Irvine Housing Blog

A random thought…

This is an aside, but uh, has anyone considered the effect on real estate prices of upcoming tax increases…  IT’s minor, but I think its within the range of significance.

Consider the following:
1) California will most likely raise income taxes within the next 5 years, presumably on the top bracket from 9.3% to 10 or 11% depending—we are still in pretty lousy shape here—we had some unexpected revenue this year IIRC, but you know how our state government is with money…

2) Hillary Clinton is likely to become the next president of the US, and has an agenda that will require an increase in federal income taxes.

Let’s suppose that taxes go up by 3% (raw points, not on top of current levels), so if you are at 150k, you might be going from 33%+9.3% = 42.3% up to 45.3%

That means that the tax shield on a 500k loan at 6% goes from $1057.50/mo right now to 1132.50—thats an increase of $75, or, imagine this, 2-3% of your payment.  Presumably that should justify a requisite 2-3% bump on the relative desirability of owning a house vs renting.

Awww, remember all those Di Tech commercials, billboards, etc.  Why is it we can always see a bubble from the back side, but at the time this just seems like the new normal? 

You’ve got the green light - to your layoff.  And won’t all these people then be losing their houses next?  It’s gonna be ugly.

I remember the same thing with the Tech Bubble.  People really believed that all commerce would be done with no storefronts within just a few years.

Gosh, they allowed people to merely state their income, and people do what people do, and now this is horrible old fraud.  Excuse me,
when you are just begging to be defrauded, you shouldn’t be
allowed to complain after the inevitable happens.

That’s true, used car salesmen have lots of competition (ex. http://www.carmax.com/).  They don’t charge you an outrageous fee per hour.  And they’re not getting investigated by DOJ antitrust either.

Also to Holly - Bathroom - one word. Family Room - two words. Living Room - two words. With skills like these Holly will be working at the local Carls Jr. soon selling breakfastburritos and ham burgers (mistakes are intentional)….“

HAHAH ROFL ! You NAILED THAT ONE !!!

You hear that Holly?

BTW, can I get flies oops, fries with my oda of ham burgers?

Just wait!  As the dollar continues to fall in foreign exchange markets, due to a variety of reasons, interest rates can go only one way; up.  This is despite what the Fed does on short term paper.  Hyperinflation is on it’s way folks, due to out of control government spending, massive malinvestment in the private sector, outsourcing in manufacturing, increasing oil prices and the stupidity of the average American “homeowner”.  I expect RE prices in the Irvine area to drop between 40 - 65% over the next few years.  Some think 2009 will mark the bottom.  Sorry, not even close.  With the extreme softness of the market, higher interest rares, tightening lending standards, and a squeeze on disposable income due to rising food and fuel prices, look to Japan whose real estate has been dropping in value for well over a decade.

In regard to members of the Irvine Police…  As a former officer in a North Orange County city some 30 years ago, I have watched the Irvine folks in action.  They’ve beaten brain addled children on bicycles for failng to heed to their demands.  They’ve taken great liberties in projecting their “authority” far and beyond what many professionals consider necessary.  In short, many go out looking for trouble.  With an attitude like that, they will usually find it.  Motor officers, if properly trained and led, can be a genuine deterant to bad driving.  As it stands today, they are merely a significant revenue source to an insatiable City Hall.  Some Irvine officers seem to act like they are members of an occupying force.  Some equate Irvine to Stepford.  Not a very appealing place to live.  One thing for certain, most of these guys couldn’t survive a month in LAPD or NYPD for they might get their hands dirty doing real police work!  Sad, but true!

Nah, she will just change her first name to Nomo.

Will she soon change her last name to Debt?

Bring her a dictionary too.

Which knucklehead?  The moron that is second guessing his overspending or the even bigger moron that wrote the friggin’ story about the first moron?

>Great. As global warming starts to really heat us up, at least the noise from the >freeways will be less!

By then the only sound you’ll hear is that of your brain sizzling inside your overheated skull.

Aw c’mon lm.  Don’t hold back.  Tell us what you really think?

October 17, 2007
Federal Reserve Districts
Twelfth District—San Francisco

http://www.federalreserve.gov/Fomc/BeigeBook/2007/20071017/12.htm

Real Estate and Construction
The slowdown in District housing markets intensified during the survey period, while demand remained strong in commercial real estate markets. Tighter lending standards for home mortgages contributed to further reductions in sales of new and existing homes in most areas. Reports from providers of title and escrow services indicated that sales activity fell as much as 40 percent in some areas during the last few months. The reduced pace of home sales has reportedly restrained price growth throughout the District, particularly for lower-priced homes, which have been most affected by changing credit terms and conditions in the subprime-mortgage market. In contrast to housing markets, demand for commercial real estate advanced further, and positive absorption continued in most areas despite the availability of substantial new construction. The main exception to strong conditions for commercial real estate was in Las Vegas, where the market for office space was described as “soft” due to growth in newly built space that has outstripped demand.

Financial Institutions
District banking contacts reported that overall loan demand grew but at a reduced pace compared with the past few surveys. Reports on commercial and industrial lending and consumer lending suggested stability or modest growth during the survey period, although scattered reports pointed to a decline in loan volumes. The decline in mortgage lending deepened as a result of tighter lending standards for most types of mortgages and increased rates on “jumbo” mortgages. Delinquencies and defaults increased a bit further for home mortgages, but credit quality otherwise was described as quite favorable.

Comparing real estate agents to used car salesmen is an insult to used car salesmen.

Holly seems like she may be stupid enough to date me.  I wonder if she’s single.  I’ll bring her a rose accompanied by a fax machine on our first date.

That is one of the most retarded stories I have read in a long time. While I was reading it, I wish I could slap some intelligence into this knucklehead.

When you cannot find any mortgage information, it is very likely they buyer bought with cash.

Humor: California broker ties jumbo miles to jumbo mortgages

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jumbo18oct18,1,6820282.story?coll=la-headlines-business

In Southern California, a jumbo mortgage can now land you on a jumbo jet.

In a bid to draw high-end buyers to the region’s floundering housing market, Beverly Hills-based real estate brokerage, Incentive Real Estate Inc, said today homes buyers can earn 250,000 airline miles on the purchase of a newly constructed house valued at more than $500,000.

WTF? No-one makes a comment that the buyer’s name is Kim Money? 

Money?  Money?  Now thats Irony!

So, I live on the same street. Before this home was purchased in November 2006 by the current owner, the home was on the market for nearly 18 months as I recall.  The Realtor spent nearly every weekend showing the home.  The upstairs “bedroom” or “loft” area is a converted attic space that is accessible ONLY through a narrow pull-down ladder located in the garage. I doubt that it they have a permit. No insulation. Summer heat in this space is a killer. The additional bedroom is poorly done and, like ALL the bedrooms in the home, faces the 405 fwy. Noise? If you close your eyes and really stretch the imagination, it sounds like you have a river/waterfall (Niagara Falls) running 24/7. First time visitors always comment about the noise. Realtors promptly shut the door as you walk in and counter by saying “you don’t even notice the 405 once you’re inside …. and all the (soundproof) windows are closed”. Lot’s of luck Holly!

I live on the same street. Before this home was purchased in November 2006 by the current owner, the home was on the market for nearly 18 months as I recall. The upstairs “bedroom” or “loft” area is a converted attic space that is accessible ONLY through a narrow pull-down ladder located in the garage. I doubt that it they have a permit. No insulation. Summer heat in this space is a killer. The additional bedroom is poorly done and, like ALL the bedrooms in the home, faces the 405 fwy. Noise? If you close your eyes and really stretch the imagination, it sounds like you have a river/waterfall (Niagara Falls) running 24/7. First time visitors always comment about the noise. Realtors promptly shut the door as you walk in and counter by saying “you don’t even notice the 405 once you’re inside …. and all the (soundproof) windows are closed”. Lot’s of luck Holly!

I live on the same street.  Before this home was purchased in November 2006 by the current owner, the home was on the market for nearly 18 months as I recall.  The upstairs “bedroom” or “loft” area is a converted attic space that is accessible ONLY through a narrow pull-down ladder located in the garage.  I doubt that it they have a permit.  No insulation.  Summer heat in this space is a killer.  The additional bedroom is poorly done and, like ALL the bedrooms in the home, faces the 405 fwy.  Noise?  If you close your eyes and really stretch the imagination, it sounds like you have a river/waterfall (Niagara Falls) running 24/7.  First time visitors always comment about the noise.  Realtors promptly shut the door as you walk in and counter by saying “you don’t even notice the 405 once you’re inside .... and all the (soundproof) windows are closed”.  Lot’s of luck Holly!

If they can sleep at night right up next to the 405 freeway.

BTW- the definition of “crossing the street” is to leave the curb.  In this case the radiused curb is so far back from the stop line and the actual crossing street ( Campus ) that it is illegal because a car shield the pedestrian from view of crossing traffic.

Take a look at crosswalks all over Irvine and you’ll see how the curbs all start AFTER the curved curb straightens outs.  That is, crosswalks go from straight curb to straight curb.

I’m talking about the crosswalk on Campus by Uni High.

For many years I kept calling the school, the school district and the cops telling them to get some crossing guards to control the crosswalk.

The kids would routinely block the street for minutes at a time and the traffic would block back to TR drive and Culver. 

The school told me they had no money, yet there’d be a cop sitting there in a motorcycle writing tickets left and right.

As it turns out, the crosswalk opposite the school is illegal per the DMV code.  The curve has a huge radius and the crosswalk starts like 20 feet BEHIND the stop line.  Hence, the kids would start to cross the intersection hidden by cars and vans making a left to Campus.

Meanwhile, the TR bound traffic on Campus would cross the intersection unable to see anyone already “on” the street and the cop would give them a ticket.

It was a scam.

Finally someone got serious and put a crossing guard in there.  I can only guess that somebody tried to sue the city for being boneheads.

They do catch these guys.  I see them do it every day as I walk back band forth.

O.C. applies for $3.5 million to help laid-off mortgage workers
October 17th, 2007

http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2007/10/17/oc-applies-for-35-million-to-help-laid-off-mortgage-workers/

Because, you know it’s so hard to save when you only made low to high six figures there…

http://www.collegejournal.com/salarydata/banking/20030304-hechinger.html

Washington Mutual CEO sees no end to housing slump

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKWEN174320071017?rpc=44

Why don’t the cops try to catch those guys instead of the ones who don’t deserve it? My cousin was riding his bike with a helmet that had a broken strap when he was 12, and he still got a ticket. They are bullys. They go for the easy targets and not the ones that deserve tickets.

Great.  As global warming starts to really heat us up, at least the noise from the freeways will be less!

Wow, Corona is REO central…  Here’s a link to an upcoming REO auction:

http://www.hudsonandmarshall.com/auctionInfo.asp?auctionName=Southern+California+-+Over+600+Homes!&auctionID=379

Interesting article on mortgage fraud:

http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/fraud/stories/?storyid=20071017a.htm

How do access the loan info thru public record?

Night time ais is colder, which means the air is more dense.  Sound travels better through denser mediums.

Just checked the Countrywide REO website and they are up to 3,200 properties.  Had been hovering in the 2900-3000 range for the past few months…  At some point they are going to have to get aggressive on pricing to move some of that inventory.

Still only five properties in Irvine though:

IRVINE 141 ISLINGTON ,
IRVINE , CA 92620 Condo SEAN STANFIELD 714-337-3377
request info $572,900
IRVINE 15 BOLINAS ,
IRVINE , CA 92602 Condo HERBERT BRICENO 714-545-5456
request info $560,500
IRVINE 21 ASPEN TREE LANE ,
IRVINE , CA 92612 PUD TONY BARTOS 949-360-3600
request info $874,900
IRVINE 23 HEATHERGREEN #67 ,
IRVINE , CA 92614 Condo PATRICK BARTOLIC 949-632-6328
request info $439,900
IRVINE 34 SPRINGACRE #5 ,
IRVINE , CA 92614 Condo PATRICK BARTOLIC 949-632-6328
request info $449,900

POV depends on whether you are driving or walking I guess.

I walk (3 times a day back & forth to school) to avoid the LA style driving around here (ie. going too fast, failing to stop at signs, speeding in the school parking lot and weaving in & out with kids walking between the cars ?!? Even saw one bimbo play chicken with little kids in the school crosswalk once and zip though to cut them off.

The Irvine PD are often out, giving tickets, on the bullhorn telling people not to double park, looking for speeders and people blowing stop signs etc. 

It all seems good to me.

What happens on a deal like this one when PMI is involved? If the mortgage is insured to a certain value - who takes the hit when it sells for $150,000 below the mortgage? Are the companies who offer PMI getting killed right now?

Also to Holly - Bathroom - one word. Family Room - two words. Living Room - two words. With skills like these Holly will be working at the local Carls Jr. soon selling breakfastburritos and ham burgers (mistakes are intentional)....

The walls don’t work very well at night—the stillness of the air easily allows the soundwaves to refract over any size wall or trees.  Also at night the marine layer will reflect the sound back down.

Elevation is another component of how far the sound travels.

LOL. Hilarious

Idiots

I live almost two friggin’ miles from the 5 freeway and I can hear the cars at night…  Does sound quite a bit like the ocean though.  From that distance, it all blends together into a constant noise.

I can’t imagine living within a mile of any major OC freeway…

Sorry, but I had to laugh at the little debate over whether the I-405 noise is horrible or just kind of a pain in the ass. Makes me glad I don’t live in Southern California. Ha!

6.75% with a full point isn’t a good rate right now. 

You should be able to obtain a 30-year jumbo at 6.50-6.625% with no points:

http://www.mtgcapital.com/ratesheet-fixed.html?state=ca&rs=fixed&p=1

I have used these folks before.  Tack .125 on to the rate you see posted…

Bankrate.com has a number of lenders offering rates in the 6.50-6.75 range with no points and low fees.

At Rancho you can not hear the freeway until you walk out to the back field behind the classrooms.

And if you’re hanging back by the school proper, the 405 is not so loud.  At that point it must be like 300 feet away behind the green fields, a few trees and the sound wall.

So, I’d say that the sound of the 405 doesn’t carry so far in the day time.

At night, however, you may notice it more since it seems like sounds carry further then… or maybe, since it’s quieter around, you can hear softer sounds.

That said, this house is close to the 405.

In my experience, Irvine cops are by and by well educated and well mannered.

The traffic cops, OTOH, are a different breed.  I got a ticket once because the cop thought I was doing 71 in a 50 zone.  Mind you, I was doing 30 mph for 500 feet because he was on the side of the road, standing by his bike and with the flashing lights on.  I thought an accident had happened.

And I saw him from 1400 feet away and was well under the limit…

But he just estimated I was doing 71… not 70.. no, 71.  From perhaps 1400 feet away?

I was going take it to court but I’m too busy at work and it was cheaper in terms of time to give the bastard the money than fight it.

Or the one who gave me a ticket for going across a red light back in 87 when both me and my car pool buddy knew it had just turned yellow.  Nevermind… the cop gave me the ticket even though he had no view on the light.  Again, I went to traffic school because I had no time to fight the damn ticket.

Or the one who pulled me over for making an illegal U Turn… when I pointed out to him that (a) I had not taken a U turn at all and (b) the road curved and he had no idea of what I had done and let me go with a “verbal warning”.... WTF?  He wasted my time for ten minutes for something I never did….. 

Or the rookie who said my car was overloaded with bricks and was unsafe because the muffler “could” hit the road.  I pointed out that I had driven from the old Home Depot in Alton on Harvard and I had yet to hit the road or anything.  When I snorted at the ticket the “supporting” sergeant said I could go to jail… well… my wife was with me and I just invited him to do just that and we’d see what would happen to his job. 

It was a fixed it ticket and so they could have let me drive a mile home… but noo….  I took pictures of the car and eventually I went in to the police dept and had the sergeant and lieutenant in duty and showed them the car, the pictures and the ticket..  They were incredulous and signed it off.  The Mayor and Chief of Police were also incredulous when I sent them a complain letter.

Or the IPD motor cop who kept writing tickets in front of Uni in the morning when the kids were crossing instead of getting off his ass and helping conduct traffic.

Long story… and I’m an old guy, driving nice cars and well behaved… but the IPD traffic cops need an attitude adjustment nonetheless.

The other IPD cops are fine, however.  I’ve found them to be very helpful in the times I’ve needed them.

Home prices fall, but many still can’t buy
Orange County median falls below $600,000, but agents still have trouble moving inventory.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/price-percent-down-1894419-last-sales

The median price of an Orange County home fell 9.5 percent from the year before, dropping to $570,000. It is the first month in 2 ½ years that the median price – or the price at the midpoint of all sales – has dropped below $600,000.

That price was down $75,000, or nearly 12 percent, from the peak price of $645,000 reached in June. In the last down cycle, the drop from the peak to bottom was 16.3 percent from July 1991 to January 1996, according to DataQuick.
...
Last month’s sales were roughly equivalent to one transaction for every real estate office in the county, based on a 2005 Census count of brokerages.

Quite the Case-Schiller graphic

House prices
A hole in the roof

http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9976467

Transparency Is Key To Super SIV

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101602151.html

Wonder if things will ever get so bad around here that one day,
they just put their hammers down half way though…

Financial woes for builder, Inlet construction halted
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/story/219551.html

Part of the noise issue depends on the noise abatement measures put in place. I used to live in Brittany, and the apartment complex is rimmed with townhomes and tall walls to buffer the sound. One day, I walked through a doorway in this wall, and the noise difference was amazing. That being said, it was still noisy on the “quiet” side of the wall. It just wasn’t deafening.

RKP:  BS?  go to Westpark and park at the elementary school/park on San Leandro (just off of Culver) 0.3 mile in from the 405:  the roar of the 405 is unmistakable or maybe you are just deaf. 

that is just across the 405 (more or less) from University Park, where the for-sale-by-Nguyen POS is located.

There’s an interesting smoke test if you go to one of the 405 pedestrian overpasses (ex. there’s one right behind Rancho San Joaquin). 

You can walk right above the middle of the freeway, then walk over and away and check out the cleanliness of the air, noise, etc. at any time of day (ex. rush hour).

Kind of a nice test if you are considering a house close to the freeway, gives you an idea of how far away you have to be before it’s bearable for you.

Hi-  forgive my lack of understanding—but could someone please explain this loan?  Thanks!

Jeff,

Thanks for the info. In the future, please delete the names of the borrower or owner. Even though it is public record, their humiliation is best kept anonymous.

Although, I remember when I looked up the records and saw the owners name, I had a little chuckle to myself…

BS.  The 405 is unbearably loud but if you are 1/3 a mile away, you won’t hear it at all.  I live in Villa Coronado right now and I agree the noise gets insanely bad as you get closer to the 405. 

However, I live near the leasing office which is as far as you can get from the 405 in the apt complex (about 1/6 a mile away) and I barely hear any noise from the freeway with all my windows open.  I hear more traffic coming in out of the Ralphs shopping complex across the street.

You say that as if spelling and grammar would matter at all to dumb and “what-me-worry” knife-catchers.

I looked at housefront.com and it says the owner is CYPRESS TREE LANE TRUST bought from unknown seller

Every time I had a party and had too much fun,,,,,,,I realized the next day I had to pay the price…...why don’t these banks feel like they should pay for the party they started over the past 6 years?

Pete,

I agree, if the broker brings no value to the transaction, they will disappear…..........at this point all a broker can hope to bring to a transaction is a customer from out of the area that needs help sorting out the neighborhoods….of course this blog has a lot of postings that will help with that.

I’ve been involved in real estate transactions where the realtor help smooth over a few issues between buyer and seller. Fact is the issues were created by the realtors lying to every one in the room.

If I were a realtor, I be thinking about changing careers.

All this being said….righ now I would offer a 10 % realtor commission if I were selling a home…...if there is a sucker out there, I would count a realtor to find him/her.

Haven’t seen this yet in Florida.  In fact, never saw it.

But empty houses deteriorate fast.  Had a client who was forced
to vacate a house due to a fight with a town commision.  He won the fight, but the galvanized pipes had deteriorated due to the fact there was no water running in them for 2 years.

Banks are stupid.

Banks are stupid.

And then, banks are stupid.

You mean how can the bank sleep at night with the 840K mortgage!

Hehehe hahaha

I’m in the market and have been tracking jumbos. They have come down quite a bit.

I can get a 6.75% with 1 point from a builder. Of course, they are offering tons of money to buy down the rates right now, do you can easily get it down to 6% if you wanna spend the incentives that way.

Interesting posts over at http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=3583#comments

Does this stuff really happen?  Has anyone seen stuff like this in California?

Comment by Sean_from_NVA
2007-10-17 04:58:44
I was talking to a realtor last night about how the housing market is going in Prince William County, VA. She stated things are getting worse by the day. She has attended several seminars on how to deal with foreclosed homes and the banks who own them. She also stated that the banks are rewriting on how houses are to be shown. For example all the utilities are shut off, using different lock boxes that realtors can’t access. Making demands at the closing table to the buyers asking for more money. She stated this is new territory everyone is facing. She told me a story of a couple who moved from Rhode Island and renting a townhouse and on the second day that the couple was living there the house was foreclosed on and they had to find another place to live (the couple lost their deposit on the first rental).

...

Comment by Homoaner
2007-10-17 07:32:35
Actually, attempted shakedowns by the lender at the closing table were a fairly routine tactic here during the 80s recession/housing meltdown. Some people I knew cried, called relatives, and came up with the cash. Other people I knew cried, cursed, and walked. But that’s a really brutal decision to be forced to make after you’ve given up your previous housing because you _thought_ you were gonna be moving into your next home.

I have two questions for everyone.

Are the banks making up rules on selling foreclosed homes?

Is it legal for the banks not to follow standard MSL listing rules for each state?

...

Comment by Ghostwriter
2007-10-17 05:18:07
I’m a former realtor in OH and banks can make up any rules they want. If they list in the MLS they do not have to use a standard lockbox, they can refuse showings, they have their own contracts, etc. Sometimes they’ll wait a month to even give you an answer back on a foreclosure offer. Anyone buying a foreclosure would have to pay to turn on all the utilities and then pay to have everything re-winterized and turned off again, just to get a home inspection. I always discouraged my buyers from buying foreclosures, because basically you don’t know what the h*ll you’re getting. There’s scary, scary things buried behind those walls, in that basement and on that lot. Banks do not have to give any disclosures, so it’s buyer beware. Mostly it’s buyer get screwed. You think you’re getting a real bargain until you find out that to repair the hidden problem it’s going to cost you $50k. Had a house up the street from me 5 years ago that went into foreclosure. It sat empty for 15 months. The walls were covered with mold. The septic had to be replaced by county standards…cost $20k. None of that was ever told to the buyers. Everyone be careful out there with foreclosures. They are definitely the lowest of the substandard housing. Most problems come from them sitting vacant for up to a couple years. Believe me, houses deteriorate fast when no one lives in them. Banks just want to unload them and buyers get left holding the bag.

Reply to this comment
Comment by Blano
2007-10-17 05:51:25
Same here up north of you……no disclosures, no utilities on, no nothing. Buyer beware big time. And then they even demand that the earnest money be held by their realtor. I’ve always thought that to be outrageous and don’t even bother with bank repos just because of that.
...
Comment by Bill in Carolina
2007-10-17 06:20:45
I think it shows there are idiots everywhere, including the banks’ repo departments. Unless they invited dopers to live in those houses, the banks couldn’t pick a strategy to more rapidly lower the value of the places they’re stuck with. I’m guessing they still believe a recovery is just around the corner, and/or their properties are “special” so they’re not going to give them away.

The foreclosure we bought here in 2005 was definitely down at the heels, but the utilities were on and realtor had access. We paid for a home inspection before we ever made an offer. The inspection turned up no show-stoppers so we bought the house.

My advice is don’t overlook a house just because it’s a foreclosure. But only buy one if it’s well below the price of similar properties, and you can get a home inspection before you make an offer. Oh, and whatever you think your fix-up cost is going to be, double it.

Re-Fi

“There are too many well staged(except this example), great location, great floorplan homes for sale”

That’s true, and it’s also amusing to me how many other homes have poor staging, awful paint colors that detract from the space, dirty carpets, garbage in the driveway/doorstep…I could go on. And many of these are hoping to sell at a premium considering where the market is/is heading.

I’d estimate that about 1/4 or 1/5 of the houses I’ve been in recently should have little to no chance of selling based on a combination of price and condition.

for those fortunate enough to live far from the 405, let me emphasize this:  I am 1/3 of a mile inland from that beast and the roar/noise is already bad.  this baby is smack dab right on the 405: there is no tea-sipping on the back patio for this POS—you would go deaf w/out earplugs.  you couldn’t pay me to live with that torture. 

university park is full of shabby 70’s homes but to have to be right on the 405 to boot:  NICE! 

this shack will take a shave and a haircut to sell in this market.

Rescap said to be cutting jobs, Ditech impact uncertain

http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2007/10/17/rescap-said-cutting-jobs-ditech-impact-uncertain/

Residential Capital LLC, the home-lending arm of GMAC Financial Services and parent of Ditech.com in Costa Mesa, will announce today a 25% or so cut in its work force, reports the Wall Street Journal.

2 CYPRESS TREE LN, IRVINE CA 92612-2243
APN: 453-113-27   ORANGE COUNTY

Prior Transfer
Recording Date 11/08/2006 Document # 2006000755747
Price $840,000 Document Type Grant Deed
First TD $672,000 Type of Sale Full-Computed from Transfer Tax
Mortgage Doc # 2006000755749 Interest Rate 7.8 % 
Lender Name CORNERSTONE LENDING
Buyer Name MONEY, KIM P
Buyer Vesting
Seller Name CYPRESS TREE LANE TRUST, ; R CORP, 
Legal Description
Lot: 27 Tract No: 6591 Map Ref: MP257 PG45-47
City/Muni/Twp: IRVINE

Prior Transfer
Recording Date 11/08/2006 Document # 2006000755746
Price N/A Document Type Grant Deed
First TD N/A Type of Sale Price as “0”, “None”, “No Consideration” 
Mortgage Doc #  Interest Rate
Lender Name
Buyer Name CYPRESS TREE LANE TRUST, ; R CORP, 
Buyer Vesting Trust
Seller Name CYPRESS TREE LANE TRUST, ; ARCHAMBO, MIKE
Legal Description
Lot: 27 Tract No: 6591 Map Ref: MP257 PG45-47
City/Muni/Twp: IRVINE

Mortgage Record
Recording Date 11/08/2006 Document # 2006000755748
Loan Amount:  $168,000 Loan Type Stand Alone Second
TD Due Date 11/01/2021 Type of Financing
Lender Name CORNERSTONE LENDING
Lender Type *N
Borrowers Name MONEY,KIM P
Vesting

Public records. Courtesy of your friends at www.thegreatloan.com

Why are you all so tough on Holly? She is doing her best to live the “American Dream”. Competency is not required, just keep the appearance and keep your head straight!

The fact that realtors are in the same league as used cars salesmen is finally now coming to light. They both sell used/damaged goods and try to pull the wool on their customers’ eyes.

The Internet will clean both trades, as it did travel agents, insurance brokers, etc., etc.

That is weird.  What happened in $278K in 2/05?  Was that a family transfer or something?

The price of this 1970s-built house is actually completely justified.

As you can clearly see by the outside photo, this house is a cold-war victory mansion—a true space-age collectible celebrating America’s moon landing in ‘69.

For example, what would appear to the untrained eye to be gaudy indoor and outdoor painted brick masonry is actually a Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System used to insulate the home owner from the warming effects of solar thermal radiation. Such a system was originally developed for atmospheric reentry but adapted by energy-conservative home owners in the 70s who were far beyond their time. The long-term energy savings alone makes this home a bargain.

In addition, the pile of dirt surrounding Holly’s sign that would normally be mistaken for a hastily executed listing actually reveals another space age innovation utilized by the home builder. Upon further examination of the property photo using Adobe Photoshop’s ultra-zoom 1000X technology, large discolored particle fragments can be found in the soil, revealing that this house isn’t sitting on dirt at all, but employs an Earthquake Resistance System.

Such a system was first developed by the Russian space agency in 1957 to protect the sensitive internal electronics of the Sputnik probe. It was adapted for use by home owners in 1969 to dynamically shift the particle density of the crystalline composite foundation to maintain a consistent oscillating frequency and avoid the damages of resonant structure frequencies during California earthquakes.

It is therefore logical to conclude that the buyer of this gem can rest assured of their safety and sleep at night with $700,000 mortgage on this property.

DOJ antitrust goes after the National Association of Realtors

Feds says home-sale commissions up 23% since ‘98

http://lansner.freedomblogging.com/2007/10/15/feds-says-home-sale-commissions-up-23-since-98/

Real estate commissions have remained stubbornly high. Says who? The antitrust division of the Department of Justice.

The typical commission nationwide in 2007 was $11,203 (in ‘06 dollars.) Yes, that’s down 3% in a year but it’s also up 23% in a decade (after inflation) and equal to a commission rate of 5.2% of the inflation-adjusted purchase price. That’s roughly the same commission rate seen since ‘98 while sale prices rose nationwide by 30%.

As the DOJ sees it: “The actual median commission paid by consumers rose sharply along with the run-up in home prices. Unless broker costs were also rising sharply during this period of time, competition among brokers should have held commissions in check even as home prices were rising.”

The agency, which is suing the National Association of Realtors for alleged anti-competitive practices, has got a new Web page

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/real_estate/index.htm

that it says can “educate consumers and policymakers about the potential benefits that competition can bring to consumers of real estate brokerage services and the barriers that inhibit that competition. Among its features, the Web site includes maps identifying states with real estate laws that can inhibit competition, a calculator to help consumers tally their potential savings when brokers pursuing new business models compete for their business, and links to additional government resources.”

Dream House or Nightmare?
Buyers forced to rethink luxury housing as an investment
http://www.newsweek.com/id/52608

Banks cutting prices, paying “cash for keys”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2007/10/banks-cutting-p.html

Seeking widsom from the front lines of the foreclosure crisis, we paid a visit today to the Big Kahuna himself—big wave surfer and foreclosure sales specialist Leo Nordine. His take on the market: it’s bad. Really bad.

We began by asking his assessment of the current market in relation to the last big downturn. “Armageddon,“ he said. “This one’s worse, especially in the Inland Empire.“

What’s different? In some cases, he said, “Banks and institutional lenders are just giving up. They’re just renting out some houses (instead of trying to sell them). That didn’t happen before.“

Are foreclosed homes selling at all? “Any place where there were first-time buyers is dead. South LA is dead. Anywhere prices are under $400,000 is really, really hard to sell right now.“

He predicts prices will fall 65% in some areas of the Inland Empire, and sees the market hitting bottom in 2009. “There’s one buyer, maybe, for every 20 houses for sale in Riverside,“ he said.

“We’re not gonna bottom out until 2009—because they were doing so many crappy loans in 2006—even until March of ‘07. It’ll be a while before those loans start defaulting. I hope I’m wrong. But I’m not wrong.“

In a declining market, it makes sense to get a house on the market as soon as possible. For that reason, banks often speed the foreclosure process by paying defaulting homeowners cash to vacate the house—“cash for keys.“ The going rate is $1,500, but in a sign of how quickly the market is deteriorating, some lenders are now paying up to $6,000, he said.

Banks and lenders are finally realizing how weak the market is, and slashing prices. “Just in the last month, they finally woke up—we’re getting $50,000 price reductions all over the map.“

How bad will it get? “The banks will start selling houses in bulk—very quietly, they’ll sell off, say $20 million worth of loans. That always happens at the bottom. I arranged a couple of those deals (in the last down cycle), and my clients made a ton of money.“

For the kind of commission that this house would bring even if they had to sell it for $500K, I’d expect my agent to write a coherent ad in standard English. What a disaster!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119258727851561561.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone

Should house prices fall by 10% over the next two years—an outcome analysts see as entirely possible—losses stand to be staggering. Thomas Zimmerman, head of mortgage credit research at UBS in New York, estimates that in such a scenario losses due to defaults could wipe out as much as 16% of the nearly $600 billion in subprime-backed securities issued in 2006. In August, such losses were equivalent to less than 1% of the total.

The jobs market also plays a key role. If the unemployment rate ticks upward by a percentage point or more, Mr. Zimmerman believes losses due to defaults could easily exceed 20%—enough to hit even some of the most highly rated securities.

She’s probably counting closets as “rooms”.

I’d rather not take that bet.  She can probably come up with the odd 20 or so.

Chuck Ponzi

Economists React: ‘Horrific’ Housing

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2007/10/17/economists-react-horrific-housing/

U.S. Economy: Housing Starts Decline to 14-Year Low (Update2)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.PvkRps6V2A&refer=home

Can’t imagine, I guess that’s why I have a $140K mortgage with 10 years left to pay on it.

So the rich think they’ll be spared the slowdown?

Here is a tidbit from Dataquick.com

“The number of Southland homes purchased with jumbo mortgages dropped from 5,359 in August to 2,681 in September, a decline of 50.0 percent. A jumbo mortgage is a home loan for $417,000 or more. For loans below that threshold, the sales decline was 19.3 percent, from 9,237 in August to 7,459 in September. Historically, sales drop by about 10 percent from August to September”

I knew this was coming when the banks sent out letters Aug 10th telling the loan brokers that they were discontinuing Jumbo loans till further notice. The secondary market just vanished. I guess pension funds were tired of buying worthless paper.

Well Jumbo loans still exist but the pricing is UGLY. Try applying a 7.5-8% interest rate to a $500,000 to $600,000 loan fully amortized and the payment is $3495.07-$3,668.82…before taxes and Ins…so add 800 bucks and you need to make $15,957 a month to break even…OUCH And forget having a car payment or food…

How