Silicon Investor - The Residential Real Estate Truly Cleaned Up Forum

[Les H] Midwest land prices drop for first time in 28 years Farmland values in the hear...

Les H — 2/14/2015 9:42:56 AM

Midwest land prices drop for first time in 28 years
Farmland values in the heart of the US Midwest fell in 2014 for the first time in 28 years, depressed by weak crop prices, according to a central bank report which forecast further declines in prices ahead.

The value of "good" farmland in states including Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, at the heart of US corn-and-soybean growing country, fell by 3% last year, the Federal Reserve's Chicago bank said.

The decline, the first for a calendar year since 1986, was attributed to the dent to farm incomes from weaker crop values, following record US corn and soybean harvests last year.

"Lower corn and soybean prices have been primary factors contributing to the drop in farmland values," the Chicago Fed said.

The weaker crop market conditions had more than offset improvements in the livestock sector - where "buoyant returns", reflecting in part lower grain prices, had appeared to give "some lift to farmland values" late last year.

Further declines ahead

Further price falls appear on the cards, with half of lenders surveyed by the bank forecasting further declines, compared with only 1% expecting a rebound.

"District farmland values seem to be headed lower," Chicago Fed senior business economist David Oppedahl said.

agrimoney.com

[Les H] 1/14/15 Webinar: 2015 Proceed With Caution thenorrisgroup.com

Les H — 1/13/2015 11:20:52 PM

[Les H] Wall Street investors expected to start selling properties heraldtribune.com

Les H — 1/13/2015 8:59:03 PM

[Les H] Fort Myers area sees big jump news-press.com

Les H — 11/25/2014 1:14:39 PM

[Les H] New Condos Bet On Rich Americans Making 50% Downpayments for Pre-construction ...

Les H — 11/22/2014 11:37:18 AM

New Condos Bet On Rich Americans Making 50% Downpayments for Pre-construction

finance-commerce.com

[John Vosilla] Money laundering and New York real estate have a long history. For much of the ...

John Vosilla — 10/21/2014 3:32:15 PM

Money laundering and New York real estate have a long history.

For much of the twentieth century, Mafia clans put money squeezed from gambling and other rackets into properties around New York’s five boroughs—often low-end, low-profile addresses rather than high-end ones.

Today's 'mafia' lives on Wall Street and Park Avenue. They would not be caught dead anywhere near where the 'little' people live..

[John Vosilla] Quite stunning and yet the fed continues to keep the yield curve this steep. Re...

John Vosilla — 10/21/2014 3:27:12 PM

Quite stunning and yet the fed continues to keep the yield curve this steep. Recall last cycle they started raising in August 2004 which also too late.. Do we need a leveraged J6P back in the game with NINJA loans before we crash and burn this time?

[Les H] US homeowners stay unemployed for longer 14 August 2014 by Ahmet Ali Taskin U...

Les H — 8/15/2014 7:55:08 PM

US homeowners stay unemployed for longer
14 August 2014 by Ahmet Ali Taskin

Unemployed homeowners are slower to find work because they are limited to local job opportunities, according to research by #LindauEcon14 participant Ahmet Ali Taskin
In a study with Firat Yaman, we investigate the effect of homeownership on the length of time that Americans spend in unemployment. We find that since homeowners are less flexible in the labour market, it is harder for them to find jobs when they are unemployed.

But we also find that having a mortgage on the house mitigates the effect of homeownership on unemployment duration. Compared with renters with similar characteristics, unemployed homeowners without any outstanding mortgage debt (outright owners) have a 20% lower probability of finding a job. What’s more, outright owners have about a 20% greater likelihood of leaving the labour force.

Our results suggest that policies to promote homeownership need to be re-evaluated in the light of its detrimental implications for the labour market.

scilogs.com

[Les H] Mortgage Data Points to Frothy Market, Heightening Fears of a Bubble By Guelda ...

Les H — 8/12/2014 12:58:26 PM

Mortgage Data Points to Frothy Market, Heightening Fears of a Bubble
By Guelda Voien 8/06 12:13pm

Some say that cycles in real estate are inevitable, that the idea shouldn’t be to prevent them, but rather to enter the wave early enough to surf, so to speak. But whatever your thoughts on the market’s boom and bust, recent changes in the commercial mortgage market might give you pause. It may be time to stand up—or bail out.

Many statistics point to a drastic rise in land values in New York City, pushed at least partly by a flood of equity. That, in combination with more leverage and more building trades, indicates what brokers like to call “frothiness.”
“There is definitely a bubble in values, in credit spreads,” a principal at a major New York City lender said. “We’re in lofty times,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

Land values and trade volume are up, with 108 percent more investment sales in the first quarter of 2014 than in the same quarter of 2013, according to data from Massey Knakal Realty Services. Investment sales are on pace to set a record this year, and pricing for core assets across the five boroughs was up 14 percent to an average of $444 per square foot, Massey Knakal data shows.

Meanwhile, and perhaps more importantly, the proportion of loans that are for land acquisition, as opposed to refinancing, has tripled, according to data provided exclusively to Mortgage Observer from Eastern Union Funding, a mortgage brokerage based in New York.

In the third quarter of last year, about 16 percent of the deal volume handled by Eastern was in acquisition loans, said Matt Matilsky, vice president for communications at the firm. In the second quarter of this year, that figure jumped to 36 percent. Refis, which were 84 percent of transactions, fell in direct proportion, and could fall further in October, when rates may finally increase, as quantitative easing is, at long last, itself eased.

“Acquisition financing is highly correlated with sales volume, tending to rise a little faster when sales volume is going up because it coincides with higher loan-to-value ratios as well,” said Dr. Sam Chandan, a real estate economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School (and a columnist with Mortgage Observer). The prevalence of interest-only loans, another harbinger of froth, are also on the rise, he said.

But cap rates, as we all know, remain very low. With most transactions showing cap rates around 3 percent but sometimes as low as 2, “they just don’t make sense,” unless an investor wants to hold the asset for 25 years, said Nat Rockett, an executive vice president in the capital markets group at Cushman & Wakefield.

“Rock-bottom cap rates on New York sales are masking the extent of leverage,” Dr. Chandan added. He has also observed eroded lending standards, with lenders “underwriting to prospective income in excess of in-place income [and] underwriting older, less competitive assets on assumptions that are not well differentiated from the newer, more competitive assets,” he told Mortgage Observer via email.

So why all the activity? “I just think there is a huge equity bubble right now that is driven mainly by demographics,” Mr. Rockett said. Baby boomers struggle to find investments that meet their retirement needs and the city is also now home to flight capital from all over the world.

“The more unrest in the world, the more people come here,” said Aaron Jungreis, president of Rosewood Realty Group and a prominent investment sales broker. He was not alarmist about an overly exuberant market, however. “I do think [the market is] bubbly, but there are a lot of things that have to happen for it to really burst,” he said. Land prices could easily hit a wall if the bottom were to drop out of the residential condominium market, for instance. But aside from lowered land prices, a condo slowdown won’t create an overall market halt a la 2008. What would be a problem would be if banks stopped lending, he said, though so far that eventuality seems unlikely.

But the strength of the high-end condominium market could easily wane, because it is built on fleeting macroeconomic factors, pointed out Dr. William Wheaton, an economist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate. The Gary Barnetts and Zeckendorf Brothers are “building for a very small slice of the market,” Mr. Wheaton said. It’s not a traditional residential market, but actually the second home market—a sector that is the first to fall during an economic downturn.

Of course, no one can predict the future. Even before the death of Lehman Brothers, many alarms were raised, and none heeded (except by those lucky hedge funds that shorted the right things). And as Mr. Rockett said, the industry is “looking for the same thing again,” in this cycle.

Alas, “the thing that always gets you is the thing you aren’t expecting.”

commercialobserver.com

[Les H] Plans for New York City high-rise has separate doors for rich and poor dissent...

Les H — 7/29/2014 9:28:35 PM

Plans for New York City high-rise has separate doors for rich and poor

dissenter.firedoglake.com

[Les H] Cottages are becoming year-round homes for some, money makers for others mlive...

Les H — 7/14/2014 9:45:15 AM

Cottages are becoming year-round homes for some, money makers for others

mlive.com

[Les H] H-T finds uptick in 'zombie' homes that seem to defy foreclosure By Josh Salman...

Les H — 7/7/2014 8:12:31 PM

H-T finds uptick in 'zombie' homes that seem to defy foreclosure
By Josh Salman
Published: Saturday, July 5, 2014 at 6:17 p.m.

heraldtribune.com

[Les H] How New York Real Estate Became a Dumping Ground for the World’s Dirty Money S...

Les H — 7/7/2014 1:35:28 PM

How New York Real Estate Became a Dumping Ground for the World’s Dirty Money

Shady magnates and corrupt politicians from all over the globe are stashing their ill-gotten wealth in luxurious Manhattan apartments.

Michael Hudson, Ionu? Stanescu and Sam Adler-Bell July

thenation.com

[Les H] Morning Agenda: A Shift on Foreclosed Homes By SYDNEY EMBER June 30, 2014 7:58 ...

Les H — 6/30/2014 3:20:27 PM

Morning Agenda: A Shift on Foreclosed Homes
By SYDNEY EMBER June 30, 2014 7:58 am

dealbook.nytimes.com

[Les H] Flippers, lending changes helping push market toward another bubble, experts say...

Les H — 6/19/2014 11:48:27 AM

Flippers, lending changes helping push market toward another bubble, experts say
By JUNE FLETCHER
Naples Daily News
Posted June 18, 2014 at 2:57 p.m.

naplesnews.com

Naples real estate appraiser Tim O’Neill also has heard of investors who have purchased in this area flipping homes to each other, to bring up the values of their portfolios.

“They’re falsely inflating prices,” he said. “It’s a problem — and what happened leading up to the last boom.

Institutional investors, such as hedge funds and banks, are starting to do multi-property transactions, which can consist of single-family homes, condos or vacant lots, bought either from banks or from each other.

[Les H] Toxic bankers, captive regulators: Everything you think about the housing market...

Les H — 5/27/2014 2:06:25 PM

Toxic bankers, captive regulators: Everything you think about the housing market is wrong
We know what caused the housing crash: Reckless banks, shoddy regulation, rampant greed. Let's lay out the truth
Jennifer Taub

salon.com

[Les H] Parents seek larger homes for live-in adult children By: Lucinda Beeman 06 May ...

Les H — 5/16/2014 2:21:21 PM

Parents seek larger homes for live-in adult children
By: Lucinda Beeman 06 May 2014

A fifth of parents who moved in the last six months wanted a bigger home in the expectation that their children will live with them until their late 20s, a study has found.
Royal Mail's inaugural Home Movers Study, which surveyed almost 13,000 home movers, found that 21 per cent of parents wanted a larger property to better accommodate their adult children.

A quarter of English adults under the age of 35 are currently living in their childhood bedroom, according to a joint housing report released last week by Shelter and KPMG. This figure could rise to half of all 20 to 34 year olds by 2034, by which time house prices threaten to quadruple.

yourmoney.com

[Les H] Rent-Stabilized Apartments Are Being Occupied by Millionaires, Records Show By ...

Les H — 5/7/2014 12:07:35 PM

Rent-Stabilized Apartments Are Being Occupied by Millionaires, Records Show
By James Fanelli on April 30, 2014 6:41am

NEW YORK CITY — It’s affordable housing — for the 1 percent.

A polo-playing multimillionaire who allegedly broke up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s marriage, a former tobacco executive who once chaired an anti-tax organization and the head of a hedge fund have all lived in rent-stabilized apartments in some of Manhattan’s toniest zip codes in the past few years, paying a fraction of their units’ true market value.

A DNAinfo New York analysis of state records found that they were among the tens of thousands of big earners, from surgeons to law firm partners to business executives, occupying rent-regulated units, the city’s largest form of affordable housing.

Many of these tenants had remained in their apartments for decades, only losing their sweet deals when their monthly rents rose above $2,500 and their landlords proved that they had earned more than $200,000 in each of the previous two years.

Having a rent-regulated apartment can mean significant savings. In a report released last week, City Comptroller Scott Stringer noted that a recent study showed rent-regulated apartments in Manhattan reduced monthly rents by an average of $829.

dnainfo.com

Apartment in Astoria (section of Queens, NY) rents for record $5,000 a month

timesledger.com

[Les H] Jeffrey Gundlach shorts home-builders as young buyers shun mortgages May 5, 201...

Les H — 5/5/2014 4:35:55 PM

Jeffrey Gundlach shorts home-builders as young buyers shun mortgages
May 5, 2014, 4:12 PM ET

blogs.marketwatch.com

[Les H] Warning signs of a credit market that could go pop soon By Steven Pearlstein, ...

Les H — 4/26/2014 3:04:17 PM

Warning signs of a credit market that could go pop soon

By Steven Pearlstein, Published: April 25

Last week in this space, columnist Barry Ritholtz wrote that the five-year bull market on Wall Street isn’t about to end — it’s merely entering a more measured and mature stage after last year’s spectacular 30 percent stock market returns.

My message to you this week is that Barry is probably wrong because he’s looking at the history of stock market cycles rather than what we should be looking at in these unusual circumstances, which is the credit cycle. And right now the credit markets are in bubble territory, propping up stock and real estate values as well.

The signs of dangerous exuberance are both statistical and anecdotal.

washingtonpost.com

[Les H] Wall Street-Controlled Rental Markets alternet.org

Les H — 4/11/2014 4:06:32 PM

[S. maltophilia] At the Intersection of Wall Street and Main: Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on ...

S. maltophilia — 4/4/2014 4:50:37 PM

At the Intersection of Wall Street and Main: Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Residential Property Interests, Risk Allocation, and Implications for the Secondary Mortgage Market

albanylawreview.org

Found from:
texassharon.com

[Les H] Are the Suburbs Making People Live Paycheck to Paycheck? Households without any...

Les H — 3/23/2014 3:39:53 PM

Are the Suburbs Making People Live Paycheck to Paycheck?
Households without any cash savings are twice as likely to be wealthy as poor.
Matthew O'Brien
Mar 21 2014, 5:47 PM ET

theatlantic.com

[Drygulch Dan] Then there's this: Message 29452708

Drygulch Dan — 3/22/2014 12:34:28 PM

[Les H] Mobile Homw U: How to strike it rich in the trailer park business nytimes.com

Les H — 3/20/2014 12:46:29 PM

[Les H] Key senators agree on plan to replace Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac latimes.com

Les H — 3/11/2014 3:48:28 PM

[Drygulch Dan] ballsy youngsters

Drygulch Dan — 3/5/2014 9:21:28 AM

[Les H] finance.yahoo.com

Les H — 3/3/2014 10:46:58 PM

[Drygulch Dan] Perhaps " American Homes 4 Rent " is funded by foreign money with a longer term ...

Drygulch Dan — 3/3/2014 7:29:23 PM

Perhaps " American Homes 4 Rent " is funded by foreign money with a longer term agenda than 90 days.

[Les H] Wall Street moves in on distressed central Ohio rentals By Jim Weiker The Colu...

Les H — 3/3/2014 5:18:46 PM

Wall Street moves in on distressed central Ohio rentals
By Jim Weiker
The Columbus Dispatch • Saturday March 1, 2014 5:22 AM

On July 10, 2012, a California investment firm called American Homes 4 Rent paid $903,019 for 10 homes that had been foreclosed on in new subdivisions ringing Columbus. ???

With that purchase, central Ohio’s home-rental landscape changed. ????

Suddenly, Wall Street became a player in the largely mom-and-pop, homegrown industry of rental homes.

Since those first houses were purchased, American Homes and three other out-of-state investment funds have gobbled up almost 1,300 rental properties in the Columbus area. Almost overnight, they have become some of the biggest owners of Columbus-area homes.

They are buying houses in almost every price range and in every corner of central Ohio, from abandoned wrecks in Linden that cost a few thousand dollars to 10-year-old Powell McMansions valued at $300,000.

dispatch.com

[Les H] Why are houses getting (even) bigger? oregonlive.com

Les H — 3/3/2014 5:16:38 PM

[bruiser98] The link to The Exquisitely Reengineered Frankenstein Housing Monster didn't wo...

bruiser98 — 2/27/2014 6:11:21 PM

The link to The Exquisitely Reengineered Frankenstein Housing Monster didn't work. found it here.

testosteronepit.com

[Les H] Wall St abandons US housing macrobusiness.com.au

Les H — 2/27/2014 4:04:11 PM

[Les H] Investor home buying declining sharply in Collier, Lee, study says Daily News s...

Les H — 2/27/2014 4:01:48 PM

Investor home buying declining sharply in Collier, Lee, study says
Daily News staff
Naples Daily News
Posted February 27, 2014

NAPLES — Cape Coral-Fort Myers saw one of the nation’s biggest drops in January in its share of home sales made to institutional investors.

A report by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. shows a 70 percent decline in activity over the year, with the percentage of those buyers falling to 9.2 percent, down from 30.4 percent a year ago and 23.2 percent in December.

Institutional investors are organizations such as banks, insurance companies or hedge funds that pool large sums of money to invest, such as in property. RealtyTrac defines institutional investors as buyers who purchase at least 10 properties in a calendar year.

While Naples-Marco Island wasn’t included in the report because of its smaller population, statistics supplied to the Daily News by RealtyTrac showed the metro followed the national trend, with its percentage of sales made to institutional investors dropping to 2.8 percent in January. That was down from 24 percent in December and 9 percent a year ago.

naplesnews.com

[Les H] Foreclosures Surging in New York-New Jersey Market By Prashant Gopal Feb 26, 20...

Les H — 2/26/2014 5:41:19 PM

Foreclosures Surging in New York-New Jersey Market
By Prashant Gopal Feb 26, 2014 9:01 AM ET

The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is shifting to New Jersey and New York, threatening a housing rebound in one of the country’s most densely populated areas.

New Jersey has surpassed Florida in having the highest share of residential mortgages that are seriously delinquent or in foreclosure, with New York third, a Mortgage Bankers Association report showed last week. By contrast, hard-hit areas such as Arizona and California have some of the lowest levels of soured loans after allowing banks to quickly foreclose after the 2007 property crash.

The number of New York and New Jersey homeowners losing their houses reached a three-year high in 2013. Banks in these states have been slowly working through a backlog of delinquent loans that enabled borrowers to skip mortgage payments for years. Now these properties are poised to empty onto a market where affluent Manhattan suburbs neighbor blighted towns that are struggling most with surging defaults.

bloomberg.com

[Les H] Half of U.S. Farmland Being Eyed by Private Equity By Carey L. Biron ipsnews....

Les H — 2/19/2014 9:20:38 PM

Half of U.S. Farmland Being Eyed by Private Equity
By Carey L. Biron

ipsnews.net

[Les H] Reversal in US farmland prices gathers pace The reversal in US farmland prices ...

Les H — 2/10/2014 10:19:56 PM

Reversal in US farmland prices gathers pace
The reversal in US farmland prices gathered pace, with the market showing its worst performance for more than three years, undermined by weakness in agricultural commodities.

Farmland prices, which declined in December for the first time since 2009, extended their pace of decline this month, Creighton University said, after a survey of lenders in leading agricultural states from North Dakota to Illinois.

A price index "plunged" to 43.8, below the 50.0 level indicating a neutral market, and last month's 47.0 figure, and representing the lowest reading since October 2009.

agrimoney.com

[Les H] Rising rents, falling incomes BY DEBRA GRUSZECKI | STAFF WRITER | Published: Ja...

Les H — 1/29/2014 9:35:57 AM

Rising rents, falling incomes
BY DEBRA GRUSZECKI | STAFF WRITER | Published: January 22, 2014; 03:49 PM The pool of people who rent their residences has gotten larger in Inland Southern California, and the income gap to pay rent and make home ownership possible has gotten wider, a new report by U.S. Rep. Mark Takano suggests.

The report, “Rent on the Rise in Riverside,’’ points to U.S. Census Bureau data to state that nearly 30 percent of Riverside County rental households are spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent, a situation that undermines the recovery of the housing market.

Rent for all types of housing has gone up $756 on average since 2007 when the economy began to roil, the report released Thursday, Jan. 23, by Takano, D-Riverside, says.

Yet, the median income for Riverside County is still $5,524 below pre-recession levels.

With rent rising at a faster clip than income, Takano said in an interview that coincided with the report’s release that a growing number of families are finding it even more difficult to make ends meet, let alone save money to buy a home.

Since 2007, the number of rental households pushed into the 50-percent bracket has risen 20 percent.

pe.com

[Les H] Miami developers launch three condo projects in one day By DOUGLAS HANKS and HA...

Les H — 1/28/2014 1:29:41 PM

Miami developers launch three condo projects in one day
By DOUGLAS HANKS and HANNAH SAMPSON, MIAMI HERALD

miamiherald.com

[Les H] Florida real estate’s investor invasion by Kim Miller blogs.palmbeachpost.com

Les H — 1/28/2014 1:27:49 PM

[Les H] A housing relief program with policies that 'throw people into the grinder' On...

Les H — 1/25/2014 12:35:03 PM

A housing relief program with policies that 'throw people into the grinder'

One of the biggest housing relief programs under the Obama administration has failed desperate homeowners in huge ways
David Dayen

theguardian.com, Sunday 19 January 2014 08.00 EST

theguardian.com

[Les H] Banks embracing a housing-bubble favorite: interest-only loans Customers for i...

Les H — 1/24/2014 2:54:19 PM

Banks embracing a housing-bubble favorite: interest-only loans

Customers for interest-only loans are often self-employed and capable of making big down payments and maintaining fat bank accounts.

latimes.com

[Les H] As Refinancing Wanes, Banks Are Wary of New Loans By PETER EAVIS and JESSICA SI...

Les H — 1/15/2014 5:26:57 PM

As Refinancing Wanes, Banks Are Wary of New Loans
By PETER EAVIS and JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

dealbook.nytimes.com

[Les H] Delayed Mortgage financing quickens to 1 day from 6 months themortgagereports....

Les H — 1/15/2014 5:26:27 PM

Delayed Mortgage financing quickens to 1 day from 6 months

themortgagereports.com

[Les H] 7 years later, foreclosures still jam courts heraldtribune.com

Les H — 1/13/2014 7:28:13 PM

[Les H] Boomerang buyers could be key to real estate market in 2014 heraldtribune.com

Les H — 1/1/2014 2:55:37 PM

[Les H] Corn Plummeting Spurs Talk of ’80s U.S. Farmland Bust: Mortgages By Kathleen M....

Les H — 12/17/2013 11:04:33 AM

Corn Plummeting Spurs Talk of ’80s U.S. Farmland Bust: Mortgages
By Kathleen M. Howley Dec 17, 2013

Din Tai Fung, a restaurant in Shanghai’s Xintiandi district, is famous for its steamed pork dumplings. The pigs that keep those dumplings on the table are fattened with corn -- much of it imported from the U.S.

American farmers have prospered during a three-year boom in corn and cropland prices. As values have soared since 2011, farmers bought more acres and upgraded their harvesters to produce a record corn crop of almost 14 billion bushels in 2013.

Nothing better shows the fertile times than investment in farm equipment. Sales of self-propelled combines, including an $850,000 John Deere (DE) model with iPod system, navigational equipment and heated seats and an attachment that harvests the corn, jumped 40 percent in November.

Now, as corn prices start to decline, bankers and agricultural economists are predicting a slowdown in farmland prices that could turn into a bust.

“I can see the fear in farmers’ eyes when they think of all the moving pieces around the world gutting the value of next year’s crop,” said David Kohl, an agricultural economist and president of consulting firm AgriVisions, who last week spoke at several farming conferences in northern Nebraska. “Most of them know the boom in corn prices and farmland prices is coming to a screeching halt.”

bloomberg.com

[Les H] Lurid Subprime Scams Unveiled in Long-Running Fraud Trial By Matt Taibbi POSTE...

Les H — 12/16/2013 1:45:19 PM

Lurid Subprime Scams Unveiled in Long-Running Fraud Trial
By Matt Taibbi
POSTED: December 12, 4:20 PM ET

rollingstone.com

See article for training videos for making subprime loans

[Les H] Secret Inside BofA Office of CEO Stymied Needy Homeowners By Hugh Son Dec 16, 2...

Les H — 12/16/2013 10:58:08 AM

Secret Inside BofA Office of CEO Stymied Needy Homeowners
By Hugh Son Dec 16, 2013

bloomberg.com

[Les H] Bunkers for Bankers Rich homeowners buying peace of mind with panic rooms, sec...

Les H — 12/4/2013 1:38:17 PM

Bunkers for Bankers

Rich homeowners buying peace of mind with panic rooms, security systems

Wealthy families are opting for everything from pepper spray sprinklers to luxurious bunkers to protect themselves from burglars, natural disasters and nuclear war.

nydailynews.com