Irvine Housing Blog

The Financial Implications of Short-Sales and Foreclosures

Recently, I was emailed a link to a blog post written by an attorney who specializes in this area. It is the best explanation of the nuances of short-sale and foreclosure I have seen.

The featured property is a short sale (foreclosure-in-waiting) sporting a 36% discount from the peak.

Asking Price: $395,000

Address: 6 Gladstone #97, Irvine, CA 92606

Eat the Nouveau Riche

The Nouveau Riche are supposed to have money, aren't they? In Southern California, debt is a useful substitute because looking rich is all the matters. Perhaps we are the land of the Nouveau Dette...

Our property du jour is a short-sale property in Quail hill telegraphing the collapse of the high end.

Asking Price: $1,800,000

Address: 37 Fresco, Irvine, CA 92603

Foreclosures-In-Waiting

Less than 5% of homes offered for sale as short-sales end up as bank-approved transactions. Most end up going to foreclosure.

The featured property is a high-end 4/3 in Northwood II sporting a 29% discount. Is the high end crumbling?

Asking Price: $950,000

Address: 27 Torrey Pine, Irvine, CA 92620

The Moral Hazard of Market Supports and HELOC Abuse

What will be the enduring legacy of market price supports and HELOC abuse? Will there be valuable lessons learned, or have we tainted the next generation by policies loaded with moral hazard?

Today's featured property is yet another HELOC abuse case where they more than doubled their mortgage, and now they are walking away.

Asking Price: $499,000

Address: 91 Legacy Way, Irvine, CA 92602

Open Thread 2-7-2009

This weekend in our open thread, I am going to introduce a new blog we have added to our blogroll:

The Housing Chronicles Blog.

MetroIntelligence Real Estate Advisors

'Developments' blog of the Wall Street Journal

Loan Modification Program: How to Get a Bank Loan Workout and Modify Loan Terms

We've been asked to review a product on Loan Modifications for which we are an affiliate.  As stated in the Liar's Poker post, lenders do discriminate in regards to who they give loan mods to.  Since my background is in land planning and not lending, I thought it would be best to get someone from that industry to do the review.  Morgan, our blogging buddy from Blown Mortgage, has written a guest post for us regarding this program.  Thank you Morgan!

Hi Irvine Housing Blog Readers,

My name is Morgan and I manage and own the blog BlownMortgage.com.  BlownMortgage.com, like the Irvine Housing Blog, has been about telling the truth during this housing mess.  From the moment I started it in February of 2007 it received a lot of attention as the only honest mortgage blog on the Web.  It's regularly linked to by the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, and we've been fortunate enough to be published in the most prestigious publications in the country including many of the leading newspapers in the nation.  Our one motto at Blown Mortgage has been to tell the truth and I believe that is what has made us successful.  I also believe that is why the Irvine Housing Blog has been such a success.

I'm a huge fan and regular reader of the Irvine Housing Blog.  I have a ton of respect for the work that Irvine Renter and the rest of the team do on the site.  Because of that I'm very grateful that they've asked me to write a review for a new product that they offering to their readers.  As a former owner of a mortgage bank (yes, we closed our doors in the contraction) and now owner of the blog I've seen a lot of pitches about loan modification products and services.  Some of them mediocre, some of them outright scams, most of them not worth the time it took to look them over.  But I found one product and service (and more importantly individual) who I think gets it in terms of helping people get loan modfications themselves.  Continued after the jump

We Will Never Have Paris

Most buyers during the later stages of The Great Housing Bubble were buying the fantasy of ever-increasing home prices and unlimited wealth. Fancy cars, prestige, social status, and trips abroad were all part of the dream. It is not going to happen.

As a side rant, today's post looks at the silliness of real estate pricing.

Today's featured property is a Quail Hill short sale. Nothing special really. Just a typical example of grossly overpriced real estate that is still going to cause bank losses. Wait until prices really drop and see how much the banks are going to lose.

Asking Price: $465,425

Address: 66 Duet, Irvine, CA 92603