From all of us at the Irvine Housing Blog, we want to wish all of you happy holidays.
So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun Ans so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let’s stop all the fight A very merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
For those of you taking a break from your Christmas activities to surf the web, I thought I would share with you a listing with a few strange listing photos.
One of the best plan 2 in Centennial Tract by California Pacific Homes
to come on the market. A True Turnkey 4 Bedroom charmer! Relocation
forces this Pride of Ownership to come on the market. Located in one of
the premium inside street on an oversized lot. Entertainer’s delight
backyard w/extensive stamped concrete & matured tropical trees.
This desirable and popular floorplan features: Formal Living &
Dining Room, a separate Family Room w/cozy stone fireplace adjacent to
family kitchen. Hardwood Floors throughout downstairs, designer custom
paint, custom baseboards, upgraded recessed lightings, extra storage
under the stair case & ceiling fans in all bedrooms. Private Gated
Community with own private central park, Sport Court, Jr. Olympic Pool
& Tot Lot & Family Oriented activities. Centrally located in
the #1 Safest City of Irvine, close to Fwys, award winning schools
& awesome shops. Don’t miss this one!
Reflect for a moment on the history we are witnessing. Congress is going to pass a $700,000,000,000 bailout of the banking industry.
In presidential election years, legislation rarely gets through Congress. Everyone is too busy playing partisan politics and posturing for the election to pass laws. Late in the election cycle, Congress goes home to campaign, and nothing gets done. We are at that moment, and yet, despite 90% or more of the electorate being against the bailout, Congress is going to pass it, and President Bush is going to sign it into law. The bill is going to pass with bi-partisan support. This is no small spending bill. We are talking about $700,000,000,000! And we are spending this money when the government is already running huge budget deficits. Amazing!
That kind of bi-partisan support, in the face of overwhelming public opposition, on a bill that large is unprecedented. We really do live in interesting times.
The reason for needing this bill is actually quite simple: our entire banking system is insolvent. The losses hidden in off-balance-sheet investments exceeds the total capitalization of our banking system. If banks were to take write downs of these securities to their true market value (essentially zero,) we would not have a functioning banking system. It is bankrupt.
Imagine a life without banking: no loans, no credit, no commerce, no economic activity other than all-cash transactions. This would not put us into the Great Depression; it would put us into the Middle Ages. This is what Bernanke and Paulson told Congress behind closed doors, and the ramifications of this reality scared them $hitless. As it should. Congress had to act. It ticks me off, just like it does everyone else, but they had to act.
Now, we the taxpayers of the United States of America are going to have to pay for the reckless irresponsibility of those greedy and sometimes clueless individuals who were in charge of our financial system. This is the end game all of us writing about the housing bubble feared most. The responsible are going to pay for the irresponsible. Actually, it is worse than that -- the responsible and the children and grandchildren of the responsible are going to be paying for the Great Housing Bubble. It is a reality we are going to have to accept. What is done is done.
Unfortunately, this will probably not be the end of the bailouts. Today, WAMU is being taken over by the JP Morgan. If the deal had not been reached, it would have been the biggest banking failure in history. It would have bankrupted the FDIC which would also have been looking for a federal bailout. Perhaps this bill will prevent other bank failures, or perhaps not. We dodged the WAMU bullet, but I wonder what back-door bailout prompted JP Morgan to buy an insolvent bank? The US auto industry will probably also get a bailout.
I want my bailout too. I wonder when they will be sending out the next round of stimulus checks...
For today's featured property, we are going to look at another Turtle Ridge Dreamer. With all the discussion about a housing bubble, a massive government bailout, a severe recession and the utter collapse of our banking industry, it sure seems like a good time to sell a house. And although this house was purchased in 2004, it surely must have appreciated 60% since then. WTF!
There is a group of nervous home sellers who are trying to sell their homes for enough to pay off their mortgages. Some of these were buyers toward the end of the rally that paid too much, and some are owners who bought earlier but mortgaged themselves into the same precarious position. They are wise to try to sell now if they can get enough to pay off their debts and save their credit. Today's featured property is an owner who extracted much of their equity, but they still have some room to maneuver before they go underwater. In my opinion, there feeble price reductions have not shown the aggressiveness necessary to move this property before the market leaves them underwater, but I guess they don't want to give it away.
Some time ago, I wrote the post Timing Does Matter, to document the financial impact of properly timing the market. Today's featured property owners show how a family should manage their mortgage, and the benefits that can be obtained in retirement if you sell near the peak of a massive speculative bubble. I commend today's sellers. They are the role models I will emulate in my own life.
So this is Christmas
