Irvine Housing Blog

That photo of the pigs reminded me of a great song by Nine Inch Nails. March of the Pigs! Keep up the good work!

You could also include days on market ‘210’ and price history.  These owners are doing the chase the market down thing.  They gave up in mid December.  Wonder if this could be a divorce sale.  Doubt they are still making the payments.

Prior to Jul 10, ‘10 $750,000
Jul 10, ‘10 - Oct 14, ‘10 $729,000
Oct 14, ‘10 - Nov 8, ‘10 $665,000
Nov 8, ‘10 - Dec 14, ‘10 $650,000
Dec 14, ‘10 - Today $599,000

$18.9 million Irvine home hits the market

http://lansner.ocregister.com/2011/01/21/new-mansion-is-shady-hills-priciest-18-9-million/96316/

“a driveway specially sloped to accommodate exotic, low-to-the ground cars such as Ferraris or Lamborghinis”

Public housing policy has destroyed the housing market in the U.S.

Here’s what 75 years of policy meddling in housing has accomplished:

1. The blighting of our cities and destruction of our low-income population2 by the “slum clearance” of the Post WW2 era and warehousing of the very poor in blocky, badly built high rises that almost all are being torn down now.

2. The decanting of city populations into auto suburbs by “redlining” middle income urban neighborhoods in the 50s and 60s, making it impossible to get financing to either develop or buy in them, while offering little-or-no down payment VA and FHA loans for new production crackerboxes in distance suburbs.

3. Inflation of house prices from the late 70s forward by enabling securitization of mortgages, and consequent deterioration of underwriting standards, with the formation of the GSE’s (government chartered “private"agencies)that were formed specifically to form a market for higher-risk mortgages that would never have been written otherwise.

4. Section 8 rental subsidies for “market” rate housing, further blighting urban and suburban rental areas while driving up rents.

5. Multiplication of subsidies and incentives for home buyers, including tax deduction for mortgage interest, credits for first time buyers, and housing ‘affordability’ programs for buyers priced out by price escalation caused by forgoing. Result is to create more house debt at higher DTI ratios while causing house prices to inflate.

The end result is a population steeped in debt they almost certainly cannot repay, still-inflated house prices that are a massive barrier to first time buyers, low-wage workers priced out of major cities by Section 8 rental subsidies that enable a small minority of the poor to live well over their heads while landlords are enabled in overcharging for deeply substandard housing by the guaranteed income of the vouchers, miles of vacated, ruined apartment buildings destroyed by Section 8 renters, millions of foreclosed houses and condos languishing, often empty and subject to looting and vandalism, while there are more broke, homeless people and tent cities and more people burdened with crushing debt to pay for it all while they slip further down the economic ladder.

A character in an Ayn Rand novel remarked that “this is the age of the housing project, which is a prelude to the age of the cave”.

How true.

Interesting that the crash of ‘29 and resulting rapid deflation of the Fed-created debt bubble of that era, was what caused such widespread destitution.

The creation of the Federal Reserve was the beginning of the end of a vibrant, free economy with sustainable growth rates. Prior to government meddling in financial markets, there were booms and busts and panics and short-lived recessions that were sometimes rather deep.

However, the creation of the Fed and increasing government intervention and monetary manipulation has led to greatly extended bubbles that result in deep, prolonged recessions while stifling the self-correcting adjustments that individuals make in response to contraction, that pave the way for recovery.

“busts and panics and short-lived recessions that were sometimes rather deep”

When we talk about a deep recession or a depression, its hard for words to grasp just how bad those events are. These problems must have been pretty bad because the Federal Reserve was created to prevent these things from hurting too much. I question whether or not the cure is better than the disease.

This literally has the potential to re-define the money system as we know it.

‘Bitcoin’

Based on some old technologies, and some very new technologies…  Bitcoin is the result of combining…  cryptographic encryption security +  the idea of a limited quantity commodity, similar to gold and silver (where there’s only so much of it), and using it as money +  the idea of massive numbers of computers connected by the internet…  forming a strong, resilient, indestructible network.

It’s called a cryptocurrency.  Since the invention of Bitcoin…  Money will never be the same…

This is freggin’ unbelieveable.
It’s as free as email.  Bitcoin transactions are free.  Whereas credit cards and other online payment systems typically cost 1-5% per transaction, plus various other fees adding up to hundreds of dollars…  Bitcoin usage and transactions are always free.  It doesn’t matter if you send $0.01… or $1,000,000.00…  the transaction cost is always the same:  free
It’s as easy to send as email.  Just one click.  Bitcoin payments are sent with one click - just like email.
Payments are irreversible.  No matter whether you accept Bitcoin payments for your business or otherwise, payments can not be reversed.  There’s no such thing as a “chargeback” with Bitcoin.  Payments can only be refunded by the recipient, voluntarily… as a separate new Send transaction.
It’s more secure than all other online banking existing in the world today.  Traditional banks use encryption when you log on to your online banking.  The encryption technology used in Bitcoin is even more secure.  In other words, if it were to ever become possible to hack in to it…  Then ALL the world’s banking would be compromised.  At this point, it would take the government’s super computer more than 20 years to crack that level of encryption.
Bitcoin has no central issuing entity… therefore, no single point of failure.  In many ways Bitcoin is more secure than your bank.  If your bank were to fail, your money could be gone forever.  The Bitcoin network is made up of millions of computers all over the world, connected via the internet.  The entire internet would have to go down, in order for the Bitcoin network to fail.
In the Bitcoin economy, there is no central bank…  no federal reserve.  The value of Bitcoins does not go down when The Fed decides to “print more money”.  In fact, it might even go up in value… as it triggers more people to seek out alternatives to storing their money in the world’s “fiat currencies” (paper money that different nations’ central banks just continue to “print more of”)... and buy more Bitcoin instead.  In the news, they call it, “Quantitative Easing”....  or “QE2”.  We think it would be more appropriate to call it, “The Titanic”.
It’s as anonymous as you want it to be.  Just like with cash, transactions can be totally anonymous.  Transactions are only identified by your Bitcoin address, and you can have as many Bitcoin addresses as you want.  You create another new Bitcoin address with one click any time you want to.  Most people create a new Bitcoin Address for every person sending them a payment.  That way, they know for sure who the payment came from.
There’s no big brother.  Third parties can’t prevent or control your transactions.  Transfer money easily through the internet, without having to trust middlemen; no central bank, nor central authority.
It’s not paypal.  What may be the best feature of all?  “Bye bye, PayPal.”

listen to the interview at: bitcoinme.com

This house may have melo Roos, 1915 AD bond.