Deflated Man

Creator of macroeconomic musical satire album “artificial” + DIY housing analytics. Fueled by dad angst from inflation.

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

@jonbrooks Was seeing it in 2024 in tx even before all this legislation because property taxes soared

https://t.co/899nUfTBPh

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

Why is institutional investor American Homes for Rent so desperate to sell this #SanAntonio #RealEstate home? The price history is WILD. Price has dropped 22%. They rented it for $1895 in 2021, tried to get $2,300 in 2023, couldn't, and decided to sell . https://t.co/ksZvdjNqVq

[Jaie Avila @JaieAvila]

Another taxpayer supported affordable housing project stalls. News 4 I-Team Waste Watch Wednesday night at ten @News4SA

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

@FmrRepMTG @BrathBonespurs Some proposals for solutions: https://t.co/7UH1sblGr3

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

@GrantCardone If you’re on public assistance, maybe not use it to pump real estate?

[Lance Lambert @NewsLambert]

WOW

Net selling among institutional SFR landlords is up 408% year-over-year

Data via @ParclLabs

[Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff]

Thanks to Donald Trump, we now have two Democratic parties. With the defeat of @RepThomasMassie for being a principled fiscal conservative, the Republican Party basically exists in name only. We have two big-government political parties, each offering its own brand of socialism.

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

Because property values are going down

[Dr. StormyWaters @NormanDodd_knew]

Boomers will tell you that you need to pay off a girls student loans, but wont pay off their own kid's student loans, then go drop 500k on an RV.
Young men shouldn't be forced to bail out the daughters that boomers encouraged to get a PHD in dance

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

Beach houses listed at 27% below the original new construction price in 2024

https://t.co/PWTRgqyrmT

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

I used Claude cowork to refine my property tax assessment protest. Downloaded Sold listings from Redfin (allows you to get 350 records in 1 file), asked it grab descriptions from listings online and add a column listing out features.

[Thomas Massie for Congress @MassieforKY]

The truth about inflation… it began with the first COVID spending bill, and I was the only member to oppose it. Meanwhile, Woke Eddie took two of the PPP loans for himself (one to bale hay) and never paid them back. Your tax dollars helped pay for that shiny tractor in his ads.

[Cassandra Unchained @michaeljburry]

Open Letter on Housing, Fannie & Freddie
@realDonaldTrump @pulte @SecScottBessent @FHFA @USTreasury $fnma $FMCC

We studied housing square footage per capita adequacy, and found that there is no problem there. The US in fact has more residential square footage per capita than any other country in the world. This is not a housing shortage, despite what so many say.

The problem is that bigger houses are inefficiently housing fewer people. The post-COVID low rate environment locked people into a lifecycle real estate position. Empty nesters can't sell, first time home buyers cannot buy. Second-hand home inventory is near all-time lows due to record low supply, not record demand. Prices are high due to the same reason.

Home equity is now a record $35 trillion, nearly doubling pre-COVID levels. 40% of homeowners own their homes free and clear - a record. And about 30% of all home buyers pay for homes without borrowing. Older homes were upgraded at a record pace during COVID, extending and refreshing the usefulness of residential real estate.

Artificially low interest rates, ~$6-7 trillion in helicopter cash and forgivable loans helped drive both the home updates and high housing prices.

Work from home moved the office into the home, often expensed or deductible. People with white collar jobs and means chose to live/work in exotic or remote locations.

All of this together does not speak of a housing shortage, or a housing problem.

Instead it is a problem of current residential space allocation and mobility, and this problem was created by government manipulation of interest rates, cash money supply, and COVID lockups that went on too long and changed work/home behavior.

Government created the problem and now maintains policies that prevent free markets from reaching a solution, not the least of which is keeping the GSEs inefficiently run while in conservatorship. Recall Pulte's video upon arriving at Fannie Mae - no one was in the office buildings. The companies have become atherosclerotic, inefficient government programs, while a decade of financial engineering optimized for homeowner wealth accumulation rather than housing market velocity/mobility/fluidity.

Government must fix this problem by facilitating efficient re-allocation of housing stock with higher housing velocity/mobility through the release of the GSEs into free markets.

This is a problem made for the GSEs. Through well-targeted programs, the GSE can help the free market find spaces to intelligently reallocate , and help US citizens with housing mobility.

Building more new overpriced, poorly built homes in increasingly dangerous flood zones and other hazardous fringe areas is not the solution. It adds to the problem through high maintenance burdens on new homeowners with little equity in their homes.

Rather, to build mobility/velocity of homeowners and housing space, the GSEs need to be recapitalized and retain easy access to capital markets. They also need to be run by real mortgage executives, not government functionaries.

To achieve this they need to exit conservatorship in a manner that excites markets to fund these companies, now with guidelines to prevent risk-taking outside of their purpose, and grow their purchases of mortgages of well-targeted specification.

I should have written this into the Recurrence piece itself.

[Rand Paul @RandPaul]

I hope you'll tune in.

[Nick Plumb @PlumbNick]

In 1987, Texas Government Code § 405.018 was established - allowing the Secretary of State to charge a $1.00 fee every single time you hit "Search" on the SOSDirect website.

Almost every other state offers free business searches but Texas chooses to make it difficult for researchers and everyday Texans to verify a companies status.

Public records should not be hidden behind a paywall and should be easily accessible.

Technology has changed a lot since 1987 and it's time Texas stops applying a surcharge for a "tech burden" that no longer exists. The Legislature must repeal the SOS search fee and modernize our transparency.

@SteveTothTX @GregAbbott_TX @KenPaxtonTX

[Deflated Man @DeflatedMan]

Don’t get deflated when you miss shots, dig in, get tough, and play defense.

🔥

https://t.co/b1lTOJo0Rd

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

I was THE member of Congress in 2020 who drove overnight to DC to force a vote on the $2.2 trillion dollar CARES Act.

I couldn’t stop it but I made Congress come to work. The CARES Act caused massive inflation, created fraudulent programs, and funded a national mail-in election.

[Thomas Massie for Congress @MassieforKY]

This map has the swamp scared.

17,660 unique donors to my campaign in one primary election, and we still have 4 months to go.

Every pin on this map matters… can you add another so at least one congressman isn’t a rubber stamp for the uniparty? Thanks! https://t.co/AgJY01IWPL

[NotoriousAirbnb @NotoriousAirbnb]

@VladTheInflator Obligatory

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

Prices coming down is what will close this gap…

[Don Johnson @DonMiami3]

Lennar average home sales price down over 100K in the last 3 years

[National Mortgage News @NatMortgageNews]

While other lenders have been accused of racketeering, plaintiffs suggest the leading homebuilder’s illicit scheme is unique.
https://t.co/ZZ9nTOGxmE