Login
Subscribe
Recent Comments
- Sylvia Walker on Irvine Housing by the Numbers - May 2012 Update
- Casual Observer on Irvine Housing by the Numbers - May 2012 Update
- Astute As It Comes on Open House Review: 35 Bella Rosa
- Sylvia Walker on Open House Review: 35 Bella Rosa
- Darin on Open House Review: 35 Bella Rosa
- Sylvia Walker on Investors Are Busy in Irvine's Low-End Housing Market
- Casual Observer on Investors Are Busy in Irvine's Low-End Housing Market
- irvine_home_owner on Tustin, but Irvine Schools
- cynthia curran on Mendocino and Saragota in Stonegate and the Irvine Development Map (Winter 2012)
- irvine_home_owner on Woodbury Open House Review: 75 Fanlight
Recent Posts
- Closed Sales from 5/10/2012-5/16/2012
- Open House Review: 52 Secret Garden
- Irvine Housing by the Numbers - May 2012 Update
- Paired Living with Privacy in Woodbridge
- Beige Ruth Sisters
- Closed Sales from 5/3/2012 to 5/9/2012
- Open House Review: 35 Bella Rosa
- Investors Are Busy in Irvine’s Low-End Housing Market
- Artist in Residence: Turtle Rock Glen Townhome
- Tustin, but Irvine Schools
Categories
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- Rest of archives
Browse Homes
Irvine Homes
- Airport Area Homes
- El Camino Real Homes
- Northpark Homes
- Northwood Homes
- Oak Creek Homes
- Orangetree Homes
- Portola Springs Homes
- Quaill Hill Homes
- Rancho San Joaquin Homes
- Turtle Ridge Homes
- Turtle Rock Homes
- University Park
- University Town Center Homes
- West Irvine Homes
- Westpark Homes
- Woodbridge Homes
- Woodbury Homes
Newport Beach Homes
- Newport Coast Homes
- Crystal Cove Homes
- Corona Del Mar / Spyglass
- East Bluff / Harbor View Homes
- Lower Newport Bay / Balboa Island
- Balboa Peninsula Homes
- West Bay / Santa Ana Heights
- West Newport / Lido Homes
Other Cities
- Aliso Viejo Homes
- Anaheim Hills Homes
- Brea Homes
- Costa Mesa Homes
- Coto de Caza Homes
- Dana Point Homes
- Huntington Beach Homes
- Ladera Ranch Homes
- Laguna Beach Homes
- Laguna Hills Homes
- Laguna Niguel Homes
- Lake Forest Homes
- Mission Viejo Homes
- Orange Homes
- Rancho Santa Margarita Homes
- San Clemente Homes
- San Juan Capistrano Homes
- Santa Ana Homes
- Tustin Homes
- Villa Park Homes
- Yorba Linda Homes
Contact
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Foreclosures
Housing
- Talk Irvine
- IHB Forum Archive
- OC Housing News
- Coto Housing Blog
- Housing Kaboom
- Patrick.net
- Housing Chronicles
- Housing Doom
- Dr. Housing Bubble
- Manhattan Beach Confidential
- Burbed
- SoCal RE Bubble Crash
- Professor Piggington
- Real C'ville
- Westside Bubble
- Bubble Meter
- Portland Housing Blog
- Sacramento Land(ing)
- OC Register Blog
Econ/Finance/Other
- Calculated Risk
- The Big Picture
- Economist's View
- Mish's Blog
- Matrix
- Bakers' Stock
- ML-Implode
- Eschaton
- Best Mortgage Rates
- Crackerjack Finance
Latest REOs
- $349,900 :: 10 Greenleaf 16, Irvine CA, 92604
- $439,900 :: 61 Olivehurst, Irvine CA, 92602
- $889,900 :: 14 Upland, Irvine CA, 92602
- $429,900 :: 56 Great Lawn, Irvine CA, 92620
- $465,000 :: 212 Garden Gate Ln, Irvine CA, 92620
- $329,000 :: 1006 Terra Bella, Irvine CA, 92602
- $199,000 :: 3125 Watermarke Pl, Irvine CA, 92612
- $579,900 :: 8 Star Thistle, Irvine CA, 92604
- $458,500 :: 3 Ultimo Dr, Irvine CA, 92620
- $398,900 :: 191 Lockford, Irvine CA, 92602
I am as bleeding heart a Democrat as there is, but this amendment is the Worst Idea Ever.
How about we do this for car loans, but don’t let the lender repo the car. You can always put your home on your 20% credit card - this is only slightly tongue in cheek, as I’m sure many homeowners used their credit cards up to the limit to keep up with their home payments. The opposite of strategic defaulters?
Is it bikable from this condo to UCI? Are $300k condos something parents buy for students? In my college town it was more like $50-60k condos. That town did have a planned condo project that was targeted as ‘football weekend luxury condos’. Condos that would be used 10 weekends a year. On a prime corner just off campus, 1/2 mile walk to the football stadium. It was a terrible idea and the lot where it was planned for still sits empty.
Yup, UCI parents buy this, they put bunk beds in each bedroom so they can cram 4 students into it, then you charge each one $1,000/month rent and viola… +++ cash flow..
Of course, the condo gets trashed but at least they can’t break those granite counter tops.
I have lived in this complex for 1.5 years and have seen the community decline quickly. I am a renter but I do think that a community full of renters will not be as nice as a community full of owners. The incentive to maintain communal property isnt as strong. Things like littering, cigarette butts, smoking in the hallways and stairs (not much ventilation so strong odor), loud noise, kicking doors to open instead of pushing the bar, etc. Just ask yourself how you treat a rental car and how you treat your own car.
Compound that with underwater owners renting out to less than ideal tenants like 3-4 college students in a 2 bedroom and you get a very different atmosphere.
This wont rent for $4000 even if you rent to 4 college students. They arent stupid and can easily find a 2 bedroom for $2000 in the area and then still move in 4 people. This will rent for $1600-1800 tops.
The unit I am in first sold for $700K+! A little over 1200 sq ft and $700K+—> insanity. My landlord bought it for $450K and I dont think he can sell it for $350K today. I also dont think the featured unit will get even $250K.
my nephew is one of those students.. my sisters pays like 1500/month for him to share a tiny dorm room on campus and get like one or two awfull, cafeteria style meals/day. this place would be heaven compared to his dorm room
If your nephew has a car and doesnt care to live in campus housing, then he really should move. Most people want to stay in campus housing because of the experience of being around your friends.
I actually have more positive than negative things to say about the dorm food at UCI.
Wow! Reads just like something off of theOnion.com!
How about an initiative to ban ugliness or meanness or failure? I can’t stand any of those. If we pass an initiative banning them there will be no more mean, ugly people or failure. Problems solved!
Is Mr. Benson’s proposal absurd? Sure. But no more absurd than the notion possessed by quite a few that they deserve to benefit from public schools, police, fire, military defense, public roads etc but don’t want to pay any taxes.
And unlike Mr. Benson, these people have a significant number of politicians who will happily cater to their desires to get something for nothing.
Cracked.com recently featured an article citing 10 examples of how our civil court system is thoroughly screwed up. What followed were 10 examples of outrageous suits that people filed… and all of them either failed to win a judgement or won a much, much smaller judgement than that originally sought.
Anybody can propose any daft idea in this country, like returning to the gold standard or banning foreclosure. Doesn’t mean it’s a reason to panic.
Are you are talking about the 49% of people in this country who pay no federal income tax and want to keep it that way by increasing borrowing and taxes on the 51% who do?
And people who don’t own sailboats pay no slip fees.
The bottom half pays plenty in state, local, and payroll taxes. I’m not sure why this fact that they get a break on federal income taxes gets so much play. Maybe AM radio is the best explanation.
Everyone needs to pay their fair share. Pony up my friend.
You misunderstand our “liberal” (ahahahaha!) media. You see, ridiculous left-wing stuff which never goes anywhere, is overturned on appeal, or costs us hundreds of millions (e.g., cushy public-sector unionized jobs) is trumpeted all over the media: “That bastard tried to trim his hedge with the lawnmower and sued? Horrors!” - except that one never happened.
Meanwhile, real Patriot Acts and real wars which cost us trillions - well, they didn’t really happen. Oh, and those tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts which also cost us trillions and did nothnig to stimulate creative investment or create jobs? They need to be kept, else the wealthy will all leave the country and we’ll be bereft without them.
Now the same people who lie awake nights worrying about the well-being of the wealthy have tried to send treasuries into a spiral by flirting with default. Guess who holds a lot of treasuries? Why, the wealthy in this country, of course! That’s the triumph of brainwashed ideology over principles: the wealthy are, finally, subservient to the creed of an ideology which by definition is inerrant.
Any examination of how corporations and wealthy individuals have gamed our system is deferred in favor of questions like “Public workers: 100% worthless, or 100% evil?” and “Are we blaming unions enough? Should we kick them or just spit on them?”
Big money gets into buying foreclosures and renting them out
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904292504576484571234105448.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0
“(a) Real estate lending institutions have failed to provide a simple method of loan modification and foreclosure prevention.”
LOL - a simple method to prevent foreclosure: pay the mortgage!
But really the state legislature is more like a bad sitcom. A great many of these proposals are not serious, they’re just posturing for votes.
Mortgage Insurer PMI Warns of Shutdown; Shares Plummet
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903366504576488100257382130.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
A 47% loss in Irvine if it sells for the ask. I thought Irvine was immune to the bubble.
Maybe a savy parent will buy this place so their kids can go to Uni High…it is afterall the eigth best high school in the country. A small price to pay.
Bwahaahaha.
It’s actually the Santa Ana school district! Same with all the other medium-/high-rises in the area.
Oh boy, there’s goes my idea of buying up all the units and making it a Uni High clown house.
That being the case, they’ll be lucky to get low 200K for this.
I’ve talked to plenty of young proffesionals (the ones who should be buying places like this). Comments I get: why buy an apartment when you can rent one, prices are still inflated, prices aren’t going up anytime soon and probably the most popular…I don’t know if I’ll have my job in ______ (fill in the blank). Home buying isn’t quite what it was to prior generations…smart kids.
SHHH….don’t tell that to PR (where the hell is he anyway?). He’ll claim that SFH are holding up nicely from the 2009 low, thank u very much.
Sometimes you just want to give people what they demand, and let them decide if they like the result. Having the California housing market go to a 100% down payment system might turn out to be an interesting experience. It would sure be nice to get a (huge!) loan before the bill passes though.
A number of states are doing the experiment with gun ownership for practically anyone, concealed carry permission, etc. If they are right, then they’ll be much safer, crime will vanish and the rest of the states will see the light and follow suit. Perhaps the Tea Partiers should see what no Medicare, no Social Security, cops and firefighters on no benefits and hourly minimum wages will really look like.
If this gets on the ballot vote YES on it. Mortgage lending in CA will then become nonexistent. We need to start a campaign.
Voting yes on this law will cause house prices to go drop, because it will be hard to find a lender. I am liking this unintended consequence.
Yep cash only market. Welcome to the 1800s…let’s get back on the gold standard while were at it. Abolish the FED now!
Perhaps the Tea Partiers should see what no Medicare, no Social Security, cops and firefighters on no benefits and hourly minimum wages will really look like.
I’ll settle for drastically-reduced SSA/Medicare (safety nets, not full-fledged retirement plans) and cops/firefighters not retiring on 90% of their full working salaries. Oh, and kill these ‘cadillac’ healthcare plans for gov’t workers, too. Civil service healthcare plans should reflect what private sector workers receive.
Why do I get to dictate these things? Because I pay your salary, that’s why. Now say “yes, boss” and get back to pretending to work.
-Darth
Not to pick apart your post - it’s done often enough on the Internet - but why no mention of military retirement benefits? 20 years cliff vesting? Why not a corporate-style pension system for them as well?
Not to pick apart your post
Actually, that is what you intend to do. Go right ahead.
but why no mention of military retirement benefits? 20 years cliff vesting? Why not a corporate-style pension system for them as well?
First of all, my post was far from comprehensive. I wasn’t delivering my all-encompassing vision for every aspect of gov’t policy.
But, since you ask, I am in favor of bumping military retirement age up to 25 years. Much beyond that, however, and you run into the ability of an aging force to perform in combat. Even with all of our technology, light infantry ground combat is still a younger-man’s game. Alternately, we could make combat arms 20 years for retirement, combat support branches 25 years, and combat service support branches 30 years (these are distinctions in the U.S. Army; don’t know much about Air Farce and Knavey). I’d even favor delaying the payout of retirement benefits until age 60+. I don’t favor double-dipping; if they can work, they should work. Military disability pay can continue to cover those injured while on duty and unable to work.
Having said all this, the military should NOT run on exactly the same standards as the non-military gov’t workers. There are some special benefits for standing in harm’s way. Folks at the DMV aren’t exactly throwing themselves on IED’s on a daily basis.
-Darth
How about a lifelong ban on high-ranking military officials from working for defense contractors or lobbying firms? Could add this as a condition of them receiving their rank.
Want some real savings? Thirty years, no payout til 65. Can’t fill the positions? Bring back the draft.
:o)
Lots of unintended consequences there. I suspect that a lot of the more capable officers would depart the service right before that cutoff. The lower you make it, the less effective your military becomes. I hate corruption as much as the next guy, but I also don’t want a cadre of incompetent officers unnecessarily killing U.S. soldiers. There might be fore effective ways to combat this problem of corruption and undue influence.
-Darth
A perfect example of why California should do away with the initiative process. Or at least require that any initiative have judicial review BEFORE it is put on any ballot. There are enough ill-informed, stupid people out there that might vote for this. Isn’t that why we elect and support a State Legislature?
Or, maybe, this act should be extended to stock purchases and any other investment vehicles….wow, that’s a great idea
There is nothing strange in this amendment.
If people can vote, they always vote for additional benefits.
Alexander Tyler was a 18th century historian/economist who wrote “The Cycle of Democracy” in 1778.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.”
Thankfully this country isn’t a democracy, it’s a republic.
<Sigh> If I had a dollar for every time I had to put up with this, I will have a home in Turtle Rock by now
We are a democracy AND a republic. We are a republic because the supreme control of the govt. is not help by some monarch. We are a democracy because all citizens have a direct say in elections, and hence, running of the government.
Canada is a democracy but not a republic as they have constitutional monarchy.
China is not a democracy but is a republic. Note their name, People’s Republic of China.
Saudi Arabia is neither a democracy or a republic.
USA is a democracy and a republic.
On paper we’re a constitutional democratic republic. In reality though, we’re something else these days…
Maybe and then again..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fraser_Tytler#Misquotation_-_Tytler_Cycle
Why don’t they just get it over with and draft a Constitutional ammendment that negates private property rights?
They gotta take away the guns first.
Yeah, chipping away the 2nd amendment will be the end of America as we speak.
Yeah, I’m sure your privately owned handgun is a match for an Apache helicopter sporting a mini-gun or two or a Predator drone w/Hellfire missiles. Private weaponry is no match for US Military/National Guard/local police firepower these days and folks who think otherwise are fooling themselves. (or are international arms dealers)
My Husband and I just celebrated the paying off of our 30 year mortgage. Nobody ever reduced our interest or our principal amount. What a nightmare our entire economy has become. I don’t know if it will ever be the same again. Very sad!
I’m just appalled by the semi-literate misuse of the English language in Mr. Benson’s proposal. I recommend we give it to his 7th-grade English teacher for review (if there are any 7th-grade English teachers left after school budget cuts that leave administration untouched, after Federal mandates, after the latest pedagogical craze for grammar-free teaching, and after the latest heavily armed 7th-grader runs amok).