The man who made famous the words "You're fired" isn't taking rejection lying down. After a local council in Aberdeenshire, Scotland turned down Donald Trump's plans to build a, gulp, $2 billion resort and golf course on undisturbed beachfront property, the Trump organization went into high gear. Yesterday, a spokesman for the Scottish Parliament, reeking of logic worthy of one of those stuttering interns on the faux business show The Apprentice, said the national legislators "felt the decision [to reject Trump's proposal] has given a worrying message to the rest of the world that Scotland is closed for business." Some local observers complain that The Donald's lobbying machine got to the national ministers to reopen discussions for the two course and luxury hotel resort.
We aren't close enough to render our own opinion on whether digging up perfectly decent beachfront to make way for super-rich golfers is a good idea or not. But it strains credibility to think that turning down this plan will deter other businesses from building a plant in, say, Kiltundon or Plaidisgreat?
This is an earthshaking step for a national government to supercede the wishes of a local planning council. There must be more to the story, and we can only guess at what the Trump organization offered the MPs, but it must have taken something big, like an opening round at the resort's courses, a slot on Apprentice XII, or the phone number of The Donald's hairdresser.
Housing markets continue to list
Like a boat on stormy seas, the U.S. housing market continues to wobble from one month to the next. Yesterday, though, ZipRealty, a California brokerage that tracks real estate listings in 18 metropolitan areas, reported data that, on the surface, might seem like good news. Sixteen of the 18 markets showed a decline in the numbers of homes listed, one (Los Angeles) was unchanged and one, the besotted Miami market, increased. In all, the 18 metros showed a 2.5% decline between October and November.
Although the relentless Polyannas of real estate may look to the numbers and say, "See, things are turning around," those of us with no skin in the game (or 10 condos in Miami) and the unbiased "experts" are more sanguine. Commenting in the Wall Street Journal today, Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi said, "Inventories of unsold homes will rise substantially further in coming quarters," a consequence of foreclosures and tighter lending terms for would-be homebuyers. Calling it "capitulation," Mr. Zandi added that the dismal market conditions may finally bring sellers to the point of pricing their homes appropriately for the current market.
Among the markets ZipRealty tracks, Boston had the largest month to month drop in house listings at 8.2%, followed by San Francisco (6.4%) and Chicago and Minneapolis (5.8% each). Florida cities like Tampa (-.6%) and Orlando (.1%) showed only trace declines in listings. Prices in a market generally will move inversely to the number of homes for sale; more homes means more price competition means lower prices. It would be logical to say prices in Orlando and Tampa and for sure Miami may be low enough to inspire buyer interest, especially in second-home buyers, but all the badness is not nearly out of the system yet. Bigger bargains are ahead.