Mapping The U.S. Zip Codes Where "The Rent Is Too Damn High"

As America"s young snowflakes graduate their liberal bastions of higher education and get ready to migrate around the U.S., at least those who were lucky enough to actually find a job after graduation and avoid the embarrassment of moving back home with mom and dad, we thought it would be helpful to take a look at where they might get the most safe space square footage for their money. 

And while it may come as a complete "shock" to our readers, those moving to New York and California will seemingly have the hardest time covering monthly rent payments according to the following map from Rent Cafe:

In fact, aside from one zip code in Boston, every single one of the top 20 most expensive zip codes in the country come from a couple of square miles of real estate in Manhattan and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the more affordable areas seem to be concentrated in the "Red States" in the southeast and midwest.

Of course, it"s not just high rents that people in NY and CA have to contend with as many of the states with the highest rents also have the highest state income tax rates. 

All of which probably helps explains why folks in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco are packing up and moving out by the 1,000s.  Not surprisingly, America"s "domestic migrants" are flocking to areas with a lower cost of living, lower/no state income taxes, less regulations and higher job growth (aka "Red" states). 

Could it be that while the enlightened citizens of NY and CA love to "preach" their liberal policies they prefer to "practice" their citizenship in states that afford them the economic benefits of conservatism?

San Francisco Launches Public Defender Office Dedicated To Illegal Immigrants

To our complete "shock", the liberal bastion of California"s northern shores has just announced that it will create a brand new branch of the Public Defender"s office to specifically defend illegal immigrants in deportation cases.  Adding insult to injury, taxpayers will have to pony up an additional $200,000 each year to cover the cost of 3 public defenders and a paralegal, all of whom will be dedicated to making sure that federal laws are ignored.

As an NBC affiliate in the Bay Area notes, the new office is expected to handle just 50 clients per year of the 1,500 detained immigrants that currently have scheduled court dates.  All of which just means that taxpayers should expect that $200,000 price tag to grow exponentially over the coming years.  

Unlike in criminal court, immigrants are not automatically entitled to legal representation in deportation proceedings. However, studies have shown that detained immigrants with attorneys are six times more likely to win their cases.

While San Francisco also provides funding to nonprofits specializing in legal aid to immigrants, the public defender"s office is intended to serve those already in detention, a demographic the nonprofits generally don"t serve.

The unit"s attorneys are each expected to handle around 50 clients per year -- a small portion of the estimated 1,500 detained immigrants who currently have court dates in San Francisco, around 85 percent of whom do not have attorneys.

Meanwhile, thanks to a press release issued by the San Francisco Public Defender"s office, we learn that the enforcement of federal laws is apparently "against our core values as Americans and San Franciscans"...who knew?

Adachi noted that in the 100 days since President Donald Trump signed his executive order expanding immigration enforcement priorities, immigration arrests have risen 38 percent nationwide.

“Mass deportation is against our core values as Americans and San Franciscans,” Adachi said. “Due process still means something in this country and we are not going to let the federal government ship off our friends and neighbors without a fight.”

Unlike in criminal court, non-citizens in immigration detention do not have the right to court appointed counsel, explained Francisco Ugarte, managing attorney of the Public Defender’s Immigration Unit. Approximately half of the 1,500 detained immigrants with court dates in San Francisco have been in the U.S. for more than a decade. More than 50 percent have one or more close family members who are citizens.

“These are longtime residents who work, attend school, and contribute to our city,” Ugarte said. “Without this program, most would be forced to defend themselves in court against trained government lawyers.”

Can we also declare that "grand larceny" is "against our core values as Americans" because we think it"s absolutely bogus that we can"t have a couple of Lamborghini"s just because we"re "economically challenged."

Surging Fraud In Auto Loans Looking Eerily Reminiscent Of Mortgage Bubble

So what do you do when you"ve pulled forward every single car sale you possibly can courtesy of low interest rates, lengthening terms and generally loosening credit standards targeting incremental subprime buyers?  Well, you take a play out of the 2008 mortgage crisis playbook and just start submitting fraudulent loan applications, of course.

And, at least according to a new study from Point predictive, that is exactly what is starting to happen.  Per Bloomberg:

Borrower fraud in U.S. auto loans is surging, and may approach levels seen in mortgages during last decade’s housing bubble, according to a startup firm that helps lenders sniff out bogus borrowers.

As many as 1 percent of U.S. car loan applications include some type of material misrepresentation, executives at data analytics firm Point Predictive estimated based on reports from banks, finance companies and others. Lenders’ losses from deception may double this year to $6 billion from 2015, the firm forecast.

Those fraud rates are coming closer to the over-1-percent level for mortgages in 2009, when the financial crisis was boiling and more lenders started reporting incidents to one another, Frank McKenna, chief fraud strategist at the firm, said in an interview. While those losses will sting lenders, the impact on the overall economy will likely be much more muted than with the housing crisis, just because there’s less car debt outstanding.

Even so, “We see an extraordinary amount of parallels between the auto and mortgage industries, in terms of the rising levels of hidden fraud,” McKenna said. For home loans, it’s hard to know how widespread the deception was before 2009, because lenders often didn’t report information to one another and may not have even investigated incidents of probable lying much on their own, McKenna said.

Shocking, and we thought this exponential auto loan growth was all legit...

Point Predictive has put together a consortium of lenders to share data about dealers, loans and potential fraud. The group, now 13 strong, met at the headquarters of Santander Consumer USA in Dallas last month. Common types of fraud include borrowers and/or auto dealers lying about income and employment, including falsifying paystubs. Loan applications can also include bogus information about the type of car being financed, or its value.

Now, right on cue, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs has filed a petition against a group of Major World dealers alleging that fraudulent loan applications had been submitted to lenders that contained, among other things, inflated income and asset statements.  Per NBC New York:

According to a petition filed by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, sales people at the Major World dealer group prepared dozens of auto loan applications containing inflated income and asset statements. The false information helped unqualified buyers purchase vehicles they could not afford.

In 2014, the I-Team reported on Margaret Zollner, a car buyer who accused staff at Major Chevrolet of tricking her into signing a loan application that falsely stated her income was $60,000, even though she was an unemployed senior citizen who needed food stamp benefits to get by.

Zollner"s application also reported that she owned a house, but she rents her home.

"They said I made $60,000 a year. I was on food stamps," Zollner said.

At the time, a spokesperson for Major World suggested Zollner was responsible for signing her name to inaccuracies on the loan application.

Perhaps this helps explain those surging "deep subprime" loans...

...and the predictable resulting surge in delinquencies....

...and loss severities... 

All great signs of a "plateau."

Here Are The States With The Highest Property Taxes

ATTOM Data Solutions has scoured county-level property tax records from across the country to figure out exactly who is getting punished the most on their real estate taxes.  To our complete "shock", the resulting map looks eerily similar to the 2016 presidential electoral college map with the liberal bastions of the Northeast and Midwest suffering the highest property tax burdens.  Per RealtyTrac:

Average Annual Property Tax was $3,296, an Effective Tax Rate of 1.15 Percent; Highest Effective Tax Rates in New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire, Vermont; Owner-Occupied Properties Register Higher Effective Tax Rates Than Investment Properties

ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s largest fused property database, today released a 2016 property tax analysis for more than 84 million U.S. single family homes, which shows that property taxes levied on single family homes in 2016 totaled $277.7 billion, an average of $3,296 per home and an effective tax rate of 1.15 percent.

The report analyzed property tax data collected from county tax assessor offices nationwide at the state, metro and county level along with estimated market values of single family homes calculated using an automated valuation model (AVM). The effective tax rate was the average annual property tax expressed as a percentage of the average estimated market value of homes in each geographic area.

Not surprisingly, residents of New Jersey won the award for highest property taxes of any overall state in the union while Westerchester County, the posh suburb of New York City, won for most expensive local municipality with taxes averaging over $16,000.

Per the chart below, states with the highest effective property tax rates were New Jersey (2.31 percent), Illinois (2.13 percent); Texas (2.06 percent); New Hampshire (2.03 percent); and Vermont (2.02 percent).  Other states in the top 10 for highest effective property tax rates were Connecticut (2.00 percent), Pennsylvania (1.89 percent), New York (1.88 percent), Ohio (1.68 percent), and Rhode Island (1.64 percent).

Meanwhile, among the 586 counties with a population of at least 100,000 and at least 10,000 single family homes, nine posted average annual property taxes of more than $10,000...and again, to our complete shock, each one of them is in a deep-blue state: Westchester, Rockland, and Nassau counties in New York; Essex, Bergen, Union and Morris counties in New Jersey; Marin County, California; and Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Perhaps this is why our young snowflakes don"t own homes anymore...their desires to put their Ivy League anthropology degrees to good use in New York City don"t mesh well with the financial realities of implementing their socialist utopias.

Hawaii High School Teacher: "If They Are Here In The U.S. Illegally, I Won't Teach Them"

John Sullivan, a Social Studies teacher at Campbell High School in Oahu, Hawaii, is under fire this week after sending an email to all faculty at his school refusing to teach students who are in the country illegally.  A copy of the email was obtained by Hawaii News Now and read as follows:

"This is another attack on the President over deportation. Their parents need to apply for immigration like everyone else.  If they are here in the US illegally, I won"t teach them."

Sullivan"s reply was in response to an administrator email about the number of children across the country staying home from school due to deportation fears (we touched on the topic last week in a post entitled "Parents Fearing Deportation Make Guardianship Plans "In Case Mommy Doesn"t Come Home"").  Apparently, this latest "attack on the President over deportation" was just the last bit of propaganda he was willing to take lying down.

Jon Henry Lee, Campbell High School"s principal, confirmed that Sullivan"s actions violated department rules, though the original administrator email, of course, did not, and left open what discipline may be sought over his violation.

"I just reminded him again that we don"t discriminate against any individuals," said Lee, who referenced the Department of Education"s Code of Conduct. "We"re going to service all students that are registered in our school."

Lee also said that Sullivan violated school rules concerning the use of the department"s email system by sharing a political opinion.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the school"s principal has discretion on any disciplinary action that Sullivan may face. 

We"re gonna set the over/under on Sullivan"s termination at 2 days...

Abandoned Wal-Mart To Reopen As Shelter For Illegal Immigrants With Tax-Dollar Funding

An abandoned Walmart in Brownsville, Texas will soon be home to 100"s of illegal immigrant "minors", many of them late in their teen years, thanks to your federal tax dollars.  According to a report from a local ABC affiliate in Brownsville, the facility is currently being converted into a shelter by a nonprofit organization called Southwest Key, which receives the majority of its funding from federal tax dollars via the Office of Refugees Resettlement.

A Southwest Key spokeswoman confirmed the facility is set to open on March. They said it’ll be to welcome unaccompanied minors who crossed into the U.S. illegally.

It will be the 4th facility in Brownsville to shelter children, under the age of 17, who have crossed into the U.S. without an adult.

Southwest Key is federally funded by the Office of Refugees Resettlement. The group’s mission is to provide a safe environment for unaccompanied children while they wait to be reunited with a sponsor or relative in the U.S.

Southwest Key officials said children are supervised during their stay. The program ensures youngsters have a safe place to sleep, are fed, educated and also have access to healthcare and counseling services.

Of course, the report drew a lot of criticism from local Brownsville residents, many of whom questioned whether the money shouldn"t be redirected to fund a shelter for veterans and/or the homeless.

As background, according to WND, Southwest Key has an annual budget of $150 million and operates 27 shelters for illegal immigrants in Texas, Arizona and California.  Per the Southwest Key website:

Southwest Key Programs is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1987 to keep young people out of institutions and empower them with the skills, knowledge and tools they need to succeed. Through an exceptionally competent and diverse staff, Southwest Key empowers youth and their families to make positive changes in their lives including at our 27 immigrant children"s shelters in Texas, Arizona and California.

Southwest Key Unaccompanied Minor shelters operate as a self-contained unit, delivering shelter, food, healthcare, education, recreation, case management and legal services to the children in our care. We are required by the federal government to provide everything that a child needs in order to thrive in a humane and homelike environment. As a result, there is little interaction between the children in our services and the surrounding community, save for those businesses and employees engaged in their care on-site.

Healthcare: The overwhelming majority of medical services are done on site by Southwest Key’s fully-staffed, licensed medical professionals who ensure the health of the children in our shelters. Every child receives a full, medical exam by a doctor within 24 to 48 hours of entering our facilities, including receiving all the CDC recommended immunizations and being screened for any infectious diseases.

Education: While in our care, all unaccompanied minors receive educational services. Our presence in a community does not impact children in the local school system as our kids receive all educational services separate and distinct from local children and they never have an opportunity to interact with one another.

If Southwest Key sounds familiar, it"s probably because it"s the same Southwest Key that drew criticism from Senator Chuck Grassley back in 2014 for using taxpayer money to provide a petting zoo and guitar lessons to their illegal immigrant residents at a cost of over $300 per child per day.  Per the Washington Times:

One of the contractors housing some of the surge of illegal immigrant children from this summer offers them a petting zoo with miniature ponies, a tilapia fish farm operation and guitar lessons, according to documents released Thursday by a senator who questioned whether the plush accommodations were a good use of taxpayers’ money.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said it seemed excessive to pay the $329 that Southwest Key Programs, the contractor, charged per child per day at one of its California facilities in Lemon Grove, California. Another facility in El Cajon cost taxpayers $316 per child per day.

Here is the original report from KRGV-TV in Brownsville, TX:

"Exceptional" USA Only 18th In World For Transparency

After coming out of a 2016 Presidential election cycle in which one candidate was the subject of multiple federal investigations related to illegal pay-to-play activities as well as the illegal destruction of federal records subject to a Congressional subpoena, perhaps it shouldn"t be so shocking that the United States was ranked 18th on Transparency International"s 2016 "Corruption Perceptions Index."  But irrespective of our expectations, here is how the United States stacks up against other countries in terms of mass corruption of our publicly elected officials and the institutions they run.

And while the United States may not suffer from the widespread issues that plague the most corrupt nations of the world, certainly there is a growing distrust of the public institutions in Washington D.C. and the lifelong politicians that have all somehow managed to amass substantial fortunes from their careers in "public service". 

The lower-ranked countries in our index are plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like the police and judiciary. Even where anti-corruption laws are on the books, in practice they"re often skirted or ignored. People frequently face situations of bribery and extortion, rely on basic services that have been undermined by the misappropriation of funds, and confront official indifference when seeking redress from authorities that are on the take.

Grand corruption thrives in such settings. Cases like Petrobras and Odebrecht in Brazil or the saga of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine show how collusion between businesses and politicians siphons off billions of dollars in revenue from national economies, benefitting the few at the expense of the many. This kind of systemic grand corruption violates human rights, prevents sustainable development and fuels social exclusion.

Higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems. But high-scoring countries can"t afford to be complacent, either. While the most obvious forms of corruption may not scar citizens" daily lives in all these places, the higher-ranked countries are not immune to closed-door deals, conflicts of interest, illicit finance, and patchy law enforcement that can distort public policy and exacerbate corruption at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, here is how the United States has trended over time compared to the other nations of the world...a 74 is solid C...we"re passing!

And here is a brief summary from Transparency International on how the various regions of the world fared in their 2016 corruption study.

Americas: From the Panama Papers in April to the record US$3.5 billion Odebrecht settlement in Brazil in December, 2016 was a good year in the fight against corruption in the Americas. But there is still a long way to go.

Asia Pacific: Unfortunately, the majority of Asia Pacific countries sit in the bottom half of this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Poor performance can be attributed to unaccountable governments, lack of oversight, insecurity and shrinking space for civil society, pushing anti-corruption action to the margins in those countries.

Europe and Central Asia: There are no drastic changes in Europe and Central Asia on this year’s index, with only a few exceptions. However, this does not mean that the region is immune from corruption. The stagnation also does not indicate that the fight against corruption has improved, but rather the opposite.

Middle East and North Africa: Despite the political changes that shook the Arab region six years ago, the hope for Arab countries to fight corruption and end impunity has not seen any progress yet. This explains the sharp drop of most of Arab countries on the 2016 index – 90 percent of these have scored below 50, which is a failing grade.

Sub Saharan Africa: 2016 saw elections across the African continent with the results providing a good reflection of corruption trends in the region. In Ghana, for example, voters voiced their dissatisfaction with the government"s corruption record at the polls where, for the first time in Ghana"s history, an incumbent president was voted out.

In conclusion:

Caught On Tape: U.S. Immigration Official Okays Syrian Immigrants With "Fake Passports"

Over the past several months, we have frequently noted the staggering increases in the number of refugees Obama has permitted into the United States just as his Presidency is winding down.  In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, we noted that in the first 84 days of the 2017 fiscal year (October 1, 2016 - December 23, 2016), the Obama administration has accepted 25,584 refugees into the United States, an 86% increase year-over-year (see "Refugee Admissions Surge 86% YoY As Obama Rushes Arrivals Ahead Of Trump Inauguration").  And while we were expecting a large increase in refugee admittances in 2017 (see "Hillbama Administration Plans To Admit At Least 110,000 Refugees In 2017"), the ~30% increase that Secretary John Kerry estimated back in September is looking like a fairly modest increase now compared to the actual numbers. 

Meanwhile, just a few weeks ago we pointed out that European officials finally admitted that refugees were being directly recruited by ISIS both in Syria and in migrant camps throughout Europe to carry out terrorist attacks (see "Europol Admits ISIS Actively Targeting Refugees To Carry Out Terrorist Attacks In The EU").

Confirming what most of us deduced long ago via the application of just a bit of common sense, Europol and Frontex, Europe"s  border and coast guard agency, are finally admitting that their intelligence indicates coordinated efforts on the part of ISIS to recruit asylum seekers, both in Syria and in migrant camps after they"ve already reached Europe, to carry out terrorist attacks.  In a report published by Europol, counter-terrorism experts warn that, among other things, "Syrian refugee diaspora may become vulnerable to radicalisation once in Europe and may be specifically targeted by Islamic extremist recruiters."

But, here in the U.S. there should be no similar cause for concern because Josh Earnest has assured us that "significant screening was put in place to ensure that these [refugees] don"t pose an undue threat to our national security."

And while we have no doubt in the Obama administration"s commitment to a rigorous vetting process, we were somewhat alarmed by an undercover video revealed earlier today by the Daily Caller which seems to show a U.S. Immigration Services official in New York coaching a woman on how to help a Syrian family gain asylum in the US with "fake passports"...a situation which the official describes as "far from unique."

“The fake passport is one thing, we are going to use the name that is on the passport as AKA, also known as,” the man identified as Sergio responded. He added, “chances are considering the situation in Syria, they are not going to be sent back.”

The USCIS employee went on to say, “Was there ever a situation where people came with fraudulent documents and qualified for asylum? Yes, because it’s understood that they can not always obtain genuine documents. So it’s far from being unique.”

Of course, when the Daily Caller attempted to confirm whether granting asylum to refugees with "fake passports" was indeed "far from unique," they were courteously referred to a website for further assistance with their concerns.

The Daily Caller asked the USCIS if giving asylum to immigrants with fake documents is “far from unique” like the USCIS employee said in the video. A spokesperson responded by saying they do not “publicly discuss individual immigration cases” and giving a link to a information on their refugee and asylum programs.

A USCIS spokesperson also said that the agency cannot confirm the authenticity of the video as they claim it is heavily edited. The USCIS did not confirm nor deny that Sergio is an employee with the agency.

TheDC has previously reported on an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo which states difficulty in preventing fraud in the refugee program as “bad actors” use false biographies and “produce and submit fictitious supporting documentation.” It has also been reported that the Islamic State has a thriving fake passport industry.

Guess there is really no need for the elaborate games when you can just walk straight through the front door...

Here's How Your State Ranks On Credit Card Debt Per Household

As parents all around the country wake up this morning and instantly regret adding $1,000"s of dollars to their credit cards over the holidays (at a 30% interest rate nonetheless) so that little Johnny could have the latest iPad, gaming console and sneakers, here is a list of the states where consumers have racked up the most revolving debt.

Ironically, when color coded based on political preference, with the notable exception of Alaska, Democratic-leaning states seem to carry higher credit card debt balances than conservative states.  Imagine that, conservatives expect their government to run budgets the way they run their own households.

Meanwhile, as MarketWatch points out, in the worst states it would take the average family over a year and a half to pay off their credit debt if they contributed 15% of their median income to debt repayment.  But who wants to pay down credit card debt anyway?  We can"t very well have economic growth if people are unwilling to borrow all the way up to the point that they can no longer afford the minimum payment...right, Janet?

According to ValuPenguin, millennials carry an average credit card balance of $5,800 while, shockingly, even those American"s past retirement age are carrying credit card balances over $6,000 well into their 70"s. 

And, of course, the more you make the more you borrow...because why not?

Meanwhile, Experian"s State of Credit 2016 report highlights the top/bottom 10 cities in the United States based on credit score.  Minnesota and Wisconsin absolutely dominate that the top 10 list while California, Texas and Louisiana account for 8 out of the 10 worst cities.

Oh well, at least little Johnny will love the new Xbox and sneakers for at least a week and it made for a great Facebook pic!