Irvine Housing Blog

Nice carpet…

I lost money in the stock market.  Where’s my bailout?

IrvineRenter - thank you for calling bullshit on some of the so-called experts and pundits.

I like it when someone writes:

“Also, they are interested in turning many of these properties into affordable rentals, which are sorely lacking in many communities. Experts interviewed agree this would be a good move for the market.”

And they don’t name the ‘expert’. All to frequently, a reporter can pull a supposed factoid out of their ass and no one says boo.

What is happening on Redfin? Half of the Houses I click on are marked as “Pending”

Has anyone else noticed this new phenom?

Great piece.  But I have to ask, Irvine Renter, what makes you think we are coming to the realization that more, not fewer, foreclosures are needed?  It is true, but I don’t see many light bulbs going on in Washington about it.

As someone who did a deed-in-lieu last year and would not change my decision for anything, I agree that this is the only “liberation” from debt that really qualifies for the name.

But I have a suggestion for you and all the other “angry renters” in the country.  You are right to point out that it would be patently unfair for government to “save” current debtors from their own actions.  Yet you do not move the debate forward by posing it as an “us vs. them” fight.

People who bought houses at bubble prices got screwed, and they don’t want to hear that others are waiting for them to leave so they can get a bargain.

Between the poles of “you are a victim and you need/deserve help” and “get out so we can have your house” there need to be other options.  There are probably some (not many) people who would be able to keep their houses if their rates are dropped.  On the other extreme, people who have squatted for years should be moved out promptly, however much it hurts the banks. 

And for people who are in the middle (the majority) there should be incentives for them to vacate the houses they can’t afford quickly and with the least damage to their families.  A fast-track to credit repair would help families buy less expensive homes, which would either enable move-up buyers to do so or take one more home off the market.

I think the time has come for all of us to stop painting this as a black and white, all or nothing dilemma with one way out, one group that wins everything it wants, and one that loses.  If we compromise amongst ourselves the terrorists (bankers) lose.  If we keep attacking our neighbors, they win.

I know two households with mountains of debt on option ARMs indexed to 1 yr Treasurys. I now look like a fool because my warnings have not come to pass.

They brag about how low their payments are and how they are saving so much on interest. If the fed keeps rates at 0 for the next three years, how does this play out?

I have stopped talking.

I think the Fed/banks will foreclose a few, short sale a few, mod a few and let them pay for decades, and hope some have ‘morals’ and pay back the debt.

This will take a long, long time.

The best way to deal with a market and social collapse is to throw everyone on the street as quickly as possible?  How about this instead:  the solution to the apartment and housing market and the present social destruction being wreaked upon the United States, is to have decent jobs at decent wages.  The top 1% has accelerated its total assets, while the bottom 90% is in a morass of epic proportion.  US policy to destroy jobs by shipping them overseas, to destroy families by economic hardship, should stop forthwith.  No chance.  Invest accordingly.  Until there are secure jobs and benefits, and a general feeling of peace and stability, foreclosures will continue. 
  The bank/loan industry has learned nothing: If you want to see the next wave of the same story, look at the subprime and even sub subprime of the auto loan racke…market, going on.  The shift to seven year auto loans even on used cars to people with no credit, sound familiar?

Artificially supporting the market in any way is not working. However, I suspect it will continue until the situation is so bad that the simple and obvious (and oldest) remedy - selling to the highest bidder - is all that’s left. Given that all markets are local, it will vary in timing.

This must have been written by a bankster laughing all the way to the bank.  Most mortgages written during the last 15 years or so are full of fraud.  Because of this there has been a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich.  That is what is causing our recession.  Read all about it at www.livinglies.wordpress.com.  Wake up people.  You have been duped!

This piece is off the charts wrong. If these properties were commercial real estate it would be immediately understood that the principal should be reduced. Both parties to these deals believed the appraisals, although in the case of the lenders they very likely tried to get a larger appraisal so they could do the deal. If the necessity is to reprice the market, then principal reductions accomplish it cheapest. Sorry, but the views here are the problem, not the solution.