Couple of tidbits:
- So the L.A. Times turned to our own Rich Toscano today for a “more downbeat” perspective on the ramifications of this incredible rise in the number of foreclosures in the housing market.
The paper quotes him on the front page today.
The story?
A sagging real estate market and tighter lending standards are exacting a growing toll on Californians, forcing them from their homes in record numbers, figures released Tuesday show.
Foreclosures soared to 17,408 for the three months ended June 30, an increase of 799% from the same period last year. The current rate handily exceeds the previous foreclosure peak set in 1996, when the state was in the final throes of a six-year slump.
Even the guy the Times turned to for an “optimistic” assessment of the ramifications of these numbers wasn’t so positive.
And Rich?
“All the artificial stimulus housing gave the economy is going to go away,” said Rich Toscano, a financial advisor with Pacific Capital Associates in San Diego who runs the popular Piggington.com real estate website. “There will be individual pain for people who made the wrong decisions. We all may end up in a recession.”
The good news, as seen by Toscano: “I don’t envision a ‘Grapes of Wrath’ scenario where we all have to pile in the family car and look for harvesting work.”
The irony that a major national newspaper would end up turning to a guy who has built his name and reputation with online-only insights is, well, Rich.
- Not a good day for people hoping to maintain the mayor’s image as a credible and honest speaker. The U-T’s Gerry Braun hammered him again with a scathing and effective analysis of his rhetoric and the way-too-sympathetic findings of his staff in the Sunroad investigation.
Braun concludes the mayor is “willing to shortchange the truth, intentionally, when it suits his purposes.”
And then Kelly Davis at CityBeat nailed him with claims of yet more trouble keeping his rhetoric honest about a proposed mandatory recycling ordinance:
At a July 17 press conference, Sanders said that neither he nor his staff had seen Aguirre’s proposal and therefore weren’t prepared to discuss it the next day. “The city attorney has never given it to us,” Sanders said. “We’ve asked for it. … Staff will be at the [July 18] hearing, but they won’t be able to participate because they have not seen [the ordinance].”
That statement isn’t accurate.
A mayoral staffer, Jeff Gattas, was given a copy of the ordinance and supporting material before the June 4 committee meeting. At the meeting, Gattas read a prepared response from the mayor, taking a position against the ordinance.
Nice research, Kelly.