So glad there’s plenty Kool-aid to go around.

Many sellers are still smokin’ that crack.

BTW IR thanks for all your updated redfin listings on this website.  Yours come faster than my realtor’s!

Thanks again for this great resource.

Perhaps the “20 ceilings” are really “20 foot ceilings”?

Wish they had more photos.  The “Bulit-in Buffet” might be a bas-relief of Warren Buffet.  That would be pretty awesome.  It could have some of his quotes at the bottom.  Like “You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.“

“Wok Room with sink “?  A special room for cooking stir fry?  So the sink is for washing the Wok when you are done cooking?

Not the largest of finanacial institutions….

www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08063.html

It seems there is a rather large contingent of sellers who only know what they thought their home was “worth” at some time in the past.  And they think that if they just wait out a small correction, that their home will be “worth” that amount some time soon.  So, who is going to tell them that their home will not be “worth” that much again for more than ten years?

SNL, should do a the “really” segment on places like QH. I tmight go somthing like this, feel free to add on everyone!

Quail Hill..REALLY? 

$600 a sqr/ft.  REALLY!?!

You know your development is on a hill and not a tropical island? REALLY.

Banks are crashing and mortgages are imploding. No one in QH bought a “creative” loan? REALLY?

Your development was built during the peak of the Great Hosing Bubble. You seriously think your homes are immune to market forces?  REALLY?

It never occurred to you that your housing prices may completely crash if you don’t lower them appropriately?  Really!

You realize Quail Hill is NOT in Laguna beach? REALLY!!

So if you convince everyone in your Dev to hod out, and keep prices in the WTF rage, you can avoid this minor housing problem?

REALLY?!?

VirtualEarth’s overhead view on redfin looks to be off (and google maps’ as well). From that MLS pic, it seems to be the house on the end of the culdesac, not 3 in from the street. Nice location. Still not worth 2M.

Lets see, if they are looking for a buyer putting 10% downm $200k, then the monthly mortgage nut is $12,500 (current jumbo at 7.5%), add to that property taxes of $3,200, not to mention insurance means that someone needs to make $30k/month or north of $400k/year documented to afford this mansion.

That’s a pretty small buyer pool compared to the avaliable mansions for sale.

If it really has “20 ceilings” perhaps the bas relief is of Jimmy Buffet, not Warren.

http://www.coleenbrennan.com/

Anyone know what “face-paced” means?

From the listing agent’s site:

The Coleen Brennan Team
 
“My team brings the experience and wisdom we’ve gained along the way to one of life’s biggest decisions,” she adds. “This is the bulk of our work, it’s how we earn our keep, and it’s gratifying to know that, to the greatest extent, we’ve been able to spare the client from the brunt of the stress.”

As with her approach to everything, Coleen strives to set and achieve the highest standards possible for her real estate team and for herself. “I demand a lot of myself and I demand a lot of my team. I don’t ask them to do anything I wouldn’t do. They see my perseverance and dedication.”
 

I snapped a great picture while on vacation that I’d like to share with everyone. How do I go about that?  I normally use Imageshack but apparently that won’t work here…

Half a block away, #15 Balcony is for sale for $2.1 million.  It is 4700 square feet, former model for the Vicara tract, and fully furnished.

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/15-Balcony-92603/home/5929247/socalmls-P576305

Irvine Renter featured 15 Balcony last year (then for sale for $2.9 million!):

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/blog/comments/balcony-view

Unfortunately, 15 Balcony is in foreclosure, with the Trustee’s Sale scheduled for Aug 13.  Once this 4700 SF property becomes a foreclosure at $2.1m, it will be tough for 3100 SF Dreamlight to get their $2m wishing price.

Wednesday
8/13/2008 2:00:00 PM  
Address:  15 BALCONY
Get Yahoo! Map
City:  IRVINE
State:  CA
Zip:  92603
County:  Orange
APN:  481-094-02
 
Sale Status:  Sale Date 08/13/2008
TS Number:  GM138858C
Notice of Sale Amt:  $2,060,703.00
Opening Bid Amt:  0
Sold Amt:  0
Sale Location:  At the North front entrance to the County Courthouse, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana, CA.
Get Yahoo! Map
Trustee:  Executive Trustee Services, Inc.
Trustee Phone#:  (818)260-1600

Soooo, THIS is where all the mega-bucks foreign investors are going, huh? Must be, because they sure haven’t been buying anything in Chicago lately, except for maybe in the 160-story Spire that is being built. And I hear that steep discounts are being given there. We’ll see when the building closes its sales and the prices are published.

I mean, I thought all those uber-rich Europeans were gonna go to Miami and downtown Chicago and scarf up all those $5MM condos with their own lap pools.

I think we have enough “market overhang” of unsold and foreclosed luxury houses and condos in all our major metro areas for every investor to pick up two apiece at 20 cents on the dollar.

And I believe it just might come to that, especially for condos in Chicago’s South Loop and in Miami Beach.

It might even come close to that in coastal CA. Looks like every luxury home market is so saturated with product that only 1% of the population can afford on any terms, that it’s going to take the next decade for this stuff to be absorbed.

Guess that Boston U. Masters in Education paid off, she’s able to create her own words.

“Anyone know what “face-paced” means?“

No, but I know what “face paste” means.

I wonder if anyone has “tea bagged” her lately?

Don’t forget one YEAR of cash reserves, too.  15K per month x 12 months = 180K cash reserve. 
Many jumbos are at 8% now.

For.  A.  Tract.  Home.

Gotta love those testimonials, aren’t they usually by real people not cities? 

Here’s an awsome video of Peter Schiff giving
a presentation to the Mortgage Bankers back in Nov. 2006. It’s broke up into 8 parts, but it’s well worth the watch.

Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3Qefbt0n4

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hFmoTjljpw&feature=related

Part III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBk4PhdhCFQ&feature=related

Part IV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKs8lBnd2U&feature=related

Part V
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoSwkCog-Ro&feature=related

Part VI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrpPsOvHUU8&feature=related

Part VII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVtT6spfffI&feature=related

Part VIII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgRgGKxXbCw&feature=related

He NAILED it.

Got gold?

http://www.thechicagospire.com/

PERFECT timing.

So reminiscent of the ‘Empty State Builiding’...

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/empty_state_building_empire_state_buildings_1930s_nickname/

BTW, in Part VII and VIII Peter gets laughed at by those dopes in the Mortgage industry during the Q & A session afterwards.

Gee, look WHO IS LAUGHING NOW, all the way to the BANK !!!!

Knowledge IS power !

Another AWSOME video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7MCohPgkXo&eurl=http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/

Protect yourself, because no one else can, or will.

2 more banks FAILED on Friday.

http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html

First Heritage Bank, NA, Newport Beach, CA July 25, 2008 July 25, 2008
First National Bank of Nevada, Reno, NV July 25, 2008 July 25, 2008

This shit is getting out of control !

Your comparison of the Empire State in the 30s with the Spire now is very apt, but there is just this one little difference:

The Empire State had a future. Eventually all the office spaces filled up, and this structure is still well-used and well-loved; a building that not only was a landmark in the evolution of architecture but is extremely graceful and elegant, as well as really well-built.

The Spire, unfortunately, doesn’t really have a future, as much as I love this sprightly building. I’m afraid that it’s destiny will be to serve as the gravestone for the age of Things That Are Just Too Damn Big.

Don’t take me wrong. I love skyscrapers, and Chicago’s lovely skyline, which I consider to be the most beautiful in the world, is one of the things that make this city exciting and one of the reasons I live here. But I really don’t believe we’ll be able to sustain buildings like the Spire for many people for much longer. Even now, buildings like this are very expensive to run, are massive energy guzzlers because of all the systems required to supply water pressure and power multiple banks of elevators; and are a nightmare for first responders, which is why so many backup systems are required in places like this. Just try evacuating an 82-year-old off the 123rd floor should the power fail. They have huge payrolls that include personnel trained in firefighting, because the fire dept’s equipment doesn’t reach that high. One good thing about these places is that they usually have their own generators and are off the grid- a source of deep chagrin for ComEd.

“Are the rich foreigners going to come buy our overpriced real estate?“

I was at the Aquerium in San Francisco Monday.  Lots of European tourists!  None of them had houses in their shopping bags that I could see.

What’s the deal with the wet pavement in MLS photos?  What is the purported advantage of this?  Is this unique to the Southern California real estate market?  It’s on my list of Weird California Stuff that I’ve been compiling since I moved here last summer, to send to my family and friends in Wisconsin…the list is so long at this point it will take me half a day to type it in e-mail.

Agreed.  Not buying in Miami/Miami Beach.

There really are enclaves of ferriners in Miami/M Beach/Ft Lauderdale, and a few more may buy.  But not nearly enought to keep prices up.

My architect daughter sez the Empire State Bldg could stand another 1000 years at least, it’s so
well built.

I believe your daughter. There is nothing quite like the large buildings that went up in the 20s and 30s, and nothing so beautiful, at least to my eyes.At least the speculative excess of the 20s left us with a treasure trove of absolutely wonderful buildings that we’re awfully late in appreciating.

I mean, almost everything built in that brief period is incredible. The houses, the office skyscapers, the courtyards and corridor buildings. There are a couple of old corridor buildings in my neighborhood that are covered with, I kid you not, terra cotta friezes of domestic cats. I live in a 1928 vintage courtyard in Chicago,one of hundreds of such in this city, and you can’t beat the solidity of the building, or the beauty of it. The decorative details both exterior and interior are incredible, and while this place isn’t the same strong construction as a 100 story skyscraper, it could, i’m told, last 500 years with care. I never tire of looking at this stuff, which is why I’ve spent my whole adult life in these old city neigbhorhoods.

The contrast with the high rise garbage in the South Loop and the crapboxes in the outer suburbs is just sick. This stuff is falling apart in less than 5 years. Like, it was built to last the term of the construction loan- let the hapless overextended buyers figure out how to cope with the water infiltration and falling chunks of concrete slab and cracking curtainwall on their $700,000 concrete-ceiling shoeboxes.

Water used to be rationed in California. Wetting the pavement for house photos is just another way of showing conspicuous consumption “ oh look dear, the Joneses are so rich they can wet their driveway”. This indicates you are in a rich neighborhood.

Well, that’s stupid.

I think she means face-planted, as in the market fell on its face.

Nobody.
When Nobody knocks on the door to see the place, Nobody will tell them it’s not worth that much.
When Nobody makes an offer at this price, Nobody will be telling them it’s overpriced.

Something tells me that these owners won’t be smart enough to learn from the dog that doesn’t bark, though.

“when it dries to quickly”

should be “when it dries too quickly”

“I think she means face-planted, as in the market fell on its face. “

hahhahah you got that right.

yes, in Irvine there was a lot of kool aid.
Only, in Irvine could you pay 2mil for a tract home.  And do you even own the land or or these 99 year leases too?
I would not pay $250/sq ft. let alone over $600.

You guys are not giving this property its’ due respect. The unique architecture is evocative of the Tuscany Region of the French countryside, from which the style is derived. This reminds me of the brilliant marketing ploy of adding an “e” to “point” to convince buyers to shell out an extra $100 per sf at places named Quail Pointe, or Deer Pointe. Only in this case, the unique architecture will run you an added $400 per sf!

Apt name.

“Great Hosing Bubble”

yes, a lot of people definitely got hosed.

Yes, that’s it. It was a kool aid mishap that spilled over onto the driveway!

So let’s see, $2 Mil and no pool? WTF, WTF, WTF!!

“The Tuscany region of the French countryside”  Nice catch!!

Do you think they speak Fratalian there??

I hear there Burgandy/Chianti mix is sublime.

Is it just me, or does the first impression from their opening video scream out: a big screw ?!? LOL

Hey I’d love a list of weird California stuff to show my friends out here in North Carolina.  When you get it done, share it with the blog!

It’s a house, not a home.