One might argue that the contract price is, by def, the fair market value, since that's what buyer & seller agreed upon in a competitive market. But anyone who's bought a home knows how fraught the market is w/ info asymmetry & search costs. Bidding for a home is a crapshot, not an open auction.
Research finds that when appraisers are aware of the contract price, they are more likely to appraise close to that price. Blind appraisals tend to be lower than the contract price.
Requiring blind appraisals seems like an obvious, small first step.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
SCOOP: Two weeks ago, the head of the CDC delayed publication of a report showing covid vaccine cut likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations by half. Now that report is no longer allowed to be published in CDC’s flagship scientific journal. My latest. 1/2
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
I've seen an appraisal report w/ 3 comparables given as examples. All were much cheaper per sq ft than the property in question--1 was the exact same floor plan but in a better neighborhood--yet the appraiser decided its value is exactly the contract price. How interesting!
I am now pretty sure that private real estate appraisals are BS. The appraiser is hired by the bank & incentivized to appraise property for the loan amount, not true market value. It's a $500 rubber stamp.
Idk maybe we should make it as slow & difficult as possible to develop around wetlands.
NJ Monitor newsletter the next morning:
"NJDOT to spend $100k on 'rebranding'."
Dreher, an affable chap whom I exclude from the following polemic, works for the Danube Institute, the prize pear on a cheese platter of right-wing institutions set up by the outgoing Hungarian prime minister to make Budapest, in the words of its own substack, “the new European capital of conservatism”. It never seems to have occurred to anyone involved that it is a contradiction in terms for a movement grounded in the Oakeshottian preference for the near to the distant or Scrutonian oikophilia to have a capital, — with that kind of money on the table, why would it? From Budapest, these narodniks of the new national conservatism were to fan out and preach the politics of place in their own towns and villages, although they mostly just sat around at the city’s indie coffee shops, enjoying their tasteful nordic minimalist decor and anglophone staff and writing the occasional piece for one of the many potemkin periodicals funded from the public purse. Occasionally, their pensées would be translated into Hungarian — Libri, the local equivalent of Waterstone’s, is well-stocked with hardback editions of Goodwins, Wests, and Nina Powers in aspirational pastel colours.
It's OK. He's affable.
In the US you hold out a dog treat in the Call Taxi position.
Is it bad?
I know this is politically unpopular so feel free to not hire me as a consultant.
Idk the context of the Euphoria clip, & I know Dems are just trying to do opposition party stuff, but tbh high gas prices making people reconsider their dependence on cars is a good thing.
Thanks.... Trump? No, not really. But gas prices should stay high forever. Carbon tax fixes this.
It's looking like edu funding reform is going to be a key issue this year. Please don't follow this dumb line of thinking:
"We spend a lot on edu, & the outcomes are X in poor districts, therefore if we cut funding outcomes would remain X in poor districts."
That's wrong, & that's implied below.
bsky.app/profile/glas...
NJ already caps state aid cuts/gains. www.njspotlightnews.org/2026/04/reco...
Was bored so I gave New Jersey a PR, parliamentary system. Here’s 2025, with party breakdowns based on the gubernatorial candidates’ performances in the primaries
Idk the context of the Euphoria clip, & I know Dems are just trying to do opposition party stuff, but tbh high gas prices making people reconsider their dependence on cars is a good thing.
Thanks.... Trump? No, not really. But gas prices should stay high forever. Carbon tax fixes this.
There should also prob be a gradual phase-in for state aid cuts. If districts can't raise their school taxes above a cap (2% or whatever the waiver allows), then they shouldn't lose more than that amount in state aid--but grant hefty waivers to wealthy districts.
At this point I'd say NJ's funding formula needs tweaks. like calculating Local Fair Share using just Equalized Valuation (not that & Aggregate Income, which is a poor measure of local fiscal capacity), & using a 3-year rolling avg of EV.
But overall NJ's formula is designed well.
If we want more bang for buck w/ edu, the logical step is to address curriculum. Say, require phonics or science of reading for literacy instruction.
We will not get more bang for buck by cutting funding, or redirecting it to rich, shrinking, suburban districts.
JO: Some critics argue that we are wasting a lot of money. They point to other states like Mississippi that spend less educating poor kids and have better results. What’s your reaction? KJ: It would be analogous to saying: Oh, I spent so much money on my health care and I’m sick. I have diabetes. Look at this person over here: They didn’t spend any money at all, and they’re super-healthy, and have no health problems. Therefore, I’m wasting my money. No one would say that. The fact that some other place was able to have better outcomes without spending as much does not mean the money was not well spent. When I hear that argument, I usually try to redirect people to thinking not about pointing fingers and blaming, but identifying actual practices that are going to improve student outcomes. I’m not saying that money isn’t being wasted in New Jersey – just that the mere fact that someplace else is having better outcomes for less money is not evidence of that.
An economist who studies school funding weighed in on NJ's system. Hopefully this line of thinking prevails. www.njspotlightnews.org/2026/03/qa-w...
It's looking like edu funding reform is going to be a key issue this year. Please don't follow this dumb line of thinking:
"We spend a lot on edu, & the outcomes are X in poor districts, therefore if we cut funding outcomes would remain X in poor districts."
That's wrong, & that's implied below.
The current funding formula was enacted in 2008 IIRC. And we didn't actually follow it until a couple years ago.
This is tomorrow. Let's give it a shot.
You know what I expected to be a worthless, parasitic middleman role but actually is good & benefits me? Independent insurance agents.
I've bought 2 houses now, & both times my hours-long attempts to get insurance quotes on my own got higher premiums than letting an agent do it for me.
I imagine the reasoning behind a $100 ticket from MetLife Stadium to NY Penn would be to prevent overcrowding, but that doesn't make much sense for a ticketed event. So it might just be rentseeking or even revenge for congestion pricing.
What did it look like in past years?
There's a particular kind of paralysis in Jersey City that masquerades as civic virtue.
It shows up dressed in the language of "resident input," "stakeholder engagement," or "co-governance."
And it ends with almost nothing getting built, fixed, or decided.
betterblocksnj.org/2026/04/13/j...
Idk. I'm not disappointed. But again, this⬇️ is such a dumb law.
www.njspotlightnews.org/2026/04/disa...