Irvine Housing Blog

As Bridget Fonda said to Robert DeNiro in “Jackie Brown” when she learned that he had been in jail for bank robbery: “Shit, I’m impressed!”

This is a teeny little house, in a not great neighborhood, with a tiny lot (is that a pool taking up the entire back yard?).  If she sells it for this price and makes a bundle, I’ll be impressed.  But if she doesn’t and it goes into default—because she was intending to flip it the entire time, she didn’t invest her own capital, and got the loan under false pretenses—then I hope she ends up where DeNiro did in that movie.

She listed before she had even finished cleaning it up enough so that she could get pictures taken? Man those carrying costs must be killing her, or she’s scared to death that the $8k will be allowed to expire, or something.

There’s a lot of competition amongst similar homes at the $499k level just in the Redfin “similar listings” feature. She better have done one heck of a job on the interior if she wants to be the house to snag the buyer.

RE: Rockwren,
If it will go for well over asking why didn’t they get such a bid last week?
Is 5.25% realistic for the APR on a jumbo loan at your estimated transaction price?

The only way I see 5.25% being realistic is if you factor in that the typical DP percentage right now is over 30%, such that the loan would be jumbo conforming with low LTV.

And goodness gracious the rents are outrageous in Woodbridge! Man oh man are you guys willing to bleed for your housing out there in Cali!

Also, while I do think they’re hoping for a bidding war, one would also think there’s a limit to the effectiveness. While I have personally seen bidding wars bring underpriced REO’s up as high as 125% of asking. (25% over) I don’t know if that’s scalable up to the 900k+ market.

Banks have gotten screwed by the implicit ‘put option’ in housing available by walking away, why don’t they write in an explicit owner-activated call options to participate in some of the possible up-side?  The call-option only gets activated upon a sale.  They should especially be used in 100% or low DP financing because the bank is putting up all the equity and taking all the risk. 

Say you buy a home for $417k with 100% financing, if you sell within 1 year, X% of the equity gain would go to the bank, 2 years Y%, 3 years Z% ...  Life of the option maybe 5 years or so.  Bankers had such a hard time with vanilla mortgages, I doubt they could figure out how to handle something like that.

For a period people were acting like banks, counting on their mortgage rates (or at least the rate they actually paid in option-arms) to be lower than appreciation and they would bank the juice - kool-aid if you like.  We now see that the banks didn’t have a good handle on what they were doing, and people pretending to be banks had no idea the risks they were taking.

Half a million dollars for a 1000 sq ft house built in the 1970’s?! Oh and the house still has the christmas lights on too. It does have a pool, but I really doubt it has been maintained. If they can’t find time to take down the christmas lights, then do they really have time to do the maintainence on a pool. This is insane.

Thanks for reminding me to put up my Christmas lights today (screw the association and their stupid not until Thanksgiving rule)). I have the day off. I better do it now before the temp hits 102.

$495/sq ft. Is there really anything left to discuss? $400,000 in Huntington Beach, which, at least, has a beach. Such a house is a disgrace in Irvine.

Irvine condo tower saved from foreclosure
 
A 15-story Irvine high-rise luxury condo tower has been rescued from a looming foreclosure and bankruptcy.

3000 The Plaza has been acquired by a minority owner, developer Geoffrey Edmunds & Associates of Scottsdale, Ariz., from majority owner Opus West, an Arizona builder in bankruptcy. Selling of the remaining 55 units — priced from the $600,000s — restarts with the transaction, which closed last week.

Edmunds said 3000 The Plaza was not part of the Opus West corporate bankruptcy, but the old owner had missed payments to the lender and contractors this year on the building. A foreclosure or bankruptcy of the 3000 The Plaza and/or the Opus-Edmunds partnership was “imminent,” Edmunds said.

Restructing loans and debts gives Edmunds two years to finish sales at the final slice of a three-tower complex on Jamboree Road. This tower may be best known as the building with the rooftop pool. (Click on photo above!) Under previous ownership, Opus West already sold 50 homes in this tower — including 10 in 2009’s second quarter. Home selling all but stopped this summer as Opus entered bankruptcy.

Edmunds said his acquisition required him to get payment extension from unpaid subcontractors — owed $3 million — and a loan modification from project lender, Wells Fargo, owed $35 million. The deal sees the subcontractors repaid first; then the bank; and finally Edmunds and his partners who new capital — he wouldn’t say how much — into the project.

“In almost every case, the developers walk away from the problem,” Edmunds said. “What we are saying, instead, is that we had the tenacity to come up with a plan to fix it.”

Tic, Tic, Tic ...

All within 1,200 feet of the property listed above.

Charleville Cir, Irvine, CA?  - more info »
$508,208 2 bed 1 bath
“This property is a Notice of Foreclosure Sale. A notice was filed at the recorder’s office by the lender’s attorney signifying a public auction. ...” realtytrac.com

Charleville Cir, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$524,000 2 bed 1 bath
“This property is a Notice of Default. This is the initial document filed by an attorney or trustee on behalf of the foreclosing lender that starts the ...” realtytrac.com

Countrywood Ln, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$482,395 3 bed 2 bath
“This property is a Notice of Foreclosure Sale. A notice was filed at the recorder’s office by the lender’s attorney signifying a public auction. ...” realtytrac.com

14611 Countrywood Ln, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$445,000 3 bed 2 bath
“This property is a Pre-Foreclosure. The homeowner has missed at least one payment and may be willing to sell this home at an attractive price, in order ...” realtystore.com

Cheviot Dr, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$498,750 3 bed 2 bath
“This property is a Notice of Default. This is the initial document filed by an attorney or trustee on behalf of the foreclosing lender that starts the ...” realtytrac.com

Cheviot Dr, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$571,478 3 bed 2 bath
“This is a Pre-Foreclosure property (Notice of Default). This initial document is filed by a trustee to initiate the foreclosure process following the ...” realtybargains.com

4442 Cheviot Dr, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$498,750 3 bed 2 bath
“This property is a Pre-Foreclosure. The homeowner has missed at least one payment and may be willing to sell this home at an attractive price, in order ...” realtystore.com

Ranchgrove Dr, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$550,459 2 bed 1 bath
“This is a Pre-Foreclosure property (Notice of Default). This initial document is filed by a trustee to initiate the foreclosure process following the ...” realtybargains.com

4592 Abbotswood Cir, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$575,000 3 bed 2 bath
“BACK ON THE MARKET!!! BACK ON THE MARKET!!! TURN KEY!!! COMPLETELY REMODELED!!! BEST VALUE IN EL CAMINO REAL! BRING YOUR FUSSIEST BUYER FOR 3 BED 2 BATH ...” listhub.net

4801 Redbluff Cir, Irvine, CA? - more info »
$600,000 3 bed 2 bath
“This property is a Pre-Foreclosure. The homeowner has missed at least one payment and may be willing to sell this home at an attractive price, in order ...” realtystore.com

These are the homes in peril to the north of the featured property ... there’s many more to the South ... of course less than 1,200 feet away.

I could see this property going for mid to high $400’s.  Wonder if the flipper put any money into it?

Lansner: O.C. home prices at 11-month high

http://tinyurl.com/mj5ga3

you have an unusual market in irvine.  i don’t live there.  i don’t understand your chart graph.  what i mean is i don’t understand the plunge in available inventory.  i’ve mentioned before that i don’t understand it.  it doesn’t make sense.

I think she’s nuts, and I’m kind of a Perma-Bear, but I think (wait for it!) she’ll do OK on this one.

Kind of the greater fool theory, I think she’ll find a great fool at some price higher than $430K for that house. 

Or somewhere thereabouts, so as long as she didn’t dump a bunch of money into it (my guess is she’s added less than $1000 to it), or doesn’t foolishly refuse any offer that has some profit in it and ends up holding it for a year, her downside seems fairly limited.

Of course, based on the comps for sale nearby, the upside is also fairly limited.

They’re asking $550 - bought it as a short sale for $417K.

All of this is part of the public record. Maybe during the go-go years of the Real Estate Bubble this would have worked. (What am I saying? Of course, it would have.) But everyone knows real estate prices are not going to the moon now. Don’t they?

They might stabilize, they might go up a little (I personally think they’ll drop more) but we won’t see the appreciation we say before ‘06.

I mean, you have to be brain dead if you buy this thing anywhere near the asking price - especially when you KNOW what they paid for it!