to 2007 prices.
So you buy Japanese or Korean?
Where’s your computer and cell phone made?
I was speaking more about the attitude of the ChiCom government, who in the case of the Falun Gong people I mentioned who were complaining about the Chinese diplomats, was telling these emigres what their allegiances were, and they made clear that these people were Chinese first and last, never mind that they'd taken American citizenship.
That's going to be a problem.
I don't see why they'd have to be spent in the U.S. It would seem their profits would be just as spendable in Asia or Africa.
Oh great we are going to get another run up in the real estate market, bubble anyone?
If you go to Japan or Europe you have to pay with yens or euros. If you have dollars you have to trade them for those currencies. What does the guy (the bank) that ends up with those dollars do with all those pieces of paper called dollars? Do they keep them under a mattress? Most banks are not stupid, they want to get a return on their assets. So they use those dollars to buy dollar denominated assets - American goods and assets. Stocks, bonds, RE, etc.
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