Irvine Housing Blog

Slayer rocks! (even at 5AM)

I wouldn’t place too much faith in the CPI as a true measure of inflation. IMO it is skewed to understate inflation, which of course helps limit entitlement programs like social security.

In fact, I can’t say I agree with capital gains on a sale of a home at all for the average Joe, in light that Joe has been paying property taxes every year while owning said property. Seems like double taxation to me (just like paying sales tax with money that has already been through the income tax machine).

This place looks nice - what makes it a condo? Is it attached to another similar unit (hence the “1 common wall” in the listing?). With these common walls, can you still crank your stereo/home theater and not disturb the neighbors?

Redfin shows the list price as $565K, where did the $495K price tag come from?

I actually like this (except for the cabinets). I still think there’s a ways to go however; price is high for a condo, and ~$400 for HOA fees are no fun… we’re getting closer to normal. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there!

One more thing I just noticed from the sale history - this sale appears to coincide perfectly with a 5/1 Option ARM. Purchased 12/04… five years later it’s time to get out while you can!

I thought about riding that train when seemingly everyone I knew was doing it (even going back to 2003 when I first started paying attention to what was going on), but the thing that held me back was the thought of “What am I going to do in five years when everyone else doing this decides to sell their homes because they can’t afford the fully-amortizing payment? Won’t that mean lots of homes coming on the market all at once? What will that big inventory of homes on the market do to asking prices?”

It’s annoying to watch banks that would have collapsed a year ago now minting money at taxpayer expense.  But that’s the way monetary stimulus always works. Obama knew it as an exchange to get Wall St’s support for running next election.

My fellow Patriots - it is time to shop!

When you click on the address the price is now $565,000. It looks like they raised it from $495 to $565 on October 26. Wow, that’ a big jump. Being a long time Woodbridge resident, the $495 seemed like a good deal to me for that place.

Absolutely excellent work IR!

How can this be a pre-foreclosure.  From the pictures, looks like the property is empty.  The owners seems to have left their old CRT TV in the living room though.  Free disposal I guess…

The govts artificial economy is losing steam.  And it’s starting to show in the stock market.

Yesterday’s News:

Dow’s Gain: 199.89 as GDP Wows Wall Street.  NEW YORK (TheStreet)—A better-than-expected pop in third-quarter GDP pumped stocks Thursday, making up for losses earlier in the week, while oil marched ahead. <-Bullshit!

Today’s news:

NEW YORK (TheStreet)—A strengthening dollar compounded on earlier profit-taking and a soft consumer spending report, pushing stocks further to the downside.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 203 points, to 9760, while the S&P 500 fell 24 points, to 1042. The Nasdaq trailed 42 points, at 2056.

The govts actions of bullshitting the American people is ending.  We cannot spend ourselves out of this debacle.

I think equities will lead the next step down in real estate.

IR,

I just wanted to thank you for this week posts.  They were extremely informative, and goes deep into the details of home ownership costs.  A lot of my friends are now beginning to look for their first home.  I am definitely recommended everyone of them to come to this week’s post… its time to see exactly what they would be paying for.

To be even more accurate, one needs to add the property tax paid as an itemized deduction when comparing to standard deduction. For properties priced low (around $200K or less), it may not been very advantageous to itemize if buyers are a married couple since they already get the higher standard deduction. Disclaimer: Always consult your tax consultant or your trusted tax software

I stopped reading when you wrote 50K of mortage interest in a year.

Damn, my wife and I make damn good money together, we don’t pay half of that and we’re like scratching our heads trying to figure out how to pay for our kids’s college tuition.

We don’t have fancy cars either.

Sorry, maybe I’ll finish reading this one later…. I just can’t wrap my head about paying so much interest on your mortgage.

Love the Dali though.  Salvador was always a shrewd businessman, did you know that?  Ever been to Cadaques?

I think you should talk about transaction costs if you are going to talk about cap gains.

I am looking at my closing statement now on a house I owned for 10 years.  Besides the usual relator fees (which total 5%, which is lower off the older 6%) there are escrow fees, title charges, counter transfer taxes, processing fees, etc., etc.  THOUSANDS of dollars in transaction fees come off the gain - or add to your loss.