Irvine Housing Blog

Gee what’s going on with all those computers?  Stock trading, serious gamer, boiler room, porn ring or just plain geek?

I have this theory - that the bubble started in the prime areas in 2000, maybe as early as 1998 for the premier areas. Although my evidence is 100% anecdotal, I keep seeing things like the second property:
Apr 25, 2006     Sold   $500,000     18.5%/yr
Jan 21, 2003   Sold   $287,500   14.1%/yr
Oct 29, 1999   Sold   $187,500   2.9%/yr
Jul 09, 1993   Sold   $157,000   0.7%/yr
Sep 16, 1988   Sold   $152,000   —

Theres just no reason for 14%/yr for 2.25yrs!
If history repeats itself, we’ll see a median income * 4.1 = median OC price again (1985, 1996). http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pGy0BQU1PZ9And2KJvInRJg

Right, I’ll tell my wife that the kitchen in our 1986 leased house is “gourmet”. The 80’s are back!

It does remind me of a condo we looked at leasing where the lady owner had pumped $50,000 into a small kitchen upgrade. The property manager rolled his eyes telling us that one.

You can knock that much off this house and still be way overpriced.

$441 / sq ft says it all.

It seems to me that most of middle properties profiled here have been asking in the low $300’s / sq ft.  It’s only recent that we’ve seen properties such as the first go below $300/ sq ft.

Maybe it’s another divorce listing, listing high by the husband because the wife’s attorney is using the bubble profit to get more alimony.

It took me a few weeks to realize why so many people hype the merits of condos, but I finally realized why they’re still so popular.  With an actual apartment, nobody pays for that space unless they’re planning to use it:  as a residence, as an office location, as a bordello or a boiler room headquarters.  Nobody in their right mind pays for an apartment just to sit on it:  the money’s just running down a rathole, right?

Suddenly, convert the apartment to a condo, and all bets are off.  An actual apartment will only rent for what people are willing to pay for its use, and the property owners promptly adjust their prices or renovate as required.  If an apartment owner wants to charge $2000 more than what the space will rent for per month, then it’ll be a drain on resources so long as it remains unoccupied.  Sell it as a condo, and suddenly it’s an “investment opportunity”:  not only is the new owner responsible for maintenance of a poorly constructed and often rotting infrastructure, but the owner has the option of being stuck with a horribly overpriced apartment when the music stops and the last sucker is caught without a chair.  Everybody wins!

IR, 

I would like to thank you for this website.  I was looking at places like 61 Costero Aisle back in 2006/2007 and its quite fortunate that I didn’t buy it back then.  (otherwise I could have had my place “featured” on this site)

What are they smoking? And further more, why aren’t they sharing?

When I look around Woodbury I see examples where the attached condos are better than the free standing SFR’s.  I live in a Treo attached condo.  Each unit is three homes in one.  We have one shared wall with the middle condo where it wraps around over our garage.  Yet it feels very private as we do not actually see the neighbors on that side.  On the open side we have about 20 ft. to the next unit.

Conversely many of the detached SFR’s are built right on top of each other with only a few feet between neighboring exterior walls.  The sides have windows but they look right into your neighbors windows.  If both windows were open you could shake your neighbor’s hand.  I imagine a game where everyone could open their windows and handoff a football from one end of the development to the other.

My point is that you need to be careful about the added value of the detached - especially since realtors do a good job of photographing the SFR to make is seem that it has space around it.

If hearing your neighbors through the walls, aside from maybe a really really loud party or loud barking dog, is a problem then it’s just shoddy construction. I live in a 100 year old brick row house and I never hear anything through the walls.

I don’t know if this image has made the rounds on this forum:

Not a bad price, you should be able to find a buyer quickly I would imagine.

Gerard Hagan - Edmonton Home

Are those high voltage power lines on other side of the creek?